#strengthguide

@strengthguide ・・・ Caffeine is in pretty much every pre-workout supplement, and for good reason. Caffeine has been shown to decrease perception of fatigue, aids in strength, and repetitions to failure [1,2]. Above are the recommended dosages for improved performance, but why are these recommendations made? 👇👇 __ A recent study [3] took 8 females and tested their 1RM Hack Squat, Bench, Lat Pulldown, and reps to failure on leg extensions on 4 separate occasions; and they found that they performed better when supplemented with caffeine (6mg/kg) over zero caffeine or placebo. __ The biggest differences/improvements were in lower body performance when supplemented with caffeine. These results also go inline with other research demonstrating better improvements with caffeine supplementation in lower body exercises over upper body [4,5], perhaps because they are generally much harder. __ Botton line, supplement with caffeine for a minimum of 3mg/kg pre-workout [6] if you want an ergogenic effect. But, 5-6mg/kg [7] seems to be the sweet spot for maximizing performance. Yes, this is a ton of caffeine, but this is why you only use it when you really need it because as you build tolerance to it; you lose the performance benefits [8]. Personally, I use the full dose on on leg days (worked up to it), and i don’t use it at all on deload weeks. When do you supplement with caffeine? #strengthguide #powerliftingcoach #ontariopowerlifting #ontariomuscle #canadianpowerlifting #ipf #usapl __ 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15773860 2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26890974 3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28409508 4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26068323 5. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25144133 6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22569090 7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20421833 8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3793337

#Repost @strengthguide (@get_repost) ・・・ Mass Gainers look enticing. Take this shake, and get massive. But I’m here to tell you why they may be a waste of your money. _____ You see there is nothing special about Mass Gainers. Its simply powder loaded with a bunch of calories and in my experience most of them don't taste very good, you can disagree with me but that is just my opinion. My beef with them is that if you take enough to actually make a dent in your caloric intake you’ll find out you run out of it very fast. _____ You could just eat more food, instead of getting your calories from powder. I don’t know about you guys but I like to eat good tasting food. I don’t want to waste 600+ calories on a shake lol. And if you really do have a hard time eating your caloric requirements in order to gain size then you could just make your own shake. Buy Whey powder as its cheaper, you can then add milk, fruit, oats etc. Not only is this way cheaper but will have more nutritional value. _____ If you do choose to use a mass gainer please just be aware of how many calories you actually need to gain at appropriate rate so you aren't taking it just because and not even gaining weight. On the flipside, if you are just taking a mass gainer daily and don’t track calories at all, you can end up eating way over your caloric requirements and end up with a lot of accumulated fat in a short period of time. I say that from experience lol. #strengthguide #fitness #tips #sharing