The Optimum Rep Range For Building Maximum Muscle & Strength

No matter what you read or who you talk to, everyone has their own opinion of what the "perfect" rep range should be to allow for maximum muscle stimulation and growth. In this article I’m going to clear up the confusion once and for all and reveal what I believe to be the most effective rep range possible for maximizing your results in the gym.

Sets that utilize heavy weight and low reps are without a doubt the most effective means of stimulating maximum muscle growth. For every set that you perform in the gym, you should utilize a rep range of 5 to 7.

This means that the weight should be light enough that you can complete 5 reps using proper form, but heavy enough that you cannot complete more than 7.

What's so special about 5 to 7, you ask? Well…

1) Each set will only last between 20-30 seconds.

Maximizing your muscle gains is all about intensity and efficiency. By utilizing a lower rep range, your sets will only last a short period of time, allowing you to generate 100% mental focus and effort.

Training with 100% intensity is critical to stimulating muscle growth and it is much easier to maintain this level of effort for shorter periods of time.

2) Muscle stimulation will be maximized.

Utilizing a rep range of 5 to 7 you will force your body to tap into your "fast twitch muscle fibers", which are by far the most responsive to muscular growth. This will result in the greatest amount of muscle growth and strength gain possible.

3) Maximum resistance can be used.

By performing only 5 to 7 reps per set, you will enable your muscles to handle heavier amounts of weight. Building muscle is a byproduct of building strength, and training in a lower rep range is the most effective way to accomplish this. Since your strength will shoot up much faster using 5 to 7 reps per set, so will your muscle size.

4) Lactic Acid production will be kept to a minimum.

Training in the range of 5 to 7 will also decrease the amount of lactic acid that is secreted within the muscles. Lactic acid is a metabolic waste product that is produced as the body burns carbohydrates for fuel. By limiting the amount of lactic acid production you will decrease muscle catabolism and create an environment in the body where greater amounts of energy can be generated.

Okay, so we've established that a rep range of 5-7 is the most effective means of stimulating muscle growth.

However, this does not apply all the time or on every single lift. There are a few select muscle groups that should be stimulated using a slightly higher rep range. These are the calves, abs, forearms and upper traps. These muscle groups are predominantly made up of slow-twitch fibers, and therefore will respond better to higher reps.

For this reason, a rep range of 10-12 should be utilized for these muscle groups.

Summary:

Perform 5-7 reps for the chest, lats, biceps, triceps, shoulders and thighs.
Perform 10-12 reps for the calves, abs, forearms and upper traps.

Choosing a proper rep range is just one small piece of the puzzle when designing an effective workout routine. If you want to maximize your results and learn about all of the other aspects of workout structure such as exercise selection, sets, days in the gym, bodypart splits, rest periods and more, click the link below to visit my website.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

4 Fatal Muscle-Building Myths Revealed

If you’re serious about making a solid commitment to a muscle-building program, you need to be very careful of who you take advice from. Bodybuilding and fitness is literally a multi-billion dollar industry with new websites popping up every single day.

Many of the so-called “experts” out there really don’t have a clue of what they’re talking about and are only motivated by pushing expensive pills, powders and “miracle programs” on you that you don’t really need.

If you don’t watch your step you may end up falling for some fatal muscle-building pitfalls that will literally destroy your gains. In this article I’m going to expose 4 very common muscle-building myths in order to keep you on the proper path to the mind-blowing muscle and strength gains you deserve.

Myth #1: In order to build muscle, you must achieve a "pump" during your workout. The greater the pump you achieve, the more muscle you will build.

For those of you who are just starting out, a “pump” is the feeling that you get as blood becomes trapped inside the muscle tissue when you train with weights. The muscles will swell up and leave your body feeling bigger, tighter, stronger and more powerful. While a pump does feel fantastic, it has very little, if anything to do with properly stimulating your muscles to grow.

A pump is simply the result of increased bloodflow to the muscle tissue and is certainly not indicative of a successful workout. A successful workout should only be gauged by the concept of progression. If you were able to lift more weight or perform more reps than you did in the previous week, then you did your job.

Myth #2: Building muscle will cause you to become slower and less flexible.

Contrary to what you may think, building a significant amount of lean muscle mass will actually speed you up rather than slow you down.

Muscles are responsible for every movement that your body makes, from running to jumping to throwing. The bottom line is that the stronger a muscle is, the more force it can apply. Having stronger, more muscular legs means increased foot speed, just as having stronger and more muscular shoulders means the ability to throw farther.

Myth #3: You must always use perfect, textbook form on all exercises.

While using good form in the gym is always important, obsessing over perfect form is an entirely different matter. If you are always attempting to perform every exercise using flawless, textbook form, you will actually increase your chances of injury and simultaneously decrease the total amount of muscle stimulation you can achieve.

It’s very important that you always move naturally when you exercise. This could mean adding a very slight sway in your back when you perform bicep curls, or using a tiny bit of body momentum when executing barbell rows.

Myth #4: If you want your muscles to grow you must “feel the burn!”

This is another huge misconception in the gym. The “burning” sensation that results from intense weight training is simply the result of lactic acid (a metabolic waste product) that is secreted inside the muscle tissue as you exercise.

Increased levels of lactic acid have nothing to do with muscle growth and may actually slow down your gains rather than speed them up. You can limit lactic acid production by training in a lower rep range of 5-7, rather than the traditional range of 10 and above.

If you want to clear up your confusion and learn the truth behind many other popular muscle-building myths, visit my website by clicking the link below. I'll reveal why 95% of people in the gym fail miserably and will teach you how to get on the proper path toward muscle-building success...

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

Moral Imperatives

It seems that G W Bush believes that stem cell research is morally wrong when it involves embryos. Scientific research has used embryos in many forms throughout the years, with little outcry.

But then the government has experimented on people throughout it's history and I guess it depends on who thinks they are the decider.

Daily we are slaughtering our own people who are dispatched by order to fight the fabricated war currently raging in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

We are killing innocents in these countries as well.

Now we learn that Iraqi orphans are moved "better quarters" but they are in a state of emaciation.

Someone explain this brand of morality to me please.

So here you have it folks! Lyrica for fibromyalgia.

What is Lyrica you might ask? It’s a so-called pain medication but here is what you won’t be told, as I learned about two years ago because of a client who came to me for help.

LYRICA is indicated for management of: Neuropathic pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy and post herpetic neuralgia. It is also indicated as adjunctive therapy for adult patients with partial onset seizures.

A maximum allowed dose is 300 mg daily and it must not be abruptly discontinued as this make provoke seizures. This drug must be used with extreme caution in people with renal (kidney) impairment.

Some of the many side effects include dizziness and somnolence, gait disorders, confusion, asthenia, abnormal thinking, blurred vision, lack of coordination, infection, accidental injury, dry mouth, weight gain, chest pain, vomiting, nervousness, peripheral edema, risk of heart failure, itching, bruising, ulceration and others.

In standard preclinical in vivo lifetime carcinogenicity studies of pregabalin, there was an unexpectedly high incidence of hemangiosarcoma (cancerous tumour).

Now what interested me was that I had a client who was preparing for elective surgery. She came to me to try to get relief of pain while on this drug. In reviewing her lab tests she had a definitive problem with platelet reduction.

Platelets help your blood clot, something certainly necessary with pending surgery. Now as we continue with side effects consider this – Decreased Platelet Count. Pregalbin treatment is associated with a decrease in platelet count.

The musculoskeletal side effects include joint pain, leg cramps, and muscle pain. With Fibromyalgia there is muscle and joint pain. I guess the money mongers at Pfizer just want to see how much you can endure.

With the positive results for FMS I've achieved with clients in my work using natural treatment, it’s a wonder anyone would do something else.

FDA OKs first fibromyalgia treatment
6-21-07
A Pfizer Inc. drug won expanded federal approval Thursday as the first treatment for fibromyalgia, a mysterious syndrome marked by muscle pain and fatigue.
The Food and Drug Administration action means Lyrica becomes the first drug that can be marketed specifically as a treatment for adults with fibromyalgia. Patients currently make so-called "off label" use of pain medications, antidepressants, muscle relaxants and sleep aids to treat the condition. Exercise and applying heat also can help.
Fibromyalgia typically affects women, striking them with long-lasting or chronic pain, as well as muscle stiffness and tenderness, according to the FDA. An estimated 3 million to 6 million people in the United States are affected each year.
Lyrica, known generically as pregabalin, previously won FDA approval to treat partial seizures, pain following the rash of shingles and pain associated with diabetes nerve damage.
The FDA warned that common side effects of the drug included mild-to-moderate dizziness and sleepiness. Also, the agency said that Lyrica reduces pain and improves daily functions for some patients with fibromyalgia, but that not everyone derived benefit from the drug in studies.
The cause of fibromyalgia is a mystery, though it may be linked to injury, emotional distress or viruses that change the way the brain perceives pain, the FDA said.

Instantly Increase Your Strength On Every Back Exercise

Do you want a quick, simple and instant way to increase the amount of weight you can lift on virtually every back exercise you perform?

Sound too good to be true?

I speak the truth, my friend, and the reality is that if you aren’t utilizing this basic piece of gym equipment you’re missing out on some serious muscle size and strength gains.

What tool am I talking about?

A pair of lifting straps!

This is such a basic and highly effective piece of equipment yet so many people neglect to use them. For those of you who are unaware, these are basically a set of thick straps made of extremely strong material that are placed around your wrists and then wrapped around the barbell, dumbbell or cable attachment.

The purpose of lifting straps is to “eliminate” your grip from the equation by forming a secure connection between your wrist and the weight. If you use these straps properly you can basically hold onto the bar and perform your exercises while expending almost no energy from your forearms.

Why is this so valuable?

Picture this scenario…

You’re performing a set of deadlifts (arguably the most powerful muscle-building exercise known to man) with the goal of performing 8 reps. You psych yourself up, grip the weight and clear the bar from the ground. The set is going well, but by the time you reach rep number 5, the strain on your grip is so great that you can no longer hold onto the bar. You’re forced to stop the set because your forearms reached muscular failure.

What exactly happened here?

Well, you gave yourself an amazing forearm workout! Congratulations! Unfortunately, you severely limited the amount of muscle stimulation you could achieve on your back, shoulders, legs, and just about every other muscle in your body that the deadlift targets in the process. Not a good thing!

Lifting straps completely eliminate this problem by making sure that you reach muscular failure in the major muscle groups that you are intending to target rather than on your forearms and grip. They can be used effectively for almost every back exercise or any other lift where the grip is of concern.

The main argument against lifting straps is the idea that they are a “crutch” and will negatively affect the development of grip strength and forearm size.

Let’s get real here. What would you prefer, greater muscle mass and strength in your lats and upper back (and just about every other muscle group on your body) or greater ability to crack open a jar of pickles? Take your pick.

The positive effect that lifting straps will have on your overall muscle mass and strength gains will far outweigh any negative effect that they have on your forearms and grip. Besides, you can easily incorporate specific forearm movements into your routine to develop your grip strength and forearm size.

If you aren’t using lifting straps already, get on it. You can find them at almost any store that sells sports or fitness equipment or you can order them online. They sell for about 10 or 15 bucks and are well worth the price.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

The King Of All Upper Body Exercises

Okay, so you’re looking to pack on some serious muscle mass, right?

You want to build a ripped, rock-solid physique that demands respect and turns heads everywhere you go, correct?

Good.

In this article I’m going to talk to you about one single exercise that will help you to achieve that powerful body quicker than you ever thought possible.

No, it’s not a bench press or a barbell curl.
It doesn’t involve cables or chrome machines.
You won’t need a swiss ball or any other fancy gym gadgets.

All you need is a good old-fashioned barbell and a flat surface. Load the bar with as much weight as you can handle and pick it up off the ground while keeping your back straight.

Sounds simple enough, right?

I’m talking, of course, about the undisputed king of all upper body exercises: the deadlift.

If you’re looking to pile as much lean muscle mass onto your frame as humanly possibly in the shortest period of time, the deadlift is your best friend in the entire world.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that deadlifts are without a doubt one of the most painful and discomforting exercises you will ever come across. When performed properly, they’ll leave you lightheaded, nauseous, gasping for air and will temporarily have you wishing that you hadn’t come to the gym in the first place. But if it’s serious results that you’re after, this is the price you must pay.

The deadlift will work you from finger to neck to toe. It is a raw, basic power movement and will literally stress every single muscle in your entire body to some degree. The main areas of stimulation are the back (lower and upper) and thighs, but once you start deadlifting on a consistent basis you’ll see gains just about everywhere.

The high intensity nature of this basic lift will also force your body to secrete higher amounts of powerful anabolic substances such as testosterone and growth hormone. This causes what is known as a “spill over effect”, and will result in new, total body size and strength gains. For example, after a few weeks of heavy deadlifting you should notice that your other lifts, such as the bench press and barbell row, will suddenly increase.

There a few different variations of the deadlift, but in this article we’ll focus on the basic, standard bent-legged version. Let’s go over the proper technique...

Position your feet about shoulder-width apart and grip the bar with your hands just outside your legs. You can either hold the bar with an overhand grip or with one palm facing in and one palm facing out. Choose whatever grip is most comfortable for you.

Start the movement in a squatted position with the bar close to your shins. With your back flat, abs tight and head looking up, lift the weight off of the ground by driving upward with your legs. Pull the weight up until you are in a standing position. Now lower the weight back down by following the same path as when you lifted it.

Rest the plates on the ground briefly, regroup, take a deep breath and pull the weight back up again. Continue the lift until your legs reach muscular failure or until your form starts to slip.

Maintaining proper form is of high importance when performing deadlifts. You should be able to handle a reasonable amount of weight here, and this increases your chance of injury. The most important thing to remember is to keep your back flat at all times and to keep the weight close to your body. Keep your abs tight as well as this will minimize the stress on your lower back.

Practice this lift with light weight in order to get the form down before you start going heavy. You may also find it useful to use lifting straps when performing deadlifts, as this will prevent your grip from giving out before the rest of your body does.

I recommend performing deadlifts once a week for 2 all-out sets to muscular failure.

How many reps should you perform for each set?

Well, deadlifts are such an incredibly effective exercise that they’ll work no matter what rep range you use. My suggestion is to stay in the range of 5-7, but some people go as high as 20. Experiment and see what works best for you.

Treat your deadlifts with respect, and be prepared for the gains of your life.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

REAL ISSUES AND TORT REFORM

There are days when I think it is almost time for me to quit. Either someone finally brings up an issue I've addressed long ago, or I am dealing with newbies who address items on a superficial level yet think they are the 'expert'.

While for some I may be a high-priced consultant from out-of-town, for most I am not. It's just that you really do have to get beyond the hype and propaganda to know what is going on under-the-spin.

AND JUSTICE FOR ALL? DEBUNKING THE MYTH OF LAWSUIT ABUSE

by Jason Zasky

Any individual who has firsthand experience with the court system will tell
you how costly and time-consuming it is to bring a lawsuit, and how difficult it
is for the average American to get justice in court, especially if the defendant
is a deep pocketed corporation. Yet, a disconcertingly large percentage of the
public—influenced by fictional or highly misleading "frivolous lawsuit" stories
and the occasional eye-popping verdict—believes the U.S. is in the midst of a
litigation crisis.
Any American who thinks they support tort reform ought to
read Stephanie Mencimer's "Blocking the Courthouse Door" (Free Press), a
powerful new book which demonstrates how self-interested corporations and
"lawsuit abuse" groups have convinced millions of citizens that it's too easy to
sue. Why has their stealth campaign been so successful? Failure interviewed
Mencimer to find out.

What is the definition of tort reform?
It depends on whom you ask. If you ask a trial lawyer he or she will say it's a movement to tilt the playing field in the courts towards the defense so that big companies are more insulated from lawsuits by individual consumers. If you talk to people in the corporate world they say that tort reform is a movement to bring fairness and predictability to a legal system that they consider nothing short of a form of legalized extortion.

Are we in the midst of a litigation crisis?
No. The kinds of lawsuits that the tort reformers care about are what you'd call
personal injury cases or toxic torts. They make up a very small percentage of
the legal docket—maybe 10 percent total. And the number of those lawsuits has
been declining for at least a decade.

So why do so many Americans support tort reform?
If you ask Americans, "What is your definition of a frivolous
lawsuit?" they basically think it is any lawsuit except one that they might
file. You hear people who actually end up having to file say, "My suit wasn't
frivolous. I'm not one of those people." There's this perception that tort
reform only limits the "crazy" lawsuits. People don't realize that tort reform
affects their own ability to sue, and that's partly because it's sold that way
by those who are most interested in passing it.

Do Americans really want to go back to the early 20th century, where the public had almost no legal protection from unscrupulous businesses?
I don't think so. Most people just don't think about this stuff. It's not like health care where you regularly see your doctor or have a regular interaction with the system. Most folks never have to deal with the legal system unless they are getting divorced. It's only after something really bad happens to them that they find out the rights they thought they had aren't there for them.

How did we get to the point where Americans believe that our society is too litigious?
For one thing, insurance companiesand the tobacco industry spend a lot of money persuading them that is the case.
Also, they circulate a lot of "loony lawsuit" stories. But when you look closely
you find that these lawsuits are either not true or that the facts are
remarkably different. And most of the loony lawsuits are filed—without the
assistance of a lawyer—by prisoners or people who are mentally ill. It doesn't
necessarily mean that the claims are frivolous. It's just that without the help
of a lawyer they don't do it properly and that makes for things you can make fun
of. So some goofy things get into the system, but most of them don't go
anywhere.

Can you tell our readers the story of Frank Cornelius?
Back in the 1970s Cornelius worked as an insurance industry lobbyist in Indiana and helped pass the state's cap on medical malpractice damages. Afterwards, he left the
insurance lobbying business and sold used cars—among other things. One day he
felt out of a chair and injured his left knee. He needed [routine arthroscopic]
surgery and after he got home from the hospital he was in an inordinate amount
of pain. He tried to get hold of his surgeon, but the doctor was going on a ski
trip and told Frank's wife, "Just get him a bedpan and I'll see him when I get
back." It turned out that he had a complication from the surgery [reflex
sympathetic dystrophy, a chronic neurological syndrome often brought on by
surgery or trauma], and at some point the condition became irreversible. Then
while he was having physical therapy to treat this complication, his therapist
shocked his leg with a piece of rehab equipment. After that he was in more pain
than ever. Then he had to have more surgery because he developed a blood clot in
the leg. After that operation he nearly bled to death, and as the surgeons were
trying to save him the doctor who put the breathing tube in punctured his lung.

By this time, he needed an oxygen tank to breathe, he was confined to a
wheelchair, and was addicted to pain-killers. When he went to file a medical
malpractice lawsuit, he found out the hard way that damages in Indiana were
capped at $500,000. That was the most money he could be compensated, even after
all these injuries. Cornelius ultimately committed suicide, but before he died
he wrote a mea culpa to The New York Times about how the work he had done 15 or
20 years earlier had come back to haunt him. He was a victim of his own reform.
Between his lost income and the cost of his medical care he had damages that
were in excess of $5 million. He was only able to recover a tiny fraction of
that.

What role has the media played in building public support for tort reform?
The fundamental problem is how news agencies cover the civil justice system. Most reporters never cover trials. They only cover verdicts. So the only time there is ever news about the civil justice system is when somebody wins a lot of money in a
jury verdict. The public gets the perception that you could slip on a banana
peel and win millions of dollars, because that's all they hear about. It's a
very distorted portrait of the legal system.

Does the mainstream media have an incentive to misrepresent the truth about the legal system?
Some of the major media companies have done that, but there's really not that big of a conspiracy. Newspapers are understaffed and they just don't have enough bodies to sit in court all day and report on the civil side of things. So that's part of the
problem. The other part is that reporters are often threatened with
lawsuits, and some of them do get sued. Their firsthand experience with the
civil justice system is often unpleasant. So a lot of reporters probably think
that tort reform is a good idea.

What can be done to get Americans to understand that lawsuits offer more than just the chance to obtain justice—they also provide the opportunity to shine a light on the behavior of private institutions?
That's a good question. There's not really an organized
constituency for the courts. You have the trial lawyers, but people tend to
discount them because they have a financial motive. Anytime they try to come to
the defense of the civil justice system, critics say, "Oh, they are just looking
to line their own pockets." So their message is a little bit colored by
self-interest—even though their interests may align perfectly with the average
citizen. There isn't really anybody else on their side except for a few consumer
groups, but the consumer groups don't have any money. So it's a very uneven
playing field. I don't really know the answer. I guess they could buy my book
[laughs].

Is support for tort reform part of a larger overall problem—that Americans are increasingly willing to give up their constitutional rights?
I don't believe they think much about it. It's funny because Americans have two
minds about this. In our mythology we have this sense that the courts are this
great place where David can best Goliath in the courtroom. People still believe
that. And they think it's important. But at the same time they don't fully
understand that these [tort reform] measures minimize that possibility.

Americans think that filing a lawsuit is a form a victimology—that it's an
abdication of personal responsibility. There is a strong sentiment of that in
American culture and there always has been. But if you provide the facts of an
individual case they'll say, "Wait a minute, maybe this person actually should
get some money, because they were injured by someone else's negligent conduct."
Everyone has heard about the McDonald's coffee spill lawsuit. What do people
not know about Stella Liebeck's story? It's so hard to sum up what really
happened in that case in two sentences or less. The headline was, "Old Woman
Spills Coffee on Herself, Wins $3 Million!" People think, coffee is supposed to
be hot—ha ha ha. But what people didn't hear is that the behavior of McDonald's
was rather callous. McDonald's knew a lot of people had been badly burned by
their coffee and still refused to turn the temperature down.

First, you needto know that Stella wasn't driving when she was drinking the coffee, and when it spilled on her, she went into shock and ended up with third-degree burns on the inside of her thighs and other places you would not want to spill hot coffee on. She had to have skin grafts and spent a couple weeks in the hospital. Her
daughter had to almost quit her job to take care of her because the health
insurance money ran out and she had to be released from the hospital [early].
Stella sent a letter to McDonald's, telling them that their coffee was too
hot and to turn the temperature down, and also asking them to pay some of her
medical bills. McDonald's sent her a letter back and said, Sorry, you are out of
luck. We are not going to change our coffee temperature and we'll give you $700
to go away. Stella and her family members were longtime Republicans but she was
so outraged that she consulted an attorney. She ended up suing and the case went
to a mediator. The mediator suggested that McDonald's settle the case for
approximately $225,000, but McDonald's refused and forced the case to go to
trial.

[After-the-fact] interviews with the jurors show that the jury was
very skeptical of the case from the very beginning. But the evidence showed that
there were something like seven or eight hundred complaints that McDonald's had
received about coffee temperature, with witnesses from Shriners Burn Center
testifying that McDonald's coffee was being sold at a temperature hot enough to
peel skin off bone in seven seconds or less. Jurors were shocked and awarded
Liebeck actual damages—compensation for her losses, medical bills, and her
daughter's lost wages. The jury did dock Stella twenty percent, because she did,
in fact, spill the coffee. Then they awarded $2.3 million in punitive damages to
punish McDonald's for its conduct—approximately two days worth of McDonalds'
profits from coffee sales.

What never got the headlines, of course, was that the judge reduced the award to approximately $400,000. The case was eventually settled for something less than that a few years later. So Stella did not get $3 million for spilling coffee on herself.

In researching your book did you encounter any evidence to support the notion that lawsuits drive up the cost of medical malpractice insurance?
No. In theory lawsuits could drive up the cost of insurance, but in medical malpractice the insurers don't make their money off of premiums, they make it off of investments. They take the premiums and invest them in the bond and stock market. There's not much evidence that medical malpractice rates went up because of an epidemic of lawsuits. The spike was caused by the collapse of Enron and WorldCom, because [insurance] companies lost money on stocks, like most of the rest of the country.

Do you think that lawsuit abuse is going to be a big issue in the 2008 campaign? It could be if John Edwards is the nominee. There's a whole industry devoted to attacking trial lawyers, and the Bush Administration tapped into that in the 2004 campaign. They believed John Edwards was a very strong candidate so they worked with tort reform groups to tar him as a former trial lawyer. I'm sure that will all kick
into play if Edwards looks like he might become the Democratic nominee.

What we've complained about for years

I guess you might have to say that this is a window into a concenr I've addressed for years. Yes, many of us have known for a long time that Barrett is truly the 'Quack' of quack watch, and now the courts have pointed this out again.
To the many people in mainstream medicine and the media that cling to Barrett as 'the authority'maybe now you will start to pay attention to those of us who are truly qualified experts in natural health care.
In addition, perhaps the media and others (those superficial researchers dabbling in the false category called CAM) will look to those like me when they are interested in facts and the science behind natural health care.
This might now extend to the US presidential hopefuls claiming to have a health care plan proposal - none addressing right of choice and access to supplements and other healing techniques that would help prevention and reduce costs.

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SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif., June 14
PRNewswire-USNewswire — In a strongly worded opinion,
the Appeals Court for the State of Pennsylvania ruled
against Stephen Barrett, a long-time critic of
chiropractic and alternative health care. In an action
that chiropractors see as a major setback for their
nemesis, the judge refused to overturn a 2005 decision
against Barrett.

The earlier lawsuit was won by chiropractor Tedd
Koren, DC, whose company markets chiropractic
educational pamphlets that Barrett had harshly
criticized.

In his newsletter, Dr. Koren referred to the
self-proclaimed "Quackbuster" as a "Quackpot" and
commented that Barrett was "de-licensed," and "in
trouble." Barrett sued Koren for defamation and lost
the case.

Barrett, who represents himself as an expert on health
care quackery, has appeared as a medical expert in
numerous court cases and claims the FDA, FTC and other
governmental agencies have consulted him on health
care issues. He is noted for his outspoken opposition
to and criticism of non-medical health care
approaches, most of which he labels "quackery." His
targets have included chiropractic, homeopathy,
naturopathy, and even two-time Nobel Prize winner
Linus Pauling.

Heading the legal team for the original Koren case and
appeal was Carlos Negrete, who serves as legal counsel
for the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA).

"This is a great victory for the chiropractic
profession," Koren stated after the Pennsylvania
Appellate Court decision was announced. "Once again,
chiropractors across the country have been vindicated
and exposed the specious and evil attacks by someone
who has no knowledge or expertise in our field."

Negrete specializes in representing alternative health
care providers who are targeted by advocates of the
medical and pharmaceutical industries. His previous
court victories have positioned him as the premier
"health freedom" attorney in the US.

During heated and often dramatic courtroom
proceedings, Negrete pointed out many of the
questionable statements Barrett includes on his
websites attacking chiropractic, as well as facts
about Barrett's own credentials that shocked even his
supporters. Under Negrete's intense cross-examination,
Barrett admitted that he had not been a licensed
physician for more than a decade and had failed the
neurological exam, preventing him from being certified
as a specialist. Negrete demonstrated that, despite
his claims, Barrett had no real expertise in any
medical field.

Barrett also admitted, under questioning, that he
misrepresented himself as a licensed physician in a
previous court case.

"These revelations cast serious doubts about Barrett's
credibility and integrity and were major factors in
the judge's decision," Negrete stated.

Calling the case a "landmark decision" for
chiropractors and alternative care providers, Negrete
noted that "Barrett has made a career out of attacking
core chiropractic values, specifically subluxation,
with no scientific basis for his contentions. This
case clearly shows that his opinions about
chiropractic or other health care options are
irrelevant."

WCA President Terry A. Rondberg, DC, agreed with
Negrete. "This is a turning point not only for
Barrett, but for all unscientific and uninformed
opponents who seek to impose the medical monopoly on
the public. People around the world deserve freedom of
choice in health care and need valid, unbiased and
truthful information on all options available to them.
Thanks in great part to the WCA legal counsel, Carlos
Negrete, they now have a better chance of getting
both."

The World Chiropractic Alliance — an international
organization representing doctors of chiropractic —
promotes traditional, drug-free and non-invasive
chiropractic to correct vertebral subluxations. The
WCA is an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization)
associated with the United Nations Department of
Public Information and publishes the peer-reviewed
chiropractic research journal, Journal of Vertebral
Subluxation Research. For more information, contact
the WCA at 800-347-1011 or
http://www.worldchiropracticalliance.org.

SOURCE World Chiropractic Alliance

10 Simple Steps To Skyrocket Your Natural Testosterone Production

If there is one substance that could be considered the "holy grail" of muscle growth, testosterone would be it.

Quite simply, testosterone is the most important muscle-building hormone in your body and is one of the limiting factors that determines how much muscle you can ultimately build. Here is just a small handful of the many amazing benefits that increased testosterone levels will provide you with...

- Increased muscle size and strength.
- Decreased body fat levels.
- Increased sex drive and sexual endurance.
- Improved mood.
- Decreased levels of "bad" cholesterol.

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Well it is, and in this article I'm going to outline 10 simple steps to naturally raise your testosterone levels and achieve all of these incredible benefits. While these steps will not result in "steroid-like" muscle gains, they will definitely contribute to your overall bottomline results.

1) Use compound exercises as the cornerstone of your workouts. I’m talking about the basic, bread-and-butter lifts such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows, chin-ups, dips, lunges and military presses. These exercises will place your muscles under the greatest amount of stress in the gym and will force your body to increase testosterone production.

2) Always train with 100% effort and intensity. If you want to see real muscle gains, you must be willing to push yourself to the limit in the gym. Again, greater muscular stress in the gym translates to higher testosterone output.

3) Train your legs equally as hard as your upper body. As you may already be aware, intense leg training can actually stimulate growth in your chest, back and arms. This is due in part to the increase in testosterone that leg training induces.

4) Increase your EFA consumption. Essential Fatty Acids from sources such as peanuts, avocadoes, fish and healthy oils like flax seed, olive and canola are a great way to naturally boost testosterone levels.

5) Reduce your intake of soy. Soy protein raises the body’s levels of estrogen (the main female hormone) and this has a direct negative effect on testosterone levels.

6) Limit your consumption of alcohol. Alcohol has been shown to have quite a dramatic effect on testosterone levels, so try to limit your "binge drinking" nights and keep your alcohol consumption in moderation.

7) Increase your dietary intake of cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, turnips, cabbage and brussel sprouts have all been shown to dramatically reduce estrogen levels, thereby raising testosterone.

8) Lower your daily stress levels. Being overly stressed stimulates the release of “cortisol”, a highly catabolic hormone that will cause your testosterone levels to plummet.

9) Increase your sexual activity. Sexual stimulation causes the body to increase the production of oxytocin which increases endorphin production (the "feel-good" chemical), and this also raises testosterone.

10) Make sure to get adequate sleep every night. A lack of sleep contributes to cortisol production, and this will lower your testosterone levels.

Start implementing these techniques on a consistent basis and you should experience a noticeable increase in your muscle size and strength gains.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

Dr. Zorba is out to lunch

Well don't I wish!

Probably not a week goes by that I don't come across some really bad - and WRONG - information given out by this radio doctor aired on your local public radio station.

Calling my station recently about one of the pieces of 'wrong information' doled out by Paster, the program director brusquely pushed me off to his program.

I explained that I had contacted the program a number of times about the pablum dosed out by Zorba, with not even the courtesy of a reply. KPBX couldn't care less.

Well just the other day Zorba disrupted my air ways because I forgot to switch stations as I was in the middle of a project. Here he was telling a mother who had called in about her daughter, herself and allergy remedies.

This mother had chosen a good remedy, Nettle. Nettle is one of the best herbs for allergy in the pollen propulsion season of each year.

Zorba scoffed! and this is certainly demeaning to the caller, in my mind.

Maybe this was the result of his medical training, you know that system that puts women well below men.

So the next time you need to know about natural remedies, contact us. If it's nettle you need to know about - about the best herbal anti-histamine (along with antronex and vitamin c)you can use - go to our webpage.

And our PODCASTS will be returning to the internet shortly, so you'll have more than one venue to get good information and facts.

Here you have some science to counter the HYPE

Most people know little about the two key players in the artificial sweetener market, aspartame and sucralose.

What they do know is more likely than not limited to the marketing and advertising HYPE blasted over the airwaves, online or in print. What they buy into is really a long known health dive, and the risk of very serious problems over time. In some, the problems can and do appear almost immediately.

Aspartame and sucralose (Nutrasweet and Splenda)have in common the fact that both were developed as insecticides. Very few know this, including your local health care provider.

Aspartame is a chemical soup of ingredients that turn into methyl (wood) alcohol when exposed to heat and during digestion.

Sucralose is, according to the Splenda International Patent A23L001-236 and PEP Review #90-1-4 (July 1991), synthesized by this five-step process:
1. sucrose is tritylated with trityl chloride in the presence of dimethylformamide and 4-methylmorpholine and the tritylated sucrose is then acetylated with acetic anhydride,
2. the resulting TRISPA (6,1',6'-tri-O-trityl-penta-O-acetylsucrose) is chlorinated with hydrogen chloride in the presence of toluene,
3. the resulting 4-PAS (sucrose 2,3,4,3',4'-pentaacetate) is heated in the presence of methyl isobutyl ketone and acetic acid,
4. the resulting 6-PAS (sucrose 2,3,6,3',4'-pentaacetate) is chlorinated with thionyl chloride in the presence of toluene and benzyltriethylammonium chloride, and
5. the resulting TOSPA (sucralose pentaacetate) is treated with methanol (wood alcohol, a poison) in the presence of sodium methoxide to produce sucralose. (1)

Even if you don't know what the chemicals are, it should scare any sensible person.

"Splenda (sucralose) is created in the lab, using a complex process involving dozens of chemicals you and I can barely pronounce - let alone consume. Basically, the chemists force chlorine into an unnatural chemical bond with a sugar molecule, resulting in a sweeter product, but at a price: a huge amount of artificial chemicals must be added to keep sucralose from digesting in our bodies. These toxic substances prevent (hopefully) the dangerous chlorine molecules from detaching from the sugar molecule inside the digestive system, which would be a carcinogenic hazard."

So here you have it, and hopefully you too will question these products and stop using them. Find out more at wwww.dorway.com.

Never too late to read the labels on what you buy.

Safe alternatives are agave, stevia and Just Like Sugar.

Massive Shoulders In A Matter Of Minutes

If you’re looking to develop an impressive, muscular physique, well-developed shoulders are an absolute must. Thick, round “cannon ball delts” will make your upper body appear wide and powerful and will help immensely in creating the v-tapered look that all bodybuilders strive for.

Many serious lifters will argue that underneath clothes, muscular shoulders make the greatest contribution toward the overall appearance of the upper body.

The shoulder is a 3-headed muscle that performs the function of lifting and rotating the arm. It consists of the anterior region (the front), the medial region (the middle) and the posterior region (the rear). These heads can be stimulated in the gym using two different movements: an overhead press and a raise.

The overhead press is the meat and potatoes of effective shoulder training. There isn’t a single lift out there that can match the incredible shoulder-stimulating effect of a basic overhead pressing movement. Both a barbell and a dumbbell can be used for this exercise, but dumbbells are the best overall choice.

Dumbbells allow you to move through a more natural range of motion and also don’t allow one arm to cheat for the other. They also place a greater amount of total stress on the shoulder region in comparison to the barbell, which shifts some of the stress to the upper chest.

I would recommend using the seated overhead dumbbell press as your core shoulder movement. Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on a bench with a vertical back support. Press the dumbbells overhead until your elbows are just short of locking out, and then lower them back to shoulder level.

The next exercise to look into is a basic side lateral raise, which can also be performed with a pair of dumbbells. Side laterals are an isolation exercise and will shift the majority of the stress to the medial head of the shoulder. This will build greater shoulder width and will contribute to that wide upper body look. Stand with your knees slightly bent and hold a pair of dumbbells with your palms facing inward. With a slight bend in your arms, raise the dumbbells up to shoulder level and then lower them back to the starting position.

When it comes to training your shoulders for maximum size and strength, a basic overhead press and a side lateral raise is all you need. It’s very important to realize that the shoulders are stimulated on virtually every single upper body exercise that you perform and therefore they do not require a lot of direct work.

Most people perform far too much work on their shoulders and actually hinder their gains as a result. Because of this I typically do not recommend that you perform isolation exercises for the anterior and posterior heads.

The anterior heads are heavily stressed during all chest pressing movements while the posterior heads are hit equally hard on all rowing movements for the back. A couple of extra sets won’t hurt, but you should try to minimize the volume as much as you can.

The key to massive shoulders is quality, not quantity.

Here are a couple of sample shoulder routines that you can use:

1) Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press – 2 sets of 5-7 repsStanding Dumbbell Side Laterals – 1-2 sets of 10-12 reps

If you insist on performing isolation exercises for the front and rear heads, you can use this routine:

2) Seated Overhead Dumbbell Press – 2 sets of 5-7 repsStanding Dumbbell Side Laterals – 1-2 sets of 10-12 repsStanding Front Dumbbell Raise – 1 set of 10-12 repsSeated Rear Lateral Dumbbell Raise – 1 set of 10-12 reps

There you have it.

All sets should be taken to complete muscular failure where no additional reps can be completed using proper form. Keep a detailed record of each workout and strive for continual improvement from week to week by either increasing the resistance or the number of reps performed.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

Using the Right Food Achieves the Same Effect, Naturally and Safely

Of course when money is the driving factor little or no research into nutrition and its relationship to health problems is seen.

Eating Sesame Seed, Halvah, and using Sesame Seed Oil in your diet - all promote platelets.

Food indeed is YOUR BEST MEDICINE

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Glaxo drug hikes platelets, cuts bleeding in study
Sat Jun 9, 8:51 AM ET

GlaxoSmithKline Plc's experimental platelet-boosting drug eltrombopag has produced further positive results in patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP), researchers said on Saturday.

Eltrombopag, which Glaxo plans to sell as Revolade in Europe and Promacta in the United States, is one of several novel drugs in the group's pipeline which it believes have blockbuster potential.

Results from a pivotal Phase III study presented at the European Hematology Association congress in Vienna showed 50 to 75 milligrams once daily resulted in a statistically significant increase in platelet counts and also reduced bleeding in people with chronic ITP.

The placebo-controlled trial involved 114 adults and patients studied had previously received and failed current standard ITP treatments.

ITP is an autoimmune disease which results in low blood platelet counts. Because platelets contribute to blood clotting, patients with low counts bleed more easily than others, heal more slowly and bruise more often.

Eltrombopag, which is given as a pill, was discovered as a result of a research collaboration between Glaxo and Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc..

2 Simple Steps To Ripped, Shredded Muscles

Picture this scenario...

You've been training your tail off for the past 4 months, trying to pack on as much muscle size as you possibly can. You've bulked up considerably and are quite happy with the size you've been able to achieve.

There's just one problem...

Along with all of that solid, lean muscle you've gained, you notice that you've also packed on some excess body fat in the process.

Let's face it, no matter how "huge" you might be, no one wants to be walking around with a soft, smooth and flabby body. After most trainees have finished their "bulking" phase, they decide that it's time to "cut down" and strip off the excess body fat that they gained due to their high calorie, muscle-building diet.

How do they usually go about this?

They lighten up the weights and perform higher reps.

This has always been a widely accepted method of “cutting down” and if you ask most trainers in the gym they’ll tell you that “heavy weights bulk up the muscle and lighter weights define the muscle”.

Do you want to know the reality behind the “light weight and high reps” method of obtaining a ripped and defined physique?

It is completely, totally and utterly DEAD WRONG.

It couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, there is no logical basis for this way of training whatsoever, and whoever dreamt up this downright ridiculous way of thinking has caused the vast majority of lifters to waste their time and impede their progress in the gym.

Let me clear this up once and for all: you CANNOT spot reduce. In other words, it is physically impossible to target fat loss from a specific area on your body. Performing bench presses with light resistance and high repetitions will not magically burn fat off of your chest or cause it to appear harder and more defined.

Every single time you wrap your hands around a barbell, dumbbell or cable, your goal is to stimulate as much muscle growth as you possibly can. There are no special, secret weightlifting exercises that will “define” your muscles or cause them to become more “ripped”.

Training with weights builds muscle mass, end of story.

So how exactly do you “define” a muscle?

The only way to “define” a muscle is by lowering your body fat percentage in order to make your muscles more visible. Body fat reduction can be achieved in two ways:

1) Modify your diet.

You'll need to create a slight caloric deficit within your body to stimulate the fat burning process. This can usually be achieved by lowering your overall caloric intake to around 11-13x your bodyweight and focusing on consuming smaller meals more frequently throughout the day. This will keep your metabolism naturally raised at all times and will keep your body in a constant fat burning state.

2) Perform proper cardio workouts.

Let go of the traditional method of moderate intensity cardio in 30-45 minute durations. If you want to maximize your body’s fat burning capacity and also minimize the muscle loss that inevitably accompanies a fat burning cycle, focus on shorter, 15-minute cardio workouts performed 3-5 times per week at a high level of intensity.

That’s all there is to it, folks. Take the notion of “light weight and higher reps” and throw it right out the window, down the street and around the corner. Following this misguided method will only cause you to lose muscle mass and strength, and will not assist you in burning fat or defining your physique.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj

The 5 Golden Rules Of Staying Injury-Free In The Gym

Listen, if you want to get big, you have to train big.

Entering the gym and simply going through the motions without a sweat just isn’t going to get the job done. You have to overload those muscles with heavy weight and high intensity if you want to see real results. This is without a doubt the most effective means of stimulating muscular growth.

Muscles grow due to a natural adaptive survival response, and if you don’t give them a damn good reason to grow, well, they won’t.

While training hard and heavy may be awesome for your muscles, it can be trouble for the health of your joints and connective tissue. This is simply the reality of intense weight training, and while there are no guarantees that you will be able to completely avoid getting injured, you can certainly take specific steps to lessen the chance.

An injury is the absolute last thing you could ever hope for, as it will stop you dead in your muscle-building tracks.

Down below I’m going to outline my “5 golden rules” when it comes to minimizing the risk of injury. If you can honestly say that you implement all 5 of these into your training program, then your risk of getting hurt will be much lower than someone who does not.

1) Always perform a thorough warmup.

A proper warmup is the single best thing you can do to minimize your risk of injury. This simple 15-20 minute process will prepare your mind and body for the hard work to come by increasing blood flow into the surrounding connective tissue and by lubricating your joints. I would recommend that you perform 5 minutes of light cardiovascular exercise before each workout followed by 4-5 warmup sets for your first major exercise of the routine.

2) Always train with proper form.

This should go without saying. Every exercise that you perform in the gym should be done with proper form and technique in order to keep the stress off of your joints. If you start squatting or deadlifting with a rounded back, jerking the weights around in a ballistic manner or performing dangerous exercises you are almost guaranteed to hurt yourself at some point.

3) Always train within your own personal limits.

Weightlifting is a personal battle, and letting your ego take over is almost always a recipe for disaster. It doesn’t matter what the guy next to you is benching and it is completely irrelevant to your training program. You must always use weights that you can handle and control with proper form, and if you start piling on the plates to impress the people around you, you’ll be stretching your limits and putting yourself in a very vulnerable position.

4) Always know when to quit.

If you cannot complete another rep of an exercise using proper form, the set is over, plain and simple. Put the weight down and rest up for your next set. If you start using huge amounts of momentum and jerky body motions to crank out a couple of extra reps, you’ll be on the sidelines before you know it.

5) Never ignore your aches and pains.

When you’re motoring along through a training program and are making progress from week to week, the idea of quitting just seems impossible. This can sometimes lead us to ignore those obvious injuries and pretend as if they aren’t really there as we often “work through” the pain and hope that it magically disappears.

More often than not, it will only get worse. If you feel that something definitely isn’t right and can sense that you probably shouldn’t be training, Get the problem checked out by a professional and then take the proper measures to heal. While it may hurt your progress in the short term, the overall long-term effect will be a positive one.

MuscleGainTruth.com

Best regards,

Sean Nalewanyj