Contest #21: Freestyle Fitness Writing!

[admin]

The best post as chosen by A1Supplements.com answering the following question will win a $100 Gift Certificate for FREE Supplements! Second prize will be awarded a $50 gift certificate and third prize winner will be awarded a $25 gift certificate.

Freestyle Writing Competition! You can write about anything bodybuilding, fitness or supplement related. May the best article win!

Contest officially closes on: August 21, 2008 (12:01 AM EST) and posts will be judged thereafter. Good luck!

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Please post your response to the contest question in this thread by using the "Post Reply" button.

Complete Contest Rules - click here (http://forum.a1supplements.com/showthread.php?t=5038). (500 word min.)

[kkroger]

As much as powerlifting differs from bodybuilding, nutritional guidelines for each of these are just as diverse as the sport itself. While both sports have a lot of similarities in the lifts and training themselves (as well as personal preferences as far as training is performed), there are just as many differences in diet. For example, I am a powerlifter specializing in bench press but have a very “bodybuilding” routine in that I work a body part per day, killing each muscle group throughout the week. My main reasoning in this is to create a well balanced physique and in turn, prevent injuries due to imbalances in muscle groups such as shoulder blowouts. Don’t get me wrong, injuries are a part of the sport, just as much as anything else, and they make most people feel more like a “veteran” the more they accumulate. However, if they can be prevented by changing a few things, I’m all for it.

Most people assume that the main difference between a powerlifter and a bodybuilder is that a bodybuilder diets two to three months a year and gets cut up while powerlifters stay fat. That is partially true in that a powerlifter generally doesn’t have to drop a lot of weight for a show and in most cases shouldn’t due to strength loss. Coming from a bodybuilding background, the last thing I want to do on stage is bench press. My main focus is trying to flex every little muscle group, smile, and not pass out. However, aside from the big boys, most people in powerlifting are going to try to drop a few pounds to get into a lower weight class safely without losing strength. Depending on the weigh-in times, this can vary anywhere between five to twenty pounds simply by sitting in a sauna. However, a proper diet along with the necessary workout regimen can and will give optimum results in strength without making someone fat.

The diet of a powerlifter and a bodybuilder will vary for a few reasons such as bodybuilders doing lighter weight, more reps and powerlifters doing fewer reps, heavier weight. There are many techniques acquired throughout the career of an experienced powerlifter. Explosion off the chest, control in the negative, and lift specific techniques such as arching on bench and squatting wide for hip power all come into play affecting the necessary diet of each lifter. Finding out how your body reacts to these changes is an individual thing. Unfortunately there is trial and error for a lot of it, like discovering how your body will react to an extra shake here or five extra grams of glutamine there. Just as there is no one way to diet for a bodybuilding show or drop your water weight, finding the correct balance of everything will vary from person to person. However, there are some guidelines that I, along with most other powerlifters, will follow that will lead to an increase in strength.

Starting with a little background in nutrition, the main things you’ll hear about or need to concern yourself with as far as food and supplements is the amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. There are different types and forms of each that will have a slightly different effect, but we’ll start off keeping it simple. All three of these are different amounts of calories and are absorbed into the body at different speeds, used differently, and stored differently. Protein has 4 calories/gram, carbohydrates have 4 calories/gram, and fats have 9 calories/gram. Although fats have more energy per gram, they are stored the easiest in the body. Therefore, carbohydrates should be your main source of energy with protein being used for muscle repair and growth. All three of these are necessary in their own way. For example, carbohydrates help drive protein to muscle cells. That means everyone that’s aspiring to be a great powerlifter and is on the “carbs are the enemy” diet, cut that shit out now.

Here are the basics that I try to stick to throughout my contest diet cycle. I go through a gain cycle and a cut cycle in my diet. When I’m gaining, I’m trying to get a ton of calories each day to make sure I’m getting ample energy and minerals from food. In this phase, I shoot for one and a half grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, two and a half grams of carbs per pound of bodyweight, and don’t intentionally eat fats but if I get them, so be it. I never really eat really bad food like candies, cakes, etc. because I’ve honestly never really had a bad sweet tooth. However, if it comes down to eating nothing or eating two Big Macs, super-size me. Bad food is better than no food in this stage. The last thing you want to do is metabolize muscle because you’re afraid of getting too many calories.

Metabolism is very important as well. Eating at least five to seven food meals a day is very important. This doesn’t include the protein bar you ate on the way to school or work. Supplements are good, but they are that and that alone: a supplement to food. I shoot for a good balanced diet of proteins and carbs in every meal throughout the day. Some of the proteins I eat daily are steaks, eggs, and chicken and every now and then I throw in beef and turkey as well. As far as carbs, I eat a ton of oatmeal, potatoes, yams, grain cereal, brown rice and pasta. In fact, normally about two hours before the gym, I’ll cook up two chicken breasts and a box of macaroni and cheese and mix it together. Tastes pretty good and isn’t as bad for you as you think--look it up.

As far as supplements, they are very easy and convenient to take. It is way easier to drink a hundred grams of protein than to eat a hundred grams of protein. However, I divide the grams of protein I take in protein shakes in half because they are easily digested and often times will flush out. Therefore, don’t drink three shakes with a hundred grams in each and think you’ve hit 300 for the day. In all reality, you might have only ingested 150. The other supplements that are important to powerlifters are glucosamine, creatine, and a multivitamin. Luckily, these are easy to take in the form of Animal Flex, Animal Pump, and of course Animal Pak. Those are the important supplements in my opinion and these three are honestly all I ever really take throughout the year aside from protein supplements.
:eek:

Thank you for your time and for reading this article...One of my Favorites ever written!

[TrechGV7]

8/19/08

Looking back at my youth all I can remember is being an athlete. Growing up in suburban Chicago, that was all that mattered. The suburbs are full of competitors in a variety of sports, and I always desired to be one of the elite.

I played many sports all the way through high school, with my favorite being baseball. Once I hit college I suffered some setbacks that kept me from playing the sport I grew up loving. So I turned my competitive energy to something else; bodybuilding.

It wasn’t my first choice. If I had the decision right now I’d probably still admit that I’m a ballplayer at heart. But the harsh lifestyle and huge rewards of the bodybuilding lifestyle are unlike anything else. It’s a real man’s sport and is gaining exposure every year. Almost two years ago I decided to give it a shot.
I had always lifted weights in high school but I never got the greatest gains. It wasn’t until I researched in depth that I made my most drastic gains. I never realized how nutrition and gains co-existed hand-in-hand with a proper lifting program. Once I got everything in check I ballooned from a 6’2” 169 pound boy to a 6’2” 246 pound man. This was the first time I ever “bulked” and it happened from January 2007 to April 2008. It was honestly one of the hardest things I’d ever done but I had my eye on the prize the whole time and that made it easier. I wanted to be a bodybuilder. It was becoming my sport.

So there I was, 5 days a week, hitting the iron hard and long. I wasn’t leaving the gym until I was completely wrecked. A few times I actually puked in the gym. I only realized that through that weakness was my key to making the best gains. I brought out my chest, pumped up my biceps, triceps, and shoulders, and expanded my lats and traps. I threw in leg workouts twice per week to give my body a balance that I saw suitable. I am a fan of classic bodybuilders like Frank Zane and Franco Columbu. I love the big upper body with small waist physique. That natural look is what I'm going for.

Much nutrition went into my bulk. I didn’t want to gain any more body fat than I naturally had to so I kept my diet down to a point. I ate 7 meals per day (no more than 50 g of protein per meal), spaced out by at least 2 hours and protein immediately after my workout. Chicken, pork, turkey, lean steak, eggs, and fish were my favorite sources of protein. My carbohydrates came mainly from brown rice; protein enriched noodles, and baked regular and sweet potatoes. Cheat meals were a rarity. I know that sometimes a cheat meal is beneficial but the guilt lasted the whole day for me. I carried peanuts around with me in the car so that I wasn’t tempted to stop for fast food to satisfy my hunger. I would pop a handful of nuts and my hunger would subside. All in all, at the peak of my bulk diet, I was consuming 350+ g of protein, 500+ g carbs, and 4,500+ calories per day.

For the first time in my life I became interested in taking supplements. Long story short, they worked wonders for me in addition to a perfect diet. Whey protein became a staple for me post workout and then eventually changed to a weight gainer for added carbs. I tried a few weight gainers until I stuck with my favorite weight gainer, BSN True Mass Cookies N’ Crème, for the rest of my bulk. I threw in some Gaspari SizeON for intra-workout energy and also to have creatine in my diet as well. My pre-workout carbs were enough to keep me from using stimulants to energize my workout. I already had a great “food pump” due to the nutrients circulating my body. Upon waking up in the morning the first thing I would supplement were my BCAA’s and EAA’s (Universal brand) to prevent muscular breakdown and catabolism. Omega 3’s, daily vitamins, L-Glutamine, and occasional sleeping pills were other supplements I used in my diet. Synergistically they all worked amazingly together.

I was staying anabolic twenty-four/seven as far as I’m concerned. I made consistent gains and achieved all of this with a final BF% a little above 13%. Over the summer of 2008 I cut down to 7% body fat and have just recently started my bulk. I will be bulking until the spring in which I want to start cutting to hit my first contest up in 2009. My friends have dubbed me “the mad scientist” among many other names. Maybe it’s because I take my diet log and supplements with me wherever I travel. Or may it’s because I have my nutrition and supplementation down perfectly to feed my growing muscles.

I can never miss a training session or meal. In the shadows I can see my competition doing everything possible to be the best. I can see him in the gym on weekend nights getting extra work in and eating that extra meal because his body’s craving to grow just a little bit more. I have a message for you if you’re reading this, so am I.

As Animal says, shut up and train.

[Irvry]

Fat, big, humongous, huge. It goes by different terms but it basically refers to one and the same thing. Obesity. What is obesity? Ok, I know this term has been around for quite a significant period of time for everyone not to know what it is. But what I am looking for is the meaning of obesity in the framework of our present-day society. How does our society look at obesity and how it affects the lives, thinking and attitude of obese people.

DEFINING OBESITY

Obesity, in simple terms, means having too much body fat. Period. We can take on more scientific definitions like an abnormal accumulation of body fat as defined by http://www.faqs.org/health/Sick-V3/Obesity.html or a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher as described in http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-clinical-definition-of-obesity.htm but it still boils down to one simple meaning. In most cases, it means extremely having too much body fats.

When we talk about obesity, we are not simply referring to someone whose weight is about 10 lbs. more than his ideal weight based on his/her height. Normally, a 10 to 20 lbs. difference between an ideal weight as against the current weight qualifies someone as overweight yet not an obese. When we talk about an obese, we are talking about an excessive baggage of 30 lbs. or more.

The most common way of determining obesity is via the BMI (Body Mass Index) calculation. This method follows a certain formula wherein the body’s weight in kilograms is divided by the square of the body’s height in meters. If your BMI exceeds 30, you are automatically considered as an obese and if it breaks the 40 point mark, then you are someone called as morbidly obese.

ENOUGH WITH THE NUMBERS

Ok, since I am not a nutrition expert nor a health professional, I won’t be discussing too much about the science behind the obesity classification. What’s important at this point is that I have already shown you how to know whether you are already a humongous piece of lard walking on the streets everyday.

Another important aspect that we need to focus to be able to understand obesity is the influence of society in its prevalence. And I am talking here about society in general and not just the people in it. I mean, come’ on, the society is not just about its people alone. You have the system and the structure in itself though people comprise more than half of its existence.

FIRST INFLUENCE: EDUCATION

In a study that was made by Hélène de Chastenet in 2005 as part of her Master of Science degree requirement [ref. www.ext.nodak.edu/~aedept/aemisc/deChastenet-Thesis-R.pdf ], she noted that obesity in the US seems to be greater in those samples that never had college education. Furthermore, the said study shows that the numbers increased for those who never reached high school was 1.3% compared to just .5% for those who had a college degree with them. This result shows the lack of efforts in the part of our society to inform the younger population about quality nutrition and the consequences of indulging in non-healthy foods such as pizza, cakes and sodas.

Personally, I believe that the education system needs to extend its efforts in battling obesity from within the classroom up to the nutritional values that each state public school canteens are selling to our students. More than what we are teaching these students, the things that they consume in those canteens would eventually decide how these students would aesthetically grow. I mean, it doesn’t make sense if we continue telling these young people to shun away from fatty, unhealthy foods when all they see and find on our campus cafeterias are the exact same thing we ask them to avoid.

SECOND INFLUENCE: LIFESTYLE

Another strong case that we need to look at is the effect of one’s lifestyle to his susceptible to obesity. And when I say lifestyle, what I mean is the inherent influence of the society to one’s lifestyle. You must be telling yourself right now that lifestyle is something personal and shouldn’t be blamed to the society. That’s the thing. One’s lifestyle should be personal but with the current society that we have, one’s personal choice is greatly influenced by what is basically available around him.

One example. Foods. We are now seeing a big surge in the production of low-cost, easily accessible but extremely unhealthy foods. You see fastfood chains building one branch after another that basically offers fries, sodas and fried chickens. Then there’s the ballooning fad of to-go meals that basically includes pizzas and other deep-fried foods. Anywhere you go you could find a soda vending machine. I mean, even if most of you would argue that those are only for people who want those kinds of foods, the fact that you find this almost everywhere strengthens its influence in the decision-making of a person.

If you came from a normal 8-hour work shift, drove at least another hour to reach your place after work, rest is high on your priorities, right? Would you choose to go to the market, pick up a chunk of salmon or chicken breast, proceed to your kitchen and steam them or would you simply choose to pick-up a pizza order that you have placed before leaving your office that comes with a 1.5 liter of soda with it? The choices that our society gives to us would have a significant effect on how we decide. That is a fact that no one dares to admit.

THIRD INFLUENCE: FAMILY

Have you ever tried observing on the family of obese people? Try looking at their family and you would agree with me that one’s family plays a very big influence on one’s obesity.
Normally, an obese teen has either an obese dad or an obese mom or an obese grandparent. Worst, both dad and mom are obese or both grandparents are obese.

Having someone from within the family sharing the same lifestyle, the same set of consumable foods, same sets of daily activities, and same set of nutritional knowledge makes the urge to overeat and keep on resting so strong. Very strong that an outsider would find it very difficult to correct or reorient. I could give you a perfect example. Myself.

I am an obese. What with a 36% BMI, I am just 4% away from morbid obesity before I decided to pick up some irons and burn those pesky flabs. But the uphill battle against obesity was pretty much easier after I migrated to another country. You know why? My mom is an obese like me. My aunts, except for one, are all obese. All of my uncles are obese. I am not saying that I hate my family for making me obese. I do love each and everyone of them specially my Mom but as much as I hate to say this, they made my battle against obesity extremely hard.

My Mom loves to cook. In fact, she’s a great cook that people from all around our community pays her just to cook food during special occasions. And this actually became the biggest contributor to my overeating. Heck, who doesn’t love tasty meals! When I was a kid, my Mom would always prepare foods for me and my sister all stuffed inside the fridge. We just need to grab those pre-cooked meals and put it in the steamer then indulge. My sister never had any issues with this since she and my dad had a pretty good metabolism. But me, my metabolism is so slow that I could still taste the food I ate 4 or 5 hours before. Since my Mom is a very loving mother, she always make sure that there’s food on the table everytime. When I come home from school, after a stressful shift at work, even after playing basketball with my friends. There’s nothing wrong with being a loving and caring mom. It’s just that I was such a glutton that I indulge on those foods everytime I see them on the table or on the fridge. And everytime I try to slack off from the foods and try to work on a diet, my mom would cooked up my favorite food and put it on the table for me to smell and crave.

Now you see why I consider the family as a big influence in obesity?

EXERCISE: THE MAIN ARTILLERY

Clinically, a person becomes obese when the amount of work he does is not proportional to the amount of calories he takes coming from foods. Too much calories = energy not consumed = stored fats. Now, the best weapon that we have to battle this menace is actually very simple, in fact, it’s simplicity makes most people ignore it most of the time. The answer, exercise.

Maintaining a regular exercise routine offsets the staggering amount of stored energy that we accumulate from too much eating. Brisk walking, slow-phased jogging, biking, even a simple breathing exercise coupled with proper stretching helps channel out those extra calories into used energy.

Modern science seems to have pushed exercise aside in favor of high-tech solutions to flabs and lovehandles. Gastric bypass and liposuction are the two most sought after remedy for obesity. The problem with these processes are that most of the time, it only improves the subject aesthetically and not physically. It does help an obese person get rid of the unwanted flabs and lovehandles but the improvement is limited to that. Aesthetics. It doesn’t improve cardiovascularity, it doesn’t improve strength and resistance, it doesn’t improve one’s immune system.

And this is where your old workhorse, a regular exercise, beat those high-tech and costly procedures. You see, exercise does more than improve one’s aesthetics. A regular exercise program improves both the lungs and the heart leading to an improve and much better cardiovascularity and immune system. Exercise helps in excreting out free radicals from our system. Exercise in itself is an anti-oxidant that helps us regenerate our body’s cells. Aside from that, right exercise programs improves our overall muscle structure, posture and strength. I would take on any high-tech scientific procedure anytime, any day, with just the good ole’ exercise as my only artillery and I won’t be worried of being beaten.

HELP AT OUR FINGETIPS


In this age of high exposure to obesity-inducing factors, it would be good to know that we are not alone in this fight, right? Aside from our old-reliable fitness trainers and health professionals, our closest ally is sitting right at the edge of our fingertips, the internet.
You see, to combat obesity effectively, we need an abundant stack of knowledge on how to beat it. Just like in a real combat, we need to know exactly what causes it and how to counter them. The more you know about your opponent, in this case obesity, the higher chance that we would end up beating it. And where can we obtain more information about our subject aside from the internet?

There are numerous places on the internet that we can go to gain the right knowledge and techniques to beat obesity. You just need a search engine and a keen desire to learn. The best possible place to start with are the health forums like forum.A1supplements.com.

Health forums entices discussions among different people. And when I say different people, we are not simply talking about people from the same state or country. We are talking about different people from different walks of life coming from different countries and from different fields. Forums are comparable to your good old school bulletin boards where you are allowed to post queries and expect good, sound, and knowledgeable answers in return. It also allows you to share your knowledge on equally interesting subjects.

Aside from forums, you could also visit health sites that offers tons of articles from qualified professionals and experienced individuals who has already earned stripes in their battle against the big bulge.

Be it a question on what exercise suits you and your lifestyle to questions on what supplement is suitable for your health, expect answers here. Not just plain and simple answers but qualified answers from credible and highly-trained professionals that has been around the business for a significant amount of time.

TURNING SOCIETY INTO A GOOD HEALTH ALLY

Education, lifestyle and family. Those are the top 3 factors influencing the rise of obesity in present-day society. But they don’t need to be your nemesis forever on this battle. Like a good war strategist, health websites could help you transform those nemesis into beneficial allies in battling the flab.

Here at A1supplements.com, we help you find the right knowledge and skills essential for you to develop a good, active and healthy lifestyle which you could spread into your own family. We aim to help, not just you. We aim to help anyone from your own circle of trusted friends and loved ones who are waging a losing battle against this health menace. We can help you and your loved ones to develop the right positive attitude, a firm discipline and the will to win and overcome obstacles on your way to having that healthy physique and mentality.

No, you don’t need to buy anything. Although A1supplements.com is one of the best on-line supplements store, it offers tons of health articles for free. You could read or even download those articles. Or if you want to, you could register for free to join our forums. Once you have gained everything that you need to know, you could then start on visiting A1supplements.com’s on-line store to find if there is something you might want to try.

This is how A1supplements.com tries to help each and one of us who’s trying to win this big battle for a healthy and better way of living.

[Dale1102@aol.com]

I can still remember first “learning” to workout, back in my undergraduate school days. I would go to the college armory every night and teach myself how to lift weights then run round and round the track for cardio exercise. Mind you, at that time, I knew of no authenticated distinction between cardio and strength training and how best to complement one with the other. Come to think of it, I don’t even think our school armory had cardio equipment of which to speak. After all, it was the still the late 80’s, and although the fitness craze of Olivia Newton-John “getting physical” was finally fizzling, it was still a few years before high-tech elliptical trainers, recumbent bikes, and supercharged treadmills overtook the world. In fact, it was back when “cardio” was a term you read in a Muscle & Fitness magazine but not a term known throughout mainstream America. “Aerobics” was still a catch-all phrase for exercise, and even though Richard Simmons did his best to convince men that they, too, could and should aerobic-ize, men still focused primarily on weight training while women were left to bounce around in colorful leg warmers and leotards to do their aerobic training.

Despite the limited information made available to the general population, it only made sense in my mind to balance the two kinds of working out – strength and cardio. It just seemed natural to me and at no time did I consider it an option to do one and not the other. It was only years and umpteen “scientific studies” later that it became common knowledge that a comprehensive fitness program includes both cardio and strength workouts – even for men.

Since those early days of dabbling with my physical fitness development, I have not only become a die-hard gym rat but, more importantly, I have remained a huge believer in continuing to do what feels natural to me, following what my body tells me feels “right.” It was only when my doctor once commented that he rarely meets a patient so in-tune with her body that I realized not everyone is programmed like I am. Not everyone “listens” to the signals their body is sending or “reads” what their body wants/needs to grow. Not everyone can differentiate between a “good hurt” and a “bad hurt” – the kind of discomfort caused by muscular growth pains versus the kind caused by improper technique or, even worse, injury. Instead, people treat their own bodies like third parties that they can “outsource” to personal trainers, or that they can load with “magic” supplements and have “fixed” by people and pills that don’t have .01% the insight into what their bodies need as the individuals do themselves… if only they’d learn to listen!

Now please don’t misunderstand. I am not a trainer-hater. In fact, I am studying for my certification now.

And I am definitely not a supplement-hater. Heck, I jokingly refer to myself as the guinea pig for supplement science! I get a rush from reading about new product releases and, after examining all ingredients and considering whether they will work for me (knowing historical responses I have had to certain ingredients in the past), I am the first in line to order the latest and greatest product if I think it might help!

However, I do believe the fitness industry would reap huge long-term rewards if, rather than promoting band-aids to people so they can lose 5 pounds on a cookie diet or tighten their cellulite with a potion or lotion for one afternoon (which often leaves the buyers disillusioned and pessimistic when the band-aid comes off), it went one level deeper and started marketing the art of listening to its audience. Once people start listening to their own bodies, the value that personal trainers, supplement companies, and umpteen other fitness-related service/product providers can add would increase ten-fold.

One size does not fit all in fitness. That applies to workouts as well as to nutrition. Good personal trainers always recognize that no two people have the same bodies and respond in the same way to identical exercises. In fact, some people may have adverse responses to an exercise that other people’s muscles love, simply because of the way their unique musculoskeletal systems are designed and how they are able to perform the technique required. Likewise, one fat burner may do wonders for one person but do nothing for another. There is no limitation to the variations that can be offered by trainers and supplement companies to meet individuals’ fitness goals and needs. The crucial distinction is that, once people are encouraged to listen to themselves, trainers, supplements, and other fitness products become add-on’s to the fundamental bedrock that is the person’s body and the potential for long-term success multiplies for the individual as well as for the supporting cast of goods and services! The loyalty established between consumers and the suppliers of products and services that align with individuals’ needs and actually produce results would be intense.

A complaint expressed by many of today’s fitness industry consumers is that the choices among competing products are often overwhelming and confusing. If encouraged to listen to their bodies and better understand the signals being sent BEFORE enlisting the help of supplemental products and services, consumers would become less confused and intimidated. They would be educated about their own selves and better able to find solutions that meet their needs. Furthermore, in this scenario, no one is professing to be able to magically swap one body out for another, and no one is professing to know the exact formula that will work best for the individual without trial and error. No one is set-up to be disappointed, each person remains accountable for him/herself, and a new network of overall support becomes available to the person as he/she continues on his/her quest for tuning into what the unique body truly needs.

Some might consider this approach to fitness to be somewhat holistic or new-age. I don’t like to label things. I think of the approach as simply being logical. We were each given a unique body. It’s our obligation to care for that body. Who understands this body better than its owner – i.e., us? No one. Once we tap into that understanding and start listening, the fitness industry should be there to support us in our quest to give our body all the things it needs – guidance on exercise, nutrition, rest, etc. And as we work in synchronicity with our bodies, supported by the fitness world and all its latest technology, we can only expect to continue seeing growth and progress in ourselves. We will become what we envision and what we know deep down that our bodies can be.

[atomant]

I could not decide which topic to write about so I went ahead and did some work on two of them.
Bodybuilding
As a kid, one of the last things I pictured myself doing was bodybuilding. I’ve always been short and I thought that the bodybuilders on TV looked like freaks and that there was no reason to ever look like that. Even the guys that were all natural looked too much like Greek statues for me to even consider them to be real people. I started lifting weights in high school for swimming but I didn’t really get into it until my senior year when I became determined to change my body around for the better. Sports were my life and I played a different one every season so I was in good shape, but my nutrition was terrible. This kept me with a pudgy belly even though I could feel the 6-pack underneath when I flexed. Now in college, I don’t have time to play on sports teams anymore and I was lost for a little while until a friend talked me into lifting with him. And so my love affair with bodybuilding began. Bodybuilding has been a saving grace for me because it makes me exercise more, concentrate on my nutrition more closely and budget my time better to fit it all in. I have much more lean muscle mass now than I ever did and can lift far more than I ever thought I could. This strength is functional as well and I can move anything around the house now without much of a struggle. Bodybuilding also helps keeps me sane because the workout schedule gives me time to relieve frustration and clear my head. I look forward to my time in the gym every day and hate to see it end. This is also a very healthy lifestyle when done properly and gives much better results than video games do.

Supplements

When I started lifting with a friend of mine, I vowed that I would be natural and go so far as to not even bother with creatine and protein powders. I figured I would be just fine without them and I would be wasting my money buying them. Then I did some research and found just how effective they can be. Every study that I found proved that protein and creatine led to greater strength and muscle mass than placebo. If I am going to put this much time and effort into my workouts, I want to get as much as I can out of them. So over the past few years I have done lots of research on many of the supplements out there to see what works and what ingredients to look for and so forth to be able to break through the hype. I have kept myself pretty much to the basics, but have branched off a little here and there to try a new product. The supplement industry is rapidly expanding and it takes a lot off effort to keep up with everything going on. What I dislike the most is the number of people that seem to be drawn in by huge claims on labels or fancy ads with guys that are obviously on steroids but claim they only use this product. In an industry that now has millions upon millions spent annually, I try to share the knowledge about supplements that I have acquired with people in an effort to help them make the most educated purchases they can. When I first started looking into supplements, I put label claims higher in importance than the ingredient list. Now, my judgment is guided by what is backed by science, not hype. I have seen many young guys waste money on products that aren’t nearly as effective for the normal guy as they claim or just aren’t designed for someone that age or with their goals.
Another common error that many make is that they put way too much importance on the supplements they take and feel that they are the key to the puzzle. It cannot be stressed enough that diet and workouts are far more important than what you buy. Just look at the name of the products; supplements. They are meant to supplement what you currently do, not become the focus. That being said, supplements can certainly help you in achieving your fitness goals. Since I began using supplements I have experienced great increases in both my lean muscle mass and strength and a decrease in body fat. How much of that is attributable to supplements and how much to my better nutrition and workout program is unknown, but I know that they have helped. Just remember that they are meant to be aids, not a focus.