The Science of Strength Training - Part 5

Good nutrition is a crucial part of a strength training program. Training with weights creates the stimulus; your diet provides the raw materials for building muscle. Eating the right foods will increase your energy levels, maximize your gains in the gym and improve your health. It will also provide the fuel and fluids needed for intense training, speed up your recovery after training, reduce fatigue and help achieve a healthy body composition.

Nutrition for Strength Training - Supplements

Amino acids

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. These supplements, including branched chain amino acids (BCAA’s), are popular with bodybuilders who sometimes prefer this method rather than protein shakes during intense training periods. BCAA’s consist of the three amino acids that have a branched molecular configuration: L-valine, L-leucine and L-isoleucine. Muscles may use BCAA’s for fuel when muscle glycogen is depleted. BCAA supplements probably won’t improve your performance but, at doses of 6 – 15 grams per day, may help improve your recovery during hard training periods by reducing muscle protein breakdown and post-exercise injuries. BCAA’s are found in good amounts in most protein supplements (especially Whey protein supplements) SSN 100% Whey protein and meal replacement products, SSN’s MRP.

Antioxidants

Antioxidant supplements include beta-carotene, lycopene and other carotenoids, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, coenzyme Q10, lipoic acid, conjugated linoleic acid to name but a few. Try to get as many antioxidants as possible from food. It is not possible to replicate in a pill what you get from food. Food contains hundreds of phytochemicals, all of which have slightly different antioxidant actions. Taking supplements will not stop you producing free radicals nor enhance your strength and performance. However they will bolster your body’s defences against free radicals. Studies have found that supplementation helps reduce the damage to muscles and other tissues caused by exercise, and to reduce post-exercise discomfort, swelling and soreness.

Caffeine

Caffeine is a substance that has a pharmacological (drug like) effect on the body. It is classed as a drug rather than a nutrient but is still considered a nutritional supplement because it is found in many everyday drinks. The caffeine content of coffee varies between 50 and 100 mg/cup, tea contains 30 to 60 mg/cup, coke 50mg/330 ml can and caffeinated ‘energy’ drinks roughly 100 mg/250 ml can. Caffeine has long been used in sport to mask fatigue and increase endurance. The amount needed to get a performance-enhancing effect varies depending on your individual metabolism. Studies have used amounts ranging from 3 – 15 mg/kg body weight (210 – 1050 mg for a 70kg athlete). This is equivalent to about 3 cups of coffee or 3 cans of caffeinated energy drink. However, as the sensitivity to caffeine varies, you may need to adjust the dose. Exceeding 5 mg/kg body weight will not give you further benefits. Caffeine supplementation has proved very beneficial for many types of exercise: short and long duration endurance events, as well as high intensity activities lasting between 5 and 20 minutes. It also benefits power and strength activities: high-intensity running, cycling, rowing and swimming. Researchers at an Australian University found that caffeine improved performance and enhanced power output in a 2000m time trial on a rowing (ergo) machine, a power event lasting about 7 minutes.

Caffeine can make you feel more alert and wide-awake but excessive amounts can cause restlessness, nervousness, trembling, irritability and diarrhoea or even heart palpitations. If you are susceptible to caffeine’s side effects, it probably is not worth taking as you won’t get a performance-boosting effect. Caffeine is also a diuretic, causing you to excrete more fluid than normal. There is no firm evidence that it causes dehydration but, if you do decide to use caffeine, drink extra water as a precaution before and during exercise to counteract the diuretic effect.

How caffeine works
There are three main theories to explain caffeine’s action on athletic performance:

1. In doses above 5 mg/kg body weight (350 mg for a 70 kg athlete), caffeine increases fat burning during exercise while sparing glycogen. It does this by stimulating adrenaline production, which in turn speeds up the release of fatty acids from fat cells into the bloodstream. Therefore taking caffeine before exercise may encourage the muscles to use more fat and less glycogen (carbs), and hence postpone fatigue.
2. Caffeine is a stimulant and has a direct effect on muscle contraction. It does this by stimulating the release of calcium from its storage sites in the muscle cells, enabling calcium to stimulate muscle contraction more effectively. This could increase strength and power output.
3. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system and therefore works at a psychological level. It may increase concentration, mask your perception of fatigue and increase your motivation to train harder.

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)

CLA is the collective term for a number of linoleic acid, one of the essential fatty acids. The average diet provides around 100 – 300 mg CLA/day, mainly from full-fat milk, meat and cheese. Supplements are made from sunflower and safflower oils. Research shows that CLA can reduce fat storage and increase fat burning. It does this by increasing the activity of an enzyme called hormone sensitive lipase that releases the fat from fat cells into the blood. At the same time it reduces the activity of another enzyme called lipoprotein lipase, which transports fat into the fat cells. The net result is that more fat is burned as fuel and less fat is stored.

The muscle-building benefits of CLA
Research conducted in Norway found that those taking 3000 mg CLA daily for three months reduced their body fat by 20%. When CLA is combined with strength training, it can reduce muscle breakdown, enhance muscle growth and increase strength. In general CLA supplementation can help you lose the unwanted body fat and help maintain the lean muscle mass built up over the past months. CLA supplementation with some cardio activity will also speed up weight loss. You don’t have to cycle CLA so you can make it part of your daily vitamin pack. It is part of my daily vitamin and mineral supplementation and has been for the past 6 months. I started using it permanently with my pre-contest preparation in May 2009.

Creatine

Creatine is a protein made naturally in the body from three amino acids (glycine, arginine and methionine). You can also obtain it from fish, beef and pork, although you would have to eat about 2 kg/day to get a performance-boosting effect. (Some technical data just so you can understand Creatine). In the muscle cells, it combines with phosphate to make phosphocreatine (PC). PC is an energy producing compound that regenerates adenosine triphosphate (ATP, a compound that provides energy) extremely rapidly during high-intensity activity. The idea with Creatine supplementation is to increase the muscles PC content. In theory, the more PC you have, the longer you will be able to sustain high-intensity activity.

Creatine supplementation typically raises the PC stores in the muscle by around 20%. In terms of performance, most – although not all – studies have found that Creatine supplements can increase strength (as measured by the 1 Rep Max); allow you to perform more repetitions (at 70% of your 1 RM) before reaching failure; and enable you to recover faster between sets. This would enable you to increase your training volume (i.e. lift heavier weights, perform more repetitions) and therefore lead to greater stimulation of muscle growth. The original Creatine – loading strategy – 20 grams/day for five days – used in the studies in the 1990’s may lead to excessive water retention. Studies have found that lower doses – 3 grams Creatine/day for 30 days or 6 grams/day (in 6 x 1 gram doses) for 6 days – are just as effective and result in less water retention. Take Creatine with meals or snacks. Protein and carbohydrate stimulate insulin release, which increases Creatine uptake by the muscles. Drink extra water when using Creatine to compensate for the increased uptake of water by your muscle cells.

Creatine - weight training and muscle mass
In terms of muscle growth, studies have also found that Creatine supplements promote muscle hypertrophy and produce significant gains in total body weight, muscle size and muscle mass. Weight gain is partly due to increased cell water content and partly due to increased protein content. Creatine draws water into the muscle cells and this increased cell volume becomes an anabolic signal for muscle growth. Protein breakdown is reduced and protein manufacture increased, causing a positive anabolic state.

Side effects of Creatine
Reports of side effects such as muscle cramps, stomach discomfort, dehydration, and muscle and kidney damage have not been proven. Researchers at the School of Biomedical Sciences at Nottingham University analysed blood samples of volunteers after taking a standard 10 grams/day, five-day loading dose of creatine followed by a 3 gram/day maintenance dose for nine weeks. They found no evidence of liver, muscle or kidney damage, and concluded that creatine has no health risks in healthy people when taken in the recommended doses. The only side effect appears to be water retention-related weighted gain. However this is associated mainly with high creatine loading doses (20-30 grams/day), however lower loading doses of 6 grams/day or less resulted in very little or no water retention at all.