Wrestling Blogs - Rick Addante

In repsonse to a question from my high school brother, I thought I would post this. He plays football, and wants to get bigger and faster form lifting weights. He wanted first to take Nitro Tech, which, from working on my PhD in Neuroscience, I professionally caution against as being a very dangerous product to use. There can be major problems associated with it and similar products... most anything from GNC, almost. I can let into the cellular, genetic, and molecular components, but will spare you here. Email or comment for further detail if your interested.

He then wanted to simply take 100% Whey Protein, which is allegedly harmless, as a way to build more muscle, bigger, and faster, and for better recovery. This philosophy, mindset, and reasoning of motivation, in itself, is quite dangerous, and leads towards a slippery slope of cheating, steroids, slacking off, and ultimately personal, professional, or medical failure. "Faster recovery" and other cliches like that in our sports industry is what has destroyed the integrity of baseball with HGH and other performance enhancing drugs- its the reason and motivation that is fundamentally wrong.

But what is Whey Protein, and what could be bad about taking it? It is supposed to be simple, natural protein supplement. We need protein to live and build muscle, so it cant be that bad, right? Wrong. Below I outline some basic, fundamental reasons why you, your athletes, or your kids are better off for staying away not only from these products, but from this contagious way of thinking towards whatever endeavors you choose to pursue.

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1. Bigger does not equal better, it just means your bigger and bulkier

2. Stronger does not equal better. It just means your stronger.

3. Practiceing the right things in the right ways, WILL make you better.

4. Becoming better will make you win more. Bigger and stronger wont neccessarily.

5. There is NO Easy Way to do it. In fact, if its easy, your probably doing something wrong or not working hard enough

6. There is a reason why a Bull can never catch a Rabbit.

7. There is absolutely, positively NEVER a subsitute for true HARD WORK. Work smarter, harder, faster, longer, and more efficient than the other guy, and eventually you will win, and the size, shape, speed, or otherwise of your muscles simply wont matter. Truly, the strength and speed of your MIND is really the only thing that Will matter when it is all said and done, and the Hard Work you put in is really just a mechanism for training your mind, through the work of your body.

I composed my basic response to him below, and kept the science to a minimum and tried to be general to that I didnt get too technical or anything, and was easily understandable.

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Simple protein would be good, but the thing about it is that the body's cells are programmed to only be able to process so much of it, and then it shuts it down and flushes it out- in effect, wasting the product.

Thats actually what products like Nitro Tech and stuff work on, is biochemically fighting that natural saturation effect in muscle cells, and allowing more protein to be absorbed than is naturally possible, via alleged nanotechnology (which no one even knows if it works, btw...). It sounds like a good, creative solution, but the Problem is, that process intentionally screws with insulin levels (which can prompt diabetes issues and renal [kidney] failures later in life), and the amino acids can prompt all sort of goofy gene transcription and translation that no one even knows what the effects could be yet. Insulin, glucose, and diabetes can have effects on the brain, as well as cognition (in addition to the body effects well known) that are only just now beginning to be investigated and understood. [My lab is actually pioneering some of the future diabetes and memory/brain/cognition work in aging populations.]

So while there is probably nothing wrong with taking a bunch of 100% whey protein, the question is how much of it will be effective, since the body only has a limited capacity to process it, and the rest simply gets washed out. messing with the body's limited capacity to absorb the protein/amino acids is what a lot of the supplements creatively try to attack, problem is that can be questionable, if not dangerous on many levels biochemically.

If the body can only process a certain limited amount, basically, the money is wasted on the rest which doesn't get absorbed and is washed out. Ironically, the amount of protein that the body can process at a time is about the amount that can be eaten in a big series of meals, which we know there is no shortage of this at moms house. IF the food is right, the results will be too. It would be one thing if he were trying to be a LB or FB or lineman, but for QB, i dunno if it would even improve any on field play as much as practice and academic studying of defenses/plays, and technique work would. just my perspective though. (this is directly applicable to wrestlers, since its not about bulk or strength, but TECHNIQUE, similar to a QB)

the other thing to consider is that the 100% whey protein that you'd buy at GNC or the store, isnt just 100% whey protein. Read the ingredients. There are other things in there. The product is chemically engineered to have other products in there to hydrolize more amino acids, break up the chains more for stomach absorbtion, etc. So its more than just 100% whey protein... very simply, there are other chemical compounds in there. Maybe they are good and maybe they are not, but its more than just whey protein. Another concern is that some people develop allergies to whey protein. If they hydrolyze it, it will free up glutamic acid-aka MSG-an excitotoxin. Lots of problems with supplements, mostly because they are so highly processed. If he wants to build quality muscle, he should eat complete proteins-of which egg whites are the best source of pure protein.

Its certainly not steroids, and mostly not that big of a deal as far as safety and health is concerned for the simple whey, I imagine. There may or may not be visable side effect that you feel right away or even later. Many side efects would be on a cellular, molecular, or genetic level that you would never ever see or feel for the most part - but that doesnt make them unimportant.

That is not the point. However, a fundamental issue is whether it is efficient or even worth it, given the bodys saturation points for absorbing and washing out muscle building proteins and amino acids. If a 1 gallon bucket only holds one gallon, pouring 10 gallons of water into it is only wasting the 9 gallons that will spill out of it, and wasting that resource ineffectively. If you PAY someone for those extra 9 gallons that will spill out, then congratulations, you have been duped, conned, and hustled, and I have some great real estate for you to buy out here in California...

Save your money. Train smarter, work harder. Be content with who you Are, and dont seek an unnatural standard of physical beauty that society and TV tells you that you should have of giant, ripped muscles. You are NOT a comic book hero, sorry to say, :)

[many thanks to input from my colleague, Joyce, who is a biochemical genius]