Research Review

Ballard TL et. al. Naringin does not alter caffeine pharmacokinetics, energy expenditure, or cardiovascular haemodynamics in humans following caffeine consumption. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 2006 33(4):310-4.

Abstract: 1. Naringin, a grapefruit constituent interacts with many medications including caffeine, a popular weight loss supplement. The purpose of the current study was to identify changes in caffeine pharmacokinetics, resting energy expenditure (REE), oxygen consumption (VO(2)) and respiratory exchange ratio (RER) after an acute dosage of caffeine and naringin. 2. Using a double-blinded, counterbalanced design, REE, VO(2), and RER were measured before and systematically for 8 h after a single dosage of caffeine (CAF, 200 mg) with and without naringin (100 mg (CN100) or 200 mg (CN200)) in 10 apparently healthy individuals. A standardized meal was provided following 240-minute measurements (400 kcals; 35 g carbohydrate; 27 g protein; 7 g fat). 3. Caffeine, CN100, CN200 did not alter VO(2) or VO(2) area under the curve (137 301 +/- 8318, 139 729 +/- 9300, 134 297 +/- 8318, mL/480 min). Resting energy expenditure (k/cals) was 10.0 +/- 1.4% higher with CAF versus CN200 (6.0 +/- 1.4%) and CN100 (6 +/- 1.5%) at 240 min (P = 0.07) which was then negated following a standardized meal. Percent change in RER from pre to 240 min and pre to 480 min was not different between the CAF, CN100, or CN200 (-0.2 +/- 1.7%, 1.7 +/- 1.7%, -2.8 +/- 1.9%). 4. Although caffeine alone suggests a trend of increased REE, the results of the present study indicate that concurrent consumption of caffeine with naringin in acute dosages does not affect RER, VO(2), and prevents the increase of REE in adult humans. The results suggest that the interaction of grapefruit juice and caffeine may be due to constituents of grapefruit juice other than naringin or in addition to naringin.

My comments: Back in Bodyopus, Dan Duchaine wrote about the use of naringin to potentiate ephedrine/caffeine (EC) stack. At the time, it was thought that naringin would extend the effect of the stack by affecting the breakdown of the caffeine into its metabolites. I don't know if people are still using naringin to try and potentiate the effect of either caffeine or the ephedrine/caffeine stack or not but this study examined the effect of adding naringin to caffeine on the metabolic response in terms of resting energy expenditure (REE), RER (the respiratory exchange ratio, which is an indicator of fuel usage) and VO2 (oxygen uptake). It found that the increase in resting energy expenditure was higher for caffeine alone than with either caffeine/naringin mixture. Bottom line: if you've been using naringin in any shape or form, you can stop; not only does it not help (at least caffeine by itself), it appears to blunt the effect.

Exercise of the Month:

Front squats

As mentioned in the introduction, the front squat is one of the almost forgotten exercises in recent times. If you see someone performing anything close to a proper front squat in your gym, you work out in a very unusual gym. An excellent way to work the quads and take stress off the low back (relative to back squats), front squats are a movement that you'll rarely see unless your gym has Olympic lifters. Occasionally, you might see them done in the smith machine.

Many people have problem holding a good rack on the bar and, for this reason, I'm going to show a variety of grips so that even the most inflexible can use this movement. Front squats can make a good second leg movement after deadlifts (although lower back fatigue can make the front squats problematic). Because of the difficulty holding the rack, front squats are rarely done for high reps, sets of 5 or triples are best. Many people, depending on wrist flexibility, also have problems with breathing but as long as you hold a good rack, this will get better.

On the topic of racking the bar, there are basically three different ways to hold the bar. Olympic lifters, of course, use a clean style grip as that is how they receive the bar on their shoulders after the clean. However, some bigger bodybuilder or powerlifters types, usually with larger arms and/or inflexible triceps can have problems with this type of grip. The original modified way of holding the bar was the cross arm or Cossack grip. Personally, I've never liked it, I don't feel like the bar is stable. A third option is a semi-crossed arm grip where you are actually holding the bar. All three grips are shown below and, in all three, the elbows are kept high so that the bar is being held on a 'shelf' formed by the shoulders. The bar shouldn't be pushed so far back into the neck that breathing becomes a problem.

Clean Grip

Cossack Grip

Modified CossackGrip

Once the bar is racked, the next issue is to perform a proper front squat. The feet should be shoulder width or slightly wider with the feet angled out. The movement begins by breaking the knees forwards while squatting essentially straight down, the knees will go forwards of the toes and should stay over the feet at all times (see form error below).

It's crucial to keep the torso bolt upright and this is facilitated by keeping the head up and driving the elbows up throughout the movement; if the elbows drop, the lift will generally be lost out front. Most people will find it easier to perform a full squat to full depth. Starting and ending positions for a properly performed front squat appear below.

Finally, let's look at some common errors in the front squat. As with back squatting, letting the knees break in at the bottom is fairly common, seemingly moreso in women than in men. The reasons for this can be many ranging from weak hip external rotators (some coaches think that weak adductors are the real cause) to simply not actively pushing the knees out throughout the movement. A very exaggerated example of this appears below, you can see how the knees break in and the feet roll to their insides.

A second problem that occurs is dropping the elbows in the bottom of the squat. This causes the torso to come forwards and the upper (and often lower) back to round. Usually, a heavy weight will be lost out front when this occurs. Two examples of this appear below. The rightmost picture is common among lifters with very poor shoulder flexibility, they tend to try to simply hold the bar in their hands rather than getting it into a good rack position on the top of the shoulders.

Finally, for people with limited hamstring flexibility, or who simply do not actively try to maintain a good arch, the lower back will tuck under which can throw a lot of dangerous stress onto the low back. This appears below with a properly performed squat shown next to it.

Questions and Answers

Q: How can I structure a properly balanced program?

A: Assuming no major imbalances exist, I think it's generally a good idea to maintain a roughly equal volume of training between opposing movements. So, for every set of chest exercises, do a set of midback exercises (rowing). For incline or shoulder press, you need a pulldown of some sort. For every set of abs, do one of low-back. However, note that, in general, the first movement you train in a given workout will get hit the hardest. If you always start your workouts with flat bench (you know who you are) your midback may be lagging behind. Try starting your upper body workouts with back stuff first from time to time. Or start one upper body workout with pushing and the second with a pulling movement

Q: How does ketosis 'trump' falling leptin levels as far as hunger goes? Why aren't we hungry after a few days on a ketogenic diet if leptin has gone down?

A: The effect of leptin on hunger is rarely immediate. Quite in fact, leptin doesn't really impact on hunger so much as it does on appetite. Let me explain. Hunger refers to the short-term need for food, basically on a meal to meal basis. Appetite refers to a longer-term desire for food.

An example that may help this make sense is this: in older individuals, for a variety of reasons, there is typically a decrease in appetite. Older individuals often eat very little food. However, they still get hungry and full on a meal to meal basis. Basically, appetite which is primarily controlled by leptin and hunger (which is primarily controlled by shorter acting hormones like insulin, ghrelin, peptide YY, CCK, GLP1 and many others) are different factors.

However, there is some overlap: once leptin has dropped sufficiently, the hunger controlling hormones don't work as well. People find that when they are dieted down very far, they tend not to stay full long. Even if they follow all of the 'rules': solid foods, low glycemic carbs, plenty of fiber, fat and protein, they don't ever really get full. This is because the low leptin is setting the 'tone' of the brain to the other hormones. For example, CCK (Cholecystokinin) doesn't send as much of a fullness signal when hunger is down.

So in the first few days of a diet, the drop in leptin just isn't that big of a deal. Between folk's blood sugar balancing out and the increased protein and dietary fat of ketogenic diets, hunger tends to be blunted initially. When leptin has dropped further, and for longer, the same hunger issues tend to arise.

Q: What's a depletion workout?

A: A depletion workout is any type of high rep/short rest period type of workout. They are used to deplete muscle glycogen typically to set up for glycogen supercompensation. Dan Duchaine used the depletion workout for this goal in his Bodyopus diet. Additional reasons to use depletion workouts are to burn calories and increase full body fat utilization; the reduction in loads, increased blood flow and lactic acid levels can also have beneficial effects on connective tissues. My Ultimate Diet 2.0 uses depletion workouts for all of these reasons.