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If you’re serious about your health, then you probably already know which foods to eat and which to avoid (any processed food or high glycemic index ). Even though you already have this knowledge, you could still be missing some hidden benefits in the foods you eat.

To unlock the full nutritional potential of your meals, remember that the vegetables, fruits, and other whole foods we eat are living organisms, too. As such, they have their own self defense biomechanisms to protect them from predators. The byproduct of these biological mechanisms such as trace elements, carotenoids, polyphenols, flavonoids and phytochemicals can also protect us from health problems.

Garlic

Garlic offers enormous health benefits , but many people shoot themselves in the foot for the way they cook with it. People tend to mince garlic and immediately throw it into a heat source. There’s no question that the added garlic adds an unparalleled depth of flavor, sadly, the rush to pan kills the primary health benefits of garlic.

Garlic contains a protein element called alliin and a heat-sensitive enzyme called alliinase . When you cut a thin membrane from garlic, alliin and alliinase are synthesized into an antimicrobial compound called allicin, which may have the ability to fight cancer and heart-related diseases.

Garlic sounds amazing so far, but here’s the catch: A group of food chemists pointed out that applying heat immediately after cutting garlic destroys alliinase – that very enzyme needed to form the most valuable component of garlic. . By this time, most of its healing properties have been completely lost and are on fire.

The good news is that you can still cook garlic and reap its properties (and flavor), simply by letting the chopped garlic rest for a bit. That’s it. Once you mince the garlic, keep it away from heat and let it rest for 8-10 minutes before cooking. This short wait time allows the allicin process to complete.

Potatoes

The fast-digesting starches found in potatoes actually raise blood sugar almost as high and as fast as eating white sugar with a spoon. This is especially true if you buy the standard supermarkets like the white meat Russet or ready-to-fry potatoes.

Although our bodies are designed to handle the rapid rise in blood glucose from high glycemic foods with a hormone called insulin, consuming large amounts of sugary foods on a regular basis can lead to a condition called resistance to insulin.

At that point, blood glucose can no longer be adequately controlled without medication. The development of this process usually leads to type 2 diabetes.

The solution is to cook the potato and then chill it in the fridge for approximately 24 hours. The colder temperature lowers the glycemic index of starches, lowering it by 25 percent, resulting in a rise in blood glucose. The pancreas will thank you, as it is responsible for the release of insulin. Excessive demands on the pancreas from repeated glucose spikes damage the organ over time.

From that moment on, the cold will lower the glycemic index of the potatoes for you to enjoy, worry-free. You can also slow down the digestion of starch by adding fat to potatoes (olive oil for example)

Carrots

For mysterious reasons, carrots cut after they have been cooked provide more nutritional value than cut them before they have been cooked.

For some, this may be a disappointing realization, as raw carrots are some of the most portable and convenient veggies for snacking.

Surprisingly, cooking the whole carrot and then slicing it will increase its nutritional value and improve the taste. Carrots cooked without chopping tend to be sweeter, but more importantly, they retain about more than 25 percent of a compound called falcarinol, which protects carrots from diseases caused by fungi in nature. Falcarinol has cancer-fighting properties.

Carrots also contain beta-carotene – a healthy compound that makes them that orange color. Do not forget that in order to absorb this nutrient you have to combine them with some fats.

Walnuts

Nuts of all kinds are packed with protein, omega-6 fatty acids, trace minerals, and make a great and convenient snack. Unfortunately, nuts in their unaltered form also contain high amounts of “anti-nutrients,” more specifically phytic acid, lectins, enzyme inhibitors, and in some cases, even mold.

Phytic acid and these anti-nutrients are indigestible in humans and wreak havoc on the body as they greedily cling to minerals like calcium, iron, zinc, and others. Consuming a large amount of these nuts without first putting it through a process called sprouting could lead to severe mineral deficiencies and loss of bone density.

Sprouts consist of soaking the walnuts in water (salted water, or sometimes an acidic solution also works) for a predetermined length of time. Exposure to moisture mimics something that occurs in nature when walnuts create enzymes to break down anti-nutrients. What this ultimately means is that properly sprouted nuts have increased their nutritional value and will be easier to digest.

The dive time depends on the type and quantity, and can vary from a few hours to a full day.

Vegetables

Boiled vegetables are still a staple among fat-loss-wanting people and bodybuilders’ diets. Chicken and boiled vegetables, anyone? Certainly, it is quick, comfortable and easy to do. But have you ever wondered why the cooking water turns green after broccoli floats around for a while? Perhaps even sadder is that the water pours quickly without even a shrug of the shoulders, leaving nothing but a less nutritious bundle of green matter fibers that can hardly be called broccoli.

It turns out that boiled veggies are perhaps the fastest way to lose nutrients. In addition to making the step towards an absolutely tasteless meal, boiled vegetables filter out all the valuable nutrients soluble in the cooking water. At that point, you should only drink the water in order to save the loose nutrients.

If you want to take advantage of eating veggies in the first place, consider sautéing the veggies with a little butter or oil, or even steaming it.

It doesn’t matter how hard you train or how blessed you happen to be genetically. Without proper nutrition , you will never reach your full potential when it comes to gaining muscle mass .

Even those people who seem to gain muscle mass just by looking at the weights can benefit from having proper nutrition on their side.

But sometimes feeding your body can be tricky. Unless you know what you are doing, poor nutrition can lead you astray and become a hindrance rather than a help.

Nutrition tips to gain muscle mass

In this article I will show you 5 rules that you can follow this New Year to gain muscle mass .

1. The frequency of meals

It doesn’t matter how often you eat, it doesn’t matter if you eat three times a day or take six containers of food to work, this is not more important than the total number of calories and macronutrients. Some men and women prefer to eat four times a day, while others can eat eight times a day. The best choice is the one that allows you to stay on your diet. As long as you manage to consume the calories and macronutrients you need. The number of servings won’t make a difference.

We have to have a rational mindset and remember that if your calorie intake is almost 4,000, it could be difficult to eat only four meals (it would give us 1000 calories per meal)

2. Consume shakes

Instead of struggling to get 3,000-4,000 calories per day from whole foods, using protein / carbohydrate and fat shakes can help you reach your daily goals without making you feel uncomfortable or bloated from so many whole foods. Skip “weight gainers” products that provide 1,000 calories or more and are full of simple sugars and unhealthy fats. Look for products like whey protein isolate, whey protein concentrate, and whole egg, which have high protein values ​​of 159, 104, and 100, respectively. Do you want to be more practical? Create your own shake rich in nutrients: you can add protein powder, ground oats, banana, ground almonds, flax seeds, dried coconut, natural nut butters, oils and anything else you want to include.

3. The body type

One factor that is often overlooked when planning a diet and training program is your body type. You might get the best bulking diet out of a magazine or online, but it might not do you much good if it was designed with someone else in mind. Ectomorphs generally require more calories, carbohydrates, and often more fat in their diet, while endomorphs will want to be more careful with the total number of calories to see how their body reacts and avoid unwanted fat gains. Mesomorphs are the lucky ones. They will generally see relatively good results with moderate calories.

These categories play differently for each one, but are great for helping you set your expectations and strategies. Don’t be obsessed with them, but definitely keep them in mind.

4. Eat simple carbohydrates

Would you like to eat a plate of spaghetti? Just because you’re on a diet doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it once in a while. Just be sure to time your carbohydrate intake correctly, especially simple carbohydrates. The two best times to eat these are first thing in the morning – because you are coming off “fasting” and after your workout, when you can use carbs to kick start recovery, refill glycogen stores and help. in the process of muscle growth.

5. Plan your day

Having a plan of when you are going to eat, what you are going to eat and how much you are going to eat instead of just improvising increases your chances of success. muscle growth is not an excuse to eat more. If you want to maximize results, use the same precision with your bulking diet as you would for definition. Take some time each week to dedicate yourself to creating your diet. It’s the best way to guarantee results!

The years go by and you realize that your muscles are suddenly not growing like they used to. Your muscles stop responding to your heavy training, no matter how hard you’ve been training intensely. From what you tell yourself, now I will train harder. So now you put in a three hour session but you are foolishly not realizing that that will only reduce the size of your muscles.

Ahhhhh, the stagnation ! It affects all of us and very few of us can be saved from it. In fact, most people don’t know that they are stuck and blame genetics for not growing. Don’t worry, if you read the following tips, I can assure you that your muscles will grow again and make them bigger.

1. Change the repeating ranges.

Surely every day you do 5-9 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions … There is nothing wrong with that range, it is also ideal for hypertrophy or muscle building. But total physical development also requires strength, which occurs in ranges below 1-5 reps and muscular endurance, which is performed with high reps of 20-30.

Give your body a break. Move to a new rep range for a few weeks. If you are stuck, you must change your workouts to keep growing. It will be a new change of pace for your muscles and force them to respond again.

For example : 3 weeks you do strength, then you spend 2 weeks in muscular endurance and you go back to the original rep range and you will observe the change. You will be surprised.

If you are an experienced bodybuilder, you may need more intensity to get your muscles’ attention.

The idea of ​​ drop sets is to do a set of strings on failure or near failure, but the work doesn’t end here. When you hit failure with a high weight, immediately grab a light weight and do as many sets as you can until failure. Drop sets will help you reduce your gym time, a higher percentage of muscle fibers will be stimulated and you will get better results.

3. Take an inventory of your diet.

When was the last time you did a diet check ? If it’s been more than a month, do it right now. Your diet dictates results. If you don’t eat well, it will be difficult to make progress. “ When you climb a mountain, it constantly changes its terrain; change with it or stay where you are ”.

For example , if you’re in bulk, it might be time to give yourself a calorie boost – enough to give a new spark to muscle growth. Perform a reassessment every 6 to 8 weeks to maximize progress and avoid stalling.

Also remember that every kilo you gain you have to modify your diet. You are not going to consume the same when you were at 90 kilos as now that you are at 95, for example.

4. Rest

In some cases, resting for about 2 weeks from your training is the best way to improve results. You may not even know that you are overtrained if you never take time off. After the break, you will be bigger and stronger.

Consistency in training is important, but training too hard every day in the gym can lead to fatigue, even boredom. In the end, the results slow down or stop altogether.

5. Periodization

What does this mean? Professional athletes train for seasons using periodization. The periods are generally built parts or phases of 4-6. Each phase has its own or unique goal or objective. When it comes to bodybuilding this can be an amazing concept when you really plan well.

Basically periodization is doing a different type of training / diet style every 4-5 months, for example:

• January-March: Strength (The goal is to gain as much strength as possible)
• April-June: Muscle Volume (The goal is to gain muscle mass without worrying about the fat that can be obtained)
• July-December: Muscle Definition (The goal is to lose all the fat that you have gained in the Strength / Volume phase but trying not to lose the muscle already gained ) In this phase, the diet has to be perfect and not abuse cardiovascular exercise.

After you have finished your training , your body is very exhausted and looking for nutrients to use to start the repair process, which allows us to heal and get stronger for our next exercise session . During the first 90 minutes after our training session, our insulin sensitivity is much higher and slowly decreases.

This is because our weight training routine has shocked our body and uses a lot of its fuel right away and is willing to replace it. So during this time, it is a good idea to eat a lot of carbohydrates.

Increased insulin levels after training is not harmful and will not cause an increase in fat storage as the nutrients will go to skeletal muscle at this time.

After training, fast absorbing carbohydrates are recommended. You will need blood sugar levels to rise rapidly to transport nutrients to the muscles . Carbohydrates with a glycemic index of 100 would be the most optimal. We also want it to be in liquid form for faster absorption. Maltodextrin and dextrose are the best options.

After your training you can consume up to 30% of your total daily calorie consumption without worrying since your body will not store it in fat, as I said before. There are several things to take into account when post-training:

• Don’t stop eating, even if you’re not hungry or don’t want to.
• Drink plenty of water with food and afterwards.
• Eat some protein with your meal, so carbohydrates and water will help transport protein into the cell to begin repairing muscles. (There will be a small insulin spike in your system.)
• Try to avoid consuming fat with this meal, as it slows down the rate of digestion and lowers the insulin spike.
• A post-workout drink, such as a commercial meal replacement supplement, is optimal for providing adequate amounts of protein and carbohydrates, to aid protein synthesis and limit protein breakdown.

Supplements you can use in post-training:

1. Whey protein

It is essential in creating the insulin spike and in helping to build new muscle. It is a must to consume it if you train. Some say you need a ton of protein right after training, but if you eat tons of protein, you’re just going to pee it out.

Protein companies want to make you think that you should consume large amounts of it and that way they make more money. So don’t eat more protein than your body can handle or you’ll end up in the bathroom.

2. Dextrose and maltrodextrin

These are also very important in achieving your insulin spike. It also helps to quickly reload your glycogen reserves. They are cheap and you can buy them in almost any store.

3. Creatine

During the insulin spike, if creatine is present in the blood, it enters the muscle along with the insulin. Creatine increases your ATP (adenosine triphosphate) stores faster rather than letting your own body replace them.

4. Antioxidants

These supplements are important in reducing muscle fatigue. They are used for your body to create the two enzymes to control free radicals. They reduce muscle fatigue by preventing free radicals from damaging muscle tissue. Some oxidants are vitamin E and C or zinc, to name a few. There are many more and you can buy them as supplements.

5. BCAA (branched-chain amino acids)

BCAAs are great for maintaining nitrogen balances. They are digested in skeletal muscle and prevent muscle fatigue.

95% of the work to get a 6-pack abs is losing body fat and abdominal exercise will not. If you have a beer belly, you can sit-ups year-round and still won’t have a strong abs. You may have abdominal muscles very developed, but if they are covered in fat, then no one is going to see them.

Losing weight and having strong abs is as easy as following these 3 steps.

1. Exercise a little more
2. Eat a little less
3. Drink lots of water

When people think about losing weight , what comes to mind are words like “hunger,” “deprivation,” “diet,” and “agony.” No! Losing weight properly will not lead to any of these, the key is in the previous two words “common sense”. Most of the fad diets out there are unhealthy, dangerous, or both, and usually lead to misery and hunger which ultimately leads to bingeing and guilt.

Good nutrition + exercise = marked abs

There is no such thing as spot fat removal despite what the late night commercials try to sell you. You cannot remove “target” fat unless you have liposuction. All you can do is lose weight and let the body decide where the fat is coming from. Let’s talk about expectations, you cannot be marked in 10 days or up to 30 days. A weight loss program will allow you to lose weight gradually, one pound per week is a good point – 2 pounds per week maximum. If you count 50 pounds overweight it will take 6 months to a year to remove it. Losing fat at this gradual rate means that you will never feel hungry or deprived. Another reason to lose weight little by little is for your body not to burn the muscle that you have gained in your training. Nobody!

1. To lose weight: Exercise more

You lose fat when you burn more calories than you consume. To burn calories you need to do at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise every day. Do not worry, cardiovascular exercise does not burn muscles, in fact it can help you gain muscle
Of course, it must be borne in mind that it is proven that performing more than 1 hour of cardiovascular exercise causes muscle loss.

And what constitutes a cardiovascular exercise?

Cardiovascular exercise is one that raises the heart rate between 70% -85% of its maximum for at least 20 minutes. What is the best cardio for weight loss? For most people, walking is the best form of cardio! Easy, pleasant risk and low point of injury. For a young person in good health, jogging or swimming are other good options for cardiovascular exercise. You can also use hybrid workouts or sports for your cardiovascular training.

It is not only the realization of cardiovascular exercise important for the loss of fat, the weight lifting is just as important or more when it comes to losing fat. Weight lifting burns calories too and most importantly helps your muscles grow.

Caution: A few words of warning, you shouldn’t fall into the trap of thinking that because you’re exercising you can eat whatever you want – you can’t. No matter how much exercise you do, if you eat more calories than you burn with your training, this way you will end up gaining fat instead of losing it.

2. To lose weight: eat less

The second part of losing fat is eating less, that is, consuming fewer calories. Remember this does not mean starving yourself or becoming destitute!

Most people fail to achieve their goals, not because of eating too much but because of eating enough! If you are hungry it means that you are doing something very wrong. Unless you are a bodybuilder eating less does not mean that you should give up all the foods you like. If you have a craving for your favorite food then you are human!

There are many nutrition methods when it comes to weight loss and they all work, at least in the short term. How they differ is in their state of health and if the results are long-term, long-lasting or not!

Basics of good nutrition

Let’s start with something basic that applies to all nutrition methods when it comes to losing fat – it is important to eat many small meals rather than a few large ones. You cannot lose weight by eating one or two meals a day, this puts your body in starvation mode and reduces your metabolism. You need 3-6 meals a day. I know you are thinking, “I can’t eat six times a day, I don’t have time!” Well, I can’t cook more than three meals a day for work and I can even eat six healthy meals a day.

The small meals that you eat each day should be well balanced – what does this mean? It depends a bit on your eating plan, but most of each meal should probably be vegetables and whole grains, some type of lean protein (beans, dairy, meat), and a small amount of fruit. Your body doesn’t store protein, you just can’t eat a big steak for dinner and call this your daily protein.

What should we have in our meals?

Every meal should have at least

• 1/6 of your daily protein requirement
• should contain a lot of vegetables without sauces (fresh or steamed), the more the better. Vegetables that fill up with only a few calories, this is the key to avoiding hunger!
• It should not have more than 25% of the calories from fat (only good fats like avocados, olives, nuts)
• You should have whole grain carbohydrates for energy like oatmeal, brown rice, or quinoa. Avoid simple carbohydrates like sugar.
• Must have a small portion of fruit

People ask me all the time what a healthy snack is. Well, a healthy snack is something that fits into your nutrition plan for the day without exceeding the calorie allowance or the number of grams of fat, protein, and carbohydrates that you have decided is appropriate.

3. Drink lots of water

Drinking lots of water can help you lose weight! There are several ways this works, the main way is that two glasses of water that you should consume before your meal makes your stomach feel full so you eat less.

We already talked in the previous article about the reasons why a bodybuilder needs to consume water.

How to deal with cravings

Cravings are a very common problem when people try to lose body fat. Each one has its own particular vices, mine is sugar. We are going to talk about some methods that you can use to effectively treat withdrawal symptoms.

The best way is to have a healthy meal all week but one day you can go out and eat something different this way you can avoid eating unhealthy food throughout the week without going out of your diet plan.

If you want to increase the size of your arms, one of the most important things you can do is focus on the work of the triceps muscle. When your triceps are well developed, your arms will be much more noticeable since this muscle constitutes a very important part of the mass of the arm in general.

Many bodybuilders do not take the time to develop this muscle, as they are much more concerned with working the biceps. While biceps training is also important, having a good balance in upper body training is vital.

Anatomy of the triceps

The triceps has three heads: the lateral, middle and long head. These muscles connect the humerus and shoulder blade to the bone in the forearm called the ulna. It’s important to make sure you incorporate exercises that affect all three of these heads to fully develop the back of your upper arm. Simply doing a triceps exercise will not be enough.

Training days

In the old days of bodybuilding, you trained your triceps on the same day as your chest. In fact, many bodybuilders still do. However, this old school technique may not be the best way to develop them if you are looking for optimal triceps size or if your triceps are lagging behind.

If you work triceps after chest, you will not be able to use an optimal weight to overload the triceps, which have already been partially worked as part of your chest routine.

Giving your triceps full focus to carry more weight while fresh will improve your results.

Exercises that you can use to really get the full size of your triceps.

1. Close grip bench press

It’s a great exercise to hit the middle and lateral heads of the triceps. This exercise can be performed in flat, incline, or declination variations. Between 10 and 25 degrees of decline or incline is recommended.

Take a deep breath and hold your breath as you lower the bar to your chest. When you go to touch the pecs, reverse the direction and push the bar up.

Expel the air when you pass the most difficult point of the ascending phase.

The elbows should point to the front and stay close to the sides during the ascent and descent. Keep your hands about 13 centimeters apart. Holding your hands close together increases the pressure on your elbows and wrists.

2. Lying dumbbell extensions:

This exercise hits all three heads of the triceps. You are going to have to go a little lighter and more careful in this exercise, in order to maintain strict form during the negative phase of the exercise. A dumbbell and a bench are all that we have to use to perform the horizontal bench dumbbell extensions exercise. Bring the dumbbells to the end of the bench and sit on it. Now grab each dumbbell with one hand, or one hand, and bring them to your chest. Raise and stretch your arms and, from this position, bend your forearm to the side. Thus, during the execution of this exercise, the arms remain in their natural position, without twisting the forearm or wrist, which facilitates its execution and allows the use of a little heavier dumbbells.

You can also do this exercise with one hand, for a better concentration on the muscle.

3. High pulley triceps extensions:

Standing, facing the device, with the hands on the handle and the elbows aligned with the body, make an extension of the forearms, trying not to separate the elbows from the body. Exhale at the end of the movement.

With this exercise we work the three heads of the brachial triceps and the anconeus.

Triceps extensions can be done with the reverse grip; that is, with the palms facing up, working the inner head of the triceps.

Another way to do it in stirrups, in this case the repetitions corresponding to a series with one arm are performed and immediately the repetitions of the other arm are followed before moving to the rest phase between series.