Being active and athletic is one of the most rewarding experiences in our lives. Exercise not only conditions our muscles or maintains a healthy body weight, but it stimulates our minds and our immune systems. Exercise is the most basic of life changes that we can make to ensure a healthier body for the future and prevent disease.

The three fundamental aspects to increase fitness are endurance, strength and flexibility. Strength training is usually done by resistance exercises using weights. It involves the increase in muscle cell size (hypertrophy) instead of an increase in the number of muscle cells (hyperplasia). Think of a muscle cell like an electrical wire that is covered in plastic. Muscles get bigger because more wires are added inside the plastic coating, making the cell larger. Endurance or aerobic exercise is the continuous motion of muscles for an extended period of time. Flexibility is the increase in range of motion across a joint. All three aspects are important for a healthy fitness routine and the prevention of injury.

Exercise is the very starting point on the road to great health. You also must eat right and take the right supplements to keep your body energized. No matter what type of athlete you are, you can really enhance your performance by making correct nutritional choices with food and supplements. Your body will have more requirements with the more you exercise or the greater the intensity. As we age our bodies have a tendency to become more injury prone and take longer to recover. Supplements can make a huge difference in all of the components of exercise. There are so many supplements and claims in the market of nutritional medicine, and Dr. Metcalfe wants to make it easier for you to understand.

Muscular Development:

Resistance training with weights or by using your own body as a weight leads to muscular development. One of the major benefits of weight training is that muscle tissue has a higher resting metabolic rate than fat tissue. The more muscle you have, the higher your basal metabolic rate, and therefore the more calories you burn on a daily basis. This is what makes weightlifting an essential component to anyone trying to lose weight. Weight training while dieting helps spare the destruction of lean muscle mass. Having stronger muscles makes you less prone to injury, improves posture, and looks wonderful.

Muscle cells respond to resistance training because of the contractile force placed upon them. A muscle cell is composed of a bundle of fibers. The more trained the muscle, then the thicker the bundle within each cell. Muscle fibers depend on cellular calcium and nerve stimulation to contract. When a muscle is forced to contract it initially only recruits a small amount of fibers. However, as a muscle is forced to work harder, the nervous system stimulates larger groups of fibers to contract. It is estimated that for the first 20 weeks of weight training, the most important physiological change is the increase in nerve stimulation to more muscle tissue. This is called neural hypertrophy. However, for the first twenty weeks, muscle fiber hypertrophy is slow, but once this point is reached and you continue training, muscle cell growth leads to larger muscles. To simplify this, what is required initially to get stronger is to have more nerve stimulation to the muscle cells. This requires training. Then the muscle cell size will increase.

Hormone levels are also very important to muscle anabolism (building) or muscle catabolism (breakdown). Testosterone is by far the biggest anabolic agent and it does this by increasing protein synthesis. The hormone insulin is anabolic because it makes cells more permeable to glucose, so eating or drinking an energy drink helps muscles repair after a workout because they increase insulin release. The hormone cortisol, a stress hormone from the adrenal glands, is catabolic because it counteracts insulin and growth hormone. Cortisol is highest between 6-8 a.m. and is higher in stressed individuals. Estrogen decreases the metabolic rate and increases fat storage leading to weight gain. Progesterone increases the basal body temperature and increases metabolism. Human growth hormone is mostly secreted during deep sleep phases at night and is anabolic because it stimulates glycogen storage in the body. DHEA is a precusor in the synthesis of androgens, estrogen and corticoids. All of these hormones require cholesterol as their primary building block.

There is some confusion where some people think that plants can act as steroids. Plants contain hormones called sterols, which are similar in structure to cholesterol, which is our bodyís building block for hormone synthesis. In our bodies they bind to cholesterol receptors to exert their effects. Some of the earliest birth controls in the 1950ís were from a plant sterol of wild yams called diosgenin. Plant sterols can be very powerful in their actions. These include yohimbine, sarsaparilla, Mexican yam, rice bran oil (gamma oryzanol), soybeans, etc.

There are many nutritional supplements that can aid the body builder. None of them will give you instantly large muscles, but they will help you achieve your goals along with hard work.

Lifestyle Changes:

Exercise daily for at least one hour. Start with 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise and follow that with weight training. Hire a trainer to design a program for you if you don't know where to start.
Get 8 hours of sleep a night.
Set reasonable goals taking into consideration your work, family and friends.
Enjoy yourself and be brave and try new activities as your strength increases.
Stop smoking.
Avoid alcohol.

Dietary Changes:

Natural Solutions:

Muscle Support Program: