THE BODYBUILDER'S BODY

If you’ve ever dreamed of having a built physique, but for some reason hitting the gym times a week and chugging down protein shakes doesn’t make much of a difference, I’ve got some news for you.

As you can imagine genetics plays a role, but what exactly about our genes affects the growth and development of muscles?

There is a gene called MSTN that regulates the production of a little sinister protein called myostatin. Myostatin’s primary job, to reduce muscle size (for the love of God, why?!), or a more convenient answer, support the immune system. Irrespective of its function, for most of us it is getting in the way of making lean gains.

The greater level of myostatin, the greater the inhibition of muscle hypertrophy or muscle growth. Conversely, the lower level of myostatin, the less inhibition of muscle hypertrophy. In fact, the best bodybuilders have the lowest level of myostatin (just think Arnold Schwarzenegger) which gives them a natural advantage in building muscle.

Scientists have known this for a while and have experimented by turning off specific genes (i.e. the MSTN gene) in various animals.

Now, if that’s not a convincing enough reason to demonize this protein, lower levels of myostatin have also been found promote longevity, meaning that you get bigger muscles and live longer!

So now that you can once again blame your genes for a less than ideal body image. Let’s look at what we can do about this devious little protein.

DOWN WITH MYOSTATIN

As I’m a huge advocate of natural methods, I will talk about the most powerful and effective ways to inhibit this pesky protein.

HIRT – High Intensity Resistance Training

As the name implies, the key here is train intensely with weights rather than just lifting heavy weights but taking your time. So doing super sets where you combine multiple exercises and do them right after another, or by minmizing the time you rest in between sets are great ways to increase intensity and hence lower myostatin levels.

Support Your Immune System

Inflammation, stress and Infections can compromise muscle growth by diverting necessary proteins to your immune system rather than to muscle growth. Taking supplements that support immune function (i.e. garlic, ginger, echinacea etc.) anti-inflammatory foods (omega 3 rich foods - i.e. salmon, flaxseed, chia seeds), and foods with antioxidants (fruits and vegetables), is a wise strategy when it comes to inhibiting myostatin's reign of terror.

Basically, it's the 'be healthy strategy', this also includes reducing stress and removing harmful foods such as refined sugars and trans fats. Nothing new here.

Sleep Like a Baby

We all know sleep is vital, but sleeping like a baby (10 hours +) is essential to allow your body to recover and grow substantially. In fact, most professional athletes spend around 10-12 hours of sleep. The harder you train, the more time you need to recover – makes sense right?

Epicatechin

Epicatechin, a type of polyphenol has been shown to reduce myostatin levels by 18% and increase follistatin (a myostatin inhibitor) by 50%. So it has a two-factor reduction of myostatin. Foods such as Dark chocolate and green tea are loaded with epicatechin which also have other great health benefits.

Fasting

Fasting has numerous benefits, and in this case short-term fasting combined with re-feeding changed the expression of myostatin, in other words fasting caused myostatin to increase, then decrease after eating again. This is useful as we can capitalize on the decrease phase to build the most muscle.

Apart from the natural methods, there are two supplemental methods I'd like to quickly mention.

• Testosterone: Testosterone can naturally inhibit myostatin levels and promote muscle growth due to its anabolic effects. If you are deficient in testosterone then boosting it naturally through exercise or through supplements will do wonders.

• Dried Egg Yolk Isolate: For those who want a more scientific approach, it has been found that there is a natural myostatin inhibitor in fertilized egg yolks - this is different to the eggs you buy at a store. There have been reports (Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition) that subjects experienced triple or even quadruple gains in muscle size!

For what it's worth, here the dried egg yolk isolate that was studied: http://amzn.to/2vi3kvT

As you can see there are various methods and mechanisms that we can use to inhibit myostatin. For most of us that aren't blessed with the MSTN gene mutation, it becomes a matter of training or signalling to our body that myostatin is an unwanted visitor. Implement some or even all of these strategies to see truly remarkable results.

Caveat: As I'm not a trained medical profession, you should always take care when implementing any health regime. Take these strategies as suggestions and see what works for you.

Peace~

REFERENCES

• MSTN Gene: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/MSTN#conditions
• Lack of myostatin: http://www.pnas.org/content/104/6/1835.long
• Epicatechin and myostatin Inhibition: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3857584/
• Fasting and myostatin inhibition: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1096495913000201
• Support your immune system: http://www.fitnessandpower.com/training/bodybuilding-misc/reduce-the-myostatin
• Dried Egg Yolk Isolate: https://www.muscleandperformance.com/supplements-performance/unlimited-muscle-growth-11556