The MuscleTalker - Issue 62 (June 2007)
New articles, interviews and reports in May:
- Melanotan and Melanotan II - a drug profile article on these tanning enhancers
- MT interviews top bodybuilder Ian Buckley
- Report from the The Sci-Mentor SportsPN Classic 2007 by James Collier
More articles can be found here
UKBFF North-East Championships in association with FLEX magazine will be in Leeds Town Hall on September 8th. The event is supported by MuscleTalk - the main web partner for the event. Read more here
*** All the best from James Collier and The MuscleTalk team! ***
See you at www.MuscleTalk.co.uk
*** Nutrition Tips for the Recreational Trainer ***
By James Collier BSc (Hons) RNutr, Nutrition Consultant and MuscleTalk Co-Owner
While some of us really get into the whole bodybuilding lifestyle; training, set diet plans, supplements, cardio and routine, some of us simply enjoy the training and feel the strict nutrition is not for them; and there's nothing wrong with this mindset at all. After all, bodybuilding is simply a hobby and therefore should be recreational and fun; not all of us want to compete.
There are benefits to be reaped from simply enjoying your training and eating healthily, and, assuming you've got a suitable training routine, here are a few basic principles to follow. Diet does not necessarily mean a major lifestyle change; there are just a few healthy points to follow:
- Vary your food choices every day. Variety is the spice of life and you need to eat different foods every day for optimal nutrition. Infact one of the biggest mistakes the over-enthusiastic amongst us make, is not including enough variety in our diet.
- Include foods which are high in quality protein regularly throughout the day. Consume high protein foods or protein drinks at least every three hours while you're awake. Meat, fish, poultry, cheese, quark, milk, yoghurt, nuts, quorn, soya products are just some great protein foods.
- Eat at least 5 servings of fruit and vegetables per day, preferably 7-8.
- Include some healthy fats in your diet, in particular foods and oils which are a good source of essential fatty acids - oily fish, flaxseed oil, olive oil.
- Consume plenty of fibrous starchy carbohydrate foods regularly throughout the day - make these foods the core of your diet; potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals, bread, couscous, quinoa, etc.
- Drink plenty of fluids - sip water all day.
- Eat properly pre-workout - make sure you eaten for sufficient energy, but not too much as to bloat you.
- Ensure your post-workout nutrition is correct for you. Have whey protein immediately and make sure you replenish your carb reserves to give you energy for your next gruelling workout.
- Include protein and meal replacement powders as they can be useful, but don't rely too much on them - real food is superior.
- Enjoy you're food - just because you're a bodybuilder doesn't mean you need to eat a bland diet.
*** Take your workout outdoors with GPP style sandbag training ***
By Osagi - MuscleTalk Moderator
Summer time is just around the corner, and for many of us this means a welcome opportunity to say so long to a hot, stuffy gym and take our exercise outdoors for a spell. But whilst many outdoor replacements for gym-based aerobic exercise such as biking, jogging, hiking, climbing and even swimming may all spring to mind, it's a little more difficult to think of portable outdoor activity with which we can replace our oh so important resistance training, apart from maybe hanging from the branch of a tree performing endless sets of pull-ups (an activity I am more than familiar with myself!).
I mean it's not like you can combine all of the many machines and pieces of resistance exercise equipment found in the gym into one small, portable unit to take with you as you go, is it?
Or is it? Step forward GPP style sandbag training. Cheap, portable, versatile, highly effective and 'fun' are just some of the many virtues of GPP sandbag training. All that is required is a little time and a few materials to construct your sandbag combined with a little inventiveness and ingenuity in designing your workout.
In terms of constructing a sandbag, Ross Enamait, owner of Rosstraining.com, has put together this excellent guide - www.rosstraining.com/sandbagconstructionkit.pdf. It really couldn't be easier - well, maybe if you could walk into Argos and ask for a ready made sandbag, but you can't; so there!
Once you have your sandbag, all you need to get started is a routine. As I say it's quite easy and lots of fun to invent your own workout, but an example routine a few pointers may help get you started.
A good place to start with sandbag training is to follow a simple circuit style routine also known as a sandbag complex. Within your sandbag complex you can stick to sandbag based resistance exercises a few of which are covered below However you can also throw in a few body weight callisthenic exercises for a more rounded routine encompassing other fitness attributes.
So what would such a routine look like? Well for starters, here's a simple sandbag only complex:
- Start off standing over the sandbag on the floor.
- In one movement, clean the bag to chest height, in the same way you would clean a barbell or dumbbell.
- From the clean position, do a front squat.
- After completing the front squat press the bag overhead.
That's one rep. Return the bag back to the floor and repeat as many times as you can until you fall over.
Now the same routine with some added callisthenics:
- Start off standing over the sandbag on the floor.
- In one movement, clean the bag to chest height, in the same way you would clean a barbell or dumbbell.
- From the clean position do a front squat.
- After completing the front squat press the bag overhead.
- Return the bag to the floor as before, only this time place you weight on your hands and immediately kick your legs out behind you (squat thrust style) into the start position for a press-up.
- Perform five press-ups, then jump your legs back in (burpee style) and perform a tuck jump or star jump in the air.
- After you land, go straight back to step one and perform the circuit all over again.
Once again, carry on until you fall over (you'll find this to be a familiar feature of most of my routines and workouts!)
Now the above routines may look really simple, one might even be tempted to say a little too 'easy', however it would be a mistake to underestimate the effectiveness of such training which in actual fact can be pretty brutal, taxing not only the muscles, but the entire cardiovascular system to the max. Just the type of training you need in fact to rev up the metabolism and burn a little extra bodyfat ready to show off your hard earned muscles on the beach, which is why we all train in the first place, or is that just me...?
So there we have it, a cheap, effective and portable alternative to working out in a stuffy gym this summer. One thing to bear in mind however, if you do decide to exercise outdoors particularly on a hot sunny day, is to ensure you stay properly hydrated to avoid heat related illness and dehydration. No need for a fancy high tech sports drink either, water will do the job just fine.
*** Food of the Month - Sea Bass ***
By Big Les - Nutrition Consultant and MuscleTalk Moderator
Not a giant sea bass ready to mount a laser, which you will find of the coast of California, but the European Sea Bass, Dicentrarchus labrax or Morone labraxm. This ocean-going fish sometimes enters brackish or fresh water and also goes by the names of sea dace, loup der mer or bar in French, lavaraki in Greek, branzino or spigola in Italian and lubina in Spanish.
The sea bass is a nutritional heavy weight, and comes almost perfectly designed for the hard training bodybuilder. Dry cooked a 100g of Sea Bass delivers 124 calories, with nearly 24g of protein and zero carbohydrates. Along with this powerful protein hit you get 2.56g of fat which is ¾ in the form of mono- and polyunsaturated fats. Fish oils help reduce blood clot and platelet aggregation reducing the risk of heart disease, as well as their positive action on circulating cholesterol levels, fish oils have also been shown to help chronic conditions such as psoriasis, migraines, arthritis and atopic eczema.
In addition to this, our fishy friend the sea bass has high levels of vitamin A, a powerful anti-oxidant and essential for good eye sight. Sea Bass also contains high levels of selenium an essential micromineral. Four atoms of selenium form part of glutathione peroxidase, an enzyme which acts against oxygen free radicals, hydrogen peroxides and fatty acid peroxides, thus preventing cell damage. Deficiency in selenium has caused fatal degeneration of the heart muscle (in China), and a similar disease of cartilage and joints called Kaschin Beck disease (Russia and China). Supplementation in both cases is a successful prophylactic and treatment.
The sea bass is a healthy source of B12, potassium, phosphorous, niacin, and contains, iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, manganese, thiamin, riboflavin, B6, and a low level of sodium. In summary it is packed with what the body needs! So now you know that the sea bass really is worth your precious plate space, which one to buy? Line caught sea bass is a more sustainable fish than other methods. The best choice is that caught by hand line methods in the South West of England, which will be identified by a tag on its gill. When looking at the fish it should have bright, clear, bulging not sunken eyes. Scales should be tight, shiny and none missing, the skin should be moist, shiny, and bright with firm flesh. An easy way to identify a good fish is that it doesn't smell strongly fishy, but rather has a slight smell of the sea. Always cook on the day of purchase. Finally, sea bass is particularly yummy cooked with mixed spices and watercress.
Les is available for tailored nutrition programs see: www.muscletalk.co.uk/fb.aspx?m=1104321
*** MT Powerlifting Totals Competition ***
By boar - MuscleTalk Pro-Member
See: www.muscletalk.co.uk/fb.aspx?m=1083082
It has been a fairly quiet month; having said that plenty of new additions to the powerlifting totals! Redman, recall, OGX and reevo8 all added their squat / bench-press / deadlift totals, thanks lads!
Cliff_vtr got an impressive 182.5kg / 400lb deadlift at the BWLA Southwest Championships, at only 72kg bodyweight - the boy done good!
Alexei provided us with some amazing bench-press videos 170kg x 5 and 200kg x 1 raw, and if that wasn't impressive enough, he unracked the weight himself!
IainK scored a new paused PB on the bench and the lovely fatpete finally busted open the 700lb barrier on the squat ,getting an amazing 710lbs or 322.5kg, which breaks the 125kg+ M2 record, unofficial at the moment but it's bound to be made official at Pete's next comp.
Myself and tony1blue both received invites to compete at the BPC British Championships in July, we are in friendly competition and hope to both smash our PBs in what will be a competition with some of the best lifting by the best lifters in the world - Andy Bolton , Chris Jenkins , Justin Hurley to name but a few.
Keep pounding MTers!!
Boar
*** Recipe - Blueberry Oatmeal Breakfast Cake ***
By Nicole Bremner, Recipe Consultant and MT Moderator
Taken from Muscle Menus Vegetarian
** Ingredients
½ cup soy flour
½ cup almond meal
2 scoops vanilla whey or soy protein powder
¾ cup oats
⅓ cup sugar substitute
2 tsp baking powder
¾ cup water
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp apple sauce
2 egg whites
1 cup frozen blueberries
** Method
Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a 20cm round baking tin.
Combine flour, almond meal, protein powder, oats, sugar substitute and baking powder. Combine water, oil and egg and mix into dry mixture. Stir until just combined, but do not over mix. Add blueberries and transfer batter into baking tin. Bake for 20 minutes until golden and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire cooling rack. Slice and serve.
** Information
Serves 6. Per serving: 265kcal, 20g protein, 22g carbs, 12g fat, 5g fibre.
For a change, a variety of different fruits can be used instead of blueberries. Try cooked apple, raspberries, mashed banana, poppy seeds and a squeeze of lemon juice, grated carrot and ginger or crushed nuts. Use your imagination!
More great bodybuilding recipes can be found in the eBooks 'Muscle Menus', 'Muscle Menus 2', 'Muscle Menus Vegetarian' and Muscle Menus Shakes, Bars and Smoothies
*** DVD Review - Stronger than Life - The Jon-Pall Sigmarsson Story ***
Review by jb - MuscleTalk Member
This is a documentary charting the life of JPS including interviews with friends, family and contemporaries, as well as numerous clips of his bodybuilding, powerlifting and strength competitions, some of which are fairly rare. It is a Finnish production with English subtitles, but a substantial amount of the DVD is actually in English due to the interviews with Bill Kazmaier, Dougie and Moira Edmunds, Geoff Capes and Colin Bryce (amongst others).
It was difficult not to find sections of it moving, notably when Sigmarsson's mother is describing her son's death, and the clips of him with his young son are touching, but it is not an exercise in sentimentality. Overall, an excellent piece of work, well crafted together. If it doesn't make you want to shout "I am not an Eskimo, I am a Viking", nothing will!
The articles in The MuscleTalker are for information purposes only and are the sole expressions of the individual authors opinion and are those not necessarily shared by the owners of www.MuscleTalk.co.uk
