Don’t be THAT guy, supplements
Every guy at the gym knows “That” guy. You’re either friends with him, work with him, or hear him talking in the gym locker room. It’s the guy who’s taking every supplement imaginable… at the same damn time. Either that or he’s been on the same supplement for way too long. He’s taking a weight gainer and a fat burner at the same time. He’s on creatine, NO explode and diet pills. He’s on some testosterone booster and steroids. My workout partners coworker has been taking creatine for the past 8 months…. IN A ROW!
Listen we here at NLU are all about supplements we have a great section made out just for them over here. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using legal supplements to help you achieve your fitness goals. But for the love of God do it right! Know what you’re fitness goal is and if the actual supplement you’re taking will help you achieve that goal and what happens if you stack that supplement with another. For those that don’t know “stacking” a supplement is when you take two or more supplements at the same time. If your goal is to lose weight then you shouldn’t be taking any mass/ weight gainer. If you’re trying to bulk up you shouldn’t be taking any “fat burners” or hyrdoxycut. Again identify your goal and then find out which one supplement will help you get there.
A common mistake a lot of people who get into fitness make is that they believe the more supplements they take the faster they’ll reach their fitness goal. I like to advise guys just starting to lift weights and train not to take anything and I mean ANYTHING for the first three to five months. Not even simple whey protein. The reason is your body needs to adjust to lifting without any supplements first. It needs to function and stabilize naturally at this higher fitness level. To breakdown and rebuild on it’s own. The best way to stabilize with it is through nutrition and diet. Eventually once you do stabilize and you can’t take in anymore protein through food, then you get on the whey. At first get on one type of protein, we have a whole section over here.
Again the main purpose of any supplement is to help you get past a sticking point in your fitness goal. So that means you can’t supplement forever and not to use it as a crutch. I workout with another guy who doesn’t put in 100% if he’s not on NO explode or some type of pre workout supplement. As soon as he’s off when he has a bad workout he blames it on not being on NO anymore. But even worse than that are the guys who stay on the same supplement for months because they’re afraid of losing gains once they go off the supplement. A general rule of thumb is that you should take any supplement (other than protein) for more than six to eight weeks. Some supplements take an extra toll on your kidney’s to be broken down such as testosterone boosters and the longer you’re on them you risk your kidneys being damaged. Other supplements the longer you’re on them the more your body will get used to them so the only way to get effective results would be to increase you’re dosage and again go back to kidney/ liver functions and breakdown. Even with something as simple as whey protein I take three to six weeks off now and then just to let my body return back to a normal state and not be used to being on whey protein.
There’s a way to think about properly using supplements. Think of your body functioning at a baseline of 4 without taking any supplement. You’ve been at 4 for some time now so then you decide to take whey protein. Now you’re base level moves up to 5. You’re on that for about six more months. So you try something else pick whatever you want NO explode, mass tech, creatine, BCAA whatever. While you’re on it your baseline jumps from 5 to 7. You work out and you push yourself hard for five to six to eight weeks then when you get off whatever supplement you’re on baseline is now 6. That’s how the supplement is supposed to work, expect some drop off but if you push yourself as hard as you can you’re baseline will improve that one level. Then you wait a few months working out at baseline of 6 and then either do the same supplement or try something new. The point being is you should have the patience and the will power to max out and stabilize at one basel level before jumping to another one. Some people make the jump from 5 to 7 then attempt to go to 8 or 9. It doesn’t work like that. I started at 18 weighing 145lbs at level 1 and twelve years later my baseline is maybe 8 or 9. So to all the newbies who think it’s all about supplements keep that in mind.
Ha! I have a friend that takes mass gainer and Hydroxycut at the same time.
what an idiot! Um have you tried to warn him?
Good article, VK.
Agreed, most supplements should be cycled, and the big complex, expensive “stacks” are just asking for trouble.
Anybody think there’s truth to the myth that creatine taken for more than a few weeks will make your face swollen?
maybe, creatine gives you MAJORE water retention, that’s basically all it is, water gains. Don’t “load” on it, and try to step up your cardio a little. But you’ll notice you’re supposed to drink like a gallon of water when you’re on it.
I’m sorry but what’s wrong with being on Creatine for 8 months in a row? There is absolutely no need for you to cycle creatine. It is a natural occuring part of our body.
http://examine.com/faq/do-you-need-to-cycle-creatine.html
Creatine is a natural part of your body, at a certain level. When you take it as a supplement you’re loading your body with even more of it at a higher level, that’s how you get your gains. After taking it for a few months, your gains will level off. It doesn’t work that the longer you take it the stronger you get. So if you keep taking it you’re just wasting money at best. And again you’re body needs to get rid of it and process this extra creatine so you’re taxing or making you’re liver work harder than it needs to be. I haven’t seen or read any studies on long term effects of taking creatine but common sense should tell anyone that making your kidney’s and or liver function at a higher level than needed for a long period of time can’t be good for you.
but I could be wrong.
Creatine’s byproduct is creatinine, which is a waste product and potentiall damaging to the kidneys- which is why you need to drink a lot of water when on creatine, to flush creatinine out effectively.
Damage and potential for damage in your kidneys is very real without adequate hydration and taking creatine too long. Once knew a dude who was on it for 6 months straight (unkown to the rest of us til afterwards), was hospilitized for an unrelated issue, and the doctors discovered his blood was downright toxic because his kidneys were fucking up from the extended exposure to excess creatine (aka supplementation).
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Just read about Creatine on Examine, he’s got 461 sources on there:
http://examine.com/supplements/Creatine/
And because you’re at most taking 5g a day it’s only 20c a day which isn’t really wasting money.
ok well read Nate’s comment. But sure you read about Creatine but it doesn’t sound like you’ve used it. So by all means use creatine for 8 months straight and report back the gains you’re making monthly. Sure it might not be expensive, but if something does go wrong with your kidney’s via Nates comment how much would that cost to fix?
I got some samples of stuff with Beta Alanine in it. That shit sets your skin on fire.
I have used Creatine and sadly I’m a non responder, nothing happened when I took it.
But why would I believe one anectode from Nate more which might be completly unrelated to Creatine instead of believing in studies which have been done multiple times.
And no you do not need to drink more water to flush it out, you need to drink more water because Creatine adds water retention.
Lots of double blind studies on creatine that showed its fine on the kidneys. None that showed otherwise.
Creatinine vs Creatine – it’s a false positive, it’s just being filtered out.
I just got started hitting the gym.I’m a skinny guy so I’m going with lots of compound lifts. Squats, deadlifts, dumbell rows, and shit like benching shoulder press lat pulldown etc.
As far as supplements, I’m taking a whey isolate with BCAAs and that’s it. Do most guys take creatin or something else to help get big, or is it more important to just kill it at the gym rather than worrying about creatin etc.?
I usually don’t take any kind of supplement, but being 6’3 and 175 approx I still look thinner than I’d like. I don’t buy into that Muscletech crap, only reliable ones I’ve heard from a wide range of people is whey protein and creatine. I think the supplements would help but maybe just increasing the calorie intake on my long frame would help.
That’s right. Don’t take supplement without knowing whether your body really needs them in the first place. And with the variety of supplements and advertisements we get bombarded with on television, it’s hard to separate the good ones from the bad. It’s best to do your research before using any supplement and study its ingredients in detail so you know what’s exactly going inside you! That’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been trying to look for a safe and reliable testosterone booster which doesn’t have side effects. I came across Ageless Male supplement reviews and they seem promising enough. I found out that the chief ingredient Testofen, an extract of fenugreek seeds has been scientifically proven to raise the levels of free testosterone in the blood. Don’t use supplements for too long, cycle them, or your body will cease to produce testosterone on its own, and that’ll put you at risk when you finally stop using them.