The Secret To Adding Muscle and Strength as Fast as Possible
Bob Diry, circa 1914
I know you see this advertised everywhere and everyone seems to have their own secret on how to do it.
I would know, since like you, I have spent well over half of my life looking for the secret to gaining muscle and strength.
I’ve read supplement ads from cover to cover, more research studies than you can shake a stick at, physiology text books, interviewed and chatted with many top strength and nutrition coaches, attended several conferences, certifications and seminars. Heck, I’ve even given seminars on those topics.
I’ve spent 14+ years full time in college and paid a couple hundred thousand in tuition (and still will be paying–yikes) looking for the “secrets’.
I’ve even spent money on supplements, most of which turned out to be utterly worthless and only made my wallet lighter.
A new version of Supertraining came out and I was so stoked to get it as a Christmas present and bring it on vacation to read and relax.
Pay attention now and I will reveal this secret for training.
Are you ready?
Are you sure?
Here it comes!
Here is the secret from the very wise words of Dr. Zatsiorsky
Lift
* As often as possible
* As heavy as possible
* As fresh as possible
That is the “secret” to progress! Seriously it really is as much of a secret as you will get.
How you do that is the art portion of the equation.
While there are many methods I find testing your movement (biofeedback) to be the best way to put you on track.
Summary
You job now is to accumulate as much volume (weight x reps) as possible, while putting the least amount of effort (staying fresh) as often as possible (frequency).
I did not say it would be easy though, did I? Anything worth attaining will require work, but you need to work intelligently.
What are your secrets dear reader? What has helped you make progress in the fastest way possible? Let me know by posting a comment as I love comments!
I need to give my buddy Geoff Neupert a shout out for publishing a post recently that reminded me of the secrets. Be sure to check out his blog post here at Chasing Strength
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Biofeedback Training Via Gym Movements and Spiked Kettlebell Swings
Thanks for all the great orders of the Gym Movements DVD. Much appreciate it from everyone! The comments have been great too and it is amazing to hear from people in Kangaroo Land (Australia), Kiwis (New Zealand), Canada, the UK, Serbia and many other places including the good ole USA too. I love it.
Biofeedback Testing
Dave “the Athlete Creator” and I had a great bench session last night via biofeedback (as explained in the Gym Movements DVD) and ended up training for over 2 hours! We did some Z-Health joint mobility to warm up and then did some bench, board work, and inverted rows. We even threw in some random kettlebell work last night including double kettlebell clean and 1 arm cleans with Sparky (aka the Bulldog, the 40 kg KB).
If you want to really add some stress to the glutes and hamstrings (posterior chain for you geeks), have a partner add a push (eccentric load) on the kettlebell swing. Start out with a lighter push and then crank it up from there. Keep your kettlebell swing form the same though. Don’t call and complain if your glutes and hamstrings are so sore it makes sitting down the next day difficult. Good times!
The PR Train Rolls On
Despite getting an all time PR last week on the bench, I added another PR by adding 3 reps to my reverse band bench work even after doing 9 sets of singles around 90% 1 RM (all done with a pause and audio commands). My plan now is to keep working more pause work at the chest to get that up to my touch and go PR and one step closer to my 2010 goal of bench pressing 240 x 1 in competition at the Twin Ports Open in June of this year.
Notice that I did not PR again in the exact same lift (although that can happen), but it was a similar lift. You can almost always PR in some direction EVERY session!
Small, consistent steps forward day in and day out = huge gains over time!
Even though Dave had not done any deadlift or really any lower body work for almost 4 months, he ended up pulling 7 singles over 90% of his 1 rep max on his first lower body day back. Needless to say, he was sore for days afer it.
Summary
Constant progress can be made, but it may not always be
on the exact same lift at the exact same parameters. The key is to make sure you are always going in the right direction. Make sure your ladder is against the correct wall before scaling it!
If you missed the last post on the special limited time offer on the Gym Movements DVD on how to use biofeedback, check it out below as it expires tomorrow (Thurs Feb 4) at midnight (central standard time).
When you purchase the Gym Movements DVD HERE, you will only get access to this special teleseminar that I will be conducting at the end of the month. I’ve been using this system for over 2 years and I will answer tons of your questions and give you the inside track on how to maximize it.
I will reveal things that only my online consulting and personal training clients know and secrets that have never been published on this site. This will jump start your progress like crazy and you can ask me your questions directly.
Again, this only applies if you order the Gym Movements DVDfrom this site!
This is an additional bonus not to be missed. I normally charge at least $110 an hour for my time, but you will get it for free.
This special bonus is only for Extreme Human Performance customers and It is also for a limited time only!
You must have your order placed by midnight central time this coming Thurs Feb 4 to get the free teleseminar! No exceptions.
FAQ
Who Do I Contact with Product Questions?
I am selling the product only, and it is something that I truly believe in and have used for well over 2 years; but I did NOT make the product nor do I do the marketing for it. Any direct product questions and order information please see the website atGym Movements: Perpetual Progress
Why Are You Selling This?
It is something that works great and as stated above I have used it on myself and others for quite some time (read: years) with amazing results. I will only sell products here that believe in 100%.
What If I Don’t Want To Buy This Product
That is up to you and I will continue to bring you the latest information on how to break a crazy number of personal records in the gym and on the field, all for free, so keep checking in! Keep in mind that I will refer back to the Gym Movements DVD though since it has all the exact details on how to use the program to the fullest degree.
How Is This Different Than Any Other Fitness Program Design?
Gym Movements gives you the ability to simply and easily measure your own biofeedback, allowing you to custom-design your workouts each and every time you go to the gym. The result is a new personal record virtually every time you train. Does your current training program do that?
Why Are Personal Records Important?
You are either going forward or backwards. If your body is constantly doing more, lifting more, doing it in less time, your body has no choice but to add muscle and strength!
Can I Forward Your Site Info to My Friends?
YES! Please forward this to all your friends, send it out on twitter, facebook, etc Spread the word. Hit the stumble icon just below here, the twtter icon on the top of post, go crazy.
Summary
Gym Movements is finally here and you owe it to yourself to go and check it out now before the special bonuses go away.
Rock on Mike T Nelson
PS
If you have comments please place them below and I will get back to you as soon as I can. This will be the fastest way to get your questions answered!
PPS
Don’t forget that when you purchase Gym Movements from this site, I will have a special teleseminar for all those that purchased it by midnight central time, this Thurs Feb 4. You will only get access to this special teleseminar if you purchase the Gym Movements DVD HERE. I’ve been using this system for over 2 years and I will answer tons of your questions and give you the inside track on how to maximize it. If you miss the call, I will send you the MP3 of it but again only if you buy the DVD here. Get your copy of Gym Movements NOW by clicking HERE.
Be sure to get the inside knowledge by being on my newsletter list. You will be the first to get Gym Movement once it is released and free videos instantly. Sign up today at
Busting Broscience: Does Increasing Testosterone and Anabolic Hormones with Exercise Equal More muscle and Strength?
Anabolic Hormones = More Muscle (Hypertrophy), Right?
You hear this in gyms everywhere,
“Dude, to get huge you need to get your test levels up higher”
or this one
“Brotha, you can’t workout any longer than 45 minutes or else you will go completely catabolic bro!”
What? Is this true?
Have I been wasting all these years in the gym lifting longer than 45 minutes? Do anabolic hormones from exercise matter for building muscle (hypertrophy)?
Where is the research?
I think the answer will surprise you.
In short, anabolic hormones from exercise don’t do much of anything for muscle growth.
from the study referenced below
“We report here that, despite being exposed to substantial differences in purportedly anabolic hormones such as testosterone, GH, and IGF-1, the rate of MPS (my note, this is Muscle Protein Synthesis, so adding protein to muscles to make them bigger) in identically exercised muscles was not different.
These data demonstrate that local factors are paramount in determining not only the signalling pathway activation but also the response of MPS.
Furthermore, our results indicate that increases in MPS are able to occur without increases in systemic anabolic hormone concentrations and are not enhanced by the acute elevation that can follow resistance exercise; this finding is in agreement with previous work from our lab showing that increases in circulating hormones are not necessary for hypertrophy (Wilkinson et al. 2006).”
Dave Barr from Muscle and Fitness and I geek out completely and discuss hormones and their effects in the video below. This was filmed from the ACSM 2009 Annual Conference and I had a blast there. I went there for a relaxing vacation (literally).
Listen to the MP3 below for all the details and what you can do to improve your performance. It is time to put this one to rest and there is even data going back to 1975 also (McManus et al.)
We aimed to determine whether exercise-induced elevations in systemic concentration of testosterone, growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) enhanced post-exercise myofibrillar protein synthesis (MPS) and phosphorylation of signalling proteins important in regulating mRNA translation. Eight young men (20 ± 1.1 years, BMI = 26 ± 3.5 kg m?2) completed two exercise protocols designed to mai
ntain basal hormone concentrations (low hormone, LH) or elicit increases in endogenous hormones (high hormone, HH). In the LH protocol, participants performed a bout of unilateral resistance exercise with the elbow flexors. The HH protocol consisted of the same elbow flexor exercise with the contralateral arm followed immediately by high-volume leg resistance exercise. Participants consumed 25 g of protein after arm exercise to maximize MPS. Muscle biopsies and blood samples were taken as appropriate. There were no changes in serum testosterone, GH or IGF-1 after the LH protocol, whereas there were marked elevations after HH (testosterone, P < 0.001; GH, P < 0.001; IGF-1, P < 0.05). Exercise stimulated a rise in MPS in the biceps brachii (rest = 0.040 ± 0.007, LH = 0.071 ± 0.008, HH = 0.064 ± 0.014% h?1; P < 0.05) with no effect of elevated hormones (P = 0.72). Phosphorylation of the 70 kDa S6 protein kinase (p70S6K) also increased post-exercise (P < 0.05) with no differences between conditions. We conclude that the transient increases in endogenous purportedly anabolic hormones do not enhance fed-state anabolic signalling or MPS following resistance exercise. Local mechanisms are likely to be of predominant importance for the post-exercise increase in MPS.
The aim of our study was to determine whether resistance exercise-induced elevations in endogenous hormones enhance muscle strength and hypertrophy with training. Twelve healthy young men (21.8 +/- 1.2 y, BMI = 23.1 +/- 0.6 kg(.)m(-2)) independently trained their elbow flexors for 15 weeks on separate days and under different hormonal milieu. In one training condition, participants performed isolated arm curl exercise designed to maintain basal hormone concentrations (low hormone, LH); in the other training condition, participants performed identical arm exercise to the LH condition followed immediately by a high volume of leg resistance exercise to elicit a large increase in endogenous hormones (High Hormone, HH). There was no elevation in serum growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor (IG
F-1) or testosterone after the LH protocol, but significant (P < 0.001) elevations in these hormones immediately and 15 and 30 min after the HH protocol. The hormone responses elicited by each respective exercise protocol late in the training period were similar to the response elicited early in the training period indicating that a divergent post-exercise hormone response was maintained over the training period. Muscle cross-sectional area increased by 12% in LH and 10% in HH (P < 0.001) with no difference between conditions (condition x training interaction, P = 0.25). Similarly, type I (P < 0.01) and type II (P < 0.001) muscle fiber CSA increased with training with no effect of hormone elevation in the HH condition. Strength increased in both arms but the increase was not different between the LH and HH conditions. We conclude that exposure of loaded muscle to acute exercise-induced elevations in endogenous anabolic hormones enhances neither muscle hypertrophy nor strength with resistance training in young men. Key words: testosterone, growth hormone, IGF-1, anabolism.
We examined the changes induced by daily treadmill exercise on body weights, plantaris muscle weights, plantaris protein concentrations, and L-leucine-4,5-3H incorporation into plantaris muscles of normal and castrated young male guinea pigs and of castrated animals receiving testosterone replacement therapy, and compared the testosterone-1,2-3H uptake by plantaris muscles of trained normal guinea pigs to that of untrained animals. Trained animals exhibited significantly lower body and muscle weights and greater labeled leucine incorporation into sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar proteins but did not show significant changes in protein concentrations or labeled testosterone uptake. The level of physical activity of the young animals studied appeared to be more important than gonadal endocrine function in altering protein metabolism and muscle and body weights. Because hypertrophy did not occur in the trained plantaris muscles, which had elevated rates of labeled leucine incorporation, it appears that the trained animals had a higher muscle protein turnover rate. It seems unlikely that testosterone plays an important role in these activity-related phenomena.
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Last time we talked about a super cool research study that looked at muscle and connective tissue hypertrophy. This time there will not be any of those big words and we will check out the lifting world and see if the meatheads had already figured this out years ago (like most things, the answer is yes!).
Ever notice how old school mechanics have massive forearms?
I decide to pull the elusive professional Strongman Adam T Glass out of his cold and dark cave in Minot, ND to get his thoughts on muscle and tendon strength. Take it away Adam
Mike, first of- great article. My thoughts will come from my direct experience and the progress of my students. So whatever that is worth here it comes
Is frequency with the lift clearly a key element for tendon development?
My first thought is absolutely. For example, the only people i see day to day whose wrist tendons look like mine are men who work with hammers and tools all day- the farmers out here.
Is load important for tendon development?
I believe load is the key. I work with some bone heads who curl literally every day. They are typical weekend warriors. A “workout” is bench press and curl. That means 185 on the bar and the partner does all the lifting “Its all you bro” for sets of 10. The curls range from mildly good w/35-40lbs to some wild $hitty looking cleans with 50’s and 60’s. So naturally i introduce them to the plate curl.-
95% of the men i show a plate curl to are unable to curl a 25 for 1-2 reps. Only one man has ever curled a 35 in front of me– Freak show Mark Wilson- A man who has spent most of his life lifting dry wall, swinging a hammer and other stuff. (Editor’s note, if you are in the ND Fargo area, look up Mark Wilson RKC for training HERE)
If frequency is the key element, and SO many men do curls as their primary fitness vehicle, why is the plate curl so challenging for them?
At first i though it was the thumb pinch but every time they complain their wrist tendons hurt when they try it, they are simply not strong enough to handle the force. So in my opinion, based upon what i have seen– load has to play a role in this, but i have not tested enough to have any clear data to say the extent. –Adam T Glass
Special thanks to Adam for his words of wisdom above! Be sure to check him out on his blog below and if you are in Minot ND, you MUST get your butt in to see him and train.
I have noticed that on wrist curls my wrist (and others too) tend to “bend too much” and not stay straight. This shuts down the muscles of the arm via the arthrokinetic reflex as talked about last time. “Jammed joints = muscular weakness”
Frequency and Load
Some of you are now rolling your eyes into your head muttering “This is nothing new” and you would be correct. To others, this is earth shattering since it is rarely talked about in the popular media. Chad Waterbury and Jason Ferroggia had a disccusion like this one below
You need to work to add more weight over time. Keep track of your PRs (personal records) for your major lifts. I have PRs for rack pulls, bench, DB bench, reverse bench, kettlebell press,kettlebell snatch, etc I have about 20+ PRs that I regularly track. I am always looking to add more load and/or reps over time. Just the other night I was not feeling like lifting, but I made it to the gym and after some Z-Health joint mobility work I started out on my main lifts of low rack pulls and kettlebell presses. Everything felt good and tested good (but not great) and over time it started to get better. I opted for an old PR on the rack pull and added 2 reps to a 1 rep max weight and also did a bottoms up kettlebell press on my left side with the 24 kg kettlebell for a PR! I felt great after that! Make it fun and chart progress. You do have a training journal, right?
Frequency
Chad Waterbury has talked about this before too and if you want to bring up a lift, and easy way is to add some bodyweight drills. Since my bench is stalling a bit and I don’t have tons of time to add more bench work in right now, I am doing 50 pushups each day for a week, and then the following week I will bump it up to 60, etc. I also added inverted rows (from a TRX or a straight bar) to keep it balanced out. My goal is to get to 50 per day, and that may be sets of 10, 8, 15,,and it doesn’t matter.
Advanced Only
Finger Lifting: Note, this is advanced, which means don’t go out and try this at home right away with a heavy weight. You may find it is the last time you do any finger lifting. Like all things, the dose is most important and start very very light and build up the load and frequency over time. Adam has been done this MUCH longer than you; so you are for warned.
Summary
Frequency + Load = Bigger Muscles and more strength
We have outlined some great options for you to add some size and strength around this Holiday season.
Drop me a line and let me know how it is going and what PRs you are going to break!
Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy with New Research (aka How to Lift and Eat)
Updation
Sorry for the delays here as I have been swamped and the last two days it feels like I got hit by a truck. Ugh. So after lots of sleep I am back on track now.
Jodie and I had a blast in S. Padre Island kiteboarding and I will have an update soon. I am working on TONS of great content coming up here. As always, drop me a line on what YOU want to see.
Maximize Muscle Growth
Very cool new study today on what may be the best combination of lifting and eating for performance. I am a huge geek and spend hours per week (literally) combing the literature to see if there are any new research gems that will help guide on how to increase muscle size and strength to make you a freaky athlete! I am happy to report I found an AMAZING study. Don’t worry, as I will break it down into terms even the most novice can understand and those who have been around for a bit will probably pick up some new things too. Here we go!
We know that connective tissue (collagen) is a key component in strength since it is literally holding everything together (along with a specialized form called fascia).
This is not a new thought, but it is rarely talked about and there has been really a big hole in the literature regarding any direct data to support this idea. It makes sense that just like if you have a buggered up joint, it will start to decrease strength (”shut down”) the muscles around it.
I can say that first hand this is true when I messed up my ankle in a snowboarding incident about 5 years ago to this very day. It swelled up to the size of a large softball, I had a walking cast, crutches, the whole 9 yards (hardcore all the way—haha). I could not even MOVE my ankle, let alone generate any strength. My body had shut every thing down there and increased fluid to the ankle (massive swelling) to further immobilize the ankle.
Now this is an extreme example, but it happens to a lesser degree with a joint that does not have optimal mobility (called the arthrokinetic reflex and taught in Z Health).
So we know the nervous system has a MASSIVE influence on strength. It would only make sense that if we thought our connective tissue was not up to the task, our smart brains would limit our strength.
While we don’t have direct data on that point yet, we are getting closer and this study below holds some HUGE keys to muscle growth for you!
1) connective tissue (collagen synthesis rates) and
2) muscle protein synthesis rates (FSR) which tells us how much protein is being added to muscles.
More protein added to muscles = bigger muscles (hypertrophy)
The great part is they looked a feeding them also to see if it helped out. As you know, I highly recommend some protein around the time of your lifting session.
(from wikipedia)
Intramuscular total collagen protein synthesis rate (more connective tissue)
The heavy black is a direct quote from the study and the blue is my translation
“There was a clear effect of prior exercise on skeletal muscle collagen FSR whether studied in the fasted or fed state (p<0.05)”
Even if you lift in a fasted state (no food before), there is still an increase in connective tissue formation. Lifting BY ITSELF ALONE is highly anabolic for connective tissue.
“These changes in collagen FSR were unaffected by contractile intensity (p>0.10). Feeding did not increase resting nor post exercise collagen protein synthesis rate and nor was the post exercise temporal response different compared with fasting”
It did not matter if you lifted a lighter load or heavier load, as there was still an increase in connective tissue. This effect was NOT changed by eating.
Myofibrillar protein synthesis rate (bigger muscles)
“Fasting myofibrillar protein FSR was influenced by the contraction intensity of a prior exercise bout (interaction: p<0.05,). Myofibrillar FSR was 303 0.08±0.01 %?hr-1 at rest and LL contractions was not sufficient to enhance the myofibrillar FSR level significantly above that level (early: 0.11±0.01 and late: 0.09±0.02%hr-1; NS).
In contrast, HL contractions resulted in a delayed improvement (late: 0.14±0.02 %?hr-1, 2.0±0.4 fold, p<0.05).”
Lifting heavier (70% of max) was better than a very light load (16% of max) for bigger muscles.
Oral feeding elevated myofibrillar protein FSR at rest 2.3±0.3 fold up to 0.18±0.03 %?hr-1 (p<0.05,) and this elevated level was maintained at all post exercise time points irrespective of prior contraction intensity.
WOW! If you eat protein after training, you can maximize your gains by over 2Xs as much as skipping it. Very cool and simple to do!
When food was provided, LL contractions kept the myofibrillar protein FSR elevated above fasting conditions at the late time point (p<0.05). Similarly, HL contractions tended to increase the myofibrillar FSR at the late time point (p<0.10).
You are still building muscle HOURS after you leave the gym! Simulate and then recover
What Did We Learn Today
Today we learned
Have a protein shake (I like a whey protein isolate from Protein Factory) after training to more than DOUBLE your gains.
Connective tissue increases are primarily only from lifting, even at a light load
Muscle growth needs a higher load and food help a ton!
Stay Tuned
Come back tomorrow for some tips on how you directly use this information to maximize your muscle gains in the gym with some novel methods
The full abstract is below
Any questions/thoughts let me know in the comments! I want to know if you think this is helpful or not. What do you want to see?
You can also easily retweet any of my articles now! Just hit the “retweet” symbol on the top right of any post. Go crazy and thanks in advance for your help in spreading the good word! Information needs to be shared.
Exercise stimulates muscle protein fractional synthesis rate (FSR) but the importance of contractile intensity and whether it interplays with feeding is not understood. This was investigated following two distinct resistance exercise (RE) contraction intensities using an intra-subject design in the fasted (n=10) and fed (n=10) states. RE consisted of ten sets of knee-extensions. One leg worked against light-load (LL) at 16% of 1-repetition maximum (1RM), the other leg against heavy-load (HL) at 70% 1RM, with intensities equalized for total lifted load. Males were infused with (13)C-leucine and vastus lateralis biopsies were obtained bi-laterally at rest as well as 1/2, 3, and 51/2 hr after RE. Western blots were run on muscle-lysates and phospho-specific antibodies used to detect phosphorylation status of targets involved in regulation of FSR. The intramuscular collagen FSR was evenly increased following LL- and HL-RE and was not affected by feeding. Myofibrillar FSR was unaffected by LL-RE, whereas HL-RE resulted in a delayed improvement (0.14+/-0.02%xhr(-1), p<0.05). Myofibrillar FSR was increased at rest by feeding (p<0.05) and remained elevated late in the post-exercise period when compared with the fasting condition. The Rp-s6k-4E-BP1- and the MAPk-pathways were activated by the HL intensity and were suggested to be responsible for regulating myofibrillar FSR in response to adequate contractile activity. Feeding predominantly affected Rp-s6k and eEF2 phosphorylations in correspondence with the observed changes in myofibrillar FSR, whereas 4E-BP1 remained to respond only to the heavy load contraction intensity. Thus, the study design allows us to conclude that the MAPk and mTOR dependent signaling responds to contractile activity, whereas elongation mainly was found to respond to feeding. Further, although functionally linked, the contractile and the supportive matrix structures upregulate their protein synthesis rate quite differently in response to feeding and contractile-activity and -intensity.
3 Tips for Muscle Hypertrophy (Bigger Muscles): Research Review for November 2009
Jack Leon[between 1910 and 1915]
Just a few very cool studies this month and see my comments on how you can apply these for increased athletic performance on the field and in the gym! Let’s roll
Despite the widespread consumption of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the influence of these drugs on muscle satellite cells is not fully understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a local NSAID infusion on satellite cells after unaccustomed eccentric exercise in vivo in human skeletal muscle. Eight young healthy males performed 200 maximal eccentric contractions with each leg. An NSAID was infused via a microdialysis catheter into the vastus lateralis muscle of one leg (NSAID leg) before, during, and for 4.5 h after exercise, with the other leg working as a control (unblocked leg). Muscle biopsies were collected before and 8 days after exercise. Changes in satellite cells and inflammatory cell numbers were investigated by immunohistochemistry. Satellite cells were identified using antibodies against neural cell adhesion molecule and Pax7. The number of Pax7+ cells per myofiber was increased by 96% on day 8 after exercise in the unblocked leg (0.14 ± 0.04, mean ± SE) compared with the prevalue (0.07 ± 0.02, P < 0.05), whereas the number of Pax7+ cells was unchanged in the leg muscles exposed to the NSAID (0.07 ± 0.01). The number of inflammatory cells (CD68+ or CD16+ cells) was not significantly increased in either of the legs 8 days after exercise and was unaffected by the NSAID. The main finding in the present study was that the NSAID infusion for 7.5 h during the exercise day suppressed the exercise-induced increase in the number of satellite cells 8 days after exercise. These results suggest that NSAIDs negatively affect satellite cell activity after unaccustomed eccentric exercise.
My thoughts
Very interesting study, but I am not convinced that NSAIDs are actually bad for muscle growth. The data about 2-3 years ago, said that they were bad for muscle hypertrophy; but newer data is not pointing that way. The eagle observer would notice that this study showed a negative effect on satellite cells, which would say that it is bad for muscle growth. The downside is that muscle growth was not measured in this study. Muscle can get bigger by various mechanisms, and while satellite cells is one way, it is not the only way. Satellite cells are the little guys that hang out at the end of the muscle fibers and work to repair them from damage. So for now I would not automatically reach for NSAIDs if you have muscle soreness, but if you have to, it is probably not affecting growth too much. If people are interested, drop a note in the comments and I will do a blog post just on this.
The study of the circadian molecular clock in skeletal muscle is in the very early stages. Initial research has demonstrated the presence of the molecular clock in skeletal muscle and that skeletal muscle of a clock-compromised mouse, Clock mutant, exhibits significant disruption in normal expression of many genes required for adult muscle structure and metabolism. In light of the growing association between the molecular clock, metabolism, and metabolic disease, it will also be important to understand the contribution of circadian factors to normal metabolism, metabolic responses to muscle training, and contribution of the molecular clock in muscle-to-muscle disease (e.g., insulin resistance). Consistent with the potential for the skeletal muscle molecular clock modulating skeletal muscle physiology, there are findings in the literature that there is significant time-of-day effects for strength and metabolism. Additionally, there is some recent evidence that temporal specificity is important for optimizing training for muscular performance. While these studies do not prove that the molecular clock in skeletal muscle is important, they are suggestive of a circadian contribution to skeletal muscle function. The application of well-established models of skeletal muscle research in function and metabolism with available genetic models of molecular clock disruption will allow for more mechanistic understanding of potential relationships.
My thoughts
Very cool study and the first I have seen in this area. The age old question of what is the perfect time to lift has been around for a long time. From what I have seen, there does not seem to be a perfect time. The perfect time is when you can get to the gym and seems to be highly individual. First priority is to get there, lift the weights and then later worry about finding the best time. If I could set up my perfect schedule it would be to lift at 3pm in the afternoon. Keep in mind that if you have a contest, say a powerlifting meet that start at 9am, you may want to do some lifts at that time in practice just to see how your body reacts.
While skeletal muscle protein accretion during resistance training (RT)-mediated myofiber hypertrophy is thought to result from upregulated translation initiation signaling, this concept is based on responses to a single bout of unaccustomed resistance exercise (RE) with no measure of hypertrophy across RT. Further, aging appears to affect acute responses to RE, but whether age differences in responsiveness persist during RT leading to impaired RT adaptation is unclear. We therefore tested whether muscle protein fractional synthesis rate (FSR) and Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling in response to unaccustomed RE differed in old vs. young adults, and whether age differences in acute responsiveness were associated with differences in muscle hypertrophy after 16 wk of RT. Fifteen old and 21 young adult subjects completed the 16-wk study. The phosphorylation states of Akt, S6K1, ribosomal protein S6 (RPS6), eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) binding protein (4EBP1), eIF4E, and eIF4G were all elevated (23–199%) 24 h after a bout of unaccustomed RE. A concomitant 62% increase in FSR was found in a subset (6 old, 8 young). Age x time interaction was found only for RPS6 phosphorylation (+335% in old subjects only), while there was an interaction trend (P = 0.084) for FSR (+96% in young subjects only). After 16 wk of RT, gains in muscle mass, type II myofiber size, and voluntary strength were similar in young and old subjects. In conclusion, at the level of translational signaling, we found no evidence of impaired responsiveness among older adults, and for the first time, we show that changes in translational signaling after unaccustomed RE were associated with substantial muscle protein accretion (hypertrophy) during continued RT.
My thoughts
There is more and more research coming out on hypertrophy in older folks. My good buddy Carl Lanore likes to say “muscle is metabolic currency, so go to the gym and make a deposit today,’ and I totally agree. It appears that muscle size is harder to come by as we age; but how much harder is still not clear. Early studies showed that it was difficult, but recent data like the one above show that maybe there is not much difference. Again, this is a 16 week study (which is pretty good for most studies) and note that they used NOVEL exercises. I think this is a key point. You need to give the body a REASON to adapt. It also showed that strength increased, so the old people in the study were not all show and no go!
What 3 Tips Did We Learn Today?
NSAIDs may not be as bad for muscle hypertrophy as we once thought
Timing may become a bigger issue in the future, but for now get to the gym first
If hypertrophy is your goal, you need to “surprise” the muscles. Now don’t go all crazy with the Weirder “confusion” principle, as plain old overload (doing more work over time) is a very powerful stimulus as the work load is novel. I am a big fan of adding volume since it allows you to manage fatigue (Charles Staley’s ears are burning) and keep doing perfect reps.
Any questions/thoughts, let me have it in the comments
You will have to come back here on Monday as you will have to see what I am posting. The feedback on it so far has been crazy (both good and bad crazy), Stay tuned!
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