L’électron libre

Having been working out for now about 8 months, I’ve come across about 6 common types of individuals that hit the gym fairly frequently:

• Type 1
  By far the most common : “I have been rather skinny so I want to gain muscle”
  
• Type 2
  Still quite common : “I am (or have some extra) fat, and (I live in the illusion that) pulling weights will burn my fat”
• Type 3
  The sportsman :“I workout besides my favourite sports, to increase my performance”
• Type 4
  The health-conscious: “I work out only to keep a minimum of physical activity and remain healthy”
• Type 5
  The perfectionist: “I look already great but I want to perfect it, or just maintain it”
• Type 6
  The Adonis-complexed : People say I am very and sometimes too muscular but I find myself skinny, I need more, always more”

You will notice that most types are concerned about gaining more muscle. As a rule of thumb, you will be hitting the question of whether you should or not take supplements.

This is where everybody should have a minimum of scientific approach. Are you really to ingest anything ? Do you trust a product just because it’s sold officially by a respected brand ? Are you ready to sell your soul to the devil to look like a model in 1 year (and have a heart attack at age 45) ?

MASS GAINERS

That stuff is really nothing more than a bunch of calories in a very compact form. It is only recommended if you cannot reach a normal daily calory intake by simply eating. Good for motivated people who want to gain muscle but have absolutely no appetite in general. In this case only, because food (more specifically the carbohydrates) is the primary source of energy, these people would make their muscles very tired if they worked out with insufficient calory intake. Are you that car running with no fuel? Before taking any mass gainer I invite any reader to first evaluate their daily intake based on what they eat, and then compare to what they need based on what they do in a normal day.

I came across some blogs of professional body builders suggesting that the quality of the carbs in the gainers is very bad (refined carbs) and that therefore they primarily lead to fat gaining

Source: Bodybuilder’s website

For 99% of you, these (Weight gainers) are a waste of money and will make you fat! Weight gain powders are protein and carbohydrate, usually sugar, and a bunch of vitamins and fancy sounding stuff that is supposed to magically build muscle – don’t believe it. For most people the only weight you will gain is FAT. For the few people that have no appetite at all or are dangerously low in body mass, these products can be a life saver but for the rest of us they are not appropriate.

If you have a normal appetite, and could eat more (up to your ideal calory intake), just do so! No need to pay tons of money for synthetic refined carbohydrates (carbs) when you can save money and please yourself by eating natural good carbs!

PROTEIN

When I had very poor knowledge on proteins, I was convinced it was a dangerous supplement. Then you start to read about nutrition functioning of the human body. It allows to realize the importance of proteins in your meals. Proteins are those basic Lego parts of your body called the metabolites. They are fundamental in a tremendous amount of functions in your body. Muscle is mostly only water and proteins.

The chemistry of a workout is very simple: You pull weights, ideally more than what you did earlier or normally can. Because you pushed your body to do something above what it was used or normally able to do, it will react by creating the adequate amount of muscle to be able to be able to do the effort you are asking it to do; Action/Reaction. So this explains why effort is necessary, otherwise protein intake won’t magically create new muscle . It also brings us to the very important statement statement: To gain more, you must pull greater poundage.

Since muscle is mostly protein (water taken apart), your body will need to put some protein legos together. Some of those legos are built from even smaller pieces by the body itself (unnecessary proteins) and other proteins that are as well needed cannot be built inside and therefore have to come from your food.

Supplementing on proteins is a way to make sure you have enough of all the proteins. For people who work out, it is indeed not easy for all to have enough proteins coming only from food.

The average need of protein for an average man with average daily activity (NOT people working out) depends on their body mass in kg. It ranges between 0.6 g/kg/day and 1g/kg/day.

If you workout you will necessarily need more. How much? That’s an excellent question I’ll try to answer when I figure from certified sources. However the good news is that there is no known side effect of taking too much protein in quantities “relatively close to the average recommended value”.

It is suggested (1) to have your protein supplement and food intake spread evenly in the day for maximum creation and recovery of muscular mass.

Source : Bodybuilder’s website

“From my experience it is very important to consume small doses of protein every 2-3 hours throughout the day for maximum muscle building and since very few people can eat a small, well balanced meal every 2-3 hours protein powders can be very useful.”

Last pieces of advice, get a branded product, DO NOT order from countries like China with barely any food regulations, read the labels, and watch out for the type of sweetener used and the artificial flavourings.

CREATINE

Briefly said, creatine improves the efficiency of the chemical reaction that creates energy in your muscle. Everybody has naturally CREATINE in their body. And animals have creatine too. It was found that WILD animals have a lot more creatine than the same but domesticated animal. SO CREATINE SEEMS OKAY IN ITSELF.

POINT NUMBER ONE: SUPPORTING THE OVERSPOKEN EVIDENCE

However, if not taken carefully (ie you don’t drink enough water, do not respect quantities, or do not exercise) creatine will have bad effect and may hurt your renal (kidneys) functions primarily because : 1) they filter urine, which will be full of unused creatine, 2) Kidneys need enough water to function well while creatine tends to accumulate water in your muscles.

“therefore if I use it properly it’s risk-free, right?”

POINT NUMBER TWO: THE HIDDEN FACTS

You could take it as wisely and smartly as you want, my focus is not in the above overly blabla-ed side effects. You should worry about the following:

Well, that’s PRECISELY where you need to be careful. The creatine products in the market are all synthetic. And the chemical process to obtain creatine is complex and involves toxic chemicals. It is impossible to completely remove them in the process.

In other words, what makes creatine products NOT SO GOOD for you is NOT actually the creatine itself but the contaminants left from the process and that could not be removed.

These will keep you liver (Mr. Clean of your body) works hard and may overwork to get rid of all those. When you realize the importance of your hepatic functions (whose king is your kidney) you don’t want to ingest anything.

Source : Bodybuilder’s website

After years of not using any supplement other than protein powder, I decided to see what the buzz about the new creatine product was about as I had heard from numerous friends about strength and size gains from it. I decided to give in and try it for a month, how harmful could a creatine product be? Well, it cost me $650 in medical bills to find out. After three weeks of using it I had a routine physical and full blood test which discovered that my liver function was 10X normal meaning that my liver was working overtime cleaning some toxic crap out of my body. After a liver ultrasound and several other expensive tests later, the only possible cause remaining was the creatine product. Although I didn’t go to the expense of having the product itself tested for toxic impurities, I’m convinced they are there.

Of course, in today’s economy manufacturer’s want to sell and have no reason to display their “contaminant facts” on the products they try to sell as much as they can. The level of contamination is however THE element of choice of a creatine product and instead they plaf that marketing bull**** talk on their products. Even countries like France, Norway or Germany, whom host very virulent Consumer Associations, could barely impose that on the manufacturers.

STEROIDS

I have personally never yet met anyone that has used steroids although I have some suspicions in mind. I have nonetheless studied both sides of the story: Very respected and educated people say steroids are good and harmless if used smartly. Others support the idea that it’s evil and life-threatening.

For sure however, steroids supplementation can take anyone much beyond their intrinsic volume limits at a much faster rate that normal workout supplemented by proteins. As supplements, steroids cannot be compared to protein or creatine, neither in terms of muscle gains, nor in terms of health risks. If artist Ben Harper was on steroids, he would call them “The Power of the Gospel” because “It can make a weak man mighty, it can make a mighty man fall”.

No matter which side speaks, what comes often is that most users take steroids under the effect of some sort of pressure. In sports, it’s competition, because others may be on steroids they will not give you a rest. That’s how you feel bound to follow the same path. Money is often an element of pressure. Professional US wrestlers sell their shows to TV programs, if they were not that huge no one would watch wrestling on TV.

Watch this on Youtube for better insight :

• Against Steroids: Excellent documentary in 5 videos “The Man Whose Arms Exploded“, starring Dr. Harrisson Pope, author of the Adonis Complex, considered as the worldwide expert in bodybuilder psychology, and Steve Michalik, Mr. America 1972.
• For Steroids: “Steroids, The Truth”
  Starring Norman Fost, professor of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin (graduated from Princeton and Yale).
• Debate opposing both sides from the Intelligence Squared US
  “Should We Accept Steroid Use in Sports?“

—
Feel free to comment, this is already second edition. I’ll re-re-edit this article soon to answer on protein needs for people who works, and add a paragraph about vitamins and minerals, which are often neglected although they play a very important role in the whole body chemistry and balance.