Morning Cardio by Chris Aceto

Cardio is a good fat burner. However, cardio can be a great fat burner if we look for ways to maximize the amount of body fat burned during cardio sessions. One of the easiest ways to encourage maximal fat burning is to do your cardio in the morning on a completely empty stomach, soon after rising and before eating. The reason is simple, in a “fasting” state (Ex. not having eaten for probably close to 10 hours), glucose – the basic energy component found on carbohydrates – circulates within the bloodstream at its lowest levels of the day. When this occurs, the body is more likely to turn to storedfuel – body fat – as energy. Upon the introduction of cardio, the body begins to look for fuel. If there are no significant amounts of glucose, the body responds by immediately digging into body fat stores for energy. Bingo.

The body will not utilize deep fat stores for energy during cardio if you have eaten before performing cardio. Instead, it will first take a look at what has recently been ingested – what you have eaten – and try to use that first before starting to utilize stores of body fat. Even a small meal, or a small carbohydrate snack, can inhibit fat burning by slowing the rate at which your body begins its search for stored body fat. Carbohydrates quickly digest into glucose, which alters the speed at which the body burns fat. In essence, food consumed before cardio exercise acts as a slowing agent, altering the body’s ability to burn body fat. On the other hand, with no food, there is no slowing effect and the body can quickly start burning body fat. Glucose, the digested form of carbohydrates, plays a big role in determining your fat burning status. With low levels, fat burning increases. With high levels of glucose, fat burning dramatically slows. To ensure you are burning as much body fat as possible, schedule your aerobic sessions in the morning, without food, to keep glucose levels flat.

Supplement Profile – Cell K.E.M. (evogennutrition.com)

Supplement Profile – E.V.P. (evogennutrition.com)

What is EVP™?

EVP is short for Evopoietin One Alpha®. EVP is a very carefully engineered performance nutrition supplement, designed specifically to augment the internal mechanisms that trigger and support muscle growth. EVP contains potent, unique and pharmaceutical-grade ingredients of the highest quality and purity, meticulously combined to optimize the internal training environment. The result? - Unparalleled muscle size, plateau-breaking gains in strength and skin-splitting pumps. EVP is the complete, Elite Pre-Workout Solution that will enable you to take your training results to the next level.

What Does EVP Do?

The specialized ingredients in EVP result in a flood of enriching, blood-engorging nutrients into the muscle cell, causing an incredible increase in blood volume with a corresponding “swelling” of muscle tissues. EVP synergistically combines powerful proven, performance-boosting ingredients to deliver dramatic muscle-cell volumizing and fascia-stretching pumps. Within 20 minutes of consumption, your muscles will be maximally engorged with vein-popping, nutrient-rich blood.

EVP was formulated to:

• Stimulate protein synthesis to ignite the body’s muscle-building machinery
• Increase training performance by supporting cellular energy pathways
• Support increased muscle cell volume for massive muscle pumps
• Enhance mental focus without the use of stimulants, for subtle but intense and improved concentration

How Does EVP Work?

1. Pharmaceutical Anabolic Catalyst (FUSIL®):
FUSIL*(Fermented, Ultra-Soluble L-Leucine), the driving force behind EVP’s powerhouse formula, is high-grade, fermented L-Leucine of the highest quality, then made ultra-soluble for maximum absorption. This single ingredient sets EVP apart, head and shoulders, from other pre-workout formulas.

FUSIL is only available through EVOGEN Nutrition. L-Leucine is often called “the anabolic trigger” because it stimulates protein synthesis and ignites anabolic reactions within the body, accelerating the process of muscle growth and repair.* FUSIL is manufactured under a precise, strictly monitored fermentation process, to ensure that this ingredient is of the absolute highest quality and purity possible.

EVP incorporates this powerful, pharmaceutical grade muscle building agent, along with the proven effects of Glutamine, Citrulline Malate and a full spectrum B-Vitamin package that will maximize your training while simultaneously enhance recovery and trigger new muscle growth.

EVP’s unique solubility ensures unprecedented, rapid, maximum absorption and bioavailability. Elite Bodybuilders, Fitness and Figure competitors have found this advanced, precisely engineered formula of proven ingredients to result in increased protein synthesis, measurably enhance training performance and enhanced recovery.

2. Nutrient Injection/Volumizing Complex:
EVP contains a precise combination of specific compounds that contribute to intra-cellular fluid shift and cytoplasmic expansion. This specific quad-arginine blend combined with creatine gluconate dramatically increases cell volume and nutrient delivery into the muscle tissue.* Additionally, these substrates facilitate ATP production pathways within the muscle cells, to support and fuel ongoing, intense muscular contractions and delay the onset of muscular fatigue for measurable physical performance enhancement.*

3. Anticatabolic/Recovery Complex:
EVP combines the high-grade L Glutamine with Carnosyn® (Beta Alanine), and L-Glutamine AKG to create a synergistic anticatabolic and recovery complex.* L-Glutamine contributes to muscle building and muscle protective processes in several critical ways.* EVP combines a dual-Glutamine blend with the other key components of this complex to yield powerful anticatabolic and immune supporting effects for muscle growth and recovery.*

4. ATP/Cognitive Enhancing Complex:
EVP’s ATP/Cognitive Enhancing Complex was specifically formulated to support mental focus, alertness and mind-muscle connection.* EVP does not contain vaso-constrictive stimulants which could inhibit blood flow to muscles and stress the adrenal glands with daily use. This sophisticated neuro-support cocktail may enhance training performance, working in synergy with, rather than antagonistic to, the high-power volumizing, nutrient-driving agents of EVP.*

The Elite Pre-Workout Solution

With EVP, it is not necessary to take multiple pre-workout products. EVP is precisely formulated with every ingredient you need to achieve maximum strength, recovery, fullness and definition. You will not need to worry about unnecessary, antagonistic ingredients or the extra cost of combining several products. EVP contains no unnecessary or antagonistic ingredients. You will also not need to “stack” additional or less complete products that will hinder your gains by creating unnecessary system toxicity. EVP is 100% sugar free, maltodextrin free and carbohydrate free. This ingredients are often used as fillers or binders that can contribute to insulin spikes and shut down fat burning mechanisms. EVP will allow you to maintain fullness and maximum pump even on the most restrictive pre-contest, low-carb or ketogenic diet.

EVP Has Many Purposes and Uses:

1. PRE-WORKOUT

EVP primes the body for the pump. This brings nutrient- and oxygen-rich blood to the muscles, allowing them to bathe in the anabolic nutrients contained in EVP. The incredible “pump” caused by this enhanced blood volume causes the muscle fascia to stretch, allowing more room for growth and signaling the release of localized growth factors.

2. RECOVERY

Post-workout use EVP to counter catabolism and enhance the adaptive response to intense training. The anabolic nutrients in EVP have been shown to trigger protein synthesis to spark new growth and stimulate protein synthesis, cellular growth and the repair of damaged and depleted muscle cells in the post-training phase.

3. GROW WHILE YOU SLEEP

Eight hours of sleep can be great for recovery, but those same eight hours mean an extended period of time without the ingestion of muscle-building nutrients. When sleeping, the body’s amino acid pool can quickly become depleted, which in turn can cause the body to eat away at precious muscle tissue. Taking EVP prior to bedtime can ensure that your amino acid pool is never depleted, creating a virtual liquid armor against catabolism. With EVP, bedtime will become another period of maximized growth and recovery. Sleep will never be the same.

4. POWER UP

Sports such as Powerlifting, Football, Bodybuilding, Baseball and MMA require explosive bursts of muscular power. EVP is the fuel for that power for athletes in any physically demanding sport! Endurance or extreme athletes, including long-distance runners, tri-athletes, MMA or Cyclists will also find the performance- and recovery-boosting and muscle-protecting, muscle-building properties of EVP to be invaluable. EVP harnesses the muscle-building effects of FUSIL, combined with the proven performance-boosting, anti-fatigue and recovery components of it’s battle tested formula to fuel hard training, nourish recovery and stimulate new muscle growth. Enhance your training performance, ramp up recovery time and take your results to the next level with EVP, the Elite Pre-Workout Solution!

The Brute Strength Program Diet

I previously posted the Brute Strength Program that I had followed years back to add strength and size.  I did not follow their dietary recommendations but here is what they prescribe.

Strategically Scheduling Cheat Meals

This was a question asked to Hany Rambod (elite trainer to the pro's).  This was taken from musculardevelopment.com and thought it was a good quick read.  Almost every week now my cheat meals have been falling on the day before I do arms and I always get my best pump the day after a good cheat.

Question - A couple years ago, I recall reading in one of your columns that you recommended scheduling cheat meals around the training of your weaker body parts. Could I apply this same concept to FST-7 training?

Hany -  Absolutely. I would especially suggest using this strategy if you happen to be following a very low-carb diet. A key point to understand with this is that it takes a certain amount of time for carbohydrates to be converted to glycogen in the muscles and it also takes time for sodium to get into your system. Many bodybuilders don’t realize this and believe that the meal they eat 1 hour or so before the workout is the one that makes the difference, when in fact it’s more critical what you eat the day or night before. Getting back to the subject of early morning trainers, it’s even more important for these people to have their cheat meal the day or night before. It takes time for the body to super-compensate its glycogen stores, more so during a low-carb diet. Those of you who have followed the standard carb depletion and loading strategy for bodybuilding competition should remember that it took at least a couple days to properly “fill out.” If you are going to carb load for the training of a weaker body part, clean carbs like plain rice or sweet potatoes are good choices, but you also need to make sure you have plenty of sodium via condiments like ketchup or teriyaki sauce. You could also have a high-carb, high-fat meal like burgers and fries, but be judicious. Otherwise, you could set back your fat-loss goals. The large amounts of sodium in foods like these will go a long way toward facilitating an excellent pump, but don’t go overboard with them. So, getting back to the original question, by all means have your weekly cheat meal the day or night before you train a weak body part. This will give that muscle group the best possible chance of achieving a maximum pump and stretching out the fascia tissue, allowing growth to take place.

The Brute Stength Program Workouts

March 2005

Since I've been getting a lot of questions of what I did in my early stages of building my physique I wanted to post a program that I followed to a T.  I started this program in March 2005 as this was the date on the magazine so that would put me at 20 years old. I recommend following this program for any beginner wanting to add size and gain strength.  I followed this for 4 weeks. I did zero cardio.  I'll be posting their diet recommendations later on.

Training Split:

• Day 1 - Push Workout
• Day 2 - REST
• Day 3 - Lower-body Workout
• Day 4 - Push - assist workout *
• Day 5 - Pull Workout
• Day 6 - REST
• Day 7 - REST

*For best results, the "assist" workout session should occur three days after the workout that it assists.

Workout One - Push workout

1. Bench presses* 5x10-12
2. Incline DB presses - 2x10-12
3. Flat DB presses - 2x10-12
4. Barbell shoulder presses - 3x10-12
5. Upright rows - 3x10-12
6. Lying tricep ext - 3x10-12
7. Dips - 3x10-12
8. Hanging leg raises - 4x12-15

*For month one, use a weight that is apporx 75% of your 1 rep max for the bench press

Workout Two - Lower Body

1. Squats* - 5x10-12
2. Leg Presses - 3x12-15
3. Leg ext - 3x12-15
4. Leg Curls - 3x12-15
5. Standing Calve raise - 4x15-20

*For month one, use a weight that is approx 75% of your 1 rep max for squats

Workout Three - Pull Workout

1. Deadlifts* 5x10-12
2. Chins - 2x10-12
3. Barbell Rows - 3x10-12
4. Pulldowns  - 2x10-12
5. Barbell Curls - 3x10-12
6. Preacher curls  - 3x10-12
7. Standing Cable Curls - 4x12-15

*For month one, use a weight that is approx 75% of your 1 rep max for deadlifts
Assist workouts - You have two options. First, you can repeat the cycle, starting with your push day.  Second, you can train using the exercise (bench press, squat or deadlift) that you feel lags behind the others.  That should be a short day; perform only three sets of that exercise, and follow it with three sets of one or two other exercises for muscle groups that assist in that exercise.

Personal Review of some Supplements

Kyle: Hey i was wondering if your still taking jacked, tribulus and gaba, and your reviews are on them after taking them for a few weeks?

Tyler: Kyle I'm no longer taking Jack3d.  My opinion of it is that it's a great stimulant.  I went through the bottle very quickly After a few days I used 3 scoops for the remainder of the bottle.  Once it was done I ordered SuperPump Max by Gaspari Nutrition.  I took the original SuperPump when it first came out a few years ago and this stuff is even better.  What I like about Superpump vs. Jack3d is that it actually has aminos,vitamins and other muscle building goodies.  I only take one scoop and it has been working great.  I have the pink lemonade flavor.  Also when I used Jack3d I would crash hard from it and have to take a nap everyday after my workouts.  As for Tribulus I think it helps with strength gains.  Ever since I started my whole supplement regimen my strength has been steadily going up.  Tribulus for me has been side effect free.  I took this also a couple of years back.  I think temporarily it increases your natural test production which is always a plus.  I'm still taking GABA every night before bed except when I drink (which is one to two times a week) About 10-15 minutes after taking 3 grams of it I sometimes notice a slight tingle in my hands.  Besides that it relaxes me and I've been getting the deepest and best sleep that I've ever gotten.  I used to have a hard time winding down and letting my mind rest but this has definitely helped.  Also it's supposed to increase growth hormone secretion so that's a plus as well.

Health Benefits of Macadamia Nut Oil

The popularity of macadamia nut oil stems from the fact that it has a high amount of monounsaturated fatty acids, even more than that in olive oil! There are two types of fats - the saturated and unsaturated fats. Of the latter, there are two varieties again. One is the monounsaturated fats and the other is the polyunsaturated fats. Monounsaturated fats are good for health as they lower the amount of bad cholesterol or low density lipids (LDL) while maintaining the levels of good cholesterol or high density lipids (HDL) in the body. Organic macadamia nut oil is hard to find. However, those that are generally found on the market are 80 - 85% monounsaturated fats.

Macadamia nut oil nutrition value lies in the fact that it maintains the optimum level of cholesterol in the body and reduces the risk of heart diseases. Macadamia nut oil is rich in oleic acid, the main fatty acid in olive oil that contributes to its healthy properties. Besides this, macadamia nut oil has linoleic acid, linolenic acid, Omega-3 essential fatty acid, Omega-6 fatty acid and also palmitoleic acid. All these pushes the levels of monounsaturated fatty acids a few points higher in macadamia nut oil than in olive oil. Macadamia nut oil health benefits does not end here. The oleic acid in macadamia nut oil has anti-inflammatory properties that makes it effective in fighting against chronic diseases. Besides the monounsaturated fatty acids, macadamia oil is also a rich source of calcium, vitamin B complex and minerals like phosphorus and iron.

Source - buzzle.com

Supplement Profile – Karbolyne

Pure Karbolyn is a homopolysaccharide (relatively complex carbohydrate) and is made up of many monosaccharides joined together by glycosidic bonds. These are very large bonds that are branched macromolecules. The "Molecular Mass" has been precisely manipulated to create absorption through the stomach at a rate much greater than maltodextrin, dextrose, breads, pasta, or rice.*

Pure Karbolyn is a patent pending carbohydrate that contains very unique properties. Because Pure Karbolyn passes through the stomach very quickly, it acts like a pump, pulling water and nutrients along with it.* This high tech carbohydrate actually moves through the stomach faster than dextrose or sugar.* Pure Karbolyn also has a higher solution osmolality than dextrose, sucrose or many other carbohydrate powder mixes on the market. This is due to the unique properties found in the patent pending process. Pure Karbolyn is completely sugar free.

Pure Karbolyn is produced using a newly developed "Enzymatic Milling Process". The food source to produce Pure Karbolyn is potato, rice & corn. The finished product is a modified molecular mass polysaccharide that is absorbed very quickly with out any side effects, stomach bloating or discomfort plus it mixes instantly.*

What is Pure KarbolynTM used for?

Pure Karbolyn was invented for the sole purpose of carbohydrate loading. It was designed for Elite Athletes looking for a fast, safe and high performance way to easily load the muscle with accessible muscle energy (glycogen).* Pure Karbolyn has been instantized, so it mixes instantly!

If you are looking to diet for a show or pack on some mass, Pure Karbolyn is the ideal carbohydrate to get the results you are looking for.* It is very common for many bodybuilders and fitness/figure competitors to rely solely on Pure Karbolyn and oatmeal as their only complex carbohydrate sources during their pre-contest & carb loading phase!

• Designed for Elite athletes to quickly hyper-load muscle tissue with glycogen.* Pure Karbolyn is the ideal carb for pre-contest carb loading.*
• Pure Karbolyn is completely unique due to its size & structure of the molecule. Precisely the right size for absorption, not too big and not too small.
• Ideal for pre, during and post-workout carbohydrate loading & nutrient transportation.*
• No stomach bloat or discomfort.*
• Pure Karbolyn is SUGAR FREE, mixes instantly & tastes incredible!

Source - bodybuilding.com

Leptin (Greek leptos meaning thin)

Many of us are familiar with the effect that carbohydrate intake has on the hormone insulin, and the potential for fat storing and insulin resistance if carb intake is consistently overindulged (i.e. bloat and fat storage).  One hormone, however, that many may not have heard of is leptin.  Leptin is a hormone produced mostly by the fat cells, and is a regulatory hormone for hunger and satiety. One way leptin is released is in response to “refeeding,” or a sharp increase in carb and calorie intake after a period of lower carb and calorie intake.  Once released from stored fat cells, leptin moves into the blood stream and crosses the blood-brain barrier.  Here it acts as a feedback mechanism in the hypothalamus to effectively induce the feeling of satiety, telling you to stop eating and decreases hunger. Leptin also communicates with the thyroid and induces a speeding of the metabolism.

Leptin is an appetite suppressant. It stops you eating too much as well as makes you more active so you burn off more energy. It is produced by a specific gene found in fat cells called the obese(ob) gene. Small amounts of leptin are also secreted by cells in the epithelium, stomach and placenta. The amount of Leptin found in people increases as their body fat increases

Low calorie and lower carbohydrate diets, such as a traditional contest prep diet over time can give the body and metabolism the opposite message: eat, conserve, don’t build muscle, slow down.  This is a concept that many of us have heard before—restriction of calories or carbohydrates for an extended period of time will cause the metabolism to slow.  A strategically-scheduled high-carb meal will help reset leptin levels to speed up a sluggish metabolism brought on by dieting, while spurring muscle anabolism.  Interesting side note: Ironically, obese people have high amounts of leptin, yet they can become insensitive to it–leaving them never feeling full!  In order for people who are leptin resistant to re-sensitize to its message, they must cut carbs and calories for a period of time.

Source: http://jillfit.com,http://www.3dchem.com