CRAZYMUSCLE.COM Blog

The most important hormone?

Surprisingly, not many people who are trying to improve their fitness know about insulin. Protein? They know you should eat a lot of it. Creatine? They know it gives you an extra boost. Carbs? They know you should limit them if you want to lose fat. But insulin? Well, they know that diabetics have to inject it, it has something to do with blood sugar, and also something to do with making me sleepy after meals. So what exactly is insulin, what does it do, and why is it important for bodybuilders?

Insulin is a hormone. It is made in your pancreas. Its role in the body is to regulate the uptake of nutrients into cells. So insulin is a very anabolic (building up) hormone – many would say it’s the most anabolic hormone there is. Since it’s helping to take up nutrients, which cells is it taking the nutrients to? Mainly two types: fat and muscle. In case you’re new, we want muscle – not fat. So what affects insulin levels? The main ways to influence insulin levels are diet and exercise.

Diet

Diet, as you might guess, plays a huge role in determining the effect of insulin on you. In general, foods that are high in non-fiber carbohydrates (sugar, rice, potatoes, white bread) will cause your insulin level to spike up. Eating foods that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids (fish, walnuts, soy, flaxseed oil) will increase your sensitivity to insulin, which over time will lower your insulin levels.

Exercise

Resistance training will also increase your sensitivity to insulin, which will keep your insulin levels lower. Strength training has a greater effect on insulin levels than aerobic training.

So how do we apply this if our goal is to maximize muscle and minimize fat? The basic idea is this: raise your insulin level when your muscles are in a state to take in nutrients. Keep your insulin levels in check when your muscles are not ready to take in nutrients.

Immediately after a workout, go ahead and eat carbs – even simple ones. You want to raise your insulin levels now – your muscles will be in a state ready to absorb all those nutrients for some growing time! At other times, when you haven’t worked out, limit carbs to fibrous carbs only, like vegetables and some oatmeal. Consider carbs as your reward for working out! You can also take Equipoison 250 at this time, which mimics the effects of insulin.

There’s a lot more (and I mean A LOT more) to be said about insulin, so make sure you come back later for more info!

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Squats are foundational to overall strength and mass

Let’s face it – if you’re reading this blog, you probably love to hit the gym.  Weights are your friends.  After work or school, when you step in the weight room you have to stop yourself from saying, “Honey, I’m home.”

So what’s your objective in there?  Are you looking to get a sleek, toned physique?  We all see like that in there – nothing wrong with that at all.  In fact, they should check out our CB or Clen offerings – right up their alley.

On the other hand, we see the hardcore lifters.  You know who I’m talking about – maybe you are one.  These guys are built like a brick house.  Slap one on the back and you feel like you’ve slapped a mountain.  If you’re asking yourself, “What do these guys know that I don’t?  How did they get like that?” then you’ve come to the right place, because I’m going to shed some light on it.

Here’s the key – compound exercises.  When you see the slim guys working out, where do you see them?  Usually, they’re on the nautalis equipment or the machines.  They’re getting busy with the bicep curls.  When you see the real big, strong lifters working out, where do you see them?  Doing squats, deadlifts, cleans, and of course, the bench.  They might be doing the machines or dumbell isolation exercises, but that’s AFTER they’ve worked their compound exercises.

So why do compound exercises work so well to develop that size and strength?  There’s two reasons for this:

1. Compound exercises allow you to lift more weight.  If you’re going to increase muscle size and strength, you MUST do this one thing: increase INTENSITY.  Lifting the same typical weight – say 70% of your max – over and over again is not going to push your muscles to grow.  Even if you add sets upon sets.  Intensity is what signals your muscles to grow, which ties in to the next reason…

2. Compound exercises cause the body to release growth hormones.  Growth hormones and testosterone are released according to the total muscle mass being exercised.  Because compound exercises use multiple muscle groups, they cause your body’s endocrine system to signal to your body that it’s time to grow.

Because compound exercises are targeting your endocrine system, combining them with one of our Retabol, Parabol, Dianobol, or Annadrall products is a killer combo!  These products are going to fuel and trigger your endocrine system for explosive gains in mass and strength.

How should you go about adding this to your workout?  Well, to add strength, you don’t need to do a ton of reps.  And you definitely don’t need to go to failure!  That’s a good way to get injured with one of these exercises.  If you’re new to these exercises, pay attention to your body and give yourself some time to break it in to these exercises.  You may have really strong legs and shoulders, but lacking lower back strength.  You need to give your lower back some time to play catch up to prevent injury.  Remember – your body will break at its weakest link!

The classic workout for serious strength gains is 5 X 5.  That’s 5 sets of 5 reps each.  Work yourself up to maximum intensity!  Here’s a great workout you can implement for massive gains:

• Monday: Squats (heavy)
• Tuesday: Benchpress (heavy)
• Wednesday: Deadlift (heavy)
• Thursday: Squats (light)
• Friday: Benchpress (light), weighted pull-ups (heavy)

If you really want to increase your power gains, focus on these and skip the isolation exercises.  Devote that time and energy to the compound exercises.  Let us know how it’s working out for you!

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