Bioenergetics Part 1: Creatine Phosphate

Bioenergetics is a field of biochemistry that explains how the body converts energy into a usable form to accomplish mechanical work. Notice I didn’t say that the body creates energy for mechanical work. According to the First Law of Thermodynamics, no energy is ever created or destroyed. All of the energy that we are able to convert to usable energy forms comes from the sun and enters our body through eating, drinking and breathing. The body has four primary ways of producing ATP (fuel for mechanical work), and over the next month or so I will be writing a post about each. First up is the ATP-Pc energy system.

So right off the bat we need to get some vocabulary straight. Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is to the human body what gasoline is to the car. ATP interacts with myosin which attaches to the actin filament causing contraction. Once this contraction occurs the ATP becomes ADP, because it loses a phosphate in the contraction process. So this ADP can’t be used for contraction again until phosphorylation occurs (the addition of a phosphate). This is where the energy systems come into play.

The Creatine Phosphate energy system is an anaerobic energy system and is the first energy system used during maximal work. It is the fastest energy system because it requires only one chemical reaction to produce an ATP. A molecule of Phosphocreatine (Pc) meets up with a molecule of ADP and the enzyme Creatine Kinase causes the phosphate group bonded to creatine to join the ADP molecule. This makes ATP and leaves a creatine molecule.  Pretty simple, right? Your body can use the ATP-Pc energy system to produce roughly ten seconds of maximal work, and in about 2 minutes, it’s ready to yield another ten seconds of maximal work. Think of this energy system as a toilet. Once you pull the lever it takes about 10 seconds to flush all the water, and then it takes about two minutes for the tank to refill to allow for another flush. If you were to flush before the tank was entirely full, you would empty the tank, but it wouldn’t take 10 seconds to empty this time. The same is true for the phosphor creatine system. Fortunately, after the initial ten seconds of work, anaerobic glycolysis is ready to kick in and pick up the slack. We will talk about anaerobic glycolysis next time.

So now that the Creatine Phosphate energy system has been explained (hopefully), I would now like to talk about creatine supplementation. Anyone who has ever flipped through the pages of a Muscle and Fitness/Fiction magazine has heard boisterous claims of the unregulated supplement industry concerning creatine. For your pleasure/laughter (mostly the latter), I have compiled some of the more humorous product claims that I was able to come across on a recent trip to the GNC and have posted them at the bottom of this article. While there is a lot of ridiculous hype that comes with creatine supplementation, there is no denying that the stuff works. By boosting the amount of creatine stored in the body, the proverbial toilet tank begins to hold more water (produce more ATP) before it needs to be refilled. Wichita State University has been on the cutting edge in researching the effects of creatine supplementation in the elderly, and in a recent study they found that old people who were taking creatine and working out averaged 15% more strength gains than groups using the same workout protocol but not supplementing with creatine. This same study has been done on athletes and other people and has been substantiated over and over. 

So some of you might be thinking, “Why should I care about energy systems?” I reply with an equally thoughtful question (like Socrates). How do you feel about rigor mortis? Not only do your muscles need ATP to contract a muscle, but ATP is also needed to return the muscle to its resting length. This, coupled with the fact that at any given moment your body has only enough ATP to keep you alive for 2-3 seconds, should be enough to convince you that knowledge of energy systems is important. Thank you for your readership, and please comment if you have any questions, comments, concerns or rebukes.

“947% increase in lean mass” – Gaspari Nutrition, Super Pump 250

“234% increase in muscle performance” –Gaspari Nutrition, Super Pump 250

“26 times more lean muscle mass than those who use creatine monohydrate alone”- Cell Tech Hardcore

“148.65% increase in muscle DNA”- NO Shotgun

- Will Hawkins 

Rogers, Michael E., and Ruth M. Bohlken. "EFFECTS OF CREATINE, GINSENG, AND ASTRAGALUS SUPPLEMENTATION ON STRENGTH, BODY COMPOSITION, MOOD, AND BLOOD LIPIDS DURING STRENGTH-TRAINING IN OLDER ADULTS." Journal of Sports Science and Medacine 5.1 (2006): 60-69. Print.

Howley, Edward T., and Scott K. Powers. Exercise Physiology: Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance. 7 ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.

Things a Wise Zebra Once Taught Me Part:1

It’s been a while since my last post, and for that I apologize, but I’ve been devoting most of my spare time these past weeks to reading rather than writing. I’ve been reading Robert M. Sapolsky’s “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers,” and would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in biology and/or the human body. The aim of the book is to explain how, “prolonged stress causes, and or intensifies a range of physical and mental afflictions.” So you may be wondering, how does stress apply to human performance? My answer is, anything that causes your body to leave its homeostatic state is a stressor, and there for any type of athletic endeavor is a “stressor.”


With this post I am beginning a series of post’s entitled “Things a Wise Zebra Once Taught Me.” The series is an attempt to look deeply at the bodies physiological response to stress caused by physical exertion, and to better understand how this knowledge can help athletes to train smarter. I hope my summary of Sapolsky’s work is of help to you.

Any public school educated second grader has learned that as they begin to run, there heart beat begins to race. Any second grade PE teacher could tell you that the reason this occurs is to allow the heart to pump more blood, through the lungs, faster, so the blood can be delivered to the working musculature to keep up the good work. While this answer is enough to suffice the inquisitive mind of the average second grader, it doesn’t explain the physiological reaction that occurs, and how it is remarkably similar to what’s going on in the body of a zebra being chased by a hungry lion. While these two stressors are definitely different types of stressors, your body’s response is not.

When your body senses a stressor (physical or psychological) the message is immediately sent to your brain (hypothalamus to be exact). Once your brain understands what is going on it makes a quick call over to the pituitary gland which initiates the Sympathetic Nervous System which is responsible for getting the body ready for one of four functions: fight, flight, fright, or sex. First, the body increases the stimulation rate of the accelerator nerve, which is responsible for regulating heart rate. Next, the body triggers hormonal secretions to prepare the body for one of the four previously stated functions. Most of the hormones secreted are the same no matter which stress response function you chose, there are however minute differences depending on the function chosen. Epinephrine (adrenaline), norepinephrine, and later glucocorticoid’s are allways released into your blood stream to allow your body to kick into ready mode.

So this stuff is already pretty cool, but it gets better. Your body is actually capable of instantly prioritizing which functions are necessary and which ones can wait. Do you think the zebra is spending massive amounts of energy on digesting that yummy grass it just ate? Or taking brakes to stop, and hide behind a tree so it can use the restroom? No the zebra is sending as much nutrient rich blood as it can to the working musculature, and turning as many functions off as it can, digestion included. One can easily see how if this stress was to become prolonged how big of a toll it would take on the body. Fortunately for the zebra, it lacks the cognitive ability to realize that in reality there are probably always lions within a few miles. To the zebra, the lion is out of sight, out of mind. To the human it is easy to stay up at night wondering if that minor headache you’re having could be the beginning of an onset of chronic migraines, or maybe a brain tumor? Because of humans increased cognitive ability we are prone to initiating our sympathetic nervous system (stress response) and being unable to turn it off.

This last paragraph is something we will continue to explore in the upcoming posts. When your stressed your body does turn of functions, some of these are extremely important for healthy living (i.e. immune system). I hope this post has at least peaked your curiosity and will lead you to come back and learn a few more “Things A Wise Zebra Once Taught Me.”

- Will Hawkins

Sapolsky, Robert M.. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Third Edition. 3rd ed. New York: Holt Paperbacks, 2004. Print.

Wii-nie Roast

A few weeks agoe the American Council for Exercise (ACE) announced their findings for the “Top Fitness Trends for 2010.” While there findings were interesting and hysterical, they we’re not all that surprising.

Among the projected trends is the continued rise of Wii-nie's, that is, the people group that swears that the ridiculous gaming machine is the best thing to happen to the fitness industry since the birth of Chuck Norris. Additionally, 2010 might be the year for Richard Simmons get the spandex out of the moth balls and come out of retirement, because ACE says that people are going to be more involved in group training this year because many people can no longer afford personal training. ACE is again on the cutting edge (sarcasm) in “discovering” that American’s like to work out fast. Maybe this is so we can still have time to swing by burger king on our way to our 14 hour work day, consisting of just a little more physical activity than an turtle frozen to absolute zero (science joke anyone?)

While the previous paragraph was obviously a satire of the ACE findings, there were a few encouraging points taken from the mass survey. First, is the projected increase in “functional movement training.” Functional movement training at its core is training not just to make look like you’re athletic, but training to actually be athletic. This type of training targets specific movements rather than specific muscles, and generally rewards its followers with longevity and injury free living.

The second encouraging piece of information to come out of this article was the projection that the athletic performance industry as well as the personal training industry will continue to learn that degree’s and legitimate certifications are very important. As it is right now, most gyms would rather hire Steroids McGee than a strong, healthy guy with a Master’s in Exercise Physiology. This is outlandish and I hope that ACE is correct in there prediction.

Happy New Year
-Will Hawkins

Release, Press. "Time- and Cost-Conscious Workouts are Among the Most Popular Fitness Trends in 2010." Become an ACE-certified personal trainer and maintain your personal training certification with the American Council on Exercise. Also offering, Group Fitness Instructor, Lifestyle and Weight Management Consultant and Advanced Health and Fitness Specialist fitness certifications. American Council for Exercise, 1 Dec. 2009. Web. 29 Dec. 2009. .

Basics of Skill Acquisition

Teaching an athlete to learn new movement patterns is a not a skill that is developed over night. Teaching athletes new tricks can be quite time consuming and frustrating, but the process can be expedited if coaches understand the processes of learning advanced movements. In this article I will attempt to explain and illustrate the four steps of learning, using a jump-shot as the desired movement skill.

Step 1: Unconscious Incompetence.
During this stage the athlete looks at the ball, tosses it around a little bit, but then sets it down because he is too embarrassed to attempt to shoot it. While the athlete may have casually watched a few basketball games, he never really noticed the mechanics employed by good shooters vs. that of bad shooter’s, and is definitely incapable of positioning his body in a way to correctly shoot the ball.

Step 2: Conscious Incompetence.
By the time the athlete has gotten to stage two of development the athlete is capable of identifying basketball players with good form, and can visualize himself shooting a sound jump shot, but lacks the kinetic awareness to actually shoot the ball himself. Coaches can help their players through this step by manually posturing the athlete’s body, allowing them to feel what it’s like to shoot a proper jump shot. This will go a long way in helping the athletes CNS to develop the proper neural pathways needed for skill acquisition.

Step 3. Conscious Competence.
 During this stage the athlete can shoot proper jump-shot’s as long as he is thinking deeply about the movement, and nothing else. He can shoot jump-shot’s as long as he’s spotting up, but is unable to shoot properly off the dribble. Advancement to the next step usually takes a while, but can be expedited by developing an oscillating program of jump-shot’s (skill work) and conditioning/already acquired skills-work. I would recommend never working on the acquisition of a skill for longer than 10 or 15 minutes before taking some type of break, whether active or passive.

Step 4. Unconscious Competence.

 At this point the athlete can shoot jump-shots with near perfect form, in a variety of different circumstances without even thinking about it. While step four is the last step, it isn’t the end. All athletes are capable of backsliding if regular skill development/maintenance drills are not employed. This is why NBA players still practice. Ok, well maybe Allen Iverson doesn’t practice. I stand corrected…

I hope this has been helpful. The most important thing is never give up on an athlete, and definitely never let you’re athlete know that you’ve given up on him. Also, during the kinetic linking stages of skill acquisition DO NOT be afraid to put your hands on your athlete. During the early stages of kinetic linking it is imperative that your athlete feels what a proper repetition feels like, even if you have to manipulate that body positioning for them.

-Merry Christmas, Will Hawkins

Seagrave, Loren. "Loren Seagrave – Neuro-Biomechanics of Maximum Velocity

SpeedEndurance.com." Speed endurance . com. Success in Track & Field and Life.. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2009. .

Ankle Braces and Ankle Health

This is an article written by my good friend, and former co-worker Carson Boddicker. He is the founder of Boddicker Performance, a Flagstaff, AZ based athletic performance company. In the article Carson talks about ankle health and possible danger involved with ankle bracing. If this article sparks your curiosity check out his blog at boddickerperformance.com
-Enjoy, Will Hawkins

"I recently was asked what was the “best” ankle brace to use. Below are my thoughts, which are in line with that of ACE Bandages and Kinesiotape. Enjoy!
Weeding through the ankle brace market can certainly be trying for even the professional. While they are a great short term “band-aid; to be entirely honest, an ankle brace will only make your problems worse in the long run by weakening the tissues around the joint even more and contributing more to the instability.

Your best bet in my mind, without question, is to address the root of the cause of the ankle instability instead of just treating the symptom itself.

With an ankle injury, many things can go wrong. Often, the bones of the foot and lower leg begin to not play together nicely, with the talus migrating superiorly and anteriorly, thus losing range of motion in the toes to your shin range of motion–dorsiflexion–which is critical in the health of the foot, ankle, and knee. Here, we’d be certain to try and improve dorsiflexion range of motion with both active and passive techniques. It’s also important to address calcaneal inversion with active mobilizations.

Furthermore, the most lateral muscles of the lower leg, the peroneals (as a group), are put on an extremely fast stretch, and become scarred up and inhibited. Research shows that in cases of chronic ankle instability, these muscles respond slower to a stability challenge than a healthy tissue does due to muscle spindle activity. One of the best ways to handle this is through a combination of soft-tissue therapy, proprioceptive training, and nerve flossing techniques."

Best regards,
Carson Boddicker
http://www.boddickerperformance.com/

Ice Ice Baby

Anyone who knows anything about acute injuries has heard of the RICE acronym, that is, rest, ice, compress and elevate. Ladies and gentleman I am here to tell you there is a reason you’ve had RICE crammed down your throat (pun intended). RICE works. This is why.

Rest- Rest is arguably the most important factor in the RICE acronym. Rest allows the body time for inflammation cycles to carry out healing. There is however a misconception that rest means immobilization. This is incorrect. Rest means avoiding serious trauma while trying to maintain/improve soft tissue quality and not losing range of motion in any affected joints. Take an ankle sprain for example, if the ankle is completely immobilized for long periods of time not only will the body’s natural compensatory responses be choked out, atrophy will being to take place in the uninjured connective tissue. This of course leads to an even weaker joint, and a longer recovery time.

Ice- Many athletes have terrible memories of being forced to sit in 30 degree ice tubs after football practice, but I can assure you, ice used properly is your friend. It’s not exactly immerging science that ice helps swelling go down. Ice acts as a local vasoconstrictor which limits blood flow (inflammation) to the site of application.

Compress- Compression is another method used to reduce swelling, and it’s not very complicated. Any 4th grader who watched Bill Nye The Science Guy understands that fluid takes the path of least resistance. Compression on the injured site resists your body’s acute injury response to send gratuitous amounts of blood to the injury site.

Elevation- Whether it’s on the basketball court or in the Physics lecture hall, I have always hated gravity. What’s to like about an invisible force that limits you from doing just about every cool thing there is to do on this planet. In the case of acute injuries however, gravity it your friend. When you raise your injured limb above your heart gravity will cause less blood flow to enter the injured area. Pretty cool right? Gravity, I guess you’re not that bad…

While this isn’t anything ground breaking information I hope this post will serve as a clear and concise explanation of how to treat acute injuries. The best way to avoid inflammation is to not get injured but if you simply must sprain your ankle RICE is the way to go.

-Will Hawkins

UFC Periodization

This is something I typed up for my Clinical Exercise Prescriptions class. It goes into the basics of periodization, in a humorous way, and points out that periodization should be applied to more than just an athletes workout, but there lifestyle in general. The premise of the essay is I am writing a training program for my self to fight BJ Penn for the UFC Welterweight title.

When developing a periodized program for me to fight in the UFC for the Welterweight title, I first looked at my specific needs (other than an act of God), and what energy systems my greatest needs fit into. In order to uncover my specific needs I subjected myself to a barrage of tests. First test was V02 Max. I have had six V02 Max tests run on me in the last six months (one would be sufficient) and I recorded the average result. Additionally I performed a Functional Movement Screen (FMS) on myself and recorded my score. I also performed a five repetition max test on bench press, squat, and dead lift. From these tests I have come to the conclusion that my biggest need for improvement is in my VO2 max but this must be accomplished without losing any anaerobic power (2).

Test Results

V02 Max 56 ml*kg*min

FMS 16/21

Bench 5-rep max 225 lbs.

Squat 5-rep max 300 lbs.

Dead lift 5-rep max 275 lbs.

While a of 56 is decent it’s not good enough to maintain peak performance for three, five minute long rounds .The best way to increase my VO2 is to integrate aerobic conditioning into every facet of my training. I would structure my grappling, and striking sessions to have an aerobic capacity building emphasis. While this is pretty effective for most, why stop there. If I’m going to have a chance at beating B.J Penn in a fight, I would need to employ some “experimental tactics” as well as an act of God. For this I turn to Hypoxia training.
Hypoxia training is essentially training in an oxygen depleted environment to attempt to cause cardio respiratory adaptation. This can be legally accomplished one of three ways. One can either train at high altitude, train in a hypobaric chamber/room, or wear some type of devise that inhibits oxygen intake. Some fighters train with their noses plugged while wearing a modified scuba snorkel in their mouth to accomplish this. According to the February, 2007 Journal of Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine, this type of training can lead to, “significant increase in the ventilatory anaerobic threshold (p<0.05). Significant increases (p<0.05) in pulmonary ventilation, tidal volume, respiratory frequency, O2 uptake, CO2 output and ventilatory equivalents to oxygen (VE/Vo2) and carbon dioxide (VE/C02) were observed at the ventilatory threshold and within the transitional zone of the curves.” All these results can be coupled with gains in anaerobic strength if properly integrated into a free weight circuit. In training to fight in the UFC this would be the only type of weight lifting I would do (1).
Because my specialty is grappling there are a host of needs that come with that. The greatest needs of a grappler are a good strong core, excellent hip and T-Spine mobility and full body strength. The full body strength requirement would be met by the free weight circuit training, but some other specific workouts would be necessary to attain core strength and hip/T-spine mobility. For increasing T-spine mobility I would do a plethora of rotational exercises with a fixed pelvis causing the mobility to come from my T-Spine rather than L-Spine. For increasing hip mobility I would focus primarily on the abductors and the glute complex. These are huge muscles that are underdeveloped in most athletes. The awesome part about that is you can accomplish increasing hip mobility while you are teaching your CNS to fire these huge muscles more effectively.
In addition to knowing what fighters need to train, one must also know when they need to train. The most important thing is that you are in your peak conditioning during the fight. When it comes to periodization there are two basic models; linear and daily undulating. Linear models (like the one required for this project) are great if the fighter didn’t have a strength coach he could consult daily, but the linear model isn’t as good as the daily undulating model. The daily undulating model takes into account lots of different factors and is better suited for change in the case of injuries or any other type of unexpected stressor. Both models do agree on one thing however; the need to taper off the week leading up to the fight. The week leading up to the fight is supposed to be skill’s work only.
In addition to periodizing a workout regamine; nutrition, hydration levels and amount of sleep are extremely important. These topics are worthy of papers of their own but I will try to sum up there importance in one paragraph each.
When it comes to Nutrition I believe the Paleo Diet is best for fighters. The paleo diet is derived from the word “Paleolithic” which refers to the Stone Age. The diet was made popular by Dr. Lauren Cordain's book entitled "The Paleo Diet." The paleo diet is essentially the diet of a Stone Age caveman. "The Paleo Diet" book sites that because the genetic makeup of the human body has changed only .02% over the last 40,000 years why should our diet change? The diet preaches that all the food you consume should be in its most natural form (fish from the ocean not from a farm) and non processed fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes. The Paleo diet is very high in protein, due to proteins believed ability to increase insulin sensitivity which helps keep you feeling full. All of the science behind the paleo diet is pretty heavy into evolutionary biology. Dr. Cordain even says in his book that. "I didn't design the diet, nature did." This diet has recently received a lot of attention through the rise of crossfit, which many UFC fighters use as their training regimen (5).
Another thing that must be accomplished to achieve greater fitness as well as general health is maintaining proper hydration levels. The need for proper hydration in UFC fighters is magnified by the fact that most fighters train in extremely hot rooms. The Journal of Biochemistry and Physiology published an article entitled, “Nutritional Needs for Exercise in Heat”, that explains how this problem is fixed. This article sites that athletes should hydrate well prior to the workout, drink as much as they comfortably can during the workout, then drink as much as they can after the workout and make sure they intake sufficient quantities of all four electrolytes. If athletes don’t rehydrate after workouts there body will stay in a catabolic state, and can experience cell damage due to increased free radical production (3).
Sleep is by far the most important part of recovery, and possibly also the most abused. Athletes tend to turn that all around once they find out that human growth hormone (HGH) the same hormone many athletes illegally inject themselves with is naturally let off in your body while you sleep (5). This HGH is essential for proper musculoskeletal recovery. Sleep is also necessary to maintain a healthy immune system, and this will go a long way to help a fighter (4).
While periodization is very important it obviously can’t make up for the talent discrepancy between BJ Penn and I. Most athletes are however surprised when they receive their first periodized program and see what they’ve been missing out on. Science doesn’t lie. Sometimes your body needs to work in overdrive and sometimes your body needs rest. Often only the knowledge of a trained professional can differentiate between these times to that’s why proper periodization is so important. It truly can set apart a winner from a loser.
-Will Hawkins

1. Miguel, Casas. "Intermittent hypobaric hypoxia induces altitude acclimation and improves the lactate threshold.." Journal of Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine 71.2 (2000): 125-30. Print.
2. Sanders, Michael, and Jose Antonio. "Strength and Conditioning for Submission Fighting." Strength and Conditioning Journal 21.5 (1999): 42. Print.
3. Burk, Louise. "Nutritional needs for exercise in the heat." Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology 128.4 (2001): 735-48. Print.
4. Yutaka, Honda. "Growth Hormone Secretion During Nocturnal Sleep in Normal Subjects." Journal of Indocrinology and Metabolism 29.2 (1969): 20-29. Print.
5. Cordain, Loren. The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food You Were Designed to Eat. New York, NY: Wiley, 2002. Print.