CRAZYMUSCLE.COM Blog

DHEA - Dehydroepiandrosterone

I hope you’re ready for a school lesson.  Don’t worry, I’ll try to keep it interesting.  This is the stuff that really matters when it comes to muscle development and overall body sculpting.  What most people don’t realize is that there’s only so much that a protein can do.  Protein supplements are great products, and we recommend you use them.  However, what do you do when you’re getting plenty of protein in your diet?  What about when your limiting factor isn’t protein?

Enter hormones.  These little guys signal your body to start and stop the metabolic pathways that control muscle, fat, bone density, and even moods.  You can’t ignore them!  Think of this – if you’re eating enough protein to fuel 180 pounds of muscle, but your hormones are only maintaining a balance in your body of 160 pounds of muscle, where does that extra protein go?  Well, it either passes through you or gets stored as fat.  We’re going to begin looking at hormones in depth, to help you maximize your potential and make your efforts as effective as possible.  Lets get started…

DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone) – DHEA is made in the adrenal gland.  It has anabolic effects – in other words, it signals your body to build up.  It directly stimulates androgenic receptors, and is also eventually converted into testosterone by the metabolic pathway.  You want more of this to build up your muscle mass and strength.  However, a word of caution – if you supplement this, you HAVE TO WORK OUT HARD.  Excess DHEA can be converted into estrogen.  You want this converted to testosterone – not estrogen.

How can you maximize your DHEA for huge muscle explosions in growth?  You want this product – Annadrall.  Use this baby on your bulking phase for 3 months, then cycle off.  Remember when you’re taking it to get enough good fats in your diet – the Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids.  These can be found in walnuts, fish, and flax.  Work out with INTENSITY.  Good luck and prepare for a transformation!!!  More hormone info to come later.

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Anytime I see Terry Crews in a movie, he’s hilarious.  I think I first saw him in a movie dancing and waving these glow-sticks around – I forgot what movie that was, though!  Anyone remember?  The brother is YOKED.  He was a linebacker in the NFL.  Anyways, there was talk of an A-Team remake in the works, and that Terry Crews might play BA Baracus!  He’d be awesome for it, of course.  So I did some reminiscing about Terry Crews, and found this nugget of goodness.  Gotta try this workout…

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So what if everything you knew about dieting was wrong?  What if our theories today about eating were as wrong as they were back in the 60’s, when everyone was supposed to eat 6-11 servings of carbs a day? 

Well, that’s what we’ll be taking a look at today.  If you read about bodybuilding at all, you’ll know that it’s recommended that you break your eating into 4-6 small meals a day.  That way, your body never gets too hungry, which signals it to start storing fat.  Right?  Also, by keeping your meals small, you prevent excess calories from a meal from becoming fat.  Right?  Seems so logical.  The model is so basic – like your body is a tube with a bucket at the bottom.  Just don’t get the bucket too full.

I was looking around the other day and I came across this site.  It introduced me to intermittent fasting.  Here’s the basics on intermittent fasting.  You limit your eating to 8 hours of the day and don’t eat for the other 16 hours.  During the 8 hours, you can drink water, but that’s it.  Here’s some guidelines:

• On a workout day, make your first meal meat, veggies, and a fruit.  Don’t make it a big meal.
• After your workout, have a big meal.  Add good complex carbs in this meal, like rice, pasta, or potatoes.  You can even have a dessert, as long as it’s not high in fat.
• On a non-workout day, eat low/no carbs.  Focus on high-protien and high-fiber meals.
• For the last meal of the day (either workout or non-workout), try to eat a slow digesting protein, like casein.  This can come in egg protein or non-fat cottage cheese.

So why should this work?  What’s the physiology behind this?  First off, it should be noted that there is a lack of solid research on this method.  Aside from that, the theory of it is building off of my post on insulin.  By incorporating a fast, you are increasing your body’s sensitivity to insulin.  Increased sensitivity to insulin means less insulin floating around in your body during the day.  Less insulin during non-workout times means less nutrients going to building fat.  Then, but focusing your insulin and carb levels to after workouts, you maximize nutrient uptake to your muscles, while keeping your carb uptake low at other times of the day.  Get it?

Looking at the results some of his clients are getting, there may be something to it.  There are some very impressive physiques going on there. 

I tried it, and I couldn’t stick to it.  I was hungry after 16 hours – CrazyHungry.  After reading around on his site, he mentions that it might take 3-4 days for your body to get used to the different eating schedule, but that it gets much easier from there.  I’ll go back on it and keep you guys posted with the results.

Another note, this diet is obviously for your cutting phases, not your bulking phases.

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Will we see Sean Sherk return to form?

I don’t know about you guys, but at one time Sean Sherk was one of my favorite fighters.  Seeing the tenacity of this guy was awesome – he was a 5′6″ bowling-ball of muscle, rightfully earning the name “Muscle Shark”.  His takedowns and slams were a thing of beauty.  I never believed that he did steroids.  After seeing his UFC All Access clip, my respect and admiration for him went up even more.

So what happened?  Why can’t I get excited about him anymore?  Well, the biggest thing for me is this – when did Sean Sherk decide that he was a boxer?  This guy has a crazy explosive takedown, but in the last three fights, he’s barely brought it out.  Instead, he’s stood up with his opponents and gotten into striking matches.  More often than not, he’s come up on the short end of things – pun very much intended.  Due to his stockiness, he usually is at a reach disadvantage. 

So why is he doing this?  My guess is that he wants to “please the fans”.  Sadly, this means the masses of uneducated people out there that think an omoplata is somthing you order at Dennys. 

Hey, I’m a fight fan!  I don’t just want to see two guys throwing punches all the time!  I’d watch boxing for that.  I think back to his fight with Hermes Franca, which really wasn’t that long ago.  Sherk was booed after it, but I thought it was a masterpiece.  Sherk seemed to effortlessly take Franca down, pass his guard, and get into superior position.  It was like watching a master at work – Franca was completely outclassed and only managed to get in one good knee on Sherk.

Fast forward 3 fights later and we have 3 striking matches with BJ Penn, Tyson Griffin, and Frakie Edgar.  While Sherk is certainly no slouch in striking, the grappling game was noticibly absent.

So what does Sherk need to do to turn the tide and get this fan back on his bandwagon?  Glad you asked.  Here’s the list:

1. Stop caring what the crowd thinks.  Yes, yes, it’s all about the fans, and fighters are ultimately entertainers.  But hey, you can’t please everyone.  What wins fans in the long run is winning.  They’ll learn to appreciate the grappling, takedowns, and ground dominance.
2. Bring back the takedowns.  Sherk’s striking game would be improved if the opponent was worrying about takedowns at the same time.  Sherk’s takedowns are an explosive, exciting part of his game.  He fights way better when he is the aggressor taking the opponent down, not being taken down.  This strategy also maximizes his advantage in conditioning, since the guy on bottom uses much more energy than the guy on top.  On top of that, takedowns are often what wins rounds in judge’s eyes.  To go with this…
3. Incorporate judo takedowns.  Sherk needs to add judo and sambo takedowns to his game.  The double-leg takedown has exposed him to knees to the head that were so hard they shook my TV screen. 
4. Add more fakes, feints, and variety.  Sherk appears to be telegraphing his moves.  In his fight with Frankie Edgar, he relied on the left hook way too much.  Frankie could see it coming, while he mixed up his own striking game.  Sherk also didn’t put together combinations more than 2 punches.  Then when Sherk did finally shoot, with 10 seconds left to go in the 3rd round, it was not exactly a surprise.  In a game of millisecond reactions, variety of attacks is crucial.
5. In general, be more agressive.  Be an animal in there.  You just get the sense that he’s thinking too much.  I want to see Sherk just get in there, crush ‘em, and whoop some ass.

So Sean Sherk, this is coming from a fan.  I want to see the old Sean Sherk again!  No – make that, I want to see an even better, new and improved Sean Sherk. 

Ouch. Any other way to take someone down?

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