Branched-Chain Amino Acids are currently used clinically to aid in the recovery of burn victims. Because the metabolic breakdown is accelerated when an individual is afflicted with a wasting disease such as cancer, AIDS, or end-stage kidney failure, BCAAs, along with glutamine and medium-chain triglycerides are often used by progressive surgeons as intravenous support for their critically ill patients.

Health News

If you are looking for a way to push your body to the next level of physical development, if you are feeling rundown or stressed out, if you are experiencing any medical maladies related to wasting diseases or some type of muscular or internal disintegration, you might want to consider supplementing with a unique combination: branched-chain amino acids and with medium-chain triglycerides. Science has come to the studied conclusion that unique and highly beneficial results are achieved when these two potent supplements are used concurrently. The interesting conclusion is that while each individual supplement is extremely beneficial when taken separately, when consumed in tandem (within the confines of the same daily supplement regimen) results are amplified to a far greater degree. In a recent issue of Natural Health, scientists were interviewed on the benefits of both supplements: below are some excerpts and some scientific explanations of both BCAAs and medium-chain triglycerides. It is no accident that John Parrillo has been a champion of both supplements for over twenty years. John was championing MCTs long before anyone else. CapTri® has been the industry standard for MCTs since its inception. Parrillo’s promotion of BCAAs for competitive athletes and elite bodybuilders occurred way before the rest of the industry began preaching the advantages of supplementing with these three critical amino acids. Muscle Amino Formula™ has been a huge seller for over twenty years. There is an old country song entitled, ‘I was country before country was cool’ and Parrillo was championing and manufacturing MCTs and BCAAs long before either were ‘cool.’

CapTri® is the finest supplemental source of MCTs available anywhere. CapTri® provides “perfect calories.” Calories derived from CapTri® are used by the human body to recover from intense training, build new muscle tissue or to fuel daily activity and movement: the body is unable to store CapTri® calories as body fat. Science has shown in repeated studies that MCTs taken throughout the day creates a thermogenic effect: heat is generated through the digestive process and thermogenesis boosts the human metabolism. The wonderful thing about medium-chain triglycerides (derived from coconut oil) is, due to MCTs’ unique molecular structure, the body treats this particular lipid as if it were a carbohydrate. CapTri® possesses the caloric density of a fat (8.3 calories per gram) yet is processed by the body as if it were a carbohydrate. The advantage for hard training athletes or for the individual with a severe medical condition is MCTs provide the body calories needed for recovery and growth without any of the health drawbacks associated with long chain saturated fat consumption. Patients and athletes are interested in recovery and growth and while Long-chain triglycerides, LCTs, (conventional dietary fats) are easily converted into body fat, MCTs are not. Here is a scientific explanation as to what MCTs are and how they differ from conventional lipids.

Medium-chain
Triglycerides; the good fat:

A medium-chain is 6 to 12 carbon atoms in length and technically are fatty acid esters of glycerol.  MCTs passively diffuse from the GI tract to the portal system. This is significant: unlike conventional fats, the body treats MCTs as if they were carbohydrates. A classical LCT fat molecule is a longer fatty acid and absorbed into the lymphatic system. MCTs avoid the complex requirements for modification needed by long chain fatty acids.  In addition MCTs do not require bile salts for digestion. Patients who have malnutrition or malabsorption syndromes are treated with MCTs because they do not require energy for absorption, utilization, or storage. Athletes and bodybuilders love MCTs because they provide healing calories that cannot and will not end up stored as body fat. Coconut oil and palm kernel oils are the premium sources of MCTs, also found in camphor tree drupes. The fatty acids found in MCTs are called medium-chain fatty acids. The names of the medium-chain fatty acids are caproic acid (C6), caprylic acid (C8), capric acid (C10) and lauric acid (C12). MCTs are composed of a glycerol backbone and three of these fatty acids where the approximate ratios of these fatty acids in commercial MCT products derived from coconut oil is 2(C6):55(C8):42(C10):1(C12). CapTri® is virtually pure C8 which has been used by cutting-edge bodybuilders and professional athletes for decades: derived from coconut-oil, CapTri® is described by users as “metabolic jet fuel.”

Bruce Fife, N.D. is a well known nutritionist and writes enthusiastically about the uses of MCTs for people in all walks of life…

Have you or someone you know ever been in a serious car accident? I mean serious enough that you had to be rushed to the hospital and spend time in the intensive care unit? Or maybe you’ve come down with a life-threatening illness. Or perhaps due to age you’ve been hospitalized to treat some degenerative condition. In any of these situations, whether you lived or died depended on the care you received in the hospital. Often this required you to be fed intravenously or through a tube. In the intensive care unit there would be others, some suffering from complications from genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis or epilepsy and perhaps even premature infants struggling to survive their first few weeks of life. In each of these cases you and these other patients can give some of the credit for your recovery to coconut oil.

Yes, in one form or another, coconut oil was part of your treatment.  Regardless of the medical condition, recovery requires good nutrition. Food scientists have long noted the nutritional benefits of medium-chain triglycerides. MCT from coconut oil are used in hospital formulas to feed the very young, the critically ill and those who have digestive problems. Coconut oil makes up a vital part of the solutions fed to patients intravenously or through a tube inserted down the throat. If you were ever given formula as a baby, you took advantage of the health-promoting properties of coconut oil. MCT from coconut oil have been added to baby
formula for decades. MCTs are easily digested, absorbed, and put to use nourishing the body. Unlike other fats, they put little strain on the digestive system and provide a quick source of energy necessary to promote healing. This is important for patients who are using every ounce of strength they have to overcome serious illness or injury. It’s no wonder why MCT are added to infant formulas. Actually, whether you were breast or formula fed as an infant, you consumed MCT. Why? Because MCT are not only found in coconut oil but are natural and vital components of human breast milk. MCT are considered essential nutrients for infants as well as for people with serious digestive problems like cystic fibrosis. Like other essential nutrients, you must get them directly from the diet. One of the first scientifically recognized benefits of MCT is the unique manner in which they are digested and utilized by the body. These fats provide nutritional benefits that can improve overall health of both the sickly and the well, the young and the old. Even athletes are now using them to boost performance and control weight. Unfortunately, few foods nowadays contain MCT; the best source is coconut oil. By adding coconut oil to your diet you can literally eat your way to better health.

CapTri® is produced from coconut oil and provides the most concentrated, refined and effective MCT product available anywhere on the planet. As good as CapTri® is by itself, strong evidence indicates that pairing CapTri® with Branched-chain amino acids further amplifies overall results for athletes, bodybuilders, the sick and for those looking to improve their physiques. Parrillo Performance Products produces Muscle Amino Formula™; this amazing product has been used by elite bodybuilders for decades to “spare” muscle during super-intense workouts. Muscle growth is accelerated simply by taking a few capsules of Muscle Amino Formula™ immediately after you
weight train.

Commonly referred to BCAAs, this triple amino combination is the name given when three of the eight essential amino acids needed to make protein, leucine, isoleucine and valine, are grouped together. They are called “branched-chain” because their structure has a ‘branch’ off the main trunk of the molecule. The combination of these three essential amino acids makes up approximately one-third of skeletal muscle in the human body. When experiencing starvation, the body will actually break down muscle tissue in order to cannibalize BCAAs. By supplying BCAAs to the body during or after a workout, muscle tissue is “spared” from cannibalistic breakdown. Without BCAA supplementation, breakdown naturally occurs.

Leucine: The most readily oxidized BCAA, leucine lowers elevated blood sugar levels and aids in growth hormone production. Leucine works in conjunction with the other two BCAAs to protect muscle and act as fuel for the body. Leucine promotes the healing of bones, skin and muscle tissue and is often recommended for patients recovering from surgery. Food sources for leucine include meat, nuts, beans and brown rice.

Isoleucine: This amino acid stabilizes and regulates blood sugar and energy levels. It is also needed for hemoglobin formation. When coupled with the other two BCAAs, energy is enhanced, endurance increases and muscle tissue regeneration and healing is dramatically accelerated. Isoleucine repairs muscle tissue and is a valuable tool for athletes and patients. Isoleucine can be found in chicken, eggs, fish and meat.

Valine: The third BCAA, valine, aids in muscle metabolism, tissue repair and the maintenance of proper nitrogen balance in the body. It may also be helpful in treating liver and gallbladder disease and is good for correcting severe amino acid deficiencies often caused by alcohol or drug addiction. Sources for valine are meat, mushrooms, peanuts, dairy and certain grains.

Science, Athletic
Performance & BCAAs:

After a group of healthy people received a single intravenous infusion of the Branched-chain amino acids, the amount of tissue breakdown that normally occurs overnight decreased by 50 percent. In another study, the muscles of a group of marathoners and cross-country runners were spared completely with a daily dose of BCAAs. People suffering from many different mental and physical disorders have been found to have isoleucine deficiency, which can lead to symptoms similar to those of hypoglycemia. BCAAs are a very popular form of supplementation for strength athletes. It is recommended that supplemental isoleucine should always be taken with a correct balance of the other two branched-chain amino acids; two milligrams each of leucine and valine for each milligram of isoleucine. Supplements that combine all three amino acids are commercially available and convenient to use. BCAAs are also used to aid in the recovery of burn victims, and because the metabolic breakdown is accelerated when an individual is afflicted with a wasting disease, such as cancer, AIDS, or end-stage kidney failure, BCAA along with glutamine and medium-chain triglycerides are often used by progressive surgeons as intravenous support for their critically ill
patients.

Combining CapTri® &
Muscle Amino Formula:

Science has pointed out that individually MCTs and BCAAs each have tremendous benefit, both for athletes and for individuals suffering from extreme medical conditions. Combining these two powerhouse supplements increases already outstanding results. How might the serious Parrillo follower set up a MCT-BCAA supplementation program? See the chart below to find out.

This particular supplementation regimen is designed to be used in conjunction with the Parrillo Nutrition Plan. Real food meals are eaten 4-6 times daily and each food meal consists of a portion of lean protein, a portion of fiber carbohydrate and a portion of starchy carbohydrates. A tablespoon of CapTri® contains 110 calories and one tablespoon is added to each of the four to six daily food meals. In addition, supplemental protein (Optimized Whey™, Hi-Protein™, All-Protein™) is consumed several times daily to aid the trainee in obtaining daily protein goals of 1 to 1.5 grams or more per pound of bodyweight per day. Various “Parrillo Pills” are consumed with meals and the CapTri®-Muscle Amino™ strategy is used as the final finishing touch. The CapTri® supplementation will add 500-600 quality calories per day while the Muscle Amino™ capsules ensure rapid and dramatic healing, recovery and growth in the post-workout environment. Taken before bedtime, healing amino acids are released into the bloodstream as you sleep. Combine these two unique nutritional supplements in this unique fashion and dramatic results are guaranteed within a matter of weeks. Order now: 1-800-344-3404.

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If you add 1,000 calories a day to your diet, you will gain weight. The problem, of coarse, is that if you just indiscriminately add calo-ries to your diet most of them (probably about 75% by most estimates) will end up as fat. What’s the answer? How can you at-tain a really spectacular physique? How do you do it? The answer is nutrient partitioning, a method of directing food toward your lean compartment and not to fat stores. The idea is to have your food energy go to build muscle while drawing on your fat stores to fuel activity. Achieving this requires two things. First is a very specific eating program which supplies energy in a way that supplies nutrients to build muscle but does not supply calories that are stored as fat. There are certain foods you should eat and specific foods you should avoid. Each meal must be structured according to fairly narrow parameters. The nuts and bolts of how to do this is described in the Parrillo Performance Nutrition Manual, which is the cornerstone of the program. The second requirement for nutrient partitioning is a training program .

Train-ing provides the stimulus to build muscle as well as activating the body’s fat-burn-ing pathways. How does it work? What happens is the nutrition program and the training program merge to have certain ef-fects on your body’s hormones. And these hormones control muscle metabolism and fat metabolism. If you follow the program faithfully, you can actually modify the hormonal environment inside your body in such a way as to signal your muscles to grow and simultaneously signal fat loss. And by supplying nutrient energy in a specific pattern you can direct this energy to the lean compartment while at the same time burning body fat. Now, where do you start? You start with the Nutrition Manual and a solid train-ing program which includes lifting weights and aerobics. It ís virtually impossible to achieve the results of my program with-out the Nutrition Manual. Many advanced level bodybuilders in the world are on this program, and that’s no exaggeration. You have to start there. I’ve spent over thirty years researching this area and experi-menting with advanced level competitive bodybuilders.

My approach has been to assemble all of the scientific information on muscle and fat metabolism, and then try different strategies in real athletes to find out what really works. The Nutrition and Training Manuals give you the benefit of twenty years of research and work right at your fingertips. Are there any supplements that can help? Yes, definitely. One in particular that fits into this program is called Muscle Amino . Muscle Amino is a pharmaceuti-cal grade, ultra-pure, crystalline, free-form amino acid mixture of leucine, isoleu-cine, and valine. These are the so-called “branched chain” amino acids, because their side chain contains a branched carbon structure. The branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) are among the essential amino acids. Of the twenty amino acids common in human proteins, twelve of them can be made by the body and are called “nones-sential” amino acids.

The other eight can-not be made by the body and are called “es-sential” amino acids because it is essential they be obtained from the diet. Obviously, bodybuilders need to be attentive that their diet supplies all of the essential amino acids they need, because they are required for muscle maintenance and growth. There are two special things about the BCAAs: they are among the most abundant amino acids in muscle proteins (1) and they are heavily catabolized (broken down) during exercise, especially intense aerobic exercise (2). These two reasons plus the fact the body cannot make its own BCAAs increase the need for BCAAs by athletes, especially athletes concerned about achiev-ing maximum muscle mass. BCAAs seem to be preferentially taken up by muscle tis-sue and stored there, providing an anabolic effect as well as a nitrogen-sparing (anti-catabolic) effect (3).

Muscle Amino is selectively taken up by muscle, so it will add to muscle mass and not fat mass. It provides essential building blocks which are used to build muscle pro-tein, having a anabolic effect. And it blocks the breakdown of existing muscle tissue during intense exercise. This is a perfect example of positive nutrient partitioning. Muscle Amino provides nutrient energy that is specifically targeted to building up muscle stores while not contributing to fat stores . Exercise induces changes in the body’s pattern of energy metabolism, and these changes are driven by energy needs, sub-strate availability, and hormonal regulation (2). This change in the pattern of energy flow in the body is what brings about the change in body composition we seek. En-ergy to fuel to body is derived from oxida-tion (burning) of the carbon chains in car-bohydrates, fats, and proteins. The ratio of the fuel mixture that is oxidized depends on the nutrient ratio consumed as well as exer-cise type and intensity (2). In other words, whether you burn fat or carbs or protein for energy depends on what you eat and how you exercise.

During normal conditions, 80 - 100% of the body’s energy requirements are sup-plied by fats and carbohydrates (2). This means that amino acids can provide up to 20% of energy needs on a daily basis, and more during intense exercise. In one study, protein breakdown and use of amino acids for fuel were measured in men following a 10 mile run. It was found that 57 grams of protein were consumed as fuel during the run, accounting for 18% of the energy cost of the run (2). This means that as much as the entire USRDA for protein can be burned during a single intense aerobic ex-ercise bout. If you want to build a firm, hard body, you require ample protein. One reason is that if you’re very active with an intense weight training program and an equally intense endurance/aerobics program, you are actually burning protein for fuel. If you don’t supply enough protein in your diet to make up for this increased demand then the body will actually break down muscle tissue to supply the amino acids to use as fuel. This is your worst nightmare. Since the biggest demand for amino acid fuel is during aerobic exercise, it turns out that en-durance athletes actually have even higher protein requirements than bodybuilders (2). Very few people realize this, including very few endurance athletes.

This is why endurance athletes usually have a very thin (sometimes referred to as “stringy”) look - they burn more protein than they take in, so their muscles get catabolized as fuel. Muscle mass is determined by the bal-ance of protein synthesis and protein deg-radation (2). When synthesis exceeds deg-radation, protein mass accumulates and the body is said to be in positive protein bal-ance (or positive nitrogen balance). When degradation exceeds synthesis, the body is in a negative protein balance and muscle mass is lost . The proteins in your muscles are not exceptionally stable over time, but rather are in a constant state of “turnover.” This means that every day some of your body proteins are broken down and de-stroyed to be replaced with new proteins. Proteins are the mechanical workhorse of the cell, being responsible for doing the physical work of life. For example, during muscle contraction what happens is protein filaments called actin and myosin slide past each other in opposite directions, thus mak-ing the muscle shorter. Like any mechani-cal parts that move and rub against each other, they get worn out. After a while the old proteins are broken down and replaced with new ones. This coupled with the fact that the BCAAs are among the most abundant amino acids in muscle protein make it obvious why athletes have increased need for the branched chains.

They use more for energy, plus they need more for protein synthesis. Virtually every book and article about supplementation for athletes suggest the BCAAs as one of the core supplements. Of all the supplements out there, Muscle Amino is certainly one of the most high-tech, because it specifically targets the metabolic problem at hand. By supplying more BCAAs to the body less muscle tis-sue is catabolized during exercise, helping to maintain positive protein balance and net gain of muscle tissue. This is a prime example of a low calorie nutrient which specifically targets metabolic pathways to have a positive partitioning effect. Muscle Amino is selectively taken up by muscle where it acts to promote protein synthesis and prevent protein breakdown. Since it is taken up by muscle and not by fat, this is a way to supply nutrient energy which will be partitioned to the lean compartment. It should be emphasized that endurance ath-letes will benefit from this supplement at least as much as bodybuilders, if not even more . To see a real noticeable effect from Muscle Amino you need to take a fair amount of it. At least ten grams a day, and twenty would not be too much. I suggest two to three capsules with each of six meals per day. Smaller amounts will have a smaller effect, but this is a supplement where the effects accumulate over time. It is best to take Muscle Amino with meals to increase absorption.

References

1.Rombeau JL and Caldwell MD. Clini-cal Nutrition: Parenteral Nutrition, Second Edition. W.B. Saunders Company, Phila-delphia, 1993 .

2.Wolinsky I and Hickson JF. Nutrition in Exercise and Sport. CRC Press, Boca BCAA’s: Activating Muscular GrowthRaton, 1994.

3.Bucci L. Nutrients as Ergogenic Aids for Sports and Exercise. CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1993.

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Glutamine is also one of the amino acids found in our Ultimate Amino For-mula™, which I discussed in Part 1 of this series .Under certain conditions – including in-jury and intense exercise – the body’s tissues demand more glutamine than the normal amount supplied by diet (which is five to 10 grams a day) and more than can be synthesized normally by your body. (1)During intense exercise, for instance, your muscles release glutamine into the bloodstream. This can deplete muscle glu-tamine reserves by as much as 34 percent. Such a shortfall can be problematic, since a deficiency of glutamine promotes the breakdown and wasting of muscle tissue. But if ample glutamine is available, muscle loss can be prevented.(2)Glutamine is also the favored fuel of your immune cells. This means you need it when you’re ill, stressed, or recovering from surgery . During such times, the demand for glutamine exceeds its production and the body’s nitrogen stores become rapidly depleted — a sign that muscle protein is being broken down.

It is important to understand that gluta-mine is technically described as a “gluco-genic,” meaning that it assists your body in manufacturing glycogen, the chief muscle fuel. In a study involving subjects who cy-cled for 90 minutes, intravenous glutamine, administered during a two-hour period fol-lowing exercise, doubled the concentra-tion of glycogen in the muscles. It’s not clear exactly how glutamine works in this regard, though . Scientists speculate either that glutamine itself can be converted into muscle glycogen or that it may inhibit the breakdown of glycogen. (3)Also, supplemental glutamine has been shown to elevate growth hormone (GH) levels, theoretically influencing muscle growth. Physiologically, GH is the most important hormone in the body for exercis-ers and bodybuilders because it acts as a powerful stimulus for muscle growth and fat loss. Growth hormone is a substance that makes cells multiply faster. Among other functions, growth hormone helps mobilize fat from storage and makes more fat available for energy. It also promotes the transport of certain essential amino ac-ids inside muscle cells to stimulate muscle growth.

Many of the effects of exercise in increasing muscle mass and decreasing body fat are mediated by growth hormone. One of the most exciting findings about glutamine is that it may help you fight fat. Some research hints that supplementing with glutamine can curb the desire for sug-ary foods — an excess of which leads to fat gain. For these reasons, glutamine may turn out to be an important amino acids di-eters and exercisers who need to curb their desire for fat-forming sweets. Between 200 mg and one gram of glutamine can be taken with water 30 minutes before meals to lessen the desire for sugary foods. (4) How to Supplement With GlutamineClearly, glutamine has numerous ben-efits for any athlete who wants to maximize performance, muscle repair, and immunity. Generally, a protein-rich training diet such as that recommended by the Parrillo Nu-triiton Program should prevent your gluta-mine levels from dipping too low. Howev-er, supplemental glutamine provides extra insurance, plus a windfall of other benefits. What’s more, if you’re the victim of fre-quent colds or infections, consider supple-menting with this amino acid. Each capsule in our Ultimate Amino Formula™ contains 103 milligrams of glu-tamine. We recommend that you take two or more capsules of this supplement with each meal .

That should supply a gram or more daily – which is appropriate for athletes and active individuals. Both heat and acid destroy glutamine, so you should not take it with hot or acidic foods, such as vinegar.PhenylalaninePhenylalanine, an essential amino acid, is a building block for certain brain neu-rotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that relay information between the brain and the rest of the ner-vous system. The L-form of phenylalanine can act as a potent mental stimulant for improved concentration during workoutsThis amino acid has sometimes been used to treat depression because it provides an amphetamine-like boost in mood. Since many people overeat when depressed, phe-nylalanine’s anti-depression properties are beneficial for maintaining a positive men-tal attitude while dieting.

The amino acid is also believed to favorably affect memory and alertness. It also aids in the natural pro-duction of norepinephrine and dopamine, two neurotransmitters that promote and elevate mood.Phenylalanine is another amino acid that may also play a role in fat loss, particularly when combined with other nutrients. A recent study found that a patented com-bination of chromium picolinate, inulin (an nondigestible plant fiber reported to quell sugar cravings), capsicum (cayenne pepper), and L-phenylalanine boosted fat loss and helped maintain muscle over a four-week period when subjects followed a liberal 1500-calorie diet and engaged in a brisk walking program 45 minutes, five times a week. (5)Natural sources of phenylalanine include almonds, avocado, bananas, cheese, cot-tage cheese, non-fat dried milk, chocolate, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds. But phenylalanine is another amino acid found in the Parrillo Ultimate Amino Formula. It is also included in our Max En-durance Formula, as both L- phenylalanine and D- phenylalanine.

This formula con-tains other nutrients, known to enhance the body’s energy-producing systems. Specifi-cally, D-phenylalanine (the mirror image of L-phenylalanine) inhibits the breakdown of endorphins (a protein-like substance with analgesic properties) for a higher pain threshold . There are 200 milligrams of DL-phenylalanine in Max Endurance Formu-la™. This supplement should be taken 30 minutes prior to training .Supplemental Growth Hormone (GH) Releasers“GH releasers” are another popular ami-no acid formulation among bodybuilders, particularly because they are thought to burn fat and build muscle. There are many types of GH releasers, include the amino acids arginine, lysine, ornithine, tyrosine, and glycine. These nutrients appear to have a stimulatory effect on the production of growth hormone in the body.Stored in the pituitary gland, growth hormone is involved in the growth of body tissues and has several important effects on the metabolism of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. In protein metabolism, for ex-ample, it helps transport amino acids across cellular membranes, increasing the concen-tration inside cells so that protein synthesis can proceed. Additionally, growth hormone prevents the breakdown of protein and its utilization for energy. Most likely, this oc-curs because growth hormone can mobilize fat for energy, thus sparing protein.Growth hormone has a carbohydrate-sparing effect as well because it decreases cellular utilization of glucose. In the tissues, growth hormone also converts fatty acids to acetyl-Co-A, a molecule used in the pro-duction of energy.

Growth hormone is secreted throughout a person’s lifetime. The rate of secretion can be affected by a number of factors, includ-ing nutritional status, exercise (working out does increase the secretion rate somewhat), time of day, and stress.When given intravenously, certain amino acids seem to trigger the release of growth hormone in the body. The combination of two amino acids — arginine pyroglutamate and lysine monohydrochloride — has been shown in research to be the only oral pair of amino acids to effectively elevate the body’s levels of growth hormone. This combination is available in supplement form in our Enhanced GH Formula™. The suggested usage is two or three capsules upon rising, before training and going to bed. The arginine component of this supplement is worth further discussion, since it has its own unique set of benefits.ArginineArginine is believed to be an immune booster, since it stimulates the activity of the thymus gland, which shrinks as we age. Located in the chest just behind the breast-bone, this gland immune system cells that help fight off disease. Because of arginine’s immune-boosting power, doctors are be-ginning to use it supplementally in patients suffering from immune suppression. (6)Research indicates that arginine – when taken with carbs - may help initiate re-covery – the period of muscle repair and growth that takes place following a work-out.

In one study, exercisers took either a carbohydrate supplement or a carbo-hydrate-arginine supplement at one, two, and three hours following exercise. The supplements contained either one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight or one gram of carbohydrate, plus 0.08 grams of arginine per kilogram of body weight. During the four-hour recovery pe-riod, the increase in muscle glycogen was more rapid in those who had consumed the carbohydrate/arginine formula.The researchers chalked this response up to arginine’s ability to increase the avail-ability of glucose for muscle glycogen storage during recovery. (7)There’s more . Arginine apparently helps prevent the body from breaking down pro-tein in muscles and organs to repair itself when injured. In one study, surgical pa-tients who were given 15 grams of arginine daily following their operations had a 60 percent reduction in protein loss compared to non-supplemented patients. Of course, more studies are needed in this area, and you shouldn’t self-medicate with arginine, or any other amino acid, after you’ve been injured unless you have your doctor’s per-mission. (8) Though it has been around for a long time, arginine is re-emerging as an important health supplement . For more information on how you can get in on all the benefits afforded by amino acid supplementation, call our Or-derline at 1-800-344-3404 .

References

1 . Miller, A .L . 1999 . Therapeutic con-siderations of l-glutamine: a review of the literature. Alternative Medicine Review 4: 239-248; Antonio, J, et al.1999. Glu-tamine: a potentially useful supplement for athletes. Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology 24: 1-14.

2. Walsh, NP, et al. 1998. Glutamine, ex-ercise and immune function. Sports Medi-cine 26: 177-191 .

3. Varnier, M, et al. 1995. Stimulatory effect of glutamine on glycogen accumula-tion in human skeletal muscle. American Journal of Physiology 269: E309-E315.

4. Greenwood-Robinson, M. 1998. Natu-ral Weight Loss Miracles. New York: Peri-gee Books.

5. Hoeger, W.W., et al. 1999. Four-week supplementation with a natural dietary compound produces favorable changes in body composition. Advances in Therapy 15: 305-314 .

6. Efron, D., et al. 2000. Role of arginine in immunonutrition. Journal of Gastroen-terology 35 Supplement 12: 20-23 .

7. Yaspelkis, B.B., et al. 1999. The ef-fect of carbohydrate-arginine supplement on postexercise carbohydrate metabolism. International Journal of Sports Nutrition 9: 241-250 .

8. Fisher, H. 1987. On the mend with arginine. Prevention, October, pp. 98-106.

What Are Amino Acids?Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Without amino acids, your body cannot manufacture protein, and protein is needed to make muscle. Amino acid supplementation is used to provide an ad-ditional source of protein — beyond food — that can be used by the muscles for growth and repair.For good metabolic control, your body required 22 amino acids in a certain bal-ance to synthesize protein for muscular growth.

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All but eight of the amino acids can be manufactured by your body. Those eight are called “essential amino acids,” and they are supplied by animal pro-teins such as chicken and fish. Essential amino acids include lysine; methionine; phenylalanine; threonine; tryptophan; and the branched-chain aminos, isoleucine, leucine, and valine. Foods that contain the eight essential amino acids are called “complete proteins.” Of the 22 amino acids, seven are con-sidered “conditionally essential,” which means that under certain conditions such as extreme stress the body cannot manu-facture them. These amino acids include arginine, cysteine, glutamine, histidine, proline, taurine, and tyrosine . The re-maining seven amino acids are termed “nonessential amino acids,” which the body makes on its own. These amino acids include alanine, asparagine, aspartic acid, citruline, glutamic acid, glycine, and serine .Now let’s take a look at specific amino acid supplements used in sports nutrition .

All-Purpose Amino Acid SupplementationYour starting point with amino acid supplementation should start with a base formula that supplies a profile of all free form aminos that are available supple-mentally. The designation “free form” is important; it means that the amino acids are more easily assimilated by your body and thus bypass the long digestive process that food goes through. In other words, these protein nutrients get into your system more rapidly so that they can do their regenerative work of repair and building.The benefits of a base formula are as follows:• Assurance that your body is receiv-ing the protein it requires to support your training efforts.• Muscular protection in the wake of intensified training.• Support during stricter competition dieting in order to preserve lean muscle.The supplement we recommend is our Ultimate Amino Formula™, which should be taken with each meal.

It has been specially formulated to meet the needs of dedicated, hard-training athletes and exercisers. Most of the athletes we work with use it year round to help stay in peak condition.Using the Ultimate Amino Formula™ as a base, you should build from there, adding in other amino acids in order to customize your program and meet your other training goals. What follows is a look at other formulations that should be included in your own program.Branched-Chain Amino AcidsThe so-called “branched chain amino acids” (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) are unique in that they can also be used directly as fuel by the muscles. That’s critical, particularly if you work out aero-bically, in addition to your regular weight-training regimen . Unless you properly fuel yourself with quality calories, high-intensity aerobics can result in the loss of lean body mass. Endurance activities, for example, cause loss of lean tissue because as fat and carbohydrate fuels are exhaust-ed, the body draws on its own muscle tissue to use as fuel. Supplementing with BCAAs prevents this from happening.These aminos are utilized by your body in the following way: After a high-pro-tein meal, BCAAs are rapidly absorbed, processed by the liver, and released into the bloodstream. From there, they are taken up by the muscles to be metabolized — unlike other amino acids, which are metabolized in the liver. BCAAs work together with insulin to transport other amino acids into the muscles to be used in growth and re-pair. BCAAs, therefore, should always be taken with meals and never on an empty stomach . Leucine, in particular, affords numer-ous benefits. (1) This amino acid has a higher “oxidation rate” than that of isoleucine or valine.

This point deserves some elaboration. During high-intensity aerobic exercise lasting 60 to 90 minutes or longer, leucine is rapidly used up and depleted. The by-products of its break-down are used to manufacture another amino acid called alanine, which the liver converts to glucose. Eventually, that glu-cose finds its way to the working muscles where it is used for energy. The harder you work out, the more leucine your body will use up. Following aerobic exercise, plasma leucine levels drop 11 to 33 percent; following strength training exercise, 30 percent. In skeletal muscle, leucine levels can decrease by as much as 20 percent with very intense aerobic exercise. Leucine also induces the loss of body fat. Supplementation with BCAAs in which 76 percent of the formulation is leucine has been shown in research to trigger significant and preferential losses of visceral body fat. Located in the deeper layers of the body under the subcutaneous fat, visceral fat is often the hardest fat to lose and doesn’t respond well to dieting, particularly in women.

This finding is significant because it indicates that leucine may be an effective natural supplement for fat loss as long as you select the correct formulation. The Parrillo Muscle Amino Formula™ is contains 400 milligrams of l-leucine, 160 milligrams of l-isoleucine, and 160 milligrams of l-valine – the opti-mum balance for fat-loss needs.What’s more, leucine works together with the other branched chain amino acids to rebuild vital muscle tissue. The more muscle you have, the more efficiently your body burns fat. Further, research in-dicates that consuming BCAAs before or during endurance training may decrease, even prevent, the rate of protein degrada-tion in the muscle; improve both mental and physical performance; and may spare muscle glycogen stores so that you can train longer and harder, aerobically.How to Supplement with Leucine and BCAAsAs noted above, leucine itself can be de-pleted by intense aerobic exercise. Thus, it is important to keep your system well-stocked with this amino acid, particularly during periods of hard training. In one study, during five weeks of speed and strength training, leucine supplementa-tion of 50 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight a day, along with a high daily protein intake, prevented a decrease in leucine in power-trained athletes. On the Parrillo Nutrition Program, we advise taking two more more capsules of our Muscle Amino Formula with each meal. If you eat five meals a day and take two capsules, you would consume 4000 milligrams, or 4 grams, of leucine daily. Let’s suppose you weigh 200 pounds, or 91 kilograms, and follow the research-prescribed dosage indicated above.

Four grams is roughly what you would need daily – exactly the amount you would get by taking our suggested usage. In all of our supplements, our suggested usages are based on scientific research.Research also specifies that leucine supplementation should be in conjunction with a high-protein eating plan. The leu-cine content of protein foods is thought to vary between five and ten percent.Each day, you should eat 1 .25 to 1 .5 grams of protein per pound of body weight. At least one gram of protein per pound of your body weight should come from complete protein sources such as lean white meat poultry, fish, egg whites, or protein powder. The remaining should come from starchy and fibrous carbohy-drates, which also contain protein.When you supplement with leucine, do so with a carbohydrate. We suggest taking our BCAA supplement with one of our carbohydrate drinks, such as ProCarb™ or 50/50 Plus™.Next month, I will continue this two-part series with a detailed look into a number of amino acids that offer very unique health and muscle-building prop-erties .

References

1 . Mero, A . 1999 . Leucine supplemen-tation and intensive training. Sports Med-icine 27: 347-358 .

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The net result is fat is burnt off while new muscle tissue is built.The energetic cost of building a pound of muscle tissue is not pre-cisely known, but has been estimated to be about 2,800 calories. This agrees with our experience in prepar-ing bodybuilders for com-petition. We at Parrillo Performance have discov-ered that in order to gain a pound of muscle in a week without adding to fats stores, the process should be slow and steady. Most bodybuilders, regardless of age or gender, need to consume an ad-ditional 300 to 500 extra calories per day - these are calories above and beyond your current energy expenditure level. Split the difference and 400 additional calories daily, multiplied for each of the seven days in a week, equates to a weekly caloric increase of 2,800 calories. Muscle is mostly water (which contains no calories) and protein. There are roughly 100 grams of protein in a pound of muscle tissue. At four calories per gram, that accounts for 400 calories. To build a pound of muscle tissue we suggest you intake 300-500 or an average of 400 additional calories a day.

It takes a lot of energy to build a house and it takes a lot of energy to assemble the protein and cells that make up a pound of muscle tissue. A pound of stored body fat yields 3,500 calories upon oxidation. This is enough energy to supply the metabolic cost of building a pound of muscle and to power daily activities. When a person adds muscle and looses fat at equal rates, the energy intake will roughly match the energy expen-diture. The net result is confusing; despite no change in your body weight, you have undergone an astounding transformation. So how do we do it? The first question out of everyone’s mouth when they ask me how to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time is - how many calories should I consume? The answer is whatever number of calories you would normally consume to maintain your current constant body weight. Although this is not a precise methodology, it is a good starting place . Supplying enough calories to maintain your current body weight is re-ferred to meeting your maintenance energy requirement. You ingest enough calories to maintain a constant body weight, yet not too many, as the excess will be directed into weight gain.Although gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time is certainly possible (we see it happen all the time) it is not easy.

There’s not much room for error. You have to do everything right and I strongly suggest you read The Parrillo Performance Nutrition Manual if you haven’t already . There is simply too much information for me to summarize it all in a short ar-ticle like this. More important than how many calories you eat is, what kind of food do you eat? The Nutrition Manual has a detailed list of the foods you should be eating to build muscle and lose fat. The Manual also comes with a food composi-tion guide and a food scale so you can precisely control your nutrient intake. To build muscle while stripping off fat you need to keep your protein intake high, carbohydrate intake moderate and fat intake low. You should increase protein intake and decrease carbohydrate intake, compared to the way you normally eat. A good rule of thumb would be to in-gest one to two grams of protein per pound of bodyweight each day. Fat intake should be limited to 5-10% of calories. Unrefined, complex carbohydrates should be used to meet the remainder of your caloric require-ment. I recommend that you keep your protein intake level and adjust your caloric intake by modulating the carbohydrates in your diet. Try and keep your body weight constant throughout the process .

The Parrillo Performance Body Stat Kit™ is an invaluable tool here. Following scale weight doesn’t tell you how much muscle you’ve gained or how much fat you’ve lost. Gaining ten pounds of muscle and losing ten pounds of fat will change your appearance and body composition dramatically, but your body weight will remain unchanged. The Body Stat Kit™ al-lows you to monitor body composition and this allows you to follow muscle gain and fat loss. The instruction manual that comes with it tells you exactly what to do to keep progress moving in the right direction. By increasing the protein-carbohydrate ratio in your diet, you’re supplying calories that are more prone to be stored as muscle than as fat. Also, by decreasing carbohydrate intake you induce hormonal and metabolic changes that encourages the use of stored body fat as fuel. Rely on lean protein sources such as skin-less chicken or turkey breast, white fish and egg whites. Most people find it impossible to consume two grams of protein per pound of body weight each day from conventional foods. It’s simply too much food. This is where a high quality protein supplement is very useful. Our Optimized Whey Protein™ is an excellent choice here. It contains high levels of glutamine and the branched chain amino acids that help to maximize protein retention .In training you really have to go all out.

You have to train hard and heavy to stimulate muscle growth. This means basic, heavy exercises giving 110%. When doing low rep work, concentrate on explosive contractions that generate a lot of power. In the higher rep ranges concentrate more on moving the weight slowly, especially dur-ing the concentric (lowering) phase of the contraction. “Time under tension” refers to the amount of time a muscle is under tension during a set. In a low rep set, the muscle gets worked very hard, but doesn’t spend much time under tension. Low rep sets are more intense and this is a very potent stimulus for growth. Time under tension is another important growth stimulator and you’ll need to do more reps at a slower pace, which will require the use of lighter weight. High rep sets should be carried to failure. I suspect you’ll find they’re more painful than the low rep sets. The combination of both training styles is very effective at stimulating muscle growth.Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time can bring about rapid and dra-matic changes in your appearance and body composition. It’s hard work. You have to be very strict on your diet and train harder than you normally do .

As a rough guideline I would recommend weight training an hour a day, and possibly more, five or six days a week. Instead of worrying about over-train-ing, worry about under-training. If anything you want to err on the side of over-training here. Occasional, brief periods of over-train-ing can actually help break plateaus and stimulate new growth. Most people will need to do an hour of aerobics each day. If you have some stubborn fat that’s slow to come off, don’t be afraid to do more. Push yourself on your aerobics. You need to work hard enough to break a sweat and breathe hard. Any type of aerobic activity is acceptable however, just so you do it hard.Generally I wouldn’t recommend a program like this for more than eight or ten weeks at a time. It’s very intense and you’ll probably need a break after that long. With all training programs, you’ll eventually reach a plateau. After ten weeks on this program I’d suggest taking a break. Shift into a mode designed to gain muscle, as I discussed last month . Stay strict on your diet but eat a few more calories each day, say 300 more, than you have been. Reduce the aerobics down to 30 minutes a day. This will help you gain a pound or two of muscle. Train hard and good luck!

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At the other end of the spec-trum, is pretty easy to gain weight if youjust eat like a pig. There are very fewpeople who can’t gain a lot of weight ifthey just eat enough calories. This is whatthe hoard of “weight gainer” powders outthere are for. If you add 1,000 calories aday to your diet, you will gain weight. Theproblem, of coarse, is that if you just in-discriminately add calories to your dietmost of them (probably about 75% bymost estimates) will end up as fat.So we have to lose calories to lose fat,but if we cut calories half the weight whichis lost will be muscle. And we have toadd calories to gain weight, but about 75%of excess calories usually end up as fat.Genetically gifted bodybuilders may nothave such a problem. I’ve met severalpeople who were quite strong and wholooked like bodybuilders before they everwent into a gym. But these people are rare.Most of us are all too familiar with thescenarios described above. And this iswhy attaining that bodybuilding look is hardfor most people.What’s the answer? How can the av-erage person attain a really spectacularphysique? Hard work, consistency, anddedication.

These are the core principlesof the Parrillo philosophy.  If you can giveme those, I can give you a great physique.Without those, all the information andtraining and supplements in the world justdon’t matter. It’s really up to you. So howdo you do it?The key concept is an idea called nu-trient partitioning, which means directingingested dietary energy toward the leancompartment and not to fat stores. Theidea is to have your food energy go tobuild muscle while drawing on your fatstores to fuel activity. Achieving this re-quires two things. First is a very specificeating program which supplies energy isa way which supplies nutrients to buildmuscle but not providing calories whichare stored as fat. There are certain foodsyou should eat and specific foods youshould avoid. Each meal must be struc-tured according to fairly narrow param-eters. The nuts and bolts of how to dothis is described in the Parrillo Perfor-mance Nutrition Manual, which is thecornerstone of the program. The sec-ond requirement for nutrient partition-ing is a training program. Training pro-vides the stimulus to build muscle as wellas activating the body’s fat-burning path-ways. How does it work? What happensis the nutrition program and the trainingprogram come together to have certaineffects on the body’s hormones.

Andthese hormones control muscle metabo-lism and fat metabolism. If you followthe program faithfully you can actuallymodify the hormonal environment insideyour body in such a way as to signalyour muscles to grow and simulta-neously signal fat loss. And by supply-ing nutrient energy is a specific patternyou can direct this energy to the leancompartment while at the same timeburning body fat. If you read my articlesover the last two or three years you willhave a virtual textbook on the science ofhow this works, down to the cellular andeven molecular level.So let’s say you want to do it. Wheredo you start? You start with the NutritionManual and a solid training program whichincludes lifting weights and aerobics. It’svirtually impossible to achieve the resultsof my program without the NutritionManual. Virtually every advanced levelbodybuilder in the world is on this pro-gram, and that’s no exaggeration. Youhave to start there. I’ve spent over twentyyears researching this area and experi-menting with advanced level competitivebodybuilders. My approach has been toassemble all of the scientific informationon muscle and fat metabolism, and then try different strategies in real athletes tofind out what really works. The Nutritionand Training Manuals give you the ben-efit of twenty years of research and workright at your fingertips.Are there any supplements that canhelp? Yes, definitely. One in particular thatfits into this program is called MuscleAmino™.

Muscle Amino™ is a pharma-ceutical grade, ultra-pure, crystalline, free-form amino acid mixture of leucine, iso-leucine, and valine. These are the so-called“branched chain” amino acids, becausetheir side chain contains a branched car-bon structure. The branched chain aminoacids (BCAAs) are among the essentialamino acids. Of the twenty amino acidscommon in human proteins, twelve ofthem can be made by the body and arecalled “nonessential” amino acids. Theother eight cannot be made by the bodyand are called “essential” amino acids be-cause it is essential they be obtained fromthe diet. Obviously, bodybuilders need tobe attentive that their diet supplies all ofthe essential amino acidsthey need, because they arerequired for muscle main-tenance and growth.There are two specialthings about the BCAAs:they are among the mostabundant amino acids inmuscle proteins (1) and they areheavily catabolized (broken down)during exercise, especially intenseaerobic exercise (2). These two rea-sons plus the fact the body cannot makeits own BCAAs increase the need forBCAAs by athletes, especially athletesconcerned about achieving maximummuscle mass. BCAAs seem to be prefer-entially taken up by muscle tissue andstored there, providing an anabolic effectas well as a nitrogen-sparing (anti-cata-bolic) effect (3).Muscle Amino™ is really the ex-act thing we’re looking for in asupplement. It’s selectively taken upby muscle, so it will add to musclemass and not fat mass.

It providesessential building blocks which areused to build muscle protein, having aanabolic effect. And it blocks break-downof existing muscle tissue during intenseexercise. This is a perfect example ofpositive nutrient partitioning. MuscleAmino provides nutrient energy which isspecifically targeted to building up musclestores while not contributing to fat stores.You can see why I call it “Muscle Amino.”Exercise induces changes in the body’spattern of energy metabolism, and thesechanges are driven by energy needs, sub-strate availability, and hormonal regulation(2). This change in the pattern of energyflow in the body is what brings about thechange in body composition we seek. En-ergy to fuel to body is derived from oxi-dation (burning) of the carbon chains incarbohydrates, fats, and proteins. The ra-tio of the fuel mixture which is oxidizeddepends on the nutrient ratio consumedas well as exercise type and intensity (2).In other words, whether you burn fat orcarbs or protein for energy depends onwhat you eat and how you exercise.During normal conditions, 80 – 100%of the body’s energy requirements aresupplied by fats and carbohydrates (2).

This means that amino acids can provideup to 20% of energy needs on a daily ba-sis, and more during intense exercise. Inone study protein breakdown and use ofamino acids for fuel were measured inmen following a 10 mile run. It was foundthat 57 grams of protein were consumedas fuel during the run, accounting for 18%of the energy cost of the run (2). Thismeans that as much as the entire USRDAfor protein can be burned during a singleintense aerobic exercise bout. Thereseems to be little doubt that intensely train-ing athletes need more protein than sed-entary people, since the energy cost ofexercise results in a significant amount ofamino acid oxidation.Bodybuilders virtually unanimouslyagree that they need extra protein. Mostof them have the misconception that theyneed extra protein to supply the buildingblocks for muscle growth. The truth isthat two or three extra bites of chickenevery day will supply enough protein foryour muscles to grow as fast as they can.The real reason bodybuilders and endur-ance athletes need more protein is that theyburn more protein for fuel during exer-cise. If you don’t supply enough proteinin the diet to make up for this increaseddemand then the body will actually breakdown muscle tissue to supply the aminoacids to use as fuel. This is your worstnightmare. Since the biggest demand foramino acid fuel is during aerobic exercise,it turns out that endurance athletes actu-ally have even higher protein requirementsthan bodybuilders (2). Very few peoplerealize this, including very few enduranceathletes.

This is why endurance athletesusually have a very thin (sometimes re-ferred to as “stringy”) look – they burnmore protein than they take in, so theirmuscles get catabolized as fuel. If endur-ance athletes would simply increase theirprotein intake they would become moremuscular and stronger, and probably be-come better, faster athletes as well. Usu-ally in a contest between two equally  skilled athletes, the stronger one wins.Muscle mass is determined by the bal-ance of protein synthesis and protein deg-radation (2). When synthesis exceeds deg-radation, protein mass accumulates andthe body is said to be in positive proteinbalance (or positive nitrogen balance).When degradation exceeds synthesis, thebody is in a negative protein balance andmuscle mass is lost. The proteins in yourmuscles are not exceptionally stable overtime, but rather are in a constant state of“turnover.” This means that every daysome of your body proteins are brokendown and destroyed to be replaced withnew proteins. Proteins are the mechani-cal workhorse of the cell, being respon-sible for doing the physical work of life.For example, during muscle contractionwhat happens is protein filaments calledactin and myosin slide past each other inopposite directions, thus making themuscle shorter. Like any mechanical partsthat move and rub against each other, theyget worn out.

After a while the old pro-teins are broken down and replaced withnew ones.When you eat a protein food, it getsdigested in the stomach and intestine intoindividual amino acids and short chainsof amino acids that are small enough tobe absorbed into the bloodstream. Even-tually all of the protein is broken downinto individual “free” amino acids. Thesecan experience two main metabolic fates.They can be used to build new proteinsor they can be burned as fuel to produceenergy.  Not all of the amino acids aretreated equally however. The branchedchains are used as fuel more than the oth-ers (2). Muscle contains special enzymescalled branched chain aminotransferaseand branched chain keto acid dehydroge-nase which permit the breakdown of theBCAAs for energy (2). This allows muscleto use BCAAs as fuel whereas the otheramino acids are oxidized in the liver. Sowhile exercise increases protein require-ments in general, it especially increasesBCAA requirements.This coupled with the fact that theBCAAs are among the most abundantamino acids in muscle protein make itobvious why athletes have increased needfor the branched chains. They use morefor energy, plus they need more for pro-tein synthesis. Virtually every book andarticle about supplementation for athletessuggest the BCAAs as one of the coresupplements.

Of all the supplements outthere, Muscle Amino is certainly one ofthe most high-tech, because it specificallytargets the metabolic problem at hand. Bysupplying more BCAAs to the body lessmuscle tissue is catabolized during exer-cise, helping to maintain positive proteinbalance and net gain of muscle tissue. Thisis a prime example of a low calorie nutri-ent which specifically targets metabolicpathways to have a positive partitioningeffect. Muscle Amino™ is selectivelytaken up by muscle where it acts to pro-mote protein synthesis and prevent pro-tein breakdown. Since it is taken up bymuscle and not by fat, this is a way tosupply nutrient energy which will be par-titioned to the lean compartment. It shouldbe emphasized that endurance athletes willbenefit from this supplement at least asmuch as bodybuilders, if not even more.To see a real noticeable effect fromMuscle Amino™ you need to take a fairamount of it. At least ten grams a day,and twenty would not be too much.  IMuscle Up – The Keys to Building Mass and Staying Lean, Part Isuggest three capsules with each of sixmeals per day. Smaller amounts will havea smaller effect, but this is a supplementwhere the effects accumulate over time.It is best to take Muscle Amino™ withmeals to increase absorption. There’s alot more to be said about amino acid me-tabolism during exercise, and how to useexercise and nutrition to shift your me-tabolism into a muscle-building, fat-burn-ing mode. I’ll pick up here next monthand get into some of the molecular detailsof what’s happening with amino acidmetabolism during exercise and how touse this information to maximize musclemass.

References

1. Rombeau JL and Caldwell MD.Clinical Nutrition: Parenteral Nutrition,Second Edition. W.B. Saunders Company,Philadelphia, 1993.

2. Wolinsky I and Hickson JF. Nutri-tion in Exercise and Sport. CRC Press,Boca Raton, 1994.

3. Bucci L. Nutrients as Ergogenic Aidsfor Sports and Exercise. CRC Press, BocaRaton, 1993.

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Resistancetraining can certainly slow down, andeven reverse, many of the signs of physi-cal decline usually attributed to aging.Strength training is also becom-ing more popular among young people,including women.  People have found thatthey cannot achieve the lean, muscular,shapely body they desire by aerobic exer-cise alone.  All of the Ms. Fitness com-petitors I work with include weight train-ing as part of their program.  If your goalis to be lean and firm with good muscletone, but not to get big muscles, remem-ber that muscles are the place where bodyfat is burned.  So if you want to lose yourfat, you’ve got to work your muscles.Resistance exercise increases lean bodymass and thus metabolic rate, causing yourbody to burn more fat 24 hours a day.  Itincreases growth hormone, improves glu-cose tolerance, and lowers cholesterol lev-els.  Simply put, it makes you look better,feel better, have more energy, and livelonger.  The fountain of youth has beendiscovered, and it’s in the gym.This series of articles will explorethe structure, function, physiology, bio-chemistry, and metabolism of muscle.  Iwill explain basic scientific concepts ofmuscle as well as training strategies forincreasing muscle size and performance.Bodybuilders, of course, are pri-marily concerned with increasingmuscular size.  Power lifters careabout muscular strength.  Cy-clists and runners train to im-prove muscular endurance.Other athletes, such as bas-ketball and football play-ers, are concerned mainlywith muscular powerand speed.  

Each ofthese concerns de-scribe a different pa-rameter relating tomuscular perfor-mance.  The firstpractical trainingstrategy we’ll men-tion is a principleof muscle physi-ology known astraining speci-ficity (1,2,3).It simplymeans that amuscle willspecificallyadapt to thetype oftrainingstimulus thatis applied toit.  The sec-ond practicalprinciple tolearn is theconcept ofintensity.  Inorder tocause amuscle to change, or adapt, it must bechallenged by an exercise stimulus whichexceeds some threshold of intensity.The reason exercise causesmuscles to get bigger and stronger is thatthe exercise load places a physical andmetabolic demand on the muscle.  In or-der to elicit an adaptive response (i.e., toget the muscle to grow) the exercisestimulus must be intense enough to rep-resent a challenge to the muscle.  Duringthe next few days after the training ses-sion, if adequate nutrients are supplied,the muscle responds by getting strongerso that next time it will be better able tomeet that exercise challenge.  The most effective exercise stimuli tax the muscleby pushing it to the limit of its perfor-mance abilities.  

After a very intense train-ing session it can take as long as two weeksfor the muscle to completely recover andadapt.  Of course, optimum nutrition andsupplementation can speed up the processover what can be achieved with merelyadequate nutrition, and that’s where ourNutrition Program comes in.The training specificity principlestates that a muscle will adapt structur-ally and functionally in a manner appro-priate to the type of stimulus applied, pro-vided that the stimulus is intense enoughto elicit an adaptive response at all (inten-sity threshold).  To illustrate this con-cept, compare the legs of a bodybuilderwith the legs of a marathon runner.  Bothof them train their legs hard, pushingthemselves to the limit.  The bodybuildertrains his legs with squats, and over timedevelops huge muscles.  The marathonertrains his legs by running long distances,and over time improves his speed andendurance, but he never develops hugeleg muscles.  Can the runner squat asmuch weight as the bodybuilder?  Ofcourse not.  He hasn’t trained his legsto lift heavy weights.  Can the body-builder run a marathon?  Of course not.

He hasn’t trained his legs to do that.  Toillustrate the concept of the intensitythreshold, consider someone who wantsto build massive biceps by curling onepound dumbbells.  Consider the sprinterwho trains by walking the 100 yard dash.I think you can see intuitively that theseathletes will not significantly improve inperformance because the training stimu-lus is not intense enough to challenge themuscles to grow.So the first thing to do when de-signing an exercise program is to decidewhat your goals are.  Do you want tomaximize muscle size, strength, power,speed, or endurance?  These goals are notthe same, and different training programsare appropriate for each.  We’ll describehow to train effectively for each of theseparameters as we go along.  For now, let’sstart off with some definitions.  Increasesin muscle size come about by increasesin muscle cross sectional diameter (1,2,3).We’ll get into the cellular and molecularbasis of this later.  Muscle strength is de-fined as the maximum load (weight) thata muscle can lift one time (1,2,3).  Thus,the one rep maximum (1RM) is a mea-sure of muscle strength.  Someone whocan curl a maximum of 100 pounds onetime is twice as strong as someone whocan curl a maximum of 50 pounds onetime.  Speed describes how fast a musclecan contract, and how fast it can move aload.  Endurance describes how long amuscle can perform a given task beforefailing.  Someone who can curl 50 pounds20 times before failing has biceps withtwice the endurance of someone who cancurl 50 pounds 10 times before failing.

In general, you want to train with heavyweights and low repetitions (3-6) to in-crease in strength, and with lighter weightand more reps (say 15-30) to increase inendurance.  This is a result of the trainingspecificity principle.  In both cases, youwant to train to muscular failure on thatset.  Training for strength in the 5 reprange means picking a weight which isso heavy that you can perform 5 repeti-tions, but no more.  Performing a set of 5reps with a weight which you could havelifted 20 times will do you no good.  Theintensity is too low.  In weight training,intensity describes a level of effort wherethe set is carried to the point of momen-tary muscular failure – keep doing repsuntil you couldn’t get another even ifsomebody was holding a gun to yourhead.  If you’re just trying to tone andfirm your muscles, you don’t have to takeit that far.  But if you’re going for sizeand strength, that’s what it takes.Muscle power is a little morecomplicated to define.  From physics wehave three mathematical equations forpower.  Strictly speaking, power is de-fined as work performed per unit time, orpower = (work/time).  Since work isequal to (force X distance), power =(force X distance)/time.  And finally, sincespeed is equal to (distance/time), power= (force X speed).  Muscle power thenis the product of the force of contrac-tion and the speed of contraction (1,2,3).A person who can squat 300 pounds isstronger than a person who can squatonly 200 pounds.  However, if the per-son squatting 200 pounds can do it twiceas fast, he will generate more power thanthe guy squatting 300 pounds.  

We alsoknow from physics that kinetic energyequals (1/2) X (mass) X (velocitysquared), or KE = (m X v2)/2.  Let’ssay you’re a football player and youwant to tackle someone (hopefully an-other football player).  What matters inknocking that person over is how muchkinetic energy you can transfer to hisbody.  This depends on the mass of yourbody and how fast you’re moving whenyou hit him.  Since kinetic energy is pro-portional to velocity squared, a small in-crease in velocity can result in a large in-crease in energy.  The same is true of hit-ting a baseball, a tennis ball, in boxing,and many other sports.  This is why poweris the most important parameter of mus-cular performance in sports like football,baseball, basketball, tennis, and sprinting:because performance depends on bothforce and speed.  It’s not just how hardyou hit the baseball (force) but also howfast you hit the baseball (speed) that willdetermine how much kinetic energy istransferred from the bat to the ball, andthus how far the ball will go.Training for size, strength, power,speed, and endurance are all different.  Bodybuilders, power lifters and Olympicstyle weight lifters all train with weights.They perform largely the same exercisesand train at maximum intensity.  

However,while the bodybuilders have biggermuscles, the power lifters can lift moreweight.  This paradox is explained by thefact that when you lift weights you’re notonly training your muscles, you’re alsotraining your nervous system.  In gen-eral, the bigger a muscle’s size (the largerits cross sectional diameter), the strongerit is.  However, power lifters have trainedtheir nervous systems to recruit moremuscle fibers to fire at the same time.We’ll cover how to train for size versushow to train for strength in a future ar-ticle.  Training for power includes somestrength training, but also includes somework with lighter weights that are accel-erated very rapidly to train the speed com-ponent.  The branch of exercise physiol-ogy concerned specifically with trainingfor muscle power is called plyometrics(3,4), and we’ll get into that toward theend of the series.  Training for size,strength, and power are similar, and allresult in bigger, stronger muscles.Training for endurance is verydifferent, results in a totally different adap-tive response, and does not make musclesget bigger or stronger (1-4).  This is acomplex issue and is still an area of activeinvestigation.  We’ll get into the specificslater.  For now, let’s just say you can ei-ther have legs like Tom Platz, or you canrun a marathon, but probably not both.  Ihave no doubt that Tom Platz could run amarathon, if he trained for it.  

But by thetime he trained long enough to be able torun a marathon, his legs would be half asbig as they are now.  A note to bodybuild-ers: don’t stop doing your aerobics!  Youstill need aerobics to burn fat and pro-mote cardiovascular health.  But remem-ber, you’re doing aerobics to burn fat, notto become an endurance athlete.  Forbodybuilders, 30-45  minutes of aerobicsa day should be enough.  If it’s not, you’renot following the diet.  Our bodybuildersdo go up to one to two hours of aerobicsa day, but that’s only for a few weeksbefore a contest.  It’s far better just notParrillo Performace Guide to Muscle, Part Ito get fat in the first place, then you won’thave to do too much aerobics and run therisk of losing muscle.Next month we’ll pick up withthe microscopic anatomy of muscle, andexplain the cellular and molecular basis ofmuscle contraction.  After we understandthe structure of muscles and how theywork, we will discuss how they adapt tovarious training stimuli.  This leads rightinto how to design training protocols toachieve your particular goals.  Until then,keep pumping!

References

1. Wilmore JH and Costill DL. Physiol-ogy of Sport and Exercise. Human Kinet-ics, Champaign, IL, 1994.

2. McArdle WD, Katch FI, and Katch VL.Exercise Physiology – Energy, Nutrition,and Human Performance. Lea & Febiger,Malvern, PA, 1991.

3. Baechle TR. Essentials of StrengthTraining and Conditioning. Human Kinet-ics, Champaign, IL, 1994.

4. Komi PV. Strength and Power in Sport.Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford,1992.