Now, for the main event. The second speaker of the first day is one of my friends and favorite people ever…John Meadows aka Mountain Dog. If you don’t know who John Meadows is… where the hell have you been hiding? John has been featured in the hottest health and fitness magazines, he write for sites like T-Nation and EliteFTS, and the biggest names in the biz are clamoring to have him do their nutrition and/or training.
Oh, and best of all, he interviews REALLY cool people for his site. Ahem…click here to see his interview with yours truly. ;-)Not only is he one of the smartest guys in the nutrition and training game… he walks the walk himself. He is an absolute BEAST and having him training in the monolift next to me last Sunday was one of the huge reasons I hit my 275 squat PRthat day. So motivating. Seriously… John Meadows is an absolute monster in the best possible way. Check it out:
- (now you can see why I turned him down on his offer to train legs the other weekend. YIKES!)
As you can imagine, many people contact John for help with their training and nutrition, especially when it comes to maximizing muscle growth. And that’s what John spoke about at the EliteFTS LTT a couple of weekends ago… nutrition for maximum muscle growth and strength.
John giving his presentation. (No worries…the guys in the front row are taking notes on their phones!)
During his presentation John discussed some very sophisticated concepts and did a great job of making them relatively easy to understand. That being said, I tended to just jot down the key points of his presentation instead of complete thoughts. Without further ado, here are 13 golden nuggets of information John Meadows dropped on everyone at LTT:
***1. Mtor – John described mtor as “starting the car.” Without mtor, no muscle building can take place, no matter what else happens. Driving mtor - mechanical tension, Leucine, Insulin helps
2. That being said, endurance training shuts down mtor. If you’re trying to build muscle, do NOT do post-workout cardio.
3. You don’t have to rush down and drink a post-workout shake within minutes. You have about an hour.
***4. If maximum muscle growth is your goal, before a workout, consume a moderate amount of carbs and a small amount of fat to start a steady insulin rise. During a workout you want to consume liquid carbs and hydrolysate as they are fast acting.
***5. Shortly after your workout you want more carbs and protein (liquid is best) then solid food shortly after that (animal protein with a fast digesting carb like white rice would be great) or another pulse of casein hydro. Again, this doesn’t have to be done immediately, within 30-60 minutes post workout is fine. However, if you didn’t consume protein and carbs during your workout, then you need them more quickly.
6. BCAAs are basically only good because of leucine.
7. Leucine alone is better than BCAAs.
8. Don’t be afraid of carbs before bed. The seretonin release can help with sleep.
9. “I have never seen anyone get fat pounding carbs PWO.” – John Meadows
10. If your training has less volume then you need less overall protein and carbs (less pre workout, less post workout, less during workout).
11. Avoid oil high in omega-6 fatty acids because they increase inflammation.
12. The body is not good at converting flax oil to DHA. Fish oil is a much better choice.
13. Make sure you eat veggies with fat so you can absorb them (many of the vitamins and minerals in vegetables are fat soluble).
***Small tweaks made per John’s instructions***
