Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter 2 – General……………………………………………………30
Chapter 3 – Science……………………………………………………81
Chapter 4 – Training…………………………………………………127
Chapter 6 – Supplements………………………………………...166
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Fat Loss
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Justin,
I'm starting to see some progress, but I'm worried
about losing muscle while dieting. I work so hard to
build it in the offseason and don't want to lose it while
dieting. Will adding extra protein slow down my
progress?
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So, ALL that matters is that you eat less Calories
than you burn.
Adding more protein is more Calories--which means you
won't be burning stored fat, but storing MORE fat
instead.
But let's say you're a super freak and will be bigger than
any body builder in the world in just a few years....so
you are going to gain 25lbs of muscle every year.
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Well—you and your “super freak” growth rate of 25lbs
of muscle per year is a result of converting ONLY 30g of
protein per day to new muscle.
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guarantee that you burned well into the 1,000s of
Calories from glycogen and fat.
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1000 Calories of protein is 250g of protein....
SO....
And, when you eat too much and don't have a need for
that extra sugar, it gets stored as fat.
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And even if you're training harder than any human has
ever trained in the history of the world at every single
workout--you're not breaking down enough protein to
ever require 500g per day.
In summary,
To lose fat—you need to eat less Calories than you
burn.
To guarantee that as much of those excess Calories
come from stored fat as possible, you need to eat
appropriate macronutrients that drive the body to burn
fat as much as possible. That macro nutrient ratio is
higher in protein and lower in carbs and fat—but it still
MUST be less Calories than you burn.
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But, since we know that even 30g (120 Calories) of
excess Calories converting to muscle per day results in
300lbs of new muscle mass every 10 years, we don’t
need thousands of extra Calories per day to grow. The
macronutrient ratio that fuels muscle growth without
gaining fat is probably even lower protein than in the
diet scenario because we need a higher carbohydrate
amount to provide the high glycogen stores to fuel
weight training without breaking down protein for
energy.
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Fasted Cardio Math
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With fasted cardio, your blood sugar will probably start
lower, and there's no food to keep the blood sugar
stable (instead the liver does that...and possibly also
glycogen from the muscle when the liver runs low). So,
with less sugar in the blood to be used for energy, the
body will need to offset that difference with energy
production from fat. That's the goal, right?
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Considering that there's around 3500 Calories in pound
of fat (there's possibly more, a direct conversion of 9
Calories per gram gives around 4,000 Calories), that's
0.2 pounds of fat difference.
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to….and that session will be 99.91% as effective as your
fasted session would have been
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Tropical Creams and Why Diets Fail
Topical Creams
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short-term make you look worse long-term, and vice
versa. For example, the average person starts a diet.
They cut Calories and carbohydrates, and their food
tastes bad, so they add more seasoning. They think that
they are hungry, so they drink more water in order to
not intake more Calories, which leads to getting
bloated. They think, “I’m gaining weight! My body
refuses to lose weight!”, then give up on the diet
because the initial water retention makes them think
that they are gaining weight, when the reality is that
they haven’t dieted long enough to see the benefits yet.
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Cardio Timing
Insulin
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and when bound, that cell cannot breakdown fat to use
as energy. The higher your blood glucose, the higher
insulin. If you do steady state cardio with a lower blood
glucose, less cells are bound by the hormone insulin,
and more cells can be broken down, the higher the fat
loss will be.
1. Fasted
2. Post workout
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your next meal would be the best-case scenario in
terms of having more fat cells being available to be
catabolized as energy.
5. Multiple sessions
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References
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Justin,
I’ve been dieting hard, but I’m not making progress as
fast as I’d like. I’m trying stay as patient as I can, but
obviously I just wanna hop on T3, Clen, and do it
the “short cut” way.
A couple of things:
1) The “short cut” way is the muscle loss way.
2) T3 and Clen aren’t the magic “short cut.” It’s
extremely difficult and requires a ton of work and
suffering to get into contest shape even with those two.
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side effects start making them worse (if you have the
flu, can't eat, and can't train...it doesn't matter how
much gear you're on).
If there's one thing I can say about the subject, it's this:
If you read it on the internet--it's probably wrong.
It's almost by definition incorrect information. Because
if it were correct, then it wouldn't be given away for
free on the internet, and if it worked, the person giving
it would be a top bodybuilder...not some local gym rat
who looks like shit.
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EVEYRY TIME a pro mentions something about training,
nutrition, or gear, ALL the people who look nothing like
a pro insist the pro is wrong.
The short cut way of running T3 and clen from day one
on a diet isn't a short cut to a better physique. It will
lead to a shorter diet--yes...because you'll eat through
5lbs of stored energy per week...but at least 2lbs of that
will be muscle. So, you'll be 185lbs in a hurry...but you'll
be as lean as you could have been at 200lbs if you went
the other route.
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Ramy from 2010-2014, where he went from 220lbs to
300lbs. That's a rate of 0.38lbs of muscle per
week. Compare that to how easy it is to lose 2lbs of
muscle per week and you'll see that for long term
progress rate, preventing muscle loss is ALWAYS more
efficient than gaining muscle mass)
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Justin,
I’ve been dieting for almost a month and I feel like I
just look smaller and softer. I don’t know how much
fat I need to lose, but I’m having a hard time not going
out and eating until I get sick just so that I can fill out a
t-shirt again.
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Justin,
I’ve been trying to follow a carb cycling diet. I think
I’ve made good progress so far. I’ve lost 5lbs, so that’s
good-- I’m down from 222-225lbs to 217lbs. Is it okay
if I stick loosely to the diet? I mean, do I have to
follow the carbs and protein exactly? I’m not on any
bloating drugs like Anadrol, so I figured the gear would
take care of the rest as long as I try to eat pretty good.
You will get the most optimal gains by follow the diet
exactly. I know I've emphasized the point by now, but
bodybuilding is diet. Without the diet--it's
powerlifting/strongman/etc. You won't look like a
bodybuilder without the diet. I realize everyone wants
it to be the drugs--and you can't look like a bodybuilder
without them, but everyone who lifts seriously is on
gear. That isn't the deciding fact--of the people using
gear, the ones that look like bodybuilders are the ones
who eat like a bodybuilder.
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Justin,
I have a general question. What's the science behind
carbs going to glycogen and not being stored as body
fat on high days? More specifically, how does keeping
fat intake low on high carb days affect the partitioning
of the carbs that day?
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So, all dieting is, is this: If you eat less calories than you
burn, you will lose that exact amount of calories
(energy) from stored energy reserves in the body.
The body stores energy in 3 ways: Fat (obviously),
Carbs (glycogen), and protein (muscle).
Now, we hope all the stored energy comes from fat and
none from muscle or glycogen, but it's not a perfect
world and glycogen is the preferred energy source of
the body.
So, over the week, you lose fat but also lose glycogen.
A large male might be able to store 1,000g of glycogen.
Let's assume you get 350g of glycogen depleted over
the course of the week.
Now....if we have you eat that same macro set up, but
add 350g of extra carbs, you are eating more than you
burn--which means you'll store the extra calories as
energy (as fat, glycogen, or muscle).
BUT, since you're glycogen depleted going into that day
AND we supply those extra calories as carbs, we can
create a situation where you're eating more than you
burn, but with the extra calories coming from a source
that's depleted in the body---you STILL store the
calories of those 350g of carbs, but instead of fat, you
store them as glycogen.
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that you're starving, and provide some relief from the
diet.
That means you get to go into the next week's med and
low days with a higher metabolism and more energy so
that you burn more fat on those calorie deficit days that
you otherwise might have.
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General
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Justin,
I want to add muscle, but I’m also worried about being
too fat. I feel like I’m always either trying to bulk too
fast and end up wishing I was leaner or trying to lean
out too fast and losing all my muscle.
If you were me…with my genetics, my shape, my
frame…what would you do right now?
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get to train hard today--making sure to get better.
And if you continue to do that every day, then there will
come a day where that 50lbs happened...it's just
sometime in the future.
If you do that every day, day after day, and never stop--
at some point that 50lbs happens--but it's not the 50lbs
that happens, it's today that happens.
but if it happens a thousand times in a row, that 50lbs
occurs at some point along the way.
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Justin,
I want to get as big as possible as fast as possible.
Should I just try to add size by any means necessary?
Wouldn’t trying to stay lean slow down muscle
growth, and I’d be better off just maximizing muscle
growth and taking the fat gain that comes with it?
If you gain too much fat, you have to diet down or you
won’t continue to add muscle.
Then they repeat for 5,8,10 years and are the same size
they started plus a few lbs of muscle instead of 100lbs
of muscle heavier if they would have gone the right
route (which no one wants to do because it seems too
slow).
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NO ONE has gained more than 15lbs per year for an
extended length of time—which makes sense, because
that’s 150lbs every 10 years. Even 25 lbs is a one and
done type of magic year. If I had to guess, I’d say that
Big Ramy from 2010-2014 probably added muscle faster
than any human in history. He went from something
like 220lbs to 300lbs in that 4-year span. That’s 20lbs
per year! So….20 lbs per year for 4 years is the most
rapid growth rate in human history, yet EVERY guy
coming up is SURE he’s going to add 30lbs of pure
muscle from every 12-week cycle he runs.
That’s not how it works.
So, any scale change greater than about 2lbs per month
indicates fat gain—and as a bodybuilder, any added fat
must later be lost, which means the potential for
MUSCLE LOSS when you diet down.
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Staying relatively lean IS the fastest way to add size—
because the fastest rate of growth is slow enough that
the potential for excessive fat gain will always over
power the muscle growth over time.
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Justin,
I want to use insulin, but I was a fat kid and worry
about insulin making me fat again. Is there any way to
use insulin without getting fat?
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Taking insulin once per day post workout—even if it
DOUBLES the rate of growth during its active life
(Humalog being around 1.5-3hr), means you’re adding
about 1-3 grams above that 25g point...meaning that if
you train 5x a week, you’re gaining one extra pound of
muscle per year.
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Justin,
You made some pretty rapid progress in the mid-
2000s. What was your diet like then? It’s been a
while, but if you can remember back that far, I think
people would be curious what your daily intake looked
like.
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Offseason diet 2006-2007
Meal 1 (7:30am): 2 scoops whey isolate, 2 cups oatmeal
w/ raisins
Intra-workout (9am): 1 serving Anatrop, 50g waxy
maize
Post workout (10:30am): 1 serving Anatrop, 2 scoops
whey isolate, 100g waxy maize
Meal 3 (12:30pm): 6oz flank steak, 2 cups rice, 1 cup
veggies
Meal 4 (2pm): 2 scoops whey isolate, 100g waxy maize
Meal 5 (4pm): 6oz flank steak, 2 cups rice, 1 cup veggies
Meal 6 (6pm): 2 scoops whey isolate, 100g waxy maize
Meal 7 (8pm): 6oz flank steak, 2 cups rice, 1 cup veggies
Meal 8 (10pm): Whatever my wife made for dinner
(usually fajitas or some kind of meat and potatoes.
About twice a week I’d get 4 seared Saji wraps from a
Mediterranean place that is no longer there)
Meal 9: (before bed): 2 scoops ON casein protein (drink
half)
Middle of the night: finish other half of the casein
shake
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kids didn’t wake up too early) and only have the meal 1
and then have meal 3 when I got to work.
Notes
I really did eat flank steak and rice every single meal (I
think you can see me prepping my meals for the day in
Project Superheavyweight). The only time I’d vary from
that is if we ran out of either item for whatever
reason—usually it would be rice, which I would replace
with potatoes or plain pasta.
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were waiting for the week when that restaurant finally
hooked up with a bulk supplier and their flank steak
would suddenly sit un-purchased on the shelves and go
bad…but it never happened.
When the flank steak bandit ended up being a 120lb
female they were all doubly confused.
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Non-weight training deviation: On days I didn’t train
with weights I would replace meal 2 with another meal
of flank steak and rice. I would also occasionally drop
the rice from meal 5 and possibly meal 4—these would
be my “low carb” days
Notes:
Looking back, I don’t know how I stayed so lean with my
offseason diet. I’m currently back up to around 275lbs
and relatively lean and there’s no way in hell I could
handle that amount of Calories right now. I think my
ability to assimilate such a large volume of food in the
offseason was the biggest factor in my muscle gain from
2004-2007. Another thing that I’ve struggled with
scientifically over the years is how my body weight
didn’t change with my pre-contest diet. I started my
prep at 262lbs at 17 weeks out and was 266lbs at 10
days out (if anyone followed my progress back then—
the “back porch pics” where me at 266lbs and 10 days
out).
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changes. And to be honest, a shorter prep probably
would have helped me. With the idea that I had so long
to dial things in, I sort of sat on that final “push” too
long and ended up not really improving at all the final 5-
6 weeks of prep. By the time it was necessary to make
that last push to drop the final bit of fat, I was too
burned out, too obsessed with holding size, or too
dumb to make it happen.
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Justin,
I have a few questions please. How important is the
diet? I can stick to a diet to some degree, but I don’t
want to bullshit you I may stray--from the occasional
drink or drinks, to going to a restaurant, etc. Honestly,
I have always been a little loose with my diet. Tell me
straight up--HOW important is the diet to gaining
mass?
If you want to weigh a lot, look like a fat guy with your
shirt off (but still be able to pull off the “big guy” look
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with a shirt on), and have people ask you if you used to
play football, then take gear, train hard, and eat like
shit. If you want to look like a bodybuilder--you need to
eat like one.
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That certainly doesn’t mean that there isn’t benefit to
an intra workout nutrition plan, it just means that
whatever level of benefit it has, it isn’t high enough to
keep the top guys from being top guys, and it isn’t
enough to make non-top guys into top 6 Olympia
competitors.
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A rapidly digesting source like Whey isolate or
hydrolysate is going to be mostly digested in 90 minutes
or so. Let’s assume we’re synthesizing new muscle at
THREE TIMES the max rate we can expect to sustain
long term—that means that in those 90 minutes we are
using LESS THAN 5g of that protein powder for actual
muscle growth. The rest is going towards other energy
requirements. When you consider that, your 50g shake
becomes an expensive simple sugar.
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curcumin - joint health
multivitamin/multimineral - overall health
astragalus - kidney health
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the total weekly workload is very high for Ronnie) to
what I would consider the optimal training protocol.
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In my experience, 4-5x a week is the most
productive. Most people enjoy training too much to
only go 4x a week. I've never really seen anyone add a
ton of size training 6-7x a week, although a lot of people
like to do that because they enjoy being in the gym.
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then switch gears and focus on a fat loss plan. this is a
muscle building plan--which your questionnaire said
was your primary focus at this time. The ultimate goal
of any offseason is to supply the proper nutrients to fuel
growth, but with as little fat gain as possible. That’s all
it is—meat and rice—enough to fuel growth, but not so
much that you gain fat, repeated day after day, week
after week, month after month, year after year.
The rep range that builds muscle is 8-15 reps for the
most part. For legs and arms, going up to 15-20 reps is
beneficial as well. Going to 6 reps on some sets is good
on occasion. I don't believe much muscle growth occurs
with sets under 6 reps (it's mostly time under load--but
that's roughly the rep range that puts you in that
time).
You won't find a top bodybuilder who doesn't spend
90% or more of his training time in the 6-15 rep
range. The only people you'll find saying that you need
to train lower rep than that are people who aren't top
bodybuilders (as a general rule--if you read something
about bodybuilding on the internet, it's probably wrong.
For one, if it worked, the person wouldn’t be giving it
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away for free on the internet, and two…if it worked for
them, you’d know who they were because they’d be a
top bodybuilder, not some unknown guy on the
internet)
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On the power movement how many warmups should I
do?
Not unless you feel you need them. If you're not warm
after 5 warm ups and a max-out set of squats, you're
never going to be warm.
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lifting with constant tension (the way Ronnie Coleman
lifted) seems to be the best approach.
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the whole thing. I want to know the best methods and
what I should have in my arsenal to get the most
benefit out of my cycles.
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you don't really see results (you're lethargic and you
can't eat. If you're too tired to train and can't eat then
you can't grow...so there's no reason to take more than
that. The "magic" range is usually somewhere around
2-3g of total gear per week. After that it's all GH)
Primo (if you can run at least 600mg long term) along
with test is about as good as it gets. The risk of side
effects is as low as any compound there is (other than
PIP), and you’ll rarely find anyone have an issue with
appetite or lethargy...so you can train your ass off, eat
perfectly, and grow.
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I have every ancillary I have every product known to
bodybuilders. From gear to GH to insulin, to Clen and
T3, to appetite suppressants, to peptides, and
everything in between. And like I said, almost all is
pharma-grade, so I want you to know that the product
and dosages will hopefully be accurate.
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So, I want to know what cycles you recommend for
mass?
Basic shit.
Test and an anabolic.
After that, GH as high as you can/want (above 5ius a
day and you'll need to manage blood sugar though--so
you'll want to add at least berberine and probably
metformin also). It really is that simple. Find yourself a
test and anabolic injectable combination that you feel
good on, can eat on, can train on, and have little to no
side effects. At that point you’re at LEAST 90% of the
way to maxing out the results you’ll see from gear.
At that point, get your diet and training to 90%--and if
you think they’re both at 90% already, you’re wrong, or
you wouldn’t be asking about cycles for mass.
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Pre-contest sees most people add more compounds--
but there are multiple reasons for that.
The pre-contest period has more boundary conditions.
You’re no longer free to adjust diet without limit.
You’re stuck with the condition that you must eat less
calories than you burn—so things like androgen to
estrogen ratios become more important. Body
composition changes due to increasing androgen levels
become a bigger player, and the idea that you don’t
want to minimize appetite goes out the window.
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What products you think are not useful in any way to
even bother.
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Justin,
In an interview I watched, you said you were getting
close to 300lbs. How did you keep increase size and
weight with lean mass at that level to keep creeping
up in size?
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fuel and how well the fuel delivery system is designed
(the macro nutrient structure) that lets the engine do its
thing.
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Size and conditioning improved dramatically
(1993 Dorian Yates)
Mid-Late 1990s – Insulin and higher dose GH
Size improved dramatically (Ronnie Coleman)
2000s-2010s – Peptides and SARMs come into play
Is there a leap in progress over the days of
Ronnie and Jay?
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Justin,
What are your thoughts on grass-fed butter? I’d like to
use that as a fat source. It’s better than regular butter,
right.
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possible potential for reduced long term health risk if
choosing grass-fed butter over regular butter.
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Justin,
I won’t bore you to death or make your eyes bleed by
listing all the experiences, programs and diets I have
done in the past, but I think a few things are
important:
(1) I’m 34, 5’11 303lbs. I’d like to get below 250 at
some point. Then eventually stay under 225 for long
term.
(2) The current diet I was given is really just lean meat,
vegetables, some dairy and a 150 gram carb meal once
a week. No set macros or Calories.
(3) So, the “success” I’ve really had with this diet is just
eating healthy foods haha.
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Carbs don't make you fat--Calories above what you burn
do. There's no magical macronutrient that can violate
the laws of physics and create energy on its own
(thermodynamics).
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People lose their mind at the idea of eating the same
food every meal, but for some reason the fact that they
eat the exact same breakfast every single day doesn't
seem odd to them....a lot of people do the same with
lunch too....so they already eat the same breakfast, get
the same sandwich and whatever the wife packs for
lunch....so is it really that hard of a leap to go one step
forward and just eat the same (from a small variety of
meats and grains) thing at dinner as well?
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Justin,
I have a couple of questions if you don’t mind:
Current Situation
(1) I have very limited time to train throughout the
weekdays. My wife is a teacher and I work 2nd shift as
a distribution center supervisor. I hand off our 3 kids
(5, 2 and 10 months) to her in the parking lot of her
school before I take off to work. We do this to avoid
daycare for the kids. My oldest son goes to
preschool from 12:30-3pm so I have a window of time
to train after we drive home from dropping him off. If I
can’t train then, I have to do it after work around
1am.
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Body fat levels are all food.
I've had clients win actual bodybuilding contests
without working out. This is a true statement—a client
in the mid-2000s competed as a light heavyweight and
won his class without lifting a weight for the entirety of
his contest prep. This was a person who typically
competed as a heavyweight, so there was a definite loss
in muscle mass—but his conditioning won him the
show).
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Calories than you need.
Goals:
(1) If I can’t do it all through diet, I want to learn about
supplements that can help me gain muscle. I realize
that pretty much any diet can help me get from 300 to
270 at this point, but I want everything to focus
around training. I need to make this my “hobby”
again.
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ONLY food can build muscle.
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(3) Even though I’m very heavy, I’ve never had any
physical limitations, which is kind of weird. I’ve always
been able to walk long distances, hiking on vacations,
run sprints, do metabolic workouts, shovel snow, work
on house projects etc. I have written a high-volume
plan for myself along with a conditioning plan that
covers 7 days per week that I intend to use.
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Don't over think things.
Pick a lean meat source (chicken, 96/4 ground beef,
flank steak, round steak, turkey breast, egg whites)
pick a lean carb source (rice, potatoes)
Pick a green vegetable source
Maybe add guacamole or avocado (fats are 9 Calories
per gram where carbs and protein are 4, so you can
EASILY double your Calorie count from a small amount
of guacamole....so if you're not good at gauging that
stuff, I'd just avoid the fats).
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person discussing with another overweight person
about the healthiness of nuts. Conversely, one doesn’t
have to look far to find another set of overweight
people talking about how fruit is “pure sugar.”
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numbers of YouTube videos of "a day in the life" of
whichever fitness celebrity you want.
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Justin,
I’ve recently been doing a lot of thinking about my
health and am curious about my kidney function. I’ve
been going through some of my past blood work and
I’ve noticed my BUN is usually top of the range and
recently it was over the range @ 25. Creatinine was
1.17 and GFR non-AA was 84. The highest my
creatinine has been was 1.3. My numbers aren’t bad
but from research I’ve done, my GFR isn’t great. I have
just started my first cycle and now I’m wondering if I
should continue. Any help would be appreciated.
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how far that calculation was off from his true GFR given
his very large amount of muscle mass.
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high, GFR is low, then a high BUN becomes another
strain on an already overworked renal system).
Most blood tests consider somewhere between
1.2mg/dL and 1.4/1.5mg/dL (106-132 µmol/L) as the
upper limit of normal for creatinine.
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Justin,
I heard you say that you would only supplement with
GDAs if A1c was elevated or if the person were using
products that reduced insulin sensitivity (like higher
dose GH). Why?
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doses where your appetite is dead, you have test flu,
you’re so lethargic that you can’t train, etc etc....you
clearly aren’t benefiting.
If you can’t eat, can’t train, and are eating muscle tissue
with permanent flu symptoms...then you’re not
improving.
Once you do that, you’ll start seeing why some guys are
succeeding and others aren’t...and you’ll see that the
ones who aren’t are the ones stuck in the 1-dimensional
thought process in too many areas of the sport
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Science
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High Molecular Weight Carbohydrates
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term, high intensity exercise, have a higher level of
glycogen synthetase activity than slow-twitch fibers. (4)
What this means is that the body has a greater need
(and a greater ability) to restore depleted glycogen
stores following short term, high intensity training.
Carbohydrate Supplementation
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sugars are created equal. For example, fructose (or fruit
sugar) rapidly restores liver glycogen levels at the
expense of muscle glycogen stores. The bottom line is
that it's important to ingest quick-acting carbohydrates
to begin the repair and rebuilding process.
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low osmolality means the solution will get to your
muscles with great speed and efficiency.
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to like to start rebuilding muscle 70% sooner than you
already are after a workout?”
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Does it sound too good to be true? It gets better.
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ingestion of a HMW carbohydrate drink. My post
workout recommendation for a 200 lb bodybuilder
would be 75g of a HMW carbohydrate mixed with 5g
creatine, 8g L-leucine, and 5-10g of BCAA's. This meal
should be followed, approximately 15-30 minutes later,
with a meal containing protein and complex
carbohydrates; preferably a fast-digesting liquid protein
such as a whey isolate, and some complex
carbohydrates.
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Marijuana and Bodybuilding
The first study was published in 2013 and was the first
study to investigate the relationship between marijuana
use and fasting insulin, glucose, and insulin resistance.
The study consisted of 4,657 adult men and women,
579 being current marijuana users and 1,975 were
previous users. Participants use was assessed by self-
report in a private room. Participants provided blood
samples in the morning after a 9 hour fast. In the
multivariable adjusted models, current marijuana use
was associated with 16% lower fasted insulin levels and
17% lower HOMA-IR. HOMA-IR is the method used for
assessing B-cell function and insulin resistance from
fasting glucose and insulin or C-peptide concentrations
(2). The study also found significant associations
between marijuana use and smaller waist
circumferences (3).
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Another study I found interesting was published in 2012
and its objective was to determine the association
between diabetes mellitus and marijuana use. The total
sample was 10,896 adults put into 4 groups, non-
marijuana smokers, past, light, heavy, and current
marijuana users. The prevalence of elevated C reactive
protein (>0.5 mg/dl) was significantly higher (p<0.0001)
among non-marijuana users (18.9%) than among past
(12.7%) or current light (15.8%) or heavy (9.2%) users
(3). The researchers hypothesized that the prevalence
of diabetes mellitus was reduced in marijuana users due
to the presence of one or more cannabinoids because
of their immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory
properties.
- Thomas Lackie
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References
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/236843
93
2. http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/27/6/
1487
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM
C3289985/
4. http://medicaljournalofcairouniversity.net/hom
e2/images/pdf/2009/September/07.pdf
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Fitness and Farming
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I can speak from experience from growing both GMO
and Non-GMO crops; there can be numerous challenges
to this from a financial and a quality standpoint. Oh, and
let’s not forget Non-GMO foods, many organically
grown foods are still grown with the use of pesticides.
So here is a look inside what a producer has to evaluate
when growing Non-GMO corn:
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It’s just not always logical to grow Non-GMO products
all of the time in all places. It’s simply not worth the
money, risk, or the headache when safe products can
be produced in a more efficient manner saving both the
farmer and consumer money all while using the land
more efficiently.
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methods of production follow strict and safe guidelines
to ensure that the product we farmers are producing is
meeting every standard known to man.
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levels of key nutrients like amino acids, proteins, fiber,
vitamins, and minerals. This is where real nutrition
matters. Don’t lose site of the forest for the trees
people!
- Sam Schneider
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Blood Glucose and Exercise
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Type 2 diabetes
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Figure 1
Figure 2
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Figure 3
- Thomas Lackie
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fef3/1c170159c4ef7b
4f9da94eb7311280de5269.pdf?_ga=2.153070073.1106
037531.1530111559-787659800.1530111559
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What the GLUT?
Fructose.
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maximally uptake glucose when glucose concentrations
are high. Glut2 signals to the beat cells in the pancreas
that blood glucose concentrations are high, and the
beta cells respond by secreting insulin in the
bloodstream. This is the second major fructose
transporter. When insulin levels get very high, GLUT2
will translocate from the apical membrane back to
intracellular vesicles, letting GLUT4 take most of the
workload.
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Glut 5- Insulin-Independent, found on the Luminal side
of intestinal epithelium, kidney, sperm, skeletal muscle,
fat tissue, and brain. These GLUTs are the primary
fructose transporters. Once GLUT5 and GLUT2
transports fructose across the apical membrane, GLUT2
helps transports the fructose across the basolateral
membrane. Insulin will cause an increase in GLUT5
translocation; however, it is not insulin-dependent.
Insulin
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glycogenolysis. Insulin also increases amino acid uptake,
which leads to increased protein synthesis in muscle,
adipose, and organ tissue which decreases the rate of
protein degradation. Insulin increases the uptake of
triglycerides from blood into adipose and muscle tissue.
Fatty acid and triacylglycerol synthesis is increased, and
the rate of lipolysis (breakdown of fat) is decreased. If
we want to lose fat, a good idea is to have low insulin
levels. The lower number of cells that insulin is bound
to, the more cells can breakdown, and burn fat. If a cell
has insulin bound to it, that cell will not breakdown, and
instead it will uptake nutrients. If that same cell is not
bound by insulin, it may be catabolized for energy. The
greater number of fat cells that aren’t bound by insulin,
the greater number of fat cells they can breakdown to
provide energy. Lowering carbohydrates is an effective
way of burning fat, by lowering the amount of insulin
secreted. We also must remember that during a meal
time, we are hypercaloric. You can eat 500 Calories in
the matter of 15 minutes, and that meal will last you
hours until your next one. Since you will be hypercaloric
during the time around the meal, insulin really matters
here. A huge spike of insulin, combined with a
hypercaloric meal, will hinder fat breakdown, and you
will begin to store fat. A lower and more steady insulin
concentration, will ensure that the least amount of fat
will be put on as possible. Below I put 2 charts I found
from google to help illustrate this cycle. At the end of
the day, if you are in a caloric surplus, you will store
Calories, and if you are in a caloric deficit, you will burn
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stored Calories. If you are in a caloric surplus with very
high amounts of insulin, you will be in a good
environment for muscle gain, but also for gaining fat. If
we can take in the same amount of total kcal but have
less dramatic blood sugar spikes when we eat, this will
lead to a better chance for the surplus of Calories to be
taken up and stored as glycogen, or to fuel MPS, while
lowering the total amount of fat that is stored.
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After studying GLUT transporters, I hypothesized that
since GLUT5 is insulin-independent, and is the main
carrier of fructose, followed by GLUT2 which is also
independent of insulin, that eating fruit as a
carbohydrate source might be beneficial for burning fat,
by reducing the lower amount of the storage hormone,
insulin in the blood. Once I had that thought, I started
thinking about people with diseases such as diabetes
type 1 and 2. I went on PubMed and found a few
different articles that were interesting, and I wanted to
share.
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There was a group that wrote a paper on pub med that
hypothesized that meals high in fructose would result in
lower leptin concentrations than meals containing the
same amount of glucose, since leptin secretion is
regulated by insulin-mediated glucose metabolism. In
the study, they collected blood samples every 30 min
for 24 hours from 12 women on 2 randomized days,
where the subjects consumed 3 isocaloric meals
consisting of 55, 30, and 15% of total kcal from protein,
carbohydrate, and fat, with 30% of kcal coming from
either fructose or glucose as a carbohydrate source.
Insulin responses were 65%(+/-5%) lower during the
Fructose containing meal compared to the glucose
containing meal. They also concluded in their study that
the fructose containing meal produced a less
pronounced suppression of ghrelin, compared to the
glucose containing meal. This study is incredibly
fascinating. So, we know that even though the subjects
received the same kcal and % of macronutrients, the
group that had fructose as a carbohydrate source
instead of glucose had roughly a 65% decrease in
insulin. This means that even with 2 identical meals, you
can improve body composition by just changing
carbohydrates to fructose. Lower insulin will get
secreted with a fructose containing meal, which as we
learned above in the insulin paragraph, will lead to the
potential for more fat cells to be catabolized as energy.
The lower secretion of insulin will lower the amount of
fat stored, and the Calories will have the potential to be
stored more as glycogen, and muscle protein synthesis.
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The study also concluded that the fructose containing
meal produced a LESS pronounced suppression to
ghrelin vs. the glucose containing meal, indicating that
eating a fructose meal won’t have you feeling as
satiated compared to the glucose meal.
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Humans with diabetes had a dramatic increase of
GLUT5 mRNA and protein levels in skeletal tissue.
Conclusion.
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improve body composition and burn even more fat by
incorporating fructose for the carbohydrate source, by
taking advantage of the glucose carriers responsible for
fructose, GLUT5 being insulin-independent the main
fructose transporter, followed by GLUT2 which is also
insulin-independent. Lower and more stable insulin
levels will lead to less total body fat stored, and those
Calories will have a higher propensity to be stored as
glycogen or more muscle protein synthesis. The article
that concluded that the fructose containing meal
produced a less pronounced suppression of ghrelin,
compared to the glucose containing meal is very
interesting as well. This could be beneficial for those
who struggle to get their meals down and don’t have a
high appetite. Choosing fructose as a carbohydrate
source will not suppress ghrelin as much as glucose, so
fructose meals won’t satisfy hunger hormones quite as
well as other carbohydrate sources will. If you struggle
getting hungry and have a small appetite, try opting for
fructose. Those who have type 2 diabetes or insulin
resistance will have an upregulation of GLUT2 and
GLUT5, which are both insulin independent and are
main fructose transporters. Opting for fructose as a
carbohydrate source will elicit a lower insulin secretion,
and since the GLUT2&5 proteins are upregulated, this
could lead to more efficient uptake of fructose.
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References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28592611 -
Evans RA, Frese M, Romero J, Cunningham JH, Mills KE.
Fructose replacement of glucose or sucrose in food or
beverages lowers postprandial glucose and insulin
without raising triglycerides: a systematic review and
meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2017 Aug;106(2):506-518.
doi: 10.3945/ajcn.116.145151. Epub 2017 Jun 7.Review.
PubMed PMID: 28592611.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15181085 - Teff
KL, Elliott SS, Tschöp M, Kieffer TJ, Rader D, Heiman M,
Townsend RR,Keim NL, D'Alessio D, Havel PJ. Dietary
fructose reduces circulating insulin and leptin,
attenuates postprandial suppression of ghrelin, and
increasestriglycerides in women. J Clin Endocrinol
Metab. 2004 Jun;89(6):2963-72. PubMed PMID:
15181085.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC26524
99/ - Douard, Veronique, and Ronaldo P. Ferraris.
“Regulation of the Fructose Transporter GLUT5 in
Health and Disease.” American Journal of Physiology -
Endocrinology and Metabolism 295.2 (2008): E227–
E237. PMC. Web. 22 May 2018.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC36523
74/ - Czech, M. P., Tencerova, M., Pedersen, D. J., &
Aouadi, M. (2013). Insulin signalling mechanisms for
triacylglycerol storage. Diabetologia, 56(5), 949–964.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-013-2869-1
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21864752 -
Dimitriadis G, Mitrou P, Lambadiari V, Maratou E, Raptis
SA. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2011 Aug;93 Suppl 1:S52-9.
doi: 10.1016/S0168-8227(11)70014-6. Review in muscle
and adipose tissue. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2011 Aug;93
Suppl 1:S52-9.doi: 10.1016/S0168-8227(11)70014-6.
Review. PubMed PMID: 21864752.
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High Molecular Weight Carbohydrates II
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BCAA tablets per hour session. So, what does it this
have to do with supplements? After Vitargo came out,
there were many cheaper versions of waxy maize starch
that hit the market. True Nutrition, always a leader,
brought out an affordable version that benefitted many.
I had all my athletes on it. Today, the big kid on the
block is Highly Branched Cyclic Dextrin's or HBCD's for
short. What is this mystery molecule and how may it
benefit me you may ask? That is what I will try to
answer in terms most can understand by simplifying the
science.
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be best. So, what gets there optimally? How about just
high glycemic simple sugars you may ask? The issue
with fast sugars is two-fold: with a rapid rise in blood
glucose comes a rapid insulin response that almost
always leads to hypoglycemia. This would be a poor
choice during a workout, but a great choice post
workout. With simple sugars, you would probably see
your energy nose dive before you finished your lift.
Simple sugars also have a very high osmolality, which
we will see is problematic. So just what the hell does
this osmolality word mean!
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and complex, it takes a long time to hydrolyze (break
down) the glucose bonds, therefore resulting in a rapid
but sustainable release of glucose into the bloodstream.
This helps avoid insulin spikes and resultant blood sugar
crashes.
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As for dosing, this inter-workout drink could contain
anywhere from 10-50% of the daily carbohydrate intake
totals. It would depend entirely on how lean the person
is and how much lean muscle mass they have. I
personally dilute 75 grams in 1/2 gallon of water. You
get no bloating and it seems to fill out my muscle nicely
and doesn't interfere with fat loss. By keeping the
mixture high in water content, you make the mixture
lower in osmolality, which is our goal. A good rule of
thumb I have found through trial and error is if you
don't dilute the solution enough, you get a rather
unpleasant effect called "dumping syndrome". It is a
real medical issue, but literally feels like your colon is
trying to turn inside out. You will pass feces like a 12-
gauge shotgun blast. At that point, you know you have a
hyper-osmolality solution. Simple fix, add more water.
The drawback for bigger bodybuilders, 240 lbs +, is that
some can utilize up to 250 grams of HBCD's. This may
take 3/4 of a gallon to keep the solution with lower
osmolality. Drinking high amounts of water during a
workout could either force you to pee a ton or rely on
Depends panties! All kidding aside, most people will
have to tinker with "their" mix so they can maximize the
load they are able to consume.
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Obviously, we need the solution to be lower in
osmolality than serum. I believe roughly 100 grams
HBCD's mixed with a half-gallon of water would provide
an osmolality of around 11. This would be a good dosing
for a male middleweight bodybuilder. The larger the
muscle mass, the higher the gram dosage of HBCD's
therefore you need more water to dilute the solution
enough to bring it below serum to allow for rapid
gastric emptying.
- David Reid
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ADH manipulation
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which activates the enzyme, adenyl cyclase.
Intracellular cAMP increases. The resulting increase in
intracellular cAMP leads to the activation of protein
kinase a (PKA) that phosphorylates Aquaporin-2[9].
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the blood does is lower the ratio of solutes to water in
the blood.
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water is around 2.2lbs, which is quite significant. The
way alcohol promotes urination is by inhibiting the
release of ADH(Vasopressin) from the pituitary gland. In
mice, Ethanol reduces the calcium-dependent secretion
of ADH by blocking voltage-gated calcium channels [4].
Acutely after drinking alcohol, vasopressin secretion is
suppressed, and a higher amount of water would be
excreted as urine. As time goes on as BAC declines, the
body will try to compensate by making high amount of
ADH hormone. If you don’t reintroduce water, this
won’t be a problem, and this will also set us up to be a
water hoarding machine when it is time to bloat up
(powerlifters).
- Thomas Lackie
References
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM
C4714093/
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/708147
7
3. https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh21-
1/84.pdf
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4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/194161
9
5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/757380
5
6. https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh22-
1/54-60.pdf
7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/207369
86?log$=activity
8. Caudill, M. A. Biochemical, physiological, and
molecular aspects of human nutrition. (Elsevier -
Health Sciences Div, 2012).
9. http://press.endocrine.org/doi/10.1210/en.200
5-0868
10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL89x3BT
nmY
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L-Carnitine and Fat Loss
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expenditure and fat oxidation during low intensity
exercise (<50% of max oxygen consumption). In this
particular study, after 12 weeks of L-carnitine and
carbohydrate supplementation, muscle total carnitine
increased by 20%, Long-chain acyl-CoA increased by
200%, and whole-body energy expenditure increased by
6%1.
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just cruise at a nice slower steady pace for a
little while after, you could take advantage of
the EPOC from the HIIT, and also the higher
amount of fat oxidized while you walk due to
your new friend L-Carnitine.
- Brad Hull
References:
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Training
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Justin,
I want to try a progressive overload training
program—do I just make sure I use more weight each
workout? I don’t see why that’s anything special?
Everyone is trying to get stronger.
In fact, I can use far LESS quad muscle and lift far
heavier weight.
If the goal is to get bigger quads by making them
stronger, then the only way getting stronger in squats is
a good indicator of that is if I change NO variables.
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biomechanically advantageous in a movement--and
when you've maxed out all those things, then you're
stuck with the true strength progression....which is
much slower.
Because of that, I prefer to find any form of progressive
overload.
If I feel like shit and can't get any of those done, then I'll
do all the same max weight and reps as the week
before, but I'll do one extra rep on all my warm up
sets.
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Progressive Overload – A Case Study
Case Study:
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Bodybuilder - Often has a weak back, usually has much
bigger arms than the powerlifter and usually legs too.
Why?
The difference between getting stronger in a movement
and making a muscle stronger.
The goal with progressive overload is to make a muscle
stronger. It can be reasonably assumed that a muscle
that continually gets stronger will get larger (there are
many other factors in play, but if you're benching 135
for 10 today and in a few years are doing 405 for 10
with the exact same form, you can safely assume your
chest will be bigger).
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adjust the workload to the supporting muscles (close
grip bench, etc), but since they're the weaker
supporting muscles, you will inevitably be weaker with
that form.
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movement is a proportionally large increase in weight
for the small biceps (probably along the lines of a 90lb
or more increase in the deadlift).
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issue bodybuilders have when they start is weak legs
(not weak quads--weak legs). It's because a few balls
deep sets of squats can nearly put you in the
hospital....but the workload is spread over so many
muscles that even though the body is wrecked, the
individual leg muscles aren't loaded nearly enough to
trigger the muscle protein synthesis you want.
Also--there are SO many supporting muscles that are
required for true bodybuilding legs.
For me, I've found that every leg workout should have a
minimum of the following:
heavy quad work (squats, leg press, etc). Usually 2
movements
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Light quad work (leg extensions, sissy squats, hack
squats, etc). Usually at least 1 movement
And the only person I've ever seen come close to doing
it was Ronnie.
But if you look at his routine it was (he hit them twice a
week):
Squat
leg press
lying leg curl
stiff leg deadlift
Front squat
hack squat
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seated leg curl
stiff leg deadlift
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Justin,
My weight on my last high day (Saturday) was 239. My
workouts have been good. I've noticed this week my
hunger levels were up which is weird eating more.
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off of the quads to spread it out over adductors, glutes,
hams, etc., to improve leverages.
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Probably a form/strength/mobility issue. It's common--I
used to get it for years periodically when I'd start with
any power movement. Stretching before almost always
makes it worse. The best approach is warming up as
much as possible, avoiding leg positions that exacerbate
the problem, and move any exercise that causes it to
later in the workout after the muscles are overly
warm/fatigued.
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Justin,
Why does it seem like so few top bodybuilders squat?
Isn’t squat the best exercise for legs?
Squats CAN be the best exercise for legs. They can also
be the worst enemy of leg size if you aren’t careful with
how you approach the movement.
Why is that?
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powerful of those three muscles is the pectorals. In this
case, performing the bench press with the sole intent of
moving the most amount of weight possible is, by
default, going to place the largest workload on the pecs.
Certainly workload is distributed to the shoulders,
triceps, and even other assisting muscles like those of
the upper back and even the legs when incorporating
leg drive—but if you want to move the most weight in
that movement, the largest load will be placed on the
largest most mechanically advantageous muscle
group—the pecs.
This is why an instance of training a movement (bench
press) builds large pec muscles—utilizing any other
muscle as prime mover will result in less maximum
weight being lifted.
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(deadlift) builds large erectors and traps—because
utilizing any other muscle as prime mover will result in
less maximum weight being lifted.
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This is where progressive overload becomes muddled
and distorted by many trainees. When the focus of
progressive overload is placed solely on the amount of
weight lifted in a movement, rather than progressively
overloading the workload on a particular muscle, there
are some movements where getting stronger will
directly correlate to greater workload on the intended
muscle….and some movements where getting stronger
in a movement will actually DECREASE the workload on
the intended muscle. The difference in body types
between bodybuilders and powerlifters is a prime
example of this case.
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Post Contest
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Justin,
I just finished my contest and after a week of binging, I
think I’m ready to get back on a plan, should I start
with the diet I ended at last offseason?
Once you’re confident that you have the diet dialed in—
that you’re not adding unwanted fat and you’re
providing enough calories to stimulate growth, then it's
just a matter of continually working to increase the food
volume as your body allows it, e.g., each new lb of
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muscle is roughly 50 extra Calories burned per day just
to maintain itself (muscle is metabolically active
tissue). So, it's a combo of adjusting for the added
muscle size, as well as adjusting for the increase in
metabolism that comes from more food (15-30% of the
Calories in protein is burned just in the digestion of
protein. Since most of it gets converted to glucose, and
then some of it gets converted again to fat, so the more
Calories you're eating, the more Calories you're
burning, etc.).
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Justin,
I’m a few weeks out from my second show. I’m not
really asking for help for this contest, but I’m curious
what you recommend people do after the contest?
After my first show I ate everything in sight and gained
30 lbs in just a few days. I’d like to avoid that this time
if possible.
Phase 1:
First 36 hours post show:
Eat whatever you want the night of the show, and then
the day after.
Phase 2:
Next 5 days post show:
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Eat 5 consecutive "high carb" days, where you pretty
much eat as much food as you want as long as it comes
from "clean" sources. Then, at the end of the day, have
a cheat meal for your last meal.
Phase 3:
Post show rebound period:
Meal 1:
10 egg whites with 3 whole eggs or 8oz chicken
1 cup oatmeal
1 tablespoon peanut butter
Meal 2:
8oz flank steak
1 cup rice
1 tablespoon of macadamia nut oil
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Meal 3:
8oz 93/7 ground beef or flank steak
1 cup rice
1 tablespoon macadamia nut oil
Meal 4:
8oz chicken or 8oz tilapia
10oz potatoes
1 tablespoon grass fed butter
Meal 5:
8oz chicken or 8oz tilapia
¼ cup cream of rice
1 tablespoon peanut butter
Meal 6:
8oz chicken or 8oz tilapia
¼ cup cream of rice
1 tablespoon peanut butter
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Justin,
I won't bullshit you, this weekend didn't go well for
food and I have lost some ground. I have a pretty bad
"binge" mode and I ate beyond poorly for several days
and missed a couple workouts. I am bloated and have
taken a step backwards. Not gonna make excuses. It is
what it is, I am back home and it's time to re-focus.
1. Get the bloat and added fat off with a couple weeks
of the diet we have been running and then go into lean
gain mode trying to add a ton of muscle and strength
with his next bigger cycle, while staying lean and
staying body builder mode just aiming to gain. Okay,
cool. My workout partner is on vacation and back
after this weekend. He's supposed to order
everything we could need when he gets back
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what you should do...which is why none of the active
members of any online community are ever top
competitors)
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a few times a year...so it seemed like every time they
saw a pic of me I had added 10lbs (which I probably
did...but it had also been 9 months since I posted pics
online). And the end result was going from 215lbs on
stage to 260lbs on stage....which was a 3 year process
to me, but seemed like it was overnight to everyone
else (Justin Compton is another guy who seems like he
"blew up overnight"...but I'm sure if you ask him, it was
a 3 year process of never missing a meal, training like a
madman, and eating more steak and rice than anyone
on earth would ever want to eat)
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The best is whatever approach you can be consistent
with...whatever approach you believe is the best and
will treat as though you're doing the right thing. The
reason Justin Compton blows up to freak status and
everyone else doesn't is because Justin Compton picked
a strategy and stuck to it...he's as detailed with his diet
in the offseason as people are pre=contest. He didn't
worry about if he was doing the right thing or not...he
knew he was doing the right thing and plugged away at
it day after day after day. The reason everyone else
isn't blowing up like Justin Compton did is because
they're ready to jump ship on their own protocol and
try whatever Justin Compton is doing because they're
paranoid that they're not doing the right thing....so they
jump on whatever Compton is doing...until they see a
pic of Big Ramy...and then bail ship for whatever
approach they hear Ramy is taking.
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Brian Dobson gave him a workout routine....so he
followed it, every. single. day...for 25 years! Same
fucking workout routine. Same exercises. Same time of
day.
Over and over again.
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Weight Cuts
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Justin,
I compete in powerlifting and it seems like the top
lifters in each weight class walk around looking a hell
of a lot heavier than the weights they compete at.
How much weight are these guys cutting for meets?
How big of a weight cut is even possible?
Glycogen:
Assuming you’re working with a male who holds around
1000g glycogen at max (it’s estimated that the average
male holds 800g, so this is a fairly safe estimate in a
trained male).
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Food Volume:
This isn’t going to be a huge one, but there is certainly
some weight that food holds during the digestion
process that can be removed during the depletion stage
by decreasing food intake. Let’s assume that this daily
food weight is about 5lbs (if you’re eating even 6oz of
meat per meal, that’s already almost 2.5lbs of weight
before any carbs are taken into consideration).
Water Intake:
A gallon of water weighs 8lbs. If we’re drinking 2
gallons per day in the lead up to the weight cut, then
that’s 16lbs of fluid per day our kidneys are used to
flushing out. Removing water entirely at the end before
the body has time to adjust its fluid output to the
reduced intake gives us a max weight loss of 16lbs.
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into the dehydrated state that you can go before major
issues arise)
Extracellular fluid:
When giving the 30lb limit of “easy weight cut,” I’m
talking about morning weight, where extracellular fluid
is low—so there really isn’t a ton of extra cellular fluid
to work with in this case. But, there is some.
How much? Well, for anyone who has been extremely
lean (e.g., bodybuilding contest lean) will be able to tell
you that losing 1lb of body fat at the end has the same
visual appearance as 10lbs of body at the beginning—
that’s the same with losing extracellular fluid from a
morning body weight. If we can pull 4-6lbs from here,
that’s about all we’re going to get—and getting those
lbs is going to take outside effort, either from diuretic
use, sauna use, or sweat suit use. But—if we hit those
6lbs, that brings us to 38lbs total weight loss.
Blood Volume:
Not all of the water you lose will be water that is bound
to carbohydrates as glycogen—you will also lose some
blood volume as well. How much of this can we
lose? Well…not much.
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the risk of major complication becomes higher than any
potential reward. That gives us about 2.4lbs….which
brings our total to just over 40lbs. The magic number
that is the max I would expect most athletes to lose in a
pure water depletion (this number may go up another 5
or even 10lbs when you’re talking about 300lb athletes
with a ton of natural extracellular water or drop
another 5-10lbs when you’re talking about sub 200lb
athletes).
If it is tested, then:
Phase 1 - Increased water and sodium intake
5-10 days of increased fluid intake in the 2 gallons (8L)
range.
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Calories are removed from the diet (plain chicken
breasts don't taste good--heavily seasoned chicken
breasts taste better). So, by increasing sodium and
water in the days/weeks before the weigh ins, the
person may gain a few lbs initially--but then the body
regulates itself and pretty soon they are back to their
normal weight but eating high amounts of sodium and
drinking 2 gallons of water--which will help us drop
weight later on.
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• If no sauna is available, make a bathroom sauna
(person is typically at a hotel for a major
competition).
Turn the shower on full heat and wedge
rolled up towels under the door to seal
the room off as much as possible. Lay in
heavy clothing (garbage bag shirt can be
used if still way over weight) and watch
movies until you're able to make
weight.
Phase 5 - weigh in
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Justin,
I saw your post on the limits for weight cuts in
competition. I understand that it’s possible to lose
that weight for a weigh in, but most weigh ins are 24
hours before the meet. How in the hell are they going
to lift the next day if they’re so depleted and
dehydrated?
I get that they can lose the weight—but there’s no way
they’re gaining it back in 24 hours, are they?
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So, step one:
Get depleted. A low prolonged low carb diet will
deplete glycogen stores.
Get dehydrated. A period of dehydration will affect
vasopressin and tell your body to hold on to whatever
water you do drink.
Get hyponatremic. A period of low sodium intake will
affect aldosterone and tell your body to hold whatever
sodium it does get when you finally reintroduce it.
Step two:
Reduce kidney function and increase vasopressin.
How? A heavy dose of NSAIDs will reduce the function
of the kidney during the time the NSAID is in the body
(8-hour half-life for most). A nice dose of
Desmopressin will spike vasopressin and make sure that
you’re pissing as little as possible.
Step three:
Take in a shit load of carbohydrates, water, and sodium.
The hardest part of this process is that the stomach gets
full and it gets hard to take in more food and water–so
the most important thing is to find high density food
sources loaded with carbohydrates and sodium, and to
find carbohydrate containing food sources that pass the
stomach quickly.
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Ramen Noodles:
Each pack contains about 50g of carbs and 1.5g of
sodium.
Eating 2 packs every two hours will give you 100g of
carbs and 3g of sodium every 60 minutes–or 800g of
carbs and 24g of sodium over a 16-hour feeding period.
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Final Tally:
We needed:
2.7 gallons water
1,000 g carbohydrates
Lots of sodium
We have:
3 gallons of water
1,010 g carbohydrates
23-25g of sodium.
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Supplements
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Justin,
I hear you only like insulin in high carb days? What are
your thoughts on using it pre-workout on all work out
days?
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going to increase growth?
If 1-3g is your max number--are you going to hit that 1-
3g mark by using insulin? Let's say you are--that insulin
will make you as anabolic as possible at every workout.
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important time frame for promoting growth--but it isn't
the ONLY time frame and isolating it to the max while
minimizing the other 22 hours of the day will slow
results in the long run.
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Justin,
I was reading about Humulin R; seems to make sense
since it would cover the pre, intra and post work out
phase. Just curious. It's also nice since its OTC.
Just make sure you have juice with you wherever you
are when using the R. The dosing protocol will work, it's
just not as predictable as Humalog so there's always the
risk of an abnormal drop in blood sugar randomly
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Justin,
I am very interested in using insulin, but don’t know
where to start. I've heard many different ideas about
it online but not sure what is the truth.
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The truth is that Ronnie Coleman was huge without
anything. Phil Heath turned pro on baby doses of
gear. The truth is that genetics play a bigger role than
anyone wants to realize....and the people looking for a
secret drug combo to get huge are usually (more like
always) not following a proper diet protocol....and just
want to blame their lack of results on not knowing the
secret gear combination.
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Taking genetics out of the equation, how you look
depends on (in order of importance--most important
first):
1. Diet
2. Gear
3. Training
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There are two triggers of protein synthesis in the body
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decrease in insulin sensitivity....so every day you use
those long acting insulins, they are less effective.
in a sport where it takes a decade or more to reach your
peak....you're not really thinking things through if you're
focusing on increasing growth by 1% today when it's
going to decrease it by 50% 5 years from now.
Years later guy who looks like shit, still looks like shit
and says "I'm trying this new drug this way and am
growing CRAZY fast!"
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Repeat for every drug.
Anyone who's talking about drugs on the internet
almost by default has no idea what he's talking about.
if he did, he would already be a "known" person
because he looks like a bodybuilder and would no
longer be online talking about gear
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Justin,
I’ve been trying to lean out without losing muscle. I’ve
been pretty good on the diet. I’ve kept it simple--I’ve
been running my meals all as medium days. Is it okay
if I stick loosely to the diet? Or should I follow the
carbs and protein to a “T?”
You will get the most optimal gains by follow the diet
exactly. I know I've emphasized the point by now, but
bodybuilding is diet. Without the diet--it's just
powerlifting or strongman type work.
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How long should I run each cycle 12-16 weeks? With a
4-week cruise break? Even for year-round use?
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main compounds that are effective (an androgen, an
anabolic, an insulinogenic, an androgenic anti-estrogen,
and growth hormone), so you run into the issue of
"where do I go next?"
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Also, I’ve heard that you advise running Proviron year-
round at 25mg? Do you suggest cycling on off or
changing it up?
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really aren't that great (when you include side effects in
with the benefits)--they have the biggest downside in
that they affect the liver and spike blood pressure (high
blood pressure --and the resulting kidney failure due to
chronic high blood pressure is the one thing
bodybuilders legitimately have to worry about dying
from), and no major upside form injectables other than
the fact that you don't have to inject them.
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of puberty....and they're always loaded with backne
because of it
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my libido. If I were to run only Nolvadex, how to
should I run it? How much and when?
It’s less that I recommend 5iu per day and more that
you can usually run GH at that dose regularly without
major issues with insulin desensitization. If you're going
to compete, you may want to take it higher at times in
contest prep, but at doses higher than about 5iu/day,
you'll run into issues with long term use. Namely, at
some point you'll be a diabetic and probably have
heart/kidney issues from cardiomyopathy and renal
failure secondary to high blood pressure and
cardiomyopathy…along with the visual changes of long
term high GH use.
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If you want to run it long term, 5iu is plenty.
If you want to compete—then shorter bursts above
5iu/day on contest preps with 5iu/day in the offseason
will probably give you 10+ years before issues start to
pop up.
If you want to run high dose (10iu or more) year round--
then you can expect to be a diabetic within a few years
and you'll have a max run of about 10 years before all
the major visual effects hit.
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Have you ever met an IFBB pro? Half of them can
barely be pulled away from weed and video games to
stand at a booth for a few hours at the Arnold. Half of
them forget to eat if their girlfriend doesn't put the food
in front of them. If you think any of those guys are
micro dosing or doing anything like that, you're wrong.
I'm sure a few of them have tried--but Phil Heath has
been a pro for 12 years. If you think anyone can be
obsessed enough to pin 10x a day for more than a
decade straight--good luck. That shit would become
torture after a few weeks. People worry FAR too much
about the potential 0.001% benefit that something like
this might cause rather than worrying about the fact
that they’re only 80% on top of their diet, or that they
train like pussies half the time. Nail that last 20% of the
diet and the last 10% of training and that 0.0001% that
micro-dosing could possibly add won’t matter anyway.
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the game….you lose the desire to pin slin 30x a day after
20 years in the sport), and they’re never the largest
people I work with.
Otherwise, the standard protocol is more along the
lines of 1-4 days a week where you use it multiple times
a day (the method I prefer because Humalog is more
predictable), or use longer acting compounds (which I
dislike because it is harder to be precise with peaks)--
but even then, most people aren't doing that forever
anyway. After a decade of being a bodybuilder, you get
sick of pinning and that kind of shit..so you stop the
insulin for a while one offseason, realize that you didn't
lose much size, and any fullness you did lose comes
back almost immediately after you start another insulin
protocol, so you tend to pick and choose when to
implement it.
insulin has the most dramatic short-term benefits pre-
contest when you need to restore glycogen as quickly as
possible, and in the final week before a show when you
need to control blood sugar to properly dry out and fill
out.
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1000-1500mg/day, in 1 or 2 doses, or if it affects
appetite, take it before bed
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Justin,
I store a lot of fat in my stomach, but not so much
anywhere else. Does this mean that I have some
Estrogen management issues? I took Test when I was
a Jr and Sr in college and one physical therapist
associated with EliteFTS suggested that maybe I was
aromatizing Testosterone.
It’s very possible that the test you took in college was
aromatizing to estrogen. In fact, it definitely was—it’s
just the amount that is in question. One thing to note is
that aromatization is linked to body composition. At
higher body fat levels, aromatization increases. Above
about 12%, there is higher aromatization levels.
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testosterone production (even though it was probably
suppressed on some level by the body fat). You’ll often
see offensive and defensive lineman in college with
clear cases of gyno. This is because while they may
have high testosterone levels despite their higher body
fat levels, they still have the higher aromatization from
the excess body fat.
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Justin,
I heard you say that you would only supplement with
GDAs if A1c was elevated or if the person were using
products that reduced insulin sensitivity (like higher
dose GH). Why?
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higher doses lead primarily to higher rates of side
effects with little to no benefits to progress.
• Loss of appetite
• Lethargy
• “test flu”
• PIP
• Health issues
It’s like that with everything in this sport, but people are
too blind to take a step back and see what’s so
obviously in front of them.
If 3 sets is good, is 300 sets better?
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paint a logical framework of when benefits start to
taper. And, the point where things taper is probably
where you’ll find the top guys in the sport living.
Once you do that, you’ll start seeing why some guys are
succeeding and others aren’t...and you’ll see that the
ones who aren’t are the ones stuck in the 1-dimensional
thought process in too many areas of the sport
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Justin,
I have some questions on gear and cycles.
Personally, I have run almost every compound except
for tren (I tried it for 2 weeks that’s it), and also have
run dosages as low as 250mg a week up to 1.5 gram or
more (wasn’t my brightest ideas looking back).
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MAY "cruise" at parts of the year, but most of the year
they're on a pretty solid cycle.
The "smart" pros will blast in contest prep and then
stick to something like 750mg test and 500mg EQ or
DECA during their offseason (but if you're doing 3 shows
a year....there isn't really much of an offseason, so
they're still blasting hard most of the year)
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Food is what works. The CORRECT food. Boring ass
meat and rice, every three hours, in the right ratios to
promote protein synthesis and minimize fat gains.
Everyone thinks it's gear, or training, or some weird
compound that costs a lot of money.
The top guys run boring basic cycles (I’m not saying they
run baby doses—although there is an upper limit where
side effects like appetite suppression and lethargy end
up negating the benefit…because if you can’t eat and
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can’t train, you’re not going to grow….but they don’t do
anything that you’re not doing, they’re not running
some fancy chemical that only some lab in a dungeon
somewhere produces. They’re running the basic shit
that works the best—just like everyone else).
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people posting regularly. However, those people rarely
put much effort into talking about gear.
Why? Because there’s only a handful of compounds out
there—there just isn’t enough mystery to make it
interesting past your first few years. By year 5,
everyone has tried every major compound (and not
turned pro). Everyone has tried mega doses (and not
turned pro). Everyone has tried insulin and GH (and not
turned pro). So, at that point, they either double down
on the idea that the reason they haven’t turned pro is
because they haven’t tried mega ultra super doses, or
they realize that there’s more to the picture and begin
to put more emphasis on nutrition and training.
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bodybuilding and you’ll find that they typically fall into
two categories.
1) The forum/group that has a lot of top
bodybuilders on it.
2) The forum/group that has a lot of novice
bodybuilders on it
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But, maybe it’s the fact that they’ve all realized that
there is no magic pill for growth and since everyone is
pretty much taking the same shit, then the deciding
factor in who progresses faster must come from
somewhere else?
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Justin,
How long do you recommend running cycles for? Do
you prefer short cycles, like an 8-week blast? Or
longer cycles like 12-16 week blasts? Also, how long
should someone cruise for between cycles?
With gear use, the health risks are pretty well defined.
What are they?
Liver issues
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Cholesterol issues
Blood Pressure
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smaller fill area, leading to an increased heart rate
to keep up blood supply.
Then, look at the kidneys. Imagine them as a simple
filter—perhaps a coffee filter. Hold a coffee filter
under the faucet and water will pour through for
years. But, put that same filter in front of a fire
hose at high pressure, and the filter begins to get
torn apart. That is what happens under high blood
pressure. Eventually, a damaged filter isn’t able to
filter out toxins as well—which is doubly bad
because as toxin levels (creatinine specifically)
increase in the body, the thing you need is a BETTER
filter, not worse. To double down on the issue, as a
bodybuilder you have higher levels of muscle mass,
which means more muscle breakdown, which
means that there is more creatinine to deal with—
eventually the creatinine levels begin to climb.
This leads us back to the heart—now, with higher
toxin levels and a smaller cavity due to the
thickened heart muscle, the heart has to work
overtime to try to pass as much blood through the
filter as possible. Soon it realizes that it can’t keep
up demand and its only recourse is to increase
cavity size by any means necessary. This is when
dilation occurs—the heart dilates to allow for larger
fill size. This dilation eventually weakens the heart
muscle as it is overly stretched. The weakened
heart muscle has a harder time to pump against the
high pressure and things snowball from there.
The next step is heart failure. As the heart fails to
keep up with demand, fluid levels in the body start
to rise. You’ll see ankles swelling (pitting edema).
This only stresses the kidneys worse. They are
unable to keep up with normal fluid levels due to
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their damaged state, so an increase in fluid level
(which increases blood pressure because more fluid
in the same sized blood vessel system is only going
to lead to higher pressures) just causes further
damage.
The final stages of this are pulmonary edema—fluid
in the lungs. The athlete begins noticing pneumonia
like symptoms (and the same thing happens when
healthy people get—and even die from—
pneumonia) as their breathing becomes labored
due to the fluid in their lungs (water is a poor
transporter of oxygen).
At this point there is no return—the bodybuilder is
in renal failure and dialysis is required. The worst
part of it all is that all of this could have been
avoided if proper care was taken with their blood
pressure from the beginning.
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Justin,
I have a question. My libido has been suffering lately.
I tried a different cycle than I typically run (test 250mg
and deca 600-800 a week), and the reason I chose this
cycle was to focus on the anabolic aspect of the deca
and hopefully have lower side effects with the test
being lower. The reason is because I’ve been reading
people claim that all the side effects come from
testosterone and it seems like everyone is getting
great results with low test cycles. How should run a
proper cycle, or what can I do to make sure my libido
isn’t trashed?
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then you’d have to assume they’re Mr. Olympia after 10
years of constantly getting bigger and leaner.
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be (if that's your goal) a pro bodybuilder, and the small
difference 0.5% can make becomes important.
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Justin,
My sex drive has gone to shit. I can have sex with
Viagra, but the motivation to get it going has really
taken a dive. Do you have any special tricks to try to
restore it to healthy balance? Is there any way I can
run gear and have a libido and look at women again
and lust! If this is not an option or do you have
suggestions what I can do.
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