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Sample Meal Plan for Powerlifters

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Nutritional Needs:  Energy Requirements: Powerlifting is a competition that is at a very high intensity but only for a short duration.  This means that during competitions, Powerlifters use the Creatine Phosphate system.  As for training, Powerlifters tend to use the Creatine Phosphate and Anaerobic Glycolysis depending on their cycle and what kind of resistance training their doing (i.e. strength phase, hypertrophy, etc.)  Amount of Nutrients:  Assuming the Powerlifter is reaching a peak in his cycle (undulating periodization) I would recommend having them consume 45 kcal/kg (upper amount recommended) per day.  This would insure that they are receiving an adequate amount of nutrients.  More specifically, I would tell my athlete to consume a total amount of 7 g/kg CHO per day,  2 g/kg PRO per day, and 1 g/kg Fat per day. In other words, if my athlete was 185lbs (~84 kg), I would recommend them to make sure and get 588g of CHO, 16...
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Beta Alanine

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What does this supplement "claim" to do? Some claims that I saw based on Beta-Alanine was that it aids in preventing acid build up in muscles.  On top of this, according to BodyBuilder.com, Beta-Alanine is supposed to raise the carnosine levels within the muscles. By doing this, it was said that Beta-Alanine would improve an athlete's performance if they worked at a high intensity for a moderate to short duration.  According to the research I did, it was found to help with intermediate and endurance athletes (specifically 30 seconds- 10 min duration).  Beta-Alanine does help with training volumes for Strength Athletes but not really the actual strength training. Beta-Alanine did not show much benefit for the PC system. Studies:  Found to increase intramuscular carnosine, strength, power, volume per training session under moderate-high intensities (8-12 reps).  The intermittent: Cyclist performing the cycling test to exhaustion increased 12-16% in 4 and 10 we...
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Common Diets for Powerlifters

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Introduction:  I originally chose to research about diets and nutrition for Powerlifters because I currently powerlift and thought I had a strong understanding of what our diets should consist of... needless to say I was wrong.  The goal in Powerlifting is to be as light yet as strong as possible.  As a result, I learned that a low carbohydrate diet is the way to go.  This can be shown throughout many different diets in today's fitness world.  Some of the one's I will be discussing and breaking down include:  "Shortcut to Size" by Jim Stoppani, and The Ketogenic Diet.  Shortcut to Size  Jim Stoppani's diet is based around a high protein and fat intake, accompanied with a low carb intake (where it is more focused on the timing of fast digesting carbohydrates).  Protein is essentially the "building block" for gaining muscle so it is no surprise that his diet requires the individual to consume a lot of it.  As for the fat intake, ...
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