This is a quick video about the gear. Nowadays I’ve been getting a lot of requests for cycles from guys and girls. Most of these people have no idea what steroids are and what they do to your body – let alone the side effects. This video sums up the basics:
I thought I’d share my story with you guys, how I got here where I am now.
My prep actually started end of February. I was 79kg, and I was getting ready for the Nabba Worlds in June in Italy. I was very keen, had the passion burning inside me. I wanted to win! Last year I finished 2nd at the Nabba Worlds in Russia and I really wanted to prove myself this year. Athletes would know that a contest prep is not easy, but you can always step it up when you’re keen, so I went all in.
So June came, and I went to Italy to compete. Finished 2nd again – not gonna lie, I was pissed off. We planned another competition a couple of weeks after that, Portugal or Spain, but I said no. I knew what improvements I had to make and I needed a bit more time to make them happen.
So after my first comp mid June I went straight into prepping for the second one in November. First I wanted to go to Poland but then we learnt that the @ironrebelshow was gonna be organised again in November – and we went there with @abe.superman In May when he competed, so I changed my mind and I registered for Denmark.
I had to bring up my shoulders, especially my rear delts, so I started training them 3x a week. My glutes and hammies needed more shape, so that meant glutes and hammies 2x a week, and quads/full legs with glutes 1x a week. Are you keeping score? That meant Ꭵ hᎪᎠ ᏆᎾ ᏆᏒᎪᎥᏁ ᏆᎳᎥᏟᎬ Ꭺ ᎠᎪᎽ ᏆᎳᎥᏟᎬ Ꭺ ᎳᎬᎬᏦ… and this is exactly what I did for 6 months to get into the shape I needed for the @ironrebelshow in Denmark last weekend.
The first pic was taken 2 weeks into my prep in March. The second pic was 1 week before the second comp last weekend. I’m proud of this package, I’m proud of the improvements I’ve made and the condition I’ve got myself into. I know there’s more to come, but so far that was my best ever shape.
“MCTs” are medium-chain triglycerides, a form of saturated fatty acid that has numerous health benefits, ranging from improved cognitive function to better weight management. Coconut oil is one great source of MCTs.
MCTs are missing from our modern diets because the public has been led to believe that saturated fats are bad. However, recent research has shown a lot of evidence about the real benefits of saturated fats.
We now know that ideally MCT oils should actually be consumed every day. Certain saturated fats, especially MCTs and other healthy fats found in things like coconut oil or grass-fed beef, are in fact easier to digest than long-chain triglycerides (LCTs) and might even have more benefits related to heart health, obesity prevention and brain health, too.
MCTs are digested easily and sent directly to your liver, where they have a thermogenic effect. That’s why MCTs have been claimed to be burnt by the body for energy, instead of being stored as fat.
Medium-chain fatty acids are capable of helping you:
• Maintain a healthy weight — since they make you feel full
• Specifically reduce stored body fat — since they also raise your metabolic function
• Have more energy
• Think more clearly
• Experience better digestion
• Balance hormone levels
• Improve your mood
• Fight bacterial infection and viruses
• Absorb fat-soluble nutrients from various foods
EHPLabs Oxywhey contains 300Mg of MCT oils, as well as essential and non-essential amino acids andBCAAs, and a blend of whey protein, isolate and micellar casein which makes it an ideal supplement, especially during Ramadan, to provide you with fast and slow absorbing proteins that will see you through the fasting hours.
Caffeine can increase alertness, sharpen focus, improve mood, boost pain tolerance, help burn fat, and help athletes do more work for longer periods in the gym and in sport.
Caffeine was previously banned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) pre-competition but since January 2004, any restriction on caffeine’s use pre-event has been lifted.
Caffeine works on the central nervous system.
In bodybuilding and sports, many people also use caffeine pills to enhance performance, these are typically 50-200mg each, and doses may be as much as 300-400mg.
Caffeine is rapidly absorbed from the digestive system reaching peak concentration in blood 60-90 minutes after ingestion. Caffeine is then metabolised in the liver. Complete clearance of caffeine from plasma and urine is not until 24-48 hours after ingestion of the last dose.
Caffeine has been shown to increase both short term intense exercise performance, ‘stop-start’ activities (football, rugby, etc), long distance running and help our performance in the gym, so we can train more effectively and ultimately increase size and strength.
The competition season is upon us, and a lot of athletes struggle to get dry on stage. Here are the basics of how your body works when it comes to water balance:
The majority of fluid output occurs from urination. Some fluid is lost through perspiration (part of the body’s temperature control mechanism) and as water vapor in expired air.
The body’s homeostatic control mechanisms ensure that a balance between fluid gain and fluid loss is maintained. The hormones ADH (antidiuretic hormone, also known as vasopressin ) and aldosterone are responsible for this.
What does this mean: your body is smart, it will always try and restore the water balance.
If you drink too little water, it will retain fluid by the kidneys and reduces the urine output.
When you drink too much water, your body will try and push it out by increasing your urine output. Drinking too much water also increases the amount of water in your blood and your sodium and electrolyte levels drop. Sodium helps balance fluids between the inside and outside of cells.
When sodium levels drop due to excess water consumption, fluids shift from the outside to the inside of the cells, causing them to swell. When brain cells swell, pressure inside the skull increases. This pressure causes the first symptoms of water intoxication: headache, nausea, vomiting.
Aldosterone increases water reabsorption through sodium cotransport.
ADH increases water reabsorption by increasing the nephron’s permeability to water, while aldosterone works by increasing the reabsorption of both sodium and water.
Over hydration happens when you drink more water than your kidneys can get rid of via urine.
But the amount of water is not the only factor. How long you take to drink the water also counts.Your kidneys can only get rid of about 0.8 – 1 liter of water per hour. Therefore to avoid water intoxication you should not drink more than 1 l of water per hour on average.
Extra care should be taken when you ‘load’ the water before a competition, and also when you rehydrate following a dehydration after a competition – don’t drink too much water at once.
Collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies, especially type 1 collagen. It’s found in muscles, bones, skin, blood vessels, digestive system and tendons. It’s what helps give our skin strength and elasticity, along with replacing dead skin cells. When it comes to our joints and tendons, in simplest terms, it’s the “glue” that helps hold the body together.
As we age, collagen production declines. You’ll notice it physically: looser skin, more wrinkles and less elasticity. Increasing collagen levels can help your skin look firmer, increase smoothness, and help your skin cells keep renewing and repairing normally.
Collagen also reduces cellulite and stretchmarks.
When we lose collagen, our tendons and ligaments start moving with less ease, leading to stiffness, swollen joints and more. With its gel-like, smooth structure that covers and holds our bones together, collagen allows us to glide and move without pain.
A boost in collagen may help increase your metabolism by adding lean muscle mass to your frame and helping with the conversion of essential nutrients. One of glycine’s most important roles is helping form muscle tissue by converting glucose into energy that feeds muscle cells.
Collagen protein is the building block of your fingernails, hair and teeth. Adding collagen into your diet regimen can help keep your nails strong and possibly reverse signs of hair loss.
If you’d like to detox your body of harmful substances, improve blood flow and keep your heart young, collagen is extremely helpful. That’s because glycine helps minimize damage your liver experiences when it absorbs foreign substances, toxins or alcohol that shouldn’t be passing through it.
Digestive enzymes aren’t just beneficial, they’re essential! They break down food into amino acids, fatty acids, cholesterol and simple sugars.
The role of digestive enzymes is primarily to act as catalysts in speeding up specific, life-preserving chemical reactions in the body. Essentially, they help break down larger molecules into more easily absorbed particles that the body can use to survive.
If you have any type of digestive disease such as acid reflux, gas, bloating, leaky gut, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, malabsorption, diarrhea or constipation, then digestive enzymes can help. Digestive enzymes can take stress off of the stomach, pancreas, liver, gallbladder and small intestine by helping break down difficult-to-digest proteins, starches and fats.
• Liver disease could indicate a concurrent enzyme insufficiency.
• Crohn’s disease may result in enzyme deficiency.
• Iron deficiency or vitamin B12 deficiency may suggest that the digestive process is failing to cleave these nutrients from food.
• Vitamin D deficiency may indicate another malabsorption issue.
What are the benefits of digestive enzymes?
Without them, we couldn’t process food! The main reasons why most people should take digestive enzymes:
• Assists the body in breaking down difficult-to-digest protein and sugars like gluten, casein and lactose.
• Greatly improve symptoms of acid reflux and IBS.
• Enhance nutrition absorption and prevent nutritional deficiency.
• Counteract enzyme inhibitors naturally in foods like peanuts, wheat germ, egg whites, nuts, seeds, beans and potatoes.
Digestive enzyme products are derived from three sources:
• Fruit-sourced — usually pineapple or papaya-based
• Animal-sourced — including pancreatin sourced from ox or hog.
• Plant-sourced — from probiotics, yeast and fungi.
The competition season is upon us, many of you guys do endless cardio to lose body fat. Sometimes we go through phases when the weight loss stops and it seems almost impossible to get it going again. The body is trying to hold on to that little bit of fat – it’s a normal survival mechanism.
When weight loss stops, it’s a sign that your body has adapted to your current training and diet, and you just need to change something to kick it off again.
Sometimes it’s a good idea to switch up your cardio from steady state to HIIT. Many bodybuilders are scared that HIIT training will make them lose muscle. If you use it wisely, that can be avoided.
First of all you don’t need to do it all the time. If you do cardio 1x or 2x a day, you shouldn’t do HIIT both times. Actually, doing HIIT increases your metabolic rate for the next 24 hours, so you could even do it only every other day and on the other sessions stick to steady state cardio. And don’t forget: your body adapts to HIIT cardio, too, so after some time (could be about 3-4 weeks) you can change back to normal cardio again.
Now let’s see how we do HIIT cardio:
The essential framework of high-intensity interval training is always the same: Brief, all-out work periods, separated by rest periods. The work-to-rest ratio can vary from 1:1 (for example, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off) to 1:4 or more, and the rounds can be just a few or 15 or more. Always try and gradually progress: either by reducing the rest periods, extending the work periods, adding one more round at the end or all these 3.
Don’t forget to supplement with BCAA before and after your cardio to minimise catabolism.
@wawannutrition WBCAA or Ronnie Coleman series Aminotone are a good choices for your BCAA supplementation
@wawanbahrain
https://usercontent.one/wp/www.tamaramakar.me/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/img_0033.trim_.movGamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, is a substance that bodybuilders and other athletes sometimes use when looking for a competitive edge. It is an amino acid that serves as a neurotransmitter in the brain.
GABA acts on the pituitary gland, which controls synthesis of growth hormone and also plays a role in body temperature and sleep cycles. GABA supplements increase growth hormone levels, facilitate muscle recovery, relieve anxiety and induce sleep. The results that athletes hope for are more lean muscle tissue and lower body fat levels.
GABA was discovered in 1950 and has since been recognized as the dominant inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. There are excitatory neurotransmitters as well, like adrenaline, which, in excess, can lead to anxiety, insomnia, and restlessness.
The brain balances these effects by sending out other neurotransmitters that have calming effects, such as GABA. By inhibiting the action of excitatory neurotransmitters and reducing anxiety and restlessness, GABA promotes relaxation and sleepiness, and thus, as a supplement, can be a fantastic aid for people who suffer from insomnia and anxiety.
To understand how GABA influences a person’s sleeping patterns, it’s important that you understand the standard cycle that the brain undergoes each night during sleep. The following is an overview of the different sleep stages.
The third and fourth stage are arguably the most important. Stage three, the slow-wave sleep stage, is important because it reduces the level of cortisol, the stress hormone, in the body, and simultaneously reduces inflammation. Both of these are important for improving your nightly sleep.
The fourth stage, deep sleep, is important because it helps your immune system grow stronger. In a similar manner that your brain commits things to memory, your immune system “memorizes” pathogens and viruses to memory during this phase.
Getting a proper sleep cycle each night is crucial for optimal health, and the brain’s GABA system is primarily responsible for activating each stage. Activated GABA receptors—which require a source of GABA to actually be activated—promote quality sleep, especially in stages three and four.
ProSupps CRASH contains GABA therefore it promotes deep REM sleep which increases growth hormone levels and helps with muscle recovery. Available at @wawanbahrain
L-glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the bloodstream.
L-glutamine benefits the body in the following ways:
1. Improves gastrointestinal health because it is a vital nutrient for the intestines to rebuild and repair
2. Helps heal ulcers and leaky gut by acting as a Band-Aid for protection from further damage
3. Is an essential neurotransmitter in the brain and helps with memory, focus and concentration (
4. Improves IBS and diarrhoea by balancing mucus production, which results in healthy bowel movements
5. Promotes muscle growth and decreases muscle wasting
6. Improves athletic performance and recovery from endurance exercise
7. Improves metabolism and cellular detoxification
8. Curbs cravings for sugar and alcohol
9. Fights cancer
10. Improves diabetes and blood sugar
Doing approximately one hour of exercise can cause a 40 percent reduction of glutamine in the body. It can also cause suppressed immune function. This has a negative impact on your resistance training and may lead to overtraining syndrome.
Supplementing with L-glutamine allows your muscles to fight and push a bit further, which boosts your strength and helps repair your skeletal muscles.
L-glutamine supplementation makes it possible to recover quicker from intense weight training sessions because it improves muscle hydration. This aids the muscle recovery process and reduces recovery time for wounds and burns.
L-glutamine also burns fat and builds lean muscle mass by helping suppress insulin levels and stabilize blood glucose. This enables the body to use up less muscle mass to maintain blood sugar and insulin sensitivity in the cells. For this reason, L-glutamine benefits diabetics and those with sugar and carb cravings as well.
