Thanks for that man, I'm going to try to figure out how much protein I'm getting on a daily basis and how this breaks down into amino acids.
It looks like hemp is low on leucine, which I think could be good in relation to mTOR. What I am looking to figure out from the figures bellow is methionine, I guess it has regular amounts when compatred to other plant sources?
http://examine.com/s.../Hemp Protein/:
"When looking at the amino acid composition of the protein fragment, Hemp appears to contain:[2][12]
- Threonine 2.66+/-0.67%
- Aspartate 1.35+/-0.23%
- Glutamine 1.73+/-0.32%
- Serine 6.03+/-1.24%
- Glycine 1.59+/-0.32%
- Proline 1.66+/-0.35%
- Alanine 1.61+/-0.32%
- Arginine 94−128 mg/g
- Cysteine 0.70+/-0.15%
- Valine 1.91+/-0.30%
- Methionine 0.88+/-0.25%
- Isoleucine 1.45+/-0.23%
- Leucine 2.35+/-0.45%
- Tyrosine 1.15+/-0.28%
- Phenylalanine 1.62+/-0.30%
When comparing the amino acid profile against other sources, Hemp is comparatively high in Arginine and Tyrosine (greater than all other common sources tested) and is high in Alanine and Aspartic acid alongside Soy (both being greater than other sources).[7]
The protein of hemp appears to be incomplete as, although it contains all essential amino acids, some are in insufficient quantity to provide the bare minimum of essential human nutrition; The limiting amino acids in Hemp appear to usually be Lysine, with Leucine and L-Tryptophan being the second and third limiting amino acids.[2] This makes it, from a complementary protein perspective, having comparable insufficiencies as grain products.[2]
In assessing the digestability of the protein from 30 samples of hemp (hempseed either hulled or dehulled as well as seedmeal) using a rat bioassay and rating the score via PDCAAS noted a digestability of approximately 86.7% (the reference protein, casein, scored 97.6%) when looking at the seed meal.[2] It appears that using dehulled seeds, prior to extraction of the oil, had a comparable absorption to casein (94.9+/-3.5%)[2] and according to PDCAAS (reference of casein at 100) Hemp scored between 50 and 60, comparable to lentils, due to the deficient quantity of Lysine.[2]"
What Mike says is true, but your six pack will be more impressive if you build the abdominal muscles(same as any other muscle). My favorite ab exercises are:
1. Hanging leg raises. Do these strict and very controlled. Depending on strength you might be doing them with bent legs or straight legs(harder). When you become more advanced you can hold a weight in between your feet or legs for either variation.
2. Bent leg situps with the weight held behind the head. This is an old time stand by that a lot of people don't like because it works the hip flexors heavily. Oh well, hip flexors need loving too. Start it with a crunch and keep tension in your abs maintaining the crunch position through the entire movement. Don't push the weight against your neck, you can hurt your neck doing that.
3. Ab wheel rollouts. It is important to try to keep the lower back arched(natural arch/position) and the upper back rounded(like you are doing a crunch) throughout this movement. Try to squeeze off of the bottom with a crunch and keep tension on your abs throughout. Form/technique is everything with this one. If you can't get sore doing this then you aren't doing it correctly(possibly because it is too tough and you should come back to it later). When you become more advanced you can start doing them from your feet instead of your knees and do partial reps by stopping the wheel against a wall or other object.
You can check out youtubes to see the basic idea of these exercises, but the small nuances are important with ab exercises. IMO sets and reps should be similar to other exercises(say, 5-12 rep range). I do several sets of two exercises per session(when time/energy allows) and rotate the exercises each session. My sets/reps suggestions would be for a part of a full body routine. I have no clue what an abs only routine would optimally look like.
A whole primer on weight training is beyond a post like this, but http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/0982522738 is a great book if you're willing to invest some time into reading and learning the lifts(the big barbell lifts) properly.
For supplementation you really should take some type of protein powder. Being vegan already sets you at a great disadvantage. Unfortunately, muscle gain and longevity seem somewhat at odds with each other... it is a trade off, but if I was you I would at least take some hemp or soy protein. If you are on a fairly low calorie diet with low protein you will probably find it very hard to gain muscle unless you have great genetics.
Edited by LexLux, 17 April 2014 - 08:09 PM.