by Jeff Orr

In an ever-expanding sea of choices, what are the best products out there?

Thumbing through ads in bodybuilding magazines, it’s hard not to notice that so many products have one thing in common — they’re all The Best — which makes it virtually impossible to choose. The ads have certainly become entertaining though, comparing users of their product to wild animals or ancient warriors who always get the girl. But if you give in to the gloss, there’s no doubt when you hand over your hard-earned cash for these proclaimed miracles you’ll be paying a considerable amount for the glitter. And the results you get may be fair at best because, unfortunately, the recent trend for many supplement companies is to trade off real science and superior quality standards for these expensive multi-page ads in an attempt to get attention and bolster profit margins.

So, if the ads can’t help you decide, what then is the best way to choose a product? Actually, choosing a company instead makes things simpler and more sensible too because the products you choose are only as good as the raw materials used, research methods involved, quality controls established and how well they’re formulated. With these four criteria established, choosing a product by selection of a manufacturer can be considerably less frustrating.

The Four Qualities of A Superior Supplement Manufacturer

To put it in perspective, the basic industry standards to look for when deciding on a quality supplement manufacturer and product are:

• Purity and Potency of Ingredients
• Research and Development
• Formula Innovation
• Quality Control

Purity and Potency of Ingredients

The key to any supplement’s efficacy can be found, first of all, in the purity and potency of its ingredients. A lower grade supplement will not only provide fewer results but will not be cost effective either. And the ill-advised habit of taking more of a product to make up for its lower quality may very well have an effect on your health. Certain residual by-products left over from the extraction of herbs and the production of amino acids, although not dangerous if taking recommended dosages of a product, may build up over time if you take too much. It becomes apparent then that it’s crucial to find the highest-grade supplements possible for any workout program you undertake if you intend to make any real progress.

ProSource was founded on this basic principle of product purity and potency and has established a reputation industry-wide of offering only top-of-the-line compounds with validated purities. Years ago, ProSource introduced pure ultra-filtered whey protein isolate to the industry, which has now become the gold standard protein for any serious bodybuilder or fitness enthusiast. Since its inception, the NytroWhey protein line has been recognized as the highest-grade, most potent and amino rich whey isolate available worldwide. In fact, there is no other protein out there that remotely compares to the superior whey isolate found in NytroWhey protein products. And this is why many top pro bodybuilders, even those under contract with other companies, rely on NytroWhey. But ProSource didn’t stop with proteins, they recognized a dire need for a higher level of purity in every aspect of sports supplementation and set out determined to address this problem. An example of this commitment can be found in the 100% pure Degussa Creapure® German pharmaceutical grade creatine monohydrate used in ProSource’s Creatine. Unfortunately, the quality of creatine varies widely from brand to brand, so ProSource simplified your choice by offering the highest purity form, the only one shown to deliver the phenomenal increases in size, strength and power that this super-supplement has become famous for. Many other ProSource supplements get their start from the highest quality sources from around the world, like Italy for Ultra Glutamine or Japan for green tea, among many others. Word of the superior quality of ProSource products has continued to grow over the years, making a phenomenal difference in the lives of countless bodybuilders and athletes. Tremendous customer feedback touting a huge range of gain increases and success stories from use of ProSource products has confirmed that validated product purity and potency is essential to make any substantial progress from your workouts.

Research and Development

Producing products with clinically validated purity levels is one of the primary jobs of the research and development and therefore the level of purity and potency in compounds being offered becomes an indicator of how much intensive research is being done there. This quest for higher-grade compounds was a critical issue in the recent emergence of new natural T-boosting formulas, where a high level of pure and potent extracts became crucial. Several years ago, it became clear among researchers that a much higher-grade extract was needed for any serious testosterone-enhancing efficacy.

Seeing this need, the ProSource R&D department took the problem to task, invested the enormous time and money that other manufacturers refused to do, and developed an extract of Tribulus terrestris with a purity and potency well beyond anything being offered at the time. The result was the revolutionary testosterone booster AndroTest. This scientific wonder became the greatest advancement in natural testosterone enhancement the supplement industry had ever seen, boasting an unprecedented 40% protodioscin level (the most active T-boosting component of the herb). ProSource’s elite R&D team managed this phenomenal feat by developing an intensive extraction process of high-grade Bulgarian Tribulus terrestris involving up to 20 separate extractions — far more than any competing product. Added to this was a powerful extract of the only Tongkat ali (Longjack) standardized for active constituents — LJ-100™, which studies show can increase testosterone levels by 50% and DHEA levels by 47% after just one months usage. The crowning achievement for AndroTest though was its product-specific landmark hospital study. In a randomized, placebo-controlled, double blind clinical study involving 31 healthy males between the ages of 35 and 55, subjects taking AndroTest experienced up to a 275% increase in total testosterone compared to a control group. This verification established AndroTest as the only scientifically and independently validated natural testosterone booster on the market. This was very good news for bodybuilders and athletes, but bad news for all the other supplement companies that have not yet, years later, even come close to a formula to match it.

The PhD’s and others on the R&D team at ProSource were so pleased with there success that they decided to see just how far they could push the T-boosting envelope by taking the existing, super potent AndroTest formula and ramping up its test boosting power even more with AndroTest Extreme. This exceedingly potent androgenic formula uses a specialized fenugreek extract standardized for 50% fenusides trade named Testofen™. Remarkably, this precursor compound has been shown in a human clinical study to increase free testosterone levels by 98.81%, adding even more substantial test boosting to the heretofore-highest potency formula. The AndroTest franchise is now complete with the premier powerhouse formula AndroTest and a professional-grade T-booster, AndroTest Extreme. These scientifically proven testosterone giants are proof that top-notch research and development can make a world of difference.

Formula Innovation

To bridge purity of ingredients with research and development in pursuit of the perfect formula requires unique and creative formula innovation. This aspect of product development is what separates the good from the best and should be kept well in mind when searching for products. There may be no better example of this much-sought-after quality than the innovative development of the SynthaTrex products from ProSource.

The original SynthaTrex gave a whole new meaning to the phrase creatine transport with its highly effective vasodilation and creatine utilization compounds that helped launch a new market of zero-sugar creatine formulas. Before SynthaTrex, most creatine formulas were comprised of massive loads of simple sugar, creatine, flavoring and not much else. SynthaTrex changed the way the industry approached these formulas with a comprehensive, ultra-potent transport matrix to effectively shuttle creatine and support-nutrients quickly into muscle tissue to deliver unheard of anabolic results. But that earth shattering innovation was not enough. The formulators at ProSource upgraded SynthaTrex to SynthaTrex Xtreme, which took creatine transport to an entirely new level with the most highly validated mechanism for packing creatine into muscle tissue — the creatine monohydrate plus high glycemic carbs model. To further add to its insulinogenic response, it was fortified with 4-hydroxyisoleucine and taurine along with potent levels of beta alanine to support increased carnosine production for enhanced muscle endurance. The SynthaTrex duo has clearly set the model for others to emulate.

This standard of progressive innovation is also evident in the ProSource protein line as well. The introduction of cross flow micro-filtered whey isolate in the original NytroWhey was an industry wake up call years ago, setting a standard for protein quality that most companies have not yet come up to. The next advancement in the line, NytroWhey Extreme, pushed that standard a bit higher with an arginine AKG infusion to dramatically increase the uptake of the amino acid-rich CFM whey isolate for incredible anabolic effect. The most recent innovation, NytroWhey Ultra, has surprisingly surpassed both its formers in customer response offering a highly advanced, state-of-the-art rapid-action hydrolyzed whey isolate — the new elite formula in the industry’s most celebrated protein line. These are the types of premier formula innovations that ProSource has become known for and which has helped establish the company as a true industry leader.

Quality Control

The above three qualities would be useless without a high level of quality control in place. The foundation corner stone for any formula, which assures its efficacy, is the legitimate and validated bioactivity of the highest-grade compounds available via strict quality control standards. The bottom line is that a high level of purity must be substantiated through lab-testing to deliver any meaningful results.

This is why ProSource has the most demanding quality control standards in the industry. In fact, every product in the ProSource line is designed in strict accordance with a quality control mandate that is in some ways even more comprehensive than what is seen in the pharmaceutical industry. From the initial exhaustive, worldwide search for the highest-grade compounds to creative and cutting edge formulation of the best products available, ProSource never loses site of this immovable quality control standard.

So, to get back to that burning question — what are the best products out there? Easy answer: the ultra-premium lab-tested products in the ProSource line. As a supplement industry leader since 1996, ProSource has recognized the basic industry tenants listed above and kept them at the same superior level despite rising raw materials prices while many manufacturers have loosened their standards to cut production costs and spend the savings on flashy ads. Steadfast adherence to the four standards has established ProSource as one of the most trusted brands available, helping customers take the guesswork out of purchasing supplements in full confidence — with no phony ads and no compromises.

“But why don’t you guys have expensive 10 page glossy ads with incredible story lines and beautiful babes?” Sorry guys, we opted to take that money and pass the savings on to you, which is one compromise we don’t mind giving in to.

Get a Jump On Your Best Body Ever with These 8 Quick Fat-Loss Tips You Can Use Today

We would love to tell you that shedding unwanted pounds is easier than scoring touchdowns in the Arena Football League. However, if you’ve been studiously and furiously doing your cardio, lifting weights, and eating clean, and not seeing the physical changes you’re hoping for, you already know better.

Well, consider this story your TD — and two-point conversion — in the battle against fat. Here, you’ll find eight simple-to-implement tips and strategies to help you improve your get-lean game plan. It won’t be as easy as playing football in a 50-yard roller rink, sure, but your results may just prompt you to break into an impromptu end-zone celebration anyway.

1) VARY YOUR CARDIO:

Steady-state aerobic sessions — those where you maintain a constant pace throughout your workout — do not burn as much body fat as interval training, in which you fluctuate your pace between slower and near-max efforts. This can be as simple as doing a 15-second all-out sprint every minute during a jog, or can be slightly more complicated, such as the interval programs built into most treadmills, ellipticals and exercise bikes at your health club.

2) KEEP THE FIRE BURNING:

Some cardio options are better than others — at least when it comes to the calorie burn they promote after the workout is over. Yes, you read that correctly: certain forms of aerobic training elevate your metabolism higher and for a extended period of time long after you’ve stopped exercising. Methods to increase your EPOC (i.e. your excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) include doing cardio activities of 60 minutes in duration (versus 40 or less), weight training after your cardio, and using the interval-type training outlined in tip #1.

3) BREAK A SWEAT:

You may be doing cardio, sure … but if you’re not burning appreciable amounts of fat and your diet isn’t the likely culprit, you have to ask the question, Are you exercising hard enough? It seems so clear-cut, but take a look around the cardio room at your local gym and you’ll see plenty of people plodding along, not breathing all that hard and in no need of a towel. The truth is, burning fat and transforming your physique is hard, hard work. Sweat equity is the only viable road to a lean body, so put in the effort and push yourself as hard as you can.

4) BUILD MUSCLE:

The more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories your body burns, even at rest. So an effective weight-training program is key. And by “effective,” we mean this: Don’t follow misguided advice to up your repetitions to 15-20 or more per set in some convoluted effort to turn your lifting sessions into wildly inefficient cardio workouts. Instead, stick with the heavier-weight, 6-12 rep sets that are best for prompting muscular growth.

5) DIVIDE AND CONQUER:

How many meals are you eating per day? If it’s four or less, try this: Take the same amount of food and divide it over 6-8 meals, spaced two-and-a-half to three hours apart. (Make sure you include 20-30 grams of protein minimum with each meal.) This helps keep you fueled while lessening the chances that excess calories taken in will be stored as body fat.

6) INCREASE YOUR PROTEIN:

A recent study out of University College London found that Peptide YY, a hormone that travels to the brain from the gastrointestinal system to indicate satiety, increased in those who ate a high protein meal (65% protein), versus high-carb and high-fat meals. In basic terms, the high-protein meals led to a significant decrease in hunger pangs — and obviously, the less hungry you are, the less excess food you’ll eat. Not only does protein keep you feeling fuller longer than carbohydrates or fat, as the study suggests, it takes more overall energy for your body to digest, meaning it prompts calorie burning. Perhaps most notably, protein is the critical nutrient in ensuring you can successfully build muscle, which is important, as you learned in Tip #4.

7) QUICK TRICKS:

On their own, none of the following will make a monumental difference, but if you want to leave no detail to chance, try cold water (one study found that drinking two cups between meals raised resting metabolic rate by around 30% for over 60 minutes), add chili peppers to spice up meals (the capsaicin in chilis has fat-burning properties), and drink plenty of sugar-free green tea throughout the day (as green tea contains EGCG, which has been shown to have thermogenic effects).

SUPPLEMENT SMART:

When trying to shed pounds and get ripped, a host of powerful supps can help. The fundamentals include a caffeine/green tea formula, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), citrulline malate, konjac glucomannan, 7-keto DHEA, pure South African Hoodia gordonii, yohimbine, glutamine, and protein powders and bars to augment a clean diet.

Ready to get back to the basics of growing? Here’s a simple workout regimen that only requires an adjustable bench, barbell and plates, perfect for home or the gym.

On a quick lap around the typical health club, you’ll likely pass a lot of shiny, complicated equipment - cables that adjust to every conceivable angle, multifunctional apparatus with space age levers and handles, and stations for each and every muscle group. Impressive, maybe, but here’s the truth: You don’t need any of it to build a great physique.

This program (which can be done at home or that aforementioned club) centers around the bare-bones basics you need to craft a strong, muscular body. If you’re just starting out and want to keep your cash outlay to a minimum, here’s the good news: All that’s required is an adjustable bench, a barbell with a set of locking safety collars, and a selection of weight plates. That’s it - no high-tech machines necessary.

With the major body parts broken over a four-day split, you can either train four days per week, resting the other three, or get more aggressive, starting over at workout #1 before the week’s up and only taking one or two rest days per seven. Below, we break down the four training days for you, and offer instruction on the more esoteric exercises.

Good Morning: Clean a moderately light barbell up from the floor and over your head so it rests across your shoulders, as if you were about to squat. Keeping your lumbar region tight and in its natural curve, bend at the hips to lower your upper body to a point where it forms a 90-degree angle with your legs (or as close as you can without rounding your lower back), then return to a standing position. Avoid the tendency to look up - your head should remain in line with your spine at all times.

Wide-Grip Push-Up: This is the same as a standard push-up, except place your hands outside of shoulder width, your elbows out and away from your body.

Hack Squat: Place a loaded barbell on the floor behind your ankles. Bend at your knees and hips to lower yourself, grasp the barbell with an overhand or mixed grip, and drive through your heels, engaging your thighs to get to a standing position. Then lower the bar to the floor and repeat. Your back should be tight and straight throughout the exercise.

Walking Lunge: Standing upright, hold a plate in each hand, or clean a loaded barbell up and over your head to your upper back. Step forward with your left foot and descend into a lunge - at the bottom, your left knee will be at a 90-degree angle, your right leg will be straight and out behind you. Now extend your front knee and come back to a standing position before stepping forward with your right leg. One step with each leg equals one rep.

Standing and Seated Calf Raise: For standing raises, grasp a barbell and hold it at your thighs as you step onto a raised object such as a block, your heels hanging off the edge. For the seated version, place the block next to the bench and put a loaded barbell across your lap (or you can place weight plates on your lap) for resistance.

By John Davies

By definition, to isolate is to set something apart, detach it from others or other environments.

Within the exercise world, the notion of “isolation” is for the most part the norm in virtually every avenue. Exercise facilities are designed in carefully laid out plans with machinery that focuses on certain isolated muscle groups, in essence leading the user from “station to station” so that they can “workout” in an orderly assembly-line like fashion. Typically to the side there is a “cardio” area with treadmills, elliptical, rowers and stair-climbers and a much smaller area for general floor exercises. Depending upon clientele and size limitations, a club might further offer a separate room that houses fitness, yoga and any assortment of this year’s (decade’s) top exercise class. With this well laid out plan, individuals will enter the facility and proceed through their workout in an orderly and predictable manner ensuring each aspect of their body’s development “in isolation” (whether intentional or not). The expanding home gym environment is much the same with cleverly engineered exercise equipment that features multiple stations so that you can; you guessed it, isolate your muscular development.

At this stage of an article on fat loss I would typically mention to the reader that given that the world’s obesity is growing at alarming rates and health care costs associated with this problem are devastating government and corporate budgets, action is needed. Since this problem has come at the same time as the “exercise revolution,” isn’t it abundantly obvious and quite logical that one of the greatest obstacles to improving “health and fitness” is the health and fitness industry itself? Simply stated, what is being “done” and recommended is far from what is needed.

As you consider this peculiar problem, you will begin to realize that part of the weight management problem stems from the fact that physiologically nothing occurs in an “isolated” fashion is the body. In fact, I would go as far as to say that somehow the modern exercise industry somehow derailed itself, took isolationist work out of context and forgot the synergistic effect of a properly laid-out plan that will have a greater effect than individual sections ( “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”). I should also point out it is not the chief culprit in creating the enormous problem but part of a series of pratfalls that has complicated the issue and without serious changes it will be irreversible.

How and why the “isolationist” approach came into fashion is anyone’s guess. However it relates heavily to our topic of fat loss. While the rationale may be very well steeped in the development of the fitness industry, the elimination of the “small” independent gym and the gradual movement towards (expensive) exercise machinery, the acceptance of this broad training model (isolation) is deeply entrenched in society and any dissenting voice is far outside the norm.

Yet this is where it gets interesting. Through somewhat of a grassroots program, you’ve seen the public, likely without considering it, move towards a broader notion of “exercise” and begin to return to protocols which stress “harmony”. Whether it be “boot-camp fitness” classes that merge fitness and strength training through compounding lifts and non-conforming objects in a high intensity setting or even a Pilates^TM or Yoga class, there is a growing segment of the public that is starting to implicitly realize that as you abandon notions of strict isolationist work in a stabilized manner, health and fitness can be attained in a fun, addictive and engaging manner. I’ve even seen this emerge through my writing career. When I first started to discuss the classic Olympic lifts and training complexes they were virtually unseen and now are rather common-place throughout the field. This trend will continue to grow as it spreads to the major gym chains and gains notoriety in the major fitness magazines as well. Slowly small sections of the public are starting to see that the lessons of the past will solve the problems of today.

With this in mind I want to approach our fat-loss regime using the firm backdrop of promoting health, fitness and total body wellness / internal strength with a regime that will utilize movements to promote total body harmony. The route to promoting fat loss is in essence the optimizing of hormonal conditions, primarily dealing with growth hormone, thyroxine and cortisol. For a weight management program to be truly successful it must address these facts and approach the issue with a three-pronged attack in the following areas:

By Terry Goodlad

On a typical sun-drenched Phoenix, Arizona morning, IFBB Pro Bodybuilder Troy Alves eases his silver Lincoln LS into the parking lot of Fitness One for his daily appointment with the iron. He’s there to train, and when he does he’s all business, but before that gets underway there are more pressing matters to tend to.

This is the stuff that Troy feels is as important to his success in bodybuilding and life as training, and he takes this time very seriously. It’s the people, and today there are no shortage of them. They stop what they are doing to pay their respects to the man whose caring and kindness stand in sharp counterpoint to the stereotypes many people have about men with muscles. Tony doesn’t rush them along. This is just part of his day and he gives them his complete attention, making each of them feel just as important as they make him feel.

Some people see bodybuilding and business as metaphorical shark pools with everyone straining for the top in a rabid feeding frenzy. The accepted war cry is every man for himself as helpful hands get trampled, and people are cast aside like spent cartridges on the battlefield for personal riches and glory. Caring about someone or something else is just unnecessary baggage unless the appearance of doing so ensures a bigger slice of pie. They use the sport for everything they can get out of it with little personal investment other than just being there, with no concern for others or what is left for the next generation.

Troy Alves takes a different philosophical approach to his business and the sport. Troy, like any other pro bodybuilder, still trains and diets hard in preparation for contests; but his conquest is over himself, his limitations, and the standard by which he is judged, and no one else. The people he gathers along the way become fuel, inspiration, and support and once they are at his side, his loyalty to them is as strong and steadfast as theirs is for him. Although the nature of bodybuilding requires that an athlete be very narrowly focused on self to be successful, Troy also sees the bigger picture and knows that without fans and supporters the sport doesn’t exist and neither does his purpose for being a part of it.

This old school sense of purpose, respect, and values comes from his upbringing. He was raised by a very loving mother and a father who taught him the principles of hard work, honesty, and living honorably. It also comes from a solid family life with his wife Tara and his daughter Devine who support him every step of the way and keep him on track. When you really look at it, Troy’s philosophy derives not from being soft or living with outdated principles, but from a smart business sense. People don’t cheer on a bunch of posing suits, they cheer on personalities. Personalities that they enjoy, admire, and sometimes want to be like. Those same people buy tickets to contests, T-shirts, supplements, training videos, even magazines to support and in some way be a part of this athlete they admire.

If what you leave in your wake is admirable, then people say admirable things. When you are their role model, they learn from you, then pass it on, shaping the future. They even say good things to people that are not familiar with our sport, and after hearing great things, they may become interested. That’s how the sport grows, and that is what Troy sees as his ultimate purpose in bodybuilding. Once athletes become visible in bodybuilding, they get noticed and the public will judge the sport by the people in it. Competing and improving to be the best he can be will always be a big part of what Troy does. After all, the higher up the mountain you are, the further your voice can carry and the more visible you become. That’s why Troy trains hard to improve and place as high as he can. Sure there are financial rewards and prestige along the way, but Troy sees so much more. The more fans there are and the more people interested in the sport, the more everyone eventually benefits.

If you are lucky enough to know Troy then you know he is truly one of the nicest guys in the sport. He is also a fierce competitor and after struggling to earn his pro card, he slammed into the pro ranks with a shock wave that was felt all the way to the Olympia stage in 2003 where he cracked the top ten by finishing 8th in his rookie year. Never once did he publicly or privately disrespect any of his competitors and he is the first to recognize and acknowledge those that inspired him. He bought a picture of Shawn Ray years ago when he first started bodybuilding, and hung it on his fridge for inspiration. He also admired Flex Wheeler back then so it was a symbolic reward for his determination at his first IFBB professional contest, the 2003 Ironman Pro, to be called out in the first round during pre-judging and compared with both Flex Wheeler and Jay Cutler. He also secured a Weider contract, and did it all by being a great athlete, and a nice guy.

Troy believes that gossip and trash talk may be juicy entertainment but it does little to improve the image of the sport, the athletes in it, or make people on the outside compelled to take an interested look at bodybuilding,

“If all we read is negative press about bodybuilding and the usual Jerry Springer type garbage then what would compel someone to encourage their kids to be a bodybuilder?”

At a time when most of our athletes struggle in obscurity outside of the bodybuilding family, Troy’s image and business philosophies seem like the wiser strategies to pursue in the long term.
Off the stage and out of the gym, Troy is truly a very active ambassador for bodybuilding. Although few in the sport are aware because he doesn’t make it a point to tell anyone, he has been involved heavily in charities and social programs for over ten years in his home town of Phoenix. He has lived there since he was 9 years old and it’s where he became successful. Now he wants to help others better themselves. Three or four times a year he attends NFL Players Association charity events to give away autographed pictures to kids, talk to them about what is happening in their lives, and use the time to encourage them to be the best they can be. He also frequently attends a juvenile corrections facility in the Phoenix area to spend time with the kids there and inspire them to turn their lives around. Then there are celebrity bowling events, charity speaking engagements, fund raising, gift giving and free autographs at Christmas. In fact the list of local charities he is involved with and the number of events he volunteers his time for are simply too extensive to list. Whenever he has time, charity work in his community is number one after his family and bodybuilding.

The result is that a lot of kids and adults in Phoenix are learning that there is much more to bodybuilding than just big muscles. There is character-building hard work, discipline, goal setting, and sportsmanship; and from those things come great rewards. “Many of these kids don’t have a positive role model growing up,” Troy say, “so I want to be that for them.”
Just being himself, Troy is destroying negative stereotypes and assumptions about bodybuilders that often stand in the way of outside businesses getting involved in the sport.

His ideals may never completely catch on; but then again, they may. After all, it’s smart business and there are a lot of smart and decent athletes in the sport. Regardless, Troy Alves has chosen his path and will continue to do what he feels is the right and responsible thing to do, and in doing so he is not just a great athlete, he is also a great man.

Troy loves the sport and feels a personal responsibility to ensure it is bigger and better when he leaves it, just as the great bodybuilders from the past struggled to leave a legacy for Troy’s generation. He also feels that he has the ability to impact people’s lives in a positive way and that, quite simply, it feels good when he does that. Troy is an exceptional bodybuilder and will leave an indelible footprint on the sport long before his time here is done. He will do it by working hard in the gym and being the gifted bodybuilder he is. He will also do it by giving of himself, accepting that he is a role model, and taking that opportunity to actively be a positive one. Or as the people he has met have aptly put it, by just by being a nice guy.

*Photos by flexonline.com

It’s the most prominent “open secret” in professional sports. Anyone who watches pro sports or participates in sports at the college or advanced prep-school level can see the signs everywhere. Certainly, it’s no secret among the pro athletes themselves.

Across the board, in every sport, athletes are bigger, faster, stronger than they were 20, even 10 years ago. They have greater endurance. Their careers last longer. Athletes who retired in the 1980’s can only look on in bewilderment as the performance benchmarks they established in their primes are blown away by a new generation of “super athletes.” Shortstops and second basemen hit tape-measure home runs. Two-hundred-eighty-pound defensive linemen run 40-yard dashes in 4.4 seconds. Careers are extended to the point where the all-time baseball record book has been completely rewritten from top to bottom in the last decade.

What’s it all about? In three words:
performance enhancing drugs.

When we speak of performance enhancers, we’re talking mostly about steroids and human growth hormone. In the last couple of years, methods for detecting steroids have grown much more sophisticated. These roadblocks have made it more difficult and potentially costly career-wise for athletes to engage in steroid use. But in another area, that of human growth hormone enhancement, the blood testing protocols are in their infancy and barely exist at all. And so players, because the competition is so incredibly fierce at the pro level, take advantage of the existing technologies.

We’ll take a look at some of those technologies, both exogenous growth hormone therapy (injections) and secretagogues (supplemental methods of boosting one’s own GH secretion), including ProSource’s own best-selling product in that second category, DopaTech-HGH. But first, let’s take a look at the science.

Your body’s master hormone for support of youthfulness, vitality, strength, and elevated physical performance
Growth hormone, produced by the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland, is a powerful factor that promotes cellular growth and suppresses cell death, while increasing protein synthesis, plasma glucose, and calcium levels. As such, it is closely associated with the key processes that form the foundations of youthful strength, vitality, and rejuvenation. When we’re very young, we produce growth hormone in abundance. But GH secretion declines after age 20, and drops off steeply as we age, until it flat-lines after age 60 or so. As GH production ebbs, the symptoms of aging (decreased vigor, reduced endurance, diminished capacity for cellular repair and recovery after exercise) advance. Clearly, you don’t have to be a scientist to recognize that GH plays a major role in athletic performance, over both the short- and long-term.

While there really is no dispute in scientific circles about the many physical benefits that spring from abundant bodily levels of growth hormone, there is some difference of opinion about the best way to go about attaining and maintaining those levels of GH.

Most experts who have studied or administered growth hormone therapy (that is, growth hormone enhancement via a series of injections) agree that the positive benefits of such a regimen have a short duration. Dr. Carlon Colker, a bodybuilding and physical therapy consultant who has spent decades observing the effects of growth hormone on professional bodybuilders, says that, in his experience, “In order to gain any real strength or size advantage, you’d have to take the shots daily over a lifetime. That’s more than anybody is really willing to do.”

Add to this the fact that exogenous growth hormone therapy is very expensive (often $1,000 a month or more for injections), and that it artificially introduces more hormones into the body which may, in turn, disturb the body’s own homeostasis for hormone production, and it becomes evident that a regimen of growth hormone injections has significant drawbacks. Fortunately, other strategies for growth hormone augmentation exist.

Macuna Pruriens, L-Dopa, and Growth Hormone
While one branch of science has pursued GH maximization through the introduction of artificial hormones, another has been dedicated to the augmentation of the body’s own GH secretion through the utilization of naturally occurring precursors. Central to this second strategy is a potent naturally occurring compound called L-dopa or Levodopa (3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine), found in plants such as Macuna pruriens (or Velvet bean). L-dopa has been studied in both traditional Indian Ayurvedic as well as modern western medical systems for a variety of therapies. As a result of this research, it was discovered that L-dopa influences growth hormone (GH) output in humans during various clinical studies.

At least four studies discuss L-dopa stimulating growth hormone in humans. One study found that just a 500 mg oral dose “…caused a significant increase in…plasma GH levels in normal subjects”(1). The three other studies all indicated L-dopa induced increases in GH levels to varying degrees (2, 3, 4).

Many people are surprised to discover the significant volume of published research that documents effective supplemental means of supporting GH production. In another recent clinical study, a unique botanical extract of Macuna pruriens, standardized for 15% L-dopa was linked to elevation of GH levels from one nanogram to 21 nanograms in just 90 minutes. Another study showed that Macuna pruriens exerts powerful antioxidant effects, specifically that it has an anti-lipid peroxidation property, which is mediated through the removal of superoxides and hydroxyl radicals. Increased L-dopa supplementation, the cornerstone of secretagogue technology, can also be beneficial in stimulating muscle growth through amino acid sparing and promotion of amino acid transport into muscle cells.

Obviously, these are all beneficial physical outcomes for high-level professional and amateur athletes. At the same time, natural (or secretagogue) methods of boosting GH production have a pronounced additional advantage in that they are entirely legal and do not subject athletes to the risk of being penalized or banned by the administrative agencies of their sports.

Choosing a GH support supplement
Not surprisingly, the GH support supplements on the market today vary greatly in quality and efficacy. When choosing a product in this category, you want to look for one that contains the highest-quality ingredients, most specifically a potent extract of Macuna pruriens, typically standardized for the same 15% L-dopa cited in the studies above. One such product, ProSource’s own DopaTech-HGH, contains exactly such a dose, standardized to provide 300 mg of this powerful neurotransmitter.

In direct response to the media frenzy centered around performance enhancing drugs in pro sports, we’ve seen a great escalation of interest in secretagogues generally, and in DopaTech-HGH specifically. As orders for it have increased, we’ve been getting a significant amount of positive feedback regarding Dopa-Tech’s efficacy and the results it delivers. As a consequence, DopaTech-HGH has one of the highest reorder rates for any product of its kind.

Clearly, the science of GH support and maximization is here to stay, regardless of the current media controversy. In fact, ridiculous media demonization aside, GH research is a critical branch of scientific inquiry devoted to the betterment of human life. Whatever supplemental means you might be considering in order to keep pace with athletes who are utilizing GH enhancements, a basic knowledge of GH science is a must.

By Anssi Manninen

Nutrient partitioning is the term used to describe how macronutrients are shuttled to the cells; your body will either send the nutrients to muscle cells or to fat cells. Certain drugs and supplements have favourable nutrient partitioning effects, ie., they promote fat loss while maintaining or even increasing lean body mass. The most popular nutrient partitioning agents among gym rats are clenbuterol and the ephedrine-caffeine stack; however, these products cannot be purchased legally for body composition enhancement purposes in US. Fortunately, there is a legal and safe supplement, which has proven nutrient partitioning effects, namely ForsLean.

Landmark ForsLean Study
A recent randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study at the University of Kansas examined the effect of ForsLean on body composition, testosterone and metabolic rate in overweight and obese men [1]. Of the 30 individuals recruited, 15 were randomly assigned to receive ForsLean, whereas the other 15 subjects were assigned a placebo. Subjects were assessed for physiological changes a total of three times (pre, mid, post) during a 12-week trial period.

Although there were no significant differences across time or among groups for daily caloric intake or resting metabolic rate, forskolin promoted favorable changes in body composition. Specifically, the ForsLean group lost 4.52 ± 5.74 kilorams of fat mass while concurrently gaining 3.71 ± 4.07 kg of lean body mass. The placebo group lost 0.51 ± 1.91 kilograms of fat mass and gained 1.57 ± 2.56 kilograms of lean body mass.

Thus, the subjects of the Forslean group sent more of their incoming nutrients to muscle tissue, while the subjects receiving a placebo sent more of the incoming nutrients to fat tissue. In other words, ForsLean acted as an nutrient partitioning agent. The reduction in fat mass in the ForsLean group was attributed by the authors to ForsLean’s ability to directly activate adenylate cyclase within fat tissue, resulting in a greater release of free fatty acids.

The majority of fat loss supplements work through adrenergic receptor activation, but adrenergic receptor activation can down-regulate over time, resulting in diminished fat burning effects. However, ForsLean bypasses the adrenergic activation step and increases cAMP levels by either stimulating adenylate cyclase or by increasing the cAMP accumulating properties of catecholamines (e.g., noradrenaline). Thus, ForsLean can be used for LONG periods of time without diminished fat burning effects.

In addition, ForsLean significantly boosted testosterone levels. In fact, testosterone increased 16.77 ± 33.77% in the ForsLean group compared with a decrease of 1.08 ± 18.35% in the placebo group. Any gym rat or athlete knows how crucial testorone is for muscle growth.

Finally, this study demonstrated that ForsLean has no adverse effects on blood pressure; within both groups, a trend toward a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure (the top number is the blood pressure reading) was shown.

Once you know the benefits of ForsLean, the paramount question becomes one of determining which supplemental source to add to your regimen. ProSource produces the highest quality ForsLean product in a serving amount EQUAL to that used in the above mentioned study. Just ingest two capsules of ProSource Forslean and you get exactly the same amount the active ingredient than the study subjects. And since this is a ProSource product you can be assured that each production batch is stringently lab-tested, from raw materials to the finished product for purity, potency and bioavailability.

References

1. Godard MP et al. Body composition and hormonal adaptations associated with forskolin consumption in overweight and obese men. Obes Res. 2005 Aug;13(8):1335-43.

About the Author
Anssi Manninen holds an M.H.S. in sports medicine from the University of Kuopio Medical School. His cutting-edge articles in Muscular Development firmly established him as a leading authority on hardcore sports nutrition. Anssi´s articles have also been published in scientific journals, including The British Journal of Sports Medicine, The Journal of International Society of Sports Nutrition, Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, Nutrition & Metabolism and Journal of Sports Science and Medicine

By Mike Berg

Sometimes, if you’re after maximum muscle mass, one exercise just isn’t enough. Here’s how to combine two, three, even four movements into one hellacious and effective set.

In the 1987 movie “Wall Street,” corporate raider Gordon Gekko famously proclaimed, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”

Of course, he turned out to be the so-called bad guy in that film, and in many instances it could be argued that more is not necessarily better. Greed, however, in the gym, does have a place. After all, why do only one exercise, when you can pair two together? Or how about three? Four?

It’s not recommended all the time, but combining two or more exercises into one mega-set can pay off in a big way as far as muscle growth. Use the tactic too much, and your body will go bust from overtraining, but knowing when to get a little greedy can be, to paraphrase Michael Douglas in his Oscar-winning turn, a very good thing.

TWO FOR THE MONEY

In a standard set of an exercise, you choose a challenging resistance (i.e. weight) and aim for a particular number of repetitions or a range of reps. Then you stop, rest for 30-90 seconds (closer to the former if you’re doing lighter weight and high reps, and toward the latter if you’re working at near-maximal poundages), and do it again. For instance, you select 140 pounds on the leg extension machine, do 12 reps, then stop and rest.

The concept of a superset is simply to take two of those standard sets, for two different exercises, and put them together. Thus, in our example, instead of stopping to rest after 12 reps of extensions, you immediately jump on, say, a lying leg curl machine, and perform 12 reps. Then you rest the same amount of time as you would if you were only doing one set, and perform the sequence again.

What’s the point? Whenever you can squeeze more workload into a shorter period of time, you’re increasing the intensity of your training, which propels growth processes in your body. In the case of the extension (which hits your quadriceps) and the curl (which targets hamstrings), you’re also taking advantage of the efficiencies of working two opposing muscle groups. In this type of superset, you work antagonistic muscle pairings, pumping more overall blood into that area (which brings nutrients and carries away waste products) and takes advantage of their synergistic nature.

Of course, supersets can also consist of two exercises that attack the same muscle group, basically taking a two-barreled aim at the target. (This style is sometimes referred to as a compound set, although in the accepted gym vernacular today supersets can refer interchangeably to both versions.) There are a few different ways you can effectively home in on one muscle group with supersets — using “Standard,” “Pre-Exhaust” or “Leverage” approaches, all of which we get into a bit later in this article.

LAGS TO RICHES

The benefits of pairing exercises are not limited to two. You can also experiment with tri-sets, which are three exercises done back-to-back-to-back with no rest in between. And, for those who want to go even further, there are giant sets, which are simply four (or more) moves assembled together into a string.

Whichever you choose, the training techniques are designed to help thoroughly exhaust a muscle group, helping ensure no individual muscle fiber goes untouched during your workout. Think back to your last training session to envision how this can benefit you. If you were training chest, maybe you did five sets of bench presses, pyramiding up in weight set-to-set, working in a 6-10 rep range, stopping about 60 seconds between each to catch your breath. You may have followed that up with five pyramided sets of incline presses, and finished up with dumbbell flyes and a few final sets of cable crossovers.

Now, that’s not a bad workout, all in all. But think of all that time between sets you spent resting, allowing your pectorals to recover — even if you took a number of sets to momentary failure, the most your muscles were ever put through in any one set was 10 reps. Imagine going back and, this time, pairing your incline presses with dumbbell flyes, and your bench presses with crossovers. Essentially, your total rest would have been cut in half, causing your muscles to undertake more work in a shorter period of time. And, best yet, you didn’t drastically cut the weights you used for each exercise, as you would have to if you instead increased your bench press reps from 6-10 to 15-20 per set. More volume in less time with an overall heavy workload — that’s improved intensity, and especially valuable for a lagging body part.

Whether you go two, three, four or more, you can choose the “Standard” option (simply picking two exercises that hit the muscle in the same way); the “Pre-Exhaust” method (using an isolation exercise for the first move while the second is a heavier compound move); or the “Leverage” technique (moving from an exercise that puts you in a weaker position to one that puts you in a stronger position, thus allowing you to continue repping longer overall). Here’s more on each:

Standard: As mentioned, a “standard” superset, tri-set or giant set simply pairs two-to-four exercises that hit one body part. For example, pairing a lying French press for triceps with a cable pressdown, or a standing calf raise with a seated calf raise. It’s brutally simple, yet brutally effective.

Pre-Exhaust: The pre-exhaust technique has been around gyms for decades, and with good reason — it works. The theory is this: When you do a compound move (such as a seated barbell press), your triceps, being a smaller muscle group, will likely fatigue before your stronger deltoid muscles, thus causing you to end the set prematurely. However, if you do a movement that isolates the target muscle first, such as standing dumbbell lateral raises in this instance, when you do the compound move after, it’s more likely your “pre-fatigued” delts will give out before your tri’s do. This technique is meant for larger muscle groups, and not smaller ones such as biceps, triceps, forearms, calves and abs.

Leverage: This technique takes a bit more forethought, but it can really help extend your muscles beyond what they’re used to. In this sequence, you move from an exercise that puts you in a weaker biomechanical position to one that puts you in a slightly stronger one, like a martial artist dropping his center of gravity to throw an opponent or a baseball power hitter shifting his weight on a swing. Here’s an illustration: Start a shoulders tri-set with seated dumbbell presses; then, when you reach failure, stand up, which allows you to use a slight knee bounce to get the weights up, and continue repping. A common pattern for “Leverage” would go from a dumbbell exercise, which calls on a lot of stabilizer muscles, to a barbell, which puts you at a slightly better biomechanical position because a weaker-side muscle can help a stronger side, and finally to a machine, which takes most assisting muscles out of the equation.

For more examples that cover every body part, see our “Sample Pairings Chart” below. But keep this final caveat in mind — Mr. Gekko may not have agreed with this, but too much of a good thing is, in fact, counterproductive. Instead, like all training techniques that drastically increase your workout intensity, you want to use this one judiciously, and not in every single workout. With that said, feel free to cash in on everything supersets, tri-sets and giant sets have to offer.

SAMPLE PAIRINGS CHART

Looking for a way to include supersets, tri-sets or giant sets in your own training? Here are a few options to get you started.

                                Superset                                                Tri-Set                                   Giant Set

BACK                     Pre-Exhaust:                           Leverage:                                Standard:

                                Straight-Arm Pulldown           Pull-Up                                   T-Bar Row

                                Bent-Over Barbell Row          Assisted Pull-Up                    Smith-Machine Bent-Over Row

                                                                                Wide-Grip Pulldown              Seated Cable Row

                                                                                                                One-Arm Dumbbell Row

CHEST                   Standard:                                Pre-Exhaust:                           Leverage:

                                Incline Barbell Press               Flat-Bench Dumbbell Flye     Incline Dumbbell Press

                                Incline Dumbbell Flye            Cable Crossover                      Incline Barbell Press

                                                                                Smith-Machine Bench Press   Flat-Bench Barbell Press

                                                                                                                                Decline Smith-Machine Press

SHOULDERS         Leverage:                                Standard:                                Pre-Exhaust:

                                Bent-Over Lateral Raise         Upright Row                           Cable Lateral Raise

                                Reverse Pec-Deck Flye           Seated Dumbbell Press           Bent-Over Cable Lateral Raise

                                                                                Seated Lateral Raise                Barbell Front Raise

                                                                                                                                Seated Machine Press

THIGHS                 Pre-Exhaust:                           Leverage:                                Standard:

                                Leg Extension                          Barbell Squat                           Barbell Squat

                                Smith-Machine Squat             Hack Squat                              Romanian Deadlift

                                                                                Leg Press                                 Horizontal Machine Squat

Dumbbell Walking Lunge

TRICEPS                Standard:                                Leverage:                                Standard:               

                                Parallel-Bar Dip                      Seated EZ-Bar Extension        Close-Grip Bench Press

                                Rope Pressdown                     Standing EZ-Bar Extension     Flat-Bench EZ-Bar French Press

                                                                                Cable Pressdown                    Overhead Cable Extension

                                                                                                                                Dual-Arm Dumbbell Kickback

BICEPS                   Standard:                                Leverage:                                Standard: