Training

Mobility for tall exercisers

Mobility problems can only be solved by training for better mobility. Most of the time, people do this type of training without weight in a dynamic way. There's nothing wrong with that, but as a guy who is pretty darn agile for his size (around six feet at 120 pounds of bodyweight), my form looks far less good doing squats with an empty bar than with a loaded bar. Why? Because resistance forces the body to go through a stretch under load. This means that paused repetitions can be very important for tall exercisers.

Paused reps

People usually attribute paused reps to stopping the stretch reflex and any momentum or transfer of forces so that you can train pure strength from the lowest point of the repetition. Now, in addition to this, paused reps at the lowest point of the range of motion can really help and internalize proper technique.

Spending a few seconds in the hole at the lowest point of the movement on each repetition can have a huge impact on how steady you feel at the lowest point of the movement. This is invaluable for a tall exerciser who tends to lean too far forward on classic squats or front squats. Anything between 2 and 5 seconds pause is acceptable.

Keep your muscles tight while you remain in the lowest position. If you don't yet have the mobility to go far down, work with reasonable ranges of motion until you are ready. The second you allow yourself to loosen up your joints by striving for a greater range of motion is the moment the movement becomes unsafe.

Tip: Don't forget your micronutrients

Sure, macronutrients - protein, carbs and fat - are important, but bodybuilders shouldn't overlook their micronutrients either. Here are the reasons why.

By TC Luoma

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-dont-forget-your-micros/

Macronutrient micromanagement

From the moment most exercisers get serious about iron, they spend their days counting with their fingers and toes how many grams of protein, carbs and fat they've just eaten or plan to eat. In doing so, they completely - or almost completely - forget about the micronutrients their bodies need. Fruit and vegetables are of secondary importance to them.

To be completely accurate, most exercisers are mainly obsessed with how much protein they eat. In their mind, the amount of protein equals their muscle gain - the more the better - and they spend most of their time looking for the next protein boost. Carbohydrates and fats are also naturally on their radar - but not to the same extent as protein.

Many of these exercisers still develop great bodies and they often present themselves as a symbol of health, but very often these seemingly healthy bodies are just a facade. I can't tell you how many of these guys - many of whom are very well known - have secret and terrible health problems - health problems that are atypical for their age. They suffer from serious heart problems, serious digestive tract issues, lab values that would make their cardiologists' hair stand on end - and much of this is related to focusing solely on their macronutrients at the expense of their micronutrients.

Of course, not all exercisers fall into this extreme, but who knows how many of them get sick early if they don't pay attention to their nutritional needs?

Hunt some plants

These exercisers see themselves as carnivores, but perhaps they need to be reminded that from a genetic perspective, they are simply hairless apes wearing their baseball caps backwards. Instead of hunting nothing but meat, they should occasionally go after an onion, chase some celery or hunt down some green beans.

They avoid this plant stuff because their physical appearance is more important to them than their health. Maybe they don't want to eat too much fruit because they're worried about getting fat from the fructose. Maybe they think vegetables taste disgusting. Maybe they think they can cheat nature by eating a vitamin gummy bear a day. Or maybe they're just completely ignorant.

They are like the Golem from Jewish folklore - a powerful and terrifying creature formed entirely from clay and mud. If only the golem had eaten its fruit and vegetables! What kind of person could he have been? And what if the average exerciser had only spent more time thinking more about foods with a high nutrient density! Then they would have a body that is just as healthy as it looks. People who eat a complete diet don't have to worry about getting fat because they have good insulin sensitivity. They don't have to worry about their estrogen levels because they consume idols and other estrogen-lowering phytochemicals through their fruits and vegetables.

And they certainly don't have to worry about sagging tails because their plumbing is free of vascular inflammation thanks to their nutrient-dense, micronutrient-overloaded diet.

Admittedly, it is possible to eat a healthy diet consisting only of protein - but it must not consist only of muscle meat. To stay healthy on an all-meat diet, you must follow a complete Eskimo diet and eat all animal offal including liver, kidneys, brains and even eyeballs. These are the components where the nutrients are found. However, if you are not willing to follow this path, you must eat nutrient-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables.

Finally, even predators often eat the innards of their herbivorous prey, as these are usually overloaded with predigested vegetables, showing that these supposedly dumb animals know more about nutrition than the average exerciser.

Spend as much time thinking about where you're getting your boost of fruits and vegetables as you spend time thinking about your protein intake.

Tip: Eat these beans to get lean

Beans are a magical vegetable. Well, at least one type of bean is. Check out the science.

By Lonnie Lowery

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-eat-these-beans-to-get-lean/

Eat more kidney beans

Kidney beans are a perfect example of a functional food. They have been shown to reduce body fat and increase relative muscle mass, at least in animals. This is no joke. Here's a quote:

"Long-term consumption of a diet containing small amounts of kidney beans was able to significantly alter body composition in rats. Fat levels in the body were significantly reduced. As a result, the rats' bodies contained a higher proportion of muscle and protein than the animals in the control group."

That's just plain cool. This interesting effect may have something to do with the capacity of beans to increase the insulin sensitivity of skeletal muscles - primarily the large, rapidly contracting muscle fibers. Scientific research suggests that both the amount of insulin receptor mRNA and glucose transporter (Glut-4) levels increase dramatically after eating kidney beans.

An increase in the amount of messenger RNA suggests that said receptors and transporters will soon take shape and due to the potential of temporarily reduced nutrient availability/food conversion (i.e. food becoming body mass), I immediately start thinking about dieting. Losing fat or preventing fat gain while building lean body tissue is the holy grail of sports nutrition. Still not interested? Apparently the lectin contained in beans looks promising enough for scientists to consider it as a therapeutic agent to stimulate gut function and reduce obesity, if a safe and effective dosing range can be established in human subjects.

I definitely would not plan to supplement with any amount of bean lectins, nor would I try to use beans of any kind to replace my consumption of animal protein. But just eating more well-watered and then cooked kidney beans as a side dish every week? Yes, I could do that.

For soaking (several hours, e.g. overnight) and cooking time (which can vary), you should follow the instructions on the package. Of course, people don't eat beans raw, which puts the lectin effect into perspective, as it is partially destroyed during cooking.

But lectin or not, the overall nutritional bonuses of prepared kidney beans, ranging from useful amounts of fiber to slow-release carbohydrates and potentially beneficial phytochemicals, make kidney beans a functional food worth eating in my eyes. Scientific studies also suggest that kidney beans do not have the long-term effects on pancreas size that soybeans are known to have. After reviewing the scientific literature, I went out to buy some kidney beans. It's time to get muscular and defined, or at least half a step closer to that goal.

References:

1. Grant, G., et al. Consumption of diets containing raw soya beans (Glycine max), kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) or lupin seeds (Lupinus angustifolius) by rats for up to 700 days: effects on body composition and organ weights. Br J Nutr. 1995 Jan; 73(1): 17-29.
2. Pusztai, A., et al. Lipid accumulation in obese Zucker rats is reduced by inclusion of raw kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in the diet. Br J Nutr. 1998 Feb; 79(2): 213-21.
3. Knott, R., et al. Alterations in the level of insulin receptor and GLUT-4 mRNA in skeletal muscle from rats fed a kidney bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) diet. Int J Biochem. 1992 Jun;24(6):897-902.
4. Grant, G., et al. Pancreatic enlargement is evident in rats fed diets containing raw soybeans (Glycine max) or cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) for 800 days but not in those fed diets based on kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) or lupinseed (Lupinus angustifolius). J Nutr. 1993 Dec;123(12):2207-15.

Tip: Build mass with the 3-50 method

Use this set and repeat pattern with any exercise and build new muscle. But be warned, it's brutal. Check it out.

By Paul Carter

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-build-size-with-the-3-50-method/

If hypertrophy is your goal, then try this load pattern. This is a very effective (and painful) way to do a lot of reps. It works great with almost any exercise.

The 3/50 method

Choose a weight and try to perform a total of 50 repetitions over the course of three sets. For most people, this corresponds to a weight with which they can do 18 to 22 repetitions on the first set. Once you are able to perform a total of 50 repetitions over the course of 3 sets, increase the weight.

I tried this with the incline bench press and found that when my weight increased on 3-50 sets, the weight on my other press also increased. I initially chose 100 kilos as my weight for 50 reps. Generally, my sets fell into these types of repetition ranges:

• 100 x 22
• 100 x 13
• 100 x 8
• Total reps = 43

I stayed at 100 kilos until I could do 50 total reps. Then I tried to do 50 total reps with a heavier weight. Try it out for yourself.

Tip: Creatine and water retention

Is the weight gain from creatine mainly water or muscle? Here are the facts.

From TC Luoma

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/supplements/tip-creatine-and-water-weight/

Are my creatine gains just water?

Most people gain weight so quickly after starting creatine that common sense tells you that most of those gains must be primarily water. This may be true to a large extent after you start taking creatine, but even then the increase in water weight seems to be proportional to the overall weight gain. Muscle is 73% water. So if you gain 10 pounds from creatine, 7.3 pounds of that will be water.

In addition to this, creatine actually causes cellular volumization and this is an important determinant of protein breakdown and synthesis in skeletal muscle (and other cell types). Exercise activates protein synthesis while simultaneously degrading protein, but creatine shifts the balance towards protein synthesis.

Creatine provides an additional phosphate group that helps regenerate ATP during high-intensity muscle contractions, but cell volumization is an even more important cause of creatine's muscle-building effects.

Long-term creatine use is a slightly different scenario, as this is a scenario in which creatine increases lean body mass without an accompanying increase in total body water. Muscle cross-sectional area increases along with strength, which seems to mean that long-term effects are mainly due to increased muscle mass.

What should I look for in a creatine product?

Make sure it comes from a reliable manufacturer. Often very cheap creatine in large doses is of inferior quality. If possible, look for micronized creatine. And good old creatine monohydrate is all you really need.

Tip: Don't train like a professional bodybuilder, stupid

Sure, a pro can inspire, but here are 4 things steroid-free exercisers need to know.

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-dont-train-like-a-pro-bodybuilder-dummy/

Blindly following the workouts of a top bodybuilder won't work well for the average steroid-free exerciser. Their body is simply different.

Pros vs. Naturals

• Bodybuilders who use performance-enhancing drugs have an increased level of protein synthesis. This is not the case with steroid-free exercisers. The natural trainee must stimulate protein synthesis with their training, whereas a chemically enhanced bodybuilder uses their training primarily to deliver nutrients to their muscles to benefit from increased protein synthesis.
• The large amount of anabolic hormones used by professionals can counteract excessively elevated cortisol levels. In a steroid-free exerciser, an excessive increase in cortisol will not only kill protein synthesis, but also cause expression of the myostatin gene, both of which will stall any potential muscle growth.
• Anabolic steroids increase glycogen storage and thus negate or prevent the depletion of glycogen stores. Glycogen depletion itself is very catabolic and steroid-free exercisers are at higher risk.
• Because of these differences, chemically supported bodybuilders - especially if they also have good genetic predispositions - can tolerate more volume and also respond better to light pump training. They can also train one muscle group less frequently.

Tip: Use pyramid repetitions for broad shoulders

This will hurt so much that you'll do it again and again. Because you're kind of crazy like that.

By Paul Carter

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-pyramid-reps-for-wide-shoulders/

Yes, you need to be very strong on overhead presses to build big shoulders, but volume and time under tension also play a role. Add the following to your workout using side raises. Here is the repetition scheme

25, 15, 10, REST, 10, 15, 25

1. Take a fairly light pair of dumbbells and perform 25 repetitions.
2. Without pausing, take a slightly heavier pair of dumbbells and perform 15 repetitions.
3. Without pausing, take a slightly heavier pair of dumbbells and perform 10 repetitions. If you get a little sloppy on the last set, that's not a problem. Just don't fake it so much that you look like a guy who danced at a rave and took too much ecstasy.
4. Take a break for 3 minutes. Then reduce the weight and do it again the other way around.
5. Perform 10 repetitions with the heaviest pair of dumbbells from the previous round.
6. Perform 15 repetitions with the next lighter pair of dumbbells without resting.
7. Then perform 25 repetitions with the lightest pair of dumbbells without resting.

The first time you try to do this, you may find that you haven't used the right weights. No problem. Make a note in your training log and use lighter weights for the next training session.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-how-tall-guys-can-improve-squat-mobility/

From Lee Boyce

A short summary

1. Muscle protein synthesis is the process your body uses to repair, strengthen and grow your muscle fibers.
2. If you can increase your muscle protein synthesis and reduce your muscle breakdown, you will build muscle.
3. The best way to increase your muscle protein synthesis is to do a lot of heavy strength training, eat enough calories and protein, and time your meals correctly.

Building muscle can seem like a confusing process. Some people say that you should use high reps in your workouts, while others say that you just need to focus on getting strong.

Some say you need to eat a high protein diet and others say it doesn't matter. Some say that you need to eat a meal immediately before and/or after training, while others say that eating enough calories throughout the day is enough.

How would you know who's right? Well, one way to navigate this morass of facts and opinions is to focus on exactly what you want to achieve.

And if your goal is to build muscle, then you need to understand all the strategies that target one thing: muscle protein synthesis.

You might be wondering what that is. Well, that's what you'll learn in this article. You'll learn what muscle protein synthesis is, why it's so important for building muscle, the six best ways to increase muscle protein synthesis and how to avoid things that reduce muscle protein synthesis.

Let's get started.

What is muscle protein synthesis?

To synthesize means to combine a number of things into a coherent whole. When it comes to muscle protein synthesis, this means creating new muscle tissue from amino acids. Amino acids are small molecules from which proteins are formed. The latter are continuously broken down and rebuilt in the body.

When the amino acids in the muscle tissue are broken down into their components, this process is also known as muscle protein breakdown. The processes of muscle protein breakdown and synthesis are active simultaneously at all times, but to varying degrees.

For example, if you are in a state of fasting, the rate of protein breakdown increases and if this exceeds the rate of muscle protein synthesis, this results in a loss of muscle mass. This condition is also known as negative protein balance.

If you eat protein, your rate of protein synthesis increases and if this exceeds the rate of protein breakdown, the result is an increase in muscle mass. This is also known as a positive protein balance.

In this way, your body moves back and forth between anabolic and catabolic states every day.

In normal health and nutritional circumstances, muscle protein synthesis is fairly stable and the cycle of cellular regeneration remains balanced.

Over the course of the day, this looks something like this:

Every increase in protein synthesis is followed by a corresponding increase in protein breakdown and the two more or less balance each other out. This is the reason why the average person neither builds nor loses muscle over a longer period of time. On a daily basis, there are no noticeable changes in lean body mass. (We do slowly lose lean body mass as we age if we don't actively do something about it, but I think you know where I'm going with this).

How protein synthesis affects muscle growth

But how are we supposed to build muscle if protein synthesis and protein breakdown balance each other out?

The answer is by increasing protein synthesis slightly more than protein breakdown over the longer term.

When the rate of protein synthesis exceeds the rate of protein breakdown over weeks and months, your muscles get bigger and stronger.

So what we call muscle growth is actually the result of the rate of protein synthesis exceeding the rate of protein breakdown over time. In other words, you build muscle when your body synthesizes more muscle protein than it loses. If your body synthesizes less protein than it loses, then you lose muscle in return.

And if your body synthesizes more or less the same amount of muscle protein as it loses, then you are neither building nor losing muscle.

This is why bodybuilders do everything they can to increase their protein synthesis rate and inhibit their protein breakdown.

This includes, among other things:

• High protein and high carbohydrate diets
• Progressive muscle overload in the gym
• Making sure you are not in a state of calorie deficit
• A suitable pre- and post-workout diet
• Consuming protein before going to bed
• Limiting cardio training
• Supplements
• And sometimes the use of steroids and other medications

The goal of all of this is simply to keep the rate of protein synthesis as far higher than the rate of protein breakdown for as many hours of the day as possible.

As you can see, there are many factors that cumulatively determine whether you build or lose muscle. Something else that is worth mentioning is the type of muscle protein synthesis we are targeting. All types of exercise including endurance sports such as cycling, swimming, skiing and hiking can increase the rate of muscle protein synthesis (1).

But why then are endurance athletes not muscle packed? Well, there are three reasons:

1. Protein synthesis mainly takes place in the mitochondria - small power plants in the cells (2). The mitochondria multiply and become more efficient, which makes you better at endurance sports, but they don't increase muscle size (3). Strength training, on the other hand, increases protein synthesis in the actual muscle fibers, which makes them grow (4).
2. There is also a large increase in protein breakdown during endurance sports, which cancels out the increase in protein synthesis (5).
3. Most people who do endurance sports also limit their calorie intake, which increases the rate of muscle protein breakdown (6). So what can you do to keep your protein synthesis rate elevated long enough to build muscle? As you'll see in a moment, quite a lot.

6 ways to increase muscle protein synthesis

If you want to build muscle, you have two goals:

1. An increase in muscle protein synthesis over as many hours as possible per day.
2. To reduce muscle breakdown for as long as possible each day.

Let's tackle the first part of this equation first - increasing the rate of muscle protein synthesis.

Strength training and muscle protein synthesis

Since ancient times, we have known that lifting and putting down heavy things builds muscle. When we exercise our muscles, we damage cells in our muscle fibers, which signals the body to increase the rate of protein synthesis to repair this damage (7).

Here's what this looks like throughout the day

There are a few other things that happen in the muscle cells when we exercise that also stimulate muscle protein synthesis, but the most important factor is mechanical tension (8). This means moving heavier and heavier weights over time.

After a training session, there is a rapid and prolonged increase in muscle protein synthesis (9). This state lasts for up to 3 days in beginners and less than 24 hours in advanced exercisers. This difference is due to the fact that over time the body becomes better at recovering from training and therefore does not need to keep protein synthesis elevated for as long.

This becomes more important the closer you get to your genetic potential as your body becomes more resistant to the effects of strength training. It takes more and more sets to achieve the same increase in protein synthesis and this increase also falls back to baseline more quickly (10).

This is why you need to increase your training volume over time to keep your protein synthesis rate elevated and your muscle-building machinery running at full speed (11).

All this is well and good, but there is also a large increase in muscle protein breakdown that occurs when you train with weights.

In fact, the rate of muscle protein breakdown after a training session is significantly higher than the rate of muscle protein synthesis (12). After an hour or two in the gym, you are in a catabolic (muscle-degrading) state.

In other words, strength training increases both the rate of protein synthesis and the rate of protein breakdown.

The rate of muscle protein breakdown naturally decreases after some time, but strength training still has a net muscle building effect in the long run. However, as a steroid-free exerciser, you should do everything you can to reduce the muscle protein breakdown caused by training.

This is where nutrition comes into play, which we will look at next.

Calories and muscle protein synthesis

Yes, you need to eat enough protein, which is nothing new for people trying to build muscle, but many people don't realize that they also need to eat enough calories. Your body burns a certain amount of energy every day, which is measured in calories (one kcal is the amount of energy needed to heat 1 kilo of water by one degree). This amount of calories is called your total daily calorie consumption.

Your body gets the energy it needs to stay alive from the food you eat. The relationship between the amount of energy you consume and the amount of energy you expend is called energy balance and has a major impact on your body weight and muscle growth.

If you supply your body with less energy than it consumes, you generate a calorie deficit, which results in weight loss if you maintain it over a longer period of time.

However, such a calorie deficit also impairs your body's ability to synthesize muscle protein, which will slow or halt your muscle growth (13).

The physiology at play here is quite complex, but the short version is that your body switches into an energy-saving mode where certain bodily functions are prioritized over others when you restrict your calorie intake.

Building bigger muscles is not essential for survival and requires plenty of energy, which is why it is low on the list of priorities.

In addition, a calorie deficit can reduce levels of anabolic hormones and increase levels of catabolic hormones, which can cause a systemic shift from net protein synthesis to muscle breakdown (14, 15).

This is also the reason why it is commonly believed that you cannot build muscle and lose fat at the same time (which is not entirely accurate, as we will see.

It is also the reason why women may miss periods if they restrict their calorie intake in order to lose fat (16). In a state of energy deficiency, the body can neglect the energy-hungry and non-essential process of menstruation. So what do you need to ensure in terms of your calorie intake if you want to build muscle as quickly as possible?

You need to make sure that you are not in a calorie deficit - regardless of your nutritional strategy.

Regardless of your nutritional strategy, if you are in a calorie deficit most of the time, you will struggle to keep your muscle protein synthesis rate high enough to build muscle.

If you want to maximize your muscle protein synthesis, then you need to make sure you're eating enough calories to maintain your weight. For most people, this means a calorie intake in the range of 30 to 34 kcal per kilogram of body weight.

In the second part of this article we will look at the influence of protein, protein timing, BCAAs and sleep on protein synthesis.

References:

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3381813/
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2538832/
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27219125
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17465602
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2732256/
6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12882478
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20847704
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8563679
9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27433992
10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27433992
11. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16424140
12. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17229738
13. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20096034
14. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20368473
15. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25352438

Source: https://legionathletics.com/muscle-protein-synthesis/

From Amistead Legge