Posts

Popular topics

Show more

Advanced Trainees Benefit from Increased Training Volume! Greater & Steadier Strength Gains with 8 Sets of Squats. Plus: Over 6 Weeks, 1 Set and 4 Sets Equally (In-)Effective.

Image
Image 1: Look at his legs, Ronnie Coleman must have done something right... and guess what, the study at hand suggests that part of it could have been his insane training volume. Studies on different exercise protocols are scarce and many, if not most of them are conducted with obese, sick, elderly or otherwise physically impaired individuals. And even the infamous "recreationally active" study participants are not a very suitable model for aspring physical culturists like you and me *rofl*, right? Daniel W. Robbins, Paul W.M. Marshall and Megan McEwen, three researchers from the University of Sydney , the University of Western Sidney (obviously not identical to the former!?) and the University of Auckland obviously felt the same, when they set out to investigate the effects of a 6-week training intervention with different training volumes (as measured by sets per workout) on the lower-body strength (barbell squat) of 31 experienced (mean training experience ~6.7y) str...

Is There a Silky Way to a Leaner, Healthier You? BPI Sports Introduces the First Silk Protein Supplement to the Market

Image
Image 1: I wonder whether the silk worms, themselves, aren't a "highly anabolic" source of dietary protein as well... for the time being, BPI (and I assume a handful of soon to follow copy cats) rely on their produce, though. If you have been following the protein supplement market over the last couple of years, you will certainly have noticed that, flavoring and packaging aside, most products are as alike as two peas in a pod... a pros pos, peas. About 2 years ago, LG Sciences tried to establish a pea-protein concentrate as a "fat-burning" (that was what LG said ;-) alternative to Whey and failed equally miserably as their competition whose initially omnipresent advertisements for their "revolutionary" beef protein product have disappeared from most of the pertinent websites as of late. Now, January 2012, it appears as if BPI Sports, who have hitherto not exactly been known for their "innovative" products, are about to launch another a...

Intermittent Thoughts: Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) - Bigger, Stronger, Faster or just Balder, Fatter and Unhealthier?

Image
Image 1: The ancient Greek ideal of the male body has probably more to do with DHT than the freaky physiques of today's IFBB Pro bodybuilders. I guess after the revelations about the importance of estrogen in the process of skeletal muscle hypertrophy in the last installment of the Intermittent Thoughts you will probably be eager to hear what its male counterpart dihydrotestosterone (DHT), is able to do... I mean, with DHT being the male hormone par excellence it is only reasonable to assume that its effects on skeletal muscle mass and strength, two characteristic features of the male persuasion, must be significant, right? Before we are going to address this vitally important questions, let's briefly take a look at what the dihydrotestosterone actually is. DHT the hormone to which testosterone is just another prohormone Similar to estrogen, DHT (exact name 17β-hydroxy-5α-androstan-3-one ) is a testosterone metabolite. The process by which your body (male and fema...

If a High Fat Diet was a Pill, the Lay Press Would Celebrate it as "Exercise in a Pill": Two days on High Fat Diet Increase the Activity of Irisin Releasing Transcription Factor PGC1-α

Image
Image 1: If a high fat diet was a patentable pill, I guess BigPharma would already be selling it. It's crazy, whenever I go to the groceries, there are new products popping up with colorful slogans like "fat free", "diet", "particularly low in fat", "fat reduced", "only 0.1%" etc. What is yet all the more disturbing is that these products are "placed" right next to a more recent "invention" of the industry - products with a "reduced sugar content"... I could now go on a rampage on how the Kellog's and co. just replace table sugar with other sugars in order to be able to put these stickers on their products, but I actually want to make a different point today. If you stand still for a moment and watch the people pass by, there are two things you will notice. The healthy and lean (and not anorexic) will pass by without even noticing the great "0.00001% fat, reduced sugar whatever " wit...

Beyond Satellite Cells: Eccentric Training Bullies Stem Cells, Destined to Become Bone, Cartilage, Adipose or Nerve Tissue into Contributing to Skeletal Muscle Growth

Image
Image 1: Apart from their epistemic value, these stained tissue samples from the Valero study are actually pretty aesthetic.The arrows, by the way, mark NG2 monocytes, which "coerce" the non-myogenic stem cells (perycites) to get going ;-) I guess, the term "satellite cells" has been mentioned so often in the course of the past couple of weeks that it actually would not be necessary to tell you (once again) that these myogenic precursor cells are a necessary prerequisite for the repair and long-term growth of your pecs, legs, back, biceps, triceps, delts and the rest of the skeletal muscle tissue in your body. Those of you, who have read all the latest installments of the Intermittent Thougths will also be familiar with the notion that both the local expression of MGF-1 and inflammatory cytokines, as well as systemic hormones, such as testosterone and estrogen play an important role not only in the recruitement and migration of satellite cells into the muscle, ...

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
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 ...

6mg Melatonin 30min Before HIT Will Increase Fatty Acid Oxidation, Boost Your Antioxidant Capacity, Reduce MDA Levels and Modulate Your Immune Response

Image
Image 1: Other than you may have expected, this is exactly not what happened when the soccer players took 6mg of melatonin before their workouts. The blogpost on melatonin's anti-Alzheimer's + anti-obesity effects from last week caused quite a stir, both in the comment area, here at the SuppVersity, as well as on facebook. Even friends in the gym came up with questions. Therefore, I suppose that you won't mind, if I re-address the topic today. This time, however, with data from a human study , of which I bet that it will catch your interest... after all, the study, which has been published ahead of print two days before Christmas could hold the key to winning the FIFA World Cup 2014 ;-) Melatonin makes you sleepy? I don't think so! I guess, even after last week's news , most of you will still think of melatonin as the "sleep hormone". At least those of you who follow my recommendation to make sure that they get their daily dose of SuppVersity new...
Disclaimer:The information provided on this website is for informational purposes only. It is by no means intended as professional medical advice. Do not use any of the agents or freely available dietary supplements mentioned on this website without further consultation with your medical practitioner.