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-: Perhaps the counterpart to AMPK
could be considered a enzyme or a protein called mTOR.
And, so, mTOR is a regulation of cell metabolism,
but in a different way than AMPK.
Where AMPK is mainly focused
on the energy status and the mitochondria,
mTOR is more focused on the resources that are available,
so this is thought of as maybe our
anabolic signaling or anabolic regulator.
So, things that are gonna affect our ability to be anabolic
are gonna be AMPK, mTOR, and simply
the amount of nutrients that are available.
And you're gonna see that these three are all actually
interrelated and communicate with each other.
So, with mTOR, it's basically a sensor for
whether or not we can initiate protein synthesis,
and by sensor, what I mean is it senses
whether or not we've had the stimulus
and the nutrients available
to carry out that protein synthesis.
So, what do you think a huge thing is
in order for mTOR to go through?
Amino acid concentration within the cell.
If it doesn't sense that there's enough amino acids,
well, then we can't do protein synthesis.
We can't build without building blocks.
So, that's a huge part of it.
The other thing is it's also gonna be
dependent on cellular energy.
So, cellular energy and amino acid status
are the two things that are gonna be required
for mTOR to actually be active,
which then allows protein synthesis to undergo
if stimulated.
mTOR being on does not guarantee
that you are going to build muscle.
mTOR simply is the resource door saying,
"hey, we have the appropriate nutrition
to run protein synthesis,"
but it does not guarantee
that you are going to build muscle.
It's an important step in building muscle,
but it's not a guarantee.
It can be influenced by hormones and growth factors.
Androgens can come down and be a potent stimulator for mTOR,
but again, it's still gonna be dependent
on those resources being available,
which is why when you look at something like testosterone,
testosterone doesn't just work in terms of stimulating mTOR,
it also works on driving nutrients
into those specific cells.
So it helps meet the demands both on activating mTOR
from a stimulatory perspective,
but also giving the nutrient status needed,
driving the amino acids and the carbohydrates
into those cells so that it can actually
fuel the process that's being stimulated,
which would be protein synthesis.
It's not a measure of actual protein synthesis itself.
The amount of mTOR activated does not determine
how much protein synthesis is going on.
Remember protein synthesis is done by the ribosomes,
so how much actual protein is being synthesized
is gonna be dependent on ribosomal activity
and some other things going on in there.
So when we talk about hypertrophy,
we'll look at the limiting factors
for what actually determines
if and how much protein synthesis is occurring.
mTOR is an important gate keeper for
saying that protein synthesis can occur,
but it itself is not the measure
that protein synthesis is happening.
If we look at mTOR, what you're gonna see is
that it is located on top of the lysosome.
So, if we think back to the first video
where we were looking at the organelles,
lysosomes basically break down broken stuff
and what do they do?
They recycle that.
So, within the lysosome, what you'll have
is a bunch of amino acids from broken down proteins.
You will also get amino acids
collected in here from nutrition.
So, what mTOR does is it works with the lysosome.
So, it basically has this sensor portion here
that is gonna sense how many
amino acids are in that lysosome.
If there are enough amino acids,
then it will be active,
but right now there's no amino acids in here,
so mTOR is gonna basically sit inactive
until amino acids get built up within here.
So, if we actually move forward,
we put some amino acids in here.
So, we can have amino acids that are coming in from
broken down proteins, diet, or whatever.
Once we have enough amino acids in here,
if properly stimulated and whatnot,
mTOR can then be active,
and now we give the permission for
protein synthesis to occur.
The other important thing
is there's this other giant sensor over here,
and that is the energy sensor.
So this basically is going to determine
whether or not the cell has the energy
to actually go through protein synthesis.
So this portion here is determining
do we have the amino acids to build proteins.
This portion here is determining
do we have the energy to fuel the building of the proteins,
not the building blocks, like
do we have the money to pay the carpenters.
This is do we have the lumber.
This is do we have the money to pay the laborers.
So, this is gonna be dependent on AMPK.
So, when AMPK is on,
it's saying the cell needs more energy.
We need more fuel source.
We need to create more energy.
So guess what shuts off mTOR.
AMPK.
So, AMPK and mTOR are going to be inverse.
They're not gonna be activated
at the same time,
which is very important when you're looking at
training for a particular goal
or you're training for a particular stimulus,
and you're focusing on either mTOR or AMPK.
Not trying to get them to both be on simultaneously.
Now, that doesn't mean they can't both happen
in the same day or in the same week.
AMPK and mTOR activation are going to fluctuate
based off of cellular conditions.
So that doesn't mean that if you activate AMPK once today,
that mTOR is never gonna be active.
It just means that you wouldn't simultaneously
try and stimulate them in the same moment in time.
You would do what you needed to do.
So if I'm focusing on body composition,
my goal is to keep AMPK activated.
Well, then I'm probably going to
be in that calorie restriction
and using nutrients that are gonna promote AMPK,
and using a training system that's gonna be promoting AMPK.
If I'm focusing on pure hypertrophy,
right, I may need to take advantage of both
because I may need to use AMPK to drive nutrients in,
and then that will actually shut off once
the cell's energy is up, and mTOR can run.
So, it's that balance and managing of the two.
You almost never will focus exclusively on mTOR
all of the time because obviously when we're training,
we're burning through energy.
The cell needs energy.
mTOR is not going to be on during training.
So trying to stimulate mTOR with your pre or peri
intra workout nutrition is not effective
because energy status is gonna be low.
However, post training and during the recovery period,
then we can focus on doing the things
that are gonna activate mTOR.
So, if the amino acids,
and all that stuff are there, right,
they can be trying to signal this side,
but low energy will say, "hey no we can't run,
because this side is not okay."
We don't want those things competing,
and in natural biology that would never be the case,
but when we look at the way we train
and the way we use nutrients
and some people using artificial substances in their body,
they can create a little confusion
on what's supposed to be on and what's supposed to be off,
and that can ultimately screw up the cell's
ability to regulate its nutrition,
ability to regulate its metabolism,
and that can create issues on its own.
But we'll get to that more
in some of the advanced modules.
So, energy status is gonna trump the anabolic signaling.
Meaning that, if the cell has to decide
between running protein synthesis
and getting energy balance,
energy balance is always more important.
Remember, the cell's in self preservation mode,
and it needs energy to do everything,
so, it is always going to prioritize listening to AMPK
over listening to mTOR.
So taking all the amino acids in the world
won't matter if your mitochondrial function is crap,
and your cellular energy is low.
So if you can't build muscle,
more amino acids, more protein, might not be the solution.
In fact, it might be the worst possible solution
because you're providing what isn't
an extremely good fuel source.
You're providing a ton of lumber,
but you only got one carpenter.
That's not gonna be very efficient.
What you need to be able to do
is be able to afford to pay more carpenters,
and in order to do that,
you have to improve energy metabolism.
So, a lot of times people are limited
in terms of their hypertrophy,
because their recovery is poor
from an energy rebalancing standpoint
more so than it is actual a protein synthesis standpoint.
If we look at just recapping this, right,
energy reserves are gonna provide permission,
so that's do I have enough actual ATP?
Do I have enough glycogens, like stored fuel?
And do I have the amino acids?
Do I have also the essential nutrients?
So, AMPK and mTOR are gonna respond
to specific nutrients and specific conditions.
So, just like AMPK is very responsive
to AMP and glycogen stores,
mTOR is gonna be very responsive to certain amino acids,
like leucine and arginine and things like that.
So there are gonna be certain amino acids that
really activate mTOR, and then other ones
that don't necessarily have as much of a stimulary effect.
So, looking at specific type of nutrition post training,
can help you get the most out of stimulating mTOR.
And, we'll get to that in the nutritional components
of the hypertrophy phase.
If we look at the extracellular,
so these are things that can influence mTOR
from a systemic perspective, from a hormonal perspective.
Insulin.
Obviously, insulin is gonna drive glucose in,
which should, with healthy mitochondria,
increase energy production so that you have more ATP.
So that will help with AMPK.
The other aspect is if insulin is driving glucose in there,
once ATP levels establish, you start to rebuild glycogen.
So the more glycogen you have,
the more AMPK will be shut off,
which means the more mTOR that can run.
So, having higher levels of glycogen
makes it easier to switch on protein synthesis
because that's saying we have a better energy status.
Not only do we have ATP, but we have stored fuel
to make more ATP on demand.
Androgens, growth hormones.
Growth hormone itself is not really a potent stimulator,
but it's downstream partner IGF
is going to be an important factor.
Androgens work two ways.
Like I said, they are going to
not only stimulate mTOR directly,
but they're also going to
stimulate the driving in of nutrients
to allow mTOR to actually go through with that process
by pushing more nutrients into the cell.
Cortisol and catecholamines obviously are gonna act
as inhibitors,
counter regulators of MTOR,
so these things are active
when energy is being demanded from us,
from a physical level,
from a external demand.
So, whether that be from stress,
whether that be from physical activity,
whether that be from blood sugar regulation,
or whatever that's causing those things to be high,
those are going to be counter regulators
preventing you from actually
running those anabolic pathways.