Welcome Drewsky to the MT moderator team. Drew Price BSc MASc ACSM Cert RNutr is Nutrition & Exercise Consultant for Healthy Action and his expertise will help many of you towards your goals.
New articles, interviews and reports in November:
- The Natural Olympia 2007 Report - by Kitty, competitor and MT Moderator
See our past articles through the Bodybuilding Articles link, which categorises all our main articles and past newsletters contributions.
The results of the 2007 EmTee Awards are:
- Nutrition - OoOGazOoO
- Performance Enhancing Drugs - mick_the_brick
- Training - noname
- Female - RedHotF
- Power & Strength - Fat Pete
- All Round Member - Rightyho, for the second year running!
Well done to all and thanks to all the nominees for their valuable contributions last year!
MuscleTalk Training T-shirts!
*** Happy New Year from James Collier and The MuscleTalk team! ***
See you at www.MuscleTalk.co.uk
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**
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The Muscle Shop now offers a small range of clothing along with supplements:
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You can see the all new Muscle Shop at www.muscle-shop.co.uk and the rest of our special offers at www.muscle-shop.co.uk/special-offers/!
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*** White Kidney Bean Extract, A Carb Blocker? ***
By James Collier BSc (Hons) RNutr, Nutrition Consultant www.healthyaction.co.uk
White Kidney Bean Extract is an example of a 'carb blockers' weight loss supplement. Carb blockers seem to be finding their way onto the slimming market and are becoming increasingly popular. The extract, or as it's correctly known 'phaseolamin', suppresses the action of the digestive enzyme amylase in our saliva and, as a result, it is claimed that you digest much less of the starch from your food. Manufacturers say to take one or two tablets before each starch based meal (potatoes, pasta, bread, rice, etc). Amylase is a digestive enzyme responsible for the catalyst (or breakdown) of the polysaccharide starch to the disaccharide maltose. Phaseolamin appears to bind to amylase in the usual lock-and-key mechanism of enzyme action, as it has a similar structure to a starch molecule. One good thing about supplementing with phaseolamin is due to this mode of action, there are no side effects.
However, I'm not a fan of white kidney bean extract as a supplement for two main reasons. Firstly, amylase is secreted in two regions of the gastro-intestinal tract. It's the first digestive enzyme your food encounters. It is present in saliva (salivary / alpha amylase) and also further on down the tract in pancreatic juice from the pancreas where it is called pancreatic amylase.
Studies have indicated that in order for salivary amylase to digest 50% of the starch in starchy foods we would have to chew each mouthful of our food 30-35 times. Who does that?! This means that it's pancreatic amylase which does most of the work. Fortunately pancreatic amylase does have an easier job, because further on in digestion food has already been broken down from chewing, stomach fluids and peristalsis, plus pancreatic juice is in contact with the semi-digested food for a lot longer. Therefore if salivary amylase has such a small role in starch breakdown, I question the effectiveness of phaseolamin in its marketed action.
My second reservation about phaseolamin poses the question why would you want to digest less starch anyway? If you want to lose weight just eat less starch, and bear in mind that there is zero effect on any other macronutrients including sugar, which is digested as normal.
Phaseolamin only binds to salivary amylase and it acts locally. It is then broken down in the stomach by acids, and is therefore inert when it reaches the duo-jejunum where pancreatic amylase begins to exert its action. This demonstrates that at best phaseolamin will have only minute action on total starch digestion.
What seems to be lacking for white kidney bean extract is actual population studies looking at the ultimate outcome, i.e. answering the question 'does supplementation with phaseolamin produce more weight loss when compared to placebo?' There are very few credible studies on this compound.
My conclusion therefore with this carb blocker is that although its theoretical mechanism of action is sound (i.e. it does bind to salivary amylase), its practical application is notably flawed. Don't waste your money!
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Tailored Nutrition Advice from Experts!Healthy Action is the Nutrition Consultancy headed up by James Collier BSc (Hons), Registered Nutritionist. A team of consultants are available to provide on line nutrition advice completely tailored to suit you and your goals. For more information email
info@healthyaction.co.uk
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Monster Supplements
This month Monster Supplements offers:
- Pro Lab N Large2 - 1.7kg - Buy One at RRP Get One Free
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They can all be found under Monthly Specials section.
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*** Kettlebell Training - in brief ***
By Drew Price BSc MASc ACSM Cert RNutr Nutrition & Exercise Consultant, www.healthyaction.co.uk
Kettlebells (KBs) are being incorporated into training routines of late. Their main benefits are:
1) They are useful for training lactic acid and aerobic systems' work; flexible strength and 'body working as a unit type lifts' as well as explosive movements like the snatch.
2) They usually demand a lot of stability and flexibility through the hips and shoulders
Depending upon how you want to work them into your training then they may be more or less useful for you. There are very few ways to use them directly as a bodybuilding tool but they can have a carry over. Just as using bent presses or screw presses to strengthen the body all over in order to get it better functioning as a unit, you can then use bodybuilding type movements better on this foundation.
Use one - General Fitness
Short lactate type sessions where you change up the movement faster a few reps and use lots of different muscle groups in turn like
- KB swing x5*
- overhead press x5*
- circles (where you swing it around you) x10 (each way)
- high pulls x5*
- goblet squat x5*
- KB row x5*
* Unilateral so 5 each side then onto a new exercise
Repeat 2-3 times with 30 seconds rest. This will raise you ability to train intensely helping with the more bodybuilding orientated training.
Use two - Hitting a muscle group in different way: Plateau Busting
For shoulders:
- KB swings
- Overhead press (similar to the Arnold press with the elbow going from in front of you to out to the side)
- KB high pull (like snatch pull - basically a vertical row but ballistic so you use a heavy weight)
- Screw press
For core:
- Swings
- Circles
- Turkish get up
- Screw press/windmills
As you can see, all these types of exercise take a great deal of control, etc. Possibly the best way is to work the KB into the end of your warm up according to your limitations with the back and rotator cuff. KBs are tough and, as a personal trainer, I like to be there when someone starts using them for the first time, and good resources are hard to find. Some decent resources are:
www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html#KBs
www.bostonkettlebell.com/resources.html
fitness102.blogspot.com/search/label/kettlebell
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*** Food of the Month - Sunflower Seeds ***
By Big Les - Nutrition Consultant and MuscleTalk Moderator
Many of us choose this fruit as a healthy snack. Yes, I said fruit; so I thought it time to take a closer look. Sunflower seeds are actually the fruit of the sunflower and when the hull is taken off you are left with a kernel. The plant grew wild in North America and was originally used by the native Indians, the first patent for squeezing oil from the plant was in 1716 in England, and the commercial varieties were developed in Russia an imported back to the US in the 19th Century. So sunflower seeds, and sunflower oil have been in use for a long time, it is not surprising then that the sunflower seed is small in size and big on nutritional content.
Most of us know that gram for gram the sunflower seed has a high fat content; indeed fat phobia has led people to shun this seed. However, the sunflower seed is packed with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, the fats that act to lower LDL cholesterol levels. Or put another way 90% of the fats in sunflower seeds act to lower bad cholesterol levels, which is very beneficial to your heart indeed. You will also find a hearty level of protein of the sunflower seed is delivered with other health benefits. The sunflower seed is high in Vitamin E and selenium. Vitamin E is a powerful anti-oxidant and works synergistically with selenium to help prevent the free radical damage increasing identified as critical in the development of cancers and heart disease as well as other conditions detrimental to health. More than that, good anti-oxidant status is even more critical for the hard training athlete than any sedentary individual because of the increased free radical production that giving it 100% produces.
Sunflower seeds also deliver folate, another micronutrient critical to good health. Folate is needed for the proper function of DNA and RNA and has a role in mediating homocysteine levels, a key component of heart health. Folate pairs with B12 in the making of red blood cells, and almost as handy is that sunflower seeds pack a good dose of B vitamins along with the folate. B vitamins are used in a whole range of metabolic processes and are essential to good health; good health equals progress, of course.
And the good news does not end with vitamins; sunflower seeds also deliver copper, zinc and iron - key minerals for good health in their own right. All this is wrapped up with fibre, key for the proper function and health of the digestive tract, and a range of phyto-chemicals - which are being investigated for their own health benefits in their own right.
For best results use a small number of seeds spaced through the day, not all at once. This is easy because they can be used in a number of dishes as well as be eaten on their own.
Les is available for tailored nutrition programs see: www.muscletalk.co.uk/fb.asp?m=1104321
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** Informed Bodybuilding Nutrition eBook by James Collier - the ULTIMATE nutrition bible for bodybuilding.
For more information click here:
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*** MT Powerlifting Totals Competition ***
By boar - MuscleTalk Pro-Member
See: www.muscletalk.co.uk/fb.asp?m=1083082
Festive greetings fellow powerlifters!
December has been a busy month for the powerlifting totals table; I finally got around to revamping it! I have now separated all the lifters into 'proper' weight categories - so there are now seven instead of the old four; check it out, you will almost certainly have jumped a few places!
Any MTers who have not logged onto the site in the last 6 months have been removed - so if that is you, log back in and rejoin the fun!
Pro-member fatpete competed in the BWLA North West equipped powerlifting championships and did us proud by breaking the British 125kg+ M2 squat record with a very strong and impressive 322.5kg squat, well done Pete!
Olympian member iaink competed in the BWLA southwest divisional and managed a tremendous squat of 500lb @ 90kg unequipped! He's not the British champion for nothing!
Please take a look at the revamped totals and continue to pound the iron, have a Happy New Year MTers and thanks for voting in the EmTee Awards.
Keep pounding MT powerlifters!
Boar
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** IMPROVE YOUR GRIP with 'Grippers - Getting the most from your gripper'. The informative ebook from grip champion Steve Gardener tells you how to use your gripper more effectively to improve your performance in your sport:
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*** Recipe - Cheesy Baked Chicken ***
By James Collier
Taken from Muscle Menus 2
** Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
4 x 5mm slices of smoked or normal mozzarella
1 green and/or red pepper, sliced
80ml chicken stock
1 tsp basil
90g black olives, sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
** Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Make an 8cm long horizontal incision in each chicken breast. Sprinkle the basil over the cheese slices and place inside the incision in the chicken breast. Secure the slit with toothpicks. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a large ovenproof saucepan, sauté the peppers for about 4 minutes, stirring. Pushing the peppers aside, place the chicken in the pan and cook for 3 minutes on each side until browned.
Add the stock and olives to the pan and bake in the oven uncovered for 15 minutes turning the chicken after 7 minutes. Serve the chicken on each plate covering with the pepper and olive mix.
** Information
Serves 4. Per serving: 285kcal, 41g protein, 5g carbs, 10g fat, 1g fibre.
More great bodybuilding recipes can be found in the eBooks 'Muscle Menus', 'Muscle Menus 2', 'Muscle Menus Vegetarian' and Muscle Menus Shakes, Bars and Smoothies
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*** DVD Review - Jay Cutler: From Jay to Z ***
Review by James Collier
Available here
This is the best bodybuilding DVD I have ever watched! Filmed and produced by Mitsuru Okabe, like most bodybuilding DVDs, this isn't in Mits' usual style. Usually I watch them in the background whilst doing other things, but I actually sat down attentively and enjoyed watching Jay in his latest DVD.
Jay is not the most charismatic bodybuilder, and although my favorite, I'll be the first to admit that his DVDs can be a little boring at times. But From Jay to Z is certainly an exception. I don't know whether winning the Olympia has changed him, but Jay's become much more enjoyable to watch.
From Jay to Z is 6 hours and 43 minutes long over two discs plus extras. It does include some footage of Jay training, but this is not the focus of the DVD. Instead we see much more of the real Jay, with him doing seminars, guest spots, traveling, around his new house in Vegas (and what a house it is too!) and having therapy. It features some of the other top pros at the 2007 Arnold Classic Expo. However the best bit is Jay's seminar at the Ironman Magazine Fit Expo where he is filmed telling the audience about how he got into bodybuilding, how he gained nearly 50lbs muscle in his first year of training, and how in competitive bodybuilding he rapidly went from strength to strength.
This DVD is well worth buying, not only do you learn about Jay Cutler, but you'll also learn about his bodybuilding methods.
The articles in The MuscleTalker are for information purposes only and are the sole expressions of the individual authors opinion and are those not necessarily shared by the owners of www.MuscleTalk.co.uk