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<title>Latest Articles by jsmith2482</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/</link>
<description>Articles at Populate.NET</description>
<language>en-us</language>
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<title>Side Effects of Fish Oil</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Weight_Loss/side-effects-of-fish-oil.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Weight_Loss/side-effects-of-fish-oil.html</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Fish oil is one of the most popular and hotly debated supplements of all time but what about the side effects of fish oil? Look at all of the benefits, some proven in research, that omega-3 fish oil supplements may have on the body

-Improved blood sugar regulation
-Increased fat loss
-Lowered cholesterol
-Improved mood
-Decrease inflammation

As we can see, fish oil has a whole lot of positive health benefits but is there any side effects of fish oil? Are there really any negative consequences that come from taking this very beneficial supplement? Well first we have to define who should be using fish oil.

Now I believe that everyone should be taking fish oil. The bigger question is why aren't you taking fish oil? Taking away all of those health benefits that I mentioned earlier, fish oil is a healthy source of fat. Most people's diets are just too low in fat in general, not to mention healthy fats. These fats will also help people who are dieting and eating a low amount of calories stay full and not cheat on their diets.

What about the downsides though? If fish oil were really the magic pill then we'd know if there were any negative consequences right? Wrong, while I love fish oil and recommend it highly in the Physique Formula, I think we need to watch out about believing that fish oil is all good.

First, fish oil may not be the best thing for building muscle. I see some crazy high recommendations for the amount of fish oil that people should take and it makes no sense. To build muscle we need a pro-inflammatory substance known as arachidonic acid, which fish oil actually lowers. Arachidonic acid is found in red meats and actually increases our natural testosterone production so we can build muscle and lose fat. This can lead to side effects with fish oil

Using high doses of fish oil for prolonged periods of time will decrease arachidonic acid which isn't good for muscle building purposes.

Another side effect of fish oil is that it can disrupt the absorption of certain important nutrients such as vitamin D and E. Vitamin D and E have numerous healthy benefits including reducing free radical damage, inflammation, and even cancer. Large amounts of fish oil may actually decrease the beneficial properties of these nutrients so we would need to supplement with vitamin D and E individually.

Vitamin E also helps with the ability for the body to absorb fish oil. Just popping fish oil doesn't do it anymore. It's the amount that we absorb not the amount that we take that matters. 

While those two side effects of fish oil may seem small, we need to be aware of them. I'm not saying not to take fish oil, I take a good amount every day but we must be aware of the side effects of fish oil. ]]></description>
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<title>Muscle Building Bodyweight Workout Routines</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/muscle-building-bodyweight-workout-routines.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/muscle-building-bodyweight-workout-routines.html</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ I bet you didn't realize that you could build muscle with bodyweight workouts. After all, I've included The Garage Gladiator bodyweight workouts in the Physique Formula for a reason. I'm emailed countless times a day by men and women who really want to build muscle and lose fat bur for one reason or another can't get to the gym. That's ok, you don't need to be a gym rat with the Physique Formula. All you have to do is train hard for 3-4 days a week and 45 minutes at a time and you'll be all set.

Now the whole point of a muscle building bodyweight workout routine is to overload your body and cause growth in a different way than anyone who is swinging weights up and down in the gym. See my bodyweight workout routines are set so that you have to progress and you have to move up a level. The problem with most workouts is that they tell you to train for 12-16 weeks at a time and that's all. Anyone can write a muscle building bodyweight workout routine that gets your tired and raises your metabolism but what about building muscle?

By forcing you to raise your reps as you progress you also force your body to adapt to this new training stress. Just like you would in a gym, more reps and more sets means that you are building muscle and growing. Do you want to know the real secret to the Garage Gladiator muscle building bodyweight workout routines? It's getting a certain number of reps and sets done in a certain amount of time. If you give yourself 35 minutes to workout at night but are forced to do the same workout you did last week but in 10 less minutes then your body will have no choice but to grow.

Typically,I recommend a 5-minute warm up of all of the basic movements like squats and push-ups, glute bridges and some simple stretching. Once the body is warm it will allow the joints to move through their proper ranges, which is another mistake that most people make. It doesn't matter how many reps you're using, some exercises force you to use 10 or 15 reps while others force you to do as many as you can in 30 seconds, what matters is the quality of the movement.

Muscle building bodyweight workout routines are also healthier than the usual, boring gym workout because bodyweight movements are better on your joints. Who really wants a nagging shoulder injury anyway? Bodyweight workout routines that involve push-ups and the many variations of it are great for shoulder and shoulder blade health.

Yes, it is possible to get great muscle building bodyweight workout routines in your garage or basement or to use them to change things up in the gym. ]]></description>
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<title>Harrison Ford Indiana Jones Workout</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/harrison-ford-indiana-jones-workout.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/harrison-ford-indiana-jones-workout.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Harrison Fords Indiana Jones workout is about as tough of a movie star workout as it gets. For Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford is performing an intense workout and nutrition regime since the movie requires him to be in top physical shape since he needs to sprint, jump, role, crawl and just about anything else that someone combing through long lost ruins would need to do. His girlfriend recently took a moment to talk about the nutrition that is fueling his tough workout.

He is on a strict high protein diet. He is eating lots of fish and vegetables said girlfriend Calista Flockhart.

I think it is pretty simple. I mean we can look at him and tell he is not using drugs, which is often the reason that most people give for celebs getting in great shape. Plus we over complicate fat loss, it is alot easier than we think.

Now I am not working with Harrison but I imagine his workout looks something like this.

3 to 4 days of full body workouts with multi joint movements

3 to 4 sets of 8 to 15 reps per set

Short rest, around 30 to 45 seconds between sets

Aerobic training 3 to 4 days per week for 30 to 45 minutes

What is so interesting about his workout is that it is not your typical bodybuilding one set then rest workout. Harrison Ford knows that he can not be filming a scene then all of a sudden have to rest because he is out of shape. That is not what you would want to see out of a global trotting, treasure finding archaeologist. 

Instead, he is training with multiple exercises that increase his ability to burn fat. Aside from the advantage of working out while he is still trying to recover from the previous exercise he is also helping his body burn fat for 24-48 hours after he is done working out. This is known as EPOC or Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption, which basically means that your body is trying to replace the oxygen that you lost during your workout so it is burning fat to do so.

Not so bad. He also has to get a lot of work done in a short amount of time. I have been on movie sets and know that the days are long and tiring, even for the lead actors. So I highly doubt that he wants to go to the gym around 9 or 10 at night when they are done shooting and do a hour or so workout followed by long and boring cardio. Instead he gets all of the benefits of a cardio session during his workout. 

I do not think he is taking a lot of supplements either. He is probably not even taking protein powder but just getting his nutrients from whole food.

Here is what I would have him do to build muscle and lose fat for the new Indiana Jones workout.

Everything would be timed rounds. So he would have to complete four exercises then rest for 60 seconds then he would go back to the first exercise again. After three sets of each he would then move to second round of exercises. We would do 3 sets of 3 different rounds, everything 12 reps.

1st round
Pull-ups
Push-ups
Bodyweight Squats
Bodyweight Lunges

2nd round
Dips
Close Grip Push-ups
Flat Dumbbell Chest Press
Box Jumps

3rd round
Jump Push-ups
Dumbbell Step-ups
Hi Cable Chops
Front Medicine Ball Squats ]]></description>
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<title>Christian Bale Batman Workout</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/christian-bale-batman-workout.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/christian-bale-batman-workout.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 25 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Christian Bales Batman workout for the upcoming Dark Knight sequel has turned the actor from skinny to jacked in a matter of weeks. For the Dark Knight, Christian Bale underwent an intense training regime to make sure that he was a believable Batman. Anyone who has ever watched Christian Bales workouts know that he can change his body for whatever the role calls for. Well for Batman, he had it tough.

Not only did he have to add substantial muscle since no one wants to see a scrawny and weak Batman but he also had to get lean and have a six pack for his out of suit shots. He also had to train to be agility and increase his vertical leap slightly for some action scenes that he chose to do with a stunt double.

Now that is tough training. Now I did not train him but if I did then here is what I would of done with him.

For his diet he would of consumed lean protein and healthy fats with every meal. His carbohydrates would have been kept low and been limited to only carbs that contain fiber like yams and oatmeal and brown rice and we should have had his carbs center around his workout time so that they did not get stored as fat. This way we would have fuel for his intense workouts without worrying about him getting a pot belly.

The proteins that he would of eaten would have been fish and beef and lean steak and chicken and turkey and whey protein powder. We would have kept his healthy fats in a moderate amount since they will raise his natural hormones and keep him full. He also would have had unlimited vegetables since the fiber would of stop any cravings for cheat foods.

His training would have to be different from your typical gym training. Christian ca not afford to do bicep curls and tricep pushdowns since he has to have an athletic body that can move. Plus using compound movements like bench press and squats will keep his fat burning potential for one to two days post workout.

Not to mention that those exercises will help me to add muscle to multiple body parts at the same time. Each exercise would be done with eight to twelve reps for three to four sets since those are the best sets and reps to build muscle.

Each workout would need to have some type of explosive movement in it to increase his stamina instead of forcing him to do 30-45 minutes of cardio after his workout. He is an actor and does not really have any time after his day is done to go and just walk on a treadmill. I would have him doing jump pushups and jump squats and jump lunges.

His ab training would have to revolve around heavy ab workout since only high rep and heavy weight core training will make your abs pop out. He would be using 8 to 12 reps with 3 sets for his abs and he would train them with movements like swiss ball crunches and kneeling cable crunches and cable chops. ]]></description>
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<title>Muscle Building Rules For Skinny Fat People</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/muscle-building-rules-for-skinny-fat-people.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/muscle-building-rules-for-skinny-fat-people.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Muscle building can be really easy unless you are a skinny fat guy. You know those guys who have skinny arms and legs but have a nice little pouch for a stomach. Luckily I have spent years research why exactly certain people like me and you are skinny and fat at the same time. It really has a lot to do with your training. Most people are so dead set on training a certain way that they can not see the long term implications, which is a bigger stomach and less muscle on your arms and legs.

Skinny fat people must train with full body works and bodypart split
I get really confused when I hear about skinny fat guys doing all full body workouts or having a arm or chest day in the gym. Both of those training methods should actually be used if a skinny fat guy plans on building muscle.

The only really way that someone is going to build muscle and burn fat at the same time is to train with frequency, volume and intensity. All three of those characteristics have to be met or else the skinny fat guy will not build muscle. By doing so you can raise your metabolism as well as increase your muscular size.

For skinny fat muscle building I typically recommend two full body days and two to three body part split days depending on your time.

Skinny fat people must do both high intensity and slow steady cardio
The recent trend by many experts is to recommend nothing but high intensity interval cardio. This is good advice but most experts do not know anything about how to train a skinny fat guy. After all, I am not the number 1 expert on skinny-fat muscle building in the world for nothing. 

You see both high intensity and slow and steady cardio have advantages. For a skinny fat guy, high intensity cardio will help burn the excessive calories that are floating around and go right to your stomach. Slow cardio on the other hand will help him burn fat when you do  not want to risk the chance of burning muscle tissue.

Skinny fat people must perform more leg work
I know that everyone hates it but leg work is a must for skinny fat guys. Leg work increased the amount of testosterone, the most powerful muscle building hormone that we have. The problem with skinny fat guys is that they have low amounts of testosterone. This is one of the main reasons that they have a bulging stomach. Testosterone is linked to building muscle but in a lack of testosterone, our body will hold onto fat. The best thing that a skinny fat guy can do is squat and deadlift at least twice a week. Now do not worry, you do not have to both squat and deadlift twice a week. One day should be centered on your squat and improving that lift while the second day should be centered on building the deadlift.

Training lower body allows you to increase both your metabolism and muscle building hormones, which is the aim of skinny fat guys, which is to increase muscle building hormones and increase metabolism. ]]></description>
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<title>What Is The Best Way To Train For Muscle</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/what-is-the-best-way-to-train-for-muscle.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/what-is-the-best-way-to-train-for-muscle.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ When it comes to the best training split for size, arguments abound. There are multiple schools of thoughts at play. Some swear by traditional one bodypart once a week routine. With the recent invasion of powerlifting and sports performance training methods into the physique world many coaches and individuals are advocating full body routines with their support being that no muscle works in isolation. Who is right and who is wrong? In my opinion, the best way to figure out what is right for you is to look at all the methods that are out there.

Trying to increase muscular size and definition is not mutually exclusive to body part split, there is a few other ways to get it done. Let us take a short Pro/Con approach. Knowing that the three characteristics to muscle growth are volume, intensity and frequency we see that each split has their own advantages and disadvantages.

Body part splits once a week
	Pros
	-Highest amount of recovery
	-Potential least CNS fatiguing
	-Highest volume per body part
	Cons
	-Infrequent muscle stimulation
	-Inability to use greatest total load per session
	-Least amount of total muscle recruitment per session
	-Lower amount of calorie usage

	

	Body part splits twice a week
	Pros
	-More frequent muscle stimulation
	-Greatest total volume per body part
	-Lack of full recovery
	Cons
	-Greater likelihood of adrenal fatigue
	-Potential for wasted energy
	-Inability to use greatest total load

	Total Body Training
	Pros
	-Frequent muscle stimulation
	-Ability to use more total muscle
	-Ability to use greater total loads
	Cons
	-Inability to significantly improve a specific movement
	-Lack of isolation exercises may leave specific bodyparts under stimulated
	-Impaired recovery
	Upper/Lower Split
	Pros
	-Increased focus on specific areas
	-Appropriate mix of frequency and intensity
	-Ability to significantly increase lifts
	-Ability to focus on weak areas
	Cons
	-Lack of significant volume
	
	

	Upper/Lower Split with body part training
	Pros
	-Appropriate mix of volume, frequency and intensity
	-Mix of recovery and lack of recovery
	-Ability to increase lifts while focusing on specific weaknesses
Cons
	-Increased risk of fatigue if training is not monitored correctly
	-Increased likelihood of  wasted exercises on body part days

	
As you can see, each split has positives and negatives. One is not better then the other and each split is appropriate at certain times. Breaking each split down according to volume, intensity and frequency categories produces the following:

Volume splits: Body part splits once a week, Body part splits twice a week, Total body training, Upper/lower split with body part raining.

Intensity splits: Upper/lower splits, Upper/lower splits with body part training

Frequency splits: Body part splits twice a week, total body training, upper/lower splits with body part training

 When we look at the breakdown, we see that only one method falls into each category, upper/lower splits with body part training. This method not only allows us to focus on increasing specific lifts but also to have direct work on the areas that we need to improve. In short, we have increased volume with proper intensity and frequent muscle stimulation. That is where my money goes! ]]></description>
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<title>Nutrition Rules For Skinny Fat People</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/nutrition-rules-for-skinny-fat-people.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/nutrition-rules-for-skinny-fat-people.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Muscle building can be really easy unless you are a skinny fat person. If you have skinny arms and legs but add fat on your stomach easily like I do then you need to listen to these nutrition rules. I have spent years in libraries and seminars to find the secret nutrition methods for skinny fat people like us. Being skinny and fat has everything to do with our nutrition and a lot less with the amount of calories that we eat or the amount of carbohydrates that we eat.

Skinny fat people must primarily eat protein and fat with every meal
I get really mad when I see nutrition coaches recommending that everyone needs to eat protein and carbohydrates with their meals. That just is not true for skinny fat people. You see combining protein and carbohydrates will actually encourage your body to store more fat on your stomach. Instead, by eating protein with healthy fats you encourage your body to burn fat. How?

Regular people can eat moderate amounts of healthy fat and be ok. Skinny fat people need to rely on fat for fuel and as a result need more healthy fats that are found in almonds, cashews, natural peanut butter and fish. This type of healthy fat can actually aid in reducing the waistline. See, omega three fats like I recommend actually help to burn sugar and reduce stress, which is one of the main reasons that skinny fat people add more fat on their stomach.

Skinny fat people must love fish oil
Fish oil is my number one recommended supplement for solving the skinny fat mystery. Fish oil has many important benefits to skinny fat people but none more important than the ability to decrease sugar and stress. When I say decrease sugar and stress, I am implying to the immense benefits that fish oil have on increasing metabolism. The problem that skinny fat people face is the ability to increase their metabolism through training, we just can not raise it the same way that skinny people who walk on the treadmill all day.

Fish oil raises your metabolism while also helping you to build muscle. Fish oil allows you to force your protein and carbohydrates into where you need, your muscle. People that just eat carbohydrates do not have this benefit.

Skinny fat people need to drink green tea
This is another big secret into how skinny fat people can build muscle and burn fat. There really is not anything that green tea can not help you with. Not only does it increase stress which all skinny fat people have but will also raise your metabolism anywhere from five to ten percent according to recent research.

When taken after your workout it can also help to keep your metabolism high for hours after you have left the gym.

Skinny fat people must always eat fibrous carbohydrates

This is another tip that as helped me to reshape countless skinny fat bodies. Carbs with fiber do not raise blood sugar in the same way that foods like pasta and white bread. As a result, you do not increase the ability of your body to store fat. Most skinny fat people have done this countless times and keep shooting themselves in the foot. Eating carbs like oatmeal and sweet potatoes not only keeps your blood sugar stable but it also helps you to use your problem better than if you just ate a high protein diet. ]]></description>
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<title>Muscle Building Myths and Lies</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/muscle-building-myths-and-lies.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/muscle-building-myths-and-lies.html</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ There is many times throughout the day where I will just sit and read training articles and books. I will thumb through a few magazines or visit a few websites with my jaw to the floor. There are so many unrealistic training recommendations out there that it is no wonder why people are not growing. The worst part is when I go into the gym and actually see these people following this misguided advice.

Muscle Building Myth Advice 1 The Safety Of The Smith Machine

The most common piece of misguided training advice that I have ever seen is to use the smith machine because it is safer than barbells or dumbbells. The thought is that using the Smith machine will allow you to safely handle heavy weight since the machine is locked in on two columns. While this is good in theory, it does nothing at all to help save us. The advantages of a barbell or dumbbell is individual characteristics are taken into account. 

Spend five minutes watching the Smith machine. You will see a five footwoman going to use it for squats then you will see a six foot two hundred pound guy go and use it to squat. This should clearly illustrate that the machine does not account for any differences. That is not safe!

Barbells and dumbbells account for individual muscle tightness factors as well. Someone who works at a computer all day has different muscular restrictions than a mechanic. Plus, it is also actually harder to lock the machine into place when you are training with a heavier load since you have to force your wrists into a awkward position. Just showing more benefits of dumbbells and barbells

Muscle Building Myth Advice 2- You must always stay with higher reps to build muscle

Yes, higher reps are better for building muscle since they cause more muscle tissue breakdown All things considered, you should train with higher reps. However there is a big backlash for anyone who advocates the need to go with lower reps. Lower reps do not cause as much damage as higher reps but they still have a place.

If you do not train to get stronger, you will not increase your muscle size. You must push yourself past your current limits. By pushing yourself, I amtalking about increasing your ability to handle greater training loads. This will then allow your higher rep work to cause more muscle damage and growth. Too many psuedo-trainers advocate going to failure as the only way to grow. They will point to years of professional bodybuilders having success with this type of training.

That is an awful argument for higher reps. Sure, higher reps will cause you to grow but there is a direct relationship to higher rep training and steroid usage. As drugs became more popular so did higher rep training.  Higher rep training is just another tool in the toolbox.

Muscle Building Myth Advice 3 Never Train Your Core First

This is another piece of misguided training advice. Most people leave ab or core training to the end of the workout and think that they need to leave it there. The common thoughts are that you need to do bigger muscles first. That is false. What if your core is weak? What if you have low back pain which hurts you every time you squat?

What if your workouts are more productive if you activate your core before you train? There are specific circumstances that do require your core to be worked first. Provided that you do not do too much work then you will be fine. Look at people who struggle squatting. You will see that they end up bending in their upper body as they continue to go higher in reps. This is not going to happen if you do some core activation work first. Ensure stability then take it from there.

Muscle Building Myth Advice 4 Always Advocating High Intensity Training

No one ever looks at the drop off rate during muscle building programs. The mind is ready before the body is ready when most people go to train. If you want to get the most out of your training, you go into the gym with the intent to really have a good workout.

That, however, can be a problem. If we consistently go into the gym and train at a  ten, like most people do, the chances of us having sustainable progress is not going to be as good as it is going to be. We need to train at lower intensities in terms of our mental capacity to allow ourselves to consistently go into the gym and hit it hard.

This is more important than you think. Do you ever feel like you fade as your training week goes on? This is due to continually training at high intensities. It is better to go at an eight for four to five days a week than a ten for two days. ]]></description>
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<title>The Ten Pound Diagnosis</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/the-ten-pound-diagnosis.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/the-ten-pound-diagnosis.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Before you read this, go look in the mirror. Close your eyes and visualize how much better your body would look with ten pounds of lean muscle on your frame. Visualize how well your favorite shirt would fit and how big your arms or shoulders would look. Now do this, go find your training log and look at your past three months of training. Have you made consistent progress and increased your sets or weights every workout?

Even if you have, if you have gotten stronger have you gotten bigger? Are you doing the right things to prime your body for growth? There is a reason that the guy who always looks like he is growing is getting bigger. No, it has nothing to do with steroids either. If you follow the ten pound diagnosis, you will be following a step-by-step blueprint for transforming your physique from pebble to rock hard.

Diagnosis 1 You need to address your bigger muscle fibers.

Muscles really do not know how much weight is on the bar, they just know how much tension they are experiencing. It is tension that recruits Type II b or fast twitch fibers and that is what we are really after and it is really well known in the field that the Type II b fibers are the ones that have, by far, have the greatest capacity to enlarge or to hypertrophy. Successful training methods need to address Type II b fiber stimulation and consequently hypertrophy.

You can lift a heavy weight and create a lot of tension because there is a lot of force but I think the most tension is developed when you use moderate weights and when you apply acceleration to those weights. So what you need to do right now is train with slightly lower reps (4-8 reps) but lift the weight faster than you have been doing.

Diagnosis 2 Reassess your mind frame.

There are two kinds of mind sets that you can have. If you look at people in the health club or in the gym-there are two mind sets. The first is like an exerciser mind set. As an exerciser, whether you want to lose fat or gain muscle you are very wrapped up in the whole world thermodynamics so if you are trying to gain muscle you are thinking Ok I need to train hard and I need to really rest and I need to take  certain number of protein and I need to get a certain number of calories so that I have caloric surplus. 

And conversely if you are trying to drop body fat and you are saying to yourself well alright I am eating 1500 calories a day and I am 45 minutes on the treadmill and you had a plateau and the question is: Where do you go from there? You now go to 1200 calories a day doing an hour on the treadmill. There is no, to me there is no happy end game in all of these. To me it just strikes me as a monotonous kind of not very aspirational kind of way of life. 

The other way to think about it is-as an athlete and I have been an athlete all my life in different sports and not a good athlete by any stretch but an athlete nonetheless and I do not know when I go to the gym I am thinking about how I am going to improve myself that day. What I can do to improve my technique on the Olympic Lift. I am thinking about maybe I will get a personal record. When is my next competition going to be? That is a kind of aspirational mind set, I mean that is something I can wake up.

Diagnosis 3 Vary Your Training Every Three To Four Weeks

I found that the lower body is a little dumber if you will, and takes a little longer to adapt and thus you can keep people on say squats and dead lifts and variations thereof a little bit longer than you would for upper body movements. So I found that you tend to vary upper body movements more than lower body. Now the problem too is that there is something called the variable recovery system. 

We know for instance that arm, so take your biceps will recover much quicker than say your legs particularly the hamstrings. So the arms can be hit a little more often than legs and because of that you will have a greater frequency of arm movements and body split training is quite popular especially foe advanced athletes because of the fact that they are tapping into this variable recovery system. Not everything recovers to the same rate. Whole body systems can be quite demanding especially for advanced athletes since your constantly pounding the body with big movements like squats and dead lift stroke to weeks.

Diagnosis 4 Properly Mix In Compound And Isolation Exercises

In general you want to emphasize the big multi joint compound movements however training economy will dictate what you do in the particular program. I mean if someone is going to train once or thrice a week then make sure, you want to ensure that you are given the big movements. If you have someone that wants optimal gains I think you need to have a healthy mix of both compound and isolation type movements. 

Now to truly isolate is difficult particularly at high intensity. So if you take a movement such as triceps press down for instance, research shows that at high intensities there is greater EMG or electrical activity in the abdominals than there are in the triceps themselves when you are doing that movement. So as the intensities surge increase it is actually quite difficult to truly isolate a muscle but with that said I think it is important that you incorporate some isolation movements. ]]></description>
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<title>Hormonally Correct Eating For Building Muscle</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/hormonally-correct-eating-for-building-muscle.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Fitness/Muscle_Building/hormonally-correct-eating-for-building-muscle.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ When you break it down to basics, the biggest hurdle in peoples muscle building quest is there eating patterns. Now I am not talking about people who just eat junk food all the time. I am talking about the people who eat well but just can not take their body to the next level for one reason or another. These people have incorrectly been label as  hardgainers when the truth of the matter is that they need to focus on hormonally correct eating patterns.

What I mean when I say hormonally correct eating patterns, is eating properly for your body type.  There are three body types with individual patterns and characteristics. 

The first is known as an ectomorph and is typically classified by being a skinny person their entire life. They have thin limbs with skinny arms and legs, are usually endurance athletes and no matter what they do they are always ripped or consistently skinny. They run into problems later in life and get the often seen with a beer gut in their mid life.

The second types are referred to as mesomorphs and they are the ones with the athletic bodies, wide shoulders and small waists. They are strong and look like they workout. Hormonally, they have very high amounts of anabolic hormones, which help them add muscle quickly.

Lastly are the endomorphs or the perennially chubby people. They tend to be insulin dominant, which is both a good and bad thing since they can get very muscular but very fat. They are always the ones doing cardio as they have the hardest time losing body fat but they also seem like anything that they do in the gym will help them to add muscle. Usually they are the athletes who gain weight after they stop playing sports.

You should begin to see which body type you are. Once you have figured this out, you now have to plan your nutrition according to your principles. You see anyone who tells you that the body is not a textbook should be the last person that you listen to. It is also why I do not agree with a person who says that you have to experiment until you find something that works for you.

Aside from the obvious way of just looking in the mirror, you should also asses your tolerance to carbohydrates and high calorie meal. Take three days a week to keep an eye on the amount of calories that you eat. How do you feel when you eat a lot of carbohydrates like bread and potatoes? How do you feel when you eat a lot of protein in chicken? Do you feel full when you eat healthy amounts of fat?

While this might be true in fact. We know that each body type does better with specific supplements and protein, fat and carbohydrate ratios. I asked Dr.John Berardi about each individual type and here is what he said before giving me the exact ratios that he uses for each body type.

Whenever I interact with the new client I try and sort them out into one of the three types because the research is showing that each of those types has a characteristic hormonal profile. So you look at ectomorphs and you typically find they are dominant in thyroid hormones and sympathetic nervous system hormone so the fight or flight hormones. Epinephrine, nor epinephrine some people call it adrenalin nor adrenaline so these hormones are the high calorie expenditure, high fat burning, high energy burning hormones. So we typically find that is why ectomorphs are skinny like that. Because the thyroid and sympathetic nervous system dominant said Berardi.

That right there goes to show that the ectomorphs need to consume things slightly differently then the other types. While I would not go as far as to recommend metabolic typing diets I would say that more information is warranted before we just jump into a diet. ]]></description>
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