A. Ready-to-drink(RTD) protein shake

B. Doughnut

C. Low-fat chocolate milk

Which one do you choose?

You thought the RTD shake was the obvious answer , right?

Think again, the better choice is C. Low-fat Chocolate Milk.

The RTD has seriously high fat content. It’s a great post-workout drink but a nightmare for your midnight snack. Needless to say , the doughnut is also way too fatty.

Given the situation the low-fat chocolate milk wins because it contains fast digesting protein (whey) and also slow digesting protein (casein) which will keep feeding your muscles through out the night without the high fat content of the RTD.

According to a recent study, static stretching, such as ‘stretch and hold’ improved hamstring flexibility than dynamic range of motion exercises (swinging one leg from side-to-side or bouncing) in athletes who are college-aged with and without hamstring injuries.

Athletes who participate in aerobic exercises frequently experience increased flexibility after doing static stretching.

Final Thought
Static is better than dynamic.

Source: BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 10: 37, 2009

One of my main concerns in bodybuilding is overtraining. Overtraining is when you train too hard or too frequently for your body to recover from your workouts. There are a lot of symptoms that I use to tell if I am overtraining and they are:

1. Chronic fatigue

2. Overly sore joints and muscles

3. Willingness to go to the gym

4. Lack of appetite

5. Insomnia (lack of sleep)

6. Reoccuring cold or sickness

What is Overtraining?

When you are lifting heavy weights your muscle fibers tear and then while you are resting, through proper nutrition and sleep, they get bigger and stronger (hypertrophy). If you overtrain, your muscle fibers tear and your body does not have enough time to heal the muscles before you go back into the gym and tear the fibers again. This is overtraining!

If you overtrain your muscles, it will not grow in size or strength and can actually get weaker or smaller. Usually the most overtrained muscles are the biceps AKA ‘guns’. Everyone wants a big bicep. They want to intimidate other guys and attract the ladies when they flex. So what do they do? They go in their garage and train the biceps for an hour with 30 sets! Then their biceps don’t grow so they train longer and with more sets and eventually they overtrain and give up lifting weights.

How to fix overtraining?

By deloading, what is deloading? Well pretty simple, either you lower the weights you are doing by 10-30% (thats about 5-15lbs.), lower the number of reps/sets and focus on your form of the exercise or completely stop working out the bodypart[s] that is overtrained for a week or even up to a month(depending on genetics) . Also remember to eat more and take your multivitamins.

I know you’ve tried almost every diet in trying to lose that belly fat. Also, the number one cause of diet failure is hunger! You feel like you haven’t eaten anything the whole day but in fact you just ate,  sounds familiar?

The part of the brain that controls hunger and the feeling of fullness (satiety) are known as the hypothalamus. This portion of the brain is very sensitive to body temperature, amino acid levels, blood sugar and metabolic hormones.

Documented research from Maastricht University in the Netherlands proved that when people consume high-protein foods or diets originating from 20-30% of energy from protein actually suppressed hunger and promoted the feeling of fullness. Studies conclude that soy protein and casein protein (protein from milk) prevent hunger more effectively than any other type. Protein was considered great for weight maintenance when people were encouraged to eat a lot of high-protein food.

High Dietary Protein is Great for Maintaining Muscle Mass

High dietary protein consumption is really effective when maintaining your muscle mass while encouraging fat loss. However, over indulging high-protein diets may boost blood pressure levels in overweight diabetics or people who suffer from metabolic syndrome.

Tip of the Day

Don’t leave out soy and milk when your trying to lose weight.

(Source: Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, 11: 747-751, 2008)

I always tell my clients, “make it look pretty!” If you want to exercise and receive good results, you must keep a good form of the exercise. One of the factors when keeping a good form during exercise is stabilize your core muscles.

People who tend to exercise on unstable ground or unstable surfaces like training on BoSu ball or foam pad, their capacity for maximal core muscle contraction decreases in order to compensate for balancing. It takes away from stabilization in order to perform the exercise properly.

For example, holding a pair of dumbbells and stepping on to a BoSu ball to do shoulder press is not a walk in the park. You will struggle to stay on the BoSu ball let alone get a ‘good set’ done. On the other hand, doing the same dumbbell shoulder press on a solid ground will give you much better shoulder workout.

Final Thought

Ditch the Bosu ball or balance board and make it look pretty.

(Source: International Journal Sports Physiology Performance, 4: 97-109, 2009)