Fitness and Nutrition Station

I was just reading an article about the damages in the muscle during an eccentric muscle contraction compared to concentric contraction. I’ve known for a long time that eccentric contractions cause a lot greater micro damages in the working muscle.

I also knew why that happens - because during the eccentric (negative) phase of the rep the weight is pulling in the opposite direction of the contraction or shortening of the muscle fiber. What I didn’t know is how to explain it more scientifically.

It sounds like this: during the concentric (the positive) phase of the rep the force decreases while the speed increases. In the case of the eccentric contraction (the negative part of the rep) the force increases while the speed increases. In other words the faster you move the weight during the eccentric (negative) part of the rep the more muscle damage you cause - that is more of the contracting filaments get micro damaged.

Later on when the body goes on to repair the damaged parts of the muscle fiber, a positive adaptation  occurs - the body re-builds the damaged parts of the muscle cell, making them stronger by increasing the number of contracting filaments. That’s how we grow.

Share This

One of my members asked about Russian Lunges the other day. He said he’s been doing forward and reverse (backward) lunges, but he didn’t know what Russian lunges are and how to do them.

So, I thought I’d post here quiclkly a short description if you happen to wonder the same thing (I’d much rather talk about Bulgarian (split) squats since I am Bulgarian, but… hey in the name of the sport of bodybuilding…).

Russian lunge execution:

Step with one of your legs about 3 feet in front of the other. Lower your body like in normal lunge. Rapidly push yourself up until both of your legs are in the air. Quickly switch legs so that when you land the opposite leg is in front of the leg you started with. Repeat.

Oh, well, Bulgarian explaining Russian lunges… I really hope I make sense.. If not, I count on your imagination.

Share This

I remember about 7 - 8 years ago I used to train in the evening and there was nothing that could make me change my habit. That’s what I thought…

I don’t remember exactly but it must have been an evening job that made me re-train myself and start training early in the morning. I recall it wasn’t easy in the beginning, and I’m sure many who have tried morning training will agree.

But once you get accustomed to morning training you start to wonder what in the world made you think that morning workouts are difficult. Especially if you consider the added benefit of clearing up your evening from having to spend time in the gym and not with friends or family, or even doing whatever your favorite thing to do is at the moment.

Now ocassionally I still have to train late in the evening.. and I have to tell you training in the evening gives me a lot better pumps, and I feel stronger. Not to mention that I’m not half asleep.

But the habit of training in the morning still makes me head for the door as soon as I wake up without too much thinking. After all that’s why we call it a habit..

I guess my point is if it weren’t for the habit and for the fact that I like to have my evenings free, I’d still train late at night as this is the time when I feel primed to hit the weights really hard.

And to prove my point I just read about a study from the University if South Carolina. In this study the researchers examined how swimmers perform in their training at 18 different times during the day for the length of 3 days. They found that the athletes’ bodies were primed for peak performance at 11 pm.

The researchers concluded that this has something to do with the circadian rhythms - all your physiological processes in a 24h period.

Any way, fact is training at night means better performance if you don’t mind not leaving time for other things to do and people to spend time at night.

What is your take on that? Have you tried early morning training and late evening training? Which one do you find to be better, based on your personal experience?

Share This

Knowing your body fat percentage helps you in a lot of aspects. Most importantly that’s how you find out to which group you belong - lean, average, overweight or obese.

It helps you craft a more precise daily calorie intake, so that for example if you fall in the category of average people, but you want to move into the upper category - lean, you can determine exactly how much calories you need in order to start losing fat, while still keeping your muscle mass.

That’s all good, but… how do you find your body fat percentage?

Even I, when talking about measuring body fat, have suggested that you ask a fitness trainer at your local gym to help you out. Some times that’s an option, but some times it’s not. After all you may not want to let others know this personal bit of information.

And then there are all the other methods like skin fold body fat testing (in fact that’s the most likely method a fitness trainer would use, a.k.a. pinch test), DEXA scan (dual energy X-ray), Hydrostatic body fat testing, Bioelectrical impedance (TANITA scales, etc.) and on and on…

The thing is all these require either equipment or assistance from someone else, or even both.

But how do you find your body fat percentage alone from the comfort of your home.

Well, there is a method. It’s not the most accurate out there, but if you consistently use it, it will tell you if you are moving up, maintaining or you are losing fat. But most importantly it’s easy to do, you don’t need anyone else, and it takes not more than a minute.

To calculate your body fat percentage this way you will only need a tape measure. If you are a male you will have to take 2 measurements, if you are a female you will have to take 5.

Now, before we continue I want to mention that you will not have to do the calculations manually. I have already created calculators that will help with that, but just for your information immediately below you will find a table with the numbers that the calculators actually use:

Source: bmi-calculator.net

That was the theoretical part. Now, get your tape measure out and click on the link below to go to the body fat calculators page.

Body fat calculators

Bookmark that page (there is a bookmark option at the top left on each page) and go there as often as you want.

Share This

I can’t believe how often people try to find answers to this question and how there is no info on how long it takes for someone, who trains to see results.

I will do my best to give you some answers, but first we have to make an important distinction

- Are you trying to build muscle mass and you want to know how long it takes

or

- Are you trying to lose fat and want to know how long before you see your dream body in the mirror?

If you are on a quest to build more muscle, feel free to use my theory for the most you can add in one day. From there you can easily determine how long before you put on the 10, 20 or whatever number of pounds it might be.

Here it goes. You know that in order to gain muscle you have to eat more protein than your body uses up and excretes. This is called a positive nitrogen balance. It is known that 1 gram of protein per pound of lean muscle mass is what you need to be in a neutral nitrogen balance, meaning as much goes in, as much goes out.

My ideal number of protein surplus is about 1.35 grams, meaning you have to eat about that much grams of protein per pound lean muscle mass a day, in order to be in a positive nitrogen balance.

So, for example, if you weight 200 LB at 10% body fat that means that your lean body mass is 180 LB (200 x 0.9). Multiply your lean body mass by 1.35 and you will get your desired protein intake. In our case it’s 243 gr a day. If you remember from above just to maintain your muscles you need 1 gram of protein a day, so that is 180 grams.

Here is where it gets interesting. If you subtract the smaller number from the bigger, you will get exactly the amount of protein you have to eat in surplus just to be in a state that predisposes to muscle growth. In our study that is exactly 63 grams.

So, in theory you could grow with 63 grams a day or with almost a pound a week. In reality you never use up all these amino acids from the extra 63 grams of protein to build muscle. You use some of them for energy, you use some of them to offset the catabolic processes in the body.

But, on the other hand when you build new muscle, it’s not only due to protein increase, but also due to glycogen (carbs) storage, water, etc.

I would expect that, if all other conditions are right, a half of these 63 grams will be turned into new muscle each day. So, I’d say aim for not more than a half a pound a week or at most two pounds a month.

Enough about what to expect when building muscle. What should you expect when on a quest for fat loss?

That’s somewhat easier. You know that in order to lose fat you should eat about 20% less calories than what you burn during the day (workout and cardio included).

We know that if you are careful to be 20% calorie deficient, you will be effectively losing about 0.5% body fat each week.

So, again, if you are 200 LB at 0.5% fat loss a week, you will be losing about 1 pound each week. If your goal is to lose 20 LB  that means it’s going to take you roughly two and a half months.

I hope that now you have a better understanding about what to expect before you embark on a mission - either muscle gain or fat loss. Just replace the numbers from our examples above with your numbers.

Share This