The Truth Behind 7 Muscle Myths

By: Scott Quill

The guy lifting beside you looks like he should write the book on muscle. Talks like it, too. He's worked out since the seventh grade, he played D-1 football, and he's big.

But that doesn't mean he knows what he's talking about. Starting now, ignore him.

The gym is infested with bad information. Lies that start with well-intentioned gym teachers trickle down to students who become coaches, trainers, or know-it-all gym-rat preachers. Lies morph into myths that endure because we don't ask questions, for fear of looking stupid.

Scientists, on the other hand, gladly look stupid—that's why they're so darn smart. Plus, they have cool human-performance laboratories where they can prove or disprove theories and myths.

Here's what top exercise scientists and expert trainers have to say about the crap that's passed around in gyms. Listen up and learn. Then go ahead, question it.



Slow Lifting Builds Huge Muscles
Lifting super slowly produces superlong workouts—and that's it. University of Alabama researchers recently studied two groups of lifters doing a 29-minute workout. One group performed exercises using a 5-second up phase and a 10-second down phase, the other a more traditional approach of 1 second up and 1 second down. The faster group burned 71 percent more calories and lifted 250 percent more weight than the superslow lifters.

The real expert says: "The best increases in strength are achieved by doing the up phase as rapidly as possible," says Gary Hunter, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., the lead study author. "Lower the weight more slowly and under control." There's greater potential for growth during the lowering phase, and when you lower with control, there's less chance of injury.

More Protein Builds More Muscle
To a point, sure. But put down the shake for a sec. Protein promotes the muscle-building process, called protein synthesis, "but you don't need exorbitant amounts to do this," says John Ivy, Ph.D., coauthor of Nutrient Timing.

If you're working out hard, consuming more than 0.9 to 1.25 grams of protein per pound of body weight is a waste. Excess protein breaks down into amino acids and nitrogen, which are either excreted or converted into carbohydrates and stored.

The real expert says: More important is when you consume protein, and that you have the right balance of carbohydrates with it. Have a postworkout shake of three parts carbohydrates and one part protein.

Eat a meal several hours later, and then reverse that ratio in your snack after another few hours, says Ivy. "This will keep protein synthesis going by maintaining high amino acid concentrations in the blood."

Squats Kill Your Knees
And cotton swabs are dangerous when you push them too far into your ears. It's a matter of knowing what you're doing.

A recent study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that "open-chain" exercises—those in which a single joint is activated, such as the leg extension—are potentially more dangerous than closed-chain moves—those that engage multiple joints, such as the squat and the leg press.

The study found that leg extensions activate your quadriceps muscles slightly independently of each other, and just a 5-millisecond difference in activation causes uneven compression between the patella (kneecap) and thighbone, says Anki Stensdotter, the lead study author.

The real expert says: "The knee joint is controlled by the quadriceps and the hamstrings. Balanced muscle activity keeps the patella in place and appears to be more easily attained in closed-chain exercises," says Stensdotter.

To squat safely, hold your back as upright as possible and lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor (or at least as far as you can go without discomfort in your knees).

Try front squats if you find yourself leaning forward. Although it's a more advanced move, the weight rests on the fronts of your shoulders, helping to keep your back upright, Stensdotter says.

Never Exercise a Sore Muscle
Before you skip that workout, determine how sore you really are. "If your muscle is sore to the touch or the soreness limits your range of motion, it's best that you give the muscle at least another day of rest," says Alan Mikesky, Ph.D., director of the human performance and biomechanics laboratory at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.

In less severe instances, an "active rest" involving light aerobic activity and stretching, and even light lifting, can help alleviate some of the soreness. "Light activity stimulates bloodflow through the muscles, which removes waste products to help in the repair process," says David Docherty, Ph.D., a professor of exercise science at the University of Victoria in Canada.

The real expert says: If you're not sore to the touch and you have your full range of motion, go to the gym. Start with 10 minutes of cycling, then exercise the achy muscle by performing no more than three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions using a weight that's no heavier than 30 percent of your one-rep maximum, says Docherty.

Stretching Prevents Injuries
Maybe if you're a figure skater. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed more than 350 studies and articles examining the relationship between stretching and injuries and concluded that stretching during a warmup has little effect on injury prevention.

"Stretching increases flexibility, but most injuries occur within the normal range of motion," says Julie Gilchrist, M.D., one of the study's researchers. "Stretching and warming up have just gone together for decades. It's simply what's done, and it hasn't been approached through rigorous science."

The real expert says: Warming up is what prevents injury, by slowly increasing your bloodflow and giving your muscles a chance to prepare for the upcoming activity. To this end, Dr. Gilchrist suggests a thorough warmup, as well as conditioning for your particular sport.

Of course, flexibility is a good thing. If you need to increase yours so it's in the normal range (touching your toes without bending your knees, for instance), do your stretching when your muscles are already warm.

Use Swiss Balls, Not Benches
Don't abandon your trusty bench for exercises like the chest press and shoulder press if your goal is strength and size. "The reason people are using the ball and getting gains is because they're weak as kittens to begin with," says Craig Ballantyne, C.S.C.S. You have to reduce the weight in order to press on a Swiss ball, and this means you get less out of the exercise, he says.

The real expert says: A Swiss ball is great for variety, but center your chest and shoulder routines on exercises that are performed on a stable surface, Ballantyne says. Then use the ball to work your abs.

Always Use Free Weights
Sometimes machines can build muscle better—for instance, when you need to isolate specific muscles after an injury, or when you're too inexperienced to perform a free-weight exercise.

If you can't complete a pullup, you won't build your back muscles. So do lat pulldowns to develop strength in this range of motion, says Greg Haff, Ph.D., director of the strength research laboratory at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

The real expert says: "Initially, novice athletes will see benefits with either machines or free weights, but as you become more trained, free weights should make up the major portion of your training program," says Haff.

Free-weight exercises mimic athletic moves and generally activate more muscle mass. If you're a seasoned lifter, free weights are your best tools to build strength or burn fat.



Wikio

Strong in the Stretch:5 Exercises for Size, Strength, and Mobility

by Jeremy Frisch – 2/22/2011Step into a commercial gym around 5 PM any day of the week. Sure you'll come across some "strong" people who can lift heavy weights, but if you take a closer look, it'll become painfully obvious that most meatheads have simply lost the ability to move with any semblance of fluidity.
Poor daily posture leads to tight, inhibited muscles, which leads to poor movement, which then compounds the issue, which killed the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built...and eventually we're left with serious inefficiencies and often injuries.
As avid T NATIONers, we know training to be anything but thoughtless and poorly contrived. We train hard week in and week out, and as readers we're privy to a constant flow of solid information and training advice, but no matter what our focus in the gym consists of, we come to T NATION to separate ourselves from the "regular folk" who are simply sheep in the flock.
Touching back on my original thought, however, many of us don't realize that the focus on mobility can elude us and when it does, it's something that can be very difficult to recapture.
This article isn't intended for you to change your approach to training, or to take away from your main lifts. However, many of these exercises can replace current techniques you use now, and with a little hard work and effort they can help take you to higher levels of strength and movement.
This short list is something you can incorporate in your current program that will help you lengthen your range of motion, build size and strength, and oh yeah, hurt like hell.

1. The Long Duration Sumo Squat Hold

This is a great foundational exercise but can double as much more. In our young athletes, it teaches proper squat technique in regards to the pelvis and spine, and the kids find out how much mental toughness they have, fast. It's pure hell, and it's the last thing our athletes do on Fridays before they go home. In fact, they often crawl out of here!
The holds are between 45 and 60 seconds and we do them for 3-4 sets.
The better you become at this movement, the more gravity just keeps assisting you into a deeper hold. You'll soon see some dramatic changes in hip mobility.
For anyone looking for size, loads and long times under tension can provide a great breeding ground for some new muscle.

Focus: Spread the floor apart with the feet. Drive the knees out while constantly PULLING yourself down using your hip flexors and abs.

2. The Dumbbell Iso-Dynamic Elevated Split Squat

This exercise is based on the standard split squat, just adding a couple of boxes to elevate both feet. By standing on boxes you'll allow for greater range of motion and that's precisely the goal of the exercise.
The athlete pulls himself deeper into the hole with each rep (3-5 second holds). This not only hammers away at those pesky tight hip flexors, it also develops a great amount of starting strength by working the athlete in his greatest (and weakest) joint angles.
If you're looking for some serious upper leg development, then try a few heavy sets of these and feel sore in some places you didn't even know existed!

Focus: Pull yourself into a deep position by pulling with the front hamstring. Flex and extend the rear leg glute as hard as possible. Always pull deeper on subsequent repetitions.

3. Elevated Barbell Reverse Lunge

This is without a doubt one of my favorite exercises for developing the glutes, hams, and adductors.
If you're new to these be careful on your volume initially as you may find it hard to walk for a few days. Not only do they provide a tremendous strengthening effect on the front leg, but the dynamic flexibility component they provide to the rear leg hip flexor and rectus is incredible.
In some cases when we're focusing on the range of motion in the rear leg, we have the athlete bring the rear leg all the way through and up to waist height (you'll end in a position similar to a step up, with one leg on the box and the other knee driven up).

Focus: Stay tall with your torso. Carry much of the weight on the front leg when lowering into the lunge. Pull yourself back up to the box.

4. Iso-Dynamic Band Resisted Push-up

This exercise can be very humbling when you're not used to full ranges of motion.
The video below will show a 320 + lbs. bencher struggling on the sixth rep of a push up. The reason for the difficulty is the combination of the extreme joint angle (weakest point) and the accommodating resistance of the bands.
In my opinion, the deep isometric push up is one of the best scapular retraction exercises out there. By lengthening the anterior shoulder and pecs, you place the muscles that move the scapulae in the best leverage position to contract maximally.
For people who have naturally poor posture or jobs that require them to sit in poor posture all day, this exercise can be just the thing to help even out their overworked anterior body.
Besides postural benefits, this exercise can be great at developing strength and size in the upper back and will allow the anterior portion of the shoulder to get a solid stretch that could also translate into better recovery and muscle production.

Focus: Don't think about lowering with gravity. Pull yourself into the hold using your scapular retractors. Remember to squeeze those muscles of the upper back as hard as you can.

5. Band Resisted Iso-Dynamic Chin-Up

This may be the most difficult one in terms of perceived difficulty because it's the only exercise that's RESISTED by gravity instead of assisted. To make it worse, gravity won't be the only thing pulling you back down to earth.
Place a band around your waist and have a partner stand on the band. Alternately, you can hook the band under a rack or dumbbell.
While in the hanging position, squeeze/contract the muscles of your chest and triceps as hard as possible, which will protect the shoulders and allow the major muscles of the back to lengthen.
After a short hold (3-5 seconds), pull up with as much speed and power as possible. The band will kick in near the top and slow you down to a snail's pace. The answer to overcoming the added resistance? Pull HARDER. It's just you against the band, and of course Sir Isaac Newton's old buddy, gravity.

Focus: Start in the hang by squeezing the "push" muscles so the "pull" muscles can lengthen. Drive your chest towards the bar, and drive your elbows away from the bar as fast as possible. Most importantly, don't give up.

To reiterate, again I'm not trying to tell you what you're doing is wrong or that you need to replace all of your trusty go-to lifts with these options. I'm merely offering alternatives, ones that I think are of great importance and value to any serious lifter.
If you want to continue to train hard and heavy, there will someday come a time when quality of movement must be prioritized. Why not start now?

Sources:

1. Buchenholz, Dietrich. The Best Sports Training Book Ever. Inno-Sport Group, 2003. Print.

2. Shroeder, Jay. "Iso-Extreme Lecture Notes." Be Athletic Seminar. College of the Holy Cross, Worcester. Lecture.

3. Uram, Paul, and Dave McKinnis. Refining Human Movement. Butler, PA: Paul Uram, 1971. Print.

4. Verkhoshansky, Yuri Vitalievitch., and Mel Cunningham. Siff. Supertraining. Rome, Italy: Verkhoshansky, 2009. Print.

Wikio

5 Nutrients You're Not Getting Enough Of

 By Jason Stevenson
Five years after telling a bunch of angry apes to keep their filthy paws off him, Charlton Heston starred in Soylent Green. In the film, a megacorporation solves a starving world's need for nutritious food by turning the dead into dinner. This is complete science fiction, of course: Most of us are so short on key nutrients we couldn't possibly be someone's square meal.

In fact, studies show that 77 percent of men don't take in enough magnesium, that many of us are deficient in vitamin D, and that the vitamin B12 in our diets may be undermined by a common heartburn medication. And we haven't even mentioned our problems with potassium and iodine.

It's time to play catch-up. Follow our advice, and a cannibal will never call you junk food.

Vitamin D
This vitamin's biggest claim to fame is its role in strengthening your skeleton. But vitamin D isn't a one-trick nutrient: A study in Circulation found that people deficient in D were up to 80 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. The reason? D may reduce inflammation in your arteries.

The shortfall: Vitamin D is created in your body when the sun's ultraviolet B rays penetrate your skin. Problem is, the vitamin D you stockpile during sunnier months is often depleted by winter, especially if you live in the northern half of the United States, where UVB rays are less intense from November through February. Case in point: When Boston University researchers measured the vitamin D status of young adults at the end of winter, 36 percent of them were found to be deficient.

Hit the mark: First, ask your doctor to test your blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D. "You need to be above 30 nanograms per milliliter," says Michael Holick, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of medicine at Boston University. Come up short? Take 1,400 IU of vitamin D daily from a supplement and a multivitamin. That's about seven times the recommended daily intake for men, but it takes that much to boost blood levels of D, says Dr. Holick.
Magnesium
This lightweight mineral is a tireless multitasker: It's involved in more than 300 bodily processes. Plus, a study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that low levels of magnesium may increase your blood levels of C-reactive protein, a key marker of heart disease.

The shortfall: Nutrition surveys reveal that men consume only about 80 percent of the recommended 400 milligrams (mg) of magnesium a day. "We're just barely getting by," says Dana King, M.D., a professor of family medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. "Without enough magnesium, every cell in your body has to struggle to generate energy."

Hit the mark: Fortify your diet with more magnesium-rich foods, such as halibut and navy beans. Then hit the supplement aisle: Few men can reach 400 mg through diet alone, so Dr. King recommends ingesting some insurance in the form of a 250 mg supplement. One caveat: Scrutinize the ingredients list. You want a product that uses magnesium citrate, the form best absorbed by your body.
Vitamin B12
Consider B12 the guardian of your gray matter: In a British study, older people with the lowest levels of B12 lost brain volume at a faster rate over a span of 5 years than those with the highest levels.

The shortfall: Even though most men do consume the daily quota of 2.4 micrograms, the stats don't tell the whole story. "We're seeing an increase in B12 deficiencies due to interactions with medications," says Katherine Tucker, Ph.D., director of a USDA program at Tufts University. The culprits: acid-blocking drugs, such as Prilosec, and the diabetes medication metformin.

Hit the mark: You'll find B12 in lamb and salmon, but the most accessible source may be fortified cereals. That's because the B12 in meat is bound to proteins, and your stomach must produce acid to release and absorb it. Eat a bowl of 100 percent B12-boosted cereal and milk every morning and you'll be covered, even if you take the occasional acid-blocking med. However, if you pop Prilosec on a regular basis or are on metformin, talk to your doctor about tracking your B12 levels and possibly taking an additional supplement.

Potassium
Without this essential mineral, your heart couldn't beat, your muscles wouldn't contract, and your brain couldn't comprehend this sentence. Why? Potassium helps your cells use glucose for energy.

The shortfall: Despite potassium's can't-live-without-it importance, nutrition surveys indicate that young men consume just 60 percent to 70 percent of the recommended 4,700 mg a day. To make matters worse, most guys load up on sodium: High sodium can boost blood pressure, while normal potassium levels work to lower it, says Lydia A. L. Bazzano, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of epidemiology at Tulane University.

Hit the mark: Half an avocado contains nearly 500 mg potassium, while one banana boasts roughly 400 mg. Not a fan of either fruit? Pick up some potatoes—a single large spud is packed with 1,600 mg.

Iodine
Your thyroid gland requires iodine to produce the hormones T3 and T4, both of which help control how efficiently you burn calories. That means insufficient iodine may cause you to gain weight and feel fatigued.

The shortfall: Since iodized salt is an important source of the element, you might assume you're swimming in the stuff. But when University of Texas at Arlington researchers tested 88 samples of table salt, they found that half contained less than the FDA-recommended amount of iodine. And you're not making up the difference with all the salt hiding in processed foods—U.S. manufacturers aren't required to use iodized salt. The result is that we've been sliding toward iodine deficiency since the 1970s.

Hit the mark: Sprinkling more salt on top of an already sodium-packed diet isn't a great idea, but iodine can also be found in a nearly sodium-free source: milk. Animal feed is fortified with the element, meaning it travels from cows to your cereal bowl. Not a milk man? Eat at least one serving of eggs or yogurt a day; both are good sources of iodine.


Wikio

Liver Let Die

by John Meadows, CSCS – 2/16/2011I'm not just a bodybuilder, I'm also a health nut, and for that reason I put considerable effort into keeping my liver healthy.
Anyone who's ever watched Oprah or the Dr. Oz show (okay, not many of you, but still...) likely knows that the liver is essential for filtering out the thousands of toxins we ingest every day, but there's another, less popular reason why I make my liver a top priority: a healthy liver burns more body fat.
The liver is one of the major fat burning organs in the body, and is often referred to as a "fat pumping" organ. What this means is that the liver can carry fat into the small intestine through bile, where it gets taken out of the body by bowel action.
But if it's forced to constantly clear out the toxins and other garbage you throw at it, it has a harder time doing the fat metabolizing part of its job description.
So it makes sense, from both a health and body composition perspective, to keep your liver operating at 100% efficiency. Here are some tips to assist you in that quest.

Phase 1 – Detoxification and Cytochrome P-450

One of the liver's roles in detoxification involves a two-step enzymatic process for the neutralization of unwanted chemical compounds called Phase 1 and Phase 2 detoxification.
The Phase I detoxification system, often referred to as the "bagging of garbage" phase, starts with cytochrome P450, a family of enzymes that catalyze the oxidation (break down) of organic material (gas, liquid, or solid that contains carbon). These enzymes are found primarily in the liver, but can also be found to some degree in the adrenals and testes.
In Phase 1, cytochrome enzymes try to neutralize toxins to get them ready for excretion by way of Phase 2. In some cases, toxins are neutralized and converted from fat soluble to water soluble and then excreted out by the kidneys. Those toxins that were just neutralized and not excreted in Phase 1 will enter Phase 2.

Note: An important side-effect of Phase I detoxification is the production of free radicals, which occurs at basically a one-to-one ratio. In other words, for each molecule of toxin metabolized by Phase I, one molecule of free radical is generated.

Without employing adequate free radical defenses, every time the liver neutralizes a toxin it's subject to damage by the free radicals produced. Antioxidants help to manage this, so be sure to incorporate nutrients like lipoic acid, Vitamin A and E through red palm oil, and selenium through Brazil nuts, just to name a few.

Phase 2 – Detoxification

Phase 2 is where the garbage gets taken out. In this phase, cytochrome enzymes break down toxins from a fat soluble form to a water soluble form, which makes them easier to dispose of. This is where liver cells add other substance carrier molecules like sulfur molecules to assist in the disposal. The "garbage" is then taken out by urine or bile.

Note: For this reason, I'd encourage you to consume organic sources of fatty meats, dairy, seafood, etc. Fat soluble compounds cross biological membranes easily and build up in the fatty tissues and cells of the animals supplying the food. When we consume them, it ends up in our cells!

So, how do we help facilitate this process?

Drink REAL Cranberry Juice

No, I'm not talking about the artificial, sugar-laden crap like Ocean Spray cranberry cocktail. Many times these juices are loaded with high fructose corn syrup, which actually stresses the liver. Find an organic cranberry juice that is unsweetened and 100% real.
To say that the real stuff is tart would be an understatement. I get mine from Trader Joe's, and when I'm feeling particularly wealthy (a rare occasion) I buy it at Whole Foods. The 32 ounce bottle shown below is under $4 at Trader Joe's.
I first read about cranberry juice helping dieter's lean out in Ann Louise Gittleman's book "The Fat Flush Plan." Gittleman maintains that cranberry juice cleanses the lymphatic system, which can help eliminate stubborn fat.
Specifically, it helps provide nutritional support through phytonutrients (anthocyanins, catechins, luteins, and quercetin) for the liver's cytochrome P450 Phase 1 and 2 detoxification pathways discussed earlier.
Gittleman's claims include that cranberry juice will noticeably improve cellulite due to this mechanism. Now I must admit, I was skeptical but I gave it a shot with a female client and to my surprise, her cellulite lessened. It didn't go away completely but her improvement was very noticeable within four weeks. I experimented with a few other female clients, and while it was not a miracle solution, it did help.
How does it work? The lymphatic system is responsible for carrying toxins away from the cells and body tissues. The phytonutrients in cranberry juice help to keep your liver's detoxification pathways open, so they aren't jammed up cleaning up the mess left behind by the host of environmental pollutants, trans-fats, sugars, etc. In other words, it helps "take out the trash."
The way I suggest most people try this is to take a 32-ounce container and put 4 ounces of the juice in it, along with 28 ounces of water. Drink this once a day, trying to build up to twice a day as you get accustomed to it.
This only amounts to 10-20 grams of extra carbs a day, and the additional water is also beneficial as the liver is more efficient at burning fat when you're well hydrated.

Drink Warm Lemon Water

Lemon juice, specifically the phytochemical d-limonene, acts as a liver tonic and assists in digestion by clearing the detoxification pathways and helping the liver produce more bile.
D-limonene is found in the essential oils of citrus fruits and many other plant species and has been shown in animal studies to be cancer protective. The theory is that limonene's protective effects are due to it being a strong inducer of both Phase 1 and Phase 2 detoxification enzymes that neutralize carcinogens.
Limonene also promotes the health of the GST (Glutathione S-transferase) system in the liver and small intestine, decreasing the negative effects of carcinogens. Another interesting fact is that d-limonene isa solvent of cholesterol, so it's been used clinically to dissolve cholesterol-containing gallstones.
The best way to use lemon juice appears to be in the mornings, when our bodies are in a natural cleansing phase. Use the juice of a fresh lemon in a cup of hot water and the lemon juice should be 100% real, namely fresh squeezed, not "from concentrate." Fact is, consuming anything sour makes the liver and gallbladder get rid of toxins, so real lime juice can also work.
Mix the juice of half a lemon with warm water. Cold water causes vasoconstriction in the stomach, resulting in less blood flow to the area, whereas warm water causes vasodilatation and will help increase metabolic rate.
D-limonene's half life is 12-24 hours, so one warm cup of lemon water every morning should be sufficient.

Consume Insoluble Fiber

I'm not a believer in using ground flax seed to obtain your EFA requirements, but its insoluble fiber content does make it useful for moving food and waste through your intestinal track. Insoluble fiber absorbs water in your digestive track and builds up stool bulk, helping it move quicker through the digestive system. Without insoluble fiber, food can move so slowly that it literally starts to rot in your intestine. Soluble fiber also helps slow digestion, allowing you to absorb more nutrients.
When you don't get enough fiber, up to 90% of your cholesterol and bile acids get reabsorbed and recirculated. This is just additional liver stress that can take away from its ability to metabolize fat. As fat and toxins are left in your body, they recirculate back into the liver in a process called "enterohepatic circulation," which means recirculation of bile back into the liver from the gut/small intestine.
It's normal for bile to go through this process and it occurs six to eight times a day, but if the bile is carrying a load of chemicals with it, problems like fatty liver disease and poor regulation of cholesterol levels can arise. A healthy fiber intake can help prevent this from happening as it can transport the bad stuff out of your body so that it's not put back into circulation and your liver.

How to Keep Your Liver Detoxification Pathways Clear

Now that you know a few things that help assist in liver detoxification, what kind of things should you do to keep your detoxification pathways running smoothly?

• Avoid the Terrible Trifecta: trans-fats, commercial vegetable oils high in omega 6, and sugar. Simply minimizing consumption of these three categories of "foods" and you'll be light years ahead of the pack!
• Eat organic whole eggs. Whole eggs are loaded with sulfur-based amino acids cysteine, methionine, and taurine. These help the liver to regulate bile production. It can also help Phase 2 of the detoxification pathway as the sulfur-based aminos act as carrier molecules to take out the trash.
  
  Egg yolks also are loaded with phoshatidylcholine, a great nutrient for overall liver health. It helps to prevent fatty liver, and helps maintain gall bladder function. PC plays a very important role in the transport of fats throughout the bloodstream.
• Eat kale! Kale is my all-time favorite veggie, mainly due to its antioxidant power. It also contains sulforaphane, a substance that helps convert toxins into nontoxic waste for elimination.

Wrap-Up

As bodybuilders, often our tendency is to focus only on the things that add weight to the bar and inches to our arms. But if your internal health doesn't match the external, those pretty pecs and bulging biceps aren't much more than sugar coating.
Fresh juices, fiber, eggs, and avoiding the junk you know you should be avoiding. Who says keeping your body's filter squeaky clean needs to be complicated?
As always, send any questions you may have to the Livespill.

Wikio

Bridge the Gap Between Strength and Power

by CHAD WATERBURY on FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Every guy wants to be strong. There’s no better way to get strong than to lift heavy loads for a few sets of a few reps a few times per week. You can’t go wrong with 3×3 (3 sets of 3 reps) every 3-4 days to build strength. Research is clear that building maximal strength will improve your speed and explosiveness – at first, anyway.

However, there comes a time when simply lifting heavy won’t get the job done. This is especially if you’re an athlete who needs high levels of explosive strength.

After you have a few years of heavy lifting under your belt it’s important to improve your explosive strength with fast lifts. Maximal strength training builds your force capacity, but that newfound strength won’t necessarily make you punch or kick harder, or sprint faster. You must bridge the gap between the force your muscles can produce and your ability generate high levels of force very quickly.

Let’s say you’re a trainer who’s working with a MMA fighter, and let’s say you use a standing one-arm cable chest press to boost his punching power. If you increase his strength in that exercise from, say, 90 pounds to 160 pounds it’s easy to think that he’ll be able to punch harder.

In the outstanding text, Strength and Power in Sport (2nd Edition), Zatsiorsky states that “it takes usually in excess of 0.3-0.4 sec to generate maximum force.” However, many fast movements such as a punch or kick usually occur in approximately 0.1 sec.

So how do you train your muscles to develop force more quickly? By enhancing rate of force development (RFD). The benefits of improving RFD are vast, however, here are three of the primary benefits:

1. Earlier recruitment of high-threshold motor units: By recruiting your largest motor units earlier, you’ll be able to reach your peak levels of force more quickly.

2. Enhanced maximal discharge rate of motor units: A muscle boosts its force by recruiting more motor units. Once those motor units have been recruited the nervous system sends a signal to the motor units to fire faster (this is known as rate coding). A motor unit can increase its force 10-fold when it reaches its maximum firing rate.

3. Increased incidence of “doublets” during contractions: A doublet is defined as a motor unit firing twice in a very short interval (5-20 ms). Doublets allow a muscle to reach peak levels of force faster.

To enhance RFD you must train with relatively light loads and apply maximum acceleration to each lift. With heavy loads, the actual velocity of movement is slow. However, to boost RFD the actual velocity must be fast so the load must be light. Loads that vary between 20-60% of your 1RM typically work well. Movements with light loads and high velocities are known in research as ballistic exercises.

Now, where trainers often screw up with ballistic exercises is with time under tension. To keep acceleration high and fatigue in check you should stop each set once the lifting speed slows down noticeably. Merging your sets into slow grind reps won’t boost RFD as effectively as keeping the reps fast. As a gross generalization, sets of ballistic exercises should terminate within 10 seconds. After 10 seconds your speed will slow down because the largest motor units that will start dropping out.

Put another way, if your speed doesn’t slow down within 10 seconds you didn’t recruit the high-threshold motor units to begin with. It’s imperative to tap into your largest motor units because they produce the most power. How? The largest motor units contain the largest bundle of your strongest muscle fibers. If you leave these motor units untapped your RFD will suffer.

There’s one limitation, however, with applying maximum acceleration to a standard exercise such as a squat or bench press. As you approach lockout the nervous system will decelerate the lift to protect your joints. Research (Elliot et al 1989) demonstrates that 52% of the total duration of a bench press with 80% of 1RM is deceleration. This is bad news since deceleration forces motor units to drop out. Therefore, enhancing RFD requires exercise modifications.

The key is to perform exercises that continue past lockout in order to short-circuit deceleration.

Two of my favorite exercises to boost RFD are jump squats with 25% of 1RM across the upper back and clap push-ups. Here’s a simple workout to enhance RFD.

1a Jump squat with 25% of 1RM for 3 reps
Rest 30 seconds
1b Clap push-up for 3 reps
Rest 30 seconds, repeat 1a/1b pairing seven more times (8 rounds total)

Perform this short workout twice per week at the beginning of your regular workouts and you’ll bridge the gap between strength and power.

Stay Focused,
CW   

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Tisane des feuilles d'olivier - Remède de grand-mère en cas d'hypertension

Tisane des feuilles d'olivier - Rem�de de grand-m�re en cas d'hypertension

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6 Power Foods You Should Be Eating

By: Carolyn Kylstra
Some foods just aren't taken seriously.

Consider celery, for example—forever the garnish, never the main meal. You might even downgrade it to bar fare, since the only stalks most guys eat are served alongside hot wings or immersed in Bloody Marys.

All of which is a shame, really. Besides being a perfect vehicle for peanut butter, this vegetable contains bone-beneficial silicon and cancer-fighting phenolic acids. And those aren't even what makes celery so good for you.

You see, celery is just one of six underappreciated and undereaten foods that can instantly improve your diet. Make a place for them on your plate, and you'll gain a new respect for the health benefits they bestow—from lowering blood pressure to fighting belly fat. And the best part? You'll discover just how delicious health food can be.

Celery
This water-loaded vegetable has a rep for being all crunch and no nutrition. But ditch that mindset: Celery contains stealth nutrients that heal.

Why it's healthy: "My patients who eat four sticks of celery a day have seen modest reductions in their blood pressure—about 6 points systolic and 3 points diastolic," says Mark Houston, M. D., director of the Hypertension Institute at St. Thomas Hospital, in Nashville. It's possible that phytochemicals in celery, called phthalides, are responsible for this health boon. These compounds relax muscle tissue in artery walls and increase bloodflow, according to nutritionist Jonny Bowden, Ph. D., author of The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. And beyond the benefits to your BP, celery also fills you up—with hardly any calories.

How to eat it: Try this low-carbohydrate, protein-packed recipe for a perfect snack any time of day.

In a bowl, mix a 4.5-ounce can of low-sodium tuna (rinsed and drained), 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup of finely chopped onion, 1/4 cup of finely chopped apple, 2 tablespoons of fat-free mayonnaise, and some fresh ground pepper. Then spoon the mixture into celery stalks. (Think tuna salad on a log.) Makes 2 servings

Per serving: 114 calories, 15 grams protein, 12 grams carbohydrates (3 grams fiber), 1 gram fat

Seaweed
While this algae is a popular health food in Japan, it rarely makes it into U. S. homes.

Why it's healthy: There are four classes of seaweeds—green, brown, red, and blue-green—and they're all packed with healthful nutrients. "Seaweeds are a great plant source of calcium," says nutritionist Alan Aragon, M.S. They're also loaded with potassium, which is essential for maintaining healthy blood-pressure levels. "Low potassium and high sodium intake can cause high blood pressure," Bowden says. "Most people know to limit sodium, but another way to combat the problem is to take in more potassium."

How to eat it: In sushi, of course. You can also buy sheets of dried seaweed at Asian groceries, specialty health stores, or online at edenfoods.com. Use a coffee grinder to grind the sheets into a powder. Then use the powder as a healthy salt substitute that's great for seasoning salads and soups.

Hemp Seeds
Despite the Cannabis classification, these seeds aren't for smoking. But they may provide medicinal benefits.

Why they're healthy: "Hemp seeds are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke," says Cassandra Forsythe, Ph. D., a nutrition researcher at the University of Connecticut. What's more, a 1-ounce serving of the seeds provides 11 grams of protein—but not the kind of incomplete protein found in most plant sources. Hemp seeds provide all the essential amino acids, meaning the protein they contain is comparable to that found in meat, eggs, and dairy.

How to eat them: Toss 2 tablespoons of the seeds into your oatmeal or stir-fry. Or add them to your postworkout shake for an extra dose of muscle-building protein.

Scallops
Perhaps these mollusks are considered guilty by association, since they often appear in decadent restaurant meals that are overloaded with calories. (But then again, so does asparagus.)

Why they're healthy: Scallops are more than 80 percent protein. "One 3-ounce serving provides 20 grams of protein and just 95 calories," says Bowden. They're also a good source of both magnesium and potassium. (Clams and oysters provide similar benefits.)

How to eat them: Sear the scallops: It's a fast and easy way to prepare this seafood.

Purchase fresh, dry-packed scallops (not the "wet-packed" kind) and place them on a large plate or cookie sheet. While you preheat a skillet on medium high, pat the scallops dry with a paper towel and season the exposed sides with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. When the skillet is hot, add a tablespoon of olive oil to it. Being careful not to overcrowd, lay the scallops in the skillet, seasoned-side down, and then season the top sides.

Sear the scallops until the bottoms are caramelized (about 2 minutes), and then flip them to sear for another 1 to 2 minutes, depending on size and thickness. Now they're ready to eat. Pair the scallops with sauteed vegetables, or place them on a bed of brown rice.

Dark Meat
Sure, dark meat has more fat than white meat does, but have you ever considered what the actual difference is? Once you do, Thanksgiving won't be the only time you "call the drumstick."

Why it's healthy: "The extra fat in dark turkey or chicken meat raises your levels of cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone that makes you feel fuller, longer," says Aragon. The benefit: You'll be less likely to overeat in the hours that follow your meal. What about your cholesterol? Only a third of the fat in a turkey drumstick is the saturated kind, according to the USDA food database. (The other two-thirds are heart-healthy unsaturated fats.) What's more, 86 percent of that saturated fat either has no impact on cholesterol, or raises HDL (good) cholesterol more than LDL (bad) cholesterol—a result that actually lowers your heart-disease risk.

As for calories, an ounce of dark turkey meat contains just 8 more calories than an ounce of white meat.

How to eat it: Just enjoy, but be conscious of your total portion sizes. A good rule of thumb: Limit yourself to 8 ounces or less at any one sitting, which provides up to 423 calories. Eat that with a big serving of vegetables, and you'll have a flavorful fat-loss meal.

Lentils
It's no surprise that these hearty legumes are good for you. But when was the last time you ate any?

Why they're healthy: Boiled lentils have about 16 grams of belly-filling fiber in every cup. Cooked lentils also contain 27 percent more folate per cup than cooked spinach does. And if you eat colored lentils—black, orange, red—there are compounds in the seed hulls that contain disease-fighting antioxidants, says Raymond Glahn, Ph. D., a research physiologist with Cornell University.

How to eat them: Use lentils as a bed for chicken, fish, or beef—they make a great substitute for rice or pasta.

Pour 4 cups of chicken stock into a large pot. Add 1 cup of red or brown lentils and a half cup each of onion and carrot chunks, along with 3 teaspoons of minced garlic. Bring everything to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the lentils until they're tender, about 20 minutes. Remove the lentils from the heat, add a splash of red-wine vinegar, and serve.



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Healthy diet 'boosts childhood IQ'

Continue reading the main storyCan diet affect intelligence?

Related Stories

• Lower IQ 'a heart disease risk'
• Breastfeeding 'helps to boost IQ'
• High IQ link to being vegetarian

Eating chips, chocolate and cake may be damaging to a child's intelligence, according to researchers at Bristol University.

Their study suggests a link between a diet high in processed foods and a slightly lower IQ.

Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, they suggest poor nutrition may affect brain development.

The British Dietetic Association said more young parents needed to be educated about healthy eating.

The eating habits of 3,966 children taking part in the The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children were recorded at the ages of three, four, seven and eight and a half.

The researchers said three types of diet emerged: Processed diets which were high in fat, sugar and convenience foods, traditional diets of meat, potato and vegetables, and health conscious diets of salads, fruit and fish.

The children all took IQ tests when they were eight and half.

Brain development

The researchers found a link between IQ and diet, even after taking into account other factors such as the mother's level of education, social class and duration of breast feeding.

A diet high in processed food at the age of three was linked to a slightly lower IQ at the age of eight and a half, suggesting early eating habits have a long term impact.

Dr Pauline Emmett, who carried out the study at Bristol University, said: "Brain development is much faster in early life, it's when it does most of its growing. It seems that what happens afterwards is less important."

Although the relationship between diet and IQ was very strong, the impact was quite small. Processed foods were linked with IQs only a few points lower.

Experts in the field said the results had confirmed common sense.

Fiona Ford, spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, said: "It's well worth looking at the long term impact of diets, everyone's familiar with the short term.

"The research confirms the type of advice we already know, but that's not always enough. Sometimes a society has to help a person change, we need to be educating more young parents about healthy eating."

Kristian Bravin, dietician at Leicester Royal Infirmary, said: "Most people know what they should do, some people don't have the inclination to cook good meals.

"I'm all in favour of a little bit of what you fancy, but when you're doing it every week it's a problem.

"People should seek advice from a registered dietician, but simply it's a message of moderating fat intake, five fruit and veg a day and whole grain starchy foods."

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nutrition � DividendGrowth.ca

Nutrition

• ASPIRIN - The wonder drug, also, it is believed, reduces the chance of death by cancer by inhibiting an enzyme that promotes cancer proliferation in tumours.

http://www.economist.com/node/17672796?story_id=17672796

• “A landmark study to be published in the June issue [2010] of the American Journal of Clinical Health provides direct evidence that refined, highly processed carbohydrates are worse for your heart than saturated fat.” Leslie Beck Globe and Mail, May 2010. Foods that do not provide a rush of insulin (low GI - under 55): “grainy breads with seeds, steel-cut oats, 100% bran cereal, brown rice, sweet potatoes, pasta, apples, citrus fruit, grapes, pears, legumes, nuts, milk, yogurt and soy milk.”

http://www.montignac.com/en/ig_recherche.php - a link for glycemic information

• OMEGA-3: According to “studies reviewed by Dr Gomez-Pinilla (professor of neurosurgery and physiological science at UCLA), the benefits of omega-3s include improved learning and memory, and resistance to depression and bipolar sisorder, schizophrenia, dementia, attention-deficit disorder and dyslexia. Omega-3s are found in oily fish such as salmon, as well as in walnuts and kiwi fruit…” The Economist, July 19 2008
• [vegetable] “Fats may be guarding against hip fractures” was the title of Dr Richard Beliveau's column in the Whig on December 14 2010. “Replacing these fats [saturated, eg in red meat and in whole milk]”, Beliveau said, “with those with a vegetable origin, particularly olive oil and oils rich in polyunsaturated omega-3 (flax seeds, for example), is a simple and effective way to improve the quality of fat brought into our body, thereby contributing to the prevention of several diseases, including those affecting bone density.”

• Vitamin D ”[I]n Scotland the sun is only strong enough to provide vitamin D between April and September. If the body's reserves of vitamin D run out during the winter, they need to be topped up from oily fish, eggs, meat or a supplement.” BBC News Sept 2010

• “More cinnamon, less cancer” was the title of Dr Richard Beliveau's column of March 22, 2010. I put cinnamon along with honey on my multi-grain toast this morning. No butter! By weight, cinnamon has 25 times more more polyphenols than wild blueberries. 'Attention on Prevention' is the sub-title of Beliveau's columns.

• Pistachio nuts may help prevent your arteries from clogging, your blood vessels clean and your heart healthy and strong. Consumer Reports on Health. We use non-salted pistachio nuts. Also containing phytosterols like pistachio nuts are sunflower and pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and pine nuts.
• Inflammation - Rosmarinic acid curbs inflammation. Rosmarinic acid can be found in rosemary, of course, and also oregano, sage, thyme, marjoram and lemon balm.

• To be healthy we need thirty minutes of moderate-intensity exercise five times a week. According to Paul Taylors' Globe and Mail Column on March 20 2009, moderate-intensity walking is 100 steps in 60 seconds times 30 minutes - “a brisk walk” said Dr. Marshall.
• Raw veggies are not necessarily more nutritious was Leslie Beck's thrust in her May 27 2009 Globe and Mail column. Tomatoes and spinach are better for you if cooked. Broccoli, kale and garlic, better raw.

• Mental Health : “there is nothing so urgent that it cannot be postponed in favour of a cup of tea”
• PHYTOCHEMICALS: The highest levels of anti-cancer compounds (phytochemicals) are found in greeen tea, soybeans, and tumeric. Phytochemical activity “targets the processes involves in the development of a tumour”. p.75 Foods that Fight Cancer by Beliveau and Gingras
• GOBS + CCC + TTT - I'm trying to remember the eleven chapters in Part II of Foods that Fight Cancer: three begin with T - tumeric, tomatoes and tea (green); three with C - citrus, chocolate (dark) and cabbage; and GOBS with a silent W (actually the W is invisible) stand for: red wine, garlic (onions etc), Omega 3s, berries (blue in particular) and soy.

• The term “whole grain” bread includes the wheat germ, but “whole wheat” may not.

• “GREEN TEA holds a place of prime importance in any diet planned with cancer prevention in mind. Of all foods, it contains one of the highest proportions of anti-cancer molecules” p.115 Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer by Beliveau and Gingras is a terrific book. We now use Japanese gyokuro green tea as it is richer in catechins. Gyokuro is about $32 for 100 grams.

• As soon as you cook meat at over 350 degrees, HCAs (carcinogens) are produced. Marinating before cooking is one way to reduce HCAs.

• “We now know that monounsaturated fats can reduce the total cholesterol and the LDL while protecting the HDL, the good cholesterol.” page 33 Good Fat - Bad Fat by Louise Lambert-LaGace and Michelle LaFlamme, 1995. “Monounsaturated fats are found in plant foods such as olive oil, canola oil, hazelnuts oil, almonds, avacadoes, pistachios . . ”

• “Olive oil actually can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. That's because olive oil containsphenol, an ingredient that keeps your arteries elastic. That's important because “elastic” arteries can handle sudden changes in your blood flow –the secret of preventing a heart attack.” from the ad for Consumer Reports, 'The Best of Health' book

• cod liver oil “Basiclly, if you're taking your teaspoon full of cod liver oil, it's fine…but higher levels are not associated with health.” Reinhold Vieth, professor, department of nutritional sciences at U of T.

• SAGE - I now add a broken-up sage leaf or two to my soups. Sage contains essential oils, flavonoids, antioxidend enzymes and phenolic acid. Sage is supposed to enhance memory and reduce inflamation. from The Perricone Promise

• The allium vegetables (onions, garlic, leeks, shallots) help improve blood cholesterol and fat profiles, as do spices, particularly ginger and tumeric.” Michael Vertolli

• IRISH COFFEE - Only Irish coffee provides in a single cup all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.