DHARMA BODYBUILDING: 2010

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Abs

Photography: Ron Lai
Trunk: Teron
Model: Danie Dharma

Everyone wants to have abs! Besides the fact that the girls just love it, one with abs can happily walk around in beaches without a shirt. As with many other aspects of looking good, a lot of people base their abs training regime on assumptions. "Just do 200 sit ups every day!" they would say. Fact is, it doesn't work that way. Doing sets and reps don't actually reveal your abs, they only strengthen them. Most people can't see their abs cos there is a layer of fat/subcutaneous tissues covering it.

Abs training
Abs are a muscle, just like biceps and chest etc. So I don't see a need to do any special training. Train them once or twice a week with 15 to 6 rep sets. Anything between 6 to 10 sets will do. Although you don't see your abs just by training them, you must train them so they look great once you strip off the fat.

Visibility of abs
You do not burn the fats/sub-q specifically from your abdominal area just by training the muscles there. There is no such thing as spot reduction of bodyfat! Think about it this way, you cant loose fats specifically from your toes, chin, left hand, right calf, or left buttock. Likewise from the belly. So how then? Fat is gained as a whole and lost as a whole. In order to see your abs, you got to work out your diet and spend some time doing cardio.

Cadio
"Run alot" is an advice commonly given to those who want to get lean. Its not just running that helps burn bodyfat. Any cardio exercise when performed for a sufficient period will suffice. The idea is to keep your body mobile until you use up all your blood sugar (immediate source of energy), causing your body to burn bodyfat once blood sugar runs out. Running, cycling, swimming, skipping, stair climbing, rowing and boxercise are some examples of cardio exercises. A typical cardio workout is to go to a gym and run about 30 to 40mins on a treadmill, then immediately get on the stationary bike for another 10 to 20mins. Cardio can also be done after weights training. You will be pretty tired to begin with, but the upside is a lot of blood sugar would already have been burnt during the weight training. Your body will go into fat burning faster! Note that cardio on its own is not the most effective means to lose bodyfat. A diet is the most important aspect of all this. Cardio greatly speeds up the process. If you burn 500 calories for example, but consume 1000 extra calories, you'll still gain bodyfat.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Fat Loss

Fat loss is probably the single most common reason why people take up sports or an exercise regime! A little less bodyfat is definitely something everyone wants! Having excessive bodyfat not only reduces a persons physical attractiveness, it also can lead to many other health problems and a much lower quality of life.

Obesity in Singapore
In Singapore today, the obesity rate is currently around 20%, which is practically 1 in 5 people! Besides the abundance of really good food, everyone is spending too much time being seated, from the 7 year kid attending hours of extra classes a day to the people in the workforce who need to work late all the time. This "sitting" time eats into the play time for the youth and the exercise time for the adults. Furthermore, by the time the "sitting" hours are over, people are just too stressed or mentally exhausted to even consider exercising. The stress levels further promote fat gain, and the consumption of delicious food to de-stress dive headfirst into your fat stores! To add to the problem, virtual entertainment is readily available here, and more kids play computer games instead of doing sports. It seems like the sedentary life is being instilled in them from a young age.

How to loose fat
Like building muscles, most people's fat loss efforts are usually based on assumptions. This more often than not results in the person becoming fatter in the end. Here are some common fictions and facts.

Fiction: If I starve myself and eat as little as possible, I'll loose fat.
Fact: If you starve yourself, you actually lose muscle rather than fat. Let me give you four reasons:
Reason 1: When you starve, your body prepares itself for a period of famine by minimizing the usage of bodyfat for energy. This is the body's way of maximizing its stores during periods of starvation to lengthen the organisms survival. This will result in your body breaking down muscle tissue and converting the protein from them into carbohydrates via a process called Glucogenesis. This is why you loose muscle and not fat when you starve yourself.

Reason 2:
The loss of muscle actually causes a reduction in your metabolic rate. The lower your metabolism gets, the less bodyfat your body will be able to burn.

Reason 3:
Research has shown that your body will only be willing to burn bodyfat for energy if there are carbohydrates present. Lets use this analogy where carbohydrates refer to income and fats refer to savings. "I am alright with using my savings because I have a steady income" as compared to "I shall be thrifty and not touch my savings as my income is low." If there is no incoming energy, your body will be unwilling to use up the energy stores which happen to be bodyfat!

Reason 4:
The after effect! Starving yourself is not a sustainable way of life. The longer you do so, the weaker and more sick you will get. The moment you start eating normally again, your body will be so accustomed to starvation that it will immediately prepare for more periods of famine. It will store a larger portion of your meals as bodyfat. Your metabolism, which was reduced by stress hormones and presence of less muscle fibers will further allow more calories to be stored as fat. In the end, you will end up gaining more fat!

The solutions
Eating smaller portions more frequently
Don't skip meals! Have smaller portions for your meals instead, and don't go without food for too long. Having something small every 3 to 4 hours will be optimal! Your body will break down your food into the smallest molecules before absorbing and disseminating them. Only the excess calories per meal will be stored as fat. By eating smaller serving sizes, you are reducing or eliminating the excess calories which will eventually be stored as fat. Eating every 3 to 4 hours will prevent that starvation mode from kicking in, preventing your body from storing more calories as fat!

Understand the Glycermic Index of food
Glycermic Index (GI) of food is basically a measurement of how fast foods break down and becomes blood sugar in your body, from a scale of 1 to 100. The lower the GI, the healthier the food. Reason being, when food breaks down slowly, there will be less excess calories at any one point of time during digestion. Less excess calories means potentially less calories available to be stored as fat! Also, slow digesting foods keep your body provided for longer periods, delaying the starvation mode!
Generally, food with a GI of 55 and below are considered healthy. Grains, oats, pastas and carrots are some good examples of low GI food. Also, understanding GI may be the key to prevention of diabetes. Diabetis is when your pancreas stop producing insulin, or produce too little of it. Insulin is the hormone that absorbs and disseminates sugars in your body. High GI foods break down very fast, causing your pancreas to work harder to produce more insulin within a shorter time. Keep putting such pressure on your pancreas for years and one day, they will fail! Low GI food on the other hand, break down slowly, and your pancreas work less hard, aiding in their longevity.

Exercise I have seen several people who tried to loose weight solely by dieting. Most of them failed. Yes, proper dieting is crucial to fat loss, but exercise plays a major role too. Dieting works by reducing the caloric inputs to your body, exercise works by increasing your output of calories, and also by forcing your body to use much more bodyfat from your fat stores. For optimal fat loss, I recommend doing both cadio for a minimum of 30minutes, and weights training at least 3 times a week.
Here is an extract from my "Abs" post about cadio:
"Run alot" is an advice commonly given to those who want to get lean. Its not just running that helps burn bodyfat. Any cadio exercise when performed for a sufficient period will suffice. The idea is to keep your body mobile until you use up all your blood sugar (immediate source of energy), causing your body to burn bodyfat once blood sugar runs out. Running, cycling, swimming, skipping, stair climbing, rowing and boxercise are some examples of cadio exercises. A typical cadio workout is to go to a gym and run about 30 to 40mins on a treadmill, then immediately get on the stationary bike for another 10 to 20mins. Cadio can also be done after weights training. You will be pretty tired to begin with, but the upside is alot of blood sugar would already have been burnt during the weight training! Your body will go into fat burning faster! Note that cadio on its own is not the most effective means to loose bodyfat. A diet is the most important aspect of all this. Cadio speeds up the process. If you burn 500 calories for example, but consume 1000 extra calories, you'll still gain bodyfat. Its all in the diet."

Weights Training
The first thing that will go through many peoples mind on hearing about weights training is "I don't want to have bulging muscles, I won't do weights!" Trust me, that won't happen, at least not too easily. You will need to go to the extremes of weights training and dieting, and do those for YEARS before you develop bulging muscles. However, weights training WILL speed up your progress A LOT!! When you do weights training, you will develop a small amount of new muscle. This new muscles require extra calories to exist, and will cause a considerable increase in your metabolism. You will end up burning extra calories even while you sleep due to the new muscle tissues. Also, weights training has been shown to increase a persons metabolism for a few hours after the workout! Just imagine the possibilities when you combine the effects of weights training with cadio!

So to sum it up, eat SMALLER PORTIONS more FREQUENTLY throughout the day, choose more LOW GI FOODS, do your CARDIO and do your WEIGHTS TRAINING to achieve FATLOSS!!I decided to deviate a little from bodybuilding and post about fat loss, as obesity is on the rise. I know many people who have tried to loose weight, but have taken the wrong approaches and gave up as a result. I hope you find this post useful. If you were one of those who gave up, I hope this will encourage you to go for it! If you are just starting out, I hope this will give you a head start! I wish you guys all the best!! Remember, if you are fighting the war against fat, I'm on your side! LETS GO!!

Nutrition

If bodybuilding was like building a house, training can be represented as construction workers and proper nutrition can be represented by raw materials. Training only triggers the growth of muscles, growth itself can only take place if there are raw materials available.

Eat Regularly
Most people eat 3 big meals a day. Ironically, in order to loose bodyfat or gain muscle, the first step would be to eat more frequently throughout the day. 5 to 7 SMALL or MEDIUM meals a day would be optimum. The reasons being:

1. To manipulate the way our body uses the nutrients
Whatever we consume gets broken down to the smallest molecules before absorption and distribution in your body. The excess will be stored as fat. By eating smaller meals, there is less excess nutrients per meal which can be stored as fat. To put it simply, more smaller meals results in more of the nutrients you consume being properly utilized by your body and less of it being stored as fat.

2. Providing a constant flow of nutrients to prevent "Survival Mode"
When food is not consumed for too long, your body will react by activating a "survival mode". Its purpose is simply to enable a starving organism to survive starvation by:
- Increasing incoming food to fat stores
- Slowing down usage of fat stores for energy
Our body reacts this way because, in the wild, food wasn't as readily available as it is in modern times. This mode was an adaptation to help our ancestors to survive longer while starving. To achieve its purpose, "survival mode" will release stress hormones like estrogen and cortisol, and break down muscle. These all lead to increased fat storage and decreased body fat usage. It is the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve! To prevent this, consume a small or medium meal 3 to 4 hourly. Constant flow of nutrients will keep the survival mode down, and also provide your muscles a steady supply of nutrients for maintenence.

3. Protein intake
Protein is the only nutrient your body can use to build muscle. Without enough of it, you won't be able to develop any new muscle. Generically, one would require a daily consumption of 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (eg. You are 100 lbs, you need 100 grams protein). Personally 0.8 grams per pound of bodyweight has worked fairly well for me. Most Asian people weigh between 150 to 180 lbs, so you would need that much protein to be able to support muscle growth. Most of our bodies have a limitation for how much protein it can absorb at any one go, ranging from 30 to 50 grams. So you will need to consume protein spread out over at least 3 or 4 meals. Its wasteful to consume excessive protein in one go, as your body will excrete the extras.

The Nutrients

At this beginning stage, you should pay more attention to your protein and carbohydrate intake.

Protein
As mentioned before, one will need about 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight daily to be able to support muscle growth. Good sources of protein are eggs, milk, nuts, beans, any kind of meat.

Eggs

Sidetracking a little, most people limit their intake of eggs due to an ancient theory that eggs are high in bad cholesterol. This myth has been busted long ago, and recent studies show that eggs actually reduce bad cholesterol! Here is a link to a short and comprehensive article about this.
Eggs have 6 grams protein, and 3 grams of those are in the yolks. Moreover, almost all the other nutrients in eggs are in the yolks! So double your egg protein intake by eating the yolks as well.

Carbohydrates
Generically, one will need about 2 times as much carbohydrates as protein when trying to gain muscle mass (2 grams per pound of bodyweight). The good news is carbs are practically abundant in most things we eat! Some good carb sources are rice, noodles, pastas and potatoes.

So how do you go about eating enough of these 2 nutrients?
Honestly, I'd say most people probably already consume enough carbs daily, so you should shift your attention to your protein consumption at this stage. Start reading the labels and packagings of all the food you eat and you'll get a rough idea of the amount of protein. As for common foodstuff like meat, you probably won't find labels stating how much protein they contain. In this case, you can look up the net for the protein per gram or kg of that particular meat and weigh your food to get a rough estimate. Keep track of how much protein you have already consumed, and how much more you will need before your last meal of the day is up. Take note that you will need to pay more attention to the quantity and type carbohydrates you consume when you get to an advanced stage.


Photography: Ron Lai Trunk: Teron Model: Danie Dharma

Supplements

Picture this scenario: You bought this expensive supplement named something like "muscle-building powder". You saw advertisements with a bodybuilding champion singing its praises, and wanted to experience the magic too! You feel great, you couldn't wait to try your first serving!!.... 2 months down, you scoop up the last bit from the tub, and you realise "Hey, I don't look very different from when I started taking this product!" Welcome to reality...

Generally, people think supplements are synthetic chemicals which make muscles grow out of nowhere. I'd say supplement companies' aggressive exaggerated advertising, and ignorance on the part of the people are to be blamed. People tend to be afraid of the unknown. Fact is, supplements are made from normal everyday foodstuff, just like a multi-vitamin supplement. When it is inconvenient to eat fruits and vegetables, the important nutrients in them can be consumed via multi-vitamin tablets. Similarly, supplements are extracts of the necessary nutrients from normal food and nothing more! So do not expect miracle results from them. They don't increase the rate of your growth. They only make it easier for you to grow to your best potential by providing you with a good quantity of the right nutrients.

So what are they?

MacroNutrient Supplements (Protein, MRP, Weight Gainers)

Protein Supplements
I mentioned the importance of protein in my Nutrition post. However, eating such a large amount of protein on a daily basis could be challenging and inconvenient. It might add up to like 30 eggs, 1kg of chicken or 2kg of fish! Protein supplements were created for this purpose, so you can get away with eating less meat/eggs and make up for some of your protein requirements by drinking a protein shake.
But what is it made from?
Most protein supplements are made with COWS MILK, the very stuff you drank when you were growing up! It BAFFLES me that many people think a cows milk extract is a chemical muscle building powder just because a company labeled it as such ROFL!!
One can't drink too much milk as the lactose in it might cause digestion problems. Protein supplements are milk with most of the lactose, fats, sugars and every thing else removed, thus enabling you to consume more milk protein without lactose related problems. There are versions made with egg albumin, soy or some other protein sources.
Purpose of Protein Powders:
To add protein to your daily diet in a convenient way.
Who will find it useful?
Anyone who wants to pack on muscle or recover from sports activities.

Just sharing an informative website about protein which I came across: http://gubernatrix.co.uk/2011/06/should-i-use-protein-shakes/

Meal Replacement Powders (MRP)
A MRP is basically the above mentioned protein supplement, with a good ratio of carbohydrates added to mimic a healthy meal.
Who will find it useful?
People who have a problem consuming 5 to 7 meals daily due to small appetite, or work commitments. You can consume your MRP between mealtimes, providing your body the nutritional equivalent of a small meal without going through the hassle of eating one.

Weight/Mass Gainers
Personally, I feel these are very misunderstood supplements due to the name! People think it is some kind malicious muscle building chemical. Honestly, if a mass gainer or weight gainer was (appropriately) labeled as "Cows Milk Protein and Plant Carbohydrates Supplement", people will stop thinking that they give magical results. A mass gainer or weight gainer is actually similar to an MRP. The main difference, it contains a much higher ratio of carbohydrates. It is basically designed to mimic a big meal unlike an MRP which mimics a balanced meal.
Who will find it useful?
People who have a very high metabolism and need a huge amount of extra calories to bulk up, and people who have a small appetite. A mass/weight gainer can provide alot of calories and protein within a small serving size, so the individual won't feel full for too long and can consume more food and add to his total calorie intake.

Pre-Workout Supplements (Creatine, Nitrix)

Creatine
Another often misunderstood supplement. Creatine is naturally produced by the body and stored mainly in the muscles for use during exercise. Supplementing it will mean you have more stored energy to burn when you workout. You will be able to recover faster too.
Who Will find it useful?
Anyone who does sports, especially people who want to bulk up and get stronger. If you have been training for some time and your gains have stagnated, creatine is something you might want to try. Also people who workout very often and need to recover faster between workouts.

Nitrix Supplements
During workouts, blood flows to the muscle groups that are being trained, making them appear bigger. This is known as the "Pump", and it lasts for about 30 to 60 minutes after a workout. This is why you look bigger after workouts! A nitrix supplement contains amino acids that increases your Pumps. The increased blood flow brings more nutrients and oxygen to the muscle, enhancing your lifts and reducing soreness and fatigue.
Who will find it useful?
People who do sports, people who have been working out for some time and need an extra boost. Particularly, many bodybuilders love getting the Pump, cos you look bigger and more muscular/vascular when pumped. Nitrix induced pumps are bigger and last up to an hour longer than normal pumps! Some bodybuilders love nitrix for this reason, myself included :D

Visit this link for a list of great pre-workout supplements!

Fat Burners
Another often misunderstood supplement due to its name. People generally think that "Fat Burners" are harmful chemicals that go into your body and literally burn bodyfat. What they are actually made off is something you consume every morning. COFFEE!! Yes, coffee is usually the primary ingredient in a "Fat burner". Caffeine is a good fat loss agent when consumed in the right amounts. It boosts alertness, metabolism, intensity during training and even has anti-oxidant properties. Besides caffeine, fat burners also often contain other herbal extracts that aid indirect fat-loss. Some examples are chromium, green tea extracts, cambogia garcinia, guaranara extracts(an alternative caffeine source), and certain types of plant root or bark extracts. Some types even contain botanical fibers.

Who will find it useful?
People trying to loose bodyfat. Most fat burners double up as training intensity boosters.

Will add more supplements facts soon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Post your questions on the Tag Board and I'll answer them here!

Will I Grow Shorter if I Lift Weights??
Absolutely NOT!! If your bones were soft enough to be compressible, they should bend rather than break on impact. An analogy; think about your neck bones and your head. Your head rests on top of those neck bones, if a weight can make a bone shorter or prevent growth, your neck would never have grown because your head is weighing the neck bones down for 24 hours, 7 days a week!!
Taking a closer look at weights training, we do not hold up a weight for much more than a minute at a go for each set! In a 1hr 30mins workout, weights are probably only held up for a total of 45 minutes or less! I think even if an external weight can somehow make your bones shorter, this won't really be sufficient to cause that. People only grow shorter when they age and their bones start to weaken. Ironically, weights training can actually prevent this as it strengthens the bones and joints, not just the muscles! I for one, started weights training towards 16 years of age, at a height of 165cm. I continued to grow till I was 19, and grew to 171cm, which is taller than my Dad! Weights training didn't seem slow down or stop me from growing taller.

Will Consuming Protein Supplements Make Me FAT?
No. Body fat is made up of carbohydrates. Only excess carbohydrates that were consumed will be converted to body fat. Protein is a completely different type of macronutrient. If you consume too much, your body will excrete the extras.
On the contrary, a high protein intake can aid indirect fat loss via two different ways. Firstly, protein is hard to digest. Your body will burn extra calories just to digest it. Secondly, they provide materials to build muscle. The more muscle you have, the more calories your body will burn even when resting or sleeping.

Personal Trainers

Personal Trainers

This is just my personal take on personal Trainers in Singapore.

Today in Singapore, alot of commercial gyms hire random people off the streets, give them some simple certification, and POOF!! They become personal trainers! Thats the reason why most commercial gyms you go to, you see ordinary average people or even fat people teaching other people how to get in shape. "I'm not muscular or fit because I don't want to be" they would say. Let me tell you the real reason, these people are only trained in exercise science. Honestly, their certification does not actually qualify them to be a personal trainer, it only makes them an exercise specialist.

Whats the difference between an Exercise Specialist and a Personal Trainer (PT)?
An exercise specialist is one who is trained in the many aspects of exercise, doing them correctly, proper techniques etc. A PT is an Exercise Specialist who also has substantial knowledge in nutrition, physiotherapy and other aspects depending on their specialization. A PT will be able to help an obese person who has hormonal problems loose weight, a footballer who has a serious leg injury rehabilitate, a diabetic or a coronary heart patient to get better with their knowledge of nutrition, physiotherapy and other sciences. A PT is the one who can make changes to a persons physique, using his knowledge on nutrition to give specific diet plans to specific individuals.

The problem we face today is, most commercial gyms and many other such small enterprises hire over-glorified exercise specialists rather than personal trainers. Why do that? A really qualified PT won't settle for the low wages and long hours required by these gyms. No one who has attained such a level of expertise would! Therefore, they hire someone who doesn't know anything and give him some form of certification, and these guys will be willing to stay a while longer. Clients will hire these guys as they wear a PT tag, assuming that they are properly qualified. By selling training packages for the gym, they generate revenue for them. They are no different from lowly paid foreign workers stealing jobs in developed countries today. These guys go around calling themselves PTs, but don't actually know anything about nutrition. An obese guy, a diabetic or a guy looking to rehabilitate from an injury is not going to benefit from such a PT but in fact, might get worse!

Why is appearance important?
Just my personal opinion. Alot of people might think the appearance of a PT is not important, as long as the training is beneficial. Let me tell you, the training you undergo might feel tiring and you might think it is hardcore training, but it doesn't necessarily mean it was beneficial! Anyone will feel tired out after working out doing random exercises for an hour! In fact it was probably a waste of energy!

To me, a PT should look the part. Lets use this analogy. Would you learn driving from a person who drives a car, or from someone who read it off a book but never drove it before? Same thing, would you learn from a PT who actually works out and applies his nutrition knowledge on himself or someone who read it off a book? A PT who applies this knowledge to himself will be the one you can trust. Such a PT will know about the gray areas about exercise, dieting and preparing food. A book can't really cover all those gray areas, but a Human Being who practices it can!

Those "PT"s going around claiming they look like shit because they are not interested to look muscular or fit are lying! If their appearance was never their interest, why are they working in a gym? They must be there for the wrong reasons, like to make money out of you! In most cases, "PT"s don't look in shape because like I mentioned earlier, they have no knowledge on nutrition. Without it, one can't really achieve a decent looking physique no matter how much they train. How can such an individual make a difference to another persons physique when they don't know how to do it themselves?

Why a bodybuilder
To me, I'd say if you want to hire a PT, your best bet would be a bodybuilder! Im not saying this because I'm one, but look at the big picture. Bodybuilding is a sport that focuses specifically on physical appearance, unlike most other sports. A bodybuilder follows special diets all year around, he knows what kind of diet makes what kind of changes in your body, he knows the calculations, and as a bonus, he knows how to prepare the food. Since a bodybuilder goes through a "Mass gaining" phase and a "Cutting" phase for competitions, he is particularly specialized in developing muscles and fat loss. He can help the average people develop a bit of muscles, the skinny people to gain more muscle and the obese people to slim down! The best part of all this, the bodybuilder is working in the gym because it is his passion! What more can you ask?

Will I get too big if a Bodybuilder trains me?If you have read the other posts of this blog, you should know by now that muscle growth is not something you achieve easily, let alone un-intentionally. All the training in the world will not make you grow too big. One would need to adjust his diet specifically for muscle growth and stick to it for years to see significant gains! In fact, one would have to go to extremes in terms of dieting to grow! Since a bodybuilder does the extremes, he will definitely be familiar with the gray areas in between, he will know what you need to do to gain your desired physique, because he has gone through it himself! Need I say more?? :D