Increasing Metabolism

Increasing Your Metabolism

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

Normal cardio sessions will tend to increase your metabolism whilst you are excercising but afterwards your metabolism will fall back to its normal rate, HIIT instead raises your metabolism during and for a number of hours after. The reason for this is that HIIT is very intense so the body needs more time to recover following the workout therefore the metabolism stays elevated.

Weight Training

Similar to HIIT, weight training will also raise metabolism after your workout, some studies have found this to be nearly 40 hours after working out. This is also due to the time the muscles need to recover from the workout.

Build Muscle

Those with more muscle mass will have a higher metabolic rate, for each pound of muscle it is estimated you will burn up to 50 calories extra per day, burning 6 calories per pound at rest compared to 2 calories per pound of fat.

Water

Water is essential for burning fat, if you are dehydrated then you will develop cravings which is tricking your mind to think it is hungry. Over one year drinking an extra 1.5 liters burns another 17,400 calories! or 5lbs!

Supplementation

Creatine

It is used to increase the amount of creatine phosphate you have in your muscle tissue. Creatine phosphate is than used to replenish ATP which acts as a quick energy source for activities that require quick bursts of energy such as strength training/weight lifting and sprinting.

The more creatine phosphate you have on hand, the more ATP can be replenished during bursts of all out effort. Consequently, you can push harder and longer in your workouts, because creatine intensifies the pace of energy production in your muscle cells.

BCAA's

They act as nitrogen carriers which assist the muscles in synthesizing other amino acids needed for anabolic muscle action. In simpler terms, BCAA's combine simpler amino acids to form a complex whole muscle tissue. In this action, BCAA's stimulate production of insulin, the main function of which is to allow circulating blood sugar to be taken up by the muscle cells and used as a source of energy. This insulin production promotes amino acid uptake by the muscle.


During intense weight training the body is normally in a highly catabolic condition. At this time glycogen stores are being rapidly depleted and the liver in turn must synthesize glucose by a conversion of L-Alanine. Alanine makes up over half of the amino acid content released from muscles during exercise.
The release of BCAA's is generally recognized as the signal to the body to stop protein syntheses in the muscles, especially during times of stress. Providing the Branch Chain Amino Acids, especially during those times of stress may profoundly affect this signal and allow protein synthesis to continue onward.

Glutamine

L-Glutamine plays a very important role in protein metabolism. Research shows that after intense workout glutamine levels in the body drop 50%. The body relies on glutamine as cellular fuel for the immune system; studies have shown that taking glutamine can minimize the breakdown of muscle tissue & improve protein metabolism

Nitric Oxide

Bodybuilders and athletes know that Nitric Oxide is a valuable part of their success because it’s responsible for blood flow, oxygen delivery, glucose uptake, muscle velocity, power output, and muscle growth.

Increasing Nitric Oxide levels can deliver continuous muscle benefits like:
Faster gains in lean mass
Greater strength
Providing better muscle recovery
Increasing endurance

When you exercise hard, Nitric oxide opens the blood floodgates, allowing blood to surge in. This is the "pump" so coveted by bodybuilders and athletes alike. But exercise-induced pumps are only temporary. They disappear soon after exercise has ended.
But new and effective NO stimulator formulations are changing that. The muscle pump you get from these supplements can help you retain that post-exercise, blood-engorged, rock-hard condition longer than before. Even massive, vein-popping pumps show no sign of diminishing. That's because NO generates a continuous surge of blood that courses through the skeletal muscle throughout the day. So muscles remain engorged and steel-like all day long.

Overtraining

Overtraining is the increase in training volume as well as intensity of exercise which can result in decreased performance. Recovery can often require many days or even weeks. A shorter or less severe variation of overtraining is referred to as overreaching, which is easily recovered from in just a few days. Overtraining is usually the result of being overzealous in your attempts to improve and feeling the need to continue without taking a break.

Overtraining can create the idea of thinking that your on-stage competition is training hard and you're not; therefore, they will win. It may derive from the belief that if you stop training, you'll lose everything you've worked for. It could also possibly come from becoming addicted to exercise. Regardless of how you come to the point of being overtrained, you have to learn how to recognize the symptoms that lead up to it.

Signs of Overtraining

You get sick often and it takes longer to recover than it should normally. Your immune system may be suffering from the added stress of your overtraining. It's an easy trap to fall into, simply because it's often the natural progression for many accomplished athletes or trainees looking to increase their work or improve their performance: work harder, work longer.

Working out too much may cause muscle wasting and fat deposition. You are "burning calories," probably more than ever before, but it's predominantly glucose/glycogen and precious muscle tissue. Net effect: you're getting less lean. Your hormone balance has been tipped. You've been overtraining, and the all-important testosterone:cortisol ratio is lopsided. Generally speaking, a positive T:C ratio means more muscle and less fat, while a negative ratio means you're either training too much, sleeping too little, or some combination of the two.

• Constant joint pain, throbbing or other pains.
• You are getting insomnia, which is difficulty sleeping.
• A lack of motivation in the gym.

What to do If the symptoms Identify you.

Take time off

You don't lose muscle overnight, It takes quite some time for the actual muscle cells to break down, so let that be the last thing you worry about when you take time off. If anything, not taking time off will cause you the greatest damage to your physique.

Many people out there disagree with the overtraining theory. They say that if you're eating enough and resting enough, then overtraining should not happen. Science has shown otherwise and for those who disagree, it comes down to a mindset they have that has convinced them otherwise. It's always good to take time off and most of the time you will return stronger and more motivated.

Carb Cycling

The basics in order to keep dropping body fat is mostly down to simple metabolic trickery.

Most athletes tend to think they need to eliminate carbs from their training diet and go on a keto diet (very low carbs/high fats), this may not necessarily be the best strategy.

It could be a good idea eliminating carbs from your diet as it initially brings about some results due to less water retention which will result in a sudden drop in weight, but when carbs are low for long periods of time when training naturally, you eventually plateau in terms of how much body fat you can lose. A lack of carbs in the long term will eventually begin to reduce the number of calories your body burns at rest. And this ultimately means that your metabolic rate will lower to the point where you're at maintenance, and you are unable to burn additional body fat.

By using high carb days 1-2 days per week this will help boost your metabolic rate overall so that you will continue to burn body fat. This occurs due to a reduction of thyroid hormone production (the hormone responsible for keeping the metabolism high)

So instead of eliminating carbohydrates from your diet, a better way to accomplish sustained fat loss is through the use of carbohydrate cycling.

The idea behind carb cycling is that you deplete your carbohydrate stores, allowing your body to use up muscle glycogen stores and burn body fat. Carb cycling is a process used to help bodybuilders and athletes alike to drop body fat. If you consume more caloric energy than your body needs, the extra will be converted to stored glycogen and fat.
You should try and drop carbs to less than thirty grams for four to five days, on the following day you should then load up on carbs (high carb day) it is important to stress that the high day should be on a day when you are likely to be using up the most amount of energy.

Below are a list of good/slow release carb sources for sustained energy release.

• Sweet Potatoe
• Wholegrain rice, pasta, bread.
• Oatmeal
• Yams

Lean Protein Sources

• Tuna
• Salmon
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Lean Ground Beef
• Whey Protein 

Good Fats

• Flax Seed / Flax Seed Oil
• Olive Oil
• Natural Peanut Butter
• Nuts (Almonds are the best source)

Compound vs Isolation

Exercises can be classified either as compound, which are exercises that involve more than one muscle group, or isolation exercises, which are exercises that isolate a muscle group by concentrating on that one group of muscles.

For the most time-efficient workouts, compound exercises are recommended because 8-10 exercises can stimulate all the major muscles in the body and create the greatest change in body composition in the shortest time. As an added bonus, compound exercises help develop the body proportionately.

Compound exercises are movements that use multiple joints at one time. When you perform compound exercises, more muscle groups are recruited and used per exercise.

For example, a bench press is a multi-joint exercise because both the shoulder and elbow joints are working to execute the movement. In turn, the bench press works several muscle groups, including the muscles in the chest, shoulders, and triceps.

On the other hand, the bicep curl is a single-joint exercise since only the elbow joint is moving. The biceps curl only works the biceps muscle and is more of an isolated exercise. So, when you are looking for a quality workout that hits lots of muscles, compound exercises help you do more in less time. By working several muscle groups at the same time, you can perform fewer exercises and reduce the total amount of time you spend in the gym.

Compound exercises also increase strength and size far more effectively than single-joint, isolation exercises. This doesn't mean that single-joint exercises are ineffective. Exercises that isolate certain muscles and muscle groups do have an important role in fitness, especially for advanced lifters. However, if your schedule calls for reduced exercise time, compound exercises are the way to go. As an added bonus, they are more functional since virtually every movement in everyday activities, such as sitting or kneeling, and in sports like basketball or baseball, involve moving multiple joints.

Sleep & Bodybuilding

Why Sleep Is Vital For Losing Fat and Developing Muscle

In our quest to achieve the perfect physique we can sometimes forget that adequate rest is usually as important as the exercise itself. As many have become shateringly aware, the final few pounds of fat lovingly cling to your curves could possibly be the most stubborn and difficult to reduce. When it boils down going without running shoes, dropping the pounds and building muscle takes effort, self-control and a decent all-round familiarity with nutrition, fitness and how one's body works. One of the most overlooked regions of any fitness regime is benefit of sleep. Those hours spent in blissful slumber is whenever your body carries out necessary fixes, body cortisol levels decrease, your central nervous system gets somewhat ‘me time’ and hormone levels stabilize.

Becoming sleep deprived, even by as few as an hour a night, can offer a huge impact on your own fitness efforts. And this applies whether your goal is merely weight loss or you’re doing work towards ripped six-pack perfection. So, what happens to your system when, in an ideal entire world, you get your regular eight hours of shut-eye? Your numbers of cortisol decrease. If you fail to get enough sleep your cortisol levels remain elevated. Cortisol is a hormone which in turn increases during times of stress to obtain your body ready for ‘fight as well as flight. ’ It stimulates muscle protein being broken down into its element parts, glucose and glycogen, willing to fuel an energy burst. This alone could be the last thing bodybuilders want when looking to gain muscle.

High levels of cortisol are also associated with increased levels of stomach fat. Sleep is your body’s restoration period. This is when one's body releases large quantities of growth hormones which is vitally important with regard to tissue repair and muscle acquire. When you work your muscles on the max, it is this growth hormone which causes your muscles in order to develop. So for bodybuilders, adequate sleep time is important to allow plenty of growth hormones to be released. And for the people interested in fat loss, growth hormones helps your body to digest fat to be used seeing that energy.

Your central nervous system desperately needs adequate the perfect time to rest from the stress of your waking hours. Bodybuilders and athletes must be aware that if you don’t enable this, it will be nigh on impossible to build more muscle, not to mention struggling with poor energy levels and making yourself prone to injury. During sleep your rate of metabolism decreases. This stimulates a advanced of blood to be deliver to your muscles, encouraging muscle expansion.

Sleep deprivation can lead for an increased level of insulin sensitivity. Apart from the danger this raises in relation to contracting diabetes, it also encourages one's body to store excess fuel seeing that fat. As you can see, not getting enough sleep can offer a huge impact on preventing you reaching your fitness goals. And being as sleep is this kind of enjoyable part of life, you owe it to yourself in order that you are getting enough. If you'd like a little help in rest consider taking GABA, before mattress.

Creatine

Creatine is not essential for beginner muscle building but it can certainly help if used properly.

Creatine plays two roles in the body. Its primary function is to act as a reservoir of bound phosphate in the form of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP Its secondary role is to scavenge leftover free phosphate after ATP breakdown, thereby elevating, or buffering, as it's called, local muscle pH. The more trained the muscle, the more creatine is present to manage acid and act as a reservoir. The body naturally makes its own creatine in response to training, but supplementation is a valid way to increase performance. To understand why, you'll need a short background on muscle physiology.

How Contractions Are Fueled

Most bodybuilders have heard of ATP and they probably know that it's considered to be the energy currency of all living cells. ATP is called "currency" because like money it can be applied to many different
situations. Money can buy all kinds of goods and services, from erasable-ink pens to Ferraris and from four-course meals to tax preparation. ATP like cash currency, can be exchanged in nearly every conceivable cellular situation, from changing microscopic concentrations to helping synthesize proteins and from sending molecular messages to physically moving cellular components. That last item is most important for this discussion because creatine participates in moving muscle proteins.

ATP supply is particularly crucial for athletes because its presence is the molecular driving force behind every single muscular contraction-everything from blinking an eyelid to blasting eight-plate squats. To cause that latter forceful motion, ATP is actually exchanged for changes in the length of muscle proteins in the cells. When you decide to contract a muscle, nerve impulses that deliver your decision cause muscle proteins to accept ATP in exchange for shortening their length microseconds later. When the lengths of billions and billions of microscopic muscles are shortened at roughly the same time, the overall effect is a leg or bench press, a curl or some other meaningful muscle contraction. Needless to say, the availability of ATP is solely responsible for this tinal action. To put it another way, without ATP you wouldn't get very far in life.

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