After 10 plus days and 4800+ miles in the Suckmobile (http://www.yourworkoutsucks.com), sleeping, eating, sh… well you know, all in the same house on wheels, it was like pulling into Eden when we parked at the hotel and casino in Las Vegas. Bright lights, beautiful women, not having to worry about emptying the septic tank or rolling off the bunk and killing Jeff innocently sleeping below me.
Oh t'was like heaven. Heaven with endless buffets, scantly dressed beauties serving you drinks, and in our case, front row seats to listen and talk to the best and brightest in the field of sports nutrition at this years ISSN conference.
To be honest I've sat down three times and began to write this with the intention of having two short articles, one for each day focusing on the highlights of the seminar.
GREAT!! Well I would begin and wouldn't get half way through day one and I'd have 4000 words. What the hell, I'm writing a summary not a book.
That should give you an idea of the amount, and quality of information given at this conference.
So I've decided instead of aiming to summarize each talk in brief that I attended, that I am going simply paraphrase and summarize the points that I personally found new and interesting into broader topics that were addressed multiple times over the two days. Then following the article, Charles, Lonnie, Jeff McNeill, myself and others in the attendance or in the know will gladly tap back into our notes and memories to discuss any topic further.
Over-Training
Richard Krieder talked on this topic, one that hit home for me. It really taps into the more isn't better line of thinking. Truly over-training and the myriad of health problems it can cause, hormonal issues, weight loss, performance loss, nutrient deficiencies, etc. is a real thing, but over-reaching comes first.
As my first hand experience has noted true over training can take months or years to come back from, and in many athletic cases has ended careers. The athlete is so physically and therefore mentally overwhelmed they simply never return to a high level. Both varieties are very hard to diagnose, and sadly harder more so in the anaerobic athlete then the aerobic.
The number one thing we can look for in ourselves and our clients is cold symptoms, specifically upper respiratory problems as well a simple lack of drive to train. The methods to combat this were pretty mainstream, and things we should all know. Proper, smart, training with deloads, and adequate or over adequate intake and nutrition.
Nutrition and recovery that follows the training. If the training load has a drastic increase, then so must the nutrition quantity and quality as well as rest.
Creatine Was HUGE Again
If you're not taking this supplement for the general health benefits alone at this point I should probably begin to call you some inappropriate verb.
It was a delight to see all the attention on actual REAL science, and the overwhelming push was for plain old creatine monohydrate. It was stated flat out by several, if not all in the panel, Creatine Monohydrate is the ONLY form that is proven in science to have any effect, and NOTHING has shown to be better, so just take it.
Some studies show as much as double the muscle gain as compared to placebo. New evidence is showing that the weight gain, even in the first few weeks, is NOT only water but actual muscle tissue.
Dr. Candow showed some awesome results in his studies and talked on the effects of creatine on bone formation. The two main points being creatine can not only up regulate bone formation but inhibit degradation, and Creatine plus training showed a significant increase in IGF-1 compared to training and placebo. Usage suggestions across the board were still just a basic 5-8 grams a day, with some going a bit higher.
One study, by I believe Dr. Stout, showed some impressive results with subjects taking 16 grams a day for 28 days. No need to load it, but you can. Timing, The best time to take creatine (and many supplements) is pre-workout, if you're taking a single dose.
While, yes, carbs are shown to help the uptake of "stuff" creatine included into muscle tissue, exercise alone can be a very effective at achieving this. Add whey to your diet with creatine on a regular basis and your talking, time to get SWOLE!!
Protein Intake, Timing, Meal Size, etc..
This range of topics was, of course, huge. There was some variance across the board with some leaning towards a high protein intake, others leaning more toward the RDA, or just above.
Leucine, much like creatine, took a headlining seat at this conference with Layne by far championing it more then any one else. Layne Norton, Ph. D, based his talk on optimal protein intake and meal frequency. The most interesting part of the talk was the stress on Leucine.
He went as far as claiming that protein intake should be based not on total protein, but on the amount of Leucine. From what I recall, a recommendation of .04 grams / kg per day, with 3-4 grams per meal. Layne also gave meal suggestions to reach that 3-4 grams per meal using beef (50g), egg, chicken (50g), dairy, whey (30g). When you average this out it for a 200lb athlete it came out to just above 1 gram / kg of total protein a day.
Layne also was the lone person to suggest less meal frequency, and larger meals as optimal for maximum protein synthesis and muscle mass.
This was interesting and based on his findings that Leucine even after 3 hours was still elevated to the maximum after a meal containing 3-4 grams of Leucine. Leucine being the on switch / signal for protein synthesis that it is, it was his belief that one could not elevate protein synthesis again by spiking leucine content again until the leucine levels again dropped. Interesting, real world not sure. They need more testing.
Other's had what seemed like very valid arguments that yes, Leucine is #1. It is very important and needed to trigger protein synthesis, but, just due to the fact that Leucine was still elevated did not mean that protein synthesis was still happening on the skeletal muscle level.
It was their belief that the pool of other amino's could very well have ran dry even though the ignition for synthesis (Leucine) was turned on, that the gas tank (amino acid pool) was likely empty. That by having a further meal of protein one could kick start protein synthesis again.
So this ran right over into the lower optimal meal frequency claim. Dr. Stu Phillips made his opinion in opposition clear by stating, if I may paraphrase, ".. that the fact is, if you want to get BIG, and carry a lot of muscle mass, you need to eat protein, and eat it often. You need to aim to always stay in a positive nitrogen balance." It will be interesting to see what comes about from further research on both sides.
The take-home messages on protein above all were:
- The RDA values were NEVER intended to be the target of your of your protein intake let alone optimal, it was what was found to be required to sustain healthy life.
- Athletes are indeed a unique population and need a higher intake of protein, strength and power athletes even more then others.
- There is NO evidence for a limit on how much the body can digest and utilize in one sitting.
- Target your protein intake on quality sources (meats, dairy, fish, poultry, and eggs), and timing around workouts is optimal.
- Whey is the king of all proteins, in quality, amino acid profile, its protein synthesis triggering ability, and all else.
- Soy is OK, its not great, it not as good as the others, but its OK. (this talk and the way it was presented did little to convince me to make soy a staple)
- Protein is good, eat it.
Protease Supplements, Namely Bromelain...
Look for some interesting data coming from the Big Dr. Willoughby's lab at BYU, and bromelain's ability to reduce inflammation, and force degradation, as well as aid in recovery. This was one of the few studies directly on strength and power athletes and showed some real promise. If Dr. Willoughby's physique has anything to do with bromelain use, I'd listen. This guys traps started at the top of his head. He was jacked.
Nitric Oxide Supplements
In the end, none of the current supplements on the market have any evidence backing them. None of the ingredients have shown any increase in lean mass, performance or even increased blood flow.
The major fault is that all these supplements reference studies and no one reads them.
For the most part, the supplements are under dosed by at least ten-fold, and as well the referenced studies with the ten-fold increase in dose are being administered IV and not orally which makes a HUGE difference.
There is one supplement now being studies that is showing promise in raising blood NO levels, GLPC (Glycine Propionyl-L-Carnatine), but the fact is, it needs more studies.
Fatigue
Studies have shown that much of fatigue may be simply due to mental or perceived exertion. That the mind and CNS is in large part the limiting factor of exertion.
Studies were referenced where a simple sweet tasting solution was given to athletes and they were able to up their intensity to a once-again higher output, and for a longer period of time. How much is due to the mind we are not yet sure.
It is known that the body does protect itself from damage. The mind will shut you down well before you are able to elicit permanent damage (in most cases).
Caffeine in very high doses is a very effective aid in limiting fatigue and perceived fatigue as well as aiding performance. Dose, were talking 3+ mg per lb. So for a 200lb athlete, 600+mg taken 30 minutes prior to training ,WOW!! I love me some coffee. Another interesting point was in the study referenced only two of the participants showed no increase in performance, and both of them happened to be NONE regular/habitual caffeine users.
Miscelleaneous
Growth Hormone alone is not anabolic to skeletal muscle.
Sodium is the most underrated and under utilized nutrient for aiding hydration and performance.
Insulin is nothing more than a storage mechanism in the adult population and not something that is anabolic. There was very much a leaning toward less carbs for strength and power athletes, even in the peri-workout periods.
Conclusion
This conference was a huge reminder of how much one can get out of attending such events. That if your really serious about fitness and nutrition, be it on the professional or personal level, you really owe it to yourself to attend like events for the information given and networking.
I hope my attempt to summarize two jam-packed days, and literally pages of notes has been somewhat successful. It was a joy to attend this conference, to see old friends, make new ones, as well as soak up all that is Las Vegas.
I apologize if in the attempt to save time and space I neglected to reference a presenter, and once again, we can gladly go into a bit more detail in the article discussion thread on the forum.
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