vince_andrich’s BodyBlog

For PART I Refer To;

Osmotic Anabolic Signaling

Nutrition and Supplement Strategies that Go BEYOND the €˜Perpetual PUMP’ for

True Muscle Growth and Cellular Recovery
PART II

By Vince Andrich

The Mirror-Key to Monitoring Low-Carb Diet Success

Using changes in the appearance of your muscles to gauge your nutritional status and/or needs is extremely useful on a carbohydrate-controlled diet, because they are very time sensitive. What I mean is, once you understand what nutrients alter the volume of your muscles, you can make adjustments literally day-by-day. These visible signs are more significant than ever when you understand that as a rule High Protein-Low Carb (HP-LC) Diets cause an overall loss of cell volume making the scale an unreliable measuring tool. Your visual goal will be to keep your muscles looking FIT not flat, which we will cover in detail later. If you desire muscles that are super pumped, fuller, rounder and gorging with vascularity then forget using a HP-LC Diet exclusively. To attain fat loss, and still be able to muster up a pump in the gym, takes some insight. In short, the goal is to “threaten your glycogen stores to a point where your muscles begin to lose fullness, making it difficult to get a great pump, however we must avoid allowing our muscle to go entirely “flat. The €˜trick of the trade’ is to utilize a cyclical carbohydrate cycling approach, where you eat about 100 grams of carbohydrates per day for up to three days, and then jump to about 5 times that number for day four. This would mean you would consume 100 grams of carbs for three days, and then on day four, consume 500 grams to replenish depleted energy stores. Beyond this “carbohydrate-balancing act, there are several recent discoveries that have revealed numerous non-carbohydrate substrates that induce cell swelling so that you can attain maximum muscularity and avoid looking flat and stringy. Since most athletes don’t have much experience assessing their nutritional status as it relates to muscle cell energy, here is a quick guide.

Assessment Tools

Monitoring the “appearance of your muscles is an art form that has been practiced for years by trial and error. Hey, it’s no accident that when you look around any commercial gym all you see is a wall of mirrors. However, beauty is more than skin deep. Today science has uncovered tons of the reasons why gauging muscularity by the mirror is essential to success.
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So What Do I Look For? 
The main storage compound in skeletal muscle is glycogen, which is measured in millimoles per kilogram of muscle (mmol/kg). Luckily, several researchers have found some relevant data regarding glycogen stores to help athletes gauge their cell volume. Here is what we know:

An individual following a normal mixed diet will maintain glycogen levels around 80-100 mmol/kg. Athletes following a mixed diet have higher levels, around 110-130 mmol/kg,  which would represent a fuller looking muscle. As a rule weight trainers and active individuals classify a normal mixed diet as 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fat. So then an active individual on a HP-LC Diet should aim for “fit looking muscles which is represented by glycogen levels around 70 mmol/kg. If you are using other cell swelling techniques in this article, your muscles should look a much fuller than non-exercising individuals on a normal mixed diet or about 85 mmol/kg. At these levels of glycogen, fat oxidation increases both at rest and during exercise . Monitoring the “appearance of your muscles is a very non-scientific measuring tool so it is necessary to use visualization. Picture “fit muscles on a HP-LC Diet to look about 35 % smaller in overall cell volume than when you are not dieting (see fig.1).

If you’re still unclear remember how you looked when you were eating more carbs and compare that to these warning signs that tell you’re spiraling out of control:

• A flat or stringy looking muscle would represent about a 70% decrease in your overall cell volume (glycogen at 40 mmol/kg). At this level, workout performance is largely impaired and protein can become an important fuel source during exercise.
• Total exhaustion during exercise occurs when your muscles are about 85% under volumized (glycogen at 15-25 mmol/kg), which is not an environment conducive to favorable changes in body composition.

The Chemical Soup that Determines Muscle Cell Volume
It should come as no surprise that getting nutrients in and out of your muscles is under close scrutiny. The €˜gatekeeper’ that guards working muscles is called a cell membrane, or more specifically the sarcolemma. Covering the entire muscle fiber, the sarcolemma (muscle membrane) is an extremely thin, flexible and elastic substance. The first and most important job of the membrane is to maintain the integrity of the cell and keep the vital contents inside. If this protective cover gets damaged severely then the contents will escape and the cell will die. Further, the sarcolemma acts as a gateway through which substances (i.e. amino acids) can enter and leave, making it selectively permeable. Briefly, here are the main functions of the cell membrane:

• To hold vital energy components inside the muscle cell, such as glycogen and Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the key energy €˜currency’ of your cells
• To transport the waste build up from muscle fiber contraction out of the cell
• To accept nutrients that are critical to the health, maintenance, repair and building of muscle cells. These nutrients are amino acids, carbohydrate molecules (glycogen stores), hormones, oxygen etc

One surefire way to manipulate the permeability of a cell membrane is to workout. Training damages the sarcolemma in a positive way and appears to “unlock the door making it more permeable. This effect has likely been programmed into our genes for survival. The likely scenario is this: after a brutal workout, your body senses that the nutrients and fibers inside the muscle cell have been “torched and damaged, then it allows what is effectively your muscle cell recovery team inside to “reconstruct the crime scene. It appears that feedback provided by a number of mechanisms including amino acid monitoring and Osmotic Anabolic Signaling work in concert to maintain proper cell volume as a consequence of exercise.

The Cytosol €” Key to Muscle Cell Volume
Once past the muscle cell gateway, what exactly do you find inside? You find the cell’s cytoplasm, which in regards to a muscle cell is called the sarcoplasm. This is literally everything inside of the plasma membrane. The muscle fibers are surrounded by a thick fluid or gel, which is called the Cytosol. This is center of the universe when it comes to bodybuilding. I say this because the nutrients that go in and out of the cytosol determine how the muscle cell is remodeled, or basically, rebuilt.
The cytosol is the intracellular fluid inside of the muscle fiber. The outer structure is a virtual superhighway, which takes raw materials from the outside of the cell (passed through the cell membrane), then stores or converts those materials into useable energy. In other words this transparent gel contains such foods as amino acids for maintenance and repair and glycogen (carbohydrates stored in muscle) for energy. You see a muscle fiber must have a fuel source in order to contract. This is why the cytosol also has tiny specialized structures called organelles, or microscopic organs. Perhaps the most significant of these €” at least in terms of energy production €” are mitochondria, because they convert carbohydrates (see chart above) and fats into ATP, which is our muscle cell’s main energy currency or fuel.

Blood Volume €” The Red River That Feeds Cell Volume
The topic of blood volume is somewhat related to the subject we just discussed. That€˜s because extracellular fluid levels that make up your blood volume also make a huge impact on the water content inside your muscle cells. Most bodybuilders don’t realize that even their performance is directly related to the level of hydration (or dehydration) when they step into the gym. Dehydration is defined as a >1% loss of body weight as a result of fluid loss. This is not usually a problem for a weight trainee during exercise, but if you start your training low on fluids it will become a factor. Consider this, if you are normally a 200-lb athlete and your lack of hydration brings your weight down to 196-lbs (2% of your body weight) there is a measurable decrease in muscle cell contraction times, and when fluid losses reach 4% of body weight, there is a 5 to 10% drop in overall performance which can persist for up to 4 hours even after rehydration takes place. When hydration levels plummet it slows recovery. Reparatory processes are so reliant on fluid for transporting anabolic substrates like amino acids and glucose to muscle cells as well as removing waste products from those cells.

So unless you are depleting water for a photo shoot or contest (which require arguably less performance), it is essential to anticipate and regularly replace fluid losses. For the record, thirst is not a reliable indicator of dehydration as it takes a fluid loss of 0.8 - 2% of body weight to trigger thirst. Now you know why many serious athletes carry water around with them in the gym!

There is no doubt that maintaining blood plasma volume is an important strategy to optimize your physical performance, and reaching a mind blowing pump IS a performance feat in it of itself.

Osmotic Anabolic Signaling In Action
I didn’t want to turn this into a piece on water and hydration, but now that we’ve covered the basic determinants of cell volume, though hydration and carbohydrate intake, here is a quick summary of OAS in action.

• For the athlete, nutritional status and training frequency cause extracellular (blood plasma) and intracellular (cytosol) conditions to vary considerably with respect to each other.
• Proteins and other substrates lie at the interface between these two compartments and relay signals relating extracellular conditions to the cell interior
• Nutrient sensors act to regulate cellular contents, and therefore nutrient sensing may culminate in the altered activity of a multitude of cellular intermediates such as hormones, glucose, amino acids and other nutrients.
• Osmotic Anabolic Signaling is triggered by specific nutrients (or their metabolites), or the detection of physiological signals generated as a result of changes in cell volume or cell membrane potential

STAY TUNED FOR PART III

I just got a question about glycogen (or stored carbs in muscle  or liver) that asked;

Q: How do you know you’ve used up all your glycogen stores from a workout? When you fatigue and can’t get those last two reps up without help, does that mean you’re muscle glycogen stores are empty/low? I ask because I’m not sure exactly how much post workout gatorade powder to drink. I’m still about 20 lbs away from my goal and at this point I don’t want anything to hinder fat loss.

A: If you want make sure fat loss is still in play keep in mind that for best results your body has to switch gears post workout to refill glycogen and increase anabolic drive, which includes clearing waste products, delivering aminos, ATP, and glucose etc..

In the grand scheme post workout insulin release from glucose will up regulate your glucose burning ability and drop your fat burning rate slightly more than 50
–so unless you really pig out you will be fine…

For more detail here is a small section of a book I wrote called No Mistakes with my buddy Rob Thoburn…

"The see saw aspect of this fuel-burning metabolism lies in the fact that carbohydrate (glucose) and insulin shift your body’s fuel-burning mixture toward glucose oxidation and away from fat oxidation (Flatt et al., 1985; Hussain et al., 1995). At a blood insulin level less than that found following a normal meal, the breakdown of body fat can be reduced by some 50Bonnadonna et al., 1990; Jensen et al., 1989; Swislocki et al., 1987).

But in the grand scheme of things this carbohydrate-induced suppression of your fat-burning metabolism will not necessarily make you fat. Remember that your body must undergo this metabolic shift at mealtime so that it can load your muscle cells with glucose (as glycogen) and stimulate them to oxidize it for energy. The priority of these metabolic events over those governing fat lies in the fact that your storage capacity for carbohydrate is much, much more limited.

So while eating carbohydrate will indeed prompt your metabolism to burn less fat temporarily, it will also cause it to store and oxidize that carbohydrate."

On a side note if you want to be bigger and leaner, don’t skimp on your post workout carbs, just try to make sure you don’t keep insulin spike too long. Safe bets post workout are yams, brown rice and a bit if simple sugars (gatorade is cool).

Vince

Nutrition and Supplement Strategies that Go BEYOND the €˜Perpetual PUMP’ for True Muscle Growth and Cellular Recovery

PART ONE

By Vince Andrich

You want the ability to get a “perpetual pump in any body part you train, every single time you walk into the gym, right? You are in pursuit of the almighty PUMP because you truly believe it holds the key to building more muscle size and strength, correct? You also believe that the magnitude of the pump you get in the gym is an indication that you’re on your way to less bodyfat and more defined muscles, true? Now, what if I said you were right and that the PUMP really was a reliable gauge of your bodybuilding progress? Well it is, but there seems to be a misunderstanding of sorts. You see, if you’ve been following this line of thinking €” that pump equals growth €” you must realize that the traditional mechanisms for accessing a perpetual pump, pale in comparison to a startling new breakthrough in bodybuilding chemistry. Don’t get me wrong, you will still learn about an integrated system that will allow you to attain a maximum pump, but you’ll discover that there is definitely more. This approach represents an entirely new way to look at the mechanisms for bodybuilding success €” one where the benefits are noticeable and, most importantly, permanent.

The Breakthrough is Not For Everyone
The techniques outlined in this article are not intended for everyone, although anyone can benefit. What I mean is simply this: you need to €˜come clean’ and be honest about your bodybuilding goals and how YOU plan to achieve them. Let me explain more. If you are on a sophisticated regimen of bodybuilding pharmaceuticals like growth hormone, testosterone, insulin and the like, your ability to get a pump in the gym should be simple. If this is your approach to bodybuilding, then the rest of this article is of no relevance to you. I am not an expert on bodybuilding drugs, but I do know enough to say that whenever I am working with an athlete who is ON, my traditional nutritional recommendations are not necessarily applicable. This is why my focus is to work with athletes who’s hormone levels are not off €” or all over €” the charts, and therefore do not undergo severe fluctuations. However, even if you choose to go to the “dark side and use bodybuilding drugs, which I do not suggest, you can’t stay on them long term. Eventually, if you want to have your health and a great body too, you’ll be seeking out “legal bodybuilding chemistry, like the information in this article.

Nitric Oxide Boosters and the Rise of the Almighty PUMP
The popular trend in bodybuilding supplementation these days is the use of Nitric Oxide (NO) boosters as a method for increasing your “pump while weight training. The use of nitric oxide supplements (NO is the acronym, for nitric oxide), has gained quite a following since they initially hit the bodybuilding scene around four years ago. I won’t go into the exact mechanisms associated with boosting nitric oxide, but the principle benefit appears to be vasodilatation. By improving vasodilatation, an athlete would experience increased blood flow from dilated blood vessels. As time goes on, more performance supplement companies are marketing various formulas as nitric oxide boosters, thereby dramatically increasing the popularity of the category.

The highly anticipated benefits associated with increasing nitric oxide levels were initially driven by multiple marketing campaigns and by at least one popular book. Many of the marketing claims for nitric oxide products became very similar to those of creatine. For example, fuller muscles, tighter pumps, gains in power and strength, and increased cell volume. As a result, these products were €˜granted’ nearly the same credibility as creatine, when it first hit the market. The hype for the nitric oxide products gave birth to what is now almost indistinguishable from the creatine category, and in fact, many of the most popular formulas include creatine as a major active ingredient.

I have no doubt that the most significant reason these products are in demand is because they are endorsed as a means for promoting massive pumps in the gym, increasing lean mass, enhancing fast twitch muscle, quicker recovery and improving strength, but the purpose of this article is not to dispute or justify these claims. Whether or not nitric oxide supplement claims hold up to the acid test of real-world training is an entirely different subject, so I’ll save it for another time.

What is The Pump?
In bodybuilding circles, the sensation of tight congestion, or swelling, of your muscles with blood during your weight training session is €˜The Pump’. Now, a weight trainer with any experience knows that if you lift a heavy enough weight, and don’t rest too long between sets, your working muscles will become swollen with blood. In scientific jargon, this is referred to as reactive hyperemia because it involves an increase in blood flow (i.e., hyperemia) in response (i.e., reactive) to the exercise stimulus.

Triggering the Osmotic Anabolic Signaling System
So, what’s the big deal with striving to attain what popular bodybuilding jargon refers to as a Super Pump? To be blunt, The Pump is the manifestation of many physique-altering benefits that are not visible to the eye. Ironically, what seems like such a foolishly vain aspect of bodybuilding to the uninformed is, in fact, an excellent means for judging your nutritional status, current anabolic/catabolic condition and measure of training recovery.

In essence, it appears that the magnitude of the PUMP you get in the gym can be traced back to multiple factors associated with muscle growth and recovery, and are intimately related to an intricate cellular swelling mechanism that modern scientific literature calls Osmotic Anabolic Signaling  (OAS). This phenomenon is at the heart of building new muscle year round, and retaining lean mass in the face of hypo-caloric dieting. To maximize this system requires attention to several “puzzle pieces, of which nutrition tops the charts.

Diet and Muscle Cell Dynamics
When you are well fed, i.e., carbohydrates are not restricted, your ability to get a pump should be pretty easy, even if your diet is not optimal. However, it has become increasing popular for weight trainers to follow a diet that carefully considers carbohydrate intake. The modern bodybuilding diet usually allows for 40-50% of your daily calories to come from carbohydrates. This number may increase for athletes who weight train for sports, which make it necessary for additional daily energy calories to be burned beyond those needed for the gym. Typically, carb intake is under strict control when an athlete wants to avoid gaining fat (this could be all year round), or must lose excess bodyfat for a wide range of goals including contest prep. For example, consuming less than 100 grams of carbohydrates is the standard level for a “low-carb day. If this level seems low, it is, but keep in mind these diets usually remove carbohydrate calories and make up the remainder of the daily calorie allotment from increases in protein and/or fat. The best low-carb diets put an emphasis on protein intake due to its ability to promote additional calorie wasting.

The underlying problem with excessive restriction of carbohydrate is that when training intensity is high (and of course intensity is key to keeping or increasing muscle size much less the PUMP), even 200 grams of carbohydrates per day for larger athletes is tremendously meager. Research has shown that a high-protein diet coupled with low-carbohydrate intake creates a metabolic environment called acidosis, which is not conducive to high intensity weight training , . In addition, weight training intensely while simultaneously reducing carbohydrates dramatically depletes stored energy in muscle (glycogen), and therefore we know that low-carb dieting cannot be followed for weeks on end.

Fortunately, most athletes realize that it is best to utilize carb depletion/cycling regimens rather than attempt to stay on reduced carbs for the entire length of their diet. That is, they follow a few days of low-carb eating (usually 2-3) and then allow themselves a day or so of “normalized feeding to drive the replenishment of glycogen so that training intensity can be maintained. The other benefit associated with this diet format is that the athlete enjoys maximum fat burning on low-carb days, and then when carbs are reintroduced in greater amounts, insulin is allowed to help maintain the desired anabolic state. Further, boosting carb intake at this point offers a mechanism to reinvigorate natural thyroid production €” often reduced when on low-carb diets €” for improved metabolic function.

Moreover, a consideration of importance, beyond the aspect of performance, is the anabolic effect of insulin secretion on muscle protein synthesis. Moderate carbohydrate intake at each meal should stimulate the proper insulin levels needed for maximum muscle protein synthesis. Over time depressed insulin secretion may halt any additional muscular progress.  Therefore, my approach to feeding for most of the year is to systematically eat a little less carbs than I need and more protein than I can use. This concept is fully explained in a booklet called ‘No Mistakes’ - The Nutrition Guide to Building Your Best Body Ever. I wrote this guide with my colleague Rob Thoburn, who is an absolute bodybuilding genius and now works for the forward-thinking sports nutrition company BSN.

Nutritional Clues Related to €˜OAS’
I’ve mentioned relative dietary concepts because at the end of the day, your nutritional status will ultimately become the €˜core’ to engaging OAS, and the PUMP you get in the gym. How much does nutrition have to do with OAS? Have you every wondered why your muscles are flat some days and on others full?  As you recall the muscle contains stored carbohydrates. Guess what?  For every carbohydrate gram you store an additional 2.7 grams of water!  Whenever you consume plenty of carbs, your muscle cells become saturated with them, and each carb pulls nearly 3 grams of water into a virtual anabolic Jacuzzi! Therefore, your muscles fill up like a balloon!  You can always tell how anabolic your nutrition is by how full your muscle cells are. As we touched on previously, when you are on a reduced-carb diet, your muscle cells become flat and your skin is loose, and doesn’t look very tight. The initial stages of this are common while dieting, because the athlete is simply low on carbohydrate stores in their muscle cells. However, in speaking with many advanced athletes if your muscle cells are left high and dry for too long, with nothing to hold water inside the cell, you will eventually chew up your hard-earned muscle.

So, this raises the question: Can you get a super pump in the gym while carb intake is low? In my opinion, the answer is no, probably not.
Keep in mind the pump is relative, and is can only be judged against your personal experience. But you will get a better pump when your carb intake allows for stored glycogen in your muscles to be roughly 50% of capacity, and your water intake is adequate. As a reference, adequate fluid intake for a 200-lb athlete is about 1-gallon of water, or 12, 8-ounce glasses. When it comes to gauging your stored muscle glycogen levels, then best assessment is the mirror, which we will discuss in detail in the next section.

Go Here for
PART TWO

http://blog.bodybuilding.com/vince_andrich/2006/10/25/osmotic-anabolic-signaling-part-ii/

The Next Frontier in Legal Fat Loss Pharmacology that

Goes BEYOND €˜Thermogenics’ for Rapid & Permanent Fat Loss

PART ONE

By Vince Andrich

Over the years, I’ve probably been asked more about getting ripped than about any other fitness-related topic. I’m totally cool with that because my focus has always been on the cosmetic aspects of nutrition and exercise. While some may balk at the idea of cosmetic fitness, it is my view that people are more likely to put forth the effort it takes to get the health benefits associated with fitness, if they are doing it the name of vanity. Arguably, improving your appearance seems to have more immediate “benefits than for example, improving heart health, making it a much more motivating pursuit. Ironically, what it takes to improve cosmetic fitness in fact delivers superior health benefits, but that’s another article all together.

Needless to say, the topic of getting ripped is an area that really intrigues me, and I’ve got more than a few theories that I’d like to elaborate on. But beforehand, we all need to get on the same page and understand that if you wanna get ripped €” if you really want to get lean €” there is no such thing as a free ride. Next, let’s agree that any serious “cutting regimen includes an eating strategy based on some type of macronutrient control and manipulation. The wide range of eating strategies includes everything from protein/carb cycling to simple calorie control, but for the sake of this conversation it doesn’t matter. Now, if you’re still with me, understand this: I believe that no matter what “diet you’re on, going beyond your previous best “muscle to fat ratio will eventually come down to a game of mental Russian roulette.

That’s right. Think about it! When you attempt to go beyond your normal limits in any endeavor the mind calls the shots. Those who’ve been there know what I mean. Like Christopher Walken’s character in the Deer Hunter, you take your diet to the point where each day, you roll the cylinder and see if you can escape the bullet in the chamber that will be your mental breaking point.

Don’t be confused; I’m not talking about a breakdown of mental motivation, that’s another discussion. I’m talking about improving your chances of diet success by tweaking the balance of your “mindspace through the use of what I like to call “Neuro Chemical Diet Warfare.

Engineering Irrational Minds To Prevail
I could be way off, but my opinion is that concentrations of neuro chemicals that can benefit dieters are scarcer, or simply less affective when the body is deprived. My reasoning? Well, it seems when deprived, the mind automatically obsesses on the exact thing you’re being deprived of……even if the obsession irrational. For example, I remember during those last weeks of contest dieting, the mere thought of being “allowed to eat anything “extra was always top of mind. I’d often say to myself; “maybe I screwed up my food journal and can eat another meal. Knowing full well that my food journal was always followed to the letter €” to the last morsel. So why would I begin this debate with myself? Sound familiar?

I know it has been written about many times before, but it’s worth mentioning again; dietary restrictions kick in untold years of programming that tells your brain that “you’re starving. So even if you really aren’t starving €” even if you have plentiful food within your reach €” your mind becomes irrationally obsessed with eating.

Quite possibly our starvation radar goes off even sooner when we are simply attempting to go below a certain level of bodyfat, often called the “set point. This effect is most pronounced and extremely exaggerated when restricting water, say for a bodybuilding contest or making a weight class. All you can think about is liquids, or something wetter than your dry like the Sahara desert mouth! Seriously, until you REALLY restrict water intake you just don’t know how good a thimble of water or ice cube sounds. These thoughts take precedence over everything. No doubt food (and more so, water) top the charts for survival and so getting an extra edge in this arena will be tough, but certainly worthwhile. IMO, this survival or pleasure mechanism can be overridden.

Why? Because it happens naturally in everyday life, and is most easily seen when a person either falls in love or they have issues with their love interest such as the possible break-up of a marriage/relationship. Simply stated, the desire for food has been known to significantly change whenever a person experiences something very pleasant or unpleasant.

These are just a few of the reasons I believe tweaking your supply and balance of serotonin, epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine is seriously a BIG DEAL when it comes to fat loss. No matter how experienced you are as a dieter, understanding the power of these neurochemicals holds the key to suspending or minimizing those unforgettable feeding signals that are hardwired into our biology.

Talking Points, Theories and Situation Analysis
The talking points set out below outline a possible prototype for future neurochemical diet strategies. Take these points for what they are; theories, but they are theories with the added insight of what really goes on inside the mind of a serious dieter. Some experts in the applicable fields will probably cringe, at least in places, because inevitably, some of my pop neuroscience is simplistic to the point of perversion. But I am not here to cure mental illness; but I do want to give YOU a mental advantage so you can lose more fat with less pain and suffering.

So that’s all the apologies I’ll make. I feel the subject matter is relevant and in the near future will be key a factor in any high level athlete or serious dieter’s fat loss plan. It is almost insane NOT to realize, quite intuitively that is, that the mind is the ultimate decision maker and all diets succeed or fail because of these decisions.

Willpower and Anti-Food Psychotropics
There is a whole host of psychotropic players that can affect food intake, but for the most part your brain levels of two key neurochemicals €” serotonin and dopamine €” seem to be most notable. The problem is that when it comes to making neurochemical connections to food intake, not everyone has the same wiring, and thus, there is not one off-the-shelf solution. Take serotonin for example; this neurochemical has been linked to carbohydrate cravings and is, in fact, released in response to eating carbohydrates. This is why dieters who want to naturally increase their brain levels of serotonin often take the supplement 5-HTP, a precursor to serotonin. The simple reasoning for increasing serotonin in the brain would be to reduce or delay your carbohydrate cravings. Put another way, your mind knows that eating carbs will eventually lead to the release of -serotonin, but if brain levels are “artificially adequate (through supplementation) your cravings might be minimized. On the surface this seems to be a great idea for low-carb dieters or those with heavy carb cravings.

Too bad it’s not that simple

Let’s take a look at some popular drugs that work on serotonin. It is well established that many people who use Prozac®, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), eat less and therefore can lose weight (although in some cases weight gain does occur). In contrast, Paxil®, another brand name SSRI, lists weight GAIN, not LOSS, as a side effect. In fact, I’ve spoke to many people who use Paxil and swear it is the cause of their weight gain. Now, it can be argued that the two SSRI compounds listed above are similar, but not exactly the same. However, it would seem that inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin would result in many of the same side effects or benefits. But it doesn’t always work that way. Something else must be going on.

The answer may be found in a study comparing the effects of fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Paxil), sertraline (Zoloft®), citalopram (Celexa©) and fluvoxamine (Luvox®) on extracellular concentrations of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. In this study, only fluoxetine (Prozac) showed robust and sustained increases in extracellular concentrations of norepinephrine and dopamine after acute systemic administration. This simple difference might explain why Prozac could be a better drug for dieters. Of course this study doesn’t take into consideration what happens when you’re faced with dietary “restrictions.

Keep that thought:.

On the flip side, dopamine, a naturally produced neurochemical, functions as a neurotransmitter that activates dopamine receptors. Dopamine is also a neuro-hormone released by the hypothalamus. Dopamine is a precursor to epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) and is part of the catecholamine family, which plays a key role in releasing energy from fat and inhibiting fat storage. So, maybe we should just find a way to crank up the dopamine, right?

Well, take a look at this:

One drug affects dopamine and IMO, deserves much attention when it comes to dieting. The drug is Bupropion (amfebutamone), which is better known by the brand names Wellbutrin and Zyban.

I’m fascinated because the chemical is both a dopamine reuptake inhibitor and a norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. Also, Bupropion has only a small effect on serotonin reuptake. Not surprisingly it is similar in structure to the stimulant cathinone, and to phenethylamines in general. It is a chemical derivative of diethylpropion, an amphetamine-like substance that is prescribed as an appetite suppressant. Pretty, cool so far, right?

For an athlete looking to get ultra ripped however, we want a reduction in appetite, not amphetamine induced anorexia that will grind up our mind and muscle and spit it out. You see if you flip the dopamine switch on high and break off the knob, you’ll be headed for a downhill spiral. This is because the closer you chemically get to amphetamines such as methamphetamines or cocaine, you beat on your dopamine system to the point where the desired signal is always ON and the neurotransmitters are not recycled. The net result is that dopamine gets severely depleted and the user becomes mentally addicted and in no condition to positively alter body composition.

The good news is that when dopamine rises to higher ranges in an intermittent fashion, our body handles the increase by engaging dopamine transporters (DAT’s) to remove excess dopamine from the receptor, effectively ending the signaling of the neurotransmitter and recycling the transmitter. So a transitory boost in dopamine levels when food cravings are imminent could be a very useful appetite suppressor. For sure it seems any positive neurochemical diet protocol would require the availability and proper recycling of serotonin and dopamine. Coincidently, Bupropion is also used to for smoking cessation, and since people who quit smoking seem to gain weight, there must be another food connection. So what’s the big deal with smoking?

Stay tuned for PART TWO

I am not a scientist, but a bodybuilding theorist, with some very smart friends. So I’ve had long discussions with some very bright people regarding protein intake, digestion and eventual muscle assembly including; Dr, Scott Connelly from MET-Rx and Jeff Feliciano…who has researched protein dynamics for over 25 years. After many conversations here are MY thoughts.

From an evolutionary perspective it appears that the amount of protein eaten per meal isn’t that big of a deal relative to building muscle mass. For example, if you were in the wild and feasted on 3-lbs of tissue protein (your last kill) in an 12 hour sitting, it may take until the next evening for it all to be digested, but not much would be wasted. This is not to say you wouldn’t feel a bit sluggish if you had to run with a belly full of meat, but eventually the nitrogen is hardly washed out. The key factor here is that the body is well adapted to dismantling tissue proteins and thus the digestive tract has a built in time scale that inhibits protein waste (note: it may not build more muscle but that isn’t the only metabolic need either).

It appears that this scenario changes to some degree when consuming large amounts of whey protein at one sitting. Why? Because the amino acid in-flux from whey is very fast (like fast acting carbs), which in turn overrides some of the time sensitive work done by your digestive tract. The result is that you may be setting the stage for an abnormally high amount of gluconeogenesis to occur, which is the process of synthesizing glucose from non-carbohydrate sources.

Think of protein digestion and its proper use like an assembly line for cars. If some of the parts go by too fast, not as many cars (muscle or hormones etc.) can be built, and some of the spare parts (excess amino acids) will be used for other things. In our analogy €˜other uses’ could be to make glucose from amino acids, which is actually happening all the time at some level. Not very economical!

The digestive tract is highly adaptive, and is quite well equipped for native proteins, the kind that must be ripped up and put back together. This time dependency is consistent with our muscle building machinery, because the process of myofibrillar protein turnover is very slow, which means that protein synthesis is more apt to be affected by long-term alterations in protein (amino acid) supply. Simply put, the body will adapt to large influxes of nitrogen and make the best use of the available amino acids. So if you get enough protein in per day, and your plasma levels of amino acids remains stable you’re good to go.

Now, from an economic and convenience standpoint, the most fundamental goal you must have is to ensure that you eat enough total protein calories each day, and every week, so that you can support the very gradual increase in myofibrillar protein mass stimulated by your workouts.

In modern times however, eating multiple meals per day serves many other functions such as giving you a target time to supply your body with proper ratios of protein, carbs, fat and water to keep hormone levels optimized. I prefer eating more frequently for many reasons, and alter the macronutrients according to pre and post workout etc.

For fun just ask yourself what happens if you miss hitting your protein goals for more than a few days. The answer is you begin to crave the protein, because your body knows what it needs.

Bottom line; the question of €˜how much protein can be digested’ is pretty pliable, meaning your digestive tract will adapt. On the other hand, your training is what altars your muscles net protein needs, and eventual gains.

Last night I was browsing the Internet gathering information on anti-aging supplements, and research that supports the concept. Suddenly, I started to see some very interesting patterns that caused me to encounter a flashback of sorts. The thoughts that ran through my head seemed to have an obvious link, and the implications, if true, will have a significant impact on the lives of you and me. That is if you want to use modern science to build your body and stave off the effects of aging by using high-end supplementation, or with a legitimate prescription! I know I DO, and I am sure most everyone on this site feels the same way. Without a doubt, as I sit here today I know that the decision to participate in building the strength of my body and preserving my mind is the best decision I’ve ever made……period. On the other hand, you may just be a “passenger in this ride we call life, and if so, what this blog will have you ponder will be of no consequence at all. I will say, if you believe it is your right to have access to the best science has to offer, and live stronger…smarter…longer, you’ll see that we are the minority in a twisted plot full of mind games geared to homogenize the population into a feeble state.

Oliver Stone I Am NOT

Please understand that by nature I am very trusting person…bordering the na¯ve at times.This trait alone is manageable, but can launch me into an obsessive bit of investigative work when I “finally see something that just doesn’t add up. Right now, that “something bothers me quite a bit because it pertains to two of the few “material things that concern me the most. These are 1) what I can put in my body, and 2) my livelihood in the sports nutrition business. So what started as seemingly harmless exercise to connect the dots, soon took on the life of a conspiracy theory and a peak into a future that seems all too possible.

The next topic has been beatean to death; nevertheless it needs to be re-stated to make my point.

Pardon me while I digress:

I don’t know about you, but when George Bush made his 2004 State of the Union Address and mentioned that a key initiative for America’s war on drugs included steroids and baseball/athletics, I almost forearmed my TV into a million pieces. For those that missed this riveting speech, it really happened, and I’ve put the highlights here for you to get the full impact. Yep, the Bush dynasty was putting their favorite son, George W. forth as our 43 President, yet little did we know that he would profoundly state one of his key concerns in the following.

“The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message — that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character. So tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now.

Let’s put this in perspective. Either America has a real steroid problem that is on par with running multiple wars, poverty, national debt, obesity etc, or this was an effort to evade tougher issues and tell the popular vote what it wants to hear. What do you think? Maybe we just need more drug laws on the books so we can fill the pocketbooks of the people who control our nations growing number of privatized prisons and the racketeering that feeds it.

I can hear you laughing, but it’s no joke. Ask yourself if this is possible after you check out the link, and get informed.

In any event, certainly a war on obesity could upset the 65% of Americans who are either overweight or obese, and thus making it an unpopular initiative. Hell, if we’re talking sports here, in my book, the obesity issue is like getting pitched a “softball in the sense that it’s surely worthy of a hefty swing. Politics are different, whereas it is better to get into a bad situation and have the crowd focus on you “getting the save.

Nothing is better than an “insurmountable crisis to get everyone to root for you!
Make no mistake; all of my personal loyalties are American, so I’ll give the president his props. Honestly, the notion that the leader of the last superpower on the planet would have the morals, ethics and “balls to reach out to “the people and state character is more important than winning a baseball game, should have been MONUMENTAL. Too bad the world isn’t perfect. So asking people, young or old, not to use any means possible, including drugs, to help them reach the American dream of million dollar contracts and endorsement deals, is borderline fantasy. Surely, some people with lofty goals resist temptation, but many others whose ambition has reached the point of no return, will unfortunately have nowhere to go except the “dark side. Whether this is right or wrong depends on whom you ask. One thing is certain; humans rationalize their behavior when they want something, so even if they know something is wrong they tell themselves “the end justifies the means.

Nevertheless, the President could have said, “the American Dream is a croc, I know it because everyday people who appear to have it all don’t. In fact, many sacrifice morals for fame and fortune.

But he didn’t.

Maybe the President could have proffered a war on obesity and put the burden on giant food companies to use truth in advertising, much like supplement companies are governed to do. Then we might see ads with disclaimers like, “the foods in this ad have not been approved by the FDA, and therefore, may contribute to premature aging or death due to diseases, such as obesity and heart disease.

IMO, there has been no real government initiative on the obesity epidemic because consumers and the fast food peddlers are already hooked on each other. In essence, that deal with the devil is on autopilot. The junk food “dealers continue to “push play and we keep listening.

Maybe I’m wrong. For sure, I’ve been way off before. It’s just hard for me to believe anyone, including our current President, can expect to teach kids about morals and ethics when the best jobs on earth appear to be held by men elevated to “heroes, and are playing what appear to be “games on TV, living the so-called dream. Let’s just say, he meant well:

Shortly after the “Bush Monologue of 2004, I started to seriously think, WTF? I mean since I work in the nutrition business, I thought I’d heard it all. I had been through my share of arduous debates regarding the sale of pro-hormones as dietary supplements. I also saw first hand how the mainstream media confused real “juice with pro-hormones and even simple creatine. I knew the media and conservative experts, none of which ever used or prescribed the drugs themselves, would ever get the scientific facts correct, and athletes who used real steroids would blame any failed drug test on their newly found scapegoat “andro. Through all of this, my colleagues and I knew it was just a matter of time before pro-hormones were reclassified and on par with other already illegal substances.

One of the main reasons we felt prohormones were doomed, is that during this time period many of these products worked and worked well. Ironically, supplements that work the best are often the subject of PR smear campaigns, i.e., ephedra and even creatine:

Indeed, under the new Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, which applies across the country (as of January 20, 2005), steroids and steroid precursors (such as “andro”) are in the same legal class — Schedule III — as barbiturates, LSD precursors, veterinary tranquilizers like ketamine and narcotic painkillers like Vicodin. Simple possession is a federal offense punishable by up to one year in prison and/or a minimum fine of $1,000 for a first offense. Selling steroids, or possessing them with intent to sell, is a federal felony. An individual who sells steroids, or possesses them with intent to sell, is punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine for a first offense.

Hey nice work Prez, you’re making a difference:or at least the perception is, you’re following through.

Hmm, maybe NOT

We now know, that to date no big name €˜’baller has gone to grey bar motel for “cheating with steroids. In fact, when asked by congress months later, most hi-profile athletes took the Fifth Amendment. Even the athletes who admitted using the drugs were immune from punishment. We now have stricter laws for supplements that build muscle, and a message from our president that performance-enhancing drugs are BAD for our nations youth. Sadly, since most of the athletes couldn’t let their secret out, and because they carry a huge influence over our youth, it seems they dropped the “ball. Hell, who can blame them for giving us the silent treatment? You know if they told the truth it would be like telling our youth there is no “Athletic Santa Clause, and ruin it for everyone (dubious fans as well).

What’s worse, is that it’s a good bet our government has other business endeavors they need to protect. Why else couldn’t they really drop the hammer on the athletes who profit the most? Here’s what I think. If the highest levels of athletic talent went away, the lawmakers would be at odds with network media moguls who make money by selling advertising for televised sporting events. That would spell disaster for politicians who need the same media outlets to spin their stories each day.

No wonder the team owners were asked to deal with it, but what’s their motivation? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that super athletes fill stadiums, and bring in the big TV deals.

As I said before, I believe the notion of no drugs in high-level sport is destined for failure simply due to economics. It’s a shame, but the only thing our youth got out of this exercise was, if you can make it to the athletic elite, you’re untouchable.

In laymen terms that means, “don’t get caught!
The message has now become deluded into what is called, “classic doublethink. Whereas, the public knows that the athletes do take drugs, but choose to believe they do not!

On the surface these issues don’t matter much to me, I’d already lived and competed in the “good ole days, when the best bodybuilding “drugs were not scheduled. Not to mention, being a decent bodybuilder back then did not preclude a one-way ticket to the dead pool. LOL.

No, I was more upset with the fact that the athletic performance side of the supplement industry was being attacked, again, and IMO used as a sacrificial lamb to suck-up to the popular vote, or the ill-informed, and protect the million dollar athletes who really have the financial motivation to use them.

Alright, enough of the back-story:

I wanted to bring these past issues up, because I know the sports supplement industry will continue to bring exotic and effective products to the market, and continue to face more scrutiny. If the trend continues, the only supplements hardcore consumers like us will have left to enhance our body and mind; will be Snickers with protein and Gatorade. SO YES, I AM PISSED AND YOU SHOULD BE TOO. This is starting to have the same two faced “pro-health” public image as the other prime enemy of innovative supplements does :

BIG PHARMA

Anyone who has worked in the business generally known as “Vitamins has at one time or another, believed that big pharmaceutical firms want their products available ultimately by prescription only. That’s because drug companies, not supplement firms, court doctors and if you need scrip you can’t bypass your MD and run to your local health food store to get your “stuff. This “run at the supplement business has been tougher to accomplish in the last 15 years since science based nutritional discoveries has increased dramatically. Further hindering big pharma’s plans, are the growing numbers of consumers who give a shit about their health. These hardcore enthusiasts, like those found here on my blog, realize they know more about exercise, eating right and supplementation than most doctors (not all), ever will. This has caused the pharmaceutical firms to go through the side door and cut a deal with the enemy.

Here’s the connection:

The goal is to fatten the wallets of the giant pharmaceutical companies by controlling multiple consumer markets. This well thought out crime syndicate works like this: 1) lobby to outlaw supplements that provide effective dosages of scientifically valid nutrients and 2) get legislation passed so the big vitamin companies can sell more worthless “basic vitamins in a unified global marketplace (see guidelines here). The plan is clean and elegant, especially when you realize the biggest pharmaceutical houses in the world make money synthesizing the “basic vitamins that go into the biggest supplement companies’ low-grade products.

The end-result for big pharma, is the ability to continue selling more drugs to stave off the effects of a poor diet, and also profit from the low-grade supplements they help manufacture, while simultaneously blocking access to powerful supplements that your victims (all of us) rely on. This power play is a sure fire way to limit the benefits WE get from exercising our body and nourishing our mind.

Sounds a bit too wild right? You’re probably saying “NO FRIGGIN WAY this all seems so ridiculous it could never be true. Keep in mind that the best schemes are usually outlandish and right in front of your eyes. The “far-fetched approach works well because the victims say to themselves “no one could dream that up But if you need more proof, this topic is fully discussed in an article by Rima E Laibow MD, that details how dietary supplements are under stealth global attack, and what you must do to defend your access.

I can hear the media spin its propaganda; “Americans need to have wider access to safe supplements and better drugs to cure disease:

My translation is a bit harsher: “Nothing is 100% safe. So by making supplements with inactive dosages, by definition they are as safe as possible. This tactic drives product costs down and essentially affordable to the masses. The inherent low cost allows Americans to have wider access to these worthless products, and be lulled into thinking they are warding off disease. This further causes the unsuspecting public to forget about changing their current diet of junk. This will mark the end to “good health, as we know it, thus creating an increased market for drugs. In the end, it is the ultimate false security blanket.

By now, if your’e not a conspiracy theorist, you must be a coincidence theorist.

So Where Are We Now?

Everything came full circle when I found a document  called “911, The Road to Tyranny” written by political activist Alex Jones. In the written document (there is a video as well) Jones’ claims that the United Nations wants an 80% die-off of the World’s population so that the remainder of the global elite can have the life extension drugs all to themselves. At first, I had to laugh, but only after I dismissed the notion of the “establishment cleansing the population with germs that cause untimely deaths through diseases we’ve never seen. On the other hand, I was spooked by the images in my head of unhealthy and inactive world leaders finally pumping iron and actually making health a priority before their doctor says give up Krispy Kremes.

I tried my best to forget about it all, but by then the damage was done and I arrived at the answer to this question; why would the most powerful and richest people in the world want the life extension drugs all to themselves? Not such a tough one to answer when you simply realize that when you have all the power and money you could ever need, the most elusive thing on earth is being able to keep it until you’re 125 years YOUNG! The payoff is even more dramatic when you realize that if the general public CANNOT get the best life extending and physique preserving substances, but you can, the common man not only has less economic advantages, but gets sicker, less productive and dies off quicker than your elite fraternity.

It’s a simple case of more for them, less for you.

And, the plot thickens.

I hope that following the twist and turns in my rant you see that the people in this country who take care of themselves and want to pursue “super health are the minority. That means you and me. The real problem is we can’t ask any of the players mentioned above to help us, because the minority doesn’t line their pockets enough or represent a huge base of voters. But, who says we can’t give em a run? We certainly have home field advantage in a sense because for all intensive purposes the athletic community paved the way for everything the elitists want to get their greedy little hands on. We opened the door to “off label uses for bodybuilding drugs and life extension regimens and are the biggest consumer group in the world (that isn’t obese) driving innovations in the nutritional sciences that help prevent our body and mind from premature decay.

So how to we WIN? IMO, we need to be aware of how other consumer groups have insulated themselves from attack. Simply put, consumer-buying power and sheer participants is KING in a capitalist economy. Sure, didn’t hurt fast food, cigarettes and booze right? Question is how we increase our consumer power base. I suggest we use a tactic that the silver spoon frat boys use frequently, yet never do sincerely. We give to receive (they give to deceive). Here is how it works (really, no more hoarding your secrets, ok maybe your stash).

1. Give others your inspiration……this means the more people that you turn on to the benefits of weight training and super potent supplements that work, the stronger WE all get.

2. Give others your knowledge……this means turning more people on to performance nutrition websites like and others like bodybuilding.com, antiaging-systems or life-extension that specialize in credible information and cutting edge products, because we’ll never win if we don’t have a bigger voice.

3. Give others your awareness……this means tell more people to look around and see that the only alternative to our way of life is to become a Zombie in the

Land of the Weak, Poor and Dying:

To maintain a feeding pattern consistent with building a rock solid body many successful bodybuilders have learned the art of assembly line cooking one day per week. Although you can pick any day that best suits your schedule, most bodybuilders who use this method often designate Sunday as the day when they plan, purchase and prepare all of their road meals for the week. The best way to do this is to break up your food preparations into three categories, which are proteins, starchy carbs and fibrous carbs. This way all you need to do is mix and match these three components to create awesome meals on the go.

The Proteins

Making sure each of your meals contains adequate protein is key to successful bodybuilding. Protein foods arguably require the most planning due to the fact that if not prepared and stored correctly you not only will be wasting hard earned money, you may even get yourself some type of food poisoning along the way. On top of the bodybuilders portable protein pyramid we have chicken breasts, lean ground turkey or hamburger, lean cuts of read meat and water packed tuna. The first thing you’ll need to know is how much protein per meal you need and how many portable meals you will be cooking during your assembly line project. So lets say your diet calls for 35 grams of protein per meal and you want to prepare 3 meals per day for 5 days. This means you’ll need 15 meals and since your 35-gram protein portions can be met with one large chicken breast (ribs attached) your goal could be attained simply by cooking and storing 15 large chicken breasts. Now if you want variety you may want to cook only 5 chicken breasts and split the other 10 meals with ground turkey and water packed tuna. Cooking off five-7.5 ounce turkey patties and stockpiling the necessary canned tuna in your pantry can easily achieve this. No matter which way you choose to divide up your protein portions keep in mind that they only make up part of each meal. So plan according to the total meal. For example chicken breast, brown rice, broccoli, corn and salsa make a nice meal but could get monotonous. At any rate make sure you immediately store the cooked proteins in Tupperware (standard equipment for the bodybuilding road warrior) and refrigerate. Another good investment is a small Igloo style beach cooler which will serve as a traveling carrying case for your supplies.

The Starches

Depending on your diet goal each meal should contain at least some carbohydrate. Starches are easy to prepare and also build your muscle glycogen stores effectively. The best starchy carbs are yams, baked potatoes, brown rice and steel cut rolled oats. Later we’ll discuss adding fibrous carbs or using a fiber supplement so don’t drive yourself crazy trying to make each meal glycemically “perfect. Once again you’ll need to calculate how many grams of carbohydrates you want to consume each meal. You will basically be prepping 15 carbohydrate portions so just get a handle on how much per serving and start steaming, baking, or micro waving those glycogen filled treats. For example one medium sized baked potato (a large fist) yields about 30 grams of carbs. A good resource for carb content in basic foods is the Nutrition Almanac, which can be found in your local health or bookstore. Remember to prep with the total meal in mind so that you don’t wind up with oats at every meal. You should store your carbs the same way as proteins, using Tupperware then refrigerate.

The Fibrous Carbs

To ensure good health and to alleviate any wild blood sugar swings ample amounts of fibrous carbs should be eaten at each meal. The only exception is that if the starchy carb (like steel cut oats) contains ample fiber or if you are in a pinch use a fiber supplement such as Metamucil. The best bet here is to purchase blends of frozen vegetables from your local supermarket and microwave several 1-2 pound bags and store them just as you would your proteins. There are several good varieties that can found virtually in any good grocery store. Many of them have ethnic styles such as fiesta blend (Mexican) as well as Italian, Japanese and Oriental. It sure beats the heck out of shopping, dicing and slicing produce.

Putting it All Together

Now the hard work is done. All that’s left is to throw each set of meals together in the evenings to prepare for the next day. This is also the time you can choose any condiments, special fats or spices that provide the finishing touches to each meal. Don’t worry you can still enjoy eating fresh food for dinner and the smell of oats in the morning but now you’ll never worry about what you’ll have for those three meals you always need on the road.

Vince

 By Vince Andrich

I’ve been on the road quite a bit and so frequent visits to the airport knick knack shops are the norm. Since I am in THE business, I always take a look at the current issues of popular fitness magazines. Now, unless I am imagining it, nearly every big budget magazine takes a crack at a fitness theme every 3-months or so. Rags for women like Vogue (the Shape Issue), Allure (Look Younger Now), Fitness (De-Jelly Your Belly) sure exploit the idea of getting a better body, yet deliver everything you want to know about fitness that won’t help you one bit. No doubt, the programs are easy, so you feel good, and of course the magazines look great on your coffee table. That is, if you need that kind of validation from your friends. If so, you might want to rethink you reasons for getting a better body, and if you’re still serious read on….

Much like the popular women’s magazines, for Men we have such fashionable staples like GQ, Esquire, Men’s Vogue, and even Maxim who feature UFC fighters, WWE Stars and other athletes on their covers, in an attempt to grab a slice of the wanna bee male exercise consumer set. Nice ploy to grab more readers, and although the men’s fashion rags don’t try this as often as their female counterparts, they stiill can’t resist trying to make a guy who is looking for a new watch do broomstick twists.

Some of the magazine’s in question are on the bubble, as in not so bad. In this category, we have high gloss magazines like Men’s Health, Best Life, Self and Shape vying for the ever so fickle fringe exercisers. Don’t get me wrong, the not so bad magazines have some decent information, but compared to the big promises they make on their covers (like Lose Your Gut in Two Weeks), they fall extremely short. Once again, the big fitness promise’s combined with targeting the, “never gonna stick to types”, is a ploy big budget magazines use to ask for more mainstream ad dollars for clothing and cologne. In my experience, these magazines are only for people who want to amuse themselves with the idea of following a real exercise program that gets results.

So whats my point? Well if you’re looking to get into better shape, let me give you a few clues as to which magazines might be good for you. First you need to do a little test. That is, for each magazine you’re thumbing through, count the amount of ad pages for NON-FITNESS related products. These items include cosmetics, clothes, shoes, booze, beer, cigars, cologne and watches, to name a few. Then go over to an enthusiast magazine, like Surfer, for duh, Surfers, or Hot Rod Magazine for Speed Freaks and count the ads for products NOT specific to Surfers or Speed Freaks.  Get the point? Sure you do. The point is, if you’re serious about a particular interest, the best place to get information is the same place the most fanatical consumers in every industry do. Here’s a hint, they don’t read magazines about their favorite subject that is clouded by products they can read about in a dozen other titles.

For getting in shape the fanatics still go for Muscle and Fitness, FLEX, Oxygen, Fitness Rx, Ironman, REPS and Muscular Development. Now, if youre more advanced you’re out here on the web getting your advice from real people who have the SAME goals as you do. The moral of the story is; big advertisers (NON-Fitness related) will never spend much money in the real serious fitness magazines.

On the other hand, you can bet the serious fitness information will never be found in a magazine that cares more about living the good life than working nard to get a better body. One more reason, you should subscribe to my BodyBlog! You can bet on it, the information that can help you understand how to finally get healthy and fit will be found right here…

Vince

So you’re ready to take your physique to an entirely new level and make believers of your family, friends and even some enemies. To make this happen, you know you can’t keep doing the same old things, over and over and expect a different result, as that would be insanity. You need to be creative, insightful and diligent. You need to unleash what I call, your "body transformation genius." Now, don’t misunderstand, what I’m telling you is that even if you’re not a certified genius, you can use the same strategies as Beethoven and Einstein, to harness the power of your creative mind, to better develop your health and fitness future and build your dream body.

The following eight strategies push you to think productively, rather than reproductively, in order to arrive at solutions to your health and fitness goals. These strategies are common to the thinking styles of creative geniuses in science, art, and industry throughout history. Now, let’s get started.

1. Look at problems in many different ways
In other words, find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!)

Note This: Leonardo da Vinci believed, that to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many different ways. He realized that the first way he looked at a problem was often too biased. By reconstructing the problem, you will find new solutions and break down personal barriers.

Try This: Not enough time to train, then take a new perspective that says. it will be most beneficial for you to ONLY workout 30 minutes per session. Make your workouts a race against the clock to improve intensity and new gains will be yours in no time.

2. Visualize!

Note This: When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as possible, including using diagrams. He visualized solutions, and believed that words and numbers as such did not play a significant role in his thinking process.

Try This: When looking for ways to improve a specific body part, draw your physique and then make notes about how you train each muscle area. Is your focus and concentration the same for your weak bodyparts, as it is for your strong ones? One sure fire way to re-focus your efforts on your weaknesses is this; if a bodypart is too small train it with weights 3 times per week. If a bodypart is too large, (or fat) train it only every two weeks. This method allows your body to build your weak body parts up, while systematically causing your larger body parts to shrink. Of course, diet and overall metabolic rate is necessary to burn off the extra fat, but in combination, this method allows you to put maximum energy against the most difficult areas to build.

3. Produce!

Not surprising, but one of the most distinguishing characteristics of genius is productivity.

Note This: Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many “bad” ones. They weren’t afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence.

Try This: Don’t expect a perfect workout every single time. On days you feel less energetic, you can allow yourself a “cruising”  workout, with a focus on form and deep contractions. This will serve as an active rest, and the lack of pressure to perform may actually help you find new ways to connect to your muscles like never before.

4. Make novel combinations!
Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual.

Note This: The laws of heredity on which the basis for the modern science of genetics came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science.

Try This: Start each training session with a different bodypart. This means you don’t always have to do compound movements before single joint exercises and vice versa. You can also do high reps, for multi-muscle teamwork exercises like the bench press or squat and low reps, for machine lifts like leg extensions. Other variations are, foot and hand positions and rest between sets. Mix it up, you may just find your perfect recipe for a great workout almost any time.

5. Form relationships; make connections between dissimilar subjects.

Note This: Da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water. This enabled him to make the connection that sound travels in waves. Samuel Morse invented relay stations for telegraphic signals when observing relay stations for horses.

Try This: When doing individual exercises, focus on the area of the muscle where most of the tension or burn is being developed. This way you can make better exercise choices when targeting specific areas of each muscle. In addition, like in strategy #4, make mental notes of small changes in hand, feet and height positions when doing specific movements. You are a sculptor and you must understand how each tool (the weights) are best used to alter your physique.

6. Think in opposites.

Note This: Physicist Niels Bohr believed that if you held opposites together, then you suspend your thought, and your mind moves to a new level. His ability to imagine light as both a particle and a wave led to his conception of the principle of complementarity. Suspending thought (logic) may allow your mind to create a new form.

Try This: You’ll see dramatic changes if you’ve been eating a high protein low carb diet, then switch to the exact opposite for 1-2 days. Also, if you’re used to dieting and feeling hungry, try to eat one meal every 48 - hours that completely fills your stomach, or until you can’t eat another bite. The trick here is to eat water rich steamed veggies, small amounts of brown rice, loads of greens and fiber. Top this off with ample amounts of fresh water and your body will be tricked into thinking it gets to eat until it pops, thus breaking the chains of deprivation that wreak havoc on your ability to mentally handle dieting.

7. Prepare yourself for chance.

Note This: Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and how you can change them to arrive at other results. Do not ask the question “Why have I failed?”, but rather “What have I done?”

Try This: Keep an exercise, nutrition and supplement journal, and use it to note how your body feels when eating certain foods, the time of day you eat, train and how much rest you get between workouts. Be sure to note even slight changes in your workout system and how your body responds mentally and physically. This journal is your personal roadmap to success.

8. Think metaphorically.

Note This: Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts.

Try This: Go through the strategies above and make new links to fitness related issues in each of the sections. This way you’ll be taking proven concepts and metaphorically linking them to your fitness goals.

Vince