7 Strategies to Satisfy Hunger and Lose Weight

By: David Schipper
Recently, Cornell University researchers asked a group of people a simple question: "How do you know when you're through eating dinner?"

The answer might seem obvious. After all, doesn't everyone push the plate away when they feel full? Well, no. The leanest people do, according to the scientists, but people who are overweight rely more on what are known as "external cues." For example, guys packing a few extra pounds tend to stop eating when . . .

1. Their plates are clean.
2. Everyone else in their group is finished.
3. The TV show they're watching is over.

Unfortunately, these cues have nothing to do with how they feel physically. "People's brains are often out of touch with their bodies," says C. Peter Herman, Ph.D., a University of Toronto expert on appetite control. "And when eating becomes mindless, overeating becomes routine."

The key player in all of this appears to be a region of your brain called the left posterior amygdala, or LPA. This area monitors the volume of food in your stomach during a meal. Fill your gut to a comfortable level, and the LPA tells your brain to drop the fork. Trouble is, it delivers that information at dial-up speed in a DSL world. "Many men consume calories faster than their bodies can say, 'Stop!'" explains Herman. "So they look to external cues to guide their consumption."

The bottom line is this: To shrink your gut, you need to start listening to it. We've scoured the science and tapped the top experts to help you learn how to do just that. Use these seven simple strategies, and you'll fill up without filling out.
Sit Down to Snack
Turns out, the trappings of a formal meal make you think you're eating more than you actually are—and that may boost satiety levels. A 2006 Canadian study found that when people ate lunch while sitting at a set table, they consumed a third less at a later snack than those who ate their midday meals while standing at a counter.

Think of it as the Zen of eating: "If you treat every dining experience with greater respect, you'll be less likely to use your fork as a shovel," says sports nutritionist and behavioral psychotherapist Lisa Dorfman, M.S., R.D. "And that includes snacks as well as your three squares."
Turn Off the Tube
University of Massachusetts researchers found that people who watched TV during a meal consumed 288 more calories on average than those who didn't. The reason: What you're seeing on television distracts you, which keeps your brain from recognizing that you're full.
Slow Down and Savor
"Pay close attention to those first three bites, which people usually wolf down due to excitement," says Jeffrey Greeson, Ph.D., a health psychologist at Duke Integrative Medicine. In fact, mimic a food critic: "Examine the food's texture, savor the flavors in your mouth, and then pay attention and feel the swallow," he says. "Psychologically, this form of meditative eating boosts satiety and promotes a sense of satisfaction for the entire meal."

While you're at it, try spicing up relatively bland fare, such as scrambled eggs, with hot sauce or smoked paprika. "Hot, flavorful foods help trigger your brain to realize you're eating," says Dorfman.

Take a Bite, Take a Breath
University of Rhode Island researchers discovered that consciously slowing down between bites decreases a person's calorie intake by 10 percent. "Breathing helps you gauge how hungry you are, since it directs your mind toward your body," says Greeson. "It's also quite practical, since you can do it throughout a meal and not draw attention to yourself in a social situation."

Don't Share Your Food
Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo observed that men who ate with a group of buddies downed 60 percent more calories than when they ate with a spouse or girlfriend. That's because people often match their intake of food to that of their dining partners.

Of course, you shouldn't have to sit home on guys' night out. Choose one reasonable entrée for yourself, and skip the communal foods—bread, nachos, wings, and pizza, for example—which encourage you to take your eating cues from pals.
Keep a Food Journal
It's an effective way to remind yourself how much you're eating over the course of a day. But it doesn't need to be complicated: University of Pittsburgh scientists found that dieters who simply wrote down the size of each meal (S, M, L, XL) were just as successful at losing weight as those who tracked specific foods and calorie counts.

One useful addition: Detail the motivation behind your eating habits. "Were you really hungry or just blowing off steam before bedtime? Recognizing that you weren't feeling true hunger reinforces the idea of listening to your body," says Dorfman.
Don't Trust the "Healthy" Menu
You're likely to underestimate your meal's calorie count by about 35 percent, according to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Research. The best approach is to check the restaurant's nutrition guide before you order. A University of Mississippi study found that people consumed 54 percent fewer calories when they used this simple strategy.


© 2010 Rodale Inc. | MensHealth.com

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The Texas Method

by Mark Rippetoe
There are many advantages to being a young man. The problem is that you're young and you don't know it, and probably won't know it until it's too late to do anything about it.
If I could go back and do it over again, there are several things I'd do differently. I'd spend more time on my calculus homework. I'd drink better beer. I'd spend less time trying to date more women and spend more time trying to get other things accomplished. And I'd apply a few simple things I've since learned about training to my own program.
It's obvious to me now, 35 years removed, that I didn't take advantage of the simple ability a young man has to physically stress himself hard, recover from it relatively easily, and then stress himself again — and thus rapidly accumulate the effects of training and recovery in a somewhat linear fashion.
If I had this wisdom back then, I'd have just done a simple program of squats, benches, overhead presses, deadlifts, and cleans, going up a little bit every time I trained, three days per week, until I was much bigger and stronger — or until this simple program quit working.
In other words, I would've used the program outlined in my book, Starting Strength, for as long as it delivered consistent, significant results. Please keep in mind that I'm not going to describe a program for beginners in this article; quite the contrary, it's for intermediate to advanced lifters.
However, I need to make some points from Starting Strength.

The Novice Effect

Let's first review why the simple linear progression described in Starting Strength is the ideal choice for novices.
Young men adapt quickly if they're stressed, fed, and rested enough. I learned this simple programming fact from running a gym for decades, showing everybody how to use the barbell exercises and watching what happened to them.
It's called the novice effect: guys who've started out with a simple program, approached it diligently and intelligently, and have gained 30-40 pounds of useful bodyweight in just a few months while more than doubling their strength and power.

The Novice Effect In Action

The driving force behind the power of the novice effect is simplicity. Trainees added 10 pounds at first, and then 5 pounds to their squat and deadlift every time they trained the exercise. Similarly, they added 5 pounds at first, and then 1, 2, or 3 pounds to their bench press, overhead press, and power clean every time they trained the exercise.
They didn't do much else in the beginning; no other exercises except chin-ups and maybe some curls. They didn't run, they didn't waste time in front of the dumbbell rack, and they didn't do a bunch of sit-ups or planks or anything with a cable, wobble board, or Bosu ball.
But the ability to adapt to this quickly and this thoroughly doesn't last long and begins to slow down the moment you start to get stronger, imperceptibly at first, and then more rapidly as you approach the limits of your capacity to recover from each increasingly difficult workout.
The rotten, irritating, sorry-ass fact is that as you approach your genetically predetermined physical limitations, it becomes harder to make progress. This is the principle of diminishing returns and we observe this throughout nature and throughout our lives.
The first improvements are easy and cheap, and the more improvement you want, the longer it takes and the more it costs. But if you don't take advantage of the opportunity while you have it, you leave things undone, and perhaps undoable later.
Let's say that you were wise enough to take advantage of your youth and put in five good months of simple linear progression. You ignored the fools who told you that undulating periodization was "The Way To Go," and you made the best, most rapid, and most important progress you'll ever make in the weight room — and now you're committed enough to the potential of barbell training that you're willing to do the hard work that comes next.

What's Next?

Next comes more progress, of course, but at a slower pace. You're now strong enough that each workout represents a stress that takes longer to recover from. You're lifting weights that are heavy enough that your increases in load take place every week instead of every workout, three times per week.
This means that progress is one-third the pace it was previously; it also means that it has the potential to occur for a longer period of time, if you're diligent.
Balancing the higher stress of the increasing loads is the fact that not only has your strength improved, but your ability to recover has improved with it so that you can use more tonnage at a higher intensity.
The fact is, it's necessary to subject the body to increasing amounts of stress at a level that challenges recovery ability so that the adaptations continue to occur. But since these are now higher-intensity efforts that more fully tax the system, they require longer periods of time to recover from.
If we design the program correctly, we can plan workouts that place optimum stress in the optimum pattern to continue the adaptive drive of the program for a long time: A high level of tonnage-stress early in the week, a lighter workout in the middle to aid in recovery — "active rest" it's sometimes called — and then a higher-intensity lower-volume workout at the end of the week.
Stresses of different types and adequate recovery from the stress are in balance if the program is to work for an extended period of time. We call the program The Texas Method, because we are in Texas and it's a Method — a very good one that has proven itself for years.

Enter The Texas Method

In its basic form, the workout consists of a volume day for the major lifts on Monday, a lighter recovery/variety day on Wednesday, and a high-intensity day on Friday for the major lifts. The days can obviously vary based on your schedule, but the pattern of rest days and work days is important.

Monday — Volume Day

A) Squats, 5 x 5 @ 90% of 5RM

B) Bench press or overhead press, 5 x 5 @ 90% 5RM

C) Deadlifts, 1 x 5 @ 90% 5RM

Volume 5: Sets of 5 reps across (the same weight repeated for the work sets) has proven to be the optimum combination of volume and intensity.
Higher reps require a weight that's simply too light, while lower reps with a heavier weight don't have optimum volume and cause too much structural stress. Many people have tweaked the sets and reps, and time after time they come back to 5 sets of 5 across as the best driver of long-term progress.
Load: The weight should be such that all five sets of all five reps can be finished without more than 8-10 minutes rest between sets. For most people, this works out to about 90% of 5RM.
For example, if your 5-rep max squat is 345, then 315 x 5 x 5 would be Monday's squat workout. The bench press and the overhead press respond this way also; alternate between one exercise and the other each Monday for 5 x 5 with about 90% of 5RM.
However, deadlifts are another story. There is no volume day for deadlifts, because deadlifts are too hard — you can't recover from them if you do more than one heavy set. (This is especially true if you're doing 5 x 5 squats, too.)
Experience with this has shown that it's best to do just one heavy set of five deadlifts on Monday, after squats and benches or overhead presses are finished. It won't be a "true" 5RM, since it follows all the squat work, but it should increase every week.
For those of you keeping score, this makes Monday a real bastard of a workout, and that's the point: it sets up the rest of the week for recovery and a focus on intensity in Friday's workout.
Assistance Work: If it were up to me, I'd limit any assistance exercises to some briefarm work on Monday. I'd also limit any excessive weekend frivolity that might affect the workout, like staying up all night Saturday chasing pussy with your wingman, Jim Beam.
Recovery: It should start right after the last set of the workout. At this level of training intensity, it's imperative that you eat and sleep with both sufficient quality and quantity — The Texas Method will overtrain your ass very quickly if you don't pay attention to recovery.
Remember: You don't get big and strong from lifting weights — you get big and strong from recovering from lifting weights. Don't fail to pay attention to this, or Monday's workout will murder the rest of the week and you'll get stuck.

Wednesday — Recovery Day

A) Squats, 2 x 5 @ 80% of Monday's work weight

B) Overhead press (if you bench pressed Monday), 3 x 5 at slightly lighter load than previous 5 x 5 OHP weight, or bench press (if OHP on Monday), 3 x 5 @ 90% previous 5 x 5 weight.

C) Chin ups, 3 x Bodyweight

D) Back extensions or glute-ham raise, 5 x 10

Recovery continues with Wednesday's workout. Squats are 80% of Monday's work weight for 2 sets of 5. Benches and overhead presses alternate: if you did overhead presses on Monday for 5 x 5, benches are done Wednesday with 3 sets of a little lighter weight than the last 5 x 5 bench press so that you can feel the load but not so much that it taps into recovery.
Recovery day overhead presses done on Wednesday are a little heavier, relative to 5RM, than the recovery-day benches, since their absolute load is lighter anyway. Finish the workout with chin-ups and back extensions; I like 3 sets to failure for chins, with five minutes between sets, and 5 sets of 10 back extensions or glute/ham raises.

Friday — Intensity Day

A) Squats, warm-up, then work up in singles or doubles to one single, new 5RM

B) Bench press, (if you bench pressed Monday) or overhead press (if OHP on Monday), warm-up, then work up in singles or doubles to one single, new 5RM

* C) Power clean, 5 x 3 reps or power snatch, 6 x 2 reps

Friday is intensity day. It focuses the tonnage from Monday into a new 5RM, or within 2% of it to allow for training-quality technique. Do most of your warm-up work light, first with the empty bar and then 135, and then take doubles or singles up to your one work set, the one that should give you a new 5RM.
Make sure that the load is higher than Monday but not so much that form breaks down on the last reps. If it does, you picked the wrong weight.

Friday Options

* Since deadlifts were done on Monday, Friday is power clean/power snatch day. The Olympic lifts are the best way to train explosiveness and athleticism under the bar, while allowing you to increase your power in a way that's incrementally programmable.
Dynamic Effort work has become popular as another way to do this, and using explosive deadlifts on Friday would be a way to incorporate DE into the Texas Method, but the Olympic weightlifting-derived power clean and power snatch represents a different level of neuromuscular activity.
Keep in mind that deadlifts are pulled fast because you want to pull them fast; power cleans are pulled fast because you have to pull them fast or they won't rack on the shoulders.
The explosive aspect of a clean is actually minimal since the explosion is inherent in the top of the movement. Cleans and snatches are both lighter and more powerful than deadlifts, and thus are perfect for the Friday workout.
If you want to call yourself a lifter, you need to know how to clean and snatch, even if you don't intend to compete in Olympic weightlifting. After your warm up, do power cleans for 5 sets of 3 reps across, or power snatches for 6 doubles.

Some Notes

• The Texas Method is still very simple in terms of the number of exercises. Actual progress in the weight room is based on an increase in the loading of the basic structural exercises, not in the number of different ways you can perform a triceps pressdown. Very few successful lifters or bodybuilders confuse complexity with effectiveness.
• The size and strength gains you'll see on the Texas Method will not be as dramatic as those seen in the novice progression outlined in the introduction because of the fact that the easy gains have already happened. We're further along on the curve here, or we wouldn't be using an intermediate-level program.
If five months of novice progression took you from a 95-pound squat at a bodyweight of 140 to a 315 x 5 squat at a bodyweight of 200, the Texas Method will take you to 405 x 5 squat at a bodyweight of 225 in a year. Not as dramatic by any stretch, but this is fine because you're older now and committed to the project.

A Rap Upside the Head

Your time spent in the gym can be either productive or wasted, and a few seconds spent thinking about this will yield the conclusion that any real progress is a quantifiable improvement in strength.
Strength gains are the basis of an increase in size; in effect, size is a side effect of strength, and an intelligently designed and applied program can drive strength. At any point in your training career, quantifiable progress must be your objective.
It's easy at first when you're a novice to the barbell. The Texas Method is a good way to carry you through the next step: maintaining the trend of handling increasingly heavy weight.
The Texas Method doesn't work forever — nothing does. But it does work well as your introduction to the more complicated programming necessary to continue strength and size gains into the more advanced stages of strength training.

The Power Clean

The Deadlift — One set of five is plenty

The Squat

Although it makes for an arresting photo, partner-assisted concentration curls should not be among your favorite mass building exercises.

Progress in the weight room is not determined by the number of ways you can perform triceps pressdowns.

© 1998 — 2010 Testosterone, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Une autre étude démontre que les produits laitiers aident à maigrir

5 novembre 2010 - La consommation quotidienne de produits laitiers riches en calcium et en vitamine D aiderait les personnes suivant un régime à maigrir davantage, selon une étude israélienne¹.

Des chercheurs sont arrivés à cette conclusion en observant durant 2 ans l’effet de la consommation de lait, de fromage et d’autres produits laitiers sur 322 hommes et femmes âgés de 40 ans à 65 ans ayant un excès de poids.

Les participants ont été assignés au hasard à l’une des diètes suivantes : faible en gras, faible en glucides et régime méditerranéen. La quantité de produits laitiers consommée était laissée à leur bon vouloir.

Résultats : les participants qui ont ingéré le plus de produits laitiers - 583 mg de calcium laitier, soit l’équivalent de 2 tasses de lait par jour - ont réussi à perdre environ près de 6 kilos (13 livres) après 2 ans de régime. Chez ceux qui en ont consommé le moins (150 mg par jour), la perte de poids a été 2 fois moindre, soit environ 3 kilos (7 livres).

Selon les auteurs de l’étude, le calcium laitier possède des propriétés anti-obésité découlant de composantes bioactives supérieures à celles retrouvées dans des suppléments de calcium. C’est notamment le cas des protéines laitières, qui ont la capacité d’inhiber certains enzymes impliqués dans le stockage des gras.

L’apport de la vitamine D

Outre le calcium laitier, les chercheurs ont découvert que le taux sanguin de vitamine D était plus élevé chez les personnes ayant perdu le plus de poids. Comme pour le calcium, ce résultat a été obtenu quel que soit le type de régime suivi par les participants.

La vitamine D joue un rôle important dans l’absorption du calcium par l’organisme. Il est donc possible, selon les chercheurs, que les fortes concentrations de vitamine D agissent sur les voies métaboliques qui favorisent la perte de poids.

Un sujet controversé

Ce n’est pas la première étude à associer la consommation de produits laitiers à la perte de poids. Mais le sujet est source de controverse puisque d’autres travaux ont échoué à montrer cette association, rappelle Marielle Ledoux, professeur titulaire et directrice du Département de nutrition à l’Université de Montréal.

« Cette étude ne montre pas une relation de cause à effet, si bien que l’on ne sait pas si c’est réellement la consommation de produits laitiers qui permet la perte de poids, dit-elle. Elle ne garantit donc pas la perte de poids, mais elle limite peut-être le gain de poids. »

La majorité des participants ne rencontraient pas les apports quotidiens recommandés en calcium et en vitamine D en début d’étude, fait-elle remarquer. « Si leurs besoins étaient remplis, est-ce que prendre davantage de produits laitiers aiderait à la perte de poids? Nous ne le savons pas, mais cela peut suggérer qu’il est important de s’assurer de prendre les apports recommandés en calcium et en vitamine D pour contrôler son poids », dit-elle.

L’étude israélienne suggère que ce n’est pas uniquement le calcium qui joue un rôle dans la perte de poids, mais aussi les composantes mêmes du lait. La prise de suppléments de calcium ne serait donc pas aussi efficace. « En plus du calcium laitier, il y a d’autres substances, comme les protéines et les minéraux, qui sont en jeu et d’autres études sont nécessaires pour comprendre cela », affirme Marielle Ledoux.

Selon les observations cliniques du chercheur Angelo Tremblay, la perte de poids et de masse adipeuse des participants, qui devaient restreindre leur apport en calories, a été plus élevée chez ceux qui ont pris des suppléments de calcium. Et les résultats ont été encore plus marqués chez les sujets qui ont augmenté leur apport en calcium en buvant du lait.

Louis M. Gagné – PasseportSanté.net

1. Shahar DR, Schwarzfuchs D et al. Dairy calcium intake, serum vitamin D, and successful weight loss, Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Nov;92(5):1017-22.

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5 Ways to Get Stronger Without Lifting a WeightWorkout

by: Cameron McGarr, C.S.C.S.

Few men believe it, but you don't need barbells, dumbbells, or machines to build muscle; in fact, weight-training equipment often inhibits the process. That's because it requires you to be in a specific location, which might explain why more men consider themselves runners than lifters. After all, running is the most accessible form of exercise—anywhere you go, there's your gym. But learn a little bit about physics and the same can hold true for your muscle workout.

Consider the pullup: It's the standard by which all body-weight exercises are measured. And even the most hard-core lifters will agree that there's no better muscle builder for the upper body—with or without weights. The reason for its effectiveness: It takes full advantage of the scientific laws of motion and leverage, placing your body in a position that forces your back and arms to lift your entire body weight. Call it applied science at its finest.

Now imagine if all body-weight exercises were as challenging as the pullup. You'd be able to build muscle anywhere, anytime—at home, on the road, or even in a public park. Physical science makes it possible. So with that said . . . the Five Laws of Body-Weight Training.

The Longer Your Body, The Weaker You Become
The science: By increasing the distance between the point of force (your target muscles) and the end of the object you're trying to lift (your body), you decrease your mechanical advantage. Think of it this way: An empty barbell is easy to lift off the floor if you grab it in the middle. But try moving a few inches in one direction and it instantly seems heavier—even though its weight hasn't changed. The same is true of your body: Lengthen it and every exercise you do becomes harder.

Apply it: Raise your hands above your head—so your arms are straight and in line with your body—during a lunge, squat, crunch, or situp. If that's too hard, split the distance by placing your hands behind your head.

The Farther You Move, The More Muscle You Work
The science: In physics, "mechanical work" is equal to force (or weight) times distance. And since your muscles and bones function together as simple machines—they form class 1, 2, and 3 levers—the same formula applies to your body. It's the most basic of principles: Do more work, build more muscle. Of course, in a weight-free workout, you can't increase force (unless you gain weight). But you can boost your work output by moving a greater distance during each repetition.

Apply it: Each of the following three methods increases the distance your body has to travel from start to finish, increasing not only the total amount of work you do, but also the amount of work you do in the most challenging portion of the exercise.

Hard: Move the floor farther away. For many body-weight exercises—lunges, pushups, situps—your range of motion ends at the floor. The solution: Try placing your front or back foot on a step when doing lunges; position your hands on books or your feet on a chair when doing pushups; and place a rolled-up towel under the arch in your lower back when doing situps.

Harder: Add on a quarter. From the starting position of a pushup, squat, or lunge, lower yourself into the down position. But instead of pushing your body all the way up, raise it only a quarter of the way. Then lower yourself again before pushing your body all the way up. That counts as one repetition.

Hardest: Try mini-repetitions. Instead of pushing your body all the way up from the down position, do five smaller reps in which you raise and lower your body about an inch each time. After the fifth mini-repetition, push yourself up till your arms are straight. That counts as one repetition.
As Elastic Energy Decreases, Muscle Involvement Increases
The science: When you lower your body during any exercise, you build up "elastic energy" in your muscles. Just like in a coiled spring, that elasticity allows you to "bounce" back to the starting position, reducing the work your muscles have to do. Eliminate the bounce and you'll force your body to recruit more muscle fibers to get you moving again. How? Pause for 4 seconds in the down position of an exercise. That's the amount of time it takes to discharge all the elastic energy of a muscle.

Apply it: Use the 4-second pause in any exercise. And give yourself an extra challenge by adding an explosive component, forcefully pushing your body off the floor—into the air as high as you can—during a pushup, lunge, or squat. Because you're generating maximum force without any help from elastic energy, you'll activate the greatest number of muscle fibers possible.

Moving in Two Directions is Better Than Moving in One
The science: Human movement occurs on three different geometric planes:

1. The sagittal plane, for front-to-back and up-and-down movements
2. The frontal plane, for side-to-side movements
3. The transverse plane, for rotational movements

Most weight-lifting movements—the bench press, squat, curl, lunge, and chinup, to name a few—are performed on the sagittal plane; the balance of exercises—for instance, the lateral lunge and side bend—occur almost entirely on the frontal plane. This means that most men rarely train their bodies on the transverse plane, despite using rotation constantly in everyday life, as well as in every sport. Case in point: walking. It's subtle, but your hips rotate with every step; in fact, watch a sprinter from behind and you'll see that his hips rotate almost 90 degrees. By adding a rotational component to any exercise, you'll automatically work more muscle—since you'll fully engage your core, as well as the original target muscles—and simultaneously build a better-performing body.

Apply it: Simply twist your torso to the right or left in exercises such as the lunge, situp, and pushup. You can also rotate your hips during movements such as the reverse crunch.

The Less Contact Your Body Has With the Floor, the More Your Muscles Must Compensate
The science: The smaller the percentage of an object's surface area that's touching a solid base, the less stable that object is. That's why SUVs are prone to rolling, and tall transmission towers need guy wires. Fortunately, humans have a built-in stabilization system: muscles. And by forcing that internal support system to kick in—by making your body less stable—you'll make any exercise harder, while activating dozens more muscles.

Apply it: Hold one foot in the air during virtually any exercise, including pushups, squats, and deadlifts. You can also do pushups on your fingertips or your fists.


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Le Tylénol augmenterait la tension artérielle chez les patients cardiaques

3 novembre 2010 – L’acétaminophène (Tylénol® ou génériques) ferait augmenter, à court terme, la tension artérielle chez les patients souffrant d’une maladie cardiaque, selon les résultats d’une étude préliminaire1 publiés dans le journal Circulation de l’American Heart Association.

L’essai clinique a été mené en Suisse auprès de 33 patients. Durant 2 semaines, chaque participant prenait, en plus de sa médication usuelle, 2 comprimés d’acétaminophène « extra fort » (500 mg chacun), 3 fois par jour, ou un placebo. Les rôles étaient ensuite inversés durant une autre période de 2 semaines.

Les chercheurs ont observé une hausse systématique de la pression artérielle systolique (+2,3 %) et diastolique (+3 %) à un dosage couramment recommandé.

Les auteurs de l’étude concluent que l’acétaminophène n’est pas un analgésique aussi anodin qu’on le croyait et qu’il serait nécessaire de mener des études plus poussées quant à son innocuité.

Un analgésique à prendre avec modération
Malgré la courte durée de l’étude et son nombre restreint de participants, 2 médecins américains incitent les cardiologues, dans un éditorial2 publié dans la même revue médicale, à revoir l’usage actuel de l’acétaminophène chez les patients cardiaques. D’autant plus, soulignent-ils, qu’on ignore si l’effet hypertenseur de l’acétaminophène serait plus important lors d’un usage à long terme.

Selon le pharmacien Jean-Yves Dionne, « il est frappant de constater que la pression artérielle a augmenté de façon systématique et significative chez tous les patients lors du traitement à l’acétaminophène, malgré le fait que la majorité des participants prenaient des médicaments qui avaient pour effet de contrer une hausse de la pression artérielle ».

Les personnes souffrant de troubles cardiaques devraient donc éviter de prendre de l’acétaminophène sur une base continue et limiter le dosage lorsqu’elles doivent absolument en prendre, estime-t-il. « Même s’il est offert en vente libre, cet analgésique n’est pas un bonbon et il serait sage d’en user avec modération », affirme Jean-Yves Dionne. Il souligne que l’effet observé au cours de cette étude s’est manifesté avec un dosage conforme à l’usage habituel.

L’acétaminophène est réputé pour être dépourvu d’action anti-inflammatoire et ne pas agir sur l’agrégation plaquettaire comme les anti-inflammatoire non stéroïdiens (AINS) (Aspirine®, Ibuprofène®, Célébrex®, etc.). Pour cette raison, les autorités médicales américaines et canadiennes recommandent l’emploi de l’acétaminophène plutôt que des AINS en cas de douleur chez les sujets à risque de troubles cardiovasculaires.



Pierre Lefrançois – PasseportSanté.net



1. Sudano I, Flammer AJ, Périat D, et al. Acetaminophen Increases Blood Pressure in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease. Circulation. 2010 Oct 18.
2. White WB, Campbell P. Blood pressure destabilization on nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agents. Acetaminophen exposed?Circulation. 2010 Oct 18.

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The World's Most Efficient Workout

By: Greg Presto
Muscles are funny things. They respond to just about any type of training, as long as it's hard and as long as it's not the same damn thing you've always done. That's the beauty of density training: It's a whole lot of stuff you haven't tried yet. And best of all, it'll hit your major muscles in a fraction of the time. Instead of counting reps and sets, you'll focus on the total amount of work you can accomplish in a fixed amount of time. As you progress, you'll naturally increase your sets and reps, be able to use more weight, and perform exercises that are more challenging. Try this plan, created by David Jack, director of Teamworks Fitness in Acton, Massachusetts, to increase the intensity of your workouts. In only 4 weeks, you'll create a lean physique that looks like the product of hours at the gym.

Click on for the entire workout, or skip ahead to your skill level:
Basic
Advanced
Expert

Choose Your Workout
Perform each workout as a circuit, completing one exercise after another and resting as indicated.

Do three workouts a week, with at least 1 day off in between.

Weeks 1 and 2
Do 5 reps of each exercise, going from move to move without any rest. For weighted exercises, select a weight that you can lift 10 times. Keep repeating all four exercises until the workout time is up.

Basic: Workout 1
Perform for 10 minutes.
Basic: Workout 2
Perform for 15 minutes.

Advanced: Workout 3
Perform for 10 minutes.
Advanced: Workout 4
Perform for 15 minutes.

Expert: Workout 5
Perform for 10 minutes.
Expert: Workout 6
Perform for 15 minutes.

Week 3
Perform each exercise for 20 seconds, and rest for 10 seconds. That's 1 set.

Basic: Workout 7
Perform 2 sets. Rest for 1 minute. That's one cycle. Complete two more cycles.

Advanced: Workout 8
Perform 2 sets. Rest for 1 minute. That's one cycle. Complete two more cycles.

Expert: Workout 9
Perform 2 sets. Rest for 1 minute. That's one cycle. Complete two more cycles.

Week 4
Perform each exercise for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds. That's 1 set. Complete 4 sets, rest 1 to 2 minutes, then move on to the next exercise. Advance to the more difficult versions after you can complete at least 8 reps of each exercise in 20 seconds.

Basic: Workout 10
Advanced: Workout 11
Expert: Workout 12
Pushup
Basic

Pushup
Assume a pushup position, with your hands slightly beyond shoulder-width apart, feet together, and body in a straight line from head to ankles. Lower your chest until it's an inch above the floor, and then push back up. That's 1 rep.

Reverse Lunge and 1-Arm Press
Basic

Reverse lunge and 1-arm press
Stand holding a pair of dumbbells next to your shoulders. Step back with your right leg (as shown). Then press the dumbbell in your right hand straight above your shoulder. Lower it, and stand back up. Now repeat with your left side. That's 1 rep.

Inverted Row
Basic

Inverted row
Lie underneath a secured bar. Grab the bar with an overhand, shoulder-width grip, your arms and body completely straight, and heels on the floor. Pull your body up (as shown), and return to the starting position.

Prisoner Squat
Basic

Prisoner squat
Place your fingers on the back of your head, pull your elbows and shoulders back, and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Lower your body as far as you can (as shown). Pause, and return to the starting position.

Explosive Pushup
Advanced

Explosive pushup
Perform a basic pushup. After lowering your body, push back up with enough force that your hands leave the floor.

Reverse Lunge with 1-Arm Press
Advanced

Reverse lunge with 1-arm press
Perform a reverse lunge with your right leg as you simultaneously press the dumbbell in your right hand straight above your shoulder. Stand, and then lower the weight. Repeat the move with your left side. That's 1 rep.

Elevated-Feet Inverted Row
Advanced

Elevated-feet inverted row
Perform an inverted row, but first place your feet on a box or bench.
Goblet Squat
Advanced

Goblet squat
Hold a dumbbell vertically in front of your chest, cupping one end of the dumbbell with both hands. Keep your elbows pointed down toward the floor, and perform a squat. Then push back up.

Isometric Explosive Pushup
Expert

Isometric explosive pushup
Perform a pushup, but hold your body in the down position for 3 seconds and then push your body back up explosively.

Isometric Reverse Lunge and Press
Expert

Isometric reverse lunge and press
Do a reverse lunge, but after you lower your body, pause for 3 seconds. Then press both dumbbells above your shoulders. Lower them and return to a standing position, and repeat with your other leg. That's 1 rep.

Isometric Elevated-Feet Inverted Row
Expert

Isometric elevated-feet inverted row
Perform an elevated-feet inverted row. But after you pull your chest to the bar, pause for 3 seconds at the highest point. Lower your body and repeat.

Isometric Goblet Squat
Expert

Isometric goblet squat
Perform a goblet squat, but pause for 3 seconds at the lowest point of your squat. Then push back up to the starting position and repeat.



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8 Foods that Pack on Muscle

By: Adam Campbell

If muscles were made from chips and beer, we'd look huge. But they aren't, and we don't—unless you count that sack o' fat up front and dead center.

If not Doritos and double bock, then what? We decided to delve deep into the human anatomy to find the secret spot on every muscle where the word "ingredients" is stamped. With the help of Jeff Volek, Ph.D., R.D., an exercise and nutrition researcher at the University of Connecticut, and a really big magnifying glass, we found it. Eight foods are on the list: eggs, almonds, olive oil, salmon, steak, yogurt, water, and coffee. Add these ingredients to your stomach and faithfully follow the directions on the package—"Lift heavy weights"—and you can whip up a batch of biceps in no time.

Eggs: The Perfect Protein
How they build muscle: Not from being hurled by the dozen at your boss's house. The protein in eggs has the highest biological value—a measure of how well it supports your body's protein needs—of any food, including our beloved beef. "Calorie for calorie, you need less protein from eggs than you do from other sources to achieve the same muscle-building benefits," says Volek.

But you have to eat the yolk. In addition to protein, it also contains vitamin B12, which is necessary for fat breakdown and muscle contraction. (And no, eating a few eggs a day won't increase your risk of heart disease.)

How they keep you healthy: Eggs are vitamins and minerals over easy; they're packed with riboflavin, folate, vitamins B6, B12, D, and E, and iron, phosphorus, and zinc.

Almonds: Muscle Medicine
How they build muscle: Crunch for crunch, almonds are one of the best sources of alpha-tocopherol vitamin E—the form that's best absorbed by your body. That matters to your muscles because "vitamin E is a potent antioxidant that can help prevent free-radical damage after heavy workouts," says Volek. And the fewer hits taken from free radicals, the faster your muscles will recover from a workout and start growing.

How many almonds should you munch? Two handfuls a day should do it. A Toronto University study found that men can eat this amount daily without gaining any weight.

How they keep you healthy: Almonds double as brain insurance. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that those men who consumed the most vitamin E—from food sources, not supplements—had a 67 percent lower risk of Alzheimer's disease than those eating the least vitamin E.



Salmon: The Growth Regulator
How it builds muscle: It's swimming with high-quality protein and omega-3 fatty acids. "Omega-3's can decrease muscle-protein breakdown after your workout, improving recovery," says Tom Incledon, R.D., a nutritionist with Human Performance Specialists. This is important, because to build muscle you need to store new protein faster than your body breaks down the old stuff.

Order some salmon jerky from www.freshseafood.com. It'll keep forever in your gym bag and tastes mighty close to cold-smoked cow.

How it keeps you healthy: By reducing your risk of heart disease and diabetes. Researchers at Louisiana State University found that when overweight people added 1.8 grams of DHA—an omega-3 fatty acid in fish oil—to their daily diets, their insulin resistance decreased by 70 percent in 12 weeks.

Yogurt: The Golden Ratio
How it builds muscle: Even with the aura of estrogen surrounding it, "yogurt is an ideal combination of protein and carbohydrates for exercise recovery and muscle growth," says Doug Kalman, R.D., director of nutrition at Miami Research Associates.

Buy regular—not sugar-free—with fruit buried at the bottom. The extra carbohydrates from the fruit will boost your blood levels of insulin, one of the keys to reducing postexercise protein breakdown.

How it keeps you healthy: Three letters: CLA. "Yogurt is one of the few foods that contain conjugated linoleic acid, a special type of fat shown in some studies to reduce body fat," says Volek.

Beef: Carvable Creatine
How it builds muscle: More than just a piece of charbroiled protein, "beef is also a major source of iron and zinc, two crucial muscle-building nutrients," says Incledon. Plus, it's the number-one food source of creatine—your body's energy supply for pumping iron—2 grams for every 16 ounces.

For maximum muscle with minimum calories, look for "rounds" or "loins"—butcherspeak for meat cuts that are extra-lean. Or check out the new "flat iron" cut. It's very lean and the second most tender cut of beef overall.

How it keeps you healthy: Beef is a storehouse for selenium. Stanford University researchers found that men with low blood levels of the mineral are as much as five times more likely to develop prostate cancer than those with normal levels.



Olive Oil: Liquid Energy
How it builds muscle: Sure, you could oil up your chest and arms and strike a pose, but it works better if you eat the stuff. "The monounsaturated fat in olive oil appears to act as an anticatabolicnutrient," says Kalman. In other words, it prevents muscle breakdown by lowering levels of a sinister cellular protein called tumor necrosis factor-a, which is linked with muscle wasting and weakness (kind of like watching The View).

And while all olive oil is high in monos, try to use the extra-virgin variety whenever possible; it has a higher level of free-radical-fighting vitamin E than the less chaste stuff.

How it keeps you healthy: How doesn't it? Olive oil and monounsaturated fats have been associated with everything from lower rates of heart disease and colon cancer to a reduced risk of diabetes and osteoporosis.

Water: The Muscle Bath
How it builds muscle: Whether it's in your shins or your shoulders, muscle is approximately 80 percent water. "Even a change of as little as 1 percent in body water can impair exercise performance and adversely affect recovery," says Volek. For example, a 1997 German study found that protein synthesis occurs at a higher rate in muscle cells that are well hydrated, compared with dehydrated cells. English translation: The more parched you are, the slower your body uses protein to build muscle.

Not sure how dry you are? "Weigh yourself before and after each exercise session. Then drink 24 ounces of water for every pound lost," says Larry Kenney, Ph.D., a physiology researcher at Pennsylvania State University.

How it keeps you healthy: Researchers at Loma Linda University found that men who drank five or more 8-ounce glasses of water a day were 54 percent less likely to suffer a fatal heart attack than those who drank two or fewer.

Coffee: The Repetition Builder
How it builds muscle: Fueling your workout with caffeine will help you lift longer. A recent study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that men who drank 2 1/2 cups of coffee a few hours before an exercise test were able to sprint 9 percent longer than when they didn't drink any. (It's believed the caffeine directly stimulates the muscles.)

And since sprinting and weight lifting are both anaerobic activities—exercises that don't require oxygen—a jolt of joe should help you pump out more reps. Skip it if you have a history of high blood pressure, though.

How it keeps you healthy: By saving you from Michael J. Fox's fate. Harvard researchers found that coffee drinkers have a 30 percent lower risk of Parkinson's disease than nondrinkers.



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Sel dans les aliments transformés: une toxine qui tue à petit feu

OTTAWA, 29 octobre 2010 – Afin de réduire la quantité de sel contenu dans les aliments transformés, 200 spécialistes réunis au colloque du Centre pour la science dans l’intérêt public (CSPI)¹ ont pressé le gouvernement canadien d’agir.

Les Canadiens consomment trop de sel. Ils ingèrent plus d’une cuillère et demie de sel chaque jour, soit plus du double de la limite au-delà de laquelle le sodium contenu dans cet assaisonnement est néfaste pour la santé. Une réduction de la consommation de sodium diminuerait les cas d’hypertension et de maladies cardiaques - et de décès.

C’est que même en délaissant complètement la salière, les Canadiens seraient loin du compte : 77 % du sodium qu’ils ingèrent est « caché » dans les aliments transformés qu’ils mangent.

Le sel de table ne compte que pour 6 % du sodium qu’ils avalent, tandis que le sel ajouté pendant la cuisson n’équivaut qu’à 5 %.

Les Canadiens ont la dent salée, malgré eux
Consommation actuelle	Seuil maximal pour la santé	Apport recommandé
3 400 mg sodium/jour soit 8,5 g de sel ou 1½ c. à thé de sel	2 300 mg sodium/jour soit 5,75 g de sel ou 0,9 c. à thé de sel	1 500 mg sodium/jour soit 3,75 g de sel ou ½ c. à thé de sel

Le sel : « une toxine qui tue à petit feu »

« Le sel est une toxine qui tue à petit feu et le gouvernement ne doit pas laisser l’industrie tuer les gens : il n’y a pas d’excuse à l’inertie politique », a clamé le D^r Graham McGregor, qui préside le World Action on Salt and Health (WASH).

D^r Graham McGregor

Selon le D^r McGregor, une diminution de 6 g de la consommation quotidienne de sel dans la population entraîne une diminution globale de la tension artérielle, laquelle se traduit par une baisse de 24 % des accidents vasculaires cérébraux (AVC) et de 18 % des maladies du coeur.

Selon lui, le Canada doit suivre l’exemple de la Grande-Bretagne, où le gouvernement a fait pression sur l’industrie afin qu’elle diminue la quantité de sodium utilisé dans les produits alimentaires transformés.

« De 2006 à 2008, la consommation quotidienne est passée de 9,5 g de sel à 8,6 g; ce qui a permis d’éviter 6 000 décès par infarctus ou par accident vasculaire cérébral », affirme le D^r McGregor.

« De plus, la consommation de sel provoque la soif et il existe un lien direct entre le sel et la consommation de boissons sucrées, qui augmente la prise de poids et contribue à augmenter encore plus la tension artérielle », a ajouté le D^r McGregor.

Des recommandations « ambitieuses »

D^r Hasan Hutchison

En octobre 2007, Santé Canada créait le Groupe de travail sur le sodium, afin qu’il lui fasse des recommandations visant à réduire la consommation de sodium chez les Canadiens.

Celui-ci a déposé son rapport à la fin de juillet 2010 à la ministre canadienne de la Santé, Leona Aglukkaq.

Selon le président du groupe de travail, le Dr Hasan Hutchison, les recommandations du rapport sont ambitieuses. « Nous visons une réduction annuelle de 5 % de la consommation de sodium, jusqu’en 2016, pour parvenir à une consommation moyenne de 2 300 mg », soit le seuil limite.

Le rapport ne propose pas toutefois d’obliger l’industrie agroalimentaire à réduire le recours au sodium dans la fabrication des aliments transformés. Il mise sur une approche volontaire, ce que certains estiment insuffisant.

D’après le Dr Hutchison, cette approche est la meilleure puisqu’elle est « structurée et donne de la flexibilité pour faire des changements en cours de route, puisqu’il y aura un mécanisme de surveillance pour analyser les progrès, assure-t-il. Et la menace d’une législation, si les résultats ne sont pas au rendez-vous, demeure toujours présente ».

Selon Hasan Hutchison, l’application du rapport entraînerait aussi des économies annuelles directes de 500 millions $ pour le système de santé, et jusqu’à 3 milliards $ en incluant les coûts indirects.

Volonté politique au rendez-vous?

D^r Andrew Pipe

Mais certains doutent de la volonté politique du gouvernement canadien de donner son aval au rapport.

C’est le cas du D^r Andrew Pipe, de l’Institut de cardiologie d’Ottawa², qui était conférencier lors du colloque de CSPI.

« Si je disais à mon institut que je possède les moyens pour réduire de 25 % le nombre de cas d’accidents vasculaires cérébraux en une seule année, on me dirait de l’appliquer et vite », a-t-il imagé.

« Mais au Canada, on parle beaucoup de santé sans agir, a-t-il conclu. Les données scientifiques sont là, mais le gouvernement opte pour la politique de l’inertie : il se montre indifférent quand vient le temps d’appliquer les stratégies les plus élémentaires de santé publique. »

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More Quick Fixes for Problem Muscles

by Lee Boyce
Straight up, you're a soldier.
You tirelessly show up at the gym as scheduled for your four, or even five workouts per week — and you've built a pretty damn impressive physique to show for it.
The 160-pound, ACE certified personal trainers at your gym, daunted by your presence, approach you when no one's around and ask questions about what muscle group your current exercise is good for, and why it's more effective than their one-legged dumbbell stiff deadlift-bent-over row/triceps kickback while standing on the BOSU abomination.
Long story short, at your gym, you're the man. The hard work and consistency combined with good, intelligent, Testosterone-ish programming has paid off.
So what's the problem?
You're your own worst critic, and you're running out of ideas and tools to bring your body one step closer to the "freak" category. As my last article pointed out, applying some specific exercises to a few small muscle groups can improve the effectiveness of your lifts, resulting in not only more strength, but also more muscle-building potential. So you're doing it.
For my new "weak links" article, I took things from a different perspective. Improving performance in your workouts is paramount, but what about looking at things from a strictly cosmetic angle?
Maybe you just feel you can't get that coveted, full V-taper? Or maybe your delts, rather than look like bowling balls, look more like something you'd find on a pool table?
These kind of issues plague many an intermediate (and even advanced) bodybuilder, so it's time to conquer them once and for all with some crisp ideas to take your physique to the next level.
And yes, I mentioned intermediate and advanced lifters, so I'll say this now: If you're a skinny bastard, move on to the next article. This stuff doesn't apply to you. Eat, sleep, and follow any of the quality beginner routines found on Testosterone. It's amazing how many "weak points" magically disappear after you gain 30 pounds of newbie beef.

Physique Issue 1: Poor V-Taper

The "V-taper" I'm referring to is the ratio of width between the shoulders, chest/ribcage, and waist.
Many aspiring bodybuilders will seek out exercises to build the shoulders and lats specifically while following a "clean" (read: starvation) diet to ensure the waistline stays small.
Not a great plan for most of us.
Generally, eating a "get ripped-stay ripped" diet is a bad idea when addressing a weak point. Muscles need nutrients to grow, and unless you're exceptionally gifted, trying to maintain your 8-pack all year round is a one-way trip to the dreaded zip code of Physique Stagnation, USA.
Try playing the "illusion game" from the other side: Instead of dieting your midsection down to achieve that coveted V-shape, work on developing your shoulders and upper back to give the illusion of being wider up top.
After you've added a few valuable pounds of physique-altering mass, you can always hop back on your favorite fat-loss diet to drop whatever scant amounts of unwanted flab that may have found a home around your obliques and lower back.
With that little bit of business out of the way, here are the routines to get those forgotten muscle groups growing.
Neglected Muscle Group: Rear Deltoids                    
A solid set of rear delts can do wonders in bringing up the size of the shoulders, not to mention expanding shoulder-to-shoulder width.
They also help improve posture by externally rotating the arm, something that not only makes your chiropractor happy, but also contributes to an overall more impressive-looking physique by making the chest appear more prominent.
Reverse flies, wide grip rows, and high pulls all may be good choices to hit these bad boys, but it's time for a couple of new ideas.

The Rear Delt Tri-Set

Remembering the muscle's action can lead us to make some good choices to target a stubborn muscle group. Here's a great combo to try out:
A1) Seated DB power cleans, 10 reps (see video on right)
A2) Face pulls, 10 reps (Make sure to keep the elbows high and pull the fists right over the head!)
A3) Blast strap wide grip rows w/external rotation, 10 reps (See photos on right.)
Note: There is a strong rotary component to all of the above exercises. Conventional rear delt movements like wide grip rows, reverse flies, and high pulls all maintain a fixed position of the humerus during the movement (from a rotary perspective), therefore not giving the rear delts the most bang for their buck.
Perform 4 rounds of this tri-set to finish your shoulder workout and let the gains begin.
Another thing to think about is whether the rear delts are actually firing during other compound movements.
For instance, the correct finish position of a regular grip lat pulldown will require the rear deltoids to be active in keeping the elbows pushed under the bar, rather than flared back behind the body.
Simply thinking "elbows under" while keeping the shoulders depressed at the end of the movement can help achieve this.
Neglected Muscle Group: Serratus
The serratus anterior are located just under the arm on the ribcage and are embedded within the lats. Developing the serratus can be a huge asset for bodybuilders seeking greater upper body width: just watch bodybuilders do a classic lat spread and notice the added density a developed serratus anterior brings. In a very lean bodybuilder, they look like a bunch of ripe bananas covered in Pro Tan.
Truth is, unless you're a boxer, MMA fighter, or some kind of athlete that does explosive pressing, throwing, or punching movements, most training neglects the use of this muscle group.
The serratus elevates and protracts the scapulae, and nearly every upper body movement in the weight room asks for the scapulae to be depressed and retracted ("shoulders set" position) in order for the movement to be performed correctly.
Most people wouldn't think there are many ways to specifically target this muscle group, but I came prepared:
Serratus Front Raise — Set up an incline bench in front of a cable machine. Set the pulleys at the bottom and sit down in the bench, facing the machine. Begin a front raise movement, except don't focus on the deltoids being the prime movers. Keep your elbows slightly bent and let the serratus pull your shoulders apart and upwards.
Don't pull too high — level with the face should be the correct landmark for the finish position. (See video on right.)
Serratus Push Ups — Perform a standard pushup, except at the end of each rep, "unlock" your shoulder blades and allow them to move away from one another, bringing your chest as far away from the floor as possible.
Kettlebell Windmill — Another option is the Kettlebell Windmill. Relax Joe Hardcore, this ain't no steenking functional training lift — just an exercise where the KB is the right tool at the right time. (See video on right)

Physique Issue 2: No Trunk Volume

So you're wide as a barn door and someone looking at you from straight on would say that you have some good development. Problem is, you virtually disappear once you turn sideways.
The "two dimensional" look is something I personally battled for ages before realizing just what was going on. The reason you're still not filling out those XL T-shirts is simply because you have no trunk volume.
In other words, regardless how wide you get, if there's no volume or density from front to back, you'll be stuck in the "slim bastard" category at Men's Wearhouse for life.
Getting more trunk volume can come from expanding the ribcage along with thickening the fibrous properties of the muscles on the front and back of the body. Any takers?
If so, here are some prescriptions for what ails ya'.
Olympic Lifts for an Olympia Body                    
If you've ever watched a weightlifting competition on TV, you might've notice something in common with the athletes' body types: they all have relatively small arms but a ton of bulk through their torso (abdominals, lower and mid back).
This makes sense as the abdominals are responsible for rapidly recruiting and transferring the energy required to move the bar up to the roof. In English, lifting heavy stuff fast will potentiate a muscle to grow.
We all know Oly lifts aren't performed as arm movements — the abs are dominantly involved in projecting the bar up into the finish positions in the clean, split jerk, and snatch.
Throwing any of these exercises into your program can help give you that added depth or density through the torso that you long for, not to mention adding inches to your traps almost overnight, thanks to the explosive nature of the lifts.
(For a refresher on performing these lifts, check out this classic from Coach Thibs.)
Turn Up the Volume on Your Ribcage          
The intercostal muscles lie in between each rib in the ribcage. Increasing their size can result in "widening" the ribcage, so to speak.
Pullovers with a heavy dumbbell are a great exercise to hit the intercostals, and they play a double role because they pre-stretch the pec minor; often a tight muscle on many lifters I've worked with.
It's important to really allow the weight to "open up" the ribcage at the bottom of each rep, and then "pull through" with the lats and abdominal muscles.
For God's Sake, Just Deadlift!         
If you're expecting some long-winded paragraph on why deadlifts are important for trunk thickness, you must be new to this site. They involve so much of everything that it's almost a crime not to do them. The entire back gets a ton of thickness, and from a physiological level, the hormonal response is tremendous for packing on appreciable size, FAST.
Here's another way to look at it: How many 600lb-plus deadlifters can you think of that have skinny torsos that lack fullness? End of discussion.
Other Options           
So what would a "trunk volume" exercise combination look like? I've always been a fan of the vertical push/pull scheme, so ideally I'd scheme things in a "3 to 5 sets of 5 reps" framework to ensure the high threshold motor units (HTMU's) are getting sufficiently hit.
Here are a few effective options:

Day 1

A1) BB Deadlift, 3-5 x 5 reps
A2) BB push press, 3-5 x 5 reps

Day 2

B1) BB hanging snatch, 3-5 x 5 reps
B2) Dragon flags, 3-5 x 5 reps

Day 3

C1) Pullovers, 3-5 x 5 reps
C2) Zercher squat, 3-5 x 5 reps
In all supersets, rest as long as necessary between sets.
Adding these supersets to the beginning of your workouts will provide the added volume needed to build some size on your ribs.
Of course, make sure you're not doing the same movement as your actual workout (i.e., don't choose my "Day 1" protocol on the day of a full deadlift workout).
Also, depending on the nature of your actual workout, I'd recommend adjusting the percentage of the load you lift. It may not always be fitting to use your actual 5-rep max, especially if you have lots of heavy lifting planned in your workout.
However, if your workout is a high volume, sub-maximal workout, by all means lift nice and heavy! It will also ramp up your nervous system for a solid performance going forward.

Physique Issue 3: A Trifling Upper Chest

Full chest development is hard to come by. Many lifters shy away from doing as much incline chest work as they do flat, due in part to the flat bench being the most glamorized lift this side of the Atlantic.
As a result of this misguided fascination, the average North American lifter usually displays much greater development of the sternal pectoralis than the clavicular pectoralis (or upper chest).
Incidents of bodybuilders with too much upper chest and no lower chest are rarer than Lindsay Lohan acing a roadside sobriety test, yet the opposite can be found in abundance in any commercial gym. Remember how Arnold could balance a glass of beer on his pumped up pecs? Most lifters I see would struggle to support a shot glass.
So what can aid in getting the chesticles nice and balanced?  Once again, I revert back to the tri-set.

Upper Pec Tri-Set

A1) BB incline 1½ reps press, 8 reps
Lower the bar to the chest, then raise to the halfway point. Lower the bar again to the chest, then raise to full extension. This keeps the triceps "uninvolved" for each half rep you do, giving the upper chest twice the amount of work to do per set.
A2) Boyce cable fly, 12 reps (See video on right.)
A3) Suicide push ups, to failure
Make sure to keep hips high, and allow the head to travel as far towards the floor as possible. (See photos on right).
This can work wonders to bring up a lagging upper chest, and soon you'll have a manly shelf to rest your iPhone/protein shake/female friend on when your hands are full.

Summary

As mentioned earlier, this isn't an "Intro to size" article; it's a look at a few little things to think about adding into the mix to take your already "good" body to the "great" level.
Yeah, it may make your workouts run a little longer; hell, it may even mean tweaking your program so that you're in the gym an extra day per week.
At the end of the day, I'll bet you'll be glad you did it.

Lee Boyce works with strength, size, and sports conditioning clients in Toronto Ontario. He competed nationally as a sprinter and long jumper at the university and club level. You can contact him at lee@leeboycetraining.com 

Suicide push up

Blast strap wide grip rows with external rotationp

Dumbbell pullover

No shortage of upper chest here.

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