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Introduction

Most people interested in fitness are interested in how their body composition stacks up against others.

Essentially, body composition is divided into “fat mass” and “lean mass”. Fat mass is pretty self explanatory, and lean mass is everything else (for example muscles/organs). Body composition is often correlated with the risk of developing certain diseases, and obviously shapes our appearance. Lower body fat levels are favourable for most endurance sports simply because carrying less weight is more efficient. In physique sports, body composition is also important due to the impact body fat and muscle mass have on appearance.

There are multitude ways to measure body composition, each with varying degrees of accuracy. Here’s my take on the two most popular options for at-home measurement of body composition: bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and skinfold measurements.

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA)

In a nutshell, these devices (often similar looking to scales) measure the electrical impedance of the body to an electrical current. Fat is less conductive than lean tissue. This will result in a higher level of impedance, corresponding to a higher result for body fat percentage.

Unfortunately, many variables affect the accuracy of a BIA measure…

Differences in hydration status can have a large impact on the variability and accuracy of the measurement and predicted body composition. As can the length of fast leading to the measurement, recent food choices, and recent exercise/activity (2). Also, prediction equations used in BIA devices to predict body composition are based off select populations (eg overweight, young and active, elderly), which can introduce error if you do not fit within the exact framework of the population used in the study validating the piece of equipment. There is also a large difference between required predictive equations for different ethnicities (3).

There is a large amount of variation between how accurate different brands/models of BIA equipment are (2), sometimes errors can be as large as 8-9%. As such (if you care to buy a BIA device) I’d recommend doing your research as to which current models have been scientifically validated with different equations available for different populations (age / ethnicity / activity etc).

A huge difference in appearance exists between 6% and 15% body-fat (relative to comparing 30% and 40%), reducing the worth of a lot of BIA measures when getting extremely lean – they aren’t accurate enough.

If you are using a BIA device to measure your body fat percentage for bodybuilding reasons, the error between measures can really throw things out. Coming into competition, a male will usually want to be between 3-6% body fat. Measuring body fat to the accuracy of 1% is probably not a task for most standard household BIA devices, so picture analysis is likely more useful at detecting when body-fat levels are reaching the “ideals” rather than relying on BIA measures. For an in-season bodybuilder, differences in 1-3% in body-fat look a whole lot more obvious than a difference of 1-3% when at a higher percent; for example comparing 37 % to 40%.

Due to the large error margin, BIA is better to be used over a long period of time to look at trends in predicted bodyfat, rather than one-off bodyfat measurements.

Due to the large variation in quality of BIA products with many not having been scientifically validated, combined with the variation in measurements caused by differences explained above, I do not usually recommend the use of BIA to analyse body composition for at home use, unless you reach all the criteria:

1. The device you use has been scientifically validated and you are using predictive equations relevant to you (age / ethnicity / activity etc).
2. You are carefully controlling hydration status at each measure (to be the same each time).
3. You fast for the same length of time leading into the measure.
4. Recent exercise / activity levels are same between measures.

Skin-folds

Bodyfat conversion tables or formulas based on skinfold measurements turn raw data from skinfold measures (decent information) into confounded data influenced by a predictive error (3). 

Even though I don’t recommend taking skin folds and converting the values into a body-fat % value, I think there is some merit in taking skin folds and using the raw data, as discussed in the following section.

What I recommend to track changes in body composition at low cost:

Does putting a number on body fat percentage really matter? If your goal is to lose fat and you’re losing fat, is putting a % to it really that meaningful? Sure, if you’re a competitive bodybuilder, you’re going to want to get within a certain range of body-fat (eg 3-6%), but measuring to that degree of accuracy is usually out of the picture.

Here are some of my recommendations for measuring changes in body composition. The key to all of these methods of measurements is that it is the trends over time that you should be worried about, not a singular measurement.

Raw data from skinfold measures

One recommendation (if you want some numerical data) is to take skinfold measurements. Just record the raw measures, don’t try and convert it into a percentage. To make comparisons between time points more accurate, ensure:

1. The skinfolds are taken at the same time of day (preferably morning prior to eating).
2. Each skinfold is measured 3+ times and either the mean (average of all the numbers) or median (middle number) is chosen.
3. The same person takes the measures (preferably someone who knows what they are doing!).
4. Ideally having eaten the same thing in the preceding meal (dinner the night before).

Pictures taken in similar conditions

Those being:

1. At the same time of day (preferably morning prior to eating) this reduces the influence that the prior meal can have on bloating & hydration status.
2. In the same room with the same lighting (curtains closed, lights on to reduce light variability).
3. Ideally having eaten something in the preceding meal (dinner the night before).

Trends in body-weight combined with performance measurements

A downward trend of body-weight over a decent period of time (1 month+) will almost always indicate fat loss. If gym performance is maintaining or improving, you can be pretty sure that muscle loss has been minimised therefore it would have been reductions in fat mass that would have contributed mostly to the bodyweight change.

Summary

As interest in the fitness industry grows, so do the number of fitness-related products. A lot of these make products make false claims to entice a sale.

Body fat and body composition analysers, for at-home use, are also often overpriced for how useful they actually are. Many people have the desire to know their own body fat percentage however many popular “at-home” methods are truly inaccurate and unvalidated. Do your research before purchasing any of these products!

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Please contact me here if you are interested in the nutrition and training coaching services I provide!

References

(1) Heyward VH, Wagner DR: Body composition and ethnicity. Applied body composition assessment. Human Kinetics. 2004, 135-172.

(2) Pietiläinen, K. H., Kaye, S., Karmi, A., Suojanen, L., Rissanen, A., & Virtanen, K. A. (2013). Agreement of bioelectrical impedance with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and MRI to estimate changes in body fat, skeletal muscle and visceral fat during a 12-month weight loss intervention. British Journal of Nutrition, 109(10), 1910-1916.

(3) Wells, J. C. K., & Fewtrell, M. S. (2006). Measuring body composition. Archives of disease in childhood, 91(7), 612-617.

Banner image: By JKSJks111 (http://www.bodybuildingacademy.org/Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Soreness the day after training is often perceived as a sign of a good, productive training session. This can last up to 7 days (1) but usually lasts between 1 and 3 days. This soreness is labelled delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

What Causes DOMS?

It was once thought that the buildup of lactic acid caused DOMS, however this is not the case. Lactic acid is cleared relatively quickly following exercise, usually within 30 minutes. Instead, exercise one is unaccustomed to results in disruption of the sarcolemma, extracellular matrix, and intracellular muscle structure (5) resulting in DOMS. This means that DOMS usually occurs the most at the beginning of a training cycle, when training volume (sets x reps x weight) is higher, or when different exercises have been implemented. Simply, when you start out a training programme, your muscles will damage to a greater extent and this will result in more DOMS.

Blausen.com staff. “Blausen gallery 2014“. Wikiversity Journal of Medicine. DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 20018762.

Adaptation to Exercise & Muscle Damage

Early neural adaptations are responsible for most of the strength gain at the beginning of a training cycle (8). Morphological (size) adaptations of the muscle tissue typically occurs a bit later. As DOMS is higher at the beginning of a training cycle, those in favour of DOMS as an indicator of muscle growth would expect muscle growth to be higher at the start of the training cycle when more DOMS is present. However this is simply not the case. The contribution of muscular hypertrophy to strength gain relative to neural adaptation increases further on in the training cycle (where muscle damage & DOMS is actually less present).

The study by Brentano & Martins (4) opposed the idea that muscle damage (and hence DOMS) was required for muscle growth. They stated that it may not be a useful indicator of long term muscle growth as low mechanical overloads over a long period of time can result in muscle growth, with little to no muscle damage occuring. Although not of resistance exercise nature, a study (7) was conducted on training programming on cyclists with regards to muscle damage and muscle gain. Training volume (main driver of muscle gain) was matched between groups. One group was exposed to a higher initial damaging bout of exercise, resulting in more muscle damage. The other group was eased into the training protocol, and reported lower exertion (ease of exercise) and less DOMS. Over the course of the study, both grouped gained equal muscular cross sectional area, despite one of the groups experiencing far more muscle damage and DOMS. Thus muscle gain still occurs without significant muscle damage, and so the associated DOMS should not be used as a sole indicator of a successful training session.

DOMS to this extent should not be the goal of your training!

Anecdotally, DOMS occurs more-so when training a bodypart less frequently. One day per week per bodypart more often than not results in more DOMS than when you start training more frequently, like 2 to 3 days per bodypart per week. Additionally, training each muscle group 2x per week compared to 1x results in greater muscle size improvements (9). DOMS has been demonstrated to reduce joint range of motion (2) and strength (3), as well as increasing risk of injury (10) in the short term. In my opinion, these are the main reasons why protocols resulting in excessive DOMS should be avoided; they prevent you from training as frequently, which could prevent you from gaining as much muscle and strength.

So what should I focus on instead?

Training progress measured by lifting more weight, doing a few more reps with the same weight, increasing number of total sets, or improving technique to make it more suited to the particular goal, should be the goal of most training sessions or training cycles.

Summary

Training, especially if unaccustomed to it, damages the muscle and you perceive it as soreness (6).

DOMS will occasionally be a byproduct of training, but it should never be the goal of a training session or used as an indicator that you are improving in muscle size. Focus on adding weight to the bar, adding reps, doing more sets, or improving technique, rather than chasing DOMS. That will lead to better long term gains.

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References

1. Armstrong RB. Mechanisms of exercise-induced delayed onset muscular soreness: a brief review. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1984;16(6):529–538.
2. Behm DG, Chaouachi A. A review of the acute effects of static and dynamic stretching on performance. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2011;111(11):2633–2651. [CrossRef]
3. Brown SJ, Child RB, Day SH, Donnelly AE. Indices of skeletal muscle damage and connective tissue breakdown following eccentric muscle contractions. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1997;75(4):369–374. [CrossRef]
4. Brentano, M. A., & Martins, K. L. (2011). A review on strength exercise-induced muscle damage: applications, adaptation mechanisms and limitations. The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness, 51(1), 1-10.
5. Byrne C, Twist C, Eston R. Neuromuscular function after exercise-induced muscle damage: theoretical and applied implications. Sports Med. 2004;34(1):49–69. [CrossRef]
6. Cheung K, Hume P, Maxwell L. Delayed onset muscle soreness: treatment strategies and performance factors. Sports Med. 2003;33(2):145–164. [CrossRef]
7. Flann, K. L., LaStayo, P. C., McClain, D. A., Hazel, M., & Lindstedt, S. L. (2011). Muscle damage and muscle remodeling: no pain, no gain?. The Journal of experimental biology, 214(4), 674-679.
8. Jones, D. A., & Rutherford, O. M. (1987). Human muscle strength training: the effects of three different regimens and the nature of the resultant changes. The Journal of Physiology, 391, 1-11.
9. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2016). Effects of resistance training frequency on measures of muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 46(11), 1689-1697.
10. Smith LL. Causes of delayed onset muscle soreness and the impact on athletic performance: a review. J Appl Sport Sci Res. 1992;6(3):135–141.

Before I start, this article is not to debate the evidence surrounding the safety of various artificial sweeteners. For that I suggest you go to the website examine.com. If you are worried about any specific ingredients in anything you consume, search it up in their to receive and objective, scientific view point (nutrition is a science, remember).

The Appeal to Nature

Artificial sweeteners get an unfounded bad reputation among many who assume that “unnatural” foods are the devil, and as such, any food with a long name must be bad for your body. This is called the naturalistic fallacy/appeal to nature. A bit about that..

“An appeal to nature is an argument or rhetorical tactic in which it is proposed that “a thing is good because it is ‘natural’, or bad because it is ‘unnatural'”. It is usually an invalid argument, because the implicit (unstated) primary premise “What is natural is good” typically is irrelevant, having no cogent meaning in practice, or is an opinion instead of a fact” – Wiki

It is possible to become obese and unhealthy through consuming only “natural” foods. I will admit that a diet aimed at weight loss will probably contain more “natural” foods like lean meats and vegetables, simply because they are usually more filling per calorie and contain great amounts of  micronutrients (& protein & fibre, respectively). However, there is still room for heavily processed, refined, man made, whatever-you-want-to-call-it, food products within our diet, and they may actually help us reach our goals in some cases.

Foods High in Sugar can be Positive or Negative within a Diet

From personal and coaching experience, I have learnt that when transitioning from a bulk (weight gain phase) to a cut (weight loss phase), the first foods to be emitted from the diet are usually those high sugar, low fibre, low protein: eg soft drinks, donuts, ice cream, lollies, etc. These foods can be useful for some individuals who need a lot of calories to put on weight (3000+), as these foods make it easier to reach desired carbohydrate and calorie intake without making you full. When the cut begins, calories/carbs need to be dropped, and so it makes sense that these foods are dropped. They also don’t offer much protein, which requirements increase as you lose weight (in order to spare muscle tissue).Whether foods high in sugar are positive or negative to a diet is dependent on context.

Consumption of these can be useful for SOME individuals struggling to consume enough calories to gain weight.

Easing the Transition into Dieting 

I recommend slow weight loss phases, whether you are prepping for a bodybuilding show or simply trying to drop some unwanted fat, a rough guideline is no more than 1% of body weight, weight loss per week. Taking it slow will help to conserve gym performance, and therefore muscle mass. It will also make the diet more sustainable, with less cravings & bad moods. Artificial sweeteners ease the transition from the weight gain phase to the weight loss phase. Replacing higher calorie deserts with options like sugar-free jellies, and soft drinks with diet drinks, our dieting attempts may actually feel less like dieting. We still get to taste the sugary taste which our instincts are wired to crave. This easy transition should increase dietary success through sustainability, so long as we still track our food intake to some extent as suggested in previous articles.

Key points:

• Just because a food does not appear in nature does not make it unhealthy.
• Keep dietary changes small to improve sustainability & long term adherence.
• Replace sugary foods with calorie-free substitutes when transitioning into a weight-loss phase.

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In the first part (here) I gave an introduction of flexible dieting. In this article I will show you an example of how flexible dieting is implemented in the offseason of a drug free bodybuilder, and compare it to a few weeks before competition. A bit of background: Tehezib (T) started contest prep (weight loss-get lean phase) for the 2015 season in March. He competed in five competitions between early August and late November.

Late January 2015 (80kg)

Mid September 2015 (72-75kg)

The lighting is different, but that’s besides the point. He obviously got shredded and contest-lean. He did this with no restriction on any foods. He ate whatever food he wanted, it just wasn’t always as much as he wanted. He tracked his calories, macros, and fibre and this along with appropriate cardio and training planning facilitated him to get this lean while retaining his muscle mass. For interest’s sake, I’ll give you some examples of his Myfitnesspal dietary entries from the off-season and from deep in prep:

This example MFP entry was from in the off-season prior to the weight loss phase (prep). Calorie intake was around 1000kcal higher/day than in the depths of prep. During this time, there was far more flexibility in quantity of foods eaten. This calorie intake was around 200-300 above maintenance, and enabled a weight gain of roughly 250g/week. Controlling calories around this amount (±200) ensured that T did not gain excessive amounts of fat, while also maximising rates of muscle gain. As you can see, he was eating all types of “unclean” “bad” foods yet still remaining at his calorie target, hitting ample protein to maximise protein synthesis, and eating enough fibre to maintain digestive health. More dairy products could have been incorporated as it looks like calcium was a bit low for this day, but this is only a small snapshot of his overall diet. His health, body weight/muscle gain, mental health, was all good following a diet like this without any crazy restrictions on particular food groups or foods. Note that his sugar intake on this day was 94 grams. This is above typical recommended daily intakes and far above guidelines of radical sugar restriction diets, but his health was completely fine. He is an athlete with improved blood glucose regulation, due mainly to an abundant of insulin-sensitive muscle tissue which can quickly soak up excess glucose from the blood stream. CONTEXT is important with diet, you simply can’t say sugar is bad for everyone.

This next snapshot of T’s diet was in the depths of contest prep where we were aiming to get him to stage-ready leanness while maintaining as much muscle as possible, and doing as much as we could do make him mentally sane and remain as healthy as possible (although it is unlikely to remain hormonally/mentally healthy during an extended period of leanness/calorie restriction.. simply what natural bodybuilding entails). His calories had dropped quite a lot since the bulking period. Note these dietary changes were not all made in one go, rather it was a gradual drop from ~3250 to ~2350. He was still consuming foods that he enjoys (just in lower quantities), while getting shredded. As you can see, sugar intake has dropped. This is because high sugar foods are often micronutrient, fibre void foods that don’t keep you full for the amount of calories that they have in them, which can lead to overeating calories (this is the main reason why excess sugar is associated with weight gain, and context is important). As T was restricting calories and getting extremely lean, his hunger was elevating. Thus, inherently he opted to eat more filling foods with his allocated calories and macros, which typically means less sugar.

Hopefully this gave you a good insight as to how a diet of a competitive natural bodybuilder changes from the offseason to contest prep. This particular diet is not intended to be copied and followed by anyone, as each individual often requires different calorie and macronutrient targets to get to their desired goal.

If you are interested in bodybuilding prep while still eating your favourite foods, or simply want to lose weight, please check out the services  page and get in contact with me.

-Jeremy

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  Most diets fail because of unsustainability. This is often because of particular food restriction or restrictions on entire food groups. In an instance where an individual doesn’t follow every rule laid out by a fad diet, they have no idea how to adjust the rest of their diet to accommodate the earlier muck up, and this can lead to a chain of binge/purge cycles. For example: worrying that the small bowl of ice cream you ate will completely stop your chances of weight loss for the day so you might as well go all out and eat the whole tub. This type of black and white thinking about nutrition can impede people’s ability to maintain a healthy weight once achieved (1). 

To give you a bit of background, flexible dieting AKA IIFYM (if it fits your macros) is a dietary strategy which has a main focus on reaching target macronutrient and calorie numbers by the end of the day. It does not directly discriminate between “good” and “bad” foods or “clean” and “unclean”. To do so is missing the bigger picture. These macronutrient and calorie targets are often set through trial and error as to how training performance and body weight/composition responds. If planned with health in mind, a dietary fibre target will also be present. Reaching a daily fibre target of around 25-40g/day (depending on caloric intake) will aid in gastrointestinal system health and help blood sugar levels stay relatively stable. It will also indirectly ensure that you are consuming a large amount of some of the micronutrients.. as most foods that are high in fibre are also high in micronutrients.

Flexible dieting means you don’t have to eat this for meal #2,3,4, and 5.

One huge misconception that people have about flexible dieting is that it gives you permission to eat junk food all day so long as it “fits the macros”. There is something inherently wrong with that idea. Suitable macros ESPECIALLY when someone is trying to lose a great deal of body fat, like during bodybuilding contest prep, will not allow a large intake of calorie dense, unfilling, “unhealthy” foods. For example, if you are eating 2000 calories per day of about 150g protein, 250g carbs, 50 fat, and 30 fibre, you simply won’t have enough room in your macro quota to fill it with pure junk. You would end up not reaching the protein or fibre target.

Thus, flexible dieting often involves eating a decent amount of typical “bodybuilder” foods like chicken and broccoli, just because these foods are of low caloric density and make you full for the amount of calories that they have in them. When you are on 3000-4000 calories however, there becomes a lot of room to fit in a wider range and quantities of foods you desire, just be sure to still hit the calorie, protein, and fibre quota for the day, eat some fruits and vegetables, and your health will be just fine. Remember, look at your diet and lifestyle as a whole to determine whether it is healthy or not, rather than nit-picking at smaller details in your diet like if you should put a teaspoon of sugar in your coffee or not. 

Big Mac(ros). Still possible to fit this into a diet of 2000 calories, but not recommended as it will use up a large chunk of your fat and calories for the day.

It IS possible to eat this and still lose weight and be healthy, just be smart and calculated with your dietary strategy.

Where it trumps other styles of diets is the flexibility that it has. It means you don’t have to be a social outcast and bring tupperware out to lunch with your friends. Not to hate against anyone who does that, just saying that it is unnecessary suffering. You can eat what you like when you go out, as long as you have a decent estimate of the macronutrient profile of the meal. Once you have used flexible dieting for an extended period of time, you will have a greater understanding for the nutrient profile of select foods, and will be able to eat intuitively without having to track calories/macros. That is the end goal.

In the next article I will provide a case study on a bodybuilder transitioning from deep in the off season, to late in contest prep, as an example of how a flexible diet changes when calorie and macronutrient targets change. Stay tuned!

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Nutrition for fat loss and muscle retention

Basic nutrition for bodybuilding/powerlifting

References

• (1) Palascha, A., van Kleef, E., & van Trijp, H. C. (2015). How does thinking in Black and White terms relate to eating behavior and weight regain?. Journal of health psychology, 20(5), 638-648.

A hot topic in the strength training world and the topic of my thesis is autoregulated training. We all have days in the gym where we feel like we could break PRs, and days where we’d rather not be in the gym. The essence of autoregulation is customising your training to how your body performs on a given day. If you are having a bad day, training load (weight on the bar) and/or volume (sets x reps x load) will be adjusted downwards, and vice versa for if you are having a good day.

Why autoregulation could be a way of optimising progression

Typical structured programmes involve plugging in a one-rep-max value into a formula and having it spit out training weights for you to follow for 2-3 months before re-testing. While this is a better way to train than programmes with no structure, there may be a more efficient, fine-tuned way of doing things long term.

Day to day fluctuations in strength due to fatigue and improving strength levels may affect the accuracy of prescribing training based on a one-off maximal value. Within a single day, strength can vary 10-20%, resulting in a variable amount of repetitions when using a fixed percentage of 1RM (3). Some training days may not provide enough stimuli for optimal adaptation, whereas others may provide too much stimulus resulting in fatigue that is not desirable for a particular stage of the training phase. The potential for strength gain in some individuals may be greater than a traditional programme can facilitate, as such a method of incorporating some form of autoregulation may allow rapid gains. These reasons justify autoregulation as a tool within programming as it allows an individual to increase strength at their own pace (4). Also, autoregulated programmes often result in a constant adjustment of repetitions which may prevent training plateaus (1).

Most studies on autoregulated strength training have been carried out on participants under rehabilitation therapy. There are a couple (1,2) that used a form of autoregulation on strength gain and found it to be superior than non-autoregulation within a periodised routine. More research needs to be done on autoregulation and maximal strength gain, as theoretically and anecdotally it appears effective. Another important aspect to mention is enjoyment. Long term progress is largely dictated by adherence, which is affected by enjoyment. If you find autoregulated programming more enjoyable, you may find it easier to stick to the structure of the plan long term and make better gains.

How to structure autoregulation into your training

There are multiple ways to do this. The most common method is that described by Michael Tuchscherer (right) on http://www.reactivetrainingsystems.com/. Basically, you rate the difficulty of each set on a rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale of ~5-10 as illustrated below.

Maybe you are in a scenario where you’ve been on a programme, progressing well, and you’re doing 5 sets of 5 with some weight which you could do 10 reps with if you really tried. Obviously it’s good that you’re progressing, but you may be able to progress faster AND have more fun with your training. This is how you could autoregulate things for a 5×5:

Aim for the first working set to be around RPE 7 (ie could have done 8 reps with that weight to failure). If you are having a great day, you might be able to do 5-10kg more than last week. Based on how difficult the set was, you adjust the weight up, down, or keep it the same for the next set. More often than not, with the main lifts (squat/bench/dead/row etc) you want to have one or two more reps left in the bank before you cease the set, due to the fatigue they can cause & the volume impeding properties of training to failure (refer back to previous articles). Keeping the RPE slightly shy from failure allows you to perform more volume, and the reps that you do perform will be with better form – essential for powerlifting and for injury prevention. So a suitable aim would be training to 5 sets of 5 at an RPE that averages around 8 across the sets.

The week after that you could do 5×5 at RPE 8 again. Perhaps this week you were getting sick or had elevated stress levels from every day life, affecting performance. Instead of attempting to progress from last weeks session and attempting a weight which you knew you would fail, it may be a time to tone things back a bit and still perform clean, effective reps. This is the usefulness of autoregulation: it individualises each day of training by day to day performance shifts.

There are so many ways of autoregulating training, this was just an example. It can take a bit of time to get used to accurately predicting how many reps you could do with a given weight, but it may be worth it long term. Ultimately, find whatever training structure you enjoy, and stick with it. Remember whatever allows you to increase volume over time most efficiently is what will give you the most gains.

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References

• (1) Mann, J. B., Thyfault, J. P., Ivey, P. A., & Sayers, S. P. (2010). The effect of autoregulatory progressive resistance exercise vs. linear periodization on strength improvement in college athletes. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(7), 1718-1723.
• (2) McNamara, J. M., & Stearne, D. J. (2010). Flexible nonlinear periodization in a beginner college weight training class. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(8), 2012-2017.
• (3) Poliquin, C. (1988). Football: Five steps to increasing the effectiveness of your strength training program. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 10(3), 34-39.
• (4) Siff, M. C. (2000). Supertraining. Denver, CO; Supertaining Institute.

Read this before the following article if you haven’t already 🙂

Drop-sets and super-sets are a mainstay in the routine of many gym-goers. However, the usefulness of these techniques in inducing muscle growth have been overrated.

This article will cover:

• an explanation of drop-sets and super-sets
• why they are overrated
• when they should be used

Drop sets often involve taking a set to failure (usually at around 70-90% of a one rep max (1RM)), followed by 1-3 more sets at descending weights which are taken to failure. The amount of weight being moved during the final drop set is often at an intensity (weight) of around ~30% of 1RM. Super-sets are when sets of two separate exercises are performed back to back with minimal rest in between. This is often done with exercises that utilise antagonistic musculature (for example bicep curls and tricep extensions) or with exercises which use similar musculature (for example squats and leg extensions). While these techniques have their merits and can be fit into a well structured routine, I feel they are often overrated in relation to other training variables.

Over-utilisation of drop sets results in huge amounts of fatigue and hinders performance on subsequent sets, making it difficult to do much work with heavier weights, frequently throughout the week. Sure, reps completed at a low percentage of 1RM while fatigued make you feel “the burn” and a pump (metabolic fatigue), and fast twitch fibre recruitment (both stimuli for hypertrophy), BUT this can greatly hinder your performance on a following set and thus hinder volume accumulation.  Large amounts of metabolic fatigue is a stimuli for muscle growth however inducing this should not be your main priority at the expense of volume performed at a higher % of 1RM. Sure, it makes you feel good afterwards and makes you feel like you’ve worked hard, but aimlessly performing drop sets is  simply not the best for long term progress. Your effort is better spent prioritising performing multiple sets at a higher percentage of your 1RM, slightly shy of failure. This will cause more mechanical tension, likely the main factor in driving long term hypertrophy (1).

When should drop-sets be used?

-If you are short on time in the gym, drop sets could be used effectively.

Two exercises that could be supersetted if you were short on time.

-For the final set of a training session where it doesn’t matter if performance is hindered after that. Thus metabolic fatigue can be achieved without total training session volume being hindered (the best of both worlds).

However, they are certainly not required for muscle growth, and should be used sparingly. The fatigue and muscle damage resulting from drop sets also needs to be managed so it does not influence the next training session in a negative way.

Super-sets which utilise different muscles (curls and tricep extensions) are fine to implement so long as you can maintain performance on both of the exercises when performing them back to back. However, super-setting exercises like squats and leg extensions, or lunges and leg curls, is counter-intuitive. The fatigue accumulated in the quads during leg extensions will greatly hinder your performance on squats, limit the amount of weight you can use and volume you can perform, and thus the stimuli from each lift may not be as great as you want. Form may also be affected, increasing injury risk. Therefore the positives of increased metabolic fatigue would probably not outweigh the negatives. For these reasons I would almost never recommend supersetting exercises which utilise the same musculature, when your goal is muscle gain.

The Take Home Message

Increasing volume over time in the main exercises (squats, bench, deads, overhead press, rows etc) is the most potent stimuli for whole-body muscle growth, and so should be prioritised, over fancy ways of fatiguing your muscles through drop sets and super-sets.

-Plan your training so that you can increase volume over time in the exercises that use the musculature that you want to improve.

-Utilisation of drop sets can be effective in aiding a little additional hypertrophy, when placed at the end of the training session so as to not hinder volume accumulation.

-Avoid super setting exercises which utilise similar musculature when your goal is muscle gain.

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Reference

• (1) Schoenfeld, B. J. (2013). Potential mechanisms for a role of metabolic stress in hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training. Sports medicine, 43(3), 179-194.

This article is written in the context of a weight trained male or female with a decent amount of muscle mass, trying to lose fat.

I felt this topic was worth writing about as I see countless people thinking that they have to make drastic dietary changes in order to see results. This often involves adoption of an extremist style diet such as paleo, keto, 0 sugar, or some other diet that involves a list of foods which you can and can’t eat. While these types of diet can and do work, for the short term, they are often unsustainable and so make long term progress difficult.

I do NOT advocate separating foods under “acceptable” and “unacceptable” labels like this!

Exclusion style diets are especially difficult to make continued progress with if quantitative (countable) calorie and macronutrient goals aren’t present. Why this is important is because energy and macronutrient content of a diet are the most important factors for weight change and body composition, NOT eating a select bunch of foods, or certain foods at certain times. This means tracking calorie and/or macronutrients (carbs,fats,protein) is important for continued progress. This article is not about arguing fundamental concepts of nutrition, though. I would advise everyone to watch the entirety of the Eric Helms’ Nutritional Pyramid series on Youtube if you haven’t already, it will inform or refresh you about what factors of a diet are worth paying attention to.

What Do I Recommend?

Firstly, before you attempt to lose weight, start to track every food you eat in a free online database such as Myfitnesspal. Do this for a week and average the data. This is in an attempt to gauge what your diet is made up from on average in terms of calories, carbs, fat, protein, and fibre.

The same week, weigh yourself at the same time of day (at least 3x per week but preferably every day) in the same conditions. Ideally in the morning after visiting the bathroom and in the same clothes/naked. This will give you a base weight to work from. Keep your caloric  and macronutrient intake similar for the week following this, and keep weighing yourself. Now, average week 1 weight and week 2 body weight and compare them. Over these two weeks keep activity & training consistent (ie don’t suddenly increase cardio by 2x during the 2nd week). You now should have some rough data about what a certain caloric intake does to your body weight.

For fat loss periods while maximising muscle retention, weight loss should be kept within ~0.5-1.0% of total body weight per week. More than this and you risk losing too much muscle, and a slower rate than this means you can probably get away with more fat loss without sacrificing much muscle. Now, in terms of macronutrient content of the diet, shoot for around 1.8-2.7g/kg of protein/day (1). The lower end of this range is applicable to most people. The upper range of this becomes more applicable when you are extremely lean, and are losing weight quickly (to maximise muscle retention). Fibre should be around 10-15g per 1000 calories consumed, which usually falls into 25-40g/fibre day. Carbs and fats can be whatever you prefer (within total calories). There can be arguments made for dropping one or the other more. Higher carb may help to spare performance while in an energy deficit and therefore preserve muscle, and higher fat will help with satiety (feeling of fullness) and so might make the weight loss phase easier. Your intake of one or both of these macronutrients will very likely need to drop throughout the weight loss phase, so drop whatever you prefer but keep fat at least 30-50g/day minimum for health reasons.

The food you eat doesn’t matter, it is the total caloric, macronutrient, fibre, and micronutrient intake at the end of the day that is important.

Cardio

track your cardiovascular exercise as well as your nutrition. The most replicable way to do this is to use a cardio machine and have a set goal per week of how many calories you want to burn through cardio. The calories burnt on these machines is not always accurate with what the machine says, but it’s usually consistent which is what matters. This makes tracking weekly cardio quantifiable, and you can adjust calories burnt per week through cardio upwards or downwards depending on what weight loss is doing. Do cardio post training or on rest days, low to moderate intensity is usually what I advocate so training is not affected. High intensity cardio can be useful too but space it away from leg training days. Remember cardio is this context is just a tool for expending more calories. Different forms of cardio don’t offer special magic fat burning properties over the other. You don’t have to do cardio, but it allows you to eat more and lose the same amount of weight compared to if you didn’t do it at all.

Track body weight changes with a graph. When your weight loss stalls (weight loss <0.5% of total BW each week for two consecutive weeks), add more cardio for example 500kcal/week extra, or reduce calories by another 100-200 through carb and or fat reductions.

Weight gain rather than loss, but an example of how weight should be tracked over time so accurate macronutrient changes can be made.

Hopefully you have a good grasp of how to effectively lose weight and remain healthy. Eat what you want within reason, hit suitable macronutrient and fibre goals, and eat 5 serves of fruit/veg day and that’s 95% of the dietary picture you need to worry about.

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Reference

• (1) Murphy, C. H., Hector, A. J., & Phillips, S. M. (2014). Considerations for protein intake in managing weight loss in athletes. European journal of sport science, (ahead-of- print), 1-8.

Everyone who trains wants long term progress. To efficiently achieve this, we need to understand what is important in a training programme and what is not.

Volume

Firstly, it must be understood that the main variable in dictating long-term muscle growth and strength, is an increase in recoverable volume performed, over time. Volume is the product of sets x reps x load, and should mostly be completed at >60-70% of your one rep max (1RM) when your goal is muscle/strength gain.. There are other factors which influence muscle growth, but improving volume performed between training blocks should be prioritised over goals such as “getting a pump” “feeling the burn” “raising the heart rate”. Not that these aren’t useful, they just aren’t nearly as important as volume. It is also more important than rep range utilised. An interesting study (4) found 7 sets of 3 reps to be as effective as 3 sets of 10 in increasing muscle size due to equated volume, going against the typical gym goer mentality of higher reps being superior for growth.

An increase in volume over time results in greater and greater mechanical tension on the musculature which is likely the primary factor driving hypertrophic (size) gains (3). For example, increasing your 5 sets of 5 squat from 100kg to 120kg would elicit progressive overload through increased mechanical tension, resulting in hypertrophy. The goal to increase the weight, sets, or reps (likely a combo of all of them) on the lifts that utilise the most musculature, should be the backbone of your programme, whether your goal is bodybuilding or powerlifting related.

As I stated earlier, the volume has to be recoverable. More is not always better. Too much volume can hinder recovery to an extent that compromises the next training session, and there is a cap on how much muscle you can synthesise from a single session. For example, 10 sets of 10 at 60% of your 1RM would be a huge amount of volume at a suitable percentage, BUT would almost always be too much to recover from in time for the next training session.

Frequency

After we train, protein synthesis and degradation are both elevated. Muscle proteins have been broken down, and new ones are being synthesised. In order to gain muscle, protein synthesis must be greater than protein degradation on average. Protein synthesis does not remain elevated to any significant extent 48-72 hours following a training bout of a particular muscle group. This means that drug free lifters would very likely benefit from training each muscle group 2-3x per week, rather than the traditional 1x/week advertised by professional bodybuilders and muscle magazines. 2-3x/week frequency has been shown as more effective for hypertrophy in research reviews such as (5).

Training each muscle group 2-3x/week allows protein synthesis to be elevated for longer periods of time throughout the week. A study (1) found 3 training sessions/week per muscle group more conducive of muscle gain than 1 session/week EVEN when volume was the same between groups. This illustrates the importance of multiple sessions per week per body part. 40-70 Repetitions per body part per session, while training each body part two or three times per week, are suitable recommendations for most drug-free trainees (2).

Summary

• Pay close attention to total training volume (recording it if late intermediate-advanced lifter) and control its increase over time to control your gains.
• Prioritise using more weight, doing more reps, or completing more sets, with the big, compound lifts.
• Train each muscle 2-3x/week to allow for higher average protein synthesis.

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References

• (1) Mclester, J. R., Bishop, E., & Guilliams, M. E. (2000). Comparison of 1 Day and 3 Days Per Week of Equal-Volume Resistance Training in Experienced Subjects. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 14(3), 273-281.
• (2) Helms, E., Fitschen, P. J., Aragon, A., Cronin, J., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2014). Recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: resistance and cardiovascular training.
• (3) Schoenfeld, B. J. (2013). Potential mechanisms for a role of metabolic stress in hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training. Sports medicine, 43(3), 179-194.
• (4) Schoenfeld, B. J., Ratamess, N. A., Peterson, M. D., Contreras, B., Sonmez, G. T., & Alvar, B. A. (2014).  Effects of different volume-equated resistance training loading strategies on muscular adaptations in well-trained men. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 28(10), 2909-2918.
• (5) Wernbom, M., Augustsson, J., & Thomeé, R. (2007). The influence of frequency, intensity, volume and  mode of strength training on whole muscle cross-sectional area in humans. Sports Medicine, 37(3), 225-264.

Being big and strong doesn’t mean you need to grow a big gut just to lift heavy weight. It’s becoming more and more common now days to see lean weightlifters and powerlifters who look like bodybuilders but also lift a tonne of weight. Ever wondered how they do it?

There’s a science behind the nutrition required for getting stronger. Sure, eating loads will get you results, but it will get you a belly along the way. Here’s the 6 most important tips if you want to optimise your nutrition to gain as much strength (and size) as possible while also keeping fat gain to a minimum.

1. Tracking your energy intake & expenditure

TRACK?! You mean get a little food scale and be one of those compulsive freaks?! Well yes and no. While you don’t need to be accurate to the T, knowing roughly how much energy you require on an average day can help you to easily manipulate your weight while not going overboard. This means slow gains/cuts which result in optimal strength gain and fat loss.

The way to lose or gain weight is determined by your overall energy intake in relation to energy expenditure, but lets dive a little deeper.

Energy intake

There are two common measurements for energy intake. These are kilocalories (kcal) and kilojoules (kJ). We’ll go by kcal as this is the most commonly used measurement.

Your overall energy intake is made up of macro-nutrients:

• Carbohydrates (CHO) (4kcal per gram)
• Protein (4kcal/g)
• Fat (9kcal/g)
• (& Alcohol (7kcal/g) (will not be discussed in detail in this article))

These are important to consider as each macro-nutrient type has a different effect on the body (as you can probably already tell based on their caloric values per gram). We’ll explain these a little later into the article.

Energy Expenditure

Many factors make up energy expenditure, but typically the only one we can manipulate is physical activity. This obviously includes any exercise or weight training you do, but can also include activity we don’t necessarily think about such as fidgeting you do throughout the day. These all add up to make a fairly significant difference to your overall energy expenditure.

So, how to I determine my own energy intake?

• Assess average energy intake through inputting an average day of your diet into a food diary (like MyFitnessPal)
• Weigh yourself every day under the same conditions (for example in the morning before eating/drinking)
• Compare the average week to week weigh ins

Following this, adjust energy intake slowly (increase or decrease 100-200kcal per couple of weeks) to get the desired rate of weight change.

2. Protein Intake

As I mentioned earlier, different macro-nutrients have different effects on the body. So lets start by analysing protein why it is important.

Adequate protein is required to recover from training and support growth/adaptations. Protein is also useful to keep you full (has a high satiety value per amount of energy they provide) so high intakes are particularly useful in a fat loss phase.

Remember, even though it is important to get “optimal” strength/muscle adaptations, it’s not as important as total energy intake!

So how much protein should you be having in a day? The recommendations are dependent on whether you are in an energy deficit or not:

• Balance (maintenance): 1.4-1.6g/kg (2)
• Surplus: 1.5-1.7g/kg (2)
• Deficit: 1.8-2.7g/kg (8)*

*Note: the upper end of the deficit range is highly speculative and not necessary unless extremely lean and in a large energy deficit. The lower to mid end of the range will be applicable to powerlifters/bodybuilders in a weight loss phase.

Surpassing protein recommendations may displace CHO (carbohydrate) intake to a level not optimal for supporting training and recovery (10), especially during an energy deficit.

Thus, it is important to have a protein intake around the range just discussed. Given the same energy intake, too much protein can be a detriment to training performance due to CHO displacement!

Assessing Protein Intake

Weighing out foods out and observing nutritional labels for each individual food is the most accurate option but can be tedious when you aren’t accustomed to it.

• Alternatively, you can estimate serving size and link it with the nutritional label (or tables such as below)and remember that serving size for future consumptions

3. Fat and CHO

Now lets discuss the other two important macro-nutrients: Fat and CHO (carbohydrates).

Fat and CHO for Strength Athletes
Fat and CHO, like protein, both contribute to total energy intake, thus their benefits will largely be a function of total energy intake.

The rough recommendations are for CHO intakes to be between 4-7g/kg (9)

Fat recommendations: a general population recommendation of between 20-35% of total energy will reduce likelihood of eating too much saturated fat, as well as allowing sufficient intake of essential fats (7).

There is a large amount of research regarding this area. We’ve just touched the surface as these general guidelines are really all you need to know for optimal strength training.

4. Nutrition around Training

Now that we’ve got overall energy intake out of the way, lets discuss the infamous pre & post workout nutrition.

Implementing scientifically based pre & post (in some circumstances) workout nutrition strategies may be helpful in maximising training performance and adaptation.

Total daily CHO intake is key, however some research shows a moderate to high amount of CHO consumed pre-workout may be useful in improving performance (1).

Like with CHO, total daily protein intake is key, BUT 0.4-0.5g protein per kg of lean body mass (will fall between 20-40 grams) in both pre and post workout meals is a fail-safe general guideline (1) to increase protein synthesis and reduce muscle protein breakdown. These meals should be consumed within 3-6 hours of each other (higher end of the scale if pre-workout meal is large) (1).

A pre-workout meal should be consumed between 1-2 hours before training. If the pre-workout meal is consumed 3+ hours before training, 25g+ of protein should be consumed immediately before training if possible.

If you are training following an overnight fast, a meal of protein and carbohydrates should be consumed post-workout.

A post-workout meal can be consumed between the time-frame of immediately following exercise up to the top end of the 3-6 hour separation range without a likely difference in anabolic (muscle building) response.

So is pre & post workout nutrition really necessary? Well it depends. It may have benefits in some circumstances, but it certainly isn’t REQUIRED.

5. Fluids

Fluids are important for survival and general health, but can also have a pretty significant effect on your strength training.

So what are we talking about here? Fluids, include plain water, as well as water derived from drinks and foods. That includes your large soda you got from McDonald’s (lucky for you).

Dehydration has been shown to significantly impair resistance exercise performance (6) .

Australia & New Zealand Recommendations (7):

• Men: 3.4L/day
• Women: 2.8L/day

These recommendations will obviously vary depending on amount of exercise and training you do since you will induce a greater amount of breathing and sweating.

An easy way to tell if your dehydrated is to look for urine which isn’t clear, however this is just a general guide and isn’t always accurate as urine colouration can be affected by a variety of things (even by the foods you eat).

6. Fibre and Micro-nutrients

An often neglected area of nutrition is fibre and Micro-nutrient intake.

Fibre

The main role of fibre is to keep the digestive system healthy. Fibre has also been shown to benefit diabetes, blood cholesterol levels and weight control.

Australia & New Zealand Recommendations (7):

• Men 30g/day, or ~38g/day to reduce chronic disease risk
• Women 25g/day, or ~28g/day to reduce chronic disease risk
• OR 10-15g per 1000kcal eaten

Increasing dietary fibre is linked with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

Source of fibre include: wholegrain foods, fruits and vegetables.

Like protein, high fibre intakes can assist with satiety making it more difficult to overeat, so can be extremely useful when attempting to lose fat.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, in the situation where appetite is a barrier to weight gain, an amount of low fibre low satiety value foods should be eaten in order to ensure total energy intake targets are hit. i.e. it is OK, and even a good idea in some circumstances, to eat your favourite “unhealthy” foods in order to hit your caloric and macronutrient targets, so long as you are not ignoring the importance of fibre and micronutrients (as discussed below). No, eating ice cream, lollies, or chips will not have a negative effect on your performance or body composition goals, so long as you are still achieving daily energy intake, macro & micro-nutrient goals!

Micro-nutrients

Micro-nutrients are vitamins and minerals you get from the foods you eat. Some food are more micro-nutrient dense than others, like fruits and vegetables.

Micro-nutrients give you many benefits depending on the vitamin or mineral, but to keep it simple, will maintain your overall health.

A diet aimed at maintaining optimal health and therefore performance should incorporate fruits and vegetables as well as a suitable intake of wholegrain foods within your energy goals.

An example of micro-nutrient importance: a low calcium intake can cause bone density to be lost, particularly when the diet is high in protein such as the diets of strength athletes. (3)

Summary

So hopefully, with these 6 important nutrition tips, you are now convinced that it’s possible (and pretty easy) to gain muscle & strength without growing a big gut. It’s not about nit-picking at little details in your diet, it’s about having a holistic view point and understanding what’s most important. Be a new age strength athlete, and optimise you nutrition using science for the best results possible!

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References

• (1) Aragon, A. A., & Schoenfeld, B. J. (2013). Nutrient timing revisited: is there a post-exercise anabolic window. J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 10(1), 5.
• (2) Beals, K. A., & Mitchell, A. (2013). Recent Recommendations and Current Controversies in Sport Nutrition. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 1559827613513410.
• (3) Dawson-Hughes, B. (2003). Interaction of dietary calcium and protein in bone health in humans. The Journal of nutrition, 133(3), 852S-854S.
• (4) Helms, E. R., Aragon, A. A., & Fitschen, P. J. (2014). Evidence-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding contest preparation: nutrition and supplementation. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 11(1), 20.
• (5) Helms, E. R., Zinn, C., Rowlands, D. S., & Brown, S. R. (2013). A Systematic Review of Dietary Protein During Caloric Restriction in Resistance Trained Lean Athletes: A Case for Higher Intakes. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism.
• (6) Judelson, D. A., Maresh, C. M., Farrell, M. J., Yamamoto, L. M., Armstrong, L. E., Kraemer, W. J., … &Anderson, J. M. (2007). Effect of hydration state on strength, power, and resistance exercise performance. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 39(10), 1817.
• (7) Ministry of Health. (2005). Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand. Canberra, Australia: NHMRC, Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Health.
• (8) Murphy, C. H., Hector, A. J., & Phillips, S. M. (2014). Considerations for protein intake in managing weight loss in athletes. European journal of sport science, (ahead-of- print), 1-8.
• (9) Slater, G., & Phillips, S. M. (2011). Nutrition guidelines for strength sports: sprinting, weightlifting, throwing events, and bodybuilding. Journal of sports sciences, 29(sup1), S67-S77.
• (10) Tipton, K. D. (2011). Efficacy and consequences of very-high-protein diets for athletes and exercisers. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 70(02), 205-214.
• (11) Turocy, P. S., DePalma, B. F., Horswill, C. A., Laquale, K. M., Martin, T. J., Perry, A. C., … & Utter, A. C. (2011). National athletic trainers’ association position statement: safe weight loss and maintenance practices in sport and exercise. Journal of athletic training, 46(3), 322-336.
• (12) Volek, J. S., Forsythe, C. E., & Kraemer, W. J. (2006). Nutritional aspects of women strength athletes. British journal of sports medicine, 40(9), 742-748.
• (13) Zourdos, M. C. (2012). Physiological responses to two different models of daily undulating periodization in trained powerlifters.