Well, don't feel bad.

They run counter to what my knowledge base had been for over 20 years, and I'm a scientist by education. I thought I was just one of those people who was going to be in good "shape" but not look it, and that it was just the way I was made, because I was doing all the stuff the trainers told me to do.

Now that Im starting to understand what's REALLY going on with my body, I'm getting somewhere.

It's really hard with trainers all over the place still handing out the same bad advise, though. I got sent down the garden path for too long. I did cardio until I was sick and injured, and I NEVER got the results I was supposed to.

It DOES work for some. But for lots of us, it turns us into fat/fit people.

Now that I understand more about how to naturally manipulate my own endogenous steroids, I'm getting somewhere.

Edited to add: try peer-reviewed journal articles, rather than books.

also, pubmed is and endless source of info.

Okay, this is a really long thread. It's time for a joke:

On the first day of college, the Dean addressed the students, pointing out some of the rules:
"The female dormitory will be out-of-bounds for all male students, and the male dormitory will be off-limits for the female students. Anybody caught breaking this rule will be fined $20 the first time."

He continued, "Anybody caught breaking this rule the second time will be fined $60. Being caught a third time will incur a hefty fine of $180. Are there any questions?"

At this point, a male student in the crowd inquired, "How much for a season pass?"

J.

Always remember to laugh really hard, at least once a day!

Hey,

I read an interesting article today on the differences between Hypertrophy-training and Strength-training. The hypertrophy-training part discussed many of the references and comments that you make, Built. The strength-training part discussed many of the references and comments that I would typically make.

In the past, I would have thought that hypertrophy-training and strength-training were very much the same. I am beginning to see how very different they are.

J.

Yeppers, they're different.

There are some TINY little girls who can clean and jerk RIDICULOUS amounts of weight.

You DO get some size from training for strength, and you DO get a lot of strength from training for hypertrophy, but there are distinct differences between the two. You can TOTALLY take advantage of these for body shaping.

You know,

It's been a very interesting afternoon and evening; and I have you, Built, to thank for it! You piqued my interest in finding out more about it.

I now I know that there many more ways to go about reshaping the body and they don't have to be about physical-fitness training.

Your comments about creating an inefficient bodily metabolism, and how it can be particularly useful for women has also led me to some newer understandings. Until now, I've always trained toward efficiency.

Cortisol sounds like a great marker. My reading about it also may explain why some people may get injured more often and may become more sickly when doing certain physical activity. It also may explain why some people, myself included, experience better health, get injured less, and become less sickly when engaging in the same activity in a different way.

I don't know if I will ever change over to your camp or not; but it is great to have a better understanding of it. Who knows, I might even order Rob's book.....

J.

Basically, I'm a strong believer in "if it ain't broke, you don't fix it". If the cardio route had worked for me, I'm sure I'd have stuck to it. EveryBODY seems to have a different tolerance for it.

But women are hard gainers who put on fat easily. It's in our hormones. For many of us, we build like hard-gainer guys, and we gain fat like endomorph guys, except it's distributed differently. So reshaping our bodies takes a LOT more strategy - and it's often a case of working SMARTER, not MORE. To complicate matters, we have less testosterone to begin with - the very thing that will help us shed "feminine fat" - thighs and bottom fatty deposits. The more testosterone we can stimulate, the better able we are to shed these pockets. And the things that really work are NOT obvious - for most of us, it's only been trial and error that has lead us to figuring this out.

Cheers bud.

- Built

Wow, Kristy Larsen looks amazing. This is great motivation.

i do an OLY lifting type of program and in my bulk i saw not only great strength gains but also some really nice size. it was a great break from the BB'ing routines... and i think i'm going to keep at it. compound exercises for me!

Hey Scientist Built:

Hope you don't mind, but I have a question for you...

In my look into Cortisol, I have learned a lot. And please correct me if I am wrong.

Cortisol literally converts muscle tissue to proteins for conversion into glucose. This is your body’s way of producing energy when all readily available energy (glucose) and stored forms (glycogen) of energy have been expended.~ To compensate for this depletion of energy your body will go into a process called gluconeogenesis to produce glucose from amino acids in the liver. The end result of this process? Hard earned muscle used as energy, and all potential gains becoming null and void.

Basically, I understand that Cortisol is triggered when the body runs out of glycogen and experiences stress. But what if the body doesn't go anaerobic, thus keeping a supply of glycogen, even after the end of the event?

I understand the importance of keeping distance running down to an hour or less (depending on your cardiovascular fitness level), because Cortisol release seems imminent for most people and definitely imminent for almost all runners after 3 hours.

I also understand that well-trained century riders can go 3 hours or more, without the risk of a Cortisol release.

But for shorter workouts, if the body doesn't go anaerobic, thus keeping a supply of glycogen, isn't a Cortisol response avoided?

Thanks,

Jeff

LCJ, as I understand it, you are correct.

However, as I understand it, without intense activity (anaerobic), you don't get an anabolic response, so you get no stimulation for muscle repair and growth. This means your metabolic rate is not increased after the low-level cardio, whereas it is after heavy lifting. So you'll burn a little bit of calories (hopefully, fat) but it won't continue after you're finished.

Oh, and the "scientist" part - my background is in Statistics and Operations Research. This means I'm good at picking apart and setting up research methodology, and using scientific principals in non-conventional settings. I'm not a biochemist. I just sift throught a LOT of information.

I'd love to study it more, though. I think I may try to pick up some endocrinology in one of my future lives.

Since the key is to train in the anaerobic zone without depleting glycogen, for maximum benefit; which is much harder to do with cardio, and much easier to do with lifting; lifting makes an easier choice for many people.

I also read that even with lifting, that the body seems to adjust within around 5 weeks; and thereafter, Cortisol responses are virtually eliminated.

Sounds like lifting has many advantages for people who don't like to exercise, and especially for women. "Just like you have been saying all along!"

Jeff (just thinking out loud)

That's right.

I'm vain and lazy. Lifting suits me to a T.





I do it, because watching TV and eating ho-hos didn't work.

Dammit!

Fun stuff Built! My mom is a neuroendocrinologist. I used to have her tell me stories of brain chemistry when I was a little girl.

I`ve wondered what people do in their lives outside of the board and the gym. I am finishing my last year of law school. This time next year, I`ll be Dogbone, Esq. Hee hee. Imagine the possibilities.......