Start focusing less on the what and consider the how instead. What you do in the gym is the tool that will enable you to get bigger, stronger, and leaner. Just like any tool you also need to know how to use it. You might have the sledgehammer, but do you really know how to swing it?

Lift With Intention

The barbell bench press is a tool you can use to build up your pecs, but there’s a difference between just bouncing as much weight off your chest as possible versus lifting with the intention to stimulate maximum muscle growth.

Your muscles are on the inside of your body and have no idea how much is being lifted on the outside—and they don’t care how much you want them to grow no matter how often you whisper sweet nothings to them.

What your muscles do know is what tension is and how much force is being put through them—and that’s about it. This primal muscle knowledge is what ultimately triggers a cascade of events that lead to hypertrophy and muscle growth.

When you are trying to build muscle the load you have on the bar is irrelevant to a degree—that is unless you’re still able to squeeze on every repetition and maintain tension. Very few can truly do this without sacrificing either weight or execution.

Progressive Overload With Perfect Execution

Although progressive overload is important, and you should always be striving for a minor increase in weight or reps each week, doing this at the expense of making every repetition count will produce far from optimal results. Every repetition is an opportunity to get better.

The art of the perfect repetition is something professional coaches and physique athletes often won’t speak about. That’s because the perfect rep is hard to verbalize or film, and quite frankly it is not as interesting as sharing a new exercise or training plan. Perfecting your execution impacts everything and could be the one simple thing holding you back right now.

The weight you use is less important than the tension and force you can get through the target muscle. Therefore, exercise selection is important because the right tool can align you properly to receive the best stimulus for that muscle to grow. This is also why picking just a few of the right tools versus half a dozen exercises with average execution will always achieve superior results.

We all have different limb lengths, leverages, and movement capabilities. Picking just a handful of exercises that feel good to you, no matter anyone else’s opinion, is always a good place to start. Pick exercises that help you ‘find’ and load the muscle optimally. Exercises that position and align you poorly are a sure-fire way to add stress to the wrong areas, leading to inflammation and injury over time.

Stop Adding, Start Deleting

Before you start adding to your routine with the hope that you’ll stumble on a magic exercise or formula, instead think what you can delete. What are you not getting the most of right now? There’s nothing wrong with variety if it can keep you entertained and motivated to train.

Pick just a handful of exercises with the right profile and then consider the quality of every repetition first, before thinking of what you can start adding.

“Employ a quality-first approach before adding unnecessary quantity.”

One of the biggest differences between the elite and the average gym goer is that the elite know how to execute every repetition with the highest level of concentration and intensity.

They know how to make even the lightest of warm-up sets look as hard as possible. They care less about attaining the most impressive numbers only to achieve the most impressive physiques. Success leaves clues.

Consider the Feel

Every exercise will have a different feel to it. While some are better at applying load to the muscle in a shortened and fully contracted position, others are better at loading the lengthened or stretched position.

For this reason you can’t always go by how much of a squeeze you can get on every rep. But if you can’t feel the muscle working and consciously contract it during the set, then it might be an idea to hold auditions for an exercise that will.

A clunky painful feeling is not a feeling that should ever be accepted—a smooth repetition with a good connection is. If there’s something you’re doing right now that doesn’t fit these criteria, then delete it.

This approach goes beyond just performing an exercise with correct technique while limiting injury, and it also goes beyond what many refer to as developing the “mind-muscle connection.”

Very few can physically or mentally make this connection, but if you can get your head around it then it will truly unlock the muscle-building potential of any future exercise or training plan you follow. The information here is probably something you already know, but how often do you think about it and then apply it? Well, now is the time to start.

The post Eliminate Poor Reps to Build More Muscle appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Your Abs Are An Endurance Muscle

There are around 35 different core muscles that attach to the spine and pelvis. We’re just going to talk about one. The rectus abdominis (aka your six-pack muscle) is more about the “show” than the “go.” But if you want to strip the fat and unveil an athletic-looking mid-section there are a few things you should know about it.

The rectus abdominis is composed of roughly equal amounts of both slow and fast twitch fibers, built for both strength and power. Contrary to what some believe it’s not a muscle built for endurance, and therefore shouldn’t be trained like one.

To give you some context the soleus muscle in the lower calf is about 80% slow twitch. Genetics and training influence muscle fiber makeup, but even accounting for those outliers, 50% versus 80% slow twitch is a large difference.

This is just one of the reasons why the soleus responds well to higher repetition sets for hypertrophy, so spend more time in the 20-25 rep range. And, although you might feel your abs burning doing sets of 20-25 reps, they’ll more likely respond to a lower repetition range better. More like 10-15 reps per set, with the odd foray into the 6-8 rep range even.

Some research has also suggested that eccentric training can tap into the HTMU’s, causing preferential hypertrophy of the type II muscle fibers.

If you’ve spent a lot of time treating your six-pack like an endurance muscle and hitting those type I fibers, you’ll achieve greater abdominal development if you start increasing the weight and employing some eccentrics.

The Role of Spinal Flexion

The rectus abdomnis is designed to flex your spine and posteriorly tilt your pelvis. If you perform a crunch and simply think about closing the space between your ribcage and your pelvis, then you’ll be working your abs through their full range.

If you believe the spine only has a finite amount of flexions before you get a disk herniation that’s not a problem. All we’ll say on that subject is that the spine is designed to flex, bend, rotate, adapt, and be resilient. To hit the rectus abdominis optimally, you need to flex.

This could be a topic for discussion in the comments though, but until then let’s move on.

Eccentrics Build Muscle

When muscle fibers eccentrically lengthen, they produce force because of both active and passive elements inside them. The passive elements are elastic-type structures that produce force by resisting deformation, rather than by using energy to move.

Because of structures that come in to play during eccentric contraction (extracellular matrix, the internal structure of the muscle fiber, and the giant molecule titin), we are usually 25-30% stronger when lowering a resistance than lifting it. Sometimes it’s not uncommon to be up to 40% stronger!

Eccentric training involves higher muscle forces, which can produce a large amount of mechanical tension and muscle damage. That’s two of the three proposed mechanisms that have been suggested as potent stimulators of muscle hypertrophy.

Providing that a larger load is used, or a longer time is spent focusing on the eccentric phase of an exercise, you may see greater muscle growth than typical concentric-eccentric lifting. There’s research to back this up, too.

There are three ways we could focus on loading the eccentric:

1. Add extra load on the eccentric.
2. Use the same weight, allowing you to do more reps when performed eccentrically.
3. More eccentric time-under tension (TUT).

Of note, there’s little scientific evidence for or against focusing on eccentric TUT. But it makes sense from a mechanistic (and real-world) perspective that it would drive hypertrophy. If you don’t believe in spending four-seconds or more on the negative, then it should at least still be encouraged that you fight the resistance on the way down (two seconds or so).

Eccentric Abdominal Exercise Selection

Since you’ll be 25-30% stronger during the eccentric portion of a movement, you’ll be able to use more load or spend a longer amount of time there. That load can be in the form of external resistance, or by changing leverage factors so your body provides more load on the eccentric than concentric.

For example, arguably the most important thing to achieve in any knee or leg raise is the posteriorly tilted pelvis; that tuck of the pelvis as your knees get closer to your chest. It’s the portion of the movement where the fibers of the lower rectus abdominis massively come in to play and start to take over from the hip flexors.

Many achieve this position easier with a knee tuck rather than a straight-leg raise. Or at least due to the “easier” nature of the movement we can spend more time here. By raising with a bent-knee and lowering with a straight-knee, you’ll have added eccentric load starting from a posteriorly tilted pelvis at the top.

Performing the Garhammer Raise eccentrically is a good example. The Garhammer Raise was made popular by sports scientist John Garhammer, PhD, and can effectively hit the lower rectus fibers.

If it’s a movement you can already do, by adapting it to an eccentric version of the same exercise you’ll complete more reps than normal, as well as more likely to have got closer to eccentric failure, rather than concentric fatigue.

If it’s a movement you can’t do yet, performing an eccentric version of it could be the bridging exercise you’re looking for to one day perform the full version with impeccable technique. Abdominal flags are a great example of this.

Trying to master ab wheel roll-outs from your toes? Try just the lowering portion off your toes, resist falling flat on your face, drop your knees, then perform the concentric as if you were doing the standard version off your knees. Reset to toes then go again.

Even performed eccentrically this is a great show of overall core strength, but worth it if done right.

You also have the option to just add eccentric load via an external weight. If you normally crunch with a 25lb plate overhead, give a 35lb plate a try. This time as you raise bring it in closer to your chest to lighten the load. The Sicilian crunch is an excellent example of this technique in action and really taps into those neglected fast-twitch fibers.

With many cable crunch variations, you can also execute a similar technique. Arms overhead increase the load due to a longer lever arm, while bringing your arms closer your chest shorten it.

A cable crunch will be harder when the cable attachment stays overhead during the lowering portion of the movement, and easier when brought closer into the shoulders or head in the lifting phase.

The standard kneeling cable crunch demonstrates such a technique. Do this with your butt back on your heels, or alternatively hips staying forward. Whichever technique you prefer, there’s an argument for either.

Finally, my a personal favorite. Using the same technique by changing leverage factors during the exercise, the incline eccentric cable crunch works a treat. It loads the eccentric very efficiently, while the incline bench and cable angle allow a constant tension throughout the movement.

Programming for Your Abdominals

If you want abs then you need to prioritize them. Throwing in a few sets of high-rep ab work at the end of your workouts isn’t going to cut it—our crappy diet isn’t either. If you haven’t already, drop your reps and start loading them. Eccentrics can be a great way to stimulate some hypertrophy whilst tapping into those HTMU’s, too.

Try staggered ab training. Throw them in as a superset in between other exercises. If you’re going for a personal best deadlift then fatiguing your abs might not be a good idea, but supersetting with your lesser priority exercises can be a great way to increase your training density and even burn an extra few calories otherwise covering your abs.

You can also use staggered ab training alongside metabolic conditioning workouts. As a superset it works great to load your abs in between sets of prowler pulls, pushes, tire flips, farmer carries, battling ropes, kettlebell swings, and any other form of torture you prefer.

The point is, don’t leave them as an afterthought. Make them a key part of your workout and load them to grow them.

Granted, abs are made in the kitchen, but they’re forged in the gym!

The post Eccentric Abdominal Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Your sleeping patterns could be slowing you down from achieving your fitness and body composition goals. Many of us have heard the 8-hour rule for sleep that deals with sleep quantity, but what about sleep quality? Optimizing sleep quality could be the missing key to getting leaner and boosting your energy and productivity.

Why 8 Hours?

Here’s the deal with the 8-hour rule. There’s a small number of people that can function properly, and even thrive, on just a few hours of sleep per night. Famously ex British Prime Minister Winston Churchill functioned on just a few hours of sleep per night, most nights.

Thomas Edison also famously got 3-4 hours of sleep each night, while more recently Donald Trump was quoted saying, “How does somebody that’s sleeping 12 and 14 hours a day compete with someone that’s sleeping three or four?”

We do know that not enough sleep is bad for us. It strongly impacts brain function and can cause hormonal and blood sugar fluctuations. These side-effects will wreak havoc not only on your productivity but your body composition, too.

So, unless you’re the rare exception, the “you can sleep when you die” mentality for most is not a smart approach. Sleep deprivation can cause you to age faster, getting you closer to your goal of sleeping when you die a bit sooner.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are those that truly need to get in 10 hours or more per night. This is just how they are wired, and they might truly need that amount of sleep for proper brain function. As a rule, you also need less sleep the older you get, with infants needing the most while the elderly the least. Teenagers do generally need more sleep than mature adults, too.

There are the extremes at either end of sleep quantity, and they represent a very small percentage. For most of you reading this, chances are that 7-8 hours is a good quantity of sleep to aim for. Here are five tips to improve your sleep quality, the often-missing key.

1. Workout Early

Not an early morning person? Well, you should be! Research shows that a workout done early in the day will improve your sleep quality. When you choose to workout later in the day, for example after work in the evening, research shows this can have a negative effect on your sleep quality.

Get to bed on time, set an earlier alarm, and ideally get your workout done before work not after. You will sleep better that night and the cycle can start all over again the next day. It takes 66 days to form a new habit, that becomes automatic to you. Not the often misquoted 21 days. So, persevere with the early morning workouts as nothing will change over just one night.

2. Take a Warm Shower or Bath Before Bed

Small changes in body temperature can have a huge impact on your sleeping habits. A warm (not too hot or too cold) shower before bed temporarily raises your core body temperature, only until you step out into the colder room allowing your body temperature to drop again. This tiny little trick sends powerful signals to our body’s internal clocks, helping to synchronize them and provide a more optimal internal environment for a better night’s sleep.

A room temperature of a pretty cool 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit (15-20 degrees Celsius) will help you sleep deeper also, so be sure to adjust that thermostat before bed.

3. Eliminate Technology

I’ve you haven’t heard already, phones, tablets, computers, and TVs keep you awake at night. The blue light emitted from these devices can keep you awake for longer, as well as disrupt your sleeping patterns.

The solution? Ban these devices at least 30 minutes before bed if you can, ideally longer. If you cannot do this then some devices have programs or apps that alter the color and level of light emitted from your device. Eliminating the culprit before bed will be the better option, but if you need your nightly fix of TV or social media then these light adjusting tools can be a real sleep saver.

4. Create a Cave

Your bedroom should be cave-like. Think of a place where very little light can get in, and its sole purpose is for sleep and hibernation. Outside your sacred sleep space, your home could be full of technology and distractions, but when it comes to your bedroom your brain needs to be associating that sacred space with sleep and restfulness.

Because your body adjusts its internal sleep clock to light exposure, you also need to make sure your room is as dark as possible, that means lined curtains or good blinds. Even a standby light on a TV can have an effect, the body is that sensitive.

Just create your own dark cave free of worry and distraction, reserving your bedroom for sleep and sex only. The latter is optional, but due to the release of several hormones, sex can help you sleep.

5. Choose the Right Supplements

You already know that you should try and avoid caffeine before bed. Caffeine not only keeps you awake but completely disrupts your sleeping patterns. You’ll be tossing and turning all night. What you may not know is that caffeine has a chemical half-life of 5-6 hours.

That means it takes approximately 5-6 hours for caffeine to be half-eliminated from your body. That means that even if you have a coffee, take some caffeine pills, or have your pre-workout mid-afternoon chances are there is going to be an effect on your sleep that night. As a rule of thumb try to avoid caffeine after mid-day to ensure a great night’s sleep.

There are also some supplements that have been shown to help you get a great night’s sleep and are more than worth the investment if you really struggle. Even a placebo effect would help. Most of these have been shown to increase levels of certain chemicals or hormones that regulate your internal sleep clock, such as melatonin.

Here are some of the best supplements to consider:

• Ornithine is an amino acid that helps your body to eliminate ammonia in the gut and helps to relax and de-stress the body. Some people sleep dramatically better with ornithine. As a bonus, it will also increase growth hormone levels, too.
• L-theanine in capsule form helps with relaxation.
• 5-HTP is a precursor to serotonin and melatonin. It helps you fall asleep, and many have reported how effective it is for sleep quality.
• L-tryptophan is an amino acid that has been shown to increase brain levels of serotonin, a “feel good” hormone, as well as melatonin. Both are extremely important in sleep, and studies show that low intake of tryptophan through diet can disrupt the amount of serotonin and melatonin naturally produced by the body.
• Melatonin is a powerful sleep hormone and can be found in supplement form, although not as widely available in some countries. Melatonin supplementation is also particularly effective for helping prevent jet lag when taken at the right time according to the destination time zone.
• GABA is a neuroinhibitory transmitter. It’s what your brain uses to shut itself down—great for type-A personalities and people whose brains are always active. Taken away from any other protein, since this can affect its absorption, GABA can dramatically calm you before bed.

Do Your Sleep a Favor

Some of us spend half of our lives or more in bed. It would be doing your body and brain a disservice not to consider your sleep quality. Use these simple tricks to help you feel sharper, gain energy, and achieve your body’s potential.

The post 5 Sleep Tips to Help Fat Loss appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

You chug them down after every workout like your life depends on it, but do you really know if protein shakes do anything? There are scientific studies covering various topics such as the best time to take them, the best type to use, and why they may or may not benefit you.

Supplement companies can often make things confusing with bold claims solely for marketing purposes. The market value of protein supplements alone is worth over USD 12.4 billion. This article aims to cover your most common questions and the most important information you should know. Feel free to skip over the points that don’t apply to you.

1. Why Should You Care About Protein?

Making sure you’re getting adequate levels of protein in your diet will accelerate your progress, enhance your recovery, and have a positive impact on your overall health and longevity.

Just a few critical functions of protein include:

• Providing a structural component to bodily tissues and cells.
• Providing a source of nitrogen. Nitrogen balance is the key to gaining lean muscle mass and preventing muscle breakdown when losing body fat.
• Cell signaling for various biochemical processes, including muscle growth and fat loss.
• Gluconeogenesis and forming glucose for energy when carbohydrates are restricted.
• To help maintain and optimize key hormones.

2. How Does Protein Benefit Muscle Growth?

Whether you’re looking to get bigger, stronger, leaner, or recover faster, enough protein can help optimize adaptations to training.

Protein works in the body to provide benefits such as:

• Increased muscle mass.
• Prevention of muscle breakdown and promotion of muscle recovery.
• Increase your ability to lose body fat and stick to a diet plan due to its satiating effect.
• Besides the effects on body composition, it will also improve the overall health of your body, such as better skin, stronger nails and hair, and a better immune system.

3. How Much Protein Should You Have in Your Diet?

If you’re training hard 1.6-2g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight is a good starting point. So someone weighing 75kg (165lbs) should have a maximum of 150g of protein per day.

Various studies have been quoted as recommending several daily protein targets:

• In a thorough review, Wilson & Wilson recommend 1.2-2.2g per kilogram of total body weight for strength training athletes.
• Helms et al. recommended 2.3-3.1g of protein per kilogram of fat-free mass (lean mass) in lean resistance-trained athletes under hypocaloric conditions (i.e. using low-calorie diets).
• The ACSM position stand suggests 1.2-2g per kilogram per day to support muscle repair, remodeling, and adaptation. While the upper limit of 2g/kg/day might be better when retaining muscle mass during times of calorie restriction.
• In a meta-analysis of 49 studies, Morton et al. showed no significant effects on fat-free mass above 1.6g/kg/day.

If you require a macronutrients calculator you can find one here.

4. What Factors Effect How Much Protein Is Needed?

This is just one example of how a diet needs to be individualized according to your training, goals, and even genetics.

Some of the main factors that affect how much protein you should have included:

• Are you surviving or are you thriving? If you want to optimize training adaptations and thrive then your protein intake should be higher than a typical government recommended RDA. During intense periods of training or dieting protein intake should make up a slightly higher proportion of your total calorie intake, whereas, during maintenance phases of training, intake should be closer to the lower end of what’s recommended.
• If you are eating lower calories to drop body fat, contrary to belief you should consume a higher percentage of total calories as protein versus if you were in a calorie surplus. This helps to preserve lean muscle mass and allows more freedom to drop carbohydrate and fat intake.
• Endurance athletes should strive to stay at a low bodyweight so as their power to bodyweight ratio is maximized, and their movement economy is improved. A lower protein intake might be considered to limit gains in lean body mass.
• There have even been some suggestions that genetics affect your protein needs. The closer to the equator you can trace your genetics from, the less protein you will need while being able to “tolerate” more carbohydrates. The further away you are from the equator the more protein you may have in your diet.
• Since both carbohydrates and protein have similar nitrogen sparring effects, if you consume a lower carbohydrate diet it should be advised that your protein intake be higher to help compensate.
• The older you are the less protein you need. Studies in the elderly show minimal effects of a high protein diet on strength and muscle mass.
• If your current levels of muscle mass are higher, then an increased dosage of protein is recommended throughout the day. Helms et al. suggest 2.3-3.1g of protein per kilogram based on your lean mass and not total body weight.

5. Is a Higher Protein Intake Safe?

Yes, but there are some exceptions.

Higher levels of protein consumption are safe in most, however, consider whether you have a family history, or have ever suffered from kidney issues. A review of past research by showed those with existing kidney disease should restrict protein intake, although for those with no preexisting conditions a high protein intake does not affect kidney function.

If you have a family history the best advice it to always seek the advice of a qualified medical professional before undertaking a high protein diet.

6. How Does Protein Consumption Relate to Resistance Training?

Not what you think, or what you may have been told. Remember, train to stimulate, not annihilate!

• Before training: If nutrition and training are correct the body will be in a positive net protein balance; synthesis will be greater than breakdown.
• During training: The body will be in a negative net protein balance. Tissue breakdown contrary to popular belief stays the same during training, however, the synthesis of new proteins drops. Breakdown eventually exceeds synthesis as the duration of training goes on. The body is constantly breaking down and repairing at the same time. To gain muscle mass you want the repair to be happening at a faster rate than the breakdown. The longer your workouts, the longer it takes you to get the muscle building stimulus you need the more unnecessary breakdown will occur.
• Post training: For a short while net protein balance will remain negative, mostly because your body has stopped synthesizing new proteins. Breakdown slightly increases at this point but in the hours to come protein synthesis rapidly rises to exceed breakdown, and to a level that exceeds pre-training. This is where adaptations are made and where it’s essential that your body is provided with the right nutrients in order to assist in tissue repair.

7. Do Post-Workout Protein Shakes Work?

Yes, here’s why.

During a workout, your body will be in a negative net protein balance. As building of new proteins grinds to a halt, protein breakdown increases. After training muscle protein synthesis eventually increases and breakdown reduces, creating a positive nitrogen balance. That’s just basic science, and we understand this mechanism in the most part.

Using protein and supplying your body with the amino acids that it needs around these key times is vital in helping to increase muscle protein synthesis as well as decrease protein breakdown. Because of this, a higher net protein balance can be achieved which helps to promote gains in lean muscle mass, strength, and muscle recovery.

Ingesting amino acids or whey protein in the post-workout period has typically been shown to produce a twofold increase in muscle protein synthesis and other factors that contribute to muscle gain.

Of note, carbohydrates alone without protein typically result in half the response of whey protein or essential amino acids. So, although carbohydrates are important, in order to build muscle size and strength, supplying your body with protein is twice as important.

8. When Should I Drink My Post-Workout Protein Shake?

The truth is nobody knows if there is perfect timing for post-workout shake consumption. Some researchers have put forth the notion that timing of post-workout protein intake may be superior to absolute daily protein intake. You could then assume that the timing of protein intake around your workout achieves a greater effect than when consumed any other time of day when total daily protein intake is the same.

It has been suggested that adequate protein intake in the post-workout window is vital for optimizing muscle protein synthesis, protein breakdown, creating a positive net protein balance, and stimulating training adaptations.

For these essential mechanisms to be activated, several chemical processes need to take place, and hormonal secretion plays a vital role. Both increased amino acid availability (hyperaminoacidemia) and insulin secretion (hyperinsulinemia) are important for maximizing the anabolic and recovery potential of muscle.

Some studies have shown there to be a post-workout anabolic window, however, others have not. In a 2016 meta-analysis, Schoenfeld et al. showed no effect of timing protein intake for strength or hypertrophy adaptations.

The duration of this post-workout window has also shown to be varied (if it even exists), and while some have shown 15-30 minutes as optimal, some have shown the window to last as long as two hours or more.

Based on what we do know, it may be suggested that although protein shakes can be a great tool post-workout, it would make no big difference whether you were to have it immediately post-workout or an hour afterward. Total daily protein intake should be your priority, followed by timing.

9. How Much Protein Should I Have in My Post-Workout Shake?

If you have carbohydrates post-workout then plan to have at least 25g of protein with 50g of carbohydrate. If you are choosing not to consume carbohydrates, then 50g of protein should do the job. For specific targets, 0.48g per kg of body weight has been suggested, meaning an 80kg individual would consume 38g of whey protein post-workout.

In order to increase both hyperinsulinemia and hyperaminoacidemia in the post-workout period, a mixture of both “fast” acting proteins and high glycemic carbohydrate is recommended. Some of the most conclusive evidence suggests that a 2/1 to 3/1 ratio of carbohydrate to protein is most effective for recovery, using anywhere between 20-30g of protein with 40-90g carbohydrate.

However, if restricting carbohydrates in order to “spike” insulin levels to the same degree having 50g of fast-acting protein can achieve near the same effect. The most important part is that you consider whether carbohydrates fit within your current approach and factor this into your daily totals.

10. Should I have a Protein Shake Before My Workout?

It could help!

Increased levels of amino acids within the blood from ingestion of amino acids before or during exercise, as opposed to after exercise, may counter the net loss of muscle protein that happens during a workout.

Amino acids before a workout may cause less tissue breakdown and hence create a more anabolic environment. Therefore, a combination of amino acids via a protein or BCAA supplement, such as essential amino acids (EAA), can be consumed in order to increase amino acid availability. Schoenfeld et al. showed pre versus post-workout protein intake to potentially have a similar effect on muscular adaptations.

11. How Long Before My Workout Should I Have a Protein Shake?

Having your protein shake 30 minutes beforehand should allow some of those amino acids to be floating around in your bloodstream by the time you begin your workout if the right protein sources are ingested. Therefore, an EAA or a hydrolyzed protein drink may be best when consumed pre-workout.

12. What Type of Protein Is Best Post-Workout?

Whey protein is the most research-proven and can commonly be found in three main forms:

• Whey concentrate: This form of protein typically contains the lowest percentage of protein per 100g. This is due to concentrate undergoing less processing to produce the product. A good quality whey concentrate should contain 75% protein per serving. Several bioactive fractions of whey concentrate contribute to its immune boosting potential including beta-lactoglobulin, alpha-lactalbumin, glycomacropeptide, and lactoferrin. Whey concentrate has also been shown to increase the body’s production of glutathione, an extremely potent antioxidant sometimes referred to as the body’s master antioxidant.
• Whey isolate: Contains a larger percentage of protein per serving. It’s produced when whey concentrate is further processed and purified using techniques such as crossflow micro-filtration, ultra-filtration, reverse osmosis, or nano-filtration. The rate of absorption is typically about the same between concentrate and isolate, however, isolate may be the best choice if you want the highest amount of protein per serving.
• Whey hydrolysate: This is whey isolate that has been further broken down, producing smaller peptides that are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream.

It’s important to note that although some would consider whey concentrate to be the lowest quality of protein versus isolate and hydrolysate. Due to its protein content alone, whey concentrate contains some potent immune boosting properties you might want to consider.

13. What If I Can’t Use Whey?

As an alternative, brown rice protein, pea protein, or hemp protein are good choices if whey isn’t an option.

There are limited studies using plant-based proteins on muscular recovery and adaptations. This is largely because these are a newer trend, but also they don’t have as favorable amino acid profile as whey.

Total protein content of some of these can come close to a whey concentrate, but it is the EAA and branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) profile that are of most importance. Brown rice protein may be one of the best alternatives to whey, but a whey isolate can have a 39% greater EAA content and 33% greater BCAA content.

They are also typically lower in the amino acid leucine, which has been shown independently of other amino acids to activate key signaling pathways associated with muscle protein synthesis. A protein meal should contain approximately 4g of leucine to hit the required leucine “threshold,” something that it much harder to achieve with plant-based proteins.

14. Should I Use a Protein Supplement Before Bed?

In reality, it’s not essential but it could aid muscle recovery.

For most people, overnight sleep is your longest period of fasting and what we refer to as the post-absorptive phase. Overnight, muscle protein synthesis drops while muscle protein breakdown elevates, leading to a more catabolic state.

Muscle tissue breakdown is used to “feed” the tissues of the gut, liver, intestines, and other organs around the splanchnic region, so a slow digesting form of protein and a steady stream of amino acids throughout the night may, therefore, help reduce muscle catabolism.

15. Can My Post-Workout Protein Be Used Before Bed?

What works the best post-workout will probably work the worst before bed.

After around 1 hour of having a whey protein shake the blood amino acid levels are elevated by about 300%, after 2 hours drop to about 92%, and after 4 hours you’re back to baseline. This is great for that post-workout window but not so good for an overnight fast. On the other hand, casein produces a moderate but prolonged spike in blood amino acid levels for around 4-5 hours before there’s a drop-off.

Res et al. showed that casein protein 30 minutes before bed was able to be digested and absorbed by the body, allowing for greater muscle recovery and overnight adaptations to take place. Casein protein can clot in the stomach allowing a steady “drip feed” of amino acids throughout the night.

Studies have shown the addition of a small amount of whey protein to the casein, such as in a milk protein blend or timed-release protein, could drip feed the muscles for a greater time than casein alone, potentially up to 8 hours, and even help to improve sleep quality.

This could potentially be due to the different ways in which casein and whey work, and likely they have a synergistic effect when taken together. Whey protein has also been shown to enhance sleep quality and next-day alertness.

The take-home point here is that 30 to 40g of protein 30-60 minutes before bed or as a late evening snack, depending on preference, should be considered good practice when trying to build muscle and strength. If eating this close to bed affects your sleep quality, then try having your shake two hours before bed instead.

Put Protein to Work

Your total daily protein intake is more important than your post-workout protein timing. Protein shakes have been shown to be effective both pre and post-workout, but if a specific “window” of opportunity exists remains unclear.

A slower release protein shake or wholefood protein source may also be beneficial before bed. It would be reasonable to suggest that although protein shakes aren’t essential, they are at least a convenient and cost-effective way to help you hit your total daily protein intake.

The post Everything You Should Know About Protein Supplements appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

You’ve been training hard and eating clean for some time. You have a thirst for knowledge and absorb every bit of information you can find. But look back to a year ago, do you truly see a difference in how you feel and look between then and now? If you do then that’s awesome, in fact maybe stop reading right now. But if you’re one of many men that have plateaued in the gym, then continue reading.

Mistake 1: Stubbornness

Fitness is a journey, and the gym is just a vehicle to help you get there. You know that guy that thinks he knows better than the GPS unit in his car, even though it’s the same exact system of satellites used by Elite Military Forces all over the world? If this is you when it comes to the gym, then you need to understand that it’s only you that’s holding yourself back from reaching the planned destination. Find a good GPS unit and listen to it.

Equally, it’s the inexperienced driver that’s never been on a long road trip before, who by constant self-doubt and hesitant driving will have a hard time reaching the destination. At least this person will eventually get there providing they follow the GPS. Whereas Mr. Stubborn is at a truck-stop right now, wondering where he went wrong.

He should have just listened to the GPS. This example is of is the stubborn, know-it-all attitude that can hold men back in particular from reaching their goals. They have to learn to understand that it is okay to ask for help and to accept that they can’t know or do for themselves.

When it comes to fitness, the GPS is a professional who, through years of training and qualifications (and working with many people just like yourself), knows how to get you to your destination.

Just like a coach or mentor in business or your kids’ school teacher, it’s the professional coach or personal trainer that can use expertise to map out a journey of learning and development specifically for you—they are qualified to do so. Just like a good GPS, a trainer can be an investment, but if you think that’s expensive then try working with an amateur trainer. Elite athletes get fitness coaches, so why shouldn’t you?

Mistake 2: Always Hitting the Ego Lifts First

Through traditional strength and conditioning and bodybuilding dogma, it’s typical to go straight into your workout hitting your key indicator lifts first—the squats, deadlifts, and bench presses of this world.

Question yourself why you’re doing these first, and even why you consider these to be the most important. Maybe the sport of powerlifting has something to do with it. For a powerlifter, these lifts are indeed the most important and the most “functional” lifts for them, since they directly mimic their sport. But are they the most important for you?

Unless you’re a powerlifter, or these movements directly transfer to your sport, there could be better training options. Exercises that produce a higher level of muscle activation could be better at building muscle. For example, a reverse grip bench press can result in higher pectoral muscle activity than a typical medium grip bench press.

There are also ways to exercise that burn more calories and ramp up your metabolism for longer if fat loss is your primary goal—metabolic resistance circuits for example. If specific strength in these big moves is your goal, or they translate directly to your sport, then go for it and train them when you’re not fatigued. If, however, you saved them for later in your workout after more specific exercises to meet your objectives, you’ll progress faster and get closer to your body’s potential.

Mistake 3: Building Muscle without First Losing Body Fat

Generally, the leaner you are the more sensitive to nutrients your body is. Especially if you have a good amount of muscle mass. When you have excess fat on your body, it’s doing everything it can to store it and hold on to it.

Especially during times of stress-elevated levels of the hormone cortisol will also help your body store unwanted fat. Not good news if you sit at a desk all day, stressed, and have a bit of weight to lose.

Your lack of lean mass and higher fat mass means your body won’t deal with carbohydrates as well as someone else who is lean. The size and number of fat cells you have also make it much easier for your body to store even more fat. As a side note, as you lose fat your fat cells only shrink in size, whereas when you gain fat they increase in number, as well. Another reason to try and maintain a level of leanness year-round instead of a yo-yo approach.

If you first make sure you’re at a good level of leanness (less than 10% for men depending on measurement technique), your body will become much better at putting extra calories towards building muscle and strength, rather than storing them in unwanted areas around your body. First get lean, then you can spend the rest of your life getting strong.

Mistake 4: The Pro Bodybuilder Mindset

As much as you and your training may be influenced by top bodybuilders, chances are you’re not one of them. Bodybuilding is a sport where things are taken to the extreme to get to the top, and, like any other sport, hard work and sacrifices are made. The human body is pushed to its limits and faces a toll in the long-run.

Just like any other sport, bodybuilding has an off-season and a competitive season. In the off-season, athletes enjoy extra calories and gains in energy, strength, and size that those extra calories bring with it. You may know this as a “bulk.” Prior to competition, things get massively strict and the “cutting” begins. Things go from one extreme to the other.

Unless you want to get on a bodybuilding stage one day, stop comparing yourself to this way of eating and training. You may also not be as blessed as those with natural genetics, or as willing to do the things they need to do to compete.

You just do you, and make sure that you’re doing all you can to achieve your goals and enjoy the journey. If you’re a Volkswagen Beetle then stop comparing yourself to a Ferrari, and think about upgrading your Beetle to a newer model first.

Mistake 5: Bulk and Cut, then Bulk Again

At a guess, you don’t have a competition season like a bodybuilder, either. Therefore, you want to look and function both physically and mentally at your best throughout the year.

The bulking and cutting mentality are part of that. If you weren’t going to the gym you’d probably say you were on a yo-yo diet and routine. We all know that’s not good for us to yo-yo diet on so many levels, yet for some reason, it’s okay if you’re lifting weights to rebound, gain fat, and then call it a bulk. So, how do you stay lean and build muscle consistently without “bulking”?

To build muscle you need to be in a calorie surplus—consume more calories in 24 hours than you would typically burn in that same period. The extra energy supplied from those calories and nutrients are put to good work allowing your muscles to grow and get stronger.

The additional calories mean that muscle protein synthesis can be maximized, while protein breakdown is minimized. This is what we call being anabolic. If you eat more calories than your body needs to develop new muscle, you’ll get an overspill of energy and your body will store that energy as fat. More body fat does not mean you are more anabolic.

You need calories to grow muscle, but only add a small number on top of your maintenance calories to start with. Begin by simply adding in a few hundred extra quality calories a day and track your progress to see how your body is responding. If you feel you’re gaining a little fat then maybe reduce intake slightly, but if you have room for more food then gradually increase your intake.

It’s just as much of an art as it is a science, so never be afraid to adjust things gradually as you go along and never be too rigid. If you’re a little more active some days of the week than others, then give yourself permission to eat more. Conversely, if you sat on the couch all weekend then reduce your calories slightly.

The post 5 Workout Mistakes Only Men Make appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

By selecting the best exercises to build maximal strength and size, while limiting unnecessary stress and risk of injury, you can build a bulletproof body that will perform as well as it looks. Unlike ‘pre-hab’ exercises which are often used as assistance exercises to help prevent injuries, a ‘joint-friendly’ approach deals with how to better select your heavy lifts. In this article, you will learn why selecting the right exercises is the key to you training longer and harder.

This approach is contrary to training with the purpose of beating up your body with the hope to look good in the short-term, but little thought over your long-term goals. We could say that joint-friendly training is simply to train smart and plan for the future.

Common Misconceptions

In many fitness circles the idea of training for longevity and functional movement looks something like a circus act or a gymnastic routine. Unfortunately, this has developed more through popularity as a fitness craze, rather than an evidence-based approach to training.

In reality, joint-friendly training is not taking every exercise to a Swiss ball, or swinging around on a functional training rig, nor is it sacrificing heavy barbell presses for push ups. Joint-friendly training is about selecting the most appropriate exercises to achieve your goals while paying attention to injury risk and wear and tear on your body. It is identifying the risk versus reward of the exercises that make up the backbone of your training program.

How useful an exercise is should be determined by its raw effectiveness in helping you hit your end goal while taking into account the biomechanics of what is happening at the joint. It has nothing to do with the tools you are using and should have no bias towards a specific style of training.

The rules are simple; choose the right tools that will help you achieve your desired goals (strength, muscle size, performance, fat loss), and select the exercises where the risk versus reward makes sense.

The Beat Up Bodybuilder

If your training is very short-sighted, you will be sacrificing long-term gain. That is an inevitable fact in most walks of life, not just when it comes to training. This is your story over the next 5-10 years, so be sure to choose the smart path.

Looking back as a beginner you may have gotten some results, so there was no need to question the methods used and you continued to train in the same way. Because you were so indoctrinated in this training style, you believed it was the best (and only) way to train.

Your icons trained in this way, which supposedly validated its effectiveness. Your training style became your religion, and you became a devout follower. No matter what anyone else says, or what science tells you, your approach is the best.

Eventually your body got beat up, and through a series of injuries (and pain) you change your training. You stick to what you know, and you continue to select the same old-school routines, but you go lighter for higher reps. You then experience less pain because you are using less weight and you now have a greater focus on technique. You may also start spending half of your workout warming up and doing specific mobility exercises.

Often the right balance is never found until it is too late. By looking at things from an evidence-based approach you can see how to achieve your physique and strength goals faster while being able to train harder and longer.

They Key to Becoming Bulletproof

The real key to becoming bulletproof is exercise selection. With a few minor tweaks to your current training style you can get bigger and stronger, for longer.

First off you should start thinking about the strength of your smaller less superficial muscles. You can’t be all ‘show’ without the ‘go’! Injury specialist Chris Stankiewicz weighs in:

“There is a huge range of motion available at our joints. Training in linear patterns constrains the full movement of the joint and has the potential to over-train your larger muscle groups. Training in a more functional way will not only recruit the smaller stabilizing muscles around the joint to injury proof your body but will also increase your strength and performance with more traditional gym exercises, too!”

Secondly, we should learn how to make smart exercise decisions when we are trying to hit larger muscle groups and produce as much force or muscle activation as possible.

Barbell lifts for example are excellent tools that can be used for a variety of goals. However, because of the fixed stiffness of the bar the joints are often not as free to move as they should be. The same could be said for doing chin ups on a fixed bar. They can be a good exercise but there is limited freedom of movement around multiple joints, resulting in sheer forces in the elbows that cause wear and tear over time.

This is not to say you should cut barbell movements or chin ups from your program, on the contrary they can be excellent movements. But there needs to be the right balance in your program of risk versus reward. The reward is based on your goals, and the risk is based on the potential long-term impact that exercise has on your body.

As an example, a barbell bench press has massive reward to a powerlifter or someone training for the NFL scouting combine. It is also a good overall builder of upper body strength and size. But for the latter there are equally as good choices to build up your upper body while being a little more shoulder-friendly.

Overuse of fixed-plane machines can be another problem. This is because they fix the direction your body is moving in. Machines serve a purpose for building muscle but fall short in many other categories. They undertrain the stabilizer muscles, while potentially exposing certain joints to unnatural positions.

Getting the right balance of exercises is the key to any good program in the long run, and there are a few simple changes you can make to your routine to feel an immediate difference.

Put It to Practice

Always consider the cost-benefit ratio to you of any given exercise. Ego aside, if you cannot justify the risk versus reward of an exercise you are using right now, then why are you using it?

Get out of fixed plane and sagittal plane movements. Include more exercises in the frontal and transverse planes where you are most likely much weaker. For example, more lateral and rotational movements.

Include more unilateral movements. That is not to say you should be balancing on one leg all the time, but a few times a week throwing in some single-arm or single-leg work will allow greater focus on strength imbalances and working some smaller stabilizer muscles in the hips and shoulders.

Do not neglect the muscles you can not see. Those little muscles provide stability around your valuable joints, and a support system for your bigger muscles to do their thing. Focus on your pulling muscles a little more to ensure good balance of strength in your shoulders, as well as posture.

No amount of stretching or pre-hab will undo the damage of a poorly designed workout. Choose better exercises to start off with, then use pre-hab and targeted mobility work to further bulletproof your body.

The best time to start training smarter is today, the second-best time is tomorrow!

The post Bulletproof Your Body appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

So, you’re in the constant pursuit of developing a strong athletic core, and a visible set of abs. Let’s be clear from the get-go, only you know where you’re at right now so if you’re thinking this article will take you from 30% body fat to 5% body fat with veins pulsating over your ripped six-pack, it won’t.

Forget all the six-pack ripped selfies and marketing you’ve ever seen, let’s be real for a few minutes and start with some key tips that will help you achieve your body’s potential. If you want to develop athletic abs and drop some stubborn body fat around your mid-section, then read on to find out where most get it wrong, and how you can get ahead.

Mistake 1: Too Much Cardio

You know the benefits of cardio, it helps burn calories and body fat, it keeps your heart healthy, and it prepares you for when you need to run from predators (insert lion, bear, wife, husband, partner, as required here).

But when it comes to having visible muscles, in say your chest, arms, or abs, too much of a good thing can be counterproductive. To develop a good set of core muscles they need to grow and get stronger, just like any other muscle.

Due to certain hormonal and biochemical reactions that occur due to excessive amounts of cardio, your muscle and strength development will be sacrificed in place of other reactions that help you get better at endurance exercise.

When you’re training for anything always remember the SAID principle—specific adaptation to imposed demands. Your body will adapt to the demands you place on it, and it doesn’t care whether that gives you a six-pack or not.

If you want to burn calories and body fat, higher intensity methods spare more muscle and are more time-efficient. Weights circuits, metabolic resistance training, and high strength/power/speed intervals are all good alternatives.

Choose to do longer-duration cardio for other reasons instead, such as your health, when endurance is your goal, or where it might be more suitable in your program amongst other techniques (e.g., to reduce load/impact or allow recovery). Cardio is also great for getting rid of water retention and bloating and will help you temporarily “reveal” some abs.

Mistake 2: You Don’t Prioritize Lifting Weights

While a good fat loss program will allow you to create a slight caloric deficit, and lose stubborn fat, without the need to sacrifice your lean muscle, strength, energy levels or time, lifting weights are key to building strength and muscle.

Your abs are a muscle. Upping your cardio and eating less will cause your muscles to slowly wither away. So just imagine cutting out the weights, the biggest tool you have for building strength and muscle, while upping those things that work against that. It won’t produce the outcome you really want.

Keep lifting weights because they are the biggest muscle sparing tool you have. Don’t change a thing—your sets, reps, nothing. And don’t think there are such things as fat burning rep ranges. Strive to get stronger, even while in an energy deficit, and you’ll get winning results.

Mistake 3: An Overactive Ego and Old School Beliefs

You want a strong, athletic-looking core that performs as well as it looks. But it’s often an afterthought with some ab exercises being thrown in at the end of your regular workouts. Managing your workout schedule without setting priorities is like shooting an arrow randomly and calling whatever target you hit.

Yes, at some point if you fire enough arrows you might hit your primary target, but just think how much easier it would be if you started taking aim right now. Prioritize your target, aim, and fire.

Many of us have an emotional connection with whatever training style we use. It feels good to do the same things over again and expect different, or better results. But if you can put this emotional connection aside, forget the traditional bodybuilding dogma, and become smart in your approach this will be reflected in your results.

We can learn a lot from the car production industry on this one. If Audi or Mercedes took control of the fitness industry, we’d all be walking around looking like Greek Gods right now. That’s because in 2018 we’re better at building cars than we were in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s.

Every year technology seems to improve, and that’s reflected in the car you drive. They perform better, they look better (ok that’s open to opinion: 1964 Aston Martin DB5), they’re faster, more fuel efficient, and they’ll get you over 200,000 miles if you treat them right.

The improvements come because that’s because in the automotive industry technology is greater, and they have a budget devoted to research and development. They are always learning from the latest science and developing better cars for you to drive.

Different car manufacturers might have differing opinions and processes, but all have what’s best for you the consumer in mind. Their beliefs have evolved as research and technology have evolved.

Why then is it then that our training beliefs are decades old and developed through traditional bodybuilding dogma? We’re still reading from a 1970’s car manual that has since been updated many times over.

Everyone’s still reading off the same old book and sharing out that information, with professional coaches and trainers just as much to blame. For core training, this typically comprises of high-rep or high-duration bodyweight ab exercises and ramping up the cardio.

The post 3 Mistakes to Avoid for Lean Athletic Abs appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Photography by Bev Childress of Fort Worth, Texas

Consider what it would look like to scale up a mountain, reach the peak, then descend. Now consider what it would look like if you were to treat every workout in this same way. If you can embrace this concept and be willing to go against traditional training dogma, you’ll learn to better conquer your strength and body composition goals.

Imagine you’re at the beginning of your next workout and you start by priming your body with a handful of exercises and addressing potential weaknesses while preparing your body to perform at its prime. Your focus is on developing stability, mobility, and potentiating the nervous system.

You can see this part of the workout as ascending up a mountain, as the level progressively rises. At the peak, you’d be hitting your biggest lift. Goal ticked, you would then begin a descent down, into your secondary and assistance exercises, finishing with lower level exercises.

To give you an idea it might look something like this for an upper body pressing workout:

• Low-level band exercises, band pull-aparts, internal and external rotations
• Cable face pulls – 2-4 sets of 12-15 reps working short of failure
• 1-arm kettlebell press – 2-4 sets of 12-15 reps working short of failure
• Flat bench press variation
• Incline bench press variation
• Shoulder press variation
• Push up variation
• Isolation exercise working on a specific area of weakness

Do you see how in the example above the main lift is somewhere in the middle of your workout? Take note of that and compare it to how things are traditionally done instead. You go into the gym, and after a lousy few minutes of low-intensity cardio, possibly a few arms swings or bodyweight squats, you then proceed to stack the weight up with your main lift.

It might look something like this:

• 5-10 minutes of low-intensity cardio
• Arm circles and arm swings
• Bench press variation
• Rest of the workout, involving various press variations and flyes

But more often it looks like this:

• Arrive at the gym having not moved for a good few hours.
• A few sets of bench press with just the bar.
• Follow with more sets of the bench press, gradually stacking the weight up.
• The rest of the workout, presses, flyes, and so-on.

In strength and conditioning we call the priority exercise an “indicator lift,” and for most, it’s usually a bench press, deadlift, or squat. It’s a good idea to have one indicator lift in each workout since you can track its progress and manipulate such things as volume and load.

Whether these exercises are right for you is another conversation in its self, but let’s assume they’re a valuable part of your program. That’s why you want to do them right at the start when you’re fresh. It’s normal that you want to lift the most, and you want to lift more than you did last week.

The Proper Way to Scale the Mountain

We all know that progressive overload is key, but it’s how you manage that progressive overload and how you choose to overload your body that really matters. The timing is key, and doing your key indicator lift prior to anything else is bad timing.

Now what you’re probably thinking right now is you want to lift the most, but by doing other exercises first you won’t be able to do this. But ask yourself why—is doing it first down to ego, is it just what you believe works, or is it simply down to traditional strength and conditioning or bodybuilding dogma?

Challenge your beliefs and consider that what most “know” to be the correct way to train, might not actually be. If you’re not always questioning your methods, then it is a sure sign that you’re stuck in your beliefs.

“To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.”

Socrates

Approaching each workout like the above-mentioned is one such example that goes against tradition but deserves considerable thought.

Here is what you would see by scaling the mountain properly, instead of landing right on the peak without the necessary preparation. The first time you try this you may not be able to lift as much in your key indicator lifts.

You’d have accumulated a little more fatigue prior, and this could have an effect. But who really cares, leave your ego at the door for a few weeks because promise it will be worth it. Your body will be functioning better, stronger foundations will be set, and your lifts will be efficient.

This super-compensation in strength is particularly true for those that have neglected their foundations in the past. You can’t build a great building without a solid foundation.

Remember:

• You’ll reduce the likelihood of picking up injuries, modifying workouts because of pain, and the need to take time off from training.
• You will see better long-term results, as your body will learn to function and move properly.
• You will improve your overall health and longevity, especially as you reach past your 50’s, 60’s and beyond.

Ask yourself how you would define fitness success. If you crushed your workouts for a few months and got in great shape because of it, yet it was at the expense of your overall health and longevity would you define that as a success? If you had to stop at a certain point in your life due to pain or injury would you consider that to be a health and fitness success?

It’s usually when pain or dysfunction happens you begin to spend half your workouts foam rolling, and the other half balancing on a ball because you think it’s good for your core. You then fall into this style of training, or you jack the gym in altogether.

Whether you want to achieve optimal strength, body composition, or athletic performance you must be willing to put the ego and traditional beliefs aside and do what others around you might not be. If you stop having an emotional relationship with your style of training, then you’ll achieve more success.

Take the Emotion Out of the Scenario

If you stop having an emotional relationship with your own style of training, you’ll get even closer to achieving your bodies’ potential. No one style of training is best, and many components can be taken from each discipline and manipulated towards your goals. It’s you versus you, whether you’re competing against your last workout, or competing against your own beliefs.

One simple thing you can change right now, no matter what style of training you believe in, is treating each workout as though it were like a mountain. You can’t shoot a cannon from a canoe.

Now go out and conquer.

The post Leave Your Ego at the Door appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is that feeling of muscle soreness that most of us have experienced usually 24-48 hours after a hard workout. It usually lasts for up to 96 hours, but it is not uncommon if it lasts even longer. If you haven’t trained deadlifts in a while, you’re sure to feel it for the next week.

It’s that feeling of pain, tenderness, and stiffness that some of us love because it makes us feel as though we’ve accomplished something, but for others, it’s the reason why we struggle to get out of bed the next morning. It’s important that you can identify the difference between DOMS and severely problematic pain—so understanding your own body is key.

The severity of DOMS can be the result of a few things, including your familiarity with an exercise, the intensity of exercise, how much eccentric loading there is, how much a muscle has been stretched under resistance and the angle of muscle contraction.

DOMS and the Relationship with Your Workout

For those newcomers to the concept of working out, it’s no wonder why the likelihood of quitting is so much higher when you’re waking up every day sore. Who wants that kind of anxiety knowing that after every workout you’ll be feeling this way.

By understanding DOMS, however, you’ll understand that this isn’t necessary. If you’re a trainer, understand how managing a client’s DOMS will allow them to achieve a better “flow” state within their training, and know that because of this, they’ll be more likely to succeed in the long game.

Nearly all of us have experienced DOMS, but the underlying mechanisms behind post-exercise soreness are somewhat of a mystery. Although research has come up with a number, or combination of mechanisms responsible, no single, clear explanation is available.

To date, mechanical damage of the muscle tissue, inflammation, and swelling, and an increase in free radical production have all been suggested to contribute to the symptoms associated with DOMS. Let’s delve in.

Mechanical Damage

The response to localized muscle damage is one that can be compared to a muscle injury and the inflammatory response to an infection. A large rate of tissue breakdown occurs during exercises where a large relative weight is being lifted (i.e., higher percentage repetition maximum).

Furthermore, emphasizing the eccentric component of an exercise, performing a stretch of the muscle while it’s being worked, or overloading the eccentric portion of the exercise by using a greater weight on the eccentric phase, can produce high amounts of mechanical tension and tissue breakdown.

The result is inevitable soreness the day after the workout. If you haven’t experienced this type of soreness, try doing a few sets of controlled eccentric exercises, or “negatives,” in your workouts to see what I mean.

Photography by Bev Childress of Fort Worth, Texas

When muscles passively stretch (stretching a muscle without actively tensing it) this is what’s referred to as passive elastic tension. On the other hand, if you place tension on a muscle by isometrically (statically) flexing it as hard as possible it becomes what is referred to as active tension. During both types of stretch high amounts of mechanical tension are formed.

Taking a muscle through its full range of motion and lengthening, or “stretching” it while also using resistance, produces a large amount of mechanical damage. For example, stretching the pectoral muscles fully during dumbbell flyes can often trigger large amounts of post-exercise soreness. Mechanical tension is high during these movements because high eccentric force is being produced by the muscle in a lengthened state.

Inflammation, Swelling, and Free Radicals

Certain forms of exercise, including eccentric exercise in particular, can result in injury to the muscle cell membrane, setting off an inflammatory response that leads to prostaglandin and leukotriene production.

Leukotrienes are responsible for controlling the inflammation process and prostaglandins (specifically PGE2) directly causes the pain sensation associated with DOMS by making certain pain receptors more sensitive. Leukotrienes also increase vascular permeability and attract neutrophils to the area of damage.

In layman’s terms this means that molecules can pass through capillaries easier and a build-up of white blood cells occurs. These neutrophils generate free radicals which can also increase damage to the cell membrane. Swelling results from the movement of cells and fluid from the bloodstream in to the spaces between the muscle tissues with inflammation, and can contribute to the sensation of pain.

It may not sound like it but this is a good thing. We want this initial response to be happening, so any forms of supplementation that are meant to fight free radical damage around workouts could actually be dampening the effectiveness of the workout.

Supplement companies sometimes add antioxidants such as vitamin C to their pre and post-workout drinks—but this practice may need some rethinking. Unless you’re an athlete and next-day recovery is your goal, then bask in the post-exercise inflammatory response and enjoy the long-term gains. Save the antioxidants for another time in the day.

Is DOMS Good or Bad?

In short, feeling DOMS doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve had a good workout. It’s more of a sign of the type of workout you’ve had, how unaccustomed to the workout you could have been, or the types of exercises you were using. You’ll also find that the more experienced you are in the gym, or in your sport, the less muscle soreness you’ll experience over time as your body becomes more accustomed to the exercise.

To play devil’s advocate, however, the types of exercise DOMS can be associated with, and in particular, producing large amounts of mechanical damage, can lead to greater increases in muscle size, so a feeling of post-exercise soreness may be expected in workouts where maximal growth and strength development are a goal.

The cellular swelling and inflammation associated with DOMS can also be of use in small doses, so any strategy you use to reduce these (i.e., use of anti-inflammatory drugs, treatment with ice or compression) should be carefully considered and not be overdone. DOMS is completely normal, so suck it up and work it off!

DOMS FAQs

1. Does DOMS affect strength and performance?
   Performance should not be affected by feelings of soreness, and feeling sore is not necessarily a sign that your body has not fully recovered. DOMS can only affect performance (e.g., how much weight you can lift, how fast you can run etc.) through more psychological reasons, as feelings of soreness can often be uncomfortable. There are no physiological reasons, however.
2. Can I train when I’m sore?
   Yes, providing you feel as though your body has recovered and your performance won’t be hindered.
3. How long should D.O.M.S usually last?
   Usually for around 96 hours, but it’s not uncommon for it to last longer. You’ll often find that if you get moving, and get the blood flowing again, it’ll go much quicker.
4. What exercises typically produce the most soreness?
   Exercises that emphasise stretching the muscle under contraction (such as chest flyes, deep squats, and stiff-legged deadlifts), exercises that emphasise or overload the eccentric/downward portion of a lift (slow negatives, forced reps, partner assisted reps, 2/1 method, etc.), and any exercise you may not be accustomed to.
5. What does it mean if I never feel sore after a workout?
   There could be a number of reasons, but as previously mentioned the lack of feeling sore isn’t a sign that you’ve not worked hard enough. People more experienced with exercise typically find it hard to achieve that feeling of soreness after a workout and almost relish the feeling of DOMS when it comes about, whereas novices are typically sore as a result of even a few sets of exercise.
6. Is feeling D.O.M.S the sign of a good workout?
   Absolutely not, it’s only a sign that you may have done something new, your workout may have involved a lot of eccentric lifting, or you are new to exercise. Just remember that when it comes to a well-designed progressive program “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is a complete myth.

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