Taking daily recommended dosages of ibuprofen and acetaminophen caused a substantially greater increase over placebo in the amount of quadriceps muscle mass and muscle strength gained during three months of regular weight lifting, in a study by physiologists at the Human Performance Laboratory, Ball State University.
Dr. Chad Carroll, a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Todd Trappe, reported study results at Experimental Biology 2008 in San Diego on April 6. His presentation was part of the scientific program of the American Physiological Society (APS).
The biceps is a biarticular or two-joint muscle. Simply meaning it is made of the shoulder and elbow joints. The biceps is considered to be the strongest of all the elbow flexors, especially in the supinated (palm up) position. With the palms in pronation (down) position, the effectiveness of the biceps is greatly diminished because of the disadvantageous pull of the muscle in this pronated position. In any case, pronated or supinated the same muscles are used to flex the arm.
Spending a lot of time in the gym makes it necessary to have some very comfortable body building apparel such as t-shirts, tank tops, fleece shirts, workout pants and so on. The best material for workout clothing is cotton since there is a lot of sweating and moisture requires a good material to absorb it. Over a tank top you may choose to wear a fleece shirt that lets your skin breathe and distributes moisture in the fabric allowing easy and quick evaporation. The right bodybuilding apparel should make you feel great even during the most strenuous exercises. Read the rest of this entry »
Creatine has established itself as one of the most effective and popular supplements available for people wanting to build muscle and improve performance. However, there are concerns that creatine is unsafe. Are the stories about creatine side effects that often appear in the popular press based on fact or fiction?Creatine is a very popular supplement. That’s mainly because it accelerates gains in muscle size and strength compared to exercise alone. In a 12-week trial by Jeff Volek and a research team from Pennsylvania State University, creatine users ended up stronger in both the squat and bench press compared with subjects using a “dummy” supplement. They also gained twice as much muscle.
Effect of an isotonic rehydration sports drink and exercise on urolithiasis in rats
The objective of the present study was to evaluate the role of physical exercise as well as the influence of hydration with an isotonic sports drink on renal function in male Wistar rats. Four groups were studied over a period of 42 days: 1) control (N = 9); 2) physical exercise (Exe, N = 7); 3) isotonic drink (Drink, N = 8 ); 4) physical exercise + isotonic drink (Exe + Drink, N = 8 ).
Physical exercise consisted of running on a motor-driven treadmill for 1 h/day, at 20 m/min, 5 days a week. The isotonic sports drink was a commercial solution used by athletes for rehydration after physical activity, 2 ml administered by gavage twice a day. Urine cultures were performed in all animals. Twenty-four-hour urine samples were collected in metabolic cages at the beginning and at the end of the protocol period. Urinary and plasma parameters (sodium, potassium, urea, creatinine, calcium) did not differ among groups. However, an amorphous material was observed in the bladders of animals in the Exe + Drink and Drink groups. Characterization of the material by Western blot revealed the presence of Tamm-Horsfall protein and angiotensin converting enzyme. Physical exercise and the isotonic drink did not change the plasma or urinary parameters measured. However, the isotonic drink induced the formation of intravesical matrix, suggesting a potential lithogenic risk. Read the rest of this entry »
Rice-Based Oral Rehydration Solution Outperforms Glucose-Based Solution for Treating Cholera
A study conducted by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows that a new pre-packaged rice-based oral rehydration solution (ORS) designed to treat children with cholera and life-threatening diarrheas outperformed similar glucose-based ORS, which is the standard treatment for the disease recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Read the rest of this entry »
This has got to be the biggest controversy in modern bodybuilding. Bodybuilders will say you’ve got to consume loads of protein to pack on quality muscle mass and increase strength. Nutrition ‘experts’ say that you must eat a high carbohydrate diet, particularly complex carbs, to improve strength and size, and say that a high protein is of no benefit.Who is right? In essence, both.
Remember, we are bodybuilders and are therefore different to other athletes, who should make complex carbs the basis of their diet. Only a few studies have been carried out looking into high protein intake and improvements in strength and muscle size. The results are inconclusive. Study design was poor, often only having very few subjects, who may be over- or under-training, other aspects of diet were often overlooked, and most were only carried out on novice weight trainers who may not know how to train correctly. Also, the topic of anabolic steroids is avoided which do increase demand for protein.
Water is crucial for us to remain healthy and alive, but all too often it is taken for granted as to why it is so important and to what extent it helps us perform better in exercise. Water is the second most important element to life next to oxygen. The body can survive for weeks without food but merely days with out water, and often for a lot less in warm temperatures and high altitudes. The body and all its organs are comprised mainly of water making the average person about 60-75% water.
Water is essential to all bodily functions. It aids our digestive system with the absorption of nutrients, it’s involved in the regulation of body temperature and blood circulation, it helps in the transport of nutrients and oxygen to cells and removes waste products from the body. Alongside these functions water also helps to reduce wear on joints providing lubrication and cushioning, including the spinal cord. Without sufficient water supply (dehydration) we open up our bodies to all kinds of problems. Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj et al noted in the book Your Body’s Many Cries for Water that dehydration can lead to hypertension, asthma, allergies and migraines.
Everything You Wanted To Know About Blood Glucose, Insulin and Diabetes
Diabetes is afflicting an increasing percentage of the population as time goes by. Even athletes like Sir Steven Redgrave can get it. This article tries to explain the workings of the body’s blood glucose (BG) regulation system and what can go wrong with it.
How does the body regulate blood glucose?
At any given moment, there is about 4.5g of glucose circulating in your blood (5mmol/l x 180g x 5l). As the brain alone uses about 6g of glucose per hour in the absence of ketones, BG could fall to zero within an hour if we ate no sugary/starchy carbs. If we ate a mere 5g of glucose, BG level could double. As low BGs are fatal and high BGs damage proteins by a process called glycosylation (a bit like caramelisation), the body keeps BG levels within fairly tight limits by the use of a negative feedback (NFB) control system. Read the rest of this entry »
Last month I discussed early morning CV and nutrition. Since then I have had several enquiries about correct post-workout nutrition. This is a controversial area with many theories bandied about. Many advocate carbs along with protein as a post-workout meal to prompt an insulin spike (in order to shunt more protein into muscle cells), but hard evidence for this is scarce.I advocate whey protein in water immediately after you finish your final set of the workout. This is because whey is semi-elemental, i.e. it could be termed as part-digested, containing simple peptides and amino acids, rather than long peptide chains which most proteins are comprised of. This means it is digested and absorbed very rapidly and absorption is by two separate mechanisms in the intestine. As it is dissolved in water, there are no other nutrients to slow this process down and the protein window of opportunity can be fully maximised. Read the rest of this entry »
Pro-hormones are precursors of certain natural or synthetic anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS). They are often referred to as ‘natural’ alternatives to AAS. Prohormones are converted into their target anabolic steroids in the body by enzymes and therefore carry many of same characteristics as the hormone they convert to. However, there is limit to how much of these substances can be enzymatically converted and, as a result, their effects are not as strong as an actual anabolic androgenic steroid. Read the rest of this entry »
What is bulking?
It is usual to define the bulking phase of a bodybuilder’s diet by what it is not; however it is simply ‘a systematic attempt to gain muscle’. If you want to add ‘and strength’ to that sentence then that’s fine, just remember you can get stronger without adding muscle, but you can’t add muscle without getting even the smallest bit stronger.
Bulking and cutting are the productive phases of bodybuilding; bulking is the addition and cutting the subtraction. When cutting you are removing body fat while trying not to lose muscle – conversely in bulking you are trying to add muscle without adding too much fat.
Bodybuilders work hard, but skeletal muscles aren’t the only thing subjected to stress - the bones to which muscles are connected are also subjected to enormous forces and stress loads and undergo changes as a response to training stresses.A recent study examined the bone health of 152,095 Finnish army conscripts over the course of 102,515 person-years to assess the risk of bone-stress injuries in the hips, pelvis, thigh and knee. Naturally, these conscripts undergo or have undergone extensive physical training and are therefore subjected to training-induced stresses.
To assess the risks of bone-stress injuries, researchers subjected participants to extensive MRI testing and measured body composition and physical fitness. Read the rest of this entry »
Eugene
