I'm reading a lot of threads on this forum and other forums typed up by people that are doling out advice on how to lose weight and look great, and most of them involve some kind of supplement and/or personal trainer. Too many links. Too much junk. I'm big on absorbing knowledge about my hobbies, and working out has been a hobby of mine for a number of years, and I've done just about everything under the sun. High rep, low rep, HIIT, steady state cardio, supplements, natural, bulking, cutting.. all of it. I'm writing this thread to debunk anything I can from what I have done.
First off, most of all supplements are junk. You do not need whey protein to gain muscle and size. You don't. I promise. A "good" tub of whey can range from $30-$50. Now, put that same tub of protein up against what food you can buy with that same amount of money. I'll tell you right now that you can buy a 10lb bag of raw chicken from Costco for $20. Give me that, a sac of brown rice and some veggies instead of a tub of whey any day. You also do not need a weight gain shake to put on mass for the exact same reasons that you don't need whey. Just buy food. It's going to be better for your body, you'll get more bang for the buck and your stomach will be able to process it better. Now, I know everybody is going to cry about "What about my protein shake after I workout????". No. Go home and eat a meal. Have something with protein, carbs, fats and cals. If you don't want a meal quite yet, go home and have a big glass of milk and a big spoon of natural peanut butter. I've used cheap whey, expensive whey, whey isolate and I stopped using it completely, and I never noticed a difference, until I stopped drinking shakes and just started eating more. Creatine is another one. That's a touchy subject. I've used creatine, yes, and yes, I have noticed differences while using it. Not in size, but during my actual workout. For a heavy regimen workout, I would recommend creatine. Simply for the recovery between sets factor. I noticed during heavy 5x5 workouts, while using creatine that my energy replenishes quicker between sets, and that's what creatine is for, to help your body replenish your ATP supply between sets of high energy expenditure. Now, if you think you're going to start taking creatine and get huge, you're wrong. It's no wonder supp. You still need to eat and rest, and the thing about having to take it with-in 37 seconds of finishing your workout is a myth. I've taken it after my workout and in the morning with my viatmins and fish oil, and I didn't notice a difference at all. When I continued to take it, I would just drink it in the morning. The fact that it's in your system is what matters. Now, if you're lifting medium weight or high reps, I wouldn't bother with it, because your rest time when lifting in those ranges in shorter than when lifting heavy anyway, so you won't notice a difference when you're only taking a 30 second or so break before jumping back in. Another supp that is widely viewed as being a "wonder" drug are test boosters and n.o. pills. These are junk. When I got into lifting years ago, I purchased a product called Cyclo Bolan and then Six Star Test Booster. They don't do anything but make your heart race and give you anxiety. They're a waste of money and made me fell terrible and unable to sleep at night. They did nothing for my actual workout either. Don't bother with them. I currently am not using any supps, and haven't for quite some time. I take a multi in the morning with a separate D-vitamin and 2,000mg of Fish Oil a day.
Now, as far as lifting is concerned, that's a touchy subject as well. Different people swear by different routines. There is a guy at my gym who is huge. He eats constantly and is just a big guy. He also can't squat 200lbs. He can't bench 200 either. Don't even ask him to dead lift. This guy high reps everything with light weight and eats like a horse. I can lift much more than this guy, but next to me he looks like Hercules. There is another guy at my gym who does nothing but, squat, bench, clean and press, dead lift, pull-ups and sled pulls. He's not as big as I am, but he can clean a lot more than I can and his squats blow mine out of the water. He primarily works in a pyramid scheme. Then there's me. Most of the time I focus on 5x5. Since I came back from a severe bout of tendinitis earlier this year, I have only worked with 5x5 to get my strength back up until a switched to a pyramid routine a couple weeks ago. I've seen my best gains doing compound 5x5 stuff. When I started out lifting, the guy that I was lifting with was huge on going 1rm then doing a bunch of light weight, high rep stuff which did absolutely nothing for me but make me sore and miserable. It wasn't until about a year into serious lifting that I started to read and branch out to different stuff to find out what was going to work for me and what wasn't. You need to do this. Just because Hugh Jackman has big arms and huge traps on the cover of Men's Fitness magazine from doing the "Wolverine" workout, doesn't mean that doing the same thing is going to work for you. What I've been trying to say in this paragraph of ranting is that you need to try different stuff. Don't do leg presses, sit-ups, dumb bell curls and bench press and expect to be transformed. Sometimes(A lot of the time) it just doesn't work like that. Body's aren't built overnight. Everything you do in the gym is trial and error.
Gaining muscle and losing fat. This is very easy. This is not some crazy science that everyone is making it out to be. You can't get on a forum complaining that you aren't losing weight running 5 miles a day and having hamburgers for dinner every night. You know exactly what is good for you and what isn't, and if you don't, then you probably deserve to be fat. To gain muscle, you have to eat. Plain and simple. You are going to gain some fat. Plain and simple. You are not going to stay shredded and gain muscle unless you're using gear. It's a pretty simple rule actually. If you workout, along with your other daily activities and your body uses a total of 2,500 cals a day to fuel itself and you want to gain muscle, then you need to eat 3,000. Your muscles aren't going to grow if there isn't a surplus of food for them to use. That's called bulking. And I know what you're asking, "But what about the 15g of protein per pound of body weight I need every day??? Protein makes musclez brah!!" Protein is important, yes, but it's not the wonder food that everyone thinks that it is. It's simply a corner stone for building muscle. You need everything. Carbs and good fats. You can't eat 6lbs of baked chicken every day and expect to get huge. Protein isn't steroids. Get over it. Now, if you want to lose weight, and between working out and your other daily activities, your body uses 2,500 cals a day, then you need to eat 2,000. That's 1lb a week. That's safe number. That's cutting. Bulking is the easy part. Cutting is the hard part. Some people will tell you that when cutting, you need to do high rep lifts to lose fat and get toned. This is complete crap. You will lose muscle. Muscles grow for two reasons, 1) Because you eat a surplus of food, and 2)Because your body needs them. When you lift more than you're used to, your body creates muscle to compensate for the stress that it is under. Kind of like developing calluses on your hands when doing hard work. Your body is adapting. So, when you are eating in a deficit to lose fat, why would you lift light? Your body is going to think that you don't need the muscle anymore, and it certainly isn't getting the surplus of food it needs to keep the muscle, so it's going to get rid of it. It is very important that when you are cutting, that you keep lifting heavy to tell your body that even though you are eating in a deficit of food, you still need the muscle that you have. There have been so many times that I've wanted to tape "trainers" mouths shut at gyms I've worked out at who have told people that. It's stupid, terrible advice.
Get Rest!! Your body ins't going to take well to you working out all the time and sleeping six hours a night. Trust me. You need rest to heal. That's when your body does its repairs. I say no less than 7 hours a night. Some people say more than that, but a lack of sleep will screw up everything. Your body won't process food properly, and you'll feel worthless in the gym after 10 minutes. Kids need a lot of sleep while they're growing. How should this be any different for an adult who is building muscle? I've also noticed over the years that a lack of sleep will cause unwanted DOMS(Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). For me anyway. It's very important to not run your body into the ground.
I've been typing for quite some time now, so I'm going to give it a rest. I hope any of this is helpful to anybody who made it all the way through. Feedback is always welcome.
First off, most of all supplements are junk. You do not need whey protein to gain muscle and size. You don't. I promise. A "good" tub of whey can range from $30-$50. Now, put that same tub of protein up against what food you can buy with that same amount of money. I'll tell you right now that you can buy a 10lb bag of raw chicken from Costco for $20. Give me that, a sac of brown rice and some veggies instead of a tub of whey any day. You also do not need a weight gain shake to put on mass for the exact same reasons that you don't need whey. Just buy food. It's going to be better for your body, you'll get more bang for the buck and your stomach will be able to process it better. Now, I know everybody is going to cry about "What about my protein shake after I workout????". No. Go home and eat a meal. Have something with protein, carbs, fats and cals. If you don't want a meal quite yet, go home and have a big glass of milk and a big spoon of natural peanut butter. I've used cheap whey, expensive whey, whey isolate and I stopped using it completely, and I never noticed a difference, until I stopped drinking shakes and just started eating more. Creatine is another one. That's a touchy subject. I've used creatine, yes, and yes, I have noticed differences while using it. Not in size, but during my actual workout. For a heavy regimen workout, I would recommend creatine. Simply for the recovery between sets factor. I noticed during heavy 5x5 workouts, while using creatine that my energy replenishes quicker between sets, and that's what creatine is for, to help your body replenish your ATP supply between sets of high energy expenditure. Now, if you think you're going to start taking creatine and get huge, you're wrong. It's no wonder supp. You still need to eat and rest, and the thing about having to take it with-in 37 seconds of finishing your workout is a myth. I've taken it after my workout and in the morning with my viatmins and fish oil, and I didn't notice a difference at all. When I continued to take it, I would just drink it in the morning. The fact that it's in your system is what matters. Now, if you're lifting medium weight or high reps, I wouldn't bother with it, because your rest time when lifting in those ranges in shorter than when lifting heavy anyway, so you won't notice a difference when you're only taking a 30 second or so break before jumping back in. Another supp that is widely viewed as being a "wonder" drug are test boosters and n.o. pills. These are junk. When I got into lifting years ago, I purchased a product called Cyclo Bolan and then Six Star Test Booster. They don't do anything but make your heart race and give you anxiety. They're a waste of money and made me fell terrible and unable to sleep at night. They did nothing for my actual workout either. Don't bother with them. I currently am not using any supps, and haven't for quite some time. I take a multi in the morning with a separate D-vitamin and 2,000mg of Fish Oil a day.
Now, as far as lifting is concerned, that's a touchy subject as well. Different people swear by different routines. There is a guy at my gym who is huge. He eats constantly and is just a big guy. He also can't squat 200lbs. He can't bench 200 either. Don't even ask him to dead lift. This guy high reps everything with light weight and eats like a horse. I can lift much more than this guy, but next to me he looks like Hercules. There is another guy at my gym who does nothing but, squat, bench, clean and press, dead lift, pull-ups and sled pulls. He's not as big as I am, but he can clean a lot more than I can and his squats blow mine out of the water. He primarily works in a pyramid scheme. Then there's me. Most of the time I focus on 5x5. Since I came back from a severe bout of tendinitis earlier this year, I have only worked with 5x5 to get my strength back up until a switched to a pyramid routine a couple weeks ago. I've seen my best gains doing compound 5x5 stuff. When I started out lifting, the guy that I was lifting with was huge on going 1rm then doing a bunch of light weight, high rep stuff which did absolutely nothing for me but make me sore and miserable. It wasn't until about a year into serious lifting that I started to read and branch out to different stuff to find out what was going to work for me and what wasn't. You need to do this. Just because Hugh Jackman has big arms and huge traps on the cover of Men's Fitness magazine from doing the "Wolverine" workout, doesn't mean that doing the same thing is going to work for you. What I've been trying to say in this paragraph of ranting is that you need to try different stuff. Don't do leg presses, sit-ups, dumb bell curls and bench press and expect to be transformed. Sometimes(A lot of the time) it just doesn't work like that. Body's aren't built overnight. Everything you do in the gym is trial and error.
Gaining muscle and losing fat. This is very easy. This is not some crazy science that everyone is making it out to be. You can't get on a forum complaining that you aren't losing weight running 5 miles a day and having hamburgers for dinner every night. You know exactly what is good for you and what isn't, and if you don't, then you probably deserve to be fat. To gain muscle, you have to eat. Plain and simple. You are going to gain some fat. Plain and simple. You are not going to stay shredded and gain muscle unless you're using gear. It's a pretty simple rule actually. If you workout, along with your other daily activities and your body uses a total of 2,500 cals a day to fuel itself and you want to gain muscle, then you need to eat 3,000. Your muscles aren't going to grow if there isn't a surplus of food for them to use. That's called bulking. And I know what you're asking, "But what about the 15g of protein per pound of body weight I need every day??? Protein makes musclez brah!!" Protein is important, yes, but it's not the wonder food that everyone thinks that it is. It's simply a corner stone for building muscle. You need everything. Carbs and good fats. You can't eat 6lbs of baked chicken every day and expect to get huge. Protein isn't steroids. Get over it. Now, if you want to lose weight, and between working out and your other daily activities, your body uses 2,500 cals a day, then you need to eat 2,000. That's 1lb a week. That's safe number. That's cutting. Bulking is the easy part. Cutting is the hard part. Some people will tell you that when cutting, you need to do high rep lifts to lose fat and get toned. This is complete crap. You will lose muscle. Muscles grow for two reasons, 1) Because you eat a surplus of food, and 2)Because your body needs them. When you lift more than you're used to, your body creates muscle to compensate for the stress that it is under. Kind of like developing calluses on your hands when doing hard work. Your body is adapting. So, when you are eating in a deficit to lose fat, why would you lift light? Your body is going to think that you don't need the muscle anymore, and it certainly isn't getting the surplus of food it needs to keep the muscle, so it's going to get rid of it. It is very important that when you are cutting, that you keep lifting heavy to tell your body that even though you are eating in a deficit of food, you still need the muscle that you have. There have been so many times that I've wanted to tape "trainers" mouths shut at gyms I've worked out at who have told people that. It's stupid, terrible advice.
Get Rest!! Your body ins't going to take well to you working out all the time and sleeping six hours a night. Trust me. You need rest to heal. That's when your body does its repairs. I say no less than 7 hours a night. Some people say more than that, but a lack of sleep will screw up everything. Your body won't process food properly, and you'll feel worthless in the gym after 10 minutes. Kids need a lot of sleep while they're growing. How should this be any different for an adult who is building muscle? I've also noticed over the years that a lack of sleep will cause unwanted DOMS(Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). For me anyway. It's very important to not run your body into the ground.
I've been typing for quite some time now, so I'm going to give it a rest. I hope any of this is helpful to anybody who made it all the way through. Feedback is always welcome.
