Is it possible
to gain large amounts of muscle mass and lean body mass in a relatively short
period of time (5-12weeks)? Recent and controversial publications show tremendous
increases in lean body mass in 12 weeks, which most find too good to be true,
but such reports are not unprecedented
in the literature.
HMB/aminoacid supplementation
In 2009 Kraemer et al. (1) examined the effects of an essential amino acid-based formula containing HMB on hormonal and muscle damage markers in response to 12 weeks of resistance exercise.
More precisely one
group received an MA supplement containing 1.5 g of calcium HMB, 7 g of
arginine, 7 g of glutamine, 3 g of taurine, and 5.824 g of dextrose, and
another group received a supplement containing or an isocaloric, isonitrogenous
control containing nonessential amino acids (10 g of glycine, 11.5 g of
alanine, 1.5 g of glutamic acid, and 1.5 g of serine) as well as calcium
citrate (200 mg of calcium).
Subjects were 17 healthy men recreationally active. Training consisted of a non-linear
undulating periodization non-linear
undulating periodization split into ‘‘light,’’
‘‘moderate,’’ and ‘‘heavy’’ days.
The exercise program
stressed all major muscle groups and
included the following exercises (or variations of) in each session: bench presses, squats, lunges, shoulder
presses, arm curls, stiff-leg dead lifts, lat pull downs, seated rows, calf
raises, and sit-ups.
Whole body
composition was assessed by DEXA. After 12 weeks total and lean body mass increased
and percent body fat decreased in both groups, with greater improvements in
body composition potentiated by MA supplementation. Precise numbers were not
given, but from the graphic it appears to be an increase of around 9kg of LBM and a decrease in fat percentage
of 5% for the MA group.
Both groups showed
increased circumferences of the biceps, thigh, and chest; however, no change in
waist circumference occurred. Subjects in the MA group had greater thigh and chest
circumference than the CON group after training.
The greater results
for the MA group were likely to the “anticatabolic properties of its
ingredients: exercise-induced proteolysis is reduced by HMB, arginine and
glutamine”.
Trained subjects
In 2013 started a series of studies with impressive
results in trained subjects from the same group of researchers at the
University of Tampa by Wilson et al. (2,3,4).
ATP supplementation
The first one (randomized, double-blind, placebo- and
diet-controlled, parallel groups) examined the effects of 400 mg per
day of oral adenosine-5-triphosphate (ATP) supplementation
utilizing a long-term, periodized resistance-training program (RT) for 12 weeks (2).
The training program was divided into three phases:
The training program was divided into three phases:
- Phase one
consisted of a three times per week non-linear periodized RT program for weeks
1–8, modified from the previous study by Kraemer et al.
(1).
- Phase two
consisted of a two-week overreaching
cycle during weeks 9 and 10.
- Finally, phase three consisted of
participants tapering for weeks 11 and
12.
Two weeks prior
to and throughout the study, participants were placed on a diet consisting of 25% protein, 50% carbohydrates, and 25%
fat by a registered dietician who specialized in sport nutrition. Participants met
as a group with the dietitian, and they were given individual meal plans two weeks prior to the onset of the study. Diet counseling was continued on an
individual basis throughout the study.
Body composition
(lean body mass, fat mass, and total mass) was determined by DEXA, and skeletal muscle hypertrophy was
determined via the combined changes in ultrasonography-determined
muscle thickness of the vastus lateralis (VL) and vastus intermedius (VI)
muscles.
Lean body mass
increased by 4kg and body fat percentage decreased by 3.5% after 12weeks (2).
HMB-FA supplementation
The next study investigated the effects of 12 weeks of
HMB free acid supplementation on
muscle mass, strength, and power in resistance-trained individuals using the same resistance training program as before (3).
They got the
same deal as before: 25% protein,
50% carbohydrates, and 25% fat, individual
meal plans and diet counseling was
continued on an individual basis throughout the study.
In addition they had
this time an assessment of 3-day food
records taken at the beginning, mid, and last week of the study that revealed
that diets consisted of 22 % protein,
45 % carbohydrates, and 33 % fat, with no differences between groups. Compliance
of supplementation was assessed by having the participants hand their empty
packets to a researcher at the beginning of each training day. Compliance was
over 98 % for supplementation.
Supplementation with HMB-FA resulted in a significant increase in body mass and LBM.
LBM increase was about
7.5kg and body fat decrease was about 5.4 kg.
By 4 weeks the HMB-FA group already had an advantage
of +2.1kg LBM over the placebo group, and it kept going until the end.
If you look closely by 8 weeks the placebo group gained 2.9kg, it was possible that if
it wasn’t for the overreaching cycle they would have kept making progress
rather than decreasing their gains.
Looking at the muscle damage data in the placebo group it was higher than the previous 8 weeks, and twice the muscle damage of the HMB-FA group during the overreaching cycle.
Looking at the muscle damage data in the placebo group it was higher than the previous 8 weeks, and twice the muscle damage of the HMB-FA group during the overreaching cycle.
The increased muscle damage and the increased LBM loss suggests the
over-reaching was too much for the placebo group, and that if they had followed the first phase until the end LBM would
most likely continue to increase, again
at 8 weeks it was 2.9kg.
HMB-FA/ATP supplementation
The latest study combined the effects of HMB-FA and
ATP supplementation, with the same exercise program (4).
Again, the same
deal as before: 25% protein, 50%
carbohydrates, and 25% fat, individual
meal plans and diet counseling was
continued on an individual basis throughout the study.
Lean body mass was increased by a combination of HMB-FA/ATP by 12.7% or by 8.5 kg, and fat percentage decreased by 8.5% in the HMB-FA/ATP supplemented group after 12weeks.
For the placebo group
we can see the same trend as before, with subjects gaining apparently 4% LBM from
the graph (2.8kg) after 8 weeks and then dropping 1.9% from that to apparently
3% or “2.1 kg” LBM after 12 weeks.
Similarly, fat percentage
decreased by 2.4 and 8.5 % in the placebo and HMB-FA/ATP supplemented group, respectively.
600mg of Testosterone
Bhasin et al. did a series of studies investigating
the effects exogenous Testosterone administration (5,6,7,8). Of particular
interest is the first one from 1996 in which they had a group which also
combined 600mg of Testosterone enanthate and training (5). The other groups
either received testosterone alone with no training, placebo, or just training
alone. All the other studies investigated only the administration with increasing
doses of testosterone (no training).
Briefly, what is perfectly clear from this set of
classical studies is that Testosterone
alone with no training can produce significant increases in total body lean
mass and hypertrophy of skeletal muscle, with a dose-response, meaning the
more Testosterone the more lean mass gains.
These were well-performed studies in which they:
These were well-performed studies in which they:
- Suppressed endogenous Testosterone to isolate the effects;
- Measured total body lean mass by DEXA;
- Measured and observed an increase in Quadriceps and
vastus lateralis muscle volumes and cross-sectional areas of type I and type II
muscle fibers (7,8);
- Measured and observed an increase in myonuclear
number and satellite cells (7);
- And even controlled for total body water increase
(lean mass) vs. water retention to determine whether the apparent changes in fat free
mass by DEXA scan and underwater weighing represented water retention. The increase did
not represent water retention in excess of that associated with protein
accretion (6).
These studies rustle some jimmies and induce discomfort and extreme dissonance in some people who won’t or can’t admit the effects attributed to Testosterone alone (even with exercise) and keep arguing it is all about their special training and diets, especially the ones who want to promote their services, but that’s for another article.
These studies rustle some jimmies and induce discomfort and extreme dissonance in some people who won’t or can’t admit the effects attributed to Testosterone alone (even with exercise) and keep arguing it is all about their special training and diets, especially the ones who want to promote their services, but that’s for another article.
As noted before, one study combined 600mg of testosterone with training (5).
The training
consisted of a cycle of weight lifting at heavy intensity (90%RM), light
intensity (70%RM), and medium intensity (80%RM) on three nonconsecutive days
each week. The training was held
constant at four sets with six repetitions per set for bench-press and
squatting exercises.
Subjects had
experience with weight lifting.
After 10 week there was an increase in lean body mass of 6kg in 10 weeks (12). The percentage of body fat did not change significantly in any group.
Of note testosterone
only produced 3kg of LBM gain and coupled with exercise the results were
doubled, suggesting that exercise plays
a major role in augmenting the results of testosterone, up to a certain point!
For
perspective here is a graph comparing gains from these 4 studies (5,2,3,4):
Credit to Joseph Agu
If we scale
the Bhasin et al. study to 12 weeks, assuming
a linear response over time and a 600g LMB gain per week, the LBM gains would be 7.2kg vs. 4kg vs. 7 kg vs. 8.5kg.
Discussion
Discussion
In other articles you can read more about The Greatest Gains Ever Recorded, Genetics and Hyper-responders, and not to make this TL;DR:
In short, it is clear that some exercise methods can produce great
results, and that some are hyper-responders
for hypertrophy, experiencing big increases in muscle size:
- 6 % increase in muscle size in 5 weeks; 21.4 - 39.4 % increased in muscle size in 24 weeks; 9-15 % LBM increase in 5 weeks;
- 6 % increase in muscle size in 5 weeks; 21.4 - 39.4 % increased in muscle size in 24 weeks; 9-15 % LBM increase in 5 weeks;
Training programs between these studies were greatly different, with the programs for the untrained being “basic” training 2 or 3 muscles only (as most studies), with the exception of the Kraemer et al. study with a full body training program with daily undulating periodization (with supplementation).
To produce such results in trained population is another game and more difficult.
The Wilson et al. studies were all done with trained subjects, had a full
body training program even more advanced and hard than Kraemer et al., and also
supplementation. These studies also resulted in decreased body fat (not seen in
the other studies).
If we scale the Bhasin et al. study (5) to 12 weeks with the assumption I followed above, gains
would be equal for the HMB-FA study (3), and only become “better than steroids”
for the latest study with HMB-FA and ATP supplementation (4).
Such results in trained
populations are to be looked at with great
skepticism. If subjects were carefully chosen/cherrypicked as
hyper-responders (as argued by the authors), and had an advanced program and
supplementation, the results are more plausible.
We also have to take into account all of Wilson et al. studies were diet
controlled (rare in such studies), with 23-25% protein.
Now let’s take a lot at one study by Jose Antonio et al. (9) in trained subjects with one group consuming a normal protein diet of 2.3g/kg/day with a full body training split throughout the week. Body composition was assessed by whole body densitometry using air displacement via the Bod Pod.
For the normal protein group (2.3g/kg) and also the higher protein group we can see a mean change in FFM of +1.5kg in 8 weeks, but thankfully we have individual data which is more telling of what can happen:
See those 4 subjects in the NP group above +2kg, and those 2 up there above +4 kg? What about in the HP
group those 3 up there around +6kg LBM
in 8 weeks? Same with the body fat individual data.
While the Bhasin et al. had trained subjects and a
basic exercise program, the other studies had trained subjects (and possibly
all hyper-responders) and full body daily undulating periodization program.
Even if we compare the placebo groups from the studies:
- In the ATP study the placebo group had already
gained 2.7kg LBM after 8 weeks, but
then dropped 0.7kg to 2kg LBM after the overreaching cycle at 12 weeks (2);
- In the HMB-FA study the HMB-FA placebo gained 2.9kg LBM after 8 weeks, and then dropped 0.8 to 2.1kg LBM after the
overreaching cycle (3);
- In the HMB-FA+ATP study the
placebo group gained about 2.8kg LBM after 8 weeks,
and then dropped 0.7kg to
2.1kg after 12 weeks (4);
- In
the testosterone study the placebo group gained 2kg LBM after 10 weeks (5).
This means all the placebo groups
from Wilson et al. made more gains (2.7-2.9kg LBM) than the testosterone placebo group (2.1kg LBM) and in less time (8 weeks vs 10 weeks). After
8 weeks however they all dropped to 2-2.1 kg due to the overreaching cycle.
Could we reasonably assume that they would keep making progress if they
didn’t intentionally overreach and perhaps going from 2.9kg to 4kg in the last
4 weeks? Possibly. I think it is reasonable to assume the training protocol did had an effect in the exceptional results
reported by Wilson et al. studies.
Certainly HMB-FA or HMB-FA+ATP is not better than 600mg of testosterone, but perhaps if you combine a
full body daily undulating periodization
for 12 weeks (vs. 10 weeks) and use (trained) hyper-responders
results might come close to 600mg of T and a basic exercise program for bench-press and squat only (70-80-90%RM), perhaps.
Having looked at the testosterone raw data (unpublished), the mean was
about 627-653, with some having 800-930 and even one subject above 1000 (values
fluctuated a bit over the 12 weeks). Subjects had a mean of 21.6 years. Perhaps these individuals among the already
“carefully selected” responders were even more exceptional or outliers and pulled
the group mean up? Look at those 2 guys here at the top from another study:
Other “tricks” that can be used is detraining and then retraining
subjects for the experiments, and even carb-depletion pre-study and
carb-loading post study for the DEXA measurements, which would make them
“gain” an additional 2kg of LBM (as
water).
Recently several researchers wrote a letter to the editor (10) about the HMB-FA+ATP study questioning the results and asking for clarification on several points.
As a final note, I am not arguing for or defending the Wilson et al. studies, just presenting some evidence of some of the biggest gains ever reported in other studies, and offering some context and perspective of what can be possible if the right conditions (training methods, programs and supplements) and populations are met.
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References:
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