Sup? Supplements: Do your RESEARCH

I recently stumbled upon an old friends forum. I noticed the ridiculous amounts of poor information and for some reason had to dig through some of it just to realize how confused some people out there really are. The sad thing though, most of these people considered themselves close to experts and to be very knowledgeable and were handing out tons of information in a very confident manner. Sad for too many reasons, but for one they are probably passing this terribly incorrect information on to others, spreading the disease of absolutely idiot training practices. Two they are doing it in a very confident and convincing way that would probably trick the average gym goer (I think a tear is about to fall from my eye). Then the worst one they are actually stuck in this idiotic belief that they are correct, and using these practices themselves (I think that tear just turned into fire cause that stuff just pisses me off). 

The rest of this blog is what resulted from one of the many posts about supplements that I read. I actually had to go through and delete a good portion of it because by the end I started to feel bad for all of them and didn't want them all to start crying half way through. It also sparked me to begin writing more about training as well as supplements to make sure you all know you have at least one resource that will tell you the truth and try to point you in the correct direction of some others that can as well. 

As far as my reaction to all of the dumb training posts that were put up....well I was too angry to comment on any of that.

Beginning rant now:

Does anyone else think it's humorous that experienced lifters are still going places like GNC and vitashop or w/e it is?  I didn't read all of these but some of this is a little off. Biotest seems to do a very good job, but just like everywhere else they are just trying to sell you something.  Like muscle milk trying to say that they can actually make creatine work more efficiently in your body. 

Give me a break! Just to let you know that crap is about the worst supp on the market.  

Also, most vitamins absolutely suck. If it is not a liquid or a capsule it's probably not worth it. Try baking your tablets in the oven you'll see all the nasty stuff come out. 

I have to go over this with my athletes all the time, but the outside of a container is a sales pitch no matter how you look at it. Sometimes a company knows what they are talking about and are truthful, sometimes the company is cluelessly ignorant feeding bits and pieces of 'BS' they coop up in a lab, kitchen, or garage, and sometimes a company is just plain old lying their butts off.  You know how many athletes are being hampered by muscle milk's crap right now. Every one of them that is taking it, and that is alot because of an incredible marketing campaign. 

Not like I wasn't tricked either at one point but do your research. This isn't something to screw around with, this is your body, and it's your life.  Here is one resource for all of you.  www.raisethebarr.net Probably better though would be this guy http://precisionnutrition.

com/cmd.php?pageid=778229 He'll teach you to eat, which will make your supps have an even better affect.  Good luck.

-Adam Rees

Sup? Supplements: Vitamins

Today I was asked a few times about supplements, and as I am now realizing how foolish I've been for not devoting some time to articles on the subject I do believe its time to start going over some of them with all of you. 

First thing, supplements are not all harmful, some are actually very beneficial, though which ones you take and and how are huge players in that game. With that said not all supplements are right for you eitehr. The trick is to get ahold of someone who has already done the leg work for you (in this case yours truly), ask questions (sound familiar?) and go from there. 

Second, supplements are not all steroids, they are not performance enhancement drugs, and they are by no means cheating (unless they are banned by your sport of course). Most supplements are made to improve health, making your body operate more efficiently therefore making you able to perform better in your sport and daily life. They are made to improve upon (or 'supplement') your diet. This may seem like a pretty ridiculous statement but you would not believe the number of clueless people I hear talking about this stuff, of which many are very highly educated, some even doctors and physicians. Yeah, completely ridiculous isn't it? 

Another thing I run into alot is quote "Oh, I'm getting all my supplements at my local coop." As if the "all healthy coop" is the overseer of all that is good for you. I also hear Walgreens, Walmart, grocery stores and even gas stations. When was the last time gas stations had healthy stuff!?!? And yes, it is all I can take to not just about go bizerk (unsure of spelling) and start ripping heads off, but I try to remind myself that its okay they just don't know. 

Just to let everyone know I have broken down countless vitamins and mineral supplements and explored too many proteins, PWO's (pre+post workout drinks), amino acids, and fish oils to remember. In my findings there were very few supplements worth ingesting.

I have a gauntlet of tests that supplements have to go through before entering High Impact Training's line. One of the vitamin and mineral tests is putting the vitamin in a solution of water and vinegar, and another one is baking the vitamin in the oven. I found that out of all the different vitamins not one tablet was even close to being worth ingesting. Even top brands like Metagenics (a vitamin you can only get from physicians). Actually OneADay and Centrum were a couple of the worst. Crazy huh? Especially since these have been by far the highest selling vitamins in america for the last few years.

So what was so bad about them? Well, the majority of them didn't break down enough in the water solution which shows that they wouldn't even get a chance to be digested, and on top of that I don't remember having one that got close to passing the Oven test. Try it out, put one of your vitamins in the oven and turn it up to 400 and come back in about 15-25 minutes. You'll be able to see all the gunk come out of it that is holding it together. Know what that is? It's a bunch of glue and tar. MMMM, Right?

There are tons of different vitamins and minerals but your are quite literally flushing your money down the toilet when your taking most vitamins. There were bunches of vitamins that went through High Impact's process and there were only two that really stood out. I have no problem suggesting that everyone get on our Vital Core supplement. This is one that everyone can and should be taking. 

Expect some more information on supplements in the future. Vital core is not the only staple supplement that everyone should be taking, so you can bet I'll have a follow up here pretty soon. Until next time. 

Go hard or go home!