SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Image 1: "Hey Dude! Those arms come from rolling around in the chair, right? The time is flying by, it's almost June (just a few couple of hours left in May) and for Adelfo his next big day is approaching fast. After last weeks brief panic attack (see " Don't Let Red Flags and Banana Skins Stop You! ), he is back on track this week and that despite the fact that he has a hell lot of work to do that is not related to working out or dieting... or writing his weekly blogposts on the SuppVersity , of course. Usually you would think that sitting in a wheelchair does make all that more complicated and troublesome, but as you will see in this week's installment of Adelfo Cerame's Road to the Wheelchair Championships , sitting in a wheelchair can also have certain advantages, even when it comes to building a better physique! The overlooked advantages of training in a wheelchair I don’t get approached much, but when I do, the majority speculates that I have a...

Image 1: At least in his later life, Muhammad Ali could hardly be considered a "bro". Notwithstanding, he was 100% convinced that having sex the night before a fight was a total no-go. I you are a bro, or frequent one or many of the pertinent boards, the question whether or not sexual intercourse with yourself or your partner will have beneficial, neutral or negative effects on your performance in the gym, and more importantly your gains and endocrine system probably is not news to you. Even in case you do not belong to either of the former categories, I am sure you will have heard about Olympians or other athletes refraining from the previously mentioned exchange of bodily fluids on the day, if not during the whole week, let alone weeks before a competition. Now, as chance would have it, I stumbled across an interesting study that was conducted by a group of researchers at the University of Liege in Belgium (it goes without saying that Liege is in Wallonia, the French-s...

Image 1: Nutrition, exercise and most importantly the right mindset will always be the foundation of leading a long, strong and healthy life - irrespective of how many supplements you take - you cannot out-supplement a bad diet, laziness and a lack of motivation and determination. The hype was, as usual, huge, when back in the day Beta-Hydroxy-Beta-Methl-Butyrate (HMB), marketed as the natural alternative to Deca (Nandrolone; update : thx to anonymous for the heads-up that it was not just Anavar , as I original thought ;-), hit the market. What was yet even bigger than the hype, though, was the disappointment of customers who felt ripped off; and that not without reason, because the early HMB supplements were not only touted to be as effective as the previously mentioned anabolic steroid, they were also sold at similarly high prices and low doses, of which every scientists could easily have told you that the one thing that would grow were the purses of the manufacturers.When the ma...

Image 1: High EAA smoothies are a good, high sugar one a very bad idea Scientists from the Exercise Physiology and Metabolism Laboratory at the Department of Kinesiology and Health of the University of University of Texas at Austin, the Abbott Laboratories in Columbus, Ohio, and the Taipei Sports University in Taipaie, Taiwan, report in one of their latest papers that the administration of an amino acid enriched perfusate, a solution that is administered by the means of a canula, into the hindlimb (from the right iliac artery and vein to the tip of the femoral artery of the rat) of 9-week old Sprague Dawley rats stimulates glucose uptake in the presence of insulin, but not by increasing insulin and/or p-Akt ( Bernard. 2012 ). EAAs stimulate insulin induced GLUT-4 translocation This is interesting, as we have hitherto assumed that many of the beneficial effects of additional protein or amino acids on glucose clearance were related to BCAA or EAA induced increases in insulin...

Image 1: For these kids the high tryptophan + B6 breakfast would be useless unless they already got their 10min+ of direct sun exposure this morning A recently published study that was conducted by a team of international researchers led by Miyo Nakade from the Gakuen University in Nagoya, Japan ( Nakade. 2012 ), concludes that sunlight exposure and vitamin B6 and l-tryptophan intake with breakfast could be profound modulators of circadian rhytmicity in young children (N=816, age = 2-6 years). The results the researchers published in the latest issue of the Journal of Physiological Anthropology clearly suggest that the increased production of serotonin from l-tryptophan and the vitamin B6 metabolite pyridoxal 5’-phosphate (also known as PLP or p5p) exerts beneficial effects on the morningness-eveningness (M-E) score - a measure for the natural and highly desirable difference in wakefulness in the morning and sleepiness in the evening, the disturbance of which is among the emergin...

Image 1: You really get a hefty dose of the history of physical culture with volume 1 + 2 of Randy Roach 's Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors ; I must forewarn you, though: These books have addictive potential, so don't buy them, when you have other important things (beside training ;-) on your schedule. If you are among my facebook friends, you will probably remember that I have received an amazing gift from my friend Carl Lanore , a few weeks ago: The first two books of Randy Roach's Muscle, Smoke & Mirrors (soon-to-be) Trilogy (Roach. 2008-2011). I am not a fan of muscle gossip, but these books are a really amazing resource for everyone with a vested interest in physical culture - just as Super Human Radio the "first radio station dedicated to promote physical culture is, by the way ;-) My personal favorite in the first two volumes of Muscle Smoke & Mirrors is yet clearly the last third of the second volume about the history of dietary supplements. Aside ...

Image 1: Who would have thought that? Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), a demystified anti-aging agent, turns out to be a potent muscle protectant in young men In the past couple of days you have learned all those "boring" things about regeneration. Taking a hot bath, training lightly, posing, isometric contractions, ... and what about supplements? The basics, which are. protein , creatine and baking soda *rofl*, are probably already part of your regimen, but would you have thought that dehydroepiandrosterone , short DHEA (not to be confused with DHA in fish oil ), the touted vitality and longevity hormone, of which the medical establishment has long concluded that there is, as in the case of most antioxidants "little evidence to suggest that DHEA replacement or supplementation prolongs life or prevents disease" ( Kamel. 2008 ) could make a valuable addition to the supplement regimen of young athletes who constantly train at the narrow margin between over-reac...

Image 1: I don't see that chair. I see an amazing physique, a great friend and an outstanding competitor! I have alway been looking up to Adelfo Cerame Jr. - ever since I first heard his voice on my friend Carl Lanore's radio show, Super Human Radio . "That's a true super human, this guy!" , that's what I thought; and this has not changed, now that we know each other for almost a year and I am calling him a friend. It has little to do with the fact that he is sitting in a wheelchair and "still competing" (so what?). In fact, I tend to forget that from time to time and am tempted to ask him why on earth he has no leg day in his weekly training regimen (I mean, come on no leg day ;-). No it's not that damn chair that amazes me. It is the way he is marching forward - constantly! Yeah, marching, not rolling! And that he almost stumbled last week and asked for help and reassurance to re-balance himself only heightened my respect for him.... but ...