NEW STUDY SHOWS FROZEN MARS BARS ESSENTIAL FOR MUSCLE GROWTH!

A study conducted at a North American University (Matthews et al, 2015) showed that participants who ate a frozen Mars bar every day showed 200% increase in muscle mass. The study (with 22 participants) was conducted over a 4 week period with 11 subjects in a control group (ate room temperature Mars bars) and 11 subjects in the test group (ate frozen Mars bars). All subjects had circumference measurements and body fat testing prior to commencement of the protocol. No additional hypertrophy training was undertaken - only cardio. After 4 weeks, participants in the control group had a 0.1% increase in muscle mass while the study group showed a significant increase in mean muscle mass of 200%.

This is amazing! Hypertrophy training has been revolutionised. Cue streams of "Mars Bar diet" tweets across the globe. This article has blown my mind...and it must be on the money because a study was done and it was conducted in a University - hashtag science.

Well, lets just look a little more closely at what the full article might tell us (were we diligent enough to go and read it...)

Point 1. '...200% increase in muscle mass...' To begin with, muscle circumference was measured at 0.8mm. This increased to 2.4mm - a 200% increase. Not quite as massive as we thought, eh!

Point 2. The muscle that was measured was the masseter or chewing muscle, not those guns!

Point 3. '....No additional hypertrophy training was undertaken - only cardio...'. So now, we have another newspaper, blogger or magazine, telling us that Mars Bars AND daily cardio can result in a 200% muscle gain. That'll be great news for the treadmill warriors who will no longer need to bring 500mls of sports drink to the gym with them. (no offence whatsoever intended to those that are unfortunate enough to be unaware of the fact that they are undoing all their hard work with sugar!)

Now here is the final pinch - what they never tell you on the side of the tub, in the magazine article or in the 140 character tweet........
Point 4. '....participants who ate a frozen Mars bar every day.....' All 22 of the participants were lab rats - as in rodents....with tails, big front teeth & fur! No humans....anywhere. 

So, if we read this article in a magazine that wasn't trying to sell copies, it would say something like this......
'Rats were tested over a 4 week period and it was found that the chewing muscles of the rats who ate a frozen bar grew to a greater size than those of the rats that ate a room temperature bar. We could infer from this that the greater resistance to chewing led to a hypertrophied muscle. Further tests need to be done in human subjects with resistance training on a larger muscle mass to discover whether the same results can be achieved'. Now......try putting that as a sub caption on the front page of a glossy and cue the magazine going bust! 

This is not a 'glossy' banging session, nor is it a Mars Bar banging opportunity (I actually quite enjoy a Mars with a cup of tea on occasion....yes ME...a nutritionist!!!). I am simply trying to open your eyes as to how you can be duped into starting the next best diet, buying the next new product (when you don't really have that money to spend) or doing the next new piston squat technique, on a bosu, with 240lbs on a bar, balanced on your right side mostly (for proprioception) emmmmm........ See where I'm coming from here? 

I spent all of last weekend sitting through lectures for the ISSN Diploma, in particular those of Prof Kevin Tipton - and the one overwhelming lesson I came away with is ALWAYS draw your own conclusions. Not just the one you read in the highly regarded muscle building magazine or even the one you draw from the original abstract. 
So please, Im begging you, the next time you read an article, just do so with a critical eye. My eyes have been opened and its very much thanks to Guru Performance, Laurent Bannock and lecturers like Prof Kevin Tipton amongst many others. 
By the way, there were no rats! Nor was there a study done in North America with Mars Bars..... or was there?......
Follow me on twitter or insta @westcorkfit.  For Prof Tipton @stirproftip. For info on the ISSN diploma check out Guru Performance or follow on twitter @guruperformance. Or for those of you who are interested, the 'We Do Science' podcast is well worth a listen. 

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