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ADVANCED NUTRITION
FLEX May 2000
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Recover As You Sleep
Q: Sometimes I have trouble sleeping
at night on training days, particularly when I train heavy
in the late afternoon. What can you recommend to help me
sleep better?
A: Train hard, eat well, get plenty
of rest and sleep. That's the formula for training success
and getting huge, right? It's not uncommon to lose sleep
at night because you kicked ass in the gym a few hours earlier.
Sleeplessness is a big problem, especially if you have to
work in the morning. Taking ZMA™ - a patent-pending combination
of zinc aspartate, magnesium aspartate and vitamin B6 -
may help you overcome this problem and deficiencies in those
micronutrients.
Micronutrients greatly influence anabolic
hormone levels and the ability to gain lean mass and strength.
Several recent studies have raised questions about the effects
of training hard and consuming a so-called well-balanced
diet. They highlight the potential benefits of specialized
supplementation.
Even if you're eating well, it's possible
you're not getting all the micronutrients you need. Zinc
and magnesium are two minerals often depleted in athletes
due to rigorous exercise (A. Singh et al., "Magnesium, zinc,
and copper status of U.S. Navy SEAL trainees," American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 49:695-700, April 1989).
Furthermore, zinc and magnesium are poorly absorbed when
taken with food or supplements containing calcium. As a
result, zinc and magnesium are two minerals requiring special
attention by athletes and people who supplement with calcium.
Research indicates that zinc deficiency
often results in low serum testosterone and growth factor
(IGF-1) levels in athletes, and in increased serum estrogen
and compromised androgen receptor activity. Intense exercise
has been shown to adversely affect sleep in fit people,
including trained powerlifters (I. Montgomery et al., "Physical
exercise and sleep: the effect of the age and sex of the
subjects and type of exercise," Acta Physiologica Scandinavica
(Supplement), 574:36-40, 1998). Evidence suggests that magnesium
significantly improves sleep efficiency and restores exercise
tolerance that is decreased by sleep deprivation (M. Hornyak
et al., "Magnesium therapy for periodic leg movements-related
insomnia and restless legs syndrome: an open pilot study,"
Sleep, 21[5]:501-5, August 1998; and K. Tanabe et al., "Efficacy
of oral magnesium administration on decreased exercise tolerance
in a state of chronic sleep deprivation." Japanese Circulation
Journal, 62[5]:341-6, May 1998).
Enter ZMA. Scientific evidence has demonstrated
its effectiveness in increasing anabolic hormone levels,
including free testosterone and IGF-1 - hormones that may
otherwise be suppressed in hard-training athletes.
In one randomized study of ZMA. a group
of 12 NCAA football players took ZMA nightly during an eight-week
spring-training program; a group of 15 other players received
a placebo. In the ZMA subjects, both free-and total-testosterone
levels increased by more than 30- testosterone levels in
the placebo group declined approximately 10. IGF-I increased
by 3.6 in the ZMA athletes; it decreased by 21.5 in the
placebo group (L.R. Brilla and V. Conte, "A novel zinc and
magnesium formulation [ZMA] increases anabolic hormones
and strength in athletes," Sports Medicine, Training and
Rehabilitation Journal, in press. November 1998.
In addition to improvements in anabolic
hormone levels, the ZMA athletes made significant gains
in strength and power (L.R. Brilla and V. Conte. "Effects
of zinc-magnesium [ZMA] supplementation on muscle attributes
of football players," Medicine and Science in Sports and
Exercise, 31[5]:Supplement 123. Abstract 483, May 1999).
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