Creatine & Creatine Loading

Too lazy to write my own review on the efficacy and safety of creatine so just read this post, it pretty much covers everything you need to know why creatine is so awesome.

http://nicktumminello.com/2012/06/creatine-side-effects-the-truth-about-creatine-bloating-creatine-diarrhea-other-dangers-of-creatine/

Application:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/creatine-monohydrate-performance-studies.htm
'The most common dosing pattern has been to take 20 g/day of CM for 5 days and most research has used that approach. However, alternate loading patterns are possible and may be preferred for various reasons. Ten grams of CM for 10 days or even 3 grams per day for a month can both be effective. At the end of this time period, intramuscular creatine stores will be maximized; the only real difference is how long it will take to load' - Lyle McDonald
If you're on some retarded vegan or vegetarian diet and you're not big on fish, you should consider supplementing with creatine regularily.

If you're competing or preping for a photoshoot, take 20-30g post workout when you start your carbload after a few days of low carbing and training in the glycogen depleted state (with a couple glycogen depleted workout routine, that is)

How low do I need to go on the carbs?  40-60g for women, 100g for men for 3-4days straight. 

What is a glycogen depletion workout?  20-30 total sets of 8-10 various exercises that will hit each muscle group twice.  Keep rep range around 12-15 and rest intervals around 30-40secs.  Use machines if it's more convenience on going from lifts to lifts.  do compounds movements if you like but it's going to be hellish. think deads, presses, cleans, chins, and squats. 

or you can play some team sport for 2 hrs on one day, then on another day, just hit the upper body with weights.

I personally sip on gatorade and creatine to delay onset of muscluar soreness when i play pickup soccer and as an immediate energy boost in general since I tyipcally don't eat breakfast and lunch. So I break my fast after the game.

Most creatines out there are the same, if you're paying more (or a lot more) from GNC or Vitamin shoppe, you're just paying for the packaging and advertisement.  This is same for whey and all the other crap that they say are"very easily digested", "clean", or "shuttles into your muscle quickly".    If you don't mind the limited flavor choices, just get the cheapest brand from walmart.

Here's another post on Creatine and How it works
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/creatine-q-and-a-top-17-questions-answered.html

If you're looking for hard evidence relating to the efficacy of creatine loading and you're a nerd like me, read through this post from my friend Mr. Orwell
http://examine.com/supplements/Creatine/

Clenbuterol

read this first  http://articles.muscletalk.co.uk/article-clenbuterol.aspx

If you don't know what it is, this post is not for you.

If your diet sucks, this is not for you.

This is not for novice dieters who's never even tried caffeine or E/C stack for thermogenic reasons.

Below is a summary of what I read online...

Taurine should be used 3-5g daily.   It will prevent the sideeffects of muscle cramps.

People don't stack it with caffeine or E/C nor any other stims since it's potent enough for increase fat metabolism.

People don't do cardio while having just taken clen, find other time slots to fit cardio in.  some people take it before bed if it doesn'tinterfere with sleep to side step the side effects, they will wake up
soaked in sweat though.  this way they can cardio in the morning or earlier in the day.

People recommend drinking 1.5 or so gallons of water per day and take 200-400mg of potassium tablets before bed to help with the cramps if it's an issue..

It should not be taken too close to a workout because it can interfere with breathing.

Some poeple will have a resting heart rate of 110bpm, this means it doesn't take much to "do cardio", very slow and steady pace is enough and go for longer time 40-60mins.  walking the
park is nice.  avoid HIIT or Circuit training.

Clenbuterol interere with glycogen storage/sythesis too, therefore, for those considering carbloading for a photoshoot or competition and depending on how long the loading lasts (typical 1-2days) will not be taking clen during that time.  take it during the other 5-6d low carbs days.

3 ways to fit it in your lifting, cardio, and work schedule

routine A:
cardio in the morning
a little after, take the stim
go to work
strength train at night or get another cardio session in if it's your rest day from lifting.

routine B:
stim in the morning
go to work
strength train, then throw in cardio afterward
if it's a rest day, do a very short 10min HIIT, then do cardio for 40mins

routine C:
Cardio in the morning
work
lift or more cardio if it's rest day in the evening
take stim before bed if doesn't interfere with sleep.

Cardio: How much do you really burn?

Cardio does help you burn more calories than sitting around the house but if you're already strength training or you hate jogging for miles in hope to lose weight, you need to stop.
Formal cardio (steady state, low intensity, long duration) really is not required for improving your body composition. There are better ways to achieve the caloric deficit you need to lose weight. Esp. when you are already strength training or have an active job. 

To be generous and depending on your fitness level, most people will burn around 300kcal/hr going for a slow jog.  Believe it of not, you can also stop drinking 2 glasses of orange juice or soda everyday to achieve the same caloric deficit you need to lose weight.  Or swap breakfast for coffee.
Approach fat loss with "eating less" is just soooooo much easier than adding more and more activity!  Eat just enough for training and satiation and hit your caloric allowance (maintenance minus deficit) for your predicted target fat loss.

What will really increase your daily burn is the way you move throughout the whole day.
Adding various enjoyable activities like hiking, cleaning, sports, or simply moving around more at work will increase your metabolism tremendously without having to purposely adding more and more workout sessions into your schedule. If you're jogging 2hrs a day, you're doing it wrong (unless you enjoy it but might hurt your progress).  

to show what i'm talking about...

MEN
Subject weighed 198lbs and had 15 percent body fat
Base calorie burn (60 minutes sitting): 60 calories
45-minute weightlifting session: 225 calories
25-minute interval workout: 196 calories
50-minute dog walk around hilly park: 305 calories
34-minute gardening session: 210 calories

WOMEN
Subject weighed 180lbs and had 39 percent body fat
Base calorie burn (60 minutes sitting): 61 calories
40-minute weightlifting session: 255 calories
25 minute interval workout: 167 calories
59-minute grocery shopping and cooking session: 255 calories
45-minute bathroom cleanup: 201 calories

so now you know.

Unless going for a jog makes you "feel" good or doesn't interfere with your sleep or training recovery, that's perfectly fine. However, if you're running with the intention to "burn more calories" but don't enjoy it or that it hurts your knee, drop it and sleep in.   

You do know that lifting has already taken care of your cardiovascular health right?  cardio and lifting is not two separate entities.    Strength training IS the superior way to do cardio.   Even if you play a sport on the weekend and you really care about "conditioning", just lift weights faster with less rest between sets.  use complexes, combos, hiit, or even tabata. Your sport and practices will have already taken care of the conditioning side and it's ok to be tired on the field.  Even the best athletes gets tire.

You can also increase your metabolism (and productivity) by drinking more coffee (up to 600mg/day).  IMO, that'd be a better form of doing cardio without wasting time and hurting your joints.

None of my competitors use "cardio", the traditional sense, to lose fat or burn calories, they just ate less.   If they want to jog for fun or play tennis on the weekends, sure, as long as it's not excessive, that's fine. but remember your goal.  muscle gain will always be harder than fat loss.   Use your caloric budget to achieve the deficit you need and just... eat... less.

Ericha

Buda, Texas

 "The most valuable thing I have learned from my awesome trainer Jem is lift heavy, my soccer playing is all the cardio i need and i have learned what to eat that works for my body plus i still get to eat the fun foods too!"

 Taylor

Kansas, MO

"Before Jem, I had the view that most people had on how to lose weight.  I became a cardio junkie and thought that's the only exercise to lose weight and lifting was only used to "bulk up".  About half way through my contest prep, I knew that something needed to change. I knew there had to be a better way to lose fat but still maintain muscle mass. Then I met Jem through another fellow competitor of mine. Jem couldn't have been more clear about what I needed to do.

He taught me how to boost my  metabolism to lose fat. Within the first two weeks, I noticed huge changes in my body composition. I ditched the cardio like Jem taught me and mainly focused on strength training to increase lean mass and strength.  Through Jem, Science became reality. It couldn't have made more sense!!!   And with Jem's help, I was able to place 1st in novice and 1st in open for my division, and qualifying for nationals in return!

Daisy

Austin, Tx

"It seems I've been receiving one blessing after another, like meeting Jem.  Since meeting him, my training is more effective and my results, more amazing.

When I first met Jem he mentioned I might think his tag line/motto was cheesy, but it is the most simple, yet brilliant thing I've ever heard. "Strength through knowledge", just brilliant!  He reminded me that putting in effort into learning about your body is probably the smartest thing you'll ever do.   Knowledge gives you the power to make right choices.  No one wants to pay a trainer for the rest of their life.  Jem teaches you to fish instead of giving you a fish. He tells it like it is and is always readily available with credible knowledge."

Heather

Smithville, Tx

"Jem makes everything seem so simple. He immediately debunked all the misinformation I had been feeding myself from the internet about "clean eating", no alcohol, and spending HOURS in the gym.   In about 2 hrs I had a whole new view on getting & STAYING fit. His nutrition plans are simple and to the point. YOU DO NOT have to GIVE UP the FOOD you love!  You do not have to quit drinking! It was that ah-ha moment - that made me know I could really do this.    Its all science and basic math.

Erin, 

Kansas MO

"Ever since my first figure competition i had been obsessed with food. I felt like i had to eat plain food and measure everything i ate.   I looked good and i felt good and i wanted to stay that way. Obviously you can't maintain that physique and low body fat long term but you don't necessarily have to put all the weight back on either.  I started training according to his workouts and with his advice on diet i am 5 weeks out from my next competition and i don't feel tortured or have the cravings i used to have.  Everything I learned about competition diet and training has changed! I am down from 145 to 132lbs and i am sitting at about 16% body fat!"

Crossfit Rant

a good summary from a bro

Crossfit programs has a great exercise menu (cleans, chins, ropes, MB throws) but very poor in the way they program this menu.  CF's overall culture is quite... interesting as well.

If I have a gym of my own, training athletes and regular Joe's, it would have all the equipments a crossfit gym offers.  However, I would not make my athletes do the things they do.

At the end of the day, most people just want to look better (muscle gain and fat loss), feel better (functional and somewhat conditioned), and stay healthy (not injured so they can do more fitness things).

and crossfit can really only accomplish the conditioning part.  However, who's to say adding a couple sprint sessions a week won't get someone the same result.

CF exercices are great, functional movements.  Some meant to be explosive and some for muscular endurance.  These movements can help serious trainees and regular joes who are recreationally active get stronger, lose weight, perform better on the field if they play a sport, and feel more functional in performing daily tasks.  

It's too bad the way CF program are designed (sets/time/rep/load and total volume) are completely misguided and do not effectively help trainees reach their goals ( I will explain the goals in a sec)... Unless the goal is getting better at crossfitting.

What I'm saying is, the skills/strength someone developed from crossfitting does not necessary transfers to their sport, lifts or health since it lacks specificity and intelligence.

In fact, CF actually encourage lifting in fatigued state which provide ample opportunities for people to get hurt. 

just search "crossfit failed" and there are TONS of good stuff to keep you up for hours watching.

"What is progression? I don't know but let's do this as many times as possible! hooray!"

Anyways, so these are the things crossfitters are constantly try to do be good at in almost every workout session.

Olympic lifting

conditioning

mental toughness

fat loss

fun
Core Endurance and explosiveness

strength training

hypertrophy (muscle size)

healthy eating - the paleo diet

the funny thing is, if they actually master any of the qualities mentioned above at an advanced level, they're probably not doing the CF program appropriately.  CF protocols are not designed for trainee to be good at anything specifically but instead, to get people mediocre results at everything... or getting good at crossfitting, which is basically putting a bunch of random exercises on a board and telling people to do as many repeitions as possible in as little time as possible... until they puke... yes, very athletic...

O-Lifts - When you can snatch or deadlift 40reps a min, it's a cardio session... that's what little girls in middle school do, light lifting.  CF deadlifts is like vertically rowing on a rowing machine.  Do you enjoy lifting like a little girl?  maybe that's why their WOD (workout of the day) are named after chicks.   CF's implementation of these awesome compound movements is a joke AND more imporantly, dangerous!

Here's real lifting with good form

And here's buying into the next big fad in the fitness industry

Strength Training - if you can do something, a movement, a lift, for more than... say 12reps, it's not strength training anymore, it's mostly sugar burning.  If you like high volume workouts 7 days a week, go play a sport!

The only people that would actually excel at CF (and only temporaorily until they stop making gains) are genetic freaks who can basically handle any chronic, high workload stressors. Young people who has the luxury to tear things up all the time.

Most mindful people who workout at a crossfitter gym don't actually do CF programs. So are most of their higher level coaches.  They are only there for the brand.

Hypertrophy (muscle size) - If you have no weightlifting experience, you will get bigger the first 6-8 month coming off the machines/couch.  Then again, you'll get bigger off of yoga or p90x if you've never done any serious lifting before.  In terms of safety and progressive poundage, CF is a horrible hypertrophy program for trainee.  Check out JCD's site on some serious muscle building programs that actually works.

CrossFit… now catering to women who never use their Curves memberships

Conditioning - or circuit training, intervals, HIIT, long steady state cardio, whatever you want to call it that is not strength training basically falls into this category.   Do we really need to run for 40mins to get a "conditioning" session in?     Who's to say 3 sets of heavy squatting @ 10RM is NOT conditioning?  does it not engage the areobic system?  are slow twitched muscle fibers not innervated?

What about doing the dishes or vacuuming the floor?  that's still consider in the fat burning zone right?

I make my clients that wants to be more "conditioned" perform front squat half their bodyweight tabata style once in a whlie but our main focus in the gym has always been increasing their max lifts. 

why can't people realize that heavy strength training DOES work on your cardiovascular system and you don't need "formal" HIIT sessions to be more conditioned?

Just strength train more often when you have the time and the recoverability, then go home and stay home.   Leave the luxury you have for submaximal (lower quality) movements for something better, like hiking, walking your dog, or zumba.   If you really want conditioning, find a hill to sprint on or sign up for a YMCA basketball league to play on. Something that's actually competitive, fun, and non-retarded.

Strength training will always precede conditioning for improving athleticism and general fitness. The only exception is if you're an endurance athlete.  Then again, endurance athletes aren't really 'athletes'... not kidding.

Mobility Work? No, Must be a 5RM OH Squat Day  with PVCs

Mental Toughness - have they heard of the breathing squat? or a sport we call "pickup soccer" against kids 10 years younger than you that lasts 3hrs in the Texas heat?

Fat Loss - Most lean people you see doing CF are already lean going in.  if you want to talk about the science behind body re-composition (fat loss, muscle gain), talk to a bodybuilder and see what they have to say about CF training. 

If people actually lose weight doing crossfit, it's probably because they stop eating bread and pasta doing paleo... i'll expand on this later

Fun - checked.  who doesn't like using exotic movements, equipments, and making a lot of noise at the gym?  it sure beats machines at a commericial gym.  this is how crossfitters establish their eliteness.  sharing pictures and numbers of what a hardcore WOD they had that day on facebook.  If didn't post it on youtube, they didn't workout.

It's not so fun when they're in crutches 3x out of the year, though.

Core - snapped.

He Obviously Trained at a CF gym

Paleo - yes, it's probably one of the best "commercial" diets out there for people seeking to lose weight or "feel" healthier. It's less miserable compare to atkins, south beach, veganism.  They're easy to learn and has tons of online support to offer motivation and accountability.   It may helps you lose weight if you use to eatin a lot of starch.  It will help you pack on muscle too if you used to believe that the vegetarian diet is the best diet ever. 

However, if you actually believe that our digestive system and overall human genetics hasn't change at all for the past 4 thousand years, proceed with this diet.  This also means you have to sleep for 12hrs a day, you can't eat any processed foods (includng whey, omega3, & multi-vitamins), only drink spring water, you should beat your wife when she doesn't listen to you, and wear vibram shoes anywhere you go (cuz that's primal bro!).  it's true, these are all basic paleo requirements.

If you're exposed to crossfit due to doing paleo, here's what robb wolf (author of Paleo Solution) has to say about CF.

If you're following Paleo 2.0 (supposedly better for mental and physical health while supported by research), you may realize that it's almost identical to the mediterranean diet.  Do that instead.  Just realize that most low carbs diets don't really support performance if you're serious about training.

ok, I should wrap up my rant now...

If you want to get stronger, you have to lift heavy things!

If you want to get bigger, you have to lift heavy things and eat!

If you want to lose weight, you need to eat less and move more.

A calorie IS a calorie and insulin is NOT your enemy.

if you want to improve your sport, do the sport more, hire a specialized/tactical coach.

If you are bore with your current training program, go out and explore other options that aren't completely dangerous.  Go to a rave concert or a punk rock show and rock your socks off.  That's all the fun and conditioning people needs to be healthy anyways, then when you're done, get under some heavy bars.

there's strength training, then there's kippin

If you want core, drive your car into the middle of an intersection, shut off the engine and proceed to push your car out of people's way.  but seriously, just go to the park and hold things above your head and buy a punching bag and go at it.

If you want to be more 'conditioned', hold your breath as long as you can until you pass out.

If you want mental toughness, do the 'hold your breath' thing again, but longer.

If you want range of motion, talk to a athletic trainer or physical therapist first if you actually need it.

If you want to learn and improve your O-lifts, hire a "weightlifting" coach,  USAW certified.   Not a crossfit instructor who got their $2000 CF cert from a weekend workshop.

all jokes and ranting aside...

What is your definition of "fitness"?

 Do you want to be great at "exercising" or "crossfitting" while risking your health?  Or do you actually want to improve specific physique, strength, health, and performance goals in a progressive and personalized manner?

Pick a goal and get good at it, then move on to another.  Stop trying to work at everything all at once cuz most likely you're not going to reach any of them.

Dan John - I Hate Medium (training)

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/i_hate_medium&cr=