Expert advice to your questions about training, nutrition, recovery, and living the fitness lifestyle.

Chris: Is there an ideal length/method for fat-burning cardio? I’ve been mixing basketball, biking, and walking for 30 minutes a day. Should I be doing more or something different?

Alexander Juan Antonio Cortes: Over the course of a fat-loss phase of dieting, I’d generally recommend refraining from using cardio as means for fat loss for as long as possible. Once you begin using it, though, cardio for burning body fat is a question of sustainability more than it is any single method of cardio being “best.”

If you’re using cardio to sustain a calorie deficit, then aerobic cardio is generally going to be the most manageable. It’s low impact, can be done a variety of ways, and is the least depleting energy-wise.

If you’re trying to rapidly increase body fat loss  however, and want to tap into stored fat in the most time-efficient way possible, then interval training or high-intensity interval training would be your best options. Intervals and HIIT can create a powerful metabolic effect, but these workouts are very draining and generally can’t be done more than three times a week.

Thomas: Are there any supplements that I can take help to burn body fat, other than caffeine?  

AJAC: Yes, absolutely there are. While fat loss is a question of diet, it would be short-sighted to say that there are no supplements that can speed up the process. As a disclaimer, there is no quantifiable way to say “how much” any of the following supplements increase fat burning in the real world, but they definitely work. This is also not medical advice of any kind. That prefaced, the following are very effective fat burners.

Yohimbine—Yohimbine done with fasted cardio can be a powerful fat-burning tactic, but be aware:  Yohimbine can cause anxiety and nervousness in some people. If you are stimulant sensitive, I wouldn’t recommend it. That aside, an effective dose of yohimbine is 0.2 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight. I’d recommend taking yohimbine before your most metabolically intense workouts to maximize its effects.

Ephedrine and Caffeine—Twenty-five milligrams of ephedrine taken with 200 milligrams of caffeine up to three times daily is a very powerful fat-burning combo. Do not immediately start taking a triple daily dose. Begin with one dose a day in the morning, and then assess tolerance. In my professional experience, taking one dose in the morning upon waking and then one more before training is sufficient for most people.

Nicotine—This is not a suggestion to take up smoking or vaping. Nicotine actually has very potent lipolytic (fat-burning) effects, and the suggested dose would be achieved by chewing a four-milligram piece of nicotine gum. Be aware that nicotine is very addictive, and that the gum is not meant to be constantly chewed like regular gum. Limit yourself to four four-milligram pieces throughout the day.

Tony: Is there really such a thing as “clean food”? Or does it not matter so long as you get macros in?

AJAC: There is no “scientific” definition as to what “clean” food is. However, I would present an argument that certain combinations of foods and certain macronutrients are more conducive to weight loss. It's very hard to overeat non-processed carbs, whole-protein sources, and vegetables. And it is much easier to overeat processed carbohydrates, calorie-dense liquids, and foods with very high fat content.

If someone’s macros are all accounted for, then the rest of their calories could, in theory, come entirely from processed food and candy. However, on a practical basis, most people will gravitate toward whole-food sources. They are more filling, better tasting, and eating “junk” food loses its appeal quickly.

So to answer the question: No, there is no such thing as clean food. And no, on paper it doesn’t matter where macros from. But in practice, and in real life, yes, absolutely it does.

Muhammad: If someone wanted to make a real transformation, what would it require? I don’t mean being healthier, but I mean dramatically changing the physique in the shortest time possible.

AJAC: Good question. Yes, you can dramatically change your physique in a short period of time, but it requires far more than most people can reasonably or willingly do. A transformation would demand the following:

-Weight training six times a week with a periodized program

-Cardio six times a week, with periodized cardiovascular workouts

-A perfectly adhered-to diet, eating classic bodybuilding foods, and timing the food intake for maximum effect

-Maximizing sleep, eight hours a night minimum

-Maintaining 100 percent consistency in everything, while minimizing all other sources of stress

If someone did that, their body would change rapidly and dramatically. But for 99 percent of people, retooling their whole life to revolve around their training and diet is not remotely sensible. But it can be done under the right circumstances.

How To Manifest Muscle Mass From Elbow To Wrist

By Eric Broser

Throughout my career as both a competitive bodybuilder and “physique transfromation artist” I have been fascinated with forearm development. Even as a youngster I remember always being impressed when I would see a guy wearing a short-sleeve shirt and displaying thickly muscled and highly vascular forearms. To me, this represented power and strength—and that was something I knew I wanted. Of course, some lucky people are genetically gifted and need no direct forearm work to bring about significant hypertrophy in this muscle group. However, for the rest of us mere mortals, we must specifically target this area in order to keep it lagging behind the upper arm.

Remember, the forearms are heavily recruited in every single upper-body exercise that you perform. This forces them to become very tough and resilient, which unfortunately makes it harder to affect their hypertrophy. Simply “pumping them up” with a few sets of wrist curls is not enough to get them growing, so you need to think in terms of literally bombarding the forearms with relentless intensity and varying stimuli. This means precisely and aggressively targeting the flexors, extensors, and brachioradialis with specific movements and utilizing a wide array of rep ranges, training techniques, and strategies.

• Super Size With Supersets: I find that the forearms respond quite well to this particular training protocol, so it is a very good idea to include it in your workouts often. In some sessions I recommend “pre-exhaust” supersets in which a forearm “isolation” movement is followed by a curling (biceps and brachilais assisted) movement. In other sessions try hitting the curls first and then look to isolate just the forearms immediately after.

• Ditch The Wrist Wraps: While it makes good sense to utilize wraps on the heaviest sets of some back exercises, there are some lifters that rely on them for almost every movement, and on all sets! By doing this, the forearms are robbed of valuable stimulation, as well as gains in strength, which can undoubtedly hold back their development in the long run.

• Train Forearms Multiple Days Each Week: Like the calves, we rely on all of the muscles in the forearms in almost every daily task we perform. As I mentioned, this makes them very stubborn and resistant to growth. So, if your forearms are greatly undersized you may benefit from hitting them up to three non-consecutive days per week, with each session varying in some way from the last. Lagging muscle groups often need more frequent and more intense stimulation.

• Wrap Things Up With Plate Holds: This often-ignored exercise is amazing for finishing off a forearm workout with a magnificent pump. Additionally, it helps build tremendous strength in the hands and fingers, which will only serve to make you stronger during many other important exercises and daily tasks (and it gives you a hell of a powerful handshake.) The movement is simple: Grab a matching pair weight plates (10 to 45 pounds, depending on strength and fatigue levels) with only your fingertips, and hold them by your sides for as long as possible. Make sure to squeeze as tight as you can, and be prepared to deal with some intense levels of lactic-acid burn!

Three-Day ForearmShocker

Exercise                                                                   Sets                             Reps

Day 1

Seated Barbell Wrist Curl                                            3                                   13-15,  10-12, 7-9

Standing Barbell Reverse Curl                                   3                                   13-15,  10-12, 7-9

Day 2

Superset 1:                                                                       2                                  13-15, 7-9

Low Cable Reverse Curl

Standing Behind-The-Back Barbell Wrist Curl

Superset 2:                                                                      2                                  13-15, 7-9

Seated Barbell Reverse Wrist Curl

-Superset with: Alternating Dumbell Hammer Curl

Day 3

Superset:                                                                          2                                  10-12

Seated Barbell Wrist Curl

Seated Barbell Reverse Wrist Curl

Seated Concentration Hammer Curl                         2                                  4-6

These accessory exercises will help with both hypertrophy and strength.

By Tucker Loken-Dahle

In the pursuit of muscle mass and strength gains, what are some movements that can help improve your squat, bench press, and dead lift, while also adding muscle? Below are six exercises that can be used for both strength and hypertrophy. These are all variations on standard exercises and can be done in any gym without the need for any extraneous equipment.

When putting these exercises into your routine, any of these can be subbed in for when you would normally do a Big 3 movement, or they can be used as a strength-assistance movement after your main exercise. The rule of thumb in bodybuilding and powerlifting is to continually work on your weak points. If you’re particularly bad at one of these exercises, you need it! Try putting one of these variations into your routine for one or two month cycles and then reassess the impact on your physique and strength. After a few cycles you’ll notice some big changes in strength and size.

Pause Squats

Pause squats are a great variation to add in when your squat has been stagnant for a while. It’ll help you build both strength and size in several ways. Even though you’ll be decreasing the weight you use, you’ll be increasing your muscle’s time under tension. A one- to two-second pause in the hole can feel like eternity if you do them right. You’re improving your body’s ability to rapidly contract the muscles and explode from a dead stop, which will come in handy when the weight gets heavy and you want to go for heavier loads.

Front Squats

Front squats are already in the bodybuilder’s arsenal for quad development but are often overlooked as a main mover and not used to their full potential. If your squat has been stuck for a long time, sometimes just a small variation like a pause squat won’t be enough. You’ve got to build a full foundation around the movement, and that includes changing the center of balance and placement of the weight. Besides being a good quad-builder, front squats are probably one of the best core exercises you can do. In order to stay upright, everything from your hips to your armpits has to engage. Your glutes, abs, obliques, and even your lats and erectors all have to engage to keep your torso steady so the weight can move smoothly. If you haven’t prioritized front squats as a starting exercise, prepare to be humbled. With practice, though, one plate on each side becomes two, which becomes three. The quick gains from doing something you’re inexperienced with can be a big confidence boost, and when you go back to regular back squats it’ll transfer over in a big way.

Close-Grip Bench Press

Something as small as moving your hands in can make a big difference in the muscles you activate during your bench press. Close-grip bench presses are usually part of a triceps routine for bodybuilders, with the hands in very close and the triceps muscle targeted as much as possible. A more powerlifting-style close-grip press, where the hands are moved in a hand’s width, can still activate your chest, shoulders, and triceps, just through a different angle. Since your hands are closer together, when you touch your chest you’ll get more range of motion and this will give you more of a stretch in your chest and shoulders to hit the muscles differently. It’s all about mixing it up. Even if triceps aren’t a weak point for you, mixing in close-grip bench as either a starter movement or secondary movement can still build plenty of mass on your chest and shoulders and improve your bench strength.

Floor Press

You might feel a little funny lying down in the middle of a squat rack and doing these in front of people, but you won’t be bothered when your bench press goes up. On a floor press, your range of motion is a little smaller, and you’re coming to a dead stop, so you’ll have no opportunity to bounce the weight or use any momentum. Trust me on this one, don’t let your ego get the best of you and try to take it fast and bounce the weight off the floor. Your elbows and wrists won’t appreciate that. Even if locking out isn’t an issue for you (a weakness the floor press addresses), this can still be a very helpful movement. Lying on the floor makes it so that you can’t get any leg drive, so you’re working your pressing muscles only. The isolation will help muscle growth while also improving your bench strength.

Deficit Deadlifts

Deficit deadlifts are one of the best posterior-chain movements you can do. Everything from your calves up to your traps will be engaged. Even though this movement doesn’t perfectly isolate any one muscle group, the variation on the angle of a typical deadlift will be enough to make some good improvements on your back muscles, as well as your glutes and hams. Another big plus for a deficit deadlift is the help it gives in the leg-drive portion of the movement. Most people coming from a bodybuilding background struggle with leg drive and haul the weight up with their backs rather than making it a full-body lift. Deficits are probably the best movement you can do to help train your body to engage everything including your legs. Once you nail them down your deadlift will increase dramatically.

Snatch-Grip Deadlifts

Snatch-grip deadlifts are great for upper-back development and stability. Under really heavy weight, a lot of lifter’s backs will round at the top. This isn’t all bad, but when it gets to the point that you can’t lock out the lift, or where injury becomes an issue, it’s time to get to work on your weak point. When you grab the bar wide like you’re going to do a snatch, it’ll force you to engage your lats and traps, which will not only transfer to a better and stronger pull, it’ll hit the back muscles with an unfamiliar weight and a movement that will thicken up your entire upper back. IM

To get an insane midsection, you’ll have to get a little bit crazy

By Nick Nilsson

The abdominal area is the most complex area of the body in terms of movements and function. Beyond aesthetics, the abs are critical for athletic performance, strength, and force transfer from lower body to upper body. This series of exercises targets these critical functions of the abdominal area with complex movements and resistance patterns in a hybrid fashion. These exercises are not about novelty. These combination movements will hit your abs in ways you’ve never even imagined.

These five exercises are going to hammer a wide variety of functions and movements in your entire midsection, from your deepest “strength” muscles to your most superficial “show” muscles. I recommend performing this workout no more than two to three times per week. These exercises are extremely challenging and many use added resistance that will require additional recovery.

Ab Rippers

To perform this exercise, you’ll need a high pulley, a dumbbell, and a bench. You’ll be performing a one-arm pulldown while doing a one-arm dumbbell bench press at the same time.

Start by setting the bench underneath the high pulley so that one end is right below the single-handle attachment. You’re going to be lying with only your upper back on the bench (perpendicular to the pad) during the exercise.

Use a weight on the stack that is approximately the same as the dumbbell you’re going to be pressing. Start fairly light on both at first to get an idea of how to get into position for the exercise and how to perform the movement.

Sit on the bench with your left side to the pulley. Pick up the dumbbell in your right hand, then set it on end on top of your thigh. Grab the pulley handle with your left hand. Move your butt off the bench and rest your upper back on the bench. Your knees should be bent, butt down, and your upper arm resting on the bench like a floor press. Now press the dumbbell up and pull the handle down at the same time. You will immediately feel massive cross-tension running through your midsection.

Perform two sets of six to eight reps of this exercise on each side, with 60 seconds of rest in between sets.

Bench-End Leg Raise Cable Crunch

You’ll need an adjustable-height pulley with a straight bar or EZ-bar attachment and a flat bench for this exercise. Set the pulley to the same height as the bench you’re going to use. The weight should be fairly light. Now set the bench lengthwise in front of the pulley. Lie back on the bench and grasp the bar with an underhand grip. Get into position as though you were going to do a lying cable crunch on top of the bench.

Next, slide your body down a little so that your hips are hanging off the end of the bench, with your feet held off the ground. The waistband of your shorts should be right on the edge of the bench.

Perform a full cable crunch. After the crunch, hold that cable in the bottom position and maintain tension in the abs. Then, using that cable as your anchor, perform a leg raise, bringing your hips up and around the bench. Raise the legs until they’re vertical, then thrust your feet up toward the ceiling as though trying to stamp footprints onto the ceiling. Lower your hips back down toward the bench, then lower the legs down toward the floor, curling your hips and lower back around the end of the bench again.

You will get no release in tension through the entire exercise as you use your rectus abdominis to work from top to bottom (with the crunch) and bottom to top (with the leg raise). Your abs will be screaming.

Perform two sets of as many as reps as you can handle with this exercise, with 60 seconds of rest in between sets.

Single-Dumbbell Curl Squat

This exercise combines an off-center, isometric static hold with a simple squat movement. This is going to target the deep muscles of the core with a very functional movement pattern that going to develop your obliques while building “support” strength for your other heavy training.

You’ll need a moderately heavy dumbbell for this exercise. Use both hands to get it up to the top position of a dumbbell curl in a standing position. Set your feet a little outside shoulder width, in your normal squat stance.

Hold the dumbbell in that “top curl” position and then squat. Come down as far as you can and bring your elbow down inside your thigh. Pause for a few seconds, then come back up. It’s deceptively simple and incredibly challenging to the muscles of the core, shoulders, and biceps. The loading in front of your body is similar to a front squat or goblet squat, while the single-arm hold demands incredible torque through the core to stabilize the load.

Perform four to six reps with the dumbbell in one hand. After that, immediately switch hands and perform four to six more reps. Take a 60-second rest, then repeat for one more set on each arm.

Incline Bench Hanging Leg Raises

The addition of a strategically placed incline bench essentially changes this into a combination of a “lever” exercise, an incredible bodyweight exercise that focuses on the upper abs, and a hanging leg raise, which primarily focuses on the lower abs. Normal hanging leg raises lose that tension at the bottom.

Set the incline bench with the top end just slightly forward of the chin-up bar. You can also use a Smith machine if you need to change the height of the bar. Set your feet on the seat and sit as high up on the bench as you can. Reach up and grab the chin-up bar and lift your feet off the bench. Your lower back will be the only part of you in contact with the bench. This is the lever portion of the movement, which will already be challenging to your abs.

Now do a leg raise. As you bring your legs up, bend your knees somewhat and bring them in toward your chest like a hanging knee raise, rolling your lower back over the top end of the bench. Bring your knees in all the way to your chest. This will give you a full contraction of the rectus abdominis.

Perform as many reps as possible. This number may be fairly low the first few times you do it.  Rest for one minute, then repeat for one more set.

Landmine Deadlift

You’ll need a single barbell for this exercise. Wedge one end of the barbell against something solid, such as the corner of a room or power rack. Load the end that’s away from the pivot point with a few plates. If you have a “landmine” apparatus, you can use that, but it’s not necessary for performing the exercise.

Stand parallel to the bar, just outside the plates, then squat down and grip on the end of the bar with your closer-side hand. Deadlift the loaded end, coming up to a standing position.

This works like a suitcase deadlift; however, because you don’t have to balance the bar in your hand and fatigue your grip (which can potentially limit the overall work you can put on your core with that exercise), you can really push your abdominals hard as the focus of the exercise.

Perform six to eight reps on one side, then turn around and perform six to eight reps on the other side. Take about 60 seconds’ rest and then repeat.

Unleash your inner beast with a smart and technical program that mixes hypertrophy with functionality.

By Mike Carlson

Everyone loves Back Day. When it comes to venting frustration in the gym and throwing around massive stacks of iron, nothing beats a good back workout.

There’s a ton of reasons to love Back Day. Unlike chest and shoulder workouts, pulling exercises don’t load any precarious ball-and-socket joints, so chance of injury in pulling exercises is nominal. And if you’re performing a machine-driven exercise such as a Hammer Strength row or lat pulldown, you can focus on the big prime movers since much of the stabilization requirements aren’t necessary. Best of all, you can hammer the muscles in your back and you won’t be wincing for a week every time you try to pick up your keys or shampoo your hair. That’s why so many bodybuilders and Physique athletes are able to hit their back twice a week.

“I don’t know if the lats are designed with any magic fiber that allows you to beat the hell out of them. I think muscle soreness is just easier to deal with in your back than legs,” says Brian Richardson, MS, CPL2, NASM-PES, the co-owner of Dynamic Fitness in Temecula, California. “There is not a lot of motion in the lats. It’s not like the quads where you are bending and moving all the time. We do more primal patterns in our lower body.”

The back is made up of both fast-twitch and slow-twitch fibers. The lats are predominantly fast-twitch-driven, but they do have some slow-twitch aspects. Getting them to hypertrophy is fairly easy. Typically, the muscles that are closer to the spine—the paraspinals and the erectors, for instance—have a greater percentage of slow-twitch fibers and are tougher to get to coax into growing. That’s why this back workout, designed by Richardson, utilizes a variety of rep schemes and a wide spectrum of angles, in order to hit all the muscles and every fiber type in the back musculature.

Hypertrophy is the main goal of this back workout, but it has the added benefit of creating real-world functional strength. Being strong always comes in handy whether you’re laying bricks in your backyard or trying to drive a golf ball.

“The lats are the only ink between the shoulder and the hips,” Richardson says. “If you look at the muscle, it attaches at the ilia and then crosses the shoulder joint. It is unique muscle.”

That communication between the shoulders and the hips comes into play in just about any type of athletic feat that demands force generation. Good examples are hitting a baseball, swinging a golf club, and throwing a punch. (Pull-ups used to be one of the few resistance-training exercise boxers would do for punching power.) Strong lats are also important for lifting. When deadlifting, strong lats help keep the bar close to the shins and thighs.

While the lats do get a lot of work in this program, some specific attention is paid to the lower back. The erectors are an underrated vanity muscle. The low-slung boardshorts worn by Men’s Physique competitors are perfect for showing off a set of badass nautical rope-like erectors that flank the spine.

“Erector spine are like balloon animals: They create a lot of stored tension in them during a bent-over row or deadlift,” Richardson says. “They swell and it creates that lumbar extension pattern that is good for a strong, stable, healthy spine.

The workout ends with a sled pull, a big massive movement pattern that demands some “Hulk smash” type intensity. It is a functional exercise that delvers a powerful hypertrophy stimulus, but it is also a great exercise for fighters and athletes. Best of all it lets the lifter empty their tank and leave everything in the gym at the end of the workout. IM

Back Attack Workout

For this workout, make sure the shoulder girdle and rotator cuff are completely warm before starting. Perform five to 10 minutes of general cardio and then another 10 minutes of dynamic warm-up moves that focus on the shoulders, such as arm swings, back slappers, and scapula push-ups. If an exercise has a descending rep scheme, that means you should add weight for each subsequent set.

Exercise                                              Sets                                       Reps

Heavy Bent-Over Barbell Row          (2 warm-up) 4            (15,15) 12,10,8,8

Weighted Pull-Up                                3-4                                         10

Single-Arm Machine Row                  3                                             12,10,8

Seated Close-Grip Cable Row           4                                             12,10,10,10

Weighted Hyperextension                As many as needed              50

Sled Pull                                               4                                   15 yards (approx 20 pulls)

Heavy Bent-Over Barbell Row

Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent about 10 degrees, grasp a barbell with both hands using a double-overhand grip. Lean forward at your hips until your torso is roughly parallel with the floor. Draw your belly button into your spine. The barbell should hang straight down and in line with your wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Without raising your upper body, pull the barbell up toward your sternum, bringing your elbows high and above the level of your back. Movement in the scapula and the elbow should terminate at the same time. You know the weight is too heavy if you squeeze your scapula first and then try to finish the range of motion using the rotator cuff. Hold the weight in the peak-contracted position for one second, then slowly lower along the same path.

Weighted Pull-Up

Use a weight belt, vest, chains, or hold the post of a dumbbell between your feet in order to add 20 to 25 pounds to this lift. Vary your grip between pronated, supinated, and neutral, wrapping your thumbs around the bar. Hang freely with your arms fully extended. Contract your lats to raise your body upward, concentrating on keeping your elbows out to your sides and pulling them down. Hold momentarily as your chin reaches the level of your hands, and then lower yourself down to a dead-hang position. Start with 10 to 20 percent of your bodyweight and progress from there.

Sled Pull

Place your feet in a staggered or bilateral stance, and get into the universal athletic position: feet shoulder-width apart, soft knees, slight bend in the hips, neutral spine, and the weight shifted to the balls of the feet. If the sleds don’t have ropes, do a low single-arm row from a split/staggered stance. Do not round your back too much. This is not a highly technical exercise. Pull hand-over-hand, alternating left and right hands and bringing your elbow past your trunk. Keep your hands in line with the shoulders and reach and finish each rep within your natural range of dynamic flexibility. If your gym does not have a sled, swap in a T-bar row with a neutral grip or a tube pull.

Single-Arm Machine Row

Adjust the machine so that when you are seated your knees are bent 90 degrees with toes pointed straight ahead. Use the chest pad for support, but try not to put too much pressure on it. Maintain good posture with your eyes on the horizon. Grasp the handles with an underhand grip—this puts more length on the soft tissue and more stretch on the lat. Flex your core and pull the handle even with your shoulder, or as close as possible. Perform all the reps on one side and then switch hands.

Seated Close-Grip Cable Row

Attach a close-grip handle to the seated row cable machine and sit upright on the bench facing the weight stack. Place your feet against the foot platform with your legs slightly bent. Reach forward to grasp the handle while keeping your back flat and chest up. With your torso erect and your arms fully extended, pull the handle toward your midsection. Keep your elbows in close to the sides of your body.  Keep your head in a neutral position as you squeeze your back muscles. Hold for one to two seconds before slowly returning to the start position.

Weighted Hyperextensions

Position yourself at the hyperextension bench so your legs are locked in but your upper body is not. Hold a weight across your chest or, for a greater challenge, hold a barbell with arms extended. Bend over at the waist while keeping your back flat and a natural curve in the lumbar spine. Keep your scapula retracted slightly. Engage your core muscles as far you lower the weight toward the floor. Activate your erectors to return to the starting position. Use no more than 10 percent of your bodyweight for this exercise.

Amazing abs and hypnotic stage presence makes this young Bikini pro an exciting addition to the IFBB ranks.

Interview by Mike Carlson

It’s hard to believe Frida Paulsen Stern only has two years of competition experience. Not only does her body look like she has spent years in the gym, but her stage presence—a combination of precision posing and sultry sex appeal—makes her look like a seasoned pro. The former elite level soccer (er, football) player walked off the pitch and into the gym and never looked back. She brought an athlete’s competitive drive and work ethic with her, and has since created one of the best packages of any European Bikini pro. With full round glutes and abs you can strike a match on, it’s only a matter of time before this Swedish beauty starts appearing on the biggest stages in the sport.

Mike Carlson: How did you get interested in fitness?

Frida Paulsen Stern: I’ve always been interested in sports and I’ve played football [soccer] for as long as I can remember. But I hurt my shoulders, and with rehab my interest for fitness and weight training had a chance to develop. It was my first coach who dragged me into the fitness world and encouraged me to compete.

MC: You have incredible abs! Tell us how you train them.

FPS: I very rarely do ab workouts, but I make sure that they are engaged during every exercise I do, no matter what muscle group I work on. That's probably what keeps them in shape. I also do one to three sets of sit-ups after a workout every now and then.

MC: What is your diet like?

FPS: I basically live off chicken and rice. I find it easy with clean eating during the week, but treat myself to something nice once or twice on the weekend.

MC: How did you become a BMR athlete? 

FPS: Since I tried their products in 2013 I’ve been a big fan. I was in contact with BMR before the Arnold Classic competition in South Africa this year, and after I won and got my pro card it was an easy decision. BMR has a presence in both Sweden and in the US, and that was just the perfect combination for me!

MC: What is the hardest part of the competitive lifestyle? What do you enjoy the most?

FPS: The hardest part is definitely the diet. I love working out, but when you spend more energy in the gym than you get from food every day it’s hard to keep a smile on your face. The best part is, without doubt, when I’m onstage doing my routine. That makes it all worth it.

MC: What do you have planned for 2017?

FPS: To qualify for The Big O is my main goal for 2017, and I'll give it my best shot!

Name: Frida Paulsen Stern

Age: 22

Lives: Solna, Stockholm

Profession: Receptionist at Sabbatsberg hospital, posing coach

Likes: Candy

Dislikes: Winter

Favorite Drink: Coke Zero

Favorite Clean Meal: Chicken with rice

Favorite Cheat Meal: Pizza or chicken tikka masala

Favorite Movie: The Lion King 

Who Would You Cast To Play Yourself In A Movie? Hayden Panettiere

Desert Island Exercises:  Squats, dumbbell shoulder press, pulldowns

Sponsors: BMR Sports Nutrition, Bikinis by Freydis, Competition Jewelry, LPG Stockholm

Instagram: @fridapaulsen

Olympia Men’s Physique champion Jeremy Buendia makes history—again.

By Mike Carlson

PQ: “It is our responsibility to be a good representation of this sport and help this sport grow. Twenty years from now, we are going to be the Arnolds and Francos of this division.”

PQ: “I have consistently been getting better every single year and consistently working hard. That has proven to a lot of people that I am here to stay.”

Four days after Jeremy Buendia made history by winning the Mr. Olympia Men’s Physique contest for the third year in a row, the champ is sick. He’s subdued by the kind of respiratory tract infection that plagues fighters and marathoners, athletes who deplete themselves in preparation for battle. Buendia’s win was a dogfight after all, the closest contest in the history of the Men’s Physique division. He won by a single point, and only three points separated the second runner-up. Buendia’s composed demeanor isn’t just the bug, though. He’s different. Buendia is humbler, quick to give credit and share his accolades with trainer Hany Rambod and girlfriend Narmin Assria. It’s a shift in perspective, he says, that comes not from winning a third title but in doing what it took to capture the belt.

“It was a team effort this year. I had to fall back on people to get me the help I needed to get me through,” he says. “It was something I had never done before because I had always tried to do everything myself. It opened my eyes that you can lean on people who support you. In the end it only makes you better.”

Mike Carlson: Did winning this Olympia feel different than the other two?

Jeremy Buendia: Getting the first and second wins were amazing, but three in a row? There is no taking that away from me. There is no luck. It was just hard work. Coming out on top again proved to a lot of people that I am the best in my sport. It meant a lot to earn that respect from everybody. And it definitely showed out there. People have come up to me and given me appreciation, respect, and acknowledgement for how hard I have worked. I have consistently been getting better every single year and consistently working hard. That has proven to a lot of people that I am here to stay.

MC: Did you have a lot of doubters?

JB: There were. I have been doubted all my preps. This year, not as much. I had a lot of people thinking I was going to do very well this year. But I got pushed this year. There were a lot of great athletes on the stage. This was the closest Olympia I ever had.

MC: Why was it so close?

JB: I made some mistakes in my posing and it hurt me onstage. I wasn’t engaging my obliques on my signature shot, which is that angled front pose. People thought I wasn’t as conditioned this year, but that wasn’t the case. I was just posing incorrectly. When Hany saw that he told me. I went back out for the second comparisons, and when I hit that shot they moved me right to the middle and they didn’t move me after that. Had I hit that pose correctly from the get-go, would it have been that close? I don’t think so.

MC: Why did the posing mistake happen?

JB: I was concerned with having my abs compared to Ryan Terry’s. He has a great midsection. I didn’t want my front abs to be washed out. Sometimes when I hit my middle six abs my obliques wash out, and I was super focused on trying to keep my middle six abs popping the whole time because I have brought them up significantly from last year—I wanted the judges to see that. I just didn’t engage them correctly. It could have been lack of practice posing, it could have been nerves, it could have been sweat. I started sweating really bad the first go-round and it kind of stressed me out onstage because that had never happened to me before. We were all sweating, but I was sweating the most out of everybody. My abs started looking more washed out because the tanner was dripping. I saw Hany in the audience and he told me to wipe my stomach. It blended my abs back in and they popped that much more and looked that much better.

MC: Your trainer Hany seems like a clutch piece of your puzzle.

JB: Hany has been clutch all prep for me! That guy cared so much for me this prep. It was unbelievable. Every morning he calls me: “What’s your weight? How do you look?” Every single morning. It was a team effort between me and him this year. My girlfriend, too. Narmin [Assria] has come through for me every single day, going through everything with me. I had to fall back on God this prep, too, and ask God for the strength to get me through. I couldn’t do it on my own this year. He made me realize that. He played an instrumental part in the last three weeks of my prep.

MC: When you were onstage, could you feel that the competition was co close?

JB: Absolutely. I was being moved in and out constantly. I knew the guys I was standing next to had amazing physiques. Ryan Terry, Jeremy Potvin, Andre Ferguson, all the top five. Brandon Hendrickson looked friggin’ sharp! Jeremy Potvin looked amazing all prep. I knew we were going to get compared a lot because we shared the same name, same ethnicity, and a similar look. I knew they were going to compare me and Brandon onstage, and me and Ryan. I got to stand next to every single person in the top five. Everyone had a chance to stand next to each other and be compared.

MC: What did you do differently in your prep this year?

JB:  It was a matter of staying on point all year long. I only had about six weeks of the year where I was out of shape. I stayed in shape through all my traveling, and I stayed on my diet. Narmin competed all year round, so I was working and training and dieting with her. I just stayed focused. I was working all year long. A very high-up somebody in the supplement and social media world texted me yesterday to say, “There are a lot of people who talk about how hard they work, and only a few who show how hard they work, and you are one of them.”

MC: When did you know you had first place?

JB:  I felt pretty confident after pre-judging. It was stressful when they said “Jeremy” for third place, but then they said “Potvin”! I heard “Jeremy” and my heart dropped. When they called his name I knew I had it. Potvin and I had our problems on social media and other personal issues. But we came to a reconciliation the day after the Olympia, and he came up to me and we rekindled our friendship. He went out to dinner with us the last night. We are all coming together. This sport has given us all so much. It is our responsibility to be a good representation of this sport and help this sport grow. Twenty years from now, we are going to be the Arnolds and Francos of this division.

MC: You just accomplished something in this sport that may never be replicated, but you sound humble. Tell me about that.

JB: It is my perspective on my purpose right now. I have grown a lot during this prep and realized the person I am, my purpose in the sport, and the platform I am given. This is a gift, to be on top of the sport and have all of these people know who I am. It is not just for me. God has given me a purpose in this life. My purpose is to be in front of these people on this platform and show people how great life can be when you have God in your life. I am never going to be the Jesus freak that is in your face screaming at you. I just want people to see how good He has been to me and how He has been able to enlighten my life and my mind and spirit.

MC: Is your attitude better because life is so good, or is life good because you changed your attitude?

JB: Things are better because of my attitude. God opened my eyes in a lot of ways the last three weeks. It is a whole different feeling I have within me. I get up with a different energy now and with a different purpose. It is not about me anymore. If you don’t make everything about yourself, things aren’t as stressful.

MC: Who do you consider to be your biggest competitors in 2017?

JB: I think Ryan Terry and Jeremy Potvin are going to be threats. People really like the “Jeremy versus Jeremy” hype. It’s cool and it’s good for the sport. And he is a tremendous competitor. And Ryan Terry was on point. He’s always a competitor. I think it’s going to be a very similar top three next year. IM

Name:  Jeremy Buendia
Age: 26

Contest Weight: 176 pounds

Lives: Murrieta, CA

Profession: IFBB Pro

Favorite Drink: Diet Coke

Go-To Website: Instagram

Desert Island Exercises: Push-ups, pull-ups, lunges

Binge TV Show: The Walking Dead

Sponsors: Evogen Nutrition, Meal Prep Kingz

Instagram: @jeremy_buendia

Website: jeremybuendiafitness.com

Five world-class athletes share their daily supplement programs.

By Mike Carlson

The quest for a lean and muscular body is served well by a meticulous, dependable routine. That’s one reason why supplements are so popular among physique athletes. They make that habitual clockwork lifestyle a bit easier. But while weighing food and counting calories is a strict practice of hard numbers and science that is a slave to the law of thermodynamics, supplements inject a bit of Chaos Theory into the equation. They are influenced by individuality to a surprising degree.

Building muscle is a science, but there is also a certain amount of art to the process, a human factor that comes from being in the gym every day for years. Bodybuilding has always been a combination of both worlds, melding clinical research with raw experience. Finding the right supplements for your own individual goals is the art that allows the science to happen.

Here we have pulled back the curtain on of the supplement closet of five elite athletes. They discuss when, what, and how they take their supplements in hopes of sharing the sum of their clinical knowledge and hard-earned wisdom.

Mike Hildebrandt

Age: 30

Height: 6’0”

Weight: 198 pounds (contest), 215 pounds (off-season)

Lives: Boise, Idaho

Sponsor: Dymatize

A 10-year veteran of the NPC, first in bodybuilding and then Men’s Physique, Hildebrandt is the area director of fitness for Axiom Fitness health clubs. He has been dieting and supplementing seriously for the last decade, and in his career he has tried just about every supplement in both the sports-nutrition sphere and the crunchier alternative health field. Hildebrandt has been using a version of the following regimen for about two years.

Upon waking: Sixteen ounces of water mixed with five drops of lemon essential oil, two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, one scoop of Dymatize MPS BCAA and whey protein isolate formula, and 10 grams of Dymatize Glutamine. Hildebrandt likes this combination for digestion, liver support, and Ph balance.

With breakfast (post-cardio): Multivitamin, omega-3 fish oils, 1,000 IU vitamin D, probiotics, 1,000 milligrams of Dymatize CLA.

Late morning: Dymatize Amino Pro with caffeine.

Pre-workout: One scoop of Dymatize M.P.ACT pre-workout formula, one serving of Dymatize Liquid L-Carnitine 1100.

Intra-workout: 2.5 scoops of Dymatize Amino Pro (caffeine-free formula) mixed in a half-gallon of water.

Post-workout: Immediately after the workout, Hildebrandt takes 1.5 scoops of Dymatize Iso-100 hydrolyzed whey protein isolate, five grams of Dymatize Creatine Monohydrate, 10 grams of Dymatize Glutamine, and one more dose of Dymatize CLA.

Afternoon: One serving of Dymatize Liquid L-Carnitine 1100.

6:00 p.m.: 1.5 scoops of Dymatize Iso-100 hydrolyzed whey protein isolate mixed with two tablespoons of powdered peanut butter.

Evening: Between his 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. feedings, Hildebrandt mixes two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with five drops of lemon essential oils and some coconut water.

With 8:00 p.m. meal: Multivitamin, probiotics, omega-3 fish oils, 1,000 IU vitamin D.

Bedtime: Hildebradt will usually eat a whole foods meal before bed, but twice a week or so he will make a shake with Dymatize Elite Casein, along with 1,000 milligrams of Dymatize CLA, one serving of Dymatize Amino Pro, and 10 grams of Dymatize Glutamine.

Do you have a specific philosophy on supplements? Supplements are very useful at accelerating recovery and results when you fill in any gaps that you have in your nutrition plan. I am a huge believer in being habitual about nutrition and supplements. Meals have to be at the same time every day, and the same thing with supplements.

Have you ever tried a supplement that worked for you and not other people, or vice versa? Pre-workouts in general are very person-to-person. The perfect pre-workout for me might make someone else feel nothing and vice-versa. I have had that happen a number of times. Creatine and protein are going to work on just about everybody, but when it comes to central nervous system stimulants and vasodilators, I think people metabolize those differently.

If you could only take three supplements, what would they be? Dymatize Iso-100 in fudge brownie flavor, Dymatize Amino Pro, and Dymatize Elite Casein. 

AJ Ellison

Age: 40

Height: 5’11”

Weight: 197 pounds (contest)

Lives: Kansas City, Missouri

Sponsor: Magnum Nutraceuticals

AJ Ellison has been an elite athlete for most of his life. As a college track star, he was once ranked as the 14th fastest runner in the US for the 800 meters. After his collegiate athletic career ended, he got serious about mixed martial arts and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Six years ago he dove into physique competitions and became the WBFF Muscle Model World Champion in 2013 and 2016.

Upon waking: Oatmeal blended with Magnum Nutraceuticals Quattro, a four-stage protein blend that contains whey protein isolate, milk protein isolate, micellar casein, and egg protein isolate; and a dose of Magnum Nutraceuticals Performance Greens powder. He also takes a dose of Magnum Nutraceuticals Big C, a bend of four different types of creatine, as well as herbs to improve uptake.

Morning: Magnum Nutraceuticals Heat, a thermogenic formula without caffeine; and Magnum Nutraceuticals Carne Diem, a pharmaceutical-grade form of L-carnitine.

Pre-workout: Magnum Nutraceuticals Limitless pre-workout formula and Magnum Nutraceuticals Opus, a mix of leucine, vitamins, minerals, and other amino acids. He also takes Magnum Nutraceuticals Volume, a pre-workout capsule that gives insane pumps, and one more does of Magnum Nutraceuticals Heat.

Post-workout: One serving of Magnum Nutraceuticals Quattro along with some rice cakes.

Before meals: Ellison will swallow a couple capsules of of Magnum Nutraceuticals Mimic before carb-heavy meals. The matrix of insulin-mimicking ingredients helps his body shuttle carbs to hungry muscles instead of storing them as body fat.

Nighttime: Magnum Nutraceuticals After Burner is a fat-burning thermogenic but with no stimulants, so you can take it before you sleep. Ellison will combine that with Magnum Nutraceuticals E-Brake to help combat estrogen and push out excess water. He’ll also blend up one more serving each of Quattro and Performance Greens.

Do you have a specific philosophy on supplements? I’m a big whole-foods advocate. If you’re diet isn’t on point, it doesn’t matter how great your supplements are. Supplements are meant to be “in addition to.” When your diet is on point, supplements give you that extra added boost.

Have you ever tried a supplement that worked for you and not other people, or vice-versa? A lot of physique athletes take protein powders out of their diets during their prep, but I drink Quattro all the way up to my show. It digests very well for me. I also take Big C [creatine] the whole time. I don’t bloat off of Big C. It’s in my system, my body has adapted to it, why would I cut it out at the end of my prep?

If you could only take three supplements, what would they be? Magnum Nutraceuticals Quattro, Magnum Nutraceuticals Performance Greens, and Magnum Nutraceuticals Volume.

Brandon Hendrickson

Age: 29

Height: 5’8”

Weight: 185 pounds (contest)

Lives: Chicago, Illinois

Sponsor: Beast Sports Nutrition

One of the brightest stars of the IFBB Men’s Physique division, Brandon Hendrickson is the 2016 Arnold Sports Weekend champion and a fourth-place finisher at the 2016 Olympia Weekend. A first-generation American whose parents hail from Trinidad and Tobago, Hendrickson has a physique that presents much bigger onstage than he actually is. Hendrickson competes at 185 pounds (less than 10 pounds more than Olympia champion Jeremy Buendia), but most people guess he’s at least 200 pounds.

Upon waking: Beast Sports Nutrition Beast Pack multivitamin and mineral, 2,000 milligrams Beast Sports Nutrition CLA, 1,000 milligrams Beast Sports Nutrition Carnitine, 1,000 milligrams cinnamon extract, 500 milligrams chromium, B-complex vitamins.

Between meals one and two: 2,000 milligrams arginine, 15 milligrams zinc.

With meal two: One dose of digestive enzymes.

With meal three: 1,000 milligrams cinnamon extract.

10 minutes before meal four: Stack of ephedra, caffeine, and aspirin (ECA); 2,000 milligrams of Beast Sports Nutrition CLA; 1,000 milligrams of Beast Sports Nutrition Carnitine, vitamin A complex; vitamin B complex.

Pre-workout: Beast Mode Black.

Intra-workout: Aminolytes by Beast Sports Nutrition, a BCAA formula with extra amino acids and electrolytes. “I need the electrolytes because I am always sweating. I start training with hoodie on, and by the end of my workout I’m drenched,” he says.

Post-workout:  Two scoops (50 grams) of Beast Protein whey blend with water, and five strawberries.

With meal five: One dose of digestive enzymes.

Between meal five and meal six:  2,000 milligrams arginine, 15 milligrams zinc.

Do you have a specific philosophy on supplements? I go by what my coach tells me to take. Most of the things I take are provided by Beast Sports Nutrition. The other supplements I take are vitamins and things for overall health. Before I started bodybuilding I hardly did any supplements. I am very old school. I try to rely on my diet.

What is different about your supplement regimen than most people? I take a lot of digestive enzymes. Sometime I have a bloat issue, so when I do take them it helps a lot.

If you could only take three supplements, what would they be? Beast Sports Nutrition Protein, Beast Sports Nutrition Aminolytes, and Beast Pack multivitamin.

Brandon Cass

Age: 42

Height: 5’9”

Weight: 220 pounds

Lives: Blue Springs, Missouri

Sponsor: Core Nutritionals

Brandon Cass is the owner of Cass Strength, a master trainer, powerlifting coach, and contest prep coach. He is also the all-time American record holder of the conventional raw deadlift, pulling 844 pounds at a bodyweight of 217.  He has held over 12 world records in various powerlifting federations. Unlike powerlifters of old, Cass stays lean and athletic, maintaining a body-fat level of nine to 11 percent.

Meal one: A shake made with Core Nutritionals Pro sustained-release protein blend and Core Nutritionals HMB.

Pre-workout: Before his 8:00 a.m. training session, Cass will take five grams of Core Nutritionals Creatine Monohydrate and a serving of Core Nutritionals Fury Extreme pre-workout, which also contains five grams of creatine. Around this time Cass will also take a serving of Core Nutritionals Flex, a joint health product that contains MSM, glucosamine, and chondroitin.

Intra-workout Core Nutritionals ABC, a BCAA formula that also contains beta-alanine, glutamine, and citrulline malate.

Post-workout:  A low-carb Gatorade G2 mixed with Core Nutritionals Taurine.

Afternoon: One serving of Core Nutritionals Grow, a nutrient-dense mass-gainer formula with 40 grams of whey protein, a blend of slow-digesting carbs, and a mix of digestive enzymes.

Nighttime: One serving of Core Nutritionals ZZZ sleep formula.

Other supplements: Cass takes a Flintstones Chewable multivitamin every day. When he was a child he was diagnosed with Hirschsprung's disease, a congenital condition of the colon. This makes his digestion a little tricky, and he’s found that chewable vitamins absorb much better than traditional pills.

What is the least effective supplement you ever took? There was a product that came out that was supposed to a testosterone booster. This was in the 1990s. It was called “Beefed In A Bottle.” It was sublingual product, so it had a dropper and you put it under your tongue and held it there for two minutes. It tasted like complete ass, and it was like $60 a bottle.

What is different about your supplement regimen than most people? A good joint product works for me. I don’t care what age you are, that is something that should be in your supplement regimen. And you’ll never be able to convince me that creatine doesn’t work. I don’t care if you’re a UPS driver or a hardcore weightlifter, it will make a difference in how you feel, how you perform.

If you could only take three supplements, what would they be? Core Nutritionals Creatine, Core Nutritionals Pro, and Core Nutritionals HMB.

Narmin Assria
Age: 27

Height: 5’0”

Weight: 103 pounds

Lives: Southern California

Sponsors: BMR Sports Nutrition

Tiny but mighty, Bikini Pro Narmin Assria trains like a heavyweight bodybuilder. While most of her peers are focused on dieting and getting lean, this Southern California native pushes heavy weights year-round in order to get more muscular. Assria turned pro at a slight 85 pounds. Since then she has added more than 20 percent of her bodyweight in the form of muscle. Clearly, she is doing something right.

Upon waking: One capsule of the BMR Tartarus fat burner formula, before her fasted cardio.

Morning: Woman’s multivitamin, digestive enzymes, fish oils, CLA, and GLA. Assria also takes a shot of apple cider vinegar every morning.

Pre-workout: One scoop of BMR 4CE 30 minutes prior to going to the gym.

Intra-workout: “I always bring a shaker with my BMR BCAAs and I sip on it while I’m training—the best way to keep the muscles full and stay hydrated,” she says.

Post-workout: “I always make it a point to have protein on me at all times after a workout. It is so important to make sure you eat right after a session. I usually always have a protein shake ready to go in my car from BMR Sports Nutrition. My favorite protein shake is their strawberry flavor with strawberry chunks. It tastes so amazing,” she says.

Afternoon: More BMR BCAAs.

What is different about your supplement regimen than most people? Throughout the day I’ll consume BCAAs from BMR Sports Nutrition. BCAAS have become my key to keeping my muscles full and hydrated. I won’t allow any workout to go to waste, and when it tastes amazing it’s easy to keep drinking your BCAAs. I usually take in a gallon of water a day, so when I get to flavor my water it makes it that much easier.

Do you have a specific philosophy on supplements? I believe providing your body with high-end supplements is very important. You wouldn’t put cheap gas in a Ferrari, so why would you feed your body something negative? Supplements just give you that extra help—sometimes you don’t get all what your body needs in food. For example, I’ll be first to admit I don’t get all my greens in, so I substitute that with a powder supplement. There’s always ways to give your body those extra benefits, you just have to go out there and experiment.

If you could only take three supplements, what would they be? BMR BCAAs, BMR Protein powder, BMR 4CE pre-workout.

By Amanda Burrill, MS

The holidays are approaching and out to try and derail your diet, but there are ways around it! For example, go hide and don’t come out until January. Just kidding. We welcome the fall flavors of rich candied sweet potato, pumpkin, and the associated spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves (or pumpkin pie spice for the lazy ones) without fear.

I made a shake this month with a tart and tangy twist as a fresh play on an old classic: sweet potato pie. Most anyone on top of their meal-prep game has sweet potatoes hanging around. When I was prepping for my first competition and eliminated candy, sweet potatoes probably saved my sanity.

The key ingredients of this recovery shake capture fall’s colors, right down to the healthy fat we’re toying with this month: red palm oil. This rich, buttery culinary oil’s color reveals its abundance of antioxidant vitamins A and E. Further experimentation with this ingredient proved it to be a great additive to soups and sautées and stir-frys. You can even pop popcorn in it—much like coconut oil—to get a tasty twist on an otherwise bland snack.

This concoction satisfies that protein-carb requirement after a great workout. And if you’re hitting it high intensity, these starchy sweet potato carbs are a more direct replenishment of muscle glycogen than fruit carbs. Honestly, I don’t know how bodybuilders would survive without sweet potatoes. I don’t toss religious rhetoric around, but they’re certainly proof of a higher power.

This protein smoothie reminds of me the batter of sweet potato pie before you bake it. Wait, you don’t usually taste batters with raw eggs? Sissy.

Ingredients

1 small container Greek yogurt (about 5 ounces)

½ roasted sweet potato (about ½ cup)

1 teaspoon red palm oil

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

⅛ teaspoon clove

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

Handful ice

Water to thin, if necessary

Total: 374 calories, 30 g carbs, 37 g protein, 11 g fat, 4 g fiber

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a blender, beginning with the liquid to avoid sticky protein-powder clumps. Blend until smooth.

SUPERFOOD 101

Sweet Potato

We know that sweet potatoes are revered for their beta carotene content, just look at that bright hue. But how about that fiber? They contain twice the amount as other types of potatoes. This high fiber content moves slowly through your system so their caloric energy gets burned much more efficiently. They also contain choline, a nutrient that helps muscle movement and assists in maintaining the structure of cellular membranes.

Red Palm Oil

First off, let’s get this straight: Red palm fruit oil is different than palm kernel oil. The red oil is derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree and is, you guessed it, red. The kernel oil is derived from the seed and is very high in saturated fat. The red palm oil from the fruit has been used by many civilizations, going back to ancient Egyptians. The red in the “good” palm oil is evidence of its high carotene content, the same antioxidants that give tomatoes and carrots their rich coloring. But red palm fruit oil contains even more and also provides tocotrienols, which are a powerful form of vitamin E.

Cinnamon

Those crazy Egyptians—cinnamon goes back to them, too! While it used to be a rare gift fit for a king, it’s now nice and cheap. This fragrant spice is well known for lowering blood-sugar levels. Aside from beneficial effects on insulin resistance, it lowers blood sugar in other ways. For example, studies show the spice decreases the amount of glucose that goes into the bloodstream after a meal by interfering with digestive enzymes, slowing the carb breakdown through the digestive tract. The inner bark of a tree never tasted so good!

Doug Miller is serious about bringing transparency, efficacy, and integrity to the supplement industry.

By Mike Carlson

“Necessity is the mother of invention” is a good way to describe Doug Miller’s entry into the supplement  world 12 years ago. Working long hours in management at an economic litigation consulting company, the natural bodybuilding champion relied heavily on meal-replacement products to get him through long work days and tough workouts. But he’d often look at the label and think “Why?”

“At the time I was using Met-RX and Myoplex packets,” Miller says. “They had 40 grams of protein and vitamins and minerals, but the carbs were coming from maltodextrin. Why would I want a meal replacement that has post-workout carbs that will give me an insulin spike? Why would I want that for breakfast or between meals? That didn’t make sense to me.”

Miller decided to do something about it, and with degrees in biochemistry, molecular biology, and economics, it wasn’t long before he created Core MRP, a high-protein, high-fiber meal replacement that utilizes slow-digesting oat and barley fiber as its main source of carbs. Necessity, meet invention.

Over a decade later, Miller has broken free of the golden handcuffs of corporate America and Core is now an international brand with a full range of products, from sleep aids, test boosters, fat burners, and pre-workouts to four of five different types of protein. What has not changed about Core is the refusal to use proprietary blends in their formulas. All Core supplements use clinical doses of active ingredients, with each dose clearly labeled with its gram amounts. It is at the vanguard of a sea change in the supplement industry, and it is a phenomenon that helps Miller sleep very soundly at night.

MC: You were a successful corporate guy. What got you into the supplement business?
DM: The reason I started the company in 2004 was because I wasn’t happy with all the crap on the market. I wasn’t happy with fillers, proprietary blends, and cheap ingredients. I started this company with a 100 percent selfish perspective, creating products I wanted to use. To this day, we follow the same principles. We were the first people to make non-proprietary blends a standard. That type of 100 percent transparency was very important to me.

Mike Carlson: Has that resonated with supplement buyers?

Doug Miller: Absolutely. They love it. We find that our consumer base is a very educated consumer base, in terms of people understanding ingredients and why they are dosed as opposed to people who are driven by marketing hype. I think there is a transition right now in the industry that the consumer is demanding. So much so that the bigger marking giants are even switching to non-proprietary blends and marketing it as such.

MC: Are you trying to find the next creatine or simply doing the basics right?
DM: Doing them right. We are looking at products that are proven to work, dosing them correctly, and throwing them in a blend with 12 other clinically dosed ingredients. So it is the synergistic nature of efficacious dose of all those ingredients that makes the products so good.

MC: Clinical dosages make for expensive products. Do you have to defend the cost of Core products to consumers?

DM: I tell people that our products are not cheap in both senses: They are not cheap to make and not cheap to sell. However, they are a phenomenal value. For example, Core ABC is 54 dollars. People are like, “Fifty-four dollars for a BCAA? That is expensive!” But most BCAAS are 300-, 400-, or maybe 500-gram tubs, and they sell for well over half the price for ours. We have 1,000 grams in our BCAA product. When you break it down to per servings, our product is a phenomenal value. If you look at our pre-workout, you’re getting 29 servings of a product that has a 16-gram scoop. What other pre-workout gives you five grams of creatine monohydrate? And that’s just one ingredient. If you tried to make that product up yourself by buying commodity products and making your own Core Fury, you are going to spend 90 dollars.

MC: You sponsor a lot of natural bodybuilders. Why is that?
DM: I’m a natural bodybuilder. I have won the World Championships a couple times, and that is my passion. I don’t have anything against people using PEDS as long as they’re not trying to compete in the natural organizations. For me, it is really important to have natural athletes on the team. If a supplement company puts a ’roided-out guy on an ad, that’s just false advertising for the 16-year-old who’s getting into bodybuilding. Also, if we are beta-testing products, I don’t want someone who’s on cycle trying my products and giving me feedback, because who knows if it’s effective when you have so much other stuff going on.

MC: What are Core’s flagship products?
DM: I would say our two flagships are Core ABC and Core Fury Extreme. Core ABC is our intra-workout BCAA product. We can’t keep it in stock and we can’t make it fast enough. It’s probably 25 percent of our sales. The other one is out pre-workout, Core Fury Extreme. It’s fully loaded with clinical doses. A scooper in this looks like a protein scooper. You would never take more than one scoop of this product. This past year, these products won Intra-Workout Of The Year and Pre-Workout Of The Year in Australia.

MC: What is a typical day like for you?

DM: It’s all over the place—I wear many hats. I have a chain of retail stores on the East Coast called The Nutrition Corners. We are about to open up our sixth and seventh stores. I’m in the books every day because I think it’s important for leaders and CEOs to understand where you’re making money and where you’re losing money. But most of my time is spent on the Core side of things, from talking about marketing initiatives to formulating new products. Literally, I do everything.

MC: How do you find time to train?
DM: Not training is never an option for me. I train every day. That is what I do. People relate me and Core together, so it’s important that I train. And I love it. I started this company to make my training better. Sometimes I tell people I’m in a meeting. Well, that meeting might be me in the gym. It’s that important to me. IM

“Cap” The Calories

Turns out the burning sensation you get from chili peppers isn’t just for your taste buds. Capsaicin—the culprit in chili peppers that brings the heat—has been touted as a metabolism booster for years now, with studies to back it up. One interesting paper published by online journal PLOS ONE in 2013 even pinpointed an ideal amount: 2.56 milligrams per meal for those on low-calorie diets. What they found was that approximately a quarter teaspoon of capsaicin, equivalent to 39,050 Scoville heat units, per meal helped somewhat offset the typical energy expenditure decrease that occurs when we’re in lower-calorie mode. The capsaicin also prompted more fat oxidation compared to those who didn’t sprinkle on the hot stuff. While this study isn’t conclusive evidence in favor of chili pepper and fat loss, it can’t hurt to add some to your meals, especially if you’re on an especially restrictive shredding-mode diet.

Early Birds Get The Burn

Bleary eyed, pre-dawn bouts on the treadmill before your first meal may not sound like a ton of fun—but science is proving the practice effective. In a study of multiple studies published in the British Journal Of Nutrition in September 2016, researchers gathered data on 27 trials that compared the metabolic effects of aerobic exercise on those in fasted and “fed” states. Based on measures of plasma concentrations of glucose and insulin in 273 adults, significantly higher fat oxidation—the technical term for “fat burning”—took place in those who were doing cardio on an empty stomach when compared to those with food in their system. If you’re just not a morning person, you can still put these findings to good use by foregoing food a couple of hours before your workout.

Fat-Fighting Fruit

A recent culinary fad may also prove to be a new weapon in the battle of the bulge. Acai, the trendy Brazilian fruit, may help reduce obesity and battle the effects of a high-fat diet on the liver—according to a preliminary study on mice, at least. As detailed in the 2015 paper published in PLOS ONE, mice who consumed a high-fat diet and were given Acai extract didn’t gain weight and showed significantly improved plasma and tissue metabolic profiles. They also maintained liver-fat levels comparable to mice fed a normal diet. The researchers contend that the beneficial effects of acai involve blunting fat formation, increasing cholesterol disposal, and reducing oxidative stress in the liver. The results still need to be corroborated in humans, of course, but at worst, you have a brand-new tasty ingredient to toss into your next protein shake.

To add more mass, try adding these underrated foods to your plate.

By Team Iron Man

If putting on muscle were simply a matter of eating a lot, there would be a lot more jacked guys and a lot fewer fat guys. The journey of adding muscle is fraught with obstacles, especially when it comes to nutrition. While you’re probably overly familiar with chicken breast, tilapia, and ground turkey, we’ve compiled a list that includes some undercover muscle-building foods. These novel foods are esoteric in nature, providing valuable nutrients either not typically found together in such abundance or are highly specific in their muscle-building properties and favorable effects on the body. These won’t build muscle on their own, but if you have your macronutrient bases covered, they can help speed the journey to a bigger, stronger you.

Hemp Seeds

These seeds are actually a complete protein, a significant source of chlorophyll and fiber and contain both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Whole hemp seeds contain albumin and edestin (both proteins, the latter found only in hemp seeds), which quickly get to starving muscles. Hemp seeds also contain fiber and minerals, most notably zinc for your immune system and phosphorus and magnesium for bone health.

Turmeric

A 2009 study published in the journal Nutrition brought to light the anti-catabolic powers of this spice, noting that curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric) may enhance recovery of damaged muscle tissue. As if that’s not reason enough to consume it, consider that turmeric is a potent antioxidant, aids in fat metabolism, works as an anti-inflammatory, and is a powerhouse when it comes to reducing the risk of many types of cancers. A study done at Kansas State University found that seasoning meat with turmeric reduces heterocyclic amines (cancer-causing chemicals that form in foods cooked at high temps) by up to 40 percent.

Buckwheat

This fruit seed contains all eight essential amino acids. It also gets points in the areas of immune health with its antioxidant content; improved digestion and hunger management thanks to its high fiber level; and blood glucose management due to a compound called d-chiro-inositol (a natural metabolite that is part of the vitamin B family), which increases insulin sensitivity. Several studies have shown that buckwheat, which is gluten-free, effectively slows the rate of sarcopenia, which is the natural age-related decline of muscle strength and mass.

Beets

Want a better pump? Beets are also one of the richest sources of those same nitrates found in spinach that benefit mitochondria. A study published in the European Journal Of Applied Physiology showed an increase of skeletal muscle protein synthesis with the supplementation of betaine, a chemical compound so named because it was originally discovered in sugar beets. Another benefit is its detoxifying effect: Beet consumption has shown to improve liver function. Beet juice also contains vitamin C, iron, potassium, and copper.

Cocoa

A study published in the British Medical Journal reported that the consumption of cocoa increases nitric oxide production, while another study confirmed that its rich flavanol content is responsible for these impressive effects. Vasodilation occurs through an increase in nitric oxide stimulated by the flavanols, carrying more oxygen to your muscles to provide a bigger pump during training. A third study found that a specific phenol, called epicatechins, helps reverse muscle wasting. Cocoa’s impressive antioxidant content, as well as its ability to reduce inflammation and increase insulin sensitivity, should seal the deal.  

Fail First, Then Grow

Should you fail before you even really get started? At least two scientific studies say yes. In the first, published in the July 2015 issue of the European Journal of Applied Physiology, subjects performed one set of leg extensions, using 20 percent of their one-rep max (1RM) and repping to failure. They then did three sets of eight to 12 reps at 75 percent of their 1RM, a routine they repeated twice per week. After eight weeks, the pre-exhaust group increased their 1RM, the cross-sectional area of their quadriceps, and their muscular endurance more so than the control group who just did the three sets of eight to 12. Research published in the January/February 2016 issue of The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness backed those results, but at a higher weight. Subjects in that study did a pre-exhaust leg-extension set at 80 percent of 1RM to failure to lead off their twice-weekly workouts, which consisted of three sets of 15 to 20 reps at 50 percent of 1RM. After eight weeks, those who added the additional pre-exhaust set experienced greater increases in one-rep strength, endurance, and work efficiency—although the quads did not grow more as a result. Still, though, a leadoff set to failure could give you a leg up in your training efforts.

It’s No Big Secret

Here’s why exercise order matters: It can affect hormonal responses, says a 2016 study published in the Asian Journal Of Sports Medicine. Researchers compared the effects of starting with large muscle groups first versus leading off with smaller bodyparts on serum insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), testosterone, and cortisol levels in 25 untrained college-aged men who did three sets of 10 reps maximum to near fatigue in their workouts. While the order didn’t impact the number of reps they could muster, and IGF-1 and testosterone increased immediately post-exercise for both protocols, doing large muscle group exercises first and then progressing to small muscle groups produced greater anabolic hormonal response compared to the reverse sequence in normal-weight men. Of course, in muscle building, hormones matter—so it makes sense to do legs, back, chest, and shoulders before arms, calves, and abs.

Vaporize Vaping With Weights

Got a nasty vaping habit that you’re trying to shake? Consider hitting the weights to help your cause, Brown University researchers suggest. They tested 25 long-term smokers, providing a brief smoking cessation counseling session and the nicotine patch before putting part of the group on a 12-week resistance-training program. According to the report in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, at three months, 46 percent of the resistance-trained group had abstained for seven days from smoking, compared to only 17 percent in the control group. After six months, 38 percent of the resistance-trained group reported seven days without a smoke break, compared to 17 percent of those who weren’t training; more prolonged abstinence rates were 15 percent and eight percent, respectively—almost double. Meanwhile, those training lost 1.3 pounds and half a percent of body fat, while the control group gained approximately that same amount on average.

Use these unique training techniques to put your hypertrophy into hyperdrive.

By Eric Broser

If there is one essential lesson that I have learned in my 25-plus years as a competitive bodybuilder, trainer, and contest prep coach, it is that the human body is an incredibly adaptable machine and will rapidly cease to respond to stimuli it is exposed to time and again. This is something that is just built into our physiology and has far greater implications to our very survival than the pursuit of a better physique.

Most people tend to fall into one specific method of training early on and then rarely break this pattern as the years (and workouts) go by. As long as trainees are progressive with the weights and use proper form, this approach will usually manifest some success, at least for the first few of years of training. However, as more time elapses, this one-dimensional system will eventually bring about progressively diminishing returns as far as hypertrophy is concerned and increased levels of frustration. You see, too many misguided lifters use the same exercises, in the same order, with the same tempo, rest between sets, training techniques, and rep ranges, month after month. One of the biggest roadblocks to progress (in anything that we do) often comes down to doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result.

In future articles, I will touch upon several different methods of training that I have developed over the years, all of which are meant to keep the body from plateauing and tap into all of the various physiological mechanisms we possess to positively affect muscle growth. In this particular piece I wish to focus my attention on the use of three specific intensity techniques that will provide a powerful stimulus to the target muscle to force new adaptations to take place. And by “adaptations,” I mean “more muscle!”

Intensity Booster #1: Rest/Pause Sets

Although there are actually several versions of this technique floating around the world’s many gyms, I have discovered my own method of rest/pause sets, which does an excellent job of igniting new gains in mass and strength. Once you are warmed up and ready to begin your first all-out set, you should choose a weight that will allow you to reach positive failure between reps seven and nine. At this point you will set the bar down and catch your breath for about 15 seconds. Then, grab the weight and proceed until you once again reach positive failure. Then, you will take a 30-second rest to help recover a final burst of muscular/mental strength, before going to failure again one final time. This is equivalent to one rest/pause set.

Intensity Booster #2: Eccentric Pause Reps

This is a technique I often utilize when looking to bring about some extra muscle-fiber damage and soreness in order to force anabolism to take place. Using the bench press an example, a properly performed eccentric pause rep would go like this: Remove the barbell from the safeties and stabilize your body for pressing the load. Lower the bar about two-thirds of the way down and then hold this position for three full seconds while contracting your pecs. Then, lower the weight down to the chest and forcefully press it back to the top. Repeat this process for about five to seven reps, with the goal of reaching positive muscular failure in that range.

Intensity Booster #3: One And A Half Reps

I love using one and a half reps because they help increase the target muscle’s time under tension, force you to double up on the eccentric contraction, and produce one heck of a monster pump. All of these elements definitely push hypertrophy to new levels. One of my favorite movements to utilize this technique on is the Smith machine incline press. Begin by slowly lowering the bar to your upper chest, just below your clavicle bones. Push back up, but only halfway. Immediately lower the bar once again and then press all the way back to the starting position. That completes a single one and a half rep.

Intensity-Boosted Pec-Punisher Workout

Use these intensity-boosting techniques only once every four weeks for any one muscle. Otheriwise,  burnout can occur. Also, make sure to use a spotter with you when necessary.

• Rest-Pause Set: Weighted Dip 2 x 7-9

Perform 7-9 reps;  rest 15 seconds, then perform max reps; rest 30 seconds, then do max reps again. Complete that process twice

• One And A Half Reps Set: Smith Machine Incline Press 3 x 7-9
• Eccentric Pause Reps Set: Flat Dumbbell Press 3 x 5-7

You carry your whole life your gym bag, you might as well get a good one.

By Amanda Burrill, MS

There’s no such thing as the one “one size fits all” for gym bags. You’ll certainly want something that deters odor, is water resistant, durable, and maybe has a separate compartment for food and drink. But your workouts are highly personal, and so should your gear experience.

There are about seven million gym bag options, many of which pass the initial tests. I dragged some of my favorite contenders around smelly, dirty, wet NYC, offering a level of damage bombardment on top of my own beatdown, to help choose the best hardbody handbag.

Apera Performance Duffel

Cost:  $139

Where to buy: AperaBags.com

An Apera bag, virtually indestructible, lasted through being my gym bag for a year and then living and traveling abroad in Europe for another. The Performance Duffel, Apera’s best-seller, is my top choice for keeping everything organized especially if you’re a “from work to gym” type. There are two carry handles and a padded shoulder strap. The inner capacity is substantial, with two water bottle holders; a pocket on each end, both big enough for a pair of men’s size 12 shoes; laptop storage; and their signature antimicrobial product protection that resists the formation of bacterial odor. Also to love about Apera, free shipping and hassle-free returns.

MZ Wallace Sutton

Cost: $215–$245

Where to buy: MZWallace.com

My love affair with this water- and stain-resistant bag is deep. I first saw it in the Equinox shop and the camo version caught my eye, military gal that I am, and it had leather trim and gold hardware. The next day I saw the actual flagship store in Soho and I knew it was meant to be. Sutton comes in small, medium, and large, and all versions have interior pockets, detachable travel pouches, and an adjustable crossbody strap. What put the last nail in the coffin for me is the incredibly lightweight nylon construction, making it crushable and rollable. My gym stuff weighs enough and I am about to go destroy some steel—I don’t need a bag that adds to my workout. But this one certainly adds to my style.

Six Pack Bags Expedition Backpack 3-Meal

Cost: $160

Where to buy: SixPackBags.com

As a chef and sponsored athlete, this bag is where my two worlds collide. It’s called “Expedition” because it will take whatever beating you give it, in our out of the gym. This backpack allows you to safely carry three insulated meals, gym gear, and a 15-inch laptop/tablet in a safe separate compartment. The setup comes with three 20-ounce leak-proof meal containers and three freezer packs (two small, one large) that fit snugly into the removable meal core. If you meal prep, you need a Six Pack Bag.

Ogio X-Train 2

Cost:  $90

Where to buy: Ogio.com

This is the ultimate badass urban bag. Some of the features include a removable external helmet-carry strap, side cinch straps perfect for a towel or yoga mat, a dedicated compartment for wet or smelly stuff that is also big enough to fit a pair of shoes, and a hydration pocket with tube port that accommodates a water bladder. Anyone carrying a full load will appreciate the ergonomic fully adjustable padded shoulder straps, sternum strap, padded laptop/tablet compartment, and valuables compartment—aka tech vault—that is uncrushable. Don’t worry about damaging your phone or glasses as you brave the day! This bad boy packs a lot of awesome for a relatively low price.

Herschel Novel Duffle in Nylon

Cost:  $140

Where to buy: HerschelSupply.com

I can’t leave the house without seeing a dozen Herschel bags. Newsflash: Style alone isn’t enough, so I got myself their duffle in the durable nylon construction, and it was boss. The leather handles and details keep it on the dressy side, and the padded shoulder strap adds practicality. The shoe compartment is plenty big for men’s sneakers, and I love the quality construction. The price may seem steep, but this is a bag you will have for a very long time, and it will never go out of style.

Gaiam

Cost:  $60

Where to buy: Gaiam.com

This eco-chic Gaiam bag, slightly feminine even in the black, has features galore presented in an understated package that goes from street to gym. Compartments include an exterior zip pocket, an interior elastic pocket, a vented compartment, and a very spacious interior. Adjustable shoulder straps allow for hands-free, as do two side Velcro pockets that double as drink holders, and a cinch cord on the bottom of the bag to stash your yoga mat or towel. I like the vented exterior compartment that can hold shoes or wet items separately. Most of all, I like the price.

Everest Sports Duffel

Cost: $28

Where to buy: Walmart.com

If you don’t care about frills but prioritize function, this can be your huckleberry! This economical duffel has everything you need including a spacious main compartment, two front zippered compartments to separate your valuables, a waterproof pocket for damp or dirty clothes, and a dedicated shoe space. The shoulder strap is padded and comfortable, but you can also carry the bag with the tote handles. The bag comes in black or a choice of black with three different color accents. I imagine the Brawny Man uses this gym bag. He gives zero F’s about being fancy. IM

Destroying the six most pervasive myths about therapeutic hormone treatment.

By Brett A. Osborn, DO, FAANS, CSCS and Jay Campbell

At one point or another, most people have been misinformed or frankly lied to about the clinical usage of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) in the context of health and longevity.

The media has vilified testosterone in the wake of elaborate scandals such as BALCO and because its history of blatant abuse by professional athletes across sports disciplines. Sure, testosterone was deemed a controlled substance in the ’90s, and by virtue carries with it a negative connotation, but does that nullify its potential health benefits? Absolutely not.

The benefits of testosterone replacement therapy have been readily documented in peer-reviewed journals and well compiled in The Definitive Testosterone Replacement Therapy MANual (TRTRevolution.com/PDF). In this article we examine what we believe are the biggest myths and misnomers regarding the therapeutic usage of testosterone.

Myth #1: Testosterone therapy is illegal.

Testosterone therapy, if indicated is 100 percent legal. Again, we are not talking about its usage as a performance-enhancing agent. We speak only of doctor-prescribed testosterone, not the locker room-acquired vial from source unknown. We speak not of the 22-year-old male thirsty for an edge at the NFL combine, but the 40-year-old male with clinical and serologic evidence of hypogonadism: the cluster of age-related changes typically occurring in males over the age of 35 inclusive of increasing abdominal adiposity, fatigue, waning libido, loss of muscle mass, and “brain fog.” Here’s the problem: The former population has poisoned the well for the latter. Locker room abuse of testosterone and synthetic derivatives have only fueled the media frenzy, heightening scrutiny of this potentially life-altering medication and the assumption that its usage is illegal. The upshot? Thousands upon thousands of men (and women for that matter) are being deprived of its benefits on account of misperception.

Myth #2: Testosterone therapy will massively increase sex drive.

There is an entire industry devoted to improving libido and erectile dysfunction with medications such as Cialis and Viagra. These are workarounds for an often more sinister malady such as peripheral vascular disease (that can and does affect the relatively tenuous penile blood supply). Testosterone enhances libido through central mechanisms. Yes, your brain has billions of testosterone receptors, but by no means will TRT have you running around randy. Therapeutic dosages of testosterone will also improve the quality and strength of erections. Who doesn’t want to have their 18-year-old potency back again? Unto itself however, testosterone is not a sexual panacea despite what you may have heard.

Myth #3: Testosterone therapy will magically rectify a poor lifestyle.

If you are obese, eat poorly, and fail to consistently exercise (strength and endurance training), TRT will fail to live up to expectations. Remember, testosterone replacement is merely an adjunct for aging men. An optimal hormone profile is just a piece of the health and longevity puzzle. Male or female, one still must eat and train intelligently in order maximize insulin sensitivity while concomitantly maintaining muscle mass, eliminate chronic stress, and assure adequate sleep. And while a physician can prescribe a healthy lifestyle, such things certainly cannot be delivered in a pill, capsule, or injectable. Remember, health takes work.

Myth #4: Testosterone therapy causes both heart attacks and prostate cancer.

A few flawed studies have been the genesis of mass confusion amongst men and a myriad of lawsuits. Despite overwhelming data that demonstrate a negative correlation between TRT and cardiac events, many doctors are hesitant to prescribe testosterone. The same misinformation goes for prostate cancer.

Yet no study has demonstrated a casual relationship between TRT and prostate cancer. Sure, prostate cancer is a hormone-sensitive tumor, and yes, TRT should be terminated in the presence of untreated prostate cancer, but it does not cause prostate cancer. Wouldn’t all adolescent men have prostate cancer if testosterone were oncogenic?

By no means does that mean throw caution to the wind, however. All men on testosterone replacement therapy should undergo routine digital rectal examinations and serial PSA/PSA velocity testing as rarely an indolent tumor can be “unmasked” in the presence of relatively elevated serum testosterone levels. However, this is very rare.

Myth #5: Testosterone replacement therapy will cause baldness.

Alopecia, or baldness, is predominantly a function of genetic and hormonal factors. Environmental factors such as stress can also play a role, however. In those prone to hair loss, those deemed “androgen sensitive,” TRT may accelerate hair loss. This is due to the effect of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a testosterone metabolite, at the level of the hair follicle. For those Iron Man readers who are sensitive to DHT (manifested as thinning hair early in the course of TRT), there are several potential fallbacks. And while certainly not fail-safe, 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors such as Propecia, Proscar, and Avodart, may impede hair loss by limiting the conversion of testosterone to DHT. Still concerned? Ask your physician to check a serum DHT level to assure that it stays in check.

Myth #6: Testosterone replacement therapy will cause premature death.

Arguably the biggest fear Iron Man readers share is that TRT will lead to an early death. Many of these beliefs stem from the media’s glamorization of professional athletes “dying from their usage of anabolic steroids” and other unproven statements designed to stoke fear. The age-old media adage again rears its ugly head: “If it leads, it bleeds.” But just remember one thing: We are advocating the usage of a therapeutic and physiologic dosage of testosterone. In other words, an optimal dosage. This bears no relation to those dosages and protocols utilized by professional athletes to gain an edge on the competition. Such supraphysiologic regimens are associated with numerous side effects and do not meet standards of medical care. Banish the thoughts of sweaty locker rooms and the underground steroid trade. We speak only of medically supervised testosterone replacement therapy under the care of a board-certified physician such as Brett Osborn, MD. TRT is not only safe, but it is likely to dramatically improve your quality of life, and may even extend it.  IM

Eating for optimal performance is easier than it sounds.

By Eddie Avakoff, owner of Metroflex LBC

First and foremost, this is not the most effective method of building mass and size, nor is it the best diet for losing crazy amounts of body fat. What this is, is a diet plan for someone looking to fuel their level of performance. That is, to intake the proper nutrition in the right quantity so that you can repair what’s been torn down, rest what has been exhausted, and continue to perform at the same, if not higher, level of output. So, in short, this is a “my body’s a machine and I need to fuel it properly” diet.

I once read this quote and it really stuck with me: “Food is fuel and nothing more.” Sad but true, isn’t it, foodies?

As a performance athlete, nutrition is an essential part of the game. But nutrition changes depending on activity, degree of intensity, and even timing around an event. And it’s important to fuel yourself properly, along with the correct timing and proportions in order to achieve ideal results. For example, fat is best utilized before activity, whereas protein is best consumed after. Carbohydrates, however, remain relatively consistent throughout both eating cycles. But let’s take a deeper look at when someone should intake protein, carbs, and fat.

(Percentages shown as protein/carbs/fat unless noted otherwise)

1. A) Morning Training Schedule

- Morning (breakfast): 33/33/33

- Late morning (snack): 30/70 (carbs/fat)

--- AM workout ---

- Post-workout (lunch): 40/60 (protein/carbs)

- Late afternoon (snack): 40/40/20

- Evening (dinner): 40/30/30

- Late evening (snack/dessert): 40/60 (protein/fat)

1. B) Afternoon Training Schedule

- Morning (breakfast): 33/33/33

- Late morning (snack): 30/70 (carbs/fat)

- Afternoon (lunch): 30/40/30

- Late afternoon (snack): 10/30/60

--- PM workout ---

- Evening (dinner): 60/40 (protein/carbs)

- Late evening: 40/20/40

Along with determining when and how much to eat, I think it’s just as important to identify what we should be eating. For the most part, the rules are simple:

• Eat only what can be grown or killed.
• Avoid multi-ingredient foods.
• You’re never drinking enough water.
• Stay away from white carbohydrates (flour, sugar, starch).

Stick to those four rules and you’ve basically done 99 percent of what it takes to have a great physique and a healthy lifestyle. There’s obviously certain energy sources that are better than others, so let’s break down which protein, carbs, and fats are best for us:

Protein

I’m a big fan of grass-fed beef, or better yet, wild game. Red meat like lamb possesses omega-3 fatty acids, which are great for recovery. Exotic meats like kangaroo and bison are cleaner red-meat choices than beef because they are more protein-rich and even absorbed better. Like red meat, chicken should be organic and free-range, too. I know a lot of these meat/poultry companies will claim “organic,” but you really have to do your research to determine which brands are authentic and which are full of shit (literally). Fish is also a legitimate protein source. White fish offers a lean protein source, while red fish like ahi tuna or salmon provide omega-rich fats, which are great for recovery. Eggs are a protein superfood, so eat lots of those. Plant protein is not completely out of the question, but difficult to sustain adequate protein consumption with plants. Nonetheless, protein-rich plant sources such as spirulina are effective options. Due to its mutating cultivation process, nutrients are basically nonexistent in soy protein sources. Plus, what kind of a man are you if you eat soy anyways?

Fats

Fats are best taken in the form of nuts, oils, and seeds. Walnut oil, for example, has omega 3s, 6s, and 9s—and more omega 3s than even salmon. It also makes for a great oil to use as salad dressing or even take shots of for quick long-lasting energy. Yes, shots of walnut oil. Don’t knock it ’til you try it. Avocados also make for a great fat source and are my personal favorite with breakfast. Sautéing vegetables with grapeseed oil (since it has a high smoke point) allows a good addition of vitamin E and polyunsaturated fats along with the nutrients from the vegetables. Olive oil has a low smoke point, so it’s best not to cook with it. However, it makes for a great addition to vegetables or salad.

Carbohydrates

Carbs are the most important element in this whole nutrition profile simply because there are so many options for carbs and so little are actually viable. There are carb-restrictive diets out there like Paleo or Atkins, but those really fail to recognize the need for carbohydrates, especially for a performance athlete. Remember, carbs are fuel. So what “clean” carbs can an athlete take to fuel performance?

Steel-cut oatmeal, and not that cheap instant stuff, is a great sustaining carb. Mix it with a banana and some walnuts and that’s a solid go-to for breakfast. Rice is also a relatively clean protein source and certainly one of my favorites. Brown rice is generally the way to go, due to it having a lower glycemic index than white rice. However, immediately post-workout, or at times when your cells are empty, the high glycemic index of white rice is ideal. Finally, sweet potatoes are a great long-lasting carbohydrate with a decent vitamin profile, including beta-carotene.

Vegetables are obviously a carbohydrate, but hardly a significant source of carbs. I personally think of vegetables as essential vitamins I need to eat. And my rule of thumb is to eat at least two colors of vegetables with each meal.

Water

I think water deserves to be touched upon just as much as protein. Because after all, hydration is energy. In fact, it’s said that dehydration by one percent can affect performance by up to 10 percent. That’s a significant detriment. Next to having a protein-rich diet, water consumption should be of the utmost concern. Water not only hydrates, it also lubricates joints and even aids with fat burning. Outdoor activities (or just training in a hot-ass gym without air conditioning like Metroflex) requires adequate cooling—and constant hydration replenishment. Note that one cannot just drink electrolyte drinks, nor can they exclusively drink water. Electrolytes shrink cells, while water expands them, so a consistent balance of both is ideal, especially when training or competing. Lastly, each day, try to consume at least half your bodyweight in ounces, plus 10 to 20 additional ounces due to exercise and activity level. This amount of water will ensure adequate hydration.

Calories

It’s easy to recommend what to eat, when to eat, and in what proportions to eat what nutrients. But it’s very difficult to generalize how much to eat. This is really on an individual basis, because everyone is different in size, muscle composition, and even level of metabolic expenditure. I generally recommend my clients eat until they are full (not stuffed), and as long as it’s clean healthy food, it’s hard to overeat to the point of packing on unwanted fat, especially given the nature of exercise and activity level. I personally am a 170 to 180 pound athlete who eats somewhere between 4,000 to 6,000 calories per day. I don’t count calories, but rather let my body’s natural equilibrium determine when I’m full or hungry. Unless I’m trying to pack on weight, my body naturally balances itself out and maintains an ideal weight for my performance.

Continue to fuel your body with the right nutrients, get the essential rest needed for recovery, and train your ass off. The rest balances out and takes care of itself. In short: Eat, sleep, train, repeat! IM

By Tucker Loken-Dahle

PQ: “Volume and intensity work inversely of each other. When you use a lot of one, you won’t have much room for the other.”

If you’re anything like me, when one program gets close to the end, you start scheming on the next one. You’re thinking of which muscle groups to hit on what days, what order to put the exercises in, and how to best work on your weak points to build the physique you want. Your legs are lagging, so you want to work them twice per week. Your arms are really good, so you put them after something else you need to work on. Something often overlooked when putting together your next program is how to factor in just how much your body can take based on how much volume and how much intensity you want to put into each workout. These are two key factors that will often make or break your progress. I’ve seen a lot of people doing way too much volume too intensely and being severely overtrained, as well as people thinking they can just pop in, do a low-volume/high-intensity routine and go home. The only problem is that they missed the memo about intensity and didn’t even break a sweat.

Volume and intensity work inversely of each other. When you use a lot of one, you won’t have much room for the other. In terms of a visual, think of it like buckets and a limited amount of resources that can be put into them. Let’s say you’ve got 100 points of CNS energy to put into your training. Other factors like stress and lack of sleep aside, you’ve got two buckets, one labeled intensity and one labeled volume. The more energy points you put into volume, the less you’ll have for intensity, and vice versa. If you want to do lots of different exercises and many sets of each to hit the muscle from a dozen different angles, you won’t have much left to actually push those sets to a maximal intensity. If you want to focus on how hard you can go and want to take everything to failure, you’ll only have a couple good sets and exercises that induce growth, and the others are just the warm-up or cooldown. So how do you make the choice for yourself, and how do you apply this?

When we think intensity, Dorian Yates and Mike Mentzer come to mind immediately—two guys who punished themselves with torturous workouts for years on end. Their pain tolerance was sky high. They knew, however, that if you want to do biceps curls until you feel like muscle will pull off the bone, you’re not going to be able to do four sets of barbell curls, followed by dumbbell hammer curls, followed by machine curls. They would generally do a variety of exercises, but the sets leading up to their maximum-intensity sets were only warm-ups to make sure the muscle was primed and ready so that they could be effective and avoid injury. They finished up with one super intense max effort set per exercise and moved on. This made their workouts quick and effective, and built some legendary physiques.

On the other hand, when we think of who represents volume, Arnold has been known for his twice-a-day, six-days-per-week workout plan. If you watch Pumping Iron, you’ll see a few good clips of high intensity, but you’ll also see he and the other bodybuilders shelling out plenty of reps, focusing on the feel, pumping the muscle, and hitting it from many different angles.

All of these men are outliers. Dorian Yates could withstand a level of intensity, along with a decent amount of volume that most could not. Arnold could be in the gym for hours pumping away, and taking some of his sets incredibly hard, too, and still come back for more later that day. Just like a bell curve, though, there are very few people on the outside edges, and more than 90 percent of us fall into the normal range. We have to be very careful in our training, because we have the constitution of regular folk, and that doesn’t bode well for high intensity and high volume put together.

When you’re organizing your workout, it’s important to realize that both styles have their own benefits. When someone emphasizes volume, the pressure of going to all-out failure isn’t there, so instead of just focusing on squeezing out one more rep, you can focus on how the weight feels and the mind-muscle connection, which is arguably the most important thing in bodybuilding. Along with that, you’ve got more wiggle room to do more sets if you’re feeling good that day and avoid overtraining, as well as avoiding injury, because you’re not going all out as often and exposing yourself to heavy weight under fatigue.

When you emphasize intensity, the workouts are quick and highly stimulating. Just like some people need to back off the weight and take the sets a little easier so that they can actually feel the muscle working, some people just need a kick in the pants to actually push it and fully stimulate the muscle in order to get the following response of size and strength. Aside from your warm-up routine and any cardio, you can be in and out of the gym in under an hour almost every time, leaving more time for recovery.

The best way to apply these principles is to go back to a routine that worked for you in the past and start making adjustments in your volume or intensity. If your goal is more volume, put in another one to two exercises and make sure to go to failure only sparingly during the workout. This will change the workout so that you can really focus on feeling the lagging muscle group, and make sure you emphasize it and make it grow, rather than letting surrounding muscles take over.

If you want to increase your intensity, take out one to two exercises and put all of your energy into the ones you still have. Some people will work biceps from every angle with many exercises, but just hammering them on a basic barbell curl and dumbbell curl may be plenty to make them grow. Since the amount of sets are decreased, you’ll only have a handful of chances to fully stimulate the muscle, so you’ll need to push yourself in order to get the most out of the workout.

In the end, make sure you’re having fun with your routine and keeping it new for your body. The changes will work as long as they are something new, so looking at intensity and volume as another tool in your box can add an extra layer to your training and progress, and deepen your understanding of your body. There’s no absolute right way to go about it. The best way to find out what works for you is through trial, error, and time under the bar. IM

In the history of the world, no one has ever said, “I wish I had smaller arms.”

By Jay Ashman

There are two types of people who train at gyms: those who want arms that are big and jacked and those who are lying about it. You can argue this point by saying, “Stronger is better” or “Being fit is better,” but at the end of the day if your arms fill your sleeves out, you actually start to look like you lift weights. Of course this is debatable, but go ahead and tell me you can look at someone whose arms are muscular and defined and not immediately assume that they lift hard.

There is one issue with many trainees in gyms when it comes to wanting bigger arms: They simply don’t train them smart enough. Going too heavy, not training them enough, focusing too much on the biceps, or using bad form will all cause your arms to lag behind in development and size. It goes without saying that you can’t expect to have 19-inch arms if you want to stay 180 pounds and ripped. Arm size generally follows overall muscular size. A few sets a week will not be enough. If you want them to grow, you have to go after the arms like you go after international chest day.

There are several ways to train arms. You will often see triceps and chest paired on the same day, along with biceps and back on their own day. The following program is for a stand-alone arm day, meant to be the second training stimulus of the week. This workout is challenging and high volume. You can do this for four to six weeks, changing up sets and reps slightly each time, or keep them the same for the entire period. Your arms will explode with a pump after this session, and you will catch yourself walking by random car windows, mirrors at work, and other reflective surfaces while you flex and admire your pump.  IM

Superset I

1A: Close-Grip Bench Press: Work up to a heavy six reps in four to five sets.

1B: Rope Hammer Curls: Between each set of bench presses, do eight reps of rope hammer curls.

We start off this day by using the king of triceps exercises, the close-grip bench press. This exercise packs the most mass on your triceps. Do I have a study on that? Not a single one, but I do have years of experiential evidence to back up that claim.

Begin with the inside of your hands on the inside edge of the knurling on a barbell. Lower the bar to your chest with your elbows tucked in—using this form will maximize triceps activation. When you’re finished with this exercise, immediately move to rope hammer curls. Pump these for eight reps with a flex at the top of the movement. You will perform the curls between every set of close-grip bench press, from warm-up to finding that max set of six reps. As with all bodybuilding-style exercises and movements, control over the tempo is critical. Don’t throw the weight. Instead, move it with control through the entire range of motion both concentric and eccentric.

Superset II

2A. Triceps Bench Dips: 3 sets of 6-8

2B. Zottman Curls: 3 sets of 8-10 reps

The second superset starts off with an old-school exercise called triceps bench dips. Set up two benches parallel from one another so you can splay out between them. Your hands will be on one bench and your feet will be propped up on the other side. With your hands and feet on the bench, lower your body in between the benches until your upper arm reaches about parallel and then press to the top, flexing your triceps forcefully when you reach the end of the movement. This flex is critical. You do not want to rush through these. Make each rep count.

When finished with this exercise, grab a pair of dumbbells and perform eight to 10 Zottman curls. Zottman curls are performed by curling the weight up with your hands supinated, pronating at the top, and lowering it while continuing to keep your hands pronated. Repeat this sequence for eight to 10 reps. It’s important to flex at the top of each rep and hold that flex as you rotate your hand to a pronated position. This superset is for three working sets.

Superset III

2A. Overhead Triceps Rope Extensions: 3 sets of 10 reps

2B.  Incline Dumbbell Curls: 3 sets of 6 reps

2C. Incline Dumbbell Hammer Curls: 3 sets to failure

This is a tri-set where you will start off with overhead triceps rope extensions. Set up the rope on a cable stack machine, face away from it, and pull the rope to a full flex. When you’re in the eccentric part of the exercise you want to hold the end stretch for about one count before you move the weight concentrically. Flex the triceps hard for each rep. Do eight to 10 reps of this series before moving on to the next part of the tri-set.

The second and third part will be on an incline bench set up at about a 45-degree angle. Use the same weight for both parts of this. The first part is incline dumbbell curls; let your arms hang down at your side and lift the weight using your lower arm. Your upper arm should not be a part of the movement other than the activation in your bicep. If you’re swinging the weight, you’re going too heavy. You will do about six reps with this exercise. After performing these, immediately do hammer curls on the same bench until you fail. Use the same weight you used for the incline dumbbell curls. You can use a little swing as the reps start to get difficult, but if you choose to do that, be sure you lower the weight under control and don’t allow yourself to speed up the eccentric part of this exercise. This tri-set is to be done for three total working sets.

Superset IV

4A. Close-Grip Push-Ups On Bench: 2 sets to failure

4B. Spider Curls With An EZ-Curl Bar: 2 sets of 10-12 reps

For the final superset we’ll start off with close-grip push-ups. Your hands will be on a bench for the simple reason that you’ll be doing these reps very slowly. Set up with your feet on the floor, hands on the bench slightly closer than shoulder width, keep your elbows pinned back for the duration of the exercise. Lower yourself very slowly to the bench, and push yourself very slowly back up to a full lockout with a triceps flex. Take each set all the way to failure.

After the push-ups, grabs an EZ-bar and move to a preacher curl bench. Sit backward so you have your arms draped over the vertical side of the pad, keeping your armpits lodged on the top of the pad. The proper way to perform spider curls is to lower the weight to a full stretch and curl it to a full flex. Do not go too heavy on these or you’ll make this exercise unnecessarily difficult. Sacrifice some pounds and use the correct form: stretch, flex, repeat. If you don’t have a preacher curl bench, you can do these off of an incline bench. Set it up at about a 30-degree angle and perform the exercise with your body facedown on the bench. It is exactly the same in execution without the preacher curl pad to brace your upper arms. This last superset is for two sets only. Finishing the day off strong with these two exercises will flush your arms full of blood.

Now we know why Sonny the Cuckoo Bird is always “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs”—he’s wired. Not only is cocoa packed with bioactive stimulants such as caffeine and theobromine, it’s teeming with powerful phenols that jack up hormones like adrenalin and noradrenalin that can really get you going.

Researchers at the University of Arizona decided to test just how powerful cocoa is as a stimulant. Instead of cuckoo birds, the scientists fed cacao to students, then took brain measurements 90 minutes later. The students in the high-cacao group had elevated levels of beta waves, which is a sign that the brain is more alert. Said researcher Larry Stevens: “Chocolate is indeed a stimulant and it activates the brain in a really special way.”

And it tastes a lot better than Adderall, too.

A Cure For The Common Cold?

The best way to win the fight against cold and flu season is to not get sick in the first place. Unfortunately, there’s no flu shot equivalent for the common cold, but you can try the next best thing: Gulp down flavonoid-rich foods and supplements.

A bulk of scientific research has found that upper-respiratory tract infections—a catchall term for nasty colds and related ailments—can be significantly reduced by ingestion of flavonoids, which are natural antioxidant compounds found in green tea, red wine, apples, blueberries, onions, sweet potatoes, and other fruits and veggies.

So how much of an effect can flavonoids have on preventing colds? According to a meta-analysis of 14 studies by researchers at the University of Auckland, those who consumed flavonoids had a 33 percent less chance of catching a cold than those people who didn’t ingest these powerful antioxidants. The scientists also found that people who eat generous amounts of flavonoids suffer fewer sick days than others.

So hit the produce section and wine bar and see if you can avoid a cold this year.

Why “Humane” Meat Tastes Better

When zombies roam the land searching for brains to eat, they don’t care if they’re munching on a Nobel Prize-winning scientist or a grade-school dropout. Humans are a little more particular where they get their grub, especially when it comes to our meat options, and these biases affect our taste buds.

According to research in PLOS ONE, your feelings about the treatment of farm animals have a profound effect on how much you enjoy your meat. The study, led by Lisa Feldman Barrett, University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, found that putting a “factory farm” label on beef jerky caused study subjects to say it tasted less pleasant than the very same beef jerky that that was labeled as humanely farmed. The scientists also discovered that you’ll pay more for the humanely raised meat as well.

It’s a phenomenon known as “affective realism,” when your feelings influence your real-world perceptions. While you’ll happily eat cows and pigs, at least you’re not being a jerk about it, which frees your conscience to enjoy the meat more than you otherwise would.

Beta-Alanine May Help Against PTSD

Common pre-workout supplement beta-alanine (BA) may have beneficial effects on those who have suffered psychological trauma. BA is well-regarded by bodybuilders and hard-training athletes as an effective power booster in the gym, mostly due to its effect of raising carnosine in the bloodstream. Carnosine, an amino acid, has been shown in studies to help boost muscle strength and stamina during intense physical activity.

Now scientists at the University of Southern Florida have discovered that BA can lessen the effects of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). In this animal study, ingestion of 100 milligrams of BA reduced anxiety in study subjects who previously been exposed to high-stress stimuli. The researchers believe the beneficial actions of BA are likely the result of increased concentrations of carnosine in the hippocampus, which has a protective effect in the brain. While it’s no cure-all for PTSD, it may help blunt some symptoms.

Java Heads Rejoice! Coffee Loves Your Brain.

Starbucks may not seem like a smart place (they call their smallest cup size a “tall,” after all), but what they serve may actually boost your brainpower, according to new research. In a study published in Scientific Reports, caffeine was found to help protect against age-related memory deficits, thereby counteracting cognitive decline in older brains. At work is a caffeine analogue that affects adenosine-A2, a receptor in the brain that’s associated with memory impairments in Alzheimer’s and other patients suffering from cognitive decline. Caffeine may help stabilize adenosine-A2, thus protecting the brain’s ability to fight the stress factors that contribute to loss of memory and other mental faculties. So not only can you enjoy the main product at Starbucks, you’ll have a better chance at remembering the Wi-Fi password.

What’s So Special About K?

You don’t hear too much about vitamin K, but it may be the nutrient that saves your joints and connective tissue from arthritis. Found in kale, spinach, broccoli, chard, and green leafy vegetables, vitamin K was discovered to have a dramatic association with osteoarthritis in knee joints, according to a study published in The Journal Of Medicine. Those who had lower concentrations of vitamin K in their blood had a much higher chance of having damaged cartilage than those whose levels exceeded a threshold of 0.5 nanomoles. In fact, not having enough vitamin K almost doubled the chance of developing osteoarthritis. The researchers believe that vitamin K increases a protein that helps strengthen connective tissue, thus contributing to its protective effects.

Paleo Caveat

The Paleo diet has often been bashed by the mainstream health media, but it has been shown to be very effective for changing the body composition of overweight carboholics. A recent study out of Australia followed 22 subjects as they followed the Paleo diet for four weeks. While they were not restricted to the amount of food they could eat, almost all of the subjects lost weight. The scientists did find a worrying deficit of certain vitamins and minerals, though. By eliminating grains and dairy, the subjects did not ingest enough calcium, B vitamins, or iodine. While there is plenty to like about the Paleo diet (swapping pasta for protein and vegetables is good), like many other eating programs it demands some smart supplementation for optimum performance.

Don’t Stop, Goji

Superfoods seem to come and go, but the goji berry has withstood the test of time. It has been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine to treat everything from macular degeneration to infertility. A recent study published in The Journal Of Alternative And Complementary Medicine found that goji berries can increase focus and mental acuity, and improve quality of sleep, energy, and even athletic performance. The fruit, also knows as the wolfberry, boasts high levels of antioxidants, amino acids, and potassium, the latter two of which assist in building muscle. One third of the carbs in goji berries come from fiber. Some evidence suggests that gojis support muscle growth via the combination of amino acids and potassium, which helps keep the pituitary gland healthy and stimulates it to produce more HGH.