In the last 10 years “GH Guts” have become common among the elite bodybuilders. They are distended bellys even when the person is ripped at a very low bf%.

The first person to sport a GH gut was Dorian Yates, 7 time Mr. Olympia winner during the 90’s. Here is a picture of him in a pose where you can get a good look of the distension.

Ronnie Coleman, Dorian Yates successor for the Olympia crown, even had a more pronounced GH gut.

Jay Cutler, the current Mr. Olympia, also has a GH gut you can see from this angle.

Greg Kovacs pictured below, has been long known for his assymetrical body, dominated by his GH Gut.

What causes a GH Gut?

Some bodybuilders have tried to say it was due to excessive eating, from their extremley high calorie diet. This wouldn’t explain why they have it even during contest time, with lower water retention and food intake. Although it’s named GH gut, it may be caused by other drugs instead of GH (growth hormone).

Some believe it is due to the IGF-1 and insulin drug use or a combination of IGF-1 and Growth hormone. This argument is based on some research of IGF-1 and increased receptors in the internal organs. It seems that the extra mass that the mass monsters of Dorian yates and after him, have increased size more than ever, but at the cost of getting a GH gut.

There is a common belief among many, that cardio is better than weight training for fat loss. Is there any research to back this up or could even the opposite actually be true?

Low intensity cardio vs. weight training studies:

Unlike low intensity cardio, weight training has a significant boost on post-workout metabolism. A study published in Eur J Appl Physiol. 2002 Mar;86(5):411-7. Epub 2002 Jan 29. showed that weight training caused a significant increase in metabolism for 38 hours post-workout.

Another study Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 31, No. 9, pp. 1320-1329, 1999 was done comparing diet, diet and cardio, and diet plus cardio plus resistance. Guess who lost the most fat? The one who combined weight training with the other two factors. In fact, the cardio group only lost one more pound of fat than the diet only group.

The best study I have found was in published J Am Coll Nutr. 1999 Apr; 18(2):115-21, directly compares resistance only to cardio only. The cardio group did 4 hours of low intensity cardio a week. The resistance group did 2-4 sets of 8-15 reps a excercise for 10 excercises, 3 times a week. Both groups were on a 800 calorie deficit. Both lost fat, but the weight training group lost far more fat and unlike the cardio group, they maintained all their lean muscle.

As you can see from the studies, weight training is far superior to low intensity cardio, for burning fat and raising metabolism. The main importance we can see from these studies, is that weight training and diet, are the main factors behind fat loss, not low intensity cardio.

HIIT cardio vs. low intensity cardio:

The article has been discussing only low intensity cardio, but HIIT cardio on the other hand, is a much more effective at fat burning than low intensity cardio.  HIIT cardio can be just as effective as weight training for fat loss.

For further reading here is another article of ours: HIIT cardio vs. low intensity cardio for fat loss

In bodybuilding forums, you’ll constantly see bodybuilders tell each other to work on their legs, mainly with squats and deadlift excercises. Most beginner bodybuilders hate working legs and look for an excuse to not work them. They are told it helps release testosterone, growth hormone, and willl increase overall body muscle mass. Is there studies that support all these claims?

Testosterone and GH levels after squats & deadlifts:

Resistance training in general, increases testosterone and growth hormone, during and immediately after post excercise. It has been shown in many studies, including a published study Int J Sports Med. 1991 Apr;12(2):228-35 done on both men and women during resistance excercise. Squats and deadlifts increase GH and Testosterone, more than other compound excercises during excercise.

There is however, no significant studies that show that resistance excercise, directly leads to higher hormone levels long term. In fact, for a day or 2 post-excercise, many studies show LH and testosterone decline, while cortisol increases. In other words, building yourself up to a 200 lb ripped bodybuilder doesn’t directly increase your testosterone levels, from when you were smaller. But you might though have higher testosterone levels, due to better eating, supplementation, and working out, as a result of the bodybuilding lifestyle. The increased cortisol levels and lower testosterone, is also why overtraining is such an easy state to enter. We have to allow our body to recuperate itself, before doing more weight lifting.

Long term effects from squatting and deadlifting:

The benefit for doing leg excercises, appears from research not to be from increasing long term natural levels of testosterone and GH. I believe however the large burst of testosterone and other hormones during leg excercises, are the major reasons why squats and deadlifts are very important for overall muscle building. It’s the same reason why a bench press is more effective mass builder than a chest flye workout. Why? because the compound bench press is going to release more testosterone and GH in a workout than a chest flye.

The large burst of anabolic hormones resulting from squats and deadlifts, allows most of your muscles to benefit from this release simultaneously. Squats and deadlifts work many muscles simultaneously in the body and will allow most of your body to get some stimulation from the release of the hormones during the workout. The testosterone and GH released, is very crucial for being a catalyst for your muscle growth. It won’t be released as much in the smaller compound excercises, such as bench press. Therefore doing smaller compound excercises, would not be able to makeup for the benefit of having leg workouts in your routine.

Most experienced bodybuilders know all too well, how important leg excercises are for overall mass. You’ve probably seen the guys walking in the gym who look like lightbulbs (big upper body, but chicken legs). That has made many bodybuilders question the idea that leg excercises always equals bigger upper body. One must keep in mind we don’t know if they are using steroids, which would make it a little easier to gain upper body mass without leg excercises. On the flipside, it would also be harder post cycle for a steroid user just to keep his gains. These people probably also have excellent upper body genetics and years of training experience. If they worked harder on leg excercises, they would be even bigger.

Cortisol is a nasty hormone, it’s bad for our health, muscle gains, and it promotes fat mostly in the stomach. Cortisol reduction via supplementation, is now getting the attention it deserves with bodybuilders. The mainstream has also jumped on the cortisol blocking bandwagon, with their aggressive T.V ads.

Since cortisol blockers are so popular, I thought I would list all the things that I’m aware of that may reduce cortisol. Cortisol blockers will have most importance pre-workout and before bedtime, since cortisol levels rise the most after excercise and upon waking up.

Vitamin C:

Most bodybuilders take 1 to 3 grams of viatmin C a day because they believe it helps in recovery, immunity, and cortisol control. There is many studies showing the effects of antioxidants, especially vitamin c, in reducing cortisol after excercise. A relatively new study was published Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2007 Apr;39(4):645-52. on 20 endurance athletes for 4 weeks. Half supplemented with 1000mg of vitamin c and 400 IU of Vitamin E. Researchers concluded that 4 weeks of this supplementation reduces the cortisol response to a 2.5 hour bout of excercise.

Androgenic Anabolic Steroids:

AAS all inherently have anti-cortisol actions on the body. Most
people think of them as being anabolic, but a large part of their muscle building abilities, is actually due to the anti-catabolic actions on lowering cortisol. This is why people on steroids are known for being able to workout longer, without risking overtraining. Overtraining is mainly due to the cortisol response.

Imodium (loperamide):

This over the counter drug for diarrhea, has been shown to have cortisol reducing properties. You will want to read a previous article I wrote about it Imodium (loperamide) a Cortisol Blocker?

Relacore:

You may have seen these cheesy commercials on the T.V the last couple years. There actually might be some merit to the claims. Read my previous article Relacore Review: Does it work? to learn more.

Carbohydrates:

OK, so this is not a supplement or drug, but it’s the only macronutrient that can significantly blunt cortisol production. This helps support the idea of high carb diets for maximum muscle gain, especially post workout and breakfast, when cortisol production is high.

11-OXO

This is a relatively new supplement out by Ergopharms. You will want to read my previous article on 11-OXO to find out more about it.

Bodybuilders have long argued whether, heavy weight low reps or lower weight higher reps, is better during a cutting cycle.

The arguments:

One group advocates heavy weights because they believe that it will help preserve lean muscle during low calorie dieting. The more muscle they believe, will also help keep the metabolism higher, which automatically slows during cutting.

The other side advocates that heavy weight is too much and can lead to overtraining, causing more harm than good. They also believe the high reps with quick repetitions, lead to metabolic and hormonal changes such as Growth Hormone production, that help aid in fat loss.

Who is right?

There is only one study I found comparing rep ranges of resistance training on calorie burning. It was published in 2001 Thornton, K., et al. A comparison of two different resistance-training intensities on exercise energy expenditure and excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.. One group of females did 2 sets of 15 repetitions on 9 excercises. The 2nd group did 2 sets of 8 repetitions for 9 excercises. The study concluded the low repetition group had burned more calories post excercise than the high rep group.

Another study I find relevant is Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1990;61(1-2):37-41. They showed that endurance resistance training for a few weeks reversed all the hypertrophy gains from a few weeks worth of heavy strength training.

Trying to make your weight training workouts more “cardio like” with less weight and higher reps, is faulty logic to me anyways. On one hand you are trying to stimulate your muscles to preserve them, yet you are also not giving them what they need to be stimulated adequately. People who do high reps during fat loss, are trying to stimulate the most fat burning, while maintaining their muscle simulataneously. Sorry, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. One is going to have to be sacrificed for the sake of the other. The higher reps is going to cost you muscle, due to the lack of stimulus. If you believe that high reps light weight and short rest maintains muscle, then tell that to any 220 lb muscle bound bodybuilder and he will laugh in your face. If muscle is important to you, then lift heavy.

The argument in response of course to this argument will be, that you are then susceptible to overtraining from doing heavier weights while in a calorie deficit. This may be true if you keep your workout volume the same, but you should have a much lower volume workout routine anyways. The goal should be to only briefly stimulate the muscles with a heavy weight. Your goal is not to build them up or give them a “good workout”. You will not overtrain if your weight training is heavy, but very brief. You should also focus on the major compound excercises and eliminate isolation excercises.

One heavy exhausting set on a muscle part, should be adequate in helping to maintain muscle, during
cutting. For some reason everyone seems to think you have to hit the muscle 3 sets just to stimulate it when cutting. With all the cardio and the low calories, that is a recipe for overtraining and more muscle loss than is necessary. Just do one or 2 sets and move on. Drop all isolations out too, they aren’t necessary to maintain muscle. Even the common 3 day split is overkill during cutting I believe. A 2 day split, one day upper and one lower body should be all that is necessary to get the muscles worked out enough.

The last 3 years, there has been a lot of T.V commercials for cortisol blocker supplements. One of the more recent ones is now Relacore. Relacore is marketed as a cortisol blocker that helps aid in fat loss, especially in the belly. Bodybuilders know that cortisol can effect their gains negatively. They also aren’t likely to fall for any hyped pill on a T.V ad either. But does this supplement actually work as claimed and could bodybuilders benefit from it also?

What is Relacore?

Relacore contains a few herbs, but the main ingredient of Relacore and the one that may actually help reduce cortisol, is the Magnolia bark. Magnolia is a sedative anti-anxiety herb. You may be wondering what a herb like this has to do with cortisol. People with long term stress are known to have higher body levels of cortisol. So in theory, lowering their stress with this herb, may lower cortisol levels.

About Magnolia Bark:

Magnolia bark has been used for centuries as a medicine for a variety of mental and physical conditions. Using Magnolia bark has been found in multiple studies to have strong anti-anxiety and to a lesser extent, depressant (sedative) effects on the nervous system.

What does this mean for bodybuilders?

For Relacore to work you have to be chronically stressed out or depressed person. If this is you, then I think Relacore would be very beneficial for the mood enhancement and indirect cortisol reducing effects, otherwise it’s probably a waste of money. The fact that magnolia bark also seems to have heavy drug effects, mainly at high dosages, leads me to believe this supplement may also lead to abuse and addiction if your not careful. The price of Relacore is not bad, $30+ for 90 capsules. It is a better alternative than kava kava (a mood enahncer), since kava kava is very hard on the liver and Magnolia bark seems to be more potent.

For years textbooks, many “experts”, and the government have said that athletes and bodybuilders do not need more than the recommended daily allowance of protein( 0.6-0.9 grams of protein per pound of weight for very active athletes). Many even suggest, that it may be toxic or unhealthy, to have a high protein diet similiar to what bodybuilders eat. Bodybuilders for decades have taken large amounts of protein, well beyond these recommendations.

Why bodybuilders eat high protein diets:

Bodybuilders during bulking phases, take extra amounts of calories beyond maintenance(daily calorie requirements). This in turn allows them to gain weight, with the goal of it mostly being muscle. Bodybuilders do this because gaining muscle without extra calories is very difficult because if you don’t gain weight, losing fat and gaining muscle simulataneously can only happen to a certain extent. There is only 3 macronutrients you can choose from in a diet; protein, carbs, or fat. If you ate the recommended daily allowance of protein on a calorie surplus, you would be eating mostly carbs and fat. This would leave you bloated, fat, insulin tolerant, and unhealthy. If you are trying to build mainly muscle, then it would make sense that a large amount of your calories should be protein, the building blocks of muscles.

Protein also doesn’t convert to glucose as easy(and therefore stimulate insulin as much), so it is a much “cleaner” way to bulk when trying to get excess calories. If you had a balance of protein (say 30%) of your calories, instead of about 15% on a lower protein diet, your weight gains will be leaner. Protein also helps aid fat loss and muscle preservation during dieting.

The government and many experts, don’t take into account that bodybuilders are not trying to maintain themselves like the average joe. Bodybuilders require more protein and calories because they are breaking the muscle down and then trying to gain more muscle(or maintain large amounts of it). During dieting they are not trying to simply lose weight like the average couch potato, but instead only fat, while trying to maintain their hard earned muscle.

Studies supporting high protein diets:

While there is research supporting that extra protein intake is needed for athletes and bodybuilders, there is little supporting very high protein intake(well past 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight) will give even better muscle growth.

The only one I could find that is commonly cited at many other places is published in Nutr. Metabolism 12:259-274, done on 10 polish powerlifters. They found that even when they more than doubled their protein intake past the recommended daily allowance, half of them were still in negative nitrogen balance. In other words, half were still losing muscle because they weren’t getting adequate protein even at that amount.

One study done by Dr. Lemon and published in Nutrition Reviews,” (54:S169-175, 1996), showed strength athletes needed about 0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight to maintain nitrogen positive balance(sign of muscle growth).

Dr. Lemon also has suggested previously that:

This is an important quote because it’s an admission that they really don’t know the optimum protein intake for muscle growth. So if they don’t know the answer, who does? Pro-bodybuilders of course have the answer. I’ll take the advice of pro-bodybuilding mass monsters like Ronnie Coleman and Jay Cutler, who have built themselves up to almost 300 lbs ripped, through very high protein dieting. There has never been a professional bodybuilder that didn’t get to that without a very high amount of protein in their diet. I think part of the reasons why there is lack of studies on very high doses of protein, is probably because researchers aren’t interested in the more extreme protein diets that are well above 1 gm / lb bodyweight.

There is also many studies showing higher protein diets helped fat loss during dieting. One study by Dr. Donald Layman at the university of illinois, had women on high carb low protein diets and high protein low carb diets. Both groups did resistance training for 11 weeks. The high protein dieters lost 22 lbs but only one pound of muscle. The high carb dieters lost only 15 lbs , but also lost 2 lbs of muscle(one more lb than the other group). This study shows that not only did the high protein diet do better at muscle preservation, but it also helped aid fat loss.

Dr. Layman is a well known research, who has done a lot of research over the years on protein intake and fat loss effects. Here is a quote from him on his feelings of high protein diets during dieting:

Layman is recommending above 1.5 grams per kilogram, which is above 0.7 grams per pound of bodyweight. For a 200 lb overweight individual, that is 140 grams of protein. Notice he is recommending amounts significantly higher than the average recommended dosages. He doesn’t say either, what an optimum amount of protein intake is for fat loss. Many studies have also found that older people require a higher protein intake too.

When is it too much protein in a bodybuilder diet?

What we see from the trend in the protein studies out there, is that there is definite benefits to higher protein intakes. The problem lies in the failure for science to have the answer on how much protein is the optimum intake for the most muscle growth or fat loss. So science doesn’t have the answer yet, but bodybuilders have done well on very high protein diets, so the answer for now is with them I believe.

Bodybuilders often recommend around 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. Some advocate much higher. Eventually increasing your protein will hit the point it’s unhealthy and overkill. In body physiology, everything works on the “law of diminishing returns”. As you increase your protein diet, eventually the gains will start diminishing per unit of increase. For example, increasing from 1.5 grams to 2 grams per pound of bodyweight is likely to not have the same muscle growth effect as increasing 1 gram to 1.5 grams. Pro-bodybuilders are at the top because they are willing to take massive amounts of protein, even if it only results in a few percent improvement in muscle gains, than if they had done half.

Too much protein is the point, where the cons outweighs any negligible gains in muscle growth. Like with everything else we ingest, having too much protein could be unhealthy and very inconvenient. Protein does cause extra stress on the kidneys and liver. Drinking a lot of water helps ease the stress brought by digestion and elimination of protein in the liver and kidneys. Many health experts believe that high protein diets pose no health risk provided you drink plenty of water, the amount
is not too excessive, and you have no kidney or liver disease. The answer to a near optimum amount for muscle gains, yet still also being a healthy amount for the kidneys and liver, is probably somewhere in around the 1.5 grams per pound mark.