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Chapter 1 – Fat Loss……………………………………………………3
Chapter 2 – General……………………………………………………30
Chapter 3 – Science……………………………………………………81
Chapter 4 – Training…………………………………………………127
Chapter 4 – Post Contest………………………………………….144
Chapter 5 – Weight Cuts…………………………………………..155
Chapter 6 – Supplements………………………………………...166
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Fat Loss
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Justin,
I'm starting to see some progress, but I'm worried
about losing muscle while dieting. I work so hard to
build it in the offseason and don't want to lose it while
dieting. Will adding extra protein slow down my
progress?
Yes--adding extra Calories from any source will slow
progress. It's all thermodynamics. The law of
conservation of energy. All a calorie is, is a measure of
energy--the amount of heat energy it takes to raise one
gram of water by one degree Celsius (we use
kilocalories, or Calories, with a capital “C,” which is
1,000 times the energy of a calorie).
If you eat more Calories than you burn, you'll store
those Calories in the body (typically as fat...but if you're
depleted of glycogen, some Calories can be stored as
glycogen. A very small portion can be stored as protein
(new muscle), but the maximum case of this is about
20-25g per day.
People might want to think there's more to the
equation, but there isn't--conservation of energy is one
of the most powerful laws of science.
Every physicist alive wants to prove it wrong. If you can
violate it even one time, it's a guaranteed Nobel
prize. But....no one would even care about the Nobel
prize, because if you can violate it you can solve the
energy crisis and become a trillionaire….many times
over.
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So, ALL that matters is that you eat less Calories
than you burn.
Adding more protein is more Calories--which means you
won't be burning stored fat, but storing MORE fat
instead.
I know people think that eating protein will turn to
muscle--but that’s not the case either. You can do the
math yourself.
You’ve seen many people who claim to be eating 500g
of protein per day, right?
500g is 1.1 POUNDS. If you were actually using that
protein for muscle growth you'd be gaining 1.1 POUNDS
of muscle per day....or in other words, you'd be gaining
over 400lbs of muscle per year.
Since you're not over 500lbs ripped after 1 year of
training, I think it's safe to say most of that protein
wasn't being used to build muscle.
So how much is being used to build muscle?
How much muscle did you add last year?
Let's go on the high end and say you're going to add
25lbs of muscle per year. (Even that isn't possible
forever, because you'd be gaining 75lbs of muscle every
3 years and 125lbs of muscle every 5 years. I've been
training almost 25 years, and I can guarantee you I
haven't gained 625lbs of muscle.)
But let's say you're a super freak and will be bigger than
any body builder in the world in just a few years....so
you are going to gain 25lbs of muscle every year.
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Well—you and your “super freak” growth rate of 25lbs
of muscle per year is a result of converting ONLY 30g of
protein per day to new muscle.
Yes—25 pounds of muscle growth per year works out
to 0.068lbs per day...or 30 GRAMS per day.
That means, that even if you are the greatest muscle
building human in the history of the world and will gain
300lbs of pure muscle every 10 years...you're STILL only
converting 30g of protein to muscle each day.
Now if you’re eating 500g of protein per day, then (even
in this impossible case where you're gaining 300lbs
every 10 years) ONLY 30g of that is actually going to
build new muscle.
What happens to the rest?
Some of it goes to replenishing normal muscle
breakdown.
How much?
Well....I'm sure you're saying "I'm training HARD! I'm
breaking down a lot of tissue to repair!"
Well....even a marathon runner probably breaks down
less than 100g of protein during an event.
I know...you're saying that you train with weights...and
a marathon runner is just running.
Well...100g of protein is 400 Calories—JUST from
protein.
Since the vast majority of Calories will come from
stored glycogen first, and then fat stores next….if you’re
burning 400 Calories of muscle tissue, you can
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guarantee that you burned well into the 1,000s of
Calories from glycogen and fat.
How many Calories do you think you're burning while
training with weights? 200? 500? 1000?!?
Let's say you train like an animal--you make Ronnie
Coleman look like a pussy. You're doing 1000lb squats
for sets of 20 reps---more than any human on earth has
ever done, and you do it every workout!
But not only that, you're burning 1000 Calories EVERY
workout--even when training arms!
Okay---that's 1000 Calories—hell, maybe even more on
leg day!
Do you think that's all protein being broken down?
Do you want it to be? Because the way we breakdown
protein for energy is we breakdown muscle tissue...so
even if you were doing that, you'd be losing over 1/4lb
of muscle per day.
I don’t think any of us believes we’re losing 1/4lb of
muscle every workout…so it’s easy to see that most of
the Calories we burn are not protein. Clearly almost all
of it is stored carbs (glycogen).
But...let's continue this, let's say you ONLY break down
muscle for energy when training. You're also a super
freak who squats 1000lbs for sets of 20 reps and you're
losing over 1/4lb per DAY just from training, so you
NEED a shit ton of protein.
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1000 Calories of protein is 250g of protein....
SO....
Let’s assume that you are this impossible SUPER freak
who gains 300lbs of muscle every 10 years, squats
1000lbs for sets of 20, burns 1000 Calories every single
workout--even when training arms, trains 7 days a
week, AND ONLY uses protein for energy (no carbs or
fat AT ALL)—every set of your workout is fueled by
breaking down muscle tissue.
What are your net protein needs as this impossible
super freak?
280g of protein per day.
250g to replace the 1/4 POUNDS of muscle you lose
every day in training and 30g to build the 300 POUNDS
of new muscle you gain every 10 years.
Now, if you're eating 500g of protein, what happens to
the rest?
Well...it doesn’t get used as protein, it gets converted to
glucose through gluconeogenesis and used for energy
as a carbohydrate.
And, when you eat too much and don't have a need for
that extra sugar, it gets stored as fat.
What does this all mean?
It isn't the amount of protein you eat!
Eating more protein doesn't directly correlate to more
muscle—there’s more nuance than that!
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And even if you're training harder than any human has
ever trained in the history of the world at every single
workout--you're not breaking down enough protein to
ever require 500g per day.
You're just not losing and rebuilding over a pound of
muscle per day--no one is.
The VAST majority of the protein you eat (that anyone
eats) doesn't get used as protein by the body--it gets
used as a carbohydrate or as a fat.
YES--you need to eat enough protein to fuel recover
and growth--and you need to eat protein frequently so
that those amino acids are always available in the blood
stream---but if you're eating too much protein, it's no
different than just eating a bunch of sugar--you won't
burn fat, and if you're eating more Calories than you
burn (even if they're from protein), you will gain
fat....no matter how much cardio and training you're
doing.
In summary,
To lose fat—you need to eat less Calories than you
burn.
To guarantee that as much of those excess Calories
come from stored fat as possible, you need to eat
appropriate macronutrients that drive the body to burn
fat as much as possible. That macro nutrient ratio is
higher in protein and lower in carbs and fat—but it still
MUST be less Calories than you burn.
To build muscle—you need to eat more Calories than
you burn.
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But, since we know that even 30g (120 Calories) of
excess Calories converting to muscle per day results in
300lbs of new muscle mass every 10 years, we don’t
need thousands of extra Calories per day to grow. The
macronutrient ratio that fuels muscle growth without
gaining fat is probably even lower protein than in the
diet scenario because we need a higher carbohydrate
amount to provide the high glycogen stores to fuel
weight training without breaking down protein for
energy.
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Fasted Cardio Math
Why you're over complicating things (again)
There's always a huge discussion in the fitness world
about fasted cardio and whether or not it's better at
burning fat. You'll typically hear two points of
view. The coaches with degrees in nutrition/exercise
science will shout that it doesn't matter when you do
the cardio, while those who learned their craft through
the bodybuilding world will typically side with fasted
cardio, taking the “it’s worked every time, so why fix
what isn’t broken?” So, does fasted cardio burn more
fat?
Yes—it burns a higher percentage of fat than doing
cardio following a meal.
Okay—does that mean it’s settled then? Let’s see…
Now, since I like to do the math on these things, let's
see just how much more fat you will burn with fasted
cardio.
We're going to consider two scenarios:
1. Non-fasted cardio, where the person has a
blood sugar reading of 100 mg/dL
2. Fasted cardio, where the person has a blood
sugar of 70 mg/dL
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With fasted cardio, your blood sugar will probably start
lower, and there's no food to keep the blood sugar
stable (instead the liver does that...and possibly also
glycogen from the muscle when the liver runs low). So,
with less sugar in the blood to be used for energy, the
body will need to offset that difference with energy
production from fat. That's the goal, right?
Well, how much sugar is actually in the blood?
I don't think I've ever seen this discussed, so let's do the
math.
Taking person 1, with a blood sugar of 100 mg/dL, that's
only 1 gram per liter! And since most people have 4-6
liters of blood in the body, we're talking about 6g of
sugar--TOTAL. Since person 2 only has a blood sugar of
70 mg/dL, they have 30% less sugar (1.8g less) in the
blood to be used as energy before fat is used. At 4
Calories per gram, we're talking about a 7.2 Calorie
difference. That's less than a single gram of fat
difference.
Now, I know what people in prep are thinking; "Even if
it's a small difference, I want to do everything 100%!"
Well, let's say you do a 16-week prep....hitting fasted
cardio 6 days a week for all 16 weeks....and bumping it
to 7 days a week for a full month.
That's 100 sessions of cardio. At 1.8g more sugar being
burned per session, that's 180g of sugar being used for
energy that could have been used as fat. How many
Calories is 180g of sugar? It's 720 Calories.
So how much of a difference in fat is that?
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Considering that there's around 3500 Calories in pound
of fat (there's possibly more, a direct conversion of 9
Calories per gram gives around 4,000 Calories), that's
0.2 pounds of fat difference.
How much difference does 0.2lb of fat make?
Assuming you're dropping around 2lbs of fat per week,
that's ONE DAY of fat difference--or a difference that
isn't noticeable in the mirror and is completely
overshadowed by the difference water manipulation
will make. If you want to look at it from a percentage
perspective—one day in a 16-week diet is 1/112th of
your progress…IF you miss EVERY SINGLE fasted session
and have to do the session later in the day.
So, what is the take away?
I’m not telling you to avoid fasted cardio—all of my
contest prep clients will be on fasted cardio--largely
because it ends up working out best from a timing
perspective for people who train with weights in the
afternoon. What I’m telling you is to not throw away
the baby with the bathwater. If you can’t make a fasted
session—the day isn’t lost. People far too often have
the perspective that things either need to be perfect or
there’s no reason in doing it at all. You’ll see this in a
similar manner with intra-workout shakes. You’ll have
people miss 2 meals, go out for drinks with friends, but
then flip out when they forget their intra-workout
shake. It’s the same thing here with cardio—if you can’t
make the fasted cardio session, don’t call it a wash—get
the session in later in the day whenever you are able
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to….and that session will be 99.91% as effective as your
fasted session would have been
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Tropical Creams and Why Diets Fail
Topical Creams
The skin is semi-permeable, meaning that the skin will
not absorb what it does not want to, or any more than
it wants to; otherwise, we would be poisoned every
time chemicals came in contact with our skin. To make
the skin more permeable, the local blood vessels must
dilate and create an inflammation response.
Inflammation is a necessary byproduct of topical creams
getting absorbed. This response triggers the area to
turn red, water being pulled to the area, and a burning
sensation, it is the body’s natural response to help
“heal” the inflammation. The process increases the
permeability of the skin and lets more of the
supplement into the blood stream.
An opposite effect may happen as well. When creating a
localized vasoconstriction, water is pulled out of the
area, and blood vessels and capillary beds are
constricted and smaller, making the area look tighter
and leaner. The problem with this is that the effect is
only temporary, and in the long run reduces fat loss in
the area due to the vasoconstriction; it is less likely that
fat from the area will be oxidized and taken into the
blood stream.
Why Diets Fail
There is an unfortunate thing that happens in almost all
situations: things that make you look better in the
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short-term make you look worse long-term, and vice
versa. For example, the average person starts a diet.
They cut Calories and carbohydrates, and their food
tastes bad, so they add more seasoning. They think that
they are hungry, so they drink more water in order to
not intake more Calories, which leads to getting
bloated. They think, “I’m gaining weight! My body
refuses to lose weight!”, then give up on the diet
because the initial water retention makes them think
that they are gaining weight, when the reality is that
they haven’t dieted long enough to see the benefits yet.
Another example is when people who want to lose
weight cut out all salt and drink less water so that they
lose a significant amount of water weight right away-tricking themselves into thinking that is the only way
they can lose weight, without realizing that they are
actually making it harder for their body to burn fat.
They are just seeing a short-term diuretic effect that is
going to bite them in the ass when they return to
normal eating and get extremely bloated. At that point,
they will think that they have gained the rest of the
weight they lost and more once they break their diet.
- Justin Harris, Tasia Blaesser
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Cardio Timing
Insulin
Let’s talk insulin for a second. Insulin is a storage
hormone, and it gets released by beta cells in the
pancreases in response to GLUT2 monitoring blood
glucose. Once it gets high, GLUT2 will signal for the
release of insulin. As the blood glucose raises, the
pancreases secrete insulin. Insulin binds to an insulin
receptor on a cell, and through a cascade of events,
signals GLUT4 to translocate to the cell membrane
where it uptakes glucose, thus lowering blood glucose.
As blood glucose lowers, the secretion of insulin gets
reduced. You can find insulin receptors on muscle,
adipose, and some organ cells, including liver.
When insulin binds to an insulin receptor, the cell
increases the uptake of amino acids, carbohydrates, and
fats. When a receptor is bound by insulin, that cell
cannot breakdown fatty acids to be used as energy. The
lower amount of insulin in the blood will allow a greater
number of cells to be able to burn fat. For cardio,
avoiding times where insulin levels are high is a good
idea.
Steady state cardio is effective at burning fat for energy.
It burns a higher percentage of fat during the cardio
session compared to other types of cardio. There are
some ways you can make sure you are burning even a
higher percentage of fat, by the timing of your cardio
session. As stated earlier, fat cells have insulin receptors
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and when bound, that cell cannot breakdown fat to use
as energy. The higher your blood glucose, the higher
insulin. If you do steady state cardio with a lower blood
glucose, less cells are bound by the hormone insulin,
and more cells can be broken down, the higher the fat
loss will be.
1. Fasted
Fasted cardio is very effective at burning fat. When you
just wake up, you went through multiple hours without
eating food. Blood glucose at this time will be low.
Doing your cardio fasted will ensure that the cardio you
are doing is even more efficient at burning fat.
2. Post workout
Muscle contraction during exercise is a more potent
physiological stimulus of skeletal muscle glucose uptake
than even maximal insulin [1]. During exercise, muscle
contractions cause GLUT4 to translocate from its
storage vesicles to the cell membrane to uptake
glucose, which lowers blood glucose. After your
workout, your blood glucose will be at one of the lowest
points it’s going to get during the day due to this
contraction stimulated glucose uptake. This is a good
time to do cardio.
3. Prior to your next meal.
If you are eating every 3 hours, your highest blood
glucose will be immediately after you eat, and each
hour that goes on, blood glucose will lower. If you have
20 minutes of cardio to do, doing it 20 minutes prior to
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your next meal would be the best-case scenario in
terms of having more fat cells being available to be
catabolized as energy.
4. Low carb days
On days I do not train, I eat much lower carb diet
compared to training days and my total Calories are
much lower, usually I am hypocaloric during these days.
This day is a great day to focus on burning fat and
getting in that cardio. On these days, I am eating the
least amount of carbs I eat all week, my Calories are
low, and I will be burning more energy that I am taking
in, so my blood glucose should be lower this day.
Choosing to do cardio on this day is a good idea, due to
the low blood glucose.
5. Multiple sessions
I looked through PubMed briefly to see if there were
any differences between 1 long cardio bout or the same
length split up into multiple sessions, and most studies
that I have read suggest that both are similarly
effective. This is cool, because it can be hard for some
people to sketch out 30 minutes of your day, just to do
cardio. But if you can go on 2, 15-minute walks
throughout the day, or 3, 10-minute walks, in all
scenarios you are still getting in your 30 minutes of
cardio. Just be sure that your heartrates are consistent
and monitored to be in the target range you want them
to be.
- Thomas Lackie, Justin Harris
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References
1. James D.E., Kraegen E.W., Chisholm D.J. Muscle
glucose metabolism in exercising rats:
comparison with insulin stimulation. American
Journal of Physiology. 1985;248:E575–E580.
2. Murphy, M., Nevill, A., Neville, C., Biddle, S., &
Hardman, A. (2002, September). Accumulating
brisk walking for fitness, cardiovascular risk, and
psychological health. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/122187
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Justin,
I’ve been dieting hard, but I’m not making progress as
fast as I’d like. I’m trying stay as patient as I can, but
obviously I just wanna hop on T3, Clen, and do it
the “short cut” way.
A couple of things:
1) The “short cut” way is the muscle loss way.
2) T3 and Clen aren’t the magic “short cut.” It’s
extremely difficult and requires a ton of work and
suffering to get into contest shape even with those two.
Let’s look at the numbers:
Dropping 2lbs of fat per week is a 1,000 Calorie daily
deficit. The most you can hope for in a perfect world is
maybe 3lbs of fat loss per week (1,500 Calorie daily
deficit). More than that, and you're burning
muscle. Jumping on T3 and clen too early, will just eat
muscle eventually. Ideally, you hold off until you can no
longer maintain 2lb of fat loss per week, and then bring
those in to boost metabolism so that you don't have to
go into starvation levels with the diet.
There's a reason that top bodybuilders take 16 weeks to
prep for a show...and it's not because they're avoiding
short cuts. There isn't a bodybuilder out there who is
holding back on ANY supplement for any noble reason
or health reason or ANY reason other than it's not the
most effective thing to do. The only reason guys aren't
taking 10g of test per week is because you get test flu,
lose your appetite, and can't get out of bed to train. It's
not because they’re worried about health or anything
like that. Everyone is taking as much as they can before
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side effects start making them worse (if you have the
flu, can't eat, and can't train...it doesn't matter how
much gear you're on).
So--there's no such thing as a quick route or shortcut in
this sport. At least not in the way that taking more of
something or starting it sooner will help you...because
everyone in this sport is taking as much as they can as
long as it is still making them better.
There's no nobility or morality in the doses. The doses
and timings are because that's the most effective.
If taking 100mcg of t3 and 200mcg of clen on day one of
the diet was the most effective way--then that's what
I'd be having you do.
Your coach isn’t holding back on anything out of any
moral reason or anything like that—a coach only gets
clients if they’re better at what I do than other
coaches. And they’re only better than other coaches if
their clients progress better than other coach’s clients.
If there's one thing I can say about the subject, it's this:
If you read it on the internet--it's probably wrong.
It's almost by definition incorrect information. Because
if it were correct, then it wouldn't be given away for
free on the internet, and if it worked, the person giving
it would be a top bodybuilder...not some local gym rat
who looks like shit.
Ever notice how anytime a pro mentions anything about
training, nutrition, or gear...the whole internet insists
they're lying or wrong?
Think about that....
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EVEYRY TIME a pro mentions something about training,
nutrition, or gear, ALL the people who look nothing like
a pro insist the pro is wrong.
Well...if everyone who looks like a pro says "A"
And everyone who looks like shit says "B"
Why the hell does everyone still think "B" is the best
option?
It's the craziest fucking phenomenon on earth. The
whole internet bodybuilding community holds
themselves back by some weird fetish where they force
themselves to believe everything the pros say must be a
lie...and everything the skinny fat local gym rats on the
internet say is correct--even though it isn't working for
ANY of them.
If there were a way to get faster fat loss results that
produced a better bodybuilder in the long term—your
coach would already be having you do that.
Coaches don't get clients if they don't do that.
The short cut way of running T3 and clen from day one
on a diet isn't a short cut to a better physique. It will
lead to a shorter diet--yes...because you'll eat through
5lbs of stored energy per week...but at least 2lbs of that
will be muscle. So, you'll be 185lbs in a hurry...but you'll
be as lean as you could have been at 200lbs if you went
the other route.
And since muscle loss is ALWAYS faster than muscle
gain (The fastest any human has ever grown new
muscle tissue in history as far as I can gather was big
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Ramy from 2010-2014, where he went from 220lbs to
300lbs. That's a rate of 0.38lbs of muscle per
week. Compare that to how easy it is to lose 2lbs of
muscle per week and you'll see that for long term
progress rate, preventing muscle loss is ALWAYS more
efficient than gaining muscle mass)
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Justin,
I’ve been dieting for almost a month and I feel like I
just look smaller and softer. I don’t know how much
fat I need to lose, but I’m having a hard time not going
out and eating until I get sick just so that I can fill out a
t-shirt again.
You're in the skinny fat phase of the diet. You’ve lost
the fullness but aren't lean enough to look ripped. This
is where the people who never achieve their ultimate
goals go one of two routes:
1. Rush the fat loss process. They then eat up
most of their muscle in the process....and never
progress in the sport because it can take a year
to regain the muscle loss that you can lose in 8
weeks of eating tissue on a diet
2. Quit the fat loss process. They don't want to
take the time required to get in shape because
they want' to get back to getting big. They end
up as perma-bulkers who never end up as big or
as lean as they want. Muscle growth tends to
slow as body fat climbs above 10-12%. This is
because aromatization rates start to climb and
anabolism rates decrease in males as body fat
climbs.
The ones who end up as known bodybuilders are the
ones who can get past the pain of the skinny fat phase,
continue working the diet, amplifying the metabolism
when it's the proper time, and finish the diet lean-while also holding their muscle mass
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Justin,
I’ve been trying to follow a carb cycling diet. I think
I’ve made good progress so far. I’ve lost 5lbs, so that’s
good-- I’m down from 222-225lbs to 217lbs. Is it okay
if I stick loosely to the diet? I mean, do I have to
follow the carbs and protein exactly? I’m not on any
bloating drugs like Anadrol, so I figured the gear would
take care of the rest as long as I try to eat pretty good.
You will get the most optimal gains by follow the diet
exactly. I know I've emphasized the point by now, but
bodybuilding is diet. Without the diet--it's
powerlifting/strongman/etc. You won't look like a
bodybuilder without the diet. I realize everyone wants
it to be the drugs--and you can't look like a bodybuilder
without them, but everyone who lifts seriously is on
gear. That isn't the deciding fact--of the people using
gear, the ones that look like bodybuilders are the ones
who eat like a bodybuilder.
If there’s one thing I wish I could emphasize and have
people really understand, it’s just that—DIET is what
makes a bodybuilder. Training is for performance. Gear
improves performance and recovery. It also maximizes
the effects of the diet as far as nutrient uptake to the
cell and rates of protein synthesis—but that can only
provide benefit if the diet is where it needs to be.
Walk around any gym in the country and you’ll find
dozens of guys doing the exact same workouts and
dozens of guys on a cycle. What you won’t find is
dozens of guys that look like bodybuilders—and that
reason is the diet.
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Justin,
I have a general question. What's the science behind
carbs going to glycogen and not being stored as body
fat on high days? More specifically, how does keeping
fat intake low on high carb days affect the partitioning
of the carbs that day?
I have some articles/videos on this that will go into
more detail up on MuscleMentor.net and in at least
some book or article I've written if you want to dig
deeper, but I'll do my best to do it justice here.
Thermodynamics is king. It dictates the energy in/out
of everything in the Universe. And by the law of
conservation of energy, if you eat more energy than you
burn, you will store that exact amount of energy (it
can’t just vanish). Conversely, if you eat less than you
burn, that excess energy must come from somewhere.
In other words, you can’t gain weight unless you eat
more energy than you expend.
Now—people really want that to not be true, and it
would be wonderful if that were the case because then
we’d solve the world energy crisis. We just put people
in a room and collect the heat loss from their bodies.
Since they would be consuming less energy than they
burn, the net result would be free energy, and those
people would be the world’s first trillionaires.
A calorie is just a measure of energy (the amount of
energy it takes to raise 1 gram of water by 1 degree
Celsius)
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So, all dieting is, is this: If you eat less calories than you
burn, you will lose that exact amount of calories
(energy) from stored energy reserves in the body.
The body stores energy in 3 ways: Fat (obviously),
Carbs (glycogen), and protein (muscle).
Now, we hope all the stored energy comes from fat and
none from muscle or glycogen, but it's not a perfect
world and glycogen is the preferred energy source of
the body.
So, over the week, you lose fat but also lose glycogen.
A large male might be able to store 1,000g of glycogen.
Let's assume you get 350g of glycogen depleted over
the course of the week.
Now, let's assume that your natural metabolism lets
you burn about 3,000 Calories per day, or around 500g
of carbs in the macro set up of the high day.
Now....if we have you eat that same macro set up, but
add 350g of extra carbs, you are eating more than you
burn--which means you'll store the extra calories as
energy (as fat, glycogen, or muscle).
BUT, since you're glycogen depleted going into that day
AND we supply those extra calories as carbs, we can
create a situation where you're eating more than you
burn, but with the extra calories coming from a source
that's depleted in the body---you STILL store the
calories of those 350g of carbs, but instead of fat, you
store them as glycogen.
This allows you to fill out, keep your metabolism from
falling, stave off the hunger hormones from telling you
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that you're starving, and provide some relief from the
diet.
That means you get to go into the next week's med and
low days with a higher metabolism and more energy so
that you burn more fat on those calorie deficit days that
you otherwise might have.
The long and short of it is that it's somewhat a dietary
trick to allow you to eat more than you burn on that
specific day, but without the fat storage that typically
comes with eating more than you burn. It’s not magical
or necessarily innovative, it’s just a method of
partitioning energy stores in the body to keep
metabolism high without storing body fat.
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General
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Justin,
I want to add muscle, but I’m also worried about being
too fat. I feel like I’m always either trying to bulk too
fast and end up wishing I was leaner or trying to lean
out too fast and losing all my muscle.
If you were me…with my genetics, my shape, my
frame…what would you do right now?
Get settled in to a good eating program, train hard
every workout, making sure that every workout was a
good workout and I improved in some way.
Then I'd just let time pass--do everything hard whether I
was blasting or cruising, and just let time pass.
in 5 years it's going to be 2024 (and if you’re reading
back on this in the year 2024, this is going to have an
even bigger impact).
Look--it's going to be 2024 no matter what you do, and
it's going to be here pretty fucking quickly.
If you stay on plan with eating, train as hard as you can,
and run through your blast cycles properly, then you
can be carrying 50lbs of new muscle in 2024 and
walking around f’n jacked (you'll still want to be bigger
though...but that's how life is).
The other option, and the option that ruins people in
this sport, is they don't do that.
They want to be 50lbs bigger.
Well--you don't get to just be 50lbs bigger.
You get to eat your meals today--not missing any. You
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get to train hard today--making sure to get better.
And if you continue to do that every day, then there will
come a day where that 50lbs happened...it's just
sometime in the future.
You can't gain 50lbs of muscle.
All you can do is eat meat and rice today. Train your ass
off today. And do it whether you're blasting or
cruising.
If you do that every day, day after day, and never stop-at some point that 50lbs happens--but it's not the 50lbs
that happens, it's today that happens.
but if it happens a thousand times in a row, that 50lbs
occurs at some point along the way.
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Justin,
I want to get as big as possible as fast as possible.
Should I just try to add size by any means necessary?
Wouldn’t trying to stay lean slow down muscle
growth, and I’d be better off just maximizing muscle
growth and taking the fat gain that comes with it?
If you gain too much fat, you have to diet down or you
won’t continue to add muscle.
The goal is to stay in a growth state without gaining fat
as long as possible.
That’s where people go wrong—they want the scale to
move too fast, which is mostly just fat gain, so they
constantly have to diet back down and never end up
gaining any real size because they try to make it happen
too fast.
Pure muscle growth is maxed out at 10-15lbs a year
long-term.
People don’t want that because it seems too slow.
But that’s the fastest there is. So instead they shoot for
30, but most is fat, and after dieting the fat off, they’re
back where they started.
Then they repeat for 5,8,10 years and are the same size
they started plus a few lbs of muscle instead of 100lbs
of muscle heavier if they would have gone the right
route (which no one wants to do because it seems too
slow).
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NO ONE has gained more than 15lbs per year for an
extended length of time—which makes sense, because
that’s 150lbs every 10 years. Even 25 lbs is a one and
done type of magic year. If I had to guess, I’d say that
Big Ramy from 2010-2014 probably added muscle faster
than any human in history. He went from something
like 220lbs to 300lbs in that 4-year span. That’s 20lbs
per year! So….20 lbs per year for 4 years is the most
rapid growth rate in human history, yet EVERY guy
coming up is SURE he’s going to add 30lbs of pure
muscle from every 12-week cycle he runs.
That’s not how it works.
Even if we assume that you’re going to gain size faster
than ANY human in history ever has—that is, you’re the
one who’s going to gain 20lbs of pure muscle each year
for 5 years, that’s still only 1.66 lbs per MONTH.
Since the scale can vary 5-10lbs per DAY depending on
water weight, that means that even if you grow faster
than any human in history—on a day-to-day basis, the
scale DOES NOT MOVE. Even on a month to month
basis, daily water weight fluctuations will be greater
than the muscle mass gain.
That means that even if you’re growing faster than any
human in HISTORY, you’re still weighing roughly the
same from month to month. If the scale is moving
faster than that, it is NOT muscle. It just isn’t.
So, any scale change greater than about 2lbs per month
indicates fat gain—and as a bodybuilder, any added fat
must later be lost, which means the potential for
MUSCLE LOSS when you diet down.
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Staying relatively lean IS the fastest way to add size—
because the fastest rate of growth is slow enough that
the potential for excessive fat gain will always over
power the muscle growth over time.
You won’t find top bodybuilders walking around fat
(and no—the offseason guest posing pics where guys
are watery but still have abs does not mean they’re fat.
If you think it does, go put on a posing suit and hit some
poses in your offseason glory and realize just how much
leaner they are than you). You WILL find local gym rats
walking around fat year after year, deluding themselves
into the idea that walking around at 20% body fat is
somehow the best way for them to reach their size
goals.
To put it bluntly, you can be 250lbs and fat this
year….and stay 250lbs and fat forever, or you can be
220lbs and lean this year (carrying the same muscle as
you would if you were 250lbs and fat), but then be
250lbs and lean in a few years….and eventually even
larger. But fat is never muscle, and don’t let yourself
convince yourself that it is.
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Justin,
I want to use insulin, but I was a fat kid and worry
about insulin making me fat again. Is there any way to
use insulin without getting fat?
If done correctly, insulin and high carb diets can actually
keep you leaner (by increasing the probability that
excess unburned Calories may be stored as glycogen or
synthesized as new muscle protein, where they would
be more likely to be stored as fat without the effect of
insulin increasing amino acid uptake and glycogen
storage)
People tend to use it wrong though—the once a day
post workout approach that everyone seems to start
out with just isn’t the most effective method.
You also want to dose it in a manner that maximizes
your already determined diet—not take a ton and use
the hypo feeling to over eat, because that just leads to
fat gain.
I recommend the use of insulin a few times a week (13...rarely 4), but multiple times during that day.
Protein synthesis is a slow act....if you can convert even
25g of your daily protein to new muscle per day...that’s
20lbs of muscle per year.
So realistically, the maximum amount of protein we can
synthesize per hour is about 1g. Let’s look at why that
1g per hour means the “daily insulin post workout”
approach isn’t the path to success.
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Taking insulin once per day post workout—even if it
DOUBLES the rate of growth during its active life
(Humalog being around 1.5-3hr), means you’re adding
about 1-3 grams above that 25g point...meaning that if
you train 5x a week, you’re gaining one extra pound of
muscle per year.
But, if you use it on select days, multiple times on that
day, on a day where you have prepared yourself to be in
somewhat of a glycogen depletes state, then you can
double that growth rate for most of the day—so maybe
18 hours you get 2g per hour.
If you do that 3x a week, that’s an extra 6-7lbs of
Muscle per year instead if 1lb—a 700% increase in
effectiveness.
I also recommend metformin or berberine to keep
insulin sensitivity high—especially if A1c begins to
climb.
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Justin,
You made some pretty rapid progress in the mid2000s. What was your diet like then? It’s been a
while, but if you can remember back that far, I think
people would be curious what your daily intake looked
like.
I can tell you exactly what my diet was throughout the
2006-2007 offseason and pre-contest because it was
the most precise and OCD period of my life. Looking
back—I rarely deviated by even an ounce here or there
during the entire year and a half from when I won the
supers at the 2006 Jr. USAs and when I did the 2007
USAs.
This was great in the fact that I added nearly 20lbs of
contest weight (after adding 15lbs of contest weight
already leading up to the 2006 Jr. USAs) and nearly
50lbs of contest weight in less than 3 years after
winning the Mr. Michigan in 2004.
However, looking back, it wasn’t so great because I was
absolutely and completely burned out by the time I
stepped on stage at the 2007 USAs. I had made great
progress (looking back…50lbs in 3 years after having
already been training for almost 10 years at that point
was a hell of a lot of progress in a short period of time),
but I was so rigid and OCD in my diet and training that I
kind of got lost in the whole process and forgot what I
loved about lifting.
Anyway—here’s what I was eating then:
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Offseason diet 2006-2007
Meal 1 (7:30am): 2 scoops whey isolate, 2 cups oatmeal
w/ raisins
Intra-workout (9am): 1 serving Anatrop, 50g waxy
maize
Post workout (10:30am): 1 serving Anatrop, 2 scoops
whey isolate, 100g waxy maize
Meal 3 (12:30pm): 6oz flank steak, 2 cups rice, 1 cup
veggies
Meal 4 (2pm): 2 scoops whey isolate, 100g waxy maize
Meal 5 (4pm): 6oz flank steak, 2 cups rice, 1 cup veggies
Meal 6 (6pm): 2 scoops whey isolate, 100g waxy maize
Meal 7 (8pm): 6oz flank steak, 2 cups rice, 1 cup veggies
Meal 8 (10pm): Whatever my wife made for dinner
(usually fajitas or some kind of meat and potatoes.
About twice a week I’d get 4 seared Saji wraps from a
Mediterranean place that is no longer there)
Meal 9: (before bed): 2 scoops ON casein protein (drink
half)
Middle of the night: finish other half of the casein
shake
High day deviation: About once or twice a week I
would have a “high carb day” where I would lower the
protein drinks to one scoop and replace that with about
400g of extra carbs throughout the day.
Non-weight training deviation: On days I didn’t train
with weights I would usually sleep in a bit longer (if my
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kids didn’t wake up too early) and only have the meal 1
and then have meal 3 when I got to work.
Notes
I really did eat flank steak and rice every single meal (I
think you can see me prepping my meals for the day in
Project Superheavyweight). The only time I’d vary from
that is if we ran out of either item for whatever
reason—usually it would be rice, which I would replace
with potatoes or plain pasta.
I ate so much flank steak that my wife would buy every
bit of flank steak the supermarket had available every
single time she went shopping. After a few months of
this she had a funny encounter with the staff. While
she was grabbing all the flank steak off the rack and
loading up her cart she noticed a group of people kind
of staring at her from behind the double doors to the
back freezer/butcher area in the supermarket.
One of them eventually came out to talk to her since it
was a bit awkward. They had been trying to figure out
where all the flank steak was going for months. They
kept increasing their flank steak quantity, but no matter
how much they would put out….it would always be
gone all at once before the end of the weekend. They
were taking bets on who was buying all the flank. They
had assumed a new Asian restaurant had opened up
and they didn’t have a bulk supplier lined up yet and
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were waiting for the week when that restaurant finally
hooked up with a bulk supplier and their flank steak
would suddenly sit un-purchased on the shelves and go
bad…but it never happened.
When the flank steak bandit ended up being a 120lb
female they were all doubly confused.
My wife got a chuckle out of it and told them that her
husband was a bodybuilder, and flank steak was his
protein of choice.
Pre-contest diet 2007
My changes were very simple in the pre-contest diet. I
dropped the rice to 1 cup per meal and increased the
flank to 8oz per meal. I also dropped the shakes and
stuck with whole food as much as possible.
Meal 1 (7:30am): 2 cups egg whites, 1 cup oatmeal
Meal 2 – post workout (10:30am): 2 scoops whey
isolate, 100g waxy maize
Meal 3 (1:30pm): 8oz flank steak, 1 cup rice, 2 cups
veggies
Meal 4 (4pm): 8oz flank steak, 1 cup rice, 2 cups veggies
Meal 5 (7pm): 8oz flank steak, 1 cup rice 2 cups veggies
Meal 6 (10pm): 8oz flank steak, 2 cups veggies
High day deviation: Usually once per week I’d have a
high carb day where I’d drop the protein down to 6oz
per meal and would generally shoot for 1000g of carbs
from a mix of waxy maize and rice
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Non-weight training deviation: On days I didn’t train
with weights I would replace meal 2 with another meal
of flank steak and rice. I would also occasionally drop
the rice from meal 5 and possibly meal 4—these would
be my “low carb” days
Notes:
Looking back, I don’t know how I stayed so lean with my
offseason diet. I’m currently back up to around 275lbs
and relatively lean and there’s no way in hell I could
handle that amount of Calories right now. I think my
ability to assimilate such a large volume of food in the
offseason was the biggest factor in my muscle gain from
2004-2007. Another thing that I’ve struggled with
scientifically over the years is how my body weight
didn’t change with my pre-contest diet. I started my
prep at 262lbs at 17 weeks out and was 266lbs at 10
days out (if anyone followed my progress back then—
the “back porch pics” where me at 266lbs and 10 days
out).
My weight stayed steady at right around 260lbs
throughout the prep and I slowly leaned up each week
at that weight. It would fluctuate with my high carb
days—going up over 260lbs on the high days and
dipping as low as the mid-250s on my low days. I was
lucky enough to start the prep very lean—I could have
easily gotten by with a 6-week prep with how lean I was
when I started, so I didn’t really have to make dramatic
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changes. And to be honest, a shorter prep probably
would have helped me. With the idea that I had so long
to dial things in, I sort of sat on that final “push” too
long and ended up not really improving at all the final 56 weeks of prep. By the time it was necessary to make
that last push to drop the final bit of fat, I was too
burned out, too obsessed with holding size, or too
dumb to make it happen.
For much of the prep I mostly just readjusted my
Calories—replacing carbs with protein and fat (from the
flank) and trusting in the thermal effect of digesting
protein to be my Calorie deficit. I’ve never actually
counted out the Calories (I’ve never counted the actual
Calories in any of my diets—I know how much
protein/fat/carbs are required to do what I want to do,
so those are the units I use), but I expected my precontest diet to be a bigger drop in Calories than my
weight change showed.
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Justin,
I have a few questions please. How important is the
diet? I can stick to a diet to some degree, but I don’t
want to bullshit you I may stray--from the occasional
drink or drinks, to going to a restaurant, etc. Honestly,
I have always been a little loose with my diet. Tell me
straight up--HOW important is the diet to gaining
mass?
100%, without a doubt THE most important
part of gaining mass. If you don't follow the diet, you
won't grow properly. ALL muscle growth is, is a
conversion of amino acids from the diet into proteins
(muscle) in the body. You can take all the gear in the
world. You can train harder than anyone. If you don't
follow a proper diet, you won't grow.
I’m just curious exactly how serious I need to take the
diet. I know that sounds like a stupid question, but I
will see guys I know eat garbage sometimes, yet still
look decent and gain size.
I think the key point there is the word “sometimes.”
You MAY find someone who looks decent who follows a
shitty diet--but they absolutely won't look NEARLY as
good as they would by following a proper diet...and the
fact that they look decent is because of genetics.
You won't find a top bodybuilder who doesn't eat like a
bodybuilder.
If you want to weigh a lot, look like a fat guy with your
shirt off (but still be able to pull off the “big guy” look
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with a shirt on), and have people ask you if you used to
play football, then take gear, train hard, and eat like
shit. If you want to look like a bodybuilder--you need to
eat like one.
When should I use protein shakes? How often? What
type whey? Casein, blends?
Never (unless you can't eat whole food protein at some
time). They aren't as good as whole food. They're only
to be used if you can't eat a whole food protein
source. If you must have one, they're all pretty similar-a whey/casein blend is probably best, but it won't be as
good as whole food protein (meat or eggs primarily)
What pre-workout should I use?
Any that you like. I really try to avoid pre-workout
stimulants if I can. If I absolutely need something, most
of the time I'll just use straight caffeine (I use no-doz
caffeine tabs).
What intra workout should I use?
I tend to keep my intra workout supplementation rather
simple these days. I’m certainly not against making it
more complex, I just tend to look at things in the long
term and try to take a step back and look at things from
a sort of observational science approach—in other
words, “what are the top guys doing?”
I don’t believe there has been a top 6 Olympia
competitor who has made intra workout nutrition a
standard in their daily routine.
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That certainly doesn’t mean that there isn’t benefit to
an intra workout nutrition plan, it just means that
whatever level of benefit it has, it isn’t high enough to
keep the top guys from being top guys, and it isn’t
enough to make non-top guys into top 6 Olympia
competitors.
For my intra workout nutrition, I like to make sure there
are the proper amino acids to fuel muscle growth if
protein synthesis occurs. In this case, that would be
essential amino acids. Given the fact that the long-term
size gains from even 1g of protein synthesis per hour
results in hundreds of pounds of muscle growth over a
decade of training, it’s clear than we’re not going to
synthesis more than a few grams of new tissue in the
hour or so we’re at the gym. Because of this, I tend to
stick to around 10g of EAAs per workout (I get them
from truenutrition.com - our discount code is "tropo,"
but you can get them from wherever you like
The carbs can be any high molecular weight
carbohydrate that you prefer. HBCDs are good,
Karbolyn is good (my favorite from a taste standpoint),
and waxy maize has been solid since the get-go. If you
find that you digest and assimilate simple sugars
without issues, then feel free to use them instead.
For my post-workout meal, should I use a whey
shake?
No protein shakes post workout--just whole
food. Going back to the idea of “1g of protein per hour
is the max rate of protein synthesis you can sustain long
term,” let’s look at protein powders.
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A rapidly digesting source like Whey isolate or
hydrolysate is going to be mostly digested in 90 minutes
or so. Let’s assume we’re synthesizing new muscle at
THREE TIMES the max rate we can expect to sustain
long term—that means that in those 90 minutes we are
using LESS THAN 5g of that protein powder for actual
muscle growth. The rest is going towards other energy
requirements. When you consider that, your 50g shake
becomes an expensive simple sugar.
How many grams of protein should I take with
shakes?
No shakes. If you need to have a shake because you
don't have meat cooked, then that’s a different story
and you do what you have to in that situation, but
shakes should ALWAYS be a supplement to the base
diet—and never a replacement for whole food meals.
What other supplements and vitamins should I take
morning or night pre/post etc. I want to cover all the
useful supplements.
There aren't really that many useful OTC supplements if
you're using gaining muscle as the metric of what is
useful.
The only one I'd probably recommend for that would be
berberine. The dose is:
Berberine: 500mg, 3x a day.
It will improve insulin sensitivity.
As far as other supplements, these are all helpful for
health and joint stuff--but they don't directly help with
gaining muscle.
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curcumin - joint health
multivitamin/multimineral - overall health
astragalus - kidney health
As far as training, should I do one body part per day or
should I split which would be the most optimum
method to build more muscle?
An entire book could be written on training ideas and
philosophies, so I won’t go into too much detail here. I
will say two primary things about training.
1: I have always preferred higher frequency, lower
volume programs that focus on progressive overload
and intensity modifications to make the workouts more
difficult.
2: I don’t believe there has been a top 6 Mr. Olympia
competitor who has utilized that type of routine as their
main approach to training for the bulk of their career.
Nearly every top bodybuilder seems to follow the
standard “bro split” in some way or another. A notable
exception that people love to mention is Dorian Yates
(at least in terms of volume). My response to that is
this. Go re-watch blood and guts and tell me how low
volume his back workout is. He does seven different
movements, each with some amount of warm up. Even
if each movement only has a single warm up set and
then the max set, that’s still 14 sets for the day—well
within the range of “volume” that most people envision
when they think of the “bro split.”
*with that being said, Dorian’s style is probably the
closest (along with possibly Ronnie’s style….although
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the total weekly workload is very high for Ronnie) to
what I would consider the optimal training protocol.
At the end of the day, most people are probably
creating more stimulus for protein synthesis than their
body can cover—which is why more volume doesn’t
equate to more growth in nearly all cases. So, find a
training routine you get excited to go to the gym for and
spend the rest of your effort on improving nutrition and
supplementation.
Basically, I would train 5 days straight take any days
off?
I would split that type of routine like this:
Chest
Back
Arms
Off
shoulders
legs
off
Repeat
Then start again or could I train 5 days straight and
then no days off train again 5days straight?
You can train 7x a week if you want--just repeat the 5day cycle every 5 days, but I don't think that's most
effective for results. If it were, everyone would already
be training 7x a week. People aren’t avoiding workouts
because they don’t enjoy being in the gym. It’s the best
part of the day for most of us.
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In my experience, 4-5x a week is the most
productive. Most people enjoy training too much to
only go 4x a week. I've never really seen anyone add a
ton of size training 6-7x a week, although a lot of people
like to do that because they enjoy being in the gym.
Is this the best training for mass building?
A muscle either gets bigger or smaller, so all training is
essentially for mass in that aspect. This is the training
routine I would have you follow whether you were
trying to add size, trying to cut, getting ready for a
bodybuilding contest, or anything in between other
than possibly preparing for a powerlifting meet.
I believe that most training is just for mass building
and should be that way with a 2-3 week cruise of deloading.
I agree except for the de-loading. I wouldn't plan any
de-loading (I am very different than most people in this
approach, so adjust this idea to your recover
abilities). Your body will have shitty workouts when it's
beat up. If your body is ready to hit it hard, then hit it
hard. I don't plan de-loads for muscle growth.
Should I do some type of cutting or light training?
Focus on one thing at a time. Most of the year should
be focused on building muscle without gaining
fat. Since you need excess Calories to build muscle,
there's almost always going to be some fat gain. When
you have a contest to prepare for or feel you're too fat,
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then switch gears and focus on a fat loss plan. this is a
muscle building plan--which your questionnaire said
was your primary focus at this time. The ultimate goal
of any offseason is to supply the proper nutrients to fuel
growth, but with as little fat gain as possible. That’s all
it is—meat and rice—enough to fuel growth, but not so
much that you gain fat, repeated day after day, week
after week, month after month, year after year.
I think that one of my main problems, which I realized
a little later in lifting, is I don’t think my progressive
load has increased overtime (I think I overlooked
methods to achieve this). So, I think that has been
holding me back as well. I know that genetics also
limit people, so I get that as well, but this is why I was
asking you how to work the reps and sets. Do I want
to focus on my progressive load over time? Especially,
at the high end of the rep range? Or only on the lower
end rep range?
The rep range that builds muscle is 8-15 reps for the
most part. For legs and arms, going up to 15-20 reps is
beneficial as well. Going to 6 reps on some sets is good
on occasion. I don't believe much muscle growth occurs
with sets under 6 reps (it's mostly time under load--but
that's roughly the rep range that puts you in that
time).
You won't find a top bodybuilder who doesn't spend
90% or more of his training time in the 6-15 rep
range. The only people you'll find saying that you need
to train lower rep than that are people who aren't top
bodybuilders (as a general rule--if you read something
about bodybuilding on the internet, it's probably wrong.
For one, if it worked, the person wouldn’t be giving it
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away for free on the internet, and two…if it worked for
them, you’d know who they were because they’d be a
top bodybuilder, not some unknown guy on the
internet)
Lift as heavy as you can in the proper rep range and
focus on getting stronger in that range. An easy
approach is to focus on one main compound movement
per workout. Get stronger in that movement—not by
being more efficient in the movement, but by making
the muscles that move the weight through the
movement stronger. After that, it's still good to get
stronger in the other movements, but the other
movements are more focused on contracting the
muscle and bringing blood flow and nutrients to the
area.
But don't over think things. There's a reason that
bodybuilders are often known for being dumb--it's
because being dumb is good for bodybuilding (no
disrespect to bodybuilders—I consider myself one
too). Overthinking things causes paralysis by
analysis. All you need to do to get bigger is train hard,
follow a bodybuilding diet, and depending on your
goals, include gear (genetics does the rest).
Do you have different routines for different goals?
Not really. A muscle either gets bigger or it
doesn't. You're either trying to build a muscle or trying
to keep it from getting smaller. The same routine works
in both cases.
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On the power movement how many warmups should I
do?
As many as you need
How many total sets?
As many as you need. On squats or deadlifts, it might
take me 5 sets of warm ups. On a shoulder movement,
it might only take 2.
Should I do any warm up sets for the other
movements?
Not unless you feel you need them. If you're not warm
after 5 warm ups and a max-out set of squats, you're
never going to be warm.
Also, what training methods you recommend that
work for building mass getting those reps out?
Drop sets? Running the rack? DC rest and pause?
Stretching? Static holds? Assisted lifts? Forced
reps? Heavy reps even if form is not good? etc…
Whatever gets you fired up to train that day. there is
no training secret other than hard work. I do straight
sets most of the time. On occasion, I'll do a rest pause
set. I'll do a forced rep or two every once in a while as
well, but I don't count those as reps towards my PRs.
Also, there is no such thing as "good form." good form
is whatever works the muscle. You're not training a
movement, you're working a muscle--whatever form for
any movement that hits the muscle the hardest is the
correct form. As far as EMG analysis shows, explosive
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lifting with constant tension (the way Ronnie Coleman
lifted) seems to be the best approach.
Also, what percentage of weight should I be moving
for all the movements to aim for the low or middle or
high end of the rep range?
Don't over think it--the warm ups are just to get
warmed-up so that you don't tear a muscle, and so that
your joints are ready for the heavy weight.
If you're looking to do 6-10 reps (straight set...if you're
doing DC you need to get at least 11-15 reps total) with
275, then 3 warm up sets like you have listed should
work fine. If you're warmed up after 2 sets though-that's fine too. The warm ups are just to get ready for
the main set.
After that, there are only additional warm ups if you
need them, or if you need to get a “feel” for the groove
of a new movement. You're already warm and have
gone to failure for the muscle--you should be ready to
go right into your heaviest sets on all other exercises.
Really try not to over think the training. Training is the
least important aspect of building muscle. The eating
does the work. As long as you're training as hard as you
can, you'll build muscle pretty optimally. It's the diet
that makes all the difference.
Now—about gear--I would like some more detail on
what I should run. I realize it can’t be medical advice,
but I wish someone would be up front and talk about
what works and what doesn’t without just dismissing
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the whole thing. I want to know the best methods and
what I should have in my arsenal to get the most
benefit out of my cycles.
Honestly, there are more people being up front about
their use and explaining what works and what doesn’t
than there has ever been in the sport. The problem is
that what the “top guys” are recommending in videos,
podcasts, and their member sites tends to be different
than what the local internet guru is recommending.
The logical way to look at this would be to realize the
skinny fat dude on the internet is probably giving the
wrong advice, and the top competitor giving advice on
his member site is probably giving the correct advice,
but people were burned by the magazines for so long
that they’re hesitant to believe what they read (unless
it’s from some anonymous dork on the internet—then
they soak it up like gospel). It’s also partly the fact that
they believe that the only possible explanation for why
they don’t look like Mr. Olympia themselves is because
Mr. Olympia is taking SO much more than them, so they
form a mental block to believing anything else.
Here’s the truth:
Keep it simple. In the offseason, test and an anabolic is
probably all you need. That doesn’t mean the doses
have to be low, it just means that you don’t need 30
compounds and a fistful of exotic I like test and
EQ. I'm attaching a little rant I wrote on gear--it
explains my philosophy for the most part. All I ever ran
in the offseason was test and EQ. I'd do 1-1.2g of test
and 800-1000mg EQ at my peak. Most top guys are in
the 2-3g of total gear per week range. Above that and
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you don't really see results (you're lethargic and you
can't eat. If you're too tired to train and can't eat then
you can't grow...so there's no reason to take more than
that. The "magic" range is usually somewhere around
2-3g of total gear per week. After that it's all GH)
I literally have any gear related product you imagine
and its almost all pharma grade with a few exceptions
like tren or primo and even that is some of the best.
If you can run high dose primo with test--that's as good
as it gets in the offseason as far as I’m concerned.
One of the largest bodybuilders on the planet ran this in
the offseason a few years ago:
1.5g test
800mg primo
10iu GH
Primo (if you can run at least 600mg long term) along
with test is about as good as it gets. The risk of side
effects is as low as any compound there is (other than
PIP), and you’ll rarely find anyone have an issue with
appetite or lethargy...so you can train your ass off, eat
perfectly, and grow.
Again—there is no magic cycle with gear. Everyone
responds differently to different doses and protocols.
The optimal dose for anyone is going to be with
compounds that cause minimal side effects at doses
high enough to maximize protein synthesis without
negatively affecting appetite, sleep, motivation, and
energy.
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I have every ancillary I have every product known to
bodybuilders. From gear to GH to insulin, to Clen and
T3, to appetite suppressants, to peptides, and
everything in between. And like I said, almost all is
pharma-grade, so I want you to know that the product
and dosages will hopefully be accurate.
Contest prep is when you throw the kitchen sink at it-that's when you take all the different shit. Offseason is
basic.
Test and an anabolic. If you have GH--add it in as high
of a dose as you can.
Use insulin on high days.
Find the dose that maximizes the diet plan you
ALREADY HAVE IN PLACE, not the dose that makes you
go hypoglycemic and down a box of cereal—because
that box of cereal is not all turning to muscle—it’s going
to turn to fat.
More isn’t better--if you take too much you go hypo and
just pound sugar to keep from passing out and get
fat. Find the dose that just about makes you go
hypoglycemic but doesn't. That maximizes the diet--it
maximizes glycogen storage and amino acid uptake
As far as anti-estrogens in the offseason--stick to
Nolvadex or Proviron. Nolvadex at 20mg/day or
Proviron at 25-50mg/day. Proviron is also an
androgenic, which is nice, but Nolvadex is the best on
lipid levels. Keep Arimidex for precontest. It's horrible
on the lipids and it can spike blood pressure--which is
what ends up fucking bodybuilders up--the high blood
pressure ruins the heart and kidneys.
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So, I want to know what cycles you recommend for
mass?
Basic shit.
Test and an anabolic.
After that, GH as high as you can/want (above 5ius a
day and you'll need to manage blood sugar though--so
you'll want to add at least berberine and probably
metformin also). It really is that simple. Find yourself a
test and anabolic injectable combination that you feel
good on, can eat on, can train on, and have little to no
side effects. At that point you’re at LEAST 90% of the
way to maxing out the results you’ll see from gear.
At that point, get your diet and training to 90%--and if
you think they’re both at 90% already, you’re wrong, or
you wouldn’t be asking about cycles for mass.
Most people hit 90% or more on their max gear benefits
pretty early—and they’re usually less than 80% on
training, and often less than 50% on diet. Then they
worry about dialing in that last 10% of the gear use
without taking the time to truly appreciate the fact that
they still have 70% or more to improve on their diet and
training.
Get diet, training, and gear to 90% and you’ll find
yourself worrying FAR less about what cycles are the
best….mostly because you’ll be too busy making huge
leaps in size year after year.
Do you run gear in a different fashion during a contest
prep?
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Pre-contest sees most people add more compounds-but there are multiple reasons for that.
The pre-contest period has more boundary conditions.
You’re no longer free to adjust diet without limit.
You’re stuck with the condition that you must eat less
calories than you burn—so things like androgen to
estrogen ratios become more important. Body
composition changes due to increasing androgen levels
become a bigger player, and the idea that you don’t
want to minimize appetite goes out the window.
In contest prep, you're not going to grow, but you want
a high androgen levels and low estrogen levels in order
to maximize the body composition changes from the
calorie deficit. And in the later stages of contest prep,
you’re actually looking for products that will reduce
appetite. Because of this, the fine tuning of your cycle
and compound choices become a bigger player—which
is why most people end up running a larger variety of
compounds.
What compounds do you love and what has worked
great for you over the years?
Test and EQ with GH, that's my favorite. Not everyone
agrees with that though—and a lot of people will tell
you that EQ isn’t worth much in the offseason, which is
why everyone needs to find the compounds that give
the greatest benefit to risk ratio for them. I’ve never
ran high dose primo in place of the EQ, but everyone
I've seen who has legit primo seems to grow great with
primobolan as their base anabolic.
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What products you think are not useful in any way to
even bother.
Orals are hard on the liver and can spike blood
pressure. Blood pressure is what kills bodybuilders. I’m
not a fan of using orals outside of contest prep or meet
prep for powerlifters. I just don’t think the risk/benefit
ratio is good enough to run them outside of those
situations.
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Justin,
In an interview I watched, you said you were getting
close to 300lbs. How did you keep increase size and
weight with lean mass at that level to keep creeping
up in size?
I got stronger and ate more meat and rice. My gear
didn't change. It was test and EQ…same as it has been
since 2003. I just changed my nutrition from trying to
stay relatively lean year-round to a diet focused on
adding size. Again, I’m not saying that gear isn’t
important or that guys aren’t using what most would
consider “large doses.” I’m just saying that there isn’t a
magic cycle, and there isn’t a 1:1 correlation between
dose and size. The difference between me at 260lbs
and me at 300lbs is nothing more than a difference in
food intake.
Seriously--that's all there is to this sport. It's all food.
Gear isn’t magic…well, compared to no gear it’s magic,
but it’s not some alchemy project that can turn air into
protein structures.
Steroids increase nitrogen retention and allow for a
greater rate of protein synthesis, but they don’t create
the protein—protein, the stuff that actually turns into
muscle in the body, still has to come from the diet.
Gear is like the engine of a car. A more powerful engine
can accelerate faster—but it still needs the fuel and the
fuel delivery system. A good engine will let you convert
more fuel to mechanical energy faster, but it’s still the
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fuel and how well the fuel delivery system is designed
(the macro nutrient structure) that lets the engine do its
thing.
The most elaborate cycles I've seen are always from
local guys. Every pro I've ever worked with has ran
boring basic shit in the offseason. They almost always
seem to run simple protocols of somewhat high doses
of 2-3 products with GH.
Now, you’ll tend to see more compounds and more of
the “exotic” products introduced in a pre-contest cycle,
but even then, the craziest pre-contest cycles are
always from the small local guys. The pros just stick to
basic shit there either. I've never seen a pro run MENT
(or whatever that is), peptides (most pros couldn't even
name a peptide other than maybe IGF1), SARMs (I’m
sure they try some when they get it for free, but I don’t
see many people paying money for it), or any other of
the weird ass exotic shit I see people online talk
about. Ever pro or top amateur I've worked with runs
the basic shit--the most effective gear is already known--the new shit is just elaborate filler. It's adding a deck
chair to the titanic...you’re not going to notice a
difference. If you don’t agree with that—look at the
progress of the sport of bodybuilding.
1960s-1980s – steroids at mild doses
 There was a certain size and look that
competitors were limited to
1980s-early 1990s – higher doses of steroids
 Size and conditioning of bodybuilders improved
dramatically
Early 1990s – GH comes into play
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
Size and conditioning improved dramatically
(1993 Dorian Yates)
Mid-Late 1990s – Insulin and higher dose GH
 Size improved dramatically (Ronnie Coleman)
2000s-2010s – Peptides and SARMs come into play
 Is there a leap in progress over the days of
Ronnie and Jay?
In EACH of those time frames, something new was
introduced to the sport in terms of supplements. And in
each of those segments, the physiques progressed
DRAMATICALLY in size…..EXCEPT for the introduction of
peptides and SARMs.
Look at the top 6 of the Mr. Olympia from the late
1990s through the early 2000s. Has there been a
noticeable improvement in physique?
If the physiques haven’t improved with the introduction
of those new compounds—I don’t see how can we
expect them to improve our physiques to any dramatic
effect.
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Justin,
What are your thoughts on grass-fed butter? I’d like to
use that as a fat source. It’s better than regular butter,
right.
I’m not a huge fan of grass fed butter, or any type of
butter, or really of high fats in general to be honest. I’ve
always found lower fat approaches to be easier to make
the proper physique changes in bodybuilding.
Now--that’s for bodybuilding, where physical
appearance is the goal and any health benefits
(although far too often it’s negative health effects) are a
side benefit and not the primary intent of the diet.
With that being said, grass-fed butter is probably better
than regular butter for general/overall health–and
that’s because it contains more of a few “good”
nutrients like vitamin E and CLA.
However, in any first world country, a lack of nutrients
(good or bad) is rarely a concern or issue. We die from
over nutrition, not from a lack of any particular
nutrient.
Long story short, I put grass-fed butter in the list of
added fats in my diets. I consider it better than regular
butter, but not as good as other forms of added fats like
nuts, avocado, or some nut butters. In the end, it’s
splitting hairs. If a particular meal calls for 15g of added
fat, whether that fat comes from grass-fed butter,
avocado, or probably even regular butter won’t have
much impact in your physique--aside from some
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possible potential for reduced long term health risk if
choosing grass-fed butter over regular butter.
Is that ambiguous enough? lol
What I’m trying to say is that it’s a healthier choice than
regular butter, but as far as physique is concerned, it
probably doesn’t make a noticeable difference as long
as you include the correct amounts to meet your Calorie
and macronutrient profiles in that meal
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Justin,
I won’t bore you to death or make your eyes bleed by
listing all the experiences, programs and diets I have
done in the past, but I think a few things are
important:
(1) I’m 34, 5’11 303lbs. I’d like to get below 250 at
some point. Then eventually stay under 225 for long
term.
(2) The current diet I was given is really just lean meat,
vegetables, some dairy and a 150 gram carb meal once
a week. No set macros or Calories.
(3) So, the “success” I’ve really had with this diet is just
eating healthy foods haha.
Honestly, it sounds like you were given a rather solid
diet given your starting conditions. I wouldn't worry too
much about any crazy specific diet until you were in the
12% body fat range.
I would focus on a few select foods and eating them
until you're satisfied until your body reaches a point
where progress stalls.
Most people can eat lean proteins, green vegetables,
and complex carbs as much as they want, and the
taste/hunger hormone levels tend to cause you to eat
below Calorie output until you get into a body fat range
where hunger hormones start elevating.
I'm not going to argue against anything your coach says
about carbs, but I wouldn't worry about minimizing
carbs until you get to that point either.
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Carbs don't make you fat--Calories above what you burn
do. There's no magical macronutrient that can violate
the laws of physics and create energy on its own
(thermodynamics).
I would try to find a base meal plan of something like
6oz lean meat


1 cup rice or 10oz potatoes
1-2 tablespoons guacamole or 1/2 avocado
Make a ton of those meals and eat one whenever
you're hungry--but don't eat anything else.
Once a week have a cheat meal.
It might sound boring, but it's only been a luxury of the
last 100 or so years where that isn't how people were
forced to eat. We've become so weak minded that we
can't go a few meals of the same bland food without
losing our minds, when our ancestors went decades
eating ONLY the small variety of foods that were
available locally...and which depended on the season.
Our ancestors ate whatever meat they killed or raised,
combined with whatever basic grains they had
around...potatoes, maybe oats, or other grains they
could pick up at the local store after half a day's wagon
ride into town. If they were lucky, they’d get to add
some wild berries in the summer, but that's it.
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People lose their mind at the idea of eating the same
food every meal, but for some reason the fact that they
eat the exact same breakfast every single day doesn't
seem odd to them....a lot of people do the same with
lunch too....so they already eat the same breakfast, get
the same sandwich and whatever the wife packs for
lunch....so is it really that hard of a leap to go one step
forward and just eat the same (from a small variety of
meats and grains) thing at dinner as well?
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Justin,
I have a couple of questions if you don’t mind:
Current Situation
(1) I have very limited time to train throughout the
weekdays. My wife is a teacher and I work 2nd shift as
a distribution center supervisor. I hand off our 3 kids
(5, 2 and 10 months) to her in the parking lot of her
school before I take off to work. We do this to avoid
daycare for the kids. My oldest son goes to
preschool from 12:30-3pm so I have a window of time
to train after we drive home from dropping him off. If I
can’t train then, I have to do it after work around
1am.
Training doesn't burn fat—or at least it fat burning
shouldn’t be the primary goal of it. Training increases
performance/strength and creates a stimulus to create
new muscle mass--how you look is all diet.
If you don’t agree with this, then all you need to do is
look at any type of strength/performance activity to see
people who are incredibly strong, but don’t look like
bodybuilders.
If you’re talking about short term changes (less than a
year), then weight training might actually be the least
effective thing in changing how you look. Certainly far
below diet.
You can kill yourself in a 2-hour workout and burn 800
Calories....and then get a meal from Wendy's for 1200
Calories and ruin that entire 2-hour workout plus the
first hour of the next workout.
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Body fat levels are all food.
I've had clients win actual bodybuilding contests
without working out. This is a true statement—a client
in the mid-2000s competed as a light heavyweight and
won his class without lifting a weight for the entirety of
his contest prep. This was a person who typically
competed as a heavyweight, so there was a definite loss
in muscle mass—but his conditioning won him the
show).
(2) My job from 3:30pm-12:30am is not physically
demanding at all. I basically make sure the building
doesn’t burn down. I could walk around for 8 hours a
day if I wanted to.
Try to be more physically active, but you can't out work
a poor diet. Walking for an hour might burn 200
Calories. You can eat 200 Calories in a single bite
depending on the food source. Another stat that often
puts it into perspective is this: the average person burns
40 Calories per 1,000 steps.
(3) I did a “if it fits in your macros diet” recently for 12
weeks and I lost 2 lbs. Daily macros were 210g protein,
65g fat, 315g carbs. I ate tons of bread and rice and it
makes me super gassy, so towards the end, I drank a
bunch of Gatorade and ate sugary candy (at their
recommendation) to hit the carbs number.
In that case, the diet was too high in Calories. It’s as
simple as that.
As far as forcing Gatorade down in order to hit your
macros—that should be a clear sign that it’s more
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Calories than you need.
The simplest approach is to stick to basic whole food
sources. They provide the most satiety and least Calorie
density. They don’t have an enormous amount of taste
benefit either. They don’t have to taste bad, but it’s
easy to “think” you’re hungry when you’re about to eat
a brownie. You’re only going to think you’re hungry if
you really are hungry if that brownie is replaced with
chicken and broccoli.
If you're not hungry, don't eat
If you're hungry—eat but eat from a basic food list.
People "crave" junk. That's different than being
hungry. Take a starving kid and give him a raw potato
and he'll devour it. If you're not that kind of hungry,
you're just craving tasty food.
If you are that kind of hungry, then you'll devour your
chicken and rice meal.
If you're not hungry enough for that boring meal, then
don't eat--because eventually you will be hungry
enough.
Goals:
(1) If I can’t do it all through diet, I want to learn about
supplements that can help me gain muscle. I realize
that pretty much any diet can help me get from 300 to
270 at this point, but I want everything to focus
around training. I need to make this my “hobby”
again.
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ONLY food can build muscle.
Muscle is created by amino acids in the diet. There
needs to be a stimulus for those amino acids to form
new proteins at the muscle cell, but you can create as
much stimulus as you want—it's only the food that can
create the new muscle. And another fact that most
people don’t consider is that protein synthesis is often
actually higher after a meal than it is after training.
Simply eating food triggers a stimulus for protein
synthesis for about 1.5 hours following the meal.
Training builds strength and performance. Food builds
muscle.
(2) In the past when I have started a low carb diet or
Anabolic Diet, I feel great but eventually get off track
with the convenience and lack of food prep.
Exactly--which is why those diets can never be long
term life changes.
What can be a life-long change is learning to eat lean
meats, green vegetables, and complex grains when
you're hungry.
Every meal I eat tastes good to me. I look forward to
every meal, but it's always a lean meat source and a rice
source, possibly with the addition of vegetables and
maybe guacamole or avocado....so it tastes good, and
when I'm hungry, I devour it. But if I'm craving
something just for taste and I'm not actually hungry, it's
not going to be that meal that I want.
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(3) Even though I’m very heavy, I’ve never had any
physical limitations, which is kind of weird. I’ve always
been able to walk long distances, hiking on vacations,
run sprints, do metabolic workouts, shovel snow, work
on house projects etc. I have written a high-volume
plan for myself along with a conditioning plan that
covers 7 days per week that I intend to use.
Again, physique and performance are not a 1:1
correlation.
Look at any NFL defensive Lineman or look at a
heavyweight MMA fighter (Daniel Cormier for example),
or any Olympic lifter, or just about any sport outside of
sprint-based sports/events, and you'll see very quickly
that there is a difference between body composition
and performance.
Being lean does not mean you're an athlete. It just
means that you don't eat enough Calories to get fat.
Training builds strength and performance.
Food dictates your body composition and how you look.
Training dictates your performance improvements.
The body composition I have now is a result of horrible
eating, and a sedentary lifestyle and shitty mindset. I
know you never recommend someone going full bore
at a Diet, but I’m ready to make a change. Last night
after work I re-watched your video clips with Dave
Tate at Elitefts a few years ago where you talked about
protein, cardio, overthinking training, etc.
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Don't over think things.
Pick a lean meat source (chicken, 96/4 ground beef,
flank steak, round steak, turkey breast, egg whites)
pick a lean carb source (rice, potatoes)
Pick a green vegetable source
Maybe add guacamole or avocado (fats are 9 Calories
per gram where carbs and protein are 4, so you can
EASILY double your Calorie count from a small amount
of guacamole....so if you're not good at gauging that
stuff, I'd just avoid the fats).
When you’re hungry, at a meal consisting of those
sources. When you’re full, stop until you’re hungry
again.
The food sources are important though—they need to
be high in satiety and low in Calorie density.
For example, I wouldn’t recommend including nuts-they're too high Calories. A small package of nuts is as
many Calories as 3 snickers bars.
For some reason overweight people have this odd love
affair with nuts. “They’re high in protein!” “They’re a
great healthy snack!”
No—they’re not high in protein. There are almost 4.5
TIMES as many Calories from FAT as there are from
protein. They’re high fat, high Calorie, and low in
satiety.
That’s really a show of how brilliant the proper
marketing campaign can be.
One doesn’t have to look far to find a very overweight
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person discussing with another overweight person
about the healthiness of nuts. Conversely, one doesn’t
have to look far to find another set of overweight
people talking about how fruit is “pure sugar.”
Or course, neither set of overweight people takes the
time to look at their snack size bag of peanuts and
realize that there are 700 Calories (compared to around
200 Calories in a Snicker’s bar). And of course, no one
takes the time realize that there isn’t a single episode of
“My 600 pound life” where the main character struggles
with the fact that they “just can’t stop eating oranges!”
I have been selected to do a Ted Talk in Columbus, so
it would be neat to see how much of a transformation
I could make between now and then.
Cook a ton of lean meat
cook a ton of rice (get a big box of minute rice...boil 9.5
cups of water, pour the rice in, stir, and then let it sit
while covered--you'll have 18 cups of rice in 10 minutes)
Whenever you're hungry eat a meat and rice meal until
you're not hungry. If you don't want a meat and rice
meal, then you're not hungry yet--you just want the
taste of good food.
Use as much salt/seasoning as you want--but no sauces
unless they're Calorie free.
That’s really all you need to do (you just need to
continue to do it every day and year after year).
Companies sell garbage and fad diets to people who
don't know any better, but you can watch ENDLESS
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numbers of YouTube videos of "a day in the life" of
whichever fitness celebrity you want.
In those videos, there’s a few things you’ll notice:
You won't see an "Atkins bar"
You won't see packaged “low fat” snacks.
You won’t see “reduced Calorie” treats.
You won't see weird ass fat diets, fad drinks, or any
supplement (outside of the brand they're sponsored by
as they pretend to drink it).
You WILL see them eat lean meats, leafy vegetables,
and complex carb sources like rice and potatoes--over
and over and over and over and over and over and over.
When you get below about 8-10% body fat (where
you'll already be considered "ripped" to everyone in the
world), then it becomes important to fine tune things-but you never need to fine tune things until then, and if
you haven't already eaten chicken and rice for several
thousand meals in a row, then there's nothing to fine
tune
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Justin,
I’ve recently been doing a lot of thinking about my
health and am curious about my kidney function. I’ve
been going through some of my past blood work and
I’ve noticed my BUN is usually top of the range and
recently it was over the range @ 25. Creatinine was
1.17 and GFR non-AA was 84. The highest my
creatinine has been was 1.3. My numbers aren’t bad
but from research I’ve done, my GFR isn’t great. I have
just started my first cycle and now I’m wondering if I
should continue. Any help would be appreciated.
GFR is not bad at all if you carry a decent amount of
muscle mass. The GFR is a calculation assumes a certain
level of muscle mass (the reason the AA and non-AA
numbers are different is because the AA calculation
assumes a higher natural muscle mass in that
population). Anything above 60 is generally considered
normal function (partly because of the guesswork
involved in the calculation). If a reading below 60 is
found, a doctor may request a 24-hour clearance test,
where they directly calculate the filtration rate of the
kidneys over a 24-hour period.
As reference, I once had a large bodybuilder come to
me in a panic after being diagnosed with stage 3 kidney
failure and a GFR of 36 by his primary care physician.
He went to a nephrologist where a clearance test was
given and his true GFR was found to be 135.
Now, this doesn’t mean that the GFR of 36 isn’t
concerning—and he was referred to a nephrologist who
is currently tracking his kidney function—it just shows
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how far that calculation was off from his true GFR given
his very large amount of muscle mass.
To anyone reading, PLEASE do not assume your low GFR
reading is automatically wrong because you have some
amount of muscle--It’s just an example of how extreme
levels of muscle mass can throw off the equation used to
measure GFR.
Any abnormal reading should be a wake-up call to take
better care of yourself, but if you’re holding a lot of size
and seeing a non-AA of 84, it’s unlikely that you’re in
any state of renal disease.
Your BUN being high is likely related to a high protein
diet. High protein intake will lead to high nitrogen levels
in the blood, which is what BUN measures. If you’re in
an anabolic state (synthesizing new muscle tissue), it
will lower your BUN (in a normal protein intake, a low
BUN is a sign of anabolism). If protein in the diet is too
high, then even if you’re actively synthesizing new
muscle, your BUN will still be high.
This goes back to the articles/videos where we’ve talked
about how we can only really use a small portion of the
protein we eat per day to actually build new muscle
tissue, and the rest is used for other energy purposes
(most of it being converted to glucose and used as a
carbohydrate most likely).
The creatinine is a better indicator of kidney disease in
someone with a high protein diet (high BUN from a high
protein diet, with a normal GFR and normal creatinine is
probably nothing to worry about…but if creatinine is
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high, GFR is low, then a high BUN becomes another
strain on an already overworked renal system).
Most blood tests consider somewhere between
1.2mg/dL and 1.4/1.5mg/dL (106-132 µmol/L) as the
upper limit of normal for creatinine.
If you’re under 1.2, then a doctor probably isn’t going to
do anything about it other than monitor it for increases
in the future.
long story short:
Your kidney function seems pretty decent.
Most places won’t give an exact GFR number if it’s over
60 (it’ll just list >60). Since your GFR is in the 80s, your
kidneys appear to be filtering fine
Your BUN is most likely high from protein intake
Your creatinine isn’t high--especially if you're carrying a
lot of muscle mass. A fun fact about BUN that people
don’t ever seem to make note of when posting their
blood work is that BUN is a sign of anabolism. A low
BUN is a medical signal for the patient being anabolic.
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Justin,
I heard you say that you would only supplement with
GDAs if A1c was elevated or if the person were using
products that reduced insulin sensitivity (like higher
dose GH). Why?
If blood glucose (bg) is normal, then think about what
you’re doing--you’re increasing insulin sensitivity on a
normally functioning system.
You can’t increase it until you go hypo....because your
body isn’t going to just let you lapse into a coma and
die.
So, you’re artificially lowering bg...which the body is
then forced to fix by increasing bg back to a normal
range.
All you’re doing at that point is teaching the body to
deplete liver/muscle glycogen when your whole goal is
to do the opposite.
This whole sport has a 1-dimensional view of
things...the more is better view.
Things are more involved than that though.
Look at gear. Everyone things more is better.
If that’s the case, then wouldn’t at least SOMEONE have
tried that by now? The idea isn’t complex...it’s the first
thing people thing when they think about gear.
So if more is always better...then why isn’t me Olympia
just a contest of who was born into wealth?
...because there are more factors. After a point, high
doses have increasing side effects. When you get to
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doses where your appetite is dead, you have test flu,
you’re so lethargic that you can’t train, etc etc....you
clearly aren’t benefiting.
If you can’t eat, can’t train, and are eating muscle tissue
with permanent flu symptoms...then you’re not
improving.
It’s like that with everything.
If 3 sets is good, is 300 sets better?
With anything in this sport, take whatever thought you
have to infinity....if this dose works, what happens if i
double it? Triple it? Do 100x the dose?
You’ll see that clear issues develop...and that helps you
paint a logical framework of when benefits start to
taper.
Once you do that, you’ll start seeing why some guys are
succeeding and others aren’t...and you’ll see that the
ones who aren’t are the ones stuck in the 1-dimensional
thought process in too many areas of the sport
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Science
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High Molecular Weight Carbohydrates
It has been standard practice for many years for serious
athletes to consume a high-carbohydrate meal
following intense exercise. As time has gone on, this
post-exercise meal has been scrutinized and analyzed to
make sure that the correct type of carbohydrates are
consumed to maximize the replacement of glycogen
lost during exercise.
Following exercise-induced depletion of glycogen
stores, levels of the enzyme glycogen synthetase
become elevated. This very important metabolic
enzyme enables the body to replace lost muscle and
liver glycogen. Typical rates of glycogen re-synthesis
after short term, high-intensity exercise (i.e.
weightlifting) are much higher than glycogen resynthesis rates following prolonged, lower intensity
exercise.
“glycogen synthesis rates are higher following short
term, high-intensity exercise than during long term, low
intensity exercise.”
This is largely due to the fact that fast twitch muscle
fibers, which are the predominantly used during short
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term, high intensity exercise, have a higher level of
glycogen synthetase activity than slow-twitch fibers. (4)
What this means is that the body has a greater need
(and a greater ability) to restore depleted glycogen
stores following short term, high intensity training.
Carbohydrate Supplementation
Studies show that delaying the ingestion of a
carbohydrate supplement post-exercise results in a
reduced rate of muscle glycogen storage. (3) Because of
this fact, it's common to ingest a sugary carbohydrate
source following exercise.
“A lack of carbohydrates post exercise results in reduced
storage of muscle glycogen.”
The Glycemic Index (GI) gives a number to
carbohydrates based on how quickly they enter the
blood stream. The higher the GI, the quicker it will enter
the bloodstream and raise insulin levels. The highest GI
food is glucose, with a score of 100. One particular form
of glucose (D-glucose, aka Dextrose) quickly became the
post-workout carbohydrate of choice based on the
speed with which it enters the bloodstream and raises
insulin levels. It's important to understand that not all
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sugars are created equal. For example, fructose (or fruit
sugar) rapidly restores liver glycogen levels at the
expense of muscle glycogen stores. The bottom line is
that it's important to ingest quick-acting carbohydrates
to begin the repair and rebuilding process.
What if there was a way to improve this practice?
High Molecular Weight Carbohydrates
Recently, a new player has emerged in the postworkout carbohydrate war: High molecular weight
carbohydrates. High molecular weight carbohydrates
(HMW) have shown great promise in providing a wide
range of post-workout benefits.
The words most often thrown around when talking
about HMW carbohydrates are "gastric emptying" and
"osmolality." These terms essentially go hand in hand
with each other. Osmolality, often confused with
osmolarity, affects the transport of water and other
solutes over the cell membranes. (10) Osmolality is
related to the specific osmolality of the blood, which is
280-303 mOsm/kg in humans. A solute that has the
same osmolality of blood is said to be isotonic while a
solute that has a lower osmolality than blood is
hypotonic. The more hypotonic a solution is, the quicker
it passes through the stomach into the small intestine
where the bulk of nutrient uptake occurs. (11) A very
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low osmolality means the solution will get to your
muscles with great speed and efficiency.
The higher the molecular weight of a carbohydrate, the
lower its osmolality. The lower the molecular weight of
a carbohydrate, the higher its osmolality. Therefore, a
carbohydrate's molecular weight varies inversely to its
osmolality. Knowing this, you can begin to appreciate
the difference between HMW carbohydrates and
dextrose. The molecular weight of the typical HMW
carbohydrate that is marketed today has a molecular
weight of 500,000-700,000; whereas, the molecular
weight of dextrose is approximately 180. (11) This
statistic helps quantify the difference between the two
carbohydrate sources. The osmolality of a particular
HMW carbohydrate is 11 mOsm/kg in a 5% solution,
which is considerably lower than the osmolality of
blood at 300 mOsm/kg. With an osmolality that low, the
HMW carbohydrate is extremely hypotonic, and we
know that the more hypotonic a solution is, the quicker
it passes through the stomach into the small intestine.
(11) This means that in the world of carbohydrates, the
HMW carbohydrate is a Ferrari Enzo, and dextrose is
your mother's Buick Skylark.
“In fact, one popular HMW carbohydrate drink has been
shown to pass through the stomach 80% faster than
dextrose, allowing restoration of glycogen 70% faster
than any other carbohydrate. (13) How would you like
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to like to start rebuilding muscle 70% sooner than you
already are after a workout?”
One study, in particular showed that the mean glycogen
synthesis rate was significantly higher for a HMW
carbohydrate drink compared to a glucose drink for 2
whole hours after ingestion. The scientists in the study
concluded that "the osmolality of the carbohydrate
drink may influence the rate of re-synthesis of glycogen
in muscle after its depletion by exercise."(6) In essence,
the scientists are saying that HMW carbohydrate will
get to your muscles significantly faster than whatever
carbohydrate you're currently using."
Another study that observed glycogen synthesis rates in
rats following starvation showed that HMW glycogen
was initially synthesized at a faster rate than low
molecular weight glycogen. (8) However, blood sugar
and insulin levels were not statistically different
between the HMW carbohydrate and the glucose
solution. What this means is that despite being a
complex carbohydrate, the HMW carbohydrate still
raised insulin levels to about the same level as dextrose.
We're dealing with a complex carbohydrate that powers
through the stomach, causing no bloating, and reaches
the blood stream as fast as dextrose; yet, it restores
glycogen 70% faster.
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Does it sound too good to be true? It gets better.
The osmolality of HMW carbohydrates can potentially
speed up the rate of glycogen synthesis post-workout,
as well as increase the uptake of whatever vital
nutrients are added to the HMW carbohydrate drink.
That's right, all the "stuff" you've been ingesting after
your workout, in the hopes of getting it to the muscle as
quickly as possible, can be sucked up right along with
the HMW carbohydrate, faster than ever before.
“A HMW carbohydrate can actually improve the uptake
of the OTHER nutrients it is consumed with as well”
The only problem is that amino-based nutrients such as
whey protein, amino acids, and creatine all have a much
lower molecular weight than the HMW carbohydrate;
therefore, when adding other nutrients into the drink
mix, you must consider the effect they will have on the
total molecular weight of the solution. In theory, too
much protein, creatine, and other nutrients will reduce
the effectiveness-specifically the speed--of the HMW
drink.
For this very reason, it's my belief that added aminobased nutrients should be kept to a minimum during
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ingestion of a HMW carbohydrate drink. My post
workout recommendation for a 200 lb bodybuilder
would be 75g of a HMW carbohydrate mixed with 5g
creatine, 8g L-leucine, and 5-10g of BCAA's. This meal
should be followed, approximately 15-30 minutes later,
with a meal containing protein and complex
carbohydrates; preferably a fast-digesting liquid protein
such as a whey isolate, and some complex
carbohydrates.
If you understand the composition of muscle, you'll see
that there's much more to it than just contractile tissue.
Don't forget the water, stored glycogen, minerals, blood
vessels, and capillaries. By employing HMW
carbohydrate powders, carbohydrate reserves can be
quickly replenished, along with water and any other cell
volumizing nutrients you consume along with it.
Remember, faster glycogen restoration decreases
catabolism and increases the rate of protein synthesis.
And as an additional cosmetic benefit, the extra
glycogen and water will create full, round-bellied,
muscles that will be the envy of all your bodybuilding
friends!
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Marijuana and Bodybuilding
I wrote a research paper about cannabis my freshman
year at the University of Memphis, where I first started
studying marijuana. Regardless of political orientation,
it is becoming increasingly difficult to deny cannabis as
an effective drug to treat multiple diseases certain
individuals. There are a few publications from PubMed
that could make a case for marijuana aiding
bodybuilders and others to improve appetite, fasted
insulin levels, lower insulin resistance, a smaller waist
circumference and lower inflammation markers that
can help reduce diabetes and potentially other diseases.
The first study was published in 2013 and was the first
study to investigate the relationship between marijuana
use and fasting insulin, glucose, and insulin resistance.
The study consisted of 4,657 adult men and women,
579 being current marijuana users and 1,975 were
previous users. Participants use was assessed by selfreport in a private room. Participants provided blood
samples in the morning after a 9 hour fast. In the
multivariable adjusted models, current marijuana use
was associated with 16% lower fasted insulin levels and
17% lower HOMA-IR. HOMA-IR is the method used for
assessing B-cell function and insulin resistance from
fasting glucose and insulin or C-peptide concentrations
(2). The study also found significant associations
between marijuana use and smaller waist
circumferences (3).
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Another study I found interesting was published in 2012
and its objective was to determine the association
between diabetes mellitus and marijuana use. The total
sample was 10,896 adults put into 4 groups, nonmarijuana smokers, past, light, heavy, and current
marijuana users. The prevalence of elevated C reactive
protein (>0.5 mg/dl) was significantly higher (p<0.0001)
among non-marijuana users (18.9%) than among past
(12.7%) or current light (15.8%) or heavy (9.2%) users
(3). The researchers hypothesized that the prevalence
of diabetes mellitus was reduced in marijuana users due
to the presence of one or more cannabinoids because
of their immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory
properties.
The last point I want to talk about with marijuana is the
increased appetite. Marijuana shines when it comes to
providing relief from cancer and HIV patients to reduce
nausea and increase appetite. To grow a bunch of
muscle, you will need a bunch of Calories. If your
appetite is poor, it is hard to be a good bodybuilder.
Marijuana can be a useful tool here. A group of
researchers concluded that the appetite of cannabis
smokers was increased, typically by more numbers of
feedings throughout the day. Fasted ghrelin
concentration in the smoking group was significantly
increased in all patients. Ghrelin is commonly referred
to as the “hunger hormone” produced in the
gastrointestinal tract. Ghrelin acts on the hypothalamic
brain cells to increase hunger. The higher ghrelin
secretion, the hungrier you are.
- Thomas Lackie
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References
1. (Penner, Buettner, & Mittleman, "The impact of
marijuana use on glucose, insulin, and insulin
resistance among US adults.," n.d.)
2. Wallace, T. M., Levy, J. C., & Matthews, D. R.
(2004, June 01). Use and Abuse of HOMA
Modeling. Retrieved June 28, 2018, from
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/6/
1487
3. Rajavashisth, T. B., Shaheen, M., Norris, K. C.,
Pan, D., Sinha, S. K., Ortega, J., & Friedman, T. C.
(2012). Decreased prevalence of diabetes in
marijuana users: Cross-sectional data from the
National Health and Nutrition Examination
Survey (NHANES) III. BMJ Open, (1).
4. Gropper, Mie, et al. Ghrelin Concentration and
Obesity: The Effect of Smoked Drugs. Sept.
2009,
Www.medicaljournalofcairouniversity.com.
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/236843
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2. http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/6/
1487
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM
C3289985/
4. http://medicaljournalofcairouniversity.net/hom
e2/images/pdf/2009/September/07.pdf
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Fitness and Farming
One of the most commonly asked questions we all hear
is “What do you do for a living?” My response to this
quotidian question is, “I’m a farmer.” I’ve quickly
learned throughout the years of making friends with
people from all walks of life that the American farmer is
not always seen as the good ole boy anymore. The
initial reaction of many people in today’s popular
culture is a all too often uncertain or negative response.
A common misconception is that farmers are
inadvertently killing the world by causing cancer
through pesticide use or putting our health at risk via
the use of GMO’s (Genetically Modified Organisms), in
our crops, harming our growing children, and doing
permanent damage to our environment. It pains me to
hear this as each of these assumptions couldn’t be more
false and untrue.
As a farmer, I see pesticide use and GMO’s as
technology that was developed to enhance crop growth
and resiliency, allowing us to produce a larger and safer
crop by eliminating major challenges from pests and
diseases. I often wonder, “What would it be like if we
had to all produce our own food?” This is something
many folks do not think about. “What would the world
be like without the American farmer?” GMO’s are one
key tool that allow a small niche group of people to
produce a large portion of the worlds food supply,
allowing opportunity to grow and develop our
communities in other areas. So why exactly can’t we
just produce our food without GMO’s?
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I can speak from experience from growing both GMO
and Non-GMO crops; there can be numerous challenges
to this from a financial and a quality standpoint. Oh, and
let’s not forget Non-GMO foods, many organically
grown foods are still grown with the use of pesticides.
So here is a look inside what a producer has to evaluate
when growing Non-GMO corn:
-Non-GMO herbicide is roughly $20/ac more expensive
vs. a glyphosate-based product (Round-Up). Glyphosate
products are much more efficient in controlling grasses
(one of the toughest pests to control in corn) than
products used to in Non-GMO, while still causing no
damage to the product or showing any yield drag.
-GMO corn requires little or no insecticides needed to
ward off ear or stalk damage. This can amount to $20$40/ac if spraying in Non-GMO corn. Insects can cause
kernel damage resulting in discounts at the grain
elevator, yield loss, and grain damage that may include
mold, which can also lead to storage issues. Corn ear
damage is another common issue in Non-GMO corn
that will often lead to aflatoxin problems, which the
grain elevators will not buy. This means less corn to
animals for feed, less food on people’s plates, less
income for the farmer and higher costs for everyone
between the farmer to the consumer.
Yes, there are Non-GMO premiums that producers are
offered to grow Non-GMO products, but I can speak
from experience that those can vanish overnight. All
finances aside, morally and ethically a farmer who
knows that both products, GMO and Non-GMO are
both equally as safe, the science is clear on this (1,2).
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It’s just not always logical to grow Non-GMO products
all of the time in all places. It’s simply not worth the
money, risk, or the headache when safe products can
be produced in a more efficient manner saving both the
farmer and consumer money all while using the land
more efficiently.
The Non-GMO craze has become a pure marketing
strategy at the store level and label level. It’s a fact that
GMO’s are just as safe and nutritious as any Non-GMO
counterpart. Genetically modified seeds have been
safely tested more than any other seeds in the history
of agriculture. Regulatory authorities have concluded
that Genetically Modified crops are just as safe for
humans, animals, and the environment as Non-GMO
crops. As a matter of fact, there is no evidence ever
recorded showing harm to humans, animals or the
environment done by hundreds of independent studies
from scientists and researchers. Believe it or not, GMO’s
are actually showing less of an environmental impact
and better return for farmers livelihoods (3). GMO
crops are allowing producers to use conventional
farming methods to control weeds. This leads to better
soil health, less runoff, and reduced greenhouse gas
emissions from equipment.
I want people to wake up! Seeing Non-GMO icons on
your food items is an easy way for certain groups to
squeeze a few more dollars out of that brand via
premium pricing and thus your wallet. Sure, there is
nothing wrong with Non-GMO foods or organic for that
matter. That’s your call in the end. However, it is by no
means any more safe or sustainable than a product
made through conventional farming practices. Both
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methods of production follow strict and safe guidelines
to ensure that the product we farmers are producing is
meeting every standard known to man.
Let’s remember that the farmers and scientists
producing these products are also consumers just like
everyone else. The people producing these products
also want to provide safe foods for their families and
community. I can speak personally from a nutrition
standpoint, that I trust the safety and nutritional value
that GMO’s provide consumers with. I’ve been a
competitive bodybuilder and coach within the NPC for
several years; I take my nutrition very seriously.
Obviously, in order to push your body to its ultimate
brink to get as lean as humanly possible there cannot be
any lack of nutrition. I’ve successfully dieted down and
bulked up on many GMO foods, Non-GMO foods,
certified organic foods, etc. What I find is that all of
these methods are effective and safe. It never makes
any difference in my health or my results. In fact, I also
find that my own blood work and performance reflect
that nothing better or worse comes from opting for
over the other either. I certainly do see a cost savings
most of the time in opting for the GMO, non-organic
version. When you eat as much as many of us growing
bodybuilders need to in order to gain lean muscle in the
offseason, affordability is a big deal! But forget me; I
know what I grow on my fields and why I grow it. I know
how it impacts my health and my gym performance. But
what do the super smart scientists who work on this
kind of thing have to say? Testing has shown from all of
the major US authorities that GMO crops are
nutritionally the same as Non-GMO crops. This says that
both GMO and Non-GMO products contain the same
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levels of key nutrients like amino acids, proteins, fiber,
vitamins, and minerals. This is where real nutrition
matters. Don’t lose site of the forest for the trees
people!
Here’s what we know. Humans have been modifying
and altering plant genetics for centuries through
traditional breeding methods that can takes decades
and centuries to try and get right. At this point in 2018,
modern ag-science has allowed us to do much better
with better precision and quicker results. Let’s all
continue to educate ourselves about what’s in our food
and get rid of ridiculous, half-truth food labels that are
costing many of us unnecessary dollars that could be
used elsewhere.
- Sam Schneider
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Blood Glucose and Exercise
“Exercise is one of the most effective way to lower blood
glucose.”
One of the most effective way to lower blood glucose is
by exercising. Muscle contraction relies on glucose for
fuel. GLUT4 transporters are glucose transporters
located within muscle cells. In a resting muscle, GLUT4
is mainly retained in intracellular vesicle structures by a
recycling pathway that largely keeps GLUT4 in
intracellular compartments and not inserted in the
surface membranes [3]. Muscle contractions lead to the
activation of AMPK, which increases the rate of
exocytosis of GLUT4. Once GLUT4 is inserted into the
plasma membrane, it can “suck up” glucose from the
blood, providing the muscle cell with glucose, and
lowering blood glucose (figure 1&2). Muscle contraction
during exercise is a more potent physiological stimulus
of skeletal muscle glucose uptake than even maximal
insulin [3]. Acute regulation of muscle glucose uptake
relies on GLUT4 translocation, however after training,
there is an increase in GLUT4 transcription. Exercise is
the most potent stimulus to increase skeletal muscle
GLUT4 expression, an effect that may partly contribute
to improved insulin action and glucose disposal and
enhanced muscle glycogen storage following exercise
training [3] (figure 3). I found some cool pictures that
study [3] published.
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Type 2 diabetes
In people with type 2 diabetes, inulin-stimulated
glucose uptake in skeletal muscle is impaired. When
insulin binds to an insulin receptor on a muscle cell, it
will ultimately cause the translocation of glut 4 from its
storage vesicles to the plasma membrane to uptake
glucose from the bloodstream. If this is impaired, blood
insulin and glucose levels remain high. We reviewed
that exercise will cause the acute translocation of glut 4,
while chronic exercise training improves mitochondrial
function, increases mitochondrial biogenesis, and
increases the expression of glucose transporter proteins
and numerous metabolic genes [5]. Weight training
would suffice, but also, research has been done on
steady state cardio and HIIT cardio. On study took 14
people with type 2 diabetes, and 8 of them did 6
sessions of HIIT training over 2 weeks. They did 10x60’s,
and during the 10 sec duration they achieved a 90%
maximal effort and then recovered for 60 seconds with
a 5-minute cooldown. After 2 weeks, they showed a
significant decrease in blood glucose concentrations’
[4]. Another publication studied the levels of GLUT4
proteins expressed in type 2 diabetes patients after 6
sessions of HIIT cardio. GLUT4 content in the vastus
lateralis increased by 369%.
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Figure 1
Figure 2
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Figure 3
- Thomas Lackie
1. James D.E., Kraegen E.W., Chisholm D.J. Muscle
glucose metabolism in exercising rats:
comparison with insulin stimulation. American
Journal of Physiology. 1985;248:E575–E580
2. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Exerci
se%2C-GLUT4%2C-and-skeletal-muscle-glucoseRichterHargreaves/0d92ae886747190f1cb79b56277aa
e7aaf11f37d.
3. Richter, E.A., & Hargreaves, M. (2013). Exercise,
GLUT4, and skeletal muscle glucose uptake.
Physiological reviews, 93 3, 993-1017.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fef3/1c170159c4ef7b
4f9da94eb7311280de5269.pdf?_ga=2.153070073.1106
037531.1530111559-787659800.1530111559
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What the GLUT?
Fructose.
Fructose is the sweetest of all-natural sugars. It is
somewhat special compared to other sugars. It has its
own GLUT transporter which are unique and could
potentially make fructose a better option as a carb
source, by lowering the total amount of insulin secreted
due to specific glucose transporters. Fruit could be a
better carbohydrate choice with humans with diabetes
as well (pre, type-1, and type 2). First, we need to
understand the GLUT transporters and insulin.
There are 14 different GLUT proteins. Gluts 1-5 are the
most studied.
Glut 1- Insulin-Independent, found on the blood, blood
brain barrier, and heart. They are the major GLUT
expressed in brain endothelial cells. They are also
expressed in brain astrocytes, fueling neurons. It has a
high affinity for glucose and is insulin-independent.
GLUT 1 has a low Km. These transport glucose even
when circulating levels are low.
Glut 2- Insulin-Independent, found in liver, pancreas,
and small intestine. These glut 2 have a high Km and
they have a low affinity for glucose. These Gluts
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maximally uptake glucose when glucose concentrations
are high. Glut2 signals to the beat cells in the pancreas
that blood glucose concentrations are high, and the
beta cells respond by secreting insulin in the
bloodstream. This is the second major fructose
transporter. When insulin levels get very high, GLUT2
will translocate from the apical membrane back to
intracellular vesicles, letting GLUT4 take most of the
workload.
Glut 3- Insulin-Independent, found in the brain,
neurons, and sperm. Low Km, which means they have a
very high affinity for glucose, so they have priority
taking up glucose, compared with other gluts that have
a lower affinity.
Glut 4- Insulin-dependent, found in skeletal muscle,
adipose tissue, and heart. Insulin triggers the
translocation of glut 4 into the cell membranes of these
tissues to uptake glucose. These have a moderate Km,
and moderate affinity for glucose This glut transporter
is affected with people with diabetes. In type 2
diabetes, insulin cannot bind to the insulin receptors
efficiently, and glut 4 will not translocate to the cell
membrane, despite a large concentration of glucose in
the blood. Blood glucose will remain high, and glut 4 will
not translocate to cell membranes to lower blood
glucose. Exercise can also stimulate GLUT4 translocation
to the plasma membrane in skeletal muscle, but this
pathway is not initiated by insulin.
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Glut 5- Insulin-Independent, found on the Luminal side
of intestinal epithelium, kidney, sperm, skeletal muscle,
fat tissue, and brain. These GLUTs are the primary
fructose transporters. Once GLUT5 and GLUT2
transports fructose across the apical membrane, GLUT2
helps transports the fructose across the basolateral
membrane. Insulin will cause an increase in GLUT5
translocation; however, it is not insulin-dependent.
Insulin
Insulin is secreted by beta cells in the pancreas. After
you ingest a meal, particularly one rich in
carbohydrates, your blood glucose will raise. We
learned above, that GLUT2 acts as a glucose sensor, and
once glucose concentrations get high, GLUT2 will signal
to the beta cells in the pancreas to release insulin. Once
insulin is secreted, insulin will bind to insulin receptors,
which are in skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, liver, and
other tissues. When insulin binds to that receptor, it will
cause a cascade of signals, which eventually leads to the
translocation of GLUT4 from their storage vesicles, to
the cell membrane, where it binds and begins to uptake
glucose from the bloodstream into the cell. This will
lower blood glucose by dramatically increasing the rate
that glucose can be taken up by cells, because of the
increased number of glucose transports. Insulin is a
storage hormone. It stimulates the uptake of glucose,
which increases glycogen synthesis, and decreases
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glycogenolysis. Insulin also increases amino acid uptake,
which leads to increased protein synthesis in muscle,
adipose, and organ tissue which decreases the rate of
protein degradation. Insulin increases the uptake of
triglycerides from blood into adipose and muscle tissue.
Fatty acid and triacylglycerol synthesis is increased, and
the rate of lipolysis (breakdown of fat) is decreased. If
we want to lose fat, a good idea is to have low insulin
levels. The lower number of cells that insulin is bound
to, the more cells can breakdown, and burn fat. If a cell
has insulin bound to it, that cell will not breakdown, and
instead it will uptake nutrients. If that same cell is not
bound by insulin, it may be catabolized for energy. The
greater number of fat cells that aren’t bound by insulin,
the greater number of fat cells they can breakdown to
provide energy. Lowering carbohydrates is an effective
way of burning fat, by lowering the amount of insulin
secreted. We also must remember that during a meal
time, we are hypercaloric. You can eat 500 Calories in
the matter of 15 minutes, and that meal will last you
hours until your next one. Since you will be hypercaloric
during the time around the meal, insulin really matters
here. A huge spike of insulin, combined with a
hypercaloric meal, will hinder fat breakdown, and you
will begin to store fat. A lower and more steady insulin
concentration, will ensure that the least amount of fat
will be put on as possible. Below I put 2 charts I found
from google to help illustrate this cycle. At the end of
the day, if you are in a caloric surplus, you will store
Calories, and if you are in a caloric deficit, you will burn
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stored Calories. If you are in a caloric surplus with very
high amounts of insulin, you will be in a good
environment for muscle gain, but also for gaining fat. If
we can take in the same amount of total kcal but have
less dramatic blood sugar spikes when we eat, this will
lead to a better chance for the surplus of Calories to be
taken up and stored as glycogen, or to fuel MPS, while
lowering the total amount of fat that is stored.
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After studying GLUT transporters, I hypothesized that
since GLUT5 is insulin-independent, and is the main
carrier of fructose, followed by GLUT2 which is also
independent of insulin, that eating fruit as a
carbohydrate source might be beneficial for burning fat,
by reducing the lower amount of the storage hormone,
insulin in the blood. Once I had that thought, I started
thinking about people with diseases such as diabetes
type 1 and 2. I went on PubMed and found a few
different articles that were interesting, and I wanted to
share.
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There was a group that wrote a paper on pub med that
hypothesized that meals high in fructose would result in
lower leptin concentrations than meals containing the
same amount of glucose, since leptin secretion is
regulated by insulin-mediated glucose metabolism. In
the study, they collected blood samples every 30 min
for 24 hours from 12 women on 2 randomized days,
where the subjects consumed 3 isocaloric meals
consisting of 55, 30, and 15% of total kcal from protein,
carbohydrate, and fat, with 30% of kcal coming from
either fructose or glucose as a carbohydrate source.
Insulin responses were 65%(+/-5%) lower during the
Fructose containing meal compared to the glucose
containing meal. They also concluded in their study that
the fructose containing meal produced a less
pronounced suppression of ghrelin, compared to the
glucose containing meal. This study is incredibly
fascinating. So, we know that even though the subjects
received the same kcal and % of macronutrients, the
group that had fructose as a carbohydrate source
instead of glucose had roughly a 65% decrease in
insulin. This means that even with 2 identical meals, you
can improve body composition by just changing
carbohydrates to fructose. Lower insulin will get
secreted with a fructose containing meal, which as we
learned above in the insulin paragraph, will lead to the
potential for more fat cells to be catabolized as energy.
The lower secretion of insulin will lower the amount of
fat stored, and the Calories will have the potential to be
stored more as glycogen, and muscle protein synthesis.
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The study also concluded that the fructose containing
meal produced a LESS pronounced suppression to
ghrelin vs. the glucose containing meal, indicating that
eating a fructose meal won’t have you feeling as
satiated compared to the glucose meal.
Another publication, which was a meta-analysis,
identified 53 eligible randomized controlled trials with
1,126 participants, out of 3,666 citations. In diabetic
participants, fructose reduced 2-hour blood glucose
concentrations by 4.81 mmol/L compared to glucose.
Another publication studied the evidence for
postprandial glycemic and insulinemic responses after
replacing either glucose or sucrose in foods or beverage
with fructose. They found that replacing glucose and
sucrose with fructose resulted in significantly lower
peak postprandial blood glucose, particularly in people
with prediabetes, type 1, and type 2. Similar results
were obtained for insulin.
GLUTs and insulin resistance and diabetes
Rats with type 2 diabetes had a dramatic increase in
GLUT5 mRNA and protein levels in the kidneys.
Rats with diabetes also had a 3-4-fold increase in GLUT
5 mRNA and protein level in the small intestine
Rats with diabetes had a 2-3-fold increase in GLUT5
mRNA and protein levels in adipose tissue.
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Humans with diabetes had a dramatic increase of
GLUT5 mRNA and protein levels in skeletal tissue.
In insulin resistant individuals, or those with type 2
diabetes, GLUT2 will REMAIN in the apical membrane so
that it can continue absorbing glucose. GLUT5 has a
dramatic increase in skeletal tissue. Just thinking about
this, it makes since to me. If you are more resistant to
insulin and cannot rely on GLUT4 to lower blood
glucose, having more GLUT5 proteins available to take
up glucose would make since, as also would keeping
GLUT2 in the apical membrane despite high insulin
levels, due to the fact that insulin will not bind
efficiently, causing GLUT4 to remain in their storage
vesicles. GLUT2&5 are the two main fructose
transporters. Both transporters are insulin-independent
and are capable of lowering blood glucose. Increased
GLUT2 and GLUT5 proteins could possibly make
fructose a great option as a carbohydrate source, if
carbohydrates are present in the diet, because both of
these proteins will be upregulated, they are insulin
independent, and are the main fructose transporters.
Conclusion.
In conclusion, eating fruit/ fructose as a carbohydrate
source could be a good idea for anyone trying to lower
their body fat and improve their body composition, or
trying to manage diseases such as diabetes. You can
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improve body composition and burn even more fat by
incorporating fructose for the carbohydrate source, by
taking advantage of the glucose carriers responsible for
fructose, GLUT5 being insulin-independent the main
fructose transporter, followed by GLUT2 which is also
insulin-independent. Lower and more stable insulin
levels will lead to less total body fat stored, and those
Calories will have a higher propensity to be stored as
glycogen or more muscle protein synthesis. The article
that concluded that the fructose containing meal
produced a less pronounced suppression of ghrelin,
compared to the glucose containing meal is very
interesting as well. This could be beneficial for those
who struggle to get their meals down and don’t have a
high appetite. Choosing fructose as a carbohydrate
source will not suppress ghrelin as much as glucose, so
fructose meals won’t satisfy hunger hormones quite as
well as other carbohydrate sources will. If you struggle
getting hungry and have a small appetite, try opting for
fructose. Those who have type 2 diabetes or insulin
resistance will have an upregulation of GLUT2 and
GLUT5, which are both insulin independent and are
main fructose transporters. Opting for fructose as a
carbohydrate source will elicit a lower insulin secretion,
and since the GLUT2&5 proteins are upregulated, this
could lead to more efficient uptake of fructose.
- Thomas Lackie, Justin Harris
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References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28592611 Evans RA, Frese M, Romero J, Cunningham JH, Mills KE.
Fructose replacement of glucose or sucrose in food or
beverages lowers postprandial glucose and insulin
without raising triglycerides: a systematic review and
meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017 Aug;106(2):506-518.
doi: 10.3945/ajcn.116.145151. Epub 2017 Jun 7.Review.
PubMed PMID: 28592611.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15181085 - Teff
KL, Elliott SS, Tschöp M, Kieffer TJ, Rader D, Heiman M,
Townsend RR,Keim NL, D'Alessio D, Havel PJ. Dietary
fructose reduces circulating insulin and leptin,
attenuates postprandial suppression of ghrelin, and
increasestriglycerides in women. J Clin Endocrinol
Metab. 2004 Jun;89(6):2963-72. PubMed PMID:
15181085.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC26524
99/ - Douard, Veronique, and Ronaldo P. Ferraris.
“Regulation of the Fructose Transporter GLUT5 in
Health and Disease.” American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism 295.2 (2008): E227–
E237. PMC. Web. 22 May 2018.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC36523
74/ - Czech, M. P., Tencerova, M., Pedersen, D. J., &
Aouadi, M. (2013). Insulin signalling mechanisms for
triacylglycerol storage. Diabetologia, 56(5), 949–964.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-013-2869-1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21864752 Dimitriadis G, Mitrou P, Lambadiari V, Maratou E, Raptis
SA. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2011 Aug;93 Suppl 1:S52-9.
doi: 10.1016/S0168-8227(11)70014-6. Review in muscle
and adipose tissue. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2011 Aug;93
Suppl 1:S52-9.doi: 10.1016/S0168-8227(11)70014-6.
Review. PubMed PMID: 21864752.
Gropper, Sareen Annora Stepnick, et al. Advanced
Nutrition and Human Metabolism. Cengage Learning,
2018.
Caudill, Marie A. Biochemical, Physiological, and
Molecular Aspects of Human Nutrition. Elsevier - Health
Sciences Div, 2012.
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High Molecular Weight Carbohydrates II
It seems every day that there is a new miracle
supplement discovered that will revolutionize the world
as we know it. It will do everything from fat loss, muscle
gain, fight cancer, arthritis, heart disease and even
make a man’s "junk" bigger or breast's grow to the size
of watermelons! This industry can be the Wild West;
not much law or regulation to keep snake oil salesmen
at bay. So how do you find what works? First, we must
define what a supplements role is. A supplement by
definition is "Something added to complete a thing,
make up for a deficiency, or extend or strengthen the
whole". The whole is a sound nutrition program.
Without rock solid base nutrition, supplements can do
little. There is no miracle pill that allows you to stuff
your face full of garbage food and yet maintain a toplevel physique or for that matter, health. In a simple
equation, proper diet = 95% + supplements = 5%;
Supplements are the icing on the cake. I can't tell you
how many people approach me with a Jack in the box
diet yet have a gym bag full of the latest and greatest
supplements.
So, now that we understand what a supplements true
role is, what is something fairly cutting edge to help out
most people who train hard and value recovery. In the
past decade, high molecular weight starches have
become more prominent. The first one I encountered
was Vitargo way back in 2003. I tried it and I could tell a
profound difference in my recovery from even the
toughest sessions. I also used to swallow 40 grams of
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BCAA tablets per hour session. So, what does it this
have to do with supplements? After Vitargo came out,
there were many cheaper versions of waxy maize starch
that hit the market. True Nutrition, always a leader,
brought out an affordable version that benefitted many.
I had all my athletes on it. Today, the big kid on the
block is Highly Branched Cyclic Dextrin's or HBCD's for
short. What is this mystery molecule and how may it
benefit me you may ask? That is what I will try to
answer in terms most can understand by simplifying the
science.
HBCD's are made from amylopectin (Starch) molecules
which are enzymatically altered so that they cross
bridge and link up. This changes the shape, de-naturIng
the original molecule, much like cooking egg whites. Egg
whites are still egg whites and contain the same amount
of protein, they just change structurally. Imagine taking
a tree branch and making it into a circle. All the leaves,
branches and stems would still be on it, it's now a
circular tree branch, but it's still a tree branch. How
does this help? We will see shortly. Now that we
defined what HBCD's are, we need to know how they
benefit a body. When we work out, we create a deficit
of energy, nutrients, and some hormones. So how do
we climb out of this self-created hole? The body needs
the proper building blocks i.e. amino acids and glucose
to repair damaged muscles. The idea is to use HBCD's
pre and inter-workout so that the body has a constant
supply of energy so that you can get through intense
training. You also need a protein source (BCAA's, whey
hydrolysate, or a combination of the two) to fight off
catabolism. A simple carbohydrate source that doesn't
cause a blood sugar spike and insulin response would
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be best. So, what gets there optimally? How about just
high glycemic simple sugars you may ask? The issue
with fast sugars is two-fold: with a rapid rise in blood
glucose comes a rapid insulin response that almost
always leads to hypoglycemia. This would be a poor
choice during a workout, but a great choice post
workout. With simple sugars, you would probably see
your energy nose dive before you finished your lift.
Simple sugars also have a very high osmolality, which
we will see is problematic. So just what the hell does
this osmolality word mean!
Let's first define osmolality. Osmolality is the number of
molecules of a given substance (solute) in a kilogram of
liquid (solvent). To be high in osmolality, means it has
many molecules in solution. Imagine a bucket of water
with a 100,000 sugar (sucrose) grains in it. So, after
these molecules dissociate, you would have 100,000
glucose and 100,000 fructose molecules floating in
solution. It makes sense that this solution has a high
osmolality, due to having 200,000 molecules in solution.
The following example should provide simple
understanding: you could have 200,000 fructose and
glucose molecules in solution vs 2000 one hundred long
glucose chains. Of course, these numbers don't
represent the reality, they were just an off the cuff
comparison. So how does the above mumbo-jumbo
affect you? The stomach has osmo-receptors that sense
osmolality of the incoming solutions. The higher the
osmolality, the slower the gastric emptying rate. So, the
high sugar solution is actually held up longer in the
stomach while the HBCD's travel like a bowling ball
through your stomach into the intestine to be absorbed.
The beauty is, that these molecules are so interlinked
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and complex, it takes a long time to hydrolyze (break
down) the glucose bonds, therefore resulting in a rapid
but sustainable release of glucose into the bloodstream.
This helps avoid insulin spikes and resultant blood sugar
crashes.
Peri-workout nutrition (nutrition taken in before,
during, and after) a workout is becoming more
prevalent. High glycemic carbohydrates are great post
training. They in essence force feed the muscle glucose
in a hurry, usually resulting in blood sugar dips. While
this is great post workout, it would be terrible for
workout performance. So, a great way to maximize this
anabolic window is to drink HBCD's before and during
your workout, along with either BCAA's or whey
hydrolysate to deliver nutrients to your muscles while
you train yet doesn't crash your blood sugar. Right
now, you can buy HBCD's from www.truenutrition.com
or use Recovery Factor X from Granite Supplements.
They are both excellent products. There are other
companies out there, but I can't speak for their
products personally. HBCD's come in alpha, beta, and
gamma chains. The beta chain is currently the preferred
molecule in bodybuilding as it seems to favor rapid
protein uptake according to the most recent research.
Gaspari Nutrition and True Nutrition carry the beta
chain and they are trusted sources, so I highly
recommend either. Many gyms and sports supplement
stores now carry these products, pick it up from your
local distributor. Go buy some today and improve your
recovery and make those hard-earned gains you are
seeking a reality!
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As for dosing, this inter-workout drink could contain
anywhere from 10-50% of the daily carbohydrate intake
totals. It would depend entirely on how lean the person
is and how much lean muscle mass they have. I
personally dilute 75 grams in 1/2 gallon of water. You
get no bloating and it seems to fill out my muscle nicely
and doesn't interfere with fat loss. By keeping the
mixture high in water content, you make the mixture
lower in osmolality, which is our goal. A good rule of
thumb I have found through trial and error is if you
don't dilute the solution enough, you get a rather
unpleasant effect called "dumping syndrome". It is a
real medical issue, but literally feels like your colon is
trying to turn inside out. You will pass feces like a 12gauge shotgun blast. At that point, you know you have a
hyper-osmolality solution. Simple fix, add more water.
The drawback for bigger bodybuilders, 240 lbs +, is that
some can utilize up to 250 grams of HBCD's. This may
take 3/4 of a gallon to keep the solution with lower
osmolality. Drinking high amounts of water during a
workout could either force you to pee a ton or rely on
Depends panties! All kidding aside, most people will
have to tinker with "their" mix so they can maximize the
load they are able to consume.
Why is it important to keep the mix dilute enough? If it
isn't diluted properly, you will find the solution has an
osmolality higher than your serum(blood), which has a
normal reference range of 278-300 mmol/kg of water at
roughly a 15% solution. So, for the HBCD's to be
absorbed rapidly, the solution needs to be lower than
serum. HBCD's are roughly 160,000 Daltons in weight
versus dextrose at roughly 160 Daltons, which simply
means they are 1000 times larger and more complex.
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Obviously, we need the solution to be lower in
osmolality than serum. I believe roughly 100 grams
HBCD's mixed with a half-gallon of water would provide
an osmolality of around 11. This would be a good dosing
for a male middleweight bodybuilder. The larger the
muscle mass, the higher the gram dosage of HBCD's
therefore you need more water to dilute the solution
enough to bring it below serum to allow for rapid
gastric emptying.
Hopefully this article makes sense to most people, so
the terms Daltons, osmolality, and rapid gastric
emptying are no longer a mystery. That way more
athletes can take advantage of HBCD's in their quest for
gains.
- David Reid
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ADH manipulation
In this article, we are going to talk about using alcohol
as a tool to help lose water. This could apply to
powerlifters trying to make weight, or physique sport
competitors drying out. It’s important to have as many
tools in your toolbox as a coach, and alcohol is a neat
one.
ADH is commonly referred to as a water saving
hormone. It consists of 9 amino acids, made in the
hypothalamus, and stored in the posterior pituitary
gland. ADH will ultimately lead to the transcription of
proteins called aquaporins, which get inserted into the
cell membrane, making that membrane permeable to
water. When this happens, water gets reabsorbed from
the urine to the blood. The two stimuli for the secretion
of ADH is low blood pressure, or high plasma osmolality
(low water, high solutes). The osmoreceptors are
groups of neurons that are sensitive to changes in
plasma osmolality and contribute to the regulation of
water and sodium homeostasis by causing the secretion
of ADH and other peptides to maintain homeostasis.
These neurons regulate intake of water and sodium by
sensation of thirst. Baroreceptors are sensors located in
blood vessels that track blood pressure or volume.
Once there is a 5% to 10% decrease in blood volume or
blood pressure, ADH will be signaled to release [8].
Once ADH is released into the blood, it will bind on V2
receptors on principal cells inside the collecting duct
located in the kidneys. This stimulates the G protein Gs,
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which activates the enzyme, adenyl cyclase.
Intracellular cAMP increases. The resulting increase in
intracellular cAMP leads to the activation of protein
kinase a (PKA) that phosphorylates Aquaporin-2[9].
Aquaporin translates to “water” “and porous” and they
are a class of proteins that form pores in the membrane
of cells. Aquaporin-2 will travel to the cell membrane
and are inserted into the apical plasma membrane.
They are integral membrane proteins that form pores in
the membrane, facilitating the transport of water.
These water pores block ions from entering or exiting
the cell, and only allow water. The more aquaporins
inserted into the cell membrane, the more permeable
that cell is to water. These aquaporin-2 proteins are
inserted on the apical membrane of the collecting duct
of the kidney. The collecting duct has a low osmolarity,
roughly 50-100 mOsm/L, and the water that flows
through here will make its way to be excreted as urine.
When aquaporin-2 proteins are present, water may
now enter from the collecting duct into the principal
cell through them.
Water will travel down its concentration gradient,
because it is going from a lower osmolar concentration
(50-100 mOsm/L) to a higher osmolar concentration
(around 300 mOsm/L in blood). Once inside the
principal cell, water can leave through other aquaporin
proteins (3&4) located in the basolateral membrane.
When they leave here, water will enter the blood. Once
water enters the blood, plasma volume will increase
which will increase blood pressure, and is one signal for
the release of ADH. The other thing that water entering
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the blood does is lower the ratio of solutes to water in
the blood.
High plasma osmolality is a signal for the release of
ADH. There are also ADH receptors on blood vessels,
called V1 receptors. In higher amounts, ADH will bind
to these V1 receptors on the blood vessels, causing
them to contract by increasing calcium in those cells,
which leads to vasoconstriction. Vasoconstriction
increases the peripheral resistance which also increases
blood pressure. ADH also increases some sodium
reabsorption along the distal nephron (CNT + CD)
mediated by activation of the epithelial Na(+) channel
(ENaC) by vasopressin makes an important contribution
to maintenance of the axial corticomedullary osmotic
gradient necessary for maximal water reabsorption [7].
During times of dehydration, ADH is high, and as a
result, concentrated urine is excreted, and water is
reabsorbed thanks to aquaporins. When ADH is
removed, these Aquaporins2 proteins are reinternalized
in the cell, and the luminal membrane becomes
impermeable to water [8]. Human kidneys can excrete
urine that has an osmolarity between 50 all the way to
1,200 mOsm/L. The more dehydrated you are, the high
osmolarity your urine will be, and the more hydrated
you are, the lower the osmolarity will be.
So now that we know how vasopressin works, let’s get
to the alcohol part. Alcohol causes the body to increase
urination and can produce urine within 20 minutes of
consumption. [3.] Some studies have shown that 50g of
alcohol in 250mL of water causes the elimination of
600-1000mL of water over several hours [6.]. 1L of
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water is around 2.2lbs, which is quite significant. The
way alcohol promotes urination is by inhibiting the
release of ADH(Vasopressin) from the pituitary gland. In
mice, Ethanol reduces the calcium-dependent secretion
of ADH by blocking voltage-gated calcium channels [4].
Acutely after drinking alcohol, vasopressin secretion is
suppressed, and a higher amount of water would be
excreted as urine. As time goes on as BAC declines, the
body will try to compensate by making high amount of
ADH hormone. If you don’t reintroduce water, this
won’t be a problem, and this will also set us up to be a
water hoarding machine when it is time to bloat up
(powerlifters).
Alcohol is another tool that can be used as a diuretic by
temporarily inhibiting the release of ADH from the
pituitary gland. You also get an added relaxing benefit
that follows the consumption of alcohol. Again, this is
just another tool for the toolbox as a coach, and this is a
fun topic to dive into.
- Thomas Lackie
References
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM
C4714093/
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/708147
7
3. https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh211/84.pdf
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4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/194161
9
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/757380
5
6. https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh221/54-60.pdf
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/207369
86?log$=activity
8. Caudill, M. A. Biochemical, physiological, and
molecular aspects of human nutrition. (Elsevier Health Sciences Div, 2012).
9. http://press.endocrine.org/doi/10.1210/en.200
5-0868
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL89x3BT
nmY
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L-Carnitine and Fat Loss
Spending tons of money on supplements is great, and if
you agree with that statement, then this article may not
be for you. You see, I prefer to spend as little as
possible on supplements, so the money I do spend is
definitely going to be on a supplement that is going to
benefit me a lot. In the past L-Carnitine has been on the
receiving end of quite a bit of poo-pooing by those who
tried it and didn't immediately turn into a fitness model.
I believe these folks, and their claim that L-carnitine did
not work for them the way they expected, but the same
can be said for jumping into a Lamborghini and not
being able to drive stick. A great product, not used
properly, makes for crappy results.
Approximately 95% of the body’s carnitine is located in
skeletal muscle. Carnitine is a substrate for an enzyme
which is a rate limiting step in fatty acid oxidation in the
mitochondria. A recent study has shown that when
total muscle carnitine content is increased, body fat
mass accrual associated with carbohydrate
supplementation was prevented. In the study 2 groups
of healthy males were given 80g of carbohydrates
(control group) or 80g carbohydrates with 1.36g of Lcarnitine (carnitine group). Each group supplemented 2
times a day for 12 weeks. The researchers concluded
that not only was carnitine responsible for preventing
fat gain in the carnitine group vs. the control group, but
also that the prevention of fat gain was associated with
an upregulation of genes and gene networks relating to
fuel metabolism. They also found an increase in energy
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expenditure and fat oxidation during low intensity
exercise (<50% of max oxygen consumption). In this
particular study, after 12 weeks of L-carnitine and
carbohydrate supplementation, muscle total carnitine
increased by 20%, Long-chain acyl-CoA increased by
200%, and whole-body energy expenditure increased by
6%1.
Here are some things that you can do to take advantage
of L-carnitine:
•
The doses used in the studies averages about 3g
L-carnitine per day.
•
The studies were conducted over 12-24 week
periods. So be patient.
•
Take your L-carnitine with carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates spike insulin, and insulin as a
nutrient driver helps load the muscle with
carnitine at a faster rate than ingestion of Lcarnitine alone2. If you use an intra-workout
drink, that would be a pretty good opportunity
to take advantage of increased carnitine uptake
by spiked insulin levels.
•
Weight train. Why not burn a higher
percentage of fat during your training, and
retain a fuller look to the muscle by sparing
muscle glycogen?
•
Cardio. I realize the huge debate between
steady state and HIIT cardio. Consider for a
second that if you do your HIIT first and then
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just cruise at a nice slower steady pace for a
little while after, you could take advantage of
the EPOC from the HIIT, and also the higher
amount of fat oxidized while you walk due to
your new friend L-Carnitine.
- Brad Hull
References:
1.Stephens, F. B., Wall, B. T., Marimuthu, K., Shannon,
C. E., Constantin-Teodosiu, D., Macdonald, I. A., &
Greenhaff, P. L. (2013). Skeletal muscle carnitine loading
increases energy expenditure, modulates fuel
metabolism gene networks and prevents body fat
accumulation in humans. , (Pt 18), 4655–
2.Wall, B. T., Stephens, F. B., Constantin-Teodosiu, D.,
Marimuthu, K., Macdonald, I. A., & Greenhaff, P. L.
(2011). Chronic oral ingestion of l-carnitine and
carbohydrate increases muscle carnitine content and
alters muscle fuel metabolism during exercise in
humans. , (Pt 4), 963–
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Training
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Justin,
I want to try a progressive overload training
program—do I just make sure I use more weight each
workout? I don’t see why that’s anything special?
Everyone is trying to get stronger.
In general, I look for any form of progressive overload-not just strength.
The problem with getting stronger is people focus too
much on getting stronger in a lift rather than making a
muscle stronger.
I can always add more weight to my squat by adjusting
my stance, changing the bar position, finding weights I
know are only 44.5lbs, wearing flatter shoes, using
tighter knee wraps, even resting a few seconds longer
before my max set.
That doesn't mean my quads get stronger.
In fact, I can use far LESS quad muscle and lift far
heavier weight.
If the goal is to get bigger quads by making them
stronger, then the only way getting stronger in squats is
a good indicator of that is if I change NO variables.
That means the same clothing, same bar, same weights,
same form, same stance, same bar position, same
meals, same exercise rotation, same warm ups, and
same time between sets
When you remove variables you find that the strength
increases slow down dramatically...and a lot of the early
(first many months) strength progression isn't getting
stronger muscles, it's finding ways to be more
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biomechanically advantageous in a movement--and
when you've maxed out all those things, then you're
stuck with the true strength progression....which is
much slower.
Because of that, I prefer to find any form of progressive
overload.
If I can't get stronger or get more reps without changing
variables, then I try to get the same weight for the same
reps but with shorter rest periods. Or I try to complete
the entire workout in a shorter time than the last one,
or I try to find a way to do the last rep slower, or hold a
static hold, or hold a final partial rep, or anything that is
"more" than what I did the week before.
If I'm feeling strong, I'll go for a PR in weight/reps
If I'm not, I'll try to get through the workout faster.
If I know I can't hit either of those goals, then I'll do the
same number of reps, but then try for an extra rep and
just hold it at the failing point as long as I can.
If I feel like shit and can't get any of those done, then I'll
do all the same max weight and reps as the week
before, but I'll do one extra rep on all my warm up
sets.
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Progressive Overload – A Case Study
Everyone seems to be focusing on progressive overload
training these days--which is great, because of all the
metrics used to gauge potential muscle growth, an
increase in strength is about as direct of a correlation as
you'll get. BUT, you need to consider how you're
progressively overloading. Are you progressively
moving more weight in a movement? Or are you
progressively moving more weight because of a
stronger targeted muscle--because they aren't the
same.
What's worse is that it sometimes IS the case that
getting stronger in a movement means you have
directly increased strength in the targeted muscle, and
therefore have likely increased its size--and the select
use of these movements (and athletes of a particular
sport) as examples has sent many a person down the
wrong road in the quest for muscle mass
Case Study:
Powerlifter - Probably has stupid thick back and
chest. Probably has relatively weak (from a bodybuilder
stand point) legs and arms (think maybe Larry
Wheels...your legs are actually pretty well balanced,
which actually proves the point I'm going to make
because I believe it's your natural form on squat that is
the cause).
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Bodybuilder - Often has a weak back, usually has much
bigger arms than the powerlifter and usually legs too.
Why?
The difference between getting stronger in a movement
and making a muscle stronger.
The goal with progressive overload is to make a muscle
stronger. It can be reasonably assumed that a muscle
that continually gets stronger will get larger (there are
many other factors in play, but if you're benching 135
for 10 today and in a few years are doing 405 for 10
with the exact same form, you can safely assume your
chest will be bigger).
BUT, there is a difference in making a muscle stronger
and getting stronger in a movement. In powerlifting, all
that matters, is getting stronger in a movement. In
bodybuilding (if we're using strength gains as a metric
for potential muscle gains), all that matters, is making
the muscle stronger.
So, why do powerlifter have big chests and backs?
It's because the form that allows you to be most strong
in the deadlift or bench is necessarily that form which
utilizes the chest and back muscles maximally.
You can vary your deadlift form (stiff leg, Romanian
deadlift, etc), but in any of those variations, you're
removing a portion of the stress from the
erectors/traps/etc and placing it on the supporting
muscles (hamstrings, glutes, etc).
Therefore, if you get stronger in the deadlift, you are by
default making your back muscles stronger.
This is pretty much the same with bench. You can
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adjust the workload to the supporting muscles (close
grip bench, etc), but since they're the weaker
supporting muscles, you will inevitably be weaker with
that form.
Now....let's look at a squat.
If you're looking to get big quads, then you need to
make the quads stronger--this requires you to use a
form on squat that is probably not the most
advantageous for getting stronger in the movement.
Consider a high bar, close stance squat with heels
elevated.
Now, if I'm looking to get stronger in that movement, I
can very easily get stronger by adjusting my form to
adjust the workload from 90% quads/8% glutes/2%
other supporting muscles (or whatever it would be) by
spreading my stance out, lowering the bar position on
my back, sitting back more, adjusting my knee path,
etc.....now the workload distribution is maybe 50%
quads, 20% glutes, 10% lumbar, 10% hamstrings, and
10% other supporting muscles (glute minor, adductors,
etc).
In this case, I got stronger in the movement, but I'm
working my quads LESS.
The same holds true for arms.
Since the biceps and triceps are probably going to be
the weakest mover in any bar path for any arm exercise,
AND are such small muscles, you are actually almost
guaranteed that any initial jump in weight on an arm
movement is because you're using the arm muscles
LESS, not that they actually got stronger.
The reason is that even a 5lb dumbell increase on a curl
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movement is a proportionally large increase in weight
for the small biceps (probably along the lines of a 90lb
or more increase in the deadlift).
To consider the extreme, you could turn a curl into a
reverse hang clean and perhaps curl as much as
400lbs....all while using close to zero bicep contraction.
So....how to use progressive overload to build larger
muscles?
If the movement used is such that the only way to get
stronger is to use the intended muscle MORE (deadlift,
bench...that's really about it), then you can focus on
simply getting stronger in the movement.
For ALL other movements, you have to mitigate your
PRs by making sure that you're making the muscle
stronger--not just being more biomechanically
advantageous in the movement.
It's actually a pretty subtle point...it's completely
obvious once you think about it, but kind of like how
people think they're actually using 500g of protein per
day without ever considering that 500g is 1/2kg, or 1.1
lbs....so if they were actually using that amount of
protein for protein synthesis, they'd be gaining over a lb
of muscle per day....most of the time we don't stop and
really think about stuff
Few other points of note while I'm on a rant:
Legs respond to crazy high volume. Same with arms.
Watch Lee Priest train arms--tons and tons of sets and
reps.
Watch Kai Greene Train legs---tons and tons of sets and
reps and a TON of movement variation. The BIGGEST
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issue bodybuilders have when they start is weak legs
(not weak quads--weak legs). It's because a few balls
deep sets of squats can nearly put you in the
hospital....but the workload is spread over so many
muscles that even though the body is wrecked, the
individual leg muscles aren't loaded nearly enough to
trigger the muscle protein synthesis you want.
Also--there are SO many supporting muscles that are
required for true bodybuilding legs.
You should devote as many sets and as much of a
physical workload to hamstrings as you do quads.
But you also need to devote that same amount to glutes
(minus whatever workload they receive in the quad
movements....e.g., if they get 20% in squat, then you
need 80% of the workload for glute specific movements
as you do for quads....or in other words, for every 5 sets
of quad focused work, you'd need 4 sets of glute
focused work).
But...you also need to consider the adductors, sartorius,
and the other muscles of the inner quad.
You also need to consider all the components of the
quads.
You also need to consider the calves....gastrocnemius
and soleus.
For me, I've found that every leg workout should have a
minimum of the following:
heavy quad work (squats, leg press, etc). Usually 2
movements
hamstring curl work (leg curls, seated leg curls,
etc). Usually 2-3 movements
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Light quad work (leg extensions, sissy squats, hack
squats, etc). Usually at least 1 movement
heavy hamstring work--working the attachment at the
hip, not the knee (stiff leg, RDL, sumo stiff leg*watch Kai
Greene do them) 1 movement
Compound movement to cover the % workload of the
assisting muscles (walking lunges, single leg press,
Bulgarian split squats, etc). Usually 1-2 movements
Inner quad to cover the % of assisting (adductor
machine is usually enough) 1 movement.
So, you quickly run into the issue of:
What do I like more? Big legs or a big squat?
Because you'll have a hard time getting big legs when
you put 45 min or more of physically draining heavy
squats and still have 7-9 other movements left (not
including calves).
And the only person I've ever seen come close to doing
it was Ronnie.
But if you look at his routine it was (he hit them twice a
week):
Squat
leg press
lying leg curl
stiff leg deadlift
Front squat
hack squat
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seated leg curl
stiff leg deadlift
So....he did 8 additional movements per week on top of
his squat sets.
People think he trained for strength or more like a
powerlifter, but he really didn't
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Justin,
My weight on my last high day (Saturday) was 239. My
workouts have been good. I've noticed this week my
hunger levels were up which is weird eating more.
That's good. You always want to have to eat more to
keep growing rather than have issues with having to cut
back because of fat gain--so that's a good thing.
Leg training has been hard to figure out though. I want
to train them heavy and hard, but it seems like I
always pull muscles.
Legs respond to high volume, tons of sets, tons of reps-not necessarily heavy. Watch Kai Greene train legs on
YouTube.
I love to barbell squat but whenever I do it I always
pull an adductor muscle.
I’ll get chastised for saying this, and I say it as someone
who has been a fan of the movement since day one, but
squats are probably the most over rated exercise for
quad size if all things are considered. 90% of people
who squat as a primary movement have shittier legs
than they should. It's a fun movement, but VERY few
people are built to build max quad size from
squatting. They're a movement worth keeping in but
move them towards the end of a leg workout, make
sure your form is quad focused, and try to make a
lighter weight harder rather than use a heavier weight-going heavier almost always means taking the emphasis
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off of the quads to spread it out over adductors, glutes,
hams, etc., to improve leverages.
My gym doesn't have much variety of leg Equipment
to choose from, but it does have a leg curl, leg
extension, power squat machine, leg press, and a hack
squat machine variation.
Walking lunges, Bulgarian split squats, reverse hack
squats
It is the same movement of hack squat but your lower
back pushes into the machine versus the whole body
going into the machine. I've been using all these on leg
day but on the power squat machine I'm still pulling
adductors.
Power squat is an adductor movement more than a
quad movement.
If I go close stance in the hack or leg press I'm good but
the wider the stance the problem begins.
Sounds like you answered the question
I warm up and stretch before every session so I'm not
sure why this keeps happening. How do you suggest I
approach this?
Go close stance on any movement where wide stance
causes the issue.
Do I need to train adductors directly to strengthen
them or is it just a mechanical issue?
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Probably a form/strength/mobility issue. It's common--I
used to get it for years periodically when I'd start with
any power movement. Stretching before almost always
makes it worse. The best approach is warming up as
much as possible, avoiding leg positions that exacerbate
the problem, and move any exercise that causes it to
later in the workout after the muscles are overly
warm/fatigued.
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Justin,
Why does it seem like so few top bodybuilders squat?
Isn’t squat the best exercise for legs?
Squats CAN be the best exercise for legs. They can also
be the worst enemy of leg size if you aren’t careful with
how you approach the movement.
You ever notice how much different bodybuilders and
powerlifters look? Even the powerlifters that are lean
have a very different look than bodybuilders. As a
general rule, powerlifters tend to have very large chests
and backs, with (relatively) lacking extremities (arms
and legs).
Why is that?
In my opinion it comes down to the important
differentiation between training for a movement and
training a muscle. When training a movement, all
you’re worried about is lifting more weight in that
movement—regardless of what muscles get
worked. When training a muscle, you use the
movement to place stress on the muscle being worked.
But, if we know that heavy weights and progressive
overload build larger muscles, then why aren’t
powerlifters winning Mr. Olympia?
That’s because of the natural of which muscles are most
mechanically advantageous in a particular movement.
Take the bench press for example:
The bench press involves the chest, anterior deltoids,
and triceps as primary movers. The largest and most
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powerful of those three muscles is the pectorals. In this
case, performing the bench press with the sole intent of
moving the most amount of weight possible is, by
default, going to place the largest workload on the pecs.
Certainly workload is distributed to the shoulders,
triceps, and even other assisting muscles like those of
the upper back and even the legs when incorporating
leg drive—but if you want to move the most weight in
that movement, the largest load will be placed on the
largest most mechanically advantageous muscle
group—the pecs.
This is why an instance of training a movement (bench
press) builds large pec muscles—utilizing any other
muscle as prime mover will result in less maximum
weight being lifted.
Now, let’s look at the deadlift:
Any form of deadlift that uses maximum weight lifted
will place the heaviest workload on the erectors and
trapezius. Certainly other muscle groups come into play
in a deadlift (hamstrings, glutes, other muscles of the
back, and many other supporting muscles), but since
the erectors and traps are both larger and in a more
mechanically advantageous position to be prime
movers in the deadlift, placing any other muscle as
prime mover will result in less weight being lifted.
You can try to make the hamstrings a prime mover—
and there are variations of the deadlift that allow this
(RDLs, stiff leg deadlifts, etc), but you will never find a
world record deadlift done in the form of an RDL….and
the reason is the muscles that are prime movers in that
movement are not the ones that allow the most weight
to be lifted from the floor to a standing position.
This is another instance where training a movement
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(deadlift) builds large erectors and traps—because
utilizing any other muscle as prime mover will result in
less maximum weight being lifted.
Now, let’s look at the squat:
Clearly the squat is a leg movement, and many
bodybuilding leg routines treat it as main component
and quadricep movement. However—let’s look at the
form of squat required to place maximum stress on the
quadriceps. This form will typically be with the bar high
on the traps, with a relatively close stance, and with
knees traveling forward over the toes. Now—when
training a movement where the goal is to move the
maximum weight from standing, to hips parallel with
the knees, and back to standing, the form that allows
the most weight to be lifted in this movement is one
where the largest muscles are placed in the most
mechanically advantageous position. In this case—due
to the large number of muscles activated in the squat,
the most mechanically advantageous position is one
where multiple large muscles are co-prime
movers. That is, the glutes, quads, hamstrings, erectors,
adductors, and other supporting muscles are positioned
such that the workload is spread as evenly as possible
across the multiple large muscles (primarily a relatively
proportional distribution between the quads, glutes,
and adductors). In this case, training a movement
(squats) does not produce the largest quadriceps—
because the form that allows the most weight to be
lifted in that movement spreads a large percentage of
workload from the quads and onto the glutes,
adductors, and supporting muscles.
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This is where progressive overload becomes muddled
and distorted by many trainees. When the focus of
progressive overload is placed solely on the amount of
weight lifted in a movement, rather than progressively
overloading the workload on a particular muscle, there
are some movements where getting stronger will
directly correlate to greater workload on the intended
muscle….and some movements where getting stronger
in a movement will actually DECREASE the workload on
the intended muscle. The difference in body types
between bodybuilders and powerlifters is a prime
example of this case.
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Post Contest
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Justin,
I just finished my contest and after a week of binging, I
think I’m ready to get back on a plan, should I start
with the diet I ended at last offseason?
I like to start the offseason with 5 consecutive high carb
days with a cheat meal. It gives you a chance to load up
on calories post contest while your appetite and
cravings are highest, while not going overboard with
cheats because the high calories/carbs keeps you
somewhat sane, and you know that you get to end each
day with a massive cheat meal. After that, I would
assess how much your weight increased from your
contest weight and decide if you should start right
where you left off the previous offseason, or if you need
to decrease/increase calories from that plan.
From there, track your progress through as many
metrics as possible. The easiest is a weekly weight gain
trendline. You should gain weight more rapidly in the
beginning (especially the first month after a contest),
but if your long term trendline is more than about 1/2lb
of gain per week, then you need to consider the fact
that you’re adding unnecessary fat.
Once you’re confident that you have the diet dialed in—
that you’re not adding unwanted fat and you’re
providing enough calories to stimulate growth, then it's
just a matter of continually working to increase the food
volume as your body allows it, e.g., each new lb of
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muscle is roughly 50 extra Calories burned per day just
to maintain itself (muscle is metabolically active
tissue). So, it's a combo of adjusting for the added
muscle size, as well as adjusting for the increase in
metabolism that comes from more food (15-30% of the
Calories in protein is burned just in the digestion of
protein. Since most of it gets converted to glucose, and
then some of it gets converted again to fat, so the more
Calories you're eating, the more Calories you're
burning, etc.).
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Justin,
I’m a few weeks out from my second show. I’m not
really asking for help for this contest, but I’m curious
what you recommend people do after the contest?
After my first show I ate everything in sight and gained
30 lbs in just a few days. I’d like to avoid that this time
if possible.
One of the biggest problems with competing is the fat
gain post show when you don't have a proper protocol
planned out. People tend to take one of two extreme
approaches after their first few contests:
1) Eat everything and anything--ending up fat as shit
and reversing 16 weeks of dieting in 16 days
2) Try to hold their conditioning and eat too clean-ending up falling off the wagon at some point and
again....ending up fat as shit.
The proper approach is somewhere in the middle.
Phase 1:
First 36 hours post show:
Eat whatever you want the night of the show, and then
the day after.
Phase 2:
Next 5 days post show:
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Eat 5 consecutive "high carb" days, where you pretty
much eat as much food as you want as long as it comes
from "clean" sources. Then, at the end of the day, have
a cheat meal for your last meal.
Phase 3:
Post show rebound period:
This is where some of your best progress of the year can
occur if you handle things properly. You need to get
back on a detailed eating plan and take advantage of
your appetite and motivation to improve following the
show. You've had a week of eating your fill--2 days of
pigging out, and then 5 more days of eating until you're
fill with a big cheat meal to get cravings out of your
system, so you should be ready to get back to work.
I typically recommend a high Calorie approach, with
multiple high carb days per week where you're still
ending the night with a cheat meal. An example of this
for a typical heavyweight bodybuilder might look like
this:
Low day (non-training days):
Meal 1:
10 egg whites with 3 whole eggs or 8oz chicken
1 cup oatmeal
1 tablespoon peanut butter
Meal 2:
8oz flank steak
1 cup rice
1 tablespoon of macadamia nut oil
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Meal 3:
8oz 93/7 ground beef or flank steak
1 cup rice
1 tablespoon macadamia nut oil
Meal 4:
8oz chicken or 8oz tilapia
10oz potatoes
1 tablespoon grass fed butter
Meal 5:
8oz chicken or 8oz tilapia
¼ cup cream of rice
1 tablespoon peanut butter
Meal 6:
8oz chicken or 8oz tilapia
¼ cup cream of rice
1 tablespoon peanut butter
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Justin,
I won't bullshit you, this weekend didn't go well for
food and I have lost some ground. I have a pretty bad
"binge" mode and I ate beyond poorly for several days
and missed a couple workouts. I am bloated and have
taken a step backwards. Not gonna make excuses. It is
what it is, I am back home and it's time to re-focus.
Shit happens...everyone falls off the wagon from time
to time. Not everyone gets back on though...as long as
you get back on, everything is fine.
I have two thoughts on how to approach this and
would like your opinion! I have a guess but would like
coaching.
1. Get the bloat and added fat off with a couple weeks
of the diet we have been running and then go into lean
gain mode trying to add a ton of muscle and strength
with his next bigger cycle, while staying lean and
staying body builder mode just aiming to gain. Okay,
cool. My workout partner is on vacation and back
after this weekend. He's supposed to order
everything we could need when he gets back
2. Go more intensive diet wise really aiming to drop
hard. Perhaps going Keto, upping t3 to 50-75, and
adding cardio whenever I have any free time?
Don't do the keto...it's not a long-term approach to
looking like a bodybuilder. It's a thing guys on the
boards always talk about (as a reference...anything the
guys on the board talk about is usually the opposite of
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what you should do...which is why none of the active
members of any online community are ever top
competitors)
If you want to drop hard, we can do that. You'll be able
to push the diet much harder with the supplements in,
so dropping body fat won't be a problem. If you want
to go that route, just let me know
I don't know what your thoughts are here, I just feel
burned and need a change--either to lean gains with
lots of extra lifting or a full starvation cut as if I had a
show coming up.
Totally understand. The hardest part about the sport is
that change really doesn't come overnight (even with
gear). It's hard to accept that when you see people
"blowing up overnight"....but the thing is, they DON'T
blow up overnight. It just seems like that because
you're not with them 24/7 and the weeks/months you
don't see them don't register as the length of time that
they are. I know because I used to get emails every day
(during the period I made my most rapid progress in
size) asking "how did you blow up overnight??" But the
thing is...I never gained more than 15lbs in a year of
contest weight. I just gained 15lbs of legit contest
weight every year for 3-4 years. So, to me it seemed
like I was spinning my wheels and I'd get frustrated as
shit that I wasn't growing like I saw everyone else. I
mean...15lbs of muscle is just a little more than 0.25lbs
per week...or a lb a month! Since I can easily gain or
lose 5lbs or more in a day just from water weight--that
means that it looked like the scale was never
budging. But the people online only saw the pics of me
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a few times a year...so it seemed like every time they
saw a pic of me I had added 10lbs (which I probably
did...but it had also been 9 months since I posted pics
online). And the end result was going from 215lbs on
stage to 260lbs on stage....which was a 3 year process
to me, but seemed like it was overnight to everyone
else (Justin Compton is another guy who seems like he
"blew up overnight"...but I'm sure if you ask him, it was
a 3 year process of never missing a meal, training like a
madman, and eating more steak and rice than anyone
on earth would ever want to eat)
Would love your thoughts on what will end up with
me being a bigger leaner badass I the long run.
Honestly...it's VERY simple. IT's just very hard to stick to
how boring it is. Eat meat and rice every 3 hours for the
next x-number of years. Every day, every 3
hours. Holidays, birthdays, summer, vacations, days
you don't leave the house, days you travel for work,
days you go to the Arnold Fitness weekend, etc., every
time you leave the house you have your meals with
you. Make every workout a "good" workout. Not every
workout is non-stop PRs, but every workout should be a
workout where a newbie training partner would walk
away from thinking "fuck me...that dude trains
hard." Cycle gear properly and consistently. That's
really all it is. You do that every.single.day for years and
years...and you "blow up overnight" in everyone else's
eyes.
Do I gain weight by any means necessary? Do I try to
stay lean? I don't know what's best approach?
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The best is whatever approach you can be consistent
with...whatever approach you believe is the best and
will treat as though you're doing the right thing. The
reason Justin Compton blows up to freak status and
everyone else doesn't is because Justin Compton picked
a strategy and stuck to it...he's as detailed with his diet
in the offseason as people are pre=contest. He didn't
worry about if he was doing the right thing or not...he
knew he was doing the right thing and plugged away at
it day after day after day. The reason everyone else
isn't blowing up like Justin Compton did is because
they're ready to jump ship on their own protocol and
try whatever Justin Compton is doing because they're
paranoid that they're not doing the right thing....so they
jump on whatever Compton is doing...until they see a
pic of Big Ramy...and then bail ship for whatever
approach they hear Ramy is taking.
My own progress wasn't nearly what their progress was,
but I could tell you exactly what I ate for meal 3 on any
day of any week from 2005-2007....because it was the
same damned thing every single day. I ate the same
meals for 3 years straight.
The only changes were that I started with 6oz meat and
1 cup of brown rice (2005), then changed the brown
rice to white rice (2006), and then increased it to 2 cups
of white rice (2007). Same foods, same times, every
day for 3 years.
Want to know why Ronnie was the freak of freaks?
Because he was consistent.
Chad Nicholls gave him a diet plan...so he followed it,
every. single. day in the offseason, and every. single.
day pre-contest.
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Brian Dobson gave him a workout routine....so he
followed it, every. single. day...for 25 years! Same
fucking workout routine. Same exercises. Same time of
day.
Over and over again.
While everyone else was jumping on Parillo's MCT oil
bandwagon, or Milos’s giant set bandwagon, or FST-7,
or WHATEVER....Ronnie was eating meat and corn
bread at Outback and training like a fucking cyborg.
While everyone else was jumping from contest prep
guru to contest prep guru, Ronnie was eating his good
ole chicken and Masterpiece barbeque sauce day after
day, year after year.
That's all it is.
Eat meat and rice (or whatever variation of carbs and
fat to go along with the meat) every 3 hours, every
single day for the next few years, train your ass off (on
any routine that gets you pumped to hit the gym....I like
training heavy and focusing on progressive overload,
but use whatever approach motivates you the most),
and pin test and EQ (or whatever you find that works
best for you)....and just repeat it over and over and over
and over and over
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Weight Cuts
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Justin,
I compete in powerlifting and it seems like the top
lifters in each weight class walk around looking a hell
of a lot heavier than the weights they compete at.
How much weight are these guys cutting for meets?
How big of a weight cut is even possible?
How much weight can be cut in a water cut?
Let’s run the math:
Points of emphasis for this:
•
•
•
Why am weight matters more than pm weight
Why a 30lb weight cut is relatively easy, but a
40lb cut is very hard (and potentially
dangerous)
This stuff isn't magic. The body isn't a robot,
but many things are directly calculable, like the
weight of water, the weight of lost glycogen,
etc.
Glycogen:
Assuming you’re working with a male who holds around
1000g glycogen at max (it’s estimated that the average
male holds 800g, so this is a fairly safe estimate in a
trained male).
Each gram of glycogen holds about 3.6g of
water. Considering there is sodium and stuff in there as
well, let’s round that to 4g.
That means that the change from fully glycogen
saturated to completely glycogen depleted is a
difference of about 5,000g—or about 11lbs of weight.
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Food Volume:
This isn’t going to be a huge one, but there is certainly
some weight that food holds during the digestion
process that can be removed during the depletion stage
by decreasing food intake. Let’s assume that this daily
food weight is about 5lbs (if you’re eating even 6oz of
meat per meal, that’s already almost 2.5lbs of weight
before any carbs are taken into consideration).
Water Intake:
A gallon of water weighs 8lbs. If we’re drinking 2
gallons per day in the lead up to the weight cut, then
that’s 16lbs of fluid per day our kidneys are used to
flushing out. Removing water entirely at the end before
the body has time to adjust its fluid output to the
reduced intake gives us a max weight loss of 16lbs.
Where we’re at:
Our upper limit of weight loss at this point is about
32lbs. That’s 11lbs of glycogen, 5lbs of food volume,
and 16lbs of water intake. If you’ve ever heard me say
that anything over 30lbs is where it gets rough, this is
why. Beyond the 30lbs mark, we’re losing water that
the body doesn’t want to lose.
Where do we get those extra lbs? We need to tap into
reserve sources that the body won’t appreciate. Those
sources are all going to be small sources—extracellular
fluid, blood volume, and the fluid volume of the muscle
that isn’t directly related to glycogen (imagine the
difference between a steak and a piece of beef jerky—
the steak is a hydrated tissue, the jerky is completely
dehydrated….you can imagine that there’s only so far
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into the dehydrated state that you can go before major
issues arise)
Extracellular fluid:
When giving the 30lb limit of “easy weight cut,” I’m
talking about morning weight, where extracellular fluid
is low—so there really isn’t a ton of extra cellular fluid
to work with in this case. But, there is some.
How much? Well, for anyone who has been extremely
lean (e.g., bodybuilding contest lean) will be able to tell
you that losing 1lb of body fat at the end has the same
visual appearance as 10lbs of body at the beginning—
that’s the same with losing extracellular fluid from a
morning body weight. If we can pull 4-6lbs from here,
that’s about all we’re going to get—and getting those
lbs is going to take outside effort, either from diuretic
use, sauna use, or sweat suit use. But—if we hit those
6lbs, that brings us to 38lbs total weight loss.
Blood Volume:
Not all of the water you lose will be water that is bound
to carbohydrates as glycogen—you will also lose some
blood volume as well. How much of this can we
lose? Well…not much.
The average human has around 4.5-5.5 liters of blood in
the body. A larger male athlete may be around 6
liters. That’s about 24lbs of blood. Losing even 10% of
that is going to cause hypovolemic issues like
orthostatic hypotension and feelings of
weakness. Going beyond that can lead to hypovolemic
shock, which is where any athlete is going to have to
bow out….whether they want to or not. Let’s go ahead
and say a 10% loss of blood volume is our limit before
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the risk of major complication becomes higher than any
potential reward. That gives us about 2.4lbs….which
brings our total to just over 40lbs. The magic number
that is the max I would expect most athletes to lose in a
pure water depletion (this number may go up another 5
or even 10lbs when you’re talking about 300lb athletes
with a ton of natural extracellular water or drop
another 5-10lbs when you’re talking about sub 200lb
athletes).
How is this weight loss done? There are basically 4
phases—here is how they’re approached.
Tested or not tested?
The end approach can depend on if the meet is tested
or not. If it's not tested, then diuretics are used (which
actually amplify the weight gain process because they
remove so much sodium).
If it is tested, then:
Phase 1 - Increased water and sodium intake
5-10 days of increased fluid intake in the 2 gallons (8L)
range.
If you can learn to flush 2 gallons of water per day, then
that's 16 lbs you can reduce just by eliminating water
for one day. Increased sodium intake (heavily salting
your food) in the days/weeks leading up to the weigh in.
This isn't usually a problem since people tend to add
more seasoning for flavor when carbohydrates and
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Calories are removed from the diet (plain chicken
breasts don't taste good--heavily seasoned chicken
breasts taste better). So, by increasing sodium and
water in the days/weeks before the weigh ins, the
person may gain a few lbs initially--but then the body
regulates itself and pretty soon they are back to their
normal weight but eating high amounts of sodium and
drinking 2 gallons of water--which will help us drop
weight later on.
Phase 2 - begin carb and sodium depletion
72 hours before weigh ins:
•
2 gallons water per day.
Zero carbs.
Only low-fat protein sources for food.
Very low sodium intake (no added
salt/seasoning)
Phase 3 - begin water reduction
24 hours before weigh ins:
•
Begin reducing water intake based on weight at
the time
Phase 4 - begin sauna
12 hours before weigh ins:
•
Begin sauna use if water reduction isn't causing
a big enough weight drop.
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•
If no sauna is available, make a bathroom sauna
(person is typically at a hotel for a major
competition).
 Turn the shower on full heat and wedge
rolled up towels under the door to seal
the room off as much as possible. Lay in
heavy clothing (garbage bag shirt can be
used if still way over weight) and watch
movies until you're able to make
weight.
Phase 5 - weigh in
Immediately after making weight:
•
Slam a HMW carb drink of about 32oz, 50g
carbs, and two tsp baking soda.
Take 1600mg Ibuprofen.
Apply 3x dosage of nasal spray desmopressin or
3x oral dosage (if you have pills).
Start a protocol of ramen noodles, G2 Gatorade,
and HMW carb drinks (including saline bags if IV
bags are allowed).
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Justin,
I saw your post on the limits for weight cuts in
competition. I understand that it’s possible to lose
that weight for a weigh in, but most weigh ins are 24
hours before the meet. How in the hell are they going
to lift the next day if they’re so depleted and
dehydrated?
I get that they can lose the weight—but there’s no way
they’re gaining it back in 24 hours, are they?
Yes, they are. Here’s how:
A gallon of water weighs about 8 lbs. Glycogen storage
results in about a 1:2.7 (g:g) storage between glycogen
and water (about 3.5g of water gets stored with every
gram of glycogen).
So, doing the math–if you can eat 8lbs of
carbohydrates, you can store 30+lbs of weight if you
consume enough water and eat enough sodium.
How is this done?
100g of carbs from cooked rice is about 350g weight.
8lbs is roughly 3,500g.
So, 1,000g of carbs from rice is about 8lbs and will bring
about 10,500g (23lbs) of water with it when stored as
glycogen.
How do you store that much glycogen?
You probably don’t–but being as glycogen depleted as
possible will maximize the amount you are able to
store.
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So, step one:
Get depleted. A low prolonged low carb diet will
deplete glycogen stores.
Get dehydrated. A period of dehydration will affect
vasopressin and tell your body to hold on to whatever
water you do drink.
Get hyponatremic. A period of low sodium intake will
affect aldosterone and tell your body to hold whatever
sodium it does get when you finally reintroduce it.
Step two:
Reduce kidney function and increase vasopressin.
How? A heavy dose of NSAIDs will reduce the function
of the kidney during the time the NSAID is in the body
(8-hour half-life for most). A nice dose of
Desmopressin will spike vasopressin and make sure that
you’re pissing as little as possible.
Step three:
Take in a shit load of carbohydrates, water, and sodium.
The hardest part of this process is that the stomach gets
full and it gets hard to take in more food and water–so
the most important thing is to find high density food
sources loaded with carbohydrates and sodium, and to
find carbohydrate containing food sources that pass the
stomach quickly.
What are those products?
Ramen Noodles
1/2 strength Gatorade
High Molecular Weight Carbohydrates.
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Ramen Noodles:
Each pack contains about 50g of carbs and 1.5g of
sodium.
Eating 2 packs every two hours will give you 100g of
carbs and 3g of sodium every 60 minutes–or 800g of
carbs and 24g of sodium over a 16-hour feeding period.
1/2 Strength Gatorade:
Full strength Gatorade is too high in
carbohydrates. This causes an unfavorable molecular
weight and osmolarity in the stomach, resulting in
bloated. Cutting the carbohydrates in half minimizes
this effect and provides additional electrolytes and
carbohydrates.
If you use the newer G2 Gatorade, they’ve already done
the work for you. G2 Gatorade is 5g carbs per serving–
giving you 80g of carbs per gallon.
Thus, drinking 2 gallons of Gatorade gives us 160g of
carbohydrates and 2 gallons of fluid towards the 2.7
gallons we need.
High Molecular Weight Carbohydrates:
We need one final source–one that won’t bloat the
stomach, will allow us to get the additional gallon of
fluid we need, and also provide the extra carbohydrates
we’re missing.
Adding 50g of a high molecular weight carbohydrate
(HBCDs, Waxy Maize, Vitargo, Karbolyn) to a gallon of
water will be our solution.
Adding this extra gallon mixture will give us 50g of carbs
and an extra gallon of water.
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Final Tally:
We needed:
2.7 gallons water
1,000 g carbohydrates
Lots of sodium
We have:
3 gallons of water
1,010 g carbohydrates
23-25g of sodium.
The result is 30lbs of weight in a 24 hour period.
When to apply this protocol:
The most obvious is for powerlifting competitions,
MMA fights, and things where a weight class needs to
be made and there are at least 24 hours between weigh
ins and the start of the competition.
Less obvious, but more idiotic applications are office
weight loss contests (Apply this protocol for the
“before” weight, eat normally for the rest of the
contest, then simply cut sodium, water, and
carbohydrates for about 24 hours before the “after”
weigh ins). The reverse usage of this will also result in
about a 30lb swing…which is usually enough to win
whatever prize money is involved in the weight loss
“contest.”
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Supplements
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Justin,
I hear you only like insulin in high carb days? What are
your thoughts on using it pre-workout on all work out
days?
Not as beneficial as multiple doses per day a few select
days per week. Never seen anyone make substantial
progress that way and it's been out of vogue (except for
the people on the internet who seem to still talk about
it as the standard practice) for about 10 years. I don't
know a top competitor who does it that way anymore
(aside from the ones that have turned themselves
diabetic from GH and need insulin every day)
There just isn't enough time to create growth in a few
hours. I know the workout time frame is the most
anabolic, but at the very best you're looking at
converting 1-3g of protein to muscle per hour....and
even that rate is 75-225lbs of muscle every 3 years...so
even in the very best-case scenario, it's unlikely that
we're even hitting 1-3g per hour consistently around
the workout.
Using insulin increases the rate of glycogen storage
primarily (honestly--this is why you should be using
insulin. It's not anabolic like people claim. It isn't
pharmacokinetically anabolic--but it does increase
amino acid uptake rates, which can increase the rate of
protein synthesis if protein synthesis is triggered...it just
isn't anabolic on its own).
So using it around workouts with the hope of increasing
amino acid uptake to take advantage of the workout
anabolism is a good thought---but how much are you
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going to increase growth?
If 1-3g is your max number--are you going to hit that 13g mark by using insulin? Let's say you are--that insulin
will make you as anabolic as possible at every workout.
You're looking at about 2g of muscle tissue per
workout.
Then after 200 workouts (about 1 year), you've
stimulated .44lb of new muscle.
BUT, when you use it multiple times a day on high day
you're able to super saturate glycogen stores, eat higher
Calories without fat gain (because additional Calories
will be stored as carbs that could be stored as fat
otherwise), and increase the rate of amino acid uptake
all day long--potentially hitting that 1g mark for up to
12-15 hours that day.
If you're using insulin consistently we'll probably go to
2-3 high days a week (slightly lower carb on them than
you would with one high day per week when dieting
most likely) as well.
If you're doing the high days 3x per week with 12 hours
of increased amino acid uptake, that's 36g of muscle
growth potential per week as opposed to 8-10g using it
with every workout. So, you're looking at 4x the growth
benefits.
There's just too much emphasis on taking advantage of
the post workout window, or the pre/during/post
window by most people...it's what gets posted around
the internet, but it's a poor way to approach
things. Muscle growth happens throughout the
day. The time frame around training IS the most
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important time frame for promoting growth--but it isn't
the ONLY time frame and isolating it to the max while
minimizing the other 22 hours of the day will slow
results in the long run.
YES, muscle growth is maximized around the workout,
but the rate of growth, even with geared users, is so
slow that overly emphasizing a brief period of time just
doesn't add up when you do the numbers. You need to
take consistent advantage of as many hours per week as
possible, not overly emphasize the workout time frame.
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Justin,
I was reading about Humulin R; seems to make sense
since it would cover the pre, intra and post work out
phase. Just curious. It's also nice since its OTC.
It's just less predictable. The second peak is never the
same level...so eating meals that will keep you from
going hypo 99 times in a row will bite you in the ass and
have you blacking out in the car 4 hours post injection
the 100th time.
Just make sure you have juice with you wherever you
are when using the R. The dosing protocol will work, it's
just not as predictable as Humalog so there's always the
risk of an abnormal drop in blood sugar randomly
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Justin,
I am very interested in using insulin, but don’t know
where to start. I've heard many different ideas about
it online but not sure what is the truth.
Probably not anything you read online.
People think it's the wonder drug because most haven't
used it much. Everyone used to think GH was the super
drug that made all the pros big, but eventually it got
common enough that everyone used it--and when they
didn't look like Phil Heath they decided it wasn't the
GH--it was the insulin. But now most people have tried
every method of insulin use....and since none of them
look like Phil Heath....you're starting to see people say
that IGF-1 or other random peptides, or crazy high
doses are the reason pros are so big.
The problem with the internet is no one that looks any
good posts online....so they all just assume the reason
they look like shit is because they haven't used the
"secret" product yet.
So....that "secret" product is always the least common
product.
Once gear doesn't turn them into a freak, they assume
GH is what makes people huge
Once GH doesn't turn them into a freak, they assume it's
insulin
Once insulin doesn't turn them into a freak, they assume
it's peptides, or myostatin inhibitors, or whatever.
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The truth is that Ronnie Coleman was huge without
anything. Phil Heath turned pro on baby doses of
gear. The truth is that genetics play a bigger role than
anyone wants to realize....and the people looking for a
secret drug combo to get huge are usually (more like
always) not following a proper diet protocol....and just
want to blame their lack of results on not knowing the
secret gear combination.
Insulin is a nice help. It can be very beneficial post diet
to fill you out rapidly, but the truth is that it’s probably
the least effective out of all the products out there.
Gear and GH are what does most of the work on the
gear end
Diet, training, and genetics do the rest.
Ultimately, it's 99% genetics.
People don't want to believe this for some
reason. They're fine with the idea of genetics in other
sports....no one thinks LeBron James is only better than
them at basketball because he knows a secret dribbling
routine. No one thinks they could beat Usain Bolt in a
race if they just knew his steroid stack. Everyone
realizes they're not going to play in the NFL because
they're not 6' 8" 330lbs or can run a 4.3 40yd.....but for
some reason, no one seems to be willing to accept that
fact with bodybuilding
Now...regardless of your genetics, you can look VERY
impressive to the average non-bodybuilder...but unless
you have those top genetics, you can't look like a top
pro bodybuilder.
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Taking genetics out of the equation, how you look
depends on (in order of importance--most important
first):
1. Diet
2. Gear
3. Training
Provided you train relatively hard, how you look
depends on your diet mostly.
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the
science and also application to what I might be doing
to optimize results.
It's not anabolic. At all.
The phrase "it's the most anabolic substance there is!"
is completely false. Insulin is anti-catabolic. It has zero
(direct) anabolic properties. It has zero direct relation
to anabolism.
It does increase the rate of amino acid uptake--which,
assuming there is a stimulus for protein synthesis (some
other anabolic stimulus), can increase the rate of
muscle growth--but it's not anabolic on its own.
It's best used on high carb days, multiple times a day.
We will use it on high carb days, 3 times per day. two
regular meals and then pre-workout
In my opinion, it isn't very effective at all when used
once per day around a workout. I don't know why that
idea still gets pushed.
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There are two triggers of protein synthesis in the body
1. Eating. Eating protein stimulates protein
synthesis for about 1.5 hours after a meal
2. Training. Working out can trigger an increased
rate of protein synthesis for up to 24 hours.
Taking it only after a workout means you increase the
rate of amino acid uptake for a couple of hours out of
the 20+ hours that workout stimulated protein
synthesis--how does that make sense?
The MAX rate you can synthesize new muscle is about
1g per hour. That's pretty much the maximum
sustained rate of protein synthesis (and it is a sustained
action...there are no massive protein synthesis spikes.
It's a "trickle" effect type of action, not something that
happens in big bursts). By taking it only during your
workout, you are wasting all that effort on the 1.5
GRAMS of muscle you can build while insulin is active?
If you worked out 300 times in a year--that insulin
would result in the possibility of a whole 1 pound of
new muscle that year....
Humalog peaks for about 1.5 hours. You get an
increase of protein synthesis for 1.5 hours after every
meal--why focus only on the workout when it's timed
perfectly to work with meals?
Then you have the people that talk about Humulin-N
and Lantus and other long acting insulin.
That might be great in the very short term....but high
insulin levels 24 hours a day will rapidly cause a
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decrease in insulin sensitivity....so every day you use
those long acting insulins, they are less effective.
in a sport where it takes a decade or more to reach your
peak....you're not really thinking things through if you're
focusing on increasing growth by 1% today when it's
going to decrease it by 50% 5 years from now.
Imagine insulin as alcohol....and getting drunk was the
act of stimulating growth.
If you drank beer all day long, you'd get drunk as hell
the first day. And probably the whole first month! But
by year 10, you won't be getting drunk, you'll just need
the beer all day long to not go through withdrawals....
So, you got drunk as hell (stimulated growth) in the
beginning, but it isn't too long before you can't get
drunk at all (can't grow).
Here's how every drug discussion goes on the internet:
Guy who looks like shit says "you have to use the drug
like this. That's how all the pros use it. I'm growing
CRAZY fast this way."
Everyone else says "Woah--awesome! I can't wait to
get huge!"
Sometimes someone who actually does know what
they're talking about will say "uh...that's not how you're
supposed to use that drug."
Everyone replies, "You're an idiot---guy who looks like
shit said we had to use it that way!"
Years later guy who looks like shit, still looks like shit
and says "I'm trying this new drug this way and am
growing CRAZY fast!"
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Repeat for every drug.
Anyone who's talking about drugs on the internet
almost by default has no idea what he's talking about.
if he did, he would already be a "known" person
because he looks like a bodybuilder and would no
longer be online talking about gear
OR, he works with top competitors and doesn't want to
give away all his info for free when he makes his money
on that info
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Justin,
I’ve been trying to lean out without losing muscle. I’ve
been pretty good on the diet. I’ve kept it simple--I’ve
been running my meals all as medium days. Is it okay
if I stick loosely to the diet? Or should I follow the
carbs and protein to a “T?”
You will get the most optimal gains by follow the diet
exactly. I know I've emphasized the point by now, but
bodybuilding is diet. Without the diet--it's just
powerlifting or strongman type work.
Training is for performance. Diet is for appearance.
You won't look like a bodybuilder without the diet. I
realize everyone wants it to be the drugs--and you can't
look like a bodybuilder without them, but everyone who
lifts seriously is on gear. That isn't the deciding fact--of
the people using gear, the ones that look like
bodybuilders are the ones who eat like a bodybuilder.
Also, I have some more questions please.
How should I start my cycle I’m starting with 750 test
and 600 primo next week.
That's a good cycle to me.
You may want to add Proviron for a nice
boost. Definitely have an AI on hand in case gyno pops
up--or start with a low dose of Nolvadex to prevent that
from happening at all (10mg)
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How long should I run each cycle 12-16 weeks? With a
4-week cruise break? Even for year-round use?
Yes--16 weeks max, with a 4-6 week cruise at 200400mg test. You can run year-round, but if you do it at
high doses, you'll run into issues eventually. There just
isn't a way around it. You have to be extremely diligent
with blood work to make sure there is no issues with
high blood pressure, insulin densitivity, etc. Those
things add up and eventually lead to kidney issues-which is what bodybuilders die from.
There is no real size loss with a 4-week cruise. You'll
take a week off of training at some point in the year
most likely...or at least a de-load week at some point.
When you cruise, the blast doses take a good 2 weeks
to leave your system anyway--so the first two weeks
aren't much different than a blast.
Then if you take one week off the gym or de-load, then
of the 4 weeks you cruise, only one week is even
actually any different than a blast.
How should I start this run of gear? How should I
increase?
I don't think you'll really need an increase. If you really
want to push things, you can bump the test to 1,000mg,
add Proviron at 25-50mg/day, include metformin in the
plan, and run GH at 5+ iu/day. At that point you're
essentially at the blast protocol that a somewhat
genetically gifted bodybuilder would be using to turn
pro. So, if you have any questions about your genetic
level--that cycle would let you know.
The only problem is--there really isn't much room to
increase from there. You're already on most of the
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main compounds that are effective (an androgen, an
anabolic, an insulinogenic, an androgenic anti-estrogen,
and growth hormone), so you run into the issue of
"where do I go next?"
And what should it look like to run a cycle that will be
considered the cornerstone of my cycles?
What should "it" look like? Or did you mean, what
should "I" look like? The top genetic elite (the guys who
win pro shows) are able to turn pro on the cycle you
listed. The super elite (guys that win the Arnold or
Olympia) would be able to win a small pro show on that
cycle. The vast majority of bodybuilders won't reach
that level with that cycle--but anyone with any potential
for legitimate size will grow rapidly on that cycle.
Can I add orals to the beginning of my cycle or during
anytime?
Yes, but they're really not something you want to run
much in the offseason. You'll use orals in every contest
prep, and they really beat up the liver--so if you're
running them offseason too, it isn't long before your
liver becomes a problem....and you run into the issue
where you can't run a proper pre-contest plan because
you have liver issues and now can't run the orals.
Adding dbol, or Anadrol will add weight quickly (water
largely). Adding Anavar will provide the best boost for
legitimate muscle growth--but it's expensive and often
fake.
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Also, I’ve heard that you advise running Proviron yearround at 25mg? Do you suggest cycling on off or
changing it up?
I don’t necessarily advice that it be run year-round—just
that it is a nice compliment to just about any cycle. It’s
relatively low in liver toxicity, improves the
effectiveness of other compounds, has androgenic
properties without aromatization, and increases free
test levels while lowering estrogen levels. It’s not a
miracle product, but if it’s available and cheap—it’s
never a bad thing to include in a cycle.
I would cycle off if your blood work shows major lipid
issues--if your HDL is single digit and your LDL is
>200...you'll need to make some changes to fix it, and
even though Proviron is a minor player in lipid stuff--it
still has negative effects.
other than that, Proviron is pretty safe to run year
round.
It doesn't really do much though, and since you can get
liquid Nolvadex or liquid AIs at a fraction of the cost--a
lot of people end up just using that instead in the
offseason if they’re looking to save money (and trust
the liquid source they’re using).
How would you advise me to run orals if I was going to
use them year-round since I have no plans of
competing anytime soon? I want to know how to cycle
or run orals if I wanted to and that would be the most
effective method?
I definitely wouldn’t run them year-round. I wouldn't
run them more than 20 weeks a year either. Orals
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really aren't that great (when you include side effects in
with the benefits)--they have the biggest downside in
that they affect the liver and spike blood pressure (high
blood pressure --and the resulting kidney failure due to
chronic high blood pressure is the one thing
bodybuilders legitimately have to worry about dying
from), and no major upside form injectables other than
the fact that you don't have to inject them.
They also lose the benefit of spot injections that gear
can give--the area you inject will stay "fuller" for a long
period of time after injecting--which is why you see delt
size so much bigger than 30 years ago.
Also, many cycles start to stall or plateau 5 weeks and
towards the end?
I've never experienced this. You stop holding water
weight, but I've never seen a cycle stall or plateau at
any point.
What gear would you change to at that plateau? Most
people believe switching compounds will help, but I’m
not sure that’s always the problem.
Most people on the internet believe that. Most guys on
the internet want to look like the people that run the
same shit all year though. You know how pros seem to
have baby smooth skin, but every dude on the internet
has backne out the ass? It's because the pros don't
have hormone fluctuations--they run the same shit all
the time, so their hormones are as stable as someone
who isn't on gear. The guys changing compounds,
doses, and cycles constantly are in a never-ending state
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of puberty....and they're always loaded with backne
because of it
What diet changes would you make if you stall or
plateau?
The diet should grow as you grow. Each lb of muscle
burns an extra (roughly) 50lbs per day just to maintain
it--if you gain 10lbs of muscle (legit muscle--not
water. 10lbs of actual muscle is a very noticeable size
difference), then you can expect to need 500 Calories
more per day roughly
What training changes would you make or change if
you stall or plateau?
None really---if you stall or plateau it is usually because
you're not training hard enough....or actually, it's
usually because people don't want to accept that the
rate of true muscle growth is pretty slow--even gaining
75lbs every 3 years (which means you'd be bigger than
big Ramy in 5 years) is only a rate of 1/2lb every
week...that's nothing. I can go up or down 10lbs in a
day just by how much water I'm holding.
So people think they plateau because the weekly flood
of water when they start a cycle stops.
I plan to run Nolvadex if I start to have any estrogenic
side effects (which will happen eventually even though
I'm not prolactin sensitive or have high estrogen).
However, I also have Arimidex, Aromasin, and
Examastane. Unfortuantely, Arimidex, Examastane.
Although Aromasin seems kill all my estrogen, and also
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my libido. If I were to run only Nolvadex, how to
should I run it? How much and when?
If you have any issues with estrogen, run Nolvadex at a
low dose with all your cycles. 10-20mg/day. Nolvadex
is piss poor at stopping gyno once it starts, but it is very
effective at preventing gyno.
If you have signs of gyno, start an AI
immediately. Aromasin is probably the "safest", but
Arimidex is at least as strong. The problem with AIs is
they have major downsides like oral gear has. they
BLOW OUT cholesterol levels big time, and super low
estrogen can lead to blood pressure spikes--which
again, is the one true thing bodybuilders have to worry
about.
I want to run GH year-round. How would you suggest
that I run it and how to cycle it? I read that you like to
run it around 5 iu a day?
It’s less that I recommend 5iu per day and more that
you can usually run GH at that dose regularly without
major issues with insulin desensitization. If you're going
to compete, you may want to take it higher at times in
contest prep, but at doses higher than about 5iu/day,
you'll run into issues with long term use. Namely, at
some point you'll be a diabetic and probably have
heart/kidney issues from cardiomyopathy and renal
failure secondary to high blood pressure and
cardiomyopathy…along with the visual changes of long
term high GH use.
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If you want to run it long term, 5iu is plenty.
If you want to compete—then shorter bursts above
5iu/day on contest preps with 5iu/day in the offseason
will probably give you 10+ years before issues start to
pop up.
If you want to run high dose (10iu or more) year round-then you can expect to be a diabetic within a few years
and you'll have a max run of about 10 years before all
the major visual effects hit.
Also, does it matter when I take the GH? I have read
many theories on this
If it's real, it doesn't matter.
If you're doing low dose (2iu/day...which really won't do
as much for growth as most people are looking for), it's
probably better to take it in the morning because
natural GH is highest at night.
But if your GH is legit, it doesn't matter when you take it
or how you split the doses--it will work.
Most people take it in the morning and then some time
in the evening.
A lot of people get f'n sick of all the injections, so most
of the year they just pin their whole GH dose when they
wake up.
Another theory is to micro dose GH 2-3iu and insulin at
2-4iu throughout the day for consistently elevated
levels in the system, elevating IGF, and shuttling
nutrients to the muscle. The idea is that this can cause
muscle cells to split. (is this theory correct that GH can
multiply or divide cells)?
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Have you ever met an IFBB pro? Half of them can
barely be pulled away from weed and video games to
stand at a booth for a few hours at the Arnold. Half of
them forget to eat if their girlfriend doesn't put the food
in front of them. If you think any of those guys are
micro dosing or doing anything like that, you're wrong.
I'm sure a few of them have tried--but Phil Heath has
been a pro for 12 years. If you think anyone can be
obsessed enough to pin 10x a day for more than a
decade straight--good luck. That shit would become
torture after a few weeks. People worry FAR too much
about the potential 0.001% benefit that something like
this might cause rather than worrying about the fact
that they’re only 80% on top of their diet, or that they
train like pussies half the time. Nail that last 20% of the
diet and the last 10% of training and that 0.0001% that
micro-dosing could possibly add won’t matter anyway.
I feel like this (micro-dosing) is just a waste of time. I
think the insulin is the only thing that is time
dependent with food?
It is a waste. Insulin needs to be timed with food, so
you don't die--but people don't use insulin NEARLY as
much as the internet thinks. In the late 90s and early
2000s, people were using it pretty consistently...but
eventually everyone realized that the GH does 99.9% of
the work and they got sick of all the insulin injections.
Most of the time, the guys that are using insulin
frequently are doing so because they have to--they're
diabetic now. And of the hundreds or even thousands
of people I’ve talked to about insulin, the one thing I
can say for sure is that the ones trying insane insulin
protocols are always younger guys (with fewer years in
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the game….you lose the desire to pin slin 30x a day after
20 years in the sport), and they’re never the largest
people I work with.
Otherwise, the standard protocol is more along the
lines of 1-4 days a week where you use it multiple times
a day (the method I prefer because Humalog is more
predictable), or use longer acting compounds (which I
dislike because it is harder to be precise with peaks)-but even then, most people aren't doing that forever
anyway. After a decade of being a bodybuilder, you get
sick of pinning and that kind of shit..so you stop the
insulin for a while one offseason, realize that you didn't
lose much size, and any fullness you did lose comes
back almost immediately after you start another insulin
protocol, so you tend to pick and choose when to
implement it.
insulin has the most dramatic short-term benefits precontest when you need to restore glycogen as quickly as
possible, and in the final week before a show when you
need to control blood sugar to properly dry out and fill
out.
Also, I have heard metformin is good to run also.
Yes--that's very commonly used these days. Partly
because it can produce some of the same benefits of
insulin without the same side effects, and partly
because a lot of people need it after years of careless
insulin use. It minimizes the risk of diabetes from the
GH and keeps blood sugar levels stable--which is really
what the insulin was doing anyway
What do you recommend and how would you cycle
metformin for year-round use or not?
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1000-1500mg/day, in 1 or 2 doses, or if it affects
appetite, take it before bed
How does it help insulin sensitivity?
it makes the receptors at the cell more "happy" to
accept insulin. It's like if you were an alcoholic and
could take a pill that would let you get drunk off 3 beers
again like the first time you got drunk.
GH makes the cells not want to let insulin do its job-metformin fixes that
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Justin,
I store a lot of fat in my stomach, but not so much
anywhere else. Does this mean that I have some
Estrogen management issues? I took Test when I was
a Jr and Sr in college and one physical therapist
associated with EliteFTS suggested that maybe I was
aromatizing Testosterone.
It depends. Belly fat usually means the opposite--that's
androgenic fat disposition.
Fat thighs/hips means estrogenic fat distribution.
But, fatty chest can mean high androgens that are
aromatizing to estrogen. The best way to get a
definitive answer is to get your hormones checked in
blood work. It's a simple test and would let you know
for sure
It’s very possible that the test you took in college was
aromatizing to estrogen. In fact, it definitely was—it’s
just the amount that is in question. One thing to note is
that aromatization is linked to body composition. At
higher body fat levels, aromatization increases. Above
about 12%, there is higher aromatization levels.
If you think back to your high school and college days,
you’ll notice this. Everyone can probably imagine an
overweight male who had clearly gone through puberty
but had almost no chest hair and only limited facial hair
growth. This is because high levels of body fat will lead
to lower levels of testosterone production. It’s largely
why the male body is most anabolic in the 6-12% body
fat range. Another example would be an overweight
athlete of the same age who clearly had relatively high
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testosterone production (even though it was probably
suppressed on some level by the body fat). You’ll often
see offensive and defensive lineman in college with
clear cases of gyno. This is because while they may
have high testosterone levels despite their higher body
fat levels, they still have the higher aromatization from
the excess body fat.
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Justin,
I heard you say that you would only supplement with
GDAs if A1c was elevated or if the person were using
products that reduced insulin sensitivity (like higher
dose GH). Why?
If blood glucose is normal, then think about what you’re
doing--you’re increasing insulin sensitivity on a normally
functioning system. You can’t increase it until you go
hypo....because your body isn’t going to just let you
lapse into a coma and die.
So, you’re artificially lowering bg...which the body is
then forced to fix by increasing bg back to a normal
range.
All you’re doing at that point is teaching the body to
deplete liver/muscle glycogen when your whole goal is
to do the opposite.
This whole sport has a 1-dimensional view of
things...the more is better view. Things are more
involved than that though. Look at steroids for
example. Everyone things more is better. But that’s a
simple thing to assess if you look at it.
If it’s always the case that more gear means more
muscle growth, then wouldn’t at least SOMEONE have
given that a try by now? The idea isn’t complex...it’s
literally the first thing people thing when they think
when anything about steroids is mentioned.
If more is always better...then why isn’t Mr. Olympia
just a contest of who was born into wealth?
It’s because there are more factors. After a point,
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higher doses lead primarily to higher rates of side
effects with little to no benefits to progress.
Think about what some potential side effects of high
doses are.
•
•
•
•
•
Loss of appetite
Lethargy
“test flu”
PIP
Health issues
When you get to doses where your appetite is dead,
you have test flu, and you’re so lethargic that you can’t
train, how can you expect to progress? If you can’t eat,
can’t train, and are eating muscle tissue with
permanent flu symptoms...then you’re not improving.
The gear doesn’t convert air to muscle. It still needs a
stimulus for muscle protein synthesis (training/food),
minimal catabolism (not having a fever), and the
nutrients to synthesize new muscle protein (food).
It’s like that with everything in this sport, but people are
too blind to take a step back and see what’s so
obviously in front of them.
If 3 sets is good, is 300 sets better?
If 50g of protein per meal is good, is 500g better?
If training 4-5 days per week is good, is 7 days better?
With anything in this sport, take whatever thought you
have to infinity. That is, if this dose works, what
happens if i double it? Triple it? Do 100x the dose?
You’ll see that clear issues develop...and that helps you
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paint a logical framework of when benefits start to
taper. And, the point where things taper is probably
where you’ll find the top guys in the sport living.
Once you do that, you’ll start seeing why some guys are
succeeding and others aren’t...and you’ll see that the
ones who aren’t are the ones stuck in the 1-dimensional
thought process in too many areas of the sport
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Justin,
I have some questions on gear and cycles.
Personally, I have run almost every compound except
for tren (I tried it for 2 weeks that’s it), and also have
run dosages as low as 250mg a week up to 1.5 gram or
more (wasn’t my brightest ideas looking back).
I've seen every dose range imaginable. I’ve seen 3g of
tren a week, 30iu of GH per day, and everything in
between. But I can say this definitively—it’s never been
a pro bodybuilder doing that, and the people that have
tried things like that never end up sticking with those
doses long term.
People either love tren or don’t get much out of it. If
you’re super prolactin sensitive, it’s not going to be your
go-to home run product. If you get a ton of side effects
from it, you’re not going to enjoy when you run it.
However, if you’re not prolactin sensitive and you don’t
get many side effects—it’s definitely going to be a
compound you like.
I also have no gyno issues and acne is at a minimum
because I ran Accutane years ago. I need to connect
the dots and get some properly planned cycles
together though. I feel with gear I get in this nasty
perpetual cycle that I get big when on gear and retain
water etc blow up a bit, then when I stop I lose like
5lbs and look flat and the pump tends to disappear so I
feel like a constant balloon blow up a bit then stop
deflate blow up and then deflate.
yeah--that's what sucks about it.
The top guys don't come off--that's the thing. They
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MAY "cruise" at parts of the year, but most of the year
they're on a pretty solid cycle.
The "smart" pros will blast in contest prep and then
stick to something like 750mg test and 500mg EQ or
DECA during their offseason (but if you're doing 3 shows
a year....there isn't really much of an offseason, so
they're still blasting hard most of the year)
Also, my strength isn’t what it used to be because I’m
older, but I’m working on bringing it up more (I ran a
5x5 program for like 8 weeks gain a little on my
training but as soon as I stopped gear it dropped).
Moving a lot of weight doesn't build muscle. Being
strong in a movement doesn't build muscle.
A strong muscle builds muscle.
What that means is that I can squat a shit ton of weight
for 5 reps--but my quads don't need to be strong.
My ass, quads, adductors, hamstrings, and lower back
all work together to move the weight.
My QUADS aren't getting shit as far as muscle growth.
Now....a set of 20 with 405lbs with feet close together,
no knee wraps, heels elevated, constant tension---that
will make my quads grow.
So, a rotation of cycles you think would really work
great for me in conjunction with diet and
training. Also, I get it--I know running tons of gear and
eating tons of food doesn’t always work and I don’t
want to end up looking like a big fat guy. I want to try
to keep the fat to a reasonable level so that I look
good as well.
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Food is what works. The CORRECT food. Boring ass
meat and rice, every three hours, in the right ratios to
promote protein synthesis and minimize fat gains.
Everyone thinks it's gear, or training, or some weird
compound that costs a lot of money.
It's not. If it were, then every gym junky loaded up on
test and tren would be winning Mr. Olympia.
Think about it for a second—EVERYONE at the gym is
doing the same exercises, right? There’s only so many
movements for chest that you can do. Everyone is
trying to train hard, right? Everyone is running gear,
right?
So why do some people look like bodybuilders and
some don’t? It has to be something that happens
outside of the gym. If it wasn’t then Mr. Olympia
would just be whoever happened to be born into the
wealthiest family and could run the highest dose of the
highest quality gear. If it were that simple, then what’s
the point of this whole thing? Wouldn’t everyone just
take out a loan, buy a dump truck worth of gear,
achieve all their bodybuilding goals, and be done with
it? Isn’t that the first thing people try—more gear? If
it’s not that, then what is it?
It's food. Food. Food. (not junk food--pizza doesn't
build muscle. Flank steak and rice does. chicken and
oatmeal does.)
The top guys run boring basic cycles (I’m not saying they
run baby doses—although there is an upper limit where
side effects like appetite suppression and lethargy end
up negating the benefit…because if you can’t eat and
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can’t train, you’re not going to grow….but they don’t do
anything that you’re not doing, they’re not running
some fancy chemical that only some lab in a dungeon
somewhere produces. They’re running the basic shit
that works the best—just like everyone else).
They all train the same--and what's funny is people
think the pros train like pussies because they do "pump
movements," never stopping to think that maybe if all
the small guys are trying to lift heavy with "perfect
form" for 5 reps and all the pros are banging out
explosive reps for set after set of 12 reps......that maybe
the pros aren't training like pussies....they're training
the way that builds muscle. They’re doing explosive
concentric movements with constant tension in the
proper rep range….which somehow the internet has
decided is “bad form.”
To some degree I have an intermediate knowledge of
gear. I started lifting back in 1989 so there wasn’t a lot
of resources back then on proper methods of training
and gear. So, a lot of what I have learned was trial and
error, and some came from the early information
online (which I know isn’t always the best sources).
Also, do you recommend a message board or two to
join that would have actual useful information on
training and gear, diet etc I find most of these boards
just turn into a mess of group think, where anything
different than the current “message board approved
methods” are criticized to no end.
Not really. Although the message boards are really
pretty much a thing of the past, there are/were some
very good ones when it came to having knowledgeable
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people posting regularly. However, those people rarely
put much effort into talking about gear.
Why? Because there’s only a handful of compounds out
there—there just isn’t enough mystery to make it
interesting past your first few years. By year 5,
everyone has tried every major compound (and not
turned pro). Everyone has tried mega doses (and not
turned pro). Everyone has tried insulin and GH (and not
turned pro). So, at that point, they either double down
on the idea that the reason they haven’t turned pro is
because they haven’t tried mega ultra super doses, or
they realize that there’s more to the picture and begin
to put more emphasis on nutrition and training.
Anyone who's posting gear info (past that initial phase
of excitement when you think the next shot is the one
that turns you into a freak) on a message board is
probably small...if they were a top bodybuilder, they
wouldn't be online posting about gear.
Honestly, I'm always blown away by how amazingly
WRONG 99% of the info on boards is about gear,
training, food, etc. It's all just SO wrong...which is why
none of them ever look like anything...and why you
almost never see a long-time board poster become a
pro.
And what’s even crazier to me is the fact that Dante (DC
training) started a thread back in 2001 called “cycles for
pennies” that basically laid it all out for anyone willing
to read—so the recipe is there—it was told 20 years
ago.
G0 to any internet forum/group/etc that focuses on
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bodybuilding and you’ll find that they typically fall into
two categories.
1) The forum/group that has a lot of top
bodybuilders on it.
2) The forum/group that has a lot of novice
bodybuilders on it
I can tell you exactly how group 1 looks like on a day to
day basis. The top guys will talk about diet and training,
and all the non-top guys will comment on every post
with things like “yeah—don’t forget the 10g of tren per
day!” or, “You keep posting photos of your meals—why
not include the injection that goes with it?”
I can tell you exactly how group 2 looks like on a day to
day basis. Every post is about gear. Every thread is
gossip about how much so-and-so takes. NO post is
about diet. No one is posting photos of their 100th
consecutive steak and rice meal. They’re all talking
about how they’re going to try X-compound next or
asking if Y-compound is better than Z-compound.
Sometimes you need to take a step back and take stock
of things.
If group 1--with all the 250lb mass monsters—are
posting photos of their meals, talking about their food
intake, talking about their training programs, etc. And
group 2—with all the skinny fat novice guys—are
posting photos of their gear protocol, asking about new
compounds, and never talking about training or
nutrition….maybe we should sit back and think about
why that is.
Is it that the group 1 guys are natural? Clearly not.
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But, maybe it’s the fact that they’ve all realized that
there is no magic pill for growth and since everyone is
pretty much taking the same shit, then the deciding
factor in who progresses faster must come from
somewhere else?
The most effective gear is the basic compounds. Use
them in as high of an amount as you want, but not so
high that they cause side effects that keep you from
eating and training properly
GH works. You’re not going to gain 30lbs in 3 months,
but you will be larger after 5 years of use than you
would be without it. If you’re going to take higher
doses, be prepared to deal with the side effects and
have an insulin sensitivity protocol in place.
The most effective training is boring hard training. Train
hard, get stronger in the basic movements, then get
blood in the muscle. train as hard as you can so that
the meat and rice you eat can be used to build new
muscle.
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Justin,
How long do you recommend running cycles for? Do
you prefer short cycles, like an 8-week blast? Or
longer cycles like 12-16 week blasts? Also, how long
should someone cruise for between cycles?
I actually prefer longer cycles, typically 12-16 weeks,
with a 4-8 week cruise at 200-400mg test before
starting the next cycle. You can run full cycles yearround of course, and many people do, but if you run
high doses like that long term you ARE going to run into
issues eventually. There just isn't a way around it.
People often seem to just look at blasting and cruising
as some arbitrary thing they do without ever really
considering WHY they are blasting and cruising. I’m
sure everyone considers it for health reasons on some
level, but what are those reasons?
With gear use, the health risks are pretty well defined.
What are they?
Liver issues

The primary risk here is from the use of orals—
specifically C-17 methylated compounds. The liver
has some level of regenerative ability, so there is
more leeway with liver issues here. One thing that I
think the medical community has done a disservice
to as far as steroid use is overplay the risk of liver
issues. Those risks are definitely there—but you’ll
be hard pressed to find anyone with liver failure
due to anabolic steroid abuse.
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Cholesterol issues

Androgens, anti-estrogens, and especially
aromatase inhibitors all have negative effects on
blood lipids. They tend to increase the levels of bad
cholesterol (LDL) and decrease the levels of good
cholesterol (HDL). Certain aromatase inhibitors like
letrozole and anastrozole will DRAMATICALLY lower
good cholesterol. While these are definitely not
healthy things to deal with, again, you’ll be hard
pressed to find anyone with major health issues
directly linked to bad cholesterol readings from
their use
Blood Pressure



This is the key thing that all bodybuilders who use
steroids need to pay very close attention to. Nearly
all the serious health issues you’ll find bodybuilders
having stems from untreated high blood pressure.
Think of how the body works. The heart pumps
blood to the body. That blood passes through the
kidneys to be filtered. Under normal pressures, the
heart is able to contract without much strain, and
the kidneys are able to filter under normal
pressures.
Now, consider what happens under higher
pressures. The heart is forced to contract against a
higher pressure—almost like pushing against a
heavy weight. The heart, like any other muscle, is
going to grow under increased workload—so that’s
what happens. The heart muscle thickens.
Unfortunately, the contractile muscles of the heart
are inside the cavity, so a thicker muscle means a
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

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smaller fill area, leading to an increased heart rate
to keep up blood supply.
Then, look at the kidneys. Imagine them as a simple
filter—perhaps a coffee filter. Hold a coffee filter
under the faucet and water will pour through for
years. But, put that same filter in front of a fire
hose at high pressure, and the filter begins to get
torn apart. That is what happens under high blood
pressure. Eventually, a damaged filter isn’t able to
filter out toxins as well—which is doubly bad
because as toxin levels (creatinine specifically)
increase in the body, the thing you need is a BETTER
filter, not worse. To double down on the issue, as a
bodybuilder you have higher levels of muscle mass,
which means more muscle breakdown, which
means that there is more creatinine to deal with—
eventually the creatinine levels begin to climb.
This leads us back to the heart—now, with higher
toxin levels and a smaller cavity due to the
thickened heart muscle, the heart has to work
overtime to try to pass as much blood through the
filter as possible. Soon it realizes that it can’t keep
up demand and its only recourse is to increase
cavity size by any means necessary. This is when
dilation occurs—the heart dilates to allow for larger
fill size. This dilation eventually weakens the heart
muscle as it is overly stretched. The weakened
heart muscle has a harder time to pump against the
high pressure and things snowball from there.
The next step is heart failure. As the heart fails to
keep up with demand, fluid levels in the body start
to rise. You’ll see ankles swelling (pitting edema).
This only stresses the kidneys worse. They are
unable to keep up with normal fluid levels due to
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
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their damaged state, so an increase in fluid level
(which increases blood pressure because more fluid
in the same sized blood vessel system is only going
to lead to higher pressures) just causes further
damage.
The final stages of this are pulmonary edema—fluid
in the lungs. The athlete begins noticing pneumonia
like symptoms (and the same thing happens when
healthy people get—and even die from—
pneumonia) as their breathing becomes labored
due to the fluid in their lungs (water is a poor
transporter of oxygen).
At this point there is no return—the bodybuilder is
in renal failure and dialysis is required. The worst
part of it all is that all of this could have been
avoided if proper care was taken with their blood
pressure from the beginning.
In summary, blasting and cruising is for a reason—to
maintain health. It’s not an arbitrary action.
Completing a cruise at 4 weeks when blood pressure
and kidney function are within range is better than
continuing a cruise for 8 weeks if blood pressure and
kidney function are compromised.
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Justin,
I have a question. My libido has been suffering lately.
I tried a different cycle than I typically run (test 250mg
and deca 600-800 a week), and the reason I chose this
cycle was to focus on the anabolic aspect of the deca
and hopefully have lower side effects with the test
being lower. The reason is because I’ve been reading
people claim that all the side effects come from
testosterone and it seems like everyone is getting
great results with low test cycles. How should run a
proper cycle, or what can I do to make sure my libido
isn’t trashed?
If your test dose is higher than your anabolic dose, you
should never have a libido issue (some may still run into
issues, at least with being able to “finish” if on prolactin
raising compounds like deca). If you run lower test,
you'll run into libido issues. If you run too many
anabolic compounds...even with high test, your libido
can suffer. If estrogen is too low, libido will suffer. If
you change your cycle too often, libido can suffer.
Don't worry about what people claim. If you're reading
it on the internet, you probably don't want the advice-the people who post that shit are guessing at what the
pros do, they have no idea, and worse, they post some
asinine cycle and say "I'm eating junk food but leaner
than I've ever been and growing by the day!" yet never
post progress pics. Even worse than that...I see SO
many guys who have been posting that same statement
for a DECADE or more. If they really have been growing
like a weed and getting leaner despite eating like shit,
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then you’d have to assume they’re Mr. Olympia after 10
years of constantly getting bigger and leaner.
Here’s some facts:
Basic cycles work.
A cycle of >2g of total gear, where you use test and an
anabolic where test is higher dose than the anabolic
(what you listed as your cycle basically) will just about
maximize anabolism--you'll have pretty near max
protein synthesis rates.
More isn’t always better
At this point (2-3g of total gear per week), you can
increase protein synthesis by 1% more MAX by taking
the gear higher and higher and higher...but you're
already 99% "there" with the gear on the cycle you
listed.
At that point, the way to induce more results at the
optimal rat is to get to 99% perfect on the other things.
Diet is still king if you want to make real progress
If your diet is 80%, then what's the point in trying to fine
tune the cycle from 99% perfect to 99.5%
perfect? You're spending effort to gain 0.5% there, but
not worrying about the 20% you have left to work with
on the diet? That's 40x more growth potential there!
Training still matters too.
Same with training--if training is even 90%, that's still
10% you have to work with.
When everything is at 99%, then that 0.5% with the
gear becomes important--but by that point, you should
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be (if that's your goal) a pro bodybuilder, and the small
difference 0.5% can make becomes important.
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Justin,
My sex drive has gone to shit. I can have sex with
Viagra, but the motivation to get it going has really
taken a dive. Do you have any special tricks to try to
restore it to healthy balance? Is there any way I can
run gear and have a libido and look at women again
and lust! If this is not an option or do you have
suggestions what I can do.
You just need to increase the androgen ratio of your
cycles. If you’re running very low doses of test with
high doses of deca (the term “deca dick” didn’t come
from nowhere), then you’re going to have issues. At the
very least, you’ll want to increase the androgen content
of your cycles. The easiest way is to increase the test
dose. If you’re going to run 19-nor compounds, or
anything that affects prolactin levels (prolactin is antidopamine and the primary player in the refractory
period where you cannot get aroused after sex), then
you’ll want to add a dopaminergic like Caberboline or
pramipexole as well. Adding Proviron to any cycle will
boost the androgen levels and free test even
more. Adding daily low dose Cialis will help as well (low
dose Cialis in the 5-10mg daily range is good for blood
pressure and prostate health also).
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