With the rate Aaron is posting, it's a wonder that there are any non-dummies left. I know that you can set the user default language on Windows to different languages, but I didn't know there was an extension for "bro" speak. Kudos for being so fluent in it, though. Grammar be damned!
Anywho, I humbly submit the following. It's a little article I wrote over at AX a while ago. Enjoy.
Training Heirarchy - Where Supplements Fall
The following 'article' is based on opinion and experience. It is not intended to represent anything or anyone, and is solely my view on the way it is. This discussion was inspired by newbies and old dogs alike. Read and agree, or read and disagree...
Beginning the Journey
Many of us come into this sport, hobby, or pastime with goals in mind. Whether your goal is to get bigger, stronger, slimmer, defined, faster, healthier, more sexy, or whatever else, there is always a need to have a plan of attack. Those of us who started out as non-athletes often don't have the requisite knowledge to formulate that plan, and yet there are those who have played sports all their lives who still don't know what they are doing.
In order to obtain any goal, you must have a way to go about reaching that goal. I'm sure that we can all agree that some kind of roadmap must be created, as our goals are seldom reached in a day. The map to a better body is full of roadblocks, potholes, detours, and often times, wrong turns. Best laid plans of mice and men, and yadda yadda yadda... The professional bodybuilder, strength athlete, or competitor of any serious nature spends hours with trainers, dieticians, and by themselves planning their road to success. For the average gymrat, this may not be the case. We are dependent on ourselves and the knowledge that we acquire from reading books, watching TV, and looking things up on dat dere interwebz. Forums such as this one can be a very useful tool, but in the wrong hands, misinformation can spread like wildfire, leading you down the path to destruction rather than the path to perfection.
No Rushing Into It
Nowadays, with information (and misinformation) spread so widely across the media, many are jumping into the gym equipped with more pills and potions than training common sense. The 'glamour' of sixpack abs, the 'glitz' of that killer beach body, or the 'appeal' of being the new fox on the block is certainly alluring. But none of those things are obtained easily or instantly. Sorry to say it folks, but there's actual WORK involved in it! That's right, work. Jumping into the gym equipped with the latest and greatest of what the local supplement market has to offer isn't going to replace the time, effort, sweat, and even blood and tears that it takes to get to where you want to be. To those who walk into the gym as newbies just like this, take a step back and read this article twice. Absorb it, learn from it, and live it.
Hierarchy, Top Level: Training and Diet
The road we follow changes frequently, or atleast it should. Our bodies adapt; it is the nature of it all. Following a set routine day in and day out for months on end leads to the body adapting to the stimulus of training, putting a halt to our progress. When we first hit the gym, we make gains or losses easily. We haven't trained before, and the new stimuli are having a profound affect on our 'lazy' bodies. But soon, we hit that wall, the first plateau is upon us where no matter how hard we try, we can't get that extra 5lbs up. I won't get into the myriad of training styles, programs and whatnot here, but I will say that you MUST have a routine in mind in order to be successful. Choose a program or design one yourself that caters to your goals. If you've read about something that you want to try, by all means, try it out! But limit yourself to 4-6 weeks on it else the body will adapt. If it works, keep it in a folder for future use. After the time is up, try something else. If it works, fine. If not, scrap it.
As important as training is the topic of diet. Look at your goals, both long and short term, and plan to eat to accommodate your success. If you are cutting, don't expect a Wendy's Baconator to be on the menu all week long. Do your homework, find what's good and what's not good, and customize it! Just as with training, diet is individual to each person. I wouldn't want anyone to follow my diet to a "T", nor could I expect myself to follow Big Swole Kim Williams' diet and expect to look like him in a short period of time. Take a look at what you eat now and make changes accordingly. Get suggestions, ask for help, and plan plan plan!
Without a proper diet and training regimine, you're screwed. Face it, that's the facts. Nobody get ripped eating fast food every day, I don't care how high you think your metabolism is. And if one suffers, the other will suffer as well.
Hierarchy, Level 2: Rest
Perhaps one of the more overlooked aspects to a healthier lifestyle is rest. Busy lifestyles leave us little time to take a break throughout the week. Having a job, or a family, or a social life take a chunk of our lives away from the training process and can have adverse affects on our progress. While we all have things that we must do or want to do, we also need to incorporate time to allow our bodies to regenerate.
Sleeping at night is important. Studies have shown that this is when the major recovery happens. And don't ask me to cite studies, I'm not into that and by now this is pretty common knowledge. But getting some quality sleep at night helps so much in not only the training, but in our daily lives. Sleep too little and you wake up feeling like crap. Likewise, sleep too long and you'll feel the same! If you don't have normal sleep patterns, take steps to adjust. Get your full 8 hours, or 7, or 9...whatever you need. Just make sure to do it.
Nap time? Sure, why not?! If at all possible, we should all take an hour nap each afternoon. That "powernap" can do us a world of good, recharging our mind and body to continue throughout the day. For the pro stage walkers, it's almost mandatory. For us average Joe types, not so much. But if you are training intensely, especially more than once each day, then take the rest!
Overtraining sucks and too many people do it. If you hit the gym and are in there lifting for hours on end each day expecting to get heyooge, forget it. Get in, get it done, go about your day. Some say that 45 minutes is sufficient, while others may argue up to 2 hours, depending on the routine. Personally, 45 minutes of intense lifting is it for me. After that, I'm too wasted to make any good progress or do any quality lifts. This is a case of more is NOT always better. Keep the intensity high while you are there. If you're winding down to the point where it isn't there, leave! Go hard or go home - words to live by. Similarly, watch out for overtraining over multiple sessions. Typical muscles and muscle groups need a day or two to recover properly before you smash into them again. Abs, forarms and calves may be an exception that can be trained daily. But don't do chest two days in a row, or do back two days in a row, or even stand around curling like a dumbass every day you go in there. Let the worked part rest!
Hierarchy Level 3: Supplements (the bottom rung on the ladder)
So now that you've gotten your ass in the gym for a few weeks and are making some killer progress, and now that you've gotten your diet in check to the point where eating healthy and to your goals is second nature, and now that you realize the importance of rest for recovery and growth, NOW comes the option to supplement. Supplements are just that - supplemental. They are never required, with the exception of dietary or physiological deficiencies (ie iron deficiency, or taking calcium when lactose intolerant). Supplements are an option to help push you through. They are the high octane in your hard-working daily driver. Supplements are NOT the beat-all end-all, they are NOT the means to the end, and they are NOT the answer to life's problems.
So when do I start incorporating supplements into my life? Well, anytime really, except for the beginning. I'm not a fan of using supplements as a crutch, nor am I of those who walk into the gym on Day 1 armed with the entire shelf of test boosters from ***. When you've got the top 2 levels in this "Hierarchy" nailed down and your progress slows, I think it's a good time to start looking into products to help out.
The Supplement Game...
So you wanna get swole? Well then try out the "Get Me Swole Stack", only $149.99! Uh, no. Wanna get ripped, cut, and veiny as a throbbing...bullfrog leg? Then you gotta try out the "Ripped As Hell Stack", only $159.99!! Uh... no.
Starting Out...
Sure, we see the ads in the magazines. We see the banners on websites. Hell, we read what's posted all over the place on THIS website! But does that mean that you're going to get the same results taking the latest and greatest ultra-mega-mega stack? Absolutely not. The temptation is certainly there for both the novice and the well-seasoned, but the well-seasoned should know that experimentation to know what works takes time, a bit of brain, and yes, sometimes quite a bit of cash. For those who are starting out in the supplement game, I don't think you should buy into the hype without knowing what you are doing first. And knowing is half the battle, right? Yep...and the other half is time/experience.
I've been training for a few years now, and though I am not near where I want to be and have used nowhere near half of the products out there, I know enough to know what I'm doing. What works for one person may not work the same for you. When starting out, realize this and move ahead cautiously. Read up on different products and choose something. Not that I said "something", and not "choose a bag o' stuff". Analyze your goals, examine where you want to go in the short term, and take a good look at where you are falling short. If it's energy you lack, start with a stimulant product. If it's aggression and drive you're after, look into something for that. If it's "whatever", then look into "whatever". But do NOT look into ALL of these faults and start mixing and matching right off the bat.
The Stacking Syndrome
Yes, products are made to stack. There's a million different combinations out there, and twice that number of people telling you what's the best for you to take. When it comes down to it, someone new to supplements should try one thing at a time. Stacking more than one product has advantages, but at an early stage, it has distinct disadvantages. If you are trying both Product A and Product X at the same time (like what I did there?), and something is going wrong, which product is at fault? Likewise, if at the end of the run something went right, which product worked the best? The problem with stacking and the newbie is just that - no idea what's doing what. I don't like hearing complaints from people that have done this, but have to realize that perhaps they haven't talked to someone like me to know what to do. When I hear of a problem and am asked to solve it, a situation like this provides way too many variables. Which product is at fault? Well...none in my book. The problem is that you messed up in the first place by stacking new products together without knowing what they did for YOU!!
Start out with one product, use a bottle of it, and pay attention to what your body tells you. Bad side effects are much more noticeable than quality gains or milimeters from your waistline. Nowadays, products are being engineered that have little to no negative sides at all. AX is and always has done extensive testing on their line in order to eliminate serious side effects and provide you with a quality experience and positive results. Other companies are doing the same thing, and that's not a bad thing at all. But when it comes right down to it, it's not what a product "does" that matters, it's what a product "does for you" that counts. Try Product A, take a break. Try Product X, take a break. Then, and ONLY then, try Product A & X together to see the difference. Anything short of doing it this way is selling yourself short.
One other downside to mention, and that's finances. Let's face it, unless you're loaded, you can go repeating huge stacks all the time, nor should you. If you're stacking 5 products that cost $50 each for a month, that's $250/month in products. Max the cycle at 3 months, and that's a mortgage payment on a nice house! If you don't KNOW what each product does for you and you want to experience those same results in the future, chances are good that you're going to have to shell out that kind of money again. If only 2 of those were working to do what you liked, then I just saved you an assload of money!!!
Stacking What With What?
It's easy to put together an AX stack on your own. Each product in the Arsenal does something and goes well with atleast one other thing. The same rings true for many other manufacturers. But cross lines and do an AX product, and AppNut product, a CL product, and a few others, and you could be getting into some trouble in terms of overkill and redundancy.
This is the part where research definitely comes in handy. I'm no scientist, but I have them at a moment's notice if I need help! You may not have the luxury of having The Professor and Dr D on your Gchat, so you'll have to do a bit more digging. If you're looking into a test booster, find ONE you like and try it out. If you're looking into something for estrogen, find ONE and try it out. If you're looking into a stim, find ONE and try it out. Do NOT try 2 of the same or very similar things, especially without trying them individually first. If you're stacking 5 things and 3 of them are the same, you're overdoing it. If those 3 have similar or the same ingredients, you're overdosing!
Keep it simple, reap the benefits. Can you stack MassFX, HardFX, Carnobolic, LeanFX, StimX, and AXcell all together? Certainly, but why??? Covering your bases is one thing, but carpetbombing is another. Choose which products are geared towards your goals and go with them. Use only what you need and don't rely on the quantity of your capsules to equate the quality of your progress. The newer you are to this lifestyle, the smaller your stacks should be.
Cliffs?
1. Get your diet and training in check first.
2. Close second, but make sure to rest and not overtrain.
3. Supplement as a last option to 1 & 2, but do it wisely.
4. Don't put all your faith in a bottle until you have 90% of it in yourself.
Thanks for reading, folks. Hopefully this will help atleast one person out there to make wise decisions and the best progress they can. If there's anything that I've missed, I'll be sure to cover it in subsequent posts.
enjoy try that before a PH
