Protein power-What's what

I have been meaning to do this for awhile now, and now that i have the time i'd like to educate some of you on protein powder. Many times i have witnessed newcomers in the fitness and weight lifting world asking everyone and their mother on what should they be taking, supplementing etc.

Purpose of this post is for you to gain knowledge on the different categories of protein and their use, pros and cons, and be able to pick one right for your needs. So lets get into it!

Whey Proteins

Everyone hears about whey protein. Whey whey whey. But what makes whey so special? Whey proteins have high content of branched-chain amino acids, or BCAAs. These specific bcaas are highly valued for stimulating muscle growth. Another important property of whey is the fact that it is a fast-digesting protein. Whey provides amino acids to muscle cells in less than two hours.

These two properties make whey the ideal protein to take immediately before and after your workouts.

->Whey protein Concentrate
High quality whey that is filtered to remove a good portion of the carbs and fat. Most products on the shelves today are about 70-80%

->Whey protein isolate
Purer form of whey than concentrate, because it's processed even further by way of ion-exchange chromatography. This allows for a powder that is greater than 90% protein, which makes it a good choice to use when dieting because of the lower carb and fat content.

-> Whey protein hydrolysate 
Produced when WRC and WRI is taken through a final step known as hydrolysis. Hydrolysis breaks the bonds between amino acids, a job normally reserved for your digestive system. Without the extra workload, your system absorbs is even faster than the other two. This makes WPH a superior postworkout protein choice. 

Casein Proteins
Casein makes up around 75-80% of protein found in milk. It is a complete protein that comes in several forms that are usually from skim milk. Because of its clotting nature, it digests slow and steady (it forms a gel in your stomach). Most casein proteins can deliver amino acids to the muscles over a six hour time period.

 Having a steady amount of amino acids has been shown to prevent muscle protein breakdown, which some suggest is just as important for growth as enhancing muscle protein synthesis.

->Caseinate
Most soluble form of casen, which allows it to mix very easily. If you happen to be limiting your sodium intake, you may want to consider avoiding products with high amounts of sodium caseinate.

->Micellar casein
Made by using micro-filtration to separate the casein portion of milk from the lactose, fat and whey. It digests much more slowly than the other casein proteins, which is its best strength. Before going to bed, if you are taking protein to drink, it should have a good deal of micellar casein, to prevent muscle breakdown while you sleep.

->Hydrolyzed casein protein
Similar to whey protein hydrolysate, is formed by the hydrolysis of casein protein. Unlike the other caseins, micellar casein, HCP is rapidly digested at a similar rate to whey.

Soy Protein
Soy protein is a complete protein, containing all of the essential amino acids. It is typically produced using defatted soy flakes that go through an extraction process that removes the carbs and then are ground to produce soy protein powder. Soy protein is rish in glutamine and arginine and is digested and absorbed quickly. It also provides antioxidant effects and a multitude of health benefits.

If you are looking muscle gains but want to avoid animal based products, this is the protein for you.

->Soy protein concentrate
Around 70% protein with relatively low carbs and fat content. Soy concentrate often has a small amount of indigestible carbs that can cause gas in some people.

->Soy protein isolate
Is made from soy concentrate that is further processed to give a product that is at least 90% protein. 

So there is a breakdown of the three main proteins. I hope this helps you out! Later i will post a few protein recipes that are quick and easy to make!

Playing with the camera

Took the camera to the gym a few days ago and finally got the footage up. Quality was shot great but i had to take the quality down due to size and upload problems. Still have to figure some settings out. Decided to piece these random clips together! Just was doing random weight, looking at different angles and such. Enjoy.

Belated Back Day Breakdown-Not for your grandma!

A few days ago was my back day, and let me tell you, it was intense. Like i have posted earlier, we are focusing on heavy high volume sets first so we can tear down our muscles. I know there is a correct form vs sloppy form massive weight. I did enough weight that i would lose some of my form on the last rep. So pretty much giving it all i got to get that last rep in the set.

Lets get into it!

Warm up set: Pull ups
These are the go to for my warm up set. I do 6 sets, increments of 10 reps, and limit my rest to only 45 sec. I don't go all the way down to where my elbows lock. Mainly i stay 75% extended on the way down then power back up. First set should always be for speed and explosiveness. Next set- which would be set number 2- i do these a bit slower, more control, and focus on squeezing my lats on the way up. Next i Throw the belt on and add weight. 25lbs to start and just rep these out. When adding weight though, you still want to maintain control on the way down. Then i went to 35lbs last couple of sets. Took the belt off and did one more set of 10 with no weight. Felt light as a feather!

Heavy Set of T-Bar Rows
T-bar rows are one of those amazing, make shift work outs that i love to do. Hits not only your upper body, but your lower as well, considering you have to hold your weight up when you pull the weight towards you.
For those who have never done or heard of a T-bar row let me explain.

Some gyms have a machine set up already to do rows with free weight plates. Others (like mine) don't. Take a 45lb Olympic bar and brace one end of it up against a wall or a machine. At my gym i braced it up against the leg press machine. Place a 60lb dumbbell on top of the end that is free of weight to keep it on the ground. The other end of the bar place desired weight on the end. Normally i warm up with two 45lb plates. 

In the picture here you see the grip for the Lat row machine. Place that on the end of the bar and grasp the handle. Raise the weight with your legs and find a comfortable foot placement. Maintain a natural arch in your back once you find your footing and begin to pull the weight towards your body. The key here is to stick your chest out and on the pull motion, try and make your shoulder blades touch. This will insure you are engaging your Lats. I started with 2 45lb plates to warm up. Added another plate and did a set of 10. Then i added another plate and did a set of 6. I try to keep my rest between sets to 30 seconds. After my last set i do a drop set.

Bent Over Rows 

After Tbars i moved straight into Bent over rows. These are used with the Olympic bar and plates. I start with 135lbs. Keep your feet shoulder width apart, grasp the bar with an over hand grip and shoulder width apart. The over hand grip takes your biceps out a lot more than a underhand grip. So i did them both. One set overhand, and one underhand. Same form as previous, Arch your back, and raise up a tad, then pull the weight up to your sternum. i did 2 sets of 135, 2 sets of 155 and 2 sets of 195. The heavy set i only did 5 reps. Doing this compound lift can ultimately increase size in your arms as well. Biceps is the secondary muscle used when doing back. Most of the lifts will engage your biceps along with back. Protip: Stuck and can't do anymore? Use them legs! Don't be afraid to use your legs to help get up the weight on those reps you can't complete. Once you get it, focus on a slow release, for hypertrophic effect. 

Romanian Deadlift

This is my go to lift for lower back strength. You really do not need to go heavy with your lower back because its purpose is for stability. You use your lower back for A LOT of lifts. Think of it in sync with your core. Most people think "core" to "abs" but in reality your "core" would be 360 degrees. So say hello to your lower back. Strong back, strong core, strong you. 

The deadlift is set up like any other. Feet apart and hands at a comfortable grip. I use a universal grip (one overhand and one underhand grip), although i want to start using an overhand grip to increase my grip. Lift the weight up with your legs and on the way down, keep your legs locked and bend at your hips to let the weight lower. Stick that butt out too! Now when i say lock your legs i really don't mean lock them. Have a slight bend in your knees to alleviate pressure. Don't let the weight tough the ground. Keep the tension and rise back up. My heavy set was 315lbs for 6 reps. 

Lateral cable row

Normally with these there is some sort of bar attached to this machine. I decided to try something new and hook on there the tricep rope you would use for pulldowns. Let me tell you now that this engaged my lats in a whole new way. It is almost like i can't explain how great it felt, but i can :). With the rope and movement it feels more natural and more of a useful motion.

Notice in the picture above how i start with my back forward. This is your starting position. Grasp the rope tightly and pull into your armpits. When you are doing the lift, it is vital that you keep your chest up, slight bend in the back and shoulder blades trying to touch. You hear me say that a lot but i am telling you it works.

When you do back day again, pay close attention what you do with your chest while you lift. Do you tend to roll your shoulders forward and collapse your chest as if you're trying to enter a fetal position? If so, you are lifting your back completely wrong. Do not fear and take my advice. Try it!

Next blog look forward to an arm day from heck!

AUKTANEFIT. 30 days to Fit.

August 1st, 2014. Today starts the beginning of my 30 day transformation. My hopes is that with a little insight on what I do for the next 30 days, from what I eat, how I train, and the supplements I take, that perhaps it will give even just one person the motivation to change their life. I wont rant too much so lets get to it! As always thank you for showing your support and following us through our journey.

          NUTRITION: 
          To track my calorie intake which for today I set at 1800 calories I will be using the app (Myfitnesspal) which if anyone has not used yet is amazing and makes life much simpler. I highly recommend this app to track your progress for consistency. My Macros will be 45% protein (203g), 35% carbs (158g), and 20% fat (40g) @1800 calories. Note that Fridays are my one day off of running and that throughout the rest of the week I will be going off of a 2,400 calorie diet to make room for the roughly 700-800 calories I burn through running. Below is a breakdown of what today's' meals consisted of.

           SUPPLEMENTS: 
             Optimum Nutrition Whey Protein
             Optimum Nutrition Creatine Monohydrate
             Optimum Nutrition BCAA
             Fish Oil 3 capsules

       TRAINING: 
         Today's training was a light arm session and to be honest I wasn't feeling all to great today. But as always the key is consistency and putting in the most effort you possibly can at that time. Here is a little breakdown of what was done.
              Arnold curls: 90lbs 6 sets 8-10 reps
              Incline single arm curls: 25 lbs 4 sets 6-8 reps
              Standing dumbbell hammer curls: 30 lbs 4 sets 10 reps
              Rope pull downs: 7 sets 8-10 reps 140,160,170,190 working sets.
              Rope pull downs super set with preacher curls: 40lbs 40 reps 3 sets.
              Single arm rope pull downs: 4 sets 30lbs to failure.

Heavy Leg day breakdown

The past couple of weeks we have been doing mainly hypertrophy workouts, and we have decided to switch back to heavy sets. Instead of doing shoulders yesterday we did legs, a nice change in the way we split. We also are mainly focusing on our major compound lifting, which are your barbell movements. If you want to get stronger and grow, you need to move heavy weight with barbells. Dumbbells help assist and work out your stabilizer muscles more but your barbell movements are most important. With the barbell weight rising, so will your dumbbell weight and everything else. 

This being said lets break down our Leg day
First lift we went to is our go to when we start leg day: the Leg press. We were excited to start because the night before we talked about setting a 3 rep PR (Personal Record). The leg press itself is already 165lbs. We added 200 lbs and warmed up doing 2 sets to 15. Then we put on 400 lbs and did a set of 3 reps. We put on 200 more lbs and did 3 more reps. By then our muscles are nice and loose. With these 3 reps we make sure that we are doing them deep and slow. Now when we get to the heavy pr weight we focus on speed, power and explosiveness. We place 2 45lb plates on and a 10lb plate. Totaling 1165lbs on leg press. We powered through that set for a clean 3 reps. We took most the weight off and left 290lbs on the press and did burn out sets of 100. which were killer on the quads and hip flexors. 

From here we went to the squat rack, which is somewhere i lack in strength with. We set up 135 on the bar and warmed up. Hips lower than knees to get a deep squat. Did that for 2 sets. We then went right into it with 225. My first set i only got 4 reps. My next 2 sets i did 3. When squatting, some people have trouble figuring out how low is low. A lot of people say "ass to grass" and others say 90 degrees. Honestly, as long as you are parallel with the floor, meaning your thighs (90 degrees) you are benefiting from the squat. I see a lot of guys putting on 315 (because they want to look MACHO! lol) and barely move at all. For some reason too they get excited about this. If you are moving heavy weight, it is going to be a struggle from the start. Going 90 degrees ensures usage of the quads, glutes and hamstrings. Mostly the hamstrings when pushing the weight back up. 

Next was our deadlift. Due to my partner having a slight disk injury in his lower back, i only did 3 sets of deadlifts. Started with 225lbs for 10 reps. Then i moved on to 295lbs for 3 reps. From here i put on 365lbs and got it for one. When i put on this weight i lost form in my lower back, and pulled the weight like a Romanian deadlift. Which is fine because my lower back can handle that kind of tension. Deadlifts are essential if you want growth and power. Possibly one of the best lower body/back workouts you can do. If you aren't doing them i suggest you add them in your program!

After all these heavy sets we went to leg extension machine. This machine is great to fine tune your quads. With the cable machines, it isn't about moving the whole stack of weight. Put a decent weight on there that you can maintain 10-12 rep range and fully extend and flex your quads. with these we worked up to 130lbs. Tip here is, again, pick a weight you can maintain form. I know, what form?! it's a machine! Well i am talking about your extension. Putting too much weight on this machine will cause you to extend only to 75%. So make sure you get a good set in. You'll know you did when you get off the machine and can't walk =) 

Last thing we did was calve raises. Nothing special here that we did. Put 3 45lb plates on each side and started with 20 raises neutral, which is feet shoulder width apart and toes pointed straight. next we turn our feet outward and to 20 raises. This implements the muscles underneath the calf. Next with turned our toes inward, working the outside muscles. 3 sets of this. 

Make sure you are getting a great leg day! It will help you grow all around. Symmetry is key to being strong. I can say by doing legs twice a week, it has helped in my growth in other areas in the gym. Lift hard Auktane fam. Till we blog next time!

Survival Of The Fittest!

Putting to rest an annoying myth

"I want to tone but i don't want to build muscle and get huge."

We have heard this too many times from women who want to tone up that flabby underarm area and butt. They seem to have a correlation with heavy lifting and muscles, which is a correct correlation. What is inaccurate is thinking within a month you are going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger by lifting heavy weight you aren't used to.

To say you want to tone up really mean to build muscle. When you are toning your muscles you are breaking them down, tearing muscle fibers and rebuilding them to be stronger. Ladies, let me tell you. To get "huge" you would have to have constant complex carbs and protein throughout the day in your diet. 6 meals a day plus a routine mainly consisting of compound lifts IE bench press, barbell squats, barbell shoulder press etc.

Don't be afraid  if you put on muscle. At the end of the day you will look a whole lot better. Just make sure you feel good in your own body, and happy with your work at the end of your gym session. 

Find a routine that works for you that has moderate weight lifting and cardio as well. To really tone your body you will have to lift moderate weights. You need resistance! 

TACKLING MULTIPLE GOALS HEAD ON!

We've all been there. Sitting. Thinking to ourselves what goals we want to accomplish by the end of the year. Lets face it, many of those goals mainly the ones we deem too unforeseeable to accomplish will go unfinished. So how do we find the time, energy, and ultimately mental strength to push full steam ahead to accomplish our goals? This is a question I ask myself on a regular basis when it comes to my fitness goals and life goals in general. What I'm about to disclose is not backed by scientific findings or any scholarly works, but is an assessment of my physical abilities and perhaps an opportunity to you as a reader insight on your own capabilities if you set your mind to it. As I write this I am currently training for the NYC Marathon on November 2, 2014. My marathon training consists of an average of 5-6 miles of running per day 5 times per week in addition to a long run on Saturdays which range from 9-20 miles of running depending on the weekly schedule. On top of my marathon goal I look to maintain an athletic physique by continuing a strength conditioning regiment. As I did when I figured out what goals I wanted to achieve for this year I first asked myself why I wanted to accomplish these goals. Without a strong reason or purpose our minds like adolescents tend to favor our wants despite the importance of our needs. Therefore strive to give your goals a personal connection and valuable meaning as to why you ultimately want to strive for these goals. For instance, for my marathon I am running on behalf of Team For Kids Charity to raise a goal of $2,600.00 for underprivileged kids around the world whose families do not have the financial abilities to support them through running programs to allow for not only the health but well being of these kids. I chose this charity because I've seen personally how technology and gaming has affected our youths today and is a large reason for child obesity in the United States. This type of strong personal connection is what pushes me everyday I train knowing that if I do not give it my 100 percent effort each day that I am not only failing myself but the kids connected to my charity. My second question on setting goals is HOW are you going to achieve your goals? There is no cookie cutter method to doing this as everyone's goals will differ and at many times can be converge at separate extremes. My biggest tip to this is plan ahead and consider the alternative actions you must take if you happen to come along a wall along the way. Lets face it that we will all encounter these walls, from unexpected personal or family events, injuries, illnesses, or even the occasional lack of motivation. As long as you plan ahead to make sure you're one step closer to your goals and make sure that life doesn't take you of course the consistency will continue to allow you to achieve your goal. Now this might come off as common sense or basic knowledge but the key of consistency is often lost in large goals that we have never imagined obtainable. To give you a retrospect of this idea, consider the goal of making $100 dollars. Anyone with the basic abilities to work and want to work can easily obtain this goal and it is not too far fetched that one may wander off this path towards this goal because they don't have the hunger to want it that bad. Where as say a goal of obtaining 1 million dollars is a much harder goal to obtain. In working towards this goal much more care and precision planning and organization is required. Additionally you must think and act accordingly to your goals. This is because the mind of a world class athlete or a multi-million works and thinks differently than that of an individual with less ambition and willpower. If you want to be like those that have achieved the goals in which you aspire your mindset must be as those that have already paved the way for you. Do you think a multi-millionaire sat around waiting to win the lottery or it to fall on their lap. Do you think the world class athlete is sitting around thinking they can hold off their workout for another day or eat whatever they want because they think they deserve it? That is the type of questions you must ask yourself and understand that your hard work and determination will allow you to successfully achieve any goals you may have. Thank you for reading this and I hope it helps you in achieving your goals. As always we are here to help and if you have any questions or concerns please reach out and let us know!