Exercise Round-Up: HIIT Prevents Angina; Stretching Reduces IGF-1 & Strength Gains; Cardio + Weights Lower TNF-Alpha; Protein Doesn't Works W/ Glucose Depletion; Polarization More Effective Than Threshold Training

That's (hopefully) not the way you want to "kick off" your year 2013, is it? So keep the booze at bay and party away, tonight ;-)

There are three things of which I would hope that they are on the top ranks in the things you are planning to do in 2013. And aside from proposing to your girlfriend, becoming a parent, graduating from whatever you are currently studying and keeping or, in the unfortunate case you don't have one, getting a job no other goals should be ranked in this must to in 2013 category: Work out, eat health and sleep deep and sufficiently. Against that background today's exercise round-up, which comprises all the few newsworthy papers that have been published during or shortly before the holiday season can actually be regarded as a means of orientation as far as practical realization of your best intentions for 2013 are concerned.

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• HIIT in the evening will keeps the heart attack away (Morikowa. 2012) -- Having a mild angina (coronary spasm was documented and no severe organic lesions were found) is not just no excuse for not working out, the 26 patients in a recent study that was conducted by a team of researchers from Kashiwara City, Japan, clearly shows that the number of spasms (=perceived heart attacks) was reduced from 2 to ZERO (average numbers) per 5 days in the men and women who performed an aerobic interval exercise training in the afternoon.
  
  

  

  Figure 1: Selected significantly improved health markers before and after the 3x workout short-term intervention involving 19 male and 7 suffering from angina (Morikawa. 2012)

  The protocol was performed on three consecutive days. After warming up thoroughly (10min), all subjects performed four sets of 3 min intervals at 75-85% of their heart rate reserve. The work to rest ratio was 1:1. In other words each of the intervals was followed by a phase of 3 minutes of active recovery. The whole session was concluded by a 5-10 minutes cool down.
  
  In conjunction with the initially mentioned benefits in terms of the recurrence of angina attacks the data in figure 1 should actually suffice to motivate you and lazy relatives to invest this small amount of time into the length and quality of your life- don't you think so?

• 

  Figure 2: The group of recreational trained young men (~29 years) that did no stretching at all had slightly, but significantly elevated IGF-1 levels (µg/L) after the workout (Borges. 2012).

  Stretching blunts acute IGF-1 response and 10 week strength gains (8RM test) (Borges. 2012) -- Now, hormonal responses to exercise are certainly not everything, the fact that the non-stretchers (OST) did yet also gain significantly more strength on the bench (19% vs. 7% and 5% in the static stretching during warm-up (SBST) and the stretching before each set (SDST) groups, respectively), the leg press, leg extensions and leg curls should yet call your attention, Mr. and Mrs. "I am so freaking professional that I stretch in between every set" maniacs - after 10 weeks of training the guy next to you who sticks to a handful of warm-up sets for injury prevention is going to outperform you.
  
  Remember this is not about not warming up and making sure that you don't hurt yourself, it's just even more more evidence that the die-hard belief that static stretches are beneficial (which was btw. also the research hypothesis of the Portuguese and Brazilian scientists) is dated text book knowledge.

• Again: Not strength or, but strength and aerobics is the way to go (Ho. 2012) -- While the medical establishment is still reluctant to accept the notion that strength and aerobic training must go hand in hand and many muscle heads still plead, they would lose muscle or hamper their gains, when they hopped onto a treadmill from time to time. The evidence is clear: The advantages are simply non-negligible - for the gymbro trying to look muscular (which requires a low body fat percentage if you don't want to look simply ludicrous), and the average Australian (pre-)obese in a recently published study by Ho, Dhaliwal, Hills, and Pal who found that ...
  

  "Twelve weeks of moderate-intensity aerobic, resistance, but mainly combination exercise training decreased TNF-α in overweight and obese individuals compared to no exercise. Therefore, combination exercise training may be physiologically relevant in decreasing the risk of developing chronic diseases." (Ho. 2012)

  The exercise interventions were either 30 min of aerobic exercise on a treadmill (60 % heart rate reserve; HRR estimated using the Karvonen equation: 220 - age - resting heart rate), 30 min of resistance exercise (four sets of 8–12 repetitions at 10-RMlevel of leg press, leg curl, leg extension, bench press, and rear deltoid row, with each set completed in approximately 30 s with 1-min rest) or a combination of 15 min of aerobic exercise and 15 min of resistance exercise (two sets of the above exercises).
  

  

  Figure 3: The combined training did not only result in a maximal suppression of TNF-alpha, the latter was also highly correlated with the reduction in body fat (esp. in the belly area; cf. Ho. 2012)

  "Starting workload levels for each piece of equipment were tested by participants and if more than 10 repetitions were achieved, the weight was increased and after a short rest participants tried again. Likewise, if less than eight repetitions were achieved, the weight was decreased and after a short rest participants tried again. Participants reported to the Curtin Fitness Centre 3 days a week to complete the required exercise and either exercised at home the other 2 days or at the fitness center.
  
  If exercises were completed at home, dumbbells (adjustable weight 1.5–10.5 kg) were provided for resistance exercises (three sets of 10 repetitions for biceps curls, lunges, dumbbell raise, calf lift, and triceps extension for resistance group while the combination group did two sets of biceps curls and lunges and one set for dumbbell raise, calf lift, and triceps extension; back extension, push ups, and sit ups exercises were also included). Treadmills were equipped with heart rate sensors and participants were instructed to increase weight loads by 2.5-kg increments when they could complete more than 12 repetitions." (Ho. 2012)

  Maybe not the perfect program for you, but I bet you know someone who "wants" to make room for 30 min of exercise in 2013, don't you? Ah,... don't tell them that 67-74% compliance was enough to elicit a 30%+ decrease in TNF-alpha and finally allow the participants to drop body fat, though ;-)

• You can have your peri-workout protein even if you want to exploit the AMPK & PGC-1 bonus of training glycogen depleted (Taylor. 2012) -- Actually I have discussed that in the Intermittent Thoughts more than a year ago, but since the debate just goes on forever, I thought it may be worth posting the results of a recent study pertaining to the issue of peri-workout protein ingestion and its purported (yet non-existent!) negative side effects on the beneficial AMPK response to glycogen depleting exercises (note: that's not the AMPK that's increased in your brain, when you starve yourself for longer time periods, the "bad" one that will make you ravenously hungry, induce overeating and shut down your metabolism).
  

  

  As long as you remain glycogen depleted protein has no effect on the beneficial part of the exercise induced AMPK expression (read more)

  "After performing a glycogen-depleting protocol the evening before, the subsequent morning ten active men performed 45 min steady-state cycling at 50 % of peak power output (PPO) followed by an exercise capacity test (1-min intervals at 80 % PPO interspersed with 1-min periods at 40 % PPO).
  
  In a repeated measures design, subjects consumed 20 g of a casein hydrolysate solution (PRO) 45 min before exercise, 10 g during and a further 20 g immediately post-exercise, or an equivalent volume of a non-calorie taste matched placebo (PLA)." (Taylor. 2012)

  In view of the fact that the post-exercise muscle glycogen was not different between the protein supplementation and the "on empty" trial, it is not exactly surprising that the p-AMPK levels increased threefold and the PGC-1mRNA increased sixfold in the 3h after the workout. And even the blunted increase in eEF2 activation is probably only a sign that the muscle started taking up protein right away and thus did not have ask for more after the workout - That said,Taylor et al. are right to point out that
  

  "athletes who deliberately incorporate training phases with reduced muscle glycogen into their training programmes may consume protein before, during and after exercise without negating signalling through the AMPK cascade." (Taylor. 2012)

  Ah, don't overlook the words "training phases" - remember what I wrote about training glycogen depleted in the context of the PGC-1 a-4 post and doing cardio before a workout? It's an intensity technique and not a necessity for everyone on every training day in 2013. Plus, glycogen depletion does require repletion! Running around 24/7/365 is not an option for 2013.

• 

  Aside "polarization" your cycling performance can also benefit from baking soda & beta alanine (read more)

  Polarize your training and optimize your gains (Neall. 2012) -- What makes HIIT so effective? The cyclicity of high and low intensity, right! It's the same cycle of ups and downs you find everywhere in nature. Against that background it should actually not surprise you that Neal et al. have now found male cyclist record greater training improvements on a polarised model exercise regimen (6.4/hrs per week; 80%, 0%, 20% of training time in low, moderate and high intensity zones) than on a threshold model (7.5hrs per week; 57%, 43%, 0% training intensity distribution).
  
  According to the researchers from the University of Stirling, both groups recorded performance improvements, yet those in the group that followed the polarized regimen saw 5% greater increases in peak power output, 7% greater increases in lactate threshold, and 48% greater increases in high-intensity exercise capacity.

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Thats it for today and in fact for the year 2012. The last one of 365 new posts here at the SuppVersity and probably twice or thrice as many on the SuppVersity Facebook Wall (it would be ~5-6x more on Facebook, if I had started posting short news on Facebook in January already)... Apropos, if you want some additional news before the turn of the year you should make sure to visit www.facebook.com/SuppVersity, today, to read and learn more about.

• A brief history of anti-hangover cures: The ancient Assyrians swore by Ground birds' beaks and myrrh. Raw eel and bitter almonds is a recipe from Europe that was popular during the Middle Ages. The Mongolians were more into  sheep's eyes, while the Chinese must have listened to Thursday's installment of On Short Notice and went with green tea. Us Germans like it traditional (not me though) and eat "Tom's breakfast" (Katerfrühstück), a postbinge breakfast with Bismark Herring, pickles, rollmops and/or sauerkraut (this stuff does work, by the way, 'cause it helps replenish the lost electrolytes).
  Harvard Health Letters headline: "The new medicine: muscle strength. It's not just for bodybuilders. Strength training is critical for all of us." (read more)
• Creatine reduces total antioxidant defenses? Scientists confirm for the 1012532x that creatine works and to make sure somebody even reads their study they overemphasis an increase in uric acid and decreases in TAS in the creatine supplementation group - a reason for concern? (read more)
• Case report: Type I diabetes remission without insulin therapy on gluten-free diet in a 6-year old boy with type 1 diabetes mellitus. (read more)
• Got Acne? Insulin resistance makes men break out. You better don't rely on fasted values, but get an OGGT ASAP(!) cause it turned out to be the most accurate independent predictor of acne at multivariate analysis. (read more)

I guess the one thing that remains to be said now is:  

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! 

Don't party too wild, and if you do, drink your green tea before the binge - this is (contrary to the historical advice in the box above) indicated by the latest science you should remember from Thursday's Science Round Up on Super Human Radio ;-)

References:

• Borges Bastos CL, Miranda H, Gomes de Souza Vale R, de Nazaré Dias Portal M, Gomes TM, da Silva Novaes J, Winchester JB. Chronic Effect Of Static Stretching On Strength Performance And Basal Serum Igf-1 Levels. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 Dec 18.
• Ho SS, Dhaliwal SS, Hills AP, Pal S. Effects of Chronic Exercise Training on Inflammatory Markers in Australian Overweight and Obese Individuals in a Randomized Controlled Trial. Inflammation. 2012 Dec 19.
• Morikawa Y, Mizuno Y, Harada E, Katoh D, Kashiwagi Y, Morita S, Yoshimura M, Uemura S, Saito Y, Yasue H. Aerobic interval exercise training in the afternoon reduces attacks of coronary spastic angina in conjunction with improvement in endothelial function, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Coron Artery Dis. 2012 Dec 14.
• Neal CM, Hunter AM, Brennan L, O'Sullivan A, Hamilton DL, De Vito G, Galloway SD. Six Weeks Of A Polarised Training Intensity Distribution Leads To Greater Physiological And Performance Adaptations Than A Threshold Model In Trained Cyclists. J Appl Physiol. 2012 Dec 20.
• Taylor C, Bartlett JD, van de Graaf CS, Louhelainen J, Coyne V, Iqbal Z, Maclaren DP, Gregson W, Close GL, Morton JP. Protein ingestion does not impair exercise-induced AMPK signalling when in a glycogen-depleted state: implications for train-low compete-high. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2012 Dec 23.

SuppVersity Science Round-Up Seconds: Topical Stevia Ointment and Oral Stevia Both Speed Up Wound Healing & Fight Bacteria. + Kinesio Taping, Exercise vs. Parkinson's and Non-Permanent Infertility Due to Low Dose Finasteride

The SuppVersity Science Round-Up live on SHR Thursdays 1PM EST!

As expected, Carl and I did not get to all of the potential topics in yesterday's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round Up on Super Human Radio (download the podcast here). The topics we covered were awesome (the protein study that was in the news, yesterday; nitrate supplementation; breast cancer and health benefits of minimalist multi- or rather tri-vitamins), but even the promised stevia based wound ointment did not make it into the 68min show (yeah, we went longer, once again). Therefore, it seems only logical to give you a brief summary of what you have or have not been missing in yesterday's installment of the thursdaily SuppVersity Science Round Up.

Alright, why don't we just start with the wound ointment and finish up with a brief mash-up of selected pieces from the 2nd line?

Stevia wound ointment improves tissue regeneration after incision

In a recent study that was conducted the St Johns College of Pharmacy in Bangalore, India, Kuntal Das investigated the effect of an easily compounded stevia containing wound ointment on the wound healing process of a pretty hefty excision wound that was 2.5 cm in width (circular area = 4.90 cm²) and 0.2 cm deep on the back of male Swiss Albino mice  and compared the results to a longstanding standard treatment (in the developing world still the goto ointment to be applied) with povidone-iodine, a stable chemical complex of polyvinylpyrrolidone and elemental iodine.

Stevia: Drink it, eat it, rub it, ... !?

How to prepare your own wound ointment: (1) Go and buy some decolorized 80%+ stevia extract and a parafin wax carrier wherever you want (2)  Mix the stevia into the white parafin base so that you get a 5/95 ratio of stevia to parafin.

Upon examining the wounds of the rats after 14 days of topical application of the self-made stevia ointments with a 2.5% and 5% w/w stevia content, Da found that the overall healing rate was dose dependently increased in the stevia group (Da. 2012):

• the rate of wound closure was significantly higher
  
• there was a decrease in the period of epithelialization 
  
• the skin breaking strength increased,
  
• the weight of the granulation tissue was decreased,
  
• the hydroxyproline content was elevated, and
  
• the wound surface microbial load decreased
  

In view of the anti-inflammatory effects of stevia and the recent news on similar effects being observed with a likewise anti-inflammatory curcumin ointment on burns (see "Curcumin to treat burns"), these improvements in wound healing and the formation of new unscarred tisse probably don't come as a surprise. With more and more germs becoming resistant to standard antibiotics, another item on the "benefit list", namely the anti-microbial effects of the topically applied stevia ointment, could however turn out to be of greater importance, than a speedier wound closure, anyway.

Figure 1: Effects of stevia ointment containing 2.5% or 5% stevia extract on excision wound surface microbial load (in CFU/ml; left); effect of orally administered stevia on parameters of wound healing (data expressed relative to untreated group; middle) and on on excision wound surface microbial load (in CFU/ml; right)

And if you are not into rubbing anything on your wound, I guess you will be happy to hear that similar, yet obviously less pronounced effects can be achieved if you simply eat or drink ~1.5-3g of 80% pure stevia extract per day - I know that's plenty, but this is the human equivalent dose of the 250-500mg/kg the rodents in the Da study received... what? No, I don't know if stevia suppositories will work as well, but maybe you could ask Mr. Da, if he was interested in doing another study ;-)

Selected additional "news quickies" that did not make it into yesterday's show

• 

  Suggested read: "Stretching before a workout can make you weak"

  Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation versus Kinesio Taping Application. In a recent crossover study with male healthy, physically active subjects, both regimen provided similar beneficial results in terms of the first-felt and maximum tolerant-felt range of motioncompared to control.
  
  Contrary to the correctly applied kineseo tape (just bandaging yourself all over with packaging band won't cut it, guys ;-), the proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation protocol did yet not blunt the post exercise increase in hamstring muscle stiffness and the concomitant decrease in maximal knee flexion peak torque at 180 °/s that occured to similar extends in both the PNF and the no-stretch control condition (Chen. 2012).
• Treadmill running protects "Parkinson's mice" from neuronal loss. Listen up guys, even though you may not have been so concerned about the +117% and +236% increase in breast cancer risk in non-exercising and non-exercising women, who were also under psychological stress, Carl and I talked about on yesterday's show, you are by no means off the hook. After all, men may be (relatively) protected against breast cancer, but on the other hand more likely to develop Parkinson's. And as if that was not bad enough, the symptoms will also be more severe in men than in women (Haaxma. 2006).
  
  

  

  Just in case you forgot: Among tons of other health benefits, moderate daily caffeine intake in amounts similar to what you would get from 3 regular cups of coffee  (300-450mg) appears to exert protective effects against Parkinson's, as well (read more)

  Against that background, you are probably either relieved (if you are a physical culturist) or annoyed, when I am telling you that a recent rodent study clearly demonstrated how 30 min of aerobic exercise (as good as mice with existing MPTP/P induce "Parkinson's" can "exercise" on a treadmill) prevented further loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons, and ameliorated existing motor balance and coordination dysfunction (Sung. 2012).
  
  These results do by the way stand in line with recent findings from a human study by Abrantes et al. who found that "[c]ovarying for age and gender, higher levels of physical activity were associated with significantly less fatigue, as well as a trend for less apathy and depression and greater positive affect." (Abrantes. 2012) - regardless of the type of exercise the patient wanted / could still perform, by the way!
• Infertility due to finasteride usage: While it's real, it's rarely permanent As a recent case report that has been published ahead of print in the online edition of International Urology and Nephrology ealier this week shows, the "prolonged [8.5 years] use of low-dose [1 mg daily] finasteride for androgenetic alopecia" can induce DNA damage to sperm, which- in this particular case . rendered a 40-year old patient totally infertile (I don't want to think about what happened if the sperm was only "mildly damaged", though).
  
  With respect to the underlying mechanism, Ahmet Salvarci and Okan Istanbulluoglu, two researchers from the Rumi University in Meram, Konya  (Turkey) state:
  

  "It was reported in an in vitro study that dihydrotestosterone promoted the expression of claudin-11, the protein component in tight junctions between Sertoli cells. It has been shown that finasteride may cause a disruption of tight junctions and trigger a cascade of immunologic reactions, by causing germ cell atresia. Although the significance of dihydrotestosterone in spermatogenesis is not fully understood, the absence of this molecule may cause spermatogenic failure." (Salvaci. 2012)

  Now, the good news is, after the treatment was discontinued, the sperm recovered - slowly and from generation to generation, so to say, but it did- contrary to what dozens of horror stories on the Internet will make you believe,  eventually recover: 11 months after taking the last 1mg pill of the type II 5a-reductase inhibitor that blocks the conversion of testosterone to DHT (read more about 5-alpha reductase), his sperms DNA had recovered and his wife became pregnant. She gave birth to a healthy a baby boy and they lived happily... ah, wrong genre ;-)

So, that's it for today, but there are more news on Facebook and of course the official saturdaily installment of On Short Notice, tomorrow. So, stay tuned!

References:

• Abrantes AM, Friedman JH, Brown RA, Strong DR, Desaulniers J, Ing E, Saritelli J, Riebe D. Physical Activity and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Parkinson Disease. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2012 Aug 20.
• Chen CH, Huang TS, Chai HM, Jan MH, Lin JJ. Two Stretching Treatments on Hamstring: Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation versus Kinesio Taping Application. J Sport Rehabil. 2012 Oct 11.
• Das K. Investigation of wound healing potential of aqueous crude extract and ointment of Stevia rebaudiana Bert. in mice. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine. 2012: 1-6.
• Haaxma CA, Bloem BR, Borm GF, Oyen WJ, Leenders KL, Eshuis S, Booij J, Dluzen DE, Horstink MW. Gender differences in Parkinson's disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2007 Aug;78(8):819-24.
• Salvarci A, Istanbulluoğlu O. Secondary infertility due to use of low-dose finasteride. Int Urol Nephrol. 2012 Oct 16.
• Sung YH, Kim SC, Hong HP, Park CY, Shin MS, Kim CJ, Seo JH, Kim DY, Kim DJ, Cho HJ. Treadmill exercise ameliorates dopaminergic neuronal loss through suppressing microglial activation in Parkinson's disease mice. Life Sci. 2012 Oct 12. pii: S0024-3205(12)00590-5.

"Stretching Before Workouts Makes You Weak!" Mostly True, But Your Workout Volume Will Decline Even More. Plus: Stretching vs. Doms & Stretching for Couch Potatoes

Image 1:Avoid performing stretches before your workout; if you don't do them at all, things like this are out of reach and for the avg. 'no stretcher', 'all bencher', the hunched over look is just right around the corner.

Stretching is one of those topics most trainees are not really interested in. In that most of you are probably happy that most researchers agree that passive stretches, as they may have been prescribed 50 years ago, are counter-indicated before workouts. And though the experts still disagree on whether or not certain active stretching regimen may be useful, most trainees read the headline "Stretching Before Your Workout Reduces Your Strength" once and gave up the in their eyes bothersome, unnecessary ("I've never hurt myself, although I never stretch, bro!") and with the said headline "officially" detrimental pre-workout routine and spend the they otherwise have invested in a couple of stretches either guzzling a caffeine-laden pre-workout product (which is by the way to be consumed 30-45min before a workout) or doing another three to five sets of bench presses, biceps curls and crunches, before, during or after their workout. Even if we discard the fact that neither of those practices will be largely beneficial, this does still raise the question...

Is stretching actually detrimental? And if so, how detrimental is it?

When Renato Barosso and his colleagues from from the Laboratory of Neuromuscular Adaptations to Strength Training at the School of Physical Education and Sport of the University of Sao Paulo recruited the 12 young strength-trained men (20.4 years, 67.9, 173.3cm), they probably had a very similar question on their minds.

Figure 1: Graphical outline of the time-course of the 2 x 4 (1RM or maximal repetition) testing sessions (Barosso. 2012)

As you can see in figure 1 this was a trial in which all participants ,who had been familiarized with the respective protocols on 3 familiarization sessions on separate days, underwent every of the three stretching sessions which consisted of three sets of the supine knee flex, side quadriceps stretch, the sitting toe touch which were performed in the form of

• static stretches (SS) This is probably what you would call "the classic stretch", where you hold each stretch for 30s, make a 30s pause and continue
• proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching (PNF) You perform a passive stretch and hold the stretching position for approximately 5 seconds; then, you perform a 5s near-maximal isometric contraction (Sheard . 2010), relax and passively hold the stretching position for another 20s
• ballistic-stretching (BS) Same procedures as in the static stretch session, but instead of holding the stretching positions for 30 seconds, the subjects had to bob in 1:1-second cycles for 1 minute

and the non-stretched control workouts with subsequent 1RM or maximal number of repetition tests. With the 3 + 1 conditions and the two measuring outcomes being tested on different occasions, this sums up to a total of 8 testing sessions of either 1-RM max leg presses or 80%RM leg presses to failure.

Figure 2: Absolute changes in ROM during the "sit and reach test" (in cm) and rel. changes compared to no-stretching condition in 1-RM strength and maximal number of reps during 80%RM leg presses (data based on Barroso. 2012)

As you can see in figure 2 this is not one of the many SuppVersity posts that's going to bust a myth. Stretches, no matter how you perform them, will negatively effect your strength on the subsequent workout; only the PNF protocol with its short bursts of maximal contractions, however, lead to statistically significant, yet still relatively small (-5.4%) reductions in 1RM strength. What will suffer much more than your strength, though, is your ability to endure longer workouts, or I should say, longer sets: With reductions of

• -8.2 reps (-23%) after the "classic" static stretching routine
• -7.5 reps (-21%) subsequent to the PMF stretching routine, and
• -6.4 reps (-18%) in the maximal rep test after the ballistic stretch

it seems counter-indicated to perform any of these before your training session (the mean number of reps in the control condition was 36).

But doesn't stretching help against soreness? No! Neither pre- nor post-workout stretching offer a significant protection against muscle soreness, a Cochraine Review by Herbert et al. from July 2011 found "improvements" of 0.5 or 1pt, respectively, on a 1-100pts soreness scale after reviewing 12 relevant randomized controlled studies, of which one had more than 2,000 subjects (Herbert. 2011).

So, aside from preventing shortening of the muscles and increasing flexibility is there another reason to stretch? Yes! One surprising finding is that if you are a total couch-potato and don't train at all,  40min of stretching performed 3x / week over the course of 10-weeks will not just increase your flexibility (18.1%), they will also bump your standing long jump (2.3%), vertical jump (6.7%), 20-m sprint (1.3%), knee flexion 1RM (15.3%), knee extension 1RM (32.4%), knee flexion endurance (30.4%) and knee extension endurance (28.5%) performance... what? You are no couch-potato? Great, but these results do still tell you that part of the detrimental effects of stretching on your training performance may well be mitigated by the "training effect" - it's a stressin mini "workout" for your muscles and you would not do 100 body weight squats before your 80% 1RM max-rep test, either - would you?

Despite the fact that the most-heard science based argument against stretching before a workout does in fact involve its well-established negative effects on maximal strength performance, Nelson et al., Franco et al. and Marques et al. reported similar results for knee flexor exercises performed with 40, 50 and 60% of the body weight (Nelson. 2005), 1-3 sets of 20 reps of bench presses (Franco; 2009) and rep-max tests at 40, 60 and 80% knee extensions and bench presses on non-trained individuals (Marques. 2011) as Barroso et al. in the study at hand. The real "news" is thus...

"[...] that not only SS and PNF but also BS impaired the number of repetitions and the total volume (i.e., number of repetitions x external load) performed after stretching when compared with NS [and] that in strength-trained individuals, only the PNF stretching mode impaired the maximal strength production." (Barroso. 2012)

In a more general context, the latter finding, i.e. the influence of the exercise status on the strength declines subsequent to static stretches before a workout, is probably of even greater significance than the notion that you will hamper your strength endurance (note: I stick to this term here, although I am aware that most of you won't think of training at a 80% RM as "strength endurance" training): the questionable significance of data that was generated in an experiment with strength training rookies for the average physical culturist.

In the case of the effects of classic static stretching and ballistic stretches before a workout on the performance during a subsequent 1-RM max strength test, it is now clear that the results from rookies, whose performance drops compared to the no stretch condition, regardless of the protocol, the rookie data is of little to no value for anyone with a coupe of months, let alone years of weight lifting experience.

Bottom line: Irrespective of the last-mentioned problems, the take home message from this and previous studies would be the same for all strength athletes who don't just walk into the gym, crank out a single max set and head home again - Refrain from performing any kind of quasi-static stretching protocol before your workout - and don't forget to look at the study population the next time you see one of the rare studies on resistance training ;-)

References:

• Franco BL, Signorelli GR, Trajano GS, de Oliveira CG. Acute effects of different stretching exercises on muscular endurance. J Strength Cond Res. 2008 Nov;22(6):1832-7. 
• Herbert RD, de Noronha M, Kamper SJ. Stretching to prevent or reduce muscle soreness after exercise. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2011 Jul 6;(7):CD004577.
• Marques MC, Costa PB, da Silva Novaes J. Acute effects of two different stretching methods on local muscular endurance performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Mar;25(3):745-52. 
• Nelson AG, Kokkonen J, Arnall DA. Acute muscle stretching inhibits muscle strength endurance performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2005 May;19(2):338-43.
• Sheard PW, Paine TJ. Optimal contraction intensity during proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation for maximal increase of range of motion. J Strength Cond Res. 2010 Feb;24(2):416-21.

Science Round-Up Seconds: Breast Cancer, GH Induced Insulin Resistance, Stretch + Contraction Increase Molecular Hypertrophy Signals and Probiotics & the Obesity Pandemic

When we are talking about the extinction of endangered species such as the Siberian tiger, we are adopting a perspective that will also help us to understand such things as the pitfalls of probiotic supplementations as a "solution" to the diabesity epidemic

It's Friday the day after the SuppVersity Science Round-Up (download the podcast) and you all know what that means: Right! Time to summarize the stuff that did not make it into the show and provide you with a couple of thoughts, as well as additional information on the topics, Carl Lanore and I did already cover (this does also imply that you have to listen to the show if you want the info on the genetic and non-genetic underpinnings of breast cancer).

If I had to come up with a motto, something that connects the topics in the show and thus obviously also the ones that will be discussed in this article, I guess it would be "ecosystems". I have repeatedly pointed out in the past that I am not a believer in the "back in the good old days everything was better" interpretation of "Paleo". What I do believe in, however, is the notion that exposition entails adaptation.

You can't control the adaptation, but you can control the exposition

Now, these adaptation processes whether they be negative such as the growth of cancerous tissue in the breast or ovaries of a woman like Angelina Jolie are beyond our reach: The environment that triggers them, on the other hand, can be manipulated - whether that's by getting your breasts and ovaries removed to rid yourself of the 50-80% (you heard me right! the "real" chance carriers of a defect BRCA1/2 gene to develop cancer ranges from 50% to 80%, by the age of 70) or - and this is obviously a pretty drastic change of subjects, by emphasizing peak contractions in a semi-stretched position to benefit from the upregulation of the proteins p-Akt, p70S6K, p38 MAPK and ERK 1/2, i.e. the driving forces of protein synthesis, it's always your manipulation of the environment that will bring about "adaptation" (used in the broadest sense).

Figure 1: Graphical summary of the main results, i.e. the stretch initiated activation (+, ++, +++) of the signaling molecules on different conditions with either short, long (at maximal peak contraction) or slightly longer (+25%, but still way from lockout) positions and the corresponding tension on the soleus muscle of the rodents (Van Dyke. 2013)

If I was successful, the above introduction should have set the scene and thus provided an environment for your perspective on things to change / align with mine. I've manipulated the "cognitive environment" that determines or at least influences the way you are about to understand what follows, i.e. the missing side-kick on the recently observed negative effects of growth hormone on insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake in healthy men and the comprehensive discussion of the (imho) misunderstood role of the gut microbiome as both, a trigger and solution to the obesity epidemic.

Can exogenous growth hormone trigger insulin resistance?

Within our new cognitive framework you will probably have transformed the above question as follows, by now: "How does the exogenous administration of growth hormone change the the endocrine environment and why does this entail an adaptive response of which most people would say that it's highly detrimental?" From this "mini-evolutionary perspective", as you may call it, it's surprisingly easy to understand what exactly has happened in a recent study from the University of Aarhus in Denmark (Vestergaard. 2013).

In their effort to probe the hypothesis that there was a connection between ghrelin, growth hormone and the increases in retinol-binding hormone (RBP4, to be specific) that are observed in patients with developing and/or full-blown metabolic syndrome, Vestergaard et al. conducted two studies of which only the second one, which involved nine totally healthy young men in their twenties (23y; BMI 23kg/m²), will - without major qualifications - transfer to you me or other healthy physical culturists.

The men received a course of daily 2mg GH injections while consuming a previously standardized diet containing 50–60 % carbohydrates, <30 % fat, and roughly 10–15 % of protein (in % of total energy intake). Before and after the intervention period, the participants had to report to the lab at fasted and thus optimally prepared for the hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp test.

Figure 2: Basal fasting glucose and insulin concentrations, as well as M-value (=marker of insulin resistance) in healthy young men after eight days of placebo and GH administration, respectively (left; p-values over bars); glucose infusion rates (GIR) indicated by during hyperinsulinemia after placebo / GH administration (right, Vestergaard. 2013)

The selected results I plotted in figure 2 are quite unambiguous. As expected there was a huge increase in the IGF-I concentrations in response to the 8-day course of 2mg GH per day.

The 8% increase in fasting plasma glucose and even more so, the doubling of the insulin levels that were required to keep these elevated glucose levels stable, certainly come as a surprise, if you're thinking about it from an broscientifically influenced mechanistic point of view. I mean, doesn't broscience tell us that GH is the good guy that's going to make you lean and ripped?

How come we are seeing a -34% reduction in glucose sensitivity (this is actually what's measured as the so-called "M value" in the euglycemic clamp studies).

Within our previously established cognitive framework, the answer to this question is actually quite straight forward. To get to the bottom of the counter-intuitive effects of GH we just have to think about the "natural" environment that will trigger the release of GH from the somatotropic cells within the lateral wings of the anterior pituitary gland.

Did you know that the normal GH response to hypoglycemia is blunted in the obese and the reduced obese (Ball. 1972)? Without GH to get their blood sugar back up, overweight individuals and formerly obese will thus have to resort exclusively to corticosteroids (cortisol) to regulate their blood sugar levels.

In this context, it's also worth mentioning that insulin induced hypoglycemia is still considered a valid - yet maybe not optimal - in children who are suffering from retarded growth. With the injection of exogenous insulin and the kids becoming hypoglycemic the body should compensate for that by secreting growth hormone. If that's not the case, this is a good indicator of a general malfunction of the pituitary gland.

Hah? Right! Hypoglycemia or borderline hypoglycemia is among the primary triggers of somatotropin aka GH release. Now, think about it - would it make sense that a hormone that's supposed to increase fatty acid oxidation to supply your body with glucose would at the same time increase insulin sensitivity and thus have your muscles suck up all the precious glucose your brain is longing for?

On the contrary, it is only logical that GH - just like it's falsely vilified potent cousin cortisol (yeah, you heard me right, you won't see both at the scene on the same time, because they serve a similar purpose at least wrt to glucose metabolism) - will decrease the insulin sensitivity of your muscles in order not to "waste" the precious glucose which should be scarce once GH goes up.

In the study at hand, the environment in which the high growth hormone levels occur are totally different: Once you plug people to a euglycemic clamp, there is a mismatch between the actual environment, which is normal / high glucose, and the natural (if you will "evolutionary) expected environment for elevated GH levels - and what you see in figure 2 is the inevitable consequence of this mismatch: a significantly lowered glucose sensitivity... quite cool, how a small change in the way we are looking at things allows us to understand phenomena that do initially appear totally inexplicable, right?

Lifestlye changes, not probiotic supplements are the solution to the diabesity epidemic

Now that we have first-hand evidence for the explanatory power of our new perspective let's stick to it and apply it to the false expectations studies such as the recently released investigation into the "anti-obesity" effects of the common gut bug Akkermansia muciniphila in a rodent model of diet-induced obesity (Everard. 2013).

Figure 3: The AM count is reduced in response to the dietary enviroment, the environment - not the lack of bacteria - is the root cause of the negative effects on fasting glucose, fat mass gain and thickness of the intestinal mucus lining all of which can be partly (the latter even fully) restored to normal with supplementation (Everard. 2013)

If we take a look at the data in figure 3 it is undebatable that the provision of exogenous live (this does not work at all with dead bacteria) Akkermansia muciniphila (AM) can significantly reduce the weight and fat gain in the rodents receiving a species inappropriate high fat diet. As the data on the AM content of the gut microbiome of the obese mice on the right hand side of figure 3 reveals this effect is yet a simple result of the restoration of the "original" microbial composition in the intestinal tract of the rodents.

Siberian tigers on corn fields!? Does this really make sense?

Since the term "original" refers only to the amount of the bacteria Dr Antoon Akkermans identified as one of the many bacteria the count of which is decreased / changed in obese rodents (and humans), it is yet not surprising that we are seeing nothing but ameliorative effects.

Glutamine may offer another way to accelerate gut healing and improve amino acid absorption or rather avoid the "abuse" of BCAAs, arginine etc. for other metabolic purposes (learn more)

Within our cognitive framework of "ecosystems" and "adaptations", the chronic administration of living bacteria to counter a specific aspect of the diet induced detrimental effects on the gut microbiome has may be compared to the laughable efforts of biologists to save certain animals from extinction by breeding them in a Zoo and releasing them into an environment, where deforestation, pollution and all the other nasty things, we, the crown of evolution, enjoy about as much as the average Westerner likes to wash down his super-sized fast food menu with a "refreshing" *rofl* 2L XXL pot of coke (drinking plenty is healthy for you, ain't it? ;-), will have them die before their time unable to reproduce in time to contribute to the species' natural survival.

Once you understand that, you will have to realize that you are wasting your time and money on false promises if you don't change the environment, i.e. the way you live and the foods you eat first before you even think of using probiotic supplements as an adjunct to accelerate the normalization process, which should - just like the detoriation - take place irrespective of the supplementation as a mere results of the dietary modulation of your gut microbiome, anyways.

With these insights, I am going to release you into the weekend... and who knows, maybe you'll notice the effects the environment you expose yourselves to in the coming days has all sorts of beneficial or detrimental influences on your physical and mental health. Listening to even more non-science-based Angelina Jolie news on the television and radio, for example, is probably not going to have beneficial effects on your psyche ;-)

References:

• Ball MF, el-Khodary AZ, Canary JJ. Growth hormone response in the thinned obese. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1972 Mar;34(3):498-511.
• Everard A, Belzer C, Geurts L, Ouwerkerk JP, Druart C, Bindels LB, Guiot Y, Derrien M, Muccioli GG, Delzenne NM, de Vos WM, Cani PD. Cross-talk between Akkermansia muciniphila and intestinal epithelium controls diet-induced obesity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 May 13.
• Van Dyke JM, Bain JL, Riley DA. Stretch activated signaling is modulated by stretch magnitude and contraction. Muscle Nerve. 2013 Apr 26.
• Vestergaard ET, Krag MB, Poulsen MM, Pedersen SB, Moller N, Jørgensen JOL, Jessen N. Ghrelin and growth hormone induced insulin resistance: no association with retinol-binding protein-4 Endocr Connect EC-13-0019; published ahead of print May 7, 2013, doi:10.1530/EC-13-0019

Step By Step Guide to Your Own Workout Routine - Part V: Example Routines - Round 3: A Detailed Strength Workout

Image 1: Being strong has gotten somewhat out of fashion these days. Apropos fashion, can you imagine David Beckham doing that?

Aside from Thursday, when Adelfo "guest lectures" here at the SuppVersity, you usually have to content yourselves with the sometimes more, sometimes less knowledgeable stuff I am putting out on a daily basis. For today's sixth installment, you are yet lucky that I could convince my friend Sean Casey from CasePerformance to take care of the strength workout template in the "Step By Step Guide to Build Your Own Workout Routine" series. And though Sean, modest as he is, started out his article with a the words "I would like to thank my friend Adel aka Dr.Andro for giving me the opportunity to share a one week sample strength training regimen  with the SuppVersity community", I am the one to say "thank you", sit back and just have Sean take you through your new workout routine ;-)

Sean Casey's Strength Workout Template

Some of you may have seen my face on the SuppVersity facebook wall, already. Others may know me from (accidentally?) clicking on the "suggested reading" link in the navigation of the SuppVersity. Yet regardless of whether you know me or my business @ CasePerformance.com, I want you to know that I do not claim to be an originator of any revolutionary training technique or an "almighty" guru. Similar to everyone else, I'm searching for the best way to maximize human performance (ed. Dr. Andro: highly recommended article "The Guru I am not!" by Sean Casey).

Image 2: Sean's way of designing workouts was inspired by Ian King (photo) and Luke Richesson

My training philosophies and the way I set up training programs are heavily influenced by the writings of Ian King. Those familiar with his work will be able to note several of his original principles in my approach to program design (tempos, general layout, etc). I also must give credit to my mentor, Luke Richesson, with whom I worked for many hours when I first started in the physical preparation field. This does not mean that the program below is endorsed by either of these individuals, but I do feel it's important to give them credit.

If you will, take those workouts as being are "inspired" by these two extraordinary physical preparation coaches.

General Discussion on The Training Week – Strength Focus

There are a thousand different ways you could write a strength based training program depending on your goals. For instance a strength based program for a powerlifter will differ from that for a ball/speed/team sport athlete. Additionally, one's training age impacts things as well. I could have a novice lifter with <1-2 years of experience impressive gains in absolute strength while working in the 5-7 rep range. In contrast, if I went up to a powerlifter with 15-20 years of experience and told them that we were going to lift predominantly in the 5-7 rep range during their peak strength phase, my "street cred" would be tarnished and I'd  probably get laughed out of the gym.

Image 3: One of the things, I like about my friend Sean Casey is his modesty. So, I am not sure that he is going to like me promoting his service and knowledge - sorry, Sean ;-)

Other things to consider when designing the program are: How many days per week will you be training? How much time do you have available per day? What type of "build-up" work have you done in previous training phases? I'm not going to have one prioritize their bench and squat during a strength phase if they walk hunched over with caveman-"esque" posture and absolutely no back or posterior chain strength. This would be setting them up for injury by simply exasperating a problem that is already present. You will also have to take into account which of the main lifts you are specifically looking to increase your strength in – those that are most important should be placed first in the week when you're most fresh.

The latter brings up another issue, relating to the type and amount of baseline stress that is going on in your life at the moment. If you're overworked at the job, getting only 5-6 hours of sleep a night, this may not be the best time to start up a max strength training block (unless you're one of those individuals who thrives in the gym when life is crazy outside of it!) ...This list could go on forever, luckily I won't have to go into to much more detail on this as Adel covered them nicely in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of this "Step By Step Guide to Building Your Workouts".

First things first… What are you doing for your warm-up?

The warm-up seems to be a highly debated topic amongst many individuals, some like to jump rope for a few minutes, do a few warm-up sets and hit the weighs hard. Others like a more comprehensive warm. I personally fall on the more comprehensive side of things. The "looser" I feel going into a workout, the better I recover after it. After playing around with various warm-up protocols, I have found the below to work well:

• Total Warm-up Time: 15-25 min
   
• Light Aerobic Activity: 5-10 min*
  *ride a bike, light jogging on a treadmill, etc.

Your goal in whatever type of warm-up you may be performing is just what the term "warm-up" implies, you want to get the muscles warm. To this ends, I find it most useful to perform your warm-up at an intensity that will give you a light sweat. You should be able to do it at a pace where you could have a conversation with someone standing near you. This will make you a little more limber for the stretching to follow.

Tip on warming up: A nice way to warm up is to simply ride your bike/walk to the gym (this will obviously work only for those who live close enough and don't have a super hilly ride that would turn something that is intended as a warm-up into a brutal leg workout ;-). This convenient and time saving strategy can also be applied to your cool down, once you've finished your workout and need to get back home.

Static Stretching: 5-10 min

I know, I know … "static stretching decreases muscular force and should NEVER be used prior to working out!" I used to repeat this mantra as well, until it was challenged by Ian King (read up on the issue in Sean's interview with Ian King). The fact alone that a highly respected and successful physical preperation coach like Ian, a man who has been coaching elite athletes on an international level for 30+ years questioned this "longstanding truth" made me think: "Could someone like Ian King be so completely wrong on a subject?" Thus, I forced myself to reevaluate the allegedly "conclusive" science which supposedly confirms that a stretching would decrease muscular performance. In doing so, I found that when followed by doing a dynamic/sport specific warm-up, static stretching DID NOT decrease performance (click here for Sean's full review of the literature on the subject).

From what I have learned during this research I deduced these two simple rules for my own, as well as my clients pre-workout static stretching regimen:

1. Focus the static stretches on the muscle groups that will be used during a given workout or are specifically tight
    
2. Before you slam static stretching during the pre-workout time, give it a try for 3-4 weeks. The best research study in the world is N= 1, with that 1 being you. Thus, If you find it effective – Great! If not, ditch it.

Dynamic Stretching: 10 min

Common ones that I'll do, depending on the workout I'm doing, include the following:

1. "World's Greatest" stretch
2. Walking heel-to-butt - Stretching quadriceps
3. Backwards lunge with lateral flexion - Upper body will flex towards side that has leg up
4. Handwalks/Inchworms - I've heard this referred to various things, but basically you get in a pushup position, "walk" your hands out in front of you and then "walk" your feet up to your hands. Your hips will pop up into the air similar to how the middle of a tent pops up when you stand it up
5. Single Leg RDL's/ Walking RDL's
6. Walking Knee Hugs
7. Walking Leg Cradles
8. Lateral Squats
9. Drop Lunge

I'll usually do 3-4 reps per leg, pausing for 2 seconds at the end range of motion. All of these are body weight only.

Ok, Let's Start Pushing Some Iron - The Workout

Here's an example workout for someone with a training age that would fall in the "intermediate" range. Overall body strength, with a focus on his posterior muscle groups, is going to be the general priority for our workout. Thus, we place these exercises 1st in the week on day's 1 and 2 followed by pushing exercises later in the week.

Day 1: Pullups, Wall Slides, DB Overhead Press, Abdominal / Core Training

• A1) Pullups
  
  Warm-up: 1x7, 1x5
  Workout: 5x3
  
  Rest: 3-4 min for less advanced, 5-6 min for advanced lifters
  Tempo*: 201
  *time in seconds spent in eccentric, isometric and concentric phase as created by Ian King. Although the weight may be heavy which makes it impossible to perform the concentric action in 1 second, the intent should be to move as fast as possible during the concentric phase

• A2) Wall Slides
  
  Workout: 1x 6-8 reps
  
  Tempo: 212
  
  Set 1 done prior to the first warm-up set or between 1st and 2nd warm-up set.
  Purpose of these is to activate the lower traps and scapular muscles.
   
• B) DB Overhead press
  
  Workout: 2-3x8  
  
  Rest: ~ 1.5-2 min
  Tempo: 311 or 211
   
• C) Abdominal/Core Training To be completed in circuit fashion (20-30 seconds rest between exercises fine); rest 2 min after completing all 3 exercises
  
      C1) PB Pikes- 2x 8-10  > Tempo 301
      C2) Prone Pillar Planks: 2x 40-60 sec          

Day 2: Romanian Dead Lift, Glute Bridges, Glute Ham Raise, Abdominal / Core

• A1) Romanian Dead Lift
  
  Warm-up: 1x7, 1-2x5
  Workout: 5x3
  
  Rest: 3-4 min for less advanced, 5-6 min for advanced lifters
  Tempo: 201 or 301
   
• A2) Glute Bridges
  
  Workout: 1x 6-8 reps
  
  Tempo: 121
  
  Set 1 done prior to the first warm-up set. If needed, the 2nd  Set 2 would be done inbetween 1st & 2nd warm-up sets. Purpose of these is to activate the glute muscles.
   
• B) Glute Ham Raise*
  *if no machine, have someone hold your ankles and do them off floor
  
  Workout: 2-3x8
  
  Tempo: Between 201, 211 or 301
   
• C) Abdominal/Core Training To be completed in circuit fashion (20-30 seconds rest between exercises fine); rest 2 min after completing both
   
• C1) ½ kneeling Cable Chops 2x8-10*
   
• C2) ½  Half Kneeling Cable Lifts 2x8-10*
  
  *Tempo: Multiple parts in these lifts; can't use traditional tempo numbering system

Day 3: Active Recovery day

1. 20-25 minute easy conversation pace on a bike. The purpose of this is not to enhance your "cardio" fitness or accelerate your fat loss. It will rather help you to shake out some of the stiffness that may have build up in your legs following Day 2's leg session and increase the muscle blood flow. You should place the bigger emphasis on accomplishing the former vs. the latter so don't go at high speeds with the thoughts of getting a good "muscle pump workout".
    
2. Stretching. 20 minutes, combination of static and dynamic (regimen see above)
    
3. 15 minutes relaxing in a pool (submerged up to the neck or at least nipple line) while drinking one of those fruity drinks with the cool umbrella top straws that are always advertised with with those tropical vacation advertisements ;-)

Day 4: Bench Press, Band Pull Aparts, Single Arm DB Row, Abdominal / Core

• A1) Bench Press 
  
  Warm-up: 1x7, 1x5
  Workout: 5x3
  
  Rest: 3-4 min for less advanced, 5-6 min for advanced lifters
  Tempo: 201 or 211
   
• A2) Band Pull Aparts
  
  Workout: 1-2x10 reps
  
  Set 1 done prior to the first warm-up set or between set 1 & 2. Focus on pinching the shoulder blades down and behind you, activating the scapular muscle groups, similar to how they should be during the actual bench press.
   
• B) Single Arm Dumbbell Row (opposite arm supported on bench)
  
  Workout: 2-3x8
  
  Rest: ~ 1.5-2 min
  Tempo: 201 or 301
   
• C) Abdominal/Core Training To be completed in circuit fashion (20-30 seconds rest between exercises fine); rest 2 min after completing all 3 exercises
   
• C1) Curl Ups or Kneeling Cable Pulldowns/Crunches- 2x 10-1, tempo 301   
   
• C2) Prone Pillar Planks: 2x 40-60 sec

Day 5: Squats, Walking Lunges, Abdominal / Core,

• A1) Squats
  
  Warm-up: 1x7, 1-2x5
  Workout: 5x3
  
  Rest: 3-4 min for less advanced, 5-6 min for advanced lifters
  Tempo: 301
   
• A2) No Specific "activation" exercise for Squat. However, if you have tight hips, doing kneeling quad-hip flexor stretch can help assist hip mobility. If needed, I go with ~ 6-8 reps with each leg, holding the end range of motion for 2 seconds before relaxing out of it and completing the next rep (if one side tighter, will hit it in a second set).
   
• B) Walking Lunges
   Workout: 2-3x8
  
  Rest: ~ 1.5 min
  Tempo: Between 211 or 201
   
• C) Abdominal/Core Training To be completed in circuit fashion (20-30 seconds rest between exercises fine); rest 2 min after completing both
   
• C1) Lateral Pillar/Planks 2x 40-60 sec  
   
• C2) Standing Cable Russian Twist 2x8; Tempo: 211 or 311

Day 6: Active Recovery day

1. 20-25 minute easy conversation pace on a bike
    
2. Stretching. 20 minutes, combination of static and dynamic (see above)
    
3. 15 minutes relaxing in a pool (submerged up to neck)

Day 7: Lazy Day

That's right; I said "Lazy Day", rejoin the normal population and simply relax. Mentally prepare for your following week of training. 

A brief note by Dr. Andro: Although I am sure Sean is going to chime in on all your questions in the comment area, you may also want to check out his website for more information on training and supplementation and consider using his services. Unlike me, Sean is a fitness professional and not just some stray physicist ;-)

Notes on "The Workout": Tweaks, Upper Before Lower Body & More

Image 4: Exercises like the squats or deadlifts, here performed by Arnold, are more taxing to your system and require longer recovery times. Than bench presses and other upper body work. This is why you will perform the upper before the lower body workout, so that the squats and deadlifts won't hamper your performance on the bench.

As mentioned earlier, we have placed the upper body workouts in front of the lower body lifts simply because upper body days are less stressful on a "system wide" basis. In contrast, the heavy lower body lifts (squat variation, deadlift variation) which involve the entire body have, at least in my humble opinion, a much greater carryover effect on your exercise performance, when you perform them on the day before your upper body workout. This is also, the reason that a rest/recovery day subsequent to each lower body workout is an absolute must.

In general, I will place the abdominal/core work at the start of the training day after doing the warm-up.  When the day's workout is so heavily focused around a single lift and you've been mentally gearing into it since the previous day, however, I like to hit this one first. Hence, during this particular strength phase the main lift is done right away and core done afterwards. The reason I mention this is that you will find the core work as the first element of your workout, so I deemed it necessary to give you an explanation for why I deviate from this principle, which, by the way, is another one from Ian King's book.

On the core lift, take whatever amount of warm-up sets you need to get your body feeling "primed" to start the work sets. While I did suggest reps/sets, you know your body better than I!

Important: As Adel mentioned on his previous workout templates (Hypertrophy & Health, Fat Loss). There is no template that will work for everyone. For the one I outlined above, one of the most convenient tweaks you can apply is simply flip day 5 and day 6 depending on what works best with your schedule.

You will notice that I have 1 set of an "activation" exercise of some sort paired with the primary lift for the day. An experienced lifter may not benefit from this to the same degree as a less experienced individual as they may already be efficient at activating these muscle groups.

Rest Periods for the Rookie & Advanced Lifters and Tempo Prescriptions

There are not a whole lot of exercises per day for a couple of reasons. First, we have long rest periods on the main lifts (4-6 min). If we do 5 work sets, you're looking at ~ 20-30 minutes on one exercise alone, plus whatever time is needed for the 2-3 warm-up sets. Longer rest intervals  (5-6 minutes) are needed for those with greater lifting experience. Most of the individuals I work with tend to be in the 3-4 minute range. Second, I want all of your attention focused on that main lift for the day. Previous lifting cycles should have taken care of support musculature, etc to allow you to thrive for a few weeks with lower volume. Remember, our goal here isn't necessary to add slabs of muscle mass. Rather, we're trying to make our nervous system more effective at using the slabs of muscle mass that we already have in place!

The tempos I have listed are suggestions only. The main focus is to make sure you're under control during the eccentric phase and pushing as fast as possible during the concentric phase. The use of the "0" or "1" at the isometric pause interval is dependent upon goals. If you're looking to take advantage of the Stretch Shortening Cycle effect to assist the concentric phase, make the isometric as short of possible. However, if you're looking to emphasize the concentric portion of the lift, take a 1 second pause during the isometric portion of the lift. Again this is just another variable you can manipulate based off your desired goals

A Note on Intensity, Weights, RM-Prescriptions and Your Form of the Day

Image 5: Your form of the day is important not only on the days of big meetings. Weight prescriptions in % of RM do thusly have limited value. If your 1-RM max varies from day to day, it should be obvious that whatever percentage of this 1-RM you may be shooting for will vary as well.

Although some people like to work off % 1RM's for all of their lifts, I tend to work more off how my body, or that of the individual I'm training is feeling. 1 RM's (3 RM's, 5 RM's, etc) are only an accurate measure of strength for the day that it was originally set. Let's say that someone is having a phenomenal day (solid night of sleep, promoted at work, the good looking guy/gal that they've had their "eye on" finally agrees to go out on a date with them, etc). More than likely their given 1RM will test amazing.

Unfortunately with the ying comes the yang. Let's say that 1 week later, this individual oversleeps their  6:30 AM alarm (while staying up to 2 am just to get their business papers completed), gets yelled at by their boss for arriving late and were told to "take a hike" from their significant other, etc. etc. In this case doing 5x3 reps at a predetermined X% of their 1 RM may be absolutely futile if they're already mentally and emotionally drained from all the other occurrences of the day.

Thus, as long as you give yourself a planned deload at some point in the cycle, I encourage you to base your rep weights off how you're feeling on a given day; Not off your 1RM from a previous point in time.

Post Work Regeneration – Are you serious…. There's More?

In one word – YES! Remember, you're only as strong as your ability to recover between sessions. Dr. Andro has discussed many nutrition protocols and supplements that assist with this process. Thus, I'm just going to touch very briefly on some of the non-nutritive strategies, of which you may not have read that much on the SuppVersity, as of yet:

• I have found that taking my muscles though gentle, slow stretches to "re-limber" the body to be quite effective.
• If at all possible, I also like to follow my workouts up by doing hydrotherapy. This can involve either contrast, cold water immersion, thermoneutral water immersion or hot water immersion protocols. I've written an ebook on hydrotherapy which may be of interest to some of you who are interested in the research and applied evidence on this topic (you can get it for free when you sign up for my newsletter).
• Massage, when done by a skillful hand, can be helpful as well. I stress the word "skillful" because some massage therapist seem to confuse, "let's bring the muscle tone back to healthy levels" with "I am going to press as hard as I can on the muscle until the client screams, call it Advanced Trigger Release Mumbo Jumbo therapy….". I've seen to many people actually have to back off their workouts simply because their massage was way too aggressive and they're still sore 3 days later. 
• Although I've never done it myself, I do know that some individuals swear by acupuncture and similar types of modalities.

Assuming that you have made it thus far in this epic workout template, I hope that I have been able to give you an idea of how a strength specific workout could look like. If you have questions, feel free to post them in the comment area, or just reach out to me either via the contact formula on my webpage or via Facebook!