With all the bodybuilding and sport supplements on the market for the last 25 years, the only one that really works and does what it says it can do is creatine. I have read numerous studies over the years from the National Strength and Conditioning Association along with many other sources of research that has proven creatine to be a real enhancer of muscular strength and endurance.

Recommended: Creatine Monohydrate – 100% Pure Powder 2.2 lbs

It’s somewhat old news to be still talking about it but I have never come across a supplement that quickly makes you stronger and more muscular looking in a matter of days.

So many of the new bodybuilding supplements have creatine in them because that is what is really working, not all the more expensive ingredients that are marketed as the new or best muscle building ingredient. The first thing I look at when a new supplement comes on the market is if it has creatine in it. If it does I’m pretty sure all the benefits from the product will be from the creatine and you will be over paying for the other ingredients that don’t work.

How Creatine Works:

If you’re not familiar with how creatine works here is a simple explanation. Andesine Triphosphate (ATP) fuels all muscle contraction, which is stored in the muscle cell. There is enough stored ATP in the muscle cell for about  5 to 7 seconds of intense exertion. After that the body has to use a different energy system so it takes Creatin-Phosphate (CP), which is also stored in the muscle and mixes it with Anderson Diphosphate (ADP) to make ATP. Creatine gives ADP the third phosphate molecule to make ATP.

What Does Creatine Do?

If you can increase your creatine stores in the muscle you can make ATP quicker and more easily which will result in more sustainable muscular strength and endurance. For example, if you could squat 225 pounds 12 times without taking it, you might be able to squat 225 pounds 14 times after just filing up your creatine stores in a few days by taking it.

Another effect of having your creatine store full is that it seems to enlarge the muscle cell. There is most likely a relationship to how much water muscles can hold based partly on how much creatine is in them. The more creatine in the muscle the more water it will hold; therefore, you can gain a few pounds of water weight store in the muscle, which will make you, look bigger and more muscular instantly.

Any Creatine Side Effects?

The question that always comes up with any supplement is whether it is safe to take. I think it is reasonably safe to take because it is naturally found in red meats and fish like salmon. The only problem with getting it from meats is you have to eat a lot of meat just to get a few grams of creatine; therefore, it makes more sense to take a supplement. Before taking any supplement you should do your own research and feel comfortable about taking it. Check with your doctor, I’m sure you will find the conversation interesting.

Best Creatine Supplement and How to take it:

There are so many different types and brands on the market. Manufactures are always try to come up with a better delivery system claiming that their brand is the best. I would look for a basic creatine-monohydrate. If you want to load take 5 grams mixed in with some type of carbohydrate and protein (I think a shake would be best) four times a day, for a total of 20 grams. Load for about four days, then go on a maintenance dose of 5 grams per day. If you don’t want to load, just take 5 grams per day and in a few weeks you will be loaded up.

So many bodybuilding supplements cost a lot of money and don’t work. If you want to increase your muscular strength and size follow a muscle-building program like Visual Impact and experiment with taking some creatine-monohydrate. I think you will be happy with the results.

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Best – Mike Cola

Fitness Contrarian – Fitness Blog

Finding high quality sources of protein does not have to be expensive. We all need at least .89 grams of protein per pound of lean muscle mass. If you are 150 pounds of lean muscle you need to eat 133 grams of protein per day. More protein may be needed if you’re an athlete or a bodybuilder training every day. For people on a budget; however, getting enough can be expensive if you don’t know the top sources of cheap protein.

Recommended Protein Drink - Primal Fuel

Top 5 Affordable Sources of Protein

1- Whole eggs are first on my list. With 7 to 8 grams of protein per egg you can get 25 to 30 grams for less than a $1.50.

2- Cans of tuna. I have bought cans of tuna on sale for $1. That’s 25 grams for about a buck.

3- Ground chop meat, chicken breast and pork chops. You can buy lean cuts of red meat and poultry for under $2.50 per pound. Six ounces of meat will have about 35 grams of protein for about a dollar.

4- Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt is concentrated with more milk protein than regular yogurt. Six ounces has about 15 grams of protein for around $1.69 per serving.

5- Frozen edaname. You can buy a big bag for about $3.00. One cup of edaname has about 17 grams of protein.

The list above indicates that if you take the time and buy whole natural sources of protein and prepare them yourself you can get enough high quality protein for just a few dollars per day.

If you want to spend a little more money I recommend you buy organic whenever possible. Organic eggs and meats are always more healthy than the mass-produced commercially fed sources of protein. Take your time and shop around for an affordable place to buy all your organic foods from.

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Best – Mike Cola

Fitness Contrarian – Fitness Blog

When I was in my teens, over 30 years ago, I spent a lot of time reading bodybuilding books and magazines looking for information on how to build a muscular body. The top bodybuilders of the time were Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane and Franco Colombo, just to name a few. I will never forget reading in Franco Colombo’s book when he said “sugar kills muscle tissue”. For the next ten years, every time I ate something sweet I thought I was killing muscle tissue and counter acting all the hard work I did in the gym.

What I did not realize until years later is that sugar does not kill muscle tissue it just make you fat so you can’t see the muscle. One of the best things you can do to get and stay lean is to stop eating sugar. That includes bread, pasta, rice, sweet drinks or any carbohydrate that is processed and not in its whole natural form.  Bodybuilders have always been experts at achieving very low levels of body fat. Even 30 years ago before all the scientific studies and research, bodybuilders knew that sugar was going to make you fat. Franco may have been wrong about sugar killing muscle tissue but he was right about sugar in general. You can’t build a healthy muscular body eating a diet high in sugar.

I have always felt that bodybuilders and athletes were years ahead of the research. People figure out what works way before the studies catch up.  I never quite understood how the low fat-high carbohydrate diet got so popular a decade ago. No bodybuilders I knew back then were eating a high carbohydrate diet and keeping their body fat low. I have never known anyone who got their body fat really low eating sugary foods with very low fat and minimal protein. The high carbohydrate-low fat craze was created by the doctors, researches and the media, instead of the individuals who already had low body fat like bodybuilders.

Protein, vegetables and fat is the way to go. Bodybuilders have been doing it for 50 years; it’s time the rest of us catch on.

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Best – Mike Cola

Demystifying Fitness

Bodybuilders have been using pre-exhaustion successfully for over 40 years. If you’ve been going to the gym and training your back with chin-ups, lat-pull downs or seated rows but feel that your arms are getting tired before you fully exhaust your back than you might want to try pre-exhaustion.

Pre-exhaustion is when you first perform an isolated movement like a standing pullover than quickly follow by a compound movement like lat-pull downs. The idea is to eliminate weak muscle links, in this case your biceps.  When you perform compound movements like lat-pull downs, chin-ups and seated rows it’s most likely that your smaller and weaker body parts like your biceps will get tired before your larger and stronger Latissimus Dorsi (back) muscles do. If your goal in the gym is to fully exhaust and develop your back than give pre-exhaustion a try.

In this video I will demonstrate how to use pre-exhaustion to fully exhaust your Latissmus Dorsi (lats) or back muscles. First I will be performing a standing cable pullover which works my lats without exhausting the biceps. Then I will move quickly to a lat-pull down with my lats already tired and my biceps fresh. In this manner, I can really exhaust my lats without my arms fatiguing before my back does.

Keep in mind you can use this technique for other body parts as well. Try cable crossovers followed by push-ups for the chest or lateral raises followed by shoulder presses for shoulders. Just make sure you move quickly from one exercise to another. Don’t rest more than five seconds between movements. It’s fun trying these bodybuilding techniques.

Let me know if you ever used Pre-exhaustion before and if so, was it successful for you?

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Best – Mike Cola

Demystifying Exercise

Yes, there are certain basic exercises you must do to develop a healthy body. Besides doing some form of aerobics like running, walking or biking there are basic resistance movements like squats and lunges for the legs, push-ups and bench press for the chest, pull-ups and rows for the back, shoulder press and laterals for the shoulders, curls for the arms, elbow extensions like pushdowns for the triceps and a few basic dynamic movement drills with a medicine ball for flexibility and athleticism. Why have these exercises and movements been around for so long? They have been around for so long because they work.

If most people went to the gym and just did these basic exercises they could achieve an incredible looking and healthy body without getting overwhelmed and confused looking for the secret exercises or the new class that only a lucky few with the great bodies know about. I’ve been working out myself for over 30 years and training clients for over 20 and I’ve seen it all. Sticking to the basic exercises is the quickest and safest way to achieve a great looking and healthy body.

Here’s an example of a full body workout made up of basic exercises:

• Warm-up with dynamic movement in all three plains of motion with a medicine ball.
• Squat or Leg Press: one warm-up set then one hard work set, 15 to 20 reps.
• Lunge: one warm-up set then one hard work set, 15 reps
• Standing Calf Raise: one warm-up set then one hard work set, 20 reps
• Bench Press: one warm up set then one hard work set, 12 to 15 reps
• Push-ups: one warm up set then one hard work set, as many as possible (AMAP)
• Pull-up or Lat-pull-down: one warm up set then one hard work set, 12 to 15 reps (Pull-ups AMAP)
• Seated Row: one warm up set then one hard work set, 12 to 15 reps
• Shoulder Press: one warm up set then one hard work set, 12 to 15 reps
• Biceps Curl: one warm up set then one hard work set, 12 to 15 reps
• Triceps Push-down: one warm up set then one hard work set, 12 to 15 reps
• Hanging or Lying Leg Raise: one hard set, AMAP
• Lying Bicycle with knees to elbows: one hard set, AMAP
• Cool-down with full body active stretching

Note: Work Set means hard 90% to 100% effort in good form (technique).

If you have any questions about how to perform these exercises, let me know.

This is a great full body workout that you can do twice per week on the days you’re not doing hard aerobics.

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Best – Mike Cola

Fitness Contrarian: Helping People Build Healthy Bodies