balco labs claim that flex wheeler has a myostatin mutation at the exon 2 position of the gene. Flex was also found to have a very unusual type of the IGF 1 gene. has anyone else heard of this? info about this can be found on the net.
The study has been around for a while and was done by Victor Conte, the guy who brought us ZMA. If I remember correctly there were a few others with this gene in the studies but Flex was the only one mentioned. It wouldn’t surprise me if many successful natural bodybuilders have it. Basically what it amounts to is myostatin is a GH inhibitor and when myostatin is suppressed then GH goes way up and muscle growth occurs at an accelerated rate. In some studies they have done on mice the mice grew 3 times larger (all muscle) then normal yet all they did was lie around and eat. I don’t now where you can find the studies but if I remember correctly t-mag did publish an article on the myostatin mice study.
I saw a picture of a hugely muscular cow that had double the musle-mass of an average cow. It has never been treated with anabolic steroids and has never perfomed any kind of resistance training. This
has been accomplished by selectively breeding for muscle-mass. all the cow did was stand and eat grass. Double-muscling lessens the effect of the myostatin gene, leading to a greater number of muscle cells. Bodybuilders with similar genetic endowment might actually in some cases decrease their muscularity with training! (like in the case of chris dickerson with his twin brother who had bigger calves than him although he never trained). The accomplishement of the pros might not be as remarcable as previously thought. all this makes me feel that there are far more efficient ways to get muscular. all that time spent in the gym…and all the discipline that bodybuilding requires can undoubtedly seem futile now, in the minds of trainees with a normal myostatin gene.
I don’t believe there is any data indicating the myostatin is a GH inhibitor. In fact, the putative mechanism doesn’t really have anything to do with the endocrine system what so ever.
Some evidence indicates that it interacts with some of the molecular signals that allow myoblasts (satelite cells) to proliferate before they mature into fully grown muscle cells.
It’s rather esoteric, but when a muscle is injured or stimulated to hypertrophy, the satelite cells are activated and divide to make more satelite cells. Some of those satelite cells then grow into a more mature form of muscle and then ultimately fuse with the existing muscle (most likely) to make it bigger. The original satelite cell remains the way it was in order to serve as a resevoir of muscle cells. The thing is, the satelite cell may not mature while it is dividing (that is a law of Cell Biology), so myostatin is a regulator that stops the satelite cell from dividing. Once it has stopped dividing it can then mature and fuse with the existing muscle.
If myostatin in mutated or not effective, the satelite cell will continue to divide more (lets say making 10 little muscles as opposed to 2 in the normal myostatin case) until another signal causes it to stop dividing and to mature. There are many other signals that will cause the satelite cell to stop dividing, they are just not as effective or specific as myostatin. So, if you are a weight lifter and you have a mutated or non-functional myostatin, every time you activate those satelite cells through training, you will likely create more little muscle cells that will later mature and fuse with existing muscle to make it bigger. The absence of myostatin function just enables a couple more divisions before maturation.
That's the Cell Biology of Body Building 101 lecture for the day. Quiz on Tues.
I think they took the biopsy from his calves!
if you believe4 flex wheeler was a natural body builder then you need a wake up call
selective breeding… its an amazing thing.
as far as flex- not a clue, but I would bet on better than average genetics in general (and some serious anabolics)
Who said anything about Flex being a natural bodybuilder. Kelly said that he wouldnt be suprised if some natural bodybuilders had it. Flex is known to have it. At least i had heard it before. Nobody said he was natural. You need to read closer before you start blasting people.
If you’re trolling my friend, you as they say, is trolling in the wrong place. Everyone here knows that pro bodybuilders juice heavily. If you just started reading the T-Mag forum (as evidenced by the tone of some of your responses), you may want to sit back and read for a while before you go on a flame-fest. Oh, and yes, Flex may very well have this mutation, as it were. He also undoubtedly has oustanding genetics and wonderful receptor affinity for AAS. You can’t get to the top of the game in pro BB without both.