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The Training
Ben Rice, a drug-free elite level powerlifter (c/o Ben Rice Facebook page) The foundation of any proper training program should be free weighted, basic compound resistance training. This program will be no different. This entails performing movements like squats, lunges, pull-ups, rows, presses and deadlifts with barbells, dumbbells and of course proper form. These movements allow your entire body, not just the "show muscles", to be properly, adequately and simultaneously stimulated and strengthened, allowing you to burn more calories, become stronger, look better and feel better. This is not a conventional commercial gym routine; there will hardly be any machine training, relatively little to no "cardio" work, and definitely no bull shitting in the gym. It's not designed to impress your gym buddies by getting the biggest bicep pump, lift the most weight (at first!) or conform to whatever everyone else in the gym is doing. The first thing you must do for this program is to leave your ego at the door, put your assumptions about exercise at the back of your head, and keep an open mind.
dragging us back into the ground. The moment we accept those things as the "natural" order of things and refuse to fight for the
But what about the professionals/this guy I know? They're huge! They die early, etc!
Dorian Yates, former Mr. Olympia, has talked extensively about the amount of drugs professional bodybuilders have used. When most people start out at any competitive activity, be it a sport or a job, they usually look at the people at "the top" and rationalize whether all the hard work, time and dedication they're investing is worth the chance to be on top, to borrow a quote from a popular American modeling show. And when they analyze the weightlifting industry, it looks like a terrible deal: many top level bodybuilders and strength athletes die at early ages because of heart conditions, and bodybuilders of both genders reach absurd sizes of muscularity. Women look like men, men look like elephants, and regular society has radically different ideal bodies.
But this generalization assumes that weightlifting automatically leads to building obscene amounts of muscle, and ignores the absurd amounts of drugs involved in the top levels of bodybuilding, strength training, fitness modeling and weightlifting. The drug "stacks" of these athletes can cost them tens of thousands of dollars, and unless you're willing to invest that much money and inject that many drugs, you are guaranteed to never even come close to looking like that, and your hearts will thank you for the damage and strain you spared them. This is not a judgment call on pro bodybuilders, rather a necessary clarification for the possibly confused general public.
WARNING!!
You need medical permission before starting any training program, and if unsure about any existing issues, please consult your physician!
The Foundation
Proper training only really requires a few basic compound movements, or movements that work multiple muscle groups at the same time (in contrast to isolation movements that work one muscle group). When just these movements are done, with an emphasis on proper form followed by progression, the entire body is given a thorough workout. These movements, with slight variation, could potentially be enough to get 99% of people's dream bodies and optimal health, accompanied of course with proper nutrition. Every workout that you have must have at least one of these movements, and all must be done in almost equal amounts, so as to not waste time, to build the most overall strength, and to achieve muscular balance.
The Routine
While there are many, many training programs out there, the one I would recommend the most for beginners is Mehdi's Stronglifts 5x5 (stronglifts.com), and that will be the program (with modifications) that I will share with you today. This program requires you to be in the gym three times a week, and your whole body will be trained each time, with the weights slowly increasing over time. NOTE: It is highly recommended that you have a cursory understanding of human anatomy and the major muscle groups, as to not be confused by some of the jargon that will follow, and so that you train efficiently and balanced.
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NOTE: You must only have 3 Stronglifts workouts every 7 days, as to avoid under recovery.
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That's not enough! I usually do 30 sets for chest! My arms are undertrained! Blah blah blah blah.
The reason you do such "little" work is because of the increased frequency of training; traditional body-part splits where your chest, arms, shoulders and back each get their own training day dedicated to them (with a leg day once in a blue moon) have you hit these muscles only once a week. When you are training your entire body three times a week, and lifting heavy weights each time, the work you do per session may be lower, but over the week you have probably progressed more and subjected your muscles to just as much tension.
Why such few reps? Shouldn't I do this number of reps for cutting, building muscle, gaining strength, conditioning, etc?
There's been a false dilemma presented for many trainees: the way you train solely determines the way you look. If you lift "low" reps, for whatever reason, you're going to become a fat-ass. If you lift "high" reps, you're training for "cuts and definition". When you're dieting, you should concentrate more on cardio, and less on weights. Without mincing words, these arbitrary rules are frankly based on the idiosyncrasies of drug-filled elite bodybuilders, scientifically illiterate
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magazine writers, and wishful thinking on the behalf of progressively lazier trainees. First and foremost, the amount of weight you carry, gain or lose on your body is solely determined by the amount of calories eaten vs. expended. You could do all the cardio, conditioning and "high reps" you want, but if you're still eating too much for what you burn, you will continue to gain weight. You could do exclusively heavy strength training, but look like a skeleton if you're not eating enough. While the type of training you do DOES have an effect on how many calories you burn, it's a relatively small part of the equation. Your body's resting metabolism (how many it needs just to live) and your food are much bigger factors. Also, the most important TRAINING factor when you want to improve your body composition, whether you're trying to build muscle or burn fat, is maintaining and building the strength and muscle you presently have. Our bodies are evolutionarily predisposed to storing fat because of the scarcity of food, and the most powerful signal you can send to your body to stay lean and strong is through intelligent weight training. And there has been a dearth of that lately.
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of training, despite the fact that they're pumping themselves with thousands of dollars worth of anabolic substances and could frankly sit around and gain more and usually much more muscle than you, as proven in a study that showed that males on a therapeutic dosage of testosterone (500mg) built more muscle, while inactive, compared to drug-free males on a proper weight lifting routine! [20 The Effects of Supraphysiological Doses of Testosterone on Men] While this does not necessarily invalidate any information these 'pros' (through magazines, supplement companies, mass media, etc) give out, this should be enough to doubt the effectiveness and efficiency of their training techniques for the average Joe. And a look at research shows that the most consistently observed factor for muscle building (hypertrophy) is progressive tension overload. This means progressing, over time, in the amount of work you put your muscles through. So this means either adding weight to the bar, doing more reps or doing more sets. All of these are manifestations of becoming stronger.
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However, every next time you do the exercise (the next workout for squats, and the next workout A/B for other lifts), you will add 5 pounds (1.25kg) to the barbell. So if you begin with 45lb for the squat, bench press and barbell row for workout A, for workout B you will have 50lb for the squat, 45lb for the overhead press and 65lbs for the deadlift. For the next workout A, you will have 55lb for the squat, and 50lb for the bench press and row. Repeat until you are no longer able to complete all of the reps and sets.
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unacceptable. If you're unable to do the exercise with proper form, you have failed to do the lift.
Rest Times
When first starting out with the program, and when doing warm-up sets, you can minimize your rest times to however short you are comfortable with doing. These can sometimes last as little as 45 seconds, and can be a sneaky way of getting cardiovascular conditioning in during the workout. However, when the weights start becoming heavier and heavier, rest times from 2 - 4 minutes are acceptable in between sets. However, anything more than 4 minutes is usually too long for novices on this program. You do not have to do anything during the rest time (no shadow boxing please), but placing the plates in place for your sets and returning the plates to their storage area are perfectly acceptable and polite ways to spend your rest time.
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Smith machine
Squat rack
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actually adapted remarkably to the workload, and are able to function as normal human beings the rest of the day.
These guys are jacked! Now of course these laborers are pushing the limits of what the human body can adapt to, and their physiques are usually not close to our ideals because of the lack of proper nutrition, but most of us are not in that situation. This program makes you train at most one and a half hours a day, three times a week, nowhere near the workload of most laborers, and you probably have enough food to sufficiently recover.
Warming Up
Never immediately do the exercises with the prescribed weights. You must warmup in an appropriate fashion, to avoid lifting with unprepared muscles and nervous system. These drills take no longer than 10 minutes from your workout and save you the grief of injuries. There are three ways I recommend: 1) Foam rolling (optional) Simply roll whatever parts of your body feel tight or inhibited. Usual problem areas
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include the inner thigh, the thoracic spine (middle of your back), your glutes (ass muscles) and your pectorals (chest muscles). This is optional however, and can be done at any point in the day.
Glute bridges
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How we spend most of our day Two of my most highly recommended shoulder warm-ups are the shoulder dislocation, using a resistance band, towel or PVC pipe, and the wall slides.
Shoulder dislocations. Use a width that allows you to not move your traps up, and not feel too much, if any, discomfort.
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Wall slides. Keep your arms on the wall, and do not contort your torso to become a little more flexible. Only go as far as you can. 3) Working up to the prescribed weight for each exercise: These are the most important of the three possible warm-ups, as this actually has you performing the lift. The number of sets necessary to warm-up are highly individual, and can be discovered through practice, but a good rule of thumb is to always have a few sets with weights at certain fractional multiples (1/4 of weight, 1/2 of weight, 3/4 of weight, then working sets) to allow you to get used to the movement pattern, and make sure you're executing proper form. Speed and proper form are of utmost importance here, as if you can't lift light weights correctly, how are you supposed to lift heavy weights any better? Sample warm-up for first set of a 5x5 of 135 pound squats 2 ! 5 45lbs => 2 sets of 5 reps with the empty Olympic Barbell 3 x 1 90lbs => 1 set of 3 reps with the 45lbs bar + 22.5lbs(10kg)/side 5 x 5 135lbs => sets of 5 reps with your work weight (two 45lb/20kg plates)
The Lifts
Barbell Back Squats
This program will be founded on the barbell back squat, and unless you're medically unable to perform the back squat on doctor's orders, you must learn how to squat. If you're not flexible enough to squat, you must stretch whatever
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muscles are too tight to let you squat. If you have some self-diagnosed knee or back issues, it's time to go to a physiotherapist and get it fixed. If you're afraid of working hard, please grow a pair and get over yourself. Squats are the fastest way to become strong, become conditioned and muscular all at the same time. Learn to love it.
Why Squats?
Squats are sometimes called the "king of all exercises" because of how many functions it fulfills and how many muscles it works. Done correctly, squats work your flexibility, your entire lower body, numerous back muscles, stabilizing muscles in the core and even your upper body requiring you to keep the bar stable. The strength and conditioning you get from squats doesn't just make you better at squatting, unlike other isolation exercises; you become a better runner, jumper, sprinter and athlete.
All
exercises
that
involve
your
muscles
have
two
portions:
the
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eccentric). When you perform the squat, you're beginning with the eccentric movement of the lift as you descend. Elementary physics tells us that objects (you and the barbell in this case) accelerate as they descend, and this is no exception. This momentum, along with a reflex by the legs at the bottom of the squat called a myotatic reflex (also called a stretch reflex), gives your body more energy to use for the more difficult concentric portion (going up) of the lift. This puts less strain on your nervous system, and allows you to recover fairly quickly.
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The three types of barbell squatting: front squat, high bar squat, low bar squat
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1) Mehdi's Guide on How To Squat: http://stronglifts.com/how-tosquat-with-proper-technique-fix-common-problems/ 2) So You Think You Can Squat by Dave Tate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ME8gEN54Ao 3) Omar Isuf's Guide To Squatting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLwiGkywKN4 4) BASIC: How To Squat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoZWgTrZLd8
Bad Knees?
An acceptable excuse for not doing regular squats are past knee injuries, but that does not mean you cannot squat. You can substitute them for box squats, which are an entirely different lift.
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NOTE: You may see a pad in the gym for squatting that helps reduce the discomfort on your back from the barbell. Do not use this piece of equipment as it shifts your center of gravity and can mess up the placement of the bar. If the discomfort is too much to bear, a rolled up towel or an extra layer of clothing could help alleviate the pain.
Barbell Deadlift
The deadlift is maybe the second most important exercise of the 5x5 because of the sheer amount of strength and synergy needed from your body. Almost every muscle in your body, especially the much-neglected posterior (backside) muscles, needs to be working together to get the bar up. Any weaknesses you might have are revealed in this lift, and there is no cheating here unlike in the squat or bench press. You either get it up or fail miserably. Of course, as in the squat, you cannot perform this lift with improper form or you could severely hurt yourself. There are two "basic" forms of the deadlift that compliment the squat in this program: the sumo deadlift and the conventional deadlift. I strongly recommend one read and watch the following resources before attempting to deadlift, lest they destroy their lower back performing it incorrectly.
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Conventional Deadlift
Sumo Deadlift
(From bodybuilding.com)
c/o Crossfit. Observe the back rounding. The most important thing to avoid when deadlifting is the movement or flexion of your lower back, and subsequently your spine. There are different schools of thought on the position of your lower back, with some believing that you should maintain a "neutral" spine the entire time, while some advocate an "extended" lower back (you look like Donald Duck during the deadlift). I personally recommend the neutral spine deadlift, as when you use the extended position,
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your lower back usually shifts back into the neutral position during the lift with a heavy enough weight or loss of concentration.
Observe the neutral spine here This can be achieved by "squeezing the glutes", both during and before the deadlift. Doing exercises such as the bodyweight glute bridge shown above allow the normally unused muscles to "turn on", and not only protect your lower back by putting your spine in a safe position, but assist you in lifting more weight!
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Notice Arnold's muscles are contracting, but the weight is not moving. This is mainly because of the initial position of the barbell (the floor) and the lack of stored energy that you could use to assist in the process of lifting the weight
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(the concentric). Heavy weights and injury prevention require your body to "tense up" all of the muscles involved (the hamstrings, the glutes, the lower back, your abs) before even beginning to lift, or you end up failing miserably. This is why if you watch anyone deadlifting a relatively heavy weight, from beginners to world record holders, there is a slight delay in the movement of the bar. That slight delay puts an enormous amount of strain on you, and you're usually only capable of this amount of effort for one set.
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good position to build strength, and build or maintain muscle. Retracting (piching) your shoulder blades allows you to isolate your chest. Think of it as a pushup, with the bar being the ground. This allows you fully use your chest, keep tension on your entire upper body allowing strength to move from one part to another more fluidly, and to protect your shoulders and rotator cuffs from injury.
What your upper body should look like at the bottom of the bench press. The bench press is like a "reverse" pushup.
Barbell Row
The barbell row is just as important if not more so than the bench press, despite its relative obscurity. This is because the muscles of the back far outnumber those in the chest! This seems intuitively correct because the chest is only half of the front of your torso (the abs take up the other half) while the back is, well, your entire back. The number of muscles in these regions also backs this up: there are basically two muscles in your chest, while there are around 50 muscles located in the back. Of course that is oversimplifying things, but the point is it's vital to train your back, and the barbell row is the best way to do that.
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There are many variations to this lift, but they all generally entail you holding a barbell with an overhand grip, keeping a neutral spine and a retracted scapula (pinch your shoulder blades together), bringing the barbell below your knees and even beyond, and bringing the bar to an area between your belly button and your chest. Pick one form and make sure you keep it consistent even as you progress.
Overhead Pressing
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The overhead press is the shoulder developer of these compound movements, and can be a crucial builder of core (abs and lower back muscles) stability, shoulder balance and upper body strength. The bench press predominantly works the anterior (front) deltoid, neglecting the posterior and medial deltoids as well as your trapezius muscles, and the overhead press takes care of these. With this lift, you simply take a barbell from the uprights of the squat rack by resting them on your front deltoids, gripping the bar similarly to the bench press, tightening your entire body (squeezing your glutes, keeping your chest up), and pushing the bar in a straight line up. You will have to tilt your head back slightly, as the bar will slam into your chin if you do not, but make sure to not lean your torso back. Once it is past your head, tilt your torso and head forward and squeeze your entire body. Bring it back down in a straight line, adjusting your head and torso as necessary, and rest it on your chest. This is the most straightforward of the lifts, but can be tricky to pull of if your shoulders are unhealthy.
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Why: While biceps are not directly used in most of the compound movements, they do function as a stabilizing muscle in both the bench press and the deadlift. That being said, they will not grow significantly if they're not trained, and if you have physique aspirations, it will benefit you to do some bicep training. The hammer curls on the other hand target the forearms and the brachialadoris more, with a smaller emphasis on the biceps. Equipment used: Cables, dumbbells, barbells Muscles targeted: Biceps, forearms, brachialadoris Cable Crunches When: Can be done at the end of every workout Ranges: 2-3 sets, 6-12 reps Why: While all the main lifts require stability in your abdominal region (the core), it is mainly the transverse abdominus being trained. The rectus abdominus, or in layman's terms your abs, are not trained directly, and will therefore benefit and grow from direct training. Equipment used: Cables Muscles targeted: Rectus abdominus Seated Calf Raises When: Can be done at the end of every other workout (alternate with standing) Ranges: 3-5 sets, 10-20 reps Why: Calves, like the biceps, do not get direct training, and will be underdeveloped if not trained. The seated calf raise allows you to directly train and isolate the soleus muscle, which is found in the back part of the lower leg. The rep ranges are higher because of the predominantly slow-twitch muscle fibers present in the muscle, which respond better to longer time under tension. Equipment used: Seated Calf Raise Machine Muscles targeted: Soleus muscle (part of calf)
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Standing Calf Raises When: Can be done at the end of every other workout (alternate with seated) Ranges: 3-5 sets, 6-15 reps Why: This type of calf raise trains both the gastrocnemius (the visible part of the calf) and the soleus a significant amount, and should ideally be alternated with the seated version. Equipment used: Standing Calf Raise Machine, Barbell + platform Muscles targeted: Soleus and grastrocnemius Pull-ups When: Workout B Ranges: 2-3 sets, 6-12 reps Why: While a basic, compound movement, most trainees are unable to perform a pull-up, and for that reason it is not placed in the main program. Once stronger though, one can add them to train the movement pattern of vertical pulling, and all the muscles associated with it. underhand, etc) is acceptable. An important point to remember when doing pull-ups is to keep your lower body and back stationary, avoiding a "kipping" movement. You will be able to do less reps, but be able to work the targeted muscles (the back and biceps) more effectively, and avoid injury better. Equipment used: Pull-up bar Muscles targeted: Upper back and latissimus dorsi, biceps (to a lesser extent) Any hand position (neutral, wide, close,
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Face Pulls When: On Workout B, after pull-ups Ranges: 2-3 sets, 6-12 reps Why: This exercise allows you to almost isolate the numerous muscles found in the upper back such as the rhomboids, the rear deltoids and the trapezius muscles, without having the much stronger latissimus dorsi (the lats) take over, such as what happens in the barbell row. There are two variations to this exercise: one with and without external rotation. Both are acceptable variations.
OR
Equipment used: Cable machine *Pictures and some information were taken from exrx.net
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Why am I doing the same lifts again and again? Won't my body adapt?
P90X and other similar programs have advocated a system of "muscle confusion". To avoid creating a strawman argument, I will directly quote Tony Horton, inventor of P90X: "Here's the true secret of how P90X works: Muscle Confusion. P90X uses targeted training phases so your body keeps adapting and growing. You'll never "plateau"which means your body will never get used to the routines, making improvements slow down or even stop. " This is simply inaccurate, because all exercise is is your body adapting neurologically and muscularly to the stress of the exercise. Strength training in particular is most beneficial, in both physique results and in health markers, when you are progressing in the amount of tension you place your muscles. If you don't give yourself enough time to learn complex exercises specific variations of the squat or bench press, let alone progress in them, your results will not be satisfactory. This does not mean that changing exercises doesn't have a place in training routines. It just isn't required when you just start out.
Training Accountability
You only have two "homework assignments" with this training routine: 1) Take videos of all of your compound lifts 2) Keep a training and weight log
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You may be embarrassed to take videos of yourself in the gym, and would prefer to judge your form in the mirror, but it's time to suck it up just a little bit more. Most of us have some form of camera on their cellular/smart phones, and a discreet and crude video would be enough for me to review your form. When you're checking your form through the mirror or worse by feel, your brain can play tricks on you to make you do less work by cheating a little bit. You may be doing half-squats to placate your ego and your eyes don't know any better. The video doesn't lie. The training log also allows you to make sure that you're still progressing or maintaining throughout your diet, and the weight allows you to adjust your calories and food as necessary.
No cardio????????
For the average, sedentary and overweight trainee just starting out on this program, no cardio is necessary to lose weight. Most of the health benefits of "cardio" are already reaped, and arguably more so, by doing whole body resistance training. The calories burnt during cardio work should not be necessary to create a calorie deficit, as your food tracking should have already accomplished that. Also, your attention span and will power are limited resources, and burning them out on possibly redundant cardio would be a waste.
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However, cardio could be done if you desire to simply be better at doing cardio, are an endurance athlete or want to eat more food already. Low to medium intensity cardio of any sort (jogging, walking, swimming, on exercise machines) can be done on days when you are not in the gym, or even on days you are in the gym, as long as these do not significantly affect your workout. High intensity cardio can also be done (sometimes called HIIT, or high intensity interval training), which is a type of cardio that greatly resembles resistance training. With this cardio, there are three versions that I recommend: with machines, by sprinting, and with specialized equipment.
Recovery
- Get enough sleep! 7-9 hours are essential if you want to get anywhere. If you don't have enough time, make some time! - Foam roll, self-massage and stretch out tight or inhibited muscles - Ice and heat compress painful body parts - Stay moving! If you sit around all day, muscles become tight and it becomes harder to get over soreness - Get proper macro and micro nutrition (more below
The Nutrition
Describe your Current Nutrition: Here you describe what your typical diet is, in rough amounts, and ideally in calories. You can also just place a link to an online food diary that I can check on. There will be plenty of food tracking and accountability in this program, so if you have difficulty remembering what you usually eat, time to start tracking! Popular websites such as myfitnesspal.com and fitday.com are big helps here.
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Meal 1 ___________________________________ - _________ Calories ___________________________________ - _________ Calories ___________________________________ - _________ Calories Meal 2 ___________________________________ - _________ Calories ___________________________________ - _________ Calories ___________________________________ - _________ Calories Meal 3 ___________________________________ - _________ Calories ___________________________________ - _________ Calories ___________________________________ - _________ Calories Meal 4 (Add more if necessary) ___________________________________ - _________ Calories ___________________________________ - _________ Calories ___________________________________ - _________ Calories Snacks ___________________________________ - _________ Calories ___________________________________ - _________ Calories
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exceptions, such as people undergoing starvation or people with diagnosed metabolic illnesses, this rule applies to the overwhelming majority of people. If you're not giving yourself enough nutrients to fuel your workouts, or you're eating too much to stay at a reasonable body fat while building muscle, you're not making the most of your situation. Your performance, health and appearance would all suffer, when it doesn't have to!
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Some information you can take from calorie counting. 1 cup of juice = 1 hour of walking!
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Where dieters are concerned, this mass is divided into two parts: fat-free mass and fat mass. The fat mass divided by your total body weight is your body fat percentage. Simple enough? The goal of all dieters is to minimize the fat (by reducing their body fat percentage) that they store in their body, and this is pretty tricky to accurately measure, so it is usually done through tape measurements or eye tests. This is very important to remember because many, many diets (I'm looking at you juice cleanses!) simply have you stop eating a substantial amount of food for
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a short period of time, usually unaccompanied by an intelligent training routine. Most of these diets when performed correctly will make you lose weight, but your body fat percentage will most likely not change at all! The 10 pounds you may have lost on this 'cleanse' could have consisted of 5 pounds of food and water, 3 pounds of muscle and 2 pounds of fat, actually leaving you worse off than before. So the goal is always to improve body composition by maximizing muscle and minimizing fat.
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Get used to weighing yourself! If you have not gained any weight over that time frame, and your exercise regime has stayed roughly the same over that time, you have found your "maintenance" calorie/food level. This is roughly the amount of calories you can take in without, within a margin of error, gaining or losing weight. If you gained or lost weight, you simply have to multiply that amount in pounds by 3500, as 1 pound of body mass equals roughly 3500 calories, divide by however many days you tracked your weight, and either add (if you lost weight) or subtract (if you gained) to your daily calorie intake. If this is too much math or effort for you, you can simply take the amount of calories/food that you regularly eat over the week, and start from there.
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fat/build muscle, look good and be healthy, there would be no need for this program, so we go on.
Week 2 (Maintenance has been found: 2800 calories) Goal calories: N/A
Monday 150 2500 Tuesday 151 2500 Wednesday Thursday 146 3000 151 2400 Friday 151 2400 Saturday 151 2800 Sunday 151 4000 Average 150.14 2800
Now that you have established a "maintenance" level of calories, you subtract 10-20% to create a calorie deficit. Because the trainee is of a reasonable body fat, we will only subtract 10%. This means the calorie goal will be 2520, or rounded down to 2500.
Week 3 Goal calories: 2500 Predicted weight loss: (300 cal * 7 days) * (1lb/3500 cal) = .6 lbs
Monday 150 2400 Tuesday 150 2400 Wednesday Thursday 149 2400 149 2400 Friday 149 2200 Saturday 149 2200 Sunday 150 3500 Average 149.43 2500
The diet has been successful so far! You have lost around the desired amount of weight.
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Macronutrients
Basic nutrition would tell you that calories are made up of three, and arguably up to five, macronutrients (macros for short): carbohydrates, protein and fat (alcohol and fiber are the other two). Beyond that, the myth-machine of the fitness industry takes over. "Carbs are bad!", "Fat makes you fat!", "Meat kills!", "Protein kills your liver and kidney!". All of these statements have been made by the media and by authorities over the past 50 years, and they've all contributed to a gross misunderstanding of the public of such basic nutrients. They all have specific amounts of calories in them (a gram of protein and carbohydrate roughly have four calories each, a gram of fiber has 2 calories, and a gram of fat has 9 calories), and any combination of these things, within reason, can be used to the desired effect. All have their benefits and functions in our body, and all have their place in any diet. These macronutrients are usually listed in the nutrition label on the back of most packaged food, as well as food databases, for more generic food like raw fruits, vegetables and alike. The next section on the specific types of macronutrients can be skipped, as it becomes pretty science-heavy. Only for those interested in more detailed explanations of nutrition. Go to page ___ if you wan to skip.
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Protein
Protein is the most misunderstood of the macronutrients, probably because of the mysticism and steroid-like marketing the supplement industry has given it. Some gurus and doctors decry it as there are theoretical pathways, when protein is eaten in excess, that may lead to kidney disease, but this has never been empirically proven in healthy individuals.2 Bodybuilders would tell you that you need as much as possible to "build as much mass!!" and recommend you obscene amounts, but this ignores research that shows that people not on performance enhancing drugs generally need only a limited amount to get maximum results, be it muscle growth3, fat loss4 or strength building5. This also leads some people that do not want to build mass, like the vast majority of women, and men who are cutting body fat, to believe that protein is only necessary when gaining weight. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Protein, and amino acids, the building blocks of protein, have been shown in steroid-free athletes to actually improve muscle retention when dieting4, with the needs actually increasing the leaner and leaner you become and aim to be.6 It has also proven to be both the most thermogenic (calories required to digest the nutrient) of the macronutrients by a small but significant degree, as well as the most filling, in isolation. 7 So not only will it help you keep muscle better, it'll keep you more full and let you eat more of other foods. A good general guideline for protein requirements is to at least get 0.7-1 gram/s of protein per pound of body weight (so if I weigh 200 pounds, that's 140-200 grams of protein), and ideally from a variety of sources.
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Where can I get my protein? Do I need protein powder? Grilled chicken breast?
The more varied your sources, the better! There are foods that are primarily protein like chicken breasts and thighs, egg whites, protein powder, fish and lean cuts of pork and beef, and these generally have a very high biological value (how well a protein is absorbed by the body) and a relatively varied amino acid profile (the variety of amino acids in the food). Biological value however varies too greatly, mostly because of age and genetics, for a specific number to be assigned to each. Generally though, age takes away from your body the ability to absorb protein efficiently, making it more practical for older trainees to eat more protein. Amino acid profile completeness on the other hand can affect your muscle retention/gain, but it's extremely improbably for you to have deficiencies if you're eating a variety of protein sources, and impossible if you're getting a significant amount of "complete" sources like protein powder.
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It's a scooper, not a needle or pill. Creatine Creatine is a molecule that humans (and other vertebrates) produce naturally to help supply energy to the cells. It's main function is to store phosphocreatine in cells, which are released and aid during periods of sufficient stress on the body, aka weight training. Not only is it produced naturally in our bodies, a sufficient amount can also be taken in through a diet filled with red meat. Creatine monohydrate, specifically, is one of the most well researched supplements out there, and has been shown in study after study to modestly help increase strength in responsive subjects. 20 Response to creatine is seen by the
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amount of water weight you gain after regularly taking it accompanying the creatine. If you do supplement with this, simply take 5 grams a day, every day. If you do not experience any weight/water gain after at least 2 weeks, you can stop taking creatine as you are a non-responder. Others BCAA's are an unnecessary luxury, especially for beginners that have much more pressing needs. Leave them for another day when their efficacy is more proven. Legal fat burners are simply stimulants that raise your metabolic rate by an almost insignificant amount, with potential side effects. The effective fat burners are illegal in most countries and are regarded as performance enhancing drugs, accompanied by legitimate cardiovascular side effects. Other supplemen
Fat
While it shares the name of every dieter's enemy number one, dietary fat actually has a very important place in a balanced diet. The assortment of fats, from monounsaturated to essential fatty acids to saturated fats, with exception to artificial trans-fatty acids, all have a useful role in our metabolisms and health, and our diets should reflect that. An excess or deficiency in one or the other could be detrimental to our health and subsequently performance, so the only recommendation here is to make sure you attempt to check off all kinds of fat in your weekly diets. While it requires almost no calories to digest because of how easily it can be stored as body fat, it
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significantly slows down how fast the entirety of the food that you've just eaten (called 'bolus') gets digested, leaving you fuller for longer. The most important fatty acids are the essential fatty acids, or omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, and for your health to be as "good" as possible (avoiding bad lipid profiles, decreasing inflammation) a relatively ratio of omega-6s to omega3s. This is usually not the case, mainly because of the much greater quantity of omega-6s (also called polyunsaturated fats, and found in vegetable oils, poultry and dairy) in most diets, and the low amount of omega-3s (some common sources are fish oil and krill oil). These are called essential, because their presence is required for regular metabolic functions to occur, and cannot be produced by our bodies. You may have also heard of the creed of "healthy" fats like olive oil, avocado and other sources of unsaturated fats, and unhealthy fats like meat and dairy filled with saturated fat and cholesterol. This is because of the literature that has seen a correlation of increased saturated fat intake with obesity, metabolic disease and other terrible things, and the health benefits of the "healthy" fats. But this is a false choice, since both of these types of fats have health benefits when eaten in moderation! The only truly "bad" fat, or the type of fat that is unhealthy in any context, is the artificial trans fat. This can easily be found as "partially hydrogenated ____ fat/oil" in the ingredient list.
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Hidden trans fats. At the very least, you want to eat around 0.4 grams of fat per pound of body weight, every day, because of the literature that has shown lower amounts to be harmful to your testosterone production [15] better not to play with fire. (even ladies need this! It's important for everyone because of its role in muscle-building/retention), it's
Carbohydrates
Carbs have been the enemy of diet gurus since the 1970's and Dr. Atkins' first books, and not without merit. They are admittedly the easiest to overeat, especially in the form of liquid like in sodas and beer. A can of soda has 130 calories, and bottles of beer can have up to as many as 250 calories, and these are typically the easiest calories to give up because of the no calorie alternatives. This is also the usual variable that is changed the most depending on your goals. People trying to lose weight correctly reduce their main carb source in meals, be it rice, bread or corn, as it is the "least essential" in terms of body function and satiation (how full you get) of the three main macronutrients. But this does not mean it doesn't have a place in diets, as carbohydrates are the main fuel source for intense exercise.
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In essence, it is half glucose and half fructose. This is also essentially the case for other popular sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup, honey, brown sugar and maple sugar. The micronutrient content may vary among these, but they all remain sugars. This is very relevant because the only specific carbohydrate that has been shown to be "bad" for your metabolic health and lipid profile (the HDL and LDL again)
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is an excessive amount of fructose in non-training individuals. This has been claimed (in popular Youtube videos like "Sugar the Bitter Truth") to be because of two reasons: fructose has no insulin response, therefore no satiating effect, and because one human study showed that humans getting 30% of their calories from free fructose (not sugar or HFCS) led to increased appetite.16 This ignores the evidence of HFCS and sugar actually being appetite suppressants17, with some the majority of studies showing that fructose pre-loading, or eating fructose before a meal, actually blunts the appetite more than pure glucose. 18, 19
Takeaways
This is not a go-signal from me to drink regular sugar-sweetened drinks and sugary foods. These (especially when combined with fat and salt) remain extremely easy to overeat, especially without enough self-control. Fruits, vegetables and other micronutrient-dense foods should still comprise the bulk of your diet, not only for health reasons, but for satiation as well. Diet sodas and other artificial sweeteners are great alternatives, as they have a fraction of the calories of the "real thing", with the cancer and metabolic risks being unfounded and alarmist. The takeaway from this is that sugars can basically be treated as just another carbohydrate (and calorie) source when eaten in the context of a fiber- and micronutrient-rich diet, and in moderation (less than 50 grams). Context is everything.
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prolonged period of time. Speaking of diabetics, the GI is not even the best way for them to estimate the rise of their blood sugar; the glycemic load, which multiplies the glycemic index by the amount of carbohydrates eaten, allows you to be more accurate. Practically, that means theoretically high GI foods can be eaten if the amount of carbohydrates is controlled. Also, the total amount of carbohydrates and calories you eat does not change at all; calories in and calories out still applies. Also, the accuracy of the GI of food wildly varies. Despite there being one universal GI for specific foods like potatoes, rice and fruits, cooking methods, ripeness and processing types are just a few of the factors that can significantly change the GI. Even when controlling for all of that, the GI is simply an average of all the test subjects' glycemic indices! This means that while the GI is good for seeing the response of populations, they cannot be used for individual cases. This means you must find the foods and methods that spike your blood sugar for yourself, or test it in a lab.
"Unhealthy" according to glycemic index And changes in blood sugar shouldn't even matter to the majority of trainees,
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especially when you've been on a regular weight-training program because of the beneficial effect it has on insulin sensitivity, or how much insulin you need to compensate for rises in blood sugar.10 Most would theoretically not feel too much the negative effects of blood sugar spikes. Also, many of the effects advertised to be caused by GI manipulating diets, both good and bad, were found in animal studies. These are not enough to make any conclusions about the effects on humans. All of these factors combined render the GI almost useless.
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Basically soda with some micronutrients This is extremely important when you're in a calorie deficit, because your body will respond to losing weight with increased hunger, less energy and worsening gym performance. There is no reason to waste your precious calories on things that don't help too much. Its only use would really be to get in easy calories for those with energy expenditures dwarf their food intake.
You don't have to give it up! Just no binging. Alcohol is actually another macronutrient, giving you 7 calories per 1 gram of alcohol, but it's our body's least preferred energy source. Carbohydrates help fuel training (which keeps our bodies strong and sexy), protein helps build and maintain muscle and fat keeps our metabolism and hormones healthy, and all
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three of these can be stored in our bodies for a definite period of time. Alcohol on the other hand is actually treated as a toxin by our bodies; when consumed, it stops the metabolism of the other macros and becomes the priority, because if too much alcohol accumulates in your blood stream, it can start to destroy healthy cells and organs. Also, many tend to abuse and binge on alcohol, racking up a ton of calories and possibly harming their health. But, as usual, alcohol drank in moderation is not a bad thing. It can be tracked and controlled like any other food, and most of the bad effects it's advertised to cause don't show up until you reach the point of abuse.
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The problem with most "studies" and "warning" articles The graph above perfectly exemplifies the problem with this logic: since the global temperature has risen together with pirates, they must cause one another. That's obviously absurd, but you could replace temperature with cancer/obesity, and pirates with whatever food is in vogue to demonize, and it suddenly becomes a "science" headline. This does not mean that there will never be data that shows some foods ARE bad for you, this is just a warning to scrutinize every claim you see out there. You could search for the studies themselves on Pubmed (http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed!) and see whether the science is good or not.
Fiber
Soluble and insoluble fibers are the indigestible parts of food from plants, and are what helps keep your digestive tract healthy and efficient. Soluble fibers attract water in your GI tract and slow down digestion, allowing essential vitamins and minerals more time to get absorbed, and insoluble fiber takes the water and allows the food to clear your system. Both, or fiber in general, are very filling, and
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most
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containing
them
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micronutrients, making fiber-rich foods an important part of your diet. 10 grams of fiber per 1000 calories eaten is a good baseline for most people.
Wait, why are we talking about nutrients? Why not food (names)? Aren't (insert meat, eggs, cholesterol, cookies, sweets, etc) bad for you? Aren't there "superfoods" like quinoa and berries with antioxidants, etc?
Something I want to emphasize here is the importance of MODERATION. This is an almost extinct idea in our culture of bingeing, extremism and quite literally "Insanity", a workout program, but it still applies. This means that while certain foods may be unhealthy when consumed in excess like alcohol and "junk food" like chips, pizza and cookies, most foods, except those with artificial trans fats, foods that you are allergic to like lactose, and a dangerous amount of heavy metals like mercury, can be eaten in moderation and in a controlled fashion. So if you're able to control your appetite and not turn into the Cookie Monster, there's nothing wrong with the occasional treat in the context of a balanced diet. And some restrictions are just based on outdated science, like the previous example of excess protein causing renal failure, and the cholesterol from dietary sources like eggs causing health problems. 7 Of course there are "healthy" and more nutritious foods out there like broccoli, kale, quinoa, berries and other fruits and veggies that are packed with nutritious chemicals, and there are micronutrient deficient "junk foods" easy to overeat like sweets and soda, but it does not have to be a one-way street.
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Being "healthy" does not mean eating exclusively chicken breast, egg whites, steamed vegetables, brown rice and only other "healthy" food throughout the week, followed by a weekend of binge drinking and eating. As long as the bulk of your calories come from micronutrient rich foods, especially when hunger is an issue when dieting, there's nothing wrong with having the occasional junk food to fill in the rest of the calories. Junk food is sometimes even necessary when trying to gain weight, as it's sometimes extremely difficult to get enough calories from purely "healthy" food.
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So in this sample nutrition label, we assume that we have two servings of the given food, either from an estimate or a weighing out of 344g. This means we have 400 calories, 2 grams of fat (2 F), 72 grams of carbohydrates (72 C), 26 grams of protein (26 P) and 22 grams of fiber (22 F) to total 400 calories. You can actually compute the calories from the macronutrients given, and we come up with (2*9 + 72*4 + 26*4 + 22*2) 454! Why the discrepancy? This is probably because of inconsistent standards of food companies; some take into account the calories from fiber (44 in this case) and some simply round their calories down to make it appear like there are less than there really are.
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Calories are listed for most fast food/chain restaurants, but more often than not these can be wildly inaccurate because of inconsistencies in serving sizes, and usually indiscriminate use of oil, butter and other fatty food sources. While these are not inherently bad, the calories can really add up, especially for fried and oily foods. So as a rule of thumb, it is better to overestimate calories and fat when eating out.
Micronutrients
So macronutrients are only one side of the coin of nutrition; "micros" play a key role in both how our body looks and how healthy we are. For us to get all the micronutrients (and phytonutrients and antioxidants) we need to function optimally, a varied and balanced diet is a must. This means that it is NOT correct to eat at a 10% food deficit while only eating whey protein, olive oil and Twinkies. Fruits, vegetables, varied grains and an assortment of food will not only keep you healthier, but also help you balance healthy living with social situations. BUT, there are recommended daily allowances (RDA's) for all of the micronutrients, and when you consume more than necessary, you're literally pissing these nutrients away. Excessive micronutrients do not make you healthier than someone consistently hitting the recommended amounts, and they can
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sometimes have side effects. I have personally had my skin turn a shade of yellow because of an excessive amount of vitamin A from pumpkin and sweet potatoes, and an excess of certain vitamins can actually lead to malabsorbtion of other vitamins! So the rule of "more is better" does not apply here.
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Goal calories: 2150-2250 Weight lost per week (250-350 calories * 7 * 1lb/3500 calories): 0.5-0.9 lbs Fiber required: 21.5 - 22.5 grams Minimum amount of protein needed (0.75 g/ lb of body weight): 150 grams Minimum amount of fat needed (0.4 g/lb of body weight): 80 grams Discretionary calories: 830-930 calories left
What about meal timing? No post workout, pre workout shakes or meals? Intermittent fasting? No carbs after 6pm?
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To cut through the bullshit, daily meal timing matters much, much, much less than the total amount of nutrients that you consume throughout the entire day. Many of these rules, like intermittent fasting, recovery protein shakes and the "no carbs" after six, are grounded in short-term studies that lose value over other dieting methods when looked at in the long term. Of course there can be psychological benefits to eating at certain times, making your performance in the gym better or your sleep more enjoyable, but those are highly individual and not for any magazine or guru to determine. Eat your nutrients when you feel like it!
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Most beginners are in a conundrum: they have an excessive amount of body fat, yet are weak as kittens. So a calorie deficit would make them lose body fat, but have no muscle to show for it after the diet, and a calorie surplus would make them even fatter. Which should you do? First of all, if you're obese (above 25% body fat), you must go into a deficit. Enough excuses and enough whining. It doesn't matter if you don't have that much strength or muscle, being at that high of a body fat percentage is neither healthy nor attractive, and is a problem that must be fixed as soon as possible. However, if you have the "skinny-fat" syndrome, where you are at an average body weight, yet have a significant amount of fat without any muscle or strength to show for it, a deficit could leave you looking like a bamboo tree. So I recommend that these trainees begin at maintenance calories and focus on maximizing their current strength there, and potentially burning fat and building muscle at the same time.
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maintain and replenish glycogen stores (too much detail to go into here, Google diet breaks for more details), can help keep you on track.
Supplements
Supplements are supposed to only supplement your diet, yet many experts and gurus claim that these are a necessary component of any exercise routine! Anyone claiming so is selling you snake oil. Most if not all of the things found in supplements can be found in cheap and readily available foods (caffeine in coffee, creatine in meat, vitamins and minerals in everything you eat). I recommend a generic Vitamin D3 tablet (up to 5000 iu's a day) and 3 grams of EPA/DHA combined, probably from fish oil. Most supplements do have a body of research around them, and it would be best for you to critically analyze the supplements individually, but more likely than not these are just companies trying to figure out new ways to scam you out of money when you can simply exercise more, eat more nutritious food, and possibly eat less.
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some fixed number that our bodies cling on to throughout muscle building and fat burning; there are way too many factors that affect your metabolism to have a consistent number. So adjustments are very necessary, and are the crux of this nutrition plan.
Sources: 1. Kaiser Permanente (2008, July 8). Keeping A Food Diary Doubles Diet Weight Loss, Study Suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 24, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080708080738.htm 2. Dietary Protein Intake and Renal Function. Martin, Armstrong, Rodriguez. (2005). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1262767/ 3. Effect of protein intake on strength, body composition and endocrine changes in strength/power athletes. Hoffman JR, Ratamess NA, Kang J, Falvo MJ, Faigenbaum AD. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2006 Dec 13;3:12-8. 4. Macronutrient content of a hypoenergy diet affects nitrogen retention and muscle function in weight lifters. Walberg JL, Leidy MK, Sturgill DJ, Hinkle DE, Ritchey SJ, Sebolt DR. Int J Sports Med. 1988 Aug;9(4):261-6. 5. Protein requirements and muscle mass/strength changes during intensive training in novice bodybuilders. Lemon PW, Tarnopolsky MA, MacDougall JD, Atkinson SA. J Appl Physiol. 1992 Aug;73(2):767-75.
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6. A Systematic Review of Dietary Protein During Caloric Restriction in Resistance Trained Lean Athletes: A Case for Higher Intakes. Helms ER, et al. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2013 Oct 2. [Epub ahead of print] 7. Exploring the factors that affect blood cholesterol and heart disease risk: is dietary cholesterol as bad for you as history leads us to believe? Kanter MM, Kris-Etherton PM, Fernandez ML, Vickers KC, Katz DL. Adv Nutrition. 2012. 711-7 8. Bouchard, C., & Despres, J.-P. (1995). Physical activity and health: Atherosclerotic, metabolic, and hypertensive disease. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 66, 268-275. 9. Hurley, B. F., Hagberg, J. M., & Goldberg, A. P. (1988). Resistive training can reduce coronary risk factors without altering VO2max or percent body fat. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 20, 150-154. 10. Gettman, L. R., & Pollock, M. L. (1981). Circuit weight training: A critical review of its physiological benefits. The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 9(1), 44-60. 11. Conroy, B. P., & Earle, R. W. (1994). Bone, muscle and connective tissue adaptations to physical activity. In T. R. Baechle (Ed.), Essentials of strength training and conditioning (pp. 51-66). Champaign: Human Kinetics. 12. Young, D. R., & Steinhard, M. A. (1995). The importance of physical fitness for the reduction of coronary artery disease risk factors. Sports Medicine, 19, 303-310.
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13. Stone, M. H., Fleck, S. J., Triplett, N. T., & Kramer, W. J. (1991). Healthand performance-related potential of resistance training. Sports Medicine, 11, 210-231. 14. Simopulous, AP. (2002). The importance of the ratio of essential omega6/omega-3 fatty acids. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12442909 15. Clinton SK, Mulloy AL, Li SP, Mangian HJ, Visek WJ. Dietary fat and protein intake differ in modulation of prostate tumor growth, prolactin secretion and metabolism, and prostate gland prolactin binding capacity in rats. J Nutr, 1997 Feb;127(2):225-37. 16. Teff KL, et al. Dietary fructose reduces circulating insulin and leptin, attenuates postprandial suppression of ghrelin, and increases triglycerides in women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2004 Jun;89(6):2963-72 17. Soenen S, Westerterp-Plantenga MS. No differences in satiety or energy intake after high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose, or milk preloads. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Dec;86(6):1586-94. 18. Rodin J, Reed D, Jamner L. Metabolic effects of fructose and glucose: implications for food intake. Am J Clin Nutr. 1988 Apr;47(4):6839. 19. Rodin J. Comparative effects of fructose, aspartame, glucose and water preloads on calorie and macronutrient intake. Am J Clin Nutr 1990;51:42835.
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20.
supplementation on muscular strength and power. J Strength Cond Res. (2010) 21. Bhasin, S. Storer, T. et al. The Effects of Supraphysiologic Doses of Testosterone on Muscle Size and Strength in Normal Men http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199607043350101