Creatine for Bodybuilding

Creatine is a supplement widely used in the bodybuilding circuit as a substance to enhance muscle growth and promote the functions which are involved in creating more muscle mass. In this article I will explain what creatine is, dispel the myths around the supplement and how it can help you achieve your bodybuilding goals.

Creatine is a naturally occurring substance in the human body and it aids your muscles to work at strength for longer - this is its primary function. Since creatine is found in products like meat, people who eat a lot of meat will generally have a higher concentration of creatine in their muscles than say vegetarians or those whom don't eat much meat.

It is also known that taking creatine in the body as an added substance, such as creatine supplements that bodybuilders take, enhances the strength of the muscles and improves recovery time when the muscle actually grows. This is the reason every competitive bodybuilder uses creatine when bulking and adding muscle mass.

When creatine as a supplement first came out there were many myths circulating about the safety of the substance, with stories of weights crashing down on people and alsorts of similar horror stories - while it isn't known why stories like these were spread they have since been proven to be false and creatine is now considered by most to be a safe supplement, just like protein powder or any other common supplement used in bodybuilding.

Creatine will enhance any strength trainers workout session as it allows you to lift for longer, this means instead of burning out at 3 repetitions of a heavy weight, you could in fact lift for a longer period of time, say 10 seconds, along you to complete a full working set of 8 repetitions, which is regards as the best number of reps to promote muscle growth. Due to the fact you lifted heavier for an adequate number of repetitions, the muscles will now repair and grow larger than they would have been able to previously.

Article by Frank Owen, visit his website on creatine for more information on creatine and how it can improve your physique

The Secret Ingredients of Bodybuilding Supplement Gakic

After the successful launch and campaigning of company Muscletech for the new supposed breakthrough supplement Gakic, many questions have been asked as to the products effectiveness, potential side effects and in particular ingredients.

When a supplement promises a benefit so dramatic people inevitably want to know how. In this article I will attempt to discuss the ingredients of Gakic in the hope of demonstrating why the guys at Muscletech might just be more than great marketers.

Firstly to lay it out for you the ingredients of Gakic as stated in the products documentation are:

First and foremost glycine-l-arginine-alpha-ketoisocaproic acid calcium (shortened to Gakic). With the additional ingredients being:

Dextrose, maltodextrin, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium gluconate, polyvinylprrolidone, natural and artificial flavors (modified food starch, corn syrup solids, gum acacia, silicon dioxide), acesulfame-potassium, sucralose, fd&c red no. 40.

Without getting too complicated with the science of things, I will try to briefly explain how and why these ingredients are effective in performing the suggested tasks.

The benefit of Gakic is stated to be that it helps the body to remove and prevent the build up of fatigue toxins such as Ammonia that cause the body to lose strength and eventually fail towards the end of the workout.

Gakic's main ingredient works as such: The compound glycine-l-arginine-alpha-ketoisocaproic acid calcium as a ketone group has no Ammonia in it as ketone compounds usually do. For this reason when it enters the body and the muscle cells, it scavenges for Ammonia particles with which it can react neutrally to become more chemically stable. What that means is that this compound glycine-l-arginine-alpha-ketoisocaproic acid calcium is pre-disposed to remove in this manner traces of Ammonia from the muscle cells. The acid when enters the body is converted to leucine that carries out the function above as well as glycine and arginine which then are responsible for moving the removed Ammonia through the uric acid system to be eliminated from the body. Further to that the glycine and arginine have further effects. The glycine is also said to give the effect of an insulin stimulator while the arginine is able to increase blood flow to the area effected by the toxins allowing the leucine to ravage even more of the toxins it seeks to eliminate.

This being the function of the main ingredient, the other ingredients of Gakic serve to enhance the extent to which the muscle cells can absorb the substance and hence take their effect.

As you can see the process Gakic undergoes in the body is a complex one. It is mainly for this reason that scientists and users of the product alike seem to be touting its benefits. As for the question of will it work for you, it is up to you to decide.

Gary Stephens is a writer on bodybuilding supplements and currently runs an informational website providing the real information on bodybuilding supplement Gakic, including Gakic Reviews.

For more information please see http://www.gakicreview.com

Natural Bodybuilding The Key To Endless Growth Part II

In the first part of this installment we examined how to build a road map to get to your destination. We talked about training the nervous system, innervation of specific body parts for symmetry, and advanced stage training.

In Part II we are going to examine the most common challenge bodybuilders face which is nutrition. Unfortunately there is so much confusion about what to eat, when to eat , how much to eat and on and on that it is almost impossible to sort out what to do. Also eating to grow is very different the eating to get shredded so the key point to remember is that your diet needs to evolve with your physique.

Consistency and self discipline on your eating is two biggest keys to long term success on whatever eating program that you are following. Bodybuilders who are successful always plan ahead and have meals prepared well in advance. If you don't plan out your meals and have them with you at all times you will invariably fail in giving yourself the best possible gains. Hoping that restaurants, or friends or relatives will be serving "bodybuilding food" is unrealistic and leads to frustration as well as no progress.

Almost every person I have every met that could not gain weight or lose weight was simply because they did not prepare there food in advance. It sounds simple, and it is simple but few overlook this critical point. Don't be one of those people who doesn't prepare there meals in advance. In the Freaky Big Naturally training course there is a whole section on food prep to keep you on your eating program. I learned these food preparation and food avoidance skills over years of trial and error. Many people think that it is a matter of will power or won't power but in reality it is simple preparation beforehand.

Here is a few simple rules to remember"

1. Always carry 1-2 meals with you more than you think you will need. This way any delays in your schedule will not throw your eating off.

2. Always eat before you go shopping, to the movies, or to other social occasions where non nutritious food will be served this way you will reduce any cravings for junk.

3. Prepare food in bulk and use Tupperware containers so that you can grab quick meals at any time. Also you will find it takes very little extra time to prepare 10 meals as it does one meal. This savings in time will actually make your life way more efficient and your eating plan easy to stick too.

4. Get off all artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners cause cravings for sugar, mess up your metabolism and brain function, and may have negative effects on your overall health. Cut them out of your diet immediately and switch to Stevia, or Raw Honey for sweetening. NO Diet Sodas.

5. Drink plenty of water each day. Most often dehydration is misinterpreted as hunger. Slug back a liter of water 30 minutes before eating or when you feel hungry and you will see how it curbs appetite significantly.

6. Place nutritious snacks in you car, your office desk at your house basically everywhere that you spend a considerable amount of time. You will quickly develop the habit of eating healthy and junk foods will quickly lose there appeal.

7. Schedule a regular junk food meal once per week. This is a powerful lesson that starts building the will to understand delayed gratification. Every time you have a craving for junk food simply right it down and schedule to eat it on a set day. By the end of the week you can review the list and go eat those foods guilt free. Often times by the junk food day you won't want the food or it won't taste as good as you anticipated. Over time you will develop more control over your cravings and reduce negative guilt associations with food.

This list isn't the be all and end all of eating but it gives you a start to work with.

Keep in mind that your eating program should evolve over time. Your body will naturally adjust from desiring different types of foods depending on a variety of factors such as season, nutrient levels, PH balance of the body, training demands, and conditioning levels to name a few.

Recording how food affects you as biofeedback is critical in understanding the powerful effects of food on your mood and your performance. Review your eating journal regularly so that you become aware of your patterns of eating as well developing awareness of how each food effects your body. Clients are always surprised at how much they can learn about food just by charting there eating patterns for a few months.

One final note is too remember you must master eating and training first before supplements can be effective. So many people try the other way around and wind up frustrated. No supplement can make up for a poor diet or poor training so vow to master these two facets first before wasting money on supplements. Once you master your diet than the right supplement at the right time can do wonders to improve performance but seldom does the supplement deliver when the diet is poor.

In the third part of this installment we will look at having a big reason why. The key to realizing your full physical potential.

Wade McNutt http://www.freakybignatural.com is a Natural National Bodybuilding Champion and an IFBB Mr. Universe World Champion. He combined the secrets of Eastern Yoga Masters with, scientific, muscle building to produce a revolutionary new system called Freaky Big Naturally. Learn More at: http://www.freakybignatural.com

Natural Bodybuilding Get Big or Die Trying II

Introduction The ?Death-X-Perts? - Walking Time Bombs!

So many guys like Dustin turn to the biggest guy in the gym for their advice or worse a chemically enhanced time bomb gracing the pages of the latest Magazine. What Dustin and many others don?t know is the cruel and never ending spiral of drug abuse that a ?one-time-only? first cycle can trigger.

Believe me the average dude in the gym who is slamming the latest chemical going around town is not going to tell you how to rebuild your kidneys, your liver, or heart after they fail because you decided gaining an extra 20 pounds of muscle with some ?barnyard, home brewed, chemical concoction? loaded with impurities, animal hormones, bacteria and a host of chemicals that would make a ?biochemical weapons chemist? nervous was worth risking your health.

After being in and around the bodybuilding industry for the last 20 years I can honestly say that I am stunned and horrified by the unnecessary risks bodybuilders around the world are taking daily in the quest for a bigger biceps. One of the biggest problems in bodybuilding is how many bodybuilders are getting horrific advice from ?Pill Pushing Plate-Heads? passing themselves of as medical professionals, expert trainers, and my personal favorite? ?Masochistic Philosophers?.

Death-X-Pert Number 1

Recently I flipped through all of the main muscle magazines and I reflected on the deaths, illnesses, and sufferings of the industries leading ?Death-X-Perts?. It all started with guys like Dan Duchaine, ?a.k.a. The Steroid Guru?, who was and still is one of the most famous ?Death-X-Perts? ever but the persona was in fact a complete fake as Dan in reality was a 6?6 175lb skin and bones chemical nightmare gone wrong.

I first met Dan Duchaine in 1999 at the Arnold Classic and I was shocked and horrified that anybody would listen to this guy after seeing him in the flesh. It became clear to me Dan was a media sensation not a real expert, which got me thinking. How many Fake Gurus are really out there in the Bodybuilding Industry?

It didn?t take me long to find out the pill pushing propaganda program had been going on for some time and was showing no signs of letting up.

Death-X-Pert Number 2

Dan was actually spawned from one of the original ?pro massive dosage of chemical regime? that first reared its ugly head with the Dynamic Duo of Mike Mentzer and his marketing mentor Arthur Jones. Arthur Jones was an eccentric billionaire who used a marketing concept he called ?Heavy Duty ? now called HIT?. Arthur Jones was not only rich but he was an exceptionally smart marketer and a fine writer.

Arthur Jones then wrote a series of convincing Pseudo-science training articles, which were printed in major muscle magazines. Arthur then viciously attacked anyone who opposed his outlandish principles using a mix of truth and falsehoods complete with philosophy from Friedrick Nietzsche and Ann Ryand.

He then selected genetically advanced individuals like Mike Mentzer who were all too willing to become brain washed stooges for Jones, by espousing Jones new training philosophy and ingesting a boat load of chemicals in order to successfully promote Jones?s fitness line called Nautilus Equipment.

The whole scheme worked and Arthur Jones made millions. Nautilus was a smashing success, and a few years later Mike and his brother Ray?s careers were over after Arnold Schwarzenegger defeated Mike in a controversial decision at the 1980 Mr. Olympia.

Death Sells - So Who?s Buying

I find it more than a little eerie that HIT training regained popularity after Mike Mentzer died at middle age. Mike was indeed a tremendous bodybuilder but his lifestyle certainly begs question onto the sanity of his principles and where they lead any person too.

Interestingly, very seldom do you see any mention of the boatload of drugs needed to be successful long-term on HIT training programs. Today?s unsuspecting bodybuilders? like Dustin get only half of the story about the real reasons behind the success of HIT trainees or the sensational rise of the bodybuilding elite who?s ?training and nutrition? articles appear each month in the magazines.

At least Arnold admitted to his use of Steroids to build his build his body during his ?Pumping Iron? days. In Arnold?s Day it was perfectly legal to obtain drugs from your doctor and most of the top guys were under medical supervision before, during, and after their cycles.

Of course it does raise a question to the long-term effects of these products considering some of the health challenges Arnold has faced in recent years. What?s even more interesting these days is the ?Governator? has taken a strong position against the use of drugs since entering into public office.

Death-X-Pert Number 3

Since the deaths of Duchaine and Mentzer? there has been an explosion of ?Wannabee-Steroid Guru?s? touting the latest ?cycle secrets? on the internet. One such expert who is all over the net everywhere and even sports his own column in a major muscle building magazine brags how he gives drugs to his son and then has the audacity to state the health conditions he has endured ?have nothing to with the drugs?- YEAH RIGHT!

I mean when you have parents willing to put their children?s health at risk just to make a few bucks and gain some notoriety it makes you kind of wonder just ?what the hell is going on?. Read on because it?s not over yet, here comes the latest ?bodybuilding brainwave? the Sultan of Synthol.

Death-X-Pert Number 4

Now just when you think things couldn?t get worse it did and we have guys like Greg Valentino spouting off advice to what people should take to look like him. Greg?s claim to fame is building grotesquely deformed arms using by injecting a host of chemical goodies directly into ?lagging muscle groups?.

The swelling and scar tissue inflates the muscle to outlandish proportions almost overnight despite putting the user at risk to a host of serious medical complications that can result in everything from scars, sores, amputations and even death. But hey? ?At least you can get big for a day.?

Despite the sheer insanity of this practice many mainstream television and Internet media sources jumped on the ?Big At All Costs Bandwagon? by cashing in on the newest batch of bloated chemically infused muscle mutants to create an ?Insane Size Circus? not seen since the days of P.T. Barnum and the Elephant Man.

In the meantime we have an epidemic of top professionals who have died over the last few years including former muscle magazine media darlings ?Andreas Munzer, Mohammed Benaziza, Paul Demayo, Don Youngblood, and an ever increasing list off dead athletes whose lives were cut short because of ?Mass Monster Mania?.

Yet still if you surf the net you will find all kinds of ?Misguided Mass Monsters? who are doling out Deadly Drug Advice to anyone and everyone who happens to enter one of the thousands of ?Serious Bodybuilding Forums? on the net.

Each one of these ?Gorilla Gurus? comes complete with there own sick and twisted version of what I call ?Faux Pharmaceutical Philosophy? and an array of one liners, silly names, and of course not one shred of credibility, reliability, or sensibility.

Still to the unsuspecting it?s easy to fall prey to the ?Muscle Mania? and the underground bodybuilding drug culture.

Cycles, Surgeries, And Supplements

You can also add to the growing list of dead bodybuilders the hundreds of illnesses, last minute surgeries, and career ending medical conditions that forced the retirement of guys like Mike Matarazzo, Flex Wheeler, Dennis Newman and a swelling host of unheard of amateurs who have spent their money, their health, and their lives in pursuit of a 10 dollar trophy.

(See World Renowned Trainer Scott Abel?s Blog on ?Dying to Win? as it gives even a deeper look into the dark side of bodybuilding).

Then on top of all that we have the ongoing and growing list of legal problems of the top amateur and professional bodybuilders. What?s even more disturbing is how many websites, forums, and ?underground newsletters? distribute and promote information that idolizes and victimizes these individuals all the while encouraging their members to be ?smart? about there drug cycle.

The magazines play ?Blind Eye? to the whole charade because many of these guys and gals physiques grace the big supplement companies? advertisements. These unscrupulous money mongers carefully manipulate the minds of consumers around the world by rolling out the latest over sized ?Muscle Mutant? to play on the insecurities of young men and women who compare themselves to these over-glamorized heroes.

Most of these ?sponsored athletes? are in reality victims of greedy business owners who are all too willing to exploit just about anything for the all mighty dollar.

The bottom line is most if not all of today?s ?Bodybuilding Sensations? are really suffering from a severe case of Muscle Dysmorphia, which is a medical condition as serious as bulimia and anorexia. (See the official definition from ANRED at the end of this article).

The Sad Truth of bodybuilding is many of the top pros and amateurs? lives are more tragic then triumphant, full of drug addiction, prostitution, and crime. I am sure you wondering how does such reckless exploitation occur and how does this all happen?

Keep reading dear friend as I reveal the deep dark secret formula that marketers use to hoodwink athletes, consumers, and yes even you to there schemes, scams, and outright shams. Get ready because here comes the BIGGEST BOMBSHELL OF ALL!

Wade McNutt is a Natural National Bodybuilding Champion and an IFBB Mr. Universe World Champion. He combined the secrets of Eastern Yoga Masters with, scientific, muscle building to produce a revolutionary new health system, called Freaky Big Naturally, find out more at http://www.freakybignatural.com