HGB Newsletter #02 February 2009
This newsletter will be sent to you on a monthly basis. Every newsletter will have new workouts, tips and information as well as links to whats new on the website.
Get your protein!
Proteins are the building blocks of lean muscle mass. Without it, building muscle and burning fat efficiently would be impossible. Researchers have discovered that the protein needs of weight lifters are greater than sedentary people (go figure).
On my nutritional guidelines page I recommended bodybuilders consume between 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight, evenly split across your meals. You can use supplemental whey protein to meet this goal, but consuming real food protein sources is best because of the thermal effect of food. The thermal effect of food is the energy the body uses to digest, absorb and process food nutrients. You are actually burning calories while your body is digesting solid food!
Lets say you are a bodybuilder weighing 180 pounds. The minimum protein requirement to maintain the muscles you have would be 180 grams of protein per day. Spreading this evenly over six meals is 30 grams per meal.
Most likely you will eat three out of six meals away from home (assuming youre employed these days). Remembering to bring enough protein with you every day is a challenge, so I like to stock my desk drawers and the company refrigerator with portable protein.
Portable protein ideas.
(All prices listed are Wal-marts)
Tyson 5 oz canned chicken contains 26 grams of protein and costs $1.50 per can.
Star-Kist 5 oz chunk light canned tuna contains 22 grams of protein and costs $1.08 per can.
Bumble bee sardines, 15 grams of protein, $1 per can.
Hard boiled eggs each 7 grams of protein.
4 ounces of cheese
4 ounces of turkey breast (cooked fresh at home is better than deli, which is high in sodium).
One cup of cottage cheese.
Homemade beef jerky. You can buy the stuff sold in every grocery store and gas station, but its full of sodium nitrates (a preservative and allegedly a cancer causing substance) not to mention a lot of other chemicals. They sell nitrate free jerky, but its expensive, so I like to make my own.
All you need is a dehydrator, a nice piece of London broil beef, and a bottle of Kikkomans garlic and teriyaki sauce for the marinade ($1.67). Amazon carries Nesco American Harvest FD-61 Snackmaster Encore Dehydrator and Jerky Maker as well as books on how to make jerky: Just Jerky : The Complete Guide to Making It
Fresh homemade beef jerky is the best! Heres a challenge for you: see if you can save some fresh jerky to bring to work. Odds are good most of it will be eaten right after coming out of the dehydrator.
Last resort is to use protein powder and protein bars, in that order. Its better to eat as much real food as possible, but protein powder is easy and transportable. Using a blender bottle, a scoop of whey protein mixed with either skim milk or water, and you have a quick 25-30 gram protein mini-meal.
Protein bars are my last choice because they contain nasty sugar alcohols and a long list of chemicals. Your body struggles to digest anything man-made in a lab, and sugar alcohols give you unbelievable gas!
Februarys workout:
Dumbbell full body work out.
This months workout is once again a full body workout, completed three times a week using nothing but dumbbells and a bench. Im really starting to believe that full body workouts are the way to go, because you stimulate more total muscle mass in every workout. You cant truly isolate a muscle like you try to do when you only work one body part per exercise session.
For example some bodybuilders have a upper body day, then next a lower body day, etc. hoping to isolate a particular set of muscles, but the squat works the gluteals, hamstrings, quads, adductors, spinea erectors, calves, and most of the upper body! So if you just worked your upper body the day before, you are working it again the following day by doing squats.
Even just reaching for a coffee cup you use your finger muscles, the forearm muscles to grip it, and your biceps to curl the cup to your lips. Your goal is to work as much of your bodys total muscle mass as possible each training session, and thus transform your body as quickly as possible. Full body workouts accomplish this goal.
This dumbbell workout (opens with PDF reader) is found in the excellent digital magazine Muscle & Fitness 101 Workouts which I highly recommend you spend the $ on.
For all you new subscribers, you can access last month's newsletter here.
Coming soon on the site:
Homemade weight vest (this is harder to make than I thought)
P90X review
Until next month .Keep Liftin
Barry C.
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