Kelly Frankson DOT COM

Building muscle is basically a hormonal event. Hormones such as testosterone, insulin, growth hormone and cortisol are giving the body signals on whether to build muscle, or break it down. While exercise is necessary to create a stimulus for certain hormones to be activated, it is also just a small part of the equation. This is why you will see so many people putting in hard effort at the gym day after day, and never really getting any results. So throw away all those books, stop spending $400/month on supplements, cancel your magazine subscription to Muscle Weekly (or one of the other 75+ fitness magazines out there), and master the basics. This is where you get 90%+ of your results from.

Who needs strength training? Everyone! Any age and yes women too! (Don’t fear ladies, you do not have enough hormones to get all big and buff….just that nice toned look you are looking for). In fact, muscle mass has been directly related to the rate at which we age. I guess once you tell the body that you don’t need muscle to do anything, it thinks it is time to shut down! Once you start losing muscle, you see an increase in fat and that is never a good thing for any long term health factor. The muscle most effected is the Type II (Fast Twitch) and not the Type I (Slow Twitch). So moral of the story is, want to live longer then build and keep your muscle! (Just ask Jack LaLanne who is still running around at 94 years young)

Now let’s look at the Hormones we want to use for building and keeping muscle:

• Testosterone - We have all heard about this one, it builds muscle
• Growth Hormone - Another muscle building (and fat burning) hormone
• Insulin - Using this properly can help to stimulate more muscle building by bringing in more amino acids into the muscles (too much and at the wrong time will only store fat)
• Cortisol - The bad guy who breaks down muscle (some is needed, too much is bad)
• Estrogen - Brings down your Testosterone (hence why women will not build the same size muscle as men). Too much has also been linked to cancer.

Ok so now that we know the players, let’s see what we need to do inorder to get the results and control the hormones for building muscle.

• Eat protein - The more amino acids you can make available to the muscles, the more they will be able to build up. There is a point of diminishing returns, but most active people need at least 0.6-0.8g protein per lean (not total) lb of bodyweight.
• Eat Fat - Higher fat diets raise Testosterone levels. Also higher fat diets have a nitrogen sparing effect (which means less muscle breakdown and wasting). Usually this means over 30% of your daily calories should come from healthy fats.
• Eat more Sat Fat and Monounsaturated Fats - These are the types of fat shown to increase more Testosterone levels (Steak and Eggs!). Also your body uses Cholesterol to build the hormone Testosterone (another plug for steak and eggs). If you are still weary about fat and cholesterol, you can read this excellent article and make up your own mind about it. Oh and Zinc is also key to T-levels (3rd plug for steak and eggs).
• Do not eat low calorie - Doing this too often will just cause a drop off in T-levels.
• Get your Sleep - As we talked about in the Fat Loss article, most of your GH is produced at night. So get your sleep and build muscle in the process.
• Skip the Alcohol - I know St Patty’s day is right around the corner, but alcohol in excess drops your T-levels. So keep it to a 2 drink maximum when you do go out otherwise you won’t look too good with less muscle and more fat around your belly.
• Lose the Fat - People who are higher in fat, will always be lower in T-levels (and higher in Estrogen). So goal #1 should be to get your bodyfat lower and then worry about adding in the muscle as it will be easier at that point.
• Take Fish Oil - Omega 3s will keep you building muscle and keep cortisol levels at bay. Also improves insulin sensitivity (see below) of muscles.
• Improve Insulin Sensitivity - Insulin is necessary to shuttle in amino acids into the muscle tissues (although too much is not good!). So you need to do things to decrease insulin resistance and increase insulin sensitivity including lower carb diets, carb cycling, resistance training, losing fat, and yes…fasting.
• Eat Your Veggies - Especially broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage that help to keep the Estrogen levels low (High Estrogen=Low Testosterone). This is also a good anti-cancer strategy especially in women.
• Improve your Gut Health - If you improve your health, your digestion improves and you improve the amount of nutrients/vitamins/minerals that your body can digest/absorb/utilize. Taking things such as digestive enzymes with meal may give you more use of the food you are eating. Oh yeah….fasting also helps to improve gut health!
• Detox Your Body - Get rid of all those toxins, take the toxins out of your daily lifestyle (food, drink, water, air, skin) and let your organs like the liver and kidneys work at more optimal levels. A healthy body will always reflect it and look that way as well.
• Train the Right Way - You want muscles? Then learn how to train them quickly and effectively with resistance training. Start with compound movements first to get the hormones up. Lift heavy and with shorter rest periods (reps of 5-10 with 30-60 sec rest between sets). Do enough volume (25-50 total reps per exercise….5×5, 3×10, etc). Keep the intensity high. Get your workout done in 30-45 min. Lift only 2-3x week (most people only need 2x if they are intense enough….as muscles do NOT grow in the gym, you need recovery!)
• Less Cardio - Too much too often will just waste muscle, lower T-levels and hamper any attempt you have at building muscle. If you want to do something, make it short and intense to keep GH levels high and cortisol levels low. This is why you will never see a chronic jogger with alot (if any) muscle…unless they are eating 5000 cal a day or taking some other type of cortisol suppressing hormone “supplement”. Here’s a good read on danger of the cardio obsession so many people have nowadays.
• Eat Post Workout - As you muscles are primed with high insulin sensitivity for a healthy protein+carb meal. Your window goes from 30min to 3 hours. Best is to eat small but frequent meals (not just one big one). Some people may benefit from a quick amino acid + carb drink (but if your main goal for now is weight loss, skip this!)

So if you are spending 5 days a week at the gym and never seeing results, go over the list about and realize you have to look at the whole picture. You can build plenty of muscle only lifting 2x a week and having the right lifestyle around to support it. If you can master these things and learn how to control your eating, lifting and recovery you will build plenty of muscle. Wouldn’t it also be great if you could do this all while improving your health, losing fat, gaining muscle , detoxifying your body, reducing insulin resistance and eating less calories overall to help extend your lifespan? Could that be…..IF?

So… this saturday I hosted my first olifting clinic. We foused on the clean and jerk and did a series of drills breaking down the movments and then put it all together at the end. There are some minor things I will do differently next time around but all and all it went pretty well and improvment was seen in everyone who attended.

In my request for feedback from the participants, this is the response I got so far:

“Hi Kelly,

I thought the timing was excellent. The deconstruction of the movement and how it progressed from beginning to end really helped me make sense of it all. I really benefited from the emphasis you placed on practicing movements that generate power and quickness. Also, the tips on how to work with flexibility limitations were great. In return, I understood the points of failure better -alignment, bar too far in front, inefficient breathing, etc.

Now I know pelvic tilts were just one of many problems with my technique! It was also beneficial having Amy come around to check form and remind you of critical things like head positioning, shoulders over the bar etc. The 4 hours were just right for the clinic. I think we had plenty of time at the end to put it all together. It’s amazing how taxing the movements are mentally and physically.
Adding some insight on drills or techniques to incorporate into a weekly workout schedule would be great in the future.

Thanks again!”

Check out this training video of Natlie Woolfolk who will be competing for US in the Olympics. Crazy how quick her movements are hay?

Q: How does drinking lemon water (lemons which are acidic by nature) actually increase the alkaline ph of the body?

A: It’s not so much the acidity of the food in it’s natural state that matters, but it’s net effect through digestion on the body’s overall ph. In this case, citric acid (from lemons) is something that may start acidic but through digestion and utilization in the Krebs Cycle (or Citric Acid Cycle) helps to turn the body more alkaline. (Hence why lemon juice and vinegar can be healthy for you) Here’s a pretty good overall more detailed explanation. “The Citric Acid Cycle, being able to free hydrogen ions of its electron is also one of the major buffering systems of the body. “

Cool article on why controlling Insulin levels are important and how you can go about doing it:

http://projectfit.org/iflifeblog/2008/07/11/insulin-and-sugar-the-one-hormone-you-need-to-control-and-the-one-enemy-you-need-to-avoid/

People always ask what I do in the typical week, so here is my program for this week:

Monday:
2 sets 10 full extension ball throws
51kg Snatch 5 sets of 2 (Dowel snatch set *2, 35kg snatch 2 sets of 3, 45kg snatch 2 sets of 3 building up)
45kg Hang power snatch 3 sets of 3
65kg Jerk From Behind the neck 3 sets of 2 rebound jerks (45kg 2 sets of 3, 55kgs 2 sets of 3, 60kgs 2 sets of 2 building up)
55kg Snatch High Pull 2 sets of 4
65kg Snatch Pull to above knee 3 sets of 5
100kg Back Squats 3 sets of 3 (7 at 45kgs, 5 at 75kgs, 3 at 90kgs building up)
95lbs Snatch Grip Bench Press 3 sets of 7 (10 at 65lbs building up)
40kg Jumping Goodmornings with Pushpres at top 3 sets of 10

Tuesday:
Plyo Boxes
68kg Clean and Jerk 5 sets of 2 (2 sets 3 at 35kgs, 2 sets 3 at 50kgs, 2 sets of 3 at 60kgs building up)
45kg drop snatch 3 sets of 3 (3 at 35kg, 3 at 40kgs building up)
85kg front squat 4 sets of 4 (7at 45kg, 5 at 65kgs, 4 at 75kgs building up)
80kg clean pull 3 sets of 5
55kg push press with pause at the bottom 3 sets of 3 (5 at 35kgs, 5 at 45kgs building up)
25lb hyper extensions 3 sets of 10

Wednesday:
2 sets of 10 full extension ball throws
45kg power snatch 5 sets of 3 (dowel snatch set *2, 35kg snatches 3*2 building up)
60kg Power clean and jerk 5 sets of 2 (35kg 3*2, 50kg*3 building up)
100kg back squats 3 sets of 3 (7 at 45kgs, 5 at 75kgs, 3 at 90kgs building up)
105lb bench press 3 sets of 10 (65kg*10, 80kg*10 building up)
40kg Jumping Goodmornings with Push press at top 3 sets of 10

Thursday:
12minute Plank Rotations
250m row *4
20lb Back Extensions 3 sets of 10
GHSP 3 sets of 10
Reverse Back Extensions 3 sets of 10
12lb Rolling Medball situps 3 sets of 12
20lb OH abmat situps 3 sets of 7

Friday:
Plyo Boxes
51kg snatch 5 sets of 2 (Dowel snatch set *2, 35kg snatch 2 sets of 3, 45kg snatch 2 sets of 3 building up)
68kg clean and Jerk 5 sets of 2 (2 sets 3 at 35kgs, 2 sets 3 at 50kgs, 2 sets of 3 at 60kgs building up)
85kg front squat 4 sets of 4 (7at 45kg, 5 at 65kgs, 4 at 75kgs building up)
90kg clean deadlift 3 sets of 4
60kg snatch pull 3 sets of 4
35kg Snatch grip press from behind 3 sets of 10

Saturday:
2 sets of 10 Ball Throws
45kg Power snatch on blocks 3 sets of 3 (dowel snatch set *2, 35kg snatches 3*2 building up)
60kg Power clean on blocks 3 sets of 3 (35kg 3*2, 50kg*3 building up)
70kg snatch deadlift 3 sets of 5
Plyo boxes

Sunday:
12minute Plank Rotations
250m row *4
20lb Back Extensions 3 sets of 10
GHSP 3 sets of 10
Reverse Back Extensions 3 sets of 10
12lb Rolling Medball situps 3 sets of 12
20lb OH abmat situps 3 sets of 7