DISCOVER THE AFTERBURN (Homonunculus' Article in Musclemag, Int., May 2010)

[Scott Stevenson]

Ladies n' Gents,

I thought you might enjoy an article I wrote for Musclemag, Int. recently. It on the newstands now (May 2010), as part of the issue's superfeature.

Pick up the magazine locally to get the full deal, or feel free to check it out via my website, where you can download a slightly modified version, sans the full color photos (for copyright reasons).

http://scottstevensonphd.com/Downloads.html

TBH, I haven't been able to bring myself to read it (I've just glanced at a few things), although the editor tells me he was very happy he didn't have to change much (as was I).

Would love to hear feedback.

This was my first article for a muscle magazine. I've been published as an academician (peer-reviewed journals, etc.) and put together some articles for local lay magazines, but this as a different kind of a challenge.

I had to make it something interesting enough that you'd even want to stay on the shitter a little longer just to finish the article. Informational and novel, but not academic. Practical and kind of exciting even. (OTOH, I also wanted it to be scientifically sound, as you might notice from the list of references.)

Hope you like it.

-Scott

[Scott Stevenson]

Bump in the name of science.

-S

[ob205]

Great article and a very good topic. I have a very noticeable EPOC effect after doing sprints say 10-12 x 50m with 30 seconds rest between. I wonder how the workout that elicited the greatest EPOC would compare to these Metabolic/complex templates that are popular now. If I were to have one critique, there should have been a sample routine for the most effective EPOC. I know it is already in the article, but would just have been a nice illustration. Also, was the EPOC greatest because they trained the whole body in 1 workout? Would be interesting to see the numbers for different workout days (push/pull/legs)?

On a side note, Mike Mentzer rolled over when seeing 50 sets of 10 to failure.

[Aaron Singerman]

Great article!

[Scott Stevenson]

Great article and a very good topic. I have a very noticeable EPOC effect after doing sprints say 10-12 x 50m with 30 seconds rest between. I wonder how the workout that elicited the greatest EPOC would compare to these Metabolic/complex templates that are popular now. If I were to have one critique, there should have been a sample routine for the most effective EPOC. I know it is already in the article, but would just have been a nice illustration. Also, was the EPOC greatest because they trained the whole body in 1 workout? Would be interesting to see the numbers for different workout days (push/pull/legs)?

On a side note, Mike Mentzer rolled over when seeing 50 sets of 10 to failure.

Lots of good ideas there, man. In digging through the literature (and this isn't the first time - its like this a lot in exercise science), the exercise protocols were all over the place, but there were enough to to line them up and sift out order as I did there (and has been done in a couple review articles, too, of course).

The Schuenke et al., 2002 paper was the killer: they did four sets each of the bench, power clean and squat, in a circuit with 2 min rest between each set. Each set taken to failure at about 10 reps - they adjusted the weight to keep them failing at 10 reps. (E.g., if they failed at 8 they'd lighten it up. Failure at 12 reps, they'd up the weight a tad.)

That's be nearly an hour (2 min rest between, plus the time to do the set itself) of sets to failure. Just the 4 sets to failure of the squat would be pretty damn brutal. I can only imagine how friggin' there subjects were afterwards.

That EPOC was so high because:
-They trained the whole body, which stressed a lot of muscle mass.
-Used whole body exercises: greater hormonal stress
-Sets were taking to failure (greater stress)

(There wasn't enough room in the article to go into mechanisms of EPOC.)

Great article!

Thanks, man!

-S