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You Cannot Sleep Before an Important Event? Take High Dose Creatine or Low Dose Caffeine to Battle Fatigue Induced Decrement in Skill Performance and Increase Testosterone.

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Image 1: LG's Anadraulic State is only one example for some of the 2nd generation pre-workout products with deliberately lowered amounts of caffeine and increased amounts of creatine & other ergogenics in it. You know it, you love it: Creatine Monohydrate - the godfather of dietary supplements ; but did you know that Creatine supplementation at 50 or 100mg/kg body weight is as effective as low (1mg/kg) or high dose (5mg/kg) caffeine in preventing the decrease in athletic skill performance after sleep deprivation? On ten separate occasions, Cook et al. ( Cook. 2011 ) had ten elite rugby players complete 10 trials on a simple rugby passing skill test (20 repeats per trial). On five of these occasions the players had slept their usual 7-9h on the other five occasions, however, they only slept 3-5h before reporting to the laboratory. While the 2-6h of sleep they were lacking "resulted in a significant fall in skill performance accuracy on both the dominant and non-d...
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Melatonin, Magnesium and Zinc for a Healthy Night of High Quality Sleep

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Sleeping disorders are very common in our hectic society and sleeping pills are among the no.1 drugs (ab-)used by the general public. At least in a very restricted group of subjects, the combination of melatonin , magnesium and zinc has now proven a very viable and certainly more natural alternative to the highly advertised "chemical maces" of the big pharma companies. Figure 1: Effects of treatment of the primary end point. Mean Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (marker) are reported at baseline and at 8 weeks for the melatonin, magnesium, and zinc (left) and placebo (right) participants, together with their standard deviations (whiskers). (Figure 2 from Rondanelli. 2011 ) In a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial set in along-term care facility in Pavia, Italy, researchers from the University of Pavia ( Rondanelli. 2011 ) found a combination of 5 mg melatonin , 225 mg magnesium , and 11.25 mg zinc , mixed with 100 g of pear pulp taken 1 hour before bed...
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Brewing the Perfect Green Tea: Best Brewing Time and Temperature for Optimal Potency

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Here is something for all of you who have always asked themselves how to prepare their tea to "get the most out of it". Well, I know normal people would go by taste, but are we normal? No! We want maximal antioxidant-content and a decent amount of caffeine to jack us up and this is where the results from a recent study ( Ziaedini. 2010 ) come into play. The scientists from the Iranian Institute of Research and Development in Chemical Industries investigated the effect of different brewing times and temperatures on the amount of antioxidants and caffeine you'll get in your tea. Here are the results (cf. table 1): Table 1: Diffusion coefficients of catechins and caffeine obtained for conventional extraction of green tea leaves. Obviously it takes a decent temperature of ~70°C to achieve maximal diffusion of the constituents in the short and in the long term. In spite of that, a close look at one of the graphs (cf. figure 1) Figure 1: EGCG content as a function of t...
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Vitamin E Exerts Positive Effects on Various Health Markers in Recreational Trainees

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A study from scientists from the Azad University in Iran ( Naghizade. 2010 ) shows that supplementation with 500mg vitamin E (~750IU) over a period of 8 weeks improved malondialdehyde (MAD, p<0.02) , creatine phosphate (CP, p<0.04), total antioxidant capacity (TAC, p<0.03), LDL (p<0.03) and Vo2max (p<0.03) over placebo values in moderately aerobically trained individuals: In summery performing moderate aerobic exercise (HRmax 60-65%) with consumption Vitamin E may decrease membrane damage and lipid peroxidation, and cardiovascular risk factors. These results stand in line with several other papers that have been released within the last months. Many of these found positive effects of vitamin E on moderately (mostly aerobically) training trainees, like the ones in this studies. If, however, the workloads increase way beyond the 3x45min (per week) the male subjects of this study spent in the gym, the results become equivocal and some studies even suggest that additional ...
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1.86 g EPA + 1.5g DHA Augment the Hyperaminoacidemia-Hyperinsulinemia–induced Increase in the Rate of Muscle Protein Synthesis

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MPS, the acronym for "muscle protein synthesis", certainly is an eye-catchers for everyone interested in building sleeve bursting arms. Obviously, the at which (dietary) proteins are incorporated into muscle tissue is an important factor in how much and how fast your muscles will grow. Scientists from the Washington University, School of Medicine ( Smith. 2010 ) have now conducted a randomized placebo controlled trial on the effect of omega-3 (4g/day Lavazza(TM) = 1.86 g EPA + 1.5g DHA) supplementation on muscle protein synthesis in older adults. And despite the fact that omega-3s on their own had no effect on  MPS, the consumption of supplemental omega-3s significantly augmented the MPS-response to Hyperaminoacidemia and Hyperinsulinemia. Figure 1: Mean (6SEM) concentrations (arbitrary units) of mTORSer2448 and p70s6kThr389 during basal, postabsorptive conditions and during the hyperaminoacidemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp before and after 8 wk of supplementation with eit...
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Loss of Trace Elements not a Concern in Well-Hydrated Athletes

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If you are a hard-training athlete you need more than "trace amounts" of trace elements, don't you? No, actually not. You may be somewhat disappointed now, but the expensive trace element supplement you just ordered might turn out to be a complete waste of money - at least, this is what the results of a recently published study by Carlos González-Haro et al. ( González-Haro. 2010 ) suggest. Figure 1: Changes in plasma trace element levels (Zn, Mn, Se and Co) for the different relative exercise intensities studied and the 7 min recovery period. As figure 1 (above) shows, lactate concentrations constantly increased in the course of the 7 minutes after a cycloergometer test, where, after a warm-up of 10 min at 2.0 W kg −1 , workload had been increased by 0.5 W kg −1 every 10 min until exhaustion. The trace mineral concentration, on the other hand, remained stable over the whole study period (exercise + recovery). This observation led the scientis...
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Vitamin D Supplementation(!) Increases Testosterone in Men

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Thanks to Dashforce from the MindAndMuscle-Forum we finally have evidence for the direct effect of vitamin D3 supplementation on testosterone in men. Dashforce reports on a study by scientists from Austria and Germany ( Pilz. 2010 ) who provided 54 men, whose serum levels were previously at the lower range ~30ng/ml (the referential  minimum varies depending on which source you cite from 30-50ng/ml),with either 83 μg (3 332 IU) vitamin D daily or placebo for 1 year. Table 1: Characteristics of the study groups at baseline and at the end of the study As you can see in table 1,vitamin D supplementation lead to a significant increase in total testosterone from 10.7 nmol/l to 13.4 nmol/l . What's even more important, this increase (+25%) was not compensated by and an increase of SHGB, so that the amount of free testosterone rose from 0.222 n/mol to 0.267 nmol/l , i.e. by +20% (vs. +5% in the placebo group). What is particularly interesting about this study is the fact that ...
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A Scientific Approach to Bodybuilding: Measuring the Quality of Execution to Predict Hypertrophy

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This post is a little different from what you normally find on this blog. This time I'd rather invite you to read a study on your own, than to summarize the main findings. The study ( Ivan. 2010 ) was done by a group of Romanian scientists and published recently in the Body Building Science Journal . What is particular interesting about the authors' approach is that they try to capture "effective" training methods in physical/mathematical equations. The main ideas behind their quantitative analysis is the following: Indicators for measuring the quality characteristics of exercises   The level of quality is analyzed using the following indicators: the number of repetitions for each exercise; the number of sets included in each training program; the way in which the athlete executes the exercises taking into consideration the correct position in each key stage of the execution; the weights used for each exercise. Based on these indicators, grades are given for eac...
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Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera) as a Natural Test Booster and Ergogenic

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A very recent study ( Saddiq. 2010 ) published in the Journal of the International Society for Horticultural Science found that the seeds of Phoenix dactylifera can raise testosterone, norepenephrine (NE), dopamine (DA) and GABA levels and may counteract the negative effect of prednisolone administration in rats. [...] the daily oral administration of pits of date palm caused the maximal increase in NE, DA and GABA content that was found in the brain stem after 2 weeks . The daily oral administration of methylprednisolone caused a decrease in NE, DA and GABA content found in the brain stem after 2 weeks. Moreover, the daily oral administration of pits of date palm and methylprednisolone caused an increase in NE content found in the brain stem after 2 weeks. The daily oral administration of pits of date palm and methylprednisolone caused a significant increase in testosterone level in serum blood of male albino rats. While all this sounds promising, further studies would ...
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25g Whey Protein or 10g of EAAs Maximize Post Workout Protein Synthesis Without Additional Carbs

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While this probably won't end the debate on whether post-workout carbohydrate intake is a good or a bad thing, a recent review of the literature presented by Steward M. Phillips at the The Summer Meeting of the Nutrition Society ( Phillips. 2010 ) suggests that the addition of carbs to your post-workout shake is at least unnecessary, as long as you have a sufficient amount of leucine and EAAs in it: The increment in [muscle protein synthesis] MPS is maximally stimulated at a dose of protein of approximately 25 g or 10 g EAA . This rise is based solely on protein consumption and is not augmented by carbohydrate , at least when protein is adequate. Also, the type of protein is of utmost importance. Phillips recommends whey protein or (please note that it is not whey and EAAs ) a blend of EAAs at dosages of 25g and 10g, respectively. Figure 1: Whole blood leucine concentration (μ M ) following resistance exercise from subjects who consumed 500 ml fluid skim (low fat) m...
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Combination of Selenium & Vitamin C Effectively Raises Testosterone Levels in Rats

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Although this is an older study ( Lodhi. 2009 ), I found it particularly interesting that other than individual supplementation with vitamin C (group II) or selenium (group III), the combined administration (group IV) of 500 mg/L vitamin c in drinking water and 1.5 mg/kg selenium in chow significantly raised the testosterone to cortisol ratio of the rodents (cf. fig 1). Figure 1: Effect of vitamin C and/or selenium supplementation on testosterone to cortisol ratio Although it is uncertain if human beings will react similarly, both selenium and vitamin c are major players in the human antioxidant system, which has profound influence on stressors (cortisol) and endocrine function. And a higher testosterone to cortisol ratio (anabolic status) certainly won't hurt your efforts to get fitter, bigger, stronger or healthier - whatever your goals are ;-)
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HIIT + Caffeine = Increase in Post Exercise Fat Metabolisation

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HIIT and Caffeine have both been highly advocated for fat loss by professionals and personal trainers all over the world. Now, a recent study ( Gerber. 2010 ) by provides clinical evidence for the effectiveness of the combination of both. Gerber et al. had six participants complete two exercise trials consisting of 30 min of HIIT (20s cycling at 150% VO2max with 40s rest), followed by a time to exhaustion (TTE) test at 150% VO2max with prior ingestion of 5 mg/kg of either caffeine or placebo (Caltrate) in randomised order and found: During recovery from TTE, plasma glycerol was significantly increased with caffeine (p<0.05), with a similar trend for plasma FFA (p=0.1). VO2 was significantly elevated in the caffeine trial compared to placebo after both HIIT and TTE exercise bouts (p<0.05), and plasma uric acid was significantly higher after caffeine following TTE (p<0.05). So, after all, "bro-science" sometimes is not far away from "pro-science" and some ...
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News on the Taurine vs. Beta Alanine Antagonism

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Those of you who have been following the SuppVersity for some time, may remember my blogpost on the antagonism of Taurine and Beta Alanine on a cellular level and the possible detrimental effects of high dose Beta Alanine supplementation on Taurine content of muscle fibers. Now, scientists from Australia and the USA have investigated the effect of Taurine and Beta Alanine on mdx mice, which are a model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. These mice have naturally low levels of Taurine , which further decrease in the process of muscular degeneration and - as one would expect - did benefit from 4 weeks of  3% Taurine supplementation via drinking water. Supplementation with 3% Beta Alanine , on the other hand did not worsen the symptoms, as one might have expected, but "b-alanine supplementation reduced fatigue (p < 0.05) in both control and mdx mice ". Furthermore... Taurine supplementation had no effect on the recovery of the control group, [while] b-alanine supplemen...
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Coca Cola Financed Study Finds Beneficial Effect of Carbohydrate Supplementation on Physical and Mental Performance

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This certainly is one of the examples, where science is somewhat similar to politics: If the defense industry finances the campaign of a politic, will he to turn his back on them by reducing the expenditure on arms, will he? No? So, you better take it with a grain of skepticism that Watson et al. ( Watson. 2010 ) found that a 3% or 6% carbohydrate solution increased time to exhaustion and response time as measured by / after a series of standardized fitness tests in 10 helthy males (mean±SD age 25±3 years; height 1.75±0.06 m; mass 75.9±6.4 kg; VO 2max 54.2±5.0 ml/kg/min): Time to exhaustion in the MSFT was 9.9±2.0 min, 10.2±2.0 min, 10.9±1.9 min and 11.2±1.8 min in the no fluid, water, 3% and 6% CHO trials, respectively (p=0.004). Core temperature reached 38.9±0.4°C during the no fluid trial, 38.5±0.4°C in the water trial and 38.6±0.3°C at the end of the CHO trials (p=0.011). T...
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