Stretching for Safe and Successful Muscle Development

Most bodybuilders neglect stretching in their training program, though a flexible body is an essential requirement for proper muscle development. This post reviews the importance of stretching for bodybuilders, and provides hints about how to incorporate stretching into your program.

Benefits of stretching are numerous. It contributes greatly in preventing muscle injuries (strains, sprains, and pulls) and in delivering blood into the muscle. For this reason, stretching after workout is highly recommended, since the nutrient rich blood can easily reach the fatigued muscle so it can recover and start growing as soon as possible. In addition, stretching makes you bigger and more powerful by lengthening your muscles, and at the same time contributes to give you a cut-look by emphasizing muscle separation. Finally, stretching reduces muscle and joint tensions and plays a role in the healing process of injured or over-trained muscles.

Stretching can be performed after warm-up, once you have finished your workout, or even between sets while training, but never when muscles are still cold. A good approach consists of performing some stretching between sets targeting the muscle that you are currently working. This allows more fresh blood to access the muscle, reducing the lactic acid buildup and giving you more power for the next set. Then, once you have finished working that muscle, you can perform a more thorough stretching, which acts as the "cool down" phase of your workout. This will help to increase muscle size and to reduce soreness.

Whenever you stretch, it is mandatory to do it properly, since stretching is a dangerous type of exercise if done incorrectly. Never force a stretch or go past the point of serious discomfort or pain. Do not bounce at all as this can cause muscle and tendon/ligament damage. You should start gently stretching as far as you can go, that is, until you hit a natural stop which does not hurt but will do so if you keep pushing beyond that point. Hold this position for about 20 seconds without bouncing. Then, contract the muscle statically for 8-10 seconds and gently stretch it again until it stops and maintain this position during 20 seconds more. When doing this second stretch, you will notice that the stopping point has moved, thus enabling you to safely stretch beyond what was previously possible. The reason behind this lies in the body's natural defense mechanism. During the first stretch, in order to prevent tearing a ligament, the muscle that connects to these ligaments tenses trying to resist the pull. By contracting the muscle, your defense mechanism gives out, and you can stretch into a further position.

You can find additional information about all the stretching issues for the bodybuilder in the article “Stretching and the Bodybuilder!”, the article “Contract-Release Stretch” by Matt Danielsson and the chapter “How to Become Flexible” of the book “The Insider’s Tell-All Handbook On Weight-Training Technique” by Stuart McRobert, which includes also a complete program for improving your flexibility. Additionally, you can find a great amount of stretching exercises for the different muscles in the “Exercise Instruction & Kinesiology” section of the ExRx.net site.

Important Amino Acids for Bodybuilders

Protein is made up of structural units or chains called amino acids, which are involved in innumerable physiological processes in the body. Understanding the basics and providing a complete spectrum of them in the diet is basic for any bodybuilder. For supporting this task, this post reviews the primary amino acids for achieving success in bodybuilding.

There are 20 standard amino acids. Of those 20, 9 are considered essential, namely isoleucine, leucine, valine, histidine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, and tryptophan. Essential amino acids must be supplied entirely by diet, since body cannot manufacture them.

Isoleucine, leucine, and valine comprise the Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA). They are probably the most important amino acids in the growth, maintenance and repair of muscle tissue, exerting a strong synergistic effect among them. They contribute in preventing the breakdown of muscle tissue and in promoting muscle recovery. In addition, they also play a role in the regulation of blood-sugar levels and stimulate growth hormone release. Leucine is found in nearly all protein sources, especially whole grains and milk products, but also brown rice, beans, legumes, nuts, eggs, and meat. Major isoleucine sources are pork, chicken, cashews, fish, eggs, lentils, cottage cheese, milk, and cereal grains. Valine sources include dairy products, meat, poultry, fish, mushrooms, lentils, soy, and peanuts.

Lysine contributes to the maintenance and manufacture of muscle protein, playing additionally a role in revitalizing the body to combat fatigue and overtraining and maintaining a positive nitrogen balance. Lysine appears in fish, legumes, cheese, eggs, milk, meat, and potatoes. Methionine assists in the breakdown and use of fats. In addition, it is a precursor of creatine monohydrate within the body, an essential compound for energy production and muscle growth. Sources for this amino acid include meat, fish, beans, eggs, lentils, yogurt and seeds. Lysine, methionine and vitamin C together form L-carnitine, which is used for transport of long-chain fatty acids. For this reason, L-carnitine is commonly supplemented during fat loss periods.

Phenylalanine is a major precursor of tyrosine, which increases neurotransmitters levels (e.g dopamine). It's also one of the manufacturers of glutamine. Sources of this amino acid include dairy products, legumes, nuts, whole grains, poultry, fish, and seeds. Histidine is needed for the growth and repair of tissue of all kind, and it can be found in dairy products, bananas, grapes, meat, poultry, fish, rice and wheat. Threonine is used to form collagen and elastin and allows better absorption of other nutrients, so protein sources containing threonine are more bio-available than others. This amino acid can be found in poultry, fish, meat, lentils, dairy products, and eggs. Tryptophan is a major precursor of serotonin, which relieves insomnia and promotes restful sleep. Major sources are chocolate, oats, bananas, dairy products, red meat, eggs, fish, poultry, chickpeas, seeds, and peanuts.

Next to these essential amino acids, there are 11 non-essential amino acids (a.k.a. dispensable amino acids) which can be synthesized to a certain degree by the body. This category includes alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid (a.k.a. aspartate), cysteine, glutamic acid (a.k.a. glutamate), glutamine, glycine, proline, serine, and tyrosine.

Some of these non-essential amino acids have been demonstrated to be of great importance for the bodybuilder, especially glutamine and arginine. This has motivated these amino acids to be commonly supplemented. Glutamine is directly involved in the regulation of protein synthesis and breakdown and is a powerful anabolic stimulus. It regulates ammonium levels in the tissues, which can be toxic to the body's cells. In addition, glutamine can be used as an alternate energy source in glucose deprived conditions. This amino acid appears in large amounts in all high-protein foods. Arginine contributes to protein synthesis with its nitrogen retention ability. It also stimulates the GH release. In addition, it facilitates muscle mass gain while limiting fat storage. Arginine sources include whole-wheat, nuts, seeds, rice, chocolate, raisins and soy.

Further details can be found in the article “Amino Acids Guide!” by Big Cat and in the “Amino Acids” section of Gym Addiction site.

The Role of Hormones on Muscle Growth & Fat Loss

There are plenty of hormones in the human body that regulate all sorts of physical development and metabolic processes. Some of them contribute in an important way to regulate the anabolic and the catabolic processes. This post reviews the main hormones involved in muscle growth and fat loss, namely testosterone, growth hormone, insulin, glucagon and cortisol, which are of primary interest for the bodybuilder.

We have already described insulin and glucagon role in a previous post dedicated to metabolism. Remember that these are antagonistic hormones responsible for regulating blood glucose levels. Insulin is an anabolic hormone which facilitates glucose and amino acid transport into muscle cells (stimulating protein synthesis and inhibiting protein breakdown), but also fatty acid transport into fat cells. Glucagon is a catabolic hormone which mobilizes glycogen stores to recuperate glucose levels as well as stimulates breakdown of body fat to be used for energy. Both hormones are controlled entirely by diet.

Testosterone is a steroid hormone which is the responsible for the development of male sex characteristics (e.g. body and facial hair, deep voice, etc.) and the maturation of sperm and male sexual organs. In addition, testosterone is probably the most important hormone for building muscle through the promotion of protein biosynthesis. This accelerates muscle buildup and regeneration, and increases your recovery capacity after exercise, injuries, and illness. In addition, protein biosynthesis also stimulates the metabolism and promotes the burning of fat. You can stimulate your testosterone production through intense exercise and adequate sleep and nutrition. In addition, some bodybuilders use natural boosters when testosterone levels begin to drop due to age.

Human growth hormone (GH), also known as somatotropin, is the primary hormone responsible for stimulating tissue repair, cell replacement, brain function, and enzyme production. GH is a highly anabolic hormone having profound effects on the growth of the skeleton and the muscles. You can naturally control your GH levels through exercise, rest and nutrition. First, intense and strenuous workouts stimulate GH release because these catabolic states require extra protein synthesis and in case of lack of energy, fat metabolization to make up for glycogen depletion. Second, most part of your total daily GH is released while sleeping, especially during REM phase. For this reason, having a good sleep is mandatory for building muscle. Finally, a high protein diet contributes also to raise your GH levels.

Cortisol is a catabolic hormone which reduces cellular synthesis, and carries out the gluconeogenesis process (conversion of amino acids from muscle tissue to glucose for energy), causing in this way muscle breakdown. On the other side, cortisol is also involved in fat mobilization. Cortisol levels are highest early in the morning and during periods of high stress (i.e. after training). In order to control your cortisol levels, you should eat first thing in the morning and right after your workout (since insulin nullifies the effects of cortisol), limit your workouts to no more of 1 hour and have a good sleep. In addition, some amino acids (e.g. glutamine) and vitamins (e.g. vitamin C) help also to control cortisol levels.

You can complement the hormones information in this post by reading the article “Nitrogen Balance, Hormone Manipulation and Recovery Critical Factors in Bodybuilding!” by Jim Brewster, the article “Hormones: How They Build Muscle and Burn Fat” by Eric Hesse or the “Hormones and Neurotransmitters” section of Muscle 101 site.