Tom Venuto argues the merits of the “the pump” in body building: Is ‘THE PUMP’ Necessary for Muscle Growth?

The pump is the short-term sensation you get during training when your muscles fill up with blood faster than the blood can leave the area, making the muscles appear fuller and larger. It’s a tight, swelled feeling, often accompanied by an increase in vascularity.

Basically he says that for physique-orientated weight lifters the pump is very important, but it is less important for strength training.

The pump usually results from superset workouts or lifting with very brief rest intervals between sets. A superset is an advanced training method in which you do two exercises, one after that other, with no rest in between. This can be done with two different muscle groups, but for a good pump it would focus on only one muscle group.

Most bodybuilders and even most exercise physiologists would agree that workouts that produce maximum pump can provide up to 20-25% of the increase in muscle size. This comes from sarcoplasmic and mitochondrial hypertrophy and increased capillarization. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy looks good and is beneficial to bodybuilders, but you do tend to lose it more quickly with de-training.

The pump has virtually nothing to do with increased myofibrillar hypertrophy – the actual fiber growth that’s responsible for 75-80% of the increase in muscle size. That type of fiber growth comes only from heavy training, which produces much less, if any pump.

Tom also mentions the psychological benefits of the pump, referencing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s book The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. Arnold wrote:

When you are pumped up, you feel better and stronger, and it’s easier to motivate yourself to train hard and achieve a high level of intensity. Sometimes you will walk into the gym and feel tired and lazy but you will get a fantastic pump after a few minutes of work and suddenly feel strong and energetic.

Even if you realize that the pump is only temporary while your muscles are gorged with blood, it can still be very motivating to see your muscles swollen to their max.

Crazy Meds offers unbiased information on anti-depressants or other psycho-active drugs, from the people that are actually taking these drugs. Most of the information available on pharmaceuticals, and anti-depressants in particular, is from the pharmaceutical companies; and even though they are required to list side effects they are certainly biased.

Pharmaceutical company sites who offer up their drugs as panaceas with few mild-to-moderate side effects. Little is mentioned about the cost to the uninsured. Actual side effects are buried in doctor-speak and no real idea is presented about the chances of their happening, how long they last or if they will go away during the course of your taking the medication. The same goes for if the drug will work for you or not.

Other patients may be able to give people a better idea of how your body will actually react to these drugs. With a forum for just about every anti-depressant out there and an active user base you can find information and advice for whatever crazy med you’re on.

Researchers at Temple University may have found a way to help diagnose repetitive stress injury such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis. Repetitive stress injury is notoriously hard to diagnose, making it a condition whose existence is sometimes doubted.

The new study from Temple University senior researchers Ann Barr and Mary Barbe and their doctoral student, Stephen Carp, in the March issue of Clinical Science, found that the immune system pumps out biomarkers (different kinds of chemicals) as the body begins to become injured by repetitive motions. These biomarkers warn of an underlying problem.

The biomarkers could indicate other types of injuries, so they are not sufficient for a diagnoses, but they can serve as a previously unavailable red flag. This could allow for early diagnoses; hopefully preventing chronic conditions.

Where health and energy conservation meet: Hong Kong’s California Fitness.

A health club here is hoping that a car battery, some StairMasters and dozens of gym rats can help ease the world’s energy problems.

Rita Wong is doing her part. One evening recently, the fit 27-year-old, dressed in black spandex, pedaled furiously on an elliptical machine at the California Fitness health club. As she worked up a sweat to a Madonna song blasting on the gym’s sound system, the energy she created was transformed into electricity and stored in a battery that powers some of the gym’s lights.

Google’s doc, Dr. Taraneh Razavi thinks you should drink your juice.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Medicine, concluded that the risk for Alzheimer’s disease was reduced among people who drank fruit and vegetable juices, three or more times a week compared with those who drank these juices less than once per week.

She says fruit and vegetable juices protect your brain cells from oxidization, hopefully preventing Alzheimer’s. So get those blenders going and make some smoothies!