welcome to the gun show. (talking about weight liftin)
 

Imk trying to sculpt my "guns" and regain the lost mass of winter. has anyone tried creatine or glutine? will i die if i take these products? and those who do lift what schedule do you do how long to you rest between workouts?

I do some lifting but I dont go crazy. I went from 109 to 124 pounds in like 2 years now. I had some creatine off and on and the main reason why you gain weight is because it makes your body store more water.

i heard that creatine reduces recovery time. is this true? right now i take optima whey protien shakes partly because of my inability to absorb protien from meat due to Chron's desiese.

after a week or two of lifting, your recovery time will improve naturally and you won't have the soreness. give yourself a day of rest between workouts (or alternating upperbody one day, legs next day). stretch your arms good, too. if you don't stretch, your arms won't get bigger.

ask a dietitan or trainer about having a protien shake or something with protien after a work out. your muscles tear like you wouldn't believe, and the protien helps them heal. i personally don't think you need to have all kinds of expensive drinks and bars, you can get the nutrition needed with food you buy from the store.

Kelli

normaly i would agree with you. but the only way for me to get protien is through soluable sorces such as whey or egg. i just got a book by bruce lee called expressing the human body and it catalouges his workout rutien to a T. this is a good start with a strong foundation or isometric and circut training but my big problem is finding soluable nutriens and sources that i can digest. creatine is a natural element found in meat products im not sure exactly what it does as the people who sell it glorify it to the point that it seems miss leading. but its taken in large quantities by weight trainers. if i were to go down that road i would use it to replace the element that i do not get from meat(i would take it in small doses) i also have a problem with B12. i cant digest it from foods or pill so i need to find it in liquid form so i can absorb it in my stomach or upper gi track. ive seen pills and such but unfortunately because of chron's takeing them would be futile. i used to drink "fuze" energy drink's. one bottle has 200% of about 10 vitimins that i have trouble absorbing (a c b6 b12 iron ect) but the stores in salisbury (and most other places i shop in maryland ) stoped selling them.


being a college student its hard for me to get in the rutiene of prepairing healty meals when their is a hardy's two blocks away. and to be honest i wouldnt know where to begin with cooking a healthy meal as most of what i cook is unbalenced (steak pasta and so fourth.) does anyone know of a good source for easy to prepair food thats balenced and provide me with the fuel to "get'er done" . to be honest im starting to feel guilty about puting junk in my body (seeing as i only have one) i just dont know any other way as of yet.

has anyone used a Mr. Juicer or other juice makers.

Creatine is a great product, it is naturally occurring in your body and you are just adding to it. You could do the same thing by eating 15 steaks a day but it may get expensive.

Creatine works by allowing your cells to hold more water. This allows your muscles to increase in size and at the same time this increasaes your strength by about 10%. You have to take 2 or 3 times the dose to get it into your system and after that once a day is good. I always took it with grape juice or something similar. Simple sugars help your body process the creatine. I liked taking it right after a workout so I know it would get absorbed well.

The best thing out there right now though is a product called NO2. You can order it online, best place to buy it from what I have seen is www.getno2.com. They had a special that if you bought a large bottle they gave you a small one free, so you get 400+ tablets for 125 bucks or so. You take 6 a day (I think, my brother uses it and I plan on trying it) and it gives you a strength boost and it helps endurance. I am not too sure how it works but trust me, it does, and it is the craze these days, go to any reputable nutrition store and you will hear the same thing.

Whoever said the soreness will go away is correct, even without anything eventually you will not feel sore after a workout. I would say after a month of being on a good schedule you won't have to worry too much about soreness.

As far as a schedule...depends what you want to do. You want to gain size, then go heavy with low reps and more recovery between sets. I used to work out 3 days on, 1 off, and I always did 3 sets of 4-8 reps, but another good system is the German Volume training. You do 10 sets of 10 reps for each body part. I do not recommend this for a beginner though. Also, another way to pack on mass is the 3 sets of 25 system. I did this for a while with the owner of the gym I was at and it works. You do 25 controlled reps, meaning slowly up and down, and no rushing. You do 3 sets per body part. (To work chest, do 3 sets of 25 dumbell presses) It is a killer workout and you get very strong very quick, not to mention pumped.

and lastly....make sure you hit the cardio. Hit the bike for 5 minutes as a warm-up before you workout then hit cardio for 30 minutes after you work out (skip leg days, because if you can do 30 minutes of cardio after a leg workout you did something wrong)

Stick to a good schedule, keep a log of weights you are lifting so you know how much you are improving (you want to add 5 pounds a week to most exercises), eat right and take a good multi-vitamin, multi-mineral, like GNC's ultra-mega. For a supplement I suggest taking NO2 and if you do all this, in 3 months you will be a different person.

Good luck and never give up. In a matter of weeks the gym will feel like a second home and you will crave going there.

**I used to manage a gym for a while and I trained body builders. It has been a while so I am not as familiar as I would want to be with supplements and training but the above info should give you a good starting point)


p.s I missed the part about nutrition you asked about. I recommend using shakes such as Met-Rx or EAS Myoplex shakes. Take 2 a day and have 2 meals and you will be fine. (best place I have found for shakes and other supplements is: www.dpsnutrition.com)

i printed that one out good info

My Opinion
 

I lift a good deal, but I've also looked down upon supplements of any kind. The main reason is that each supplement, creatine, NO2, etc. whatever it is, usually has undesirable side effects. Think about it: your ingesting things into your body in higher amounts than usual. This way be good for lifting, but not good for your body. Another thing I've seen is people who take supplements, get strong, then lose that strength once they stopped taking it. Last but not least, I find it more satisfying to know that I can lift more than most people, yet I take nothing but protein to do it. I will only use protein as I wasn't getting enough in my regular diet, and I take it in reasonable amounts so as to not throw my body off balance. Do what you like though, its just something to think about.

a can of tune has as much protein as a protein shake, costs a few cents, and only has 100 calories.
:)

phil

yep - fills you up more than a shake, too. you don't need mega-doses of protein, either. your body takes what it needs, and the rest ends up in the toilet.

yeah ive been eating the beef jerky. tuna is a good idea as it is easy to digest but i would have to restrain from makeing tuna salid. it neegates the fat freeness of the tuna.

One of my friends is a semi-pro body builder. He weighs ~225 and benches 370 (tied the school record, and he's a freshman). He's a big supporter of creatine and has tried to get me to take it.

There's two reasons to lift:
1. Get jacked
2. Get toned

If you're going for #1, creatine might help you out. I personally prefer to have muscle definition then strength. It's not like you need to worry about fighting a cheetah when you walk outside, why do you need to be huge?