Tips and Tidbits November 2009

Training  of the month:

Your ability to build additional muscle is limited by your degree of cardiovascular density. Without aerobics in your total bodybuilding program, your body can’t create any new supply routes for your newly developed muscles. The more blood vessels you have and the bigger they are, the longer and more intense your workouts can be. In other words, the better your cardiovascular density, the greater potential you have for building bigger muscles.

Do your aerobics in the morning for 45 to 60 minutes-before breakfast. By exercising before your first meal, you begin burning fatty acids for energy in the absence of glycogen. You become leaner as a result, plus your metabolism is activated for the entire day.

nutrition Tip

of the month:

Avoid “Starvation Mode” by eating five to six meals a day or more, spaced two to three hours apart. With a constant nutrient supply, you are never forced into “starvation mode,” a state induced by repeated cycles of low-calorie dieting in which the body prepares itself for famine. Because meals are coming at shorter, regular intervals, your body learns to process food more efficiently, and your metabolism is accelerated as a result. Eating this way also helps to naturally elevate your body’s level of insulin, a hormone with powerful anabolic (growth-producing) effects. One of its chief roles in the body is to make amino acids available to muscle tissue for growth and recovery.

Question

of the month:

Question: How should I eat in the off-season to get good results in bodybuilding?

Answer: The off-season is the ideal time to put on muscle, while staying relatively lean. This way, you don’t have to diet as hard as your contest approaches. You must eat enough in the off-season  to increase your body weight and still stay strict on your nutrition program. Eat the right foods (lean protein, starchy carbohydrates, and fibrous carbohydrates) in the right combinations and in multiple meals (5-6 a day.) In addition, use CapTri^®, supplements like ProCarb™, Hi-Protein™ or any Parrillo bars to increase your daily caloric intake. (Refer to the Parrillo Nutrition Manual for more info on off-season nutrition.) Be as consistent with your nutrition during the off-season as you are during the competitive season, and you’ll emerge ready for your contests bigger and more defined.

Breaking News

Fitness & Nutrition

Why Creatine Is Important

Creatine is a nonessential dietary component found in abundance in meat and fish. The body also makes creatine by using other dietary components called amino acids. Creatine is transported into muscle and nerves where it is joined with phosphate to form phosphocreatine. Phosphocreatine can not leave a cell; instead it donates its phosphate to a partially depleted energy source. The transfer results in the fully loaded compound adenosine triphosphate (ATP) – the immediate supplier of energy for all cells, particularly muscle and nerve cells.

Having extra phosphocreatine in muscle cells helps to boost performance in many aspects of sport including jumping, sprinting and repetitions of these actions and thus to enhance performance in sports requiring either short-term all out effort or repeated stop and go activities. Athletes involved in sports like football, soccer, sprinting in track and swimming, basketball, and hockey may hike performance from increasing muscle phosphocreatine content. Phosphocreatine also may help athletes to recover from repeated heavy training session like pre-season training camps.

- Henry C. Lukaski, Oct. 2006, Agricultural Research Service, USDA

Quick Tip

of the month:

Here’s a tip from personal trainer Dave Patterson, in Tacoma, Washington: For a mild lemon cookie taste, combine 2 scoops of Plain Shortbread Contest Cookie™ mix and 2 scoops of Lemon Flavor Shortbread Contest Cookie™ mix with 8 tablespoons of CapTri^® and bake according to package directions. Dave bakes them   for his gym and his clients love this new twist!

Dominique’s

Time Cruncher

Save time at the grocery store by organizing your shopping list according to how the grocery store is laid out. For example, group all of the produce department items together on your list, and this way you won’t be backtracking to the aisles you’ve already been down, which will save you time.