Oh, we have heard it all before, for sure. "Even as bodybuilders you can get everything with a good balanced diet." Yes -- and they used to say Jack LaLanne was a nut too, but gee, now he’s 90 and still can do handstand pushups!
Indeed, you and I know that a regular balanced diet won’t even be close to getting us up on stage to pose. Unless it’s the Joe Blow, fat slob contest. We know by now that physique competitors and couch potatoes don’t have the same nutritional needs. We need tons of muscle devoid of marbled fat. We train brutally hard and eat slabs of whole foods. Still, it is NOT enough.
Muscle is dynamic tissue with unique demands. For instance: Muscle is iron rich tissue - building more muscle requires more iron. Muscle is primarily protein - building more muscle requires more protein. Building muscle requires energy. We all need energy. Muscle requires special substrates to convert the food we eat to energy. The main substrates are the B-Vitamins. Others include Kreb’s cycle intermediates like Co-Q 10. Building muscle requires adequate muscle stimulation - Weights are the obvious mechanism. But how quickly and efficiently a nerve fires off its command to the muscle is more involved. And, how thoroughly the muscle fibers contract and relax in response to the nerve impulse is also more involved. We all know that when we get a good pump in training, our muscles seem to respond better, becoming fuller, larger, and harder. This involves complex biochemical processes driven by specific nutrients.
SPECIAL Supplement Solutions:
Some special supplements are... Beverly Super Pak, Ms. Power Pak and Ultra 4. These provide optimal levels of the micronutrients required for athletic demands and body composition (gaining lean mass and / or losing body fat). Beverly’s Muscle Synergy enhances neuromuscular efficiency, workload capacity and recovery.Beverly’s Glutamine Select Plus BCAAs, Creatine Select Plus Phosphates, GH Factor, and Mass Aminos promote cell volume, rapid nutrient delivery to the muscle cells, increased pump or vascularity - all to stimulate muscle growth.
NO Mr. AVERAGE WANTED!
An average diet does not have the levels of nutrients (and other actives) to optimize results. This is where supplements shine like the Sun! Supplements don’t do the work for you but they help get the job done faster and better. They can make the difference between good and great! An average diet will not create any dramatic change in body composition, whether it’s gaining quality lean mass, losing body fat, or both. In fact, your nutritional plan makes the difference between parking on a launch platform or blasting off to Mars.Reducing carbs and avoiding dairy, can cause some nutritional deficiencies. Frequent meals and increased protein intake are required. Micronutrient support supplements (like Super Pak and Ms. Power Pak) along with meal replacement protein powders (like Ultra Size and Ultimate Muscle Protein) help us to our goals.
The average food pyramid crumbles in the Samsonian wake of our physical demands: According to the USDA food pyramid our daily nutritional needs can be met by eating:
Carbs (breads, cereals, grains, pasta): 6-11 servings - about 1/2 cup each. Vegetables: 3 to 5 servings - about 1/2 cup each. Fruits: 2 to 4 servings - about 1/2 cup, or 4 ounces, each. Dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese): 2 to 3 servings - 1 cup each. Protein (beef, poultry, fish, dry beans, legumes, nuts, eggs): 2 to 3 servings - 2 to 3 ounces each and finally, fats, oils, sugars - sparingly.
OK, so let’s construct this USDA diet into a bodybuilder’s typical 6 meal / day plan:
Meal #1: 1 egg, 2 slices toast, margarine
(sparingly), 1/2 cup orange juice
Meal #2: 1 cup skim milk, 4 ounces fruit
Meal #3: 1 cup beans, 1 cup rice, 1 cup vegetables
Meal #4: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 4 ounces fruit,
Meal #5: 1 ounce chicken and 2 ounces nuts, 1 cup potatoes, 1 cup vegetables
Meal #6: 1 cup yogurt
Meal #2: 1 cup skim milk, 4 ounces fruit
Meal #3: 1 cup beans, 1 cup rice, 1 cup vegetables
Meal #4: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 4 ounces fruit,
Meal #5: 1 ounce chicken and 2 ounces nuts, 1 cup potatoes, 1 cup vegetables
Meal #6: 1 cup yogurt
I don’t know any person who got a competition physique eating like this. And then there’s the nutritional value of food. This is dependent on a number of factors like how it was grown or raised, freshness, storage, processing and cooking.
Produce can take a week to get from the field to the grocer. Once there, it’s stored in the back room until the produce on display is either sold or un-sellable. This often takes up to 3 days. Then it is bought and stays in a refrigerator for...umm..longer than it should.
Now a reality check is that over 1/2 of the volatile nutrients in produce is gone within 2 hours of exposure to air! The Food Pyramid does not take factors like this into consideration.
"If you can’t pick it or shoot it then don’t eat it". That’s Dr. Eric Serrano’s bottom line point. There aren’t many of us who can apply this advice verbatim. Supplements help.
What Supplements do that food can’t!
Muscle is not just about protein quantity, it’s also about how well the body processes protein. Every protein source has a unique amino acid profile. How efficiently that protein is used in the body for maintenance, growth, and repair is determined by the lowest essential amino acid in that food, the "Limiting Factor".The amino acids in excess of that "limiting factor" tend to be used more for energy or stored as fat or glycogen. Not quite what we had in mind for it to do. Utilization of even the highest quality protein sources (meat, dairy, eggs) ranges between 70% to 90%.
Supplements like Ultra 40 and Mass Aminos work together to blow the roof off of the limiting factor permitting you to get more "active" protein from your diet. Growth factors, nucleic compounds, and other active constituents found in Ultra 40 also boost your strength, stamina, energy, and endurance. The medical grade concentration of peptide-bound high-nitrogen protein hydrolysate in Mass Aminos is highly anabolic, acting like Miracle Grow for muscles.
Just imagine being able to get up to 30% more muscle building bonus from the food you’re already eating without adding additional calories: You can grow more on less when you get more from your meals! And, it’s easier to gain or maintain mass while getting or staying lean.
While supplements like Ultra 40 and Mass Aminos optimize protein utilization, others, like Lean Out and Branch Chain Aminos (found in Glutamine Select, Muscle Mass, Muscularity) "feed" muscles directly and encourage the body to burn fat as fuel, without adding extra calories.
Stress, Recovery, Muscle Growth & Fat Loss! Physical stress from training and diet, lifestyle stresses (like burning the candle at both ends) - we all experience it. Stress affects our immune system and recovery, anabolic drive, oxidative damage, cortisol potentiation which wastes muscle and stores fat, reduces insulin sensitivity, thyroid function, and metabolism.
Beverly ZMA, Glutamine Select, Lean Out, Advanced Antioxidant Formula and Muscle Synergy all fight stress, improve recovery, provide anti-catabolic support and boost anabolic drive. Beverly Joint Care reinforces connective tissues and joints to increase muscle mass and training load. Remember to build maximum muscle faster, use wise supplement solutions!
