Beasts of Bodybuilding: 2014-02-02

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Saturday, February 8, 2014

Puberty and Bodybuilding – When can teens start gaining muscle

What most teens want to know is when they can really start packing on the muscle. They are tired of being skinny and impatient to get huge, when is the earliest you can do this naturally?

Puberty is the name given to the transition between boy and man and lots of changes occur and the hormone levels become much more favorable for building muscle. Two of the important hormones for gaining muscle are testosterone and growth hormone but there are other factors as well. Doing resistance training before testosterone is present will not results in muscle mass gain, its why 12 year olds don’t look like Arnold. Puberty is a very complex process and we are only beginning to understand the changes that take place. Lets look at the stages of puberty because it determines when you can start gaining muscle mass:

Age	Puberty Stage	Testosterone (% of max)	Growth Hormone (% of max)	Strength Gain thru lifting	Muscle Gain thru lifting
9-12	Height growth spurt starts, as much as 2″ a year. Scrotum and testicles start to grow.	10%	100%	can get a bit stronger	not possible
12-13	Height growth spurt accelerates, as much as 3″ a year. Testicles continue to grow. Body starts to look a bit leaner as childhood fat burns off. Light, fine pubic hair starts to grow.	75%	85%	can get a bit stronger	not possible
13-14	Height growth continues at up to 3″ per year. Pubic hair grows darker and fuller. Uncontrollable pitch changes in voice may occur, also know as “voice cracking”.	90%	80%	limited amounts	limited amounts
14-15	Height growth skyrockets, up to 4″ a year. Armpit hair and facial hair starts to grow. Acne sets in.	100%	75%	fair amounts	fair amounts
15-18	Height growth continues but slows, up to 2″ a year. Natural muscle growth occurs (without aid of weightlifting) and body gets hairier – thighs, chest, and arms. Gentiles complete growth to full size.	100%	60%	Yes!	Yes!
18-20	Height growth continues but slows further and natural muscle growth (without aid of weightlifting) continues.	100%	50%	Yes!	Yes!
20-35	Prime adult years	100%	25%	Yes!	Yes!
35-60	Golden years	80%	10%	Yes	limited

What does all this mean? Basically, until you have have armpit hair and facial hair, you are not going to be able to add muscle mass. For most teens, thats around 15 years of age. Lifting before then wont accomplish much in the muscle-mass department. Does this mean you should start squatting, benching and deadlifting at age 15? Maybe, maybe not, as there are other things to consider as well. Bone growth doesn’t stop till about age 20 so you still have some growth yet at age 15. The question is if you want to put these kinds of loads on a skeleton that is not yet mature. The medical profession says no, but most strength trainers ignore this advice and start deadlifting and squatting in their teens. No these lifts will not stunt your growth but injury is a concern in a skeleton that is still growing. Another issue is coordination, doing complex exercises like squats and deadlifts require a lot of coordination to perform them properly and bad form *will* cause injury. Teens are known for being un-coordinated because their bodies are changing size and proportions faster than the brain can figure out how to control everything. The last issue to consider when deciding whether to start hardcore lifting right at age 15 is maturity and judgement. For most teens, the brains are lagging behind the body in development at this time. There is a reason that the legal age for being an adult is 18 in most places in the world, its because until that time judgement skills have not fully developed. Before age 18, one is much more likely to do something stupid in the gym like lifting more weight than you can safely do just to show off. Personally, I advise waiting till your growth is totally complete, around age 20, and the coordination and judgement is under control before doing squats and deadlifts … but do your own risk/benefit analysis and decide what is right for you.

Testosterone, Growth Hormone, Puberty, and Aging

testosterone and growth hormone vs age chart

The above chart shows two of the important hormones necessary for gaining muscle mass and how they vary with age. Notice the testosterone curve, it skyrockets up starting at age 10 and peaks about age 15 then stays there till about age 35 when it starts a steady decline. Growth hormone on the other hand starts really high in young kids and then decays down to about 10%. The sweet spot for building muscle is approximately ages 15-25 when both the testosterone and the growth hormone levels are high. Please note that puberty comes at different times for different people so the age 15 is an approximation. A much more accurate start of the prime muscle building era is when you develop armpit hair and facial hair.

Conclusion

There are a lot of excellent reasons to exercise and in my opinion, bodyweight type workouts are beneficial as early as the early teens. Working out helps keep bodyfat low, aides with sleep, and boosts confidence and self-esteem, something virtually every teen needs. Before the age of 15 though, there will not be any appreciable muscle mass gain. After a teen gets armpit hair and facial hair, its a sign that they are at the optimal hormonal levels to maximize muscle gain and this optimal period lasts until about age 25. Although the optimal hormonal levels exist after about age 15, that still does not mean that hardcore lifting is prudent as injury is more likely in un-coordinate, impatient teens than in mature adults. Its a risk/benefit analysis that everyone needs to do for themselves. Personally I would recommend staying with my teen workout till age 19, then taking then putting the pedal to the metal!

Weight Loss Meal Planner

Answer seven quick questions and this custom meal planner will plan a whole days meals for you with the perfect portions for you specific metabolic needs so that you lose weight at the maximum possible rate without losing muscle. There are a lot of meal planners out there but mine are specifically for athletes. What’s the difference? Athletes have higher protein needs and also have more dietary discipline than the general population.

When it comes to losing weight, the problem that many people have is that they are too gung-ho. They cut their calories too drastically, not realizing that more suffering does not lead to better results. In fact, too drastic of caloric cuts leads to muscle loss and often to binging – neither is a happy result. When you consume *these* meals, I guarantee you that you will not be hungry. You wont be stuffed, but you wont be hungry either. This custom meal planner gives you the optimal sized meals for weight loss – for *your* metabolism and *your* activity level. What is “optimal” fat loss? My definition is to lose the fat as quickly as possible without losing any muscle. No muss, no fuss, just plug in your data and get your days meals planned.

Lets look at the difference between this weight loss meal planner and my cutting meal planner so you can choose the meal plan that best suits your needs:

	meals/day	caloric reduction	diet type	protein
Weight Loss Meal Planner (this page)	4	-25%	low fat	1g/lb
Cutting Meal Planner	6	-25%	low carb	very high

If you are a serious bodybuilder or athlete with less than 10 pounds of fat to remove then I would suggest the cutting meal planner. If you have more than 10 pounds fat to remove I would suggest this weight loss meal planner because its better for long duration use.

I agree to consult with my physician before starting this diet.

Step 1: Enter Your Gender

Step 2: Enter Your Weight
Pounds:
Kilograms:
Stones:

Step 3: Enter Your Height
Centimeters:
Inches:

Step 4: Enter Your Age

Step 5: Enter Weekly Cardio


Step 6: Enter Current Bodyfat
Step 7: Enter Target Bodyfat

Overview

Daily Macros
	grams	percent
protein
carbs
fat

Targets
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
Daily calories to maintain weight (TDEE)
Your daily caloric target
Number pounds to lose:
Number kilograms to lose:
Number weeks to reach step 7 bodyfat goal:

Your Personalized Optimal Weight Loss Meal Plan

	Food	Quantity(imperial)	Quantity (metric)	Cals	pro	carb	fat
Meal 1	rolled oats (uncooked wt)	oz	g		g	g	g
Meal 1	whey protein powder	oz	g		g	g	g
Meal 2	mixed frozen veggies (frozen wt)	oz	g		g	g	g
Meal 2	chicken breast (cooked wt)	oz	g		g	g	g
Meal 3	mixed frozen veggies (frozen wt)	oz	g		g	g	g
	scrambled egg whites	whites	whites		g	g	g
	egg yolks	yolks	yolks		g	g	g
Snack	piece of fruit				g	g	g
Meal 4	rolled oats (uncooked wt)	oz	g		g	g	g
Meal 4	whey protein powder	oz	g		g	g	g

Questions or Suggestions?

If you have questions or suggestions for improving this tool, please see the “contact me” section.

Substitutions

Many people ask if they can make substitutions and the answer is “Yes”, IF you know what you are doing and why. If you have to ask if you can make the substitution then you do not understand nutrition sufficiently to make the substitution. In that case, hire a nutritionist to help you. There is a very good reason for the way this meal plan is the way it is and if you go substituting brown rice for oats, corn for the mixed frozen vegetables, and hamburger for the chicken breasts then you have just ruined the whole thing. My suggestion is to adhere to this meal plan precisely or pay someone to help you work around your taste desires.

Can I Get Ripped Faster Than This?

Sure, do more cardio! In step 5 you will note that if you do more cardio you will get to your target bodyfat sooner. So you already doing over 7 hours of cardio a week, can you burn the pounds off faster than that? Depends, how much muscle do you want to lose? At a 25% caloric reduction, this is already pushing the limits – usually I dont recommend any more than a 20% reduction for people wanting to keep their muscle mass. How desparate are you to weigh less? You worked hard to gain that muscle and now you are going to lose it just because you didnt start your cut soon enough? Shame on you! Consider this a learning experience. Next time you know you need to cut, plan for it carefully by monitoring your bodyfat and weekly putting your info into this calculator to make sure that you can reach your target bodyfat by your contest, photo shoot or show date.

Should I take vitimans and other supplements

The one thing lacking in this plan is omega-III fatty acids. Normally, you would get this from something like flax or salmon but this nutritional plan does not contain any. You might consider taking fish oil while on this weight loss plan.

Do you recommend losing weight this fast?

No, I dont! Some people are procrastinators and leave weight loss till its nearly too late, all I am trying to do here is to give them their best option once they are in a bad situation. In my opinion, slow changes are always the best. I would rather see newcomers to fitness do a much more gradual program that would allow them to both add muscle and lose bodyfat at the same time and for this you want at most a 10% caloric deficit. For intermediates I would rather see them maintain a steady bodyfat rather than bulking and cutting because I dont think it buys them any gains and I dont think its healthy. Advanced bodyuilders have to bulk and cut, I’m not in favor of it but I understand the need (for them) and this tool helps them do it. Alles Klar?

Protein Powder

Protein Powder, Weight Gain Powders, and Protein Shakes

Protein powder is the one type of supplement that I feel is useful but there is a lot of hype and misinformation on the subject. I actually consider protein powders to be a “food” rather than a “supplement”. If you don’t remember anything else at all, please remember this Despite what the advertisements promise, protein supplements do not have any magical muscle-building properties! All these powders do is provide your muscles with protein to rebuild and they are in no way superior to a well balanced meal! I personally have never seen any research which has shown that any of these powders rebuild muscles any better than natural sources like chicken, fish, or beans/rice. These products do serve a convenient meal replacement when you don’t have time to eat a full meal.

A lot of people get all confused when it comes to protein powder, weight gain powder and protein shakes. If you don’t understand the difference you buy the wrong product so let me break it down for you:

protein powder - ingredients: 100% protein (whey, egg, soy, rice, hemp, etc)
weight gain powder - ingredients: protein powder, sugar, and lots of useless garbage
protein shakes - ingredients: protein powder, a liquid (milk, juice, or water), flavors ( fruit, chocolate or peanut butter), sweetener (honey, sugar, or artificial sweetener) and typically lots of supplements.

Protein Powders

You have many choices when it comes to protein powder, animal source or plant source. For you vegans out there, you can use soy powders. There is a continual debate about whether plant sources like soy can provide the essential amino acids, you will need to do your own research and decide. For animal sources, you can get egg or dairy based powders. I have never seen any research showing that egg or dairy is superior so the choice is yours to make based on taste and cost. If you choose dairy based powders, I would recommend that you get dairy whey. Read the labels carefully, personally I like avoiding any products with artificial sweeteners or flavorings.

How to tell a good protein powder

To find a good protein powder, you need to read the label carefully. Start with the nutritional label, virtually ALL the calories should come from protein and not fat or carbohydrates. Do this quick check, take the number grams protein in a serving and multiply by 4, that is how many calories should be in a serving. For example, a scoop has 25g protein, 25×4=100 calories. If a scoop has more than 105 or 110 calories then something is wrong, there is either too much fat or too much carbohydrates.

A high quality protein powder will have either a “USP Verified” label on it or a “USDA Certified Organic” label. Many protein powders have been found to have toxic impurities in them so you need to be very careful if they are not organic or USP Verified, I would recommend on sticking with the ones that Consumer Reports magazine found to be relatively free of toxic heavy metals, see Consumers Reports Protein Powder Rankings.

Read the label and the list of ingredients of the protein powder and be very wary of any product that:

makes any claims about strength or muscle gains
has any ingredient that is trademarked
has any ingredient that is a made-up name like “Metamyacin”
has artificial ingredients
has ingredients you have never heard of
does not say “made in USA”
has more than 4 ingredients

Here are your three basic choices for protein powder. The cheap, the OK, and the excellent/expensive.
	Costco, Walmart, and all the big box stores carry very economical protein powder, about $30 for 5lbs. Problem is that they are all loaded with artificial flavors and sweeteners. They often have strong artificial smells and odd aftertastes. Make sure to check theConsumers Reports article to make sure the one you are buying is free of toxic impurities. Some of the cheap protein powders were free of heavy metals.
	This used to be my personal favorite and when Consumers Reports tested it in July of 2010 it was free of toxins. I used this product for almost a decade and only recently stopped because I am not fond of stevia. At $50 for 5lbs it is definitely not the cheapest protein but I think its a good product from a fairly reputable company. Optimum nutrition makes several other protein powders that have artificial stuff in them, make sure “100% natural” is in the name. If you order it from amazon thru this link: Optimum Nutrition 100% Natural Protein Powder you will help support scoobysworkshop as I get a small sales commission.
	If you can afford it, the organic isolated whey proteins are the best. These cost 3-10x as much as the above protein powders from the big box stores. All the certified orgainic isolated whey powders are excellent.Source Naturals, “Whey to Health” is the one I have used and its probably the best money can buy (or tied with the best). Again, if you order thru the above amazon link I will get a small sales commission and you will help support scoobysworkshop.com

Weight Gain Powders (Aka Fat Gain Powders)

For 99% of you, these are a waste of money and will make you fat! Weight gain powders are protein and carbohydrate, usually sugar, and a bunch of vitamins and fancy sounding stuff that is supposed to magically build muscle – don’t believe it. For most people the only weight you will gain is FAT. Marketing people here are preying upon the ignorance of people here to make a bundle of money:

weight gain is not the same as muscle gain!

Yes, their product will make you gain weight but so will a bucket of sugar and sugar is a lot cheaper. For the few people that have no appetite at all or are dangerously low in body mass, these products can be a life saver but for the rest of us they are not appropriate. Many people mislabel themselves as “hard-gainers” when in fact they are normal. When working out hard and having flawless nutrition, it is reasonable to expect you will gain 5lbs of muscle in a year – maybe 10lbs/year if your are one of the genetically gifted few. Don’t believe the ads claiming that mass gain powders help hard-gainers to add muscle, they don’t, they just help add fat!

Protein Shakes

Remember, a protein shake is a product that contains protein powder, a liquid (milk, juice, or water), flavors ( fruit, chocolate or peanut butter), sweetener (honey, sugar, or artificial sweetener) and typically lots of supplements. The ones you buy are typically very unhealthy and are extremely expensive so I would recommend making your own healthy protein shake for a fraction of the cost.

Gain Muscle and Lose Fat At The Same Time!

You CAN gain muscle and lose fat at the same time and I will show you how. Common wisdom is that you have to gain some fat to gain muscle, its the whole bulking and cutting mentality. I’m here to tell you its wrong, at least for most people. Because of many peoples unrealistic expectations about adding muscle they come to the incorrect conclusion that you can’t gain muscle while losing fat.

Gaining muscle. Most mature adults can gain a maximum of 15 pounds of muscle in a year but many can only gain 5lbs of muscle a year. That’s only 1.25 pounds of muscle gain per month maximum – pretty slow whether you are losing fat at the same time or not. In rough numbers, to gain that 1.25 pounds of muscle each month while maintaining your current bodyfat you should eat an additional 3125 calories more a month, that’s about 100 more calories a day – not much of a calorie surplus.

Losing fat. Now lets look at losing fat, its much faster than gaining muscle. You lose fat when you consume fewer calories than you burn off in a day (the TDEE). For an average person losing weight, they will eat about 400 calories a day less (12,000 calories a month) than their TDEE to lose a pound of fat a week, or 52 pounds of fat in a year.

The first important thing to note is that the calorie surplus to gain muscle is very, very small when compared to the calorie deficit required to lose fat.

To gain muscle and lose fat at same time. Now lets try to put the two together – losing fat and gaining muscle. Now, your first thought is probably that it can’t be done because to gain muscle, you have to eat 100 calories more per day and to lose fat, you have to eat 400 calories less per day. How can you eat less and eat more at the same time? The secret to this is that our assumption that you need to eat more to gain muscle is incorrect for most adults.

Lets look at what your body does with its calories, please look at my body on left side of the above diagram. A whopping 25% of your energy goes to your brain. 50% is housekeeping stuff to keep us alive – breathing, pumping blood, maintain body temperature, replacing dead cells, etc. Its only down here where it gets interesting. About 20% is actually spend DOING stuff – walking, lifting, moving and only about 5% is spent adding muscle. Don’t get hung up on the exact numbers, the important thing is that exercise and building muscle uses very little of the calories we consume.

Now look at the right side of the above diagram, the sources. To keep you alive, your body needs two things, plain energy to burn in the form of carbs or fat and then amino acids in the form of protein. Your body has an amazing series of emergency backup system to keep you alive should food be scarce. Your stomach is the gas tank for ordinary use. Your bodyfat is the backup up generator to be turned on when food is scarce. And your muscles are the emergency backup, your body wont turn on this nuclear power plant to cannibalize muscle unless its a DIRE emergency. Energy can come from any of the three systems but amino acids can only come from the stomach or the muscles.

Lets talk about this nuclear reactor here and how to stop if from turning on and burning up our muscles. Our bodies are really smart, they know muscle is really important and they wont burn it unless they absolutely have to. There are three occasions your body will fire up the nuke in the above diagram:

It needs energy to stay alive that is not available in the stomach or fat stores (the barrel or the portable generator in the above diagram)
It needs amino acids to stay alive that are not in the stomach (the barrel in the above diagram)
Its afraid you are starving. If you cut calories more than 10% under TDEE, risk burning muscle.

40% of energy from protein eaten
50% of energy from fats and carbs eaten
10% of energy from stored bodyfat

So YES, you can gain muscle and lose fat and here’s how:

Constant influx of protein. 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day taken 5-6 equal portions spaced evenly through out the day – otherwise your nuclear power plant will have to turn on between meals and burn muscle, you don’t want that.
Consume enough calories to keep your body from thinking its starving but not so many calories that you gain fat, 10% under your TDEE is a good value to use. My calorie calculator will tell you exactly what that is for your type metabolism. Make sure to set your goal in step 6 to “10% calorie reduction”
Proper nutrition, make every calorie count!
1. eat unprocessed or minimally processed foods
2. eat lots of fresh vegetables
3. eat less than 30% of your calories from fat and eat only good fats like olives, nuts, and avocados
4. eat whole grains and low G.I. carbs – no simple carbs like sugar, alcohol, or white flour
5. eat omega-IIIs daily, flax or salmon are great sources
Hardcore, consistent weight workouts. You can use my custom workout plan generator to design a workout plan appropriate for you.
Daily cardio, 30-40min. Cardio will not burn muscle, it will help you gain muscle while losing fat at the same time.

Many beginners to fitness ask if they should lose their fat first or start lifting to gain muscle first, the answer is that they should do BOTH at the same time!!! Especially for beginners, it is very easy to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time!

Now lets talk about the exceptions to this, those who can’t gain muscle and lose fat:

Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is very difficult for advanced bodybuilders. Many of them are close to their genetic limits so adding muscle is very difficult and slow for them even under the best of circumstances. Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time is something that only beginning and intermediate bodybuilders can do. (By my somewhat arbitrary definition, an advanced bodybuilder is someone who can do 8 flawless, ultra slow-motion pullups and 20 flawless, ultra slow-motion pushups.)
Skinny teens who can’t gain either fat or muscle even when they eat as much as they can.
Advanced bodybuilders with low bodyfat (under 8%).Your body needs some fat so when you get to a certain point, your body will start choosing to burn muscle instead of fat if you have a caloric deficit. If you are 8% bodyfat and want to get down to 4-6% bodyfat you wont be able to add muscle while you do this, at best you can do is to maintain your muscle mass. With regular dieting, its tough to drop down to 4-6% without losing muscle mass but carb cycling seems to really help for this specific purpose.

3 Bodybuilding Exercises to Try Out at Home

Bodybuilding exercises are conducive to making your body bigger and developing muscles. Bodybuilding, as enthusiasts of the sport will tell you, provides people with more energy, better sleep, overall better health, and even improved psychological moods. This is in addition to the obvious benefit of making you look better. Bodybuilding is also beneficial in that it is economical and accessible to even private bodybuilders who just like to work out in their home environment. Doing bodybuilding exercises at home is just as useful as working out at the gym. Here are a few bodybuilding exercises that can be done at home.

1. Push-ups

Although push-ups are often taken for granted, they are a fundamental as well as an effective bodybuilding exercise. Because you need no equipment and no fancy training to prepare yourself for push-ups, they are the ideal bodybuilding exercise to try out at home. One of the goals with bodybuilding exercises is to elude injury, so you want to begin your push-up regimen by starting out with knee push-ups to evaluate if you can handle regular push-ups. If you are able to perform more than 20 knee push-ups without a problem, then this is too easy, and you must move on to regular push-ups. Make sure to do a push-up properly, which is defined as doing one push-up all the way down so that your chest touches the ground, and then back up again.

2. Bicep Exercises

Bicep exercises require the use of a barbell, and for at-home-use, you don't even need a huge barbell. Even a lightweight one will do just fine. The most important aspect of barbell bicep exercises is to make sure that your form is proper. If you fail to assume the proper form, then you may as well not do this exercise. Begin with your elbows at your sides and the barbell in your hands. Bring the barbell up all the way so that it reaches your shoulders; exhale as you do. It should take you a time of two seconds to bring the barbell up to its highest position before you bring it down again. When you reach the top of the motion, don't rest; bring the barbell back down in one fluid motion. Again it should take two seconds to bring it down.

3. Ab Crunches

Ab crunches are ideal for at-home bodybuilding because all you need is a flat surface and determination. Lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling. Make sure you don't move your neck or arms as they are at your sides. Only your upper body should be elevated toward the ceiling. Crunches are different from sit-ups, so make certain that the lower back stays on the floor while only the shoulders actually rise up from the floor. Hold the elevated position for a few seconds and then lower your upper body back down. With ab crunches, it is more vital to keep this proper form while performing these exercises, than to perform several crunches inaccurately.