Metabolism article part 1

[crapulous]

In article <856054574.29725@dejanews.com>,
awilson1@netcom.ca wrote:


>> Arnold said that for bodybuilding, he had two prerequisites, the right kind
>> of body, and "an almost perfect metabolism". In my mind, he gets the most
>> muscle hypertrophied for the least amount of metabolic increment (ie stress)
>> to his BMR.

My fellow bodybuilders;

I have something pretty important to say about the oxidative component of metabolism,
and its ramifications on muscle metabolism.

I did not get the proper answers, so I was personally motivated to get them myself.

Your job is not to accept blindly what I say. My job is to present it. You can accept my interpretation,
someone else's, or make up your own. I am not here to jam my views down your throat.

But at the same time, I feel that what I have to say is more a global
picture than has been ever been presented before. That is for you to decide.
I have an opinion about it, and if you take bodybuilding seriously like I do, maybe you
will want to hear it. Maybe not.

I have been working out for thirteen years, and yes, I have discovered in the last five years how
to "do a better job" and at the same time feel ill. I enjoy the pump, the
rock and roll music, the power and the glory and the majesty and the
challenge of the gym--and I will not stop.

I am the generation in power now, and I make the laws.

I never overtrain, but some weird shit started happening to me, and I wanted to know what.
Al I got were the same old answers "all the bodybuilders take steroids", "what do you want to
get that big for", "ride the bike", "why don't your try swimming", "can't have everything".
Not one of those answers ever gave me a satisfactory reason. I have it, for people who are
suffering the same problem.

I went to the doctor for him to help me--my way--but he could not, did not,
refused to--and sent me to a physciatrist. They all did. I will not go into
a doctor's office again, and stoop to arguing. I am not blaming any one
individual doctor.

I blame Medicine as a whole: they have not taken into account the affect of
muscle hypertrophy on one's cellular oxidation rate. They forgot something.
It seems everyone has, and I would like to remind people of it.

Following is the deliverable. It contains information from other people's work;
I just pieced it together. There is an attached picture. For it to make sense, please refer to the
picture in its context.

Here are the facts that I went out to find:

Metabolic Terms:
Metabolism -- the chemical changes that take place between the moment of entry
of a nutrient into a living organism, either plant or animal, and the
moment of its discharge of its ultimate chemical (waste) products into
the environment. (Colliers Encyclopedia CD-Rom)

Occasionally it is convenient to subdivide metabolism into two two interrelated
subprocesses: Anabolism and Catabolism. (Colliers Encyclopedia CD-Rom)

In our every day conversation, most people think of metabolism as a
process that requires energy. Carbohydrates for energy.

Anabolism -- construction of body tissues
including muscles (from Joe Weider's glossary webpage)

Anabolic processes are biosynethetic or constructive. Generally,
anabolic processes require energy and result in the formation of relatively
larger molecules. (Collier's Encyclopedia CD ROM)

Catabolism -- destruction of body tissues including muscles (from Joe Weider's
glossary page)

Catabolic processes are energy-yielding and result in the
end product of such as urea carbon dioxide, water, and ammonia
(Collier's Encyclopedia CD-Rom)

Oxidation -- the "burning" process that converts carbs into a source
of energy useable by the cell (Collier's Encyclopedia CD-Rom). Oxidation
is the catabolic utilization of carbohydrates to produce the ATP molecule
--the anabolic facet.

White Muscle Fibres -- specialized muscle fibres that have been implicated in
power movements. They lack mitochondria, and work to generate a maximum
amount of force in a short amount of time.
(Anabolic Reference Guide, ed. 6, p. 152 Bill Phillips)

Dark Muscle Fibres -- specialized muscle fibres that are oxidative
and do not change in size. (Anabolic Reference Guide, ed. 6, p. 152)

Bodybuilding invollves maximal hypertrophy--enlargement in volume of
the white muscle specialized muscle fibres. The red muscle cells do not
significantly hypertrophy. They may help get the blood to the white muscle
fibre cells, but the red fibres do not hypertrophy significantly.

Hyperplasia -- the spliting of muscle cells. This is a lesser known/lesser
believed mechanism for the growth of muscle cells from bodybuilding. Most
people believe the muscle hypertrophy model more.

Early on in bodybuilding, if a person has never done it before,
initial gains in strength come from laying down of a motor
pattern in the nervous system. (Physiological Changes in Skeletal Muscle,
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology, 1989 May 74(3): 233 - 256)
The actual muscle hypertrophy begins after 6 - 12 weeks.

For size and power, you are hypertrophying the specialized muscle fibres
in the body. It is either through hypertrophy or hyperplasia or some
combination of both.

When you are bodybuilding, you are not only "body-building"; you are
"body metabolism" building.

If metabolism is composed of the building up
of muscle--the anabolic facet--and the breaking down of muscle--the
catabolic facet--then when you decided to lift weights, you chose to
increase the size of your muscles--the anabolic facet.

But you inadvertently chose to increase the oxidation or the level of
catabolic breakdown of those same muscles on your body. That's what
people say in an everyday conversation:
"I want to build muscle so that I can burn fat."

But here's a new way of thinking about that:
when you try to grow your muscles, your metabolism is also going to
grow to counteract that same muscle growth. The catabolic processes
always grow along with your anabolic processes to block further anabolic
gains in your physique.

With anything in life, there is always resistance. The catabolic oxidation
inside your muscle cells is the resistance force. It tries to counterattack
/counteract the further growth of muscle. When you grow your muscles, that
force always grows to counterattack you more.

You chose more catabolism whether you like it or not. More muscle means more catabolism.
When you came into the gym to be like our hero Arnold and add as much muscle
to your frame as possible, you were also adding an increased level of catabolism to your metabolism.

Increased catabolism on you is like increasing the
oxidative energy drainage on your body--on your other biological systems.
People have forgotten this when they talk about building muscle, and why
some people can build more muscle over others.

Question: Why should YOU care about this?

Because when you are bodybuilding, too much catabolism on your body is going
to make you ill, and if you get ill in this way from bodybuilding, no one
is going to believe you. Nor will you really know what is going on. If something
is going to make you ill, you the bodybuilder should be aware of it.

Give me a chance to explain.

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is going to increase, but how much it increases
for how much muscle you develop depends on the amount of cellular oxidation
in your muscle cells to begin with.

The differences in the growth of your BMR has never been
discussed or atempted to be discussed properly from a problematic point of
view. Different people are going to have different rates of growth.
Even two guys with the same physical potential to be Mr. Olympia working out
hard in the gym are going to have two different cellular oxidation rates,
and so two different rates of growth of their BMR.

See The Attached Figure.

The guy with the lowest cellular oxidation rate is going to be Mr. Olympia
(providing he has other good genetic factors). The other guy with a
higher cellular oxidation rate is not going to be Mr. Olympia, despite
having the exact same other good genetic factors. He may even be ill.

You may say "I know that having a fast metabolism will hinder you from
putting on muscle. I know that already." Yes, but what you do not know
is that a fast metabolism in your cells can make you ill. First, we are going
to look at individuals who have a fast metabolism in their cells. Then, we
extrapolate this to the bodybuilders, and figure out what will happen to
a person serious on building muscle, but who has a "flawed" metabolism.

I say that Arnold Schwarzenegger, and all the successful bodybuilders,
have a very low cellular oxidation level in their cells. They get the most
muscle hypertrophied for the least increment to their BMR. Someone
else with an Arnold-like potential, Arnold-like personal drive, but with a
more inferior (ie slightly higher cellular oxidation rate) is going to get
less muscle hypertrophied for an even more whopping growth to his personal
BMR.

The guy with the higher cellular oxidation rate in his cells has a higher
probability of getting ill. He is not going to necessarily have a "ripped physique",
eating ten meals a day, and be dancing around the gym in good health.
WHY??? YOU ASK.

First, let's define the basal metabolic rate--the BMR.

The Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) --a measure of the overall
body's energy production when in a resting state during a period of fasting.
The method records oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide putput
(Collier's Encyclopedia CD-Rom) it is like the overall metabolic rate
of your whole body--the fat cells and muscle cells.

Now, let's look at factors--except bodyfat--that metabolically influence each muscle
cell that you have in your body.

When you go to a doctor, he does a blood test on you. He checks certain
hormones and biological substances in your blood.

He checks your thyroid gland and the amount of thyroid hormone in your
blood. (He also checks other stuff)

If you have a lot of thyroid hormone in your blood, then you may
have developed a very high cellular oxidation rate. In other words, your
cells--including those skeletal muscle cells--now have a very fast catabolic
oxidative level.

This is what happens.
Hyperthyroidism (and hypoglycemia--low blood sugar too)
- very high oxidative/catabolic rate
- very high energy requirement
- symptoms of a very high oxidative rate is hypertension, burning face,
nausea, blurry thoughts, cold hands and feet, headache, dizziness

Note that the hyperthyroid person's muscles do not hold glycogen well.
They "lean down" or "thin down". They lose their volume.
They are "atrophying". A person with a very fast cellular oxidation rate
is in very bad shape. The person has been given "a brand new" much higher
cellular oxidation rate", and the catabolic nature of that rate is so high
that breakdown is occurring and the person is ill.

A person with a hypothyroid goes the other way. The amount of thyroid hormone
in your body drops drastically. The person also gets ill--but in some
different ways and some similar ways. The person has been given "a brand
new" cellular oxidation rate", and the catabolic nature of that rate is so
low that the person is ill.

But notice what can happen to the person's muscles. The muscles may enlarge,
and become firm. (1984 Encyclopeida Britannica 6, p. 823)

Why? Because since the metabolism in each cell has been
slowed right down, the muscles do not burn off the glycogen like before.
They retain glycogen very well. They do not automatically hypertrophy; they
just bulge out before because the glycogen--one catabolized before by the
cell for its internal energy requirements--is not being used as much anymore.

Summary: Individual A (Hyperthyroid) Individual B (Hypothyroid)
Very high cellular oxidation rate Very low cellular oxidation rate
Muscles retain glycogen poorly Muscles retain glycogen well
Metabolic stress--stress symptoms Metabolic anti-stress
Individual is energy-defunct

Question: What does this have to do with bodybuilding?

I am getting to that.

Now, let us look at people who have an OK functioning thyroid gland.
All such individuals--no doubt yourself reading this puzzling document--
are Euthyroid. You have a normal free thyroid hormone concentration in your
blood plasma. It is a calculated number: the free thyroxine index. It is
calculated from other thyroid hormone blood tests.

Question: Can two people with the exact same normal free thyroid hormone
concentraion in their blood plasma have two different cellular oxidation rates?
The answer is yes. (http://www.upmc.edu/endodocs/index.html)

Their answer to me was because there are other factors to consider besides
just the level of thyroid hormone in your blood.

So now, Arnold at 15 has a normal functioning thyroid gland. He is euthyroid.
And then maybe, there is some guy in the world who has the exact same physical
potential to build big muscles as Arnold, same kind of personal drive, same
kind of training for bodybuilding, same kind of eating and diet, same
kind of diet. Both men even have the same kind of normal free thyroid hormone
concentration as measured by a blood test. They are exactly identical except
for one respect.

There are some cellular differences so that their cells oxidize/catabolize energy at a
slightly different rate.

They do not have the same cellular oxidation rate in their muscle
cells! Arnold Schwarzenegger at 15 years old has, in his muscle cells, a muscle
cell that wants to oxidize/catabolize--say--2 molecules of glucose.
Arnold has a cellular metabolism that is lower than the average
Joe on the street. Even though he is thin, his thin, unhypertrophied muscle
cells will "retain" glycogen a little better than the average Joe on the
street. Arnold is an athletic guy.

The other guy--let's call him an Anti-Arnold--has a muscle cell that wants
to oxidize/catabolize--say-- 6 molecules of glucose. Anti-Arnold has a cellular metabolism
that is a little higher than the average Joe on the street. Not a big
difference, but it's there. Even though he is thin, his thin, unhypertrophied
muscle cells will "retain" glycogen stores, but not as well as Arnold
Schwarzenegger's can. (This is a common-sense inference. You will have to
decide if you believe this) Anti-Arnold is more of a sedentary person.

Now, one thing: I have assumed that both men have muscle cells that are exactly the same volume.
But this does not normally happen in nature. Usually the person with the
lower cellular oxidation rate in his cells will have muscle cells that maybe
are a little bigger or fuller than the average person's.

For instance, Dorian Yates said that he was always a little bigger and a
little stronger than the average person (Toronto Star, People Section,
Mr. Olympia Nov. 12/95)

The Anti-Arnold guy, since his cells oxidize a little more energy, are a little
leaner, and a little smaller. And when the volume of your cells change, it
"fudges" or affects the final amount of cellular oxidation/catabolism.

Muscle volume decreases. The final overall cellular oxidation amount decreases.

Muscle volume increases. The final overall cellular oxidation amount increases.
See why when a hyperthyorid person developed a fast metabolism in their
cells, the body "leaned down" those cells. The body tried to adapt to the new
cells by "leaning down" them down to eliminate as much of the "acclerated cellular
metabolism" as possible. The body tries to reach this new equlibrium.

But now, when each one of you bodybuild, you are all introducing a "disequilibrium"
into your body. All individuals, irregardless of their cellular oxidation
rate, are increasing the volume of your cells. And with it, the metabolic
cellular oxidation/catabolism generated by those cells.

Let's just say that when you bodybuild, you are tripling the volume of
your cells, but you are doubling the rate of your intrinisic cellular
oxiation rate. Arnold Schwarzenegger has now just tripled the size of one
of his muscle cells. The cell has gone from the original number of
2 glucose molecules per cell to 2 * 2 = 4 glucose molecules per hypertrophied
cell. Arnold has added 2 extra glucose molecules to his total body metabolic
overhead-- the BMR.

But poor Anti-Arnold has now gone from the original number of 6 glucose
molecules to a new number for a new hypertrophied cell. The math: 2 * 6 = 12.
The Anti-Arnold person has added 10 extra glucose molecules to his total body
metabolic overhead -- the BMR.

Now, you multiply this over all the muscle cells in a person's body, and
the fact that the person is trying to get as big as possible, and you
know what is going to happen to Anti-Arnold's overall body metabolism, the
BMR. His BMR is going to skyrocket for a lesser number of muscle cells getting
bigger. (Study the attached figure again if you want) The Anti-Arnold's
BMR line will go up a lot faster.

Say it takes a person five years to hypertrophy all the muscle he ever will
hypertrophy.

Arnold Schwarzengger, five years later, now has a higer BMR. He needs to eat
five meals a day and maybe take a rest. Since his BMR is higher, he is a
little more energy-drained than before because the associated catabolic
processes on his body have increased, but not so high that he is ill.

When your BMR increases, you lose some of your tolerance to exercise. You
can lift much heavier weight, but your tolerance to exercise is diminished.
(Mike Mentzer, Flex, Summer 1995, Mind and Body II, pg. 204) Arnold at 15 could
curl 100 lbs for 15 reps before he got tired. Now he can curl 235 lbs for
5 reps before he is tired. Mr. Schwarznegger's muscles are energy-draining
him but not so much that he is ill.

The Anti-Arnold, after five years, has suffered even more of an energy
loss, and an even greater lowered tolerance to exercise for a lot less
muscle gain. He is so energy drained, that his BMR has super-accelerated.
His muscles are fuller, and bigger, but his face is burning, stomach
nauseated, mind blurry. He is suffering from stress symptoms.
That is what a higher BMR means. The higher your BMR, the more drained of
vital energy reserves you are.