TheWolf

Will be posting my articles here.

TheWolf

Join The Revolution II


Your pre bed meal is really important as you know. Your body goes though a restoration process when you sleep, trillions of cells will be renewed, 80-90 % of daily GH production occurs while you sleep. Many many things happens actually. But, I am not here to talk about all those things. I am here to talk a LITTLE BIT about GH.

Its direct effect is encouraging fat break down. That is what I want you to know.

It stimulate fat break down and cause IGF 1 to be released which aids in bone growth, increases protein synthesis and prevents protein oxidation ( breakdown ) and many other good things.

When you prepare your last meal, you gotta make sure it does not spike insulin.

The reason is that high level of insulin drives down your Melatonin and GH production.

Second reason why you don't want underproduction of these two hormones is that these guys' secretion is inversely proportionate to Cortisol production.

When we wake up Dopamine and Cortisol are both high to drive us into action. If they are not high enough, we will have a hard time waking up. But, when unnecessarily elevated, we will go through a whole day of catabolic state where everything we eat and do tend to do more harm than good as the receptors for all other hormones become resistant to those hormones, hence, testosterone, GH, insulin, estrogen, thyroid and cortisol itself will never work optimally.

And the timing is also of equal importance. By eating a bout two hours before you go to bed, your insulin will be low by the time you get to bed, at the same time, you muscles will be fed with glucose.

Here comes another reason why. Right after your meal, Ghrelin level drops down so low but it comes back up slowly. Ghrelin is a hormone that makes you feel hungry. It potently stimulate GH secretion as well. Ghrelin, Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone and Samatostin ( SS is a hormone that inhibits GH production ) works together to decide the timing and amount of GH secretion.



So, to minimize the release of insulin and boost GH production, your meal should be low in carbs, preferably Fibrous Carbs, High in protein ( casein protein ) and low in fat, should be taken about 1 1/2 hr - 2 hrs before bed time.

** Just for your info, high level of free fatty acids inhibits GH production and low level does the reverse **


Happy Eating

INHUMANSTRENGTH

TheWolf

Health Tips ( 1 )


Smoking a cigarette can cause a loss of up to 200 mg of Vit C


Cigarette smoke contains more than 300 chemicals


Baking Soda ( sodium bicarb ) can help solve the problem of burning sensation caused by irons ( which are made at the same time as lactic acid and those guys are the true cause of the burn unlike what we believed that lactic acid is the culprit ). My company got them in abundance, I can sneak them out for you.


Vit C and Aspirin should not be taken together.

TheWolf

The Accursed


A person who has had a curse put on him can be called the accursed. We are blessed with stubborn body parts, are we not?

Just when I thought I would write Iron Calves, the idea came to me that I should make some explanations as to stubborn body parts.


Not everyone has such muscles or parts. But it is rare to see someone who is overall made of good genetics.


When you have a real cursed one/s, then, there is no way you can make it very BIG. Is very big equal to Huge ? I am not sure. Up to you to define it. Even with chemical aids, you can't make it very BIG.

Well, that is a bout real cursed ones and not many people have such things, while there are some unlucky bodybuilders with unwanted genetics in certain muscle groups.


Enough with this, lets get to the point.

Why are some muscle groups refusing to grow even though the rest of the body is growing ?

There are many reasons, but I will only outline main reasons;

1. The amount of fibers distributed to that area is so little.

2. All or most of them are slow twitch fibers.

3. Bad metabolic properties.

4. CNS responds differently to these fibers.

5. Though there are fast twitch fibers, you are not able to activate as they are really hard to be called upon.

6. You screw up that part more with your training.


Combination of Number 1, Number 2 and Number 3 is something that determine the growth potential of that part and it is the most fearsome factor.

When you are bestowed upon such blessing, my friend, I am sorry, that part/s will never get very BIG.



Why?

I will make it simple.

Take a look at number 1. Do you think your forearms have the potential to be as big as your quads? Obviously, not!

A fast twitch fiber can grow 2-3 times its original size. Yes, I know about hyperplasia, and there is hyperplasia regardless of what some say " it is not possible in human ". I am not here to talk about it though.

That is why the original amount of fibers play major role in how big this muscle can get.


Wait, you are forgetting number 2 factor.

When the amount is little and most or all of them are slow twitch fibers which can't grow much, you are doomed.

Yes, you can turn them into fast twitch with training, but, they are not as quality as real fast twitch fibers.

Number 3 is easy to understand right? There is noting much you can do about it too. What I refer to by Bad Metabolic Properties is that the way your damaged proteins are repaired won't be the same as that of other fibers in other muscles, and the type of firing and the means by which these fibers get energy supply are also differet from the rest of the body. That is why we can not change all these things.

That said, there is still hope. I will talk about it later.


Happy Training

INHUMANSTRENGTH

TheWolf

The Special Accursed


Never let the " Some people were borned with good genes in their calves that those sock holders grow easily " thought bug you. Just like You and I, everyone else without exception is meant to screw up Calf Muscles everyday.

Since we learned to walk when we were kids, the fibers in those muscles were made to adapt to such stress. They played it by ear by becoming slow twitch fibers.

If that is the case, why would some people have big calves when they don't even train them??

It is especially because of the amount of fibers distributed to those parts.

Let's take a look at the following example;

Person A has A amount of fibers in his calves and Person B has B amount of fibers in them. Lets assume that all these fibers are fast twitch and these two dudes have same hormonal levels, daily activities, daily stress level, daily food intake, same body weight and everything else being the same.


B = A + A

Required amount of slow twitch fibers for daily activities A.


As they walk everyday, there is a need for certain amount of fibers. CNS will recruit necessary amount of fibers to make sure that there is sufficient fibers working.

Finally, there will be A amount of fibers used when these guys walk.

Then again, there comes a requirement for the recruited fibers to work long enough. As such, they adapt by becoming slow twitch fibers.

Now, Person A has slow twitch dominant calves and they refuse to grow easily, whereas Person B still has the rest of the fibers unused when he walks.


While everyone of us screw up our calf muscles, due to varying fiber distribution, some have big muscles. Though some don't have big calf muscles, the sock holders grow easily when they hit the gym as there are still some fast twitch fibers .


Among cursed muscles, calves are The Special Accursed.



Refer to my The Accursed article and you will see what tops the list of the reasons.

We can't do much about it.


But, we still can do something about it.

The answer will be found in The Road To Good, Better, Best Genetics II.


Happy Training

INHUMANSTRENGTH

TheWolf

The Damnest Chest


I want to write a thing for those with pecs which never seem to grow though they have been adding more and more plates to their bench press, in the fond hope that these parts would be improved. The sad truth is that they are making the problem worse by doing so. Try super wide grip and you are screwing your shoulders.

Your front delts and triceps are more than enough to do bench press and chest muscles are just auxiliary muscles for these people.

Just take a look at fiber alignments, chest muscles are not built to contract that way.

Even if you don't have genetically cursed pecs, you can have this problem, shift of stress to stronger ones.

Triceps are not the ones to blame, in actuality, but front delts.


Wait A Sec!

Let me rephrase it.

Front Delts are the first to blame and Triceps are the second.


Some people are built differently from others, hence, their front delts take on most of the stress though these delts are not necessarily stronger than pecs, some just have bad genes in their chest * refer to The Accursed article * and some have delts which are stronger or stronger and bigger than chest though their pecs are not genetically cursed.


No matter what the reason is, here are two things that are true for you;

1. Front delts takes on more stress than triceps during the first half of the motion * When your chest is stretched *, and together, they move up the weights.

2. Triceps becomes main movers in the second half till you lockout. During this portion, your front delts are auxiliary muscles.


The follow is something that applies to everyone, including those with good pecs.

Chest muscles are not aligned to contract up and down. They are designed to contract from side to side.

Because your delts and triceps are gradually moved to a position where they slowly become vertical to the floor, it is the right position for them as they are there to contract up and down which is the direction in which the bar is moving. The bar moves up and down, front delts and tricep muscles contract up and down as their fiber arrangement is made to be that way.


That is why this is not the right movement for people with cursed genes or people with the problem of shift of stress * stress shifts to stronger parts and weak parts become auxiliary muscles *.

If you are trying to improve your chest muscles, you should train in a way that your chest fibers can contract from side to side.

Use exercises like "Cable Cross Over", " Cable Fly ".....


There are some other exercises you can use too. Or you may be able to invent your own exercise which surpasses existing ones.


Hope this give you some insights.


Train Smart

INHUMANSTRENGTH

Critical Mass

Why not start a new thread for every article? That will provide simplicity for archiving them and give other members room to respond on each thread.

Malley

Agreed, but what I have read I REALLY like! We think alike in many ways. Whenever I get sometime I want to read them all!

TheWolf

A good idea,,,, but I actually prefer writing articles under this thread

TheWolf

TheWolf

BEGINNERS' LIBRARY ( Part I )

( Hopefully, this will help newbies or noobs who do not know anything about what is happening in their own bodies )

This is a far superior version of Beginners' Library. The information I had given in my old article is insufficient. Accordingly, I have decided to write a series of more complete articles. I have also provided two links where you can actually see how muscles contract.

Moreover, I have removed most science jargon as you do not need to know all the biochemistry to know everything you should know about muscle/strength building.


So, How do muscles contract?

Let me make is simple for you;

Basically, inside the muscle fibers, the signals stimulate the flow of calcium which causes the thick and thin myofilaments * thick and thinn myofilaments are what are called actin and myosin proteins, to be precise* to slide across one another.

When this occurs, it causes the sarcomere * a sarcomere is made up of thick and thin myofilaments * to shorten, which generates force. When billions of sarcomeres in the muscle shorten all at once it results in a contraction of the entire muscle fiber.


For better idea, go to the links below;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvOyQMxbc78&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdHzK...eature=related

In the second video, you can see the blue colour nucleus on the myofibril, right? Those beautiful blue guys are the ones that express genes. In building bigger fibers, they are supposed to express genes.

It can be Slow Twitch, Type I gene or it can be Fast Twitch, Type II a or Type II b. It depends on what twitch the original fiber is.

Remember that the genes they express can be changed with training. REMEMBER THIS LAST POINT, OK? This is how you can become fast twitch dominant.



There is a super cool website which tells you all about these with super cool animated pics. But, for now, you have a sound knowledge of how contractions take place. So, I won't be pasting that link here.


The process repeats as we keep on lifting.

This whole process of muscle contraction relies heavily on substrates such as Calcium, Sodium, and Potassium to name a few. With continuous signals, the concentration of these substances decreases.




Types of Fibers


There are many types of fibers Type IIb, Type II ab, Type II a, hybrids of type II a and Type I, Type I and blah blah blah. Well, there is another type of fiber that can be found, but rarely, in humans.


But, it is ok, you don't have to know all of them. Let's take a look at the three main types of fibers.


Slow Twitch Fibers ( Type I fibers ) = Fatigue resistant, Smallest and Weakest. Easy to activate. Red in colour.



Fast Twitch Fibers ( Type II a fibers ) = Not as fatigue resistant as Type I fibers, but bigger than them, stronger. Not as easy to activate. Red in colour as well.


Fast Twitch Fibers ( Type II b fibers ) = Least fatigue resistant, Biggest and Strongest. Hard to activate. White in colour.




Motor Units


Motor Unit ( MU ) = A motor neuron and All the fibers this neuron innervates.


Largest MUs = Largest neurons and largest muscle fibers ( Type II b )


Medium MUs = Medium neurons and medium muscle fibers ( Type II ab and Type II a )


Smallest MUs = Smallest neurons and smallest muscle fibers ( Type I )


Large motor neurons usually contain larger number of muscle fibers, whereas small motor neurons control less number of fibers.

When a motor neuron is activated, all the fibers it control will be used. If it controls 1000 fibers, all 1000 fibers will contract ( twitch ).


Motory neurons send signals to make muscle fibers contract ( twitch ). The faster the signals are sent, the faster the fibers contract ( twitch ) and the more force they produce. Sending signals is known as Firing.


Large motor neurons can fire faster than small motor neurons.

There is a range to how fast they can fire, which is known as Fire Rating or Firing Frequency.

The faster a neuron fire, the faster the fibers it control will contract.

The faster a fiber twitch, the greater the tension on this fiber, hence, the more force output.


When a neuron reaches its limits, it will drop out. Means, it stops firing and all the fibers it controls will stop contracting.





Types of Contractions


The contraction of a muscle does not necessarily imply that the muscle shortens; it only means that tension has been generated. Muscles can contract in the following ways ( I won't include stuff like Polymetric here ):

1. "Isometric contraction"

This is a contraction in which no movement takes place, because the load on the muscle exceeds the tension produced by the contracting muscle. This occurs when a muscle attempts to push or pull an immovable object.

OR

It can also be that the load and force output of our muscles are equal.

2. "Isotonic contraction"

This is a contraction in which movement takes place as the tension generated by the contracting muscle exceeds the load on the muscle. This occurs when you use your muscles to successfully push or pull a load.

Isotonic contractions are further divided into two types:

a. "concentric contraction"

A contraction in which the muscle decreases in length against an opposing load, such as lifting a weight up.

b. "eccentric contraction"

A contraction in which the muscle increases in length as it resists a load, such as lowering something down.


During a concentric contraction, the muscles that are shortening serve as the agonists and hence do all the work. During an eccentric contraction the muscles that are lengthening serve as the agonists (and do all of the work).

For example, while doing chin ups, biceps serve as agonists as the body moves up and down, hence, triceps are antagonists and while doing dips, triceps are agonists and biceps are antagonists.

When an agonist contracts, in order to cause the desired motion, it usually forces the antagonists to relax. This phenomenon is called "reciprocal inhibition" because the antagonists are inhibited from contracting.



Happy Slogging

INHUMANSTRENGTH

TheWolf

Beginners' Library ( Part II )


Take a look at this first;

YouTube - Muscle contraction


Remember the chemicals used for the myofilaments to slide.



The question here is "How do muscles produce force?".



Muscles produce force via a number of mechanisms;



Motor Unit Recruitment aka Motor Unit Summation


As the name implies, this is about the force obtained by recruiting more and more motor units.

Some like to call it Fiber Summation. But, you gotta remember that you can't use a fiber without activating the neuron that controls the fiber, and you can't recruit just certain number of the fibers. Once this neuron is activated, all fibers under control will come into play, which is something I have stated earlier.

When we perform an exercise, say, calf raises, the MUs in our calves are not recruited in a random fashion. They are called upon according to what is known as Size Principle.

Calves have Large MUs which contain larger amount of fibers and small MUs which are of small neurons and few muscle fibers.

How many large MUs and Small MUs there are is genetically determined.

For fine, delicate movements low threshold MUs will be used. The control small numbers of slow twitch fibers.

So, when we calf raise light weights, these small MUs which have low threshold for activation will start working first. After a few warm up sets with light loads, we slam on more plates. As there is a demand for more force, necessary amount of larger MUs are recruited.

Over time, some of the MUs will start to drop out as they become fatigued, hence, more and more MUs will be called upon to keep the weights going.



Rate Coding

The second Mechanism is Rate Coding * Rate Coding refers to how many times motor neurons fire in a certain period of time, the faster they fire, the faster the fibers they control will contract, resulting in greater tension in each fiber, hence, more force output *.

In a given motor unit there is a range of firing frequencies. Remember ? Small MUs operate at a lower frequency range than Larger MUs *.

Within that range, the force generated by a motor unit increases with increasing firing frequency.


MUs you have recruited can handle the loads you are lifting, they won't fire at maximum frequency. But, when you need more force at the same time, you can't recruit anymore MUs, then, the guys working will start to increase their firing frequency to the max.



Tetanus


When fibers are forced to contract before it relaxes completely from previous contraction, they will twitch faster than normal, hence, there will be increased tension/force. In addition, supposing there are still MUs left unused, some or all of them will be called upon as necessary. As such, there will also be motor unit summation.

This is known as Tetanus.



Happy Slogging


INHUMANSTRENGTH

TheWolf

The Knowledge II


When a person has a slouch back and ask people for advice, this is what he would usually get " train your back, do deadlifts,,, blah blah " or " It is because of weak back ".

Though there can be many causes, there normally is only one cause for Mr or Ms slouch backs who slouch because they tend to sit, stand, walk with a slouch since young.


It does not matter you have slouch or not, just try this;

Bend forward a bit and feel the tension on your lower back and tummy.


Straighten up and feel again.

You will see the difference between two tensions.


When you slouch, lower back is the only main guy supporting your torso. However, as you straighten up, the tension on your tummy increases as it now shares the upper body weight with lower back. Slouch people can not maintain this tension on their stomach muscles for long.

Another thing is that I have friends who are coolies. Even when they were around 15-16, they could easily lift up rice sacks weighing in 120 lbs or more from the ground. Obviously, their lower backs were stronger than average teens. But, they had a slouch back.



OK, enough with this, you want some Science Jargon, right?


A muscle kept in a stretched position for a long time will have its sarcomeres lengthened.


A muscle kept in a relaxed position for a long time will have its sarcomeres shortened.


So, that is about it.

Other than sarcomeres, other connective tissues will be affected in the same manner.


Now, you should realize that the real weak one is the front part not the lower back.


How to deal with that ? I don't feel like sharing it now. Come and see me when I become a PT


Aww, btw, I had a slouch back.



Happy Reading


INHUMANSTRENGTH

TheWolf

Intermediate Trainees' Library ( Part I )

I, in the past, wrote two articles on eccentrics. I cited studies where eccentrics gave promising results, whereas concentrics were shown inferior. There actually are several programs which emphasize on yielding portions and many bodybuilders have been using them.

In the second article, I mentioned that eccentrics are not that good at all.


People know that a lot more studies have to be done in order to ascertain the long term effects of this yielding movement.

Also it is questionable if they used the most effective ways of using overcoming movements in the studies.

Well, I will go so far as to say they never used them. For example, lifting as fast as possible with sub maximal weights ? lifting maximal weights with high enough volume? doing partials with heavy weights?


Researchers have compared the results of eccentric only regime, concentric only regime, concentric + eccentric regime, concentric + Isometric + eccentric regime, concentric + Isometric + eccentric + polymetric regime.

And, guess what? concentric + Isometric + eccentric + polymetric regime is superior to the rest, while concentric + Isometric + eccentric program stands on top of the other three. Moreover, concentric + eccentric regime has proved to be superior to both concentric only regime and eccentric only arsenal.

From here, we can safely say that the more types of contractions we use, the better it is.

But, why is that so?

Simple! Each of them have unique qualities.

Allow me to outline some of the virtues of each of them;


Concentrics

When doing overcoming movement, the muscles follow size principle, that is, the smallest, weakest, lowest threshold motor neurons will be recruited first. But, when necessary, required amount of larger motor neurons will also be called upon at the same time.

The point I want to make is that this contraction is different from others in such a way that CNS tries to recruit more neurons first before increasing firing frequency of the exercising motor neurons. So, for this contraction, motor unit ( a motor neuron and fibers it innervates ) recruitment comes first before increased firing rate.

You must remember that when a motor neuron is activated, all the fibers it controls will be used. Motor neurons have their own range of frequencies at which they fire. And, the faster they fire, the faster the fibers they control will contract, the greater the tension is on these fibers, hence, there will be greater force output.


Eccentrics

When there is a yielding movement, instead of trying to recruit more motor neurons, the CNS will only try to increase firing rate of the working motor neurons. As such, the fibers these neurons control will contract at the highest frequency possible.

Which is why you recruit less motor neurons with eccentrics ( hence, you use less muscle fibers )than with concentrics for the same load. Therefore, for yielding portion, increased firing rate comes before motor unit summation.


Isometrics

There are two types of isometrics, one being yielding isometrics and the other, overcoming isometrics. They both differ in their characteristics. Your CNS responds differently to them. Well, it responds differently to each type of contraction, be it concentric or eccentric or isometric or polymetric.


Here, I will only point out certain things about Overcoming Isometric.

CNS not only tries to fire the working neurons at their highest frequencies but it also tries to recruit more and more neurons.

There will be sliding of the filaments ( myosin and actin proteins ). But, the muscle length will not change.

And due to lack of range of motion of filaments, trainees will experience only certain degree of hypertrophy over a short period of time.



Polymetrics

Polymetric is about yielding a weight, suddenly breaking and bouncing back up. So, it consists of eccentric and concentric movements. If you observe sprinters, gymnastics and such, you can see what this movement is like.

When your muscles lengthen, muscle spindles will send signals to control system in order to bring about the contraction of the fibers in the lengthening muscles so as to prevent injuries.

And, what happens when you suddenly stops and immediately move on to the concentric portion?

As I have mentioned in the Beginners' library series, under Tetanus, when you try to use the muscle fibers that have not completely relaxed from previous contraction, the tension in these fibers will go up as a result of increased firing frequency. Not only that, there will also be motor unit summation, that is, more motor units will be recruited for the subsequent concentric movement.


In the future articles, I will enlighten you as to how to make use of all these info to gain mass and strength as fast as possible.


Happy Training

INHUMANSTRENGTH