Nutrition for Optimal Performance

By Matt R. Wenning



Nutrition can play a key role in one’s ability to lift and recover. In a perfect world, athletes would eat real food in balanced amounts of carbs, proteins, and fats about every 2–3 hours. We would also eat the proper foods before and after training to give fuel for the workout and fuel for the recovery after the strenuous exercise.

But this is the real world. The real world barely leaves us enough time to train let alone eat properly. This is where supplements come into play. Supplements allow us as training athletes to achieve the proper amount of calories from the proper types of nutrients in an efficient and time sparing way. They also make sure that our immune system, recovery, and general health stay in top shape.

We can start by analyzing protein—what it’s for and how much is needed. Most people think about this nutrient the most. Athletes often think about protein with a “more is better” attitude, but this is simply not true. It has been proven in literature that the body can only utilize 2 grams per kilogram of body weight by nitrogen balance analysis. This means that a 200-lb man only needs and can only utilize 200 or so grams of protein per day. However, the real key is timing.

Protein doesn’t get utilized well in large quantities. It must be evenly dispersed throughout the day in about 30-gram intervals. More protein than that in one sitting and it’s wasted. Why is it wasted you ask? Well most of the protein is ingested in the small intestine. The small intestine only has so many protein binder sites available at one time. If those sites are already being used, the extra protein is carried off to the large intestine and expelled. So this is where your protein intake must be constant throughout the day in small quantities. It has been shown that higher levels of protein don’t create more muscle mass or help in keeping a positive nitrogen balance when compared to normal protein intake. Therefore, don’t waste your money on more protein—just an optimal amount.

Next up is carbohydrates. Carbs may be the most important nutrient and include PCr and glycogen. Glycogen controls insulin and is actually called the protein saving nutrient. The body will always go to carbohydrates before fats and proteins for energy after the PCr system has been depleted. Not enough carbs in the diet before, after, and sometimes during activity and the body will go to protein for alternative fuels. This means no gains in the present and muscle breakdown long term. That’s also why you don’t see any high level strength athletes on the Adkins diet. No carbs means no strength and no speed. If you want to be a skinny fat man, then by all means get rid of carbs in your diet. If you want muscle, then keep reading.

Carbs must also be taken throughout the day. Did you know that your brain runs on 70 percent carbs? Did you also know that your brain and spinal cord are primarily responsible for fast twitch muscle action? Carbs are very similar to protein in that they are best utilized throughout the day rather than in large quantities. But remember—there are many types of carbs. This is why the glycemic index and timing of carbohydrates is so important.

High glycemic carbs are best utilized both pre- and post-workout while low glycemic carbs are best taken throughout the day for steady insulin levels. That is why recovery and pre-workout supplements have so many simple sugars. This brings blood sugar levels back to normal after a workout has drained them. But the real key is steady blood sugar throughout the day through your low glycemic carbs. Read up on the glycemic index for more information.

Last but certainly not least is fats. Fats are essential for muscle protection, proper cell function, and recovery. Fats come in all forms from omega fatty acids to plant fats and animal fats. All are important. Ninety-nine percent of Americans get plenty of the worst kind of fat in their diet, but most don’t get enough omega 3 or omega 6 fatty acids or plant fats. The way our food is prepared in restaurants and even at home usually allows us to get plenty of saturated or bad fats. This means that meal replacement powders or bars should have the right kind of fats in their makeup for a full spectrum of nutrients. Fish oil tablets are also a great way to achieve these omega fatty acids.

Remember that nutrient timing is a crucial part of absorption as well as utilization. Taking multivitamins, fish oil, and other vitamins at the same time every day helps to utilize the supplement much better. This way a certain mineral isn’t overloaded and discarded. These macronutrients protect cell membranes and protect against protein degradation. That’s why vitamin and mineral supplementation is important. Many of us not only train hard but work demanding jobs that don’t always allow us to eat properly without supplementation. These proper nutrients as well as their timing allow the body to repair, grow, and maintain muscle and stabilize energy for demanding workouts. If you want to reach the top, training isn’t enough. You must make an effort both in and out of the gym.

I’m always asked what kind of supplements I take, so here they are. I take creatine from At Large Nutrition, 1–3 grams per day of fish oil capsules, an amino acid tablet, ETS recovery tabs from At Large Nutrition, and a multivitamin. These choices have allowed me to not get sick nearly as much through hard training. They also keep soreness to a minimum and allow me to push a little harder.

References

1. Driskell J, Wolinsky I (1999) Energy-yielding macronutrients and energy metabolism in sports nutrition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

2. Williams M (2002) Nutrition for Health, Fitness & Sport. Sixth Ed. New York: McGraw Hill.

Matt Wenning is one of only a handful of people to total over 2600 lbs in a professional competition, hold an all-time world record of 2665 lbs in the 308-lb class, and bench press over 800 lbs in a full powerlifting meet. He currently is a private strength coach at Lexen gym in Grove City, Ohio, a personal trainer to many executives and professionals at Capital Club Athletics, and contracted by the US Army. He also works with firefighters, physicians, children with disabilities, and all forms of athletes in the Columbus, Ohio, area.

Strength, Courage and Cancer

By Rachel Cassano



Dana Shedd is a 13 year-old athlete. She’s just like any other athlete a strength coach may train, except she has cancer.

Five years ago, Dana was diagnosed with a form of leukemia that only ONE in ONE MILLION children will get. Dana knows that her leukemia can’t be cured with medicine, but she isn’t afraid – she’s determined and battles on.

She is a young woman of many accomplishments. She’s currently on the Indiana Olympic Development Program (ODP) team for her age. She was fortunate to be picked as the 2008 Shining Star Award recipient for the Indiana ODP program. This is part of her acceptance speech for the award:

“I am a girl who loves to play soccer, and who just happens to have cancer. I play soccer for Westfield Nitro.

I had a test while I was playing in a soccer tournament. A soccer game, then tests. Another soccer game, then another test. Our family sat down and talked about what I had. They told me I had leukemia and discussed what that meant. Not one of the more fun nights at our house. I learned that I could die.

Some days I am tired or may feel a little sick, but I am better off than many other kids with cancer, who cannot play soccer. Being out on the field giving it my all is a great feeling. I know there are things in my body that are trying to do bad things to me. But, that is not going to stop me from stepping on a soccer field.

I don’t know what is going to happen next year, but for now I will give it my all any time I am on a soccer field, and have fun doing it. There is no reason to give anything but your best.”

According to Dana’s dad Kurt, the road has been an interesting one, but nobody in his family has ever wanted people to be sorry for them.

“From the time Dana was diagnosed, we have moved forward,” says Kurt. “Although the cancer can’t be cured with medicine, she does take medication that keeps the cancer cells lower in her body. She has good and bad days, but she is a pretty determined person.”

Dana has been offered a Make-A-Wish grant, which she hasn’t taken yet. Her family said that she talks about it from time to time, and looks forward to one day fulfilling and following through with her wish. One wish would be a big deal for any person or 13 year-old, and such things can’t be decided in a day.

Please help Dana and other kids like her by purchasing the 2009 Training Insanity e-book. It’s only $10 (larger donations are also accepted) and proceeds go to Make-A-Wish Foundation. Last year we raised $8,000…this year we need to reach a new PR. We help you break PRs – please help us reach one. It comes with great training tips and crazy, stupid workouts many of our lifters put themselves through.

“Thank you for your determination in assisting others,” Kurt said of those purchasing the EFS 2009 Training Insanity e-book. “We are just one family, and there are countless others out there with much worse circumstances, who are enriched beyond thought with a Make-A-Wish opportunity.”

To learn more about Dana, please read the following written by her older sister, Amy, who is a freshman in high school.

Big Things Come In Small Packages

Standing at four feet, eleven and a half inches, her appearance does not radiate the stereotypical image of a hero. What matters is not Dana Shedd’s appearance; it is her determination, bravery, courage, and discipline. Our small, but mighty hero was not the typical second grader, and even now she is not the typical seventh grader. In her second grade year at Shamrock Springs Elementary School, she was diagnosed with a blood cancer called “Chronic Mylogenous Leukemia.” This disease is classified as terminal, but a resistance drug called “Gleevec” was just being released; this does not rid the body of cancerous cells, it simply slows the multiplication. So, she started taking four Gleevec pills each night with dinner. As well as the Gleevec, she takes a small capsule in the morning called “Prevacid,” this is not from the CML, but is deemed necessary because she has a stomach condition as well. Showing extreme discipline, she takes a total of 5 pills everyday at the correct time they are required. Still, she remains strong and takes care of herself even though she knows that she has to keep fighting, as she says: “with everything I’ve gone through, it’d be a shame to give up now.”

Not only does Dana take care of herself, but she also cares about others. She helped with a program called “Pennies for Patients,” a fundraiser at schools that try to get the students to bring in and donate money for patients with Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma. During 2006, 2007, and 2008, she talked at eight to ten schools each year about her life and conditions. She talked in front of auditoriums filled to the brim with people, listening to her talk about her roller coaster of ups and downs ever since the diagnostic. This helped not only her, but it also helped everyone else suffering from a blood cancer by causing awareness for this tragedy and raising money for the cause. Dana also assisted with another Leukemia & Lymphoma Society fundraiser called “Team in Training,” where you train for events and run in them to raise money for blood cancers. For this event, she talked to over ten schools and organizations about the program and her illness, informing even more people about Leukemia and helping them take action to find a cure. Dana cares about others as well as herself, but she does have to take care of herself as well.

To take care of herself, Dana ventures to Portland, Oregon with her father once a year to visit the creator of “Gleevec,” her medicine. The outstanding man that was the head of this development is Dr. Druker, who specializes in childhood Leukemia; therefore, Dana is a favorite of his. She goes there and talks to him, asks questions, and makes sure everything is going splendidly. She usually misses a few days of school, but she doesn’t mind because “the mini T.V.’s in the seats on the plane ride over there are awesome!” Dana also gets to have a little fun when she’s on the opposite side of the country by sight seeing and stopping at a humongous arcade. It is amazing that she is willing to miss school, have the patience for an eight hour plane journey, and still be brave enough to talk about ailment openly to a professional.

On the other hand, Dana participates in things like any other aspiring teenager. She absolutely loves the game of soccer; in fact, she watches the game on T.V. whenever she gets the chance. Her motivation gets an extra boost because she knows that she may not be able to play her beloved game ever again one day. Also, she loves soccer because no one out there can tell that she is “different” from everyone else. On the soccer field, it’s like she has a clean slate and everyone watching can judge her on her performance, instead of giving her sympathy. Soccer is a huge part of who Dana is, and it has helped her overcome many obstacles. In fact, our hero’s hero is Mia Hamm, one of the most, if not most, famous female soccer player of all time. A few years ago, Dana wrote to Mia Hamm and she wrote back to her encouraging her to stay strong and motivated, and Dana did just that. Dana has surpassed expectations in soccer and is going to Germany over Spring Break with the Olympic Development Program to perform. She does not let her Leukemia stop her from doing what she loves, that is profound dedication and determination.

Dana is a hero, much like Odysseus from The Odyssey by Homer. They both partake in journeys; Dana goes to Oregon, while Odysseus ventures to Ithaca. Dana shows that she is motivated to stay alive by taking her medication when prescribed and in soccer, while Odysseus shows his motivation by never giving up when trying to reunite himself with his son, Telemakhos, and wife, Penelope. While Odysseus is tall, old, strong, and a fighter, and Dana is vertically challenged, young, inexperienced, and a middle school student; their looks do not matter, it is their heroic qualities that are identical. Both of them are heroes in their own ways, but provide the same character traits that help them get through their toughest times in life.

Heroes can come in all shapes and sizes, genders and colors, and from anywhere or anyone. Dana does not appear to be a hero, but looks can be deceiving. Dana is courageous, because she has been through so much; determined, she never takes her mind off of her goal; and brave, managing to not give up when things looked unfortunate. Even though she is young and still has to go through life learning some more lessons, you can still learn from her existence so far; and, she still has so much more coming her way. If we were all this incredible when we were younger, just imagine what our potential would be like now. All we can do is take some advice from Dana and try to achieve our paramount, “if you keep fighting as hard as you can, one day you’ll be successful.”

Fat, Weak, and Gassy Ain't Your Fault?

by Chris Shugart



As soon as I saw the name of Dr. Bryan Walsh's program, I cringed. Here we go again, I thought, another wanker making excuses for people who won't control what they eat or get off their asses and go to the gym.

After talking with Dr. Walsh for a few hours, I still hate the title of his program. I bet you will too. Okay, brace yourself. Here it is:

Fat Is Not Your Fault

Ug. Listen, I've been fat, and it was totally my fault! Who is this guy telling people that fat ain't their fault? Whose fault is it? Someone giving them intravenous Twinkie infusions in the middle of the night?

Then again, I knew that many respected nutrition gurus refer to Dr. Walsh as their "go-to guy" when they run into a client that just can't seem to lose fat. And I knew this naturopathic physician worked with physique competitors and athletes and was no stranger to bodybuilding.

It was time to sort this out. I contacted Dr. Walsh and turned on my digital recorder.

TMUSCLE: Fat is Not Your Fault? Are you outta your mind?

Dr. Walsh: [laughing] I don't blame you. The title gets people's attention, and that's what I want to do. There's some truth to the title, which I'll get into, but first I need to make something very clear.

This is not for people that sit around eating Ding Dongs all night while watching reruns of Dancing With The Stars and then wonder why they look like crap. It's not for people who try taking Alli hoping it will help them lose weight while they walk around the mall sipping on a frappuccino.

A good physique takes effort and if you're not willing to do that I don't really want to hear about it. Diet and exercise always come first. Period.

TMUSCLE: That sounds better than "Fat is not your fault." So what the heck are you talking about then?

Dr. Walsh: Okay, let's say you decided to take up gardening. The two things necessary for a plant to grow are sunshine and water. So you go down to Home Depot, buy a couple plants and start taking care of them. But after a few weeks, they don't grow.

So you give them a little more sunshine and extra water, but they still don't grow. You add fertilizer. No dice. You even sing to them. They don't budge.

Then one morning you wake up and see your son squirting Windex on your plants, thinking he was watering them for you. Is that your fault? No. Things happen. You didn't know about it, but now that you do — and this is a major point — it is your responsibility!
Just like there are two things to make a plant grow, we need two things to lose weight — diet and exercise. But a plant will only grow to the degree that it has healthy soil. When it comes to fat loss, we are the soil. The health of our physiology dictates our response to diet and exercise.

TMUSCLE: Okay, but who's squirting Windex on our physiology? I'm still not convinced.

Dr. Walsh: I'll give you a few examples. Firstly, there are plenty of studies showing that certain chemical compounds — some pesticides for example — cause animals to gain weight.

For example, they'll have two groups of mice eating the exact same diet. One group receives exposure to a certain chemical and they'll gain weight versus the other group. In fact, cattle farmers used to knowingly give their herd some of these chemicals because they gained weight on it. It's illegal now, but they used it because it would fatten up their cattle and bring them more money.

If you think you don't have any of these chemical exposures, you need to start doing more research. They are everywhere and it's well documented.

Another example: Fairly recent research has shown that certain bacteria in the gut can actually cause you to extract more calories from your food than you're ingesting. It's a little hard to wrap your head around that concept, but it appears these bacteria are metabolizing food in such a way that you end up absorbing even more calories from your food.

Lastly, there was a small study done in Europe that looked at food sensitivities in obese individuals. IgG food sensitivity tests were done on people and they were told to avoid those foods for the duration of the study. Every single person ended up losing weight, despite the lack of exercise. The researchers concluded that the elimination of food sensitivities may be a treatment for obesity. That's huge.

So simply using these examples you might have chemical exposures, abnormal bacteria in your gut, and food sensitivities. If so, I guarantee losing weight will be more difficult for you than someone who doesn't have these issues.

TMUSCLE: Hmm, I see your point, but give me some real world examples that could relate to the general public. I mean, how many people have pesticide exposure that will actually stop them from losing weight?

Dr. Walsh: More than you think, but I'll give you some more concrete examples based on biochemistry.

There are a host of things that will impact someone's ability to lose weight, but there are four "deal breakers" that'll make anyone's fat loss program not work.

The number one nutrient in the body is oxygen. Don't believe me? Try holding your breath for ten minutes and then we'll talk. To put it in very basic biochemical terms, if your body can't produce ATP, it can't repair tissues. It can't recover from injury and every cell of your body will be working sub-optimally.

In any biochemistry class you learn that when glucose goes from the citric acid cycle, to electron transport, to the oxidative phosphorylation pathway, 36 ATP are produced. But that's in an optimally functioning body. That's a best-case-scenario textbook version of the process.

In reality, two things are necessary for ATP production — oxygen and glucose. If either one of those are impaired for any reason, 36 ATP won't be produced. Multiply that times a trillion cells and it'll make a big difference.

[Editor's note: As we're sure Dr. Walsh knows, ATP can also be produced without any oxygen at all in the process known as anaerobic glycolysis. It's very inefficient—2 ATP compared to 36—but it happens a lot. We wanted to point this out in case any smarty-pants first-year biochem students got their dander up from presumably catching an error in Dr. Walsh's discussion of the oxidative phosphorylation pathway.]

If a cell isn't working correctly, you can forget about optimal function, including muscle gain or fat loss. Medically, this is referred to as anemia, but we see subclinical versions of this all the time, meaning it's not diagnosable, but oxygen deliverability is impaired.

TMUSCLE: Interesting. Tell us more.

Dr. Walsh: Fat loss is about physiology. Diet and exercise are an attempt at altering physiology, but if your body isn't working properly, diet and exercise won't have the effect you're looking for.

That's why I call it Fat Is Not Your Fault — fault and responsibility are two very different things. For example, if you run out of gas because you weren't paying attention it's your fault. But if you run out of gas because the gauge was broken and you didn't know it, it's not your fault. It is, however, your responsibility.

TMUSCLE: Good analogy. What are the other deal breakers?

Dr. Walsh: Adrenal physiology, blood sugar balance, and gastrointestinal function, including liver function.

TMUSCLE: Okay, hold on a minute. Before we get into all that, I'm wondering when someone should start to look into these physiological systems? Some people are just unrealistic. They lose three pounds a week on a diet and think it's not fast enough and that something must be wrong with them. Building your best body takes time.

Dr. Walsh: Completely. If it's taken you six months to get out of shape, you're not going to get it back in a couple of weeks. People need to put in some solid effort and a reasonable amount of time to see any reliable results. And if that doesn't work, tweak the program a few more times. We're all different and it can take some tweaking to get the diet and exercise program that works for us dialed in.

But if you've legitimately tried a few different diet and exercise programs — and I'm not talking about the "Somersizing" diet — maybe you should start considering that your physiology is out of whack.

TMUSCLE: So you see real people following truly good training and nutrition programs for a considerable amount of time and still getting no results?

Dr. Walsh: You'd be surprised at how many. This whole concept became more solidified for me when some very big names in the industry started sending me their clients. These are experts I'd personally go to if I needed the best diet and exercise info, and they're sending me people saying they don't know what else to try.

TMUSCLE: So what's the first step in diagnosis?

Dr. Walsh: The first thing to do is look at your symptoms. A lot of people have gastrointestinal symptoms and think it's normal. Some women have a bowel movement every few days and think that's normal. Guys think ripping farts all day long is normal male behavior.

Sorry, but you're wrong. A normal person doesn't break wind on command, and it shouldn't smell like your neighbor is repaving his driveway when you do.

I could go into a lot more detail on all of these, but you'd be sitting here all day.

TMUSCLE: So nutshell it for us.

Dr. Walsh: Okay, I already talked about oxygen deliverability to cells. If you can't get adequate amounts of oxygen into your cells, nothing will work correctly. Hormones, brain function, fat loss... forget about it. This is fundamental. Oxygen is the most important nutrient in the body.

Next is blood sugar. If you think you don't have a blood sugar issue, you might want to think again. You want to know the first step towards diabetes? Low blood sugar. You see, when blood sugar starts to get out of control, the pancreas produces insulin. Your body is really good at lowering blood sugar, but it does so with elevated insulin levels.

Blood sugar issues are rampant today, even in people who eat right and exercise. The problem with blood sugar issues are two-fold. One, like I said earlier, if you don't have glucose and oxygen in a cell, that cell won't function correctly. If you have insulin resistance (metabolic syndrome) or the opposite, hypoglycemic tendencies, glucose isn't getting in the cell.

The other problem is that in men, insulin raises estrogen levels. Insulin also simulates cortisol production via interleukin-6. We've seen hypoglycemic tendencies cause pretty significant insulin and hormonal problems in both men and women.

TMUSCLE: What about adrenal issues?

Dr. Walsh: Most people totally misunderstand them. Dysfunctional adrenal hormone production will affect fat loss in a number of ways. Most people probably know about the effects of high cortisol, but low cortisol can screw you up too. Adrenal issues are far more present, and more damaging, than people realize.

TMUSCLE: How about the last thing you mentioned, gastrointestinal dysfunction?

Dr. Walsh: If your guts don't work, nothing will. Some old timers have suggested that "death begins in the colon." There's some truth to this statement.

A lot can go wrong with your gastrointestinal system, which has systemic effects on the rest of your body. Food sensitivities, abnormal gut barrier function, fungal or parasitic infections, dysbiosis... any of those things have the potential to completely wreck other systems of your body, including cortisol production, inflammation, hormone balance, immune function, etc.



TMUSCLE: Okay, so which of the four problems — oxygen delivery system, blood sugar management system, adrenal or digestive system — is most common?

Dr. Walsh: That's tough. We see all of them a lot in our practice. In women, oxygen deliverability is more common than in men, but just about everyone has adrenal issues as well as gastrointestinal issues.

It's hard to choose one because they are all tightly interrelated. For example, let's say someone has a gut issue — an infection for example. This is a stress to the body, which will increase cortisol, which then increases blood sugar. Increased blood sugar raises insulin levels, which increases a cytokine called interleukin-6, which increases cortisol, and thus the vicious cycle continues.

Or, let's say it starts with stress and elevated cortisol. It could be overtraining, or a stressful event, or even, theoretically, stimulant use. Elevated cortisol decreases stomach acid, making you more prone to a GI infection, which leads to the cascade above. Or even if that doesn't happen, cortisol decreases SIgA in your gut — your body's protective gut lining — which makes you more prone to food sensitivities, which can lead to elevated cortisol and insulin, etc.

Regardless of what type of diet or exercise program you're following, this will completely hinder your results. You may lose 15 pounds in two months, but you'll have to work your ass off for it because you're fighting against physiology — and you may have been able to lose even more body fat if things were working properly.

That's why these are the top four things we always start with in our practice because any one of them will make the rest of your body not work properly.

TMUSCLE: As muscleheads who train like maniacs, are there particular problems we should be on the lookout for?

Dr. Walsh: A couple of things. One, eating the same thing day in and day out can cause food sensitivities. These are really common nowadays. You don't want to do that, trust me.

Two, adrenal-related issues depending on how hard you train. Also, I've never seen any research on it, but the rampant stimulant use nowadays is likely causing a negative impact on adrenal physiology.

And I know "overtraining" is talked about a lot, but it can be very real and it does exist. I don't know statistics, but there are people who have severely impacted adrenal function and don't know it. It's very rare that we see a normal adrenal panel come back to us.

TMUSCLE: Okay, so let's say my diagnosis is that my cells aren't receiving adequate amounts of oxygen. First, what caused that? Second, what's the fix?

Dr. Walsh: It depends. Most commonly it's due to low iron and or low folic acid/B-12. However, these might be low due to hypochlorhydria— or low stomach acid — causing an inability to fully absorb nutrients.

Low iron in men is likely due to a bleeding issue, such as from your gastrointestinal system (i. e. an ulcer). In women it's far more common. But do not take iron without getting good lab work! Iron is the most toxic, most inflammatory metal to the body. Forget all this talk about mercury, lead and aluminum — iron is very toxic. Again, find a good doctor and get tested first.

Low B-12/Folate is another common cause of oxygen deliverability issues and is most often caused by absorption issues in the gut. If you don't have adequate stomach acidity, this could be an issue. Also excessive alcohol intake can deplete some B vitamins. The fix for this is easy — take B vitamins, but still believe in getting tested first. If you're not assessing, you're guessing.

TMUSCLE: Imbalanced blood sugar levels would seem easier to spot. It's usually just a crappy diet, right?

Dr. Walsh: I wish it were that easy. While yes, that's partly true, do you know the main role of cortisol? It's to elevate blood sugar. It's a glucocortocoid.

So you can be eating a pristine diet and following a killer exercise program thinking you have balanced blood sugar, but if you have something causing high cortisol, you'll likely have blood sugar issues as well. Nothing to rush off to the doctor for, but something that can be hindering your progress. Your training program alone could be causing elevations in cortisol leading to elevations in blood sugar despite your diet and exercise program.

I think people need to get tested but have it read from a functional perspective. Do you know that when you get blood work done, your results are compared to sick people? This actually pisses me off quite a bit.

The reference ranges for blood work are a bell curve analysis of people that normally get their blood work done. In other words, sick people. When's the last time you woke up in the morning and said, "You know, I'm feel fantastic today. I think I'm going to get my blood work done."

No, it's people who are sick that are going to the doctor and getting blood work done. So when you go get blood work and it's within the reference range, what it's really saying is, "You have the same results as 95% of the people that go to the doctors." But who's going to the doctor? People with diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc.

So anyhow, I think people need to get tested and go to a doctor that knows what he's talking about. That's really the only way to know. Symptoms can help, but aren't that reliable. Especially in guys.

TMUSCLE: Okay, same question for adrenal issues. What's the most common cause and how do we fix it?

Dr. Walsh: The most common pattern we see in our practice is low adrenal function. But that's probably because people with high cortisol won't be seeing a doctor anytime soon — they are too wired to be bothered.

Elevated cortisol causes what I call the "wired and tired" effect — people that are wiped out but can't slow down because their mind is racing, especially when they're trying to get to sleep. So as much as low cortisol is what I see most of, elevated cortisol is probably a pretty big problem today. Again, people need to be tested.

But determining the cause of the adrenal problems is tough. Your adrenal glands respond to stress, and virtually anything can cause stress — mental/emotional stuff, not enough sleep, poor diet, food sensitivities, a gut infection, you hate your wife, your job sucks, elevated blood sugar... You name it, it can stress out your body.

In terms of how to fix it, it depends on what's going on. Elevated cortisol needs high dose phosphytidyl serine to help lower it, as well as help regenerate hippocampus cells. Cortisol damages the hippocampus, which is the very thing that manages the HPA axis in the first place.

And I don't care what the literature says, you need at least 2 grams of PS a day to regulate cortisol and help regenerate hippocampal cells. Also, adaptogenic herbs can be helpful in regulating the HPA axis. Things like rhodiola, ashwaganda, some of the ginsengs, maybe a little vitamin C, pantetheine and glandular support.

Someone with low cortisol levels needs some additional support. PS can be helpful in these people, not because of its impact on cortisol, but because of its impact on the hippocampus. But more importantly, licorice root extract will help elevate cortisol levels. However, people with high blood pressure might not want to take it — it can elevate blood pressure.

Adaptogenic herbs will be helpful here and someone might even need low doses of DHEA and pregnenalone depending on how depleted they are. But again, get tested first.

TMUSCLE: Now, how do we fix the gastrointestinal system issues you mentioned?

Dr. Walsh: People have known forever that the gut plays a critical role in health, fat loss, muscle gain, etc. But five years ago if you said it, you were laughed right out of the gym. Now you get these muscleheads that say, "Dude, you think I should start taking probiotics?"

Anyway, gut health is huge. This is an easy one to catch because everyone knows the symptoms. In fact, everyone else in the same room as you probably knows you're having symptoms. So this one is the easiest to spot.

In terms of the fix, it depends on what the problem is. If you have food sensitivities, you need to go on an elimination diet for a few weeks. If you have some type of infection, you should get tested to see what it is, what it's sensitive to, and kill it. If you have decreased mucosal barrier function, you need to avoid whatever is causing the problem, and take things to support its reconstruction.

And as I've said a few times already, I'm a big fan of testing. The GI Effects test from Metametrix is one of the best gut function tests on the market.

TMUSCLE: Okay, this is good info, but my worry is that many people will glom onto one of these conditions and blame it for their lack of progress, when in truth they're just not as strict with their diets and training plans as they'd like to think. Have you run all these tests on someone and told them, "Nope, no problems. You just eat too damn much, fattie."

Dr. Walsh: Totally. But usually I don't need a test to know that. You can get a pretty good idea just by asking questions. One good one is, "What are the three healthiest foods you eat?"

They say, "Um , whole wheat pasta, organic bran muffins, and organic cereal with rice milk." Riiiiight. Then we have a talk about diet.

Some people are really tough to figure out though. But it basically boils down to one of a few things — hormone balance, adrenal health, gastrointestinal function, liver function, and blood sugar balance.

TMUSCLE: I still hate the title of your program, Doc, but thanks for the interview and the intriguing info!

37 Tips and Tales from Dave Tate

by Nate Green



Five minutes before my interview with Dave Tate a new Facebook status update pings onto my screen.

It's from Tate.

"Getting ready for an interview with Nate Green. I'm LMAO right now at some of the items on my list. Random and insane!"

Tate, it seems, is a social media junkie. He posts messages on Twitter and Facebook upwards of ten times per day. What's he talk about?

Damn near everything.

That's why I interview Tate a little differently than most other contributors. There are no real questions or timeline. We just get on the phone and talk.

And that's when the most interesting shit I've ever heard comes out of his mouth.


Tate Talks
• What would I change? Not a damn thing. The old me wouldn't listen to anything I could say to him now anyway. We can't change shit or do things differently so why bother thinking about it? I achieved my goals. I continued to get stronger. So are you asking me if I would go back and suck? Hell no.

• A lot of the habits that became very bad were out of necessity or lack of education.

• I ate clean for many years and my body-fat stayed under 10 percent till I reached 260 pounds. When I tried to break that I ran into problems. I tried to bulk clean with more chicken and rice and I was eating close to 6,000 calories per day. Doing that clean was a bitch. It was almost impossible. I could do it for one day but then it'd drop off to 3000 calories for the next two. So I had to add junk food until the only healthy thing I had left was the lettuce on my Big Mac.

• If you're trying to gain weight you have to eat more food less frequently. Fat people don't try to be fat. And when they tell you they've only eaten twice that day it's probably true. They eat big-ass meals once or twice a day and their metabolism just drops. So what you have to do is try to lower your metabolism as much as you can, because the calorie surplus will be easier to meet. It's probably not the healthiest route, but it'll get you big. You can't do it for long, though. You'll get the sloppy "drop fat" that way.

• Drop fat is when your stomach hangs over your belt like a fanny pack. Looks like a fucking tumor.

• Nutrition is different now. There are supplements that can actually make a huge difference. We're seeing some amazing things with Surge Workout Fuel. We've actually had to have people back down and take less because they were gaining muscle too quickly. We had to pull two guys off completely because they were so close to a meet and had to make weight. These are people who wouldn't gain weight before. I mean, I don't want to be a supplement whore, but if I had to school an up-and-coming lifter I'd tell him to look at pre-, peri-, and post-workout nutrition very closely.

• My old routine was McDonald's on the way to the gym, coffee during my workout, Burger King and Copenhagen post-workout.

• My new routine is SURGE® Workout Fuel, FINiBAR™, Anaconda, SURGE® Recovery, and a shit-load of SPIKE® Shooter. You tell me which is better.

• I knew a strength coach at a D1 school who used to feed his kids peanut butter sandwiches during their training. He told me, "Forget about the nutritional value. Look at the calories I just put in them." Your body can take in a lot of calories in that workout window. Peanut butter sandwiches may not be the best idea, though.

• I train twice per day four days per week using a body-part split.



Saturday

Morning: Quads
Evening: Hamstrings and calves

Sunday

Morning: Chest
Evening: Biceps and abs

Monday and Tuesday

Steady-state cardio for 30 to 45 minutes.

Wednesday

Morning: Back (Vertical and horizontal pulls. Sometimes deadlifts.)
Evening: Traps (lots of shrugs) and more upper-back

Thursday

Morning: Shoulders
Evening: Triceps

Friday

Off

• I always make sure there are four and a half hours minimum between sessions. That's from the end of the first to the start of the next.

• My volume is very, very high. I can't train as heavy as I'd like so I'm making up for it. I'm also trying to deplete as much glycogen as possible; that way I can replenish as much as possible. I drain myself and then build back up. Make sense?

• Right now I'm at 12 percent body-fat at 287 pounds. Last week I had my blood work done and my doctor pulled out the first blood report he took before I contacted Berardi back in '06. He put them together and showed me the results. "Here you were 295 pounds and 20 percent body-fat, and there's not a single variable on this chart that's not fucked up," he said. "This one here, you're at 12 percent and only eight pounds off from where you were three years ago and there's not one variable that is screwed up." My nutrition is night and day. I've never been this lean while being this heavy.

• I used to train through everything. You're not supposed to do that. I look at it completely different now with the people I'm working with. But it depends on how far away we are from a meet. If we're outside of the five-week mark, we're gonna let them rest. But if we're inside of five weeks, they're gonna have to push it, man. I'm not gonna hurt them, but my specialty is getting people to perform optimally when they're fucked up.

• Some people will call it hardcore. I call it fast retirement.

• I like carb cycling mostly because I fucking love Fruity Pebbles and Mike and Ikes candy. Some of my super-high days are 1200 grams of carbs. My metabolism just flies. But then I gotta follow that with a low-carb day. It's fucking horrible. I can only have 200 grams of carbs that day. It's a nightmare.

• A lot of guys are going to read that and say, "Fuck you, Dave. 200 grams is not low-carb." Whatever.

• I'm not sold on one diet philosophy. I'm sold on whatever will work for you.

• The Prowler? I fucking hate it. I'm not going to bullshit anyone. I absolutely hate the fucking thing. I'll let everyone else say how awesome it is. Wendler and I took it out to a football field outside of town a while back. I don't know how much weight was on there, but it wasn't a lot. We did full-on sprints. Four times through. It was hot as fuck. I finished and just lay there and wanted to die. My lungs were on fire and the smell of fresh-cut grass made me want to puke. It took everything I had to just get to my car, drive my sorry ass home, sit on the couch and slobber for three hours. After that, I told myself that I'd never push that fucker again.

• I have a phase every year which I detailed in Stronger where I work on muscle balance, mobility and all that bullshit I hate. I have to spend at least two to three months every year taking bars off my back and getting my function back. It's all geared on getting my muscles to fire, and getting my flexibility and conditioning back.

• I have to go through that phase because the next phase is pure strength. I can't do heavy singles and triples without going through my mobility. Most guys don't do it and they're the ones who are going to be fucked up later.

• My year is split into blocks that kind of repeat every year. I spend a few months in each. What are they? Mobility, strength, hypertrophy, and a diet phase.

• I live on Curcumin 500. I take between 8 and 12 a day. It's alleviated the need for me to take things like Advil.

• The most underrated exercise is the chin-up. A lot of lifters I know have shoulder problems. They have very limited range of motion. I think that's because all they've ever done is lat pull-downs. They just don't put your shoulder through the same range of motion as a chin-up. Chin-ups are something I wish I would've done all the time. It's hard to lose the range of motion if you're always using it.

• Everybody wants to look at others to see which way they want to go. Everyone wants to follow. You can learn from the path others have taken but all that's going to do is give you the same results they've gotten. If you're okay with that, then it's cool. But it's not my passion.

• It's a rare individual who lets themselves be steered by what they feel is their own passion.

• Some people are put here just to be critics.

• In all honestly, the majority of people don't give a fuck about you. They have their own shit to worry about. They don't care what you make, or what you lift, or who you are. But that's fine.

• I'd love to be able to generate a million dollars in revenue for LiftStrong. I just want people to know that the strength community gives a shit about something. We're nowhere near the endurance community right now. They take action.

• There's a big problem when it comes to training with percents. If I'm going to tell you to do five reps at 70 percent of your one-rep max, the first thing you have to do is figure out just what the fuck your one-rep max is. The last time you did it could have been three months ago. Lets say you benched 300 for one rep three months ago, but you don't think you could hit that now. It'd be stupid to take 70 percent of 300 pounds and put it on the bar. That may be 80 percent of your max. You may get two reps instead of the five you're shooting for.

•You can work technique all you want at 30 and 40 percent of your one-rep max using multiple sets and low reps, but technique is still going to be influenced by what's on the bar. You may look good at 50 percent but 80 percent may look like shit.

• What I do is have people figure out their "perceived max" for the day. I don't want them to actually do an all-out one-rep set. Let's say a lifter I'm working with has done a 600-pound squat in the past. But maybe they can't hit that today. So we have to figure out where they're at right now and base our training off that perceived max. So this guy hits 495 for three reps and I ask him what he thinks. "It's too light." So he'll go up to 545 for a single and I'll ask again. "I could probably hit 585 today," he says. If I agree with him then we'll do 70 percent based off that perceived max of 585 pounds. The more experienced the lifter, the more "keyed in" he is to his training.

• Our guys just got done with a 12-week phase. Every deadlift went up thirty to fifty pounds across the board. Squats went up by 100 pounds. It wasn't even a strength phase.

• Technique is crucial. Let's say you're doing a squat and it's fucked up. Maybe your knees cave in and your chest keeps falling forward. Well, we could do a "strength" phase and put ten pounds on your squat pretty easily. Or we could just get your technique perfect and instantly add 50 pounds. It's your choice.

• I'm not looking to create lifters who are going to go out and be average. I want them at their maximum potential. I want them to crush it.

• Here's a quick story.



There was a time at the Old Westside gym where I couldn't gain weight to save my fucking life.

There was this dude who trained there who could just put on weight like fucking magic. He'd go from 198 to 308 and then to 275 and back down to 198. And he was never fat. It was amazing.

I finally asked him one day how he did it.

"You mean I never told you the secret to gaining weight? Come outside and I'll fill you in."

Now remember, we're at Westside Barbell. And this guy wants to go outside to talk so no one else can hear. Think about that for a minute. What the hell is he going to tell me? This must be some serious shit if we have to go outside, I thought.

So we get outside and he starts talking.

"For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don't care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that shit down and eat. That's your breakfast."

At this point I'm thinking this guy is nuts. But he's completely serious.

"For lunch you're gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don't want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG bullshit. I don't care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can't let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter."

"For dinner you're gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don't like sardines, don't put 'em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that fucker up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that shit over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the shit out of it."

"Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that fucker. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals."

This guy is in a zen-like state when he's talking about this.

"Now you're on the clock," he continues. "After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you're full. Don't listen to that shit. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I'm telling you now, you're going to get three or four pieces in and you're gonna want to quit. You fucking can't quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.

And if you can't finish it, don't you ever come back to me and tell me you can't gain weight. 'Cause I'm gonna tell you that you don't give a fuck about getting bigger and you don't care how much you lift!"

Did I do it? Hell yeah. Started the next day and did it for two months. Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds. And I didn't get much fatter. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, though.

• I gotta go, Nate. Gotta take a piss. E-mail me if you need anything.

"D" is for Doping

by Chris Shugart



"D" is for Domination
In 1927 a controversy arose in the athletic world.

The German Swimmers' Association had decided to use a sunlamp on their athletes to boost performance. Some felt this ultraviolet irradiation constituted "athletic unfairness."

In other words, doping.

How could sitting under a sunlamp be construed as doping? Because, according to Dr. Tim Ziegenfuss, this artificial sunlight penetrates the skin and converts cutaneous 7-dehydrocholesterol to previtamin D3, which in turn becomes 1,25 dihydroxy vitamin D in the kidneys.

That in itself might not constitute athletic unfairness, but if you're deficient in Vitamin D (which is pretty damn common), then modern studies have shown that it can indeed be a performance enhancing substance.

The irradiation of athletes has continued since.

Fast forward to May 2009, a headline in the Post Chronicle:

"Vitamin D May Allow American Olympians To Dominate In 2012"

This headline was a reaction to a new paper published by The American College of Sports Medicine on the positive effect of adequate Vitamin D on athletic performance.

Now, although some scientists, including Dr. Tim Ziegenfuss, would not classify Vitamin D as a hormone, its metabolic product (calcitriol) is a secosteroid hormone (a molecule that's very similar to a steroid). In fact, many come right out and classify Vitamin D as a steroid hormone.

But is this really doping?

Most experts agree that it's not.

The majority of athletes — like the majority of people in the general population — are deficient in Vitamin D. Treating this deficiency can help athletes prevent stress fractures as well as maintain a healthy vitality. If this also happens to improve the athlete's reaction time, muscle strength, speed, and endurance, well... that's just a very nice side effect of getting adequate Vitamin D.

So Vitamin D has been making waves in the athletic community since at least 1927, but it's also becoming a hot topic in another field: life extension. Add to this some evidence that it could help with fat loss and strength gains, and you just might have...



The Next Big Vitamin
Dr. Jonny Bowden calls Vitamin D the most underrated "vitamin" on the planet. (Quotation marks because it isn't technically a vitamin at all.)

Dr. Ziegenfuss, a researcher and sports nutritionist to elite athletes, tests himself often to make sure he's getting enough. He even tests his kids for it and supplements them as needed.

Coach Eric Cressey says Vitamin D might just be the next fish oil. He makes sure the athletes under his care get plenty of it. Charles Poliquin does the same.

And finally, medicinal chemist Bill Roberts says that you should "absolutely" be taking Vitamin D.

What about the stuffy and often behind-the-times nutritional organizations and agencies? Well, the FDA has stated that they're likely going to up their Vitamin D recommendations the next time they release new standards.

In October of 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics doubled the amount of D they recommend for kids (from 200 IU per day to 400 IU per day). And the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Wyoming has recommended that sports nutritionists assess levels of Vitamin D in their athletes. If they're getting too little, they contend it will compromise the athlete's ability to train.

From government agencies to in-the-trenches trainers, the trend is clear: Vitamin D is important. And if you think you're getting enough of it from natural foods, fortified foods, and sunlight, then think again, Sunshine.


Vitamin D: Why Should You Care?
Three reasons: Longevity, performance, and lookin' good naked.

Let's break those down:

1) Longevity

You know what really gets in the way of building muscle, losing fat, and benching a ton?

Death.

The New England Journal of Medicine recently warned that the number of diseases associated with vitamin D deficiency is growing. And who's deficient? Most people, the studies seem to be saying, including otherwise nutrition-conscious athletes and gym rats.

In one mind-blowing study (Melamed, et al.) using population data, researchers found that total mortality was 26% higher in those with the lowest 25(OH)D levels compared with the highest. And a meta-analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials found that supplemental vitamin D significantly reduced total mortality. That means quite simply this: vitamin D supplementation prolongs life.

Here's just a handful of examples:

• According to the Vitamin D Council, current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer.

• Vitamin D may protect against both Type I and Type II diabetes.

• Low D may contribute to chronic fatigue, depression, and Seasonal Affective Disorder.

• Parkinson's and Alzheimer's sufferers have been found to have lower levels of D.

• Low levels of vitamin D may contribute to "Syndrome X" with associated hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

• Administration of dietary vitamin D has been shown to lower blood pressure and restore insulin sensitivity.

This section could go on endlessly, so let's just say this: If you care about living a good long life, then Vitamin D looks like it could certainly help with that goal.

2) Performance

Studies on Vitamin D, sunlight, and performance go back for decades. Russian studies in the 1930's showed that 100M dash times improved in irradiated athletes vs. non-irradiated athletes undergoing the same training (7.4% improvement vs. 1.4%).

German studies in the 1940's showed that irradiation lead to a 13% improvement in performance on the bike ergometer vs. no improvement in the control group.

In the 1950's researchers saw a "convincing effect" on athletic performance after treating athletes at the Sports College of Cologne. Findings were so convincing that they notified the Olympic Committee.

At one point, even school children were irradiated and given large doses of Vitamin D in 1952 Germany. Treated children showed dramatic increases in overall fitness and cardiovascular performance. UV radiation was also shown to improve reaction times by 17% in a 1956 study.

In the 1960s, a group of American college women were treated with a single dose of ultraviolet irradiation. The results: improvements in strength, speed, and endurance.

Other studies showed "distinct seasonal variation" in the trainability of musculature. Basically, athletes performed better and got stronger in the late summer due to their greater exposure to the sun and subsequent Vitamin D production.

Vitamin D has also been shown to act directly on muscle to increase protein synthesis. Deficient subjects administered Vitamin D showed improvement in muscle protein anabolism and an increase in muscle mass.

Improvements in neuromuscular functioning have also been seen. People with higher levels of Vitamin D generally have better reaction time and balance.

3) Looking Good Naked

If Vitamin D does indeed improve the effects of training and helps to stave off various illnesses, then it's easy to see how this can translate into an improved aesthetic: you're healthier, you feel better, you get more out of your training, and you end up looking better when you make sexy-time. But there could be a more direct effect as well.

Dr. Shalamar Sibley's new research shows that adding Vitamin D to a reduced-calorie diet may lead to better, faster weight loss. Not only did she find that excess body fat came off faster when plenty of D3 was present, but it also came off the abdominal area.

The icing on the cake? The same D-supplemented subjects retained muscle mass while losing the fat.

In other studies, subjects receiving Vitamin D therapy lost weight, lost their sugar cravings, and saw a normalization in blood sugar levels.


The Quick and Dirty of D
Before we get to the TMUSCLE recommendations, let's review some Vitamin D basics and some little known facts:

• There is no RDA for Vitamin D due to "insufficient evidence." But there is an AI or Adequate Intake recommendation:

Ages 19-50: 200 IU
Ages 51-70: 400 IU
Over age 70: 600 IU

That means this is the amount assumed to ensure nutritional adequacy: sufficient to maintain bone health and normal calcium metabolism in healthy people. Suffice it to say, these are bare minimums that new evidence suggests are way too conservative.

• There aren't that many foods in nature containing Vitamin D. The best source is halibut liver oil, followed by cod liver oil, salmon, tuna, and mackerel.

And by the way, farm-raised salmon has been shown to have 25% less Vitamin D than wild salmon. And cod liver oil? Good source of D but also high in Vitamin A, which can be toxic if over-consumed. Do NOT use cod liver oil alone to boost your Vitamin D intake!

Beef liver, cheese, and egg yolks contain a smidge. Foods like milk do contain Vitamin D but only because manufacturers add it in, i.e. fortified milk, fortified cereal etc. Milk was fortified back in the 1930's to combat rickets, and it worked.

Despite all of this, those who wish to maximize the benefits of a higher Vitamin D intake wouldn't be able to get enough through food sources alone. And of course a lot of that "fortified" food is still make-you-fat food, probably avoided by most physique athletes.

• Most people get their D through sunlight. The basic intake guidelines are: 5-30 minutes of sun exposure between 10 AM and 3 PM at least twice a week without sunscreen. But much depends on where you live, the pollution levels, cloud cover, age, the season of the year, your natural cutaneous melanin content, etc.

Another factoid: While it's technically possible to get too much Vitamin D, you can't get too much from the sun, only from over-supplementing.

• What about tanning beds? The "moderate use" of commercial tanning beds that emit 2-6% UVB radiation can help, but of course there's that whole skin cancer thing to consider.

• Sunlight that comes through glass doesn't count. Most UVB radiation doesn't penetrate glass, corner-office boy.

• If using the sun to get your D, remember that cholesterol-containing body oils are critical to the absorption process. Some experts say that because the body needs 30 to 60 minutes to absorb these vitamin-D-containing oils, it's best to delay showering for about an hour after sun exposure. And don't jump right into the pool either as these natural oils can be stripped by chlorine.


How Much Vitamin D?
In researching this article, I looked to find a consensus among the experts. Here's what I've found:

• As a general rule, Dr. Clay Hyght recommends 1,000 IU per day. This represented the low end amongst our experts, but note that it's still way over current government guidelines.

• Canadian researcher and one of the world's foremost experts on Vitamin D, Dr. Reinhold Vieth, says levels should be in the range of 4,000 IU from all sources.

• Dr. Bowden recommended 2,000 IUs per day.

• Dr. Ziegenfuss personally keeps his levels of 25-hydroxy D at 50 to 100 ng/mL. That means he uses around 4000 IU per day. (He lives in Ohio, by the way.) He notes that when he took 1000 to 2000 IU per day his levels rarely hit 40.

• Bill Roberts has noted that 4,000 IU a day can be a substantial help to fat loss.

• The Vitamin D Council says that those who rarely get sunlight need to supplement with 5,000 IU per day. Note that this would take 50 glasses of fortified milk a day or 10-12 standard multivitamins, hence the need for targeted supplementation.

• Dr. Robert P. Heaney of Nebraska's Creighton University estimates that 3,000 IU per day is required to assure that 97% of Americans obtain levels greater than 35 ng/mL.

So the government says 200 to 400 IU for most of us, but even they admit that's low. Those more in-the-know suggest anywhere from 1000 to even 5000 IU per day.

But this may depend on how much sunlight you get and your ethnicity. Some estimate that dark-skinned individuals, brown and black guys if you will, may need double the amount of D that a pasty white guy needs.

TMUSCLE will leave your personal dosage choice up to you and maybe your physician (if he knows a damn). If you really want to dial this in, we suggest getting tested. (See section below.)


General Recommendations
1) When looking for a Vitamin D supplement, choose the D3 form. Gelcaps are probably best. Liquids are favored by some. Since D is fat soluble, take with foods containing a little fat to optimize absorption. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids are best.

2) Get some sun when you can, but don't burn. The occasional use of tanning beds is also fine, particularly in the winter.

3) If in doubt, test. The test you want to ask for is 25 (hydroxy) D. That's 25-hydroxyvitamin D, not 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D.

The Vitamin D Council says you should shoot for blood levels between 50—80 ng/mL. The average American in late winter averages about 15 to 18 ng/ml, which would be considered a serious deficiency. Your doctor can give you this test and some home testing kits are available (around $65 each), although we cannot endorse one at this time.

4) It's wise to ensure adequate calcium intake when increasing your intake of Vitamin D.


Can You OD on D?
Yes. But it's unlikely.

Dr. Vieth suggests that critical toxicity may occur at doses of 20,000 IU daily (for many months), and that the Upper Limit (UL) of safety be set at 10,000 IU, rather than the current 2,000 IU.

So while toxicity issues exist, you probably won't have to worry about it when staying at 5000 IU per day or less according to most forward-thinking researchers and nutrition experts.



Good Dope
As we "go to press" I just received another study about Vitamin D from the Public

Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). It seems that Vitamin D may offer protection against Swine Flu, the H1N1 virus.

In short, if you get plenty of Vitamin D and catch the flu, it's a mild illness. If you're lacking — and most people are, especially in the winter — then you're more likely to develop full-blown symptoms.

The message is loud and clear: It's time to start "doping" with Vitamin D.


References and Further Reading
Melamed ML, Michos ED, Post W, Astor B. 25-Hydroxyvitamin D levels and the risk of mortality in the general population. Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(15):1629—37

Autier P, Gandini S. Vitamin D supplementation and total mortality: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(16):1730—7.

http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/vitamindmiracle.html

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp

Athletic Performance and Vitamin D , JOHN J. CANNELL, BRUCE W. HOLLIS, MARC B. SORENSON, TIMOTHY N. TAFT, and JOHN J. B. ANDERSON

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org

http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Vitamin-D-linked-to-successful-weight-loss-with-dieting

http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=144&num=229302

Death Match: You vs. Your Body

by Mike Roussell



You've just finished a mass phase and added 25 solid pounds to the scale, most of which is muscle. It was hell trying to get bigger, but you finally laid the smack-down on your body and forced it to pack on weight by lifting heavy and shoveling anything deemed edible into your face.

"Do you like this second-helping of potatoes? What about this huge glass of milk? That'll teach you to defy me! I own you!"

Now it's time to strip away the fat that's covering your hard-earned muscle. But your body is one pissed off, vindictive beast who's not ready to work with you. In fact, if you let it, it's going to walk all over you, kick you in the balls, and take your precious muscle back with it.

You must tame the beast.

Losing muscle while dieting doesn't have to happen. In fact, it can easily be avoided,if you take the right steps to counteract your body's innate survival mechanism.


The Three Problems
Why-oh-why does your body break down muscle to use as fuel while dieting?

Problem Number One: Your body needs (or thinks it needs) the energy.

Problem Number Two: Your body thinks it needs the amino acids in your muscles for more important things like making enzymes and repairing essential tissues. So it breaks down the muscle, harvests the amino acids, and uses them elsewhere in the body. How cruel.

Problem Number Three: Your body wants to break down muscle for fuel because muscle is calorically expensive to keep around. Your body-fat, on the other hand, just sits there. When you're dieting, your body sees all calories as very important (since they're limited) and thus only wants to expend energy on things that are absolutely necessary like thinking, breathing, bowel movements, and searching for Internet porn.

Although you see your muscle as absolutely necessary, your body has a different opinion.


Time to Tame the Beast
So now that we've outlined the three problems, what can we do to make your body happy, keep your muscle mass, and shed the fat?

Let's look back at the first set.

Your body's problem: Needs energy.

Your solution: You want your body to specifically use stored fat to fill the energy void.

The truth is that you have enough stored energy in the form of body-fat to last a very long time. Lack of energy isn't the issue. What we need to do is show your body how to access the energy that it has stored up. However, last time I checked, you can't sit down and have a one-on-one conversation with your gut about how it needs to go away. Not without a few raised eyebrows and a trip to the local psychiatrist, at least. The only option is brute force.

By cutting carbs we force your body to find another fuel source. First up is fat. Once you cut your carbs down to 20-50 grams a day, keep them there. As soon as your body starts efficiently using fat as its primary fuel source, it will realize that you have an abundant amount of energy ready for utilization and will not as readily catabolize your muscle.

This protective effect of low carbohydrate diets is illustrated by the findings of soon-to-be published research from the University of Connecticut. In a 12-week weight-loss study, they compared a low-carb diet with a low-fat diet. Individuals on a low-fat diet lost more lean body mass during the course of the study.

Your body's problem: Needs enough amino acids to maintain important bodily functions.

Your solution: You want the body to get amino acids from places other than your muscle.

Now that we have the fuel issue solved, we need to deal with your body's next problem: getting enough amino acids to maintain important bodily functions. The truly important aminos your body cares about are the essential amino acids (EAA).

Studies from the University of Illinois by Dr. Donald Layman, one of the world's leading protein researchers, have shown ample protein and essential amino acids (specifically leucine) are key when it comes to protecting lean tissues while dieting.

A 2008 study by Dr. Layman showed that doubling people's protein intake from 0.8 grams per kilogram (the current RDA for protein) to 1.6 grams per kilogram led to greater reductions in body-fat percentage and improved insulin response without even having the subjects exercise. While this is an important concept, I feel safe in my assumption that everyone reading this article is eating 1.6 grams per kilogram of protein or more. So getting adequate protein shouldn't be an issue.

But let's take it one step further by supplementing your diet with either BCAA, or pure Leucine between meals. This will not only hammer the point home to your body that there are ample amounts of precious amino acids, but the Leucine will start flipping anabolic switches throughout your muscle building system.

(If you haven't already, you should read Dr. Lowery's most recent article on protein.

Researcher Dr. Stephen Bird showed that supplementing with seven grams of EAA prior to weight training prevented muscle breakdown over the 48-hour post-workout period while the group that didn't use any type of workout shake experienced a 56 percent increase in urinary 3-methly Histidine levels, which is a marker indicative of skeletal muscle breakdown.

Your body's problem: Energy is low so the body only wants to keep around essential parts that require calories.

Your solution: You need to convince your body that lean muscle is essential.

Your body functions from an evolutionary perspective. We used to build muscle for survival reasons like moving stones, carrying trees, and snapping necks of wild boars. If your body needed muscle to do those things now, it wouldn't even consider catabolizing it for fuel. Unfortunately for us, there aren't too many necks to snap.

So how can we mimic that experience for our body? Alwyn Cosgrove had the answer for me: heavy lifting while dieting.

While sets of 8, 12, 15, and even 20 reps are perfect for eliciting a calorie burning metabolic stimulus, heavier sets of 4 to 6 reps give your body the message that if it doesn't keep the muscle around, it'll be crushed.

When you first get to the gym add 3 to 4 sets of squats, deadlifts, RDLs, bench presses, and bent-over rows in the 4 to 6 rep range before you move into your complexes, metabolic circuits, and supersets.

This will not only force your body to hold onto your muscle, but will accelerate your fat loss as well.


Losing Muscle is No Longer An Option
Let's keep it simple and recap the key points to preventing muscle loss while dieting:

• Cut your carbs and keep them low.
• Increase your protein intake.
• Add supplemental amino acids (BCAA, EAA, or just Leucine) to your diet.
• Start each workout with 3 to 4 sets of 4 to 6 reps of a compound movement.

Do these four things and you'll never have to worry about losing muscle while dieting, and the beast that is your body will work with you instead of against you.

Grip Training for the Deadlift

by Andy Bolton and Elliot Newman

Ever grasp the bar with such might that you swear you heard it scream?

Okay, maybe, just maybe, that was a daydream about strangling one of those "deadlifts are the devil" yahoos who found themselves on the wrong side of the stacks.

But whether you're a powerlifter, bodybuilder, or an athlete from another sport, a cast-iron grip is the connection between you and a massive deadlift.


Get a Grip
Whilst the grip training methods we'll describe are predominately performed to improve deadlift performance, they'll help every single exercise you do in the gym. The Law of Irradiation states that: "A muscle working hard recruits the neighborhood muscles, and if they are already a part of the action, it amplifies their strength!"(1)

The bench press is a great example; the harder you can squeeze the bar, the harder you'll be able to activate your triceps and the stronger your bench will be.

Also, with a stronger grip, we've found that deadlifts can be pulled faster from the floor because you aren't worrying about your hands coming open and missing the lift. Therefore, we can conclude that huge grip strength is essential to reaching your potential in terms of explosive power and absolute strength.


Still Need Convincing?
Between the historic 1003-pound and 1008-pound competition deadlifts, Andy Bolton missed pulls of 1000-plus pounds five times. The reason was the same every time: He couldn't hold onto the bar. In the approximately 30 months between these two pulls, the only thing that was dramatically changed in his training was his grip work.

What follows is the method that contributed to a weakness becoming a strength. If you watch videos of the 1008-pounder, you'll see that it's held at lockout for a few seconds with no problem.

Weak grip no more, or, as Pavel would say, "Grip power to you."


Frequency of Grip Training
We train four times per week. The deadlift is trained on Wednesday, and grip work is performed on Saturday. We advise you to do something similar by keeping 72 hours between your deadlift and grip training. This keeps the hands fresh for both activities and allows you to maximize strength gains. Make no mistake, the grip training we'll describe involves total body exercises that are physically and mentally demanding.

We've tried performing these exercises after specific deadlift training on Wednesday and found it too taxing to do all in one session.



Methodology Behind Grip Training
For powerlifting, various set and rep schemes can be highly effective when training grip. To make continuous physical progress and prevent boredom the hands must be subjected to a variety of stimuli. This means that neither one exercise, nor one set and rep scheme will work forever.

With that in mind, for grip training, the following methods are highly effective:

• Timed holds (short duration, medium duration, and long duration)
• Multiple low rep sets (3's and 5's)
• A few high rep sets (3 sets of 10)
• A mixture of the above (eg: work up to a hard set of 3, then drop the weight by 30% and hold for max time)

A powerlifting competition requires three attempts on the deadlift, and possibly a fourth if you're attempting a world record. Each attempt lasts only a few seconds. For this reason, out of the methods listed above, we've found that time holds for a short duration (10 seconds) and multiple low rep sets, produce the best gains for increasing grip strength on the deadlift.

If you compete in a different sport, such as strongman, which requires you to perform events that rely on strength endurance, then timed holds for longer durations (such as one minute) and higher rep sets can be very useful.


Grip Training Exercises for Hands of Steel
Two-Inch Fat Bar Partial Deadlifts

The obvious prerequisite for performing this exercise is a fat bar! If you don't have a fat bar, we highly recommend buying a pair of FatGripz. These will enable you to make a regular Olympic bar much thicker. They are also very easy to use, durable, and cheap.

Set the bar up on blocks or on power rack pins so that you're pulling from just below knee height. Then simply perform the movement as you would a conventional deadlift. The only difference being that you'll take a double overhand grip on all reps.

You can use any of the aforementioned set and rep schemes for this exercise. You can also perform it with or without chalk, the latter being far harder. For even more variety you can wrap a t-shirt or foam around the bar to make it thicker. This ramps up the difficulty even more.

Two-Handed Pinch Grip Deadlift

To set up this exercise take an Olympic bar and rest one end on a bench. There must be a small weight plate on this end to prevent the bar from falling over the bench when you deadlift it (see picture for set up).

On the other end of the bar, place two Olympic plates with the smooth side facing outwards. Don't get it the other way around as it totally defeats the purpose of the exercise! You'll need a collar to stop the plates from moving.

People with a fairly strong grip may be able to start with two 45-pound plates, but we recommend that the average person starts with 35 pounders.

To add weight, use a 10-pound plate first. Then add whatever you want on top of that. This setup is essential for lifters with large hands. You'll realize why when you try the exercise.

To perform the movement, take a semi-sumo stance (feet just outside the plates). Set up as you would normally for your deadlift: arched lower back, relaxed upper back, and perform your desired number of reps and sets/timed holds.


Getting the Most from These Exercises
On both grip exercises, it's imperative that you squeeze the bar/plates as hard as possible throughout each and every rep. We've found that most people don't do this, and it actually helps if they get verbal cues to do so. Over the weeks, this skill becomes more instinctive, and when you come back to a regular bar, it'll feel like a toy.

We also like to alternate between fat bar partial deadlifts and two-handed pinch grip deadlifts on a weekly basis. This prevents boredom and keeps the hands fresh. We also change the set and rep scheme each week. This allows us to break records on a weekly basis.


8 Week Grip Program
Week 1: Fat bar partial deadlift; work up to 5RM

Week 2: Two-handed pinch grip deadlift; work up to max 10-second hold

Week 3: Fat bar partial deadlift with no chalk; work up to hard set of 3, then drop down and do one set of 8

Week 4: Two-handed pinch grip deadlift; work up to a max single, then drop the weight and do two 10-second holds

Week 5: Fat bar partial deadlift with t-shirt around the bar; 3 x 8

Week 6: Two-handed pinch grip deadlift; 3 x 6, then one max hold for time

Week 7: No grip work

Week 8: Fat bar partial deadlift; work up to max single, then 20RM

As you can see, with a little imagination you can make and break many personal records on these two exercises.

For variety, don't be afraid to occasionally use grippers, hang from a pull-up bar, or perform any other grip work you like, such as high-rep dumbbell rows or high-rep shrugs. Oh, and of course, the odd week off from grip training may be called for from time to time to allow your hands to recover. Just make sure you use fat bar partial deadlifts and two- handed pinch grip deadlifts most of the time.


Summary
There are many ways to get a strong grip. However, the two exercises highlighted in this article are the ones that have enabled a dream like a 1008-pound deadlift to become a reality.

They've also been used by the entire team at Rall's Gym in Leeds, England, where our powerlifting team trains. This team comprises one 1008-pound deadlifter, one 800-pound deadlifter, and over ten athletes who have deadlifted between 600 and 799 pounds in competition.

According to Professor Verkhoshansky, "Special physical preparation must...have similarity to the competition exercises." (2) And what better way to get specific strength for the deadlift than by performing a deadlift movement with a far harder object to hold than a regular deadlift or Olympic bar.

[Editor's note: Andy Bolton and Elliot Newman will be conducting a Strength Training Seminar on Sunday, January 31st in Harrogate, England. For more information, check out their website.


References
1. Tsatsouline, P. 2000. Power to the People: Russian Strength Training Secrets for every American. Dragon Door Publications

2. Tsatsouline, P. 2009. Power to the People Professional: How to Add 100s of Pounds to your Squat, Bench and Deadlift with Advanced Russian Techniques. Dragon Door Publications

Ten Killer Splits

by the World's Most Dangerous Editors

Not this kind of split :)

Splits: Change You Can Believe In
Muscle gains at a standstill? Bored to death with your current training program?

Then you need a change and a challenge.

There are four very powerful changes you can make in the gym to solve these problems:

1) Change your exercises. Our Exercises You've Never Tried and "Best of" series have you covered there.

2) Change your set/rep scheme. Been doing three sets of ten since the 8th grade? Try 5 x 5, 2 x 15, or 8 x 3.

3) Obey the 3rd Law of Muscle and optimize your peri-workout nutrition.

4) Adopt a fresh training split.

Let's take a closer look at number four.

Some people train their whole body — every major muscle group — in a single workout. Others divide their muscle groups up so much that every other Friday is "pubococcygeus day."

But talk to most experienced trainers and they'll tell you the same thing: there is no best split! Christian Thibaudeau sums it up best:

"There's no universal training split that's ideal for all purposes. The potential efficacy of a mode of training organization will be highly dependant on goals, schedule, experience, and individual physical make-up."

And we'll add this: Sometimes the "best" split for you is simply the one that you haven't used in a while. Change — at least the kind that stimulates new adaptations — is a good thing.

So let's review some basic splits and talk about the advantages of each. Whether you're a snot-nosed newbie who needs a plan to get started or a grungy veteran who needs a new challenge, think of this as your quick and dirty guide to training splits.

The Full Body Split
This first split, well, isn't. Basically you just train the whole body in one workout session. Typically, you take a day off, then do it again. So it looks like this:

Monday: Full body training
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Full body training
Thursday: Off
Friday: Full body training

You can then keep the sequence going, taking Saturday off then starting over on Sunday, or you can take the weekend off.

Now, with full body training you obviously can't do five different exercises just for chest. You'd be in there for three hours by the time you worked your way down to calves... or you'd die of exhaustion. And that causes atrophy, don't ya know? So you'd only hit the chest with one big compound exercise (usually) then move on to the other muscle groups.

But the cool thing is, you'll be hitting the chest again very soon. So, volume per workout is low for chest, but frequency is high i.e. you'll be training chest three times per week instead of once every three to five days as some split routines would have you do. Plus, you can always do different chest exercises each time.

Good for: Athletes, beginners, those with only a few days per week to train, and those seeking mainly fat loss. For example, the Velocity Diet training program, custom-designed by Chad Waterbury for those on extreme cutting diets, has worked especially well, with dieters reporting muscle mass retention and even gains.

A good, time-proven plan, but most hypertrophy-focused lifters eventually move on to one of the following true splits.


The Upper/Lower Split
Even fans of full body training like Alwyn Cosgrove like the upper/lower split. Cosgrove notes: "Maybe 90-95% of the population, 90-95% of the time, will respond best to either total body or an upper and lower split."

A standard upper/lower split would look something like this:

Day 1: Upper body training only (chest, back, shoulders, arms)
Day 2: Lower body training only (legs and sometimes abs)
Day 3: Off or cardio
Day 4: Upper body again
Day 5: Lower body again

One nice thing about the upper/lower split verses a full-body split is that legs get a day all to their own. Lower body training is taxing and — if you're doing it right — pretty damn brutal. Hit your legs hard enough and you won't have much energy left for upper body work. The upper/lower split solves that problem for many.


The Other Two-Way Split
You can split your body two ways without using the ol' upper/lower routine. Here's an alternative:

Day 1: Chest, shoulders, and triceps
Day 2: Legs, back, and biceps
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Repeat


The Opposing Muscle Group Split
In this split you'll pair the muscles on the opposite or opposing side of the body. So, train chest with back for example. This allows you to use antagonist training, where you superset between chest and back instead of doing, say, three straight sets for chest, then three straight sets for back. Waterbury explains the benefits:

"Antagonist training allows you to recover more quickly between sets due to the arrangement of the nervous system. When you maximally activate a muscle group, the nervous system inhibits the opposing muscle group for greater movement efficiency. This phenomenon decreases the time necessary for recovery and it helps restore strength."

This "loop" within the nervous system structure can be used to your advantage. If you alternate exercises for opposing muscle groups, the nervous system will inhibit the muscles that aren't being worked and you'll recover your strength more quickly.

That said, this is a fine split even if you don't use antagonistic training. Here's the typical breakdown:

Day 1: Chest/Back
Day 2: Quads/Hams
Day 3: Biceps/Triceps
Day 4: Off
Day 5: Repeat

Calves can be tossed in on leg day and abs can be trained on the less-taxing biceps/triceps day. Or you can do both on your "off" day... which kinda means it's not an off day, you gym junkie you.

Shoulders are tricky with this set-up though. Some prefer to train them on chest/back day, others prefer biceps/triceps day. And a few believe that not much direct shoulder training is even needed since the delts are hit pretty well with the other muscle groups. Folks from this camp often do a few sets of lateral raises and call it a day for shoulder training.


Primary/Secondary Mover Splits
Primary movers and secondary movers are old-school terms that are useful when describing these splits. To illustrate, when training chest, your pecs are the primary movers. They should be doing most of the work. The triceps help out though, so they're the secondary movers.

With back training, the various muscles of the back do most of the work as primary movers; the biceps would be the secondary movers.


Simple enough, but why is it important when considering your split? Well, as noted in the examples, the arms are secondary movers for chest and back. That gives you two options:

Option #1:

Day 1: Back/triceps
Day 2: Chest/biceps
Day 3: Legs, shoulders, abs
Day 4: Off or repeat

The idea here is to keep your biceps and triceps "fresh." For example, on Day #1 the triceps will be fresh since the back needs the biceps, not the triceps, as secondary movers. You'll find that you'll feel very strong when training arms using this split and can use more weight for arm work than if you paired chest with triceps and back with biceps.

Option #2

Day 1: Back/biceps
Day 2: Chest/triceps
Day 3: Legs, shoulders, abs
Day 4: Off or repeat

With this option, you purposefully pair the secondary movers with their primary movers. After all, if you're already fatiguing the arms from training chest and back, you may as well "finish them off" with direct work.

As with most of these splits, we wouldn't say one is better than the other, just different. So choose one that best fits your needs or pick the option you've used the least if you need a rut-breaker.


The Shock Week Split
Listen to the way many successful bodybuilders describe their training:

"Man, I annihilated legs today!"
"I'm going to destroy my bi's!"
"I couldn't brush my teeth for three days. It was a great workout!"

This isn't that surprising. After all, hypertrophy is all about damaging muscles so they can then rebuild themselves a little bigger. This next split takes that idea to the extreme, splitting the body into seven training sessions. Why? So you can obliterate each muscle group and "shock it into growth," as the Golden Age bodybuilders used to say.



Here's one way to do it:

Monday: Quads
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: Chest
Thursday: Hamstrings (posterior chain)
Friday: Biceps and calves
Saturday: Triceps and abs
Sunday: Shoulders

Now, on each day your plan is to absolutely raze that target muscle group. You're going to perform every exercise you know for that muscle group, hit it "from all angles," and use intensity techniques like drop sets and forced negatives.

There are no rules. Your mission is to obliterate, plain and simple, then give that muscle group a whole week to recoup before you train it again.

Crazy? Why yes. Yes, it is. So don't do it often. Instead use it as an occasional waker-upper — the nuclear option for breaking a plateau.


The "Legs Suck" Split
Do you think leg training sucks? Do you just hate the nausea and lactic acid burn that an effective leg workout always seems to cause?

Well, then chances are if Coach Charles Poliquin saw you he'd get to make his infamous joke: "Hey, are those your legs or are you riding a stork?" Because if you hate leg day then your lower half probably reflects it.

Don't sweat it. Here's a Poliquin split that not only makes leg training somewhat more bearable, it also makes them bigger since you can focus on quads and hams in separate sessions:

Day 1: Hamstrings and calves
Day 2: Back and shoulders
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Quads and calves
Day 5: Chest and arms
Day 6: Off

Not only is leg training divided, but calves get trashed twice a week. And admit it: you need it.

Note: This idea has also been described as hip-dominant day and quad-dominant day. Pretty much the same thing: a day for deadlifts and the like, and a day for squats and their evil cousins.


The Push/Pull Split
Some coaches and trainers like to think in movements, not muscles. When placed into a weekly program, this comes in somewhere between a full body and a standard split program, making it a favorite transition for many TMuscle readers.

A split could look like this:

Day 1: Push
Day 2: Pull
Day 3: Off
Day 4: Push
Day 5: Pull

The "push" body parts are chest, quads, shoulders, triceps, and calves.

Conversely, the "pull" body parts are the back, hamstrings, biceps, and forearms.

Sample "push" exercises include the bench press, squat, overhead press, dip, lateral raise, and triceps extension.

Sample "pull" exercises include the deadlift, pull-up, curl, shrug, and row.


The Ol' Standby
A very popular bodybuilding split and probably one of the first most of us ever used. It's an effective plan and it really keeps the primary/secondary mover issues in mind.

Only problem? It contributes to Monday being International Chest Day.

Oh well, start your week with back if you can't find an open bench!

Day 1: Chest
Day 2: Back
Day 3: Legs
Day 4: Arms and shoulders
Day 5: Off


What's Your "Best" Split?
We can't cover every possible training split in one article, but hopefully we've given you a place to start or some new ideas.

Have a favorite we didn't mention? Hit "discuss" and lay it on us!