Mondays With Thibs: Beef Up Your Body Composition
by Christian Thibaudeau


Over the past few weeks, I've focused on novel exercises to
correct weak areas, effective training programs to try, and
training methods to crank up the growth.
My poor brain needs a break!
So, it's time to deal you a hand of tips and tricks to improve
your strength, the way you look, or how you feel. Some of them are
training related, others refer to nutrition or supplement
strategies.
Regardless, you're sure to find a few that'll further you along
in your journey toward your ultimate goal.


Look Better Naked by Increasing Muscle Insulin
Sensitivity
Insulin sensitivity is crucial to body composition. Being
insulin sensitive — as opposed to insulin resistant —
will help you pack on the muscle and drop the fat.
How's that possible?
Pretty simple.
Without going too much into the boring physiology, the insulin
sensitivity of a structure or tissue refers to how it responds to
insulin. If a tissue has a high degree of insulin sensitivity,
it'll respond easily to insulin so that only a small amount is
needed to do the job. It also means that if one tissue is more
sensitive to insulin than another, it'll respond to a greater
degree.
Basically, if your muscles have a higher level of insulin
sensitivity than your fat cells, the nutrients you eat will be
preferentially shuttled to your muscles.
This is because insulin is the hormone that tells the body's
storing facilities to open up. The three main facilities are the
muscles, adipocytes (fat cells), and liver. If one of these
facilities responds more effectively to insulin, then it'll accept
more of the incoming nutrients.
Insulin is like a flow of keys running through your body looking
for locks to unlock. The main storing facilities all have locks,
and when insulin comes into contact with these locks, it opens up
the door to the facility, allowing the nutrients to flow in. Now,
if a facility has more doors, then insulin will unlock more doors,
and as a result more nutrients will come in.
If your muscles have more locks than your fat cells, that's a
damn good thing. When insulin is released, you'll shuttle more of
the ingested nutrients into your muscles, and less will be left to
be stored in fat cells. The end result? You're one big, ripped sumbitch.
In the opposite situation, where your fat cells have more locks,
you'll have an easier time storing fat and building muscle will be
that much harder. A bodybuilder's worst nightmare!


Insulin is friendly, as long as it's opening up
the right locks.
Muscle insulin sensitivity depends on several factors. Genetics
do play a role, but so does your current physical condition,
activity level, and nutritional approach.
For example, the leaner you are, the more your muscles will be
sensitive to insulin (fatter individuals have, you guessed it, more
sensitive fat cells). Someone with more muscle mass will also be
more insulin sensitive simply because there's more tissue to put
locks on.
So, right off the bat, if you're adding muscle, you're bettering
your insulin situation. Similarly, if you lean down to under 10%
body fat, you'll also increase your muscle's sensitivity.
Physical activity also plays a role in insulin sensitivity of
various tissues. When you're inactive, which is most of the day,
your fat cells increase their insulin sensitivity (not good) and
your muscles reduce theirs (not good either). Right after a bout of
intense physical activity, especially strength training, the
situation is the opposite: Your muscles become sensitive (which is
the reason why post-workout nutrition is so important) and fat
cells become less.
See, your body is thrifty and adjusts itself depending on the
current demands. If you're inactive, your muscles aren't tired, and
they don't need to be repaired or refueled. So, in the name of
survival, the body puts priority on storing energy for the
long-term (fat). On the other hand, right after hard physical work,
the priority switches to restoring the expended energy and
repairing the damaged muscle. These things require energy and
nutrients. So, the body increases muscle insulin sensitivity to
divert more of the energy flow to the muscles, where it's needed
the most.
With all of that accounted for, it's easy to see that a
muscular, lean, and active individual handles insulin better than a
skinny-fat sedentary clerk!
Okay, so what's the trick? Is it simply to "get muscular, lean,
and train hard?"
Not really.
Being more insulin sensitive after a workout is a given. What we
want to do to improve body composition is make your muscles more
insulin sensitive throughout the day.
Obviously, this means limiting carb intake when inactive,
especially cutting out "bad carbs" like sugar. But, here are four
simple and cheap steps you can take to switch the daily balance
toward a better body:
1. Use one or two tablespoon(s) of ground cinnamon prior to
every meal (and mix it in your shakes). Cinnamon, on top of having
a myriad of other health benefits, improves insulin sensitivity,
insulin management, and glucose disposal. It doesn't contain any
calories, has a high level of several minerals, as well as fiber,
and tastes great!
But, don't go twisting that. I'm talking about adding cinnamon
to your meals, not cinnamon buns!
2. Use one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with every meal.
(Don't mix it into your shakes, though; the stuff tastes horrible!)
Just like cinnamon, apple cider vinegar is a great natural and
cheap way to improve the insulin sensitivity of your
muscles.
3. Use a fish oil supplement. I can't believe that with all the
data supporting fish oil's health and body composition benefits,
there are still people not using it. It boggles my
mind.
For body composition purposes, a good dose is one gram of fish
oil per percent of body fat. If you're 15% body fat, then 15 grams
of fish oil per day would fit the bill.



This refers to a normal fish oil, which usually has around 300
to 400 mg of combined EPA/DHA per gram. Flameout is three times as concentrated, so you only need four grams (three to four
capsules) to get the same benefits as 12 grams (12 capsules) of a
regular fish oil. So, our friend who's at 15% body fat would either
need 15 capsules of a normal fish oil or 4 or 5 capsules of
Flameout.



4. Increase your fiber intake. Fiber slows down gastric emptying
and thus the rate at which nutrients enter the bloodstream. In
turn, this leads to a reduced insulin spike, which will help
prevent storing nutrients into the fat cells. I recommend ingesting
a lot of green veggies with every main meal and putting a fiber
supplement in non-post-workout shakes (if you have any). You also
can't go wrong with an apple in the morning.


If You Play with Tempo, Respect the Movement's Strength
Curve
I rarely lift a weight slowly on purpose. Sure, sometimes you
should control the load during the lifting portion, or lift a
weight using the constant tension technique, but these aren't
superslow techniques.
However, eccentric tempo can get pretty varied, and it actually
should be for optimal long-term results. But, if you decide to use
eccentric tempo variations, use them wisely.
Here are two good, general guidelines to respect:

• Extension/pushing movements (squat, bench press, dips, leg
  press, etc.) respond better to a slow eccentric
  tempo.
  

• Flexion/pulling movements (chin-ups, rows, biceps curls, leg
  curls, etc.) don't respond as well to a slow eccentric tempo, but
  respond better to the inclusion of an isometric hold at the end of
  the pulling/flexion movement. For example, holding the top position
  and squeezing your back hard for as long as you can at the end of a
  chin-up set, or holding the peak contraction of each rep of a leg
  curl for two or three seconds, etc.
  

So, if you want to reap the maximum benefits of slow eccentric
phases or accentuated eccentric training, do so mostly with
extension/pushing movements. To get the same benefits from pulling
movements, use isometric squeezes/holds at the peak contraction
position of the pulling/flexion movement.

This doesn't mean that you can't use a slow eccentric tempo for
flexion/pulling exercises, or an isometric hold on
extension/pushing exercises. Any method that challenges the
muscles, and is done according to the principle of progression,
will lead to gains. Some methods are just ideally suited for
certain exercises.
Here are some examples:
Slow eccentrics: bench press, squats, incline press, military
press, dumbbell shoulder press, dips, leg press, hack squats, split
squats, Bulgarian squats, close-grip bench press, lying triceps
extensions, Romanian deadlift, pullover (various
forms)
Isometric hold/squeeze: chin-ups, pull-ups, lat pull-down
(various kinds), bent-over barbell row, one-arm dumbbell row,
seated row, upright row, preacher curl (various forms), standing
cable curl (various forms), dumbbell lateral raise, dumbbell front
raise, dumbbell seated curl, standing wrist curl, shrugs (various
forms), leg curls, cable-cross over, pec deck machine, direct calf
work
But, like pretty much everything under the sun, there are also
some exceptions to the rule. For example, the leg extension
responds well to isometric holds despite being an extension
movement. Also, exercises with a very short range of motion
(shrugs, wrist curls, calf raises, etc.) don't respond well to a
slow eccentric tempo; an isometric hold is a better choice for
these.