shiftxtr.com

          Thermogenesis is an interesting topic, especially for those looking to lose a bit of the nasty stuff…

FAT! You can shed fat using a number of tools found in your training arsenal as well as your nutrition arsenal. The stand by is always reducing insulin response with lowering carb intake while introducing resistance training and some quick hit HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) ala TABATA’S.

And,If you live in the North East and you want to take advantage of a naturally intrinsic way to rev up your metabolism and thermogenesis (bodyheat production), you can attempt to take your weight training outdoors into the frigid. This sounds absurd I know, but it is effective. Think about what happens when you are submerged in a cold bath of ice. The thought of this gives you some insane shivers. This shivering is your body’s musculo skeletal system response to cold temperatures as it attempts to keep core body temp.  relatively  warm enough for survival.A simple built-in survival technique that uses muscular friction to produce heat. When your body detects significantly cold temps.  your brain sends neural signals that stimulate your adrenals to release some cool hormones, ephedrine and norepedrine, to do some interesting things. First heartrate increases as well as vaso and broncho dilation  to prepare for flight or fight movement. This is done primarily through the actions of ephedrine or adrenaline. The shivering is done through the messenger ability of (nor-ephedrine or otherwise know as nor-adrenaline), that causes stimulation at specific receptor sites at muscle cells called BETA 2 Agonists that would cause a quick, sympathetic shivering of muscle, thus producing heat. This effect definitely increases caloric output. And because of the neuro-sympathetic interrelationship between B2 and B1(B1 agonist has the effect on adipose tissue by stimulating triglyceride release and subsequent use of fatty acids for energy. Also known as lipolysis)  the notion to grab some iron and head to the “frigids” (my nick name for the freakin’ cold) and  blow out some complexes starts to make a bit of sense. Atleast to you and I anyway. The neighbors, thats another story. You will most probably not be invited to a cookout at the neighbors. But, you will be the “shredded freak” on the block. And that by itself is well worth the disparaging and “neighborly” remarks that you will personally never hear.  

Peace-Matt

Not just the titled CD of guitar virtuoso Zakk Wylde, but also what

I call the 12 minute workout on my bike/trainer that is set up in my studio.

Same kind of training I use to prepare me for those 50mile and century long

rides my wife and I do throughout the warmer months.

The ride is a simple 7 minutes of prep and 4 minutes of HELL!

First, I put on some cool music that I can “hammer” to.

Today  the blessed hell ride music selection was: prep 1. ANYTHING, ANYTHING - Dramarama 2. SHIMMER - Fuel

3. BREAK STUFF-Limpbizkit

 Then to hell  4. SABOTAGE-Beastie Boys 5. STUPIFY-Disturbed

(I did say music to “hammer” to; not easy listening,falling asleep on the bike music)             

If I were to describe the 4 minutes of hell it might be better to use an analogy to get

the point across: “I would rather pick a metal splinter out of my eye with a white hot tipped spear” than go on the “Blessed Hell Ride”. Well, maybe a little hyperboly  here…maybe.

After the 7 minutes of prep the ride goes something like this:  :20 seconds of “here we go…let it ripp”

:10 seconds of ”not so bad”, :20 of ride at a crazy cadence…like a locomotive going down grade, only you are

CLIMBING UP A MOUNTAIN, :10- peel off the intensity only 6 more intervals to go; :20-of body heating up about 10 degrees more than when I started . Legs?…a little on fire; :10- “man, 10 seconds is really  too short”; :20- GAME ON! You can quit if ya want…; :10- only half way done. “Who is this Izume Tabata anyway? That damn freake… sadistic… exercise scientist. Why do the Japanese hate us so much? They must”;  :20-”Fire extinguish my quads, please”…; :10-”Mommy?…help me?…mommy?”; :20-”was that my heart that just jumped out of my chest?”…”Yes. Yes, that is my heart that just jumped out of my chest. Alright… Now I’m a little worried”; :10-”Umm, is this good for me?”; :20-Out of body experience. Look at that fool peddaling that bike to nowhere. What a nut!; :10-panting like a dog; :20 LET IT RIPP…There’s the finish line…

Yeah, If you are honest and do it right It goes kind of like that. Hey, like I sometimes say”YA GOTTA TABATA”  if you want to round out your training. ”Kickin’ up the acid” (lactic acid) will keep you humble and hungry for more. MJ 

ATHLETES! YOU GOTTA HAVE RHYTHM…

As a trainer and strength and conditioning coach, analyzing research and applying concepts that are pertinent to athletic performance is a primary objective to any successful athletic program.

One topic that has been overlooked for some time now is the relation between circadian rhythms and diurnal cycles of certain endogenous hormones that can have a significant affect on individual athletic performance. The one hormone that seems to have significance in influencing sports performance and is found in higher concentrations after high intensity strength/ hypertrophy training is testosterone.

Studies have shown that testosterone levels in humans are highest in morning hours and drop towards evening. This is the common and relatively consistent circadian rhythm of testosterone levels in males tested during hormone related studies. But, what impact would a well designed strength and hypertrophy training program have on the possible influence in altering these testosterone levels? And, why would you want to purposely manipulate these levels?

First, let’s look at the physiological influence testosterone has on body systems and the value of these relating to athletic performance.

On the muscular system-high levels of testosterone activate mRNA and DNA synthesis that leads to increased intramuscular amino acid uptake; potential muscular hypertrophy at target cells. Testosterone has a suppressing action on cortisol receptor sights that may cause a metabolic environment for decreased catabolic potential at target cells. On systemic metabolism, testosterone has been shown to decrease body fat.

On the neural side of testosterone’s action is an acute and chronic signaling pattern on activated neurons that show an increase in neuronal size and potential increase in amplitudal stimulation of all muscle that neuron innervates.

Simply stated, testosterone influences the neuromuscular system for potentially high levels of force production of the muscular system which is of absolute importance for extraordinary athletic performance.

Studies have concluded acute influence of high intensity resistance training on enhanced testosterone production 0-120 minutes post workout. Knowing the effects of testosterone on the neuromuscular system and the potential of these benefits to athletic performance, a strength and conditioning coach may consider the value in adjusting daily strength training workouts to correlate with their athletes’ sporting events. For example, if a wrestling team has the majority of their matches for their regular season set at 7pm, then their team’s strength training should be scheduled at about 5pm. as to adjust for peak testosterone levels that may deem advantageous in better performance from their athletes.

Peace-MJ        

GLUCOSE, INSULIN AND PROTEIN SYNTHESIS? 

It is interesting that most people who are in quest to build muscle are absolutely convinced that you need glucose along with a protein source to promote amino acid uptake. It is equally interesting when you listen to bodybuilders who are always playing out these seemingly quasi neurotic counselings of what, when, and how much of this, that, and the other thing has to occur in order to get optimal results from a training session.

The reality of this conundrum is really pretty simple and not really the riddle in post exercise nutrition that most make it out to be.

Case in point; you hear this conversation at the gym all the time- “hey man, you better get your post workout meal in soon. There’s a ‘window of opportunity’ to replenish your glycogen and get as much amino acids to the muscle cells as possible. You should take in 4 grams of carbs for every gram of protein. This will super compensate amino acid uptake to your muscles and help you recover faster.”

Sounds so scientific, but really, someone is reading too many Muscle and Fiction, I mean Muscle and Fitness Magazines. Body building magazines are where almost all bodybuilders get there exercise science education.( Damn right, you know I ain’t lyin’ now.) The truth of the matter is this very simple fact; body building  magazines are supplement advertising driven publications with re-cycled training routines from all your favorite muscle freaks of the era. This is how it was 25 years ago and how it is today. The first thing you should do is put down these rags and pick up a physiology text and start figuring this stuff out for yourself.

                                                    -PHYSIOLOGY 101-

First, amino acid uptake in muscle cells is not exclusively dependent on glucose intake, hence, insulin transport to cells. There are other potential carriers (active transport) for amino acids.  Growth hormone is one. Growth Hormone is stimulated by an acute peak in exercise intensity. The presence of HGH (we are discussing endogenous here) stimulates the secretion of small protein hormones called insulin-like growth factors (IGF’s). These IGF’s are functionally and structurally very similar to insulin, but IGF is more potent in active transport of amino acids across cell membranes. The funny thing is, Growth Hormone release is muted when glucose (hence, insulin) is present in blood. No HGH, no IGF’s. Are you starting to get the idea here? A post workout sugar hit with protein works, but it is not necessary. Hey man, this is just a little scientific fodder for you to chew on. And next time Joey Biceps wants to give you pointers on post exercise nutrition, tell him you’re good because you get your info from www.shiftxtr.com

Peace-MJ            

REPERFUSION EXECU-SHUN AND HYPER-TROPHY

Let me just preface here and say that this article might bring with it some controversy. That being said, not only does reperfusion sound cool, it is an interesting topic that does not seem to get too much attention. You have to go back to your college physiology course texts here-I personally have all my textbooks from college-great references. 

Reperfusion is simply damage to tissue due to a resurgence of blood/oxygen supply after that tissue has been deprived blood/oxygen for a given amount of time. With this dramatic reestablishing of blood supply, free radical activity is in hyper-mode and molecular damage is imminent. Now, let’s implicate this phenomenon to high intensity resistance training a-la Mike Mentzer style. Mike Mentzer was a pro bodybuilder in the late 70’s, early 80’s. He took training concepts established and implemented by Arthur Jones and his Nautilus training to failure for hypertrophy campaign and made the principle more efficient. Mike was a low volume, high intensity

8-10 rep max. working set, recover and adapt disciplinarian. His idea was to do what is simply required and nothing more. A controversial stand when most every single bodybuilding aficionado would curse any program without at least 12-15 sets minimum -and that’s just for biceps. But, not controversial if you look at science and requirements for GETTING HUGE. Casey Viator did. Dorian Yates did. Nimrod King did. You don’t know the names, you say? Do a little research and tell me these guys didn’t know a thing or two about MASS and smart training. Yates was a disciple of low volume high intensity training back in the 90’s and brought the standard of mass to a whole new level. SINGLE SET TO FAILURE! SMART! EFFICIENT! PROGRESSIVE! EFFECTIVE!  Disruption to tissue? Absolutely, and a necessary evil for hypertrophy. MRI’s have shown damage at the sarcomere level with single set theories that look like a bomb had been detonated and any sign of life at the cellular level seemingly obliterated.(Satellite cells and an intact neuron would be nice right about now). Causes: loading deformation- characteristic during eccentric loading and mechanical breaking of contractile bonds is one. Another is the anaerobic nature of H.I.T. and the exponential shut down of blood/oxygen supply to contracting tissue at loads above 65% of 1 rep max. These are both mechanical implications causing adaptive stressors to muscle and connective tissue. But, the latter is one that causes an immediate response as soon as a very intense set is completed and that response sets off the process of reperfusion. Since it is a response that can be mitigated by enzyme pools of super oxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase it would stand to reason that a supplemental increase in antioxidant levels might influence an even greater response in shutting down free radical damage to muscle tissue. Supplemental E and C come to mind. But, would you want to mess around with this response? This is where the controversy comes in. If damage to tissue is a common response to high intensity training and a necessary signal for remodeling and potentially increased actin levels, then why not let free radical damage do its obligatory nasty deed and see if hypertrophy is accelerated or inhibited. Well, about 12 years ago, I and my training partner put that idea to the test, and although anecdotal, this is what we came up with. Our training consisted of typical body part sessions with low volume, low frequency, B-R-U-T-A-L intensity –short and sweet. Day 1- Chest- Incline DB Press 140’s x 16 reps to momentary muscular fatigue (mmf) for me (DB’s only went up to 140) immediately to flat fly 1 set 65-70 lbs. to mmf. Rest. Triceps- close grip on smith-285 fail all the way up the safety till top 1/3 of movement was shot-immediately to cable pushdowns for one gnarly set. Rest.

1 set of Nautilus crunches, heavy and with manual resistance at end. Day1 @ 22 minutes from time we walked in the gym to time session was over. Day 2 (3-4 days later). Legs.

Free or smith squat. If we smith squatted we used range limiter so we could go to complete eccentric fatigue through out the whole and partial ranges. Squat 455×10-shorten range for 4 more to shortened range for 4 more (you get the idea) then right to leg ext. stack for one all out set. Rest. Hams- seated leg curls stack –mmf- followed by Nordic leg curls 1 set –mmf. Rest. Calves-Standing calf stack to mmf- right to seated calf 180 lbs. with assistance at end. Done. Total time in gym for leg workout-@ 35 minutes. The squatting was nasty. Needed a little recovery before hams. Next workout was 4 days later. Day 3 Back- Deadlift upto 495 for 11-12 reps right to Hammer Strength Rows 4plates each side (with straps) 7 plus assisted 1 rep with superslow negative at end of set. Rest. Shoulders- Hammer Strength press 365 8-10 reps right to slow DB side laterals 45’s (doing them with 0 swing and hold at top-even did partials at end of set. No biceps- in my experience a big waste of time. (But, have at it if you feel the need). 35 minutes in and out. (Had to recover a little between back work and shoulder work). 9 days to complete the whole body. Effective? Beyond belief! I went from 182lbs. to 217 lbs. in 10 weeks. 35 lbs. in 10 weeks. Only @ 1% increase on body fat. Strength? Through the roof! All in about 18 total workouts. TONS of adaptation if you can BRING IT! The one thing we experienced was D.O.M.S. that was not of this world. After one of our earlier in the experiment leg workouts, I experienced a 7 day soreness that was insane. My training partner who I found out was loading up daily on E and C was experiencing the normal D.O.M.S.  I made note of this and researched a little on free radicals and their effect on plasma membranes. The long and short of it is that E and C supplementing the anti oxidant pool is a common and useful practice in arresting free radical damage to the plasma membrane. I was not sure I wanted to do this though. I theorized that if I could manipulate timing of free radical damage to supplementing just on my training days, (preferably post-exercise), I would still receive reperfusion/free radical tissue damage and feed the post exercise antioxidant pool just enough to lessen the soreness. I did a few trials where I would introduce this method on some training days and then sometimes refrain from any antioxidant use. Every time I eliminated the E and C supplementation my D.O.M.S. persisted on average an extra 2 days. When I reintroduced the E and C, D.O.M.S. was relieved a day or 2 sooner than average. The question here is that would practicing this idea in creating a hyper-active environment to potentiate tissue remodeling be realistic giving the parameters of antioxidant influence in post exercise reperfusion and manipulating these parameters for tissue hypertrophy only. My experience was that I adapted during the normal 10-12 week training period, seemed to peak at week 10 with  load, rep or both progressing with absolute consistency through weeks one to week ten. I think this would be an interesting research project for Fleck and Kraemer. What are they doing these days, anyone know?   MJ

I am fortunate that I get to observe hundreds of exercise routines everyday. There seems to be a lot of monotony out there especially in the health club setting. Not knowing how to create a progressive and result driven routine has to be a most frustrating circumstance for the frequent club goers. Just the fact that ‘frequent’ is considered in this context tells me one or two things: little recovery begets little results and lack of intensity-you know the old adage “you get out what you put in”-yeah, you bet, every single time. Getting a little intense and taking the extra couple of days to reap the adaptation would be cool. But, most do not understand this concept. This is unfortunate. And this is a pet peeve of mine for which I will soon jump on the old soap box and rip it up.

But, for today allow let me to make my point and say that your exercise program must include one movement over any other and let me just state my case right here:

YOUR EXERCISE ROUTINE IS DEAD AND BURIED if it does not include the dead lift! WHY?

It can be debated but, the dead lift is in my estimation the quintessential posterior chain igniter OF ALL TIME! And all the BIG hitters in the kinetic chain get to ‘throw it down’ in one full swoop-lats, spinal erectors, glutes, hams, quads, as well as the soleus, anterior tib.,…

And the next day or two later let me know how the delts, traps, forearms and obliques feel. Go intense enough (I am talking LOAD here) and you will understand completely.

So, for assuming at least that you would enjoy a little hypertrophy and a metabolic jolt, why would you not consider the dead lift? You wouldn’t, right? Right! Even over the SQUAT you say? Damn right, brau!

The dead lift over squat for this simple reason- the dead lift has the benefit of well displaced loading (bar is loaded at hand but displaced through the shoulder girdle and rest of chain).

The squat has an inherent flaw in that you have about a 5 inch long, 1 and1/2 diameter portion of an Olympic bar loading @ C-7. Compressing load, maybe. Shearing load, probably. YOUR mechanics play a role here, so understand YOUR anatomy. Long torso- short legs-compressive load on spine, GOOD. Relatively short torso-long legs-shearing load on spine-BAD. BAD translation @ C-7 and BAD translation @ L-5,S-1. I’ve seen X-RAYS for C-7, NOT PRETTY! Add the fact that your grip with the dead (remember Popeye) will be challenged far more than any sissy wrist curl could ever muster up and your rotator cuff has to kick in and DO IT’S DESIGNED DUTY makes my case even greater. Can you say 86 to a few crappy and puny movements (wrist curls and useless shoulder rotation via tubing) and hello to some efficiency? I’ll say this just one mo’ time- DEAD LIFT!  EVERYONE! Amen.