-: Alright, so we talked about the stress
of hypertrophy training, you know,
the stigmas, the adaptations.
Now let's talk about nutritionally supporting
the workout and the recovery process.
So, if we look at pre-workout, your pre-workout meal,
we want lower or slower digesting carbohydrates.
We don't wanna really have anything
that's gonna make us produce a lot of insulin.
But if you're having carbohydrates,
there's nothing wrong with going zero-carb
or low-card pre hypertrophy
if we've already got glycogen levels up.
But if you're in a hypertrophy phase,
you're probably having carbohydrates
in some capacity, right?
And so, if you're gonna have them,
it should be lower and slower digesting.
There's nothing wrong with having some carbohydrates coming
in through the bloodstream from digestion during training,
but ideally, from a blood flow perspective,
we want things to be digested well.
So, if you do lower and slower digesting,
then you give yourself 90 minutes, two hours,
those carbohydrates should easily be gone
and displaced where they need to be
by the time you start your session.
The goal is we want glycogen to be replenished.
So it doesn't have to be from carbs pre-workout meal,
it could have been from carbohydrates the following day,
a refeed day, whatever it was,
somehow that we got carbohydrates in there.
So, in terms of the amount of carbohydrates,
no more than four to five grams
per 10 pounds of lean body mass.
So, if you're a 200-pound person,
and it's like, okay, so that's basically 20 of these,
so no more than like 80 to 100 grams of carbs
in that pre-workout meal, and that's the max.
That's not like, okay, 80 or 100 is the amount,
that's the max, 20 grams is fine,
zero grams is fine, 40 grams is fine,
and then in that same situation,
it's all relative to how full is my glycogen now?
Ideally, this is not the time we wanna be
filling up your glycogen, right?
'Cause it's not gonna be the best time
to get it in the muscles that you're gonna use today.
It's gonna go to the muscles
that you used yesterday more likely.
So the best time to fill up the glycogen
for the the muscles that you use today
is the last time you trained those muscles.
Higher protein, especially higher amounts of yang proteins,
so those would be things like grass-fed red meats,
beef, bison, elk, venison, those type of things.
Energy-enhancing fats can be good,
especially for lower carb.
So those would be fats that help with acetylcholine
which would be things like cashews,
saturated fats could be good, like butter and coconut oil.
And we get into pre-workout supplementation,
if we're focusing on heavier
and functional type of hypertrophy.
If we're focusing on more intensity,
we can use more dopamine-boosting nutrients,
acetylcholine-boosting nutrients.
We're gonna talk way more about neurotransmitters
in the neurological thing.
We'll get into detail in terms of what boosts these things
but just kinda keep 'em in your head,
if heavier, more dopamine and acetylcholine.
If I'm focusing more on volume,
then I may do less of the dopamine-boosting nutrients
and more acetylcholine,
and you may even distribute some of the stuff
throughout your intra workout
rather than front-loading it more
if you're focusing on intensity-based work.
B vitamins, especially active B6, B9, B12,
for the same reasons that we talked in the metabolic phase,
we still need these things from an energy perspective
during training, but these are also very important
in that whole protein synthesis starting it.
The things we do at the nucleus,
there's a lot of B vitamins involved
in terms of DNA replication and stuff.
So we need those B vitamins,
not only for the metabolism during the workout,
but we need it to initiate that recovery response afterwards
at an efficient rate.
Citrulline malate for vasodilation
to get more nutrients to the muscle.
This is my preferred, the reason I choose citrulline
over arginine is with citrulline,
it doesn't bring up the things
that done regularly, your ability to use it,
so citrulline, you should be able to use,
for the most part, all the time.
I don't recommend to use anything all the time per se,
but citrulline, there's no negative feedback
in terms of it providing that vasodilation effect.
Limit caffeine, if we're doing hypertrophy
from volume work is the goal.
So caffeine, like I said, is okay for metabolic training.
And then you can think maybe caffeine may be okay
for the most intense training,
but because caffeine, it promotes higher blood sugar,
but it kind of has, we'll say,
almost like an insulin-resistant effect,
really more of a glucose something, like issues.
So, I may suggest that caffeine with vasoconstriction,
its effect of blood sugar,
may be detrimental to hypertrophy to a respect.
That being said, all the stuff is like tug of war.
So, I don't think that if you use a little caffeine
that you won't get any hypertrophy gains.
But what I do think is that if you don't need the caffeine,
then don't use it.
So maybe save the caffeine for the workouts
that you really need it, right?
Like if caffeine gives you an extra kick
on a heavy leg day, go ahead and do it.
If it helps you get through a giant sets better,
use it there.
But if you're going in for some delts
and calves or whatever, there's no reason
that you should be taking a bunch of caffeine, okay?
That's stress that your adrenals don't need
that's just gonna take away
from your recovery at that point, right?
So save the caffeine for the workouts that you need it,
especially some more lactic
or oxidative hypertrophy stimulus
versus the volume or intensity.
Small amounts of carbs and BCAAs
immediately before the workout if you're fasted.
So if you're training first thing in the morning,
definitely would do that to get some nutrients
in your blood flow to decrease the stress
on that liver a little bit.
Beta alanine so you can perform better
in those lactic conditions, especially if we're doing
like supersets and trisets, that type of thing.
Nootropics, whatever nootropics you use
should be individualized for the person.
We talked a little bit about more dopamine
if it's intensity, more acetylcholine
if it's more volume based.
But it also should be balance to what the person needs.
So some people will need a little bit of a dopamine boost
or a little bit of a more acetylcholine boost.
And so, there's ways to assess that,
we're gonna talk about in the following module
when we look at assessing a person.
But nootropics can be really valuable
for a hypertrophy program because of the volume of work.
So, it can help with extending focus,
extending the ability to maintain my muscle connection
and motivation throughout the workout,
like mental health and energy are very important.
Because remember, the hypertrophy motto,
the no reps off, right?
That comes from here, not from the muscle itself,
that comes from here.
And so, the more that we can help the brain here,
the more likely you're gonna be efficient in training.
So, intra workout, BCAAs, this is the most important phase
to have higher branched chains.
I have branched chains here, not essential aminos.
So, the purpose of branched chains intra workout is
to serve as a fuel substrate for the liver
and to also send basically a response
that like hey, we don't need to be breaking down the muscle
to feed the liver, there's already sufficient amino acids,
specifically these amino acids.
The liver really likes to run gluconeogenesis.
So the reason that we break down branched chains
during training is so that the liver
can supply glucose to the body
as the muscles are taking it up.
So, by having the branched chains here,
they're anti-catabolic, they're not anabolic.
We're not trying to signal protein synthesis yet.
We're just trying to be anti-catabolic,
give the liver what it needs and decrease the amount
of unnecessary breakdown in the muscles
'cause that breakdown really isn't going to contribute
to a hypertrophy stimulus per se.
We couldn't go as low as 68 grams
when we're using higher intra workout carbs.
So, the amount that the liver is going
to pull up those amino acids is gonna be in relationship
to the stress on it to balance blood sugar.
So, the more blood sugar that it's pushing out
then the more amino acids it's gonna wanna take up.
If we're taking a higher dose
of intra workout carbohydrates,
I can take less branched chains, right?
And that may be easier on your gut,
it may be harder on your gut.
So depending on your GI health,
you may select more one or the other.
Carbs are usually gonna be cheaper on your wallet
and they don't taste as bad without having to be flavored
with stuff that like glows in the dark
and makes cancer look like a furry bunny.
Once we get our BCAAs and our carbs in,
then we can move into the performance stuff.
An important thing with the BCAAs is that, before I move on,
is you don't need the higher leucine BCAAs.
They don't need to be eight to one or whatever,
the 2:1:1 BCAAs, that is fine.
'Cause the leucine, we're not using
to signal protein synthesis in this point in time.
Leucine needs to be there
for protein synthesis post training,
not in the middle of the workout session.
So you can use the cheaper, normal branched chains
for your intra workout branched chains.
I didn't put essential aminos here.
So, having essential amino acids,
they're gonna serve the same purpose,
but they cost a lot more
and you're also getting things that can be converted
over histamine and stuff like that
which is gonna decrease your tolerance to beta alanine.
So, you shouldn't use essential aminos intra workout.
Essential aminos are also gonna be a stronger signal
for protein synthesis, so they're a great post workout,
but having a bunch of them in the middle of the workout,
they're more insulogenic and they're gonna try
and push your cells in recovery mode
while you're in mid workout
which is gonna decrease your performance,
decrease your ability to actually get a stimulus.
So, we don't wanna do those essentials
intra workout per se, unless this is somebody
that's like glycogen's depleting or whatnot,
you're just trying to be a little anti catabolic with them.
But I still would, it's not the strategy that I would use.
There's more efficient ways to do that,
like MCT's for example which are great for energy
when we're taking away our carbohydrates,
to still allow somebody to preform well.
Especially mental energy, MCT's can be very valuable
when a person's getting depleted.
So the amount of carbs or MCT's that you use,
MCT's definitely to bowel tolerance.
Everybody's, probably, that used MCT's has taken
a little too much one time, and then you're walking around,
working your glutes for the rest of the day,
that's not the goal that you want for every workout.
But the amount that you use is proportionate to the volume
and the amount of metabolic demand that's in them.
So, if it's a large muscle group with a lot of volume,
we're gonna use a lot more carbohydrates.
If it's not as big, then we're gonna use a lot less.
Glutamine, five to 10 grams.
Again, glutamine's helpful for the kidneys
for filtering out acid, it's helpful for the nervous system.
So the glutamine will help you deal
with volume of contraction and volume of metabolic work.
Acetyl-carnitine to energize the brain
so that we can maintain intensity
throughout a high-volume workout.
More citrulline malate, again,
I kinda like to divide that up,
especially in longer workouts
so that you're not getting a pump
and then losing it towards the end.
If that is the case,
probably there's some inflammation
or something going on as well,
but also there's a bowel tolerance
and the stuff just tastes really sour.
So if you can cut the dose in half,
then it tends not to taste quite as tart.
And again, your beta alanine,
I also like to divide that up
so that we're not getting a huge spike in it
and we're getting a lot of that tingle effect.
Remember, that tingle does not mean that it's working.