It'll cost around $25.xx with shipping if your just buying that itself lol. But hopefully you aren't just getting that.

Golds Gym just installed a new Supplement Bar plus I think they serve food as well. Pretty cool.

Especially NO2 supplements!

Someone PM'd me, asking for what kind of supplements he should take, or what I take, or whatever.

Like I said before, keep it simple.

1) EAT FOOD. You should be eating enough protein (in grams) to match your bodyweight (in lbs). Being around 200 lbs, I try to eat at least 180-200g of protein per day - AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE COMING FROM FOOD. This isn't as hard as it seems - try to get three "steaks" a day - a piece of chicken, beef, fish, lamb, pork chops, whatever. Each 100g of one of those will give you 25-30g of protein. When I eat a steak, it's about 1/4 or 1/2 a pound, so that's 60-70g of protein right there. Have three of them, and you're up to 180-200g of protein, just from some meat. From there you can adjust - maybe you only want one a day, then switch it up and have some eggs or whatever. Try to figure out how much protein you get in a prepared meal if you eat out. And from there, you can work out how much you need to augment your diet with protein shakes. Usually 2 or 3 a day is more than enough (most of us will take one first thing in the morning, then of course post-workout)

2) PRE-WORKOUT SUPPLEMENTS. IMO these are pretty much a waste of money. If you find that they give you the energy to have a good workout, great. Go for it, and enjoy. But it shouldn't be the first thing you try.

3) POST-WORKOUT. I am still trying different things for recovery. Most PWO's are based on the Surge formula - about 50g of sugar and 20-30g of fast-absorbing protein. You could of course replicate this by having a regular whey (or hydrolyzed whey) and a handful or fruits such as raisins (or mix it in fruit juice). The idea being that post-workout is the one time you want to have a huge insulin spike, to shuttle nutrients into the muscles. That's why it is never recommended to have fat at the same time. How much of this is true, I don't know. All I know is, if I just take a pure protein shake after a workout, I want to pass out about 30 minutes after. But if I take a full 50g sugar spike, I feel the same way (because then comes the sugar crash). Right now I take a 2/3 dosage of Universal Torrent, with a bit extra whey and a scoop of BCAA, and some glutamine (for gut health).

There are many products that add a ton of extra crap just to make it seem like you're getting something more than just sugar and protein (check out Anabolic Halo Hardcore Series for an example). Some add a touch of beta alanine, or a bit of BCAA, or whatever. Just stick to the basics and you'll be fine I'm sure.

4) THE MUST HAVES. That being said, there are a few supplements that are pretty much accepted as being completely useful:

Creatine - just stick with Monohydrate. If you do have a PWO supplement that adds this already, keep it in mind when dosing. The load IS useful, but not necessary. Drink lots of water, and get ready to gain 10 lbs and a few inches in just over a week if you load.

Fish Oil - IMO just about every single person needs to add healthy fat to their diet, and there are so many studies showing EPA and DHA to be beneficial, it can't be ignored. The dose should be quite high - aim for 3000 mg DHA per day (the EPA will work itself out) if you are going for fat loss/lean gain. The best product I have come across that I have access to are Now Super EPA if you want pill form, and NutraSea for liquid. I use a combination of both - pills for when I am out, and liquid at home. Carlsons is also good.

Zinc and Magnesium - Most of us are deficient in these, especially if you are training hard daily. But even if not, Magnesium should be supplemented by just about everyone. They have a great side effect of really helping with sleep. I take 400-450mg of magnesium and 50mg zinc each night before bed. You could just take ZMA, but it's somewhat expensive.

Vitamin D - If you are living in Vancouver, you need need need vitamin D, especially in the 10 months a year the weather is dark and shitty. Of course even better would be to get vitamin D from sun exposure (ironically, depending on whether you follow the status quo, vit D from sun exposure is probably the best cancer fighter we have access to). We exist on the planet because of its conditions - the air is right, there is earth and water. And the sun. Why would we want to avoid the sun? Anyway, if you don't live where people have dark skin, take vitamin D. The best way to find dosage would be to get a serum level done and adjust from there. But most people living in Canada will probably be fine just sticking to 5000 iu per day. It will be very unlikely that you overdose at this level, and you can be pretty sure you are getting enough.

That's about it for must-haves.

So if you ask me what supplements should you be looking at, I would say eat right, add some protein shakes, then take some creatine, fish oil, ZMA, and vitamin D.

There are millions if not billions of other products that will do nothing more than waste money. There are many others that you might personally find benefit from. For me these are:

HMB - yes it's kind of an old school muscle-building supplement, but IMO it works. It seems to really help with recovery - off days just don't feel quite as 'sore' and run down. And looking at pics from my last workout routine, I gained pretty good mass using this. It's expensive though, so absolutely only use it as a 'hobby'. 3000mg a day, spread out and taken with meals, is good. Also take it with your PWO.

It is only really beneficial if you are on the type of routine where the weights are increasing at a regular pace. So if you are benching what you have been benching for the last year, don't bother. So as you can see, the less trained you are, the better it is for you.

beta Alanine - One of the more new-school supps, it is backed up by decent research and is showing up in pretty much EVERYTHING. But as with most of these products that add everything under the sun, the dosage is useless. You will need at least 8-10mg per day, taken regularly. I find that it helps mostly with higher rep work - so if you are in strength or size building mode and only doing 4-6 reps per set, you can probably skip this. If you are in fat loss most and are doing sets of 20, give it a try. The pure stuff is reasonably priced either way. Just don't assume you're getting any benefit from it if it's in any mixed product.

I'll post a disclaimer now: THESE ARE JUST MY PERSONAL OPINIONS on supplementation. I am not the smartest guy, nor am I the biggest or strongest. This is just what I think based on personal experience and lots of reading.

I think the most important thing in this post is to JUST EAT FOOD. I can't stress that enough!

Did my first order from BB.com. Allmax Creatine, Glutamine, ZMA and stocking up on protein.

Are super EPA and nutrasea just brands?
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Wrong thread lol

nutrasea is the brand i use for fish oil

bb.com has a brand called cheap supplements its 180 softgels for 6.99usd

assault, white flood, 1mr are all good pwo you cant really lose out of these 3-

assault wont last you too long because sooner or later youll be taking that big ass scoop to feel effects and is more pricey is you buy localy. but good pwo none the less

1mr- pretty strong stuff 300mg caffeine so you mite get jitters and it will work due to the heavy stims in it but ive decided to cut this out just cause its too heavy on stims

white flood- when i started taking it a couple months ago the only flaw was taste, it tasted like someone mixed sand and water but now theres a new flavor which came with the sample fruit punch and pretty much redeemed white flood imo.



so just fill out that controlled labs sample- u can mix green mag(their creatine mix), white flood together it will taste like sweet tart candy, and have purple wraath during a workout. u can also get these sample on bb.com for 25cents

heres the promo for controlled labs, keep labels if you do decide white flood or controlled labs product

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/4214/liftlabel2010.jpg

holy fuck where has ZMA been all my life... 7 hrs of sleep woke up feeling like I slept for 12 hours.... off to the gym!

^thanks ima need to look into that =]

so what do you non-coffee/tea drinkers do for energy im used to drinking 2-4 cups black with milk

anyone gonna go meet ronnie coleman @ popeyes?

ohhh ya i have a sample of white flood, ill take it today!

Skinnypupp, good tips there, most of which i knew but it always helps to see as a refresher. I have just started reading up on zinc and magnesium (ZMA) and it seems like a good addition to my routine.

8 hours of sleep and oats, banana, peanut butter and eggs for breakfast.





is it just me or does magnesium make your dreams really vivid?

crazy bastards and your supplements
fishoil, multivitamin, protein, and superdump to make me play xbox better before i hit the gym

altho i do try to get at least a scoop full of monkey brains in a day.

Whats ZMA? Maybe I missed a few hundred pages or so..

ZMA - Zinc Aspartate, Magnesium Aspartate and Vitamin(E) B6

Increase free testosterone, enchance muscle strength and helps with sleep.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/zma.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZMA_(supplement)

is taking zinc and magnesium basically the same effect? or do you need the ZMA?

also regarding a low carb/high protein diet, what are your guys thoughts on drinking coffee? basically lived on coffee for the past 2 years, but in the Atkins "new diet revolution" book it says to avoid coffee during the "induction" phase, which ill basically be doing for a month, although in a print-out sheet regarding the atkins diets and menu that print out said coffee was fine so i'm somewhat confused..

i know coffee is a diuretic so i'm obviously losing water intake by drinking it, but i think i drink enough water to overcome that, also i drink coffee black only, never add anything

think it's ok to continue drinking it? or should i try to break the cycle for a bit

if your working out + eating right + getting 8 hours sleep.. you should never need coffee
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8 hours of sleep being good for you is subjective…it varies per person. 8 might be too much for some people.
Me personally 7.5-8 works, but I know some who need 6 max.

After 2 years, a month off will be really good for your liver

i always sleep 8 hours a night plus naps in the day, after home from work go to bed for a hour b4 the gym or i will wake up eat breakfast go to bed, it has helped me really good with recovery

on the topic of supps, i dont go over board i just take what works for me
but for beginners i would stick with the basics

I just enjoy drinking coffee, don't really need it to wake up anything but yea prob take a break
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Vitamin D is awesome... Lots of studies coming out now about all the benefits of taking it.. I usually take about 20,000 IU's a day.. That is about how much your body produces if you go lie naked in the sun for like half an hour so I figure nothing wrong with taking that much.. I've heard of people being given 50,000 IU's a day by their doctor.
Dirt cheap for the stuff too.. 240 pills is like $6..

I don't really wonna turn this into a debate but yeah u r right, my parents have a friend who is a doctor and he did a study on vitMin like 4 years ago And there are so many bennifits from taking it, I have been taking it since 3 years ago and 6-8 pills a day. I have never been sick or anything in 3 years, knock on wood. I tell everyone to to take vit d but noone cares or listens to me hahahahaha. But yeah vit d is sweet
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do you take all 20,000iu at once? isn't that 20 pills of just vitamin d?

LOL I feel like I'm putting more effort into figuring out what pills to take then actually working out. :blush::blush:

There's different strength pills ranging from 500-1000

Picked up some greek yogurt 18g protein 120cal
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