WHAT DOESN'T WORK !

The Revolution has come, are you ready?

The world of strength training is obviously full of contradiction and confusion. Just pick up any standard bodybuilding magazine and you’ll see different people with drastically diverse views, all telling you that they have the one method to help you achieve your goals. But through all of this crap, every now and then we find certain principles that we can take to the grave and apply universally. Examples include: “lift heavy weights and you’ll get big,” “cardio helps with weight loss,” and “Canadian men are hung like moose.” Another such principle is the post workout nutrient window, which states that during the time immediately post workout, our bodies are in a state of shock and physical disarray, resulting in an opportunity for enhanced nutrient absorption and accelerated recovery. In fact, it’s pretty safe to say that since its inception a decade ago, this scientifically “proven” idea has revolutionized the way we look at nutrition. Unfortunately, this principle has become so engrained in our subculture that much of it has mutated and become dogmatic in scope.

While the general principles remain, many of the studies on which they are based were done on populations that aren’t completely applicable to us, such as animals or endurance athletes.

Despite the emergence of new, more applicable science, we’ve had a very difficult time in adapting our thinking to these current and better-suited ideas. Making the situation worse is the fact that everyone seems to have their own input about what post workout nutrition should be! This stems from what I like to call the “telephone-chain effect” (derived from the lesson-yielding children’s game), which illustrates how easily messages can change when passed through a chain of people. How it works is that one person will dictate something to another, who in turn tells this same information to someone else, who then repeats it to another, and so on. By human nature, each person will subtly alter the message, by leaving out some parts, embellishing others, etc. to the extent that by the time you get to the tenth person, the original statement of “Hey sugar, could you mop up the mess in the pantry with the Swiffer?” becomes warped to something like “Shugart is a messed up panty sniffer.”

True as it may be, obviously the point of the latter statement does not even remotely resemble the original. But since this article is not entitled “The Top Ten Things Wrong With Our Post Workout Information,” let’s get to the myths that have developed, and the current reality.

The post workout meal is the most important meal of the day.

I have to admit that with all the hype on post-workout meals over the past few years, I got tangled up in this myth, too. Realistically though, as great as they are, a single post-workout meal will have minimal impact compared to what can happen if your nutrition is completely optimized. Of course it’s heresy to say that these days, but that’s a result of the myth building on itself more than any factual data. For example, as discussed in the myth #2, pre-workout meals can be 200% more effective for stimulating muscle growth compared to post-workout (Tipton et al., 2001). Perhaps even more important than the pre-workout meal is the old standard: breakfast. No this article isn’t part of a conspiracy by MABB (Mom’s Against Bad Breakfasts) to promote the importance of this meal. Just think about it: being essentially fasted for 8-10 hours is incredibly destructive for muscle -yes even if you eat cottage cheese before bed. This is especially true in trained individuals like us, because we have higher rates of muscle breakdown (Phillips et al. 2002) The faster we can stop this catabolism once we wake up, the better. In fact, one could even argue that the amount of muscle protein spared from this first meal would be equal to, or even greater, than that gained by a post workout meal. Also, consuming a high quality slow protein before bed, like Low-Carb Grow! with micellar casein, will largely mitigate the catabolic effect induced by nocturnal fasting. Taking this one step further, nighttime eating will actually put your muscle into anabolic overdrive, by supplying even more amino acids to stimulate this metabolic process. Finally, a second post workout meal can be even better for protein synthesis than the first, but I’ll get to that one in a bit.

Mini-Summary: Nocturnal feedings, breakfast, preworkout meals, and multiple post workout meals can be more beneficial for muscle growth than a single post workout meal.

There’s a one-hour window of opportunity for protein synthesis following a workout.

You may be wondering: is this a myth because the real window is half an hour? Two or 3 hours? Maybe 6 hours? Sadly, in the past 2 weeks I’ve read different articles, all suggesting that the “window” is one of the above lengths of time. It’s not surprising that with this type of inconsistency that this is probably the most pervasive myth in bodybuilding today! Worse yet, it stems directly from the scientific research itself. The most often cited research on the protein synthetic post workout window, used elderly subjects (Esmark et al., 2001) and cardio exercise findings (Levenhagen et al., 2001) to make their predictions. While this is a completely acceptable practice when these are the only data we have to go on, there are a couple noteworthy problems. Elderly individuals digest and absorb protein differently than healthy adults. In fact, they digest and absorb whey protein in a similar manner as they do casein (Dangin et al., 2003); in other words they have slow digestion and absorption for whey.

Elderly also benefit from having 80% of their daily protein consumed at a single sitting (Arnal et al., 1999), in contrast to the benefits of our multiple feedings. Additionally, the traditionally referenced Esmark et al. (2001), study showed that consuming the post workout meal just 2 hours after working out actually prevented any improvements induced by the training! Figure that one out and you get a prize.

Secondly, with regards to cardio…well, let’s just say that there’s an obvious difference between how our muscles respond to the two forms of exercise. Bear in mind that with regard to carbohydrate metabolism following a workout, there might not be much of a difference-we just don’t know, but certainly the long-term protein metabolism differences can be seen. So now what are we supposed to base our nutrition on? Enter the most underrated scientific paper in the last 5 years. Tipton and colleagues (2003) examined responsiveness of protein synthesis for a day after a workout, and found it to reflect a 24 hour enhanced level. That’s right folks, a FULL DAY! This means that having a morning shake will have the same impact on muscle protein synthesis as one consumed following the workout! These results shouldn’t be too surprising because we’ve known for over a decade that postworkout protein synthesis is jacked up for this long (MacDougall et al., 1995), but if you’re discovering this for the first time, then it’s pretty exciting! Some research suggests that even 48 hours after the workout our protein synthesis levels can be elevated by ~33% (Phillips et al., 1997), giving us an even longer period during which we can maximize our muscle growth with protein drinks.

Strike one for the one hour post workout window.

Whey is a “fast” protein, ideal for post workout.

Back when it first came out, whey protein was pretty kick ass because it was discovered to be very high quality. Then research came out that made it even more kick ass, because we could classify it as a “fast” digesting protein compared to casein (Boirie et al., 1997). You know what? This research stands today, because compared to casein, whey protein really is fast! Then again, a tortoise is also fast compared to a snail, but that doesn’t mean we want to take a tortoise to a greyhound park. In other words, we’ve been considering whey a “fast” protein only because we’ve been comparing it to something incredibly slow. When we compare the digestibility of whey to the gold standard of amino acids, on which we base nearly all of our post workout nutritional data, whey flat out sucks. This is incredibly frustrating because all of the ways to maximize protein synthesis we’ve been discussing have used amino acids. So we need to either use pure amino acids or use something that closely resembles their absorptive properties. This is where whey protein hydrolysate comes in. The protein is already broken up into large peptides, so we get a rapid absorption with peak levels reaching the blood at around 80 minutes (Calbet and MacLean, 2002), compared to 60 minutes for pharmaceutical grade amino acids (Borsheim et al., 2002). Unfortunately, even the highly touted whey isolate is completely useless for our timing purposes here, because it just takes too long to get taken up by the gut (Dangin et al., 2002).

In light of these data and the growing body of literature contradicting the versatility and usefulness of whey protein, it should henceforth be classified as “moderate” or “intermediate” speed protein, with only whey hydrolysate and amino acids existing as truly “fast.” It may be difficult to adjust our thinking, but this is simply more dogma that needs to be destroyed in order to bring us up to date with the proper application of research.

 Machines are safer than free weights

Damn near every exercise machine lulls you into a false sense of security. The machine makes you think you are strong, when you are much weaker than you would be if you spent the same time and effort with free weights. The machine forces you into a plane of motion that is not natural and almost always robs you of the opportunity to develop stabilizing muscles, posture, and balance.

So when the real world strikes – and the real world always strikes – and you have to lift a couch or push a car or pull your dog off of the mailman, you’ll find that all of your machine work doesn’t quite transfer to the task at hand. Skeletal and muscular injuries are a risk in ANY exercise program. A deadlift isn’t bungee jumping. Grab the bar and move some damn weight!

 Looking fit = being fit.

Oh how I love it when the former high school football star walks into my gym for the first time. He’s five or ten years removed from his varsity jacket, but he still appears to be in pretty good shape. Hell, he still goes to the gym three days a week and he IS in better shape than the average Joe.

But his fitness magazines lie to him. They give him an arrogance that I smell and I can’t help but satisfy the urge to serve him some humble pie. So I feed him a simple 4 minute workout of Tabata squats. No added weight – just his body. His face reddens, his legs quiver, but he makes it to the end. And then curls into the fetal position in the corner.

Being “fit” should give a person relative high performance across a broad spectrum of physical attributes including strength, endurance, balance, flexibility, and coordination. You can look like an underwear model and still get humbled by having to move the refrigerator.

 

Targeting specific muscle groups is the best way to lift.

How many times have you heard “Today I’m doing bi’s and tri’s” or “Monday is my chest day”? How you plan a resistance training program depends on several factors, but the one factor we’ll concern ourselves with here is the goal in mind.

Why are you doing resistance training? I prefer to design programs around movements instead of muscles. The real world is never going to give you a task that focuses only on your “bi’s”. The body moves as one piece so it is important that you treat it accordingly. Full body movements like deadlifts, power cleans, and presses should be the staples of any resistance program.

At least any program that wants to get you fit and not just ready for your beach vacation.

 

You need supplements to get in good shape

Supplements should be used only for what they’re name implies: to “supplement” an already nutritious diet. Pills, powders, potions, and magic elixirs are not the Holy Grail they are purported to be.

Most supplements are useless, and the few that are beneficial should only be applied after solid nutrition is in place. What supplements do I consider alright? A good multi-vitamin is never going to get bad mouthed by me. An omega-3 supplement if you are unable to get it from your diet (and few of us can) is alright. And maybe, and I said maybe, a protein powder if you are unable to acquire the required amount of protein from your diet. Keep the Horny Goat Weed to yourself.

Long slow running is the best way to lose weight

I so wish this one would go the way of the dinosaur. But I still hear people saying how they’re running 5 miles a day in their efforts to lose weight. I tell them that if they want to run to lose weight they should sprint their ass off until they see stars and then walk until the stars go away. Then repeat this cycle until they feel like it is impossible to continue.

The reality is that long slow cardio training of any kind – whether pounding the pavement or watching the wheels go ’round on the eliptical is inefficient to put it nicely and a waste of time to put it bluntly. And for all of you wannabe-gerbils rocking the treadmills, don’t get me started on the pretty lights and the “fat burning zone” of the digital read out. Just like your prom date saying it’s her first time, those things lie – don’t believe the hype.

Cranking your metabolism into a fat burning furnace takes pushing yourself to an exertion level that is “uncomfortable”.

 

Crunches will get rid of belly fat

Oh man, this one is right up there with long slow cardio as far as pervasive myths that get my blood boiling go. In a very broad sense, getting rid of fat is a simple factor of expending more calories that you take in.

And doing a crunch, which moves the body through a minuscule range of motion, is not going to expend many calories. Cranking the metabolism with some solid muscle building resistance training is going to go a hell of a lot farther in reducing your spare tire than racking up your crunch total.

I’ll even go as far as to say you can get the abs of a Greek god without doing a single crunch.