SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

You will have heard about "calf shocker" routines, but would you have imagined that it takes electro shocks? I don't know how often I've been writing about the truth and fallacy of the good old saying "no pain, no gain", here at the SuppVersity . And while it certainly has its merit for the faint-hearted, the notion that "pain" will entail "gain" is fallacious, also because it suggests that allowing for adequate recovery would be inferior to digging a deep black "hole of pain" ( suggested read : " The SuppVersity Athlete's Triad Series "). And while I know that you know that this ain't the way to go, I am also honest enough to admit that I often catch myself pondering the incorporation of intensity techniques, additional exercises or some fat burning minutes of HIIT, but rarely thinks about the undeniable benefits of things like the hot baths for pre-regeneration and other means to speed up recovery ( le...

Image 1: The green dots that are crowding left and right from the blue myonucleus are the satellite cells ( Hanssen. 2012 ) In case you are not really sure what a "satellite cell" is and why you should care abouts it's "recruitment", you have probably missed the Intermittent Thoughts on Building Muscle series and should get into detention. Otherwise, here is the news: In a study that has been published in the latest issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine in Sports Science T.S. Hanssen et al. published a paper with the auspicious title "The effect of strength training volume on satellite cells, myogenic regulatory factors, and growth factors" ( Hanssen. 2012 ). Exactly that kind of study that would have the potential to take the mostly common or bro-sensical reasoning behind the current recommendations on training volume to the next, a scientific level, if it the scientists would finally realize that strength training noobs are ...

Image 1: This is what NO boosters promise, yet mostly don't deliver. Many people believe that there is some truth to every myth. And in fact, a recently published study rom the Department of Surgery, Biological Sciences and Human Anatomy & Cell Science (quite a mouthful) at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, shows that even there may be a quantum of truth even in the "arginine" or "nitric oxide" or "pre-workout" or "however else you may want to call it" myth, which says that getting a decent pump will help you build muscle ( Leiter. 2012 ). Now, aside from the fact that the latest generation of those pre-workout supplements boasts of having no arginine in them and relies solely on the stimulant rush the various *amines in them will produce, there is not a single study in which supplementation with X, Y, or Z amount of l-arginine (or other forms of the alpha-amino acid) had produced greater increases in skeletal muscle ...