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Writer's pictureFranco Cavaleri, BSc, Ph.Dc

The Science of Shredded Striated Muscle (Part III)

Updated: Oct 16, 2023

How Insulin Efficiency can Maximize your Workout Results

Original post: February 14, 2011



The Science of Shredded Striated Muscle (Part III)

Your capacity to efficiently recover from daily training is related to insulin efficiency. Your ability to tolerate lactic acid burn and the day after soreness from oxidative burn is intimately related to insulin efficiency and the inflammatory hormone (PGE-2) that it may help regulate. This metabolic science is more complex than we describe in these short pieces but over time and multiple articles we’ll be able to instil an understanding of how to turn your body into an efficient muscle machine despite whatever else you may or may not be using.


The amount of work in the gym you need to do and the calories you need to restrict to get to the fitness or mass goal also depends on this insulin efficiency and the metabolic potential it sets.


We’ll start by maximizing insulin efficiency to get your metabolism revving at full capacity. Once your endogenous supply of insulin is optimized and every cell of the body is sensitized to the signal, this metabolic gear will keep the muscle machine running at full capacity. Any other supplement, nutraceutical or pharmaceutical ingredient you decide to use for performance enhancement, physique shaping or fat loss will be driven by this finely tuned revving metabolism.


The Science of Shredded Striated Muscle (Part III)

One of the reasons for the variable degree of results amongst all gym goers is this metabolic state. One person might put on muscle faster than another using the same dietary and training principles based on these internal efficiencies. And state of insulin efficiency also dictates how much work and dietary restriction you may need to get to that shredded goal. It may very well be the differential factor allowing that

leaner guy to get lean with a lot less calorie-burning work than you might need to apply.


Compromised insulin efficiency will have a domino-effect against you creating a tug-o-war between your mind (and where it wants to take your fitness level) and your lagging body that has to work too hard to get there. This lower state of insulin activity results in the need for more work in the gym or on the cardio program and less time recovering. More time in the gym leads to compromised glycogen status, lower antioxidant levels, and loss of lean muscle to catabolism.

Insulin efficiency is the platform from where maximum muscle and performance results can be attained. Raising insulin efficiency above baseline is the method by which we’ll achieve the massive freaky results you might be looking for. Once we set this hormone’s pace, we can apply other strategies to launch from this metabolic launching pad!


Stay tuned for a primer in applied nutrigenomics for bodybuilders.



The Science of Shredded Striated Muscle (Part III)

author: Prof Franco Cavaleri BSc NB; Mr IFBB North America






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