A Set of Elastic Bands W/ Adequate Resistance Can Fully Replace the Gym When You're Travelling - True or False?!

If you're doing only single-joint aka isolation exercises, you could fully replace your gym with a complete set of resistance training bands.

Wouldn't it be nice if all you had to do to be able to continuously make progress in the gym while you're traveling without even having to go there... I mean, to a gym? That's obviously a rhetorical question - a question the results of a recent study from the Norges Teknisk-Nnaturvitenskapelige Universitet in Trondheim, Norway (Iversen 2017), suggests that it can be answered in the affirmative... almost, at least, if you pack one or multiple (in that case with various resistances), elastic bands, whenever you travel.

Ah, and no... before you ask, the disclosure statement says the authors have "no potential conflict of interest".

Read more about exercise-related studies at the SuppVersity

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Study Indicates Cut the Volume Make the Gains!

The fact that they used TheraBands® in the ERB (elastic resistance bands) group is thus probably a means to make the results representative of the results the largest group of resistance trainees would see. Speaking of groups, to elucidate, whether elastic resistance bands (ERB) can be a viable option to conventional resistance-training equipment (CRE) during multi-joint resistance exercises (for single-joint exercises this has already been proven), the authors compared muscular activation levels in four popular multiple-joint exercises performed with

• ERB (TheraBand®) vs. 
• CRE (Olympic barbell or cable pulley machines). 

In a cross-over design, men and women (n = 29) performed squats, stiff-legged deadlifts, unilateral rows and lateral pulldown using both modalities.

Figure 1: Overview of the EMG activity of training with resistance band (REB) vs. barbell & machines (CER) - The muscle activity is sign. reduced only during squats (Iversen 2017).

The scientists multilevel mixed-effects linear regression analyses of main and interaction effects, and subsequent post hoc analyses were used to assess differences between the two resistance-training modalities showed that...

• when all is said and done, the gym is still superior: CRE induced higher levels of muscle activation in the prime movers during all exercises (p < .001 for all comparisons), compared to muscle activation levels induced by ERB.
• on a per exercise basis, it's yet just the squat, where the muscle activation suffers significantly: the magnitude of the differences was marginal in lateral pulldown and unilateral rows and for the erector spinae during stiff-legged deadlifts; in squats, however, the quadriceps femoris activations were substantially lower for ERB.

The authors also found that the differences between ERB and CRE were mostly observed during the parts of the contractions where the bands were relatively slack, whilst the differences were largely eliminated when the bands became elongated in the end ranges of the movements.

Used correctly - REBs can augment your strength gains in the gym, too.

So what's the verdict? True or false!? Well, the scientists' conclusion that "ERB can be a feasible training modality for lateral pulldowns, unilateral rows and to some extent stiff-legged deadlifts, but not for the squat exercise" says it all. It depends on which body part you're training. The band may not be ideal for squats and thus leg training, but you can replace your gym with something as simple as a set of resistance bands, ... at least in the short run (a study confirming identical gains is still warranted, though, because EMG ≠ gainz, but the 'novelty effect', alone, should help you maintain or even gain muscle over those 1-2 weeks).

What? Oh yes, your guns... well, you must have overread that in the body of the article: Aboodarda, et al (2011, 2013 & 2016), Andersen et al. (2010), Brandt et al. (2013), or Jacobson (2012 & 2014) are only six out of many studies showing increases in strength and/or size with ERB training for single-joint exercises as you'd do them for your biceps and triceps - so there's reason to be afraid of losing your guns | Comment on Facebook!

References:

• Aboodarda, Saied, et al. "Electromyographic activity and applied load during high intensity elastic resistance and nautilus machine exercises." Journal of human kinetics 30 (2011): 5-12.
• Aboodarda, Saied Jalal, et al. "Resultant muscle torque and electromyographic activity during high intensity elastic resistance and free weight exercises." European Journal of Sport Science 13.2 (2013): 155-163.
• Aboodarda, Saied Jalal, Phillip A. Page, and David George Behm. "Muscle activation comparisons between elastic and isoinertial resistance: A meta-analysis." Clinical Biomechanics 39 (2016): 52-61.
• Andersen, Lars L., et al. "Muscle activation and perceived loading during rehabilitation exercises: comparison of dumbbells and elastic resistance." Physical therapy 90.4 (2010): 538-549.
• Brandt, Mikkel, et al. "Perceived loading and muscle activity during hip strengthening exercises: comparison of elastic resistance and machine exercises." International journal of sports physical therapy 8.6 (2013): 811.
• Iversen, Vegard M., et al. "Multiple-joint exercises using elastic resistance bands vs. conventional resistance-training equipment: A cross-over study." European Journal of Sport Science (2017): 1-10.
• Jakobsen, Markus Due, et al. "Muscle activity during knee‐extension strengthening exercise performed with elastic tubing and isotonic resistance." International journal of sports physical therapy 7.6 (2012): 606.
• Jakobsen, Markus Due, et al. "Effectiveness of hamstring knee rehabilitation exercise performed in training machine vs. elastic resistance: electromyography evaluation study." American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation 93.4 (2014): 320-327.

Halloween Science - A Short List of Important and Trivial Halloween Figures, Fallacies and Horrific Facts

You better watch your treat-intake, if you want to wear this "costume" another year ;-)

I know you probably expected "healthy Halloween recipes" in this special, but you know that this is not exactly my area of expertise.

Ok, ok... Honestly, Halloween per se is not exactly my specialty either. Despite the desperate efforts of the industry to import your not so holy holiday festivities to Germany, the whole idea of dressing up like monsters, vampires, zombies and skeletons to avoid being recognized when you get drunk and laid is something we do in February, in the carneval season, not the night before All Hallow's day.

In view of the fact that the majority of you are from the US or the UK and thus probably just trying to squeeze their astral bodies into last year's Halloween costume, I thought it may still be worth to compile a couple of more or less random pieces of "Halloween research". So, here you go:

• A Playstation is as welcome as a bag of sweets: I am not sure if that's a real improvement (and it certainly is not surprising), but Schwartz et al. suggest that "nutrition professionals should encourage adults to create holiday traditions that do not rely on unhealthful foods" (Schwartz. 2003) . I guess, though, a football or skates or whatever "pro-kinetic" toy would probably actually qualify as a healthy alternative to the junkfood. But let's be honest: Would you have needed a study to know that "children will not be disappointed by toy treats on Halloween" (Schwartz. 2003)?
• Random Halloween stats (data from statista.com): With 65.8% the majority of US citizens is going to celebrate today (question was posed in September 2013) - more women than men, by the way (67.1% vs. 64.3%). 

• 

  Figure 1: How will you celebrate Halloween this year? (September 2013, by gender)

  The $75.03 budged every US citizen is about to spend this year is probably going to be slightly smaller than 2012, where the average spending was still $79.82. The estimated total spending on Halloween festivities for 2013 is ~7 billion US dollars - not bad, but more than 1 billion less than last year. Still, 75% of the respondends of a survey from September 2013 said the economy would not have any influence on the amount of money they planned to spend.
• Among the adults, participating in the festivities is a prerogative of the younger ones. More than 82% of the US citizens in the group of 18-24 and 25-34 year olds is going to party tonight. In the 50+ age group more than half of the adults are halloween refusineks.
• Pumpkin & pumpkin seeds - the healthy oddment of the halloween festivities: I know you have been waiting for this, so here they are - the established health benefits of pumpkin, pumpkin seeds and extracts (P & PE)

• 

  Figure 2:They are best known for prostate protection but a high pumpkin intake protects against gastric and lung cancer, as well - note: the breast and colorectal cancer protective effects, on the other hand, were non-significant (Huang. 2004)

  anti-diabetic - P & PE protect the pancreas against hyperglycemia (Zhang. 2013), lowers blood sugar, inihit b-glucosidase alpha-amylase to inhibit carbohydrate digestion (Yadav. 2012)
• anti-oxidant - P & PE are a significant source of natural forms of vitamin E, increase hepatic
  activities of superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase in mice, reduce the concentration of malonaldehyde (Yadav. 2012),  protect sperm against oxidative assaults (Aghaei. 2013)
• anti-carcinogenic - P & PE protect against androgen induced prostate growth (Gossell-Williams. 2006; Tsai. 2006), have proven anti-cancer effects for other types of cancer, as well (see data from Huang. 2004 in Figure 2)

• 

  Figure 3: Important bioactive compounds from pumpkin and their biological activities (Yadav. 2012).

  anti-microbial - P & PE kill or inhibit the proliferation of about every bug you know, Acinetobacter baumanii, Aeromonas veroniibiogroup sobria, Candida albicans, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serotype typhimurium, Serratia marcescens and Staphylococcus aureus (essential oil; Hammer. 1999)
• incontinence - PE reduce bladder pressure in rabbit model (works only with oil preparations (!); Zhang. 1994), but reliable evidence from human trials is lacking despite the fact that you can and million people actually do buy corresponding supplements at every pharmacy
• good source of potassium - P have a high potassium content (300mg/100g; seeds contain more than 1,000mg per 100g; Lazos. 1986), certainly something to remember in view of the low potassium content of the Standard Western Diet (SAD)
• Halloween is "more fertile" than Valentine's day: It may sound as if this was related to "financial fertility", but it isn't a 2011 Yales study (Levy. 2011) found that the number of children that are born in the "Halloween window" is 8% (=133,087) higher than during the Valentine's-Day window.
  Still, compared to non-holidays the number of spontaneous births was 5.3% and the number of cesareans even -16.9% lower on Halloween. Reason enough for the scientists to come up with a conspiracy theory: "Our findings raise the possibility that pregnant women may be able to control the timing of spontaneous births" (Levy. 2011) - it that's not far fetched, it's imho at least pretty irrelevant, don't you think so?

Rollmops is an obligatory part of the German version of "Tom's breakfast"

About to get drunk? Maybe this brief history of anti-hangover cures can help you avoid the worst side effects. The ancient Assyrians swore by Ground birds' beaks and myrrh. Raw eel and bitter almonds is a recipe from Europe that was popular during the Middle Ages. The Mongolians were more into sheeps' eyes, while the Chinese went with green tea. Us Germans like it traditional (not me though) and eat "Tom's breakfast" (Katerfrühstück), a postbinge breakfast with Bismark Herring, pickles, rollmops (see image to the left) and/or sauerkraut (this stuff does work, by the way, 'cause it helps replenish the lost electrolytes).

• Your alcohol consumption last year was lower than you think - If you are like the majority of students, Patrick & Lee questioned in their 2010 study you overestimate the amount of alcohol you've been consuming on Halloween significantly. If you still need a hangover cure, I'd suggest you take a another look at what people from all the world do, whenever they have had a drop too much.
• Drunken or not you better watch out your kids are run over by car - It's a very sad statistic, but according to CDC data from the late 1990 10% of the yearly deaths among pedestrians aged 5-14 years occurs on October, 31 - in the hours between 4pm and 10pm. 
• "Halloween diarrhea" is a term by which Breitenbach refers in a 1992 paper to the sorbitol induced diarrhea that strikes some patients with a surprising regularity (Breitenbach. 1992 ;-)

Learn from scrapies how you can identify a real zombie tonight (image from Nasiruddin. 2013); learn from the CDC how to "promote awareness" w/ zombie comics.

Boring? Not exciting? What did you expect? Zombie science? Well, I guess I have some pretty crazy infection / vaccine related zombie science for you.

Actually it's rather an idea than solid data though - an idea Melissa Nasiruddin, Monique Halabi, Alexander Dao, Kyle Chen, and Brandon Brown developed in a recent paper (Nasiruddin. 2013) and that revolves around the use of zombies to "raise the awareness", some people may even say "promote" the risk of infectious diseases... sounds hilarious and like the stupid idea of a couple of grad students? If you believe that, I'd suggest you check out the CDC's attempt to exploit this idea before you head off into this unholy night ;-)

References:

• Aghaei S, Nikzad H, Taghizadeh M, Tameh AA, Taherian A, Moravveji A. Protective effect of Pumpkin seed extract on sperm characteristics, biochemical parameters and epididymal histology in adult male rats treated with Cyclophosphamide. Andrologia. 2013 Oct 11. 
• Breitenbach RA. 'Halloween diarrhea'. An unexpected trick of sorbitol-containing candy. Postgrad Med. 1992 Oct;92(5):63-6.
• Gossell-Williams M, Davis A, O'Connor N. Inhibition of testosterone-induced hyperplasia of the prostate of sprague-dawley rats by pumpkin seed oil. J Med Food. 2006 Summer;9(2):284-6.
• Hammer KA, Carson CF, Riley TV. Antimicrobial activity of essential oils and other plant extracts. J Appl Microbiol. 1999 Jun;86(6):985-90.
• Huang XE, Hirose K, Wakai K, Matsuo K, Ito H, Xiang J, Takezaki T, Tajima K. Comparison of lifestyle risk factors by family history for gastric, breast, lung and colorectal cancer. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2004 Oct-Dec;5(4):419-27.
• Lazos E. Nutritional, Fatty Acid, and Oil Characteristics of Pumpkin and Melon Seeds. Journal of Food Science. 1986. 21(5):1382–1383
• Levy BR, Chung PH, Slade MD. Influence of Valentine's Day and Halloween on birth timing. Soc Sci Med. 2011 Oct;73(8):1246-8. 
• Schwartz MB, Chen E, Brownell KD. Trick, treat, or toy: children are just as likely to choose toys as candy on halloween. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2003 Jul-Aug;35(4):207-9.
• Tsai YS, Tong YC, Cheng JT, Lee CH, Yang FS, Lee HY. Pumpkin seed oil and phytosterol-F can block testosterone/prazosin-induced prostate growth in rats. Urol Int. 2006;77(3):269-74.
• Yadav M, Jain S, Tomar R, Prasad GB, Yadav H. Medicinal and biological potential of pumpkin: an updated review. Nutr Res Rev. 2010 Dec;23(2):184-90.
• Zhang X, Ouyang JZ, Zhang YS, Tayalla B, Zhou XC, Zhou SW. Effect of the extracts of pumpkin seeds on the urodynamics of rabbits: an experimental study. J Tongji Med Univ. 1994;14(4):235-8.
• Zhang Y, Chen P, Zhang Y, Jin H, Zhu L, Li J, Yao H. Effects of polysaccharide from pumpkin on biochemical indicator and pancreatic tissue of the diabetic rabbits. Int J Biol Macromol. 2013 Oct 1.

Adelfo Cerame - Road to The Wheelchair Nationals '12: Bring Your Cucumbers to Vegas! Or, How Intermittent Fasting Can Make a Road-Trip Bodybuilding Compatible

Image 1: When a bodybuilder heads to Vegas, its either for the Arnold or because he knows the difference between passion and obsession.

I don't know what to say, but somehow I think I am kind of jealous. My friend Adelfo is heading to Vegas and I am sitting here in the rainy cold, reading about how he is preparing not for the contest, but for three wild days in Las Vegas! I mean if it were for the Arnold's... but no, it is just for fun! And you know what? That is exactly what it takes to be successful - making bodybuilding your passion, not your obsession. How that works? Well, I guess I will hand over to Adelfo give you his rundown of the fundamentals, like choosing hard liquor over beer and making sure to be in a drunken stupor not before the bar, but before your feeding window closes ;-)

Viva Las Vegas! There is no life beyond, but a life with bodybuilding!

Las Vegas! That's the place to be... well, it will be for me over the next three days - belated birthday celebrations ;-) And yes, I remember that I have a show coming up in just a few weeks. Do you, by the way remember, that I told you these days were coming right at the beginning of my prep? You know that I am pretty meticulous, when it comes to planning things ahead and this belated birthday present is part of the plan, so to say. So, yes: I am nine weeks out, and going to be out f@cking around in Las Vegas for 3 days. Why? Simply because I can get away with it. Remember what the rapper Suga Free once said? "If you stay ready, then you ain't gotta get ready!"... exactly that, "staying ready", is what I have been doing since October 1st and this is why I am now able to enjoy life without the slightest touch of OCD.

Recipe of the week: My Leafless Crunchy Salad

I don’t know about you all, but I hate lettuce! It’s not filling at all! And it takes a whole bag just to fill you up! I prefer crunchy cucumbers, squash, zucchinis and fruit in my salad!

Ingredients:

• sliced cucumbers, zucchinis and squash
• a couple sticks of sliced celery
  (slice into small pieces)
• 2 cups of sliced strawberries
• 1-2 sliced kiwis
• ½ cup of blueberries
• ½ cup of cherry tomatoes
• 2-3 tbs. of sliced almonds
• 1 packet of truvia (stevia)
• red wine vinegar
• sea salt & pepper 

Macros: 30-40g of carbs (all from the fruits)/ 5g fat

Tip: Sprinkle sea salt, pepper, truvia, and red wine vinegar to liking. I don’t count macros in veggies, so load up on as much cucumbers, zucchini and celery as you want.

I am - and I hope this does not sound too narcissistic - at a point where I am really confident with my work ethic and the current level of my physique. So confident, in fact, that I can actually enjoy the upcoming days in Vegas without feeling guilty. And let's be honest, even if I made an effort to really f*** things up - how much permanent damage can you possibly do within 3 days?

A modified routine can keep you on track even when you are "behind the enemy lines"

Image 2: A recipe from Martin Berkhan’s LeanGains website - Vanilla Vodka, lime or lemon wedges, cinnamon & brown sugar… light in calories & carbs, and straight to the point after a couple shots!
. 

Will I try to mess things up? I guess, you should know me too well by now to buy that off me, aren't you? Obviously I will still be sticking to my routine: My fast and feeding protocols, my commitment to eat whole nutrient dense foods, and I will still train. To make that work, I will have to apply a few tweaks to my usual routine. First and foremost, I will have to reschedule the feeding and fasting windows, so that they allow me to stay up late and consume the one or other alcoholic beverage... and yes, practically, this means that I will be drinking alcohol only during my feeding hour. With regard to the type of beverages I will be selecting, it should be obvious that beer, with its tons of carbs and useless calories is a complete no-go.

I'll stick to the real man's choice: hard liquor ;-) 

 For a lightweight like me this has another advantage. My tolerance for alcohol is so low nowadays that all I would need is 5-6 shots… maybe 10, and I’m feeling a good mellow buzz for the night.

Traveling is no excuse to let yourself go!

Bodybuilder or traveling salesman, being on the road is not excuse to let yourself go. It may take a little planning and probably ain't as convenient as going to McDonald's but even a bodybuilder can maintain his regular nutritional regimen while traveling or being on vacationing. For me this means that

• Boiled chicken breast
• Cucumbers
• Fruits
• Whey protein
• Creatine monohydrate
• Quest bars (I’ll buy some at my gym after I train this Thursday morning before I hit the road)

are part of the luggage I am going to bring with me to Vegas. Five items... plus the simple rule to make sure to order animal meats and veggies, when I go out to dinner - that is all it takes!

Traveling-Tip: Whenever you are out on a short vacation like mine, make sure one of the days is a re-feed day ;-) I, for my part, am already looking forward to the all-you-can-eat buffets I am going to hit on Sunday...

Diet to live, don't live to diet!

I just realized that the thrill of anticipation has carried me away, somewhat, but I guess you got my main message, anyway. Whatever diet you are on, if it is not flexible enough to incorporate a short vacation weeks before you step on stage, it probably ain't worth sticking to, anyway. I mean, if you start living to diet, things begin to get out of hand... it's all about balance and setting the correct priorities at the right times.

Right now I am, by the way, at 1600 kcal per day, I decided not to take it down to 1400 kcal yet. I will re-evaluate this decision on the 1st of February, but as of now I've been enjoying the perks of increasing my calories, adding starchy carbs back into my PWO meals and having re-feed days every Sunday. And though I was initially afraid of water- or even fat gains, up to now it seems as if there have been nothing but benefits from the increase in calories, the re-inclusion of starchy carbs in my post-workout meals and the frequent re-feeds: My muscles feel fuller, my vascularity has improved, and to me it looks as if I was still getting leaner!? What do you think?

Image 3: December 24, 2011, diet was strictly protein + fat @1400kcal for the two weeks prior (left); January 13, 2012 back at 1600kcal and with 100g of carbs added back into my post-workout meals (right).

I’m still kind of baffled how my vascularity has improved. I guess it’s the organic russet potatoes, I’ve been eating after my workouts along with the SlinShot "nutrient repartitioner" by PurusLabs. I guess, you could also argue, though that the fuller muscles just shine a bit more, now that I am at an overall lower body fat level. But with all the nutritional, and training methods that I’ve been playing around with for the past couple of months it is difficult, ... no, it is impossible to pinpoint the one factor that is responsible for the success and that, as surprising as it may seem, actually is "the one" factor that will eventually make you succeed: Finding the right mix of dietary and training techniques that works for you, person A at timepoint T1. For me that was no-to-low carb at T1, but now that I have achieved a body fat level, where it becomes increasingly harder for my body to run on fat for fuel exclusively, an adequate intake of carbohydrates post-workout that will suffice to replenish my glycogen stores appeared to be exactly what was necessary to avoid stagnation or regress.

Three days in Vegas and still 8 weeks to go!

Image 4: The re-addition of starchy carbs into my Slinshot supplemented post-workout meals made a hell of difference in terms of vascularity.

After my Vegas weekend, I will be hitting my 8-week mark. On Monday, to be precise. And from there on, it is no more planned distractions, no more holidays and no more birthdays to celebrate! It’s just going to be eight solid weeks of proper dieting and intense training. More than enough time to make all the necessary adjustments to get ridiculously shredded without burning myself out. For now, however, I am going to enjoy the little mini vacation... my well-deserved break before I will be bound to the gym and the kitchen for eight full weeks, in the course of which I will try really hard to push to my personal limits with both my training and my nutritional regimen... so I guess we will see if, in those weeks to come, I will still be able to say that "this has been one of the easiest preps by far"... but for now, I will pack my clothes and food for the trip and hope that I am going to see you here, next Thursday, eager to hear, or I should say, read how the road-trip effected  my physique :-)

Adelfo Cerame - Road to The Wheelchair Nationals '12: My Five Simple Tricks for Guilt Free Thanksgiving Celebrations. Plus: Four Dietary Supplements You Should not Miss!

Image 1: Adelfo on Wednesday before the feast began. We will see how he looks next week ;-)

I guess, this blogpost should actually begin with the words "Happy Thanksgiving" in big, bold letters, but for us Europeans - and me as a German, in particular - today is a regular working day. Nevertheless, it is a day to celebrate, because THIS is actually post #600 here at the SuppVersity and I am in fact grateful (and thusly giving thanks) that you, my dear students, readers, followers or however else you want to refer to yourselves, are still interested in my perspective(s) on what is going on in the world of fitness, bodybuilding, sports and exercise science.

That being said, I do still hope that all of you (who actually have a holiday) are having a good time with your friends and family, just like my friend Adelfo, who has sent me his weekly contest-prep update and his best wishes to all of you last night, already ....

Turkey, pie, ... pie, turkey, ... turkey ... and some supplements!

Ok guys, I’m going to try and make this real brief because I actually started my Thanksgiving Day Feast a day early, so that I’ve been falling in and out of sleep from all the turkey and pie and still have to prepare for another day of furious eating again tomorrow, in order to "peak" (just to stick to the bodybuilding terminology) right on Thanksgiving!

Image 2: I like protein blends and Lean Supreme is one of my favorites. I gets it for $32 for 4.2lbs at my local Nutrition Zone.

As you know from the previous installments of this series, I have planned these 2 cheat / refeed days long ahead. In fact, being able to go somewhat overboard on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve and my birthday was part of the reasoning behind starting my contest preparation so early.  But before I give you guys some pointers on how to approach these holiday feasts, I thought it was about time to address the subject of supplements. I know I've hinted at being on a budget and cutting back on my usage of protein powder in a previous episode; luckily I have recently been able to stock back up on my four staples, i.e. those supplements, I think are really worth spending your money on.

For me the "basic four" are

• a high quality protein powder, 
• a bag of bulk BCAAs, 
• a quality multi-vitamin, and 
• the good old creatine monohydrate. 

Protein powder, BCAAs, a mulit and creatine are what I would call the "foundation" of my supplementation regimen. If I cannot afford all of these, I am not going to buy any other  supplement - "prioritizing" is the name of the game. If my budget allows that I am yet planning on experimenting with a few other products in the weeks to come. What I currently have on my mind are a decent fat burner, some bulk D-Aspartic Acid and a test booster if I can find one that actually works...

Image 3: Protein powder, multi-vitamins, creatine monohydrate, and BCAA’s, combined with good training + nutrition, and that’s all you need to build your physique… well at least for me it is ;-)

Remember, all four, the protein powder, the BCAAs, the multi-vitamin and the creatine are add-ons; they are not part of what I call my "nutritional regimen". They do not replace any nutrients (as Dr. Andro would say: "They are called supplements not replacements" ;-) and I am well aware that I won't get anything out of them, if my diet and training are not 100% in check. Never fool yourself into the false security that you are taking supplements, X,Y and Z and could thusly let your nutritional protocol slide. No supplement gives you the excuse to eat like shit or skip a training session! You can do without quality supplements but you can’t do without quality foods - although the colorful adverts in some of the muscle mags, try to make you believe otherwise.

Image 4: Huge thanks to Jack Gurlekian and Dr. Andro for helping me out on the supplement side.

Before I get started on Holiday feasting, I’d like to give a shout out to Jack Gurlekian and thank him for hooking me up with some of the supplements that he distributes and makes himself… I’d also like to thank Dr. Andro himself for helping me out with finances to help me purchase some supplements that should hold me off for a couple months : Creapure(TM), glutamine peptides & ZMA from True Protein. Inner Armour supplements and Jack’s very own amino acid blends! [A note by Dr. Andro: Additional sponsors are always welcome ;-]

My holiday season feasts 101!

The holiday season is approaching and you all know what that means? Epic holiday feasts and it starts with Thanksgiving, continues on Christmas and ends with New Years Eve. And when it’s all said and done, all you’re left with is a GUT full of regret! In order to help you to keep both the gut, as well as the regret at bay, I want to share with you how I like to prepare myself for the holiday food gauntlet…

Image 5: This thanks giving plate looks way better than the government's MyPlate

Actually it all begins with keeping myself in good physical shape and keeping my physique as lean as I can year round. If you read the last installment of Dr. Andro's Intermittent Thoughts Series on "Why to cut before bulking" you will be aware of the hormonal and metabolic advantages which come with being lean. That being said, there is actually little reason, why I could not enjoy occasions like this without any regret, if it's not just a few days out on the next contest, which obviously isn't yet the case... and if you have been following the whole series since September, you will also be aware that I am exactly on schedule - a schedule that allows for a long consistent cut, precisely because I knew that Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve were coming and being in decent shape by then would allow me do some serious and more importantly guilt free eating ;-)

5 simple rules to survive the feast without too much damage

Being on an intermittent fasting protocol does help here as well, I have already touched on that in a previous installment - when you pack your complete caloric intake into a small feeding window "overeating" (no, not eating like shit!) is part of the game, anyway. Ok, the foods are probably different on Thanksgiving, but the caloric intake may in fact not vary too much. Moreover, the muscle specific improvements in insulin sensitivity that come with training fasting make it less likely that you store all the good and not so good nutrients you are about to eat today in the form of glycogen or even new muscle tissue, rather than as triglyceride droplets in your love handles.

Personally I do adhere to the the following 5 principles for intermittently fasted holiday celebrations in order to keep any potential damage to my physique at a minimum:

1. I give myself a caloric buffer throughout the week before the big day. I don’t starve myself but I don’t eat as much. I try to be like around 200-300 calories shy of my daily caloric intake (1800 kcal). And being on IF, I do not even notice this 200-300 calorie reduction as far as my appetite is concerned.
2. I stick to proteins and moderate fats throughout the week before the big feast. Just sticking to proteins, moderate fats, veggies and fruits, will help you with making that caloric buffer, simply because they are satiating. I still had my PWO chocolate milk, and PWO carbs with my meal.
3. I fast before the big feast. You may want to even throw in an intense and heavy weight training session before, so you can get more bang for your buck when you eat! (Though I wont be doing that because it’s my rest day)
4. Once I get to the party and begin my feast, I focus first on filling up on protein like turkey, chicken, roasts, fish and BBQ meats. This way I’m sure to hit my protein macros and to fill up with some good protein, then I’ll have my desserts like cakes and pies … and a couple shots of liquor and a couple glasses of wine ;-) But once I’m full… That’s it! I wont force myself to eat more just because there’s a lot of food. I’ll wait a couple of hours like I would normally do (on regular days), until I’m hungry again before I’ll eat again. I try to get in the same amounts of meals that I usually would during my feeding hours (3-4 meals) but obviously the meals will be much bigger... yeah, and with a little bit more junk ;-)
5. I push away the remote thoughts of guilt and enjoy the day! I mean, you train hard and eat smart year round to keep yourself lean & mean. One day is not going to reverse all your efforts, maybe some bloat and a little water retention, but that will subsides in a couple days. Other than that… Enjoy your Thanksgiving, because I know I will!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Eat responsibly and don’t eat & drive full ;-)