Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha

information out there.
    One such coach is Bret Contreras, * who regularly contributes to the largest bodybuilding magazines in the world. In a recent presentation, Bret said:

    It is now readily apparent in the literature that all muscle groups . . . contain functional subdivisions which are preferentially activated during different movements. . . . recent research has shown that altering body position such as foot placement . . . can target different areas of muscles. Bodybuilders were right all along; it just took research some time to catch up to their wisdom.
    Contreras’s assertion makes clear the fact that it’s time to revisit a lot of what we consider myths and, with a critical but open mind, evaluate if we were not wrong in dismissing them for lack of evidence. After all, as much as we love science and research, we also love results. And you shouldn’t question the validity of what works just because it hasn’t been tested.

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    REJECT THIS THOUGHT:
    You need to eat before you train.
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    One of the most common questions we hear is, what should I eat before I train? To that we have a somewhat roundabout answer.
    The real question should be, do I need to eat before I train?
    If you’re like most people (and that includes us), eating before a workout is more of a burden than a convenience. Yes, we love food, but we also hate waiting two hours for our food to digest. And then when we train—especially with high-intensity or fat-loss protocols, we really hate feeling so sick to our stomach that we have to revisit our pre-workout meal.
    So why do people stress about eating so much? In this case, we can blame the research. There’s a whole bunch of science that shows eating before a workout creates an environment that helps you build muscle and burn fat.
    And that’s true. But what is considered “before a workout” is a much wider time range than you might think.
    In the simplest sense, your digestive process is very complicated. When you eat, the food does not go directly to your muscles or your gut. It takes time—a lot of time, in fact. So if you eat many hours before you train, there’s actually still plenty of fuel to help you train and for you to build muscle. And there are many factors that influence your rate of digestion, such as your activity level, age, stress, and even the size of your body.
    Research published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism looked at the rate of digestion of protein. The study revealed that the type of protein you eat digests at a rate of anywhere between 1 gram per hour and 10 grams per hour. (So you know, whey protein digests the fastest, whereas egg protein lasted the longest.)
    Do the math, and if you have a meal consisting of 50 grams of protein, that meal could last in your system for anywhere between five and fifty hours. That’s a big range, but it gives you an idea of how your pre-workout meal can happen many hours before you train.
    Now, that’s not to say that eating before you train is bad or won’t help. It will. But the amount won’t be so significant that you’ll notice any changes in your body. Trust us—neither of us eats right before we train and it’s clearly not hurting us. In fact, if you believe the research on fasting before training, not eating before a workout helps you recover faster from your workouts and makes your muscles more efficient. You see, when you eat before you train, you teach your body to require a certain amount of protein and carbohydrates to lift more weight or run harder. When you learn to train with less energy (by not eating as close to your workout), your body adapts and learns to train harder with less fuel. Your body will adapt and pull from other stores for energy (such as fat), and then utilize your carbohydrate and protein stores more efficiently. The result: more muscle and less fat. The dream scenario that you want and we’ve promised.
    If you’re still worried about not eating before training, understand this: when you fast before you train, your levels of hydration and sleep patterns play a significant role in your performance. In fact, poor sleep or not drinking enough can have a bigger negative impact on your ability to train hard than not having a protein shake before your workout.
    If you want to eat, go for it. And if you’re concerned about potentially losing a little bit of muscle, then follow our lead and take BCAAs (Branched-Chain Amino Acids, the