AITank: Fitness Explained

The past few years have been unkind to many of the world’s top athletes. Olympic hopefuls to MLB sluggers to Tour De France cyclists have all fallen prey to intense scrutiny as we seek to maintain the image of a pure natural athlete. I am not going to talk in specific about any one athlete in particular, but rather the culture of altering our bodies by way of non natural processes.

Everyone wants to be the best, be at the pinnacle of whatever sport or activity they may be participating in. We get it in our heads that to beat everyone else, we have to give ourselves a one up and this is where steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PEDS) enter into the equation. Sure there are side effects to their use, but they can be mitigated by incredibly careful, doctor assisted monitoring. What I mean is frequent blood work and hormone panels. 98% of PEDS users do not fit into this category. So why even decide to go that route? You are short changing yourself, determining that you will fail at achieving your goal without even trying.

Some will say, oh but I have peaked after one year of training. It has been a damn year you idiot. Even two or three still leaves you in the relative area of newness to lifting. You might know how to train better but as far as packing mass, you have not been doing it for all that long. If you are 6 foot 200 pounds, you have not peaked.

I am sure you have heard the term antioxidant thrown about everywhere from the back of your yogurt cup, to the tea you drink and the vegetables you eat, but do you really know what this class of nutrients does. Think of it this way, your body is a war zone and the soldiers at the front line are antioxidants.

What is fighting what you ask? Antioxidants are trying to rid your body of excessive amounts of free radicals before they start a chain reaction. This chain reaction, if unchecked, could cause a buildup of free radicals, leaving your healthy cells and tissue at the risk of being prematurely oxidized. Oxidation is cell death or in a worst case scenario a mutation. It occurs when a molecule in our body splits, leaving an atom with an unpaired electron. Bah I hate chemistry you say, well this is easy stuff to understand, and the effect is what we are seeking to understand. So now we have this rogue molecule wanting to steal electrons from other compounds… and well, it does. This electron stealing mayhem is oxidation, and the compound that was robbed then itself becomes a free radical. Now we see how this may be a problem so how do we stop it?

Well you will never eliminate all free radicals from your body, actually your body makes its own to help it break down complex bonds within certain nutrients. These are ok, it is the unchecked radicals we seek to destroy and for this we need Antioxidants.

Ever wondered why it is we get tired, sometimes to the point where we can no longer even move our limbs. Muscle fatigue is a topic of intense research and study as biochemists and biophysicists seek to explain what exactly occurs in our bodies that leads to such exhaustion. The 100 year old theory that fatigue is due solely to lactic acid buildup in the muscle cells has recently been contested as two newly discovered factors now are seen as playing roles in muscle exhaustion.Let me start off by saying that this is going to be a technical article, not terribly so, but more than you might be used to. Do not be afraid though, by understanding what is going on in our bodies we can then train in more efficient ways.

The lactate model of muscle fatigue can be summed up by saying that after partial depletion of our bodies glycogen stores, glycogen phosphorylase (the fight-or-flight enzyme) steps in to convert the now depleted glycogen stores into glucose, the basic energy unit for all cellular functions. This process is called glycogenolysis; after this occurs the resulting glucose is then converted to ATP or adenosine triphosphate, the basic energy unit for all metabolic processes. This is as far in detail as we need to go but what is important to know is that this production of ATP via the degradation of glycogen is very inefficient and the faster rate of the oxidation of glucose versus absorption of lactate results in excess lactate production.

All too often I am asked, “What should I be taking to help me get bigger ” and just as often to lose weight or get leaner. These people often times come prepared with a list of pills and and powders as long as a textbook. I sit there and wonder, can they really be serious. Often times they are, convinced by the marketing madness thrown at them by the major supplement companies out there. Well to those people whose breakfast looks like a bunch of pills and various powders, I want to hear this: have you seen any measurable progress towards your goal that you can attribute to this pseudo pharmacy you take in every day? If you can say yes to that question, please email me or leave a comment, I want to hear from you. Now to the majority that will have answered that question with a no lets start talking real sense.

There is one thing that almost all amateur fitness buffs forget to incorporate into their diet strategy and that is to take a good multivitamin. If you are active, you need more than the recommended daily allowance of almost all vitamins and minerals, and because of this multivitamins are essential. Having sufficient levels of vitamins and minerals promotes a strong immune system, steady metabolic processes, hormonal balance and mental alertness. They allow the food you eat to be utilized more effectively giving you the most out of each meal as many vitamins function as cofactors in the digestion of amino acids and carbohydrates. So what should you look for in a multivitamin? Mainly look for a complete pill that has all your vitamins minerals and anti-oxidants along with being low in iron. Two of the best out there are AST Multi Pro 32X and Twinlab Daily One. NOW also makes a very good multi-v, one for men and one for women named Adam and Eve respectively.

In later posts we will go in depth, and talk about individual vitamins and minerals, their effects on you, and then start talking specific supplements such as protein, glutamine and creatine.

A lot of people have been under the very ridiculous impression that eating as much protein as humanly possible will make them stronger. This is not how it works. You don’t have to gulp down 5 servings of whey at a time. You don’t have to eat protein bars before, during, and after your workout. In fact, EXCESSIVE protein will HURT you more than it HELPS you. The human body can only absorb a certain amount of protein before it starts going to waste (the cutoff is usually about 2 grams per pound of bodyweight, for serious bodybuilders - and in actuality is probably less, depending on your level of intensity). “But the more protein I eat, the bigger I’ll get!” This is true, but only up to a point, and after that point it just goes to waste. Apples are healthy but you wouldn’t sit around and eat an entire orchard in one sitting. Gulping down protein bars every hour is like staying up all night studying a subject you aren’t even taking.

Now that you know HOW MUCH you need, let’s talk about what KIND you need. There are different types of proteins as well as different qualities, and you want most of your protein intake to be high quality proteins. The BEST sources of protein are real foods, not manufactured products with sugar and fat thrown in to make them taste better. Peanut butter, chicken, turkey, salmon, nuts, eggs, milk: these are all great sources of protein. Rather than buying your groceries at GNC, grill up some chicken breast or boil some eggs.