Muscle = Metabolism:  Prepare For Growth

by Dr. Kareem F. Samhouri, CSCS, HFS
Neuro Metabolic & Strength Expert

Building enough strength to support your body’s metabolism is the first step in any good fat loss program after you’ve ‘activated’ your nervous system.  There are many reasons for this, but here are my top 3:

1. Muscle raises your metabolism and makes fat loss much easier
2. Losing fat and having no muscle looks weird and awkward
3. Muscle pads and protects joints, which contributes to your long-term fitness success

Your body craves muscle; it really does.  By building a solid base of muscle, and remaining within your intended BMI (body mass index = weight in kg divided by height in meters squared —> kg/m2), you are signaling to your body that you’re ready for growth, in some form.  In other words, you are toughening your body, so it will allow you to do more stuff, such as lose fat and look great, or become an avid runner, or take the children to the park and not get out of breath when you play with them.

Every time that you communicate with your body and ask for enhanced performance, your body asks itself whether or not its ready.  It’s looking for the following signals, in order to determine if it’s going to wait:

• Is my heart ready?  Can it handle this intensity of activity?
• Are my bones ready?  Will they break if I try this?
• Are my ligaments ready?  Will they get sprained if I try this?
• Are my muscles ready to absorb the shock and self-repair?
• Am I in pain?  Do any of my joints seem out of place and likely to cause damage?
• Is my body working on a more important system right now that takes precedence?  (i.e. am I suffering from Diabetes and just trying to balance out my blood sugar?)

These are normal and healthy questions for your body to ask itself.  Your body has predetermined ways to cope with each of these scenarios.  For example, it works with 3 levels of defense, when it comes to your musculoskeletal system:

1. Primary defense system = muscles – will they catch me if I fall out of position or the weight is too heavy?
2. Secondary defense system = ligaments – will they grab on and stop my joint from dislocating if something unexpected takes place and my muscles don’t grab on in time?
3. Tertiary defense system = bones – will my bone be able to withstand this force and save the more serious injury or will it fracture?

If one system fails, your body has backups.  But once you pass one system, it has a very hard time being activated until you recover.  For example, if your muscles and ligaments can’t help you to save the fracture, you have very little you can do voluntarily with your muscles at this point until the danger is gone.  Your body is on autopilot, and it is protecting you against further harm.

That’s why you have to take a solid look at your different systems and figure out where the deficiency is.  If it’s your heart that isn’t ready, you have to improve cardiovascular function.  If it’s your muscles that aren’t ready, you have to build strength.  If it’s tissue elongation and flexibility, then you have to train to allow for growth.

You get the idea… calm down your other, more serious (back up) systems, and then let your body go to work.

Here are 4 awesome techniques that you can use, which we’ll talk about in greater detail over the next few days, in order to build muscle and increase your metabolism:

1. Partial range of motion training to work on strength of bones and connective tissue
2. High rep, moderate weight, explosive training for targeting the nervous system to increase efficiency and strength
3. Very high rep training to increase capillary density
4. Fascial stretching to expand the room the muscles have to grow

We’re only getting started here.  Get ready for some of the best fitness answers of your life.

I’m excited, are you?

Click Here To Learn More About
Building Muscle & Increasing Your Metabolism

Blog Contest For DEFL 2.0 on iPod Touch

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• 1 Grand-Prize Winner (based upon your responses) – wins iPod Touch fully loaded with DEFL 2.0
  
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couldn’t be easier… be sure to post your responses below.

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To See An Awesome Abs Presentation Click Here

hey everybody,

I’ve decided to really, really hook you up today.

Above, you’ll find a giant set that makes for a killer abs burn.  Do them as follows:

1. 50 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest
2. In the order you see above
3. Go nuts!
4. Repeat 3x without stopping.
   

I was recently asked to do a Q & A on getting six pack abs over at Bodyweight Coach, and I thought you’d enjoy:

5 Secrets For A Kevlar Core

Mad Scientist Reveals All…
By Dr Kareem Samhouri

#1 Ab Training Mistake

You’re spending time training your abs, specifically.

As it turns out, this is an inefficient use of your time. The best way to train any muscle is for it to want to become more active in daily life for days to follow. The more your muscle ‘awakens’ from your workout, the more it will grow, naturally.

Your abs are used as stabilizers. This means that they help you keep from swaying front to back, side to side, etc. as you walk or stand up from a chair. By learning to train your abs as stabilizers, you are beginning to communicate with your nervous system on a brand new level. Essentially, you’re providing input to your spine, as it becomes stabilized through a truly strong core, that it is safe and you can pad your body less.

When you train your abs as stabilizers, you produce a safer environment for your nervous system. In turn, it allows you to gain more strength and shed more cushion… or bodyfat.

Rather than working your abs out in an artificial way, over-shortening your rectus abdominus over and over again, why not try using your abs as stabilizers, doing a very dynamic routine, and ripping up your mid-section once and for all?

#1 Function Of the Core

The core has one very important function: to protect your spine.

This is a very important job. It is only accomplished through very precise detail and muscle automation. If we had to think about how to perfectly recruit all the muscles necessary to keep our backs in alignment while lifting a heavy load that drops suddenly drops to the right hand side… I can only imagine.

The #1 function of the core is to be able to react to situations like this and recruit the muscles that attach to your pelvis and lower back. Then, and here’s the miraculous part, your body is capable of firing these muscles all at once, and with equal intensity. This is the difference between becoming truly ‘stable,’ versus merely ‘bracing,’ and bearing down.

In order to become stable, you’ll need to practice stabilizing in a smaller fashion over and over again, gradually building your comfort zone with balance reactions the wider we go. That’s what Ab Strength Guide actually does. It builds your comfort zone so that your body can recruit your core in the most natural way and gain the most from it. As a result, you start using your core in everything you do… and the abs, well they just ‘pop’ right out.

#1 Tactic For Unveiling Your 6 Pack

Train your back. Seriously.

I remember when I first started out as a trainer for the University of Miami wellness center. This was my first discovery in muscle balancing. I had a young woman hire me who appeared to be in reasonably good shape, she was 23 years old, and a graduate student in the school of Law. Her main goal was to get a lean and toned, faint six pack, and she said she’d been doing all kinds of sit-ups a day for the last 6 months, but no luck. She said she watched her diet, she was good about late-night eating, etc. Yet she still couldn’t get the 6 pack she wanted.

…so I did a postural assessment on her and I found out that she had a posterior pelvic rotation. I simply adjusted this by training her back and out popped her six pack abs in less than 3 weeks. They were laying underneath the whole time, but her body wasn’t properly aligned and it was protecting her by laying down fat.

Most people forget about training the multifidi, hip rotators, and opposite pelvic patterns. But that’s really the key to having a fully-functional, sexy midsection.

#1 Myth About Ab Training

Some people just can’t get a six pack.

Ok, outside of some sort of surgery or extremely unusual situation, this isn’t the case. I used to think that it was impossible for me to get a six pack, because no one in my family has ever had a six pack, ever.

I was wrong. So might be you…

I just had to get my bodyfat percentage down to about 8% and then my abs popped out. Some people have this happen at 10%, others at 6%. That’s why some people can naturally look stronger without having to work out as hard. They may be storing their fat deeper in their bodies instead of sub-cutaneously or just below the skin; this is not necessarily a good thing at all.

#1 Dr K Core Training Rule

Focus on your quick energy systems.

That’s your anaerobic and ATP-PC (adenosine triphosphate-phosphocarbonate) energy systems. They help you with bursts of strength between 0-60 seconds. By properly utilizing these two systems in your workouts, you can dramatically decrease the time you spend getting a six pack. It’s really incredible.

The reason that your body will spend less time getting a six pack when you deplete these energy systems first is because you will be signaling 2 things:

1. Increase in lactic acid deposition due to highly anaerobic activity.
2. Consumption of sugar, which prevents the deposit of additional fat.

Lactic acid takes a lot of energy to form, and it takes even more energy to remove. By increasing the acidic state in your body (decreasing your pH), your body has to fight to restore its normal pH and that costs energy. This process can go on for 2-3 days after a workout, creating a metabolic shift over time.

Consuming excess sugars is very important because all unprocessed sugar in the body turns to fat. Drinking a half of a gallon of orange juice can be like eating a stick of butter when it comes to losing belly fat. Anaerobic activity utilizes fast-twitch muscle fibers. These fast-twitch muscle fibers are glycolytic, meaning that they consume sugar.

The Solution: An exercise program specifically designed to allow you burn calories for days after a 10 minute bout of exercise; this can be a phenomenal way to prevent sugar deposit turning to fat.

Click here to see a great video presentation that explains more.

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You know what this is all
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You've already seen:

MISSION: FAT LOSS
INTERNATIONAL MISSION BRIEFING
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You understand that this is about
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You've learned that your exercise program
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You're an indestructible fat loss soldier.

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Before you check out anything on this page,
make sure that you’re caught up and ready

By now, you should've already seen:

MISSION: FAT LOSS
INTERNATIONAL MISSION BRIEFING

…this just in…

TACTFIT *LIVE* DEMO:

The workout you are about to embark upon
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will feel muscles you've never felt before,
breathe heavier than you've ever breathed
before, and gain strength you never thought
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You are a fat loss soldier.  

Be prepared for battle as you watch
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Fat Loss Headquarters

(click this link to get TACTFIT COMMANDO)