Is Fatigue All in Your Head?

By Steven Shocki, Alki X Gym trainer

Inspired by a recent review done by Timothy Noakes, an exercise physiologist out of South Africa, I will be discussing what is to me at least, a relatively new model of fatigue.

In school I was taught that exercise induced fatigue was purely a failure of the muscular system to maintain a given intensity of work. This idea was based on of a number of studies performed in the early 1900’s that seemed to show that cessation (termination) of exercise was the result of an oxygen deficit in the working muscles, specifically in the heart. So what this model proposes is that at a certain intensity of exercise oxygen can no longer be delivered to the heart at the rate it is being consumed. In order to protect the heart from essentially having a heart attack, there would then be a slowing of the heart rate in order to reduce its oxygen consumption, which would result in less blood to the muscles, which would ultimately result in the termination of the exercise. This is what I was taught, and it makes sense at first glance.

Noakes however, raises the question that something must be controlling the heart rate and causing it to slow down in order to protect itself from what he calls a “catastrophic failure”, or in other words, to protect homeostasis (the status quo of the body). By bringing the idea of homeostasis into the picture, things have gotten a lot more interesting, because one of the things that we are finding more and more is that when it comes to matters of homeostasis, the brain is almost always the one regulating it. And if the brain is indeed limiting exercise, this has powerful implications for the current model of fatigue because it would then no longer be purely a muscular issue, but rather one that also includes the brain. Noakes refers to this as the “governor hypothesis”, because there is something (in this case the brain) that is governing the intensity of the exercise and limiting it accordingly.

                Noakes goes into a lot more detail, but I will highlight what pertains to us in the gym. First, and this is what is really important, is that your mental state greatly affects your physical performance. He lists a number of factors that he believes play a role in how soon fatigue sets in, including: emotional state, mental fatigue, sleep deprivation, state of recovery from previous exercise session, as well as a bunch of other factors.  

In fact, in 2009 a study was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology displaying this. They had subjects perform a test meant to mentally fatigue them, and they then tested their performance on an exercise bike. With no differences in physiological parameters the subjects all performed worse after having gone through the mental fatigue exercise (Marcora, 2009). I think this really coincides with my experience working out and training in the X Gym; I can usually tell when someone has a lot going in their life outside the gym because it affects their performance in the workout.

When you think about it, there is nothing that is making them physically weaker, yet they often fatigue out faster or simply don’t have the will to keep going. More important than this though, is that while all these factors will certainly make your workout seem harder, in the end what really determines how you perform is whether or not you choose to do well. Noakes gives the example of distance runners sprinting to finish a race. Logically you would think that at the end of a long race you wouldn’t have much energy left and you should theoretically be at your slowest. But this is never the case is it? We always see the runners go even harder at the very end. What changed was their motivation.

If you can find ways to motivate yourself to push through the pain, you will. No matter how bad your day was, if you can find something positive about your workouts to focus on, not only will you fatigue slower, according to these studies there will actually be less pain as well. And that to me is the big take home message: approach your workouts with a positive attitude to get the most out of them.

 I’m not saying you have to get super excited and love everything about them, but just try to have a good attitude towards the whole thing. If all you focus on is the pain, then guess what: it is probably going to hurt. Everyone has it in them to be tough and to be disciplined. Like everything, it just takes practice. So, keep practicing! 

Forget Everything You Thought You Knew About Lactic Acid...

Research review by Alki X Gym trainer Aaron Wagar

“Lactate—a signal coordinating cell and systemic function”

Andrew Philip, Adam L. Macdonald, & Peter W. Watt

For many years, the scientific, medical, athletic communities and the general population have accepted the fact that lactate is a just a by-product created by exercising muscle fibers.

It was first theorized to be the reason for delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), the feeling of pain and stiffness the day after a hard workout (or sometimes for up to 4 days after). This theory was proven wrong by a well-controlled study where participants were randomly assigned to 2 different groups. One group, which I will call the Lactate Group (LG), ran “up” an incline treadmill and the other group, the Sore Group (SG) ran “down a decline treadmill. Interestingly, the LG group accumulated the most lactate in the muscles, yet the SG was the group to feel significantly more soreness. Apparently, we got that one wrong.

Next, researchers came up with the “lactate-induced-fatigue theory.” Research dating to way back in the day (early 1900’s) has been correlating increased muscle and blood lactate with fatigue, or exhaustion. As more researchers looked into it, the clearer it became, apparently. Lactate is at its highest peak at or just following exhaustion, therefore lactate is the cause of fatigue, right? Wrong. This evidence is only correlational. Lactate does indeed accumulate as exercise intensity increases, and lactate levels are at their highest right around exhaustion, but this does not mean that the lactate is necessarily causing the fatigue. Much research around the subject has been done, and many theories have been tested as to how a muscle reaches fatigue and what exactly the role of lactate is in this process.

A major hypothesis in muscle exhaustion during the 1920’s and 1930’s was the Oxygen Debt hypothesis. This hypothesis was accepted after Hill, with his colleagues and Meyerhof et al.’s research in 1924 showed that lactate increased dramatically once exercise intensity became so great that enough oxygen was not be delivered to the exercising muscle. This led to the Anaerobic Threshold concept in the 1980’s. However, research has confirmed that lactate production is not associated with hypoxia (decreased O2 levels), or to put it in layman’s terms - running out of oxygen, which is one of the main endurance fuel components for muscles.

Although many scientific breakthroughs occurred during the 1980’s and early 1990’s, most researchers still assumed that lactate was at least in part responsible for muscle fatigue. Researchers came up with a new hypothesis—“intracellular lactate acidification” was most likely responsible for the reduction in force production (fatigue) observed in earlier studies. Basically the researchers hypothesized that the environment within the muscle cells was becoming too acidic (due to lactate production) that muscle contraction force was compromised.

In the mid 90’s to early 2000’s studies were published that seemed to show that lactate ions were not responsible for a decreased muscle contraction force. In fact, the effect of acidosis in muscle fatigue is questioned by many, and recent biochemical evidence suggests that lactate might retard intracellular acidosis, which if anything would delay the onset of fatigue and therefore help to improve endurance!

Further, research done in vitro (meaning in a lab using human or animal tissue) and in live rats have suggested that lactate might indeed contribute to increased force production. In an experiment by Nielsen et al. (2001), the reduction in contraction force in isolated muscle fibers caused by elevated potassium (K+) was almost completely reversed following the injection of lactate. Adding to these findings are the findings of Pedersen and colleagues (2004), which suggest that lactate “delays the onset of muscle fatigue by maintaining the excitability of muscle tissue.” However, both studies were done in vitro therefore it is hard to establish what is actually happening during live exercise.

Other evidence seems to suggest that lactate might play a role in the switch from fat to glucose utilization during periods of high-intensity exercise. Scientists found that lactate can also be reconverted to fuel. (It is actually the preferred fuel source for cardiac muscle). Moreover, following the observations of an in vivo (living human beings) study, researchers concluded that lactate seems to have a glucose-sparring effect. This could allow for glucose stores to be maintained (or at least utilization be slowed) during periods of increased exercise intensity, also contributing to delayed fatigue.

The notion that lactate accumulation causes pain during exercise (the feared quad burn), has been preached for a long time. I heard it, believed it, and even propagated it because I didn’t know any better until now. We all assumed that since it feels like acid burning the muscle, it must be from lactic acid, since we knew that was building up at the time. What I have found however, it that there is no direct scientific evidence supporting this assumption.

In fact, studies in which lactate was directly infused during exercise trials concluded that increased lactate has no effect on perceived effort or in the initiation of pain in muscle or joints. However, new research shows that lactate may influence and even modulate nociceptive sensation via acid-sensitive ion channels (ASIC). In other words, lactate may make certain nerve cells more sensitive to what is happening in the exercising muscle. These cells, in turn, send signals to the brain to cease exercise if the intensity becomes too great and they feel that injury is a risk. However, this has only been observed in vitro and the effects in live exercise have yet to be confirmed. What we do know is that lactate itself is not the direct cause of the “burn” pain during exercise.

To end on an exciting note, lactate may actually act as a pseudo-hormone. Studies have observed that lactate induces a pseudo-hypoxic state, which means that the cells’ environment appears hypoxic (low oxygen) but there is plenty of oxygen available. This pseudo-hypoxic state seems to stimulate tissue growth and repair (especially collagen deposition and increased blood vessels). Moreover, it seems to act as a signal for catecholamine release which regulates (usually adding to) the vasodilation effects and resulting circulation increases of active muscle tissue). Further, some ­in vitro studies have observed anti-oxidant effects of lactate as it bound free radicals.

In conclusion, the role of lactate during high intensity exercise is far from being fully understood. It most likely acts to delay fatigue (instead of cause it like we previously thought) It also increases or at least maintains force production in the active muscle (instead of decreasing force production as we previously thought). Additionally, it increases nerve and blood flow to and from the active tissue. The hormone-like effects of lactate are not clear and more research (especially in vivo) is warranted, however, lactate seems to be quite an impressive by-product, helping us to perform better, stronger and longer instead of the opposite as previously believed.

On a more anecdotal note, this could help explain why some runners perform at their best 1 or 2 days after a stair-climbing race. Stair-climbing is extremely intense and, just like in the “uphill” lactate group, it induces an incredible amount of lactate production. This increased blood-lactate circulation might be the key to their improved performance the next day.

For those of us merely trying to endure and improve our weight-training sessions at the X Gym, I am still undecided as to which strategy of lactate employment is best. Doing high intensity cardio (i.e www.tabataprotocol.com) the day before weight training could possibly increase force production during weight training. Performing high intensity cardio after weight training could produce recovery benefits. Over-loading the muscle with too much training however, could be detrimental to both force and recovery, and increases the risk of overuse symptoms. For now, I would recommend one high intensity cardio session per week after weight training. This will prevent the sprint training from negatively interfering with your physical and mental state during weight training, but could still likely aid in recovery.

Forget Everything You Thought You Knew About Lactic Acid...

Research review by Alki X Gym trainer Aaron Wagar

“Lactate—a signal coordinating cell and systemic function”

Andrew Philip, Adam L. Macdonald, & Peter W. Watt

For many years, the scientific, medical, athletic communities and the general population have accepted the fact that lactate is a just a by-product created by exercising muscle fibers.

It was first theorized to be the reason for delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), the feeling of pain and stiffness the day after a hard workout (or sometimes for up to 4 days after). This theory was proven wrong by a well-controlled study where participants were randomly assigned to 2 different groups. One group, which I will call the Lactate Group (LG), ran “up” an incline treadmill and the other group, the Sore Group (SG) ran “down a decline treadmill. Interestingly, the LG group accumulated the most lactate in the muscles, yet the SG was the group to feel significantly more soreness. Apparently, we got that one wrong.

Next, researchers came up with the “lactate-induced-fatigue theory.” Research dating to way back in the day (early 1900’s) has been correlating increased muscle and blood lactate with fatigue, or exhaustion. As more researchers looked into it, the clearer it became, apparently. Lactate is at its highest peak at or just following exhaustion, therefore lactate is the cause of fatigue, right? Wrong. This evidence is only correlational. Lactate does indeed accumulate as exercise intensity increases, and lactate levels are at their highest right around exhaustion, but this does not mean that the lactate is necessarily causing the fatigue. Much research around the subject has been done, and many theories have been tested as to how a muscle reaches fatigue and what exactly the role of lactate is in this process.

A major hypothesis in muscle exhaustion during the 1920’s and 1930’s was the Oxygen Debt hypothesis. This hypothesis was accepted after Hill, with his colleagues and Meyerhof et al.’s research in 1924 showed that lactate increased dramatically once exercise intensity became so great that enough oxygen was not be delivered to the exercising muscle. This led to the Anaerobic Threshold concept in the 1980’s. However, research has confirmed that lactate production is not associated with hypoxia (decreased O2 levels), or to put it in layman’s terms - running out of oxygen, which is one of the main endurance fuel components for muscles.

Although many scientific breakthroughs occurred during the 1980’s and early 1990’s, most researchers still assumed that lactate was at least in part responsible for muscle fatigue. Researchers came up with a new hypothesis—“intracellular lactate acidification” was most likely responsible for the reduction in force production (fatigue) observed in earlier studies. Basically the researchers hypothesized that the environment within the muscle cells was becoming too acidic (due to lactate production) that muscle contraction force was compromised.

In the mid 90’s to early 2000’s studies were published that seemed to show that lactate ions were not responsible for a decreased muscle contraction force. In fact, the effect of acidosis in muscle fatigue is questioned by many, and recent biochemical evidence suggests that lactate might retard intracellular acidosis, which if anything would delay the onset of fatigue and therefore help to improve endurance!

Further, research done in vitro (meaning in a lab using human or animal tissue) and in live rats have suggested that lactate might indeed contribute to increased force production. In an experiment by Nielsen et al. (2001), the reduction in contraction force in isolated muscle fibers caused by elevated potassium (K+) was almost completely reversed following the injection of lactate. Adding to these findings are the findings of Pedersen and colleagues (2004), which suggest that lactate “delays the onset of muscle fatigue by maintaining the excitability of muscle tissue.” However, both studies were done in vitro therefore it is hard to establish what is actually happening during live exercise.

Other evidence seems to suggest that lactate might play a role in the switch from fat to glucose utilization during periods of high-intensity exercise. Scientists found that lactate can also be reconverted to fuel. (It is actually the preferred fuel source for cardiac muscle). Moreover, following the observations of an in vivo (living human beings) study, researchers concluded that lactate seems to have a glucose-sparring effect. This could allow for glucose stores to be maintained (or at least utilization be slowed) during periods of increased exercise intensity, also contributing to delayed fatigue.

The notion that lactate accumulation causes pain during exercise (the feared quad burn), has been preached for a long time. I heard it, believed it, and even propagated it because I didn’t know any better until now. We all assumed that since it feels like acid burning the muscle, it must be from lactic acid, since we knew that was building up at the time. What I have found however, it that there is no direct scientific evidence supporting this assumption.

In fact, studies in which lactate was directly infused during exercise trials concluded that increased lactate has no effect on perceived effort or in the initiation of pain in muscle or joints. However, new research shows that lactate may influence and even modulate nociceptive sensation via acid-sensitive ion channels (ASIC). In other words, lactate may make certain nerve cells more sensitive to what is happening in the exercising muscle. These cells, in turn, send signals to the brain to cease exercise if the intensity becomes too great and they feel that injury is a risk. However, this has only been observed in vitro and the effects in live exercise have yet to be confirmed. What we do know is that lactate itself is not the direct cause of the “burn” pain during exercise.

To end on an exciting note, lactate may actually act as a pseudo-hormone. Studies have observed that lactate induces a pseudo-hypoxic state, which means that the cells’ environment appears hypoxic (low oxygen) but there is plenty of oxygen available. This pseudo-hypoxic state seems to stimulate tissue growth and repair (especially collagen deposition and increased blood vessels). Moreover, it seems to act as a signal for catecholamine release which regulates (usually adding to) the vasodilation effects and resulting circulation increases of active muscle tissue). Further, some ­in vitro studies have observed anti-oxidant effects of lactate as it bound free radicals.

In conclusion, the role of lactate during high intensity exercise is far from being fully understood. It most likely acts to delay fatigue (instead of cause it like we previously thought) It also increases or at least maintains force production in the active muscle (instead of decreasing force production as we previously thought). Additionally, it increases nerve and blood flow to and from the active tissue. The hormone-like effects of lactate are not clear and more research (especially in vivo) is warranted, however, lactate seems to be quite an impressive by-product, helping us to perform better, stronger and longer instead of the opposite as previously believed.

On a more anecdotal note, this could help explain why some runners perform at their best 1 or 2 days after a stair-climbing race. Stair-climbing is extremely intense and, just like in the “uphill” lactate group, it induces an incredible amount of lactate production. This increased blood-lactate circulation might be the key to their improved performance the next day.

For those of us merely trying to endure and improve our weight-training sessions at the X Gym, I am still undecided as to which strategy of lactate employment is best. Doing high intensity cardio (i.e www.tabataprotocol.com) the day before weight training could possibly increase force production during weight training. Performing high intensity cardio after weight training could produce recovery benefits. Over-loading the muscle with too much training however, could be detrimental to both force and recovery, and increases the risk of overuse symptoms. For now, I would recommend one high intensity cardio session per week after weight training. This will prevent the sprint training from negatively interfering with your physical and mental state during weight training, but could still likely aid in recovery.

What is better? Low weight HIT or high weight HIT?

By Shephen Shocki, Alki X Gym trainer.

This HIT (High Intensity Training) study was performed by Canadian researchers, looking to show the differences in muscle protein synthesis (an indicator of muscle growth), as well as a few other indicators of muscle growth. They used healthy college aged men and had them perform either light weight exercise (low load, high volume) to failure or heavy weight exercise (high load, low volume) to failure. They also had a group match the amount of work they did to the heavy group, which means that they calculated the amount of work done (repetitions X load) in the heavy group and then had the work-matched group (WM) perform a higher number of reps with a lighter weight until they had reached the same level of work, just without muscle failure. While that group did see increases in muscle protein synthesis, they weren’t anywhere near the levels seen in the other two groups so I won’t be talking about the WM much.

In a nut shell, the study showed that working until failure produced a greater increase in all metrics when compared to the non-failure group. So that’s good for X Gymers, because this shows that our style causes more muscle protein synthesis, which means more muscle toning. Interestingly, in the heavy group, muscle protein synthesis was the highest initially, but when you looked at 24 hours after the exercise, the light weight group was the only one who sustained their elevated levels. So while going really heavy gives you more benefit initially, those levels aren’t sustained. Whereas in the light weight group, levels remained elevated at 24 hours and probably stayed elevated for longer than that, seeing as how MYO synthesis was still elevated 199% at 24 hours post exercise!

Side note: they differentiate between two kinds of protein synthesis: myofibrillar (MYO) vs. sarcoplasmic (SARC). MYO protein synthesis is the creation of new contractile fibers (actin and myosin), which means you are getting an increase in tone as well as strength. SARC is more characteristic of fluid being pulled into the muscles, which results in an increase in tone but not necessarily strength.

Because both the light and heavy groups reached failure, they both saw big increases in protein synthesis, but what explains the difference between the two groups? The authors attributed it to the total volume of the work done. The lightweight group did ~ 92 reps, and the heavy group did ~19. This shows pretty clearly that heavy weights/low reps is not the most effective way to tone muscle, but that light weight high volume (so either high number of reps or a high time under load, as is the case with X Gym style training) is more effective. While the heavier load did produce greater increases in certain metrics they were never sustained, and the lightweight group ultimately saw a greater increase when time is factored in. This is especially true with the X Gym style, which takes even less time than the style of workout used in this study.

So how does this apply to us? Well, considering our style of training would fall into the low load, high volume group I would say it applies quite a bit. Mainly this is a great tool to explain to clients exactly why it is that our style works so well. You could say that the evidence supports that high volume training to failure results in the greatest increases in protein synthesis, which means the greatest increases in tone and strength. You can explain that the muscle failure gives you the bulk of the benefit, but the lightweight and high load we use adds additional benefits.

Side note: One of the things the authors point to as far as the additional benefits go is the fact that this style of training causes the muscle to be worked in a state where there is not a lot of blood flow to the muscle. (This is called occlusion training; you limit the blow flow to an area and work it under a low intensity. Studies have shown that even just walking on a treadmill with a belt around your leg will result in significant increases in muscle protein synthesis.) When you contract a muscle, it pinches the blood vessels that are feeding blood to it, and you get occlusion. X Gym style workouts are more or less just one huge contraction, so you are occluding blood flow to that area the entire time. When you relax the muscle blood rushes back in, which can result in a light headed feeling, or "head rush," which many X Gymers comment on, clearly showing this beneficial training style at work.

The only issue I have with this study is the size. 15 participants divided into three groups means you only have 5 men in each group, which is tiny. Nearly all of their findings were statistically significant (p < .05), but I still think to show real significance, they would need to do another study with more subjects. One thing these authors point out that I absolutely loved, was that they said while all these things are interesting and show important correlations, at this point that is all they are: correlations. Correlation is not causation and the two should never be confused. Quote of the day: “… acute scientific studies simply supply the framework on which to build future training studies upon to directly test if a cause-and-effect relationship does in fact exist.”

Muscle Growth and the Hormone Connection

Muscle Growth and the Hormone Connection
by Steven Shocki, Alki trainer

X Gym's exercise protocols are specifically designed to NOT bulk you up. They were created to tone and strengthen, because that's what most people want. Even 97% of the men polled would rather look like the cover of Men's Fitness magazine instead of Flex magazine. 99.9% of the women feel that way too.

Some men however, would like to build some muscle and this is possible with X Gym protocols, to a limited degree, if the role of hormones is understood.

When building muscle is your goal, what you are really talking about is the control of hormones; specifically the hormones testosterone (T), human growth hormone (HGH), and insulin like growth factor (IGF-1). Different environmental stimuli (such as: diet, exercise and sleep habits, stress, etc.) effect how much of these hormones your body produces.

To truly get the most benefit out of these three amigos you need to structure your life in a way that gets you producing all three together, because when all three are present in the body, the benefits of the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. How exactly does this work?
First, let’s take a look at testosterone, the most well-known anabolic (tissue building) hormone. Testosterone is crucial to muscle growth, and it is naturally present in both men and women, albeit in much lower concentrations in women.

This is the reason women can't gain muscle at the X Gym. You will tone and shape at the X Gym much faster than other methods, but even with the proper hormone manipulation techniques, average Jane may gain a few pounds tops, so if that is your goal as a woman, sorry, you'll have to do traditional training at a regular gym. For men however, building 10-15 pounds of quality rock hard muscle is realistic at the X Gym with the proper strategy, so read on.

T is very good at building new tissues, but it is not its primary job. It has a whole host of other duties to fulfill, and as it turns out the biological mechanism that T uses to build muscle is not a direct one. This means that your body has to go through a few extra steps to get from T circulating in your blood stream to building muscle.

Now if we contrast that with HGH, we find that HGH leads directly to muscle growth. It too has some other beneficial effects on the body, one of which is to stimulate the production of IGF-1, but more on that later.

The other difference between T and HGH has to do with the conditions they need for them to be produced. They both love short, intense bouts of exercise, but depending on which hormone you want to get out of your workout, you need to alter the way your body is fed pre and post workout. T gets produced quite well when the body is fed and there is a healthy amount of insulin in your blood. HGH on the other hand doesn’t get along very well with insulin, and as such HGH production is highest when they body is in a fasted state. Insulin is another hormone, one that is released when you get an increase in blood sugar, which usually comes from eating carbohydrates.

So here we are with two hormones that are both very good at building muscle, but with two different ways of being produced. You might be wondering what the point is and why we don’t just have one super hormone? Well, as I said earlier, when you can get conditions right to get both of these guys working together, the result is far greater than either could do on their own. This is because one of those extra things T does is to actually speed up the effects of HGH on the body. T also changes the efficiency and makeup of your cells, giving them a further boost.

So what about IGF-1? Well this hormone is almost like HGH on steroids (forgive me – there is no better way to say it). IGF-1 increases muscle mass, decreases fat, and does all that in overdrive. The way the body produces it though, is a little interesting. It only comes about when your previously elevated levels of HGH drop to a certain point, then your body will give you a quick shot of IGF-1. So, IGF-1 (which in my opinion is the best hormone for building muscle) is produced in the presence of HGH, which works most efficiently in the presence of T. Our goal then is to get as much of those three going as possible.

Things that produce T are exercise (especially full body, high intensity workouts), higher saturated fat intake (which if you read the July 1st article The Facts About Fats you would know is a very good thing), and plenty of sleep and low levels of stress.

Things that increase HGH are full body, high intensity exercise (notice a pattern?), low insulin levels (which can be achieved through lowered carbohydrate intake and an increased intake of fats and protein) and plenty of sleep and low levels of stress. And of course IGF-1 comes as a result of the presence of HGH.

How does one apply this to everyday life? It’s simple! Here's the plan: Get two total body, high intensity resistance workouts per week and at least one sprint workout (Tabata style) per week. To emphasize HGH and IGF-1 production, plan your week so that your body is in a fasted state for one of the workouts (don’t eat anything before) and plan on fasting for an hour after a workout (you will get better results if your post-workout meals don’t have any carbohydrates in them). Eat lost of healthy fats and protein, get your 8 hours of sleep a night, and find ways to reduce stress (guided breathing is my recommendation as there are a multitude of benefits that come along with it).

For those of you worried about the infamous catabolism (tissue breakdown) that many a body builder fears if they don’t eat every three hours, don’t! It’s a myth that has somehow been supported over the years despite a lack of scientific evidence. For instance, take a look at HGH which is produced best when they body doesn’t have any food in it! This makes sense from an ancestral perspective as well, because pre-agricultural humans weren’t going to catch food every time they hunted, and when they did hunt, they had to perform a sprint workout far more intense than anything we could every do in a gym. It makes sense then that we naturally have some biological safe guards in place to protect all that precious muscle mass, which is exactly what HGH does.

So go ahead and try making a couple changes to your daily routine and see what happens!

X Gym and Human Growth Hormone

by Mike Gavareski

You already know it’s wise to limit your sugar and fruit intake. High glycemic chemicals such as the aforementioned have a slue of negative side effects, and again, hopefully you’re well educated on those. One that often gets overlooked, though, is the inhibition of HGH (human growth hormone), especially right after a bout of intense exercise, such as an X Gym workout.

You might be asking what HGH is and why you need it? Well, here’s a hint: it’s a popular, illegal substance among many professional athletes. It’s illegal because the unnatural form of it can be dangerous, but maximizing its natural potential is perfectly safe. There is an array of benefits of HGH, but most importantly it increases protein synthesis and helps utilize fat as an energy source.

Only when you exercise to full capacity do you utilize your lazy muscles (fast-twitch b muscle fibers). They don’t want to work if they don’t have to. But boy, when they do, the fat-burning benefits are significant. Part of that is due to the HGH release in your body. But exercising the normal muscle fibers don’t stimulate HGH release, only the ones when you push yourself to that last bit of fatigue, just like at the X Gym. If you work that hard and produce a healthy dose of HGH, don’t ruin it with a high fruit and/or sugar recovery drink! Curb that craving, hopefully forever, but at least for two hours to maximize the potential of HGH in your body.

The more you lay around, the shorter you'll be around!

In 1982, researchers at the Cooper Institute in Dallas revealed an unfortunate symptom of inactivity. Originally the researchers were interested in the exercise habits of affluent men, and were gathering data to help support the idea that exercising was good for you. What they found was that not only is physical activity good for you, inactivity is bad for. While you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure that one out, the unfortunate truth is that inactivity is worse for you than previously thought. Until recently the effects of inactivity had been largely unexplored, but in May scientists at the University of South Carolina and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge published an article in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise touting the dangers of inactivity. Their findings showed that men who spent 23 hours a week sitting were 64% more likely to die from heart disease than men who sat less than 11 hours a week. When you add together all the hours the average American spends sitting at work, in the car, or in front of a TV, 23 hours a week isn’t that much.

Studies performed on rats have revealed the physiological mechanism behind all of this. In their studies rats and mice who were not allowed to walk around their cages or exercise actually developed cellular changes in their muscles, changes that resulted in an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease. The worst part? Getting regular exercise isn’t enough to reverse these changes. The pathways for the benefits of exercise and the ill effects of inactivity are different, and as a result you need to do more than work out on a regular basis to avoid these consequences. Fortunately there are some simple ways to avoid this nasty little problem: limit the amount of time you are being inactive. At work you can try sitting on a balance ball as opposed to a chair, or you can just get up and walk around for a little bit. If you spend a lot of time in cars, try flexing the muscles in your core and in your legs as hard as you can for 10 second intervals, repeating 5 or 6 times. If you are watching TV at home get up and grab a glass of water or something during commercial breaks, or if you are feeling extra motivated drop down and do some pushups or squats. Our muscles want to do some work, so oblige them! (and your heart will thank you later)