Personal Trainer Mike T Nelson

3 Plateau Busting Tips For More Muscle And Strength With Less Pain | Personal Trainer MN

burnfatmoremuscle — Tue, 28 May 2013 05:34:41 +0000

by Mike T Nelson

Have you ever had the problem where you are making great strides and then all of sudden they grind to a halt like someone just pulled the parking brake on your expedition to more muscle and strength?

It is incredibly frustrating and it happens to many people, despite their best efforts. It has happened to me quite a few times in the past too.

Awhile back, my buddy Frankie called me up with a radical new concept. He stated that it is EXPECTED that we make PERPETUAL PROGRESS.

Yes, you read that right. Continual progress towards your physique and performance goals.

Sounds nutty doesn’t it?

I called BS on this right away. How is that possible? Instead of not taking any action, I thought I would test it out and prove him wrong (even though historically he was rarely wrong).

Are you stuck at a never ending plateau?

Have your lifts not gone up since Obama became president?

Since Bush?

Since Hillary did not look like a wax caricature?

Palin said something intelligent? (ok that is a really long time)

Are you trying harder and harder only for little to no results and a visit from the pain monster?

Elbows creaky like the tin man?

I’ve been there too and it sucks large moose balls. Not any fun.

You try harder and harder, only to see very slow progress.

I found out that it is entirely possible to make measureable progress every time you set foot in the gym.

I am here to help you out with 3 key things that will make a massive difference.

Unfortunately these took me years to learn (read: steal from others, thanks Frankie) and I don’t want you to go through the same process (read: I am a nice guy).

3 Steps to Perpetual Progress for More Muscle, Strength and Less Fat

1) Test Your Movements

Everything you do is either making you better or worse

You get to decide which one.

Do more movements that make you better.

Pretty simple, eh?

You can determine if a movement is good for you by measuring your range of motion (ROM) before and after an exercise.

More ROM = good exercise (green light)

Less ROM = not so good exercise (red light)

You can use a toe touch, arm raise, any ROM can work.

Just stop at the first sign of any tension and measure the distance. Do an exercise and re-measure. It will either be a green or red light.

2) Stop Trying So Hard!

If it was only as easy as trying harder, you would not be stuck at a plateau and everyone in Planet Fitness across the world would be making scary progress.

I too was convinced that trying hard(er) was the key.

Heck, I paid several top coaches who confirmed this “fact”!

My result?

Very little difference in muscle, strength and more pain. A lot more pain actually.

At one point, washing my face in the sink was an exercise in mobility to get my feet far apart enough and to slowly lower my face to the sink without causing any low back pain.

I was up to over an hour of foam rolling, static stretching, dynamic mobility work and joint mobility just to start at a very low weight and go up to my working weight over 3-8 sets.

Yes, all of this BEFORE I really “started” to exercise.

My typical gym session was 2.5 hours.Eeeeek.

Finally I said enough was enough and opted to try a different path. I could no longer look at my results (or lack thereof) and justify it as “progress.”

At the time I was working with Z-Health and decided to try that approach full stop since I did not have anything to lose.

I remember sitting a dinner with Dr. Cobb of Z-Health and I asked him point blank “If you were me, and you know my issues, what would you do?”

His response was “fire your coach and try this!”

So, being the wise man that I was, I decided to do just that. The main thing I did differently in the gym was to stop all sets as soon as breathing or tension is increased.

At first this seemed really foreign. I FELT like I was not doing anything. It felt too easy.

But, I was determined to keep going forward and despite not pulling any heavy deadlifts, I added 25 pounds to my max deadlift in 5 months.

Previous to this, I was stuck at the same weight for well over a year, despite keeping it as my main goal!

Stop trying so hard and you will thank me later. Try has nothing to do with it. Test it.

3) Progressive Overload

Unfortunately, while I made great progress during that phase, I forgot to keep in overload! The only type of overload I was using consistently was intensity based—the heaviest weight I could lift for a single rep.

While this is good, we all know that you can’t add weight to the bar every session or every week forever. If we could, all of us would have bigger muscles within a very short period of time.

If we could also add strength just as fast there would be people pulling double to triple bodyweight deadlifts at every gym.

Heck, most gyms you can’t even find someone lifting anything off the ground, period. Oh, and Planet Fitness will kick you out for that too since, yikes, we don’t want people progress too fast and scare other members.

Pleeeezeee…..

The key is PROGRESSIVE overload.

Progressive overload has 3 main components. Work to add :

1) More volume (weight x sets x reps)

2) Better density (volume / time)

3) More intensity (weight lifted)

This may not happen all in the same session, but EACH one of those is a form of overload.

Your body will respond to it.

As my buddy Frankie says “Adaptation has no off switch.”

The typical progression that I see for exercises and overload is

Volume, volume, volume, density, intensity.

You will probably be different, but that is a rough starting point.

Summary

Follow these 3 key factors and I can guarantee you will be adding more muscle and strengthin record time, all with less pain.

No more Tin man for you!

While this is not an exhaustive list, it is a great starting point; so time for action.

Rock on

Mike T. Nelson

For more simple Fat Loss tips, tactics, articles and free exercise videos to re-charge your body, re-activate sore muscles and joint, and condition your mind for extreme health, visit us at www.MikeTNelson.com.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

Other related posts that you will find interesting:

Ask The Expert Mike T Nelson: 3 Tips To Build More Muscle and Lose Fat

burnfatmoremuscle — Thu, 23 May 2013 01:20:16 +0000

I was recently asked to be part of a roundtable of fitness experts featuring Alan Aragon, Dr Layne Norton, Dr. Jose Antonio, Ben Esgro, Jermey Loenneke, Dr. Gabe Wilson, Dr. Jacob Wilson, and others.

The question posed was the following:

“What advice would you give to a fitness enthusiast that wants to

A. Build muscle

B. Lose fat

Below is my response….

For the average lifter, those goals are not that far apart. If you are on the extreme ends and want to really gain a lot more mass or drop a ton of fat to step on stage, you will need a much more specialized plan; but increasing your Metabolic Flexibility is the big key.

Metabolic What?

Metabolic flexibility is the ability to use the right fuel at the right time. You want to use fat during low intensity work, but yet switch to using carbs for high intensity work such as weight training and sprints.

Here are 3 things you can do to increase your metabolic flexibility and gain lean muscles while losing some body fat.

1) More Protein

I am sure you are bored out of your skull now about me yammering on about protein needs. The short action item: Get more!

How much more?

In studies where they were hypocaloric (calories were below maintenance levels, so a fat loss diet), clock in around a MINIMUM of 0.75 grams per lb of body weight.

A 200 lb person would want to get 150 grams of protein per day on the low end.

Some may go as high as 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight per day; so our 200 lb friend would be at 300 grams per day. Most of the time this is not needed though. You want to do the minimal Effective Amount (mEA).

Work by Devkota S et al. 2011 showed that replacing carbs with protein was beneficial in shifting molecular activity in muscle vs. fat; which should improve body composition (more muscle, less fat).

2) Variety

Most people (myself included) tend to eat the same things day in and day out.

When I get stressed and my schedule goes nuts (which happens a lot lately), I will fall back to the same routine, without much variety.

Variety is the spice of life and allows you to feed your body a huge array of powerful micronutrients which are critical for health and performance. It also helps prevent OVER exposure to any one particular item or toxin too! A double whammy.

Why Is Variety Important?

More micro-nutrients.
Less exposure to bad stuff.
Fills you up (automatically eat fewer calories).

3) Add In a Fast (ala Intermittent Fasting)

Lots of BS to be sorted here regarding fasting. The definition I am using of fasting is zero calorie containing items during a set period of time. Non caloric items only!

None of this lemon juice, hot pepper and maple syrup crap style fasting. The same guy who promotes that horrible idea also says that since we inhale nitrogen in the air, we can pull nitrogen in by breathing and we don’t need nitrogen containing macronutrients like protein. I almost spit my tea out when I read it! Stanely Burroughs (the author of this Master Cleanse) can shove his ebook where the sun doesn’t shine.

Now you got my so fired up I lost my place! Oh ya, fasting and metabolic flexibility.

Bare with me here as the physiology gets a bit messy. Mention the words “intermittent fasting” and people then assume they need to do all of their cardio fasted to burn more fat.

It is true that fasted cardio will result in a burning more fat DURING the exercise session and this has been confirmed by measuring by the Respiratory Exchange Ratio (RER) during a fasted vs. a fed state (after eating).

It is also true that during a fasting condition, insulin levels are low, pushing the body towards more direct fat utilization (burning).

Sounds great so far, but hold the Master Cleanse ebook my fasted cardio bunny friend.

If we look past the ACUTE effects over 24 hours, it appears the fed state (after eating) increases the EPOC (aka after burn) effect; resulting in burning of more fat calories TOTAL. This was shown in a great study by Paoli A et al. out of Italy recently.

Summary: How To Build Muscle and Lose Fat

Work on these 3 items to increase your Metabolic Flexibility to burn more fat and add some lean muscle.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

Other related posts that you will find interesting:

Is a Low Carb Diet Best for Lean Muscle Gains? | More Muscle

burnfatmoremuscle — Thu, 23 May 2013 01:18:54 +0000

By Mike T Nelson

This is a question I get time and time again, and for good reason.

Everyone (I can put my hand down now too), is looking for a way to add more lean muscle without getting fat in the process!

A common answer to this process is a low carbohydrate diet, but is that the best way to go?

My Story

Many years ago, in a galaxy far away (ok, it was Duluth MN when I first started college around 1994, but it seems like a long time ago), I was quite skinny.

Not me, but pretty close circa 1994

Yep, all 6’3” of me weighing in at a whole 156 lbs after pizza night in the local campus cafeteria.

Unfortunately I was not one of those super lean thin kids at the time either, as I still had quite a bit of fat around my mid section. No abs to be seen at all, other than one large one that looked more like a spare tire.

Once I decide that enough was enough, I hit the weight room and began a quest to add some lean muscle. I would love to tell you that just a year later I had it all figured out and I was leaner and well over 200 lbs, but that would be a complete lie. Eventually I did much better and went on to add about 60 lbs of lean mass, but there were several mistakes along the way.

My Biggest Mistake

For the first several years I did get stronger, but in my quest for more lean muscle, I was scared to death of adding in more carbohydrates. I probably read a bit too many crazy magazines (the internet was not quite a common then, remember, this is many years ago) that said carbs would make me fat!

Funny how everything goes in cycles, as low carb diets would become more popular in the mass media several years later.

Fast forward to today where I get this question from many people who were in the same position I was years ago as they look to add some lean muscle, but don’t want to add tons of fat in the process.

Ketogenic Diets For Lean Muscle?

Excluding drugs, I just don’t see many people that can put on muscular size using a ketogenic diet. A ketogenic diet is one that is very very low in carbs (around 25 to 50 grams for the entire day). Even on a lower carb diet of around 100 to 150 grams of carbs per day does not appear to be the best idea for gaining muscle.

Adding muscle is an expensive process, but if we look at what drives that process it is picking up heavy stuff and setting it down again (training in the gym).

While you may not want to look like a bodybuilder, they do know a thing or two about adding muscle without a ton of fat. One thing that I have noticed is that all the natural bodybuilders that I know are also mongo strong. When you cut back on carbs severely, your body just can’t come up with the preferred fuel (glucose) fast enough to keep up with the intense demands in the gym.

Dr. Layne Norton knows how to get lean

Geek Alert: Gluco-what?

I know you are very smart since you are here reading this article, I can hear you yelling out

“Why can’t you use gluconeogenesis?”

Maybe that was not your exact question, but can’t your body make glucose from other things that are not cabs?

Yes it can (the fancy name as you know is gluconeogenesis), but it is not a very fast process. It is actually quite slow. When you are lifting in the gym, your body needs glucose at a fast rate to provide energy to your muscles. Fat is just too slow to provide most of the fuel for lifting in the gym. However, once you are done lifting, fat is the main fuel again to help build and repair the muscles.

Summary So Far

Carbs are needed for intense muscle contractions.

Fat is too slow to provide much energy while you are lifting.

Once you are done lifting, fat can be the main fuel source again.

The Lean Muscle Solution

In short, you want to become as metabolically flexible as possible to use both fats and carbs for the right task.

Training in the gym = use carbs
Outside of the gym = use fat

This allows you the best of both worlds – awesome training sessions in the gym to build muscle, and increased fat burning when you are done training.

How Many Carbs Are Best For Building Muscle?

In my experience , most people will need at least 100 to 150 grams of carbs (some times more) to fuel their training sessions.

If you find your performance in the gym is lacking, increase the amount of carbs you eat on training days.

Uber Geek Alert on Metabolism

If you want to take this one step further read on. If not, you know what to do already so it it action time and skip this part.

The highest outputs of the body are via anaerobic metabolism which can only run off 1) ATP-PC or 2) glycolysis. While you can train to get better at using fat (I do that with all my clients/athletes) and it does help a ton, you will never seen the highest outputs from that person fueled by only fat. Bioenergentically it just can’t happen.

The downside of anaerobic work is the production of other byproducts such as H ions (note-lactate is actually a very good fuel) that prevent the sustained output. The cool part is that you don’t have to pick just one; train both to their fullest extent and then train the ability to switch from one to the next constantly. This fast switching between fat and carb metabolism (metabolic flexibility) is the basis of my PhD research.

Lean Muscle Summary

If your training sessions are lacking, trying increasing your carbs in 50 gram increments until performance returns.
Only glucose (carbohydrates) can be used by your body for high out exercise like weight training.
Once you are done lifting, the goal is to shift back to using fat as soon as possible.
Train your body to use carbs in the gym and fat the rest of the day.
There you have a basic outline for a simple way to ensure more lean muscle with less fat.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

Other related posts that you will find interesting:

References

Makanae Y, Kawada S, Sasaki K, Nakazato K, Ishii N. “Vitamin C administration attenuates overload-induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy in rats.” Acta Physiol (Oxf). 2012 Nov 26. doi: 10.1111/apha.12042. [Epub ahead of print]

Does Vitamin C Limit Muscle Size? | More Muscle

burnfatmoremuscle — Thu, 09 May 2013 08:24:01 +0000

by Mike T Nelson

Are you looking to add more muscle? Of course you are!

Could something that you are likely taking on daily basis be slowing your progress?

A recent study (Makanae Y et al. 2012) showed that vitamin C may results in less muscle growth!

Oh crap! h. I can already hear vitamin C bottles hitting the trash.

A new study looked at this quesiton. They investigated the effects of vitamin C and muscle size indirectly via muscle damage. While muscle damage is not an absolute requirement to increase muscle size and strength, it does help.

Should you toss all your vitamin C supplements along with your new citrus-free diet?

Not so fast my amigo.

There are 3 massive things to keep in mind when reading this new study.

1) Rats

This is a rat study, and last I checked your whiskers are not that long. Rat studies, while useful, do not always directly transfer to humans.

2) Dose

The dose used was 500 mg / kg; so if we convert directly to humans (a big “if” since you are not a rat, I hope), and you weigh 100 kgs (220 lbs), that is 50 grams of vitamin C.

For simple math, let’s assume that the vitamin C pills you are taking are 500 mg, so that would be 100 pills at once.

Yep, one heck of a large dose and is not recommended. That is enough to keep you doing the Wilford Brimley two-step in the bathroom for quite some time as it will rage a complete war on your guts.

3) Massive Overload Stimulus 24/7

The model of muscle hypertrophy used was “synergist muscle ablation.” I know that sounds all fancy, but basically scientists surgically removed the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of the right hindlimb to overload the remaining plantaris muscle.

Basic Anatomy To Get Bigger Muscles

Your lower leg has 3 main muscles that work to help you stand up on the balls of your feet; the 1) soleus, 2) plantaris, and 3) calf (aka the gastrocnemius).

The soleus and plantaris muscle are deep and sit under the calf muscle (which you can easily feel if you grab your lower leg). All three of these muscles work together to help you point your toes (plantarflexion for the anatomy geeks out there).

Now imagine if I cut your calf and soleus muscles and only left the plantaris muscle to do all of the work. You would now have a major overload stimulus to the muscle every time you took a step.

Picture this, you start a new job as a waiter at a fancy gourmet restaurant. The kind where you can pick from 4 kinds of bottled water and everything is a la carte. Business is good and you only have 3 tables a night at any one time. Life is good.

Now imagine your boss does not take his meds and in a fit of rage fires 2 other servers. You need to pick up the slack before you lose your job and the customers throw expensive French bottled water on you. Instead of 3 tables you now have 9 tables and are running around like a spazzed out squirrel on meth in an attempt to keep your job.

Major overload!

Same idea here with our fury rat friends as there is only 1 muscle left to take the work of what is normally handled by 3 – major overload.

Overload and Muscle Size

Everyone agrees that overload is key for increasing muscle size and strength. While this procedure does provide huge amounts overload, it is not recommended and is very painful according to what the rats told me. Insert mental image of the rats limping around with huge lower legs here _______.

Early rat studies from the 1970’s using the same overload model showed that they could not crush the hypertrophy response no matter what they did to the poor little guys–no thyroid, low protein, de-nutting (aka castration – youch), etc, it did not matter. Even after all those horrible things, the darn rat muscle in the lower leg still got bigger.

While it did blunt the increase in muscle size, it did not send it to zero as they first suspected. This is further evidence that the local overload to the muscle is extremely important. Score another one for lifting weights!

Vitamin C and Muscle Size

Back to the rat study. While it is true that oral vitamin C did decrease the overload-induced skeletal muscle hypertrophy (size), the reduction was not huge in addition to the 3 limitations I discussed above.

In Summary: How to Enjoy Bigger Muscles with Vitamin C

I would not toss my Vit C out yet, but consuming tons of it is probably not the best idea if you are trying to get bigger in the gym or stay healthy. Some is good, more is not always better desipte what the hyooooooge dudes in the gym that look like sides ‘ beef with eyes tell you .

This study is the first step to look at the potential reduction in muscle size using large amounts of vitamin C and future studies will shed more light on this mechanism. Unitl then I would not be worried about some vitamin C reducing your effects of hard work in gym picking stuff up and setting it down again.

Beware of others touting that vitamin c is bad for your muscles….unless you are indeed a rat taking several grams per day with 2 cut tendons in your lower leg. Then you can worry.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

Other related posts that you will find interesting:

References

Personal Trainer Mike T Nelson on How Sleep Quality Improves Fat Loss

burnfatmoremuscle — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 06:10:22 +0000

Lose more fat by sleeping better?

What?

How is that even possible? Sounds like a snarky ad for a new snake oil supplement, right.

It’s not, and it won’t even cost you anything!

But I thought exercise was important?

Yes, even the fine folks (sarcasm) at Planet Fitness know that if you want increased fat loss, you need to move some iron.

That goes without saying, but this tip is not exercise related.

Read on……

Recently I’ve been even more fascinated with fat burning (oxidation for the geeks).

The body is very complex, so it is not as simple, straight forward process as the Planet Fitness crowd believes.

In my search, I found something that puts the breaks on fat oxidation big time!

This is not a good thing.

Don’t worry, the fix is simple and just a bit more science first.

A recent study by Hursel R, et al. measured substrate (carbs of fat) oxidation amongst many other factors over 48 hours while subjects were in a respiratory chamber (think of a huge room where they account for all the calories going in and out).

What they found was fascinating!

15 subjects of average body fat (about 21%) and generally healthy were “locked up” in the chamber for 2 whole days.

They used a crossover design, so each person served as their own control. This is a great way to decrease outside variability since different people tend to do different things and trying to account for all the differences can drive you batty!

During one of their 2 days stays being locked up, they were allowed to sleep normally (sleep was measured by EEG).

However, during the other stay, they fragmented their sleep and only allowed them to sleep for 1 hour at a time, yet for the same duration of sleep.

To quote the researchers:

“Fragmentation of sleep was accomplished with approximately hourly wake-up calls that varied in frequency of between 500-2000 Hz and in intensity of between 40-110 dB; subjects confirmed waking up by turning off their alarms after 2 min”

That would suck to be awakened 8 times during one night!

This is not entirely unrealistic as many people wake up a few times at night to use the bathroom, heard the neighbors having a wild crazy party (and mad that they did not invite you over to join them), had to feed the little one, etc. While it is a bit extreme, it is not completely outside the realm of reality for many. I’m a little nuts, so I’ve measured my sleep cycles in the past and routinely wake up about 6-10 times a night myself.

What they found in the fragmented sleep group was direct impair of fat oxidation, thus decreasing their fat loss results.

In plain English, waking up multiple times during the night did not allow their body to burn body fat!

Yikes!

And it was significant, clocking in at 2xs as much of a reduction!

Fat oxidation was 61 g/d in the non fragmented sleep group and 29 g/d in the fragmented group.

If you extrapolate that out to only 1 month and use an overly simplified calories burned model, that equals to 2 lbs a month of fat gain!

Yuck!

While this was not studied here, this is great data to show that just by increasing the quality of your sleep you can get leaner!

3 Steps for better sleep quality:

1) Try to minimize how much water you drink before bed.

2) Use ear plugs to keep down the noise or have a nice “chat” with your neighbors.

3) Make your bedroom a cave, a bit cooler and pitch black.

These 3 tips will increase your sleep quality and improve your fat loss results.

Summary

There you have another research tip on how you can get leaner by just increasing the quality of your sleep!

Pretty cool and does not require much work.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

Other related posts that you will find interesting:

References

Hursel R, Rutters F, Gonnissen HK, Martens EA, Westerterp-Plantenga MS. “Effects of sleep fragmentation in healthy men on energy expenditure, substrate oxidation, physical activity, and exhaustion measured over 48 h in a respiratory chamber.” Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Sep;94(3):804-8. Epub 2011 Jul 27

13 Ways To Get Faster Fat Loss Results – An Interview With Mike T Nelson

burnfatmoremuscle — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:22:12 +0000

Everyone is interested in new ways to get results even faster.We all know it is a long term process, but below in this video interview with my buddy Kyle Bohannon from The Art of Physical Fitness show.

I share with you over 13 ways to speed up your fat loss and muscle gain results.

You do NOT have to eat shoe leather chicken breast and soggy broccoli to see better results. Fat loss does not have to automatically be that restrictive!

Listen in above as I reveal the mistakes I’ve made in the past so you are not doomed to repeat them!

Metabolic Flexibility For Fat Loss: Pre Workout Carbs

Here is a quick tip to increase your performance in the gym using the concept of metabolic flexibility without interfering with burning fat.

Check out the very short video below I created for you to explain how carbs can be your friend and should not be feared.

Enjoy!

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

Other related posts that you will find interesting:

Personal Trainer Mike T Nelson | Are Energy Drinks Really Dangerous?

burnfatmoremuscle — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:03:03 +0000

You can’t really go more than about a week without hearing something bad regarding energy drinks.

“I heard Red Bull is banned now in France!”

“Those things will kill you!”

“I think energy drinks like Red Bull, Rockstar, and Monster should be illegal as they are unsafe.”

Even experts quoted in the media perpetuate these concerns. The following are direct quotes from ”What’s the Buzz About Energy Drinks?” via WebMD

“There is scant scientific support for these ingredients to make the kind of claims manufacturers use in hyping their products,” says Suzanne Farrell, MS, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

“Most of the energy drinks contain high-tech-sounding ingredients that are not controlled substances, of no value, and potentially harmful” in large amounts, adds Cynthia Sass, MPH, MA, RD, a board-certified specialist in sports dietetics.

“The amount of the stimulants is not always listed on the label, and even when the information is listed, it is hard for consumers to interpret because we are not familiar with these ingredients,” says Sass.

“What we do know is that large doses of caffeine can be very dehydrating,” says Sass.

Maybe, but the last quote about caffeine is not correct.

Are Energy Drinks Really Evil?

Are these concerns valid? What does the research actually say?

Recently I helped write a review of all the current literature on energy drink published in JISSN on January 3, 2013

International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: energy drinks

Bill Campbell1†, Colin Wilborn2†, Paul La Bounty3, Lem Taylor2†, Mike T Nelson4, Mike Greenwood5†, Tim N Ziegenfuss6, Hector L Lopez6, Jay R Hoffman7, Jeffrey R Stout7, Stephen Schmitz8†, Rick Collins9†, Doug S Kalman10, Jose Antonio11† and Richard B Kreider5*

It is open access, so you can read it for yourself at the link below and come to your own conclusions

Summary:

The hype around energy drinks will continue for some time.

They are not free from risks, but dig a bit deeper into the science and judge for yourself.

My personal bias is that an occasional energy drink is fine and the current literature does not support the media hype. However, if you need 1-3 to get through your day, it is probably time to make a change.

For more simple Fat Loss tips, tactics, articles and free exercise videos to re-charge your body, re-activate sore muscles and joint, and condition your mind for extreme health, visit us at www.MikeTNelson.com.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

Other related posts that you will find interesting:

Research Based Approach For Bigger Muscles | Mike T Nelson

burnfatmoremuscle — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 06:01:34 +0000

Ok, so it is a known fact that I get like a giddy school girl around new research on strength and hypertrophy.

Just the other day (literally), a new paper looking at long term (10 weeks, which is long term for most research), investigated what is the best scheme for making your muscles bigger.

The geeky term for bigger muscles is hypertrophy and this study did not use anyone with tails (all human subjects). Score one for the researchers on that point.

The question they were looking to answer was

“Do you need to lift heavy to get bigger?”

Common bro-science would say yes, but is this supported via research

In this study by Mitchell CJ, et al. 2012 from Dr Stu Phillips lab, they tackled this question.

Short Term Response Only?

Many studies looking at this question are only acute studies where people come in to the lab, they do some measurements, and then they go home.

That is all cool, but the process of creating bigger muscles does not in one night. It takes time and effor spread out over many weeks. Keep this in mind and we will come back to it.

In 2009, Burd, NA et al. from Phillips group showed ACUTLEY that a low load, but high volume (volume = weight x reps x sets) of weight training did stimulate muscle protein synthesis (stuffing amino acids into muscles to make them bigger and stronger) as compared to a high load, LOW volume approach.

They compared 3 groups:

90% 1RM taken to failure (90FAIL)
30% 1RM in which the external was work-matched to 90FAIL (30WM)
30% 1RM in which the subjects performed the sets until volitional failure (30FAIL)

Table 2 below shows the parameters

Notice that the volume for the 90FAIL and 30 WM groups was the same.

Interestingly enough, for the myofibular response (the muscle fibers themselves, shown in teh second graph below), only the 30 FAIL group demonstrated a response in protein synthesis at 24 hours.

Fasted-state mixed (A), myofibrillar (B), and sarcoplasmic (C) protein synthesis (FSR) at rest and following resistance exercise. (Burd, NA et al. 2010)

In English Please

From this acute data, it tells us that muscle protein synthesis (making bigger muscles) is still happening a whole day after lifting, but only in the 30FAIL group, who moved the most weight in the study (highest volume lifted).

Looks like volume is winning as an important aspect for bigger muscles! This was supported by other acute data from Burd, NA et al. 2010 also.

The downside of this paper was that it was an acute response, which many times does not hold up over several weeks.

Acute Muscle Soreness

Muscle soreness is a common one where the acute (short term) response is different from the longer term (more chronic) response.

For example, I went on a hike years ago up a local mountain. It took me most of the day to get up to the top, but only a couple hours to get down. This fast downhill running made my quads retardedly sore via DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). I was hobbling like a 90 year escapey from Shady Pines looking for his walker.

However, a few days later I got convinced we should do it again and since I am a glutton for punishment, I said “yes!” This time, despite doing the same thing, I had little soreness since the acute stimulus (running downhill) did not have the same effect on my muscles.

The point is that an acute effect may not hold up over time.

In the recent study (Mitchell CJ, et al. 2012) they took eighteen men about 21-22 years old and randomized them to 2 of the following training conditions:

30% of 1 RM (rep max) for 3 sets
80% of 1 RM for 1 set or
80% of 1 RM for 3 sets

The cool part was that each only trained ONE of their legs using the parameters above, so the opposite leg served as a comparison control.

Unlike the Burd, NA et al. 2009 study where they only looked at the acute response, this time they did a long term study for 10 weeks.

To determine muscle hypertrophy (muscle volume), they used magnetic resonance (MR) in addition to stabbing out chunks of tissue via pre- and post-training biopsies of the vastus lateralis (quad muscle) plus 1 post-exercise (1 hour) biopsy following the first bout of exercise.

Yep, the subjects got to exercise only 1 leg, get stabbed in the leg for chunk of tissue, jammed into an MRI, and infused with radioactive protein, all in the name of science!

Did Their Muscles Get Bigger?

Measurements after training were significant (p<0.01) so they did get bigger, BUT there was no difference between the 3 groups.

Interestingly, for the uber geeks out there, no correlation was seen between phosphorylation of any signaling protein and hypertrophy. For all of those bro-scientists suffering from mTOR-itis, this is a big blow!

It did match their previous work (that we talked about above) that the acute measurements of muscle protein synthetic rates from lifting a low load many times to failure did results in similar hypertrophy as a heavy load lifted to failure.

The downside is that this study used untrained subjects, who will respond to just about anything (the ole’ newbie effect) and we can’t directly transfer these results to more experienced lifters.

How To Get Bigger Muscles In The Gym

Ok, Mr Science Pants, what the heck do I do in the gym now?

For an athlete (or anyone) looking to maximize hypertrophy, concentrate on overload via:

1) Intensity: the amount of weight used

2) Volume: the amount of work done (weight x reps x sets)

3) density (volume/time).

The research above gives us more evidence that more volume should lead to more hypertrophy.

The exact reason WHY is a big can o’ worms!

What > Why

Summary

More evidence shows us that focusing on moving more weight in the gym is a great way to get bigger muscles.

“.. lighter weights allow greater volume and that has to happen” - Dr. Stu Phillips ‎

Take an exercise that you normally use only a heavy weight, lighten it up and do some good ole fashion rep work.

If you normally bench say 200 lbs for 3 reps, try 100 lbs for lots of reps and sets to get more volume.

Measure your response over time, and I bet you will see some new growth.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

Other related posts that you will find interesting:

References

Burd NA, West DW, Staples AW, Atherton PJ, Baker JM, Moore DR, Holwerda AM, Parise G, Rennie MJ, Baker SK, and Phillips SM. “Low-load high volume resistance exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis more than high-load low volume resistance exercise in young men.” PLoS One 5: e12033, 2010

Burd NA, Holwerda AM, Selby KC, West DW, Staples AW, Cain NE, Cashaback JG, Potvin JR, Baker SK, and Phillips SM. “Resistance exercise volume affects myofibrillar protein synthesis and anabolic signalling molecule phosphorylation in young men.” J Physiol 588: 3119-3130, 347 2010.

Cameron J. Mitchell, Tyler A. Churchward-Venne, Daniel D.W. West, Nicholas A. Burd, Leigh Breen, Steven K. Baker, and Stuart M. Phillips. “Resistance exercise load does not determine training-mediated hypertrophic gains in young men” J Appl Physiol jap.00307.2012; published ahead of print April 19, 2012

Mike Nelson teaches advanced health and fat loss strategies to audiences across the United States, and works one on one with personal training clients throughout white bear lake MN, bloomington MN, coon rapids MN, fridley MN, forest lake MN, anoka MN, delwood MN, mahtomedi MN, Vadnais Heights MN, North Saint Paul MN, Hugo MN, Little Canada MN, Lino Lakes MN, Shoreview MN, Oakdale MN, Roseville MN, Maplewood MN, New Brighton MN, Mounds View MN, Stillwater MN, Saint Paul MN, Woodbury MN. Want Mike Nelson to personally help you burn fat fast? Leave him a voicemail with your goals: (763) 280-3457. Mike’s personal training studio is located at 4402 White Bear Pkwy, White Bear Lake, MN 55110 where many of the top personal trainers and fitness instructors get the most up to date health and fat loss information.

3 Most Common Questions About Fish Oils For Fat Loss

burnfatmoremuscle — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:46:17 +0000

By Mike T Nelson

Many, many people are deficient in Omega 3 fats and probably don’t know it.

“Eeeeek, I thought fat was bad and makes me fat?”

I heard that a lot, but despite the common media hype it is not true at all.

Increasing omega 3s in your diet is a great thing for almost anything you can think of from hearing loss, head trauma, fat loss, decreased muscle atrophy (losing muscle), and much more.

Omega 3 are essential fatty acids. They are essential and must be provided by your diet. Your body can not make them, so they must be consumed. The highest source of Omega 3s is primarily flax seed oil.

So I just need to load up on flax oil and i am good, right? Not so fast….

Fish Oils

Fish oils (commonly called EPA and DHA) are made from Omega 3s. The rate of how fast and how much can be made is up for debate though.. This is why I don’t recommend flax seed oil any more since very little gets converted to the essential fats your body needs to speed recovery from training and help keep inflamation under control.

Therefor, supplementing with the fish oils themselves directly works best as you don’t have to worry about the conversion then. Think f them as sort of “pre-converted.”

#1) What is a Common Dose?

While common doses vary, look to get around 1-3 grams of combined EPA and DHA per day of a common fish oil supplement. If you are use krill oil, that amont may be a bit lower.

Again, this is just a ballpark number without direct testing.

As always, check with your doc to make sure this is ok, especially if you are on blood thinners (although the risk is small).

#2) How Do I Read the Label?

Read the label and look for the actual amounts of EPA and DHA not just Omega 3s.

There are many fish oil supplements on the market and the key is to know what to look for on the label.

Look in the middle and it will list the EPA and DHA amount right below the total free-fatty acids.

Add these up for your total fish oil content. This is what you want to look at when comparing one type of fish oil against another since the amount of the actual fish oils (EPA +DHA) will vary widely from one to the next.

#3) Do I Need Fish Oil?

Without direct testing, there is no way to know 100% for sure, but out of the testing I’ve seen, almost everyone is very low. This matches piles of the studies that show most (unless you live in Japan or Greenland) are low.

Plus the benefits to taking fish oil dramatically outweigh the very very low risks in my opinion.

Summary:

Fish oil has many health and performance benefits.
The risk of any side effects is very small.
The use of a high quality fish oil supplement is the easiest way for most to get in enough.
As always, check with your doctor first.

Fish oil is at the top of my supplement list for all my new clients/athletes.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

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Ask The Expert Mike T Nelson: 3 Tips To Build More Muscle and Lose Fat

burnfatmoremuscle — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:04:10 +0000

I was recently asked to be part of a roundtable of fitness experts featuring Alan Aragon, Dr Layne Norton, Dr. Jose Antonio, Ben Esgro, Jermey Loenneke, Dr. Gabe Wilson, Dr. Jacob Wilson, and others.

The question posed was the following:

“What advice would you give to a fitness enthusiast that wants to

A. Build muscle

B. Lose fat

Below is my response….

Metabolic What?

Here are 3 things you can do to increase your metabolic flexibility and gain lean muscles while losing some body fat.

1) More Protein

I am sure you are bored out of your skull now about me yammering on about protein needs. The short action item: Get more!

How much more?

In studies where they were hypocaloric (calories were below maintenance levels, so a fat loss diet), clock in around a MINIMUM of 0.75 grams per lb of body weight.

A 200 lb person would want to get 150 grams of protein per day on the low end.

Work by Devkota S et al. 2011 showed that replacing carbs with protein was beneficial in shifting molecular activity in muscle vs. fat; which should improve body composition (more muscle, less fat).

2) Variety

Most people (myself included) tend to eat the same things day in and day out.

When I get stressed and my schedule goes nuts (which happens a lot lately), I will fall back to the same routine, without much variety.

Why Is Variety Important?

More micro-nutrients.
Less exposure to bad stuff.
Fills you up (automatically eat fewer calories).

3) Add In a Fast (ala Intermittent Fasting)

Lots of BS to be sorted here regarding fasting. The definition I am using of fasting is zero calorie containing items during a set period of time. Non caloric items only!

Now you got my so fired up I lost my place! Oh ya, fasting and metabolic flexibility.

Bare with me here as the physiology gets a bit messy. Mention the words “intermittent fasting” and people then assume they need to do all of their cardio fasted to burn more fat.

It is also true that during a fasting condition, insulin levels are low, pushing the body towards more direct fat utilization (burning).

Sounds great so far, but hold the Master Cleanse ebook my fasted cardio bunny friend.

Summary: How To Build Muscle and Lose Fat

Work on these 3 items to increase your Metabolic Flexibility to burn more fat and add some lean muscle.

For more simple Fat Loss tips, tactics, articles and free exercise videos to re-charge your body, re-activate sore muscles and joint, and condition your mind for extreme health, visit us at www.MikeTNelson.com.

Rock on!

Mike T Nelson

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