I've frequently stated that nutritional supplements are largely, for most people, a complete waste of time and money. This position confuses people who logically ask me:
"so why does Biologic Labs have a supplement store then"?
So let me clear that up.
Nutritional Supplements are CAPABLE of improving a trainers rate and extent of body composition change. The RIGHT supplement, added to the RIGHT diet with the RIGHT training can improve the fat loss and/or muscle gain achieved. Sometimes the effect can be dramatic.
For example, I consider Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) a 'must have' supplement to clients on high carb, high calorie, low fat diets. Without it, most clients suffer horrible bloating, lethargy and extreme food cravings. With ALA, all of those negative effects literally disappear within a day! It is truly incredible.
But ALA is only incredible in that circumstance. In no other circumstance is there such a dramatic, instantly noticeable, almost drug-like effect.
Unfortunately, most supplement companies and stores won't tell you the fine-print about supplements. They'll just tell you that ALA, for example, will MAKE all these incredible things happen, all by itself, like a drug would. And it just won't! ALA makes a dramatic difference to an exceptionally good diet in the same way that expensive speaker cables make a dramatic difference to exceptionally good speakers. If you put $2000/meter speaker cable on your $200, JB Hifi all-in-one home theatre, you still have bad sound!
So my issue is not so much with supplements as peoples application of supplements. People want and expect supplements to MAKE UP FOR their atrocious diets and inappropriate training. They want to buy a potion that will build muscle for them and strip all their fat off while giving them boundless energy and sex drive that never abates. And no such potion exists! Supplements COMPLEMENT particular diets; they help them work better. They don't fix bad diets. They don't turn dog turds into gold bars!
So the bottom line is: nutritional supplements help DIETS work; sometimes dramatically better. But you need to make sure you are choosing the right supplement for the right diet and the right training for the right goal. Because in of themselves, supplements don't 'work'!
And that is why Biologic Labs sells supplements. Because we create the MEASURED diets to match the MEASURED training to achieve your MEASURED body composition goals, we can properly advise of the appropriate supplements to deliver maximum benefit and value.
Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.
Wednesday 24 November 2010
Monday 15 November 2010
Supplement Ads: Scientifically Factual, Inferential... untruths
If you haven't heard, to protect consumers from unscrupulously dishonest operators, the Government has outlawed any and all 'claims' on nutritional supplements; even if they are 100% true and valid. So it would seem that the preferred method of still making supplement claims, but without actually making illegal "claims" is to use (pseudo) scientific facts to INFER.... untruths.
Powerzone HGH is an excellent example of this current marketing trend. Its multi-page brochure explains the function and benefits of Growth Hormone while quoting a variety of scientific studies. Everything stated is perfectly true and factual.... about Growth Hormone... and particularly injected, pharmaceutical Growth Hormone.... in elderly people.
The brochure does not claim that the HGH product itself delivers these results. Nor does it claim that results of pharmaceutical Growth Hormone in old people translates to the healthy gen-Y's that HGH is pitched at. Nor does it claim that HGH will compare to Growth Hormone injections. In fact, Powerzones makers don't actually claim that Growth Hormone levels will be raised by their product. They aren't allowed; and they don't have to. They know that YOU will make those claims for them!
Marketers know that they don't have to make claims for products that people desperately WANT access to. Like Chris Rock joked: [nobody] 'sells' drugs; drugs sell themselves! And when it comes to fat loss and muscle growth, EVERYBODY wants the magic pill! You only need to put the words "fat loss" on the bottle and people will buy it. Even when they know with 99.99% certainty that the product won't work! People will buy it for the .01% chance that something might happen. Heck, people buy lotto tickets for worse odds!
Now I should state that I consider Protein Powder to be a food and not a 'supplement' in the nutraceutical sense. So, protein powders aside, the fact is, as you probably know, no legal 'supplement' products 'work'. No natural product that you can buy over the counter is going to significantly manipulate your hormones, grow muscle and/or burn fat, safely and effectively, without side-effect, indefinitely, until you resemble a model on the cover of a magazine! In fact, with the same training and diet, the only single difference you will ever experience in a year of taking supplements will be to how poor you are!!! Your body will be exactly the same!
So here is everything you need to know about supplements (excluding protein powders which, as I said, are simply a good quality food):
1) if it provides drug-like effects then it will be classified as a drug and illegal to buy over-the-counter (OTC)! Marijuana is 'natural' and still illegal to buy and sell! Tryptophan is an amino acid in most protein foods and even IT is illegal to buy and sell!
2) If you can buy it OTC, then it does NOT produce drug-like effects.
3) If you want to manipulate your hormones with a natural product then get blood tests so that you can measure your disappointment accurately!
4) If you want a natural product to build muscle or lose fat then make sure your nutrition and training is 100% perfect, 100% of the time first or else you are absolutely wasting your money!
5) if you think your training and nutrition is 100% perfect and yet you aren't getting the training and body composition results you desire, reconsider your training and diet.
6) if you still think your training and nutrition is so perfect that it could not be even slightly improved in any way AND you've confirmed that your blood chemistry is absolutely perfect AND you STILL can't get the body you want then you are either a professional athlete being offered supplements for free OR you are too stupid to earn enough money to consider spending it on supplements!
Whoever you are, unless you have a measured, diagnosed deficiency or specific nutritional need, just don't waste your money on supplements (other than protein powder)!
Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.
Powerzone HGH is an excellent example of this current marketing trend. Its multi-page brochure explains the function and benefits of Growth Hormone while quoting a variety of scientific studies. Everything stated is perfectly true and factual.... about Growth Hormone... and particularly injected, pharmaceutical Growth Hormone.... in elderly people.
The brochure does not claim that the HGH product itself delivers these results. Nor does it claim that results of pharmaceutical Growth Hormone in old people translates to the healthy gen-Y's that HGH is pitched at. Nor does it claim that HGH will compare to Growth Hormone injections. In fact, Powerzones makers don't actually claim that Growth Hormone levels will be raised by their product. They aren't allowed; and they don't have to. They know that YOU will make those claims for them!
Marketers know that they don't have to make claims for products that people desperately WANT access to. Like Chris Rock joked: [nobody] 'sells' drugs; drugs sell themselves! And when it comes to fat loss and muscle growth, EVERYBODY wants the magic pill! You only need to put the words "fat loss" on the bottle and people will buy it. Even when they know with 99.99% certainty that the product won't work! People will buy it for the .01% chance that something might happen. Heck, people buy lotto tickets for worse odds!
Now I should state that I consider Protein Powder to be a food and not a 'supplement' in the nutraceutical sense. So, protein powders aside, the fact is, as you probably know, no legal 'supplement' products 'work'. No natural product that you can buy over the counter is going to significantly manipulate your hormones, grow muscle and/or burn fat, safely and effectively, without side-effect, indefinitely, until you resemble a model on the cover of a magazine! In fact, with the same training and diet, the only single difference you will ever experience in a year of taking supplements will be to how poor you are!!! Your body will be exactly the same!
So here is everything you need to know about supplements (excluding protein powders which, as I said, are simply a good quality food):
1) if it provides drug-like effects then it will be classified as a drug and illegal to buy over-the-counter (OTC)! Marijuana is 'natural' and still illegal to buy and sell! Tryptophan is an amino acid in most protein foods and even IT is illegal to buy and sell!
2) If you can buy it OTC, then it does NOT produce drug-like effects.
3) If you want to manipulate your hormones with a natural product then get blood tests so that you can measure your disappointment accurately!
4) If you want a natural product to build muscle or lose fat then make sure your nutrition and training is 100% perfect, 100% of the time first or else you are absolutely wasting your money!
5) if you think your training and nutrition is 100% perfect and yet you aren't getting the training and body composition results you desire, reconsider your training and diet.
6) if you still think your training and nutrition is so perfect that it could not be even slightly improved in any way AND you've confirmed that your blood chemistry is absolutely perfect AND you STILL can't get the body you want then you are either a professional athlete being offered supplements for free OR you are too stupid to earn enough money to consider spending it on supplements!
Whoever you are, unless you have a measured, diagnosed deficiency or specific nutritional need, just don't waste your money on supplements (other than protein powder)!
Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.
Thursday 11 November 2010
The Ugly Side of Training Biologic Labs Style
Tonight I had a bitterly disappointing workout. And the thing that made it disappointing was my own Biologic Labs training methods which told me exactly how NOT good the workout was!
The workout wouldn't have been at all disappointing if I just trained like everybody else. You see, I was doing Deadlifts and I worked to my limit and went to failure - I absolutely failed to complete the last rep despite my greatest effort. I did a relevant number of reps. Afterward, my muscles felt pumped and very fatigued. Tomorrow and the next day I will be sore. And the weight was so heavy that if I'd done the set in any gym in Australia everybody would have stopped to watch.
So I lifted heavy weights to failure, did a number of reps, got sore and got a pump and drank a protein shake afterward. How can I possibly be bitterly disappointed? By all contemporary thinking, that is a perfect workout.
The reason for the disappointment was (is), unlike all the other trainers out there, at Biologic Labs we MEASURE our performances! And all the feelings in the world don't change the FACT that, tonight, I missed what I needed. Let me explain.
Tonight I Deadlifted 275kg for 8 reps in touch-&-go style. That equates to a 327kg 1-rep-maximum deadlift according to our calculator for that movement (we have 5 different calculators for different types of exercises).
Before I began the set I calculated that 8 reps on 275 would only EQUAL my previous workouts 265kg x11 reps (also a 327 max). So at a minimum I HAD to do 9 reps (331 max) to beat my previous workout.
But I really wanted more than 9 because 265 x11 was still way off my best. My records show I deadlifted 340kg on 20 September 2008 (and again on 6 December 2008). I needed 11 reps on 275kg (in touch-&-go style) to equal that 340kg max.
My VERY best Deadlift performance has been 300kg x7 (and almost 8) on 31/10/08 which equated to a 353kg max. 16 reps on 275 beats that with a 355kg max; 15 is a 352 max.
So going into the set tonight with 275kg, I knew I wasnt going to get 16; I'm just not back up at that level of strength or muscle currently. But I was confident for a comfortable 9 (331 max), focussed on 11 (340 max) and wishing for anything extra to bring me closer to 16 (355 max).
I went into my set 100% focussed on the job. I knew EXACTLY how many reps I needed, what every rep represented in terms of the exact kilos of progress over (or toward) my previous performance. I even knew the dates of the workouts I was measuring against so I knew how far my training had regressed.
To succeed with the 11 reps would have made me elated; so I wanted that BAD! That would have put me back on track to meeting or exceeding my 340kg max for the first time in 2 years. And it would be exactly 13kg gain on my previous deadlift workout. That was my goal.
Failing that, 10 reps would still be 7kg up on last time and only 6kg off my 340; even if it was 19kg off my calculated best. I could live with that. 9 reps was the minimum acceptable representing a paltry 4kg step back toward weights I've lifted before. I'd resign myself to the slowness of progress but progress none-the-less.
But I failed. I got 8.
The thing that made that set (and therefore the whole workout) so bitterly disappointing was the very thing that made it possible: I measured it! If I never measured my workouts I never would have had the drive to take my genetically skinny, weak little 56kg body up to World Record Deadlifts and a winning Heavyweight Bodybuilders physique.
The downside of measuring your training is that you know when you've failed and you know exactly how much you failed by!
They say "failing to plan is planning to fail". They also say: "The great thing about not planning is failure comes as a complete surprise". Both are true. Neither make failing on your plan any easier.
But for all my disappointment, I'm still glad I'm not one of those guys who doesnt know how disappointed they should be!
Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.
The workout wouldn't have been at all disappointing if I just trained like everybody else. You see, I was doing Deadlifts and I worked to my limit and went to failure - I absolutely failed to complete the last rep despite my greatest effort. I did a relevant number of reps. Afterward, my muscles felt pumped and very fatigued. Tomorrow and the next day I will be sore. And the weight was so heavy that if I'd done the set in any gym in Australia everybody would have stopped to watch.
So I lifted heavy weights to failure, did a number of reps, got sore and got a pump and drank a protein shake afterward. How can I possibly be bitterly disappointed? By all contemporary thinking, that is a perfect workout.
The reason for the disappointment was (is), unlike all the other trainers out there, at Biologic Labs we MEASURE our performances! And all the feelings in the world don't change the FACT that, tonight, I missed what I needed. Let me explain.
Tonight I Deadlifted 275kg for 8 reps in touch-&-go style. That equates to a 327kg 1-rep-maximum deadlift according to our calculator for that movement (we have 5 different calculators for different types of exercises).
Before I began the set I calculated that 8 reps on 275 would only EQUAL my previous workouts 265kg x11 reps (also a 327 max). So at a minimum I HAD to do 9 reps (331 max) to beat my previous workout.
But I really wanted more than 9 because 265 x11 was still way off my best. My records show I deadlifted 340kg on 20 September 2008 (and again on 6 December 2008). I needed 11 reps on 275kg (in touch-&-go style) to equal that 340kg max.
My VERY best Deadlift performance has been 300kg x7 (and almost 8) on 31/10/08 which equated to a 353kg max. 16 reps on 275 beats that with a 355kg max; 15 is a 352 max.
So going into the set tonight with 275kg, I knew I wasnt going to get 16; I'm just not back up at that level of strength or muscle currently. But I was confident for a comfortable 9 (331 max), focussed on 11 (340 max) and wishing for anything extra to bring me closer to 16 (355 max).
I went into my set 100% focussed on the job. I knew EXACTLY how many reps I needed, what every rep represented in terms of the exact kilos of progress over (or toward) my previous performance. I even knew the dates of the workouts I was measuring against so I knew how far my training had regressed.
To succeed with the 11 reps would have made me elated; so I wanted that BAD! That would have put me back on track to meeting or exceeding my 340kg max for the first time in 2 years. And it would be exactly 13kg gain on my previous deadlift workout. That was my goal.
Failing that, 10 reps would still be 7kg up on last time and only 6kg off my 340; even if it was 19kg off my calculated best. I could live with that. 9 reps was the minimum acceptable representing a paltry 4kg step back toward weights I've lifted before. I'd resign myself to the slowness of progress but progress none-the-less.
But I failed. I got 8.
The thing that made that set (and therefore the whole workout) so bitterly disappointing was the very thing that made it possible: I measured it! If I never measured my workouts I never would have had the drive to take my genetically skinny, weak little 56kg body up to World Record Deadlifts and a winning Heavyweight Bodybuilders physique.
The downside of measuring your training is that you know when you've failed and you know exactly how much you failed by!
They say "failing to plan is planning to fail". They also say: "The great thing about not planning is failure comes as a complete surprise". Both are true. Neither make failing on your plan any easier.
But for all my disappointment, I'm still glad I'm not one of those guys who doesnt know how disappointed they should be!
Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.
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