Today we’re asking the age old question; ‘How much of a calories surplus do I need to build muscle optimally?’ This FAQ is down to many wanting to find that magical ‘sweet spot’ of maximising muscle gain without the unwanted fat Before giving you the recommendations, we first need to know where these extra calories
Today, we’re taking a trip down to the nearest coffee shop and seeing how super high amounts of caffeine is beneficial to recovery from training, games or events. Now, just because you could, it doesn’t mean you should…let me explain. Pedersen et al (2008) wanted to see if adding in high amounts of caffeine post
Today, we’re looking into some new hype surrounding curcumin supplementation and accelerating recovery Curcumin supplementation has been shown to reduce inflammation and something called oxidative stress (OS) post exercise. Reducing both OS and inflammation sounds like a great idea for recovery of the muscle, however looking to abolish this may sacrifice adaptation. When they’ve tested this
Today is a brief, yet super important intro into RED-S. RED-S stands for Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport and is the impairment of many key physiological functions caused by energy deficiency. Energy deficiency is also coined as Low Energy availability (LEA), which is a mismatch between energy intake (food consumption/portion sizes) and energy expenditure via
For our Rugby World Cup special edition, we’re looking at the extra calorie demand playing puts on our body. Long story short; Collision induced muscle damage (CIMD) increases your total daily energy expenditure. This would suggest that the more contact you experience in a game, the greater the muscle breakdown and the greater need for
Today, we’re looking at the effect of hard training on your appetite. On paper, this doesn’t sound a problem, but in reality, it is. Now, I’m not talking about your 45 minute gym session, I’m talking about hard, intensive training camps or prolonged period of work such as preseason training. If you combine high energy
[The Great North Run edition] Today, we’re doing a deep dive into a key strategy that will guarantee you a better race time this Sunday. And needless to say, thank fuck science is here to help us out. Hansen and colleagues (2014) recruited runners competing in the 2013 Copenhagen marathon – Once they were on
Today, we’re doing a deep dive into protein and maximising gains. Specifically, whether we should focus our efforts on the timing and distribution of our protein meals to enhance muscle growth. When it comes to maximising the anabolic response from training, our protein intake is key to amplifying our gains. This is primarily driven through
Today we’re look at even more evidence as to why carbohydrates are king for performance…In this case, for team sports. As we know, carbohydrates drive exercise performance and having low carbohydrate availability, i.e. low amount of carbs in the diet and carbs stored within the muscle, liver and blood can be detrimental to performance. Carb
Today we’re looking at every gainers favourite hormone ‘testosterone’ and answering the question…Is more actually more? In other words, does having higher testosterone levels within the normal physiological range (i.e. not on gear) actually result in more muscle growth? To help us slash through the bro science, a fantastic study by Morton et al (2018)
𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆’𝒔 𝒗𝒔 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒐𝒑𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏? By all means, this is a massive topic, but here are a few thoughts… As I’ve been teaching the guy’s on my Intelligent Coach Programme, recommendations for gen. pop. are essentially the first few layers for athlete fat loss recommendations. Reason being,
Today, we’re doing a deep dive into the health consequences associated with extreme weight making strategies. As you’ve probably seen (or even experienced), last minute weight cuts happen on a very frequently basis and have raised concern for the health of the athlete. This is where they’ll lose drastic amounts of bodyweight (~10%) in the
This week, we’re looking at the use of zinc supplementation for the common cold. As we well know, prevention is always the best cure. However, is there anything we can do once you have picked up a nasty sniffle? The common cold is often caused by the rhinovirus, and as we know, is quite the
Today, we’re doing a deep dive into the ‘forgotten meal’. When you think of eating protein to enhance muscle size, you typically think that this period is confined to post training only. However, research strongly suggests that you should evenly distribute your protein meals throughout the day to stimulate 24 hour muscle protein synthesis (MPS)
Today, we’re delving into the world of activity trackers and how reliable they are at measuring the calories burned from exercise. As we know, the amount of calories you consume can dictate a whole host of outcomes, from fat loss, muscle gain, performance all the way through to immune function, adaptation and optimal recovery. Apps
