A healthy diet and regular workouts are the two key ingredients to developing fitness, but to push your body that extra level by building serious muscle many top athletes use supplements such as HMB.
HMB (beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutryate) is a branch of the amino acid Leucine: a substance found in protein-based food like fish and chicken. However, HMB is in short supply and so the body cannot feel its benefits as much as it could do if given a larger dose.
An Ironmagazine.com report in 2010 discusses how the supplement helps protect the breakdown of muscle proteins and actively stimulates tissue growth, so you can take it either before or after exercise and you’ll get the best of both worlds. Studies have shown that leucine contributes to protein synthesis, especially the small amounts of HMB already in the body. Any addition, therefore, is beneficial when building muscle and you only need a small dosage – three grams per day – to boost your recovery and enlarge skeletal muscles.
Combine this dosage with regular exercise and a good diet or protein and vegetables – plus carbohydrate intake before you work out to fuel the body through intense periods – and you’ll soon discover you’re getting fitter and stronger.
According to Bodybuilding.com, those who take HMB over a three-week period are more likely to bench-press greater weights than others taking a placebo. The supplement is also used to increase fatigue endurance during long bouts of physical exercise, so you can work out for longer and push through previously unreachable targets.
Remember, HMB services all muscle protein so you should set targets in both the lower and upper body to reap the supplements full benefit. Try setting a simple timed 100 press-up target alongside a reasonably weighted leg-press target and see if you can beat it each day. The more you exercise and take the supplement the stronger you should become and that time will drop off the clock.
Achieving your physical peak is difficult without the aid of supplements such as HMB, which have proven beneficial for both men and women over long periods of time.
Last week we revisited Mike Furci’s list of foods you should avoid and asked you to compare it to what you actually eat. This week we’re emphasizing the positive with Mike’s list of authorized foods.
You’ll see that he breaks it down by proteins, carbohydrates and vegetables. You’ll also notice that there’s plenty of delicious food for you to eat. You don’t have to sacrifice taste or enjoying food in order to eat healthy.
Now that you have both lists, the basic idea is to reduce and replace. Reduce your consumption of the banned foods, and then replace it with something you like on the approved foods list. For example, if you’re eating sugary cereal each morning, replace it with oatmeal or fruit. If you like pasta, trying replacing some of it with whole grain pastas. The key is taking an honest look at your diet and then replacing bad foods with better options.
If you’ve been a regular reader of Mike Furci, Bullz-Eye.com’s Fitness Editor, you’ve known for a long time that you should be limiting the amount of sugar and simple carbohydrates in your diet. The dangers of sugar consumption are now getting much more attention, and a recent “60 Minutes” story is getting a lot of attention.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta discusses the dangers of sugar with Dr. Robert H. Lustig, who explains how many of our health problems like obesity and Type 2 diabetes. His YouTube video, “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” has over 2.5 million views.
This isn’t just about the table sugar you put in your coffee. Most processed foods you buy at the store are loaded with sugars or high fructose corn syrup (which is basically the same thing as sugar). The biggest offender has to be soft drinks, which are probably the worst thing you can have in your regular diet.
As Mike has said for years, it’s not just about calories. You have to pay attention to what types of calories you are consuming.
Watch both of these videos and you’ll gain some perspective on your own diet and health. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a cola or a pastry from time to time, but if these are regular parts of your diet, then you need to start making changes. You’ll love how you feel and look with some of these simple changes, and in the long run you’ll be much healthier as well.
