Beverly International
No Nonsense E-newsletter
 

BI:  Over 30 years of results.  A history of consumer respect.

Oct, 2010
In This Issue
Beverly Blog
Networked - HMB
Product Smart - BCAA's
Combine - UMP & MP
 Blog
By: Roger & Sandy Riedinger(mostly Sandy) 
Beverly International Nutrition

 

The NPC 2011 Northern KY Bodybuilding, Figure, and Bikini contest is rapidly approaching. The Northern will be held Saturday, February 26 in Covington, KY. Beverly International is the sponsor and we donate ticket proceeds to the Shriners Hospital for Children. Last year we donated $25,000 so it's a great cause. If you are interested in competing or attending, all the details are at: www.bevnut.com/nky

 

We Listen to Your Suggestions

Last month we asked for your suggestions. What came in loud and clear was you want to hear more about what normal people do in their every day fitness regimen. This month we want to introduce you to David Swantek. I called him today, told him what we were doing, and asked if he'd participate. His immediate answer was ...

 

"If we can help one person it will be worth it." David Swantek 09/21/10

 

I'm not going to try to write this as an article or anything, I'll just share with you freehand what I learned about David.

 

Age: 63

Retired: since age 50 when he sold his printing business (380 employees)

Years Training: 13, he started at age 50 when his cardiologist told him to change his lifestyle or he was going to die.

 

David weighed 242 at 5'7", smoked 3 packs a day, and had a cholesterol reading of 320. He said his lifestyle and entertainment duties as a business owner to the Detroit auto manufacturers contributed to these stats. He loved big juicy burgers and ice cream. Fast food was the norm. Luckily he didn't drink, but he's sure the stress of his business helped him get to the seriously unhealthy state he was in.  

 

He had to lose 100 pounds.

 

What did he do? He went on a doctor-monitored weight loss plan, in coordination with the local hospital, consisting of 5 protein drinks a day - no whole food. (Ed note: David had medical supervision throughout. Don't try this on your own.)

 

After he finished the doctor supervised weight loss program, he hired a personal trainer and began to workout. To this day 13 years later he still works out 3 days per week and golfs up to 5 days a week. Now his training is designed to improve his golf game.

 

Each month he has a different emphasis...after the 3rd month, he repeats the cycle strategy.

1st Month: emphasis on strength and heavy lifting 

2nd Month: emphasis on balance and core work

3rd Month: emphasis on quickness and speed

 

How long has he been a Beverly User? Almost 7 years, since November 2003. I looked up David's first order and saw it was for 9 jars of Muscle Provider chocolate.

 

He told me he started using Beverly because he was having trouble getting results from the other products he was using. His trainer highly recommends Beverly. His cardiologist reviews everything he takes and approves it for his use. She approves all of his Bev Products.

 

When I asked what product can he not live without? He said, "All of them. I can't pick one." He wasn't kidding. I had him send me his honest to goodness, every day supplement schedule. Here's what he sent:

 

Daily: 1 scoop Muscle Provider, 6 scoops UMP, 1 scoop Creatine Select, 5 Ultra 40 tablets, 5 Mass Aminos, 2 Lean Out capsules, 3 7-Keto MuscLEAN,  6 GH Factor, 2 Advanced Antioxidant, 3 Joint Care, 3 Bev ZMA, 3 EFA Gold. 3 Quadracarn twice a day. 8 Muscle Synergy twice a day. Up-Lift before each workout. 5 Muscularity BCAA before and 5 after each workout.

 

Then I asked if he would give me a highlight of just one.

 

Highlight: Quadracarn... he says Quadracarn is awesome. It's improved his strength (which is important for hitting that golf ball) and has even made his hair grow. He said he saw greatest results in 60 to 90 days. "Gotta give it some time to work..."

 

He won't go to bed with out ZMA. It makes him sleep so restful.

 

Recipe: makes a pudding using UMP, a little water, ½ banana, and fat free cool whip and takes it with him when he golf's.

 

He uses UMP 4 x's a day, everyday. Other foods: (complex carbs), greens, 1 apple, salmon, fish, and chicken.

 

Tip for others: "Go ahead and look in the mirror; you have to make the changes for yourself. You are in charge of your life. I keep doing what I am doing everyday because I wake up everyday and feel fabulous. My lifestyle change keeps me going..."

 

His cholesterol is now between 118 -124 with a resting heart rate of 48.

 

Funny story: One day on the golf course a fellow golfer saw David's jar of UMP in his golf bag and introduced himself as a fellow Beverly user. They've since become good friends. What a topic starter!

 

No Nonsense E-Newsletter: he reads it on line and then files it in a place to keep for later on.

 

I hope this gives you some insight into a typical BI user, if you like this idea, be sure to let me know and we'll keep it going in future issues.

Quick Links...
Greetings! 

Welcome to issue #7 of Beverly International's monthly E-newsletter. Our goal with each issue is to help you achieve a greater understanding of the supplement industry as a whole and to become a "smarter" consumer of BI supplements in particular.

When you have some free time, check out the BI Forum.  It's a great place to interact with like-minded fitness people.  Post a question on the BI Forum and get answers from Beverly International advisors and our community of BI athletes.
Networked

Discussing the latest physique and fitness issues with the world's leading experts.

Dr. Wilson Interview: HMB, Part 1

Hydroxymethylbutyrate (HMB) is a naturally-occurring metabolite of the amino acid leucine and a critical component of BI's high-powered Muscle Synergy formula. Today, HMB may be the most overlooked supplement in sports nutrition history. Scientists continue to study it avidly, generating compelling evidence for its anti-catabolic, and more recently, anabolic, properties in so doing. It has even attracted the interest of pharmaceutical companies hoping to develop the next blockbuster muscle loss prevention drug. Clearly they must see something of value in this novel nutrient.

To help you better understand the true value of HMB and how to supplement with it effectively, we reached out to Jacob Wilson, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Tampa. Dr. Wilson has conducted numerous studies on HMB, including some referenced in The Book of Muscle Synergy, available free on the BI Web site. He is also a serious bodybuilder and HMB user. Over the next few issues we'll share with you a rare Q&A interview we recently held with him.

Q: What got you into studying HMB in the first place?

 

A: Essentially everything I have done in academics has stemmed from my passion for bodybuilding. My brother Gabriel and I were searching for ways to prevent muscle loss in bodybuilders while dieting, and HMB appeared to be efficacious. So we began deciphering under what conditions HMB worked ideally and how to optimize its effects. 

 

Q: HMB was the victim of marketing hype in the 1990s. This caused its reputation to suffer, particularly with consumers with resistance exercise experience, some of whom didn't get the results they were led to expect. What is the reason for this? Does HMB have any value for experienced individuals?

A: Honestly, I think that a number of studies have found HMB to be effective in experienced athletes. For example, Thomson and colleagues found an increase in leg extension 1-RM relative to placebo (14.7% vs. 4.8%) after 9 weeks of strength training in 34 resistance trained men, while Neighbors et al. reported that HMB decreased body fat and increased LBM [lean body mass] in experienced football players. Vukovich also found it increased variables underlying performance in highly trained cyclists, while others found it decreased damage in experienced long distance runners.

In contrast, some studies have found no effects in experienced consumers. The question is why is this the case?  I can come up with a number of reasons, but the number one reason is likely attributable to an inadequate training stimulus.

HMB works in part by speeding the repair of muscle damage. In experienced athletes it is difficult to create muscle damage, and thus in studies without an adequate training stimulus, we would expect HMB to not work. One of the most cited studies is by Krieder and colleagues who found HMB did not increase strength or hypertrophy in experienced athletes. Consistent with my previous statements, however, was the finding that the placebo group did not make improvements, suggesting that the program in itself was inadequate to either (A) create damage, or (B) stimulate adaptations on its own.  We know that in healthy individuals, at least as far as growth or strength is concerned that HMB does very little without an effective training stimulus to begin with.

Summary

Dr. Wilson has studied HMB extensively and believes it to be an effective supplement, both for those of us new to working out and experienced athletes. To make it effective, however, research suggests that you must provide an adequate training stimulus. In other words, you must make your muscles work long and hard enough. This is critical. Dr. Wilson and other scientists suggest that one of the key benefits of HMB supplementation is faster muscle recovery*.

Over time the muscles adapt to resistance exercise and it becomes progressively more difficult to produce a stimulus sufficient to produce additional size and strength gains. (This explains why experienced bodybuilders often experience little if any soreness unless they make a major change to their workout routine.) As we continue our discussion with Dr. Wilson in subsequent issues we'll find out what training methods he recommends to get the most out of HMB and how he uses it himself, among other topics.

*For a full list of the benefits of HMB supplementation, refer to the Muscle Synergy page on the BI Web site. HMB has been synergistically combined with other nutrients in this product in an effort to dramatically enhance the ability of even highly experienced users to generate an adequate training stimulus.


Product Smart   

Helping you become an expert in the effective use of BI products.

Q: My wife and I used to take BCAAs during our workouts about 10 years ago. Then we stopped. We felt it gave our physiques an edge. Is there any truth to this, or was it all in our heads?

 

A: There is truth to it, perhaps even more than there was 10 years ago. Eva Blomstrand, PhD, is a professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. In a 2010 study (1) she gave healthy men and women a BCAA-containing drink or a placebo. The drinks were consumed before, during and after the workout as follows:

 

1.      at rest before warming up

2.      immediately pre-workout

3.      approximately 20 minutes into the workout

4.      immediately post-workout

5.      15 minutes post-workout

6.      45 minutes post-workout

 

The subjects consumed a total of 85 mg of BCAAs/kg body weight in 900 ml of water. Thus, a 55-kg (120-lb) woman would have ingested ~4.7 g BCAAs and an 86-kg (190-lb) man, ~7.3 g BCAAs*.

 

Did BCAA supplementation have any effect? It did. The combination of resistance exercise and BCAAs increased the phosphorylation of p70S6k more than the sum of BCAA or exercise alone. In other words, it was synergistic. This is important because p70S6k is a signaling protein that is believed to play an important role in exercise-induced hypertrophy. The higher the level of p70S6k phosphorylation after your workouts, the more lean muscle they are likely to produce. In personal communications with BI, Dr. Blomstrand stated that the increase in p70S6k phosphorylation observed in her study was likely sufficient to increase muscle protein synthesis, the essential requirement of building or maintaining muscle. So don't hesitate to take BCAAs before, during and after your workouts.

 

*Note: 7.3 g of BCAAs is roughly equivalent to 11 capsules of Muscularity. 4.7 g of BCAAs is roughly equivalent to 7 capsules.

 

Q: I'm a 43-year-old female trying to get lean by following a moderately carbohydrate-restricted diet. I heard that glutamine could help regulate my appetite, which sometimes gets the better of me. When might be a good time to use Glutamine Select during the day?

 

A: It's very possible that glutamine can help when dieting, particularly if you're cutting back on carbs. Glutamine Select (Glutamine Select + BCAAs) contains glutamine plus the BCAAs leucine, valine and isoleucine, discussed above. 

 

Glutamine has several powerful roles. As an amino acid it is a building block of proteins. However, it can also regulate protein synthesis in muscle and be converted into glucose. Glucose is the main sugar in the bloodstream, the most important fuel in your body and the building block of glycogen, the storage form of glucose found largely in muscle and liver.

 

There is evidence to suggest that when your blood glucose level falls, your appetite tends to increase. Thus, the most obvious times to take Glutamine Select would be first thing in the morning, after a long, strenuous workout (particularly if you haven't eaten beforehand), or any other time you haven't eaten in several hours.

 

It's worth adding here that the addition of BCAAs to Glutamine Select may also help regulate your appetite. For instance, in rodents, leucine has been found to activate signaling proteins in the brain that result in a reduction in food intake and body weight. Scientists are currently trying to determine if the same holds true for humans.

 

Combine  

How to combine BI products for even greater results.

The "Ultimate Provider" Shake

We often hear about combining, or "stacking", different types of supplements, but what about staking the same type of product -say, two protein powders?

At first glance, Ultimate Muscle Protein (UMP) and Muscle Provider (MP) might look identical. They're both protein powders and they both taste delicious. But the difference is in the details. The chief protein source in MP is whey protein hydrolysate, regarded for its fast absorption rate and exceptional ability to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. UMP, on the other hand, is largely made up of milk protein isolate, which consists of an 80:20 ratio of casein to whey.

The ingredient profile of MP makes it ideal for use immediately before or after exercise when faster absorption is desirable. UMP, with its high proportion of casein, is effective as a hunger-quenching meal replacement, particularly in the morning, before bed, or any other time you don't expect to be consuming a whole-food meal for several hours.

Many of us train before going to school or work. The protein shake we have post-workout may therefore be the last meal we have for several hours. So, what if you want the best of both worlds: (1) a brief boost of protein synthesis immediately post-workout followed by (2) a steady stream of amino acids that will keep your muscles fed for several hours? Simply combine a scoop of MP with one of UMP. It's the "Ultimate Provider" shake!

Questions or comments? Please send them to: bevnut@beverlyinternational.net.

For more information about Rob Thoburn, visit www.robthoburn.com.


REFERENCES

1. Apro W and Blomstrand E (2010). May 28. Received ahead of publication from author.
Thanks for reading the E-newsletter. At Beverly International education and helpfulness are our core values. We consider our clients to be the best and smartest in the industry, and we sincerely hope that the info we provide feeds your mind, body, and passion.
 
Sincerely,
Roger & Sandy Riedinger
Beverly International