Healthy foods

Why Fenugreek is important to burning fat

Fenugreek has the ability to increase the effectiveness of insulin, growth hormone, and testosterone (three of your most anabolic hormones. It is one of the oldest known medicinal herbs and has been used to maintain respiratory and stomach health. Recently there has been much interest in fenugreek as mounting date indicate that along with its anabolic growth agents, it is an anti diabetic agent thats to its ability to increase insulin sensitivity. Fenugreek contains a variety of amino acids and steroidal saponins which are the building blocks of various steroids including testosterone. protodioscin, a chemical found in the hormone DHEA has been shown to boost testosterone in older men. Because fenugreek can regulate blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity it can assist in stimulating muscle growth. Much of it's anabolic properties may be due to 4-hydroxyisoleucine, a derivative of the essential branched chain amino acid insoleucine. This amino improves insulin's ability to transport nutrients into cells. Researchers at National University in Seoul, Korea have discovered two growth hormone release stimulators in fenugreek, fenugreek saponinl and diosein that caused 12.5 and 17.7 percent increases respectively in growth hormone demonstrating that steroidal saponins can stimulate growth hormone release from pituitary cells. GH can increase muscle mass, strength and bone development as well as enhance joint and muscle repair and fat burning. Furostanol glycoside fenusides is another compound found in fenugreek that has the ability to increase effects of testosterone. Male athletes who took 600 mg per day of fenuside extract for 8 weeks significantly reduced bodyfat and improved muscular hardness and density, some of which was due to a 6% increase in circulating testosterone and up to 12 percent increase in free testosterone. Researchers attribute this phenomenon to fengreek's ability to inhibit the activity of aromatase, the enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen.

Sample workouts

SAMPLE WORKOUTS

CHEST
Incline Bench Press 4 X 10
Flat Bench Press 4 X 10
Decline Bench Press 4 X 10
Flat Dumbell Flyes 4 X 10

BACK
Pull-ups 5-7 Failure
Bent over Rows 5 X 8-10
Lat-Pulldowns 5 X 8-10
Seated Low-Rows 5 X 10
Hyperextensions 5 X 12 w/ weight
Deadlifts 3 X 8-12

arms
DB or Barbell Curls 4 X 10
Preacher Curls 4 X 10
Incline Curls 4 X 10
Hammer Curls 4 X 10Triceps
Pushdowns 4 X 10
Skull Crushers 4 X 10
Donkey Kickbacks 4 X 10
Dips 3-4 Failure

SHOULDERS
Barbell Military Press 3 X 8-10
Side Raises 3 X 8-10
Front DB Raises 3 X 8-10
Rear DB Raises 3 X 10
DB Military Press 3 X 12
Upright Rows 3 X 12

QUADS/HAMSTRINGS
Back Squats 3 X 8-10
Leg Press 3 X 10
Leg-Extensions 4 X 10
Hack Squats 3 X 10
Walking Lunges 2 Down n' back
45 degree Lunges 2 X 10 Hamstrings
Standing Leg Curl 3 X 10
Russian Deadlifts 4 X 10
Lying-down Leg Curls 4 X 10
Seated Leg Curls 4 X 10

Ham n' Glute Raises 5 X 10
CALVES:
Standing Calve Raises 3 X 14-20
Seated Calve Raises 3 X 12-20
Seated Calve extensions 3 X 12-16
Donkey Calve Raises 3 X 10 (Optional)
- See more at: http://www.phillipheath.com/sample-workouts/index.php#sthash.kBpFnKoz.dpuf

mens physique prep

As some of you know I competed in my first men's physique show this past weekend. I had no idea what to expect besides from the youtube clips that I had watched endlessly to get an idea of what actually goes on at a show. Though I didn't place I learned a lot from the experience. It's not about being huge, but lean body mass and technicality of your poses. It's important to do more poses and try to keep a relax state with locked abs. Physique isn't about showing off massive muscles. I did my spray tan the day before the show to avoid the rush in the morning of getting it done at the show. I went with what is called blackout which gave me a very nice color and it wasn't runny like some spray tans do. The show's are also very long and drawn out so if your planning on doing one be sure to bring things to do or work on because your only on stage for about 10 minutes if that total. Then the rest of the time is sitting around waiting for other parts of the competition to get done. We had a 4 hour break in between our the pre-judging and the night show which I thought was crazy. I'm not sure if other competitions do that or if it was just the show That I went to. As far as dieting the last week I did pretty low carbs kept it around 100. Then the day of the show I carbed up ate a lot of brown rice to fill out. Also ate some fruit before going on stage to help dilate veins. All in all there's not one way of doing a show and prepping for it. The best way to get ready for one is to practice your poses that's more important than having more size. If you don't have the poses down and don't know which angles you look good at you will lose it doesn't matter how ripped you are or how good you look. The other thing to keep in mind is go with what you know. Don't change your routine because someone else is doing it differently. It's more important to be confident and go with what you typically do so you don't mess up. And even if you do mess up so what at least you had the balls to go up their and compete which so many people will NEVER do. I think that takes a lot of courage to go up there and show off your body to a crowd no matter how you think body looks. At least YOUR doing it. No one can take that away from you. Just go out there and have fun and if you don't place so what? There's tons of other shows that you can go to and prove yourself at.

building the chest

The first thing people want to do when they hear about working out the chest is bench press. Yes, bench press is a nice way to build your chest muscles, but the more variation of exercises you do the better. A solid chest workout consists of dumbbell bench press because it gives more focus on the pecs and helps with your balance and keeping the weight stabilized. Another is incline bench, incline bench focuses more on the inner pecs. Cable cross overs are another good exercise to do. your flexing your pecs and moving the arm motion helps build the entire chest muscle. Another good exercise for the chest is dumbbell fly's. Dbell fly's will risk you to injury because of the range of motion but, it works the chest far more than cables and other chest exercises because of the motion. just standard push ups is also great to add to your chest workout for more endurance and just an overall old school way to build your chest. People often leave push ups off their routine, but after a brutal workout push ups are a great way to end it.

The benefits of Meditation

Mediation is something that a lot of society today has gotten away from. Mediation allows you to clear your mind from all of the crazy stuff going on in your life and just get away from the continuous bombardment of ads and other useless garbage that people sell us with. Mediation is simple and it only takes 30 minutes of your time to get it's "full effects" I enjoy mediating every morning when I wake up. I typically do my stretching routine and then relax and close my eyes. Sometimes I'll play frequencies or relaxing music to help relax, but I think it's better to be alone with your thoughts. It appears today that we have a problem with facing ourselves and that's why we listen to music, TV and whatever else you want to add to the list to get away from ourselves. The problem is you will have to face yourself and your thoughts sooner or later. Might as well as cope with them what you don't like and what you like and mix them together like a painting to create what you want. Mediation is often linked to the Buddhist religion which is purely self and spiritual. People tend to rely on false people as "Gods" and blame "Gods" for their problems. God has turned into a scape goat in many ways. If that's what you have to do that's fine there's nothing wrong with believing in "God" but get in touch with yourself before you seek others in guidance. Give it a try and see how it helps you with stress and the craziness in your life.

Be what you want to be, do what you want to do, speak to who you want to speak to. The only thing holding you back is yourself you can't set limits. When there's limits then there's doubts.

6 Facts about L-Glutamine

1. Protein synthesis, as any other of the 20 proteinogenic amino acids

2. Regulation of acid-base balance in the kidney by producing ammonium

3. Cellular energy, as a source, next to glucose

4. Nitrogen donation for many anabolic processes, including the synthesis of purines

5. Carbon donation, as a source, refilling the citric acid cycle

6. Nontoxic transporter of ammonia in the blood circulation

WHAT IS IT?
Glutamine aids in the healing process of the muscles. It's an amino acid very popular with bodybuilding and athletes alike. After workouts your body needs to repair it's self and unless your eating a lot of chicken, eggs, spinach etc. You probably aren't repairing your muscles thus why it's good to supplement it. I've seen studies where bodybuilders would take up to 35 grams of glutimine, but you have to realize how brutal most of their workouts are. So their glutimine levels will deplete more than an average person's workout.