Perhaps one of the most important aspects of his training method is the belief in the value of rest. I remember in one of his books, he told the story of inviting several of the world’s top bodybuilders to his home for a “training camp.”  Although these were all elite athletes who had “maxed out” in size, he promised them that if they spent a few days with him, their muscles would grow even more.  Most accepted the invitation but were skeptical that they would see any results since they had already been training as hard as they possibly could and had all reached plateaus that they simply could not pass.

When the day arrived, they all showed up at Mentzer’s house wondering what kind of intense program he had in store that would get all of these bodybuilders, already in peak condition, to get even bigger.  To their surprise, Mentzer did not lead them to the gym, and did not push them to do any exercises whatsoever.  He told them to rest. For three days, he told them to relax, lie by the pool, eat some good, healthy food, and just enjoy a break from training.  Mentzer’s theory was that every bodybuilder there was overtrained.  And after three days of rest, every single one of them had an increase in their muscle measurements.

The principles of Mike Mentzer’s High Intensity Training, don’t apply only to bodybuilding.  There is a balance of challenge and rest that is required for growth and development in just about every area. The problem is, like those overtrained bodybuilders, we typically understand the need for challenge, and forget about the need for rest.  I am no different.  I believe so much that hard work leads to success, persistence will pay off, effort is the key to reward, that I often forget the need for rest, recovery and rebuilding.  I love to challenge myself, but it is hard for me to truly rest without feeling like I’m wasting my time.

In yoga, the period of rest at the end of a workout is called “Shavasana”. Usually a few minutes at the end of every class is reserved for this rest period, lying in “corpse pose” to allow the body to recover and rejuvenate from the workout.  It is not my natural tendency to enjoy this part of the class.  When the teacher calls for Shavasana, my first reaction is to gauge my distance from the door and wonder if I could grab my shoes and sneak out before anyone notices.  But once I do reluctantly settle into the floor and relax into corpse, I’m usually glad I did.  The peace and clarity that I feel when my workout ends like this, is far greater than it is when I jump up from my last downward dog and scurry out the back of the room like a shoe burglar in the night.

The importance of rest applies to every domain. One Swedish study on well-being found that psychological stress and musculoskeletal injuries were both more likely to be caused by a lack of rest than by the amount of workload.  So how does “resting” fit into your workout plan, your career path, and your personal development? Think about the areas where you really challenge yourself and ask yourself if you have been pushing too hard.  What would happen if you gave yourself a break?  Try it.  Take a few days off.  You might be surprised at how much you grow.

References and Recommended Reading:

Honore, C. (2005). In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed. Orion.

Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2004).  The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.  New York: Free Press.

Lundberg, U. (2003). Psychological stress and musculoskeletal disorders: psychobiological mechanisms.  Lack of rest and recovery greater problem than workload, in Lakartidningen, 100(21): 1892-5. [abstract]

Mentzer, M. & Little, J. (2002). High-Intensity Training the Mike Mentzer Way. New York: McGraw-Hill.

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About Author

Jeremy McCarthy has a Master degree in Applied Positive Psychology from University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and is the Corporate Director of Spas for Starwood Hotels (the intersection of wellness, psychology, and hospitality). He began studying psychology over twenty years ago, which is also when he started his career opening and operating spas in luxury resort hotels.

He notes on his website that: “The spa industry in particular, with its unique perspective on wellbeing, considers not only physical health, but a holistic view of a person that includes mental and spiritual wellness.  When a spa does a good job of addressing the mental and spiritual needs of its customers, it fills an important void not being covered by many of our other healing institutions.”

You can check out his blog “The Psychology of Wellbeing” here: http://psychologyofwellbeing.com/

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A 2002 study compared the metabolic profile of women lifting 85% of their maximum ability for 8 reps, versus 45% for 15 reps. The test subjects who were lifting the heavier load for fewer reps burned more energy and had a significantly larger metabolic boost after exercise.

Another study looked at 2 groups of women over a 6 year period who performed squats and military presses at different intensity levels. The women who worked at 70-80% of their maximal for 8 reps had greater weight and body fat loss than crossover groups.

Training with heavier loads increases an individual’s “myogenic tone.” Heavy lifting forces the body to adapt to the increased demands and build more contractile proteins within the muscle. This process increases muscle density, enhances body image and provides sustainable muscle tone.

Training with heavier loads also increases an individual’s “neurogenic tone.” A critical response the body makes to increased loads is to enhance the amount of muscle fibers the nervous system will recruit at a given time. As a result, there is an increased sensitivity of the muscle spindle receptors and the alpha and gamma motor neurons. This adaptation increases the efficiency of movement for both complicated and simple tasks. It also gives the muscle a more ripped appearance.

High Reps with Lighter Weight: This form of exercise utilizes the aerobic system and stimulates an increase in blood flow to the muscle groups at work. This creates a “sarcoplasmic tone” that is based on fluid around the muscle. This sort of tone is considered “soft,” and is not sustainable. As little as 30 minutes after finishing the exercise the fluid returns to the circulatory system. Training like this over time results in an increase in capillary density and improved blood & oxygen supply to the muscle group.

It does not, however, maximally stimulate muscle fibers to produce new contractile proteins. In addition, the nervous system is not challenged at a high intensity with this form of exercise. Therefore, it doesn’t improve myogenic and neurogenic tone and sustainable muscle tone is generally not gained.

For Best Results:

1. Perform multi-joint, compound exercises like squats, dead-lifts, bent-over rows, pull-ups, over-head press, and push-ups to drive up your metabolism and muscle building potential

2.Utilize a resistance that is 70-90% of your maximum and perform to max for 3-12 reps for 2-3 sets.

3.Use short-rest between sets (10-30 secs max) to keep your oxygen debt high as this will increase post-exercise fat burning potential.

(sources below)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/h…
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2002 Apr;34(4):715-22.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 Dec 14.
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ber…
http://www.criticalbench.com/high_r…

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About Author

Dr. David Jockers owns and operates Exodus Health Center in Kennesaw, Ga. He is a chiropractor, exercise physiologist and natural health specialist. For more information go to www.exodushc.com

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Readers note: this is one of my favorite articles, and in my opinion, one of my best.

Not more than a month ago, I was standing in a field of soy beans in Peoria Illinois doing a commercial for a Japanese film crew. The guy to the right of the camera was holding up my little cue card as I said “Soy products have been shown to reduce cholesterol and possibly prevent cancer, yada, yada, yada…” I found it hard to keep a straight face and say nice things about soy protein as I have always considered soy protein basically a waste of time for bodybuilders. However, this commercial was for “normal” people so I did not feel like a “sell-out” for saying positive things about soy protein. On the plane ride home, with a glass of red wine firmly in hand, I decided to take a closer look into the properties of soy proteins and see if there were not some useful applications of this protein for bodybuilders after all.

The bodybuilding community has been pretty hard on soy protein generally relegating it to “crap” status among most bodybuilders and bodybuilding nutritionists. I will be the first to admit I have helped the negative reputation of soy among bodybuilders along by telling them how inferior it is to such proteins as whey or egg in various articles and my book. I still think soy protein is inferior to such proteins as whey and egg, but I do believe that it has some potentially useful applications if used correctly and tweaked just right. More on that later.

The Downside of Soy

So why does soy have such a bad reputation among bodybuilders? On the surface, it would appear that soy protein is pretty lousy stuff for most athletes. Soy protein has a low BV score of 74. What does that mean? There are several ways of assessing protein quality. You have the protein efficiency ratio (PER), the net protein utilization (NPU) and the biological value (BV). The PER is an outdated measure of protein quality and is not used much anymore by most supplement manufacturers or nutritionists “in the know” about protein quality. The NPU is a little better than the PER, but fails to take several important factors into account involved with proteins, such as absorption and digestibility, so it too is not used much either. That brings us to the BV. The BV is the most accurate indicator of biological activity of a protein and measures the actual amount of protein deposited per gram of protein absorbed. As a rule, high BV proteins are better for nitrogen retention, immunity, IGF-1 stimulation, and are superior for reducing lean tissue loss during various wasting states than their low BV counterparts. That is, as a general rule, high BV proteins are more anti-catabolic than low BV proteins. As most people already know, the highest BV protein available is whey protein with whole egg a close second (see chart), which is why bodybuilders and other athletes rely heavily on these two protein foods and tend to avoid soy and other proteins with low BV scores.

In addition to its low BV score, soy has several other nutritional drawbacks that make bodybuilders avoid the stuff like it was fake D-bol. One reason soy is so low on the BV scale is it is lacking in the sulfur containing amino acid methionine. The sulfur containing amino acids (cysteine being the other one) are particularly important for protein synthesis/growth, proper immune system function, and the body’s production of glutathione (GSH). GSH is one of the most important anti-oxidants found in the body and protects cells and serves to detoxify a variety of harmful compounds such as hydrogen peroxide, carcinogens, reactive oxygen species, and many others. In particular, GSH is also partly responsible for keeping low density lipoproteins (LDL) from oxidizing and clogging our arteries. Several studies have shown soy protein to be inferior to whey for the production of GSH and improvements in immunity. Though soy has a reputation for reducing cholesterol in man and animals, in one study rats fed soy protein that was not fortified with methionine as 13% of total calories, had an increase in cholesterol and an increase susceptibility of LDL cholesterol to peroxidation . So not only did the rats cholesterol go up, the LDL fraction oxidized easier potentially leading to clogged arteries. It is well established that an increased susceptibility of LDL to peroxidation is an essential step for the development of atherogenesis. These rats were found to have low levels of GSH and did not grow as well as another groups of rats fed casein.

If that were not bad enough to convince you to avoid soy, it gets worse. Soy protein contains something known as “anti -nutrients” that block the digestion and absorption of many nutrients. Two of the more important anti-nutrients found in soy are Lectins and protease inhibitors. Lectins are nasty constituents of various plants and can cause all sorts of problems from interfering with the absorption of important nutrients to intestinal damage. Proteases are enzymes that assist in the digestion of proteins. Soy has several protease inhibitors that interfere with the enzyme trypsin and chymotrypsin, both of which are important for the digestion and absorption of proteins in the gastrointestinal tract. Finally, soy is rich in estrogenic compounds such as genistein and diadzein. There are over 300 plant derived phytoestrogens found that vary substantially in their physiologic effect and potency in animals and man. As any bodybuilder worth his weight belt already knows, a change in the testosterone/estrogen ratio in favor of estrogen can lead to increased bodyfat and other ill effects as it relates to the strength athletes goals.

BV of common proteins:

• Whey=104
• Whole egg=100
• Egg white=88
• Casein=77
• Soy=74

The Upside of Soy

“You mean there could possibly be an upside?” you are thinking. I realize the previous section does not paint a very pretty picture of soy proteins, but I did not give you the entire story. As I said, on the surface soy looks like a pretty miserable protein for the hard training bodybuilder trying to eke out some new muscle tissue and/or lose bodyfat. The problem of the anti-nutrients found in soy protein has been taken care of as the manufacturers of high quality soy protein isolates remove them or dramatically reduce their activity during processing, so this is not a big point of concern anymore. Also, the addition of methionine to soy isolates greatly improves its BV and nutritional value, though it still does not reach the BV of whole egg or a good whey protein for that matter. Rats fed soy protein enriched with methionine grew at a similar rate as those fed casein.

As for the estrogenic compounds found in soy, that’s a bit more complicated. For years, soy protein has been found to reduce cholesterol in a wide range of animalsspecies and man. One recent study found that when they separated the estrogenic compounds from soy, it failed to have the usual cholesterol lowering effects. This does not come as a big surprise as the cholesterol lowering protective effects of estrogen are well known. However, soy protein appears to have several mechanisms by which it lowers cholesterol (i.e. isoflavones, endocrine effects, fiber, saponins, etc.) and its mechanism on cholesterol probably depends on the animal species being studied. In addition to soy proteins ability to reduce cholesterol, epidemiological research also suggests soy can reduce certain forms of cancer and longevity companies such as the Life Extension Foundation are now recommending soy protein isolate for the treatment of certain cancers.

Ok, now here is where things start to get interesting as it applies the bodybuilders. Though soy proteins contain these estrogenic compounds, it appears that they are “tissue specific.” One study that used Rhesus monkeys found that soy proteins had no effects on the reproductive hormones of these animals. Testosterone, DHEAS, sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), testicular weight, prostatic weight, and other measurements were taken. They found no difference between male animals who ate soy protein that contained the plant estrogens and those who ate soy with the estrogens removed, leading researchers to conclude: “thus, the isoflavones (genistein and diadzein) in soy protein improve cardiovascular risk factors without apparent deleterious effects on the reproductive system…, ” and “Genistein’s effects appear to be tissue specific, with estrogen agonist effects on plasma lipid concentrations, plasma lipoprotein distributions and preservation of bone mass that are similar in magnitude to mammalian estrogens, but without estrogenic effects…” They finally conclude “Our data support an interpretation that soy beans estrogens have tissue specificity in part because of their mixed estrogen agonist and antagonist properties.”

From this and other data, it seems the phytoestrogens in soy can lower cholesterol and improve heart disease risk without systemic estrogenic effects (i.e. gyno, bodyfat increases, etc.) that would normally be seen if say a bodybuilder took estrogen pills or from the conversion of certain steroids to estrogen. This study is a little more relevant to us humans being it was done with male monkeys which are far more similar animals to people than rats. However, I think that an upper level of soy protein that contains phytoestrogens could cause systemic estrogenic effects if enough were taken, but that’s only speculation on my part. Also, the use of soy isolates by men might be better cycled rather than taken all the time being we are not 100% sure at this time about the long term estrogenic potential of soy proteins in athletes. The ability of soy protein to lower cholesterol without other estrogenic effects could be useful to bodybuilders using anabolic steroids who tend to see a rise in cholesterol and/or LDL.

Now I have saved the best part for last regarding the upside of soy proteins. Soy protein has been found to raise thyroid output in a wide range of animals from rats to rabbits and pigs. Studies done with human subjects have been harder to quantify (what else is new?), but several studies suggest an effect on thyroid hormones in people eating soy protein isolate. Soy protein has been shown to raise thyroid hormone output which could be a real advantage to bodybuilders trying to shed some fat. The intake of various high quality proteins has been associated with higher levels of thyroid hormone, but soy appears to have thyroid hormone raising abilities unique to that of other proteins. Though some research has shown changes in T3 and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), the real effect appears to be with T4 which is elevated consistently in the studies done using animals-and to a lesser degree people-eating soy proteins. Also, some studies have found changes in the insulin/glucagon ratio that would favor reductions in cholesterol and possibly bodyfat. At this time, exactly how soy proteins have this effect on thyroid output is not well understood, but their working on it.

So what does the above information mean to the bodybuilder? There are two points I think are the most relevant to strength athletes. (1) Though thyroid hormones are considered catabolic hormones, they are actually more catabolic to fat and carbohydrates, but stimulate protein synthesis if adequate calories are eaten and the amounts of thyroid hormones are not to high. This could be useful for increasing protein synthesis and reducing bodyfat. More research needs to be done in this area of course. (2) When a person diets the success of that diet is quickly brought to a screeching halt when the body figures out what you are up to and reduces the output of thyroid hormones. This is a reaction by the body brought on by a reduced caloric intake which reduces metabolic rate and a new caloric set point is established and the dieter is now screwed! The use of soy protein isolate to boost thyroid output could be exactly what the doctor ordered to keep thyroid levels raised during reduced calorie intake when dieting if the above evidence with soy proteins and thyroid function holds true in humans on reduced calories diets. Lets hope it does!

Solving The Soy Dilemma

Taking all of the above information on soy protein that we have looked at in this article I think we come up with something of a dilemma for the bodybuilder. For the average person, there is no real dilemma here as they don’t care much about protein quality. Unfortunately, if a bodybuilder starts to replace too much of the other high quality proteins in their diet in favor of soy to reap some of the potential benefits of soy, than he (or she) runs the risk of losing muscle due to this lower quality protein. This would be particularly noticeable during a reduction in calories (i.e.dieting). The lower the calorie intake the higher the quality of protein needs to be to maintain lean body mass. Make no mistake about it, soy protein does not have the nitrogen retaining, anti catabolic, muscle building abilities of proteins such as whey, whole egg, red meat, etc. However, soy does appear to have some other real benefits to the bodybuilder. So what do we do? So far, it appears that a person does not need to eat a great deal of soy protein isolate to get the benefits. Estimates of ten – thirty grams a day of a high quality soy protein isolate should do the trick for most people.

This is how I solve the dilemma and I have found this strategy works well for people. By mixing a high quality whey protein powder with a high quality soy isolate in a 2:1 ratio and eating that two – three times a day, the bodybuilder can have the best of all possible worlds (as it relates to the high BV, immune enhancing, nitrogen retaining abilities of the whey and the cholesterol lowering/thyroid stimulating abilities of the soy). To date, I have no reason to believe that mixing these two proteins will negate or interfere with the benefits or properties of either protein, but there is scant research in this area with healthy athletes. Anecdotally, the people I have told to do this mixture have given me mostly positive feedback so far.

Plain and simple, mix in a blender two scoops of whey protein to one scoop of high quality soy protein isolate and take the mixture two-three times per day. In fact, I think with a few other key ingredients, this could make a real nice pre-mixed meal replacement product for use when dieting. For now however, you can make it yourself and you might be surprised at the results…

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About the Author

Will Brink has over 15 years experience as a respected author, columnist and consultant, to the supplement, fitness, bodybuilding, and weight loss industry and has been extensively published.Will graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in the natural sciences, and is a consultant to major supplement, dairy, and pharmaceutical companies.

His often ground breaking articles can be found in publications such as Lets Live, Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The Life Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate, Exercise For Men Only, Body International, Power, Oxygen, Penthouse, Women’s World and The Townsend Letter For Doctors.

Will was a former high level trainer with a rep for getting Olympic athletes, bodybuilders and fitness stars into shape and has gained a reputation for being a no “BS” industry insider who’s not afraid to reveal the lies and hype found in the fat loss , muscle building & supplement industry.

He has been co author of several studies relating to sports nutrition and health found in peer reviewed academic journals, as well as having commentary published in JAMA. William has been invited to lecture on the benefits of weight training and nutrition at conventions and symposiums around the U.S. and Canada, and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs and now runs seminars for tactical law enforcement (SWAT).

He is the author, of Bodybuilding Revealed which teaches you how to gain solid muscle mass drug free and Fat Loss Revealed. which reveals exactly how to get lean , ripped and healthy completely naturally. Both e-books come with access to his private forums and numerous tools to aid you in either endeavor.

Find out more at Bodybuilding Revealed or Fat Loss Revealed.
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The secret to getting super lean – I’m talking about being RIPPED, not just “average body fat” – is all about mastering the art of “peaking.”

Here’s a case in point: One of my newsletter subscribers recently sent me this question:

Tom, on your www.burnthefat.com website, you wrote:

‘Who better to model than bodybuilders and fitness competitors? No athletes in the world get as lean as quickly as bodybuilders and fitness competitors. The transformations they undergo in 12 weeks prior to competition would boggle your mind! Only ultra-endurance athletes come close in terms of low body fat levels, but endurance athletes like triathaletes and marathoners often get lean at the expense of chewing up all their muscle. Some of them are nothing but skin and bone.’

“There seems to be a contradiction unless I’m missing something. Why do bodybuilders and fitness competitors have to go through a 12 week ‘transformation’ prior to every event instead of staying ‘lean and mean’ all the time? If they practice the secrets exposed in your book, they should be staying in shape all the time instead of having to work at losing fat prior to every competitive event, correct?”

There is a logical explanation for why bodybuilders and other physique athletes (fitness and figure competitors), don’t remain completely ripped all year round, and it’s the very reason they are able to get so ripped on the day of a contest…

You can’t hold a peak forever or it’s not a “peak”, right? What is the definition of a peak? It’s a high point surrounded by two lower points isn’t it?

Therefore, any shape you can stay in all year round is NOT your “peak” condition.

The intelligent approach to nutrition and training (which almost all bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors use), is to train and diet in a seasonal or cyclical fashion and build up to a peak, then ease off to a maintenance or growth phase.

I am NOT talking about bulking up and getting fat and out of shape every year, then dieting it all off every year. What I’m talking about is going from good shape to great (peak) shape, then easing back off to good shape…. but never getting “out of shape.” Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

Here’s an example: I have no intentions whatsoever of walking around 365 days a year at 4% body fat like I appear in the photo on my website. Off-season, when I’m not competing, my body fat is usually between 8 – 10%. Mind you, that’s very lean and still single digit body fat.

I don’t stray too far from competition shape, but I don’t maintain contest shape all the time. It takes me 12-14 weeks or so to gradually drop from 9.5% to 3.5%-4.0% body fat to “peak” for competition with NO loss of lean body mass…using the same techniques I reveal in my e-book.

It would be almost impossible to maintain 4% body fat, and even if I could, why would I want to? For the few weeks prior to competition I’m so depleted, ripped, and even “drawn” in the face, that complete strangers walk up and offer to feed me.

Okay, so I’m just kidding about that, but let’s just say being “being ripped to shreds” isn’t a desirable condition to maintain because it takes such a monumental effort to stay there. It’s probably not even healthy to try forcing yourself to hold extreme low body fat. Unless you’re a natural “ectomorph” (skinny, fast metabolism body type), your body will fight you. Not only that, anabolic hormones may drop and sometimes your immune system is affected as well. It’s just not “normal” to walk around all the time with literally no subcutaneous body fat.

Instead of attempting to hold the peak, I cycle back into a less demanding off-season program and avoid creeping beyond 9.9% body fat. Some years I’ve stayed leaner – like 6-7%, (which takes effort), especially when I knew I would be photographed, but I don’t let my body fat go over 10%.

This practice isn’t just restricted to bodybuilders. Athletes in all sports use periodization to build themselves up to their best shape for competition. Is a pro football player in the same condition in March-April as he is in August-September? Not a chance. Many show up fat and out of shape (relatively speaking) for training camp, others just need fine tuning, but none are in peak form… that’s why they have training camp!!!

There’s another reason you wouldn’t want to maintain a “ripped to shreds” physique all year round – you’d have to be dieting (calorie restricted) all the time. And this is one of the reasons that 95% of people can’t lose weight and keep it off –they are CHRONIC dieters… always on some type of diet. Know anyone like that?

You can’t stay on restricted low calories indefinitely. Sooner or later your metabolism slows down and you plateau as your body adapts to the chronically lowered food intake. But if you diet for fat loss and push incredibly hard for 3 months, then ease off for a while and eat a little more (healthy food, not “pigging out”), your metabolic rate is re-stimulated. In a few weeks or months, you can return to another fat loss phase and reach an even lower body fat level, until you finally reach the point that’s your happy maintenance level for life – a level that is healthy and realistic – as well as visually appealing.

Bodybuilders have discovered a methodology for losing fat that’s so effective, it puts them in complete control of their body composition. They’ve mastered this area of their lives and will never have to worry about it again. If they ever “slip” and fall off the wagon like all humans do at times … no problem! They know how to get back into shape fast.

Bodybuilders have the tools and knowledge to hold a low body fat all year round (such as 9% for men, or about 15% for women), and then at a whim, to reach a temporary “peak” of extremely low body fat for the purpose of competition. Maybe most important of all, they have the power and control to slowly ease back from peak shape into maintenance, and not balloon up and yo-yo like most conventional dieters!

What if you had the power to stay lean all year round, and then get super lean when summer rolled around, or when you took your vacation to the Caribbean, or when your wedding date was coming up? Wouldn’t you like to be in control of your body like that? Isn’t that the same thing that bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors do, only on a more practical, real-world level?

So even if you have no competitive aspirations whatsoever, don’t you agree that there’s something of value everyone could learn from physique athletes? Don’t model yourself after the huge crowd of losers who gobble diet pills, buy exercise gimmicks and suffer through starvation diets like automatons, only to gain back everything they lost! Instead, learn from the leanest athletes on Earth – natural bodybuilders and fitness competitors…

These physique athletes get as ripped as they want to be, exactly when they want to, simply by manipulating their diets in a cyclical fashion between pre-contest “cutting” programs and off season “maintenance” or “muscle growth” programs. Even if you have no desire to ever compete, try this seasonal “peaking” approach yourself and you’ll see that it can work as well for you as it does for elite bodybuilders.

If you’re interested in learning even more secrets of bodybuilders and fitness models, visit the Burn The Fat website at: www.BurnTheFat.com

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About the Author

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT) and a certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS). Tom is the author of the #1 best-selling e-book, “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using the secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models.

Learn how to get rid of stubborn body fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com. To learn more about Tom’s Fat Loss Support Community, visit: www.burnthefatinnercircle.com Natasha Lepore of UCLA; and Christian Gaser of the University of Jena in Germany.

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Exercise doesn’t work.

Now that might sound shocking coming from a guy with big biceps and 8% body fat; from a guy that recommends lots of exercise, at least 5 hours per week. So if this all seems incongruent, I guess I should qualify the statement above. I guess I should have probably said:

Exercise, ALONE, doesn’t work.

My Wake-Up Call
My coming to this realization wasn’t an easy process. I’ve been working with clients for over 15 years now and although I always knew that diet was an important part of the training equation, I also always harbored some subconscious notion that if I worked my clients hard enough, their lack of dietary effort would be overcome by my super-effective training programs. Sure, I wanted them to eat well. But if they didn’t (more like, wouldn’t), somewhere deep inside it seemed ok. I figured in the battle of training vs. diet, training would win. Now, I never said this aloud. However, somewhere I’m sure I felt it. So it wasn’t until I was slapped in the face with some cold, hard, objective data that I realized how wrong I’d been.

The Texas Study These data came in the form of a study I recently worked on at the University of Texas. In this study, nearly 100 initially sedentary participants either stayed sedentary (about half of them) OR began exercising (the other half). They exercisers were given a program to follow that added up to about 5 1/2 to 6 hours of activity per week and that lasted for a total of 12 weeks. The non-exercisers did nothing for the 12 weeks except show up for measurement sessions. These individuals, as stated above, did no exercise before the study began. As a result of this sedentary lifestyle, they averaged between 35% and 40% body fat (according to DEXA scans). Once the study began, the training group gathered together for 3 weight training sessions per week and 2 group exercise / interval sessions per week. All the training was designed by myself and overseen by a weightlifting coach and group exercise coach. So there was a pretty high level of quality control there. Now, it’s important to note that we didn’t alter the participant’s eating at all. And we did this on purpose. We wanted to test the effects of exercise alone – without diet. In other words, the question became:

“Without a dietary intervention, can exercise alone reshape a person’s body?”

At the end of the 12 week study, we got our answer:

“Not so much…”

That’s right, when analyzing the data, I was shocked to find that even with 3+ hours of training per week with a weightlifting coach and 2+ hours of training per week with a body-weight circuit instructor didn’t really work. The formerly sedentary participants didn’t do much better than their couch-sitting counterparts. Without dietary control, 12 weeks of high intensity training produced a fairly disappointing 1% loss of body fat. In terms of raw data, the participants lost only 1 pound of fat and gained 2 pounds of lean vs. the placebo group. Frankly, that sucks. The Machete Perspective Now, imagine you’re overweight (about 38% body fat) and you decide to take the plunge, to hire a personal trainer, and to get in shape for perhaps the first time in your life. So, you decide to buy a training package, one that contains 60 sessions (5 sessions per week for 12 weeks). The cost, per session, is 50 bucks, the going rate. So you plunk down 3 grand and start your initial 12 week fitness journey. You don’t expect big things…you just expect to start moving in the right direction. So you’re patient. You attend all your training sessions, you get to know your trainer really well, spending over 60 hours with him or her. You stay off the scale, not wanting to jinx yourself. Then, at the end of the 12 weeks, you weigh-in.

Body weight – You were overweight, obese in fact, to start with. Well, if you simply exercised (without changing your diet and following the protocol above) you now weigh one pound more! About to go crazy, your trainer talks you down off the cliff. You probably gained a lot of muscle while losing a lot of fat, he or she says. So it’s time to do a body comp test.

Fat weight – Ok, here’s the moment of truth. You’re sure there must have been some fat loss. Drumroll please…If you followed the protocol from above, you’re down one, uninspiring, unnoticable pound of fat. “What the heck!? Can I NOW be pissed?”

Lean weight – Because you weigh one pound more, and lost one pound of fat, that means that your formerly sedentary butt put on 2 lbs of lean mass. That’s nice and all. But that wasn’t the goal! You wanted to lose fat. This is when your anger kicks in.

So, you spent 3000 bucks and 60 hours working your ass off in the gym. And your ass didn’t change one bit! Is it time to grab a machete and take that good for nothing trainer’s head clean off? It’s Not A Fluke Now, when I first saw these data, I thought they were a fluke. I got the research team together on the phone and chewed them out. There must have been a data mix-up. I mean, seriously, 12 weeks of hard training and only one pound of fat lost vs. no training at all. Was this some sort joke? Did they screw up the data collection? Did the research participants skip out on sessions? What was the deal?!? Despite my insistence, there were no errors. The participants showed up. They trained hard. The data were collected properly. The participants just didn’t progress. And, for the first time, I started asking the question honestly.

Can a solid training program alone get people into great shape?

Note I said “solid” training program. In the past I figured people weren’t getting results because their training program was awful and perhaps so was their diet. But, as a result of this new study, a study in which the training protocol was solid, the answer appeared to be no. A solid training program alone wasn’t enough to get people into great shape. Other Research Support With a new sense of purpose, I started digging around in the research. And I quickly found another recent study suggesting the exact same thing. This study, published in the April 2008 issue of Nutrition and Metabolism, demonstrated that after 10 weeks of training (3 endurance sessions and 2 strength sessions per week – the flip flop of our study), 38 previously overweight, sedentary subjects also saw minimal changes in body composition with training.

Body Weight – In this study, neither the control (no exercise) group or the exercise group significantly changed their body weight. Both groups saw about a 0.6lb loss in body weight on average. But again, neither change was significant. Fat Mass - When it came to fat mass, the exercise group lost 2.4lbs while the control group lost 0.9lbs. This means that the 50 exercise sessions lead to a mere 1.5lb fat loss vs doing nothing. Better than a kick in the teeth, I guess. But not all that stellar. Lean Mass - The exercise group grained 1.7lbs of lean mass while the control group gained 0.2lbs of lean mass. This means that the 50 exercise sessions led to a 1.5lb gain in lean mass vs doing nothing at all. Again, not bad. But not great either.

Different vs. Important Sure, in both studies, the changes were “statistically significant.” In other words, participants did lose more fat and gain more lean mass when training vs. not training. However, let’s not confuse different with important. After all, these changes are small, really small. And I would suggest, unimportant. I mean, come on now, people exercise to actually change their bodies in noticeable, measurable ways. They want to fit better into their clothes. They want to go from overweight to normal weight. They want to be able to walk up the stairs without getting winded. They want to lower their cholesterol. In my estimation, and it might just be me, they’re just not all that interested in dumping big dollars and lots of time into something that leads to a one pound fat loss. Seriously, that’s not all that good. The Lesson – No, It’s Not To Stop Exercising! At this point you might be wondering if it’s my advice to stop exercising. Of course not! Exercise is critically important to looking better, feeling better, and performing better every single day. And don’t you forget it! However, my point is that exercise ALONE just doesn’t cut it. What you really need is exercise PLUS a sound nutritional program. Now that’s just what the doctor ordered. Consider what happens when people actually eat well… In our recent Precision Nutrition Body Transformation Challenge, the average fat loss for all of our participants was 1/2% (or 1lb) lost per week! Remember, in the studies above, they lost about 1 to 1.5lbs in 10-12 weeks! That’s almost at 10-fold increase in effectiveness when people added the Precision Nutrition plan to their training system. Further, our finalists (the top performers) saw the following results:

• Finalist #1 lost about 30lbs in 16 weeks – losing 23lbs of fat, or about 1.4lbs of fat per week.

• Finalist #2 – lost about 16lbs in 16 weeks – losing 23lbs of fat, or about 1.4lbs of fat per week.

• Finalist #3 – lost 37lbs in 16 weeks – losing 27lbs of fat, or about 1.7 lbs of fat per week.

• Finalist #4 – lost 25lbs during 16 weeks – losing 35lbs of fat, or about 2.2lbs of fat per week.

• Finalist #5 – lost 37lbs during 16 weeks – losing 31lbs of fat, or about 1.9lbs of fat.

Note: each of our finalists followed one of the training programs and our nutritional guidelines outlined in the Precision Nutrition System.

Also consider the research study discussed above, the one published in Nutrition and Metabolism. In this study, there was actually a 3rd group. And this group, in addition to exercising, supplemented each day with 2 nutrient-dense meal replacement supplements. Each supplement contained 300 calories, 5g fat, 25g carbs, and 40g protein and a host of vitamins and minerals. And while the exercise-only group saw small fat losses and muscle gains, the exercise plus supplement group, was a different story.

Body Weight – The exercise+supplement group lost 4lbs of total body weight. This compared to the 0.6lbs lost in the exercise alone group. Fat Mass - The exercise+supplement group also lost 6lbs of total body fat. This compared to the 2.4lbs lost in the exercise alone group. Lean Mass - The exercise+supplement group gained about 1.8lbs of total lean body mass. This compared to the 1.7lb gained in the exercise alone group.

So, as you can see, even something as simple as adding a high quality protein drink or MRP can improve fat loss vs. exercise alone. But, again, nothing is as effective as following a solid nutrition program while exercising properly. Trainers Take Note At this point, I’ve gotta serve notice to trainers. Folks, if you’re not providing nutrition advice to your clients, that’s a real problem. A trainer selling a client exercise alone is equivalent to a car salesman selling a car with no engine. As you’ve already seen, the thing just won’t go. Now, I don’t want to seem as if I’m taking shots at ALL trainers because I love the service many of them provide. However, I do have something to say to those trainers who don’t have a nutrition system in place. Take my advice…incorporating nutrition isn’t a “nice to have,” it’s a “need to have”. So don’t miss the boat. Start thinking about how you can get your clients training hard AND eating better right away. Exercisers, Also Take Note For you folks who aren’t trainers yet who are looking to look better, feel better, and perform at the top of your game, the lesson should be obvious. You can train as hard as you want. However, without some attention to your nutritional intake, you simply can’t expect inspiring, noticeable results.

To get your nutrition program straight, click here…

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About Author

John M Berardi, Ph.D. is the founder and chief scientific officer of Precision Nutrition. PN started with a single question: what exactly should people eat to: 1.) look fit, 2.) be healthy, and 3.) perform to their highest potential?

To answer that question, we condensed 8 years of research, both from the lab and from the field, and the experiences of nearly 50,000 PN members from around the world, including both everyday folk and Olympic gold medalists, all into one system — the Precision Nutrition System.

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The acronym “Keep it simple stupid” or “KISS”, has been used for decades by the military, business schools, medical schools, and in countless other areas where unneeded complexity should be avoided at all costs.

One area where most people fail to follow the KISS system is in their approach to fitness, nutrition, or supplements. In fact I find people seem to gravitate toward adding complexity to their approach when it comes to building muscle or losing fat. Not coincidentally, it’s the people who take the most complex approaches to their nutrition, supplements, and training who are always the most confused and least successful. They focus on – and subsequently worry about – minutiae that prevent them from seeing the big picture and making the type of progress they desire. It often leads to what is referred to “paralysis by analysis.” The vast majority of people would have better results, not to mention less stress, if they simplified their approach to losing fat or gaining muscle. It’s not rocket science, brain surgery, or even rocket surgery!

Yes, there are times when complex approaches need to be used to get advanced athletes, such as pre-contest bodybuilders and Olympic track athletes, prepared for an event. These people make up, at most, 1% of the population. The rest of the world needs to worry less and act more.

Why is complexity a bad thing? The issue is variables.

Adding too many variables makes things more difficult, especially when trying to figure out why something is working or why it’s not. Variables are an essential part of science. We don’t need to go into great depth on this topic, so don’t worry. I do, however, want people to appreciate how variables affect the outcome of their successes or failures in bodybuilding or fitness related endeavors.

So what is a variable? According to one of my textbooks:

“Scientists use an experiment to search for cause and effect relationships in nature. In other words, they design an experiment so that changes to one item cause something else to vary in a predictable way. These changing quantities are called variables…”

There are different types of variables (e.g., confounding, independent, dependent, controlled, etc.) but we are not going to worry about that right now. So how does this all apply to the KISS approach? The more complicated you make your approach to your goals of gaining muscle or losing fat, the more variables you have to control for. That is, for every new bit of complexity you add, you have to be able to account for it in terms of the results, or lack thereof, you experience.

Confused? Here’s a simple example:

Last week you changed your diet, added in three new supplements, and changed your routine, then three weeks later you notice you have made no improvements (i.e. you didn’t lose any fat, or you didn’t gain any muscle, or whatever). Why? It’s impossible to know! You added too many variables into the equation and now you’re unsure what went wrong – which means you won’t be able to make appropriate changes to correct it. Conversely, let’s say you did lose fat or gain muscle with the changes. Great, but do you know which of the changes you made resulted the positive outcome you experienced so you can reproduce it? No, no you don’t.

So, Lesson #1 is: never change more then one or two variables at a time so you can track what worked – and what did not work – from the changes you made. Most people find writing it down in a note book or online journal is the best way to keep track of their progress. When you write it down, you can see the effects that changes in your diet, training, or supplementation have on your body composition, strength, etc.

KISS and Those Ugly Variables

On my forums, it’s not uncommon for someone to post a question like “I added supplement X, Y, and Z to my supplement intake, added an extra day per week in the gym, and reduced my calories by X. Why am I not seeing progress?” My response is “…too many unknown variables to answer that question” which translates into “how the hell should I know?”

Why do people make so many changes at once? I suspect it’s due to the “I want it now” syndrome. Making permanent changes to your performance, physique, and health, takes patience, planning, and a willingness to take things one step at a time and assess what is working and what’s not working in the overall plan.

Clearly, the KISS approach fails to be effective as more variables are added to a program. It also fails to be KISS. How can you keep it simple if it ain’t simple to begin with?! The more complicated the program, the more variables there are to keep track of – which makes success far less likely. This basic idea was appreciated and understood by history’s greatest minds. For example:

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” – Albert Einstein

What was the father of Relativity saying? Be it math, science, nutrition, or life, Keep It Simple Stupid wherever possible, but don’t simplify it to the point where it’s no longer effective or true. In my own writings, be it articles or books/e-books, I make every attempt to keep the information and message as simple as possible. However, I often see popular books and diets that are in fact too simple. They don’t want to confuse people, so they simplify things to the point that their advice is no longer correct and has little value to the reader – thus, Einstein’s warning. Oversimplified statements like “carbs are bad” or “fat is bad” or “do weight lifting for big muscles and aerobics to burn fat” are among the gems we all see. Problem is, those statements are dead wrong! A line between simple and too simple must be drawn.

OK, back to the KISS approach…

It’s not possible for me to go through every example of how to take a KISS approach to your training, nutrition, or supplement intake, but I will attempt a general discussion of each.

KISS and Training:

One of the most common mistakes I see in this area is what I like to call the “I have tried everything and nothing works” syndrome. My response is always “have you tried sticking to one program long enough for it to actually have any effect?” The answer is usually a guilty sheepish facial expression. Let me be honest with you: even an average uncomplicated program you are consistent with is far more effective then any high-tech, super-advanced program you fail to be consistent with. One simple program you follow consistently for a year is always better then the five high tech programs you tried in 6 months where none of them were followed long enough to have a positive outcome. Simple programs such as: weight training Monday, Wed, Fri, and aerobics, Tue, Thurs, and Sat, with Sunday off, whilst varying your exercises tend to work well for the majority of people.

Are there better programs out there? Of course, but the vast majority of people follow routines that are overly complicated, take too bloody long, and are simply unneeded.

I also see a dependence on less productive movements in the gym over more productive choices. I see people doing reverse Romanian lunges while the squat rack gathers dust in the corner. Was that you I saw the other day?

KISS and Supplements

You don’t need them. Bet you never thought you would read that coming from me did you?! Let me qualify that statement: does a person need any supplements to achieve the basic goal of either adding muscle or losing fat? No, no they don’t. Can supplements help the process? Can supplements potentially speed up the process? Can supplements potentially offset some of the negatives? Can supplements help optimize the effects of exercise and diet? The answer is yes in all cases. The problem, however, is that I see far too many people under the impression that the next wiz bang “cutting edge” supplement is going to make some huge difference to their appearance while their diet and workout are put on the back burner or set low on the priority list. They are constantly looking for that one supplement that’s going to make all the difference while they ignore their nutrition and training! I see it all the time and frankly, it’s frustrating.

Remember, KISS. Focus on your training and your nutrition – then worry about supplements. Start off with the basics, like a good multi vitamin, a source of essentially fatty acids (EFA’s) and a good protein powder post workout, then add additional supplements over time depending on your goals, such as creatine when trying to add muscle, or ephedrine and caffeine when focusing on fat loss, and so on. The shotgun approach many people take rarely works, wastes money, and adds complexity (remember our conversation on variables above) where it serves no useful purpose.

I love supplements. I take a dozen or more supplements every day of my life. I have designed them for supplement companies, spoken about them at various conferences, been involved in the published research of supplements, and built my career on them, so I am not some anti-supplement zealot by any means. However, I do speak with people all the time who outline a long list of supplements they are taking (many of which have been shown to be totally worthless) while their diets stink and their training programs are a joke. Don’t be one of these people! Don’t think for a second there is any one supplement out there that will make or break your success. Realize that supplements are exactly that; supplemental to a good diet and intelligent exercise program.

KISS and Nutrition

Finally, we make it to nutrition. Nutrition is a potentially complex topic, and just as importantly, it’s a highly emotional topic for many. No place do I find such clear examples of people adding complexity where it’s not required. Again, there is a small segment of people that will benefit from – and require – advanced nutritional approaches, such as pre-contest bodybuilders, pre-race marathon runners, or even the average person seeking to get to very low bodyfat levels. Does the average person who needs to get into better shape and lose perhaps 20 – 30 lbs. (or more) need to follow advanced nutrition concepts? Of course not! Can the average person benefit from techniques more advanced dieters (e.g., bodybuilders, fitness competitors, etc.) might employ, such as cyclic ketogenic diets, refeed days, carb cycling, and other approaches? Of course! Do they require such strategies to drop some fat and get into shape? No, no they don’t. That’s why I tend to offer well thought out, healthy, and easy to follow approaches to nutrition in my e-books and offer more advanced approaches to people who want to take it to another level.

Simplicity + Consistency = Success

The above is what I consider the basics of the KISS approach to nutrition, supplements, and training. You will have to fill in some of the blanks as it applies to you specifically. If you are making steady predictable progress, great, stick to it. If however you are not making progress in your goals to add muscle and or lose fat, or some other goal, then you may need to sit down and seriously rethink your approach to the problem. Is there added complexity where you know it’s not needed? Are you relying too heavily on supplements to achieve your goals? Do you find yourself doing exercises that are less effective then the good old fashioned basics, like squats, deadlifts, and bench press? I can’t answer those questions for you, but hopefully I’ve made you think – which is half of the battle. You know what they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him think!

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About the Author

Will Brink has over 15 years experience as a respected author, columnist and consultant, to the supplement, fitness, bodybuilding, and weight loss industry and has been extensively published.Will graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in the natural sciences, and is a consultant to major supplement, dairy, and pharmaceutical companies.

His often ground breaking articles can be found in publications such as Lets Live, Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The Life Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate, Exercise For Men Only, Body International, Power, Oxygen, Penthouse, Women’s World and The Townsend Letter For Doctors.

Will was a former high level trainer with a rep for getting Olympic athletes, bodybuilders and fitness stars into shape and has gained a reputation for being a no “BS” industry insider who’s not afraid to reveal the lies and hype found in the fat loss , muscle building & supplement industry.

He has been co author of several studies relating to sports nutrition and health found in peer reviewed academic journals, as well as having commentary published in JAMA. William has been invited to lecture on the benefits of weight training and nutrition at conventions and symposiums around the U.S. and Canada, and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs and now runs seminars for tactical law enforcement (SWAT).

He is the author, of Bodybuilding Revealed which teaches you how to gain solid muscle mass drug free and Fat Loss Revealed. which reveals exactly how to get lean , ripped and healthy completely naturally. Both e-books come with access to his private forums and numerous tools to aid you in either endeavor.

Find out more at Bodybuilding Revealed or Fat Loss Revealed.
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