NEW PRODUCT ALERT! . FITNESS AND BODYBUILDING DISCRIMINATES AGAINST WOMEN, but we at Gains In Bulk introduce the fix. It is simple to use and convenient for the fitness lifestyle of today’s hard-working ladies. Here's the scoop on our Female Performance Pack. . . . . . . Strong is sexy. One day toned bodies will dominate the runway. Strong is beautiful. Fading are days of damsels in distress. Rising are the heroines who can kick some major butt and look great at the same time. . Fueling the beauty revolution is the rise of women in sports and fitness. . . . . . . “Females are greater than 50% of participants in all sports activities,” Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D. . Female athletes have figured out that their male counterparts are on to something when it comes to nutrition and supplementation, so they’re fueling that market as well. However, this has come with some drawbacks and disappointment. . Ladies, you know balancing a career, family and fitness goals requires a proactive approach to both fitness and nutrition. Your wants and needs are hugely different from men’s. In response, Gains in Bulk has been hitting the research weight room hard. . To our surprise, there aren’t very many women-centric studies when it comes to sports nutrition. In fact, “Studies that investigate injuries and performance, the two most important topics for athletes, only 2-3% of the subjects are female.” . What does this mean? It means—if you’re a woman—you’re probably not taking the right supplements. . Cue Gains in Bulk coming to the rescue! The manager of the company, and many of our athletes, are women. We’ve left no tire un-flipped to understand what female athletes need. We’ve scoured women-centric research and came across amazing discoveries. . We now offer a specific Women’s Pack of nutrients research-proven to benefit ladies. This is critically important for fitness goals achievement and, more importantly, achieving peak health at the same time. . As you can probably guess based on the tiny numbers from the research, women are under-represented. Why? The researchers in Sports Medicine suggested, “The complexity of the menstrual cycle is the primary challenge to including women in such research studies.” . . . . . . A University of Melbourne study has found that women who take the right iron supplements experience a marked improvement in their exercise performance. . A 2017 study of female soccer players looked at how hormonal fluctuations during menstruation affect performance. The results? Endurance performance took a hit during phases when estrogen progesterone spiked. Specific essential fatty acids, along with cortisol-reducing herbs, like ashwagandha, can help fix that. . While this is true, that’s not all. Abbie Smith-Ryan, Ph.D., associate professor of exercise physiology and director of the Applied Physiology Lab at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has studied the effects of menstrual cycles on energy and metabolism. . “Estrogen is highly variable due to menstrual cycles, amenorrhea, pregnancy, nursing, and menopause—all of which alters fuel utilization,” Smith-Ryan said. . She also noted that females are designed to depend more on fat for fuel than males. This energy dip isn’t entirely due to menstruation. . Translation: while women store more fat, their bodies come preprogrammed to burn it off—they just need the right catalyst. . Smith-Ryan said, “Data suggests eating protein versus carbs before exercise increases caloric expenditure and fat oxidation.” . . . . . . Still, there’s a challenge with getting a highly digestible protein source, be it from regular food or protein. . That’s where plant enzymes and probiotics come in to play. . Not only do enzymes and probiotics help women digest the food better, they help eliminate bloating, gas and indigestion. There is also a larger need for probiotics than just digestion. .. Probiotics play a special role in the female gut. . Probiotics and plant enzymes, like the ones provided in ADF, work to digest your food and eliminate bloat. . Additional probiotics are not only important for intestinal and vaginal health, they also can improve performance by reducing stress on the immune system as you hammer your body in the gym. . A heavy daily dose of probiotics is critical for an active woman so she can reach her fitness goals without harming health or longevity. . Regular intense training suppresses the immune system, which means the number of flora populating your gut takes a steep drop. Taking antibiotics, drinking soda, consuming sugar or caffeine, and even life stress deals damage to your gut, too. This is an extra big deal for women because of how easy damaging your gut culture makes it to develop a yeast infection. . Your gut is critical to your overall health. It’s your second immune system. . To combat the strain exercise (and life) puts on your gut, you need to regularly replenish with probiotics, and not just the popular one called lactobacillus acidophilus. There are actually multiple strains of beneficial bacteria residing in your gut. . If you take care of your gut, your gut will take care of you. Probiotics help improve recovery time and decrease the frequency of colds, especially in female athletes. . . . . . . Douglas Kalman, Ph.D., R.D., revealed that women metabolize caffeine differently. Considering that is a popular ingredient in sports nutrition, this changes the nutrition game for women. A shift away from energy drinks and such to whole food caffeine is a great start. . And then there’s iron again. Women need iron for obvious reasons. The key, though, is the type. Organic iron is absorbed up to 400% better than the synthetic ferrous sulfate form and does not cause constipation. Even studies on pregnant women showed much greater absorption and benefit from organic iron. . How about an obscure nutrient a lot of people don’t talk about like choline? . Based on the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, women experience larger shortfalls in choline intake than men. Choline plays a vital role in cell structure and function, fat metabolism and neurotransmission. Choline is critical for women who workout. Phosphatidylcholine accounts for 95% of total choline found in tissues, making it the best form to supplement with. . Sustained intensive exercise depletes choline levels, which forces your body to break down cells to ensure the brain gets enough. . Over time, this can lead to dangerous fat buildup in liver and muscle cells. The Journal of the American College of Nutrition estimates that nearly 90% of women do not get enough choline in their diets. . Females are prone to be deficient in essential fatty acids for many reasons but mainly because the body uses fatty acids to help produce hormones. One specific study with women showed that with Essential Fatty Acid (EFA) supplementation, women’s metabolism increased big-time resulting in more calories burned. . The results demonstrated that EFA supplementation significantly increased resting metabolic rate by 14%, energy expenditure during exercise by 10%, and the rate of fat oxidation during rest by 19% and during exercise by 27%. . Many women take fish oil for their fatty acids, but the risk of serious damage from mercury in the fish, or the oxidation through processing the metals out, are too risky. Fish get their EFAs from algae and women should too. Combining algae with flax seed and borage oils ensures a woman's complete EFA needs are met. . The differences go on and on. The bottom line is there is enough data to show that women and girls are not small men with hormone issues. “[They] are different anatomically, biologically, physiologically and biochemically,” said Kleiner. “The inane idea that women are more difficult or more expensive to study is pure laziness, in my opinion.” . . . . . . “Researchers have learned through past experience that converting pharmaceutical data from studies on adult men for use in children and women is scientifically baseless at best and dangerous at worst,” - Kleiner . . . . . . Specific Supplementation just for women . Custom-formulated and manufactured for the individual needs of active women, and every last nutrient is backed by extensive research just for ladies. . This Pack is something that fits your on-the-go lifestyle. All your supplements are compiled into one-a-day packets stacked into a box so, if you go on a trip, you can pack only what you need to make it through however long you’re gone, or you can keep however many you need handy so you can take a packet whenever life pauses long enough to give you a moment. . . . The ultimate supplement combo . . . To ensure that you get all the nutrients you need, we have created a simple combination. It consists of the Female Performance Pack and our #1-selling Athlete Digestive Formula. We will also include a free supplement pouch so you can take ADF with you just like your female performance packs. . We pair ADF with the Female Performance Pack because it’s not always easy to find a highly digestible protein, carb, or fat source, be it food or powder (like our GIB powders). That’s where plant enzymes and probiotics come in to play. Not only do enzymes and probiotics help women digest food better, they also help eliminate bloating gas and indigestion. Thousands of women are taking the #1 selling product Athlete Digestion Formula to digest their food. . . . . . . . . . REFERENCES http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0144828 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3219437/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24912386 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24150782 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29737805 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4875742/ https://www.omicsonline.org/proceedings/lactobacillus-acidophilus-dds1-the-broad-spectrum-probiotic-11689.html Robert E Bergia, Joshua L Hudson, Wayne W Campbell. Effect of whey protein supplementation on body composition changes in women: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrition Reviews, 2018; DOI: 10.1093/nutrit/nuy017 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140411092312.htm National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2013-2014 Chandrasekhar K1, Kapoor J, Anishetty S. 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