Re: pre-workout supplement
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: jps24</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Figured I would throw my 2 cents in on this one. Up front, all my following information is coming from articles and training plans written by Mark Twight, the founder of Gym Jones on their membership site. Also my own limited experiences in dealing with exceptional officers in the Army and passing SFAS. I have followed Gym Jones programming for a few years and read all of their articles dealing with dieting and supplements. If you haven't heard of them, their legitimacy comes from training the '300 movie' actors (no it wasnt CGI), professional athletes to incluse MMA/Judo, and elite Special Forces operators.
First, a supplement is only there in essence because your diet sucks. If you ate correctly, a supplement to your diet would not be needed. So eating correctly for your goal is the first and best step towards progress. Unless your goal is to be a freak Olympic power lifter or world class weight lifter like Ronnie Coleman, you are able to get all the protein from a regular diet. Even an athlete only needs 1.5g of protein per kg of body wieght. Any more protein taken in, and you are only pissing it straight out. Furthermore, studies have been conducted that show that athletes who consistently train require less protein over time. As they start let's say a 3 month training program, they require more protein in the first 3 weeks. But after that, their body adapts to using the protein more efficiently and they require less even though their training gets harder as they progress in the program. Again, all from Mark Twight.
Secondly, after reading many articles on the membership Gym Jones site, every one of their athletes used supplements at one time to test them out, but all of their results were the same: they did not give them more of an advantage than eating healthy/regularly. Therefore, they are a waste of money. The only 'supplements' they said worked were fatty oil pills such as Fish Oil pills or CLA pills. These pills help give your diet healthy fat to use which helps with concentration and join health.
However, supplements can be helpful in some occasions. For example, let's say you couldnt eat lunch or dinner on a training day. Using it as a meal replacement would suffice as your diet is lacking that day. Thats really only when they should be used, or you are only wasting your money.
Devotion to a healthy diet will save you plenty of money by not wasting it on supplements. It will also give you better results. Talk with yourself as to what your goals are. Then create a diet and training plan to achieve those goals. Are you trying to put on muscle mass or gain weight? Lose weight? Maintain? Focusing on strength, power, or endurance? All of these affect diet and training. A healthy diet would include eating carbs, fats, and proteins at every meal. But every meal should be limited to no more than 500-700 calories. Any more than that and the extra calories will be stored as fat. Eat 5 meals a day like that and you are totally fine and have plenty of energy for even the most strenuous workouts, trust me. I worked out 3-4 hours a day on no more than 1000 calories/day for 3 weeks straight, but thats only because my goals were different. And guess what? My times and weights still improved. No supplements required.
Just my thoughts about this. Different strokes for different folks. </div></div>
+1 You're doing it right my man. Mark twight is an interesting fellow and I follow some of his training theories.
For those of you who are complaining about long shifts, take a lunch box. I carry food with me to school, work, where ever. It may just a couple of shakers of 40-50 gr of whey, some carbs in the form of juice, and my essential fatty acid, fiber, and multivitamins, but I get in at LEAST 5 meals and sometimes 7 depending on how hard I have been training. They are generally small and in the 4-500 calorie range depending.