Tip of the week Tip: Control your insulin with food

Insulin can be your friend and your enemy. Here are some ways to make it work for you instead of against you

Insulin has gotten quite a bad reputation, but basically it's just a hormone that the body makes in response to the food we eat. It can help us store energy that we have taken in as food either in our muscle cells (good) or in our fat cells (bad).

The more muscle you have - and the better the insulin sensitivity of that muscle - the greater your capacity to store muscle glycogen. Ideally, you would store more of what you eat as muscle while getting leaner, which means you reduce the amount of fat you store. Impossible? No. You can change your body composition by changing your insulin sensitivity and you can change your insulin sensitivity with food.

How to control insulin with food

Some people think that cutting out carbohydrates is the key to getting lean, but if you cut out carbohydrates completely, it makes muscle glycogen synthesis more difficult. And if you exercise or care about your performance in the weight room, this will prevent you from maximizing your performance.

Carbohydrates are a fast-acting bioenergetic energy source. Of course, unnecessarily high carbohydrate intake throughout the day will not be without consequences. Depending on how excessive it is, it will make you more insulin resistant. Instead, you should eat most of your carbohydrates during the window of time around your workout when you need and consume the most carbohydrates.

Here are some other helpful tips:

Make sure your fiber intake is adequate - but not during the window of time around your workout.

Increasing your fiber intake has also been shown to have a blood sugar-lowering effect and can increase the body's insulin sensitivity. The only restriction is that you should not eat high-fiber meals around your workout. During this window of time, a strong insulin release is desirable to help you transport your training nutrition directly into your muscle cells.

Eat more slowly

Several studies have shown that people who eat faster have higher insulin resistance. These studies have taken into account factors such as genetic predisposition, BMI, calorie intake, waist circumference and triglyceride levels. Despite this, fast eating has been linked to overweight and obesity and it is believed that fast eating makes it harder for appetite suppressing hormones to do their job, ultimately impairing insulin's ability to do its job.

Tip: Build muscle or maintain your existing muscle all the time

Losing fat doesn't have to mean losing muscle. And building muscle doesn't have to mean you get fat. Here are the facts.

By Benjamin Liu

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-build-or-preserve-muscle-at-all-times

Some people say that you can't build muscle in a calorie deficit. But the amount of muscle you build depends on much more than your calorie intake:

• How far along are you?
• How much time do you have available for your training?
• How much rest do you get?
• How do you eat?
• How high is your calorie deficit really?

Eating right, training right and getting enough rest are the most important factors in building muscle and as long as you don't go into a huge calorie deficit (more than 500 kcal) you can continue to build muscle. It is possible to build muscle without building fat. And contrary to popular belief, it is even possible to build muscle while losing fat.

But won't the person who maintains a calorie surplus make bigger gains? Yes, but probably not to the extent you might think. And for those who don't mind gaining as much fat as muscle, when the time comes to diet, the extreme change in diet will often become very stressful for body and mind. It can even lead to muscle loss during the diet or the development of metabolic damage.

A better way

Over the years, the exerciser who follows a sensible diet in the maintenance calorie range is likely to make better gains than the one who continually switches back and forth between mass-building and dieting phases.

I'm not saying that bulking and dieting don't have their place and justification. Some people even find that a mass-building phase helps them to overcome training plateaus. However, bulking and dieting phases should only be used temporarily and not long term, and they are not necessary for everyone. Don't use your muscle building goals as an excuse to overindulge in food and don't use your fat loss goals as an excuse to burn muscle.

Tip: Test things out and then use them

Here's something successful athletes do that you should do too

By Dani Shugart

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-test-things-out-and-commit

What are you afraid of?

There are people who never put anything into practice but always seem to be looking for the best way to achieve their goals. They want to get everything tested out by other people and then they want to compare those results with other results and then they want an analysis by a trusted source who has tried it too.

They may tell you that their inaction has something to do with efficiency and doing things the right way, but it's really about fear. The fear of failing. The fear of being the only beginner in a room full of experienced people. Maybe even fear of committing to something. So they wait for someone else to tell them whether it's worth the effort or not. The truth behind this? People who look for excuses are people who are afraid.

Expand your knowledge

Successful athletes want to try something themselves. If something doesn't work, they want to know first-hand. Why? Because something that looks like a lot of effort to one person may be worth the effort to another. Experienced bodybuilders and strength athletes will not be pessimistic about a new method until they have tried it for themselves. They experience personal satisfaction from the effort - even if it doesn't pay off. Trying something new increases their desire to keep trying things until they get the results they want.

Successful exercisers don't want second-hand information because they know friends and studies won't tell them the whole story. They may do what they instinctively believe and that instinct may turn out to be wrong, but then they have expanded their knowledge. If their instinct has been proven right, then they have a new tool in their toolbox.

Their ability to try things out - from diet to exercise - prevents their mind from being held back by fear. Sure, they will have failures, but these experiences will make them better and enable them to more easily figure out what works best for them. Failure takes away their fear.

Experienced exercisers want to achieve results through nutrition strategies, training splits and training techniques and they would never dare to put all their trust in a nutrition book or a fitness expert. They are also always skeptical when someone claims to have all the answers.

These men and women welcome trainers and their new ideas, but they don't need their approval to eat right or train hard.

Here's what you should do

Start somewhere. Try different things. And don't rely on hearsay, because you'll only know how your body reacts to something if you've tried it. Realize that if you've been researching sumo squats for months without trying sumo squats yourself, you've just been flexing your procrastination muscle.

Try things you are interested in and follow these strategies for a reasonable amount of time. After that, if something needs improvement, you will know more about how to improve it. Finding out what doesn't work for you will help you find out what does work for you.

However, you need to try things out to benefit from experience. Stop accumulating masses of second-hand information. Don't put your health in the hands of others. Read, research, test and modify.

Tip: The best lunge variation for a hard gluteus and pain-free knees

This variation of lunges will not only work better for your saggy butt, but will also be better for your knees.

By Dr. John Rusin

https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-the-best-lunge-for-hard-glutes-and-pain-free-knees

Reverse lunges involve a simple step backward instead of the traditional step forward. Because of the changes in trunk angle, reverse lunges generate more activation of the proximal leg flexors and gluteus muscles and put less stress on the front of the knee. These are all good things if your goal is to move heavy weights and train for strength and muscle mass.

Reverse lunges

Note: As you take a step backwards under absolute control, your torso will tend to bend forward, putting you in a downward-facing chest position. As long as this flexion comes from the hips and not the lower back, this change in angle can help to recruit leg flexors and gluteus.

An explosive movement back to a neutral position and putting one foot down to reverse the movement instead of balancing on one foot like a ballerina will keep the focus on building strength.

Common mistakes: Many exercisers tend to accelerate a movement that lacks dynamic stability. Speeding up the movement pattern can easily lead to the use of compensation patterns, which is why you should perform your movements more slowly, especially reverse lunges.

One trick to improve stability is to keep the cervical spine in a neutral line with the thoracic and lumbar spine. This leads to more fluid movements and generates gains instead of pain.

Tip: Follow the 90% rule

This is a simple guideline to help you overcome nutritional dogma and get back on track.

By Paul Carter | 06/16/16

https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-adhere-to-the-90-rule

The great nutrition debate

Fact: Successful bodybuilders and athletes eat more quality food than junk.

The nutrition debate often gets out of hand. Why? Because a lot of people want reassurance that they can eat junk food all the time: "Please give me a scientific-sounding reason to stuff myself with junk food."

This is a big problem among beginners who would do anything to lose fat - except, of course, give up all the junk they eat. They fall for the idea that there's no difference between eating junk food and eating a healthy diet, as long as the junk they eat somehow fits their macronutrient and calorie plan.

But this isn't even an IIFYM vs. Clean Eating vs. Paleo vs. Zone vs. Keto vs. McDonalds debate. This is a very clear chapter in the common sense book: the majority of your meals should consist of high quality foods. Even if you are a strength athlete and don't necessarily want to reach a body fat percentage of 10%, if you eat high quality food most of the time, you will perform better than if you eat junk food. Unfortunately, many gym-goers seem to have forgotten this.

Food choices matter

From macronutrient and digestive issues to hormonal and inflammatory responses, your food choices matter. Experienced, successful exercisers have long figured this out. Long-term health is important to them. And it's the reason they win in the long run, while others waste years counting the macronutrients in their candy bars.

The lesson

Follow the 90% rule. This means that 90% of your meals should consist of foods with a high nutrient density. Then you can eat sweets, as long as it's not on a daily basis.

Tip: Test your grip strength

If you don't pass this test, then not only is your grip weak, but your elbows will give you problems too

By Dr. John Rusin

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-test-your-grip-strength

Aside from the obvious problems of having the grip strength of a dead fish, a weak grip can also cause elbow problems. If you are unable to carry a weight equal to your body weight in each hand for 15 meters, your grip strength is inadequate.

Grip strength and elbow problems

A lack of functional grip strength will not only limit your performance in the gym, but can also cause terrible trauma to the finger and wrist flexors that gets worse over time. You need to improve your grip strength to prevent or reduce elbow pain in the long run. If you think your grip strength is sufficient, you are probably wrong.

The test: See if you can run 15 to 20 meters with a weight equal to your body weight in each hand. So if you weigh 90 kilos, you should be able to carry 180 kilos over this distance.

Yes, that's damn heavy. A functional carry should consist of at least 75% of your body weight in each hand. If you're not able to do that either, then it's time to go back to basics.

How you can get stronger

To improve the health of your elbows while maximizing your grip strength, you should increase the weight on your loaded carries in a linear periodized progression. Keep the distance relatively short (10 to 15 meters) and treat your weights no differently than any other strength exercise in your arsenal.

Schedule Loaded Carries into your training program at least twice a week and make sure you maintain adequate rest intervals between sets. The goal is to increase your anaerobic capacity, not run around like a UPS messenger for half an hour with 25 kilos in each hand.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-control-insulin-with-food