It is a well-established fact that calories control everyone's bodyweight. No matter how many meals a day you have, it is calorie balance in end of day that matters. If you eat fewer calories than you are burning, you will lose weight. It won't matter if these calories come from chocolate, bagels, meat, eggs, fruit or whatever else.

Calories control bodyweight.

What about body composition? The two major components of body composition are lean body mass and fat mass. Suppose you just lost 10 pounds of bodyweight. Does it matter how many of those 10 pounds were fat and how many muscle? Sure, it DOES matter. While calorie balance controls bodyweight, other important factors influence proportions of fat and muscle that you gain or lose! These factors may improve or make worse way you look naked.

One of those factors is calorie distribution (or calorie fragmentation). Bodybuilders, as group of people most concerned with their body composition, have been spreading their calorie intake into smaller and more frequent meals for decades. Originally they believed that doing so "raises one's metabolism". Science has never proved this belief. Recent findings reveal that there is no metabolic advantage of eating smaller and more frequent meals.

However recent research has uncovered that spreading your calorie intake into smaller and more frequent meals improves body composition! More calories end up building muscles, and less calories go to your fat deposits. The calorie balance equation still rules, but more calories end up building muscles! That, my friend, means that you will look better!

Are you looking for a simple and effective way to increase your strength? This article will show you how to incorporate isometrics into your training regime to increase strength of your favorite lifts.

Soviet research, dating back to sixties of 20th century, points out that isometric training preceding dynamic work may increase its effectiveness by up to 20%. This is called "immediate after effect" of isometric training. When reverse sequence of training was tested (dynamic work preceding isometric work), results actually deteriorated.

According to Mel Siff's "Supertraining", after effect occurs immediately after preliminary isometric tension. Strength continues to increase and peaks between 10th to 20th minute. To maximize strength boost, I recommend performing isometric holds 15-17 minutes before hardest sets of dynamic work. Doing so will synchronize strength after-effect peak with hardest part of training session. Example: consider a training session that consists of high-volume Bench Presses and Deadlifts. Iso-Bench-Presses should be performed 15 minutes before hardest sets of Bench Presses and Iso-Deadlifts should be performed 15 minutes before hardest sets of Deadlifts.

The intensity of isometrics should be carefully selected for maximum results. Tensing at 50% of max intensity should produce greatest strength gains. Elite athletes may perform better at higher intensities.

One last question remains: how to select most performance-enhancing isometric position for a given dynamic exercise? Here you have two choices: isometric drill should train either weakest position of your lift, or position where involved muscles are maximally stretched (sometimes your weakest position is your maximally stretched one). This recommendation has to do with long term strength effect of isometrics. It makes sense to strengthen weakest position in a lift, because a chain is as strong as its weakest link. Improving strength of a muscle in its most lengthened position, has a distinct strength carryover to shorter muscle lengths. Therefore isometric training at stretched positions, should improve strength through whole range of motion!