I watched a Jamcore DZ’s video and I learned a lot of stuff.

When I started to train in a gym. I often asked myself this question : « How much protein do I have to eat at each meal ? ». I asked this question to people in the gym and I had several different answers. For example, someone told me that if I ate too much protein, it could destroy my kidneys or that whey (shaker) was better protein than protein from food (chicken, beef, eggs, etc).

I think you also ask yourself this type of questions so I will help you understand better.

Firstly, everyone knows that protein is very used in fitness and bodybuilding. You can find protein in food or as a dietary supplement such as whey, casein and amino acids. Protein are composed of amino acids.

1) How much daily protein is recommended for someone who doesn’t do fitness ?

It’s 0.8 grams (gr) of protein per kilogram (kg) of body weight or 0.36 grams per pound. For this article, I will use the unit of mesure kilograms (kg).

I will take the example of Jamo who is a former professional bodybuilder who continues to train. Jamo weighs 95kg. 95kg at 0.8gr per kilo of bodyweight gives as a result that Jamo eats 76gr of protein per meal. Jamo want to keep his bodybuilder body without steroids. For this, he must eat several times a day and that makes a total of 360gr per day.

2) With sport, do these recommendations change ?

Yes, because a sedentary person will use more of his/her body, which means that this person will use more his/her muscles. The meals content changes with the sport and the type of sport. If we compare a person who is doing fitness and a person doing marathons, we see that the meals are different.

A person doing marathons needs to eat more carbohydrates than protein to have endurance. A person who does fitness/bodybuilding need to eat more protein than carbohydrates for muscles rebuilding and muscle growth.

3) Depending on the intensity, do these recommendations change ?

Depending on the intensity, the answer is yes and no. It also depends on the muscle mass. When a person is doing a really intensive workout, the most important marcro is carbohydrate.

An increase of protein is necessary when a person decreases carbohydrates to be shredded. Increase protein helps maintain muscle mass.

4) With age, these recommendations change ?

With the latest scientific studies, we learned that proteins need to be increased with age. When a person start to become old, that person loses muscle mass naturally (and it’s normal). It’s for this reason that it’s important to play sport to maintain muscle mass. And to help to maintain this muscle mass, it’s necessary to increase protein.

This a scientific study about it, click here.

5) Consume a large amount of protein destroys kidneys ?

The answer is yes and no. In a case where a person has pre-existing kidney problems before playing sport, it’s important to see a nephrologist (kidney specialist) or a doctor. For people who have healthy kidneys, proteins don’t destoy the kidneys. Kidneys are the most detoxifiying organs of the human body and we (human being) have been created to eat meat. The human being is made to eat a lot of meat. Until now, no study has shown that the protein destory kidneys, except for people with pre-exiting kidney problems.

Here is a scientific study on the effects of high protein intake on the kidneys, click here . This study shows that is a myth and a lie.

6) Assimilation and MPS (mass protein synthesis)

Assimilation is when you eat protein. A part of the protein you eat will be assimilated for protein synthesis. Everything else, your body will assimilate because your body is made of 80% amino acids, so these proteins will be used for your skin, your hair, your eyes, your organs. Absolutely all the protein that you eat will be absorbed by your body, nothing is thrown away. There is no protein in you pee.

The goal of protein synthesis is to repair or eliminate damaged proteins and to build new proteins that are copies of the original. New proteins are stronger, denser and more resistant to stress. Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) is the reconstruction of muscle caused by stress placed on the body. This can be an injury (muscle tear) or because you intentionally damage a muscle (lifting weights creating micro tears in muscles). MPS process activated right after micro tears and can last up to 48 hours on a damaged site before being repaired.

A part of protein you eat is used for protein synthesis, which will create the state of hypertrophy with hormones. Protein synthesis doesn’t buid muscle, it’s muscle protein synthesis (MPS).

I just read again my text and I see that it’s a bit difficult to understand (for me too ?!?). To make it simpler, protein synthesis repairs your skin, your hair, your eyes, your organs and create the state of hypertrophy. Muscle protein synthesis repair only your muscles.

Here is a scientific study on nutrition and muscle protein synthesis, click here .

7) Liquid and solid protein

Liquid proteins are whey and casein (shaker). Solid proteins are chicken, beef eggs, etc. The diffrence is that the body assimilates liquid proteins faster than solid proteins. The problem is that the quality of liquid proteins is 75% bad on the market, so it’s up to you to study ingredients (as for food in supermarkets) to find the best quality possible. I wrote an article on this subject, click here.

8) Number of grams of protein per meal

For men, it’s about 30-35gr of protein per meal. For women, it’s about 20-25gr of protein per meal.

For older men, it’s about 35-40gr per meal. For older women, it’s about 25-30gr per meal.

Here is an interesting study for women. Eating a large amount of protein has harmful effects on the bones. Click here .

Share this article if you think it can help someone you know. Thank you.

-Steph

I watched a Jamcore DZ’s video and I learned good stuff.

When I look in the mirror, I see that my right biceps is bigger than my left biceps. And I also see that my left calf is bigger than my right calf. I think you too, you have weak points and an asymmetrical body like me.

I tried several technique to clear the weak point of my left biceps by doing more reps or lifting heavier with my left arm. But it didn’t work as I thought and I realized that there were even more factors that caused my asymmetrical body.

You have to know that there are real weak points and false weak points. And yes, there are 2 type of weak points.

Past sports

These are the sports that you have done regularly before you train seriously at the gym. For exemple, I played soccer for 2-3 years so I developed a lot of my legs and calves. I have been doing karate, kung-fu and taekwondo for years (I have more than 15 years of martial art) so I developed a lot my back, my arms, chest and my abs. My past sports allows me to develop all these muscles (calves, legs, back, arms, chest and abs) even more easily.

Now I’m going to tell you about the difference between a real weak points and a false weak points. In my case, I have nice abs, nice, chest. My arms are correct (I have one arm bigger that the other) and my legs are correct (I have one leg bigger than the other).

For example, a soccer player or a cyclist will use his/her legs and calves more often. A boxer will use his/her arms, back and abs more often. This shows that the past sports is important in muscle development because people developed more rapidly the upper body’s muscles rather the lower body muscles or the reverse.

So don’t worry because absolutely everyone has an asymmetric body (if you know a person who has a 100 % symmetrical body, attention, it’s a robot).

Genetic

It’s the moment to go to the higher level. Now, you understood that there are people who can easily develop the upper body’s muscles rather that the lower body’s muscles or the reverse. In both case, there is the same problem : an asymmetry.

We’re human beings, we are not perfect and that is normal. Professional bodybuilders also have an asymmetric body like you. It’s for everyone like that. When we look at the mirror, we have a more developed part than the other.

Here are the causes.

Bone

Because of your bones, there is one side of you body that can lift easily heavier weights that the other. So the side muscles that can lift easily heavier develop faster.

A) clavicle length

We all have a longer clavicle than the other. Take you time, check the length of your clavicles, you will be surprised. When the clavicle is longer, this affects the leverage when you lift weights. This means that it boost your strength and your muscular growth.

But, there is a solution to avoid that there is a big difference between the 2 sides. It’s learning to isolate and feel your muscle. I use a technique called « magic touch ». Before doing a set, I touch with my fingers the muscle that I have to work. This allows me to be focus and stay focus on muscle sensations. This is to create the connection between my brain and my muscle.

This is why it’s important to take light weights to learn how to perform a movement to learn the muscles sensations. For example, bench press. There are people who use too much shoulders when the arms are straight. Bench press is an exercice to work mainly chest and not shoulders. So pay attention to your muscles sensation when you to an exercise and adjust.

B) Short and long muscles

This is really a genetic case. There are people with short muscles or long muscle. Take as an example a short biceps and a long biceps.

A short biceps responds slowly to training because the muscles is less close to insertion with the joint.

A long biceps respond quickly to the training because the muscle is closer to insertion with the joint.

As you can see, there are some similarities with the clavicle’s length. When the muscle is long, it’s easier to develop the muscle.

This is something you can’t change and doing an operation to lengthen your muscle is useless. It’s your genetics that decides whether your muscles are short or long.

Wait, it’s not over yet, there’s still plenty of other things in the genetics that influence muscle development. In your training, you can use several techniques to stimulate your muscle fibers like « High Intensity Training » . Dorian Yates (6x Mr. Olympia), used this technique during his career as a professional bodybuilder. This technique stimulates muscle fibers even more that hypertrophy .

There is also nerve genetics. It’s the ability to isolate and feel the muscle you’re working on. It’s an ability that improves only with experience and time.

Here is the end of the Part 1. The Part 2 comes soon.

Share this article if you think it can help someone you know. Thank you.

-Steph

I read a Nerd Fitness article and I learned good stuff.

If you didn’t read part 1, click here

Hypertrophy

When I started to train, I thought I can increase the amount of muscle fibers with strength training program. The truth is we have a specific number of muscle fibers. We can only increase the size of our muscles fibers, this is hypertrophy.

I discovered that there were several hypertrophies. Usually when people talk about hypertrophy, it’s sarcoplasmic hypertophy.

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy

This hypertrophy allows you to increase the amount of sarcoplasmic fluid in your muscles. This can increase the size of one of your muscles by 30 %.
Myofibril hypertrophy

This hypertrophy allows you to strengthen your myofibril, the part of the muscle that contracts. This increase the strength of your muscle fibers, build strong muscles and super dense.
Transient hypertrophy

This hypertrophy allows you to increase temporary the size of one of your muscles during and immediately after an exercice due to an accumulation of fluid (I still don’t know if it’s the sarcoplasmic fluid or glycogen) in the intercellular space. This is what gives the effect « the pump ».

To summarize to buid a muscle super dense and strong, it’s myofibril hypertrophy. To have bigger muscle, it’s sarcoplasimic hypertrophy. Transient hypertrophy is temporary and appears in the other 2 hypertrophies during the training.

During a strength training, here is what happens :

During an exercice you’ll break muscle tissue. Your body will repair this muscle and it will become stronger. Whenever you break muscle tissue, your body will do this process.
When you increase the number of repetitions, you increase the storage of glycogen in your muscle. This is where you muscle gets bigger.

For the training program

Strength training isn’t just lift weights. It’s more interesting and more complex than that.

Here are details :

A little help for this Excel’s table

Repetition (Rep) => An exercice is composed of a starting position and an arrival position. A repetition is when you make the movement from the starting position to the arrival position and you return to the starting position. All that make a repetition. For exemple when you squat, the starting position is standing. The arrival position is when your thighs are parallel to the floor and you return to the starting position, standing.
X Rep Max => This is the number of repetitions with the heaviest weight you are able to control. By exemple, 1 Rep Max (1RM), is that the weight is so heavy that you can do only one repetition. 10RM, is that you can control the weight successfully to do 10 repetitions. In the 11st, it’s the failure.

With this Excel table, you can have an idea to how you can do to gain stength (myofribril hypertophy) : A low number of repetition and heavy weight. To increase the size of your muscles (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy) : A high number of repetition and light weight.

ATTENTION : This Excel table give us an idea of how to do to reach our goal. It’s not something specific. When you do a high number of repetition to increase the size of your muscle, you gain also a little strength. Our body is smarter than us.

It’s for this reason I never understand girls or women who don’t want to « get bulk », so they do 3 sets of 16 repetitions or 5 sets of 1000 repetitions with a dumbbell of 2kg (4.4lbs).

It’s hard for a girl to bulk, no matter the weight or the number of repetitions, if they want to increase the size of muscles, that’s exactly what they have to do because it would make sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

Recovery

I’m sure you’ve already heard that muscles are built in the kitchen, not in the gym.

It’s because when you’re in the gym, you break your muscle fibers. When you’re outside of the gym, your body heals and your muscles become bigger and stronger. So it’s important to take a recovery’s day in your strength training program.

The general rule is to wait 40 hours before to work the same muscle group again.

Remember that your muscles works in team, which means that when you work your chest, you also work shoulders muscles and arms muscles.

Everyone at his own pace to recover, it depends on diet, sleep’s quality, age workout and other items like stretching or massage.

The basis of strength training is 4 days of training per week and one recovery’s day.

Sore muscles or DOMS

DOMS is the acronym for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. Sore means that your muscles haven’t recovered to 100 % (hence the « delayed onset »). This can last 1-2 days after your workout and this is normal. The process for your body to rebuild your muscles takes several days after a workout.

It’s normal that you have sore muscle for several days after your first training or after a long break. With each exercice, your muscle gets used to a movement and adapts to the stress caused by this movement so that you have less sore muscles. Stretching helps you to decrease sore muscles.

I think you motivated now, to start a strength training. Don’t worry, there is a lot of stength training program great for beginners on internet. The book « Starting Strength » is excellent for beginners, the Excel’s table of this article comes from this book.

I also put free strength training program at your disposal. Click on the links below.

Share this article if you think it can help someone you know. Thank you.

-Steph

This Saturday, I’ll increase all my exercises with 2 repetitions. Every 2 months, I change my training to progress. The « periodization » is the method I use to progress in my training. You ever heard that word ?

What’s this ?

Periodization is simply the organization and planning of the training program. In sports, this schedule is based on the achievement of maximum physical abilities (strength, speed, power, etc.) for a competition. This method works with all training programs.

Most people « periodize » their training for specific goals like losing body fat or improve a body part. Generally if you have a specific goal for a period of time, you are using periodization. Here are various modern periodization’s terms :

Training unit : Refers to a day of training

Microcycle : Refers to a week of training

Mesocycle : Refers to a period of 2-4 months of training

Macrocylce : Refers to a period of 1-4 years (Olympic athlete)

But where is that comes form ?

Many ancient civilizations used this kind of training organization to physically and mentally prepare theirs armies for battle.

Later, this method will be modernized and popularized by a Russian sports scientist, Leo Matveyev. Leo Matveyev’s periodization was for sports training and generally had to start with a physical preparation phase where the training intensity was low with a high volume of work.

This allowed to develop a basic hypertrophy, strengthen ligaments, tendons and other connective tissues and basically build a « base » for another specific training.

How it works

It’s simple, you start with a light weight and a lot of repetitions. Your body will adapt, at that time, you will add more weight and decrease repetitions. The majority of periodization for fitness/bodybuilding take between 4 and 12 months to complete the cycle.

Example :

For 1 month – 4 sets, 12 reps to 22lbs
For 1 month – 4 sets, 10 reps to 17lbs
For 1 month – 4 sets, 8 reps to 13lbs
For 1 month – 4 sets, 6 reps to 8lbs
End of periodization cycle = add weight.
For 1 month – 4 sets, 12 reps to 26lbs
For 1 month – 4 sets, 10 reps to 22lbs
For 1 month – 4 sets, 8 reps to 17lbs
For 1 month – 4 sets, 6 reps to 13lbs
End of periodization cycle = add weight

My periodization is a little different and lasts 6 months.

Here is my periodization for squat :

For 2 months – 4 sets, 6 reps to 264lbs
For 2 months – 4 sets, 8 reps to 264lbs
For 2 months – 4 sets, 10 reps to 264lbs
End of periodization cycle = add weight
For 2 months – 4 sets, 6 reps to 286lbs
For 2 months – 4 sets, 8 reps to 286lbs
For 2 months – 4 sets, 10 reps to 286lbs
End of periodization cycle = add weight

I do this for all my exercises and JEFIT application helps me to track my progress. It’s up to you to try and find out how many months you need to change the repetitions number. I modified the traditional method because it corresponded better to my feelings, find yours.

This method is perfect to make progress and I really advice you to do it. The truth is that all professionals use it, do the same as them.

You want a free training program ? Click

How you make your periodization ?

-Steph

I was in the gym when I spoke about my training diary with a buddy. I explained that I wanted to improve my volume of work (repetitions * series * weight), my goal isn’t lift the heaviest in one repetition but combined strength, mass and endurance. Here he talks to me about hypertrophy. It’s a word I had heard but this word is too weird, it looks like a medical thing, like a disease. I imagine my mother say to me : “Oooh, you have a hypertrophy”. Pfffffffff hahahaha !!!!

Well, I told to myself that this was the time to understand this word. Apparently it’s going to help me boost my volume of work.

That’s what I understood. It start with trophicity. Trophicity is the development, the growth of an organ or a cell.

This means that I seek to have good muscular trophicity, it’s cool. But physically, I don’t want look like to everyone, I want a physical with more trophicity, that’s why I have a training diary. That means I want a physique with muscle hypertrophy.

I want to be HYPER, man, did you see ?

MASS that’s how we call a hypertrophied muscle.

I guess you didn’t want to hear medical school stuff like actin, myosin, embryology, all that stuff about muscle composition. Ah, you want ? Well listen, I don’t have much time there because when I saw all this, I said to myself: SHIT !!! What is that thing, I knew it was a weird word !

Here’s how we’ll do, short and effective. A muscle is composed of muscle fibers (myofibrils), blood vessels and energy reserves (in the sarcoplasm).

Your muscle are daily activated to move but its repetitive contractions doesn’t make them become bigger and stronger because they are in the “comfort zone“. You saw, must still get out of this fucking “comfort zone”, they are everywhere these “comfort zones”, they are shit.

You’ve understood, you need to shock your muscles, you must smash them to grow and are ready for your future attacks in the gym.

The resistance training (weight) is the best to increase strength, endurance and muscle volume.

Look how I will do. Do you look ?!?

There are several ways to trigger hypertrophic reaction to get out of the comfort zone (finally!). We can take care of muscle fibers or energy reserves or even both.

For muscle fibers (myofibrils), they grow in size and number in reactions with micro injuries created during your training, it’s called the mass.

More muscle will be bigger and stronger, better will be react to your attacks (your training).

To work the muscle fibers, you lift heavy at 75/80% of your maximum repetition [the heaviest weight you can lift in 1 rep]. The sets are between 6-8 reps and rest 2-3 minutes. Strength guarantee .

To work the reserves (in the sarcoplasm), you empty them at the maximum with your series to have in response an increase in muscle perished storage (glycogen, ATP, H2O, etc.). You lift light at 65/70% of your maximum repetition. The sets is between 12-15 repetitions. You will have a larger and denser muscle but not strength gain. Ah, you’re warned, it’s not my fault.

Whatever the method used, you must do movements with the widest possible range to stretch muscles. This will help to bulk up on whole muscle length and strengthening its envelope (connective tissue) that helps to look bulky.

The ideal train would finish your « heavyweight » session with a few sets of “lightweight » to empty sarcoplasmic reserves.

Where is your post-workout, you have it ?

To have a excellent hypertrophy , it should repair damages caused by the workout in the hour after the last exercise.

To blow up your physique, you have to eat, that’s the post-workout . Protein for your myofibrils and carbohydrates (fast and slow) for your energy reserves (ATP, glycogen, etc.). That’s if you want to optimize the hypertrophy process.

A post-workout with protein, banana and honey is a good idea.

I think I’ll do another post on this subject because I’ve just discover it and it’s hyper interesting, hypertrophy. The thing is to understand muscle components, it takes a long time, but in fact, it’s funny.

If you got something to say, you’re welcome.

-Steph