Optimizing Carbohydrates and Amino Acids for Performance

It's time to take a deep dive into all things pre-, post-, and during-workout nutrition to maximize recovery, anabolism, muscle hypertrophy, and much more with Milos Sarcev — one of the top bodybuilders of all time.

Milos was born on January 17, 1964 in Novi Sad, Serbia (former Yugoslavia), grew up in Bečej, and at an early age got involved in numerous sporting activities—participating in judo, karate, swimming, soccer, and basketball tournaments as a teenager. At the age of 17, he was introduced to weightlifting and immediately fell in love with bodybuilding.

Four years later, he started competing, entered and won his province title (Mr. Vojvodina), his republic title (Mr. Serbia), and finally national title (Mr. Yugoslavia) before going on to compete on the international scene (Mr. Europe and Mr. Universe). He won the 1989 Amateur Mr. Universe competition and started competing as a professional in the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB).

Milos studied nutritional technology at the University of Novi Sad and moved to the USA in 1987 to pursue his bodybuilding career. In 1989 he won the Amateur Mr. Universe title, in 1991 became an IFBB professional bodybuilder, competing in over 110 bodybuilding shows worldwide (72 of which were IFBB professional competitions), and qualified for the Mr. Olympia contest for 10 consecutive years in the hardest era of bodybuilding (1990s). After his competitive career, Milos became known for coaching/advising numerous professional athletes and Olympic medalists.

He took a part in famous BALCO Labs "Project World Record" as a nutritionist and strength and conditioning coach for Tim Montgomery—creating the fastest man alive by breaking the World Record on the 100-meter sprint (9.77 seconds) after less than 9 months of coaching.

As a bodybuilding coach, he advised over 100 IFBB professional bodybuilders, of which 36 qualified for the most prestigious Mr. Olympia competition. He is a renowned international nutritional expert and speaker; professional trainer; and strength, conditioning, and contest preparation consultant with over 35 years of firsthand industry experience.

Milos has become one of the most prominent authorities on nutrition and the human body as relates to athletic performance, earning him the industry moniker “The Mind.” He is considered to be one of the most influential bodybuilders in history, pioneering the usage of specific intra-workout nutritional sports supplementation through his Hyperemia Advantage System, which revolutionized the whole sports supplementation industry.

Milos' methods of training and hormonal manipulation for achieving a hyper-anabolic state and maximal hypertrophy are now accepted by millions around the world.

During this discussion, you'll discover: -The background on Milos' interest on muscle growth...6:25 -Milos' ideas and theories put into real-world practice...16:00 -The substances Milos uses alongside EAAs during training...29:45 -Proper timing and dosage of supplementation before and during a workout...37:15 -How Milos structures his diet for optimal training...42:00 -Why supplementation during the workout is necessary...45:45 -How post-workout supplement differs from the pre-, and during-workout...49:15 -Milos' carnosine strategy...54:05 -What Milos' training looked like during his peak vs. now...57:10 -Why essential amino acids are so...essential...1:10:05 Milos' actual training - Body split workouts, warm-up, and exercise selection:

1. I always begin my workout with 10 minutes of cardio, then move to leg extensions to further warm up my muscles, tendons, and ligaments. I take three seconds to raise the weight, two seconds to hold it at the top, and three seconds to complete the negative. Although I don't advocate locking out your knees on squats, lunges, and leg presses, I do recommend fully contracting your quads on leg extensions, and this requires a momentary locking-out of the knee joint.
2. I now move to what I consider the king of all exercises: barbell squats. Even though I've already warmed up my quads with leg extensions, I still do two warm-up sets of 10 squats to warm up my hips, glutes, lower back, and calves before my three heavy working sets. My descending speed is still slow, about three seconds, but since squats are a building motion, the ascending motion is more explosive. A lot of people make the mistake of stopping between reps and resting when doing squats, but you must keep continual tension on your muscles for maximal results, and this is achieved by continual motion.
3. Next come leg presses. I alternate from week to week between the unilateral and two-leg versions. I see so many people doing 1,000-pound 1-inch leg presses. That won't help you develop anything. For both single- and double-leg, I advocate a full range of motion.
4. I finish off with hack squats. On two-legged leg press days, I perform the standard three sets of 10, with my feet and knees close together to hit the outer sweep of my quads. On the unilateral days, I do my infamous triple drop set. I've made more than 100 people throw up doing this, and I myself have thrown up on several occasions. You begin with a weight with which you can get only 5-6 reps, then drop it down and do another 10, drop it again, and go for 10-15. But the trick is this: Do these as slowly as possible. Five seconds to go down, pause two seconds at the bottom, and five seconds to go back up. If you finish this without being sick, you didn't do it right.
5. I used to think I could train legs all at once, but my hams were always lagging because I was exhausted from quad training. So these days, I train quads and hams separately, giving each its own day once a week to ensure complete development.

Episode sponsors:

-Kion Cold Thermogenesis Challenge

-Butcher Box

-Ra Optics

-Levels Health

Do you have questions, thoughts, or feedback for Milos or me? Leave your comments at https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/milos2 and one of us will reply!

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