Millions of people spend there hard earned money each day looking for the right supplements only to be disappointed over and over again. Why? With the endless sea of protein powders and weight loss products that exist, the buying process for these products is often a very confusing and difficult experience. There must be and easier way to find supplements that flat out work, right?

Yes there is a way! Trust someone who has been using these products to earn a living. I spent 10 year in professional football and that last 5 years as a National Level Bodybuilder. I have endorsed 23 products in the nutraceutical world and have taken countless more. The Ben Williams Professional Series by Contour was formulated with one result in mind, to work! I wanted to created supplements good enough for the professional athlete, but yet safe enough for the weekend warrior. With that in mind I would like to introduce to you the first two products in that series, ISOTHERM and LIFEPRO.

Isotherm is a 3-phase liquid gel thermogenic fat burner that was formulated to burn fat at an accelerated rate. The three phases of ISOTHERM are The Head Blend, The Muscle Blend, and the Energy Blend. Most of the fat burners I endorsed only covered one of these phases and I felt it crucial to formulate a product that lacked any deficiencies.

The second product in the series is LIFEPRO protein powder. Protein powders can run the gambit as far as quality, sources and absorption rate. Once again I took my 20 plus years experience drinking proteins powders and eliminated the characteristics I didn’t like and went farther with properties that I felt were beneficial. LIFEPRO is a cold filtered whey protein isolate with zero sugar, zero carbs, zero fat and zero lactose. The reason I chose why protein isolate was I felt that it ranked the best in terms of protein sources. But any whey protein isolate was not good enough. The cold filtering process simply takes out all of the byproducts that can cause bloating, stomach distress and bad taste. LIFEPRO is so refined that 40 grams of it can be mixed in 8 ounces of water with a knife and zero clumps.

If you don’t believe me, try them yourself when they hit the market the first week in June and compare them to what you are currently using. I formulated these products with the demands of professional athletes in mind that need to perform to earn a living, but yet made them affordable and safe enough for the person who goes to the gym twice a week. If you have any question pertaining to either or you are looking for discount codes, you can reach me directly at ASKBEN@THECONTOUR.COM. Also, if you are curious how to get the most out of working out with your Contour device click here to watch one of my video demonstrations.

Ben Williams

During each and every workout you subject your delicate joints and tendons to literally tons of weight and stress from the numerous sets and reps you perform. The human body is an incredible machine but in order to get the most from playing sports, running, and especially weight training, joint health and mobility is paramount. Joint support formulas help you protect your joints from extensive stress and damage. Glucosamine tablets, Chondrotin and MSN are found in all the best joint treatments, and are used by bodybuilders, runners and athletes alike. But what can be done if your body doesn’t respond to some of these traditional formulas. After years or training with heavy weights and playing against some of the best athletes in the world, I found that I didn’t respond to the traditional formulas unless taken in high dosages. If you happen to be one of these people, here are a few options for maintaining healthy joints.

1. Exercise. There’s a common urban legend that exercise is bad for your joints. Most people have little appreciation for how powerful exercise can be in supporting joint function. Vigorous low-impact exercise is beneficial – for your joints, as well as for cardiovascular, pulmonary, and other systems in your body. It’s simply a myth that you can ‘wear down’ your knees just from average levels of exercise – and/or normal activity. In fact, inactivity causes your muscles to become weaker and actually works against optimal joint flexibility and comfort. One caution, when using this valuable tool, you need to start slowly if you have not been exercising regularly and build up to higher activity levels otherwise you risk incurring an injury that could really set you back. If typical vigorous exercise is not easy for you, try walking, tai chi and yoga, etc as they are very low impact, yet offer many health benefits.

2. Achieve your optimal weight to improve your bio-mechanic function. One of the outstanding benefits of exercise is its ability to help you achieve and maintain your ideal weight – which is highly beneficial to your joints. Overweight and obese people compromise joint comfort more than those who are carrying their ideal load. Each additional kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body mass increases the compressive load over your knee by roughly 4 kilograms (nearly 9 pounds). 
Research shows that a weight loss of as little as 11 pounds can have a positive effect on joint function. And those who are at their optimal weight experience increased joint health as compared to those who are obese or overweight. So you go full circle – losing weight reduces the load on your joints and makes it easier to exercise, and exercising helps you lose weight and supports your joint health.

3. Eat a higher quality diet. Eliminate sugar and starchy carbs from your diet. And definitely stop drinking soda. These foods do absolutely nothing to support healthy joints or a healthy body. In fact, their potential for damage is well documented. I believe you should limit your total fructose from ALL sources to no more than 25 grams per day, as it raises uric acid levels, which is hard on your joints. Now, chances are, you consume substantially more than 25 grams per day. Approximately ¼ of Americans consume a whopping 134 grams of fructose every day! Within your 25 grams of fructose, you could consider including some tart cherries or concentrated tart cherry juice, as this contains anthocyanins and bioflavonoids, which help support a healthy immune response for your joints and whole body health. Also, in my opinion, you should base your food choices on your nutritional type to ensure you optimize your ideal macronutrient ratios.

4. Optimize your vitamin D levels. Vitamin D also supports a healthy immune response. Please recognize that during the fall, winter and early spring in most of the U.S., Canada, and Europe, your vitamin D levels can drop precipitously. If your levels fall, you give up the support this vitamin offers for your joints and your whole body.

5. Get plenty of omega-3 fatty acids from krill or high quality fish oil. Omega-3′s support your joint health.

I hope these are some helpful tips in keeping your joints pain free. But please don’t forget that there is no substitution for a great diet and being diligent about working out. In a few of my previous blogs I have talked about nutrition and supplementation, which are both equally important to truly maintaining a healthy physique. Over my years as a pro athlete, I have used hundreds of supplements, some good and some bad. I have taken all those years of trial and error and am proud to bring to you the Ben Williams Professional Series. The first 2 products in this series are Lifepro, a Cold filtered whey protein isolate and Isotherm, a 3-phase liquid gel thermogenic fat burner. Without saying a ton of scientific jargon, these products work. They were made by a pro, with one thing in mind, performance. So please look out for these products on www.thecontour.com in the coming month.

Ben Williams

Fitness and bodybuilding magazines always talk about being in an anabolic state vs being in a catabolic state. Most of the time, it is assumed that most people truly understand what both of these actually mean. Well here is the Ben Williams laymen’s guide what they are actually talking about.

Anabolic vs Catabolic

Anabolic means your body is in a growth mode, or gaining more muscle in a general sense. Catabolic means your body is suffering muscle wastage, in a sense you are losing muscle in a sense. Obviously as a person who is into fitness or has a concern with achieving a better physique, maintaining the anabolic state and avoiding the catabolic state is very crucial. Unfortunately we cannot completely avoid the catabolic state but we can do our best to minimize it and its effects.

The anabolic state is maintained simply by eating enough food regularly throughout the day (every 2 to 3 hours) to make sure you keep your carbohydrate levels up and your clean protein sources (protein powder, lean meant, fish) up. This will allow your body to have a steady stream of quality carbohydrates and amino acids in your bloodstream. This ensures your body maintains it energy level its ability to continually repair muscle tissue. This allows your body to repair the damage from the gym while making sure your muscles are growing.

Secondly to remain anabolic you need get adequate rest between workouts and between muscle groups. Muscle growth happens when you rest, not when you train. Make sure you get enough rest between workouts, your muscles should not be sore from the last workout next time you go in to train that muscle group again. This is an indication that you need to take more time off to recover.

The catabolic state is induced in two ways, lack of food and training. Yep, training – that’s one we can’t avoid but we can minimize the negative effects. Lack of food is common sense, if your body does not have the building blocks how is it going to build new muscle fibers, or repair the ones damaged at the gym? If you are running low on food and working out then your body is going to have to get its energy requirements from somewhere and guess which is easiest to burn fat or muscle? The answer is muscle.

If you engage in intense exercise your body will eat its own muscle for energy. Also if you work your legs hard and you are low on nutrients from food, your body will look for stores of amino acids to repair your leg muscles – pulling the aminos from other non-damaged muscle groups, like for instance your chest. This is extremely counter productive.

A hard gym session will tear up those muscles and damage them, an intense session may even start burning muscle to use as energy. Keep your workouts short, sharp and to the point – a 4 hour workout may sound impressive but you are actually hurting your body, not helping.

There is little you can do about the catabolic state you attain in the gym, but you can mitigate this by having a big protein (or even a carbohydrate) drink as soon as you finish. Your muscles at this point are screaming out for nutrients. Flood them with sugars and amino acids as your muscles at this point can intake more than their usual quotas and they will be very happy with you for this, recovery will start straight away, you will have less muscle soreness and better recovery.

Better recovery means quicker gains. Keep that body Anabolic and you should see muscle gains and a learner body come faster than normal.

Some of my recommendations to inhibit catabolism:
1. Do not over-train (meaning long training sessions, ie over 1 hour and 20 mins)
2. Make sure that your body has a frequent source of protein every 2 to 3 hours (foods like chicken, fish or if you are in a rush try my new cold filter whey protein isolate, LifePro and part of the new Ben Williams professional series).
3. Use 5 grams of glutamine 3 or 4 times a day, especially after training sessions.
4. Rest, rest and more rest. Your body repairs itself when you sleep.

If you have any questions about anabolic vs catabolic please post them here or contact me at AskBen@thecontour.com

Ben Williams

The human body is great at telling the brain just what it needs. So when you feel that craving for a certain food this site will tell you what your body really wants.

Thanks to T.O.G for this post!

Simple yet effective ways to control food cravings!

FROM EATING WELL I've had a few recent run-ins with dark-chocolate M&Ms. Here's what happens: I'll grab a few of the candies then sit down at my computer to meet a writing deadline. Type a few words, then walk back the cabinet for more M&Ms. Two sentences. Three M&Ms. The more difficult the subject matter, the less I'm able to focus on writing and the more overwhelming is the pull of the M&Ms. In the March/April issue of EatingWel … Read More

via Hectic life. Healthy girl.

Cancer has long been a problem in the country and I certainly didn’t think that at some point in my life it would affect me. In December of 1998, I was in the middle of the most productive year of my life in professional football. I received a called about an hour before we were to play Green Bay on Monday Night Football and was told that my father had passed away. My father suddenly passed away from an untreated form of Prostate Cancer. Since his death I have done many fundraisers and supported many groups that benefit cancer research. I have also sought out many natural ways to cut down my risk of falling prey to Prostate Cancer.

In 2006, researchers observed a reduction in the increase of PSA levels in men with prostate cancer who consumed 8 ounces of Pomegranate juice daily. Researchers involved in the study, led by Manuala Martins-Green, PHD, had previously determined that pomegranate juice concentrate increased cell death in prostate tumor cell lines that were resistant to testosterone (which is associated with metastasis) as well as increased cell adhesion and decreased migration in cells that survived.

The team identified phenyl-propanoids, hydrobenzoic acids, flavones, and conjugated fatty acids as compounds responsible for the effects in the cancer cells that were not destroyed, in addition to inhibiting growth of the tumor cells lines. The compound inhibited their migration and attraction to a signal that promotes metastasis to the bone.

For your health, go out and find some Pomegranate juice and start drinking!

 

Ben Williams

Rest In Peace Dad.

 

Aging is an inevitable part of life. I get a lot of emails from customers asking me the about their changing body’s when they reach the dreaded age of 40+. Well I could bore you by going thru the biochemistry reasons why the body tends to atrophy a lot, but for the sake of simplification, I will try to keep this answer as short as possible. It’s pretty simple, samples of muscle tissue through biopsies were obtained to measure gene expression of two specific enzymes, called atrogin-1 and MuRF-1, involved with the process of skeletal muscle breakdown. Recent studies have suggested that these enzymes reflect age-related differences in muscle metabolism and muscle response to exercise. So when you get older your body decreases IGF-I output and increases the gene of MuRF-1.

Now I know that most of you are about to panic and are probably asking yourself, what can I do about this MuRF-1 gene. Don’t worry, it can be dealt with. The used of Brach Chained Amino Acids and arginine have been shown in studies to decreased atrogin-1 mRNA levels via mTOR, this resulted in lower MuRF-1 output. So if you are aging and worried about keeping that body of old, go down to your local GNC or Vitamin Shop and give this combination a try.

 

Ben Williams

One of the key components of any good diet whether it be a traditional 40-30-30, High Carb, or even a Keto based diet is that you need to include fats. Fats are very important in keeping the body anabolic and also are very beneficial for artery and heart health. One of my favorite ways of getting my necessary daily amount of good fats is to swallow a spoon full of macadamia nut oil. This works for me, but a lot of competitors and novice clients I work with cannot stomach the thought of drinking tablespoons of oil. So I am left with the task of trying to find a more palatable way for them to get consume the right amount of good fats. At the top of the list, and something most people like eating, is avocados. Avocados, aside from being delicious, contain a very high fat ratio.

It’s true that avocados are high in fat, one reason they’ve earned the nickname “butter pear.” A medium-sized avocado contains 30 grams of fat, as much as a quarter-pound burger. That’s why diet experts have long urged Americans to go easy on avocados in favor of less fatty fruits and vegetables. But now nutritionists are taking another look. They’re finding that most of the fat in an avocado is monounsaturated, the “good” kind or fat, that actually lowers cholesterol levels. Thanks to this new understanding, the U.S. government recently revised its official nutrition guidelines to urge Americans to eat more avocados. Researchers have also discovered that avocados are rich in beta-sitosterol, a natural substance shown to significantly lower blood cholesterol levels. So if you are looking for a healthy fat and want to do your heart a favor, give avocados a try.

 

Ben Williams

After doing some triceps elbow extensions and numerous other elbow extension exercises, I began to feel the effects of what is known as elbow tendonitis. The symptoms generally included a pain with any movement of my elbows. So much so, that even resting my arms on a chair began to have an associated soreness to the touch. Similar to my bicep tendonitis experience, the pain experienced was not normal. A bodybuilder who is in tune with their muscles can tell the difference between an intense workout and an intensely painful workout.

This elbow tendonitis came about from an overuse of any exercise. With the increased weight, I eventually reached a peak of classic overuse of the joints. Not sure of a treatment, I did the first thing I could. Adjust my form. Keeping the elbows locked in on triceps movements is critical. It can alleviate if not remove the pressure on the joints when doing a very heavy exercise movement. This was my first elbow tendonitis treatment experiment.

After talking to a friend’s wife, she told me about her husband, who started taking Glucosamine for his joints. There are basically two kinds of people who need some type of cartilage therapy. Those who are suffering from osteoarthritis or athletes with overuse injuries. Considering he’s not very old and probably isn’t losing too much cartilage, I had to believe that it was working on cars daily and using his joints excessively (turning hands, manipulating small parts) that lead to his overuse of his finger joints and the pain associated. Thus began my short research and trial of a Glucosamine product to see what benefits Glucosamine might have and any possible side effects specific to me.

Glucosamine is a combination of sugar and amine. It’s found normally in cartilage and plays an important role in cartilage health and resiliency. As you naturally age, you lose some Glucosamine and that leads to the eventual thinning of the cartilage around the joints. Osteoarthritis defined as the deterioration of the cartilage in the joints. Glucosamine and Chondroitin are found naturally in your body. Chondroitin Sulfate helps draw water into the cartilage (that the Glucosamine is repairing) making it more elastic.

Now lets fast forward about three weeks.  After 500 mg 3 times a day, my elbow tendonitis symptom started to disappear. If you experiencing pain in your joints while training, give Glucosamine a try and I am pretty sure you will take some of the pain out of the “No pain, No Gain.”

 

Ben Williams

As a preface to this post, it is somewhat of a follow up to my Glutamine: The Inside Scoop post and it is kind of technical again.

The Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs) are a classification of amino acids that have non-linear, aliphatic side chains; this includes L-Leucine, L-Isoleucine, and L-Valine. Together, Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine comprise approximately 35-40% of essential dietary amino acids in body protein and 14-18% of skeletal muscle tissue in the human body. Although they are abundant in muscle tissue, BCAAs are essential amino acids and must be obtained from the diet because they are unable to be synthesized by the human body.

During exercise there is increased oxidation and uptake of these amino acids leading to a decrease in their plasma and skeletal muscle tissue concentration. The demands of resistance training causes blood sugar concentration to decrease and once below ideal levels, the body will consequently begin to strip BCAAs at the expense of skeletal muscle tissue for energy. Supplementing with BCAAs prevents the cannibalism of skeletal muscle tissue for gluconeogenesis. The ingested BCAAs are more readily available, thus sparing muscle from being broken down during high intensity exercise. This is an especially important concept for individuals on Low-Carbohydrate diets as the body is always in need of a readily available source of energy. BCAA supplementation before and after workouts is important in order to prevent the catabolism of muscle tissue, as well as increase anabolism during post-workout recovery to maximize strength and lean mass gains.

So if you are a true fan of the low carb form of dieting you should definitely be supplement BCAAs in your diet.   The magic number that I have found thru trial and error is about 40 grams per day.  Try to do this pre and post workout.

Happy growing!

 

Ben Williams