A Small Rant About Supps

Let's get down to the nitty gritty, 95% of supplements make shit up completely.  Just out of thin air..POOF. Claims like "Road Map Vascularity" and "Gain hard, lean muscle" are tossed around a dime a dozen. But, the truth is that supplement companies hide behind a loophole in the system that allows them to "hide" what is in their product. For example, anything supplement with a proprietary blend is worthless. I'm going to come out and say this because: a) the FDA isn't regulating what is going in these blends b) most companies put useless shit into it c) claims do no support what the actual effect of the blend. It's all propaganda to make a customer buy their product; those people at GNC and VitaminShoppe are doing the exact same thing to you. They are essentially protected by law to lie to you and make you take a product that may or may not be safe. The only thing you can trust in a supplement shop is the nutritional facts. If a product says that their is 25 grams of protein in it, there HAS TO BE, by law, 25 grams of protein in it. Only thing I can say is that everything in the supplement industry is fake. The before and after pictures you see in magazines for diet pills? Fake. Staged. Airbrushed. Google it. The bodybuilders and models that are sponsored and represent supplements on TV and in magazines? Fake. Every single bodybuilder in the IFBB is/was on steroids. Every. Single. One. Google it. If you know anything about anatomy it is impossible to get your body to look like Ronnie Coleman without synthetic help. Supplements make BILLIONS of dollars a year preying on uneducated gym goers trying to get a boost or get more out of their workouts. But it's bullshit. I'm sorry. Most people's workouts are garbage, and they think a supplement is going to be the Skeleton Key to a yoked physique. You cannot outwork a bad diet, and that's a fact, Neil. This post is very broad, but I was inspired by a guy that asked me what supplements to take at the gym (after he told me that he thought bread and rice were 'bad' foods and did not know what a simple or complex carb was). Only advice: Take a post workout protein shake with 20-25grams of protein in it (anything more and your body cannot digest it. Unless you're a 300 pounder, is biomechanically impossible to digest more than 25 grams of protein in one sitting. You're just going to shit the rest out). The only reason the post workouts are good is for convenience. You are paying for convenience. Make sure your shake has some carbohydrates in it too. Carbs spike your insulin after a workout and put your muscles into an anabolic (muscle building) state. This has turned into a hodgepodge of scattered information, but the guy I was talking to literally had no idea about anything nutritionally nor about how to train. I'm now, officially, weird.

Let's Get Greek: Omega 3

     You may or may not know what the importance of Omega 3 fatty acids are in your diet, and if you don't...then you're in luck. Omega 3's are a type of fatty acid that you'll find in your green leafy vegetables and fish, as well as the oils that are extracted from these items. They are an essential fatty acid, meaning your body cannot make them and need to be ingested from a food source, that have a laundry list of benefits ranging from arthritis, inflammation, and increase your insulin production and efficiency within your body. Omega 3 also has shown to reduce excess inflammation within the muscle and the connective tissue by increasing the prostaglandins in the body. Prostagalandins is a hormon that regulate many different functions in the body that are connected to muscle growth. Among other things it regulates blood pressure, blood clotting, nerve transmission, the inflammatory and allergic responses, the functions of the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract, and the production of other hormones. Like I was saying before, there are tons of benefits to including such nutrients in your diet. The key to your beefy swell, however, would be to limit your "bad fats", which are your saturated and trans fats, and upping your "good" fats, like your unsaturated fats and essential fatty acids. With the intake of good fat comes testosterone production. Compound your new natural test boost and a wicked workout routine, and you will be giving yourself a considerable headstart on your quest for swole.

Olympic Lifts…Why Use Them?

Many people have heard of the Olympic lifts, performed them at some point or another or seen individuals in the gym who are performing them. What many people don’t understand, however, is the benefits that come with using the Olympic lifts. I would have to say that about 2% of the participants I see in the gym actually use the Olympic lifts or their variants. There are a few reasons I believe this number is so low:

1.          Lack of knowledge
2.      They are frightened to get injured
3.      They don’t know how to incorporate them

Because I am a true believer in the Olympic lifts, I want to point out a few reasons why you should include them, and their variants, in your routines:

1.         Full Body Workout- The Olympic lifts are full body exercises in nature and they incorporate multiple joint movements and a taxing load on the entire body. For this reason, breaking your workouts up by body part is not necessary.  With this, you also won’t need to look further than performing the Olympic lifts and their variants when performing your workouts. This means you don’t need 15 different exercises each time you lift.
2.      Timely- Using the Olympic lifts will not only save you planning but will also save you time. Because you are working your full body through one movement, a 30-minute session using these lifts will provide you with a workload that would take about an hour and a half to receive with a split-body workout.
3.        Explosion- This is a point that may not apply to everyone in the audience but using the Olympic lifts, and their variants, provide you with explosive movements that are beneficial for athletics. The Olympic lifts are based strictly on power, which is the ability to move as much weight possible as fast as possible, in turn, creating explosion. Explosion is key in many sports and provides advantages for almost any athlete. 

Those are only a few of the benefits you will get if you implement the Olympic lifts into your routine. I am not even saying you need to change to a full-on Olympic workout. But adding one or two of the Olympic lifts or its variants into your routine will not only spice up your workout but will pay off in power, strength and your health in general.

WARNING: Olympic lifts are to be done only with correct form. Do not start off too heavy. Start with the bar and don’t move up in weight until your form is perfect. Once you have the form the weight will start piling on.

Some of the Olympic Lifts and their variants: Snatch, clean and press, hang clean, power clean, power pull, power shrug, hanging snatch, overhead squat, push press, push jerks. 

SuperSETTT

     One of my favorite and most beneficial types of exercise are supersetting while strength training. If you don't know, a superset is two exercises that are performed back to back with little to no rest; There are also trisets (three exercises), and quadsets (four sets) that can be performed to really shred your beefy rip. Some benefits to stacking your workouts into supersetted blocks are:
    
     1) Great way to save time - There is nothing more annoying to me than staying in the gym for 90 mins to get to my desired REP amount for the day (120 per muscle group).
     2) Workout Variety - There are countless amounts of stacks you can make into supersets, which allow for an everylasting fresh and crisp workout. Exs. Chest/Chest, Chest/Tri's, Chest/Cardio, Chest/Back, etc.
     3)Incorporates muscle overload and exhaustion - When your muscles are overloaded during activation, lactic acid is produced via the Kreb Cycle. While this sensation is tormenting to most, there is one crucial benefit to it's release: increased Growth Hormone secretion. It is impossible to get big without it, which lead some to take supplements that claim to boost the GH for juicy muscles and a nice fat loss hormone. Save your $80 bucks and stack your sets.

     However, recognize that you're not going to be able to do your typical amount of weight when supersetting and trisetting. This type of advanced training requires a mixture of strength and endurance that makes it nearly impossible for the body to keep up with, but you can always experiment what works for you (ex. Heavy first leg of superset, lighter second leg of superset). I also recommend changing up your paired sets for your supersets to gain strength and mass, avoid plateaus, and keep your workouts fun and new.
     Keep it real with your supersets, you jerks. And don't forget...winter bulking season only has about 45 days left!!!

PS- check out this workout from Muscle Pharm: http://www.musclepharm.com/sites/default/files/getswole_mens_p3_v2_lowres_0.pdf
    
    

Supp. of the Day: Yohimbe Extract

   Yohimbe Extract is an extract derived from the bark of the West African tree Pausinystalia yohimbe. The body converts the yohimbe to yohimbine and diffuses it into the bloodstream. Research suggests it is a vasodilator, which means that it increases blood flow throughtout the body by expanding blood vessel channels. Not only does yohimbe help maintain a healthy heart, but yohimbe also has been suggested to decrease fat synthesis in the body by increasing fatty acid mobilization.
   
   Some supplements designed to boost athletic performance include yohimbe, and popular fitness websites promote Yohimbe Fuel for decreasing fat synthesis in the body along with supporting a healthy libido. The active chemical yohimbine stimulates the central nervous system and helps increase the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart to benefit your workouts.

Winter Bulking Phase

     The winter is in full swing, and yes...that means you better be in winter bulking phase. The reasoning behind this unheralded time of the year is to get your body into prime bulking position for spring slendering. What better time to increase your calorie count, and your body's overall mass than when it's covered in sweatshirts and jackets for 4 months?
   
   However, there are a couple guidelines to the winter bulking phase. Increasing your calorie count is vital; you need calories to put on the weight and sheer mass to look like a hero. Your diet doesn't have to be something of vital concern during the WBP, leave that for the Spring, when your trying to muster out your famous 4-pack. Your gym time should be focused solely on mass building exercises, and your supp. game should be tweaked for this. Weight gainers, creatines, and  various proteins should be on your grocery list so the benefits of your work can fully shine.
  
  So next time somebody offers you that piece of cake or that delicious banquet beer, be proud and accept. After all, it IS winter bulking phase.