VITAMIN E

Almost everyone who has ever swallowed a vitamin of any kind knows a bit about vitamin E.
Mostly they know that it is a fat soluble vitamin that is a powerful antioxidant. But few know what vitamin E actually is.
Vitamin E is the generic name for a group of compounds known as tocopherols and the lesser known, tocotrienols.
Each has four different structures or isomers that are designated as alpha, beta, gamma and delta.
What may surprise you most about vitamin E is that although scientists know that it is important for muscle function, they don’t know exactly why.
That is until now.
Researchers from Georgia Health Sciences University recently uncovered how precisely vitamin E contributes to muscle function.
They discovered that tears in muscle membranes would not heal unless the muscle cells were treated with vitamin E. As you already know, vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant, which means it stops free radicals from causing further damage to cells, such as muscle cells. These free radicals prevent muscle tears from healing. You also know that vitamin E is fat soluble. The membrane of a muscle cell is essentially made of fats. Because vitamin E is fat soluble, it actually inserts itself into the membrane where it prevents the free radicals from attacking the membrane, and therefore allowing the tears to heal.


Jim’s take-home point:
When you work out you cause tears in the muscle cell membranes AND you increase free radical production. So getting in adequate vitamin E is absolutely critical for anyone who exercises.
I suggest supplementing with 400-800 IU of vitamin E per day and consider taking it with your preworkout shake on workout days.

But don’t just grab ANY kind of vitamin E supplement.
I have some critical tips to help you pick out a suitable vitamin E supplement.
First off, be sure that the vitamin E you choose provides at least all four of the forms of tocopherols: alpha, gamma, beta, and delta.
If it also contains some tocotrienols, even better. Although alpha tocopherol is the most critical form of vitamin E, particularly for muscle membrane repair, you also want to be sure to get in some of the gamma, beta, and delta, too. Each one offers distinct benefits in the body, and research shows that a mix of the isomers has the greatest range of benefits. For instance, gamma tocopherol can help to inhibit cancer growth. Plus, supplementation of only alpha tocopherol has been found to reduce levels of the other isomers in the body.
And second, be sure the vitamin E you choose uses natural forms of vitamin E and not synthetic.
While both are absorbed to the same degree, the natural form is more than two times more bioactive within the body. Only about half of the synthetic Vitamin E is treated as the preferred natural Vitamin E by the liver and the rest is predominantly excreted down the toilet.
So how do you tell if a vitamin E supplement is natural or synthetic?
By the letters “l” and “d”. If it lists dl-alpha tocopherol, it's synthetic. But if it lists d-alpha tocopherol (no "l" after the "d"), then it's the natural form and is most likely derived from vegetable oils.


So if you’re serious about your muscle growth and your health, be sure to supplement with vitamin E every day.

Reference:
Howard, A. C., et al. Promotion of plasma membrane repair by vitamin E. Nature Communications, 2011; 2: 597.

ABS LAST

Regardless of how big you want your arms, or how strong you want your bench press, you still want a ripped set of abs.
I don’t think that I’ve ever met a man or woman who wouldn’t prefer to have an impressive six pack. Despite that fact, ab training and cardio are the most likely things to get skipped when time is running short. That is not the best way to get a ripped set of abs.
There are many trainers out there who recommend training abs and cardio first for those who tend to skip them.
Yet while this may be good for those who have a problem with their time management skills, it is not good for those who what to build muscle size and strength.
You NEVER want to do cardio first when you work out.
Yes, doing 5-10 minutes of light cardio makes a good warm-up, but doing a full cardio workout before you lift weights will zap your energy levels and your muscle strength. So be sure to wait to do cardio till after the weight workout. Not only is this best for muscle strength and size gains, but research shows that it can also enhance fat burning.
There are numerous reasons why you NEVER want to train abs first when you work out.

The first is strength… or lack there of.
Core strength is critical on most exercises you do, but is especially critical on exercises like squats, shoulder presses, bent-over rows, and even curls and the bench press. Greater core strength translates into greater strength on these exercises. If you train abs before you train the major muscle groups, then you will fatigue your core muscles, which will reduce your core strength, and reduce your strength on most other exercises. And this is not just hyperbole.
A study that I did with the Weider Research Group supports this.
We had trained bodybuilders do three sets of squats using their 6-rep max weight. In one workout, they did a typical warm-up and then did the 3 sets of squats. In another workout they first trained abs by doing 3 sets of the dumbbell woodchoppers, 3 sets of hanging leg raises, and 3 sets of crunches before doing the 3 sets of squats. When they did the ab workout before squats they completed fewer reps on ALL 3 sets of squats than when they did squats without doing abs first. They performed one less rep on sets one and two and 2 less reps on set three. In other words, the guys were weaker on squats after training abs. Likely the reason that they were weaker on squats was because their core muscles were fatigued.
A second reason to never train abs first when you workout is to prevent injuries, particularly to your spine or spinal discs.
Since the core supports your spine, training abs before you train legs or other muscle groups could also leave you more prone to injuries. That’s because a fatigued core will offer your spine less support. And when you have to support heavy weight, this can increase your risk of back injury, as well as other injuries.


You also can risk injuring your spinal discs by training abs first if you workout first thing in the morning or have a long commute to the gym.
When you sleep, loading on the discs is reduced, which allows them to absorb more fluid. So when you wake up the pressure inside the discs is much higher than before going to bed, which increases bending stresses at the discs. Flexing the spine, such as when you do crunches, at this time can increase the risk of injuring a disk. But if you first train other muscle groups first in the morning, the discs become more elastic and flexible in bending as the workout goes. Then when you train abs later in the workout, there is less risk of injury.
Sitting in your car for long periods allows the disks in your spine to gain height, which decreases your spines range of motion and that can increase your risk of injury when flexing the spine, such as during crunches. Again, by waiting till the end of your workout to train abs, the spinal disks will lose height and you’ll have an increased range of motion in the spine and less risk of injury.

Consider also reading my article to Crunch or Not To Crunch, which also covers these last two points about crunches:
http://www.jimstoppani.com/home/articles/to-crunch-or-not-to-crunch-that-is-the
The bottom line is to be sure to keep your ab training and cardio at the end of your workouts or do them as completely different workouts.
This way your strength and muscle growth will not be limited and neither will your ability to get lean and build an impressive six pack. For those of you who are often pressed for time and end up frequently skipping abs, I suggest that you consider supersetting abs with other small muscle groups, such as forearms or calves. Or you can even do an abs, calves and forearms triset workout. Again, do this at the end of the workout or as a separate workout on its own. This will help to limit the time it takes to train these oft-neglected muscle groups.

FAST REPS vs SLOW

Author: Jim Stoppani, PhD

If you're familiar with my training advice, then you know that I like change. I like to change up exercises, rep ranges, rest periods, training splits, and even the speed at which reps are performed. When it comestibles rep speed, most people stick with the tried and true slow and controlled pace of about 1-2 seconds on the positive and about 1-2 seconds on the negative. While this is the pace you should keep for most of the time, you should occasionally consider going much slower some of the time and much faster some of the time. Super slow reps can help you build more muscle, while fast and explosive reps can help you build more strength and power, which can help you build more muscle in the long run, and they can even help you to burn off more body fat.

Studies Confirmed

Scientists from the University of Sydney (Lidcome, NSW, Australia) had males and females follow a biceps training program for 6 weeks using different rep speeds to determine which rep speed on the one-arm biceps curl best increased strength and which rep speed best increased muscle size. One group did one-arm biceps curls using slow reps (3 seconds on the positive and 3 seconds on the negative part of the rep), while the other group did fast reps (less than 1 second on the positive and negative part of the rep). Each group trained with a weight that limited them to 6-8 reps on the one-arm biceps curl and trained three times per week. They found that the fast reps increased biceps strength by 46% over the 6 weeks, while slow reps only increased biceps strength by 40%. Slow reps on the other hand, increased biceps size by 3%, while the fast reps only increased size by 1%. In other words, fast reps appear to be best for increasing muscle strength, while slow reps are best for increasing muscle size. Slow reps may increase size better than fast reps due to a greater increase in growth hormone (GH) and testosterone levels. A Japanese study reported that subjects using slow reps raised GH and testosterone levels than those using faster reps.

Fast Reps = Fast Results

Fast reps likely increase muscle strength better because they utilize more of the fast-twitch muscle fibers within a muscle. These are the muscle fibers that can contract with great speed and strength. These muscle fibers also appear to burn more calories than slow-twitch muscle fibers. Researchers from Ball State found that weight-trained men doing squats with fast reps burned over 10% more calories than when they did squats with normal speed reps. The fast rep workouts also caused the men to burn 5% more calories at rest after the workout was over.

So be sure to change up your rep speeds just like you change up other aspects of your workouts. Keep normal-speed reps at the foundation of your training program, using them the majority of the time. However, also use fast reps for building strength and power, as well to drop body fat. Use slow reps to help encourage more muscle growth.

THE WORKOUT

The Workout

Day 1
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Muscle Group
Barbell Incline Bench Press On Bench	4	10	Chest
Dumbbell Bench Press On Bench Both Arms	4	8	Chest
Laying On Incline Bench Dumbbell Flys Both Arms	3	10	Chest
Standing Mid Cable Flys Both Arms	3	15	Chest
Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press Both Arms	4	10	Shoulders
Standing Barbell Upright Row	4	8	Shoulders
Standing Dumbbell Side Raise Both Arms	3	12	Shoulders
Standing Dumbbell Rear Delt Raise Both Arms	3	15	Shoulders
Laying On Bench Bar Triceps Extension Both Arms	4	10	Arms
Dips	4	8	Chest
Standing Cable Triceps Extension Both Arms	3	12	Arms
Day 2
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Muscle Group
Barbell Bent Over Wide Grip Rows Both Arms	4	10	Back
Seated On Bench Bar Lat Pulldowns	4	8	Back
Seated Cable Row	3	12	Back
Standing Overhead Cable Pulldowns Both Arms	3	12	Back
Standing Bicep Curl Barbell Both Arms	4	8	Arms
Seated On Bench Bicep Curl Dumbbell Alternating Arms	4	8	Arms
One Arm Dumbbell Preacher Curl	3	10	Arms
Day 3
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Muscle Group
Barbell Squat	4	8	Legs
Machine Leg Press Both Legs	4	8	Legs
Hack Squat	3	10	Legs
Seated Machine Leg Extension Both Legs	3	12	Legs
Barbell Straight Legged Deadlift	4	8	Legs
Prone Machine Leg Curl Both Legs	4	8	Legs
Seated Leg Curl	3	10	Legs
Day 4
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Muscle Group
Standing Barbell Shrugs	4	10	Shoulders
Standing Dumbbell Shrugs	4	12	Shoulders
Standing Barbell Shrugs With Band	3	15	Shoulders
Standing DB Reverse Curls	4	10	Arms
Barbell Wrist Curl	4	12	Arms
Standing Calf Raise	4	10	Legs
Seated Calf Raise	4	12	Legs
Day 5
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Muscle Group
REST	0	0	TIPS

Day 1
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Muscle Group
REPEAT WORKOUT FROM WEEK 1 FOR WEEK 2	0	0	TIPS

Day 1
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Muscle Group
Barbell Incline Bench Press On Bench	4	12	Chest
Dumbbell Bench Press On Bench Both Arms	4	10	Chest
Laying On Incline Bench Dumbbell Flys Both Arms	3	12	Chest
Standing Mid Cable Flys Both Arms	3	20	Chest
Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press Both Arms	4	12	Shoulders
Standing Barbell Upright Row	4	10	Shoulders
Standing Dumbbell Side Raise Both Arms	3	15	Shoulders
Standing Dumbbell Rear Delt Raise Both Arms	3	20	Shoulders
Laying On Bench Bar Triceps Extension Both Arms	4	12	Arms
Dips	4	10	Chest
Standing Cable Triceps Extension Both Arms	3	15	Arms
Day 2
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Muscle Group
Barbell Bent Over Wide Grip Rows Both Arms	4	12	Back
Seated On Bench Bar Lat Pulldowns	4	10	Back
Seated Cable Row	3	15	Back
Standing Overhead Cable Pulldowns Both Arms	3	20	Back
Standing Bicep Curl Barbell Both Arms	4	12	Arms
Seated On Bench Bicep Curl Dumbbell Alternating Arms	4	10	Arms
One Arm Dumbbell Preacher Curl	3	15	Arms
Day 3
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Muscle Group
Barbell Squat	4	12	Legs
Machine Leg Press Both Legs	4	10	Legs
Hack Squat	3	15	Legs
Seated Machine Leg Extension Both Legs	3	20	Legs
Barbell Straight Legged Deadlift	4	12	Legs
Prone Machine Leg Curl Both Legs	4	10	Legs
Seated Leg Curl	3	15	Legs
Day 4
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Muscle Group
Standing Barbell Shrugs	4	15	Shoulders
Standing Dumbbell Shrugs	4	15	Shoulders
Standing Barbell Shrugs With Band	3	20	Shoulders
Standing DB Reverse Curls	4	15	Arms
Barbell Wrist Curl	4	15	Arms
Standing Calf Raise	4	15	Legs
Seated Calf Raise	4	15	Legs
Barbell Standing Calf Raise with Bands	3	20	Legs