Lean meat and vegetables. Meat builds the muscle you use during training (you are lifting iron, right?). And vegetables like to punch disease in the face. Try to keep your carbohydrate intake around the time you train if you are physique conscious. If you train for performance, size, or you just don’t care much about looks, eat carbs at will. Cook with healthy fats like olive oil and coconut oil.
Simple rules and simple foods.
-Larry
Being sore is part of the game. You’ve used your muscles enough to the point where they have been broken down and need rebuilding. There are different kinds of soreness you will experience and at times it may feel like your bones are sore. Do squats, deadlifts, or a lot of posterior chain work and you will be walking funny for a few days while the hamstrings and adductors rebuild. There’s that spot between the glutes and hamstrings that stings every time I move. Or just standing up from a chair with that deep, concrete like soreness in my groin adductors.
Soreness is not an indicator of a job well done. If you’re not sore, don’t fret, as long as you put in good effort. It just means your body has adapted in a good way. The goal is to keep improving at the same movements. Do not chase soreness because if you crush yourself every workout trying to get sore, you’re just going to overtrain and hurt your joints, your metabolism, your hormones, your sleep pattern, and your immune system.
There are a few ways to limit soreness. You can take cold showers (yeah right) or you can submerge yourself in a hot epsom salt bath (much preferred). You can, and should, eat more protein. The muscles have been broken and need to be rebuilt. They are only built with protein. You can get a massage or use a foam roller. This helps flush out the bad blood with the broken material and usher in fresh new blood full of nutrients. Do the same thing that made you sore in the first place. Use no weight or light weight and do the movement seeking the burn. This flushes out the old blood and delivers the fresh stuff. And sleep. The only time the body truly heals is when it is sleeping. 8+ hours every night.
I was on the hunt for another protein supplement since I finished my previous tub of whey. I knew this time I wanted to get a casein and whey blend. Three reasons, one is the Biotest products from T-Nation being some of the best and theirs are mainly a blend, two because less expensive whey proteins can pass through the body a little too quickly resulting in gas, and three casein takes longer to digest and will provide a steady flow of nutrients into the muscle until I can eat whole food (and probably less gas).
I hit up my local Vitamine Shoppe and found something called Mass Peak from a company named Inner Armour. It was a blend but it was also a weight gainer so it had Carbohydrates in the form of Maltodextrin primarily. An excellent combo for pre and post workout nutrition. It was also on sale! I didn’t want a weight gainer but this was a little too good to pass up.
One serving is 4 scoops with 23 per 8.8 pound container but I only use 2 scoops per serving. That still comes out to 25 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbs.
My first reaction was I didn’t like it. It was too thick, the maltodextrin clumped, and a bit too sweet. So what I did was try different ways of preparing it. The best way I found was to use the little metal ball that comes with the shaker bottle to help mix it and then stick it in the fridge for 10 minutes before drinking. The other way is to use a proper blender. If you don’t have a fridge at the gym you can use, make it at home and bring a cooler.
If properly mixed and chilled it’s pretty darn good (I got the chocolate). After living with it for a couple weeks I quite like it. It keeps me satisfied for up to a 60-90 minutes after training whereas with plain whey, I’d be hungry in less than 20 minutes. This is good because if I train myself and then have clients, I don’t need to worry about getting in post workout whole food so much.
Thumbs up, I approve.
-Larry
Larry Henrikson 