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Inflammation Theory of Muscle Growth

March 14, 2011 by

Believe it or not we still don’t really know how muscles grow. The scientific literature provides multiple lines of evidence that all contribute to our understanding but we still don’t have definite cause and effect proof of the exact reason of how we grow and why that grow is limited.

 

Inflammation Theory of Muscle Growth

Your ability to grow muscles is both dependent and blocked by inflammation

We know that you have to do some sort of resistance training on an regular basis to stimulate muscle growth, and we know that age, intensity and diet (to some degree) have an influence. And finally we know there is a big difference in the amount of muscle you can grow when using anabolic steroids.

Given all of these facts we are proposing a new theory that chronic inflammation is the rate limiting step in muscle growth.

Brad Pilon has recently put together a body of research that supports the inflammation theory of muscle growth and it explains why:

Bulking up to gain muscle might actually have the reverse effect and ruin your chance to build muscle. This also explains why guys on steroids can have success ‘bulking up’ on massive calories and gain muscle, while a non-user will just create massive inflammation and thus destroy any chance of muscle growth.

The chronic north american lifestyle disorders may all be contributing to a lack of progress in your muscle gaining efforts.

The best way to gain muscle is to stay lean year round and avoid overeating or any fat gain.

This is definitely an eye opener, but if you stop and really listen to what is being said in today’s podcast most of the points likely fit with what you’ve observed in yourself and in other people around the gym.

You can also watch a presentation on the inflammation theory of muscle growth at this website:

Inflammation Theory of Muscle Growth

John

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Filed Under: Muscle Building, Podcasts Tagged With: ,

What does “Building Muscle” Mean?

February 28, 2011 by

Most men want bigger muscles…it’s the reason most of us go to the gym, it’s the reason men continue to experiment with new workout protocols, new supplements and even drugs…bigger muscles.

Eugen Sandow vs Schwarzenegger

How did Schwarzenegger get so much bigger than Sandow?

A quick glance around any gym will reveal men with vastly different sizes of muscles. So what makes one guy that much different than the other in a given group?

The factors that contribute to the muscle size of any given person you might come across include:

Genetics

# of years weight training

Type of program followed

Intensity of training

The age you started weight training

Supplements

Drugs

Money – how much supplements or drugs you can afford

Time – The amount of time you can spend working out

Stress – How much stress you are under in the other areas of your life

All of these factors contribute to the amount of muscle any given person has, and this is also why you can’t really compare yourself to anyone else.

This is all part of understanding muscle growth and what to expect.

At this point you might have noticed that I haven’t said anything about ‘building muscle’ but only muscle ‘growth’. That is because it’s incorrect to use the word ‘build’ to refer to muscle.

Or at the very least, the word ‘build’ makes us think of muscle growth in the wrong terms, and as long as we think in terms of muscle ‘building’ we will always be susceptible to marketing scams about muscle growth.

The first step to really understanding how to create bigger muscles is to first start thinking about muscle growth as it truly is, and that is hypertrophy, not ‘building’.

DEFINITION: Hypertrophy is the increase in the volume of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of its component cells.

The definition of the word “build” can mean many things, but none of it’s meanings are the same as the word ‘hypertrophy’.

Hypertrophy can most closely be related to the concept of filling up a water balloon and perhaps making a slightly bigger balloon to fill.

Making this distinction in the way you think of muscle growth is a key step to developing the body you want and namely, bigger muscles.

In todays podcast we discuss how to correctly think about muscle growth and how this fundamental shift in the way you think and speak about muscle growth will change the way you view working out for both muscle size and definition.

John

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Working Out vs Training: Interview With Wes Granger

February 21, 2011 by

Staying consistent and having support are the two biggest keys to making big time changes in weight loss and muscle building.

adonis index transformation wes granger

The consistency of your workout and your ability to stay injury free are the two biggest factors on the training side of the equation that will add up to long term success.

Consistency and social support on the diet side of the equation are the two biggest factors to dropping weight and getting lean.

You can find many online communities that seem to be on target with your goals, but as you get further into them the support you hoped for might not be there. Finding the right community (online or off) could be the difference between getting to your goals and falling off the wagon for good.

Sometimes it just takes a few words of encouragement and a friendly kick in the butt from a supportive group to keep you on track towards your goals.

In todays podcast we interview Wes Granger who has dropped a lot of weight, and got into great shape. Wes talks about how he finally got his body to change and how he did it.

John

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Filed Under: Contest, Fat Loss, Podcasts Tagged With: ,

Reading Research Papers

February 14, 2011 by

In this new world of blogs, and the interwebs, and instant access to ‘info’ there is no shortage of misinformation.

This misinformation includes marketers and commentators with little or no qualifications to report on the topics that they’re reporting on as well as readers and consumers going to websites such as pubmed and looking through the various abstracts assuming the information there is enough to make an informed decision about what to do with either their diet or workout.

In both cases you can end up being mislead or misleading yourself. And this is to say nothing about lay people who go to pubmed, find an abstract and then re-post it on a forum and declare they have the answer to some muscle building or fat loss question.

So in an effort to put this in some sort of perspective I interviewed Bryan Chung who has his Phd in research methodology. We try to get to bottom of how to read a research paper and how to tell if a paper is of high quality or not, and finally what the average person can or should do about deciphering research claims in this misinformation age.

Bryan is a plastic surgery resident and a Phd in research methodology.

He critiques research papers on his blog at www.evidencebasedfitness.blogspot.com

So if you have a research paper in diet or fitness and you want to get an expert opinion on the quality of the paper then you can send it to Bryan at his blog and maybe he’ll give it a once over in a future post.

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Understanding Peer Review

January 31, 2011 by

There are many diet books, and workout programs you can find online, in magazines and at the book store. Many of the books on nutrition are very compelling to read and quite convincing. But just because a book sounds convincing that doesn’t make it factually correct.

The issue arises when people view a book or magazine the same as a piece of peer reviewed research. But the fact is that books and magazines do not go through a rigorous peer review process. Even if a book has research cited in the reference section it still hasn’t gone through the peer review process the way a scientific paper has.

Scientific papers go through a review process where experts in a given field review and critique research before it can be published. If the paper isn’t up to standard it may not be published. But a book can be full of incorrect information and easily be published.

And that is the big difference between real science and someone who writes a book that is supposed to seem like science.

In today’s podcast Dr. Geoff Dover explains the peer review process for you and why it makes a big difference between scientific papers, magazines and books.

John

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Getting Into Contest Shape: Interview with Allen Elliot

January 10, 2011 by

The way your body looks changes from day to day, and even from hour to hour, and on a bigger scale from month to month and year to year. Today we’re going to focus on what it takes to get into condition for a winning look. And what better way to do this than with Allen Elliot…he know what it takes to ‘dial it in’ and he’ll be sharing some the techniques he used to get into the condition you see here.

Allen Elliot Adonis IndexAdonis Index Allen Elliot

There are many factors that go into the look of your body including:

Total bodyfat – Not much to explain here. If you’re carrying too much fat none of your muscle will show through

Body Water – From fully hydrated after a meal to bodybuilding contest dehydrated and fasted

Training History – Do you have years of well developed muscle mass, or are you still a novice with room to grow

Current Training State – Are you pumped up from a workout or just got out of bed

Adonis Index Podcast Transcript Allen Elliot

And finally are you ‘dialed in’ to win a contest, or are you maintaining within striking distance for the next contest, photoshoot, or simply just the next time you feel like you want to tighten things up and make an impression.

Crafting a winning look to your body is a lot like working on a sculpture…but in this case the clay is your body and your tools are your workout and your diet (I think Arnold says it in a very similar way in his movie “pumping iron”)

Finally, the way you pose and display your body is the icing on the cake and could very well determine if you win or lose a bodybuilding show or the upcoming Adonis Index “open” competition.

In todays interview we pick Allen Elliots brain on how he learned to dial in for his bodybuilding show and really display his hard work through proper posing and contest conditioning.

Listen up if you’re thinking of entering the open, because Allen has some good advice and insights to share, AND some of you will likely be competing against him!

Hey we’re all in this together and we all want to see each other succeed (even if you’re technically competing against each other) we are all really on the same team.

John

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Getting Into Contest Shape: Interview With Allen Elliot

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Filed Under: Contest, Fat Loss, Podcasts Tagged With: , , , ,
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