We have a new article up on the main UPFitness website that details two massively effective products that boost health and provide much needed “growth factors” such as IGF-1.  The article deals with colostrum, or “mother’s milk” and a cutting edge Poliquin supplement known as Blood Protein.

Many people labour under the misapprehension that they can get enough omega 3s by eating a few servings oif oily fish every week.  Nothing could be further from the truth, as in “the old days” (before mass farming saw grain rather than grass fed animals) all meat and eggs were much higher in omega 3s and our general diets saw us consume 10 to 100 times more than the average consumption in the 21st century.

The following study I have recently found identifies yet another reason why supplementation is so vital - the fish we eat now are increasingly full of the wrong kind of fat!  Now where is my tropical island where I can fresh and organic every day…

Journal of the American Dietetic Association Volume 108, Issue 7, July 2008, Pages 1178-1185
The Content of Favorable and Unfavorable Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Found in Commonly Eaten Fish
Kelly L. Weaver PhD, Priscilla Ivester MS, Joshua A. Chilton, Martha D. Wilson PhD, Prativa Pandey and Floyd H. Chilton PhD,

Changes in diet during the past century have caused a marked increase in consumption of saturated fatty acids and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) with a concomitant decrease in the intake of n-3 PUFAs. Increased fish consumption has been shown to be the only realistic way to increase dietary quantities of beneficial long-chain n-3 PUFAs such as eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid and re-establish more balanced n-6:n-3 ratios in the diets of human beings. Our objective in this research was to characterize some of the relevant fatty acid chemistry of commonly consumed fish, with a particular focus on the four most commonly consumed farmed fish. To do this, 30 commonly consumed farmed and wild fish were collected from supermarkets and wholesalers throughout the United States. Fatty acid composition of samples from these fish was determined using gas chromatography. The 30 samples studied contained n-3 PUFAs ranging from fish having almost undetectable levels to fish having nearly 4.0 g n-3 PUFA per 100 g fish. The four most commonly farmed fish, Atlantic salmon, trout, tilapia, and catfish, were more closely examined. This analysis revealed that trout and Atlantic salmon contained relatively high concentrations of n-3 PUFA, low n-6:n-3 ratios, and favorable saturated fatty acid plus monounsaturated fatty acid to PUFA ratios. In contrast, tilapia (the fastest growing and most widely farmed fish) and catfish have much lower concentrations of n-3 PUFA, very high ratios of long chain n-6 to long chain n-3 PUFAs, and high saturated fatty acid plus monounsaturated fatty acid to PUFA ratios. Taken together, these data reveal that marked changes in the fishing industry during the past decade have produced widely eaten fish that have fatty acid characteristics that are generally accepted to be inflammatory by the health care community.

TRACK AND FIELD

U.S. shotputter Adam Nelson tries to wrap his mind around gold

By Diane Pucin
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

June 27, 2008

Adam Nelson, one of the best shotputters in the world, is lying on a bed in a Long Beach hotel, Room 526. Anyone in Room 528 probably could have heard this:

“Full extension. Express. Thrust, release, follow through. Feel and I’m doing this now. I tap your forehead, it’s your turn to throw. Move toward the laser, so lasered, so locked in, so absorbed in the moment and your express word. POWER.”

There is also New Age-y tonal music playing. But this is not what it sounds like. It is not about sex but about power.

Shotput power.

Nelson, a two-time Olympic silver medalist who will compete in the U.S. track and field Olympic trials that begin today in Eugene, Ore., is being hypnotized by Pete Siegel, whose voice rises in capital letters: POWER, THRUST, LASER.

Nelson likes his silver medals well enough. But he is tired of second place and he hopes Siegel can help him to GOLD. Nelson is speaking in capital letters too.

On Siegel’s website, the hypnotist touts PowerMind, what he describes as a peak performance mental training.

“I’ve never defined myself by my silver medals,” Nelson said. “My initial sensation, both times, was that to walk away from the field with a silver medal” is unsatisfying.

“By the time I was on the podium, my perspective had changed. But the God’s honest truth, those medals are in my sock drawer. They only come out when a friend wants to see them, but most of my friends don’t ask. Unless they have a loss of sanity.”

The top three at the trials go to the Olympics, where Nelson twice had confounding and ultimately demoralizing second-place finishes.

At Sydney in 2000, Nelson was the gold medal favorite but finished second to Arsi Harju, a relatively unknown Finn who trained by throwing telephone poles and who had missed much of the season while tending to the illness of a relative.

Then, at Athens, Nelson and Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine threw the same distance. Bilonog won because his second throw was farthest while Nelson fouled on his other throws, including a final heave that would have been the winner had he not had a toe on the line.

“It was devastating,” Nelson said. “I didn’t even realize what the rule was.”

So now Nelson tries again, embracing original thoughts. He has tested the use of acupuncture and chiropractors, of hot stones and masseuses.

After finishing second (again) at last year’s world championships behind a thrower from Belarus who was only weeks off a doping suspension, Nelson began working with strength coach Charles Poliquin in Tempe, Ariz., who introduced Nelson to Siegel.

Nelson said friends and family suggested he was grasping at straws using hypnosis.

“I heard the word charlatan used,” Nelson said. “My wife kind of rolled her eyes. So did my mom.”

Carrie Lane, Nelson’s coach when he works out at Virginia, where he is working toward a graduate degree, said she thought the idea was far-fetched. “But Adam thinks about everything,” Lane said.

Siegel said this mental training will be the smartest thing Nelson has ever done. In a sport that has been plagued by doping scandals, Siegel sells hypnosis as better than HGH or steroids.

“It’s boneheads using chemicals,” Siegel said. “The power of the subconscious is more powerful than drugs and always has been. That’s the real point here. To help an athlete generate the fullest expression of athletic power the athlete is capable of. That’s what mental training is.”

Nelson has always embraced the unconventional. He is 6 feet tall, 265 pounds, was a star football player in high school and a star in school plays. He played football at Dartmouth and also threw the shot. He’s 32 now, training still as an elite athlete, yet also doing intern work at local television stations as a sports reporter.

His inner actor came through under hypnosis.

Siegel conducted a 40-minute session in the hotel room on the day before Nelson’s first important competition of the Olympic season, at the Home Depot Center in Carson last month. As Nelson relaxed, Siegel popped in the background music. Nelson closed his eyes. Siegel began talking.

“You’re in your set position. I’ll count from three down to one, tap your forehead. You’ll begin your move and when you fully extend, explosive express thrust, release the shot out of your hand, you’ll exclaim your key word once.

“All right. Get ready. You’re in your set position . . . three, two, one. Now!”

Nelson released a burst of air that seemed to come from his toes. If there had been a 16-pound shot put in his hands, the hotel would have a hole in the wall of Room 526.

At the end of the session, Nelson awoke and said he felt fresh and energized. He said he had incorporated a visual memory of how he wanted to throw the next day.

Nelson finished second at the Carson meet, another silver medal. “That wasn’t discouraging at all,” he said. “Because I was only 80% physically and mentally. This is a process.”

Two weeks later at the Prefontaine meet in Eugene, Nelson threw 72 feet, seven inches, the longest outdoor distance in the world this year. He beat Reese Hoffa, who is expected to be Nelson’s biggest challenger at the trials.

Because Nelson lives in Charlottesville, Va., and Siegel works in Santa Monica, the in-person sessions are infrequent. But Siegel gives Nelson weekly phone talks, mental top-ups.

As he heads into the Olympic trials, Nelson said he expected nothing less than first place. “I’m feeling physically and mentally aggressive,” he said. “Gosh, I guess ultimately I’m just excited.”

He will be a first-time father in September. His parents, Will and Lynne, his older brother Grant and younger sister Sarah-Kate will be in Eugene. Lynne said the emotions of watching Adam win consecutive Olympic silver medals has been uplifting and saddening.

“You’re not supposed to even think it because, goodness, second in the world, that’s pretty good. But the circumstances of how he finished second were both so unique.”

And so, Lynne was asked, is the practice of hypnotism and mental training going to make the difference?

“Well, I don’t know about that,” she said. “But it’s what Adam believes, isn’t it?”

diane.pucin@latimes.com

Abstract: The anabolic actions of GH in GH-deficient adults and children are well documented. Replacement with GH in such individuals promotes protein synthesis and reduces irreversible loss of protein through oxidation. Although GH is known to be self-administered by athletes, its protein metabolic effects in this context are unknown. This study was designed to determine whether 4 wk of high dose recombinant human GH (r-hGH) administration altered whole body leucine kinetics in endurance-trained athletes at rest and during and after 30 min of exercise at 60% of maximal oxygen uptake. Eleven endurance- trained male athletes were studied, six randomized to receive r-hGH (0.067 mg/kg
d), and five to receive placebo.
Whole body leucine turnover was measured at rest and during and after exercise, using a 5-h primed constant infusion of 1-[13C]leucine, from which rates of leucine appearance (an index of protein breakdown), leucine oxidation, and nonoxidative leucine disposal (an index of protein synthesis) were estimated. Under resting conditions, r-hGH administration increased rate of leucine appearance and nonoxidative leucine disposal, and reduced leucine oxidation (P < 0.01). This effect was apparent after 1 wk, and was accentuated after 4 wk, of r-hGH administration (P < 0.05). During and after exercise, GH attenuated the exercise-induced increase in leucine oxidation (P < 0.05). There were no changes observed in placebo-treated subjects compared with the baseline study. We conclude that GH administration to endurance-trained male athletes has a net anabolic effect on whole body protein metabolism at rest and during and after exercise. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 88: 5221–5226, 2003)

For those of you interested in raising your natural testosterone levels we have a number of relevant articles on this subject over at the main UPFitness website, plus it may be worth your while looking at the best tesosterone boosting nutritional supplement currently on the market and available over the counter - Poliquin Performance’s Androgen Excellence.

Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 Jun 17. Links
Inverse association of testosterone and the metabolic syndrome in men is consistent across race and ethnic groups.

Kupelian V, Hayes FJ, Link CL, Rosen R, McKinlay JB.
New England Research Institutes, 9 Galen Street, Watertown, MA 02472; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114.
Context: Low sex hormone levels have been associated with the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Objectives. To determine whether the association between sex hormone levels and MetS varies by race/ethnicity among men, and investigate the relationship of sex hormones and individual components of MetS. Design: Population-based observational survey. Participants: A multistage stratified design was used to recruit a random sample of 2,301 race/ethnically diverse men age 30-79 years. Blood samples were obtained on 1,899 men. Analyses were conducted on 1,885 men with complete data on total testosterone (T), free T, and SHBG. Interventions: None. Main outcome measure: MetS was defined using a modification of the Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III guidelines. The association between MetS and sex hormone levels was assessed using odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals estimated using logistic regression models. Results. A strong inverse association was observed, in both bivariate and multivariate analyses, between hormone levels and MetS. The odds of MetS increased about two-fold with a 1 standard deviation decrease in hormone levels. The association between sex hormones and MetS was statistically significant across race/ethnic groups. While the magnitude of this association was largest among white men, race/ethnic differences were not statistically significant. The strength of the association of sex hormones with individual components of MetS varied; stronger associations were observed with waist circumference and dyslipidemia and more modest associations with diabetes/elevated blood sugar Conclusions. A robust, dose-response relationship between sex hormone levels and odds of the metabolic syndrome in men is consistent across race/ethnic groups.

nt J Sports Med. 2008 Jun 11. [Epub ahead of print] Links
beta-Alanine and the Hormonal Response to Exercise.

Hoffman J, Ratamess NA, Ross R, Kang J, Magrelli J, Neese K, Faigenbaum AD, Wise JA.
Health and Exercise Science, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, United States.
The effect of 30 days of beta-alanine supplementation (4.8 g per day) on resistance exercise performance and endocrine changes was examined in eight experienced resistance-trained men. An acute resistance exercise protocol consisting of 6 sets of 12 repetitions of the squat exercise at 70 % of one-repetition maximum (1-RM) with 1.5 minutes of rest between sets was performed before and after each supplemental period. Blood draws occurred at baseline (BL), immediate (IP), 15-minutes (15P) and 30-minutes (30P) postexercise for growth hormone, testosterone and cortisol concentrations. A 22 % (p < 0.05) difference in total number of repetitions performed at the end of 4 weeks of supplementation was seen between beta-alanine (BA) and placebo (PL), and Delta mean power was greater in BA (98.4 +/- 43.8 w) vs. PL (7.2 +/- 29.6 w). Growth hormone concentrations were elevated from BL at IP and 15P for both groups, while cortisol concentrations were greater than BL at all time points for both BA and PL. No group differences were noted. No change from BL was seen in testosterone concentrations for either group. Results indicate that four weeks of beta-alanine supplementation can significantly improve muscular endurance during resistance training in experienced resistance-trained athletes. However, these performance gains did not affect the acute endocrine response to the exercise stimulus.
PMID: 18548362 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Instead we often focus on helping our personal training clients to get their arms stronger - training to failure isn’t the only way to go. Too many people in bodybuidling get too wrapped up in all out training and often its overkill.

Arms can be overtrained very easily so going for broke every time isn’t always wise.

Lets put it this way, in a volume training cycle where I went to failure on 2/3 sets in 10 (at most) I worked up to 10 sets of 5 reps in dips with an extra 180lbs attached to my dipping belt. Did it work? At 10.4% BF I decided to measure my arms for the first time in 10 years as they looked bigger than my girlfriend’s (admittedly peanut sized!) head…21 inches cold.

If you are interested in learning more about packing on some muscle, then take a look at one of our services here.

No, this isn’t an article exhorting he benefits of genie pants or 3 daily protein shakes, rather its an inside peak into just a few of the tricks picked up from over 15 years experience of being surrounded by some of the best bodybuilders in the world.

The article deals with the following:

Drink Plenty of Water

Get a BioSignature Modulation Assessment

If you want to read more the main body of the article can be found here.

Nick Mitchell:

Ah I see - I think they are a gimmick designed to lure people into paying out more money.

Circus tricks are for clowns, but if you want to get lean, muscular, or strong stick to the basics.

This is a must read for all those interested in not just a healthy immune system but also in athletic performance.  It may sound trite, but without strong immunity I have never seen anyone get remotely close to achieving their true athletic potential / body composition goals.