"Inner Chest", "Upper Abs", "Biceps Peak" & Co!? Study Finds Proximal and Distal Part of the Triceps Grow Independently and According to Training Stimulus.

Image 1: Training for the peak, could it be possible, after all? (image from provitamin.in)

You probably have read my repeated notes on the issue of training individual muscles fibers in complete isolation in the 7-part SuppVersity EMG-Series. I guess in view of the results of a very recent study from the Faculty of Sports Sciences at the Waseda University in Japan (Wakahara. 2011), it might be that I will have to revise my statement. It could in fact be that you can train a specific part of a muscle fiber - if not individually, then at least predominantly.

Despite the fact that our movements are always orchestrated by the interplay of a whole host of muscle-groups and -fibers, Wakahara et al.'s results suggest that it may even be possible to target specific parts of individual fibers by selecting the correct exercises. In other words, instead of doing incline bench presses for the upper chest, you could, as many trainers recommend it for years do them with a narrower grip to target the "inner chest", i.e. the inner part of the same muscle fiber that constitutes the "outer chest" (note that this is fundamentally different from training "upper pecs" and "lower pecs", which are in fact separate muscle strands).

The muscle group for which Taku Wakahara and his colleagues were able to show this remarkable effect, was yet not the chest, but the triceps brachii. For their study, the scientists recruited 2x12 healthy young men (25.2 +/- 3.0 years, 172.8 +/- 5.0 cm, 65.3 +/- 7.8 kg; there were 7 dropouts of 19 men who started the 12-week resistance training), who had not participated in a regular resistance training program for the upper extremities for at least 6 months, for a short (single session) and long term (12 weeks) analysis of the effects of DB lying triceps extension on muscular activation and hypertrophy in the triceps brachii.

In the first experiment the scientists had one group of subjects perform 5 sets of 8 repetitions with a 2s concentric and a 2s eccentric phase at 80% of their previously established 1RM-max.

Before and immediately after the resistance exercise, T2-weighted MR images of the upper arm were obtained with an MR scanner [...] The time from completion of the exercise to initiation of the scanning was 72 +/- 21 s. In each MR image, the outline of the triceps brachii muscle was traced to determine the CSA using a software package (Image J, National Institute of Health, USA).

In view of the short timespan between the last set of the exercise and the MR scans, we may safely assume, that the CSA (cross-sectional area) increases the scientists measured in this first session were mainly a result of the increased blood-flow to the triceps aka "the pump". For me, this is particularly interesting, because if those areas of the muscles with the "greatest pump", i.e. the greatest increase in CSA immediately after training, would be identical with those areas of the muscle which exhibit the greatest hypertrophy in the course of the 12-week follow-up experiment, this would be evidence for the significance of increased blood flow and "the pump" in view of consecutive muscle growth (it would not, however tell us whether the relation between "the pump" and muscular hypertrophy is corollary or causative!).

Figure 1: Increases in cross-sectional area of the triceps brachii immediately after a single session of DB lying triceps extensions and a 12-week resistance training protocoll (data calculated based on Wakahara. 2011)

As the data I plotted in figure 1 goes to show, there is a correlation (R²=0.67) between the CSA increases after the single session and the hypertrophy response to the 3x a week (12 weeks) training regimen. The correlation is too weak to confirm Arnold Schwarzenegger's advice that "going for the pump" would be the (implying "one and only) way to grow. This, however, does not diminish the importance of Wakahara et al.'s finding that

the region-specific muscle hypertrophy after chronic resistance training is attributable to the regional difference in muscle activation during the exercise

In other words, the bros at the gym were probably right, there are inner chest, outer chest, biceps peak, upper quads etc. and you can probably train them individually.

In view of the costs of the necessary equipment, it is however not very likely that you will see a "SuppVersity Magneto-Resonance Series" with the "very best exercises for individual parts of each and every muscle fiber as determined by increases in CSA after a single training session" somewhere in the near future. But guess what, in the end you would not even need that if you rely on your own good judgement: If you exercise with heavy weights and proper form, the pump, the burn and the soreness after the workout will tell you if it was the inner chest, or the outer chest that took over the lion's share of your last workout.

3.2kg of Lean Mass Over Night W/ 40g of Slow Digesting Protein 30min Before Bed!? Over One Year, a Positive Nitrogen Balance and +20% FSR Could Make It Happen!

Image 1: Babies instinctively know how to grow - mother's milk (60% whey, 40% casein, at later stages) + sleep ;-)

Tell me, does the sentence "Where Bro- and Pro-Science Unite in the Spirit of True Wisdom" ring a bell? Anyone? Well, that's what I thought. It's the mantra of the SuppVersity... unfortunately, more often than not, one "science" does not really care about the other, so that studies as the one by Peter T. Res and his colleagues from the University of Maastricht are unfortunately rather the exception than the rule (Res. 2012).

Pre-bed protein intake could be a crucial determinant of 24h protein synthesis

I guess, I won't have to tell you that bro-science has it that the most important thing to do before you go to bed (and for some hardcore "bros" even in the middle of the night) is not to brush your teeth, let alone to shower or at least wash your face, hands, feet and certain other body parts... no! The most important thing to do before you go to bed is to have a huge serving of protein - preferably a "night-time protein", like a slow-digesting casein-based protein shake with some additional fats to further slow the absorption (whether the fat will actually prolong the digestive process beyond what you will see if you ingest intact micelles, which will then be hydrolized in the gut and start clumping is anyone's guess, though). In fact, this is one of those truisms that has been repeated so often on the boards (and the ads) that you may be surprised to hear that Res et al. rightly claim that their study is the first one to investigate, whether this practice does actually povide any benefit for the professional or recreational lifter.

To this ends, the scientists recruited a group of 16 of the usual suspects, ah.. pardon "recreationally active men", which in this case means that they had a weekly physical activity level of 6.3h and 5.2h for the eight men in the protein and the seven in the placebo arm (#8 had a problem with a catheter, so that he had to be excluded), respectively. As you would expect from any study investigating the effect of dietary supplements on exercise performance and/or muscle growth, the subjects received a standardized dinner (0.04kcal/kg; 57% carbs, 13% protein, 30% fat) at the evening before the testing session, as well as "identical" (obviously the energy content was matched to the body weight of the respective individual) meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner on the day of the experiment. The overall protein content of the regular meals was 1.2g/kg body weight and should thusly at the lower end of what the "bros" would prescribe as a baseline protein intake for anyone trying to gain muscle.

Exercise protocol: Leg presses and extensions 8x8 - 45 min total

After a standardized meal at 4:45pm and a whole host of experimental procedures (most importantly to place the catheter for the multiple blood draws during the night), the participants performed 8 sets of 8 reps on a leg press and another 8 sets of 8 reps on a leg extension machine (2 sets at 55% and 65%, 6 sets at 75% of 1RM; "subjects were verbally encouraged during the test to complete the whole protocol"). Rest between sets was 2 min rest between exercises 5 min. At 9pm, ca. 15min after the exercise test, the subjects received a serving of Lucozade Sport Body Fuel and Lucozade Sport Recovery (yes, the study was supported by GlaxoSmithKline ;-), which contained 60g of carbs and 20g of whey and thusly mimics what many non-carbophobic athletes use to replete glycogen stores and ramp up protein synthesis after a workout. After a muscle biopsy at 11:30pm, the subjects received either 40g casein protein or placebo and "remained in a supine position until 0:00am" ... I lover this formulation, because it suggests that with all those catheters every subject fell asleep at exactly 0:00am after "remaining in a supine position" *rofl* - be that as it may, the scientists simply assume that their subjects had slept for 7 hours, when they woke them at 7am for the second muscle biopsy.

Figure 1: Plasma levels of essential amino acids (µmol/L) and overnight mixed muscle fractional protein synthesis rates (measured by phenylalanine tracer) in subjects after receiving 40g of slow acting protein (casein) or placebo 30min before bed (at T=0; data adapted from Res. 2012)

As you can see in figure 1 the EAA levels the scientists measured in the blood of their subjects in the course of the night was profoundly elevated in response to the protein feeding. It is thusly not surprising that the fractional protein synthesis rates the scientists calculated for the 7.5 h of overnight sleep was ~22% higher in the "pre-bed" protein group than in the subjects who received the placebo supplement (cf. figure 1; right). Yet, although this may sound much, we are talking about 0.059% vs. 0.048% fractional muscle protein synthesis per hour and thusly about a 0.011% increase, which was only "borderline significant" (meaning p = 0.05).

Figure 2: Net protein breakdown, synthesis, oxidation (all left) and balance (right) measured over night in previously exercised subjects after receiving 40g of slow acting protein (casein) or placebo 30min before bed (based on Res. 2012)

What is probably more important than the difference in fractional protein synthesis, anyways, is the overall net protein balance, which indicates that contrary to the trainees in the placebo group, the subjects who received a 40g serving of casein 30 min before they went to bed (and hopefully slept 7h ;-) did effectively "gain" muscle, or I should say, muscle protein over the course of their 7.5h nightly "fast", while the subjects in the placebo group ended up losing a minimal amount of skeletal muscle protein.

3.2kg of lean muscle mass in one ear with nothing but a protein shake before bed?!

If we take a look at the abstract numbers the scientists measured, such as an increase in whole body (!) net protein retention of ~50µmol/kg (measured in phenylalanine tracer molecules) over the course of 7.5h and do some math, this tells us that a trainee who weighs ~80kg and followed this practice over the course of one year, where we assume that he trains four times a week (i.e. 208 sessions) this would allow him to store 832mmol or (if I did not miscalculate) ~146g of the phenylalanine tracer in the 208 nights following his training sessions... does that sound much? No, it certainly does not, but we just assume that for each of those phenylalanine molecules another molecule of each of the other EAAs was stored within the muscle (since we are talking about "whole body" protein retention, other organs will get their share as well, though), and further assume that they all weigh about the same (which is obviously bullocks) the 40g of casein every night would result in a net protein gain of 3.2kg! How does that sound?

Image 2: Quark = Natural #1 casein source

Note: Fatfree asked rightly, whether there are not any natural alternatives to protein shakes and as I thought this is relevant for everyone, I decided against answering in the comment area. Personally I would suggest you watch out for either curd/quark (~10g casein per 100g) which has tons of highly bioavailable calcium etc. An alternative with lower protein content is cottage cheese. More fat, but still nice - any other cheese. A huge chunk of steak could work, but I am not sure if that is not problematic in terms of nighttime digestion, which was one of the 2ndary results of the study at hand: Casein is easily digested while we sleep.

Now while this is a pretty optimistic calculation, while we are (again) dealing with "rookies" who obviously gain like crazy, and so on and so fort, the fact that there are still 175 days, where you don't train and your body would still be able to store some protein, goes to show how important a properly timed intake of protein and with it a persistent influx of readily available amino acids is, if you want to gain muscle - and in that it does not matter if that are going to be 500g or 10kg over the course of one year. However, I beg you not to forget that you cannot live on protein alone and that it is highly questionable that by escalating the dose to say 60g or 80g the net gains would increase by 50% let alone 100%, respectively. So keep that in mind before you set up a bathtub full of protein to sleep in ;-)

References:

• Res PT, Groen B, Pennings B, Beelen M, Wallis GA, Gijsen AP, Senden JM, VAN Loon LJ. Protein Ingestion before Sleep Improves Postexercise Overnight Recovery. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012 Aug;44(8):1560-9.