Nutty For Bigger Muscles

By Xavier Fox

Ok, I will admit I was never a big fan of nuts in the early days of my lifting career. One of the disadvantages of youth and inexperience is that you sometimes miss out on a good thing. I used to think about how nuts have oils in them, which leads to fats, and the proteins in them had incomplete amino acid profiles… so why would I waste calories on them. However, I began to notice that there were a couple of guys in the gym that were always snacking on cashews and almonds, and it just so happened that they won six world powerlifting titles between them. Hmmm… it seems that there just might be something about consuming nuts that can make you bigger and stronger. Enough, if you’ll pardon the pun, to make you go nuts for them.

As bodybuilders, we tend to get so wrapped up in only eating the highest quality proteins and carbohydrates that we often overlook other nutritional sources that could actually be quite a benefit to us. If it isn’t boneless skinless chicken, fish, whey powder, yams or brown rice… keep it away! It’s like the girl sitting at the bar with a dark ale, lit cigarette, and an almost faded away black eye… you don’t even want to think about it for a second. However, just because a food does not top the list when it comes to high quality protein or carbohydrate sources, it does not mean that it cannot make a fine addition to your bodybuilding diet. It takes a lot more to build a powerful and shapely physique than protein and carbohydrates.
There are a wide variety of nuts available on the market and they are loaded with nutrients, including essential vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and even though they may have a high ratio of fat in them, those fats are essential fats the body needs to become massive and stay healthy. By adding nuts to your diet, you can be sure to get many of the nutrients that you may be missing out on from eating a very strict and limited diet. In addition, different types of nuts will offer different types of benefits, so it would be good to not stick to just one kind.
Although nuts are considered an incomplete protein, and the amount of protein in them per weight is not something that would be considered tremendous, most people still tend to identify nuts as being a source of protein. This is most likely due to our vegetarian friends who have figured out that by eating beans along with nuts, they will get a combination that produces a complete protein because of the essential amino acid lysine that is found in beans. As long as you remember to combine nuts and beans, you can go right ahead and count the protein you consumed as legit. Especially if the nuts were walnuts or almonds.
Nuts may be deficient in the amino acid lysine, but one amino acid they have plenty of is arginine. For all of you out there that enjoy the power of nitric oxide supplements, you are familiar with the effects of arginine. It is the pre-cursor for nitric oxide and it causes the blood vessels to dilate allowing more blood (and thus nutrients and oxygen) to get to the muscles. The result is super sonic pumps, increased recuperation ability, and a bodybuilder’s favourite side-effect… bigger muscles. Arginine also enhances GH production, as well as plays an important role in the manufacturing of creatine, stimulation of protein synthesis, insulin sensitivity, and removal of nitrogenous waste within the body.
The arginine you get from eating nuts also allows the body to create agmatine, which enhances insulin, luteinizing hormone, and growth hormone production. Insulin is the most anabolic hormone in your body, and it regulates blood sugar. It also enhances IGF-1 to make it even more effective in adding muscle. Luteinizing hormone is what stimulates your body to produce testosterone, so the more there is, the more testosterone your body will manufacture to help you add muscle to win contests. Growth hormone not only helps you produce more energy and burn fat, it also works with testosterone to help you grow like a weed. Agmatine has an independent role of insulin and testosterone management on fat metabolism as well.
Let’s recap… Nuts contain a lot of arginine, and arginine is used to create agmatine, and agmatine stimulates mechanisms that help you add a lot of muscle mass while helping you burn more fat at the same time. Any questions?
Nutrient number two that nuts (especially almonds and cashews) have plenty of is a favourite of bodybuilders known as magnesium. Magnesium is a necessity in over 300 metabolic functions in the body, so if you want to create a metabolic environment that will make you a top-level bodybuilder, consuming foods rich in magnesium is a necessity. You know… things like glycolysis, fat and protein metabolism, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis… they just might be a little bit important to your ability to be a good bodybuilder. That’s only if you want to have energy for workouts, be able to recuperate, and if you value being able to build muscle, of course. Proteins do more than build muscle too… they are involved in the production of many of your hormones that control the amount of testosterone, growth hormone, and IGF-1 your body produces. Other than that, magnesium shouldn’t be of any concern to you. Let the other guys worry about it.
Oh, wait a minute… I think there is something else that magnesium does for you. Researchers have discovered that magnesium decreases levels of cortisol, which is just the corticosteroid hormone that is involved in body’s response to stress. Cortisol does things like increasing blood pressure, raising blood sugar levels, suppressing the immune system, and it also catabolizes muscle tissue. No big deal… I know you work hard all day in the gym and watch what you eat so that you can gain fat, be lethargic, catch colds and flus, and have your hard-earned muscle stripped away. So… just stay away from eating nuts. This way you can get trounced on the stage and look like an anaemic stick figure.
One of the only negatives involved with intense weight lifting is the causation of atoms that lose electrons because of all of the stresses and functions that occur because of the exercise. When an atom loses an electron, it wants to gain one back in order to maintain stability, so it steals an electron from another atom, and the chain continues to grow. These unstable atoms searching for an electron are called free radicals, and free radicals can easily become out of control to the point that they disrupt the behaviour of the entire cell. This is actually very common inside the mitochondria, which are the cells that generate energy for the muscles to operate. The result is a decreased ability to generate energy for muscle contraction. Chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia will result if this process is permitted to maintain itself.
The possibility of this happening in the DNA is also very real. If the DNA is altered and not functioning the way it should, then the body cannot carry the genetic information necessary for cell functions, including making the proteins needed for cell maintenance and repair. If your system cannot properly produce proteins, then you will not be able to effectively repair and grow muscle tissue. That adds up to a lot of wasted time in the gym.
Luckily for bodybuilders, nature always has a way of working things out. In order to combat free radicals, nature created antioxidants. Antioxidants are compounds that have the ability to donate an electron from their outer shell without becoming unstable. This enables them to neutralize free radicals and stop the potential chain reaction of free radical production, which can lead to cell damage. One of the more powerful antioxidants is vitamin E. Do you know what is a good source of vitamin E? If you said, “Nuts”, then you are correct. More specifically, almonds, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts and peanuts are great sources of vitamin E.
Speaking of Brazil nuts, copper is another nutrient they contain that is important to iron men. Cashews also make a good choice if you are looking to get some iron. A mere handful of either will give you over one third of your daily requirement for copper. This mineral is a critical part of many proteins and enzymes involved in the processes your body undergoes to create energy, especially energy involving oxygen utilization. The amount of energy that you can create will have just a little bit of an effect on your workout. In addition, it is vital for nerves to function properly. Nervous system function is extremely critical when it comes to muscle contraction and flexion. Your ability to generate explosive power depends on proper function of the nerves.
Peanuts, Brazil nuts, pine nuts and pistachios are good sources of thiamin (vitamin B1). Now, copper is great for bodybuilding, but B1 just might top it. B1 is also involved in energy production due to its role in the formation of haemoglobin, which transports oxygen to muscles when they are doing work. In addition, B1 plays a major role in protein metabolism and growth. If you are deficient in B1, your body’s ability to turn the protein you eat into “grade A” beef will be jeopardized. If you want to become a successful competitor, you must optimize your body’s environment for creating muscle. Since we are on the subject of B vitamins… peanuts, pine nuts, and almonds also have a lot of vitamin B3 (niacin) in them. It is involved in over 50 metabolic processes your system uses to generate energy. The B Vitamins thiamin and niacin work together in your body to carbohydrates, proteins, and fats into energy.
Have you ever been training hard and all of a sudden your muscles cramp up and you have to stop your set? This could very well be due to a lack of potassium. Well, if you are eating almonds, pistachios and chestnuts, you will ingest a large amount of potassium, which is an electrolyte that maintains water balance and blood pressure to keep you from cramping. Proper electrolyte balance also allows the muscle to contract and relax rapidly and efficiently for intense workouts. Potassium even plays a role in how your body stores glycogen, so a lack of potassium will cause a decrease in the available energy supply for the muscles during training.
You may have noticed that we have mentioned Brazil nuts several times during the article. It just so happens that Brazil nuts are a fantastic source of zinc. When it comes to growing, zinc is involved in just about every component of it. As a matter-of-fact, zinc is critical for cellular repair at all levels. Studies have shown that intense resistance training causes zinc levels to drop dramatically, so consuming foods rich in zinc is important. Zinc also strengthens the immune system to keep you in the gym instead of in bed.
In the beginning of the article, it was mentioned that many people avoid nuts because they have fats in them. The good news is that the fat you eat when consuming almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pine nuts and pistachio nuts is almost all monounsaturated. Therefore, the fat you are taking in protects against heart disease and stroke by keeping HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) levels constant while lowering LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol). It also helps the body to lower triglycerides.
If you happen to eat a lot of walnuts, you are eating one of the best plant foods when it comes to getting high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. These fatty acids (linolenic, eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic fatty acids) must be consumed in foods, because the body cannot manufacture them. Omega-3 fatty acids play important roles in many bodybuilding-related functions, such as thermogenesis, anabolism, optimising metabolism, hormone synthesis, prostaglandin function, immune function, repair of cellular membranes, and transporting nutrition into cells. Whether it is packing on muscle mass, creating energy, burning fat, or exercise endurance… omega-3 fatty acids are going to play a part in that system’s ability to function properly. Make sure that your diet contains omega-3 fats or you won’t be accomplishing much in the gym.
Only one quick warning is needed for nuts… Although it is not a major epidemic, there are many people who are allergic to nuts, and eating certain nuts could cause sever reactions, or even death in some cases. If you do not normally consume nuts, and you also have no idea if you may have an allergy to them, it would be advisable to get tested for nut allergies before adding them to your diet. As silly as it may sound it is always better to play it safe, especially when it comes to your health.
So… what have we learned today? Nuts contain a large amount of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids that your body needs in order to turn it into a muscle building and fat loss machine. Inhibiting cortisol, metabolizing protein, metabolizing carbohydrates, producing hormones directly related to increased muscle mass, fighting fatigue, creating more energy, reducing muscle soreness, and keeping a strong immune system… If any of these things are important to you, you would have to be nuts not to add nuts to your daily diet.