Archive for November, 2009
By Derek Howes on Nov 21st, 2009 in Articles, Tips | Permalink | Leave a comment
Every gym has them and most of us have heard them from someone we know or through listening to others at the gym in between sets. We end up believing them and then telling people we know. This is how they start, and usually never end. I have come up with 18 myths that I have heard with-in the past year or so. Without further ado, here you go:
- I don’t lift weights because I don’t want to get “big” - Simply put: You won’t get big if you don’t want to get big.
- Working out abs everyday will not give you abs – No, a good diet will.
- Working out 24/7 will provide more or better “gains” than someone who works out less – No, your body needs time to repair itself and grow.
- More reps = better when dieting down - No, they aren’t. If you got big doing low reps, you can maintain muscle/lose fat while doing low reps too.
- Fat burners are the best way to lose weight – No, a good diet and dedication is the best way to lose weight. Fat burners do not help nearly as much as they make themselves out to.
- Eggs are bad cholesterol – No, they aren’t. That’s all I will say on this topic. I will post an article regarding eggs in the future.
Continue reading…
By Derek Howes on Nov 5th, 2009 in Articles, Nutrition | Permalink | Leave a comment
I’m sure you’ve all read the article I put up yesterday regarding why and when to eat before you exercise. Now we’ll get to post-workout eating. We will call this “recovery nutrition”. This is the most important meal of the day by far. It may seem confusing to most, but it is really very simple once you understand how the body works. The number one thing you need to understand is that after working out, you want your muscles to recover. Recovering requires you to replenish muscle glycogen. To keep it simple, muscle glycogen is basically carbohydrates that have been stored in the body to use for fuel.
After working out your muscles become more receptive to producing new glycogen. This usually lasts a few hours. During this time muscle cells will “eat” up glucose as if it were it’s last meal because blood flow to the muscles is much greater. Another thing that happens at this time is muscle cells become more sensitive to the effects of insulin. Insulin promotes glycogen synthesis.
Continue reading…
By Derek Howes on Nov 4th, 2009 in Articles, Nutrition | Permalink | 3 comments
One thing I find a lot of people get confused about, is when to eat. Specifically when to eat before and after the gym. The science behind it is pretty simple so I will do my best to help you understand both when you should eat and why.
We’ll go ahead and start with when you should eat before the gym. Many people wonder “is it a good idea to eat before the gym?“. Absolutely. As to what you should eat, how much, and how soon, that all depends a lot on what you are trying to do. In a mass building phase you will want to eat more before the gym. My recommendation is 40-50 grams (160-200 calories) of carbohydrates and 20-30 grams (80-120 calories) of protein 90-120 minutes before the gym. In a cutting phase I usually opt for about half of that, 25 grams (100 calories) of carbohydrates and 15 grams (60 calories) of protein. Obviously depending on your individual needs or what your diet calls for, you may want to intake more or less. This is just the base I go by and what I usually follow (what has worked well for me). Working out for longer than ~90 minutes, doing lots of cardio, and high intensity training are examples in which you may want to add more calories to your pre-workout meal.
Continue reading…
By Derek Howes on Nov 4th, 2009 in Articles, Health | Permalink | Leave a comment
Ever hear someone say they are addicted to junk food? Well chances are, they probably are addicted. I’ve always been a firm believer that unhealthy food was addictive. Why do some of us desire these foods? The mental aspect of eating unhealthy is simply that, it’s programmed into our minds. When you are not suppose to do something you want to do, you usually do it anyways. The taste and smell of a pizza, freshly cooked donuts, ice cream, etc. Why do these taste and smell so much better than a healthy alternative? Is it because we know they are unhealthy for us? I believe so. I also believe it goes further than that and that the “ingredients” in these foods carry addictive properties that need to be studied.
Continue reading…
By Derek Howes on Nov 2nd, 2009 in IWL Updates | Permalink | Leave a comment
We have just added a section to the right as you can see that links to both mine and Kane’s training logs. You will get a look at how we train and on some occasions we will also incorporate videos into our logs.
We will try to update our logs daily, which will post to the main page as well as the training log section (to the right).
Hope you are all enjoying our updates. Try and join the forum when you get a chance. We appreciate all the feedback we have received thus far!!!
