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)

Strength and Time

A study by Finnish researchers published in the December 9th Edition of THE JOURNAL OF STRENGTH AND CONCITIONING RESEARCH compared the impact of time-of-day specific training on strength gains and increase in lean mass in untrained men. In this study 24 untrained men where divided randomly into 3 different groups. One group performed a strength training regiment at 9am and another group performed a strength training regiment at 4pm, leaving the third group as a control performing no exercise. The training groups first underwent a 10 week introductory training regiment, and then where separated in to the time of day specific training groups, which continued of another 10 weeks.

The goal of the study was to determine if there was any difference in the strength and muscle hypertrophy increases of the quadriceps, between morning and evening training. The subjects where tested for maximum strength on the squat, as well as maximum knee extension. The testers also used an MRI to test for increase in muscle mass. The results showed that both groups improved strength in there quadriceps compared to the control group. There was however no significant difference of strength increase between the two groups.

This brings to a question that is frequently asked by clients. Often people want to know if there is a “best” time of day to work out. Since according to this study both groups gained strength and mass with no significant difference between the two, it would seem that there is no optimal time to train. People simply need work out when they feel the best, or at least at a time that is most convenient. Our work at the X Gym also supports this, given the fact that the people that we train early in the morning show increase strength and improve their body composition much the same as those who train at night. If you feel stronger and are more motivated to train at on time of day verses another, than go for it. But rest assured you will get results no matter when you decide to do it.

Another interesting note made in this article is that the researchers found that most of the strength gains the subjects experienced occurred in the initial 10 week introductory phase. They accredited this as possibly due to neuromuscular learning that occurs when you start a new exercise. This is why at the X Gym, we change exercises every 7 weeks so our clients can get the most benefit from their workouts, by avoiding the slow down, and eventual stagnation that occurs when one exercise is done of too long.

The Surprising Dish That Delivers Calcium

If your taste buds, your intolerance of lactose, or your politics keep you away from the dairy case, you can still get calcium from food. What many dairy avoiders don't know is that plants can dole out plenty of this important mineral. But as with hunting for truffles and potential spouses, you have to know what you're looking for.

For an easy way to remember what foods contain calcium, think Chinese food. Stir-fry dishes often include broccoli (62 milligrams of the bone-building mineral per cup), bok choy (158 milligrams in a cup), and edamame (soybeans, delivering 97 milligrams in a cup). Try making this Sesame-Shiitake Bok Choy for a delicious calcium-rich side dish.

Even better, these and other Chinese stir-fry favorites have a chemical makeup that allows your body to absorb calcium. Plenty of other leafy green vegetables, such as spinach and swiss chard, contain calcium. But they also contain oxalate, an acid that limits the amount of calcium your body can absorb.

Considering you need a daily dose of 1,500 milligrams of calcium (and 1,000 international units of vitamin D with that if you're under age 65; 1,200 if you're over that) plus 500 milligrams of magnesium (to keep you from hating us for recommending the calcium) a day, you'll probably still want a supplement. But it's smart for many reasons to get as much as you can from nutritious veggies.

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is urging meat producers to limit the amount of antibiotics they give animals in response to public health concerns about the drugs.

The FDA said antibiotics in meat pose a "serious public health threat" because the drugs create antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can infect humans who eat it. The agency is recommending that producers use the drugs judiciously, limiting their use unless they are medically necessary and only using them with the oversight of a veterinarian.

"Developing strategies for reducing (antibiotic) resistance is critically important for protecting both public and animal health," the agency said in draft guidelines printed in the Federal Register on Monday.

The agency said misuse and overuse of the drugs has led to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antibiotics have been given to animals to kill pathogens for more than 50 years, and the FDA acknowledged that practice has had "tremendous benefits" to animal and human health.

Of greater concern, the agency said, is when producers use antibiotics on healthy animals to speed growth and reduce feed costs. The agency is also concerned about antibiotics that are given continuously through feed or water to entire herds or flocks of animals.

The agency said it is expecting to issue more specific guidelines soon, but FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner of Food and Drugs Joshua Sharfstein would not say whether the agency eventually plans to issue stricter regulations. He said the guidelines are just a first step and the agency will be watching industry response and also patterns of antibiotic resistance.

Advocates on both sides of the issue criticized the decision.

Sam Carney, a pork producer from Adair, Iowa, and president of the National Pork Producers Council, said reducing the amount of antibiotics given to animals could harm their health.

"As we know, healthy animals produce safe food, and we need every available tool to protect animal health," he said.

But Steven Roach, a public health advocate with the group Keep Antibiotics Working, a coalition dedicated to eliminating the overuse of antibiotics, said the guidelines don't go far enough.

"It shows the FDA still has no plan to take the necessary steps to protect public health by stopping the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal agriculture," he said.