The Adler Blog

One of the common assumptions in gyms all over the planet is that ” high reps make you big or build muscle, high reps get you lean.”  So without fail, you see tons of guys and girls squeezing out endless reps with tiny weights in order to “get cut”. Since everybody is doing it, it must work.

Really? Lets look at that particular statement. To begin with, building muscle or losing fat has more to do with what you do in the kitchen as opposed to what happens on the gym floor.

Lower reps ( lets assume 6-10 reps) and higher weights do indeed stimulate muscular hypertrophy in the muscle, when combined with excess calories, especially protein, muscle growth occurs. While dieting, this process simply can not happen since there is no caloric excess (if you use your SUC correctly). But wouldn’t lifting a weight more often not burn more calories? True, but the difference is negligible. While dieting, the purpose of training with weights is not to build muscle but to keep whatever muscle tissue you are carrying.

Why is that important? Well, first of all muscle gives your body shape, it keeps you alive and most importantly, burns calories while resting. It is crucial to hold on to your muscle while trying to lose body fat in order to keep you metabolism from plummeting.

Muscle adheres to the use-it or lose -it principle, if it is not being used it will be broken down since it costs energy to sustain muscle. Case in point, the upper bodies of cyclists and runners. In order to keep your muscle, you will need to work it almost maximum capacity which is about 6-10 reps in good form. If you feel weak, due to your reduced food intake, reduce the sets you are performing but always try to hit your goal weights.

So there is no place for high rep sets when dieting? The one time, where I would see the use is if someone is following a cyclical keto diet and is carbing up once a week. In order to achieve complete glycogen depletion, some high rep sets would be in order.

However, the vast majority of dieters will do fine with 4-8 heavy sets per body part.

Till next time

 Scott and Maik

When it comes to cardio and fat loss, it really is a case of the blind leading the blind. Most trainees have been made believe that cardio burns only fat and weight lifting only builds muscle, hence you must combine the two to create a perfect physique.
Aside from the fact, that weight lifting is very similar in its results for fat loss than cardio when viewed over a 24 hours period, it also offers the potential of reshaping the body which cardio doesn’t.
Still ,cardio can be used as an additional energy expenditure to lose more weight as long as a proper weight lifting protocol is being followed.
For a long time, it was very common to get on the stepper/treadmill first thing in the morning to “burn only fat”. The reasoning is that your body doesnt have any nutrients to burn so it will use fat for fuel. Sounds logical but doesnt work that way.
When looking at fat loss, one has to look at a 24 hour time span not just the actuall exercise time. Studies have shown that a pre cardio-workout carb feeding did not decrease fat oxidation in any significant manner, so the amount of fat lost was the same.
But it did two very important things: it allowed the athlete to train with greater overall intensity, meaning more overall energy was used and it acted as a protection for the muscle and prevent catabolism (loss of muscle). The less muscle you lose while dieting, the higher your BMR will remain. Always remember, dieting is about losing weight not weight.
If you are on a very low-carb diet and simply do not have any room for carbs, simply consume some whey protein before the workout for a similar effect.
Till next time
Maik
Sources
Melanson EL, et al. Resistance and aerobic exercise have similar effects on 24-h nutrient oxidation.. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2002 Nov;34(11):1793-800.
Ahlborg, G., and P. Felig. Influence of glucose ingestion on fuel-hormone response during prolonged exercise. J. Appl. Physiol. 1976;41:683-688.
Coyle, et al.. Carbohydrates during prolonged strenuous exercise can delay fatigue. J. Appl. Physiol. 59: 429-433, 1983.
Horowitz JF, et al. Substrate metabolism when subjects are fed carbohydrate during exercise. Am J Physiol. 1999 May;276(5 Pt 1):E828-35.

When you spend enough time in gyms, you can not help but notice the vast majority of people never gets in shape. When I say majority, I mean more than 80%. Why is that? It is certainly not the lack of time they spent working out; most of them actually appear daily.

One major factor is certainly nutrition; very often people try to out-exercise a poor diet, which simply never works.

But what strikes me even more is that these people do the same workouts for years on end. Why would your body change if it is not being challenged?

Take a look at your calves; they are not getting leaner or stronger from walking because you are using the same resistance (your bodyweight). So, if you are still using the same weights you used last year, you simply have not progressed.

Albert Einstein said: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Unfortunately, this is what happens in every gym on the planet. Don’t be that person!! Change things up, lift heavier weights, shorten you breaks, change your grip on the bench, stance on the squat; whatever it takes challenge your body (but please, do not get on those stability balls, they of very little value).

Embrace the soreness, it means you are creating a new body!

Till next time,
Maik and Scott

How is everybody doing? Things in NY are great, both Scott and I are trying to put on weight (muscle that is). So far, we managed to get some good lean gains with getting too fat

Since Jon wrote such a great post yesterday , I felt I should pick up on this struggle with alcohol and just lay out some facts so that everybody can decide for themselves.

Drum roll please……
Anybody, who is trying to lose weight, will come across the question whether to drink or not to drink. Does alcohol kill you six-pack or is it ok to have a drink? If so, how many? Will red wine make me live forever?

Let’s look at the facts:

1. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram, which adds up quickly.
2.It increases your metabolic rate. However, the increase in BMR is for a very short term only.
3. The digestion of alcohol stops fat loss almost completely. Here is how. Alcohol gets broken down into acetate, which holds first priority for energy usage. You have to imagine acetate as similar to President Obama’s motorcade: as long as he is driving on 5th Ave, nobody else will. Your body will not burn any fat until the acetate is gone, which can last up to 12 hours. So if you drink 4 times per week, it translates into 48 hours of non-fat burning….you do the math.
4. Attention, guys! Heavy drinking (5 drinks or more per sitting) will lower your testosterone which means less muscle and more body fat.
5. Excessive (same threshold as above) alcohol usage hampers your recovery so you won’t be able to train as hard as you might need. Coordination is also impaired for up to 48 hours.
6. Alcohol stimulates the appetite and lowers inhibitions. Chicken wings, anyone? Bar food is notoriously bad; I have never found steamed vegetables in a beer garden.
7. Considering the potential health benefits of wine and beer, the jury is still out on that. It occurs that resveratrol, a substance found in grapes, might be helpful to lower the risk of heart disease. But to achieve that, you don’t necessarily need to consume wine; grapes will do.

In my opinion, all points above seem to make alcohol a very bad choice for a serious dieter. In addition, mixed drinks and cocktails are extremely high in sugar and should be avoided at all costs – a piña colada can set you back 600 calories.

However, the best diet is the one you can stick to. If you don’t drink, keep it that way. If you enjoy a glass of wine or beer, do it twice a week. In the long run, happy dieters are usually more successful.

So there you have it: the lowdown on alcohol.
Train hard!
Scott and Maik

In the last segment, I spoke about how to set up your macronutrients and calories for a successful diet. Today, I want to try answering the question as to when to eat. To be very clear, overall calories matter much more than nutrient timing, so first of all you need to make sure you have your overall caloric intake in check and know your macros.
Most people have heard that you should eat 3 meals and 2 snacks during the day. This is a good guideline, even though heavy athletes in training can require more meals. Michael Phelps, just as an example, eats about 12,000 calories a day – it would be impossible to fit that into three meals.

So, we have 3 meals and 2 snacks. Are any meals more important than others?
Absolutely! Breakfast and peri-workout meals (meals eaten within a 2-hour window of the workout) are critical for your diet success.

Breakfast literally “breaks the fast”. Your body is catabolic (destroys muscle) during most of the night, so breakfast will shift you back into being anabolic and jumpstart your metabolism. You can never skip breakfast. Even if you are not hungry in the mornings, at least consume some liquid protein with oats.

The meals around your workout are providing the energy and the material for recovery, so make sure to have 2 meals planned. If you don’t eat before the workout, you won’t have much energy to train and your intensity will suffer. Lower intensity means fewer calories burned. If you skip the post workout meal, you are risking losing muscle, since your body will turn to the amino acids for energy.

So let’s put all this into a practical example. We shall reactivate our female from the last post; she gets to eat 1,600 calories, 140 grams of protein, 40 grams of fat, and 170 grams of carbs. Let’s design the critical meals first:

Breakfast matters, so here I would say 35 grams of protein, 50grams carbs, and some 10 grams of fats. This could be a cup of oatmeal with a scoop of whey protein and some peanut butter.

Before the workout I would recommend 35 grams of carbs and 20 grams of protein. The same for post workout. This could be a large bagel, split between the meals, eaten with yogurt.

Now we are left 50 grams of carbs, 65grams protein, and 30 grams of fat for the remainder of the day. I would split these evenly into lunch and dinner, shifting the carb sources away from starches toward vegetables. Fish/beef with greens and some nuts would be possible choices.

As for the “Don’t eat after 5 pm or you gain weight”, that is simply an old wives’ tale. Calories matter and, if you train from 5-6 pm, as most people do, you will need to eat afterwards.

When designing your diet, make sure you take into account the time when you workout. And enjoy breakfast!

Train hard
Maik and Scott

When setting up a diet, a lot of people seem to be confused how to go about it: low carb, low fat, ice water for lunch?

In the following segment, I’ll try to clear up some of that confusion.

Rule number 1: calories matter! Regardless what kind of a diet you choose you need to eat less than you burn. If you don’t have a deficit, nothing will happen.

Which brings me to rule number 2: know your metabolic rate!

When structuring a diet, any diet, you have figure out your basic metabolic rate first (BMR).
The Benedict-Harris formula works well for most people. If you dont want to go through the trouble, women can use 14 calories per lbs of bodyweight, men 16 calories (if you use kilos 30 resp 35). From there on, you decide how much of a deficit you want, small (10 %), medium (10-20%) or larger (20%). I prefer a medium-sized deficit, which allows you to have a life and still get the diet done in a reasonable time frame, but that is just my preference.

Rule number 3: Protein, fat, carbs…Protein,fat,carbs…

This is what you need to know about your macronutrients: protein (4 calories per gram), carbs (4 calories per gram) and fats (9 calories per gram).

The first one to look at is protein. Why? Without it, you die. That aside, protein helps you to protect your muscles, which in return keeps the metabolism high. Furthermore it acts as a hunger suppressant, so it makes the diet a bit easier. You should eat at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight (or 2 grams per kilogram).

Next, you have the two energetic nutrients: carbs and fats. Fats are essential for survival, so you can’t go without them. At a very minimal level, you will need 20 grams of essential fatty acids.

We are left with carbs: carbs aren’t needed for survival (the brain can make glucose from ketones) but they taste good and make people feel better. Use you remaining calories of the day for carbs – you want to eat them.

Now, let’s put all this into a practice run: assuming we have a female at 140 lbs, with a basic metabolic rate of roughly 2,000 calories a day if we assume three one-hour workouts per week. She then chooses a medium deficit of 20 % which comes to 400 calories a day. This leaves her with 1,600 calories per day.

Let’s calculate the macronutrients. As discussed before, she needs 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, meaning 140 grams. Translated into calories, 140grams x 4 (calories per gram) = 560. 1,040 calories are left for protein and carbs.

I would not recommend the fats intake to be lower than 40 grams a day, so 40 x 9 (calories per gram) = 360 calories from fats. Bear with me, we are almost home.

Lastly, she is left with 680 calories to spare for carbs, 680 divided by 4 equals 170 grams for the day.

In the end, our fictional character gets to eat 140 grams of protein, 170 carbs and 40 grams of fat a day. This splits up into 35 grams protein/42 grams carb/10 grams fat for a meal, 4 times a day. If you want to split it into smaller meals, that is fine. I personally don’t consider meals fewer than 300 calories worth sitting down for, but do as you like.

I hope to have cleared some confusion on setting up a diet.
Just remember the roadmap: 1.BMR. 2. Deficit. 3. Protein-fat-carbs.

Train hard
Maik

Ah, supplements, a lean and strong body in a bottle for only 69.99$! Gain 10 lbs of muscle, while losing 20 lbs of fat and your IQ will also rise. Supplement companies have excellent marketing departments, powerful graphics and extremely convincing before-after pictures.

So what are supplements REALLY and who needs them?

Supplements are additions to your diet, which can be macro or micronutrients. They are your protein and carbohydrate powders, essential fatty acids, such as fish oil, as well as minerals, or vitamins, or derivatives thereof.

Protein powders, essential fatty acids and multi vitamins can come in handy since the modern life style doesn’t always allow for 5 quality meals a day. A protein shake with oats and peanut butter is a good and quick alternative since it can be prepared and consumed in less than 5 minutes.

As for the rest, however, keep in mind that they are called supplements for a reason. They are supposed to supplement an already solid training and diet regime. You need to have your training, food intake and the rest in check before even considering supplements. In short, if you workout haphazardly, sleep less than 8 hours a night and have no clue how much protein you ate yesterday, no supplement and no drug can help you to achieve a better body.
Also, read the label: often that new super fat burner is nothing more than an over-priced caffeine pill.

In my opinion, the 2 best supplements you can buy are a food log such as SUC and a workout log where you record your sessions. Ask yourself every 6 weeks: Am I leaner? Am I stronger? If not, go back to the basics. Maybe you need a new routine, rest more or change your diet up a bit.

Till next time
Maik and Scott

So the New Year is upon us and everybody made their resolutions: x pounds need to disappear, need to fit into a size 4 dress, etc.

This leads to gyms filled with highly motivated newbies, who will work out 2 hours + for the next 10 days, just to never show up again. Why? Well, for once, we live in a society where everything should come fast and effortless. And this is simply not the case when building a physique. You need to plan in months and years, not days.

The other problem is that newbies don’t have a plan. They go from machine to machine, spend hours on the treadmill to “burn fat” and end up over trained and frustrated.

What to do?

1. Be realistic in your expectations. If you have 20 lbs to lose, plan for 20 weeks. Getting and staying in shape is a lifestyle, not a sport.

2. Put together a strength routine. Doing cardio alone will not get you in shape; you need to strengthen your muscles to spike up your metabolism. If you need help, post a comment, I will gladly offer guidance.

3. Go food-shopping. This might be the most critical point. 90% of your success hinges on your diet, so make sure your kitchen is filled with chicken, greens, oats, lean beef, nuts , fish, avocados etc. What you do outside the gym in terms of cooking and resting matters as much or even more than the actual workout.

4. Believe! It is all up to you. Anyone, absolutely anyone, can build a great physique if training and diet are in check. Don’t deny yourself that feeling!

Till next time,
Maik and Scott

So again the days are shorter and the plates fuller. It must be holiday season, filled with parties, cookies, dinner invitation, drinks etc. In short, everything that threatens your diet success is assembled in these 6 weeks.

How does one stay lean during these weeks without alienating friends and family?

First and foremost, don’t stop working out. Plan your workouts ahead since you may be pressed for time. Make them shorter, focus on big exercises, supersets, and the like.

When you are invited for a party, calculate that into your daily consumption. Try to eat a little less during the day so you can indulge somewhat, but don’t not arrive hungry. You can snack on fruit, rice cakes or nuts before the party so you don’t have to eat a waiter.

This brings me to my next point: don’t overeat! It is ok to have a little bit of everything, just not the whole pie. Also, don’t get into that starvation-binge-starvation cycle. Your body will get confused and store more fat in response. If you overeat, just get back on the diet.

Stay hydrated: have two glasses of water for every alcoholic drink you consume, and try to stay away from sugary drink mixes. Have your alcoholic drink in the non-dominant hand – you will drink less.

Take a walk – after a party or a dinner, walk home. It will get your metabolism running and you’ll store much less of the calories you ingested.

Up your green tea and vitamin C intake; both of these nutrients will help you weather germs and increase your metabolic rate.

Following these guidelines will help you make it to January 2nd with only minimal weight gain. Remember: Spring is only 4 months away!
Scott and Maik

Hello, everyone!

I thought I’d share this piece of PR with you. It’s OHLALA, a French magazine specializing on male bodies (really?) who wrote a story on me. Click here to see!

All the credit goes to the photographer, Richard Gerst!

Enjoy,
Maik