Howard Cooper likes a challenge, which is just as well. The Sun journalist has given himself just one month to get into awesome shape. Working with No1 Studio Training and Sci-MX Nutrition, Howard is using the latest training techniques, a high-protein diet and Sci-MX products to power his way to physical fitness.
Despite being seriously punished by the guys at No1 Studio Training, Howard has managed to find enough strength to open his laptop and pen a great article on Week 1’s experiences as well as a focus on TRX Training.
Unlike a lot of ‘fitness challenges’, this one is clearly being taken very seriously by all concerned. The various grimaces and gurns on Howard’s face are testament to the fact that he’s putting everything on the line in every session. Also, the dietary advice being given out is right on the money, simple rules like cutting out bread, upping the protein intake and limiting (though not eliminating) alcohol are all great ways to get rapid results without going to extremes.
Howard is using Build & Trim Whey Protein and Pyro-MX Leanburn from the Sci-MX range and, as mentioned, has teamed up with No1 Studio Training. You can follow his progress on The Sun’s website and the No1 Studio Training Blog.
Ben Smith’s Unbeaten Run Continues
Despite giving away four inches in height and considerable weight, Sci-MX sponsored Ben Smith outclassed Darren Towler, proving once again that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog that counts.
Victory over Towler gives Ben an impressive six wins in a row and his packed fight schedule continues with a clash against Nandor Guelmino in Slovenia on July 31st.
What is ZMA?
We’ve just re-formulated and re-launched ZMA+ Hardcore™ and the response has been incredible. In among all the positive comments, we have noticed a few people wondering exactly what ZMA is all about and how it should be built into their training and nutritional program.
ZMA stands for Zinc monomethionine aspartate and Magnesium Aspartate (that’s why we just say ZMA). It is a combination of zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B6 and which is scientifically proven to improve muscle size and strength and support the production of male hormones.
So what makes ZMA+Hardcore™ so special?
ZMA itself is just one ingredient within ZMA+ Hardcore™. There are various grades, or qualities, of ZMA on the market and that means there’s a very wide variety in the quality of the supplements which contain ZMA. ZMA 2000E is the original and remains the best and because Sci-MX is committed to producing the most effective, highest quality products in the world we only use ZMA 2000E.
ZMA+ Hardcore™ contains the maximum dose of ZMA 2000E and because it uses L-OptiZinc®, a compound formulated specifically to improve the bioavailability of zinc, it is more effective than any other ZMA product.
In addition, we have added Vit-MX-T™ which is formulated to contribute to the regulation, synthesis and metabolism of healthy hormones.
How should I use ZMA+Hardcore?
ZMA+ Hardcore™ is all about improving muscle strength, power and size so it is ideal for anyone who wants to get bigger and stronger. Used as part of a high-intensity resistance training program and in conjunction with a high-protein diet, ZMA+ Hardcore™ brings muscle gain results very quickly.
To enhance the natural male anabolic process, ZMA+ Hardcore can be combined with Sci-MX’s Fenu-MX-T™. To ensure that your body has sufficient protein to meet your muscle gain targets, include MASS System™
If weight loss occurs when you burn more calories than you consume, then it seems logical that consuming as few as possible sets you up to succeed right? Completely wrong. Missing meals and running on low blood sugar causes several effects which damage your chances of losing fat.
First, your appetite soars making it far more likely that you’ll end up overeating at your next meal. Or even worse, becoming so hungry that you grab the first snack-food you can find, and those snacks are very rarely helpful when it comes to fat loss.
Second, when you skip meals your body produces more of the enzyme which promotes fat storage; lipoprotein lipase. This means that when the inevitable happens and you do succumb to hunger, far more of those calories are tucked away into your body’s fat stores.
Then there’s the question of training. In order to get rid of excess fat and keep it off, you need to ensure that you’re living a healthy lifestyle and boosting your metabolism by exercising. If you have no energy to train, or even to stay as active as possible, it soon becomes impossible to motivate yourself to burn off those calories. Once you become lethargic, your metabolism falls even further making it still harder to train and a cycle begins which can be difficult to break.
So, by every measure skipping meals and cutting your calorific intake drastically is bad for long-term fat loss. Instead, you should aim for 5-8 modestly sized meals per day to ensure you never become extremely hungry. You should seek to increase the proportion of your calorific intake which comes from protein in order to maintain body tone and help you recover from exercise. You should seek to cut out all but the essential fats, and you should aim to boost your metabolic rate through an active, energetic lifestyle.
Sci-MX has three products which are ideal for these objectives; Diet Shake, CLA Lean 1000, and Pyro-MX Leanburn. Right now you can save 20% when you buy these products in combination.
Creatine is possibly the most researched sports supplement of all time with countless studies supporting its benefit in terms of explosive bursts of speed, power and strength.
Creatine pyruvate is a new form of creatine which is a regular creatine molecule bonded to a pyruvate acid molecule. Pyruvate is released in large amounts when our bodies use up glucose during high intensity exercise and is a fuel source during aerobic metabolism (think of recovery periods between sets).
Sci-MX Nutrition’s Creatine CT-MX is the UK’s most advanced creatine pyruvate formulation and delivers significant gains in grip strength and muscle contraction speed.
The Study
A recent study set to investigate the effect of creatine pyruvate on high intensity exercise as measured by a grip based interval test. The study compared creatine pyruvate to creatine citrate (creatine bonded to citric acid) and was not funded by a company that produced either of the supplements. The study had 49 young male subjects, divided into 3 groups receiving either creatine pyruvate, creatine citrate, or a placebo.
Each group performed an initial test that provided information detailing the maximal amount of grip strength each subject could produce. 80% of this maximal grip strength was then used for an interval test which involved 10 maximal intervals of 15 seconds followed by 45 seconds rest.
After the initial testing the subjects were given either the placebo or active supplement at a dose of 5 grams per day for 4 weeks in a double blind protocol (this means that neither the subjects nor investigators knew whether they received the active supplement or the placebo).
The Results
The results suggested that both forms of creatine improved performance compared to pre-supplement performance, with no change noted in the subjects taking the placebo.
However, the creatine pyruvate group noted improvements in performance across all 10 intervals whereas the creatine citrate group only noted improvements during the initial intervals with no improvement during the later stages of the test.
The conclusion of the study was
‘Creatine Pyruvate significantly increases force & decreases fatigability during all intervals due to enhanced contraction & relaxation’
In short, this means that creatine pyruvate helped a muscle relax faster after a contraction, the faster it can relax, the sooner it can contract and the more force it can produce.
What this means to you
Creatine Pyruvate could benefit anybody involved in sports that involve periods of high intensity exercise followed by periods of recovery.
More specifically, athletes who require high, sustained levels of grip strength and need to maintain that over a prolonged period of time. An improvement in grip strength and endurance would also benefit those involved in weight training, particularly for pull based exercises such as deadlifts, rows, or pull downs where grip strength can often limit the amount of weight used for the exercise.
Jäger R, Metzger J, Lautmann K, Shushakov V, Purpura M, Geiss KR, Maassen N (2008) The Effects of Creatine Pyruvate and Creatine Citrate on Performance during High Intensity Exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition: 13; 5:4
Make every workout count
Everyone wants to get the maximum benefit from their training. It doesn’t matter whether your lifestyle means grabbing workout-time when you can or if the gym is like your second home – there’s nothing like the feeling you get when you know you’ve made a session count.
Prepare to excel
If time is tight, it becomes even more important to ensure that your body and mind are ready to go at 100% the moment you step into your training arena. Using a pre-workout formula like X-PLODE Hardcore to pre-load muscles and boost mental focus is a proven way to do this.
In the zone
During your workout, you need to make every second count. If it’s a weights session, focus on good form – it’s better to lift less weight correctly than a huge weight incorrectly. Target individual muscle groups and really attack them.
For cardio, focus on high-intensity interval work rather than hours of moderate pace training. Forcing your body to switch between aerobic and anaerobic activity has been shown to yield much faster rates of fat loss and improve the speed at which your muscles process lactic acid.
Rest strong
The period immediately following your workout is crucial. That’s when your body rushes to repair and rebuild and if you haven’t supplied it with the proper raw materials, it will use whatever it can find. Often this means breaking down muscle tissue to replace energy. The solution is to ensure that you have sufficient supply of energy-replacing carbs, muscle-building proteins, and amino-acids so that your body doesn’t break down muscle for energy.
Sci-MX’s Lean GROW MRF contains Cross-Action fast and slow carbohydrate pack, 44 grams of unique GRS-5® gradual-release protein, plus 8 grams of glutamine and 9 grams of BCAAs (branched chain amino acids) – everything you need to ensure full and fast recovery after training, giving you that buzz which only comes from making every workout count.
Sci-MX Nutrition
The overload > recover > adaptive growth cycle:
Muscle builds like this: muscle overload – when you do resistance training (weights) at the right intensity, you actually cause tiny micro tears to muscle fibres. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you have hurt yourself, these tears are tiny and happen in life anyway in various other circumstances. Recover – after training it takes around 72 hours for muscle to recover, this means that these tiny tears repair themselves. Adaptive growth – this occurs after the recovery has taken place. Your brain remembers the stress that was placed on those fibres and adds a little more muscle tissue to adapt to the stress that you placed the muscle under so that you can cope better if you do it again. By continuing this cycle, you gain a little muscle each week as long as you continue the cycle. The critical thing here is to allow the process to take place, so always leave enough time between training each muscle group to complete the cycle before training it again. This is why we recommend 3 to 4 weight training sessions per week, doing each muscle group only once per week, never more.
How many reps: This is an age old question, but don’t get too worked up about it because it can be confusing. The bottom line is that you should fail completely by the end of each set. In other words, you should not be able to do one more rep by the end of your set, and this should occur between 5 and 12 reps depending on the phase of your training. See our website for more information.
Variation: It is vital that you change your programme at least every six weeks. The reason for this is because you begin to wear down connective tissue if you do the exact same movement every week for longer than six weeks. Your brain is far too clever to allow you to harm yourself, so as soon as your connective tissue begins to wear, your brain sends messages to your muscles to reduce their capacity to contract, in other words it makes muscle weaker. All you need to do is change the movements and intensity slightly every 6 weeks to avoid this. So for example, don’t do bench press all year long. Do it for 6 weeks, and then change to something like dumbbell press for the next 6 weeks.
Concentric and eccentric: Sounds a bit academic doesn’t it? Don’t worry, it’s simple. Concentric movement is when your muscles shorten, for example when lifting a dumbbell while doing bicep curls. When lowering the dumbbell the muscle lengthens and this is the eccentric movement. The concentric movement does very little to muscle tissue other than get the weight up so that you can lower it again. Do the concentric movement quickly, but controlled, and do the eccentric movement slowly as this is when you really hit muscle fibres and stimulate growth.
Always combine cardio and weights: Even if you are training for mass gain only, do cardio even if it is only for 20 minutes twice a week. Your body functions better if you have a balance of cardiovascular fitness, as well as strength and power. Becoming totally unfit will hinder your muscle gain goals. Conversely, even if you are on a total fat loss programme, do some weight training as well otherwise you may end up remaining pear shaped, but just a smaller pear. You won’t look any better if your waist size decreases but so do your shoulders, chest and arms. Aim for balance all the time.
Ben Smith’s acting debut
You just can’t teach that kind of timing! Anyone know Guy Ritchie’s number?
New Year’s resolutions are a great way to focus your mind and help you set out clearly what you want to achieve. Well defined goals can help you get out of bed in the morning, provide the extra incentive you need to get down to the gym and, ultimately, provide a stimulus to help you get in shape and feel fantastic.
So, what can you do to make sure you stick to your goals? Here are a few tips…
Be realistic
Ok, maybe you should have given this some thought when you set your resolutions, but it is without doubt, the single most common reason that people fail to reach their goals; they were set way too high in the first place.
If you resolved to give something up, like smoking or sugar in your coffee for example, should you have tried to cut it down first? If you decided you’d hit the gym seven days a week, would it have been better to have gone for four times and worked your way up?
Whatever your resolution, it has to be achievable and realistic. So don’t be afraid to go back and reassess what you set out to do, revise it downwards if you need to; better that than binning the whole idea.
Be clear
The toughest resolutions are usually also the ones that are poor in terms of focus and clarity. “I’m giving up booze for January” is one we hear a lot. This always begs the question, “Why?”, and if the answer to that is to lose weight then the resolution fails to take a huge range of other factors into account.
I’m sure you’ve heard of ‘Smart’ objectives, the term has become a bit dated but it is still valuable. Set out exactly what you want to achieve and when you want it done by. Then go back to the previous tip and make sure it’s not pie-in-the-sky (pardon the pun).
Be quiet
The most demoralised people we speak to are usually the ones who’ve told everybody they know just how easily they’re going to smash their targets. If you browbeat everyone in the office about how Spartan your new regime is while assuring them that your iron discipline will see you through, it becomes a game for them to see you fail.
They’ll watch you like a hawk, offer you cakes and biscuits, question everything you eat, and generally try to increase the pressure until you crack. Even worse, if you do stray from the straight-and-narrow, they’ll never let you forget it which makes it that much harder to put things right again.
Instead of broadcasting your goals to the world, try confiding in just one or two people, ideally those who are trying to reach similar targets and you’ll be able to support one another.
That’ll do for today, more tips will be posted here throughout January, and remember you can follow us on Twitter for a daily ‘micro-tip’ all through the month.
Reflecting on an unbeaten 2009 with two titles in the bag, Ben Smith is relishing the opportunities that 2010 could bring. Sci-MX Nutrition caught up with Ben to see what his plans are for the coming year:
Sci-MX: Ben, you’re undefeated in your last four fights, three submissions and a stoppage. You must be feeling pretty positive about the coming year?
Ben Smith: Absolutely. I’ve just agreed a four fight deal with Ultimate Challenge, I’ve got a full year’s pro training under my belt and things are looking good.
Sci-MX: Let’s talk about Kiane Sabet. It looked like you beat him pretty comfortably back in September but he hasn’t gone away has he?
Ben Smith: No, he’s on the lookout for a rematch and I’m happy to fight him again if we can work out the details. My team don’t want me to take the fight because I’ve got nothing to gain, I’ve beaten him once already, but he’s making a lot of noise so I’m happy to do him again.
Sabet makes me laugh; he seems to live in a bit of a dream world. I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect from him at Ultimate Challenge Mayhem but I knew he’d be strong so I held back a bit. In hindsight I should have let him have both barrels when I got him to the floor but I took the arm when it was offered and tapped him out. He’s still saying that he should have beaten me, that a torn tricep put him at a disadvantage, but I’ve watched that fight back and he doesn’t seem to have a problem repeatedly grabbing the cage with his ‘injured’ right arm. Maybe if I’d given him a battering he might have stopped talking. If the rematch comes off I won’t be holding back.
Sci-MX: You followed that up with an impressive win over Wayne Weaver, again a submission.
Ben Smith: I have to say, Weaver impressed me with his ability to take punishment. For most of the first round I absolutely hammered him with punches, he ended up with a fractured cheek, eye socket, and broken nose. I’ve been told that Sky actually edited the fight footage because it looked too brutal. Despite that, he still came back at me in the second and landed a few strong knees. At that point I realised I could probably pound on him all night and he’d still be there at the end so I took the sub when it was available. I was more pleased with my performance in that fight than the Sabet fight; I’ll be looking to dish out that level of punishment in future.
Sci-MX: Your next fight looks set to be against Jamie Hearn at Ultimate Challenge Adrenalin Rush on March 27th. What do you think of Hearn?
Ben Smith: It’s still TBC but we’re pretty sure it’ll be Jamie Hearn. I think, naturally, he’s a light heavyweight but he’s making the step up to fight me at heavyweight. He’s an ex-boxer and he’s coming off the back of a KO win at the last Ultimate Challenge show so I imagine he’ll be looking to keep the fight upright and try to knock me out. I’ve been working hard on my ground fighting though so it should be an interesting one. I’m pretty confident.
Sci-MX: You mentioned that Jamie Hearn is stepping up in weight, but is it fair to say that you’re probably a natural light heavyweight yourself?
Ben Smith: That’s probably true. If I was six foot plus and built like I am then I’d be a heavyweight through-and-through but at 5’10’’ I could make the step down in weight quite easily. If you look at the heavyweight division just now that might be the smart move because there are guys like Karlos (Vemola) who I wouldn’t want to fight because we’re close friends. Maybe a move to light heavyweight could open some doors for me. Although I have a lot of power for my size and I can mix it with anyone, it’s always going to be more difficult for someone my size to handle the really huge guys. If the heavyweight division the UK was capped at 120 kgs like UFC then it would be better, but fighting someone like Stav (Economou), at 130kgs is going to be a handful for anyone!
Sci-MX: Looking at the next couple of years, what are your goals?
Ben Smith: I think, long-term, my future lies in Japan or America. The bottom line is that for more than a year, I’ve been paid to do something which I love and that’s what I want to continue doing. I’m signed to Ultimate Challenge for four more fights and I’m happy with that; UC is definitely the most professional and well-organised promotion in the UK. I’ve had the option to go to the States a couple of times but the shows would have been a step down from Ultimate Challenge. I think what we have with Ultimate Challenge in the UK is very credible and people in the US and Japan can see that, so I’m better off making a name for myself over here and taking the right fights overseas when they come up.
Sci-MX: Were there any culture shocks when you turned pro?
Ben Smith: I’ve learnt, or I should probably say re-learnt, more in the past year than I thought possible. I came from being a big fish at Semtex Gym, where I started training, to being the new boy at Titan and it’s been a steep learning curve. I used to be able to fall back on my strength and size before, as most of the guys I sparred with were lighter than me, but now I’m working with such skilled fighters that, bigger or smaller, they’ll tie me up in knots if I try that. You look at someone like Karlos and think he’s had over 600 wrestling fights and has been doing it since he was six years old, there’s a lot I can learn from someone like that. I’ve had to go right back to basics and fill in all the technique gaps that I used to plug with raw power. Other than that it’s all about the hours you put in as a pro. Before, when I was an amateur, I might be working 15 hours a day and trying to fit training in around work. Now, it’s 5 hours or more at the gym, with proper rest and nutrition. I’ve never done anything by half and you’d be a fool to do this for a living if you didn’t take it seriously. I fight to win and I’m prepared to make whatever sacrifices it takes to get to the top.
Ben Smith uses Sci-MX Nutrition’s Lean Grow Extreme, GRS-5 Protein System, Omni-MX, Creatine CT-MX, Tri-Omega EFA and Joint Support Complex
You can check out Ben’s profile at http://www.sci-mx.co.uk/pages/26859/Ben_Smith.htm