SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

High intensity training builds muscle and maximizes lactate build up. Caffeine helps you to train at maximal intensities. Correct, but there appears to be a more direct link between lactate accumulation, caffeine supplementation and skeletal muscle hypertrophy. No, you are not mistaken: The headline says and means that caffeine and lactate are powerful agents that may promote skeletal muscle hypertrophy by boosting satellite cell activity and anabolic signalling in favor of muscle hypertrophy. After a thorough review of the existing literature discussing the individual effects of caffeine and lactate on skeletal muscle metabolism and anabolism, Yoshimi Oishi and colleagues from the Ritsumeikan University hypothesized that "a lactate-based supplement containing caffeine, an activator of intracellular calcium signals, could elicit proliferation and differentiation of satellite cells, activate anabolic signals in skeletal muscle, and thereby increase muscle mass when combined ...

Overtraining is real and it's blocking future and reversing past gains. I am well aware that somewhere out there in the broscientific spheres of the pseudo-experts on the various bulletin boards of a world people call the Internet statements like "there is no overtraining, just undereating" are not uncommon. And in fact, there is a certain connection between the effects / symptoms we usually associate with over training on the one, and the consequences of under eating on the other hand. It's a perfect synergy, if you will - a synergy I have been writing about in the past (suggested read: "The SuppVersity Athletes' Triad Series" | read more ), but it's not what the most recent study from the Sao Paulo State University in Brazil is about (Alves Souza. 2014). Overtraining comes in two forms If this is not your first visit to the SuppVersity the phrases "sympathetic" and "parasympathetic" overtraining will probably sound ...

If rely on the results of the most recent study from Australia, the answer to the above question probably reads "Yes, to a certain degree it does". It has been a while that a vitamin D study has made it into the SuppVersity news (see previous articles ). The reason for that is simple. I am not interested in study no. 9235235 that discusses random associations of low vitamin D with whatever ailment is plaguing us or review no. 89359252 that presents a selection of papers and concludes: "Man, there are vitamin D receptors everywhere, so it must be the f*** most important vitamin in your body!" The upcoming publication of a paper in the scientific journal Endocrinology did yet appear to be a good reason to stop the vitamin D radio silence. It's an in vitro study, I know, but it could answer a question many of will be interested in. Does vitamin D build muscle? I guess all of you will tell me that, in view of the results of pertinent studies (cf. Girgis. 2...

Does a flavanol in " real chocolate" help you shed the fat and build the muscle? If you are like me, you are probably already using cacao to build muscle. Whether the effects of the occasional dark chocolate bar are so profound that you'd notice if you'd skip them, is however questionable. Irrespective of the latest results from Gabriela Gutierrez-Salmean and her colleagues from the University of California , VA San Diego Health Care Systems and the Escuela Superior de Medicina del Instituto Politécnico Nacional at the Seccion de Posgrado in Mexico City present in a soon-to-be-published paper in the The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry (Gutierrez-Salmean. 2013), by the way. "Epi" as in "Epistane" (*) was yesterday... ... "epi" as in chocolate epicatechin is the future (* Epistane was the brand name of a "pro-steroid"). This could be the take home message of future follow up studies in human beings, if the r...

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...