Welcome to the 15th issue of The MuscleTalker.
Your favourite bodybuilding site has been revamped in response to comments by members! Over the past few weeks you'll have logged on a number of times and seen great new improvements to the site. These have included new XP-style icons, a new layout of the site, a new colour scheme (like it?), addition of poll topics and the ability to add avatars to your profiles. A HUGE thanks to Jason for his hard work in improving MuscleTalk! We hope these improvements will make your time on the site even more enjoyable and easy on the eye.
Following the huge success of MuscleTalk's bodybuilding recipe eBook Muscle Menus, we now have launched Muscle Menus Vegetarian also by Nikki and James - packed with loads more great tasting nutritious recipes for vegetarian bodybuilders. You don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy the recipes either; anyone can enjoy them as part of their varied diet! Muscle Menus Vegetarian contains ideas for breakfast, main courses, salads, desserts, snacks, protein and energy bars and protein shakes and smoothies - all great for improving gains or losing fat. For more information click here.
What do YOU want from The MuscleTalker? Email james@muscletalk.co.uk for any thoughts you have for your newsletter.
*** Best wishes from James and The MuscleTalk team! ***
*****************************************
** BottomLine Bodybuilding
Controversial author Nelson Montana's new eBook BottomLine Bodybuilding separates the BS from the real deal for packing on thick, dense muscle and shredding off your excess fat -- fast! This is the one guide that gives you the cold hard facts on Training, Diets, Supplements, and Drugs -- all in one place! click here
*****************************************
*** The 'Losing Fat, Gaining Muscle' Debate ***
By James Collier BSc Hons SRD - MuscleTalk Contributor
** Need a diet for growth to suit YOU? - James Collier, Dietitian offers personalised nutrition programmes through email tailored to YOUR needs. For more information see: www.muscletalk.co.uk/james.aspx or email james@muscletalk.co.uk
The debate as to whether it is possible to lose fat at the same time as gaining muscle is a common one. From a scientific point of view it is, in fact, not possible to be in an anabolic state while you are in energy deficit. It is also imperative to be in energy deficit in order to lose body fat. So, from this point of view it is impossible to actually gain muscle, whilst losing fat.
Bodybuilders who are dieting strictly, say for a show, will not be able to gain any muscle while losing their fat to achieve the cut look. The trick is to maintain their muscle, which if training and nutrition are optimal is easily possible, and you need lose no muscle even in the strictest stages of dieting.
However, most of us don't need to diet so strictly. Many of us may want to lose a reasonable amount of fat, but there is no need to lose it so quickly that muscle growth isn't possible. All bodybuilders and athletes who strive for optimum nutrition should be eating a varied choice of food everyday. Such bodybuilders/athletes who are aiming to lose fat, in doing this will have their calorie intake varying from one day to the next; sometimes they will be in energy deficit, where fat loss will occur and sometimes in energy surplus (where they will gain muscle). Furthermore, this will happen during the course of one day; at times they will be in deficit, at times in surplus.
Of course, on this type of regimen, neither muscle gains nor fat loss will be as high as if you were in energy surplus or energy deficit respectively, so the individual need to decide what it their priority. However, as most of you are striving to continually gain muscle, even if you want to shed some fat, this is the best way of achieving your goals.
As to how you would achieve this metabolic state sounds complex, but, in fact, it's far from complex. All you need to do is 'clean up' your diet, reduce portions of the carbohydrate fraction of your meals (but not eliminate them), keep protein high, eat small regular meals and include (more) cardiovascular exercise. From this you must monitor your progress, possibly on the scales and my bodyfat assessment, but more importantly in the mirror and with the critical eyes of your honest friends. If progress on either parameter is not as you would like, you will need to adjust accordingly.
For a sample meal plan of such a regimen see my article on MuscleTalk, not that this is merely an example and will need to be amended to suit you: See our Losing Fat article.
** Check out the Informed Bodybuilding Nutrition eBook by James Collier - the ULTIMATE nutrition bible for bodybuilding. For more information click here:
*** High Intensity Terms - Part 2 ***
By Paul A Marsland
In a few issues of The MuscleTalker we will be including parts of this great article by Paul. Paul can be found on his board: http://pub40.ezboard.com/bhighintensitystrengthtraining
- The S.A.I.D Principle
This stands for Specific Adaptation To Imposed Demands, and means the body will adapt to a specific stress or stimulus in a specific manner. The body is affected by stress in a general manner, but it is always of a specific nature. Take a suntan for example; the sun's ultra violet rays are a specific form of stress to the skin. The body recognises this and responds to this alarm reaction by the production of melanin, which is a defensive barrier. But the stress must be of certain level of intensity in order for the body to alter its state or balance. Going out in the weakest sunlight will not be enough of a threat to the body in order for it to tan to protect it from further stresses or in this case exposure. The same is true for weight training. Larger muscles are the body's form of defence against stress; anaerobic exercise stress, to be precise.
So how does this all fit together? We know that we need to stress the body's system with high intensity anaerobic exercise. This then sends a signal saying to the body saying 'adapt or change or this stress will eventually kill you' or in other words, the body's homeostasis (balance) is being threatened. It adapts in the form of larger and stronger muscles (but not always, as the body can adapt in other ways also, i.e. lifting proficiency) in order to cope with the possibility of further attacks. This is why training to muscular failure & beyond (where possible) is crucial, as the body is very resistant to change. It likes balance and sees no real reason to change unless it is demanded to. This explains why a suntan fades when you stop going out in the hot summer sun and why muscles shrink when you stop exercising with weights. The body does not want to become bigger, as the cost of maintaining extra muscle mass is very metabolically expensive; i.e. requires more energy to maintain. The body is LAZY!
By training to muscular failure & beyond, you are asking the body to do the momentary impossible, which it does not like.
- Recovery Ability
Recovery ability is something that is very important, yet rarely addressed, when it comes to understanding high intensity exercise. Whenever you train you make what is known as an inroad or hole into your limited recovery ability. We do not know for sure just what exact amount of recovery ability we have and it varies from individual to individual. But it is limited, for if it were not, you would be able to train everyday all day with no signs of fatigue.
The first thing your body must do after a workout is replace what has been used up. It must first recover, before it can even begin to adapt or over compensate in the form of larger muscles. Just how long it takes to recover between workouts is an individual factor as we all have a different tolerance to stress, solely dependant on genetic traits. Your recovery ability does improve over time, but only to a certain extent. In order for the body to recover & grow, there must be sufficient time in-between workouts. If you train too often or with too much volume you place an excessive demand on the body resources, which could result in over training. The last thing it will do is get larger and stronger, as this is purely secondary.
By keeping your workouts brief and spaced well apart and providing you are training with a sufficient level of intensity, you will be giving the body the required of amount of stimulus and time for it to recover and grow.
*****************************************
Get your MuscleTalk Training T-shirt HERE
*****************************************
*** July's Recipe - Quorn & Cranberry Wraps ***
By Nicole Bremner - MuscleTalk Moderator
Taken from the BRAND NEW Muscle Menus Vegetarian eBook:
**Ingredients
150g Quorn fillet, grilled and cooled
1 tsp cranberry sauce
1 cup shredded lettuce
1 large iceberg lettuce leaf
**Method
Chop the Quorn fillet into bite sized pieces and combine with the cranberry sauce. Line a large lettuce leaf with the quorn and then top with shredded lettuce. Wrap it all up and enjoy!
**Information
Serves 1. Per serving: 205kcal, 22g protein, 22g carbs, 4g fat, 10g fibre. Suitable for vegan bodybuilders.
More great bodybuilding recipes by Nicole can also be found in the Muscle Menus ebook:
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