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      Ab exercises won’t give you abs

      September 16, 2011 /

      Go to any gym, and you’ll see a big percentage of members at any given time tirelessly working their abs in the hopes of getting the elusive six pack. Go to any home in the U.S., and you’ll find many of them have some kind of ab machine, gadget, and/or tape that was bought with the promise of a flat stomach, wash-board abs, etc. The question is, does working your abs give you abs? In other words, does performing ab exercises burn the fat covering your abs? In a word, NO.

      A recent study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that the effect of abdominal exercises on abdominal fat was zero. 14 men and 10 women were randomly chosen to be in one of 2 groups: control group (CG) or abdominal exercise group (AG). The AG performed exercises for 6 weeks.

      In conclusion, abdominal exercise training was effective to increase abdominal strength, but was not effective to decrease various measures of abdominal fat. The information from this study can help people to understand that abdominal exercise alone is not sufficient to reduce waistline or subcutaneuos fat.

      J Strength Cond Res 25(9):2559-2564,2011

      Abs, Equipment and Gear, Weight Loss, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

      Hydroxyl Methylbutyrate (HMB) for strength and getting lean

      September 14, 2011 /

      HMB has been widely publicized and has been one of the more popular supplements for over a decade. HMB is a metabolite of the branch chained amino acid leucine. With claims like increased strength, muscle size, recovery and fat oxidation, it sounds too good to be true. In fact, a publisher of a very successful magazine referred to using HMB akin to using the anabolic steroid deca durabolin. Unfortunately, the claims made about HMB don’t seem to hold up in the research.

      A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning, performed a met-analysis of 9 studies. The analysis was comprised of 394 subjects between the ages of 21 and 25. Some of the subjects had training experience and some didn’t.

      The major findings of this meta-analysis are that HMB supplementation results in a small, beneficial increase to overall strength in untrained lifters but has a negligible effect on trained lifters. Furthermore, in untrained lifters, HMB results in a small to possibly moderate increase in lower-body strength, but it has only a negligible effect on upper-body strength. In contrast, all strength outcomes are insignificant in trained lifters. In both trained and untrained lifters, the effect of HMB supplementation on body composition is negligible.

      In my view HMB is a waste of money. The only gains made were small strength gains in untrained individuals? Why would any researchers analyzing a supplement, looking for strength or lean body mass gains, use untrained individuals? They are going to make gains, especially in the first few months, just by working out. I’m amazed at how so many studies are poorly performed and yet, are still published.

      Fat burners, Product review, Supplements, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

      Testosterone’s time sensitive side effects

      September 12, 2011 /

      Low testosterone (T) symptoms may include low sex drive, erectile dysfunction, fewer sexual thoughts, mood problems, fatigue, loss of muscle, poor concentration, sleep disturbances, and fewer morning erections. Low T is also associated with several chronic medical conditions, including obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, depression, and cardiovascular disease.

      Men who get treated for low T have a very positive experience. The changes in appearance and mental state can be very profound. Interestingly, these positive changes associated with T therapy, have been found to occur at different times. A study from the University of Koln in Germany analyzed the relationship of time following administration vs. the effects on sexual functioning and mood on forty subjects. Researchers found sexual thoughts and fantasies occurred within weeks of initiating T therapy. Total number of erections rose steadily and peaked at 9 weeks. Ejaculations per week steadily rose and plateaued over 12 weeks. Depression decreased gradually and leveled off at 6 weeks. Mental concentration improved within the first 3 weeks, but overall mood did not improve until weeks 6 – 9.
      The Aging Male 2009, 12: 113-118

      Anti-Aging, Men's Health and Wellness, Testosterone, Testosterone boosters, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

      Food additive makes you fat

      September 10, 2011 /

      Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is a widely used food additive that may lead to obesity. It is often present in processed foods although it is frequently not clearly labeled. MSG is frequently seen hiding behind such innocent-sounding names as hydrolyzed protein, vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, whey protein, and natural flavoring, spices, enzymes, autolyzed yeast extract, stock, broth and carrageenan. If MSG was as benign as the food industry says it is, why do they have to disguise the name?

      In a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers followed more than 10,000 adults in China for about 5.5 years on average. The researchers measured MSG intake directly by before-and-after weighing of products, such as bottles of soy sauce, to see how much people ate. They also asked people to estimate their intake over three 24-hour periods. Men and women who ate the most MSG (a median of 5 grams a day) were about 30 percent more likely to become overweight by the end of the study than those who ate the least amount of the flavoring (less than a half-gram a day), the researchers found. After excluding people who were overweight at the start of the study, the risk rose to 33 percent.”

      Food preparation, Foods products, Nutrition, Obesity, Xternal Fitness, Xternal Furci

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