High time for enzymes: you want bigger muscles and fewer injuries? Take enzyme supplements. Here's how - Nutrition

Flex, Dec, 2002 by Jim Wright

Since you have to eat big to get big, you need to make sure all that great muscle-building food is doing its job; Sure, you're holding up your end of the bargain by gobbling up protein and weight training like a madman, but you're asking your body to do a lot of things it's not normally inclined to do. In fact, you're beating it up pretty good, loading your digestive system with nutrients and pushing your muscle fibers and nervous system to their limits--and hopefully not over their limits.

That's the key: keeping your body working on all cylinders to help ensure that your hard work and good food doesn't go to waste. To keep your pump primed, we recommend supplementation. After all, you want your body's interior systems to work as hard as you do in the gym.

That's where enzymes come in. Enzymes are proteins that initiate or speed up chemical reactions. In simple terms, enzymes either "glue" stuff together or break it down. Your body needs them to utilize nutrients, to help protect against training injuries and to accelerate the healing process when an injury does occur. You need enzymes in a big way.

Problem is, you're not getting enough enzymes, no matter how clean you eat. So you have to use supplements. Here's why--and what to do about it.

TOO HOT TO HANDLE From the time food enters the mouth, enzymes are secreted and begin working to break the food down into smaller and smaller units until it can be absorbed through the intestinal wall. These enzymes come from two sources: the body and the food itself.

Enzymes are abundant in raw foods, which today are limited in our overall meal plans. Ages ago, people's diets and lifestyles were different. Early man ate a diet that contained a large percentage of unprocessed and uncooked food. That's what our bodies are best set up to handle and thrive on.

Various organs and systems in the body can be overtaxed to supply the enzymes necessary to properly digest large amounts of foods that have been cooked or processed (and therefore don't supply adequate enzymes). These stresses can be amplified if you're combining a huge food intake with a high-stress lifestyle, hard training and heavy use of certain supplements, particularly over-the-counter stimulants. Thus, gains are harder to come by.

Unfortunately, cooking and modern food-processing techniques destroy nearly 100% of the enzymes that are found naturally in raw foods. That leaves the body woefully unprepared to handle a bodybuilder's diet, let alone able to contribute to musculoskeletal healing and overall immune function. To correct imbalances modem food preparation and lifestyle cause, reach for enzymes.

CAN'T GET ENOUGH Here are the five main reasons you should be supplementing with enzymes, regardless of your age, physical condition or diet.

#1 Macronutrient Efficiency

Getting the right nutrients to the right place at the right time requires more than simply slamming major quantities of food and supplements. Those nutrients have to be processed properly (and the waste and toxins eliminated) to keep you in optimal condition to support recovery and growth. Having enough of the right enzymes is unquestionably critical for that.

#2 Injury Prevention and Recovery

Enzyme supplements have been shown to significantly enhance immune function and speed recovery from microtrauma (injuries to muscle and connective tissues caused by hard training). The reported effects of enzyme supplementation include reduced soreness, reduced swelling and inflammation, enhanced blood flow to injured areas, and improved flexibility and mobility. (For more on injuries and enzymes, see the sidebar "Injured? Try This Regimen.")

#3 Digestive-System Cleansing

After only a couple of days of smart supplementing with enzymes, your gastrointestinal system will have been significantly "cleaned out." You'll feel less full, even after large meals, and gas production will be diminished due to the reduction of undigested food in the colon. Importantly, the body will expend less energy to break down food; that effect typically results in feelings of heightened alertness and energy. Heartburn is also reduced or eliminated.

#4 Insufficient Supplies from Food Alone

Supplementation is the only way to ensure that sufficient enzymes are available for absorption into the bloodstream (where they can more directly enhance the muscle-building process) after processing the quantities and types of food and other supplements that serious bodybuilders ingest.

#5 Negatives Become Positives

When incompletely digested foods are absorbed, the body identifies the material as "foreign," and it quickly forms circulating immune "complexes" and special white cells to break down the food. Poor digestion and absorption can result in depressed immunity, allergic reactions, the poor healing of wounds and other injuries (including training-induced microtrauma), skin problems and even mood swings. Enzymes can turn these "foreign" elements into "good neighbors."

FEELING RAW

Although we strongly recommend supplementing with enzymes, you should still try to enhance enzyme intake through your daily diet. Whole foods -- with a substantial proportion of fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts, and a relatively small percentage of grains -- should form the foundation of a bodybuilding diet.