Review: The Anabolic Index
Recently, the Sherdog D&S forums have been lucky enough to have David Barr posting in various threads; his expertise and knowledge have been an asset to all lately. David has written some exclusive articles for us, so in turn, I decided to review The Anabolic Index, a 2-part manual.
For those that are wondering, NO, David didn’t give me a copy, and NO, he did not ask me to review it. The money he wired to my Cayman island account is for a completely different matter. In the best interests of the faithful Sherdog D&S readers, an honest and neutral review was warranted.
As stated, The Anabolic Index is a two part manual, as can be seen here:
The Nutrition and Supplement manual is 135 pages, and the Food and Supplement Scoring Guide is 111 pages long. Both are (surprisingly) available in an ebook/pdf format also. I’m an old-school book kinda guy, so it was a no brainer for me. I had zero issues with ordering online, and they were shipped to my door in under a week.
At first glance, one might think these manuals are strictly designed for the hypertrophy-head in mind; while most of the terminology deals with familiar bodybuilding terms like anabolic-this, and growth-that, the principles of David’s system can easily be applied to ANY athlete.
Recovery via nutrition and supplementation is what most guys here are after, and BOTH these manuals cover that to the tee. David has made it clear that his target athlete is indeed an athlete; if it wasn't so, he wouldn't be writing articles for Sherdog and EliteFTS.
Nutrition and Supplement Manual
I read this one first, based on the fact it delves into the basics of nutrition and how they apply to athletes; the majority of this manual is based around the basics of nutrition, protein, timing, and optimizing anabolism, and preventing catabolism.
One of the first things I noticed is that it truly is written by David---it’s a casual style of writing, like he’s talking one-on-one. It’s refreshing, and he includes a lot of personal experiences and anecdotes, and one can readily realize he’s been in the business a long time.
The second thing I noticed right away was the use of study references at the end of EVERY chapter. I have to say, this blew me away. He backs everything up with solid scientific references, with a fair chunk of the protein related references coming from Tipton. Very impressive, and this lends a huge amount of credibility to his work. He’s not just a guy spouting a nutritional opinion, what he’s writing is based in fact.
Chapters include the likes of
Protein FAQ I and II,
The 5 Keys To The Anabolic Index, and the
7 Anabolic Myths. The later was quite enlightening, and I have a new view on the PWO blackout period. While the next manual will be of most interest to readers, the Nutrition and Supplement Manual is of the utmost value for those wanting to get their preWO and PWO nutrition dialed in properly for optimal recovery.
Food and Supplement Scoring Guide
This manual is broken into two basic parts of food reviews and supplement reviews, with each item reviewed given an Anabolic Index score. As an example, fish is given a score of 7, hydrolyzed whey a score of 15 (the highest), plain ol’ h20 a 10, ZMA a 2, and glutamine a zero. Keep in mind this is the “anabolic” potential of a food/supplement. Yes, water is a 10, way higher than ZMA, and glutamine, a zero (and rightfully so). Without going into minute details on each (which David does), you’ll have to read the manual to find out the “whys”.
Each review is broken down into what it is, what it’s (purported) to do, why or why not it works, the AI, and dosage considerations. There’s also a section of potentially harmful supplements and common drug reviews.
After reading these books, I realize a lot of what I’m doing is right as far as nutrition and supplementation, but a lot could be optimized; I’ve been involved in athletics since childhood, so I’ve had 30+ years to see nutrition and supplement trends come and go, and the past few years athletic nutrition has been a serious interest of mine. The reason I’m ranting about myself and not the book is to belay a point: There’s a LOT of knowledge about a LOT of different supplements packed into a couple of hundred pages. In fact, these manuals could have been twice as long, and a lot of things would have been left unsaid.
So is that to say that the novice should NOT buy these books? No, not at all. In fact, both manuals are excellent starting points for guys wanting to know the facts in a condensed version. I read a recent review of The Anabolic Index prior to reading it for myself, and the reviewer stated just that: that these books are not for novices. Now, I wouldn’t get my mother to read these for her nutritional advice, but her goals are different than mine. I think I can safely assume that David’s target audience is already initiated into the athletics field in some shape or form.
Now, without constructive criticism this wouldn’t be a true review; one of my main beefs, specifically with the
Nutrition and Supplement Manual, is organization and direction. I have the feeling that while reading there was an initial attempt at a specific direction, but I found the content to be disorganized somewhat. Chapters were laid out nicely, but the content seemed to jump around.
Secondly would be the Anabolic Index itself. I liked the idea of a quantitative score, much like the Glycemic Index, but the score is never explained, and the limits of the score are nonexistent. This really isn’t an issue, because I’m not going to change what I eat and do based on a simple score, but I expected this to be more defined.
All in all, I was very impressed with these manuals, and for 40 bucks, the amount of information found within is truly impressive. They aren’t groomed, smooth, glossy picture-filled texts, but that can be easily overlooked by the content, and the clearly evident knowledge of the author.
Mike’s Score: 8/10
Review: The Anabolic Index, by David Barr 
