Power Bodybuilding

What is your stance on the recent articles posted about Waxy Maize not being a ‘fast’ carb and not being more beneficial than other carb sources like dextrose?

Waxy Maize is a high-molecular weight carbohydrate, which isn’t the case for dextrose and many other carbohydrate sources available as supplements. The benefit is that high-molecular weight carbohydrates have a low osmolality; they will not ‘pool’ in the stomach like isotonic solutions. Therefore, they get to the small intestine quicker and into the bloodstream quicker.

There are studies showing higher glycogen storage with HMW carbs over glucose solutions both 2-hours and 4-hours post-ingestion. With anything, you can find just about any tweak to justify your argument. There are plenty of past research studies showing that steroids don't work. There are studies claiming results of some level for both sides of any issue. There was even a study claiming Mike was good-looking.

If you ever read a research article, you'll see (aside from self-indulgent 19-letter words) +/- next to any number given. They'll give you their error range right from the start.

There are also various levels of uncertainty that can't be accounted for. Human error is a subjective uncertainty. Digestion is a complicated process that can't be considered ‘absolute’ for anyone in any situation. If exact timing happens to be involved, the uncertainty can go through hundreds of layers of variations... all the way down to human timing, when a set of normally myelinated nerves transfers electrical signals up to 270 m/s— but age and disease can vary that number drastically.

I'm going way overboard on all of this because that is what people do.

HMW carbs have a low osmolality; they should reach your small intestine and your bloodstream faster and that should mean faster glycogen storage. I’ve seen a few people mention that they aren’t supporters of Waxy Maize, by claiming there are no scientific studies on the product named “Waxy Maize.”

There are numerous studies on the efficacy of high-molecular weight carbohydrates and their resultant low osmolality. Waxy Maize IS a high-molecular weight carbohydrate. If you want to claim that it isn’t a high-molecular weight carbohydrate, then ask for lab assays, because there are studies showing the efficacy of high-molecular weight carbs. Claiming there are no scientific studies is similar to saying that kosher salt doesn't cause osmosis, or that non-iodine-containing salt doesn't cause osmosis, because studies are done with a sodium ion, or a sodium chloride molecule. The osmosis is caused by the sodium— not what the sodium is named.

It's like saying my MacBook isn't a computer, because there have been no studies showing it uses binary code.

At the end of the day, there are things like training hard, eating good, and resting that play much bigger roles in a person's progress. Of course, people rarely fret about missing a meal and often skip training sessions when they don't feel like training and often have shitty training sessions where they jack-jaw with their buddy more than they train. You don't see many people freaking out over those things, though.

Insulin is even more misunderstood than the other aspects. Insulin is produced in response to blood sugar levels. If the 100 grams of carbs enters the bloodstream all at once, there will be a larger spike of insulin than if the carbs enter over a period of time. The total insulin secretion will be roughly the same.

Waxy Maize enters the bloodstream sooner than other sources. By the time another source will have reached the small intestine and be entering the bloodstream, Waxy Maize will have been absorbed and taken up to the muscles for a period of time.

People seem to think insulin was ‘invented’ in the 1990s as something for bodybuilders to get bigger. It's as if people think the human body developed insulin production for no other reason than to help bodybuilders grow muscles bigger sometime in the very distant future.

Insulin is a central nervous system depressant; it increases GFR and is therefore a mild diuretic. It increases sodium reabsorption at the distal tubule (sodium is necessary for glycogen storage, so this could actually be a benefit to its actions)

I was reading an article that said the more fat you carry on your legs, the more testosterone is converted to estrogen. Will yohimbine help? Are there side effects?

Yohimbine can help. A lot of people don't really ‘feel’ good on yohimbine, though. So, check your tolerance as you build up your dosage. A couple of cool things about yohimbine are that it was kind of the original Viagra— it's an alpha-antagonist, which causes vasodilation of the peripheries— i.e., your ding-dong is a periphery and the yohimbine makes your main vein bigger.

Two ying-yang receptors in the body are beta and alpha. Beta-agonists are things like ephedrine. They stimulate the beta-receptors. Alpha-antagonists (yohimbine) slow down the alpha-receptors.

Alpha are the ‘sleepy-sleepy’ component to the ‘wakey-wakey’ beta-receptors. So, yohimbine is a ‘back-end’ stimulant... although it doesn't really provide any major stimulant effect.

Another cool thing about yohimbine is that it has a tryptamine backbone... For those who don't know what that means... most psychoactive drugs have either a tryptamine structure or a phenylethylamine structure. The phenylethylamines are the stimulant hallucination drugs (think ecstasy).

The tryptamines are the “WTF? The-walls-are-melting” hallucinogenics (think LSD).

However... yohimbine has no psychoactive properties. If you look at the chemical structure, you can see that it should— but there isn't. Too bad— that would be one hell of a Viagra!