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Diet and Exercise Evolution: Adaptation (part I) -- Theory
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Diet Information:The South Beach Diet
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Helping Your Child Be Healthy and Fit
Helping Your Child Be Healthy and Fit For The Coming School Year.... Shools In Session: Long-term good health is less an accident than the result of good habits and wise choices. To enjoy good health now and in the future, youngsters must learn...
Lose Weight and Get Healthy While You Make Money
From the manufacturer of over 2500 products during the course of 15 years comes another technological breakthrough: An extraordinary system of targeted nutrients that helps to cleanse the body and replenish the nutrition lost due to stress and...
NO2 Muscle Enhancing Hemodialator
Whenever I go to the gym and tell a friend that I've recently started the supplement, NO2, nobody knows what I'm talking about but I even mention Creatine, and that is well known as a standard for building muscle.
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The Key to Building Muscle and Burning Fat at the Same Time
Doesn't weight training build muscle and increase your metabolic
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I can...
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Clockwork Feedings: Building Muscle Fast with Nutrient Timing- Part 1
Eat more protein. Eat more carbohydrates. Do more sets. Do fewer
sets. Exercise in the morning. Exercise in the evening. Enough
already! What's a bodybuilder to do with all of the different
philosophies that permeate book upon book and magazine article
upon magazine article? For a natural bodybuilder, it can get so
frustrating at times that one wants to abandon the whole sport
in search of something more relaxing and less
challenging--right? Wrong. Yet, it is true that for the natural
bodybuilder discouragement can seem almost like a weekly, if not
daily problem. Is it really possible to continually build new
muscle? Without hesitation, the answer is a resounding "yes."
I have always loved the science of bodybuilding. I have always
been engrossed by the study of how the body produces new muscle.
From the time I was a little boy I have always been fascinated
by the science behind achieving the leanest, most ripped
physique your genetics will allow. There is only one thing that
I love more than the intellectual study of the science behind
bodybuilding and that is the actual bodybuilding itself. Nothing
can be more gratifying than blowing your body up with a
mind-blowing pump. But, unfortunately, the problem is this:
sometimes it can seem like the pump didn't lead to anything
permanent. Have you been there? Can you relate to anything that
I've expressed up to this point? If so then pay close attention
to what I'm about to share with you. Without the application of
proper nutrient timing you could be wasting your time in the gym
and cutting your results by as much as 75%. That's right, a
whopping 75% or worse.
It will not be my objective in this article to explore the
entire methodology behind nutrient timing. I'll try my best to
that in a future article. My main objective is to get you to see
the importance of nutrient timing and put into practice the
consumption of pre/post workout nutrients. I will also do my
best to make it all real simple and save the scientific lingo
for the academic arena. Most bodybuilders aren't interested in
the molecular and chemical structures of substrates, they really
just want to know the why, the what, and the when. Give it to me
in plain English, man! So I will.
Before we move forward with the why, what and when, let's begin
by defining the term nutrient timing. Nutrients are the
substrates by which we live and are made (macro/micro nutrients
such as; protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals,
etc.). Along with water, they are the life-giving sources which
fuel us and keep us alive. Muscles will not grow unless macro
and micro nutrients are present. Nutrient "timing" speaks to the
specific times in which we should ingest certain foods to help
create an optimum anabolic state known as muscle hypertrophy
(protein synthesis). This is when your body is building new
muscle and gearing up for the next load or workout. For maximum
utilization, those nutrients should be in the form of a beverage
for quicker digestion.
So then, first let's talk about the why. The reason I stated
that you could be wasting your time in the gym is because most
eager bodybuilders overtrain. In fact, the majority of
bodybuilders in general are guilty of this. If you think that
spending more time in the gym will result in more muscle then
you are seriously mistaken. Muscle is not made in the gym.
Muscle is made during the recovery period between workouts. Why
is that important to know? Because most will train again without
yet having recovered from the previous workout and in so doing,
never give the muscles a chance to grow.
I can recall hearing a professional bodybuilder once say, "I
would rather have a good day of eating than a good of training."
What he meant by that statement was that without adequate
recovery, you might as well not step back in the gym at all. I
agree, unless of course, your goal is to get smaller and lose
muscle. Then by all means go ahead and overtrain. However, we
know as bodybuilders that is not our goal or intention. So it is
imperative to discipline yourself to put recovery at
the top of
your muscle-building program.
It has been written that Mike Mentzer of heavy duty training
fame was one of the first to vocalize the importance of post
workout carbohydrate loading. Mike's carbohydrate of choice was
ice cream. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but Mike was one
of my first real bodybuilding idols. Hardcore and heavy is what
he practiced and preached and I have never believed anything
else was quite as effective as that system--with slight
modifications to accommodate individual needs and genetics.
We are all wired up differently and we must take that into
account whenever we discuss any system or program. When I hear
of someone being completely dogmatic and pragmatic with regard
to any particular philosophy and methodology, I tune them out
and filter what they say in light of their presuppositions. No
two people are the same. We must be willing to adapt to
compensate for those differences. However, our basic systems are
built the same way and require the same fuel. The fuel is needed
most following a workout and also just before the workout to
ensure that muscle-building catalysts are priming the pump for
the recovery to follow. If they are not there, your muscles
could be your body's source of energy during your next workout.
In other words, muscle will be used for fuel. That's not good at
all and is actually defeating the very purpose for which you
train.
The next question you might have is this: what should I be
taking? We touched on that a little bit already by discussing
the post-workout carbohydrate ingestion of Mike Mentzer. The
optimum post workout nutrient beverage would be one that
contains Protein (slow-digesting and instant), Carbohydrates
(complex, fibrous and simple sugars). Without getting into all
of the reasons for this combination, remember that carbohydrates
replenish muscle glycogen stores which are dramatically drained
following a workout, and the protein will begin the
muscle-building/re-building phase. If either of these are
missing, your recovery and growth is hindered drastically--if
not completely.
The last thing I want to address is the specific timing
involved. Some think that they can wait an hour or two before
they ingest their post workout nutrients. Do not do that. There
is a window of opportunity that follows an intense weight
training session that can't be found at any other time. It is at
that time that the muscle cells are the most nutrient receptive.
In fact, the simple sugar in the post carbohydrate beverage will
actually cause an insulin surge to open up receptor sites on the
muscle tissue cells themselves which will initiate an incredible
anabolic environment. While some argue the science behind the
exact amount of time permitted to elapse before the benefits can
be truly utilized, it is safe to follow a logistical plan that
ingests the nutrients immediately following the workout, then
again every 45 minutes for up to three hours following the
workout. Studies have shown that it is during this window of
time that the nutrients ingested will go solely for muscle
building and cannot be accumulated as fat.
I hope that I've shown you the importance of nutrient timing.
There is much that could be said to the science of it all but if
you're not making this principle a training priority, then none
of that matters anyway. In the future I will share more
specifically the nutrient array and the exact timing/substrates
of pre-workout anti-catabolic intake. Needless to say, nutrient
timing is one of the most important aspects of bodybuilding.
About the author:
Tony DiCostanzo is a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer
(NFPT-CPT) and the Founder of DreamBodies Body & Life
Transformation System. With over 20 years of practical
experience as a natural bodybuilder in the field of health &
Fitness, Tony is also a coach and motivational speaker who
inspires many through his lectures and seminars. His area of
expertise is rooted in a multi-dimensional, body/mind approach
to total body and Life transforma
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