The MuscleTalker - Issue 70 (February 2008)

Test your Mettle... What's your best? is a new competition open to all MuscleTalk members. Just for fun, you can compete against others in any or all of the events. You'll find it in the Cardio & Fitness forum as a sticky and the events are:

• 3 mile run - complete the 3 mile run in the quickest possible time.
• 20 meter shuttle run / bleep test - this involves running between two points that are 20 meters apart. The interval between each successive beep reduces, forcing the athlete to increase speed over the course of the test, until it is impossible to keep in sync with the recording.
• 100 burpee challenge - complete 100 burpees in the quickest possible time.
• Concept 2 Rower - 2000 meters
• Press-ups in 1 minute
• Swimming - 32 lengths
• Magic 50 - 10 x dumbbell snatch (5 each hand); 10 x dumbbell swing (5 each hand); 10 burpees - performed 5 times
• Chin-ups
• 10 mile bike ride - mountain bike, racer or unicycle!

Plank hold - hold the position for your best effort time.

We'll be updating the results in The MuscleTalker every few months, but in the meantime you can see the results here.

New articles, interviews and reports in January:
- MuscleTalk Interviews James Llewellyn in his run up to the Arnold Classic
- Fruit and Veg in Health and Fitness
- Everything you wanted to know about Vitamin D

See our past articles through the Bodybuilding Articles link, which categorises all our main articles and past newsletters contributions.

MuscleTalk Training T-shirts!

*** Keep Pumping from James Collier and The MuscleTalk team! ***

See you at www.MuscleTalk.co.uk

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*** Fibre in Hard Training ***
By Big Les - Nutrition Consultant and MuscleTalk Moderator
Les is available for tailored nutrition programs see: www.muscletalk.co.uk/fb.asp?m=1104321

When I was growing up my Mum called it roughage, and it was green and apparently good for you. I have to give it to her, my Mum was right, fibre is good for us; as hard training athletes we should be even more concerned with fibre than the average Joe.

Why? Fibre is essential to keep that long muscular tube that starts at our mouths and end at our bottom in tip top working order. If our gastro-intestinal tract doesn't work properly then we don't get what we should from our food, and our bodies don't work quite right. Optimum performance comes from diet, but a perfect diet only works if we get what we need out of it, and to get the best from our food we need our inside bits to be working properly.

In addition to keeping our GI tract functioning properly, fibre has additional benefits; from helping muscular gains to reducing heart disease and cancer risks.

First off, what is fibre? Fibre is a generic term which is used to describe those parts of plants which we cannot digest. It comes in two forms, soluble and insoluble. Insoluble fibre is crunchy, composed of cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin; it is found in whole grain foods cereals, vegetables and seeds. Soluble fibre is gum like, made of pectins, gums and mucilages; it if found in fruits, oats, barely, and legumes such as peas and beans. In some circles fibre will be referred to as non-starch-polysaccharides (NSP), although technically not the same for our purposes they act the same. Fibre includes NSP, but NSP may not be the same as fibre. There are also other terms to describe what is known as fibre depending on its properties.

Now we know what fibre is, what are the benefits for us?

1. Fibre helps us process dietary fat: fibre binds some of the dietary fat in a meal and pulls it through the body.
2. Fibre slows carbohydrate digestion: the slower a carbohydrate is digested the better (except just after a workout), because slowly released carbs are more likely to end up stored in muscle as glycogen and less likely to be stored as body fat.
3. This action is due to insulin: slowly released carbohydrates mean a lower insulin response and more stable levels which are great for energy levels and fat utilisation - helping us stay lean and energised.
4. Fibre helps increase insulin sensitivity - especially soluble fibre. The sensitivity of muscle insulin receptors is often a limit for growth; this is a natural way to help the muscle get growing.
5. Fibre can help you look harder - yes, vegetables contain indoles, which can, in males, lower oestrogen levels. Lower oestrogen levels are good for growth, and reduce water retention - every little helps.
6. Fibre keeps it all moving: this almost goes without saying, but if food doesn't move through and out then you don't feel too good, and your health really suffers.
7. Keeping it all moving helps reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer. For those of us that like a good steak, a health fibre intake can help offset the higher risk high red meat consumption can confer.
8. Finally: heart health. Yes fibre helps reduce serum cholesterol and that's good for us all.

So how much do we need? Average intake in the UK is around 12g per day, but to get the full health benefits we really need around 30g per day. Get it right: don't just jump in and boost your fibre intake, fibre decreases transit time and it takes a while for our body to get used to having it there to process. Sudden changes upward in fibre intake will result in you and your toilet becoming very good friends, and your friends not wanting to be in your windy company!

Secondly fibre is like a sponge; your GI tract is a pipe. Try stuffing a dry sponge down a pipe - it's hard and it doesn't really work. If you eat fibre without increasing your fluids, you are trying to do the same thing. Get that fibre wet for the best effects for you, if you don't drink, then your body will be dehydrated as a result.

So there you have it, more reasons to eat those fruits, veggies and whole grains that we all know and love.

So how does fibre reduce cholesterol then?

1. Soluble fibre decreases gastrointestinal absorption of cholesterol. This leads to a decrease in the cholesterol content of liver cells, an up-regulation of LDL receptors and thus an increased removal of LDL-C from the blood.
2. Fibre increases bile acid secretion, causing the liver to synthesize new bile acids using cholesterol - further decreasing serum levels.
3. Fibre may lead to an inhibition of the liver enzyme HMG-CoA reductase that enables the liver to make cholesterol, decreasing cholesterol synthesis.
4. Short-chain fatty acids such as acetate, butyrate and propionate, formed from the bacterial degradation of fibre in the small intestine inhibit hepatic synthesis of cholesterol.

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*** Prehab over Rehab (or 5 minutes to healthier shoulders) ***
By Osagi - MuscleTalk Moderator

As a smart, educated lifter (which I will presume you are on the basis of you reading this article and being a member of MuscleTalk), you will no doubt already be aware of the concept of 'prehab' exercise. For those of you not yet familiar with the term, allow me to enlighten you:

Prehab is a sports medicine term describing a sport specific / personalized exercise program designed for injury prevention. If you've spent a little time in this sport of bodybuilding, chances are you'll have already heard a number of horror stories detailing how some injury or other has sidelined some athletes training, perhaps forcing them to retire from the sport altogether. For some reason bodybuilding and injuries appear to go together like jam and bread (or Osagi and chimpanzees).

Damaged knees, wrecked lower backs, torn ligaments and pulled muscles all rank amongst the many injuries you can pick up in this sport, requiring anything from a few days or weeks off training to many months of rehabilitation for the more serious cases. However as the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and nowhere does this ring truer than when it comes to lifting related injuries. The sad fact is that many of the injuries we can pick up in this sport could for the most part be prevented if we were prepared to spend just a little time focusing on proper warm-ups, mobility and flexibility exercises along with the heavier lifts and exercises that we spend the majority of our training time focusing on. Sure these heavier lifts may give us bigger and stronger muscles, but the chances are by focusing on these heavy lifts whilst neglecting these other important aspects of our training, we are setting our self up for some serious injury to occur, requiring us to take time out from training in this sport we love to focus on recovering and rehabilitating these injuries - if we can.

So this is where the concept of prehabilitation exercises comes in - dedicating a small amount of our training time to exercises and movements designed to make us a little less prone to picking up these injuries that may threaten our training. And when I say a small amount of time, really, that's all it takes - as little as 5 minutes at the start of your routine is all that's required. Five minutes which could save you 5 weeks, 5 months perhaps even 5 years of injury rehabilitation.

Seem worthwhile? Sure it does.

But how about giving us some examples, Osagi? Well, how about we take a quick look at the shoulder prehab routine I include at the start of my upper body workouts for starters? This routine is intended to increase the stability of various muscles and joints, whilst at the same time increasing and maintaining mobility and range of movement in key muscle groups with the ultimate aim being that I avoid picking up a nagging shoulder injury as the result of some muscle imbalance or lack of flexibility in this area. I like to include a number of movements in this routine, however as I typically don't have very much time to train, I've divided these movements up into a number of smaller, shorter routines which I cycle through over consecutive workouts, including these routines as part of my warm-up program:

** Routine 1:
Pull-up retraction
Barbell overhead shrugs
Rear delt stretch (arm across chest)

** Routine 2:
Band external rotations
Band pull aparts
Band dislocates

** Routine 3:
Scapular retractions (on seated row machine)
Push-up plus
Standing pec stretch

** Routine 4:
Incline DB Retraction
Prone YTWLs

I won't describe each individual movement as that would take forever, but these movements are all well documented on various sites across the web and it's something I can discuss in further detail on the forum. In terms of sets and reps, I cycle through each routine 2-3 times, with 12-15 reps for each movement.

Give it a go, see how you get on and whilst you're at it, run a search on prehab exercise routines and do a little more reading. Spending a little time up front educating yourself on this issue is far better then having to spend months with your feet up in front of the TV as a result of not being able to train due to some nasty injury which may well have been preventable!

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*** Food of the Month - Butternut Squash ***
By Big Les - Nutrition Consultant and MuscleTalk Moderator

The butternut squash is a member of the Cucurbita moschata which includes the courgette, pumpkin and the cucumber. The most popular variety of the butternut squash is the Waltham butternut that originated in Stow, Massachusetts. But this vine grown vegetable has been cultivated at least since the Incas and across the entire globe.

Harvested when ripe, the squash varies in shape from cylindrical to the half dumbbell. As it ripens it turns a deeper orange and gets increasingly sweeter and represents a smart choice for the health conscious athlete, not only because of its rich and distinctive flavour but because of its well rounded nutrient profile. 100g of squash gives 10g of fat free carbohydrate and a gram of 72% complete protein; this comes with a massive 11155IU of Vitamin A, 15mg of vitamin C, 41mg of Calcium, 0.6mg of Iron, 29mg of Magnesium and 284mg of potassium. The powerful anti-oxidant properties of the squash combined with its delivery of carbohydrates make it the perfect post workout meal accompaniment.

Ready to try it? The best squashes have a rich deep colour and are, for their size, abnormally heavy. A good squash has a high water content, a hard deep orange skin with no green patches or yellowing of a skin that is hard enough that you cannot push a fingernail into it and is big. Bigger really is better for the butternut squash. Once you have picked a squash, you need a good way to prepare it. If boiled it is best in soups as its high water content means that boiling sees a good portion of the nutrients go into the cooking water, although I boil it with my rice which will absorb at least some of those nutrients back. My favourite recipe is a blended soup. I take a large butternut squash, around 1.5 kg of carrots which I peel and dice, place them in a pan of water so the cubes are covered and bring to the boil, I then add a vegetable stock cube and a couple of teaspoons of coriander powder and a health lob of garlic to my taste and boil until tender. Then I stick in my hand blender and make a thick soup. When I serve I add some natural yoghurt and I have a hearty, healthy, low calorie veggie fix.

Les is available for tailored nutrition programs see: www.muscletalk.co.uk/fb.asp?m=1104321

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*** MT Powerlifting Totals Competition ***
By boar - MuscleTalk Pro-Member
See: www.muscletalk.co.uk/fb.asp?m=1083082

Greetings fellow powerlifters!

It's been a very quiet month on the competition front, but plenty of lifts added to the totals:

Pro-member Big-Al updated all 3 lifts with 200/145/240 = 585kg @ 110kg's - 600 is just around the corner mate, keep going! Olympian member and strongman enthusiast BigScottishBastard also put up a couple of awesome lifts - 250kg raw squat and 282.5kg raw deadlift. BSB is competing in the qualifier for Scotland's Strongest Man in February - best of luck mate! Pro-member Sivvy1 breezed past the 500lb marker on the deadlift with an impressive 230kg - and at 18 years old there is plenty more to come in the future.

A couple of powerlifting comps in February so good luck to any MTer competing and as always - keep pounding the iron!

Boar

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*** Recipe - Lentil Burgers ***
By Nicole Bremner, Recipe Consultant and MT Moderator

Taken from Muscle Menus Vegetarian

** Ingredients
150g lentils
1 ½ cups water
1 onion, finely chopped
4 tsp garlic, minced
½ tin of tomato sauce, or pasta sauce
2 veg stock cubes
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
1 egg white

** Method
Place lentils and water in a pot, cover and boil until soft. Sauté onions, garlic and parsley for 5 minutes until soft. Add the onion mix to the drained lentils with the tomato sauce, stock cubes, egg white and seasonings. Form into two burgers and dry fry in a non-stick pan. Serve on a crusty bun with cheese, tomato chutney and salad.

** Information
Serves 1. Per serving: 190kcal, 20g protein, 22g carbs, 27g fat, 8g 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 - Branch Warren - Unchained Raw Reality ***
Review by Big Les

Available here

This DVD needs a health warning - don't watch on your rest day! I did and by the end of it, it was a good job my gym had closed. This 2 DVD set has the main disc of training footage which is 98% black and white and a bonus disk, 50% black and white of posing and bits and pieces of footage of Branch. The training disk is where the action is at.

I am not a fan of black and white, but I can see what Mitsuru Okabe is doing; this is a hardcore homage to the original hardcore training DVD - Blood and Guts by Dorian Yates. This is a hardcore training DVD, at over 2 hours, it is a watch to be inspired and tear the gym up piece. And as such it's a love or hate DVD.

Some people are going to love the intensity and raw attitude of a train till ya puke and then train some more mentality that literally tears the gym up, and others are going to be turned completely off by the whole thing, deeming it all a bit OTT at the very least.

This DVD exists to motivate and inspire those, like me, who want it screaming loud, who want pools of sweat on the floor and puke in the bucket. In fact, I have only one complaint about the DVD, too much footage of Branch's training partners - I want to see Branch in his dense, granite, Yates-esque glory pounding the weight until it begs for mercy - no one else!

The Bonus Disk is a bit lighter; we see some posing and a trip down Amnesia Avenue as well as Branch's house, and Jay Moore proving he is not the next Arnold in terms of acting ability - LOL - can you say cut? This bonus shows the non gym Branch, the slow burn more laid back typically Texan Branch but we don't really see much of man behind the muscle or learn about his nutrition - either would have rounded the 2 disks off nicely.

Overall this one is for a hardcore or go home audience - if that's you then you will love it - if not then borrow it to see what you are missing!

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