The Power of Zinc

Zinc is a mineral that is essential for the body and can be found in foods such as red meat, milk, nuts, spinach and liver. What many people do not know is this essential mineral is very important for your body and that many people suffer with a zinc deficiency without even realising it!

What has been happening in recent times is that men are turning to the likes of L-Glutamine and Creatine Monohydrate to bulk up and build lean muscle mass without realising there are minerals they can take that will support and improve their body.

So what does Zinc do?

First of all zinc actually improves your immune system, although this wont be your reason for taking it and this takes me to the second reason. Zinc increases protein production and has involvement in hundreds of enzyme reactions within the body on top of being important for cell repair and growth.

It has also been shown that meeting your recommended daily allowance of zinc can actually increase the production of testosterone!

The recommended daily allowance for zinc is 15mg, it is important to stick to the recommended allowances as taking 25mg plus of zinc per day could have an adverse affect on your body absorbing other minerals.

Zinc is one supplement I do take on a daily basis and I feel it supports my training very effectively.

About Me

I am 28 years of age and live in the United Kingdom. I have trained on and off for 6 years. I did take a two year break from training and have only start back up since the start of 2008. Since the 1st January I have seen strength gains of up to 50% on some areas of my training.


As well as weight training I learned very early on that nutrition and knowledge of the biological features in the human body are important and have a big impact on getting great gains. I have read many biology books and nutritional books which have added greatly to my training regime and helped me make the right choices about my training schedule and the food/supplements I take.

I will be adding to the "my journal" section every month or so to talk about what gains I have made and add photos so all can see just how well I am progressing.


My personal belief is that the body is the finest tuned machine on the planet so a great understanding of its systems is required to get the most out of it, no different to an expensive high performance sports car.

Follow me as we strip all the hidden knowledge of weight lifting out in to bite size chunks that are easy to understand and will help you in your quest to gain muscle.

Remember: Train well and train hard, but above all train safely!

Weight Lifting - Understanding Somatotypes

An understanding of human biology is key to success in muscle gains as it helps a weight lifter appreciate exactly what their body does and how they can gain the most from it. One of the first things a weight lifter needs to understand is their own body type so they can set their own realistic goals and work with what they have.

Body Types

A quick way to gain an understanding of your own body is to look at the three somatotypes; these are basic classifications of different body types that explain in a simplistic fashion how a person of each classification is genetically made. The three somatotypes are Endomorphic, Ectomorphic and Mesomorphic, below is a detail of what each classification means.

Endomorphic – Those who are endomorphic have an increased amount of fat storage, have a larger waist, large bone structure and tend to put muscle and fat on one particular half of the body. Those who are endomorphic can be split in to two categories:

Apple – Those who have a larger amount of muscle and fat on the upper half of the body.

Pear – Those who have a larger amount of muscle and fat on the lower half of the body.

People who are endomorphic will find it fairly easy to build muscle naturally but will find getting definition from their muscle gains the most difficult of the three categories.

Ectomorphic – A person who is Ectomorphic normally has long limbs, narrow shoulders and a short upper body. Generally the Ectomorphic body type has long lean muscle and very low fat storage giving a very tall and slim appearance.

People who are ectomorphic will find it the most difficult to build muscle naturally but will find getting definition from their muscle gains quite easy.

Mesomorphic – Those who are mesomorphic enjoy the ability of gaining muscle quickly, have large bones, wide shoulders and a narrow waist. Those who are mesomorphic also tend to have low fat storage.

People who are mesomorphic will find it the easiest to build muscle naturally.

You may look at these three clasifications and feel that you fit in to more than one by the description and this could be true. You have to remember that everyone in the world is made differently so its difficult to put everyone in to three categories, but these will help you gain an understanding of how easy it will be for you to gain muscle.