Supplements Aren’t Substitutes

After noticing him wandering around the gym from person to person for an hour making small talk with whoever he could corral, with virtually no time spent with a weight in his hands, he walked up to the counter as he headed out the door and spent $200 on supplements.

His routine was not a unique one.

Nothing takes the place of putting in the work and eating intelligently for the workout. Supplements don’t build muscle; the workout does, along with plenty of good healthful food.

From age 13 to 33 I had worked out but was always troubled by my lack of progress. I believed I was working hard at the gym because I worked harder than anyone else — until a true bodybuilder joined, and I witnessed the intensity and focus he invested. He was 21. I was 33. Impressively, he was quiet and sane, not one of the show-off grunters. Most notably, he rested little between sets. My previous problem was that once I began to overheat as I worked out, finding the feeling very uncomfortable, I’d rest, rather than push through.

I approached him, having seen him take on much larger guys than I as temporary workout partners, and seeing these guys buckle under the intensity and flake out on him, I asked if he’d like to take me on. To my surprise he said yes.

I’d experienced nothing like it — the hard work, the gasping for oxygen as I tried to recover from the last set only to have him push me into the next set. I didn’t flake out. I saw it as my do or die opportunity; either I’d push through the barriers I had myself erected to see what was on the other side, or I’d quit.

I kept at it. It killed me for three weeks, as the guy was on a 6-day-on, 1-day-off schedule. Previously I worked out just 3 days a week. I pushed through somehow, driven I guess by the previous 20 years of frustration and feeling that if I didn’t do it now, I never would. Last chance. It wasn’t really, but that’s the attitude I took. And I learned quite a bit about myself in the process. The big discovery was the benefit of pushing through to the next level, of answering that challenge.

I discovered supplements later. Slowly I recognized that supplements were an adjunct to a healthy diet, and except to experiment occasionally, I stuck with whey protein and creatine. The glossy ads and testimonials in the magazines didn’t sway me. I believe that the most that whey supplements do for us is to allow an easy way to ingest a lot of protein. It was good food eaten every 3 hours or so (the classic brown rice/chicken breasts and broccoli/asparagus meal) and an intense 5 or 6 day a week workout routine that was 95%+ responsible for building the muscle and rewarding me with the physique I’d always wanted. Supplements were in no way any substitute for this. Unless you’re working at the gym at full capacity, my advice is to save your money. Supplements are only  for those who are doing everything right when it comes to eating, sleeping and working out.

On The Internet, Everybody’s An Expert.

The great appeal of the internet is that it allows every moron on the planet to have their say, as opposed to the olden days when an editor — or a group of them — looked over what was submitted to them long and hard before approving material for publishing. The goal of these internet writers, like other trolls, is to provoke rather than to instruct.
Recently DETAILS magazine's site ran with a piece by one of their experts-in-everything titled “The 5 Exercise Machines You Should Never Use at the Gym,” which of course features 5 classic workhorse machines everyone should be using. To make it worse, the link to this farce on the DETAILS site was found on MEN’S HEALTH website, making it doubly crazy.
Also, on MUSCLE & FITNESS (and to be fair, other bodybuilding sites as well) the put-down of those who caution against deep squats has reared its crazy head again. I’d like these macho-inspired deep-squat aficianados to produce a selection of deep-squatters over the age of 50 — no, let’s make it 40 —  who still have their real knees and can get up from their easy chair without screaming. You know, to prove their point of how safe and beneficial deep squatting is. Yeah, I thought so.
Deep ass-to-the-grass squatting has no extra physical benefits but does provide a host of dangers to knees and lower back.

Trust Food From China? Read The Label.

Remember back in the 80s and 90s when JAPAN was touted as the new world economic leader, and the media was crying about the decline of the US, and how we’re “falling behind”, or worse, that we as a nation were already has-beens, only to see Japan implode and all the emotional stories and hand-wringing just evaporate into thin air?
That’s CHINA today.
The first rule of being a happy healthy person is not to believe the media. The second rule is READ FOOD LABELS, especially with the sly and ever-increasing incursion of Chinese foodstuffs into our supermarkets.
The scandals that have rocked China over the years concerning tainted/poisoned/diseased/filthy food are epitomized in the 2008 baby formula scandal that killed 11 babies due to melamine “contaminated” milk powder and ruined the health of hundreds if not thousands more infants.  “Contaminated” is in quotes because there was nothing accidental or neglectful about the addition of the poison to the baby food. It was intentionally added. All because the idiots who instigated this scandal thought adding poison to baby formula would give the illusion of increasing its protein content. Don’t ask me to explain such a ludicrous concept, because the “logic” here is so horrific as to defy all that is humanly decent.
I don’t trust the Chinese to raise or grow or package my food. TARGET sells frozen fish of various types that is marked “product of China” in a tiny font.  You have to look hard to see it. WalMart sells all kinds of mainstream imported food from China that is not ethnically Asian, and that you might not even suspect originates in China, such as frozen chicken breasts. Pet food and pet treats are manufactured in China, and have their own scandal, so there’s no way on earth I’d ever feed these to my best buddy.
The original baby formula scandal didn’t teach anybody in China a lesson, as the scandal was repeated again in late 2008 when baby formula manufacturers watered down their product resulting in malnutrition deaths — babies who drank their product starved to death.
Wikipedia has a comprehensive history of this scandal, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. China has poisoned 16% of its own farmland and recent photos of Bejing’s “air” quality tell a tale of national indifference to life and health.
Trying to save a buck by buying food originating in China is crazy.

Website Ad Blocking: Blame it On The True Villain

In recent months you've noticed the vast proliferation of intrusive ads on websites, such as the New York Times, Huffington Post, etc. Websites both big and small have made the brilliant decision to frustrate the shit out of visitors with auto-loading videos that freeze visitors' browsers and pop-ups that block content. Last week on GQ.com one popped up after I clicked a headline, it ran a 30 second ad, then disappeared to reveal the "article" was a single paragraph, and worse, the "headline" that made me interested in it in the first place was misleading. Both GAWKER and HUFF POST are egregious examples of websites that have bought whole-hog into the misleading/lying headline bullshit. What kind of idiots think that misleading visitors and screwing up their computers with delaying tactics will be met with anything other than fury? The stupidity of any website owner to think that forcing visitors to click, watch, read and wait endlessly is bizarre, as with most of you, I just move on. A number of websites I used to visit have been deleted from my bookmarks and my mind.
Now, free software is proliferating that allows us to shut off these disprespectful annoyances, but the downside is that many websites make their income with advertising, and these websites are justifiably crying loud and clear that they may soon have to disappear.
I have seen online tirades by small website owners demonizing AdBlocker Plus and Ghostery, when in fact it's the website owners themselves who are to blame by allowing this gross intrusiveness in the first place. Hey website owners! Stop this crazed advertising invasion and go back to ads that visitors can click if they want to, rather than alienating visitors wholesale to such an extreme that they download AdBlocker.  The problem isn't the ad blocking software, it's the foolish website owners who have turned what used to be passive or optional participation in advertising into something mandatory, controlling and highly intrusive, and the result will be a disaster to especially smaller websites that have enough regard for visitors to not allow these auto-loading videos and javascript nightmare animation ads that freeze up our computers and turn internet browsing into a nightmare obstacle course.

Real Peanut Butter vs. Fake

REAL peanut butter is a great food for everyone, not just bodybuilders and strength trainers. But the kind that you’re eating might be crap.
Above you can see the same manufacturer sells both GOOD peanut butter and BAD peanut butter. The Adams 100% Natural is the good stuff; the Adams "No-Stir" is the bad stuff.

If the peanut butter you buy has any ingredient other than peanuts, then you’re buying trans fat-filled crap, or its slightly less-awful tropical-oil-filled crap.
Don’t be lazy. Buy the stuff with the peanut oil floating on top, like Adams or Laura Scudder’s, or the grind-it-youself variety from the health food store.
The manufacturers of Jif, Skippy, Adams No-Stir and the like sell off the peanut oil in their brands because it’s highly profitable, then they add back in garbage like trans fats, palm oil, coconut oil, sugar, flavorings and hard-to-pronounce chemical compounds, trying to restore some semblance of the taste and texture that REAL peanut butter already has in spades.
REAL peanut butter has only one ingredient: peanuts. Any addition — other than salt—
makes it non-peanut butter.

A Bad Egg — and Sperm

Self-loathing is a bizarre thing, whether it takes the form of a 400-pound human, or someone who works tirelessly against their own best interests. How troubling to see the people who need it most marching in the streets and hollering against Obamacare. Never mind that the USA is the only developed country on earth with no public healthcare program. Where does the self-loathing and convoluted “thought process” that demonizes one’s primary basic human right come from? As taxpayers the first perk we should enjoy for our tax contribution is access to an affordable fair plan whose goal is keeping its taxpaying citizens productive, healthy and alive. Dead people can’t buy things. Dead people can’t contribute to generating an economic recovery. Dead people pay no taxes. Cigarettes are not only legal in the US but are subsidized by our government. Making people sick — then dead at the rate of 400,000 Americans a year —drives nobody into the streets in protest, yet the wackos pour out the door into the lanes and avenues at the “threat” of accessible health care.
The female “celebrity” who blames her child’s autism on vaccinations is well known among her friends for her emotional problems and self-destructive and reckless lifestyle prior to her becoming pregnant, as well as during her pregnancy. Unwilling to take responsibility for her past choices, she now wants us all to suffer by placing OUR children at risk with her bat-shit crazy crusade that is now paying off in spades as we see diseases once thought eradicated now reemerging.
People — meaning both men and women — who refuse to accept responsibility that their smoking, drugging, boozing, junk fooding and whoring contributes overwhelmingly to the production of compromised eggs and sperm are fools. They damage themselves and thus damage their ability to produce viable cells. It’s a roulette wheel, and those that brag how reckless they were prior to or during pregnancy, claiming their child “turned out all right” have 18 years or so to observe just “how well” the kid came through in the aftermath of mommy and daddy’s partying years. Parents like to speak of schizophrenia, ADHD, autism, mental retardation and the like as if these things were just quirks of fate — as if it were no fault of their own that caused or contributed to their damaged baby.
Throughout my life I’ve been aghast at parents who actually blame their own kids for how they “turned out,” refusing to review what they themselves did or did not do that contributed or caused their child to be such a disappointment to them.

Eating Issues: Cravings and Whatnot

Other than “How old are you?” the question I get most is “What do you eat?”
I think I have a good understanding — in an obtuse way — of addiction and obsession, because I’m surrounded by people who routinely eat or drink what they are told they shouldn’t, but have a WTF attitude. I myself will polish off an entire bag of frozen Snickers minis in a few hours, so I do get it. But my personal quirk is I will rarely buy the stuff that I believe is bad for me. And that decision is painless for me, mostly, compared to everyone else I know. For them it takes teeth-grinding determination and self discipline. For me, it’s “so what?”
So for that reason my answering the question “What do you eat?” has no basis in reality for others.
For example, I never in my life have had food delivered to my door. Never. No pizza, no Chinese. Nothing. I’m also too lazy to put my shoes on and get in my car to go to the store when I have a craving. I’d rather do without. Laziness overrules cravings in my case. Also, I might lose my parking spot.
At the supermarket I might buy a bag of Snickers or a tub of Roselani ice cream or a bag of Lay’s chips, but never all three. That’s just me, because the person in front of me in the checkout line has his cart filled with little other than sweet snacks, Hot Pockets, cases of soda, and convenience/prepared foods. I also won’t buy frozen meal items, like Bertolli’s or PF Chang’s frozen meals or frozen lasagna, etc. Making a stir fry takes me the same amount of time, and I know what’s in it. I mean, freezing food preserves it, so why does frozen food have preservatives added? The ingredients list on the package is in a tiny point size for good reason. With all the bizarre chemicals these corporate assholes add to food, and I’m talking about petroleum products and the yoga-mat chemical that is stated to be present in at least 500 prepared foods, and also having worked in a restaurant for 3 years, I am not big on letting others make my food. So I don’t eat out very often, knowing as I do what goes on behind the scenes. And since the restaurant I worked in was a hot celebrity hangout, I figure if the owner was going to be as casual about cleanliness and food handling as he was with food that Streisand and Voigt and Minnelli were eating, I can only imagine what goes on at the chain restaurants.

What's HIS Probem?

The claims made by rabid detractors of hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, that steroids shrink men’s testicles or cause “roid rage” and the like are preposterous lies. Whenever we hear a criticism, especially an impassioned emotional criticism — of anything or anyone — our first reaction should be, “What the hell is HIS problem?” not, “Please, tell me more, oh Wise One.”
The fascinating thing about the internet is how many people present themselves as experts in areas they know absolutely nothing about, and how they simply parrot disinformation they’ve read elsewhere online or heard on talk radio. People need to feel special and important, and spouting crap overheard elsewhere as if it is gospel is a common way for these individuals to prop up their ego.
Cigarettes are legal despite killing 400,000 American annually. Steroids are classified in the same group as heroin, yet steroids are non-addictive, and the only way people die from steroids is the same way they die from Tylenol — by taking so much that it damages their liver and kidneys. This steroid hysteria is insanity plain and simple, and yet people not only shrug their shoulders over this corporate and social hypocrisy, but eagerly volunteer to become disseminators of lies and disinformation concerning both.
I have stated before that I myself do not take any of these pharmaceuticals because of the adverse effect they have on my cholesterol and red blood cell count. The greatest advantage to my taking testosterone when I was able to safely do so under a physician's supervision was the enhancement of quality of life. Hormones are complicated things, regulating and affecting as they do a whole range of physical and emotional issues. A hormone we all produce naturally, testosterone, when production falls or fails, affects far more than just our physical strength. It detrimentally affects our mood by initiating depression and diminishing our positive outlook on life in general. Hormonal treatment is a balancing act that must involve a physician, a specialist preferably, one with much experience in the field.
Having been married to a physician for seven years, and attending social events where doctors after a few drinks begin to reveal the most outrageous attitudes, prejudices and biases, I became aware that ignorant doctors are just as common as ignorant plumbers, ignorant contractors, or anything else. Physicians who are anti-HRT have emotional reasons for their prejudice having no connection to the medical.

Counterfeit Online Drugs

If you have purchased drugs online — Pain killers, Viagra, Cialis, testosterone, HGH, steroids —  chances are excellent that you not only didn’t receive the actual drug, but that the “ingredients” pose a direct threat to your health.
About 2/3 of all the world’s counterfeit goods come from China. India is an especially active hotbed for bogus pharmaceuticals.
It has always been alarming to me when friends told me they purchase drugs on the street, since drug pushers aren’t exactly the most ethical humans on the planet, and God knows what they put in their wares. But still, these eager customers cling to the “nothing bad’s going to happen to me because I’m so smart and special” mantra as they merrily ingest questionable materials.
Counterfeiters have sunk so low as to market bogus cancer pharmaceuticals such as a phony form of Avastin, a chemotherapy infusion pharma, the counterfeit version having  infected the US supply chain in 2012. Automobile brake pads, computer chips, airliner replacement parts — even breakfast cereals like Cheerios are being counterfeited. The crash of the Concorde supersonic airliner in Paris in 2000 was directly due to the plane hitting a counterfeit airline part that fell off a DC10 airliner that preceded the Concorde on takeoff. Counterfeit parts have been found on the US President’s Air Force One 747 and Marine One helicopter.
People who buy counterfeit running shoes, purses, watches and the like are directly contributing to this threat to our everyday well-being by supporting the increasing power of these out-of-control underground industries.
So, how can we tell if a pharma is counterfeit or genuine? The truth is, we can’t.
If you visit hulu.com you can watch a well-produced Canadian documentary titled Counterfeit Culture: http://www.hulu.com/watch/521530

The Selfie

There’s no better way to accurately gauge your strength training progress than photography, but a selfie falls short. Since full-body selfies are taken in a mirror, that’s what you’re seeing — the same view you see in the mirror.
To more accurately track your progress, enlist a friend, or put your camera on a tripod (or ladder or table or other stationary resting place), set the self-timer and standing in front of a plain wall, take straight-on shots from all four angles: front, back, left side, right side.
A month from now set up the identical situation (especially the same lighting, whether natural or artificial) and repeat.
Lots of before-and-after photos used in ads to sell you products or services are rigged by changing the lighting, having the subject tense their ab muscles, taking the photo immediately after a workout so that the subject has a pump, etc.
Keeping your chosen photo set up the same from photo shoot to photo shoot will allow you to accurately gauge your progress.
On the other hand, when taking selfies for social reasons, you’ll want to show yourself off at your best, so do whatever it takes to create the most flattering shot.