While we all know carbohydrate is important for exercise, there really haven’t been too many advances over the last 20 years to talk about.  Sure, we know we need to eat enough carbohydrate in our diet to fuel exercise and consuming a sport drink during prolonged exercise can sustain energy. We also know that it’s better to ingest low to moderate glycemic index (GI) type carbohydrates (e.g., fructose, honey, sucrose) before exercise to prevent drop in blood glucose and high GI type carbohydrates (e.g., dextrose, maltose, maltodextrin) after exercise to help raise insulin and promote recovery.   But that’s about it, right?  Well there have been three recent advances in our knowledge about carbohydrate that have real implications for athletes.

As a strength coach who works with high level athletes and an educator who trains the trainers - I'm always being asked what I think is the biggest mistake trainers, athletes and exercise enthusiasts make in the gym. My answer is always "most don't' train the CNS". You see - there are actually two ways to get stronger and improve performance. One way is physiological based which is done by putting on muscle size (hypertrophy) through typical bodybuilding style protocols? The other, lesser known, but possibly more important way of getting stronger is through neural based training. This is accomplished by using faster, more explosive exercise protocols like the ones I'm going provide later in this article.
 

How often do you hear the question at the local gym or high school? How much do ya bench? When I was still going to a commercial gym the benches were always full and the squat racks were always open.

Situation: Some very bad people are living and working in a small compound in a desert filled country.
 
Mission: Locate and neutralize this group.
 
Execution: Insert via helicopter 4 miles from a dry lakebed, move there by foot. Set up a landing zone and land two MC-130's filled with a joint force assault team. Move to the target, hit it, and return home with everyone plus prisoners.
 
Admin & Logistics: We have what we can carry...
 
Command & Control: We are self-contained...
 
It's very dark and late at night when the helicopter hits the ground and our four-man team, loaded to the gills, runs out into the Middle Eastern desert. It's 02:00hrs and it's still hot as hell. Our packs are heavier than normal because we have to carry extra equipment to set up an improvised landing zone. And we're late... The helicopters were broken and we took off late, again. Isn't that always the way? The one thing we have going for us is the darkness as we complete our gear checks and set off toward the dry lakebed. We're moving quickly but quietly. We don't want to alert anyone to our presence. But we're not making good enough time. Those airplanes are going to arrive and expect a landing zone. They don't want to stick around! Christ, that means we have to hang our butts out and violate good tactical procedure...

Editor's Note: We like to use this blog to provide a variety of different opinions from people in the field. Interesting comments, strange stories, and even wacky theories -they're all fair game. That said, the opinions reflected herein do not necessarily reflect those of Muscle & Fitness.
 
 
One thing I love about bodybuilding purists is that they train so hard that their eyes bleed and their muscles are almost tearing through their skin.  They simply don't know any other way.  They want to grow and when their bodies want to give up they simply don't take no for an answer.
 
On the other hand, many bodybuilding purists are so focused on the tradition of how things have always been done that it is darn near impossible to get them to accept anything different.  Below I'm going to give my own experience and beliefs, trying to slay a couple sacred cows of purist bodybuilding.  Get out your torches and pitchforks ready.  I'm assuming the hunt for me will be on at dusk.
 
Purist Belief #1 - To build huge legs you have to squat
 
To me, this is complete and utter nonsense.  Squats are just one of many ways to build great legs.  In fact, I'll even go so far as to say that you can develop an equally impressive set of wheels without ever putting a bar across your back.
 
With my own clients squats are a rarity.  I do use them, but they're the exception and not the rule.  Instead, we use split squats, lunges, Bulgarian squats, and many other single legged variations to load the legs.  In fact, many of our hamstring movements are single legged variations too.
 
In a single leg movement, the external load used (the weight you hold that puts stress on the spine) will be less, but since you're only doing one leg at a time the stress on the muscles themselves can be the exact same.
 
For example, if you're doing a 400 pound squat at a body weight of 200 pounds you're squatting a total of 600 pounds (that's 300 pounds per leg). 
 
If you were to do a Bulgarian squat instead, you still have your body weight of 200 pounds so you would only need to hold an additional 100 pounds to put 300 pounds of stress on that leg.  That's 300 pounds less additional load being put on your spine with the same amount of work being done on the leg!
 
Purist Belief #2 - You have to deadlift from the floor
 
I'll say this once.  Unless you're a competitive powerlifter you absolutely do not have to do your deadlifts from the floor.  If you're just trying to look good, I see no reason why you should even bother.
 
As you read above, I do like to limit spinal compression, but I'm not totally against any movement that produces it.  In fact, if I had to pick on exercise that allowed compression I'd pick deadlifts over squats any day of the week.  These emphasize the posterior chain and can create incredible muscular development from the back of your knees to the back of your neck.
 
The main problem comes when some old school bodybuilder tries to make you feel like you're less of a man if you don't pull from the floor.  The bottom line for me is that very few people have the appropriate hip mobility or physical stature to allow them to pull from the floor with perfect form.  Instead, when they set up or start to pull their lower backs begin to round and they wonder why they have back pain instead of back muscles.
 
By starting the deadlift on a low box or pulling from the pins in the power rack you can allow yourself to start from a position where your spine is in neutral.  Do a few sets of these and your back will feel fried the next day, but not in a bad way.  More importantly, this can help keep your back healthy for your whole training career. 
 
Whenever it comes to lifting, be critical and don't just drink the proverbial kool aid just because "this is the way it has always been done". 
 
Think.  Train.  Grow.
 
 
Mark Young is an exercise and nutrition consultant from Ontario, Canada.  Check out his website at www.markyoungtrainingsystems.com to sign up for his FREE information packed newsletter.

American consumers have a right to expect that the vitamins they buy at their local health food stores are safe, effective, and comply with all laws and regulations.  Sounds fair, right?  The Government thinks so, and it has recently been taking more enforcement action to ensure it, especially in the category of sports nutrition or "bodybuilding" supplements.  As the level of scrutiny increases, however, fear is spreading within the health and fitness community.  Will too much regulation lead to the restriction of perfectly safe supplement products?

I have been lifting since I was a freshman back in High School.  I started for the same reasons as most kids, to get stronger for sports.  I didn't make first string on the football team and that completely enraged me, so I started training with weights so that would never happen again!  I started by reading Muscle and Fitness and after my dad saw how serious I was about it he ended up buying me some more bodybuilding books.  It got to the point were every birthday and Christmas I would get lifting equipment and was the happiest kid ever!  At that time there was no internet or that much information out there about strength training, it was mostly focused on Bodybuilding.  Luckily when you're young and starting out almost anything will help make you stronger.  The information I had in those magazines helped get me started and gave me a very deep love of lifting.  I did end up making some decent strength gains and was always much stronger than the average, but it wasn't until I started powerlifting about 10 years ago that I learned what real strength and strength training was all about.  I am not the kind of guy that looks back on things a lot.  I am always looking forward and figuring out how to reach that next goal.  That being said, I do look back ever now and again.  I few years back I ran across some stuff I wrote when I first powerlifting.  I had written some lifetime lifting goals and to my surprise I had already smashed these numbers.  It got me thinking about everything I have learned since starting to powerlift and how far my strength has come.