Bodynet informatie database.

[rain]

Ik heb er wel eens een leuke discussie over gehad met 3XL.
Hij vindt hammercurls alleen nuttig als je bovenarm uit balans is en je je alleen op de 'peak'wilt concentreren… en dus niet meer bicepsmassa wilt.

In alle andere gevallen belasten normale curls de brachialis net zoveel als hammercurls, maar daarentegen belasten normale curls de biceps beter.

De conclusie was dus dat normale curls in bijna alle gevallen superieur zijn aan hammercurls.

[Aldo Raine]

Mind-Muscle Connection: Fact or BS?

Here's what you need to know...

•  Many bodybuilders believe in the mind-muscle connection: activating a muscle mentally. Others believe that if an exercise is done with good form, the right muscles do their job automatically.
•  The author decided to test (using EMG) whether load, cadence, and form dictate muscle activation, or whether it's possible to mentally steer neural drive towards some muscles and away from other muscles.
•  The surprise of the study wasn't that it showed you can activate a muscle mentally, but just how big a role the mind plays in kicking a muscle into gear.

Bodybuilders have been referring to the mind-muscle connection for a long time, and they'll typically recommend that new lifters spend time flexing their muscles independently and learning how to activate the muscles properly against resistance.
On the other hand, there's a subgroup of strength coaches and physical therapists that believe that if an exercise is performed with seemingly good form, then the right muscles will automatically do the job, and it's not necessary, or even possible, for the lifter to mentally alter muscle activation.
Which one of these camps is right? Do load, cadence, and form dictate muscle activation? Or can lifters mentally "steer" neural drive toward certain muscles and away from other muscles even when using the same weight, tempo, and mechanics just by focusing their attention on the targeted muscle?
To some, the following experiment is going to seem like one of the most obvious experiments you've ever seen. You'll be saying to yourself, "No shit, Sherlock," particularly if you've spent time reading up on bodybuilder wisdom. But to others, it will be eye opening, and offer some insight into the brain's role in muscle activation dynamics.

Methods

We decided to get to the bottom of this debate by conducting a pilot experiment. Essentially, we performed a variety of lower and upper body exercises while utilizing electromyography (EMG) to examine muscle activation. During exercise performance, we concentrated our attention either on activating a particular muscle or on not activating a particular muscle.
What's very important to understand is that during each exercise, the load, cadence, and mechanics were kept nearly identical. Stances and grip-width and positions were kept identical, bar and movement paths were unchanged, and joint ranges of motion were kept constant. The typical personal trainer, serving as a "referee," wouldn't have noticed any differences between the two styles of lifts for each exercise.
We used four different exercises for the lower body: squats, Romanian deadlifts, hip thrusts, and back extensions. We used a barbell load of 135 pounds for squats, RDL's, and hip thrusts, while we just used bodyweight for back extensions.
Our intention on each exercise was to not use the glutes. In the case of squats, the intention was to instead target the quads, and in the case of RDL's, the intention was to instead target the hammies. We then performed the tests again, this time with the intention of heavily utilizing the glutes.
We also used four different exercises for the upper body – two pressing movements and two pulling movements. We used bodyweight push-ups and 135-pound bench presses for upper body pressing muscles. The first time we did them, we concentrated on our pectorals and the second time we did them, we focused on the triceps.
For the upper body pulling muscles, we used bodyweight chin-ups and bodyweight inverted rows. Both exercises were performed in two ways, first with an emphasis primarily on the lats, and then with an emphasis on the biceps. We chose to stick with lighter loads as we felt that this would allow for a better ability to steer neural drive, assuming it was even possible, in comparison with heavy loading.
Furthermore, we've long noticed pro bodybuilders lifting seemingly very light loads while squeezing the muscles and trying to place maximal tension and metabolic stress on the targeted muscle. Using similarly light loads would allow us to gauge whether there might be merit to their methods.

Results

We found that advanced lifters can indeed steer neural drive to and away from various muscles without significantly altering form. Our averaged data in terms of mean muscle activation are contained in the tables below. Of course you can skip trying to decipher the results and just read the discussion that follows.

Lower Body Movements	Glute Max	Biceps Femoris	Vastus Lateralis	Lumbar Erector
Squat Quad Focus	10.61	11.19	109.67	48.73
Squat Glute Focus	25.30	12.78	94.33	54.63
RDL Hamstring Focus	9.13	21.07	30.80	60.67
RDL Glute Focus	32.13	22.67	35.97	54.33
Hip Thrust No Glute Focus	20.90	6.80	33.43	70.83
Hip Thrust Glute Focus	52.67	18.40	52.60	61.53
Back Extension No Glute Focus	6.05	43.63	2.17	52.53
Back Extension Glute Focus	38.13	52.70	2.69	47.87

Pressing Movements	Upper Pec	Lower Pec	Front Delt	Tricep
Push-Up Pec Focus	60.47	47.10	55.33	63.30
Push-Up Tricep Focus	51.77	23.74	51.13	90.77
Bench Press Pec Focus	64.90	54.77	49.77	63.43
Bench Press Tricep Focus	58.47	33.23	50.73	71.77

Pulling Movements	Lat	Rear Delt	Mid Trap	Bicep
Chin-Up Lat Focus	59.73	67.33	68.30	44.10
Chin-Up Bicep Focus	59.17	73.07	50.50	68.70
Inverted Row Lat Focus	82.10	82.57	94.73	31.33
Inverted Row Bicep Focus	66.60	75.13	62.27	71.30

Discussion

As you can see in the tables, there's definite evidence of the mind-muscle connection, and this phenomenon is more evident in certain muscles than others. Perhaps the most eye opening finding in this experiment is that advanced lifters can perform a bodyweight back extension – which requires around 235 Nm of hip extension torque for an average athletic male – moving from full hip flexion to full hip extension, while barely using the glutes.
When purposely trying to not focus on glutes during the back extension, glute EMG activation reached just 6% of MVIC (maximum voluntary isometric contraction). However, when trying to use the glutes, glute EMG activation rose to 38% of MVIC!
Overall, glute activation during hip extension exercise was highly dependent on the mental focus of attention. With squats, RDL's, hip thrusts, and back extensions, glute activation could vary markedly when trying or not trying to utilize them, and glute activation is quite low when squatting with a quad focus or performing an RDL with a hamstring focus. In fact, it appears to be rather difficult to not utilize the quads in a squat, the hamstrings in a back extension, or the glutes in a hip thrust.
For the upper body pressing muscles, lower pec activation was very low when focusing on the triceps during push-ups, but while focusing on the pecs, triceps activation was much lower. Furthermore, it seems easier to mentally direct muscle activity during the push-up compared to the bench press.
For the pulling muscles, mid-trap and biceps activation varied markedly between trials. Lat activation didn't change much during chin-ups regardless of focus, but it did with inverted rows. Biceps and mid-trap activation appear to be inversely related depending on whether focusing on the lats or biceps during the pulling movements, and it seems easier to mentally direct muscle activity during the inverted row compared to the chin-up.
We deliberately didn't concentrate or focus on or away from the lumbar erectors, upper pecs, front delts, and rear delts, which explains why their activation was more consistent compared to the glutes, lower pecs, tri's, and bi's.

Practical Applications & Conclusion

Based on this experiment, we can conclude that advanced lifters are quite capable of "steering" neuromuscular drive to and away from muscles, at least with lighter loads.
In 2012, researchers Snyder and Fry found that verbal instruction was effective in steering muscle activation with lighter loads in the bench press, but this wasn't the case with heavier loads. Similarly, a variety of studies have examined the effect of internal focus of attention (focusing on body parts during movement) and found that individuals can preferentially activate muscles depending on the task, for example the abs, the lats, and the glutes.
In fact, one study showed that belly dancers could completely isolate their upper and lower abs, indicating that targeting muscles gets easier with practice. Therefore, our results are in agreement with previous research. In fact, there's research nearly 20 years old providing evidence of the mind muscle connection pertaining to shoulder stabilizers.
We think this experiment indicates that the notion, "if it looks right, it'll fly right" is incorrect, at least according to light-load resistance training. For example, as explained earlier, it's quite possible to extend the hips while barely activating the glutes during the back extension exercise.
Form needs to be solid, but simply observing movement from the outside doesn't completely tell you what's going on under the hood. The underlying muscles also need to be firing in proper amounts and in proper combinations during movement for optimal performance, and these amounts and combinations likely differ depending on whether the goal is to develop maximum strength, endurance, or activation.
The literature's quite clear on the fact that an external focus of attention (focusing outside of the body) will produce better demonstrations of strength, endurance, and accuracy. When maxing out on the bench press, you wouldn't want to focus on maximally activating the pecs or triceps and would instead want to focus on raising the bar off the chest as explosively as possible.
Beyond all that, this experiment indicates that bodybuilders were indeed right all along – the mind-muscle connection is a real phenomenon that influences neuromuscular dynamics during resistance training. It's logical to assume that the mind muscle connection would meaningfully impact hypertrophic gains, but this remains to be shown in the research.
In order to be more confident with recommending that lifters prioritize the mind muscle connection, we need research examining whether bodybuilders can steer neural drive when using heavier loading and also whether focusing attention on activating particular muscles during exercise leads to greater hypertrophic adaptations over time. In the meantime, consider experimenting with a few different methods:
1. Give what Mel Siff would call "loadless training" a try by flexing muscles independently just as bodybuilders do when they pose.
2. Perform low-load activation work prior to heavy strength training or in between heavier sets to see if it improves your performance.
3. Perform heavy strength work with an external focus of attention (form) during the workout, but afterwards, perform lighter work with an internal focus of attention, concentrating and trying to activate the target muscles.

[Aldo Raine]

The 12 Habits of Big Lifters

Here's what you need to know...

• If hypertrophy is your main goal, spend time in all rep ranges. It's not all "go heavy or go home."
• To optimally build muscle, you also need some Olympic lifting and powerlifting.
• You're probably not training hard enough. (Yes, you.)
• Twice a year, get your physique professionally evaluated.
• You cannot wing it. Have a plan, keep a training log, and focus on consistency.
• Many bodybuilders look good not because of what they do, but in spite ofwhat they do.
• Don't blindly follow the advice of someone just because they look great. Instead, seek out a good coach.

1. Big lifters use a variety of rep ranges.

Training for size and training for pure strength are different. Sure, there's some correlation between size and strength, but just because someone is big doesn't mean they're all that strong... and vice versa.
The reason for this is largely due to just how different hypertrophy-oriented training and strength training actually are. Getting stronger requires creating maximum tension in the muscle, and you accomplish this via heavy weight and moving that heavy weight as forcefully as possible. This leads to more myofilaments being laid down and improvements in your nervous system, both of which help you become stronger.
On the other hand, training for hypertrophy requires a much more varied approach. In addition to doing some heavy sets using your 1-5RM, you'll also have to spend ample time inducing metabolic fatigue via higher-rep sets. This includes the 6-10, 10-15, and 15-20 rep ranges.
So the realistic question becomes, where do you spend your training time? If building muscle is your main goal, you're going to have to spend time in all rep ranges.
It's not just rep ranges, either. Even the execution is different. With bodybuilding training you need to focus more on feeling the muscle, whereas with strength training more of your focus is on simply moving the weight.
Rest intervals are also different. Strength training requires longer rest intervals while hypertrophy training calls for shorter ones. Again, you're forced to decide if your goal is hypertrophy or strength, and then train accordingly.

2. Big guys use the powerlifts and even some Olympic-style lifts.

If I were starting over again in bodybuilding, one thing I'd certainly do different would be to implement some Olympic-style lifting as well as some powerlifting.
Now, the only two Olympic lifts these days are the snatch and the clean and jerk, but for bodybuilding purposes you should do the now-retired clean and press over the clean and jerk.
When it comes to powerlifting, we're talking about the bench press, squat, and deadlift. Despite the popularity of the bench press, you should focus more on the latter two.
Now let's get specific.
Not many bodybuilders have great backs. That's just a reality. Even if someone has big lats, they tend to be thick in the upper back between the scapulae.
However, by implementing the snatch, you'd not only beef up your upper back, but also the external rotators of the shoulder. The same goes with the clean portion of the clean and jerk, a.k.a. power cleans. They're excellent for building a thick, powerful upper back, traps, rear delts, etc.

Related:  More on the clean

If you'd like to hit these upper-back areas as well as work on your shoulders, try the clean and press. It's not as easy as sitting on your butt and pressing the barbell overhead, but it's sure as heck more functional and offers more bang for your training buck. That doesn't mean you shouldn't ever do seated barbell or dumbbell overhead presses. Instead, swap them for the clean and press fairly regularly.
For the record, do these Olympic lifts near the beginning (or first) in your workout, which is where explosive power movements belong.
As for the big three of powerlifting, surely you already do the bench press and squat, but instead of doing them in a higher-rep bodybuilding manner, occasionally do them like a powerlifter would – heavy weight, low reps, and long rest periods. The same goes for deadlifts, which sadly aren't as popular in bodybuilding circles as they should be.

3. They have their physiques honestly evaluated.

You are the worst judge of your physique. When judging ourselves we tend to be overly critical or overly praiseworthy. Either way, if you want to build a really high-quality physique, you need to elicit outside help.
Oftentimes, someone who has experience judging physique competitions will be well suited to assess your physique. Or have an old-school bodybuilder who's been around the block take a look. And don't discount people outside the world of competitive bodybuilding who just so happen to have a really good eye.
Until you have one trusted person to go to, have a few willing people take a look at your physique. You'll likely spot trends in what they say. If so, they're probably on to something, whether you like it or not. As a last resort, take pictures of yourself and evaluate them (as best you can), pretending it's someone else's physique. Perhaps cropping your head out of the photo will help.
Evaluate your physique at least a couple times per year. That's the only way you can construct a personalized training program to help take your physique to the next level.

4. They use a variety of set, rep, and rest schemes.

It's true that if you had to train in one rep range for hypertrophy, it'd be 8-12 reps per set. Three sets per exercise with 60-90 seconds rest between sets are also no-nonsense rules of thumb. However, you really shouldn't spend any more than half of your training time implementing these "ideal" variables.
Time and time again the best results come from spending more time using a variety of set, rep, and rest protocols. For example, try doing 10 x 3 with 2 minutes rest between each of those 10 sets. Doing this for 6-8 weeks will do wonders for your strength and it does a great job of building dense muscle. Then when you return to training in that coveted 8-12 range, you'll be able to use more weight, which has obvious benefits that'll ultimately lead to larger muscles.
On the flip side, implement periods of lighter sets with shorter rest intervals. For example, try 5 x 15-20 with just 20-30 seconds rest. This will create a lot of metabolic stress that does wonders for making muscles fuller and "rounder" looking.

Related:  22 Proven Rep Schemes

There are different ways to implement training variety. You can use variety within one workout for a particular body part, or you can implement training cycles of roughly four to eight weeks where you emphasize heavy, light, or moderate resistance training with corresponding rest intervals.

5. They train harder than you! (Probably.)

It's mind blowing how many people complain about how they can't seem to make progress despite doing everything just right... or so they think. Of course, when you actually watch them train, you see they're not training anywhere near hard enough!
You're probably thinking that this doesn't apply to you and that it refers to other people, but chances are you don't train hard enough, either. It's just the statistical truth.
The fact is, training hard is... well, it's really hard! It takes tremendous focus and even more effort to keep pushing when every part of your body and brain is telling you to stop. But if you're able to push through and block out the pain, you'll find that you can stimulate progress like never before.
To be clear, we're not talking about training hard on every single set, week in and week out. That'd lead to overtraining in no time. Rather, we're talking about the intelligent application of training all-out.

Related:  How Hard Do You Need to Work Out?

Once you've determined that a particular set needs to be taken to concentric failure, then do that set like your life depends on it, squeezing out every single rep humanly possible! Doing so is analogous to telling your muscles to grow versus politely asking them to.
And it's not just about doing more reps; it's putting all your "oomph" into the concentric portion of each and every rep. This will ensure maximal stimulation of the muscle by maximizing the number of working muscle fibers.
To do this, you'll need to begin to mentally prepare for an upcoming workout 30-60 minutes ahead of time. Use your drive to the gym as part of this prep time, jamming your favorite get-fired-up music on the way. Once you're at the gym, maintain that focus. Don't text your girlfriend, update your Facebook status, or check to see who's posted what on Instagram. Stay focused on your upcoming set.
It'll be tremendously difficult at first, but it'll get somewhat less difficult over time. But don't expect it to ever be easy. If training hard were easy, lots of people would have badass physiques.

6. Big lifters know when to take a rest.

Not resting enough is often the single biggest mistake people make in bodybuilding. It stems from the desire to always outwork the competition and the erroneous thought process that more is better.
But here's the deal: training week-in week-out takes its toll, particularly on the central nervous system. This is especially the case if you take most of your sets to failure.
We tend to think we've "recovered" when our muscles are no longer sore. Not only is this a bad indicator of the myofibrils actually being repaired, but it also fails to take into account recovery of the CNS. So, to help ensure full and complete recovery over time, you should employ two types of rest: 1) rest from hard training, and 2) complete rest from training altogether.
Regarding rest from intense training, divide your training into eight-week blocks. During those eight weeks, train all-out for five of them. During the other three weeks, don't take your work sets to failure but instead leave two or three reps in the hole.
As for complete rest from training, either take a half-week off every eight weeks, or take a full week off every 16 weeks. This may seem like a lot of time off, but if you're legitimately training hard, then you'll benefit from it.

7. They have a plan.

"If you fail to plan, then you're planning to fail." Good quote, and it definitely applies to bodybuilding success.
Lifters that "wing it" tend to be lifters that are on a never-ending plateau. Guys that make ongoing, steady progress have a plan, both for training and nutrition. Whether your goal is to gain muscle, lose fat, or a combination thereof, I simply cannot overstate the importance of a plan.
It seems that training plans of six to eight weeks and nutrition plans of two weeks in duration tend to be optimal, but you can arguably adjust the duration a bit one way or the other and still succeed.
Whatever you do, don't just vacillate from meal to meal, workout to workout. And don't try to justify it by calling it "instinctive training" or eating. By doing so you'll be at the whim of your current mood, energy status, etc., and that's simply not optimal.

8. They keep a training log.

When it comes to training, your logbook is an extension of your current training program. Without it, you're going to have to wing it in regard to a large portion of your workout.
A training program will tell you what exercises to do, how many sets to do, and what rep range you should be in. But it's your training log that will tell you exactly how much weight you used and how many reps you performed the last time you did that workout or exercise. Only by having that info can you select the right weight and know exactly how many reps to shoot for in your current workout.
Let's say your training program calls for 4 sets of 8-10 barbell squats. You refer to your logbook and see that (not counting warm-ups) you did 275 x 11, 285 x 10, 295 x 8, and 295 x 7 on those four sets.
You then know to shoot for something more like 285 x 10, 290 x 9, 295 x 8, and 295 x 8 this time around. You've finely tuned your weight selection to put you back in the 8-10 range on that first set, and you improved one rep on that last set of 295 by doing 8 instead of 7.
You simply can't train with that level of precision if you don't keep a training log. And you don't have the benefit of seeing where you potentially and realistically could squeeze out another rep without it.

9. They take care of their bodies.

Some lifters don't do a very good job of taking care of their bodies. They think that all is well as long as they look good, a classic example of naiveté. These are also the types of lifters who have very few "glory years."
For starters, pay attention to aches and pains. For some reason it's considered tough to train through injuries, but tough doesn't mean smart. Pain is your body's way of telling you something's wrong.
Let's say you're doing barbell curls and you feel pain on the inside of your elbow. Guess what? It's likely the onset of medial epicondylitis (golfer's elbow). If treated early, it's a pretty simple fix. When it's ignored for weeks, or even worse, months, it's going to be a lot harder to fix and it's going to be a lot longer until you're pain-free again.
For the record, by stretching your wrist flexors you can quite likely avoid getting golfer's elbow to begin with. Now that we're on the topic of stretching, it's something that you should be doing daily. Just consider stretching part of training – because it is!
The same goes for foam rolling, and if you can afford to get soft tissue work done regularly, do that, too!

Related:  15 Foam Rolling Techniques

Lastly, if you're over 35 or use performance-enhancing drugs, get your blood work – and probably urinalysis – done fairly regularly. Much like soft-tissue injuries, if you find something wrong, it'll be far easier to correct sooner rather than later.
Even if you couldn't care less about being healthy and only care about getting jacked, you still need to take care of your body. Otherwise you'll eventually end up having an injury or illness that'll force you to take time off from training and you're definitely not going to make progress then.

10. They keep it all in perspective.

There's more to life than just lifting weights and eating.
Undoubtedly, bodybuilding (competitive and recreational) teaches discipline, patience, goal setting and achievement, and good ol' mental toughness, among other things. Every single person would benefit from at least having a season of life where they trained hard and ate really well in an effort to take their body to the next level.
But make sure bodybuilding enhances your quality of life instead of detracting from it. For example, do you avoid doing social activities with friends or family because you might miss a meal or only get seven hours of sleep instead of eight? Heaven forbid someone invite you on a weeklong vacation or road trip. That'd require you to miss quite a few meals and workouts!
But here's the thing, fast forward a few month or years and it'll be that vacation you'll be reminiscing and talking about, not another week of training and eating six meals per day.
There's a time to forgo certain activities, no doubt, but unless you're within 12 weeks from a really important competition, then you can probably skimp a tad on your training and eating to do fun things with family or friends.
Keep your muscle building goals in perspective, especially if you don't make a living with your physique. After all, you don't want to end up with a great physique and a nonexistent social and/or family life.

11. They don't blindly follow the advice of bigger bodybuilders.

My current training partner is a really good competitive bodybuilder who's a few weeks away from a contest. In other words, he looks great! I, on the other hand, have recently resumed training hard after a long layoff. In other words, I look mortal.
So when people come up to ask a training or nutrition question, whom do you think they ask? Him, of course. He'll quickly and humbly point out that I'm actually the one to answer the question because I'm his coach.
It's natural to want to get advice from someone who looks how we want to look. However, there's a big difference in being a good athlete and a good coach. For example, you'd be better off taking tennis lessons from Venus Williams' coach than from Venus herself.
The reality is many bodybuilders look good not because of what they do, butin spite of what they do.
Before I'd ever coached a pro bodybuilder, I assumed they were virtual encyclopedias for training and nutrition information. Some are, but the reality is, most are not. In fact, you'll hear some of the most absurd things come out of the mouths of high level bodybuilders and figure competitors, especially regarding nutrition.
The point is, don't just blindly follow the advice of someone because they look great. They may look great because of genetics, drugs, or some combination thereof. Instead, seek out a good coach or strive to become one yourself.

12. Successful lifters are consistent.

Even if you have the best genetics you're still not going to get anywhere in bodybuilding without consistency. At the same time, even with subpar genetics, you can build an impressive physique if you're willing to be consistent over a long enough period of time.
To be clear, I'm talking consistency with both your training and your nutrition, not one or the other. The two go together like a car's engine and transmission – one without the other doesn't work.
Too many people train hard and eat right for a few weeks, or perhaps even months, but then get discouraged and stop. Then at some point they'll get back on the wagon and go at it again for a period of time, only to soon stop again.
Building muscle ain't stamp collecting! After quitting you don't pick up where you left off. Instead, you start over. That's why consistency is critical.
To really maximize your physique, you need to eat 5 or 6 meals per day and train 4 or 5 days per week for years on end. Sorry to burst your bubble if you expected something easier. If you want an easier hobby, try the aforementioned stamp collecting, restoring old cars, or something that doesn't require the insane amount of consistent discipline that building muscle does.

[Aldo Raine]

The Most Intelligent Way to Warm Up

Here's what you need to know...

• Doing a few sets of 10 with 135 pounds isn't a smart way to warm up for benching 300 or more pounds.
• The intelligent way to warm up is known as "ramping up."
• Ramping up involves doing a specific number of sets of an exercise, each set decreasing in reps but increasing in load, before hitting your work sets.
• Ramp-ups keep your body healthy, enhance neural output, and allow for better muscle and strength gains.
• Depending on the ordering and complexity of the exercise you're ramping-up for, do between 3 and 8 ramp-up sets.

Your Warm Up Sucks

Before heavy lifting, the average person hops on the elliptical for 10-15 minutes, then does several light sets of their strength exercise before piling on the heavy plates. They call that a "warm up." And maybe that's why they're average.
You need to "warm up" in an intelligent and effective way, and that way is known as ramping up.
Ramping up involves doing a specific number of sets of an exercise, each set decreasing in reps but increasing in load, before hitting your work sets. The way you choose to ramp-up an exercise can be the difference between packing on muscle or fizzling out.
Ramp-up sets aren't programmed solely for performance purposes either. When done correctly, ramp-ups will keep your body healthy, enhance your neural output, and allow you to reach levels of muscularity and strength you never thought possible.

3 Reasons to Ramp Up, Not Warm Up

1. Stimulate Joint Lubrication

As you move specific tissues and joints in your body, they become lubricated in synovial fluid. The primary function of synovial fluid is to reduce friction in the joint space, thus making movements smoother and more efficient.
The more you move, the more synovial fluid will bathe the joints and articular cartilage. The more efficiently your joints are lubricated, the less the risk of joint or cartilage injuries secondary to training.
Don't overlook this important aspect of ramping-up. It'll save you from a debilitating injury down the road.

2. Increase Core Temperature and Local Tissue Blood Flow

As you increase the rate of active movement of your body, it'll need to compensate in some way to keep things in check. This is usually achieved by an increase in core temperature. Muscles create heat via exertion and your body regulates this increase in heat via thermoregulation.
The more active a specific muscle or soft tissue, the more you'll siphon blood to these tissues to maintain metabolic balance. This is the primary reason why programming specific movement-based warm-ups works well when mixed with a generalized dynamic warm-up for physical preparation.

3. Activate Neuromuscular Coordination and Stabilization

Priming movements by increasing the volume of specific training is one of the easiest and most effective ways to set your body up for long-term success in any movement.
What we can do is increase our set and rep count while practicing foundational movement patterns used when moving some heavy-ass weight. The more practice, the better.
That being said, increasing the volume too much while not manipulating the loads, tempos, and rest periods of each ramp-up set can lead to pre-fatiguing the active musculature, which is usually a bad thing unless that was the intended goal.

The Inverse Relationship Between Load and Tempo

There are many ways to ramp-up properly and they're all based on specific foundational movement patterns, regions of the body, or specific goals of an exercise.
One thing holds true -- in order to maintain a high level of performance and neural output in work sets, there has to be an inverse relationship between loads and tempos while ramping-up.
What does this mean? As the loads imposed on the body are decreased, the concentric contraction speed of a movement will need to be maximized.
More simply said, the lighter the load the faster the movement speed needs to be. This will stimulate a requisite amount of myofibrils and prime the body for an epic performance.

Related:  More on lifting speed

When working with loads between 30-50% of your repetition maxes, your movements should be violently explosive to tap into some fast twitch fibers while keeping the external load low.
As the loads increase when getting deeper and deeper into your ramp-up sets, your speed should decrease at steady rates not only to maintain pristine movement technique, but also to avoid pre-fatiguing the active musculature. If your body is functioning properly, the contraction speeds should auto-regulate.
As your ramp-up sets get heavier and move to within 50-75% of your repetition maxes, the movement speed will need to be reduced to minimally tax the fast twitch fibers that have already been activated in previous sets.
The last ramp-up set will be programmed with super-compensated load, meaning the weight will be around 10% heavier than your working sets. Don't worry about the bar speed on this last ramp-up set. It's a single rep, soexplode and drive it up as hard as possible.
I'll show you what I mean with specific examples at the end of the article.

5 Guidelines for Ramping Up

Depending on the ordering and complexity of the movement you're ramping-up for, you should do between 3 and 8 ramp-up sets.
Here are a few general rules of thumb on how to choose the correct number of ramp-up sets for each type of movement and the ordering of that movement in your training session:

• The earlier a specific movement is programmed in a training session, the more ramp-up sets you'll need. Stick to 5-8 ramp-ups and feel your way out.
• The more compound the specific movement, the more ramp-up sets you'll need to prep that movement and the muscles involved. Again, stay at the top end of the ramp-up range, 5-8 sets.
• As for more isolated movements (single joint work), keep ramp-up sets to a minimum in order to avoid pre-fatiguing the muscles. Use 1-3 ramp-up sets.
• As prescribed reps exceed the 12-15 ranges, you need fewer ramp-up sets to prime the movement for working sets. Go for 2-5 ramp-up sets and assess and adjust accordingly.
• When focusing on strategic metabolic damage of a muscle tissue, go to town on the ramp-ups. It's all about the accumulation of density and volume, so get after it!

Basic Ramp-Up Set Template

Ramp-Up Sets

Set #	Reps	Load	Rest	Tempo
1	100%	50%	Short	Explosive
2	80%	60%	Short	Explosive
3	60%	70%	Moderate	Moderate
4	40%	80%	Moderate	Moderate
5	20%	90%	Prescribed	Moderate
6	5-10%	110%	Prescribed	Explosive

Reps: As a rule of thumb, if you're going to be doing work sets of 5 reps, the highest number of warm-up reps you'd do in a given set is about 10, which is expressed here as 100%.
The next set, you'd do 80% of the highest number of warm-up reps in a given set, which in this case is 8 reps. It should make perfect sense when you look at the sample ramp-up set below.

Sample Ramp-Up Sets

Movement: Bench Press
Working Weight: 200 pounds
Working Set/Rep Scheme: 5x10
Rest Period: 60 seconds

Ramp-Up Sets

Set #	Reps	Load	Rest	Tempo
1	10	100	30	Explosive
2	8	120	30	Explosive
3	6	140	45	Moderate
4	4	160	45	Moderate
5	2	180	60	Moderate
6	1	210	60	Explosive

Work Sets

Set #	Reps	Load	Rest	Tempo
1	5	200	60
2	5	200	60
3	5	200	60
4	5	200	60
5	5	200	60

[Aldo Raine]

Core Confusion: The Truth About Squats & Deads

Here's what you need to know...

• A few studies claim that multi-joint, free-weight exercises such as squats and deadlifts activate "core" muscles better than isolation core exercises.
• These studies have led many people to mistakenly think that all they need to do to strengthen the abs and obliques are squats and deadlifts.
• Subsequent research has shown that squats and deads don't even come close to creating the levels of activation in the rectus abdominis that thepush-up does.
• People define the word "core" incorrectly. It's not just your deep spinal stabilizers, abs, and lower back. It's your entire torso minus your arms and legs.
• The Swiss ball rollout and the Swiss ball pike are the most effective in activating the abs and obliques, prompting the author to create the "pike rollout."

For Abs, Squats and Deadlifts Suck

A few studies have taken the position that multi-joint, free-weight exercises such as barbell squats and deadlifts activate "core" muscles better than isolation core exercises.
These studies have led many trainers, coaches and exercise enthusiasts tomistakenly think that you don't need to do exercises that focus on strengthening your abs and obliques because squats and deadlifts do the job more effectively.
The truth is, when you look at the evidence, the common claim that "heavy squats and deadlifts are all you need to strengthen your abs and obliques," doesn't make sense. In fact, the common push-up activates the abs and obliques more than squats or deadlifts!
What does make sense, though, is the "single best abs exercise," which will change your thinking about core training.
The "Core" Is Not What You Think It Is

The primary reason for the misinterpretation of the core activation research? Failing to understand what the "core" muscles are to begin with.
Although just about every trainer, coach and exercise enthusiast talks about training the core in one way or the other, most are unaware that the term "core" was first coined in 1982 by Bob Gajda (1966 Mr. America) and Dr. Richard Dominquez in their book, Total Body Training.
In their book, Gajda and Dominquez described what the core is and what it does:
The first essential concept in total body training is that of the "core," which is our term for the muscles of the center of the body.
These muscles stabilize the body while we are in a correct, antigravity position or are using our arms and legs to throw or kick. They maintain our structure while we do vigorous exercises... These are the muscles that control the head, neck, ribs, spine, and pelvis.
The core of the human body is those muscles that keep the trunk and neck in a tube-like form... When your core is firm and rigid, you can do the activities it's intended to do. If the rigidity is enhanced, then you can maximize your athletic performance.
Put simply, the "core" isn't just your deep spinal stabilizers along with abs and lower back; the core is the entire torso minus the extremities (arms and legs). This means that the shoulders, chest, glutes, abs, mid-back, and lats are core muscles.
So, although you may not think of doing chest presses and back rows as "core training exercises," they most certainly are.
That said, the big takeaway from this is that you need to be strengthening allof the muscles of your torso if you want a strong "core." Keep that in mind as we look at the research on squats and deadlifts as they relate to "core" muscle activation.
A Closer Look at the (Misguided) Science

One of the two studies that are most commonly quoted as scientific "evidence" that squats and deadlifts work better for strengthening your abs and obliques is entitled Systematic Review of Core Muscle Activity During Physical Fitness Exercises.
The purpose of this article was to "systematically review the literature on the electromyographic (EMG) activity of 3 core muscles (lumbar multifidus, transverse abdominis, and quadratus lumborum) during physical fitness exercises in healthy adults."
(You scientific detective types will notice that when the authors say "core muscles," they're not referring to the rectus abdominis and the obliques.)
The major findings of this review were as follows:

• Moderate levels of evidence indicate that lumbar multifidus EMG activity is greater during free weight exercises compared with ball/device exercises and is similar during core stability and ball/device exercises.
• Transverse abdominis EMG activity is similar during core stability and ball/device exercises.

It's clear that the results of this review certainly don't demonstrate that squats and deadlifts create more activation of the rectus abdominis and oblique musculature than exercises that focus on those core muscles.
However, what these findings do tell us is if you're doing exercises like squats and deadlifts, you're not neglecting the deep (local) core stabilizing muscles like the transverse abdominis and the lumbar multifidus.
The researchers concluded that, "The available evidence suggests that strength and conditioning specialists should focus on implementing multi-joint free weight exercises, rather than core-specific exercises, to adequately train the core muscles in their athletes and clients."
Now, if you only read that conclusion, and failed to ask, "Which core muscles did the researchers of this study look at?" you can clearly see how the study was misrepresented as demonstrating that squats and deadlifts create more abdominal activation than core-focused exercises directed at those specific muscles.
Not Even as Good as a Push-Up

Another study that often gets misrepresented is entitled Trunk Muscle Activity During Stability Ball and Free Weight Exercises.
In it, squats and deadlifts were done with loads of approximately 50, 70, 90, and 100% of the subject's 1RM. Subjects also completed 3 stability ball exercises: birddog, hip bridge, and ball back extension.
The findings:

• No significant differences were observed in the rectus abdominis and external oblique muscles during any of the exercises.
• Activity of the trunk muscles during squats and deadlifts is greater or equal to that which is produced during the stability ball exercises. Squats and deadlifts are recommended for increasing strength and hypertrophy of the back extensors.

In short, this study showed that squats and deadlifts elicit high levels of activation in the posterior core muscles (i.e., the back extensors) when compared to other exercises that target the posterior core muscles.
But they didn't compare squats and deadlifts to exercises that are designed to activate the anterior core (abdominals and obliques) musculature.
Additionally, the following graphs help give you a visual of just how much or, more accurately, how little the anterior core muscles are activated during squats and deadlifts as opposed to other anterior core-specific exercise applications.
As you can see, according to this research, squats and deadlifts don't even come close to creating the levels of activation in the rectus abdominis that the push-up does.
Likewise, the graph below shows that squats and deadlifts create higher levels of muscle activation in the external obliques than they do in the rectus abdominis. However, the level of external oblique muscle activation is still well below that created by the push-up!
Complete Core Training Requires More than Squats and Deads!

If you seek to posses a truly strong "core" you need to be training all of the muscles of your torso.
We know that pushing exercises provide plenty of work for the pecs and shoulders. We also know that upper-body pulling exercises provide plenty of work for the lats and mid-back musculature. And now we know that squats and deadlifts work the heck out of our posterior core muscles.
But that leaves out the anterior core muscles (abs and obliques), which is what people generally want to work when they toss the word "core" around!
Related:  More smart ways to train your abs

So, what move or moves offer the most benefit for working these anterior core muscles?
The Pike Roll Out: The Single Best Ab Exercise

A 2010 study compared core muscle activation during Swiss ball and traditional ab exercises and found that the Swiss ball rollout and the Swiss ball pike were the most effective in activating the upper and lower abs and external and internal obliques.
So, I combined the two to make what I call the "single best ab exercise." It's called the pike rollout.
Of course, a comprehensive abdominal training program, like training any other musculature, should include several different exercise applications to ensure your workouts are well rounded.
References

1. Dominguez, R, and Gadja, R., "Total Body Training" New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons; 7-12, 1982.
2. Martuscello JM, et al. "Systematic review of core muscle activity during physical fitness exercises" J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Jun;27(6):1684-98.
3. Nuzzo JL, et al. "Trunk muscle activity during stability ball and free weight exercises" J Strength Cond Res. 2008 Jan;22(1):95-102.
4. New Training Techniques. Powerpoint presentation by Jeffrey M. McBride, PhD
Associate Professor - Biomechanics Department of Health, Leisure & Exercise Science Appalachian State University, 2006.
5. Escamilla, R.F, et al. "Core muscle activation during Swiss ball and traditional abdominal exercises" J Orthop Sports Physical Ther, 40: 265-276, 2010.

[Aldo Raine]

Link van Dynamix zijn topic:

http://forum.bodynet.nl/algemeen/666...-in-2-uur.html

[akito]

^ echt een aanrader geweldige vids

[Aldo Raine]

The 5 Best Ways to Get Stronger

Here's what you need to know...

• Rather than crush yourself with volume, try doing back-off sets at 90% of your rep work for that day.
• When you do paused reps, you not only get significantly stronger, but you develop a much tighter and much more efficient bar path.
• Do sprints, jumps, and med ball throwing exercises to expose the nervous system to a high rate of force development and thus build explosive speed.
• Choose assistance exercises that are either specific and help mimic a sticking point, or ones that are more general in nature that have a carryover to the big lifts.
• Grow muscles by using oxidative training where you perform an exercise with a continuous, slow motion tempo on both eccentric and concentric portions of the lift.

1. Do Back-Off Sets at 90%

One of the mainstays of Eastern European programming is getting a lot of submaximal training volume, especially in the 70-80% range. When you watch a lot of these lifters in a competition, their technique is absolutely flawless. Every rep from their first warm-up to a maximal attempt looks the same.
Unfortunately, most of us can't go in and immediately start crushing ourselves with volume. In this case, incorporate back-off sets at 90% of your repetition work for that day.
Let's say you're using a program like 5/3/1. You might work up to your heavy set of 5 in the first week, and then perform two back-off sets of 5 at 90% of your heaviest set for that day. For the triples week of 5/3/1, you'd do back-off sets of 3. For the singles week, you'd do back off sets of 1.
Related:  More on 5/3/1 training

The goal is to build more volume into your programming, but doing back-off sets at 90% ensures a few things:

• The nervous system is primed due to moving your heaviest sets first.
• There's a big enough drop so that it's still stimulative to the body, but shouldn't feel crushing.
• Last but not least, it's still heavy enough that there's a carryover with regards to technique, but not so heavy that technique breaks down.

This technique reaps consistent results time and again.
2. Incorporate Paused Work on Main Lifts

Many moons ago, I gave paused work it's first real run. As someone who's more of a reactive lifter (very springy and elastic), this was a humbling experience. I was consistently using far less than 50% of my 1RM and it was still kicking my ass.
However, the results were more than worth the effort. Not only did I get significantly stronger, but the biggest change was in my bar path. No longer was I dipping forward in my squats or getting loose in my bench press. All of a sudden, both these lifts had very tight and efficient bar paths and my numbers went through the roof.
Beyond improving bar path, when you slow down or pause a lift, you're taking the tendons largely out of the equation and putting the stress more squarely on the muscles.
And when you're forced to camp out in the bottom, or really slow a lift down, you'll also notice a significant improvement in your kinesthetic awareness of the lift as well.
Related:  More on pause training

To get the most out of paused work, here are two options:
Option #1: 3-second pauses each week. For example, on your squat you'll work up to your target weight for the day and then back off to 50%. From there, perform 2-3 sets of 3 reps with a 3-second pause and try to increase the weight used each week.
Option #2: Periodize your pauses like this:
Week 1: 7-second pause
Week 2: 5-second pause
Week 3: 3-second pause
Last but not least, if you're doing paused work you want to make sure every rep is tight.
3. Get More Explosive!

Lifters who are very elastic and springy benefit greatly from paused work, for all the reasons listed above. On the other hand, you have lifters that aren't springy or elastic at all.
In fact, the bar speed of every rep from their warm-ups with the bar to a limit lift looks largely the same – kinda' slow and methodical.
Can you get strong grinding out rep after rep? Sure, but there's a lot of benefit in focusing on movements that expose the nervous system to very explosive movements.
In this case, think about jumping, sprinting, and med ball throwing exercises. The key here is to ease yourself into things. If your idea of explosive work is speed squats or deadlifts, then this will definitely be a shock to the system.
Box Jumps

With regards to jumps, try box jumps. They reduce eccentric stress on landing, and they focus on the anterior chain, which translates well to squatting. On the flip side, broad jumps tax the posterior chain and should improve your deadlift.
Sprinting

Going a step further, some short sprinting will expose the nervous system to very explosive movements and a high rate of force development. It won't be specific to lifting, but that's not necessarily the goal.
Charlie Francis has noted that even though many track athletes don't make the weight room a priority, they often move very heavy weights when they do.
Related:  Build Explosive Speed

While there are other factors at play (most notably good genetics), there's probably some truth to what Francis believed. By exposing the nervous system to very explosive acts, it can carry over to other movements such as squatting and deadlifting.
Medicine Ball Throws

If box jumps or sprints are somehow problematical, med ball drills are definitely better than nothing. Try forward and backward med ball throws for lower body explosiveness, as well as plyo med ball throws for the upper body (lying on the back and having a partner drop it on you while you catch and then reverse the motion).
4. Pick the Right Assistance Exercises

If you want to squat a ton of weight, you need to train the squat. If you want to build a huge bench, you need to train the bench.
But that doesn't mean that assistance exercises should be randomly picked, or worse yet, removed all together. In fact, choosing the correct assistance exercises can be a game changer when it comes to breaking through plateaus.
There are essentially two ways you go about choosing your assistance exercises:

• Exercises that are specific and help mimic a sticking point, or...
• Exercises that are more general in nature.

Let's use the back squat as an example. If someone misses the squat in the bottom, they could use a specific exercise such as a paused back squat, or 1 and one-fourth squats to help bring up that weak area.
On the other hand, they can also choose a front squat as an assistance exercises. It's not as specific as a back squat, but it should still have some general carryover as it builds the core/trunk, hips, and thighs.
As a general rule, we often start training cycles off with more general assistance work to bring up lagging or weak areas, and as an athlete gets closer to a competition, we'll get more and more specific with regards to exercise selection.
The take home point here is that your assistance exercises can't be an afterthought. Your main lifts are absolutely the most important part of your training session, but assistance exercises that are right for you will absolutely take your gains to the next level.
5. Use Oxidative Lifting in the Off-Season

I don't know about you, but if I'm trying to move a limit lift, I don't care what types of muscle fibers are helping me. Slow-twitch, fast-twitch, whatever, if they're willing to help me get that damn weight up, I want their help! That's why we give a little love to all type of muscle fibers, slow-twitch included.
For example, we use oxidative (or tempo) lifting to hypertrophy slow-twitch muscle fibers. Let's use squatting as an example:
Un-rack the weight and perform your squat with a continuous motion or tempo, like 202 or 303. The goal is to move slowly on both the eccentric and concentric portions of the lift.
Furthermore, don't lock the joints out for the entirety of the set! As soon as you get near the top, immediately move right back into the next rep.
There's a lot of debate over appropriate work to rest ratios, number of sets, etc. However, I generally start with a 1:1 work to rest ratio (40 on, 40 off) for 3-5 sets. A few practical notes:
Don't be a hero. Done correctly, this is a merciless technique. Better to start off too light and add weight than to shortchange your efforts by doing things too quickly.
Whenever possible, find joint-friendly variations. If you're doing a back squat, holding the bar on your back for extended periods of time while tempo squatting can be downright uncomfortable. Opt for a safety squat bar to take stress off the shoulders while simultaneously blowing up your legs.

[Aldo Raine]

Feel Better for 10 Bucks

Here's what you need to know...

• Make injury-prone muscles more resilient with self-myofascial release.
• Foam roll correctly and you'll get more benefits than what you'd get from stretching.
• Eliminate adhesions in muscle tissue and improve your posture with consistent foam rolling.
• Adjust the pressure and learn key techniques to get the most from foam rolling.

Ten bucks doesn't buy much nowadays. You could pick up a day pass at some commercial gym, or pull off the co-pay on a visit to the chiropractor. If you're lucky, you might even be able to swing a mediocre Russian mail order bride.
Or, you could just go the safe route with your $10, take our advice, and receive a lifetime of relief from the annoying tightness so many athletes and weekend warriors feel from incessantly beating on their bodies.
Don't worry, this isn't an infomercial. We just want you to pick up a foam roller for self-myofascial release and deep tissue massage.
How does it work?

Self-myofascial release (SMR) on a foam roller is possible thanks to the principle known as autogenic inhibition. You've likely heard of the Golgi Tendon Organ (GTO) at some point in your training career. The GTO is a mechanoreceptor found at the muscle-tendon junction; it's highly sensitive to changes in tension in the muscle.
When tension increases to the point of high risk of injury (i.e. tendon rupture), the GTO stimulates muscle spindles to relax the muscle in question. This reflex relaxation is autogenic inhibition. The GTO isn't only useful in protecting us from injuries, but it also plays a role in making proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretching techniques highly effective.
The muscle contraction that precedes the passive stretch stimulates the GTO, which in turn causes relaxation that facilitates this passive stretch and allows for greater range of motion. With foam rolling, you can simulate this muscle tension, thus causing the GTO to relax the muscle. Essentially, you get many of the benefits of stretching and then some.
It's also fairly well accepted that muscles need to not only be strong, but pliable as well. Regardless of whether you're a bodybuilder, strength athlete, or ordinary weekend warrior, it's important to have strength and optimal function through a full range of motion.
While stretching will improve the length of the muscle, SMR and massage work to adjust the tone of the muscle. Performing one while ignoring the other is like reading T Nation but never actually lifting weights to put the info to good use.
What's SMR good for?

Traditional stretching techniques simply cause transient increases in muscle length (assuming that we don't exceed the "point of no return" on the stress-strain curve, which will lead to unwanted deformities). SMR on the foam roller, on the other hand, offers these benefits and breakdown of soft tissue adhesions and scar tissue.
One mustn't look any further than the overwhelmingly positive results numerous individuals have had with Active Release Techniques (ART) to recognize the value of eliminating adhesions and scar tissue. Unfortunately, from both a financial and convenience standpoint, we can't all expect to get ART done on a frequent basis.
Related:  How to Build Bulletproof Shoulders

SMR on the foam roller offers an effective, inexpensive, and convenient way to both reduce adhesion and scar tissue accumulation and eliminate what's already present on a daily basis. Just note that like stretching, foam rolling doesn't yield marked improvements overnight. You'll need to be diligent and stick with it (although you'll definitely notice acute benefits).
Foam rollers can also play a valuable role in correcting postural afflictions. Get to work on those tight muscles and you'll definitely see appreciable returns on your efforts!
What you'll need: 6" foam roller (either the 1' long or 3' long version)
Techniques

These techniques are actually very simple to learn. Basically, you just use your body weight to sandwich the roller between the soft tissue to be released and the floor. Roll at a slow pace and actually stop and bear down on the most tender spots ("hot spots"). Once the pain in these spots diminishes, roll the other areas.
In order to increase the pressure on the soft tissue, simply apply more of your body weight to the roller. The simplest way to do this is by either moving from working both legs at once to one leg, or by "stacking" one of your legs on top of the other to increase the tension.
As you get more comfortable with SMR, you'll really want to be bearing down on the roller with most (if not all) of your body weight. As with almost anything in the training world, there's considerable room for experimentation, so you'll definitely want to play around with the roller to see what works best for you. Be careful to avoid bony prominences, though.
One other technique we've found to be beneficial is to work from the proximal (nearest the center of the body) to the distal (away from the center of the body) attachment of the muscle. For instance, instead of working your quadriceps from top to bottom all in one shot, shorten your stroke a little bit. Work the top half first, and after it has loosened up, move on to the bottom half.
Related:  10 Forgotten Tips for Smarter Lifting

This is an important strategy because as you get closer to the distal muscle-tendon junction, there's a concomitant increase in tension. By working the top half first, you decrease the ensuing tension at the bottom, essentially taking care of the problem in advance.
Note: Those with circulatory problems and chronic pain diseases (e.g. fibromyalgia) should not use foam rollers.
Demonstrations and Descriptions

Hamstrings: Try these with the feet turned in, out, and pointing straight ahead to work the entire hamstring complex. Balance on your hands with your hamstrings resting on the roller, then roll from the base of the glutes to the knee. To increase loading, you can stack one leg on top of the other.
Hip Flexors: Balance on your forearms with the top of one thigh on the roller. Roll from the upper thigh into the hip. Try this with the femur both internally and externally rotated. To do so, shift the position of the contralateral pelvis.
Tensor Fascia Latae and Iliotibial Band: These are a little tricky, so we've included pictures from two different angles. This will probably be the most painful.
In the starting position, lie on your side with the roller positioned just below your pelvis. From here, you'll want to roll all the way down the lateral aspect of your thigh until you reach the knee. Stack the opposite leg on top to increase loading.
Adductors: Balance on your forearms with the top of one of your inner thighs resting on the roller. From this position, roll all the way down to the adductor tubercle -- just above the inside of the knee. You'll even get a little vastus medialis work in while you're there.
Quadriceps: This is similar to the hip flexor version. Roll further down on the thigh. You can perform this with either one or two legs on the roller.
Gluteus Medius and Piriformis: Lie on your side with the meaty part of your lateral glutes resting on the roller. Balance on one elbow with the same side leg on the ground and roll that lateral aspect of your glutes from top to bottom.
Gluteus Maximus: Set up like you're going to roll your hamstrings, but sit on the roller instead. Roll your glutes.
Calves: This is similar to the hamstrings roll. Just roll from knee to ankle. Try this with the toes up (dorsiflexion) and down (plantarflexion). Stack one leg on top of the other to increase loading.
Tibialis Anterior: This is just like the quad roll, but you're working on your shins instead.
Peroneals: This one is similar to the TFL/ITB roll. We're just working on the lower leg now. Roll along the side of the lower leg from the knee to the ankle.
Thoracolumbar Fascia: With your arms folded across your chest, lie face-up with the roller positioned under your mid-back. Elevate your glutes and roll from the base of the scapulae to the top of the pelvis. Emphasize one side at a time with a slight lean to one side.
Thoracic Extensors, Middle and Lower Trapezius, Rhomboids: With your arms behind your head (not pulling on the neck), lie supine with roller positioned in the middle of your back; your glutes should be on the ground. Roll upward, reversing direction when you reach the level of the armpits. This can help correct kyphosis.
Latissimus Dorsi and Teres Major: Lie on your side with the same side arm overhead. The roller should be positioned at the attachment of the lat on the scapula in the starting position. Roll toward the armpit.
Triceps: Start with your body in the same position as you would for the latissimus dorsi. Place the roller at the top of your triceps (near your armpit) and your head on top of your arm to increase the tension.
Related:  4 Steps to Fix Your Triceps

Pectoralis Major and Anterior Deltoid: Lie face-down with the roller positioned at an angle slightly to one side of the sternum. The arm on this side should be about 135° (halfway between completely overhead and where it would be at the completion of a lateral raise). Roll toward the armpit.
Foam Rolling Tips

Most commercial gyms have a stretching area and a few foam rollers handy, but if you'd prefer to take your time in privacy, you can get one at any sporting goods store or online.
Note that the harder the foam roller, the more pressure it'll place on your muscles. If you've never used a foam roller before, try a softer one to start with. The more experienced you are foam rolling, the firmer you'll need it to be.

[Aldo Raine]

5 Supplementen die werken door Maurice van der Wardt

Voedingssupplementen zijn er in alle vormen; pillen, poeders, druppels, capsules of drankjes en zoals de naam al doet vermoeden, suppleren ze. Oftewel ze zijn bedoeld als aanvulling op de dagelijkse voeding. Of je nu je sportieve doelen wilt ondersteunen of je gezondheid wilt verbeteren: je kunt kiezen uit ontelbaar veel potjes met soms moeilijk uitspreekbare teksten. De vraag is of al deze producten een legitieme plaats in ons keukenkastje verdienen aangezien niet elk product bewezen werkzaam is. In dit artikel worden enkele supplementen beschreven die bewezen effectief zijn bevonden:

• Creatine
• Visolie
• Cafeïne
• Vitamine D
• Whey-eiwit

---

Creatine

Creatine is één van de meest gebruikte supplementen door sporters. Onze lever, alvleesklier en nieren vormen dagelijks een kleine hoeveelheid creatine uit de aminozuren (bouwstenen van eiwit) arginine, methionine en glycine die in eiwitrijke producten zitten. Creatine is dus een lichaamseigen stof en zit bijvoorbeeld in vleessoorten zoals rund- en varkensvlees, maar ook in vis zoals zalm en haring. Dagelijks krijgen we ongeveer 0,5 – 1,0g creatine binnen via onze voeding.

Werking
Om kortdurende, intensieve inspanningen te leveren gebruikt het lichaam voornamelijk ATP (adenosinetrifosfaat). De voorraad ATP in onze cellen is helaas na enkele seconden op. Door suppletie van creatine kunnen we deze voorraad snel aanvullen zodat we langer op hoge intensiteit kunnen bewegen. Het suppleren van creatine zorgt er tevens voor dat het lichaam meer vocht vasthoudt in de spieren. Voor een bodybuilder is dit een voordeel omdat de spier hierdoor groter lijkt. Sporters die actief zijn in gewichtsklassen dienen rekening te houden met het extra gewicht aan vocht dat gepaard gaat met de toegenomen creatinewaarden in het lichaam.

Verschillende vormen van creatine
Tegenwoordig zijn er veel verschillende vormen van creatine verkrijgbaar. De claims lopen uiteen van een ‘verbeterde opname’ tot een ‘verbeterd transportsysteem’. Keer op keer laat onderzoek echter zien dat creatine monohydraat de beste (en goedkoopste) keuze blijft om te gebruiken [1].

Laadfase en tussentijds stoppen met creatine
Een beginperiode van 2 weken waarbij je een verhoogde dosering van 10-20 gram creatine per dag neemt, kan ervoor zorgen dat je eerder gebruik kunt maken van de positieve effecten die creatine biedt, maar met een standaard dosering van 2-5 gram per dag heb je na verloop van tijd dezelfde voordelen [2].
Het is niet nodig om na een aantal weken te stoppen met het nemen van creatine uit angst dat het lichaam anders geen creatine meer opneemt. Ook zijn er geen nadelige gezondheidseffecten gevonden bij het langdurig suppleren van creatine[3]. Het is dus veilig om creatine langdurig, onafgebroken te gebruiken.

Nadelen
Het enige nadeel dat is gevonden bij het gebruik van creatine is buikkramp en misselijkheid wanneer creatine zonder water wordt ingenomen of er in 1 keer te veel creatine wordt ingenomen. Creatine bij de maaltijd nemen, lijkt dit probleem bij de meeste mensen te verhelpen.

Conclusie
Het suppleren van 2-5g creatine per dag is een veilige, goedkope en effectieve manier om je sportprestaties te verbeteren. Het blijkt effectief voor het verbeteren van kortdurende, intensieve inspanningen, zoals krachttraining [4]. Voor duurinspanningen is het suppleren van creatine niet zinvol.

---

Visolie

Omega-3-vetzuren (visvetzuren) zijn meervoudig onverzadigde vetzuren. De bekendste zijn alfa-linoleenzuur (ALA), eicosapentaeenzuur (EPA) en docosahexaeenzuur (DHA).

Werking
Visvetzuren worden in ons lichaam omgezet in ontstekingsremmende stoffen die eicosanoïden worden genoemd. De werkzame bestanddelen in visolie zijn de essentiële vetzuren EPA en DHA:

• EPA is de voorloper van verschillende hormoonachtige stoffen die een belangrijke rol spelen bij ontstekingsreacties en het immuunsysteem.
• DHA beïnvloedt de vloeibaarheid, dikte en functie van onze celmembranen. We noemen deze vetzuren semi-essentieel, omdat ons lichaam deze vetzuren niet of nauwelijks zelf kan aanmaken. Het is dus belangrijk om d.m.v. voeding of het suppleren van visoliecapsules af en toe wat omega-3 binnen te krijgen.

In de meeste omega-3 producten zit voornamelijk ALA. Ons lichaam kan vervolgens zelf EPA en DHA aanmaken uit dit ALA. De hoeveelheden ALA die uiteindelijk in het lichaam wordt omgezet in EPA en DHA lijken erg laag te zijn. Van ALA wordt er tussen de 0,2-8% uiteindelijk omgezet in EPA en voor DHA is dit 0-4% [5], vandaar dat het eten van vette vis (dat bruikbare hoeveelheden EPA en DHA bevat) wordt aangeraden.

Verhouding met omega-6 vetzuren
Omega-6 zit voornamelijk in plantaardige oliën zoals zonnebloemolie, maïsolie en sojaolie, maar ook in margarine, halvarine, bak- en braadvetten, vlees en eieren. Als we van één van beide vetzuren te veel binnen krijgen, worden de beschikbare enzymen door dit vetzuur opgeëist, en verliest het andere vetzuur als het ware ‘de strijd om de enzymen’, met als gevolg dat deze veel minder goed wordt omgezet. De ideale verhouding tussen omega-3 en omega-6 vetzuren is niet geheel duidelijk maar lijkt ergens tussen de 1:1 en 1:4 te liggen [6].

Voordelen [7-11]

• Verkleint het risico op hart- en vaatziekten;
• Lagere hoeveelheid vetzuren in het bloed;
• Gaat de ontwikkeling tegen van plaque (vaatvernauwing).

De Gezondheidsraad adviseert volwassenen om per dag 450 milligram omega 3-vetzuren uit vis (visvetzuren) binnen te krijgen. Deze aanbeveling kan worden gehaald door per week 2 porties vis te eten, waarvan tenminste een keer vette vis.
Ook kun je producten met toegevoegde omega-3 vetzuren in je voedingspatroon toevoegen zoals eieren van kippen die extra lijnzaadolie door hun voeding hebben gekregen. Een omega-3 ei bevat ongeveer 600mg omega-3 vetzuren waarvan 480mg ALA en 120mg EPA/DHA

Nadelen
Mogelijke nadelen die kunnen optreden bij een (te) hoge inname van omega-3 (meerdere grammen EPA/DHA per dag) zijn o.a. afnemende viscositeit van het bloed, stimulering van plaquevorming in de aderen, afname van het immuunsysteem en toenemende insulineresistentie. [12-16]

Belangrijk bij het kiezen van visoliecapsules
Omega-3 concentraties (EPA en DHA) variëren enorm. Vergelijk daarom de concentratie EPA en DHA in de visolieproducten. Veel visoliemerken roepen dat ze wel 1000 mg visolie bevatten per capsule maar deze visolie bevat vaak maar 30% omega-3 vetzuren (EPA en DHA). Kijk dus altijd op het etiket!
In de praktijk is het zinvol om elke dag gemiddeld 2 capsules visolie met voldoende EPA en DHA te nemen.

Conclusie
Eet elke week 1 of meerdere keren vette vis of suppleer met visoliecapsules of andere voedingsproducten waaraan omega-3 is toegevoegd om aan je dagelijkse behoefte van omega-3 vetzuren te voldoen.

---

Cafeïne

Cafeïne is wellicht de meest bekende stimulant ter wereld. Het is voornamelijk te vinden in koffie, cacao en thee, maar ook in supplementvorm.

Werking
Caffeïne blokkeert de werking van de stof adenosine, dit beinvloedt de productie van dopamine, serotonine, acetylcholine en adrenaline. Cafeïne heeft hierdoor een stimulerende werking op het centraal zenuwstelsel waardoor de concentratie verbetert en de vermoeidheid wordt onderdrukt [17, 18].

Uitdroging?
Het is een misverstand dat cafeïne uitdroogt; de hoeveelheid urine van mensen verandert niet na inname van cafeïne [19] (zie ook het artikel: Leidt koffie tot uitdroging?). Wel kan het gebruik van cafeïne houdende dranken zoals koffie of frisdranken voor slapeloosheid zorgen of de kwaliteit van onze slaap verminderen. Mensen die dagelijks veel koffie drinken merken vaak minder van de effecten van cafeïne; zij zijn gewend geraakt aan de stimulerende werking van de stof. Daarnaast heb je grote persoonlijke verschillen in de gevoeligheid voor cafeïne. Houd hier rekening mee bij doseringen.
Veel sporters nemen cafeïne voor de fysieke inspanning vanwege de positieve effecten op hun alertheid en de onderdrukking van de vermoeidheid. Standaard doseringen lopen uiteen van 100-400mg.

Conclusie
Cafeïne biedt een aantal positieve effecten op het concentratievermogen en focus. Ook kan het gebruik van cafeïne prestatie verhogende effecten hebben op het duurvermogen.
Mensen die gevoelig zijn voor cafeïne dienen een lagere dosering aan te houden dan mensen die, o.a. door het veelvuldig consumeren van cafeïne, gewend zijn geraakt aan de eigenschappen van cafeïne.
In de praktijk komt dit neer op het consumeren van 1 of meerdere cafeïne houdende producten per dag. Een dosis cafeïne in pilvorm wordt sneller opgenomen dan de cafeïne uit koffie.

---

Vitamine D

Het is relevant om te melden dat vitamine D officieel geen vitamine is. Een voorwaarde voor een stof om vitamine genoemd te mogen worden, is namelijk dat het lichaam de stof zelf niet kan aanmaken. Ons lichaam kan echter wel, al is het beperkt, vitamine D aanmaken uit cholesterol.
Vitamine D is een groep van in vet oplosbare prohormonen. Prohormoon betekent dat het in het lichaam de kracht van een bepaald hormoon verbetert. In het geval van vitamine D is dit het steroïdehormoon calcitriol.
Vitamine D zit zeer beperkt in voeding, daarom is het toegevoegd aan margarine en bak- en braadproducten. De zon vormt een belangrijke bron van vitamine D. In het verleden heeft de overheid daarom ook veelvuldig de blootstelling aan daglicht gestimuleerd.
Het advies van de Gezondheidsraad is om dagelijks tussen 11.00 – 15.00 uur 15 tot 30 minuten met handen en hoofd onbedekt buiten te zijn [20]. In de lente- en zomermaanden is het zonlicht in Nederland krachtig genoeg om voldoende vitamine D in de huid aan te maken. Helaas is in Nederland de zon in de herfst en winter van onvoldoende sterkte en het suppleren van extra vitamine D is dan aan te raden. Voor mensen die niet genoeg buiten komen in de lente en zomer, vaak bedekkende kleding dragen of in een verzorgings- of verpleegtehuis wonen, geldt het advies van de Gezondheidsraad om het hele jaar vitamine D-supplementen in de vorm van tabletten te nemen.

Conclusie
Advies omtrent vitamine D: Aangezien wij vitamine D niet of nauwelijks via onze voeding binnen kunnen krijgen en, afhankelijk van het jaargetijde, moeite hebben om via het zonlicht voldoende vitamine D op te nemen dienen verschillende groepen mensen vitamine D te suppleren.








* Een getinte of donkere huid maakt minder (snel) vitamine D aan uit zonlicht. Op de Fitzpatrick-schaal is dit huidtype IV, V, VI. Als vuistregel kun je stellen dat dit een huid is die niet verbrandt voor hij bruin wordt. Vaak zijn deze mensen (deels) van Zuid-Europese, Aziatische, Midden-Oostelijke, Indiase, Indonesische of negroïde afkomst.
** Voldoende buiten is dagelijks 15 tot 30 minuten met handen en hoofd onbedekt.
Bron: www.vitamineinfo.nl

---

Whey-eiwit

Veel sporters, vooral die aan vormen van krachttraining doen, hebben een verhoogde eiwitbehoefte. Om in deze eiwitbehoefte te voorzien voegen veel sporters af en toe whey-eiwit, in poedervorm, toe aan een drank i.c.m. water of melk: de zogenaamde ‘eiwitshake’.
Whey-eiwit is één van de twee eiwitten in melk, het andere is caseïne-eiwit. Whey is de vloeistof die overblijft van de melk, van welk dier dan ook, na de kaasbereiding.

Voordelen

• Whey-eiwit wordt snel opgenomen in het lichaam [21]. Hierdoor zien we in de praktijk dat een eiwitshake vaak na het sporten of na een periode van vasten (zoals slapen) wordt gedronken met als doel het lichaam (zo snel mogelijk) in een anabole (spieropbouwende) staat te krijgen. Dit effect is groter dan bij andere soorten eiwit. Dit kan vooral voor krachtsporters zinvol zijn aangezien dit de toename van vetvrije massa (spierweefsel) stimuleert.
• Whey-eiwit heeft een hoge biologische waarde.

Een hoge biologische waarde houdt in dat er relatief veel essentiële aminozuren (aminozuren die wij als mens niet zelf kunnen aanmaken en dus uit voeding moeten halen) in de juiste verhouding (overeenkomend met die in het menselijk lichaam) aanwezig zijn. Ook de PDCAAS (Protein Digestibilty Corrected Amino Acid Score) is positief.
Simpel gezegd wil de PDCAAS zeggen dat whey-eiwit een compleet aminozuurprofiel heeft en daarnaast goed verteerbaar is door het menselijk lichaam [22].

Conclusie
Whey-eiwit biedt een kwalitatief hoogwaardig aminozuurprofiel en het suppleren van whey-eiwit is, vooral voor sporters, een goede manier om in hun dagelijkse eiwitbehoefte te voorzien.
Conclusie overall

Het aanbod van voedingssupplementen is de afgelopen jaren sterk gestegen. Zowel in online- als fysieke winkels kunnen we allerlei pillen en poeders kopen. De vraag is of elk supplement daadwerkelijk het beoogde (positieve) effect heeft. Het is zinvol om kritisch te zijn en enkel te suppleren wanneer nodig.

En nu?

Prestatieverbetering en positieve gezondheidseffecten zijn de meest gebruikte motieven als het om supplementen gaat. Belangrijk is om supplementen ook daadwerkelijk te blijven zien als supplementen. Een gevarieerd voedingspatroon dat voorziet in een voldoende inname van zowel macro- als micronutriënten geniet de voorkeur boven suppletie.

[Aldo Raine]

Four "Healthy" Foods that Aren't

Here's what you need to know...

• Fat is not the abomination we used to believe it was, but vegetable oils do more harm than good.
• Conventional dairy contains estrogens increasing the likelihood of prostate, breast, and ovarian cancer. It also contains far less omega-3s, CLA, and fat-soluble vitamins than organic dairy.
• Gluten isn't just a problem for those with celiac disease; a large part of the population is gluten sensitive. It binds to vitamin D and is linked to autoimmune disorders and more.
• Fat-free, reduced-fat, and sugar-free foods are deceiving. Healthiness is dependent on nutrition, and these products are nutritionally void. Just eat the real stuff.

Rethinking "Healthy"

While catchy titles like "Evil foods lurking in your pantry!" may sell magazines, with the exception of trans-fats, there really aren't any foods that are inherently evil.
People – and especially the media – view nutrition as if it's composed of these stark black and white rules: X food is "deadly," Y food is "clean." But that couldn't be further from the truth.
Some foods are definitely healthier than others, but what has to be considered is the context and dose-dependent nature of foods and their associated nutrients.
Even decidedly healthful foods like broccoli or even water can be "deadly" when consumed in excess.
Broccoli, like all vegetables in the brassica family, contains goitrogens and in high amounts can interfere with iodine and its incorporation into thyroid hormone. Water, when consumed to excess, can suppress electrolytes and lead to hyponatremia, even death.
Anything consumed in excess can be problematic, regardless of how healthy they say it is. And many foods people think of as healthful, and therefor intentionally consume in large amounts, aren't as great as originally thought.
The following four foods are ones that many believe to be sterling examples of health. To make matters worse, these four foods are often consumed in large amounts to what I believe is a detriment to your health.

Food #1 Polyunsaturated Vegetable Oils

While researchers finally recognize that saturated fat is not the cause of heart disease, they still glorify polyunsaturated vegetable oils for their supposed ability to decrease cardiovascular disease risk.
Sure, research has shown that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat does decrease LDL-C, but it also simultaneously decreases HDL-C. Remind me again how this is a good thing? I don't know too many people who need their HDL-C lowered.
Not to mention, there's a strong theory that poor omega-6 to omega-3 ratio has contributed significantly to obesity, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases.

Related:  Increase omega-3 and reduce inflammation

Many researchers believe this to be true, yet espouse people to increase their polyunsaturated fat intake from vegetable oils, which are tremendously high in omega-6 and low in omega-3.
It's thought that humans evolved eating diets that provided about a 4:1 to 1:1 omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. That ratio is now thought to be about 16-30:1 in favor of omega-6's! Tell me again why I want to consume more omega-6 fatty acids?

Excessive Omega-6 Fatty Acid Consumption

In mouse models, it's been shown that a poor omega-6 to omega-3 ratio (anywhere from 28-77:1) caused progressively increasing obesity over three to four generations. Mice fed an isocaloric diet with a significantly improved ratio of 9.5:1 did not develop obesity.
While we're not mice, it still raises the possibility that excessive omega-6 fatty acids can have negative effects in humans.
Industrial seed oils like corn, cottonseed, safflower, soybean, and sunflower are not foods we should look to increase in our diets. These oils were never a significant contributor to the human diet until the past 50 years, so why should they be now? Because they're cheap, that's why, but I digress.
The strange part is these plants are not potent fat sources, especially corn. To concentrate the oil and make it usable, it has to be exposed to high heat, degummed, refined, bleached, deodorized, and other nasty stuff to produce a clear oil with a long shelf life.
These oils are now devoid of the polyphenols that provide antioxidant protection for the easily oxidized polyunsaturated fats.
Linoleic acid is the main omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid and it's a very bio-active little bastard. It's a precursor to eicosanoids, which influence the development of fat tissue, inflammation, and immunity.
We're already consuming far more linoleic acid than ever, which is accumulating in our fat tissue, even showing up in increasing amounts in breast milk.
However, unlike most other fatty acids, linoleic acid accumulates disproportionately in body fat. In fact, the percentage of linoleic acid in subcutaneous fat has increased from 8% to about 16% since 1960. Inflammation anyone?
The average American already gets 7-8% of their calories from omega-6 fats, and since there's a large body of evidence linking excess omega-6 fat consumption with several cancers, and to a lesser degree an increase in heart disease, how is it a good idea to increase that intake?
Fact is, when omega-6 fats are kept below 4% of calories, as they were in the US before the 20th century, there seems to be a dramatic effect on the incidence and progression of cancer.
We do need omega-6 fatty acids – they're essential – but trying to consume more to "lower the risk" of cardiovascular disease is stupid. These fats have their place, but it's from nuts and animal sources – foods that we've consumed throughout our history – not from highly processed vegetable oils with a questionable track record.

Food #2 Conventional Dairy

Dairy is a perfect example of context. On the one hand, consuming dairy from pasture-raised, grass-fed cows is a good thing. On the other hand, consuming dairy from conventionally raised, corn-fed cows? Not so much.
While some would argue that we shouldn't consume dairy at all, the fact is that humans began to consume dairy about 10,000 years ago and many cultures have subsisted on tremendous amounts of dairy, without any of the problems often associated with it.
The difference is that traditional dairy was from cows that ate grass, got exercise, fresh air, and sunshine. Their quality of life, and therefore quality of milk, was excellent.

Industrialized Cows Make Milk You Shouldn't Drink

Fast forward to today and things have changed. Milk demand has increased greatly in the last hundred years, and so the industry responded.
Cows moved off family farms and onto concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs); huge factory farms where they're fed tons of corn, stand in their own excrement, and are given antibiotics to prevent the illnesses resulting from that corn consumption and the unsanitary living conditions.
Let's not forget they're given copious amounts of growth hormones to speed their growth and further increase their milk production. Appetizing, I know.
Traditionally, cows were allowed a seasonal reproductive cycle and were milked for only six weeks after giving birth. Today's conventional dairy farmers inseminate cows only a few months after giving birth, which can compromise the immune system and decrease milk quality.
What's worse, it will also cause a huge increase in estrogens in the milk you're eventually drinking. These estrogens can fuel the growth of several tumors and are linked to prostate, breast, and ovarian cancer.
Cows allowed to graze on grass and have seasonal reproductive cycles have significantly less estrogens in their milk, levels that have never caused problems.
Corn-fed dairy also contains far less omega-3, CLA, and fat-soluble vitamins. This is simply not a healthful food, especially when healthier options are quite readily available.
Is a little conventional dairy going to be a problem? Probably not. Is three servings a day of factory farm Frankendairy a good idea? Doubtful.
Below is a table to give you a little perspective on the changes in the lives of milking cows caused by the move off the family farm and onto the CAFO's.

Life of a cow (1850)	Life of a cow (2005)
Grazed on pastures	Raised in confined feedlot with grains
Produced 56 pounds of milk/day	Produced 67 pounds of milk/day
Milked for 6 days after birth	Milked for 10 months after birth (and during subsequent pregnancies)
336 pounds of milk per year	20,000 pounds of milk per year
Life span of 20 years before dying of natural causes	Life span of 3-4 years before being sent to the slaughterhouse. "Spent" dairy cows are used for the cheapest forms of beef.

Food #3 Wheat and Gluten

Gluten is a protein in wheat, rye, barley, and a few other less common grains. It's a sticky protein, and it's literally what makes bread dough sticky; extra gluten is often added to bread to improve its texture even more.
This is why gluten-free or lower-gluten breads tend to crumble apart much easier than traditional bread varieties. While many grains contain gluten, wheat is by far the greatest source.
Those with celiac disease can't tolerate gluten. Celiac is an autoimmune disease that leads to a deterioration of the lining of the small intestine and it's caused by gluten consumption. The villi of the small intestine – the site where nutrients are absorbed – are damaged and nutrient absorption is significantly impaired.
While gluten is a definite no-no to people with celiac disease, even people who don't have the disease can be susceptible to gluten-related problems.

The Case for Gluten Sensitivity

It's a given that many people with celiac disease are deficient in Vitamin D. However, when celiac-free volunteers were fed wheat, they used their Vitamin D stores up at an increased rate.
About 12% of the American population can be diagnosed as gluten sensitive, with a smaller portion having full-blown celiac disease.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of these cases are undiagnosed. This is scary because gluten sensitivity is correlated with autoimmune disorders, cancer, neurological problems, and more.

Related:  The Not So Ugly Truth About Gluten?

Even though the percentage of diagnosed individuals is small, it's estimated that about 40% of the American population is genetically predisposed to developing celiac disease, though clearly not everyone who is susceptible will actually develop the disease.
While many health experts have used this information to declare all grains to be evil and best avoided, this is where a little perspective and context should come into play: Humans have consumed grains in some form or another for at least 100,000 years!
I'm certainly not advocating that everyone completely avoid all wheat and gluten, but to simply be mindful of its consumption.
This is why I prefer sprouted grain breads and bread products: the sprouting process will greatly decrease anti-nutrient content, though it won't do a thing to gluten.
Fortunately, these products are made with more than just wheat (including beans, lentils and some gluten-free millet), decreasing the overall gluten content of the bread.

Food #4 Fat-Free, Sugar-Free, Reduced-Fat Anything

So many people believe that if they make a dessert out of fat-free, sugar-free pudding, then it is "healthier." Is it?
It may contain less calories, but what the hell is it made from? Have you ever read the ingredients of some of that stuff? One common ingredient in "sugar-free" foods is maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is a glucose polymer, and while it's technically not a sugar – it's still a sugar!
So while your Jell-O may be "sugar-free," it simply contains a bunch of maltodextrin. A rose by any other name...

Related:  10 Mistakes Women Make With Diets

Healthy ought to mean nutrient-dense. Maltodextrin, sugar, and fat substitutes don't fit the bill. So if you're going to have dessert, have some damn dessert! If you're going to eat ice cream, eat real ice cream. Make it worth your while.
Can there be a time and a place for these foods? Of course. Should you consume them on a consistent basis? I wouldn't advise it. Maybe that's just me, but I simply prefer real food.

Minimal Damage Diet

The foods you consistently consume are what determine your health status, so if you consistently make good choices with some industrial vegetable oil, conventional dairy, unsprouted wheat, or reduced fat cheese sprinkled in, you'll be fine.
I'm not saying that these foods need to be avoided at all costs, but minimizing their intake is a good thing.
While there are no good and bad foods per se, there are good and bad diets, and a little common sense goes a very long way.

References

Ravnskov U, et al. The questionable role of saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids in cardiovascular disease. J Clin Epidemiol. 1998 Jun;51(6):443-60.
Ailhaud G, et al. Temporal changes in dietary fats: role of n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in excessive adipose tissue development and relationship to obesity. Prog Lipid Res. 2006 May;45(3):203-36.
Witting LA, Lee L. Recommended dietary allowance for vitamin E: relation to dietary, erythrocyte and adipose tissue linoleate. Am J Clin Nutr. 1975 Jun;28(6):577-83.
Berry EM, et al. The relationship of dietary fat to plasma lipid levels as studied by factor analysis of adipose tissue fatty acid composition in a free-living population of middle-aged American men. Am J Clin Nutr. 1986 Aug;44(2):220-31.
Baylin A, et al. Adipose tissue biomarkers of fatty acid intake. Am J Clin Nutr. 2002 Oct;76(4):750-7.
Hanbauer I, et al. The Decrease of n-3 Fatty Acid Energy Percentage in an Equicaloric Diet Fed to B6C3Fe Mice for Three Generations Elicits Obesity. Cardiovasc Psychiatry Neurol. 2009;2009:867041. Epub 2009 Sep 16.
Ngo TH, et al. Effect of isocaloric low-fat diet on human LAPC-4 prostate cancer xenografts in severe combined immunodeficient mice and the insulin-like growth factor axis. Clin Cancer Res. 2003 Jul;9(7):2734-43.
Ganmaa D, Sato A. The possible role of female sex hormones in milk from pregnant cows in the development of breast, ovarian and corpus uteri cancers. Med Hypotheses. 2005;65(6):1028-37.
Ryan Andrews. All About Milk. All About Milk | Precision Nutrition. (June 22, 2009)
Zanchi C, et al. Bone metabolism in celiac disease. J Pediatr. 2008 Aug;153(2):262-5.
Batchelor AJ, Compston JE. Reduced plasma half-life of radio-labelled 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 in subjects receiving a high-fibre diet. Br J Nutr. 1983 Mar;49(2):213-6.

[Aldo Raine]

The 100 Laws of Muscle

Training

1. There is no perfect training program. In fact, very intelligent, very successful coaches often disagree with one another. That means you're going to have to learn a lot, think for yourself, and experiment. Don't like that? Take up jogging.
2. The effectiveness of any training program is directly related to the effort you put into it. If a program "doesn't work" it's probably because you're half-assing it. Effort trumps everything.
3. Three words: Ass. In. Gym. Stop using "research" as a procrastination method. Yes, read articles and learn as much as you can, but most of what you learn will come from dedicated ass-in-gym time.
4. Any workout can make you tired. But a good workout program will make you better.
5. Working out to look great may be shallow, but so is wearing makeup, taking selfies, and grooming of any sort. Pick your shallow.
6. When the average person thinks "I need to lose weight" they assume they need to start running. A better answer? Start lifting.
7. Stop it with the sissy gloves. Calluses are your body's way of saying, "Fixed it. More please."
8. Beware of gimmicks. Training that drastically changes your body won’t include many "functional" exercises with balance balls or wobble boards. You're not in rehab. You’re building muscle and strength.
9. Bodybuilding is functional. Its most obvious function is to make you look better. This is true for females just as much as it is for males. Big muscles aren't weak muscles. And building them is not for the weak minded.
10. Training may not always be fun, but it will always be rewarding. Lifelong rewards beat temporary fun.
11. Balance brutal workouts with long slow walks, preferably outdoors.
12. Long distance cardio makes you good at long distance cardio. Conditioning work – short, fast, and brutally intense – makes you good at everything.
13. The cardio paradox: The more efficient you become, the less fat you burn with the same amount of work. Efficiency is great if you're racing, not if you're trying to lose body fat.
14. Better to be "bulky" with muscle mass than to lose muscle mass, lower your metabolism, become weak, and then get bulky with body fat.
15. The more muscular "bulk" you have the easier it'll be to trim the fat. Working muscle is metabolically expensive. If you have fat to lose and no muscle underneath, it'll take a lot more effort.
16. Women who look great in yoga pants do more lifting than yoga.
17. The best ab exercise is three sets of stop eating so damn much. That said, if you want obvious abs, you’ll need to hypertrophy them with weighted exercises.
18. Strength and hypertrophy aren't mutually exclusive. You can get stronger in the higher rep ranges that are proven to make muscles bigger.
19. Hypertrophy promotes fat loss. By building more muscle tissue your body will produce more of the hormones that burn fat. Which means muscles become more visible as they grow and the fat on top shrinkssimultaneously.
20. Effective workouts can be a mix of violent powerful movement and controlled steady movement. Compound and isolation exercises, full body and split routines, 1RMs and burn-outs... there's a time and place for everything and you'll probably end up doing it all if you stay in this game long enough.
21. Partials, iso-holds, super sets, drop sets, and mechanical drop sets are techniques that increase the time your muscles spend under tension. Employ a blend of them into your workouts for hypertrophy. Standard sets using full ROM are good, but noticeable hypertrophy requires more intensity. Some people call these bodybuilding techniques "bad form." And those people are small.
22. If your training and diet are causing you to burn up muscle tissue then you're not getting leaner, you're just getting smaller. And your metabolism is going to be slower as a result. Build or retain muscle, always.
23. The easiest way to improve the appearance of your entire body is to build a strong butt. That's also an easy way to improve your squat, deadlift, lunge, sprint, and kettlebell swing.
24. People get great results and build impressive bodies with many different training philosophies. But they all have one thing in common: they bust ass. Working hard works. Period. Don't forget that part.
25. If there are a dozen pieces of workout equipment in your home gathering dust, just accept that you need a gym membership.
26. Overcoming your own self consciousness at the gym is a sign you'll do what it takes to overcome other obstacles standing in the way of your goals. This applies to newbies afraid of going to the gym and experienced lifters afraid of doing hip thrusts in public. Get over it. Be awesome.
27. Apply your work ethic to your workout. Don't give anyone the opportunity to think of you as lazy, distracted, inefficient, or weak... and don't give yourself that opportunity either. Embrace the work part of your workout.
28. Some of your favorite things to do in the gym are your favorite things because they're easy. Do harder stuff. Or learn to make your favorite things more brutal.
29. Don't be so scared of injury and so obsessed with form that you forget to kick ass in the gym. But don't be a jackass about it either and ignore obvious warning signs.
30. When life gets hard, work hard. Fight back, kick your own ass before anyone else has the chance – you'll steal their power and build armor.
31. Are you in this for life? The test: Average people look for any excuse not to go to the gym, like a minor injury. Dedicated people find a way to work around injuries... and snowstorms, and holidays, and damn near anything else.
32. Sprained wrist? Use machines that don't require your grip. Busted knee? Great time to focus on your upper body. Don't discount unilateral training either. Just be in the gym. Don't fall out of the routine of kicking butt.
33. Think like a machine, not an emotional wreck who needs permission and approval and happy feelings at all times in order to be consistent.
34. Embrace movement. You're really going to train hard in the gym, then take the escalator and roll your luggage?
35. The newer you are to weight training and fitness the more important it is to follow conventional rules. Learn the rules so that you know how to bend and break them to your benefit in the future.
36. Bodybuilding, powerlifting, Olympic lifting, CrossFit, strongman. All of these involve people training hard with weights. It's a small community. Maybe it's time to stop hating on those who decide to lift weights a little differently than you do.

Diet & Nutrition

37. When it comes to fat loss, genetics may somewhat "load the gun" but you don't have to pull the trigger and reload twice.
38. If the way you eat is working – body, mind, and ease of effort – then ignore diet trends that complicate things further. Rely on the knowledge you've gathered from prior experiences.
39. Change your diet if it's not working. If you've become so steeped in the culture of your particular diet that you continue to use it even when it stops working, then you have drank the Kool-Aid. Practice saying "baa baa" because you're a sheep.
40. You can find a study to support any dietary strategy you want to believe in. But can you be honest with yourself and admit when what you're doing has stopped working? Be open to other possibilities. Find what works, then evolve.
41. Start conservatively with your fat loss efforts. Diets that work long term don't make you feel like crap. If yours does then you've gone overboard and you won't be able to maintain it.
42. If your diet makes you act like a bitch, it's not going to last for long. You're going to fall off the wagon. Unless of course you were a bitch before you started.
43. Carb-phobia is a great way to stop building muscle. Working out without building muscle is a great way to look average. Don't be average.
44. Having flat, carb-depleted muscles may make you look smaller, but it'll also make you weaker and lower your work capacity in the gym. Being weak and unable to work harder for longer periods of time is a recipe for stagnation.
45. Minutiae only matters when all the obvious pieces of your diet are in place. Focus on mastering one thing at a time. Start with the major stuff. Worry first about that package of cookies or chips you're killing every night instead of your Vitamin C intake.
46. The term "beer belly" was created for a reason. There's an obvious way to avoid getting one.
47. Don't sacrifice year-round leanness for special-occasion leanness. If a competition diet makes you fat after the competition is over, you did it wrong.
48. Know a guy who can eat whatever he wants and still look shredded? Don't eat like him, unless he's you.
49. You are not your family. Nor are you locked in to your genetic predisposition. You can choose differently. You can transform your body and your appetite by consistently making better choices.
50. Keeping a food log is the best way to learn how your body behaves with different diet plans. That said, if you have to track every calorie and every macro every single day in order to stay on target, then you're not learning anything anymore. You're not controlling your diet. It's controlling you.
51. The lean people who never feel deprived are the ones who know how to cook. Know your way around a kitchen and you have an immediate advantage over those who don't.
52. Learn a handful of recipes that are fast, easy, filling, adaptable and packed with nutrition. Use them often.
53. The people who have the best physiques year-round are conscientious of the quality and quantity of their food. That doesn't mean they starve and only eat kale. It means that when they do eat low-quality food, they have boundaries in place that keep them from making their meal a downward spiral into weeks of bingeing.
54. Find your boundaries. And don't be an ass to those who have different ones. Some of us need to abstain from hedonic food. Some of us can achieve our physique goals by indulging in a calculated manner.
55. Counting macros and choosing quality food aren't mutually exclusive behaviors. Basic conscientiousness doesn't have to be neurotic.
56. Be picky about where your macros are coming from and what purpose they serve. Sure, you can make kid's cereal fit into your nutritional allotment before bedtime, but is it taking the place of insulinogenic workout nutrition that would've made you kick ass at gym time and build more muscle?
57. If your diet is your religion you're going to feel like a fool when it fails you. Know what works for you now, but be open to other options.
58. Only master what's manageable, then expand. If you make a dozen major changes at once, you'll crash and burn.
59. To crave nutritious food, eat mostly nutritious food. Studies say junk food makes nutritious food less appetizing. To stop craving junk completely, eliminate it completely. It's not unheard of. You just have to display some balls for a few weeks.
60. Don't do a low carb diet. Don't do a low fat diet. Do a low shit-food diet. Lower your intake of the things you know for sure aren't helping you.
61. If you’re used to eating junk, then yes, when you remove it you may feeldeprived at first. But it’s not actually deprivation and it won’t lead to malnourishment. Would you call a person who quit smoking deprived?
62. Organic junk food is still junk food, hipsters.
63. Research, then commit to something to reap the benefits of experience. Stop trying to gather secondhand diet information from other people. They don't know what works best for you, and you won't either without experience.
64. A diet that causes you to lose a lot of fat but leads to rebound, regain and poor health did not "work."
65. Don't obsess over scale weight. Lose 10 pounds of fat and gain 10 pounds of muscle and the scale will say you made "no progress.” The mirror beats the scale.
66. To guarantee the greatest gains from training, fuel, protect, and reload muscle immediately prior to, during, and after training.
67. The biggest supporters of a diet style are those who are new to it. Don't pay too much attention to them until they've been doing it successfully for over a year. Everyone who's adopted a fad eating style is all googly-eyed about it the first week or two.
68. Don't make your diet your religion. Don't make your diet your identity. You are not what you eat. You are not what you don't eat. Also, your vegan T-shirt is lame.

The Mind Game

69. Weak people face life's obstacles with an excuse in their hand. Strong people carry a hammer.
70. Self-improvement never begins with whining, complaining or feeling sorry for yourself. Accept responsibility. You caused this and only you can fix it. Take action. Get shit done.
71. Unsuccessful people are always talking about what they deserve. Successful people look around for opportunities to earn it.
72. Every time you overcome something difficult, the next challenge is that much easier.
73. When you're 80 you're going to wish you had spent more time naked when you were 30.
74. If your biggest critics are toxic assholes, then you're on the right track.
75. You know what's worse than a critic? People who tell you to be average – well-meaning folks who enable mediocrity. Be passionate. Be a freak.
76. The truly dedicated lifter doesn't need constant motivation to hit the weights. Motivation is for newbies. Veteran lifters grind. The motivation comes after a set or two.
77. Strive to be more than "the big guy," the "strong guy," or the "lean girl." Be an ambassador for fitness and muscle. Lead by example. Help others when you can.
78. Build your willpower muscle, but use it wisely. Anorexics have great willpower, but it is misapplied.
79. Train at your worst. Go to the gym even if you feel fat. Worrying about what other people think about you is the route to inconsistency. And it means you're sacrificing your fitness for the worthless opinions of other schlubs.
80. Practice violence in the gym. Practice kindness everywhere else.
81. The best way to transform your body is to increase your appetite – for health, energy, strength, self-discipline, resilience – and muscle too if you want to look good naked.
82. Get off your high horse. You don't have all the answers. There are stronger people with better bodies than you – and they probably don't do things the way you think everyone ought to.
83. Train and sweat when you have a difficult decision to make. The zone-like nature of training can take your mind off the problem just long enough to give you a better perspective when the workout is finished.
84. Brief gym conversations are fine, but only with those who are there to actually train. Don't get cornered by someone looking for a therapist. You're at the gym to better yourself, not solve other people's problems.
85. The more consistent and experienced you become with your fitness, the more "extreme" your regimen will appear to outsiders. Realize that if you're healthy and strong and proud of your accomplishments, then it's not extreme. It's progress. And other people won't understand it if they haven't seen all you've done to build it.
86. Don't let social pressure undo what you've built with your dedication.
87. There are many examples of successful physique competitors with three kids and two jobs. So let's cut the crap about you "not having time" to train, shall we?
88. The bodybuilding tradition of off-season chubby and in-season shredded is outdated. Build muscle year round. Don't get fat on purpose. Be smart about it and you'll stay lean without the pressure of getting in a bikini or posing trunks.
89. The easiest person for you to fool is yourself. Be brutally honest. If you think you're strong, test that strength regularly. If you train to look good, take regular pics – front, side, and back. Photos tell the truth, whether your ego wants to hear it or not.
90. Sometimes the best person to ask for advice is the big, strong or ripped person in your gym. And sometimes they don't actually know shit because they rely on great genetics or drugs or both. You're going to have to be a thinker and a tester. Your body is your laboratory. Try stuff, evaluate that stuff, adjust the stuff, try stuff again.
91. Building the body you want will take longer than you think it will and it will be harder than you think. The results are worth it.
92. Realize that the moment you decide to better yourself, other people will often try to stop you. This is sometimes disguised as subtle behavior. Don't worry, after they try to sabotage you, dissuade you, or politely get you to stop getting better, they'll come to you for advice. Give it to them kindly. People are weird.
93. There are some people in this world who have decided to destroy themselves, often with inactivity and food. When you reach down to help them up, they'll often try to drag you down with them. Don't let them.
94. Be your own worst critic. Set high standards. Push yourself. But don't live in a constant state of self-criticism. You'll hopefully be 90 years old some day. Take some pride now.
95. With any diet or training plan, ask yourself this question often: "How's it working for me?" Now, honestly answer that question. This will be harder than you think.
96. Sometimes when you think life is kicking you in the ass, it's actually just moving you quickly to a better place.
97. Get professional pictures taken if that appeals to you. Why the hell not? Celebrate the way your body looks if you're proud of those changes. And screw the prudes who say working out is only about what your body can do. We all know that the appearance of an athletic body is an achievement to be celebrated.
98. Instead of wearing a T-shirt that says how hard you work out, why not just build a body that reflects it? Show, don't tell.
99. Brush off all stupid compliments and criticisms about your body from people who aren't into fitness or building muscle. They'll never get it unless they're into it.
100. If it's not too late, marry someone who's just as into training and healthy eating as you are. Otherwise, you'll drive each other nuts.

[Aldo Raine]

The Bulking Diet Delusion/The Truth About Metabolic Damage

Here's what you need to know...

• Bulking up by increasing body fat will decrease insulin sensitivity and impede muscle growth.
• The more fat you gain, the more you change your physiology to favor fat storage over muscle growth.
• Most people who bulk will store fat in just one area, like the belly or love handles, making it tougher and tougher to lean that area out.
• Bulk up too much and your muscles will get softer due to ectopic fat storage. The body will store excess calories, not just as adipose, but in muscle tissue as well.
• Repeatedly gaining fat in the off season and then having to lose it all will lead to metabolic damage and stubborn fat storage.
• You need a caloric surplus to build muscle, but gaining five pounds of fat in order to gain one pound of muscle is a bad idea.

Scale Weight: The Old Barometer for Bulking Success

The rules of off-season bulking used to be simple: Eat every two to three hours and eat until full. While "clean" foods like chicken and brown rice were the ideal, no one was docked points for sneaking in a pizza during the post-workout "window of opportunity."
As long as the number on the scale was growing, that was all that mattered. Scale weight became the metric by which you judged the success of a bulk.
It usually wasn't a pretty process. Let's say you decided to bulk up to 250 pounds by Christmas. Pants getting tight at 235? Get stretchier pants. Can't fit into your suits at 240? Make every day casual Friday!
The idea was to just keep eating. When the scale says 250 pounds, you win.
But did you really win? You gained 30 to 50 pounds in four or five months. You might have a bigger bench and squat. You might also have chipmunk cheeks and a low back that barks even when you do a single rep of tying your shoelaces.
But are you any better after an all out bulk? No. There are seven reasons why:

Dilemma #1: Muscle Growth is Slow

Building muscle – actual, contractile muscle tissue – is a painstakingly slow process for any lifter past the beginner phase.
For an experienced lifter, a gain of 1-2 pounds a month of pure muscle would be excellent. It adds up to 10 pounds or more in a single off-season. However, only a scant few bodybuilders can gain muscle at such a rate, and 10 pounds is a far cry from the 40 or 50 pounds you slapped on during your bulk.

Dilemma #2: Insulin Sensitivity Decreases

When you bulk up and body fat levels rise, you can gradually decrease insulin sensitivity, which can impede muscle growth. Insulin is actually a signaling protein for both muscle and fat cells to utilize amino acids and glucose.
Ideally, insulin-sensitive muscle cells will readily absorb glucose and amino acids when insulin "signals" them to open. With increased body fat, though, comes increased levels of insulin, and this can desensitize muscle cells to insulin's signaling effects.
If you decrease insulin sensitivity, your muscle won't use glucose and amino acids as efficiently, and since it's metabolically less expensive to store fat, your body will convert more of the excess calories into body fat.
The more overweight you are, the more you change your physiology to favor fat storage over muscle recovery and growth.

Dilemma #3: You Build Anabolic Resistance

This physiological phenomenon where protein synthesis is inhibited and fat storage is elevated is referred to as anabolic resistance, and it's the last thing you want as a bodybuilder.
The fatter you get, the more likely it is that any excess nutrients you eat are being stored in your butt and gut – not your quads and biceps. And, the less likely it is that your training is leading to any actual muscle growth.
Of course, there are always outliers. I know guys who can gain 50 pounds in an off-season and just get bigger all around. Exceptions don't make rules however, and simply because the top guys can "get away" with a bulking strategy doesn't make it a sound option for the majority of us who are less genetically gifted.

Dilemma #4: Brand New Fat Cells, Accelerated Fat Storage

Past a certain body fat point, you're simply accelerating fat storage. The average bulker will store most of his fat in just one unsightly area, like the belly or love handles.
Not only is this unhealthy (fat around the abdomen is directly correlated with heart disease and hypertension), it can lead to the creation of new fat cells that make it even harder to diet down once bulking ends. This process is called adipogenesis, and it occurs during periods of intense weight gain and caloric surplus.

When someone is doing heavy-duty bulking, the excess calories all get eventually converted to glucose, which is essentially sugar. Glucose gets used by both muscle and fat cells for energy usage and storage.
But when glucose levels are continuously high, and you have more than you need for just your muscles, all that excess glucose will be stored as fat. This is why hard and fast "dirty" bulking rarely leads to large increases in muscle.
Over time, as bulking is repeated, you're actually fattening up the same parts of your body. This makes for a total bitch of a diet. If it's already hard to whittle away at that one area, adding even more fat there means you should prepare for 12 weeks of hell.
Even worse, the higher your body fat levels climb, the greater the possibility of it leading to anabolic resistance. Getting that stubborn area down will likely hurt other areas too, and actually make them appear emaciated. Consequently, it can negate any muscle gains.

Dilemma #5: Softening Muscles

Ectopic fat storage makes matters worse. Because the body is being flooded with excess calories, glucose, and triglycerides, it'll begin storing the excess not just in adipose tissue, but in the muscles themselves.
This is called intramuscular triglyceride storage. This contributes to dirty bulkers who get a soft appearance to their muscles.
It's not just cosmetic, though. Intramuscular fat can also inhibit protein synthesis and subsequent muscle growth.
You've likely seen the occasional bodybuilder who got huge in the off-season but somehow lost all his soft gains when he dieted back down. Ectopic fat storage is only partially responsible for that happening.

Dilemma #6: Sluggish Metabolism

Getting fat over and over again can make getting leaner more difficult each time.
If you get too fat and then have to kill yourself to diet down, the body will hang onto fat that much harder the next time you diet.
This particular phenomenon is somewhat related to the metabolic damage concept of reducing basal metabolism over and over again to the point where weight loss is nearly impossible and weight gain can be caused by even the slightest of calorie surpluses.
While metabolic damage is often associated with female competitors, male bodybuilders can experience the same effects, but to a very different degree.
Picture a male bodybuilder that bulks up to 300 pounds in the off season but has to diet down to 250 on stage. That's a 17% reduction in weight. Basal metabolism will begin to drop whenever there's a 10% reduction in weight, so this bodybuilder is going to be slowing his metabolism as he diets.
If, however, he dirty bulked, he probably has to deal with anabolic resistance, too. If he repeats the dirty bulking process again post-contest, he's reinforcing the increased fat storage and anabolic resistance that he experienced before.
This will make it harder for him to lean down for each contest, and each time he bulks up he'll be less and less likely to put on any new muscle. He might not be experiencing metabolic damage in the classical sense, but metabolically he's causing a lot of things to go wrong.

Dilemma #7: You Probably Can't Get Away With It

What the absolute top guys do is often the result of what they can get away with because of their genetics and drug use. It's not necessarily a model for everyone else to follow. If you want competitive longevity, consider a more conservative approach.
Bodybuilders have bulked up and cut down for decades. This includes more than a few Mr. Olympia winners. It would be silly to say the approach doesn't work because it clearly has.
But what you don't hear about are the thousands of guys who bulked up, got too fat, messed up their insulin sensitivity, and never reached their true potential in either size or conditioning.
Consider also the guys that started out with a bang and looked amazing in one or two shows, but were never able to repeat that level of conditioning or fullness again.

Knowing When to Stop

The decision to bulk or not boils down to knowing your body. You need a calorie surplus to build muscle, and it's hard to eat just enough to build muscle without some fat gain. But gaining five pounds of fat to gain one pound of muscle is a bad idea.
You're more likely to lose that pound of muscle because of trying to diet that five pounds of fat off.
There's no reason for most guys to get above 12% body fat. Personally, I prefer to stay under 10%. It will depend on where you start to lose insulin sensitivity – you'll know you're there as pumps will decrease and your muscles will start looking soft. If that happens, take it as a sign to end your bulk.

Here's what you need to know...

•  Struggling with lack of motivation, low libido, or just feel you've done all the right things but can no longer respond to diet and training? It could be metabolic damage.
•  You can feel unwell and have metabolic dysfunction without being in an overt disease state.
•  "Eat less and exercise more" can easily lead an advanced lifter into a state of metabolic damage.
•  Your metabolism doesn't work like a calculator. It works like a thermostat.
•  There are three ways to repair your metabolism, depending on what stage of starvation mode you're in.

Starvation mode, metabolic damage, weight loss resistance, adrenal fatigue... For some reason, these terms get under people's skin. You hear constantly about this myth and that myth, and how these things are bogus. Sort of reminds me of a saying by Osho, my favorite philosopher: "The less a person knows the more stubbornly he knows it."
They are not myths and there are plenty of people dealing with these issues. If you're one of those twenty-somethings with great energy and a perfect body and little real life experience, then you're probably ready to dismiss this article right off the bat. But just do me one favor: bookmark it. You may need it later.
On the other hand, if you're someone who has struggled with lack of motivation, low libido, overtraining, illness, or feel you've done all the right things but can no longer respond to diet and training the same way, then this info is for you.

Understanding the Terminology

Honestly, I don't know where these terms came from. Like many things in health and fitness, there are phrases that get used somewhere and then become part of the lexicon.
I'm an integrative physician. I, and many doctors like me, have been dealing with metabolic damage issues for years. Only we never called it "metabolic damage" or "starvation mode." We called it neuroendocrineimmune dysfunction. Or we called it by some of its manifestations like "adrenal fatigue." Sometimes when an actual diagnosis could be made, we called it "hypothyroid" or "Hashimoto's thyroiditis" or "adrenal insufficiency."
I have since adopted the term "metabolic damage" because it's more descriptive and easier to comprehend compared to "neuroendocrineimmune dysfunction."

Dysfunction Versus Disease

Here's an insight about medicine and health that's important to grasp. A person can feel unwell and have metabolic dysfunction without being in an overt disease state. It should make sense to most people that you can have metabolic dysfunction long before you have metabolic disease. And traditional medicine doesn't have much to offer unless there's a diagnosis. This is why the field of functional medicine has emerged.
Functional medicine is a medical specialty that deals with the gray area of dysfunction between health and disease. This is the type of medicine I practice. And this is where non-diagnostic terms like "adrenal fatigue" come from.
Let me give you a tangible example of this problem. Say you're not feeling so well, you're hungry all the time, urinating more than normal, and gaining weight. When you go see your traditional doctor they'll run your blood sugar to rule out diabetes. If your fasting blood sugar levels are 119 you don't have diabetes, but if they hit 120 you do. Do you see how utterly ridiculous that is? Long before you get to a fasting blood sugar of 120, you had some serious dysfunction going on. But no one is quite sure what to call it.
So medicine calls it a lot of different things, like blood sugar dysregulation, glycemic impairment, prediabetes, etc. But none of those are accepted diagnoses. They are simply descriptive terms that describe a measurable disturbance that has not yet become a disease.
The terms metabolic damage, starvation mode, and others suffer a similar problem. They describe a functional disturbance that may or may not be associated with a particular disease.
Long before attention deficit disorder, polycystic ovarian syndrome, fibromyalgia, autism, and chronic fatigue syndrome became diagnosis, they were called myths and their existence was denied. Meanwhile, forward thinking docs went right on treating them and defining the characteristics.
So saying metabolic damage or starvation mode "is a myth" is a lot like saying prediabetes is a myth. Saying "adrenal fatigue does not exist" is a lot like saying "over-training doesn't exist." These are functional disturbances that have clinical signs and symptoms that can be picked up on physical exams and blood labs.
These disturbances may or may not have a corresponding diagnostic label, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. This is the gray area between optimal health and disease, the area where function starts becoming compromised.

So What Is "Starvation Mode" Exactly?

Starvation mode and metabolic damage are real. For ease of following the discussion I'm just going to refer to this as starvation mode from here on out. (You'll see how metabolic damage fits in shortly.)
The funny thing is when you see what starvation mode really is, you'll likely get what we're talking about very quickly. I've found that confusion on these topics usually comes from lack of an organizing framework to understand things.
In reality, starvation mode is arguably the most accepted occurrence in all of dieting research. But researchers don't call it "starvation mode," they call itadaptive thermogenesis. I call it the Law of Metabolic Compensation. I refer to it as a law because it's a reliable and predictable phenomenon that occurs in any dieting scenario. It is the degree that varies.
You can think of this as a natural protective mechanism honed by the metabolism over millions of years. It's what kept your ancestor from starving when their next meal was never a guarantee. Whether you're a lean bodybuilder, an elite athlete, or your average Jane or Joe trying to lose some weight, you will be impacted by the metabolic compensation of the body.

Metabolic Damage: An Example

Let's walk through an example. Things start out with a diet. By diet I mean you do some combination of eating less and exercising more. In the beginning you seem to be doing great. You lose a few pounds right off the bat. So far so good.
Now you're a week or so in and you start feeling hunger, your energy falls, and you find yourself craving salty, fatty and sweet foods. This is a sign the body is starting to move into metabolic compensation. Think of this as Starvation Mode Level 1.
Because of this compensation you notice that your fat loss slows down. Perhaps it halts all together. And if you're one of those people that has a very pronounced metabolic decline you may notice you even start gaining weight. And the hunger, energy, and craving issue keeps getting worse.
But you're not playing games. You pride yourself on your iron will and rock-solid work ethic. You double your efforts by cutting calories further and ramping up your gym time. Nice. Now you're getting some movement again. Another pound or two down. But it doesn't last. A few weeks later and you're stuck again. This time the hunger and cravings are worse and your energy is in the toilet.
Your metabolism is not exactly humming along. Your metabolic rate slows even more. Maybe you try even harder but now your body just won't budge. You seem to be doing everything "right" but the metabolism digs its heels in. You just moved into metabolic resistance. This is Starvation Mode Level 2.
You don't get what the hell is going on, but you do know how to deal with it. All you need to do is work harder. You go watch Conan the Barbarian and crank up the Rocky theme music. You quadruple your effort!
You see very little for your efforts this time. It's been weeks and you're feeling beat. And now you have other complaints. You start feeling gassy and bloated. The protein shakes you used to tolerate just fine are upsetting your stomach. You're getting heartburn too. If you're a women your menses becomes irregular or disappears. If you're a man your libido is shot.
Sleep is fragmented and unpredictable. You have this weird feeling of being wired on this inside, but tired on the outside. You're starting to feel sick and unwell. You might be anxious, depressed, or both. And now you're slowly gaining weight, look "waterlogged" despite a low carb diet, and just can't keep up with your workouts anymore. You may even be slowly gaining weight! This is metabolic damage, Stage 3 and the final stage of starvation mode.

What Not To Do

So, now you go and get some help. All that stuff about "metabolic damage" being a myth is coming back to haunt you. So, you go to a physique coach. You tell them what's going on and they say, "You're in starvation mode. You need to eat more and ease up on the exercise." They tell you to double your calorie intake and take it easy on the crazy workout schedule.
Guess what happens? You blow up like a helium balloon. With your metabolism moving at a snail's pace you just did the exact wrong thing. Not a smart move.
You gain about 15 pounds in 6 days (I've had several patients see this type of effect)! Of course it's physiologically impossible to gain that much fat in such a short time; it's almost all water, but it is a sign your metabolism is not doing so hot.
You want answers so you go see a doctor. Maybe they diagnose you with hypothyroid or some other issue, or maybe they say you're normal and nothing is wrong. Obviously they don't have answers. If you're really unlucky, they tell you to go back to the eat less, exercise more approach. But it still won't work and it will just perpetuate the negative cycle and do more damage to your physiology and psyche.

Fixing Metabolic Damage

Here's what you need to know about your metabolism. It doesn't work like a calculator; it works like a thermostat. And your thermostat is now "broken".
When the "eat less, exercise more" approach to body change is taken to the extreme, it's like a tug-o-war game you can never win. You pull and the metabolism pulls back harder. You try harder and the metabolism laughs and almost yanks you right off your feet. What's the only way to win tug-o-war against a team stronger than you? When they pull, you let go and they helplessly fall to the ground. That's the way out of metabolic starvation mode.

Fixing Starvation Mode

No matter what phase you're in, the first step is to stop eating less and exercising more. This is the equivalent of letting go of the rope.
At this point you have two choices. You can either eat less and exercise less, or eat more and exercise more. This is the only way to decrease the stress on your metabolism while not gaining weight in the process. If you've gotten all the way to stage 3 however, your only option is the eat less, exercise less approach.

Getting Your Metabolism Back

Stage 1: Metabolic Compensation This phase is easy to deal with. Move to an eat less, exercise less OR eat more, exercise more approach. Both will work. As long as you get off the "eat less, exercise more" train, you'll usually be back on track within a week.
Stage 2: Metabolic Resistance This is also not that hard to deal with. Just cycle the diet. Spend 2-3 weeks in an "eat less, exercise less" phase, then change directions towards an "eat more, exercise more" approach. You may need to take a few other steps too. This might involve prioritizing rest and recovery. Walking, massage, sauna therapy, naps, sex/physical affection, laughter, time with pets, etc. Basically anything that lowers stress hormones and restores balance to the neuroendocrine system. Expect to be back on track within 1-3 months.
Stage 3: Metabolic Damage Once you're here, you have little choice. "Eat less, exercise less" is the only option. You'll need to focus all your time on rest and recovery. Walking and a few traditional weight training workouts are likely all you'll be able to do.

Consulting with a functional medicine doctor would be smart. They'll be able to evaluate thyroid, adrenal, and gonadal function. This is beyond the scope of a physique coach. Supplements and hormones may be required. With the right help, you can be back on track within 3 to 15 months.
The ideal scenario? Don't get yourself into that situation to begin with.

References

Major, et. al.Clinical significance of adaptive thermogenesis. International Journal of Obesity. 2007 Feb;31(2):204-12. PUBMED
Jason, et al. Chronic fatigue syndrome versus neuroendocrineimmune dysfunction syndrome:differential attributions. Journal of Health & Social Policy 2003;18(1):43-55. PUBMED
Muller, et. al. Adaptive thermogenesis with weight loss in humans. Obesity. Feb;21(2):218-228. PUBMED
Rosenbaum, et. al. Long-term persistence of adaptive thermogenesis in subjects who have maintained a reduced body weight. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2008;88(4): 906-912. nutrition.org
Camps, et. al. Weight loss, weight maintenance, and adaptive thermogenesis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2013;97(5):990-994.PUBMED
Tremblay, et. al Adaptive reduction in thermogenesis and resistance to lose fat in obese men. British Journal of Nutrition. 2009;102(4):488-492. PUBMED
Labayen, et. al. Role of baseline leptin and ghrelin levels on body weight and fat mass changes after an energy-restricted diet intervention in obese women: effects on energy metabolism. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2011;96(6):E996-1000. PUBMED
Miller, et. al. Resistance to slimming: adaptation or illusion? Lancet. 1975;1(7910):773-775. PUBMED
Winsier, et. al. Do adaptive changes in metabolic rate favor weight regain in weight-reduced individuals? An examination of the set-point theory. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2000;72(5):1088-94. PUBMED

[Aldo Raine]

The Best Way to Row, Period

Here's what you need to know...

• Supinated grip (underhand) bent-over rows require significant work from the biceps and allow higher direct loading than any biceps isolation exercise.
• The underhand grip makes you as much as one-third stronger due to increased activation of the biceps.
• Supinated-grip rows build a powerful core, as you need to brace the abs and hold position while pulling the bar to your torso.
• Rows allow you to reinforce technique under load and hold position, which reinforces deadlift performance.
• Rows reinforce the ideal hip hinge position, helping you load the glutes and hamstrings for hypertrophy and develop explosive hip extension for exercises like sprinting, jumping, and cleans.

Row to Grow!

Barbell bent-over rows are a great exercise to address common technique weaknesses and flaws such as trunk stability and strength in the hinge position.
However, when you do them with a supinated (underhand) grip, there's a greater overload stimulus on the biceps and you turn conventional barbell rows into an exercise that truly has a strong purpose.

6 Reasons Why You Gotta Row

Here's why you need to be doing the barbell row, including why the underhand row is superior for most people:

1. Rows develop back thickness like nothing else.

The lats have a unique muscle fiber orientation that's neither completely horizontal nor completely vertical. Instead, they have a diagonal muscle fiber orientation good for both vertical and horizontal pulling.
To maximize development of the lats, it's best to pull vertically (chin-ups, pulldowns, etc.) and horizontally with row variations for maximum hypertrophy. So by rowing with both volume and load, you'll maximally develop thickness in the lats.

2. Rows allow you to practice the hip hinge.

The hip hinge is a primal movement pattern that deserves a place in every good training routine. The hinge is vital to maximize lifting performance on deadlifts, swings, Olympic exercises that build high performance muscle, and strength in general.
Unfortunately, lifters often butcher the hip hinge, which keeps them from holding solid trunk position under load with the hips loaded.

Related:  More on mastering the hip hinge

The supinated or underhand grip bent-over row, however, reinforces the ideal hip hinge position, helping you load the glutes and hamstrings for hypertrophy and developing explosive hip extension for maximum power in exercises like sprinting, jumping, and cleans.

3. Rows make you a better deadlifter.



The most common sticking point in the deadlift is below the knee, which is the same position you hold while performing barbell bent-over rows.
During the deadlift, most lifters that get stuck below the knee are either using too much weight or they lack the trunk and core stability to hold the position. They end up rounding the spine and collapsing into a ball of fail.
It's not worth the risk to miss a lift and risk a flexion-based back injury due to lazy technique. Instead, use rows in general to reinforce technique under load and hold position to keep the lumbar spine out of excessive flexion.
Not only will you protect your spine, you'll turn a previous weakness into a strong point and develop a bigger deadlift.

4. Rows reinforce stability in the hinge position.

You have to maintain a flat back position when you row. In most cases, this means the bar is situated close to the body and slightly below the base of the knee from the hinge position to reduce shear stress.
To prevent lumbar flexion, you'll need to brace the abs and hold that position while driving the elbows back and pulling the bar to your torso, building a resilient core in the process.

5. Underhand bent-over rows are an awesome biceps builder.



You want bigger arms? The underhand grip requires significant work from the biceps and provides higher direct loading than any isolation exercise. Since most guys train the biceps with lighter, higher-rep sets, they're not placing the muscles under a lot of tension to spur new growth.
While metabolic stress and long-duration sets play a role in hypertrophy, it's important to stimulate fast-twitch fibers with heavy loads. The underhand bent-over row does a good job of this.

6. Underhand rows allow for higher training loads.

The supinated grip makes you as much as one-third stronger due to increased activation of the biceps. Using heavier weight will provide greater overload in the primary pulling muscles.
In other words, you'll build greater strength in the traps, rhomboids, lats, and biceps due to greater training loads.

How to Underhand Row, Bro

• Grab the bar with a double underhand grip, slightly outside shoulder width.
• Hinge over by pushing your hips back with the abs braced and shoulders retracted to weld your spine. The bar should sit slightly below the knee as long as the lower back stays flat and the trunk engaged.
• Drive the elbows back until they're even with your body and the bar nears your abdomen. Remember to stick your chest out while pulling the shoulders down and back.
• Squeeze for maximal muscular contraction for a one-count, and then slowly lower the weight under control to the starting position.
• Overall, it's imperative to hold position with eccentric control and stability through the trunk while the limbs are moving – a true function of a strong core.

Potential Issues with the Row

1. Shear stress on the spine: Lifters with flexion-based back injuries may struggle to hold a pain-free position with a loaded barbell in front of the body.
It's essential to pull the bar tight to the body, brace the abs to ensure neutral spine, and eliminate body English to minimize problems due to shear stress. Also, be conservative if programming heavy rows with squats and deadlifts in the same workout.

2. Pulling the body to the bar instead of pulling the bar to the body: Let your muscles lift the weight, not your ego. Most lifters have a tendency to excessively load the bar and end up using way too much momentum to move weight.
While their intentions may be good, losing position, raising the chest, flexing the spine, and doing total body convulsions to complete the lift do more harm than good.
Hold solid joint position, drop the weight a bit, and train what you mean to train!

3. Pulling the elbows too far back:
When rowing in general, some lifters pull the bar too far past mid-line. While you might feel a better "squeeze" in the muscles, the humerus may migrate forward into the anterior socket of the shoulder, potentially causing impingement and dysfunction.Left: Too far back. Right: Just right.



Rather than driving the elbows as far as possible, aim to break the plane of the body, but no further if the shoulder caves forward. This way, you'll optimize muscular recruitment for gains in strength and size without compromising the integrity of the shoulder joint.

[Aldo Raine]

Strong, Fast, and Brutal

Here's what you need to know...

• Learning technique is crucial, but overanalyzing can stall progress.
• To achieve mastery, practice the basic lifts until you can perform them perfectly without hearing the Nagging Voice.
• For the squat, concentrate on stance and mobility work.
• For the bench press, focus on a strong liftoff and "squatting the weight."
• For the deadlift, hold your air and get aggressive.
• For the overhead press, squeeze the glutes and nail bar position.

---

When I first started lifting weights, I squatted, pressed, and pulled. I did these lifts with very little thought – I just muscled the weights up in an all-out effort to break every world record in less than two years.
I didn't think about my stance or my grip or where my shoulders were when I bench pressed. I didn't think about anything. I just squeezed really hard and pushed and pulled as fast as I could. This was training built on youthful aggression and raging hormones.
This lasted for about 7 years. Then I got my head all fucked up.
No, it wasn't a girl, car accident, or repeated blows to the head from ill-tempered linebackers.
I started reading.
And the words I read made me examine every aspect of my lifting – how many reps I did per workout (and per week and per month and per year), food, pre-workout food, post-workout food, thumb position, hip extension, triple extension (really), what shoes I wore – the list was endless.
Apparently, I hadn't given any of these pressing issues enough thought due to me wasting time in the weight room and competing. But suddenly, I had a million things to remember when I wrote a workout. And when I squatted? Hell, the checklist before I got under the bar was worthy of a Power Point presentation.
I could barely make it to the bottom of the lift before the Nagging Voice reminded me that my adductors weren't being properly stimulated.
Somewhere on this trip I forgot two things: the joy of training and just letting go.

Full Circle

As I write this article, there's quite the heated debate about speed work. People are taking sides, making stands, and putting on their virtual gun belts behind their virtual turrets. Shit is going to get ugly.
Where do I stand? Well, a couple of months ago, I got wrapped up in the small aspects of lifting. I reexamined all my lifts and my technique. This was a good thing as I had to be honest with myself and do some self-analysis.
While sorting through all my lifts, the pros and the cons, I came back to the place I was when I first began training. The term "full circle" is overused in the training world but this is the best way to describe it. And if you stay in the game long enough, you end up coming full circle many, many times.
When you talk to someone who's a master of his craft, he's always most successful when he performs without thought. He's practiced and practiced so many times that he no longer thinks, he just does. Lifting is no different. You get under the bar and just go.
This was my goal – to get back to being able to train without much thought.

Squat

Like most of you, I'd played with bar position and stance for quite awhile. What ended up happening was that I was so concerned with every last body position during every part of my squat, that I no longer could grind out a set with reckless abandon. Because of this, my speed and explosion out of the hole suffered.
The two things I changed were:
Stance. I moved my stance in quite a bit. First, this allowed me to bounce harder out of the hole. I could be very aggressive on my descent.
Second, it allowed me to reach depth easier.
Third, when combined with a low-bar style, I could use my back muscles when squats became harder. When you have a strong back, you can muscle out of just about anything.
Fourth, it eliminated the stress on my knees. Years of wide-stance squatting has brought a reign of terror down on my knees and IT bands.
Mobility work. This was easy to do. I rededicated myself to several daily sessions of hurdle "over/under" work and the Defranco Agile 8. No longer do my warm-up sets feel like my hips, knees, and ankles are going to break. Every squat feels explosive because my body position is perfect.
When I squat now, I don't think about anything besides holding my air and exploding out of the bottom. This is the way it should be.

Bench Press

The bench press is my weakest lift. It always has been and I'm afraid I'll be forever doomed to walk the planet with a chicken chest. But that doesn't mean I give up on it and do "weighted dips" because I suck at supine pressing. That's a loser attitude.
The bench press is really a simple lift – you lie on a bench and press a barbell. Not exactly quantum physics. The over-analysis of elbow tuck, wrist/elbow position, proper grip, back arch – all of that stuff got thrown out in favor of these two things:
Take the bar off strong and aggressively. This assures that I don't start the lift with the barbell feeling heavy. I never use a lift-off when I bench press so I've had to learn how important it is to spread the weight out over my entire upper body, not just my arms.
Put the weight where it's strongest – your upper back, chest, and shoulders. Let the bigger, wider muscles carry the load. I grip the bar tight as hell and take the bar off like I own it.
Squat the weight. This is a term I use to describe leg drive. Once the bar touches my chest and I pause, I drive the weight up with my entire body, including my legs. Nothing could be easier.

Deadlift

Of all the lifts, this one was the easiest to fix, but it took the longest to figure out. Reading articles and books on deadlifting can confuse the hell out of you. Where to put your feet, your shoulders, upper and lower back, round back/arch back – all of these things can help you, or they can put a damper on the most Neanderthal lift of them all.
When my oldest son first saw me deadlift, he summed it up best: "You mean you just pick the barbell up?" While that should have been my eureka moment, it wasn't.
The simple fix I made to the deadlift is to just be aggressive and pull like your life depends on it. I know you wish I had some magic geometric equation of your shoulder position and hip position as it relates to the humidity, but I don't.
Stare at the barbell, hate the goddamn thing, approach the bar, hold your air, and pull.

Overhead Press

While not a favorite lift amongst the gurus, I think this lift is my second favorite, next to the squat. Because of its exclusion from the Olympic games and general disdain it's received in the training world, there haven't been endless articles and analyses about pushing a barbell over your head. Consider it a gift.
The two things I remind myself when pressing are:
Squeeze the ass. This ensures my whole body remains tight. There's a reason why the term "tight asses" refers to tense people. When my ass is squeezed, I hold my air and my abs/low back are ready to brace for the press.
Hold the bar in your lats, chest, and upper back. This is similar to the bench press and allows you to set yourself up for a good bar path and mental success (i.e., the weight will feel lighter).

Simple Strength

Lifting has come full circle. Gone are the mantras of "knees out, chest up, heels down, chin down, eyes straight, elbows in, elbows out, shoulders back, ass down." I now have a simple three-word mantra before every lift – Strong And Fast.
Get your technique down so that you no longer have to be a slave to thought. Be a master of success, not a struggling student.