WBFF - Get Your Tickets!

So - the entire FUSION crew made the trip to Toronto to see what Mr. Paul Dillett was up to. As a ramp-up to the first ever WBFF Championships being help in September, he hosted the Summer Hot Bod contest at a great venue called C-Lounge. I didn't quite know what to expect, but when I got there the place was rammed. I am talking serious energy and some wicked physiques. The dudes were jacked and the women were sizzling - definetly top-notch athletes. It would appear that the word is out and the WBFF is gonna leave it's mark.

If you get a chance, visit their web site and reserve your tickets - this is going to be a great show www.WBFFShows.com



Adrian Burke - www.FUSIONBodybuilding.com

HOW CREATINE IS MADE

Many bodybuilders are unaware of how supplemental creatine is made or even where it is derived from – natural sources or synthetic sources. I will shed a little bit of light on this subject.

Naturally, creatine is produced in our body from the combination of 3 amino acids – glycine, arginine and methionine also chemically known as a-methyl-guanidinoacetic acid. Creatine can also be found in animal and fish sources but extracting large enough amounts for commercial use would be very impractical as it would be quite expensive.

This leads to me to discuss how the creatine we supplement with is produced. The creatine that we consume is synthetically produced by the manufacturing of 2 chemicals – sarcosine, which is a sodium salt and derivative of acetic acid, and cyanamide, which is an organic amide not to be confused with the similar sounding poison cyanide. Although these are chemicals, at the end of their reaction process is a product that is perfecting fine for human consumption – creatine. Reacting the chemicals sarcosine with cyanamide in a specific amount of water, inside a glass-lined filled vessel known as a reactor is the only way to make synthetic creatine.

Just for an example of how chemicals can be combined for human consumption let’s take a look at table salt. Sodium is pretty much safe to consume in its raw form but chloride is toxic to humans and will burn the skin. This is why it was used during WWI. Chemistry has allowed sodium and chloride to be combined into a new and harmless compound – common table salt.

The process for synthesizing creatine has been the same for many, many years and has not changed. The only thing that may have changed is the advancement in technology, which has improved the process, is regards to quality of the finished product.

The process to manufacturing creatine happens in 4 stages – reaction phase, cleaning phase, drying phase, and the milling phase. At the end of this process is a pure finished creatine ready to be packaged. Pure finished creatine is usually 88% creatine and 12% water because creatine picks up and bonds to water molecules during the initial reaction process.

This, my friends is how creatine is manufactured or ‘synthesized’. Later on we will discuss the brand of creatine – PURPLE•K and why bodybuilders consider it a staple supplement in their bodybuilding program.

Chris Belanger – FUSIONBodybuilding.com

TRAINING LAWS

When you go to the gym and train, it is a very systematic process, essentially all one does is lift, push, pull the weights. However, it is damn enjoyable. When one is training, there are certain principles one should consider when heading off to the gym or going for a run.

Law of Overload

The principle of overload is perhaps one of the most important and obvious concepts - if one does not push themselves harder (i.e. lifting more weight with proper form, running further) the body has no need to adapt, and thus one will not make any desirable gains in strength and/or endurance.

One can ‘overload’ themselves by adjusting one of the following:

• Frequency – how often
• Duration – how long
• Intensity – how hard

Law of Reversibility

Simply stated, “If you don’t use it, you will lose it”. If you are not training consistently, the body has no need to adapt. So the gains that you have made in the gym will slowly start to relapse.

It is also important to note that one shouldn’t train so frequently that the body goes into a state of over training. Rest is needed for the body to recover.

Some symptoms of over training:

Irritability and moodiness
Altered sleep patterns
Loss of appetite
Loss of motivation or competitive drive
Persistent muscle soreness that does not go away
Fatigue not relieved by rest
Increased incidence of minor illness or injury
Principle of Variety

Doing the same thing over and over again gets boring rather quickly. Incorporating different exercises for each body part will keep your body guessing, and not grow accustomed to the routine you are using. Instead of doing low rep squats; try doing light weight 20 rep squats. Or instead of barbell shrugs, try dumbbell shrugs.

Law of Specificity

The exercise or training that you do will elect a certain and specific response and adaptations. Specific anaerobic exercise stress (i.e. strength-power training) induces specific strength-power adaptations; endurance exercise stress elects a specific aerobic system adaptations. There is only a limited interchange of benefits between strength and cardiovascular training.

So if you have a single goal in mind, train specific for that goal and not something else. If you want big legs don’t go continually training biceps.

Law of Individuality

Everyone is different. Different training routines affect each person in a different way. Some people will respond very well to high reps and light weight exercises, while others will only respond to heavy weight and low rep exercises. So if someone says “You have to try this new routine, it worked wonders for me.” Feel free to try it out, but don’t get disappointed if it doesn’t work out for you.

Kurt Kuhn - www.FUSIONBodybuilding.com