Download The new trend in Bodybuilding

Bodybuildings Latest Scam.
By Fred Koch, P-SCE, Filipe Teixeira, P-PTS
That seems a strange title for an article, but this is another one of my pet peeves. The
new trend, scam, marketing tool is to train each body part one time a week. That is what
you read on all the web pages and in all the articles these days. Then I began working
with Filipe Teixeira, from Portugal who is a nutritional consultant and has a
biochemical background. I now found the guy to help me with the science of writing
this article. In this article we will take a step back and look at this new “training
method” and see if science and experience can give us a better incite in to this question.
Before I even start let me tell you what you will get from reading this article. A way to
train and get results twice as fast.
First we have to look at the bodybuilding industry and the people training. Magazines
and web pages have to print articles every month, so any new type of training gives
them another new subject to write articles around. The second and I think the most
obvious reason for this latest trend, is the bodybuilder himself. Let’s face it we all are
lazy. We want results a fast as possible with the least amount of work. This quick fix
mentality has been drummed into us for years by the magazines, and especially the
supplement companies. First was HIT, one set to failure the Nautilus type of training
was talked about for years. So when A NEW GET BIG AND TRAIN LESS METHOD
comes into view everyone is ready to jump right on it. We feel that this training method
of working one body part a week fits this definition perfectly.
Before we even get into the science of why this is wrong let’s take a look back at the old
days of bodybuilding. First there were guys like Steve Reeves and Bill Pearl. These
guys had no science to back them up, but they all trained about the same way, at the
beginning before formal gyms were open they trained each body part 3xs a week. Then
the next group like Pearl started to open gyms, they developed more equipment like
cables and pulley machines which gave them more ways to hit each body part. So they
began to train each body part 2xs a week. These early bodybuilders could feel the right
way to train from years of experimenting in the gym. Sure, as more and more money
came into bodybuilding some of the early guys did some steroids, maybe 3 months
before a contest, but training hard and eating good was always the way to the top. Then
as the years rolled by and the money got better and especially the drugs got better
bodybuilders depended more and more on the drugs for results and thus started to pop
up all these “new training methods” Do you seriously think any Pro Bodybuilder, did 1
set to failure and won the Olympia? People fell for it just for the same reason we are
talking about now. Thus we have the history of training. If you want to see the evolution
of what bodybuilders looked like through the years just go to the IFBB hall of fame and
see for yourself.
http://www.ifbb.com/halloffame/
Now let’s take a look at some of the science of the human body and what that says.
One of the reasons bodybuilders point out to train 1 body part a week is
glycogen repletion/storage. Well first of all, what is glycogen?
Glycogen is basically a branched glucose polymer. It is technically composed of
glucosyl residues, mostly linked together by α-1, 4-glycosidic linkages. In simples terms
it’s a macromolecule built of several glucose units. Glycogen synthesis depends directly
on a primer called glycogenin; this is a polypeptide of 332 amino acids that will regulate
your glycogen synthesis from regular glucose. 2 other enzymes come to play in
regulating your glycogen; these are Glycogen phosphorylase and Glycogen synthase.
When your body needs to use or store energy these are the prime players, remember that
both catalyze nonequilibrium reaction, and are subject to control by allosteric effectors
and convalent modification.
You can find glycogen in all body cells but it’s mainly stored on your muscles and liver.
Had to throw in some fancy words just for fun and to show the proof.
So how is glycogen stored? It’s stored more or less like this:
300g to 400g in muscle
70g to 100g in the liver
15g to 20g is basically your regular blood glycaemia.
You can conclude that you have more or less 1500-2080 kcal of energy in stock as
carbohydrates. Well that is quite some capacity to store energy, don’t you think?
So, what happens to glycogen when you train? Off course, it’s used… but how?
Apparently you can produce energy from high energetic compounds found within the
cell called phosphagen, to make this easier we are talking of ATP/CP (meaning CP,
creatine phosphate). The big problem is that you can only maintain your cell working on
this fuel until more or less 10 seconds (you aren’t using glycogen at this stage)… pretty
short isn’t it? Well, you will then have to use other source… in this case lactic anaerobic
system… Lactate is a way to produce energy regenerating (phosphorylation) ATP and is
converted through and enzyme called LDH (lactate dehydrogenase) you have all seen
this enzyme probably in your blood work. Basically it converts Pyruvate into Lactate
and allows you to produce energy from there.
A brief resume:
You can obtain ATP from 3 sources:
1-Anaerobic/alactic source (no glycogen, using ATP/CP)
2-Anaerobic/lactic source (using glycogen/glucose as fuel)
3-Aerobic source (using macronutrients).
All these 3 sources work together and overlap eventually. However time and intensity
will choose the most appropriate and dominant source.
In mammals you can restore ATP molecules from 3 physiological pathways:
1-Oxidation pathway (aerobic process using fats and proteins)
2-Glycolytic pathway----» Anaerobic Glucose (through the production of lactic acid)
and Aerobic Glucose (energy production using oxygen and glucose through the TCA
cycle)
3-Phosphagen pathway (using ATP/CP as energy source, at this point no oxygen or
glycogen is involved)
So… what do we have in bodybuilding? We mainly use Anaerobic Alactic System and
Anaerobic Lactic System, right?
Let’s see what science tells you about timing:
ATP/CP can be restored in 3/5 minutes
Lactic Acid in muscle and blood restored in 1-2 hours
Vitamins and enzymes require more or less 24 hours to be restored
Glycogen restocking in muscle can take until 48 hours in prolonged exercise, but in
strength training 24 hours should be enough.
Then comes the tricky part, which is the nervous system recovery. When you stimulate
a muscle the brain sends nerve impulses to perform contraction. Thus, the nervous
system also needs recovery. Neurological recovery can be attained in more or less 48
hours.
These are the two prime pathways of recovery. Then you add the testosterone/steroid
factors that will have a word on protein synthesis and of course recovery.
What about athletes who use steroids?
This has been something that has been raised, athletes that use steroids train harder, they
have bigger muscles, so they spend a lot more energy per training session. That is true.
However anabolic hormones (not only steroids) fasten your ability to recover through
several physiological mechanisms. So if you train harder, in simple maths you spend
more energy. However if you are training harder, but the same compound that makes
you stronger also makes you recover faster, doesn’t it make you energy
depletion/repletion turnover very close to a drug free athlete?
Oh ya, one more factor for you to consider, detraining. Detraining is when you wait too
long to train a muscle it starts to get weaker. Are you ready for this? The muscles start
to detrain after 5 or 6 days. So when you are training each body part one day a week
your body is starting to detrain, this means getting weaker before you train it again.
Ask yourself this last thing, would you run until you drop on the ground exhausted and
then wait a week and do it again and expect to get results?
We strongly believe that an athlete can fully recover in 24/48 hours especially a trained
bodybuilder with years of physiological adaptation. Remember, the more you stress
your body in one way, the more he will adapt. That’s why strength training has to be
cyclic to avoid plateau states. Your neurological system will adapt, your enzymes will
adapt, even your myosin gets thicker in order to force adaptation (this is pure chronic
hypertrophy).
What we have here is our view of this latest one body part a week method of training.
So to answer to question how I do get results 2xs as fast. Well, it is simple. Since you
now have a clearer picture that your body will recover for 2xs a week training, it only
stands to reason that with twice the workouts, your results will show twice as fast.
The routine we will be writing on in the future?
Day 1: Chest, shoulders, triceps
Day 2: Back, Biceps
Day 3: Legs, abs
Day 4: Chest, shoulders, triceps
Day 5: Back, Biceps
Day 6: Legs, abs
Day 7: Grow
Fred Koch, P-SCE is the International Director for Tudor Bompa Institute, TBI, one of
the world’s top certifications systems.
He is also Adjunct Professor of Theory and Methodology of Training at the Sport
University of Camaguey (Cuba)
Filipe Teixeira, P-PTS
Technical Manager-Body Temple, Lda
Director-The Tudor Bompa Institute, Portugal
Nutrition & Performance Department of The Tudor Bompa Institute
References:
[1] Devlin, Thomas (2010). Textbook of Biochemistry with clinical correlations. USA:
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
[2] Shils, Maurice et al (2006). Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease. China:
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
[3] Antonio, Jose et al (2008). Essentials of Sport Nutrition and Supplements. USA:
Humana Press.
[4] Ivy, John et al (2004). Nutrient Timing: The Future of Sports Nutrition. USA: Basic
Health Publications, inc.
[5] Yesalis, Charles (1993). Anabolic Steroids in Sport and Exercise. USA: Human
Kinetics.
[6] Bompa, Tudor et al (2003). Serious Strength training 2nd edition. USA: Human
Kinetics.
[7] Bompa, Tudor et al (2005). Periodization Training for Sports 2nd Edition. USA:
Human Kinetics.
[8] Baechle, Thomas et al (2008). Bioenergetics of Exercise and Training, in Essentials
of Strength Training and Conditioning. USA: Human Kinetics.
[9] Kadi, Fawzi et al (2004). The effects of heavy resistance training and detraining on
satellite cells in human skeletal muscles. J. Physiol. 558.3 pp (2004) 1005-1012.
[10] Kerksick, Chad et al (2008). International Society of Sports Nutrition position
stand: Nutrient timing. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2008,
5:17
[11] Blazevich, AJ. (2006). Effects of physical training and detraining, immobilisation,
growth and aging on human fascicle geometry. Sports Med. 2006;36(12):1003-17.
[12] Terzis G, Stratakos et al (2008). Throwing performance after resistance training
and detraining. J Strength Cond Res. 2008 Jul;22(4):1198-204.
[13] Dennis R. Taaffe et al (2009). Alterations in muscle attenuation following
detraining and retraining in resistance trained older adults. Gerontology. 2009 ; 55(2):
217–223.
[14] Nielsen, J. et al (2011). Human skeletal muscle glycogen utilization in exhaustive
exercise: Role of subcellular localization and fibre type. J Physiol. 2011 Apr 4.
[15] Casey, A et al (1995). Glycogen resynthesis in human muscle fibre types following
exercise-induced glycogen depletion. J Physiol. 1995 Feb 15;483 ( Pt 1):265-71.
[16] Pascoe, D. et al (1996). Muscle glycogen resynthesis after short term, high
intensity exercise and resistance exercise. Sports Med. 1996 Feb;21(2):98-118.