Amino Acid L-Methionine

Your search for L-Methionine is most likely due to its relationship with Creatine - L-Methionine is one of three Amino Acids (the other two being L-Arginine and L-Glycine) required to produce energy-rich Creatine.

L-Methionine was first isolated from Casein (commonly called milk protein, as it accounts for 80% of milk protein, the other 20% being whey protein) and is synthesised by L-Aspartic Acid and synthesises into L-Cysteine to act on Gluthione (tri-peptide made up the Amino Acids L-Glutamic Acid,L-Cysteine, and L-Glycine) for liver detoxifying. L-Methionine also important for health of hair, nails and skin.

Contraindications: Diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, pregnancy.

Food sources include: Meat, Eggs, Dairy Products, Fish, Beans.

Diet

For many of you diet will mean losing weight, toning up and burning fat, rather than just your maintenance daily eating habits. There are many different diets out there - Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet, Zone Diet, Cabbage Soup Diet, Ketogenic Diet etc. - all of which have the simple aim of you consuming less calories (food energy), therefore, causing a negative energy balance & you losing weight.

Different diets present different problems, some more so than others, which we'll discuss within each subject matter. The fundamental flaw of most peoples diet plans (or rather, lack of plan) is both EFFICIENCY and SUSTAINABILITY. For example, if you did not alter your activity levels, but cut out a couple of meals a day (say 600 calories less a day), initially you'll lose weight through causing a negative energy balance, but before long this will become your maintenance calories (level energy balance), as your metabolism (body's processes) will slow. The reason, not having to work as hard to break down food as regularly and correcting its self to your new calorie intake - your body's very clever! Subsequently, if you were to resume what you considered normal eating, you're likely to put on more weight than you started with. Not quite what you wanted to read - there being no quick fix, but, if thought out properly, there's no reason you cannot achieve realistic diet & physique goals. Below are helpful pages and popular diet subjects.

Visit the Gym Professor web site to find out more about the following subjects:

How do I make my body more EFFICIENT?
How do I SUSTAIN weight loss throughout my diet?
Popular Diets
Healthy Eating
PERSONALISED DIET PLANS
Fat Burners & Metabolism Boosters
SAMPLE DIET PLAN

Amino Acid - L-Cysteine

Rather than recite the same information carried across many websites & quoting the same references, I (GP) will try and keep the information relevant to why you've probably searched the Gym Professor site - hair loss products (or better phrased: the promotion of hair growth)?

L-Cysteine can be found among the ingredients list of many hair growth formula's. The reason, growth (& health) of hair depends on adequate levels of L-Cysteine. Although L-Cysteine's a non-essential amino acid (can be made by the body), we've already touched on why consumption of "non-essential" (I'll encase "non-essential" in speech marks in this instance, considering it's a term ONLY!) amino acids are still important through your food intake (a healthy balanced diet will contain many sources of L-Cysteine - poultry, eggs, wheat, broccoli, onions, red peppers).

As regards L-Cysteine's supplementation in the matter of hair growth, having known a couple of people suffer slight hair loss & poor hair health through no apparent predisposition, which would now appear to be attributable to poor nutrition, in their instances (so they felt at least), a greater initial improvement ("jump start") was experienced by supplementing 1g of L-Cysteine daily (for only a couple of weeks) in conjunction with their improved (& continued) eating habits. Of course some people are more predisposed to hair loss than others. A healthy balanced diet may have a lessening effect (& will certainly be beneficial in many other ways), but don't expect miracles from hair growth formula's.

Contraindications: Diabetes and Cystinuria.

Tell me more about: Amino Acids

Amino Acid L-Aspartic Acid

Something (L-Aspartic Acid) that's cropped up a few times recently during the joyous explanation of the Krebs Cyle (Citric Acid Cycle), as oxidation of L-Aspartic Acid plays an intermediate role in the eventual production of ATP.

Fatigue can be experienced if levels of L-Aspartic Acid are too low. Again (as mentioned with other amino acids), your general sources of protein - dairy products, beef, poultry, eggs - are all sources of L-Aspartic Acid and should provide enough L-Aspartic Acid. L-Aspartic Acid's relationship (if too low) to fatigue means that it's often advertised in supplement form to reduce exercise induced fatigue and increase stamina. Again, L-Aspartic Acid's individual importance does not outweigh the recovery benefits of a varied and sufficient intake of protein.

For further information, please consult the Gym Professor website.

Plyometrics

For many, many, many years exercises such as bounding, hopping, & jumping, have been used with warm-up and fitness drills for various fitness disciplines and sports, often exercising muscles and mimicking movements involved in those sports or disciplines (so, sport-specific exercises). This distinct method of explosive training is nowadays generally termed "plyometrics" and plyometric drills are commonplace to help improve athletic performance.

Plyometrics is based on the theory that a muscle will contract more forcefully following a pre-stretch because, although much of the energy used to stretch the muscle is lost through heat, a certain amount of elasticity will remain, and so aid the force of the contraction, subsequently, in practice, this will enable someone having performed plyometric jumping drills for several weeks, to be able to jump higher or further than they may otherwise have done.

Unknowingly, you probably perform many plyometric exercises when training for your sport, but, as with all things, it certainly helps your development to understand what you're performing and why and, if you're not performing certain drills, perhaps your performance will improve with their inclusion into your training.

Below are examples of some plyometric exercises and drills, but, for further information, Donald Chu has written some very useful books, Jumping Into Plyometrics is a particularly easy to follow and useful handbook.

Visit GymProfessor.com to find out more about:

Jumps in Place;
Multiple Jumps;
Standing Jumps;
Depth Jumps;
Bounding;
Medicine Ball Drills;
Box Drills;
Sport-Specific Plyometrics;
Recovery from Plyometric Exercise.

Amino Acid L-Arginine

I (GP) thought I'd add a quick overview of L-Arginine, given its mention to me by a couple of people today in nutrition talks.

Firstly, in reference to supplementing (orally) and increased arousal and fertility. Notably though, the individual was supplementing L-Arginine in a stack (combined with Niacin, AKG, Vanadyl Sulphate). The increased blood flow (caused by the vaso-dilating properties of the other three main ingredients) could provide an answer as regards arousal (combined with the fact he's a rather horny individual) (NB: L-Arginine's often stacked with the aforementioned ingredients as it improves the bioavailability of nitric oxide). The above said, some older studies (a couple of decades ago) have purported increased fertility and sperm production (something of note: L-Arginine makes up approximately 80% of seminal fluid).

Secondly, wound healing and muscle tone. Initially, we'll consider wound healing. As it appears that L-Arginine plays an important part in the formation of collagen (main protein of connective tissue), it would therefore be sensible to assume that increased L-Arginine (perhaps through supplementation) may help improve our wound healing capability (coupled with L-Arginine's effect on the improved immune function of the Thymus Gland, which may also increase wound healing). Claims of increased "muscle tone" through supplementation is speculation only (to date) and the assumed correlation, I would presume (blimey, I'm assuming things now!), is borne from the role L-Arginine plays in stimulating the pituitary gland to release growth hormone. Most journal references to L-Arginine and "muscle tone" will advise that high levels of L-Arginine would need to be given intravenously for there to be any effect in this area.

Contraindications: Schizophrenics, Herpes sufferers.

Weight Training

Sad I know, but weight training is one of the loves of my life. No matter what your physique goal or sporting activity, weight training can help toward this endeavor. There are many widespread misconceptions about training with weights (or any type of resistance training for that matter), not helped by misleading advertising, but, hopefully the Gym Professor website, this blog, & my constant use of analogies will help to clarify things and set you on the right track in the gym.

Realising that many of you will be looking for guidance, the Gym Professor website (& eventually the Gym Professor blog) will include:

• Numerous exercise diagrams - providing basic instruction and detailing muscles exercised, what the exercise is for & who the exercise is for.
• Weight training & gym routines - relating to your physique goals & sports.
• Periodization strategies - for general gym & fitness training for sports.
• Fitness assessments - performing fitness tests & measuring hopefully positive trends.
• & Much more besides...
  

For successful weight training, I would suggest you have a basic understanding of nutrition and anatomy (in particular kinesiology). Information on both can be found on the Gym Professor website.

Incredibly helpful & thorough eBooks (mostly my own - time willing!) will be released in due course, with in-depth information and even more guidance on the above subject matters. So, if you find the Gym Professor website useful, please consider purchasing one of the eBooks.

In the meantime, to keep up to speed with all the latest updates, please follow the Gym Professor Blog and sign up to our FREE no spam Newsletter, which will (again, in time) offer a host of weight training, diet, & supplement advice etc. & some free related eBooks.

Best regards,

GP

Amino Acid L-Tyrosine

Apologies on my (GP) supplement biased, but, if you wanted to know the the chemical formula (by the way, it's C9H11NO3) and who L-Tyrosine (in this instance) was discovered by (btw, it's Justus Von Liebig), then the excellent Wikipedia would be a far greater resource. Personally, I find it all rather interesting, however, considering that you're on the Gym Professor Blog, I would imagine your question is to why L-Tyrosine is an added ingredient in either your "fat loss" supplement or your "mental buzz" supplement?

Well, lets start with the "fat loss" supplement. Amongst many important functions, L-Tyrosine governs production of CCK (Cholecystokinin), which is an appetite suppressant (as well as a pain reduction chemical). That's it, short and sweet.

As regards the "mental buzz" supplements, L-Tyrosine acts as an excitatory neurotransmitter stimulant on the brain and central nervous system. Subsequently, it's often included as a major ingredient (along with caffeine) in "mental buzz" supplements (normally drink form).

Contraindications: Schizophrenics, hypertension, high blood pressure, melanoma.

Amino Acid - Taurine

As noted under the Amino Acid blog post, Taurine does not have an "L" prefix as it only exists in one form. Furthermore, Taurine's unusual as it's not incorporated into proteins in the body (likewise, L-Ornithine). However, Taurine does play an important role in bile acid metabolism (as it's incorporated into one of the most abundant bile acids - Chenodeoxychloic Acid), where it serves to emulsify dietary lipids in the intestine, promoting digestion.

Taurine's most famous use is within "buzz/ energy" drinks, such as Red Bull (you know - gives you wings). You may find it as an active ingredient within your pet food or baby formula as well. As with most amino acids we've covered, their individual (& grouped) function/s has led to their analysis for different uses and their inclusion within many relating formula's. Although Taurine's inclusion within pet food and baby formula is more apparent (I'll cover this at the foot of the page), there's several reasons to argue it's inclusion within "energy" drinks, subsequently, it's become the norm as an ingredient. The quantitative "energy" (measured in calories) is less within so called "energy" drinks than a typical soft drink. The relating term "energy" (& the reason why I place it within annoying " " upon each mention) is borne from the basis that the ingredients (including Taurine) in these drinks contribute to mental alertness and physical performance, despite actually having less "energy" (again, when measuring calories). Personally, I prefer the term "buzz" drink. Anyway, I'll cover "energy" drinks in greater detail within the supplement section of the Gym Professor website.

Before I forget, what else you might see Taurine in as an active ingredient - pet food and baby formula. Firstly, pet food. Working along with Zinc, Taurine is important for eye health and vision. Cat's cannot synthesize the compound and so it's an important dietary requirement. Don't worry, your cat's not about to go blind, as meat and fish are good sources of Taurine. But, if you see it as an added ingredient within a processed cat food formula, this is why. As regards baby formula, premature babies who lack the enzymes needed to convert cystathionine to L-Cysteine may become deficient in taurine. Thus, taurine is a dietary essential nutrient in these individuals and is often added to many baby formulas as a measure of prudence (the name of my first cat - ha). Also of note, it has been found that high concentrations of Taurine are present in breast milk.

Weight Training Gym Routines

I (GP) have added categories below for various gym routines that may be of interest. These are sample routines only. Your training should follow a gradual progression (as your planned season allows), with sensible transitions from one routine to another. I will cover more on periodization of
weight training and training transitions amongst other articles on this website and will (in time) release an eBook detailing sensible process maps to follow with your training. However, in the meantime, DO NOT RUN BEFORE YOU CAN WALK! I say this because many newbies will adopt gym routines that are far beyond them and will therefore make little gains and increase their risk of injury.

Gym Routines:
Toning Routines (for men)
Toning Routines (for women)
Endurance Routines
Strength Routines
Circuit Training Routines
Bodybuilding Routines
Powerlifting Routines
Sports-Specific Routines

Tell me more about:
Gym Exercises
Gym Routine Factors to Consider
Gym Routine Upgrade Options
Advanced Training Methods
Fitness Routines
Fitness & Strength Assessments

Amino Acid L-Glutamine

L-Glutamine is the body's most abundant non-essential amino acid. It becomes conditionally essential (requiring intake from food or supplements) in states of illness or injury. Therefore, it's not uncommon for those regularly exercising (hopefully, you!) to supplement L-Glutamine (or for sport supplement manufacturers to add additional L-Glutamine to protein supplements), as the physical stress of exercise will decrease L-Glutamine concentrations.

Typically, I (GP) have known bodybuilders supplement L-Glutamine during pre-competition diet. The reason, not only to reduce fatigue, but, to help suppress carbohydrate craving.

Key Nutrients - Carbohydrates

In short, carbohydrates are foods that provide you with energy - carbohydrates being your primary energy source. Second being fats and finally protein. Hopefully, breads, cereals, rice, pasta, fruit and vegetables being your main sources of carbohydrates throughout the day.

Broken down through the digestive process, carbohydrates are metabolised into Glucose - some going to fuel brain activity and most of the remainder stored in the liver and muscles as Glycogen.

There are three categories of carbohydrates (please click on each to find out more) - Monosaccharides (simple sugars), Disaccharides (dual combination of simple sugars), Polysaccharides (chain of simple sugars, Starches). Simple sugars and starches are commonly referred to as simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates respectively. Simple carbohydrates are foods that give a quick increase in blood sugars, complex carbohydrates giving a slow increase in blood sugars. Most food items are now labelled with a ranking system (Glycemic Index) to indentify this.

To find out more about the following, please visit www.gymprofessor.com

Simple Sugars
Polysaccharides (Starches)
How blood sugar is controlled

DAILY BLOG: Amino Acid - L-Lysine

As always, I (GP) will try and address first the most likely reason for your search - Herpes? The reason you'll find L-Lysine mentioned amongst text of the Herpes Virus is that L-Lysine is the antagonist of L-Arginine, which nourishes the virus. More a reason why not to supplement L-Arginine though, than to supplement L-Lysine.

Another instance for your search is that the aforementioned L-Arginine, coupled with a pyroglutamate molecule (making Arginine pyroglutamate), is used in conjunction with L-Lysine as a reasonably common supplement aimed to stimulate growth hormone. Do not expect miracles though!

Other points of possible interest, L-Lysine (acting alongside L-Proline and Vitamin C) inhibits vascular lesions caused by Atherosclerosis. Also, collagen in the skin contains hydroxylysine and hydroxyproline - formed from L-Lysine and L-Proline.

Contraindications: Breast feeding, high cholesterol, liver or kidney problems, pregnancy.

Food sources include: Meat, Dairy Products, Eggs, Lima Beans, Brewers Yeast.

DAILY BLOG: Amino Acid - L-Leucine (BCAA)

Perhaps the second most common (to L-Glutamine) individual amino acid supplement, L-Leucine is one of three BCAA's. BCAA's making up the largest composite of muscle protein. Another popular supplement to which L-Leucine relates and which I (GP) am often asked about is HMB - Leucine converting into Ketoisocaproate (KIC) and then into Hydroxy Methylbuterate (HMB) to prevent muscle breakdown. The idea, supplementing HMB to prevent degradation of protein and subsequent muscle breakdown.

Food Sources: Chicken, Fish, Red Meat, Dairy Products, Eggs, Whey, Beans, Brown Rice, Nuts, Whole Wheat.

DAILY BLOG: Amino Acid - L-Isoleucine (BCAA)

BCAA is short for Branch Chain Amino Acids. Bonded in a chain configuration, the BCAA's - Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine - collectively form the largest amino section of human protein (about 33% of MUSCLE protein!). Therefore, its use in general, and specifically after training, promotes muscle recovery - whey protein being high in BCAA's, hence its high assigned biological value (100), and widespread use as a supplement. Also, many post-workout drinks (normally 3:1 carbs:protein) now have added BCAA's and added L-Glutamine. Again, as mentioned on prebious blog posts, fulfilling your nutritional requirements - i.e. consuming an adequate quantity of protein daily from varied sources - will far outweigh the benefits of individual amino supplementation.

L-Isoleucine is used in the formation of Haemoglobin and assists with the regulation of blood sugar and subsequent energy levels.

Contraindications: Kidney or Liver illnesses.

Food Sources: Chicken, Fish, Red Meat, Dairy Products, Eggs, Whey.

DAILY BLOG: Amino Acids

Amino Acids are the building blocks of protein. Amino Acids are linked in various sequences and chains (polypeptides), thus accounting for the vast variety of different proteins manufactured by the body. Likewise, our dietary protein differs, and it's subsequent utilisation by the body.

Scientists have attempted to measure utilisation rates of different sources of dietary protein, creating various forms of measure, such as Protein Efficieny Ratio (PER) and Biological Value (BV), which you may've come across on the back of your protein supplements tub.

Other tags, relating to Amino Acids, which you may be familiar with (from reading the back of protein supplements), are the prefix "L" and the noting "BCAA". An "L" prefix denotes a naturally occurring amino acid. The opposite "D" (which you're probably not so familiar with) is synthetic, and is not normally useful to the body. "BCAA" is short for Branch Chain Amino Acids. Bonded in a chain configuartion, the BCAA's - Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine - collectively form the largest Amino section of human protein (about 33% of MUSCLE protein!).

Naturally occurring Amino Acids are further categorised as "essential", which means that they cannot be made by the body (&, subsequently, have to be included in the diet), and "non-essential", which can be made by the body (NB: Although, still benefical within diet).

A list can be found below of each Amino Acid, I'll go in to detail about each one in turn on the daily blog. It must be remembered that many work hand-in-hand, and adequate amounts of protein, and good sources of protein (remember, this is what Amino Acids collectively form), are of greater importance and benefit than simply supplementing high dosages of certain Amino's.

Essential Amino Acids:

L-Isoleucine (BCAA)
L-Leucine (BCAA)
L-Lysine
L-Methionine
L-Phenylalanine
L-Threonine
L-Tryptophan
L-Valine (BCAA)

Non-Essential Amino Acids:

L-Alanine
L-Arginine*
L-Asparagine
L-Aspartic Acid
L-Cysteine
L-Glutamine
L-Glutamic Acid
L-Glycine
L-Histidine*
L-Ornithine
L-Proline
L-Serine
Taurine**
L-Tyrosine

*These are regarded as "semi-essential". The reason, they can be made by the adult body, but babies and young children may not be able to manufacture enough for their needs.

**Taurine does not have an "L" prefix as it only exists in one form. Furthermore, Taurine's unusual as it's not incorporated into proteins in the body (likewise, L-Ornithine).

Please visit www.gymprofessor.com to find out more about the following:

Amino Acids
Dietary Protein
Nitrogen Balance
Protein Requirements
Protein Source Comparisons
Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER)
Biological Value (BV)
Net Protein Utilisation (NPU)
Protein Fractions
Protein Supplementation

Protein

Protein's the second most abundant substance in the body (second only to water) and with functions as varied as providing structure and repair (& growth) of tissue (skin, bone, MUSCLE), to preventing and fighting infection, protein is suitably named (from the Greek word meaning "of first importance").

Proteins are made up of smaller sub-units called Amino Acids, which I'll post about tomorrow :-).

In the meantime, if you wish to find out more about the subjects listed below, please visit www.gymprofessor.com

Amino Acids
Dietary Protein
Nitrogen Balance
Protein Requirements
Protein Source Comparisons
Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER)
Biological Value (BV)
Net Protein Utilisation (NPU)
Protein Fractions
Protein Supplementation

Key Nutrients

I, GP, am always amazed that people do not know the functions that their food items (& nutrients within those items) play. That said, many adults don't even know what nutrients are derived from foods they're eating, despite most being clearly labeled. Below is a list of our key nutrients and the main function that they perform. I'll cover each in turn (plus some more intricate detail) on this blog page.

Protein – repair & growth of tissue
Carbohydrate – primary energy source
Fat – secondary energy source
Vitamins & Minerals – regulate metabolic processes.
Water – transportation of other nutrients

Article submission - nutrition, diet, supplements, gym, fitness etc.

Hi all,

It's been suggested by one of our happy followers (who's been using the sample gym routines) that I post articles daily to the blog to help increase traffic, which in turn will hopefully allow me to allocate more time toward increasing this free online gym resource. So, please sign up to follow this blog & visit our advertisers links as often as possible.

Please also remember to join up to our newsletter, which is also completely free!

Best regards,

GP