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4 Strategies Professionals Use for killer 6 Pack Abs

2008-05-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes all it takes to get caught up in the hype of the latest ab machine or miracle pill is a simple photograph of a stunning set of 6-pack abs. Just about everyone wants six pack abs, or at least a trim waistline, if not a muscular one, so all the glory these days has gone to exercising the abdominal muscles. But this has caused some serious problems, and falling for the latest gimmick is not the least of them.
When you become so focused on abs and abdominal exercises, you tend to completely forget that there's much more to seeing your abs than doing crunches and other exercises for the rectus abdominis.
By focusing only on the 6-pack muscles, not only do you fail to learn about the complexity and importance of the entire core region and the deeper muscles that aren't so "glamorous," you also tend to completely forget the other things that absolutely must come before 6-pack abs ever arrive.
If you fail to do these other 4 things first, it doesn't matter how much abdominal exercise you do, you will never see a six pack.
To See A set of Six Pack Abs, First, Your Body Fat Must Be Low enough The biggest reason most people can't see their abs is because most of the population is overweight or even obese today. For your abdominals to show through, you need a low enough body fat percentage. For men to see a clearly defined set of six pack abs, it usually requires getting down to about 10% body fat or less, and for the women, it's usually about 16% body fat or less. It's not possible to
tell you exactly what body fat you will have to reach to see your abs because it also depends on your individual genetics. For example, one man can see a six pack at 11% body fat, while other
men say they don't see their abs until they're 7% or 8% body fat. Reduction of body fat is the first and most important thing that must come before a 6-pack. And that leads you to the question, "what is the best way to reduce body fat?" The first priority in reducing body fat is nutrition, because the easiest way to create a caloric deficit is with a reduction in food
intake, but few people think about the quality of the food they're eating, only the quantity. Proper hydration is also critical, but often forgotten. Exercise is the final key, but ab and core exercises alone just won't do it. It takes a certain combination of exercise for optimal results.

The Other 3 Things That Come Before A 6-Pack

1. Eat Organic I preach organic so often that to my regular readers, I probably sound like a broken record. However, it's not without reason: if you want your liver to process body fat efficiently, then you'd better have this important organ working efficiently and kept
in good health. Refined foods and alcohol harm the liver and give it no chance to process body fat the way it was designed to do because it's too busy dealing with all the toxins you've consumed.
So eat as organic as your budget will allow. If you can't afford organic, be sure to wash all of your food items (produce) with a natural food cleaner. Eating organic, fibrous foods will also
increase improve the functioning of your digestive system and create for regular movements. You should have a bowel movement 2-3 times per day. If not, you are putting a lot of unnecessary stress on your digestive system. If this happens, then losing fat and
keeping it off becomes much more difficult. Try free health supplements such as Vitamins here before buying them. This way you will save a lot of money and can test what works for you.

2. Drink and Be Hydrated! I urge every one of my clients and readers to drink more water. Many people understand the importance of avoiding dehydration, but they don't realize how
important water is in helping remove fat from the body. Most of us are dehydrated and do not even know it. Here's a simple hydration test – pinch the skin on the back of your hand. Pull is up as high as it can go, then let it go. Does it go back to normal immediately? If not, then you're dehydrated. The rule of thumb is to drink a minimum of a half an ounce of water for every pound of body weight. So if you weigh 200 lbs, you drink at least 100 ounces (Also, if possible, avoid tap water or plastic bottled water as plastic contributes to estrogen and that encourages stubborn fat)

3. Exercise right! If you give body fat a reason to "hang around" (pun intended), then it will. Give body fat a reason to leave and it will do that just as easily. Some kind of activity every single day is just what the doctor ordered for fat loss. Rather than focusing on one type of exercise like bodybuilding or aerobics or yoga or pilates, or just strength or flexibility, I recommend a combination of cardio training, strength training and specific core conditioning exercises. While I recommend exercise such as walking very highly, I also recommend at least some vigorous and intense exercise such as interval training as well. It's this combination of strength and cardio training, plus an active lifestyle in general, that will help you reduce your body fat enough for your abs will show. Try a Free Membership to Jenny Craig for a limited time. You will
lose of weight and get free healthy food as well! Before you jump the gun and go ballistic with "abdominal exercises," remember, that there is more to seeing your abs than just crunches. Seeing "6 pack abs" is first a function of low body fat. Achieving low body fat is in turn a function of what you eat, what you drink and how you move. That makes 4 things that come before a 6-pack. You can "ab roller" and "crunch" until the cows come home, but if you haven't done these four things first, then you're approaching it backwards and will be disappointed.

Training With Muscle Soreness: Should You Do It?

2008-05-04T22:47:00.000-07:00

Training With Muscle Soreness: Should You Do It?
By Nick Nilsson

Muscle soreness is something that every trainer has experienced. The typical advice is to wait until you're not sore to train that muscle again. But what if you can actually get BETTER results by training when sore!

It's safe to say that muscle soreness is something EVERY trainer has experienced at some point in their career. Severity of muscle soreness (known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness or DOMS for short) can range from mild discomfort when you move to the point of being almost crippling.

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is "should you train when your muscles are still sore?" The answer is not quite as simple as some people make it out to be, though. Many trainers will tell you "if the muscle is still sore, don't train it." And, in truth, for many people that's the safest answer.

But, in fact, by NOT training when you're sore, you could actually be missing out on results AND slowing down your recovery!

So what is muscle soreness? Muscle soreness is basically damage to the muscle fibers as a result of training. Without going into great detail on how it happens and how the recovery process occurs (which is beyond the scope of this article), muscle soreness is your body telling you that it's in need of repair.

Now how can it possibly be GOOD for you to train a muscle again while it's still sore? Here's where we get into a contentious area. After reading this, you may choose to agree with me or disagree with me (if you've read my articles before, you know I'm anything BUT conventional) but all I ask is that you consider my arguments...

Now, if you've never trained a muscle hard two days in a row or trained it while it was still quite sore, you're going to be in for a shock at how unique a stimulus it can actually be. Sure there are arguments against doing that, e.g. the muscle hasn't fully recovered and you'll be tearing it down even more.

But consider this...from an adapatation standpoint, of the following two scenarios, what would give your body the greater stimulus for growth?

If you train the muscle hard once, you'll get a good growth stimulus. Your body immediately starts sending nutrients to the damaged area and starts rebuilding. When the muscle is fully recovered and is no longer sore, you train the muscle again and restart the process. This is the standard way of training and it usually means directly training a muscle twice a week with at least 2 or 3 days in between sessions for that specific muscle.

In the next scenario, you train the muscle hard then the next day, train it hard again. Recovery is nowhere near complete and the muscle is sore when you train it on the second day.

Here's the key...if you think about it, would the body see this second scenario as a greater threat to its survival? Would the body then ramp up its recovery processes to try and prepare for the next challenge, which it (from its recent experience of being hit with the same hard stimulus two days in a row) thinks is coming again very soon?

In my experience, this absolutely happens. The body's response to training is a very simple "stimulus-response" system, but your body is also fully capable of sending more resources where more resources are perceived as being needed.

When you eat, your body sends more blood to the digestive system. Your brain doesn't tell it to do that, it just happens. When you get hot, your body produces perspiration. The same thing happens with training. For example, when you train your biceps, your body sends blood and nutrients to the biceps for recovery. It doesn't send it to the calves if the calves haven't been worked.

If you train your biceps hard two days in a row, your body sees this as a big threat to the biceps and will ramp up recovery processes to specifically protect the biceps. If the biceps are still sore... VERY big threat! THEN you allow the biceps to recover. The two days of training has built much greater recovery momentum, getting more results out of your training.

Here's yet another advantage to training a muscle when it's still sore...even if you don't train it hard, you will still be sending blood (and therefore nutrients) to that muscle, helping it to recover faster than if you didn't train it at all. So even if you're not up for a hard workout for a sore muscle, even giving it some light to moderate work will still help with recovery.

So I've talked about training a muscle two days in a row... what about when you're scheduled to train it a couple of days later and it's still sore at that point? The same concepts apply your body will STILL perceive that as a greater threat and increase recovery.

The only times I would NOT recommend training when sore is if the soreness causes you to use poor form in your exercises or if the soreness is so bad that it makes the exercises too painful to do.

For instance, if you just did deadlifts for the first time in your life and the next day, you have a VERY hard time sitting down without falling down into the seat, you may want to wait a bit before doing deadlifts again. Your form will change because of the pain and it could lead to injury.

But if your muscles are a bit stiff or sore, go ahead and train them. Your body will ramp up your recovery processes in response.

How do I know training the body with this frequency can be effective? I'll give the best example I know (WARNING if you're a proponent of high-intensity, very infrequent training, this will make you shiver in your boots!). This is NOT a program I would recommend lightly to anyone because at this time, being on vacation from work, I was basically only eating, sleeping and training...no stress, no extraneous activity.

This was one of the most extraordinary programs I ever put myself on, not only in terms of workload but results as well. It involved doing total body workouts twice a day, six days a week. This meant 12 total-body workouts per week, increasing the workload every week.

I used partial training, negative training, low reps and high reps. For the entire first week, I was EXTREMELY sore but I stuck with it and trained everything twice a day, no matter how sore I was.

After 3 weeks of this training, I backed off, still doing 12 training sessions per week but splitting the body in half I was still working my whole body every single day and doing partials and negatives.

During the back-off phase, my recovery processes were practically unstoppable! NOTHING I did could make me sore (and believe me, I tried!) and my strength and muscle mass shot way up.

Conventional wisdom would believe I would be completely totaled at the end of a program like this, overtrained, small and weak. My results? In 6 weeks, I went from 208 lbs. in bodyweight to 228 lbs. I went from a 295 bench press for 1 rep to 350 lbs for 1 rep. I did a partial top range lockout squat with 1100 lbs for 150 reps (not a typo!)

This is a VERY extreme example of training through muscle soreness and using maximum workout frequency. But the take-home lesson from it is this: you CAN get great results by training even when you're sore! Your body will react to the stress and ramp up recovery in response.

One quick tip: if you want to decrease post-workout soreness, try taking 500 mg of Vitamin C about an hour before your workout. This helps protect against muscle soreness.

Shoulder Blasting PUMPS!

2008-03-25T01:13:00.000-07:00

From: The "Muscle Nerd", Jeff Anderson
Today's Tip: Shoulder Blasting PUMPS!
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Tired of the same old SHOULDER ROUTINE and want to try something
"different"?

Check out this fast and effective advanced technique that will leave
your shoulders ready to rip right through your skin...

1. First, hightail it to the dumbbell rack and pick up a set
that will allow you to perform about 8-12 repetitions of a
LATERAL RAISE.

Let's say you used 25 lbs...

2. Once you've hit exhaustion, rack the weights and pick up a
slightly lower amount of weight (we'll say the 20's) and
IMMEDIATELY start pumping out as many Lateral reps as you can
(you may only be able to do 3-5).

3. When you can lift no more, rack the weight and pick up the
next set down the line (you may have to skip the 15's at this
point and go straight for the 10's - not a problem!).

Hit as many reps as you can before exhaustion.

4. Keep working your way down the rack in this fashion until
the only thing you can lift is AIR!

That's it...one set of these and you're DONE!

52 Tips for Losing Weight

2008-02-03T21:52:00.000-08:00

A Tip a Week
If you add one of these tips a week to your daily routine, in one year you will have developed some very healthy habits!
1. Eliminate one tablespoon of fat a day and you will lose 10 pounds in a year.
2. Avoid strange fad diets -- if you can't eat that way for the rest of your life, don't waste your time or your health.
3. Limit alcohol consumption -- each serving contains 100 to150 calories.
4. Eat fruit at least twice a day.
5. Keep a food diary about your food choices, indicating how hungry you are each time you eat. Pay
particular attention to your level of hunger when you snack.
6. Perform aerobic exercise a minimum of 30 minutes three times a week. Log this on your food diary.Gradually increase the length and frequency of your workouts.
7. Weigh yourself no more than twice a week.
8. Give yourself a non-food reward for every 5 pounds lost.
9. Slow down your eating speed -- make meals last at least 20 minutes. Try eating with the other hand or taking a sip of water between bites.
10. Use smaller plates.
11. Bring your lunch to work at least three times a week.
12. Start to strength train twice a week. Building muscle increases your metabolism and forces your body to use fat, not muscle, when you're cutting back on calories.
13. Stop eating while watching television.
14. Have someone else put away leftovers.
15. Buy a good low-fat, low-calorie cookbook or magazine subscription.
16. Try two new reduced-calorie recipes a month.
17. Eat breakfast daily.
18. Don't read while eating.
19. Have a sweet treat once a week.
20. Keep healthful snacks at home and at work.
21. Limit your cheese consumption to reduce fat and saturated fat -- use cheese and lunchmeat with less than 5 grams of fat per ounce.
22. Add calorie counting or fat-gram counting to your food diary for a few weeks if your weight loss is slowing down. Maybe you're missing something.
23. Substitute herbs and spices for salt.
24. Shop for food when you are not hungry, and use a shopping list.
25. Replace ground beef with ground turkey or soy crumbles in dishes such as spaghetti. Don't skip the protein in your meals; find a leaner substitute.
26. Eat three vegetables a day.
27. Always eat sitting down.
28. Request that your family and friends respect your efforts to lose weight and get fit -- beware of loving "sabotage."
29. Take a walk when you're stressed or angry.
30. Eat two dairy products a day -- be aware of your calcium intake. Select low-fat or nonfat dairy products to reduce fat calories.
31. Order dressings and sauces on the side and apply them with a fork.
32. Increase your fiber intake -- chose whole-grain breads, cereals and pasta products, legumes, and raw fruits and vegetables.
33. Add slow-down food to your meals -- crunchy vegetables, a large glass of water, hot soup or
beverages, or fresh fruit to fill you up.
34. Cook with chicken broth, nonstick cooking spray, wine or water.
35. Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day.
36. Shrink portion sizes of meats and starches, and pile on the vegetables.
37. Ask how the food is prepared when ordering in a restaurant.
38. Choose low-fat frozen yogurt or frozen juice bars instead of ice cream. Be careful of the portion size these foods still have calories!
39. Select clear broth- or tomato-based soups over white soups.
40. Keep the junk foods out of sight in your home and workplace.
41. Take walking shoes or a jump rope with you when you travel to keep up with your exercise.
42. If you?re getting off track, try to pre-plan your food intake for the next three days by writing it down.
43. Buy frozen diet dinners with 10 grams of fat or less and 800 milligrams of sodium or less.
44. Avoid batter coating or breading.
45. Use two egg whites in baking instead of one whole egg.
46. Stretch during television commercials -- arm circles, leg lifts, head tilts, etc.
47. Eliminate the butter on your rolls or popcorn.
48. Learn to say "no" gracefully when a friend or relative offers you a second helping.
49. Choose pizza with vegetable toppings rather than high-fat meats, such as sausage and pepperoni. Ask for less cheese. Have you ever tried tomato pie?
50. Choose cooking techniques that keep fat to a minimum, such as baking, grilling, broiling, roasting or steaming.
51. Add more low-fat soy products to your diet for the soy protein and health benefits.
52. Forgive yourself when you slip -- and make the next food choice a healthy one.

Bodybuilding Helps mental illness

2007-12-10T02:56:00.001-08:00

People suffering from severe depression or eating disorders would benefit greatly from regular training. So many people are simply put on medication, but hitting the gym is a viable alternative treatment. Training not only works your body, but also your mind . bodybuilding builds confidence as well as muscles, and releases those feel-good hormones called endorphins.

Working Out For A great Bod And A healthy Brain

2007-12-10T02:55:00.002-08:00

A healthy bodybuilding lifestyle that includes a balanced diet and a regular training regimen is not only good for your bod, it also has the power to preserve your memory. With diseases such as alzheimer’s abounding, taking care of our brains as we age becomes increasingly important. The earlier you start the better. There is strong evidence that people who are physically fit, avoid high stress levels and eat a diet rich in the omega 3 fatty acids found in fatty fish such as mackerel, salmon and tuna, protect their brains the best.

RUNNING’S OUT

2007-12-10T02:55:00.001-08:00

If you’re looking for the best cardio workout to burn fat away from those hardearned muscles, stay away from running. Running is not a good aerobic exercise for a bodybuilder because it tears down too much muscle tissue and is too hard on the joints. Many years of running can cause knee problems and take its toll on your back as well. Jolting the spine if you run on hard surfaces. Stick with other choices such as the elliptical, treadmill or bike if you want to be gentle on your joints and save your muscles.

Building Awesome Biceps

2007-12-10T02:54:00.001-08:00

Remember the keys to building awesome biceps :

Form : As strict as possible – full extensions and contraction.

Variety : Change the workout to stimulate the biceps and awake new growth.

Intensity : As Hard As you can in good form.

Pump and Power : Mix these two vital components in equal amounts.

Deliberate contractions : Feel the muscle work and squeeze it at the top.

Push past the pain barrier : Get those extra reps that are so very important for stimulating new growth

Triceps Is Key

2007-12-10T02:53:00.002-08:00

If You want massive and muscular arms, you cannot afford to overlook the triceps. The triceps muscle comprises approximately 66 percent of the upper arm. The biceps muscles only make upabout one-third of the size of the upper arm yet that is where mostpeople spend all their arm-training effort. When flexed and contracted, the triceps forms a large horseshoe shape on the back of the upper arm. The triceps muscles also make the biceps look better because they add awesome size to the underside of the arm and give shape to the arm from both the top and bottom.

Beef Up Your Testosterone Levels

2007-12-10T02:53:00.001-08:00

Natural ways to beef up your testosterone level include doing coumpound exercises like squats, back rows and benchpresses. These exercises increase your testosterone level to a great degree, as long as you train intensely. Keep in mind that if you train a muscle group that hasn’t fully recoverd from the previous session it will cause your testosterone level to radically dip. Excess bodyfat causes a rise in estrogen levels and a drop in testosterone, so make sure that you stay lean year-round.

OPTIMAL TRAINING TIMES

2007-12-10T02:52:00.000-08:00

You can boost the success of your aerobic workout by trainng at specific times. Early mornings is one of the best possible times to get in an aerobic workout, but it’s not the only time that offers extra fat-burning benefits. Right after a weight-training sessions your body is in fat-burning benefits. Right after a weight-training session your body is in fat-burning mode . Your metabolism is high from the weight training and you have used most of your glycogen stores during the strength-training session. Your body burns off more fat for fuel sooner. Post weightlifting is an excellent time to squeeze in an aerobic workout and take advantage of the fat-burning processes already at work.

Biking To Lose Fat

2007-12-10T02:50:00.002-08:00

Biking works well for body shaping and burning fat, wheter it’s on a stationary bike in the gym or on a regular bicycle outdoors. The stationary bike burns about 500 calories per hour. Adjust the resistance of the bike to give you just the right amount of stimulation to burn bodyfat without breaking down muscle tissue. Use biking to burn off bodyfat effectively and maintain muscle tone and shape. Bicycling uses fat for fuel in a manner that qualities it as a great exercise for a fitness physique.

Concerned About testosterone levels ?

2007-12-10T02:50:00.001-08:00

Testosterone levels decline approximately one percent every year after the age of 30. However , you shouldn’t become alarmed until you reach 50. Testosterone production declines as the testicles become less responsive through the natural process of aging. If you aren’t experiencing any problems with your libido, then chances are your testosterone levels are fine. Bodybuilding helps to maintain higher than average levels of testosterone because of the lean muscle mass created. If you’ve been traing a long time, you’ve unknowingly built up your natural testosterone levels.

A LINK TO Diabetes

2007-12-10T02:49:00.000-08:00

A by product of saturated fat may hold a key to taming type-2 diabetes. When saturated fat is stored in the body, it’s converted to ceramides, fatty lipids crucial for cell function. Biochemists at Colorado State University in Fort Collins have discovered that too much ceramide may cause a condition that leads to diabetes. Researchers are working on this link and it could lead to a breakthrough diabetes treatment. Keep your intake or saturated fats under control, but don’t cut fat out completely. Our bodies need a certain amount of fat to function properly. Source : prevention.

The All – powerfull protein

2007-12-10T02:47:00.004-08:00

Lean poultry and fish are considered to be fat burning foods primarily because they require so much energy to digest. Choose lean chicken breast, turkey, pork tenderloin, beef tenderloin, bison, elk, white fish, salmon, tofu and egg whites. Always trim extra fat from all meat. Salmon, tuna and varieties of lean white fish contain good fats – the essential fatty acids or EFAs, that affect levels of the fat hormone, leptin. Leptin influences how many calories your body burns and how many calories it stores as fat. People with low levels of leptin circulating in their bloodstream tend to burn more calories than those with higher levels of the hormone.

Choose your Drinks Wisely

2007-12-10T02:47:00.003-08:00

Cans of sweetened soda add 150 calories each, but they won’t curb your appetite. You’ll be hungry for your next meal and probably won’t eat less to compensate for the extra cola calories you downed. Drinks made with sugar substitutes aren’t great either. According to research, those beverages may also increase your appetite, for sweets in particular, leading you to overeat later. H2O, on the other hand, may actually do the opposite – a glass before meals can help keep you from overeating, So grab yourself a tall drink of water.

Saw Palmetto

2007-12-10T02:47:00.001-08:00

Saw palmetto has been used for years as an alternative to mainstream medicine. It has been touted as a cure for just about every physical ailment, but its biggest advantage is as an anti-DHT compound. DHT, or dihydrotestosterone, is one of the metabolities of testosterone. DHT has been linked to prostate enlargement. There’s also evidence to suggest that saw palmetto extracts are anti-estrogenic in nature. If that is true, bodybuilders who use steroids or testosterone precursors may want to take this supplement.

The most Affordable Protein

2007-12-10T02:46:00.001-08:00

… the egg. Each egg contains 7 grams of quality protein, 1 gram of carbs and about 5 grams of fat. Eggs have a high nutritional content with riboflavin, niacin, calcium, biotin, iron, antioxidants, magnesium, vitamins A, E, D, B6 and B12. Eggs are affordable and have the exceptional biological value of 94. To cut down on cholesterol intake, get rid of some of the yolks. If you can’t stand eating only egg whites, add one yolk for every six whites. You can also add herbs, spices and vegetables to make an appetizing omelet.

Note : Never ingest raw eggs. Doing so may have been fine for rocky, but salmonella poisoning is a serious concern.

Sex – The best testosterone Booster ?

2007-12-10T02:44:00.000-08:00

Natural supplements like tribulusterrestis DHEA or androstenedione increase testosterone levels. They work best for men over 40. The best natural testosterone booster, in our opinion, is sex. If you want to help circulate that testosterone, grab your woman and have your own training session. Who knew it would be good for your muscles too ?

Does wheat bread always beat white ?

2007-11-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

It rolls off the tongues of deli denizens everywhere: white or wheat? And the resounding response, from health-conscious folk, is wheat bread.

In nature, wheat grains are brown because the bran ( or outer layer ) is brown. When the bran layer is intact, it contains the endosperm and the germ, though only the bran and germ have true nutritional benefit. To get white flour ( and hence white bread ), wheat grains are stripped of their bran and germ, leaving only the nutrient-poor endosperm.

Wheat bread has more fiber than white bread, which is why health nuts love it. Fiber is important to both cardiovascular ( it lowers cholesterol ) and gastrointestinal ( it keeps things moving ) health, and it serves to slow down digestion of the carbohydrates in wheat bread – importing longer-lasting energy throughout the day, and throughout a workout. This is important to those who are concerned about maintaining steady insulin levels, at the slower the carbohydrates are digested, the more level the insulin response. White bread, on the other hand, is a fast-digesting carbohydrate, which causes insulin levels to spike – which, during nontraining times, causes energy levels to crash and leads to increased fat storage.

The winner is Draw

Reason There are times in a day whwn a massive insulin spike is required to amplify muscle gains, and that’s when wheat bread just won’t do. We’re sure you’ve realized that we’re talking about postworkout nutrition – the fact is that a dollop of jelly on white bread is among the best ways to get fast carbs after a session cradling the iron. Lest you need reminding, insulin is an anablolic hormone; the more you have after tearing muscle apart, the more muscle you’ll rebuild . A day’s diet that includes a few slices of white bread is also extremely effective at refilling glycogen stores ( and thereby rebooting your metabolism ) after a week or so of low-carb dieting.

So, after workouts, white is right. At all other times of the day, you can’t beat wheat. Just make sure the label says whole wheat, not multigrain or plain wheat, and that it contains whole-wheat flour ( not enriched white flour ). – Jordana Brown

FLOUR POWER

This table compares some of the nutrient values found in a slice of white bread and one of whole-wheat bread.

NUTRIENT WHITE BREAD WHEAT BREAD

Calories 69 69

Protein 2g 3g

Carbs 13g 13g

Total Fat 1g 1g

Fiber 1g 2g

Calcium 39 mg 20 mg

Iron 1 mg 1mg

Magnesium 6 mg 24 mg

Phosphorus 26 mg 64 mg

Potassium 26 mg 71 mg

Selenium 4.5 mcg 10 mcg

Sodium 177 mg 148 mg

Folate 29 mcg 14 mcg

PROTECT YOUR GAINS

2007-11-14T18:38:00.000-08:00

Antioxidants are a group of compounds that “fight” free radicals, which are harmful to the immune system and other physiological functions, Some of the best-known antioxidants include beta carotene ( closely related to vitamin A ), vitamin C and Vitamin E.

Research studies have shown that antioxidants can reduce exercise-induced oxidative stress and enhance recovery in several ways. They bind with and deactivate free radicals produced during exercise before they can cause damage to muscle cells. They strengthen and protect muscle cells membranes against free radical damage. They also repair disruptions in muscle cell membranes caused by free radicals.

The latest research suggests that live servings of fruits and vegeatables a day are sufficient to gain these benefits. However, there is no research available to indicate sufficient intake for a 250-pound bodybuilder who works out two hours a day six days a week and has 8% bodyfat. To cover your bases, double the natural –source recommendations and take a supplemental form of at least vitamin E ( 400 – 800 international ) and vitamin C ( 500 – 1000 milligrams ). – Tim Scheett, Phd

PUT YOUR SHREDDING INTO OVERDRIVE

2007-11-11T19:27:00.000-08:00

Add these 10 strategies to your fat-loss plan and get cut, sliced, diced and ripped faster than you ever thought possible. By: jerry Kindela

That lean look, the one where ham-glute tie-ins are readily visible, where the slightest exhalation or contraction reveals abdominal plates with clear edges, where the long and medial heads of your triceps easily display their crosshatching – these and all the other visual treats of being shredded can be yours. Getting ripped may not be as easy you’d like it to be, but virtually every healthy reader of MMI can achieve it. Whatever fat-loss, get-ripped-to-thebone plan you may be on, add the following 10 strategies to your program to push your metabolism through the roof. These are time-tested suggestions, and you’ve got nothing lose by trying them … ‘ cept a boatload of fat – and faster than you thought possible. ( As an aside, just to prove in advance that you’ll be rewarded for trying out these strategies, read Strategy 10 first )

STRAtegy 1 : Eat Enough Protein Daily

According to RDA guidelines, an armchair general doesn’t need more protein than 0.8 g per 2.2 pounds of lean body mass. But the second you start hoisting iron plates, your body will require increased protein intake if you want to turn it into a flab-burning, musclebuilding machine.

Some nutrition gurus will tell you that eating anything at all will boost your metabolic rate – its called digestion. Yet of three macronutrients, protein boosts that rate the most ( up to 200 calories per day ) , since it requires a great deal of energy to digest and absorb. Amino acids are much harder to break down than fats or carbohydrates. This doesn’t mean, however, that you need megadoses of protein. According to research, ingesting more than 1.5 grams per kilogram of bodyweight will not in fact result in improved metabolic response.

One efficient way to figure out your ( rough ) daily protein need is to estimate the weight at which you believe you’ll look good ( get your head out of the clouds and be realistic here ) and then multiply that number by .8 grams. For a 175 pounder, the protein requirement would be 140 grams. You weigh 200 pounds? You would need 160 grams. That’s 23 grams and 26 grams, respectively, per meal ( on a six-meal-per-day schedule), which is roughly equivalent o a four-ounce serving of skinless chicken breast..

After monitoring the effect for approximately four weeks, adjust intake as necessary. If you seem to have reached a plateau in fat loss or muscle gain increase protein intake slightly. If you’ve gained alittle fat, decrease protein intake slightly and monitor for another few weeks

STRATEGY 2 : Eat Five or Six Meals a Day

Lee labrada was known for carrying his food wherever he went – to the gym, to the mall, to business meetings – no matter where he was, when his schedule called for a feeding, Lee ate! His success gaining muscle and getting ripped is testament, in part, to his nutritional discipline. The sport of bodybuilding is nife with tales of athletes who would allow nothing to prevent them from eating on a fixed schedule, roughly every two-and-a-half to three hours.

Thre are anumber of metabolic benefits to holdings a strict routine in regards to your meal intake. Elevated insulin levels inhibit fat burning, but eating on a multi-meal schedule stabilizes blood sugar and thus insulin levels. Eating regularly also helps your liver and muscle tissue store glycogen more efficiently, which prevents the body from utilizing hard-earned muscle tissue for energy. Additionally, improved glycogen efficiency allows you to recover better from training.

While eating six times per day allows your furnace to keep burning fat, the periodicity of meals keeps your body’s nutrient stores at optimal levels. So when you start pushing hard under the iron, you’ll be able to keep performance levels high even though you’re on a fat-loss plan. Your body will have adequate nutrients in reserve for you to train effectively.

Because your body processes macronutrients more efficiently on a six-meal-a-day plan, fat moves through the system more rapidly . hence, less fat is stored or absorbed, while much of the remainder is sent to the porcelain god.

Note: when you start on a six-a-day plan, you will have to eat despite the lack of hunger signals. Los angeles nutrition wizard phil Goglia, who has helped a number of pro bodybuilders get shredded, refers to the early portion of such a program as the induction phase. Once your body has become accustomed to being fed this regularly and this efficiently, it will signal hunger almost to the minute every few hours.

STRATEGY 3 : Don’t Miss Workouts

Studies show that hard weight training can elevate calorie burning for several hours after you’ve left the gym . however, for this effect you need to keep rest time beetwen sets brief, that is, one minute or less. If you’re doing singles or below –six-rep sets that require several minutes’ rest time, you will not experience the same elevated metabolic rate post-workout.

STRATEGY 4 : Eat a Variety of Carbs

Just Because you know which low energy-dense carbs ( squash, cucumber, celery, lettuce, etc.) to eat on your shredding plan, don’t become maniacal with types and amounts. You already know that the body’s response to lack of variety can be stagnation and plateaus. You also know that only changing up your workout, routine, intensity, or rest time will results in renewed gains. Well, it’s no different with being overly rigid about macronutrient intake , particularly when it comes to carbohydrates.

If you want to continue shedding adipose tissue, you can’t allow the body to get contented with the status quo. Just as you manipulate growth with training adjustment, you should do the same with carb manipulation. Keep the metabolic furnace revved by consuming sweet potatoes, brown rice or yams instead of white rice or baked potatoes, brown rice or yams instead of white rice or baked potatoes. Double up on salads and water-packed vegetables, which require a lot more digestive energy than they themselves contain. Avoid limiting yourself to the same-old same-old carbs.

STRATEGY 5 : Carb Deplete Occasionally

Most fat-loss programs reach homeostasis – that is, the body finds a rhythm and sticks to it. But often, this rhythm means yet another weight-loss plateau . To avoid such stagnation, do a low-carb day or two every two or three weeks, lowering carb intake to roughly 125 grams per day ( the equivalent of approximately three-and-a-half medium potatoes ). Since carbs are essential for heart and brain function, it may bot be safe to eat fewer than the recommended 125 grams per day.

When carb intake Is reduced so dramatically, The body will start hunting for alternative energy sources, and in the process the shock to the system will pull the body out of its homeostatic state. As soon as you return to your normal carbohydrate intake levels, the glycogen-depleted tissue will quickly absorb the newly arrived glycogen, sucking it into the cells for energy. Your metabolic rate will jump a notch or two and you’ll be back in a hyped fatloss mode.

Do not try this if you are diabetic or suffer from periods of hypoglycemia. Low-carb days can lead to irritability, anxiety and other sucjh problems, so pick your low-carb days wisely.

The last few meals of the day should be high in low-energy-density carbs. Among all types of high-water-content carbs, you can pack in all of the green salads, squash, zucchini, celery, cucumber and asparagus ( you’re on a fat-loss plan so don’t whine about the smell ) you want for your last two meals of the day. They fill you up, provide enough fiber to improve transit time of food through, and out of the system more rapidly ( minimizing it’s absorption ) and hype the body’s overall metabolic response.

If you want to eat heavier, less waterpacked, carbs, do so during the first three or four meals of the day. This way, you’ll load the system with plenty of glycogen early on in the day and your training efforts won’t suffer

STRATEGY 7 : Vary the Amount of Carbs

As noted earlier, the body loves homeostasis, because that’s the place where it needs to do just enough work to get along. Feed it same amount of carbs daily, and you risk slowing down fat loss. In order to keep the system surprised, occasionally shock the body by lowering carb intake one day by a couple of hundred calories, increasing it by 300 calories the next day, dropping it again by 400 to 500 calories the third day, and them return to your normal carbohydrate level on day four. The body will respond by adapting – that is, it will continue to lose fat.

STRATEGY 8 : Hydrate often

Without adequate fluids, the body simply cannot convert carbs to energy efficiently. Since 70 percent of muscle tissue is water, it relies on consistent hydration to keepfunctioning, and when you’re depleted of fluid, the muscle cells simply cannot load up with energy nutrients or amino acids. Not only+ will your training suffer during your fatloss plan, but the process of the breakdown, especially from under the skin, relies on hydrolysis. That is, if you want to lose fat, you have to keep the body well hydrated.

So, avoid becoming dehydrated – if you’re thirsty, you’ve just reached the initial stage of dehydration and have slowed down your fatloss. At the very least, drink fluids immediately. Better still, drink water throughout the day to stay well hydrated.

Depending on the intensity, you can lose up to three liters of water during a session, so hydrate well during the day and especially before hitting the gym. Then continue sipping water throughout the workout.

While it seems like a lot, consider drinking between four and six liters of water per day, closer to the maximum on the training days, you’ll keep your system humming along, you’ll keep shedding fat, and you’ll survive and even thrive in your training sessions.

STRATEGY 9 : Eat Breakfast

Never, Ever skip breakfast, arguably the most important meal of the day, especially when you want to hype your metabolism and keep losing fat. Research shows that those who eat breakfast lose more fat than those who skip meal. According to Barbara Rolls, nutrition professor at Penn State University and author of The Volumentrics Weight Control Plan, says, “ Your metabolism slows down during sleep, and it doesn’t rev back up until you eat again, “ if you wait until midmorning or lunchtime for your first meal of the day, your metabolism won’t kick into high gear until then. You need to stoke the furnace immediately upon rising, or if you work out first thing in the day, eat within 90 minutes after the training session.

STRATEGY 10 : Have a Cheat Day

After you’ve been on a flab-shedding plan for about five weeks, you can take one more metabolism-boosting step and improve your mental well being in the process. By this point of your fat-shedding plan, your system should be humming along at a pretty steady pace, but you may hate the thought of yet another day of limited food choices. Enter the cheat day, wherein you can eat to your gut’s content, without compromising your fat loss efforts. While it seems counterintuitive and counterproductive in this manner, the cheat day allows you to eat with relative impurity scrambled eggs, bacon, pizza, ice cream, hamburgers, the works.

Of course, even with a cheat day there are basic guidelines. As the day moves forward, your food choices should become cleaner and cleaner. That is, if you start the day with bacon, eggs and pancakes, for example, your mid-day meal may be pizza or burgers and fries, but dinner should be something like sushi or a lean steak with baked potato ( no sour cream ) and veggies.

What this approach does is tell your body that the famine is over and that it should stop hoarding fat, especially around the viscera. With these signals, the body launches into a heightened metabolic state. What you must do on the day after cheat day is jump right back on the fat-loss bangwagon, train hard, and you’ll find that you’ll continue to move closer and closer to your shredded desires.

THE CHEAT SHEET

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How to correctly cheat during your workouts – and prosper in the form of more muscle mass. By greg merritt FLEx

The problem is the name. the meaning may be clearer if we instead said “ loosening” or “slack reps” or the “ Weider Momentum training Principle .” Alas, tradition dictates we stick with “cheating,” despite the term’s negative connotations. It sounds like a shortcut for circumventing workout rules, and a dangerous disregard for proper exercise form, but it should be neither. Done correctly, cheating should follow its own rules, safely, and it should enhance correct form, not dismiss it. The following cheat sheet describes theABCs of deviating from strict exercise technique.

WHY CHEAT Cheating should be done only to push a set beyond strict full-rep failure. For example, if you get eight good reps doing standing side laterals but can’t do a ninth, you can use a little back sway to eke out two or three more. In this way cheating makes a set harder than if you merely stopped after eight.

Unfortunately, too many bodybuilders cheat to make a set easier. To them cheating merely means sloppy form, which focuses more on momentum and/or uses other muscles to a greater extent than the targeted bodypart. For example, if you go too heavy performing barbell curls and swing the bar up for every rep, you’re working your back, legs and front deltoids more than your biceps and increasing the odds of injuring your arm muscles, tendons and joints.

WHEN TO CHEAT Cheating is an advanced technique for boosting intensity. Don’t consider adopting it until you’ve been working out for at least one year using only strict exercise form. You need to first master proper technique before you can deviate from it. Experienced atheletes who incorporate cheating into their routines should do so sparingly and only after reaching strict, full-rep failure. Don’t attempt to cheat when your energy and focus are low, for that’s when your form can become too sloppy, leaving you at risk for injury.

It’s also important to be aware that cheating isn’t for every exercise. Squats and bench presses, to name two of the most popular lifts, should always be done in strict form; use techniques like forced reps, rest-pause reps and drops sets to push sets of these powerlifts beyond full-rep failure. Abdominlas should always be worked strictly. You can alter ab exercises after reaching failure, for example, going from a leg raise to knee raise, but it’s not truly cheating because you’re not getting assistance from other bodyparts.

In contrast, judicious loosening of form is easiest and safest for biceps and shoulders. The “ Cheating Grades” Chart ( see sidebar ) rates bodyparts with scores from A (best) to F ( worst ) in regard to how effectively and safely you can cheat during the most commonly performed exercises.

HOW TO CHEAT the key to cheating correctly is to use assistance from secondary muscles to get the weight moving, but then to make sure you’re focusing on the targeted muscle(s) at peak contraction.

For example, lets say you reach strict, full-rep failure at seven reps performing barbell curls. By bending and straightening your knees a little and swaying your back slightly, you can help the bar come up for an eighth rep. Other muscles aid you through the first half of the rep, where the biceps are weakest, but make your biceps do the work on the second half, flexing hard and holding the top position for a count of two. For your ninth rep, you’ll probably need a little more leg and back motion , and still more for number 10, but nake your increasingly taxed biceps work as hard as they can. Think of it as a forced rep, where the minor assistance through the sticking point comes from other muscle groups instead of a training partner. If you’re merely swinging the barbell up and down to the extent that your bi’s become secondary workers, don’t bother. Cheating utilizes secondary muscles to a greater extent than usual, but those muscles shouldn’t become the primary workers.

WHO CHEATS Not every pro bodybuilders is a cheater. Ronnie coleman and jay cautler loosen their form to get an extra couple of reps during some exercise, but Dorian Yates, to name a third Mr. Olympia, reliad on techniques other than cheating to push his sets beyond failure.

Wheter they use the principle or not, no champion bodybuilder cheats frequently. It’s an advanced means of enhancing some sets of certain exercises, but overuse ir and you’ll rob yourself of maximum growth and increase your odds of injury. On the other hand, if you follow the rules laid out here yo make your sets harder, never easier, you, too, can prosper from cheating.

Physiology

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Muscle Fiber Types

There are two types of muscle fibers, fast twitch (FT) and slow twitch (ST). Fast twitch fibers are used for explosive type movements and are easily fatigued. Slow twitch muscle fibers contain more mitochondria than Fast twitch. Mitochondria are cell structures that contain specific enzymes, which are required by the cell in order to use oxygen for energy production.
Fast twitch muscles fibers have less mitochondria and therefore less capacity for oxygen utilization in the production of energy within the muscle. This makes them better suited to anaerobic activities such as weight training, sprinting, jumping and other explosive type activities. FT fibers create energy anaerobically, that is, without oxygen. This system uses glucose as a prime energy source. The byproduct of this anaerobic energy production is heat and lactic acid. Lactic acid accumulation in the muscle causes fatigue and soreness. The anaerobic energy system is a limited system for energy production.

Slow twitch fibers are used for endurance type activities and are particularly suited to aerobic type activities. These type fibers contain an increased number of mitochondria and therefore are capable of utilizing oxygen for the production of energy within the muscle. This system uses glucose or fat in combination with oxygen to produce energy. The by-product of this system is carbon dioxide, water and heat.Each person has a specific ratio of FT to ST fibers. A person with a high ratio of FT fibers may find it easier to train for specific activities that involve explosive movements. Conversely, a person with a higher ratio of ST fibers might find it easier to train and excel at endurance type activities.

There is a third type of muscle fiber that exists only in humans. It is considered a FT fiber of type IIA. These fibers are less powerful than the type IIAB discussed above. What makes these type IIA FT fibers unique is that they can adapt somewhat to aerobic activities. These fibers provide the capability to alter our original genetic FT/ST ratio.

Energy Production
There are basically two types of energy systems that the body utilizes, Aerobic and Anaerobic.
Each energy system produces Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), which is used by the muscles to contract. The Aerobic System can utilize carbohydrates, proteins or fat to supply an unlimited amount of ATP as long as oxygen is present. The Aerobic system provides medium to very long duration energy production with low to moderate power (less than 85% of maximum output). The by-product of this system is heat, water and carbon dioxide.The Anaerobic System can only utilize carbohydrates for ATP production. This system does not use oxygen in the metabolization of its fuel source. The Anaerobic System provides short duration (45 - 70 seconds) and high power. The by-product of the metabolization of glucose (glycolysis) in this system is heat and lactic acid, the cause of muscle soreness immediately after exercise. Muscle soreness 24 to 48 hours after exercise is due to torn muscle fibers and connective tissue. This type of soreness can be reduced by adequate warm-up and cool-down stretching exercises.

Aerobic capacity is the ability of the body to collect and transfer oxygen from the air through the lungs and blood to the working muscles. This is related to cardio-respiratory endurance and is referred to as Maximal Oxygen Consumption or VO2 max. Aerobic Capacity reduces at about 10% per decade after 30 years of age.

Glycemic Index

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The Glycemic Index (GI) was first developed in 1981 by a team headed by Dr. David Jenkins at the University of Toronto. It is a measure of the blood sugar level (not a measure of the blood insulin levels) based on consumption after fasting. As a standard, glucose has a level of 100. If a person consumes food with an index of 60, blood sugar levels would increase over a two-hour period by 60% as compared to eating the same amount of pure glucose.
The Glycemic Index is controversial since it is only valid when sugar alone is consumed. Protein and Fat slow the absorption Carbohydrates. However, many diet claims reference the Glycemic Index to substantiate their individual claims. The index was developed as a way to determine dietary guidelines for diabetics. The American Diabetes Association has not endorsed the Glycemic Index. According to this theory, a food with a low glycemic index (55 and below) provides a minimal increase in blood glucose, lipoprotein lipase (an enzyme that promotes fat storage), and insulin. A food is with a high glycemic Index (70 and above), reduces sports performance due to large increases in insulin production and can result in low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).
However, many fruits that are classified as having a high Glycemic Index can stimulate lipoprotein lipase production even though they are low in sugar. According to the Glycemic Index, ice cream is considered a low GI and whole wheat bread is a high GI food. Therefore, whole wheat bread would create a higher spike in blood glucose levels and a greater increase in insulin production than ice cream. So it is apparent that Glycemic Index should not be used as a single indicator.
The following foods are listed according to their Glycemic Index rating. Most of the high glycemic type carbohydrates are from refined breads and breakfast cereals, white rice, rice cakes, and French fries. Limit your consumption of high glycemic foods, which create a rise in insulin levels and reduce glucagon thereby inhibiting your body from burning body fat. Glucagon is a hormone that is made naturally in the pancreas. It releases glucose from the liver causing blood glucose levels to rise. Eat a minimum amount of high glycemic foods and combine them with proteins and fats. Remember, even low glycemic foods in large quantities can cause weight gain.

Gylcemic Food Table
LOW GLYCEMIC FOODS 20-49 PERCENT
• All bran cereals
• Apples
• Apple juice
• Barley
• Berries
• Black-eyed peas
• Bulgur
• Butter beans
• Cherries
• Grapefruit
• Grapes
• Ice Cream
• Milk
• Muesli cereal
• Navy Beans
• Oranges
• Peaches
• Peanuts
• Pears
• Peas
• Plums
• Strawberries
• Soybeans
• Wild rice
• Yogurt (no added sugar)

MODERATE GLYCEMIC FOODS 50-69 PERCENT (LIMIT CONSUMPTION)
• Basmati Rice
• Beets
• Buckwheat
• Carrots
• Cereal (low sugar)
• Corn on the cob
• Lima Beans
• Oatmeal
• Pasta
• Peas
• Potatoes (red, white)
• Potato Chips
• Pumpernickel bread
• Raisins
• Spaghetti
• Sourdough bread
• Sucrose (Table Sugar)
• Sweet Potato
• Whole wheat bread (100% stone ground)

HIGH GLYCEMIC FOODS 70-100 PERCENT
• Apricots
• Bagels
• Bananas (ripe)
• Breakfast cereals (refined with added sugar)
• Corn chips
• Corn Flakes
• Corn syrup solids
• Crackers
• Doughnuts
• Glucose and Glucose polymers (maltodextrin)
• Hamburger and hotdog buns
• Honey
• Jelly beans
• Maltose
• Mango
• Muffins
• Pancakes
• Papaya
• Parsnips
• Puffed rice or wheat
• Potato (baked)
• Rice cakes
• Shredded wheat
• Soft drinks & sport drinks (added sugars)
• Toaster waffles
• Watermelon
• White bread
• White rice
• Whole wheat bread