Layne norton creatine simply shredded

Creatine sales totaled over […]. At 17, I was unhappy with my physical appearance. My mother was kind enough to enlist the help of trainer Luis Olivera to help me get in shape. Lou was an old school bodybuilder who often quoted the likes of Arnold, Yates and Coleman.

It seems every so called guru is coming up with a new extreme diet, supplementation, or extreme workout. It seems everyone is trying to sell you some workout routine with a magic set and rep scheme. Some claim that you should only lift low reps because […]. What got you started in bodybuilding? Well, when I first started becoming active as far as wanting to turn my life around and start getting into better shape was when I was 15 years old.

If I can remember correctly, I was around and fluffy as hell. Since that day I never looked back. Where does your motivation come from?

Romanian Deadlifts: Above all they just feel phenomenal. Hammies are my favorite muscle to train hands down. If you get the movement down properly it feels extremely graceful as well.

A good hammie movement feels like I am creating art. I really enjoy a high rep hammer curl. What is your diet like? No thanks, I'm happy with my physique. Cortisol produces glucose by breaking down proteins, including muscle tissue.

Cortisol is the primary catabolic hormone that is released when one lifts or does any kind of activity.

Furthermore, it is interesting to note that long-term exposure of cells to ketones i. This causes one to become extremely sensitive to carbohydrates when they begin ingesting them again after they finish dieting and could lead to an undesired post diet fat gain.

Carbohydrates act to maintain muscle mass while dieting by maintaining cellular osmotic pressure and cell volume. When cells are of large volume, it signals that the body is in a fed state. When cell volume is low it signals that the body is in a starved state.

Without delving too far into the science behind this, trust me when I say that you would like your body to think it is in a fed state as this will increase the levels of fat burning hormones and anabolic hormones. Cell size also indicates the anabolic state of the cell. When cell volume is high, protein synthesis rates increase. If cell volume drops, then protein synthesis levels drop. It is easy to infer we would like to maintain cell volume, especially when dieting. The body stores carbohydrates inside cells as glycogen.

For every gram of glycogen stored, the body stores around 2. Therefore, cells that have greater glycogen levels will also have more volume.

One can see then how low carbohydrate diets severely decrease cell size due to severe glycogen depletion. Concluding, carbohydrates help maintain muscle by increasing cell volume.

One more issue to consider is performance. If you refer to the goals of a pre-contest diet, you will see that number three maintains that you must keep a high level of intensity in the gym. This is important for several reasons.

If performance begins to suffer, then a person will undoubtedly lose strength. This could lead to a subsequent loss of muscle mass due to decreased stimulation from a decreased training overload.

Therefore, it is important that performance be kept at an optimal level. Low glycogen levels have been associated with increased fatigue and decreased performance in athletes endurance, strength, power output, etc. Several studies have shown that consuming adequate amounts of carbohydrates before, during, and after exercise may attenuate the increased fatigue and increase performance.

It can therefore be concluded that an adequate supply of carbohydrates is crucial for maintaining performance and for proper muscle recovery. Fats are very important molecules and are considered essential to ones survival. Several key functions of fats in the human body are for energy storage and hormone synthesis.

The main hormone that fats impact which we are concerned with is testosterone. When calories are restricted, testosterone levels will drop, as the body will suppress its release of anabolic hormones in order to spare nutrients for oxidation energy production. Drastically lowering your fat intake is another hit against testosterone production since fatty acids are the substrates for cholesterol synthesis and therefore are also the substrates for testosterone synthesis cholesterol is converted to testosterone, among other things.

Unfortunately, fats are also easily stored as adipose tissue body fat So there must be some type of compromise between ingesting enough fat for hormone maintenance and subsequent muscle maintenance and reducing fat intake enough to decrease body fat.

There has been some research done on the effects of dietary fat on testosterone. Rather than continuing with this discussion I will provide a link to an article which covers the subject quite nicely. Although fat increases testosterone to a degree, it is important to remember that testosterone is only a small piece of the larger puzzle. There are many other hormones and factors involved in building muscle other than just testosterone.

In order to come up with macronutrient totals for a diet, it is necessary to assess how many lbs per week one will need to lose to be in contest shape. This is not an exact science, however we can still get a reasonable experience-based estimate. Here are some example calculations so that you may have an understanding of how to go about doing this. To recapitulate, I do not recommend dropping weight any faster than To lose 1.

To lose the other. For those who do not exercise this method, a rough estimate can be made using the following strategy. So if he wishes to lose 1. This will need to be increased while dieting. Protein is a thermogenic macronutrient key in sparing muscle tissue when in a caloric deficit see aforementioned section on protein. For our subject, this equates to a protein intake of around g protein per day.

This means kcals have been devoted to protein intake, leaving us with kcals for fat and carbohydrate intake. Whatever calories that have not been allotted to protein and fat intake will make up total daily carbohydrate intake. This equates to g of carbohydrates per day. One should also incorporate re-feeds into their diet plan. Re-feeds help boost a hormone called leptin, which is the mother of all fat burning hormones.

As one diets, leptin levels drop in an attempt by the body to spare body fat. Periodic, proper re-feeding can raise leptin levels and help one continue to burn fat an optimum rate. A person who is lean will need to re-feed more frequently than someone who has a higher body fat percentage. Obviously as one loses body fat they will need to re-feed more often.

As previously discussed before, carbohydrates cause insulin release, which is very muscle sparing, but also very anti-lipolytic. It is therefore important that we construct a diet so that we intersperse long periods of low insulin levels in order to maximize lipolysis, coupled with short periods of high insulin levels to protect muscle when it is at the greatest risk of catabolism. There are essentially two crucial times during the day when muscle tissue is at the greatest risk of catabolism.

The most crucial time is during your workout. As many of you already know, working out is actually catabolic. When one is in a calorie deficit, the catabolic effect of working out is enhanced, as the body will attempt to raise low glucose levels by de-aminating amino acids and converting them to glucose.

One of the main hormones that control this action is cortisol. Unfortunately this is quite catabolic as some of these amino acids may come from muscle tissue See carbohydrates section. It is crucial that one consumes carbohydrates before exercise for several reasons. I also suggest consuming a shake composed of g of whey protein along with dextrose or maltodextrin during their workout.

It is also a wise idea to consume a post workout meal composed of whole food, low GI carbohydrate sources although one may consume another protein shake if they feel so inclined about 30 minutes after finishing the in workout shake.

You see, dextrose causes a very large insulin spike, and actually can cause insulin to be over secreted, when insulin is over secreted, blood sugar levels will drop rapidly as insulin disposes of the glucose into the tissues and one may even begin to experience hypoglycemia low blood sugar. Low blood sugar may lead one to experience an increase in hunger. A lower GI carbohydrate and protein meal post workout will help counteract this negative effect by stabilizing blood sugar levels. The other time of day when one should consume a meal containing carbohydrates is upon rising.

The main two hormones released are cortisol and glucogen both of which can be catabolic to muscle tissue. Consuming a carbohydrate meal will retard the release of these catabolic hormones and spare muscle tissue. It will also make you feel better by providing fuel for your brain to run on. There is some anecdotal evidence that suggests consuming a meal containing carbohydrates may also help suppress hunger later in the day. If you happen to workout after breakfast, merely combine breakfast and your pre workout meal.

During these high carbohydrate meals one should aim to keep fat as low as possible.