kinkoshinkai 
"Get myself lean again, but BIG! (Training 2 guys for a spring NPC show, and don't want to be a slacker myself) Just increased to a team of 6 guys from my gym planning to do the May show!!!"
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Archive for February, 2009
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
I’ve never "maxed" on a lift, feeling that at my advancing age it was unwise for my joints. I get enough pains and aches that seem to arise spontaneously without encouraging those niggling discomforts or exacerbating them needlessly. But all the "single rep max" calculators on this site esitmate my bench at over 300 lbs. About 315, depending on the weight I rep out with on any given day. My goal, currently, is to be able to bench 1.5 times my body weight, or about 330. I usually use between 225 and 260 for my working sets, at least for the last couple months, which is plenty, on the occasions when I DO bench press. I may curtail benching soon, because of my shoulder pain. (Honestly, the skull crushers with narrow grip hurt more than benching, though.)
So, since I have the set-up in my garage, and since I’ve never actually put 300 up on the bench, I thought I’d give it an actual go, and maybe officially join the "I bench 300" club, instead of the "It’s estimated that I can bench 300" club. My son, the spotter, and a daughter who just wanted to watch, came out to the garage with dad. I did a warm-up with 225, just to feel the form, and then put the 300 on the bar (well, including the bar). I got set, counted 3, lifted it off with my spotter/son, and proceeded to lower the bar to my chest, careful to touch without bouncing it. (You never know when a judge might be watching my garage work-outs! lol Plus I had no interest in cracking my sternum) I then proceeded to push it up, steady and smooth as you please. It was not easy, by any stretch, but left me feeling I could have done more weight if I so desired.
And so, my friends and supporters, where e’er you may be, I officially declare myself now a member of the "I can bench over 300 pounds" club. 2 witnesses saw it. (Yeah, they’re my kids, but they’re trustworthy) So now I can move on confident that I’ve pushed past a barrier.
Posted in Training
Monday, February 16th, 2009
From one of my professors. “Ed … some of your info is, well, skewed by bodybuilding lore … 2 grams per kg is probably plenty … nitrogen balance studies have confirmed this … excess protein most definitely is stored as body fat … and first it needs to be deaminated by the liver and then the uric acid get turned to urea and urine … so the liver and kidneys may be unduly challenged when excess protein is eaten … remember for a 220 pound man, that’s 100kg, 200 grams of complete protein eaten each day should be plenty to meet the needs of a growing athlete … this recommendation assumes, of course, that the builder is not using large amounts of anabolic steroids … this may be where the discrepancy comes from.”
To which I responded - “Perhaps. Even your own statement of “probably plenty” indicates that there are certain conditions where the demand can be greater! On the other hand, more often than not in the quest for building muscle, whether in hypertrophy or for strength, it seems more common to be underfed with protein than adequately or overfed. The issue of steroids may affect the professional bodybuilder, but there are plenty of natural bodybuilders, as well as those from the pre-steroid era of the 50’s and 60’s who espoused and followed the 1.5 - 2 grams per lb rather than kilo regimen. I think a key point you make is “complete” protein. Only one natural food contains a complete branch chain amino acid profile, and that’s the egg! Beef and chicken combined also work, as do some vegetarian combinations, such as Ezekiel bread. But the vegetarian options, while providing a complete BCAA profile also require a larger quantity of total food intake than getting protein from meat, dairy, poultry, or fish sources. There again, protein supplementation, which was the original point, becomes important. Then there’s the bio-availability issue. While the liver is certainly taxed to a greater extent in whole food protein digestion, the powder supplement options digest much more easily and quickly. I may be “skewed” some by bodybuilding approaches, but their “lore” seems to pack on greater muscle size, even the natural drug free, than the average, and there are meal timing issues, such as the nitrogen deficit in post resistance training that allows greater than normal protein synthesis window. Lot’s of interesting issues to look at. I’ll put them on my list of the couple dozen research projects I’m already looking at!!”
There are also statements in the text itself which leave their own conclusions, IMO, suspect. For instance, “To build muscle, athletes should consume 1 to 1.5 grams of extra protein per kilogram” (itallics added) EXTRA to what. What’s the base if this is extra? The text doesn’t say. And then, “Anyone eating a variety of foods, but especially protein-rich foods…” This alone is a rather absurd assumption, given what we know about the state of public nutrition in the US today!!! So even in the text itself, there are questionable leaps of logic, topped of by which, in my professor’s quote above, he even says “2 grams per kilo” which is going above the text recommendation!!! Such discrepancies in a supposedly scientific community are pretty bizarre!
Posted in Training
Monday, February 16th, 2009
OK, I’m taking my master’s degree course, and the topic of protein supplementation arises. From our text on Athletic Training, and according to the professor that teaches the nutrition course for undergraduates, two statements fly in the face of all the studies I’ve read.
Statement one - 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per Kilogram of bodyweight is sufficient for the active adult or athlete. My issue here is that in bodybuilding circles, and even among high school athletes, the recommendation is nearly double that, 1 to 1.5 grams per POUND of bodyweight. I’m going to do lots of extra research reading to bolster MY case that more protein is better. The text quotes concerns of the excess protein needing to be processed to be stored as fat, leading to water being pulled from cells, leading to dehydration and/or kidney damage, as well as amino acid imbalances and even osteoporosis.
Statement two is that "Most people do not have difficulty meeting protein needs because the typical diet is rich in proten. …Therefore an athlete does not need prtoein supplements." It says that only a small increas in protein, which can easily be met with the usual diet, will support any needed increase in muscle mass, and since their recommendation of 1 to 1.5 grams/KG body weight is already nearly double the US RDA, that protein supplements are not necessary. Now EVERYTHING I’ve read on BB.com that is study based, and in FLEX magazine articles quoting research institute studies supports MY assertion of greater intake!!!
Any thoughts or opinions??
Posted in Training
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