About the Beard

Sorry about the lateness of these videos.  Working on getting them up to speed.

Caring is Sharing

Video - Andy Talks Pre- and Post-Workout Supplements

See the video on Vimeo here.

Check It Out! - Fitocracy

A friend of mine got me hooked on this site recently.  If you're like me, and the internet is a big part of your life, or you really like to play video games, then Fitocracy may be the site for you.

Fitocracy takes the element of competitive gaming and puts a fitness spin on it.  When you sign in, you can log your workouts and get points for it.  For every point you get, you come closer to leveling up.  You can also complete achievements and special "quests" for more points.

If that isn't cool enough, you can join groups of your peers based on your interests or groups of people you know in real life, and compete against them for points.  

If you're wondering if there is a reward for getting points, the answer is no.  The reward comes from making a healthier you, but this does call to the competitive nature in all of us.  

Right now, Fitocracy is available by invite only.  Lucky for my readers, I have an invite link that I can share with you.  So here you go!

http://ftcy.co/nldd1P

We need to talk...

You might notice that I've not been around on here much in the last month.  This has been both intentional and unintentional.

I had to take a look back at what I had been doing with the blog and what I was doing in my personal life.  Let's be honest; that last post was pretty awful.  I felt that I needed some time to sort out my priorities and what I wanted to convey to my readers on this site.  Now I want to update you guys from where we left off.

Did anybody complete the Primal Blueprint Challenge?  I know that I didn't.  I was able to keep up with the exercise, but the diet fell through the floor.  I felt horrid for leaving off without any further update, but I knew that anything I would type would be short and boring, or a complete lie.  I haven't lied to you guys yet, and I don't plan to start now.

In short, I've not been following the best diet.  I have been exercising on a regular basis, and I have added some interesting things to my workout that I can't wait to tell you guys about.  As a result of this, I have neither gained nor lost any weight.  I want this to stand as a testament that losing weight is 80% diet and 20% exercise.


I'm trying my skills out in video form now as well.  I've already made one that needs some editing done, and as soon as I get it ran through all the hoops I'm going to send out to you guys.  I've also been talking with a guy who wants to be my personal trainer.  I've watched him work out a few times before and he really knows what he is doing.  I'm going to give him a try here soon, and I hope to pick up some new tips that I can also pass on to you.

Be on the lookout for new posts coming soon.  We're going to be talking about new websites, new exercises, and new diet tips.  Stick around for the show, because it's going to get good.  As always, thanks for reading and for your support.

- Andy

DIY Supplements

Oftentimes, when we get into the world of health and fitness, we can get caught up in all of the jargon.  This is, of course, possible with any subject you speak about.  The difference between other subjects and health and fitness is that this one affects you directly.

I know one aspect of this world that intimidates a lot of people is supplementation.  People can get really confused when they walk into their local vitamin shop and get bombarded with all the possible nutrients they could be taking.

I have had no problem in making a "guinea pig" out of myself.  There aren't many vitamins and nutrients that I wouldn't try, so long as they were reasonable and didn't have any potentially life-altering side effects.  I do this in the spirit of adventure and the quest for truth.  I want to know if something really works or if it's just another gimmick from some company to get your money.

My latest bit of trial and error has been in pre-workout supplementation.  I started out with basic energy-boosters with antioxidants like green tea tablets.  From there, I moved on to thermogenics, which are designed to boost energy and raise the temperature of your muscles for better performance in workouts.  Lately, I've been toying around with nitric oxide boosters.

Nitric oxide is used during workouts as a vasodilator (it causes the veins to get bigger).  Vasodilation during workouts is believed to accelerate muscle growth and increase stamina during workouts.  For me personally, nitric oxide seems to give me a bit of a boost when I am strength training.  I am able to lift more and I don't get exhausted as easily as I do without it.

Initially, I was using a basic supplement recommended to me by a guy in a local GNC store.  It was called N.O. Shotgun and it was a mixture of protein, creatine, nitric oxide boosters, and caffeine (with quite a few other things mixed in).  What I immediately noticed about this supplement was that it wasn't like other drink mixes I was used to.  It couldn't be shaken because that caused everything to turn into foam.  Also, the mixture of so many different ingredients caused it to have an "off" flavor.  Sometimes it was hard to swallow it all down!  I also wasn't a fan of being forced to use creatine every time I lifted weights, as I like to cycle on and off of that supplement.

I used this supplement for about two months during intermittent workouts and had no problems.  However, when I started using it on a regular basis with regular workouts, I noticed that I was getting nausea after my workouts.  I thought that it might have something to do with the flavor of the drink, so I tried switching to a different supplement.

My next trial was on N.O. X-plode.  This was also a powdered drink mix, like the N.O. Shotgun.  This supplement mainly contained nitric oxide boosters and caffeine.  I liked the idea of this supplement better because I knew that I got enough protein from my daily shakes, and I could add or take away creatine as I saw fit.  However, the nausea crept back up with this supplement shortly after taking it, just as it had with the previous one.

After much debate on how to solve this problem of nausea, a friend suggested that I make my own pre-workout supplement.  He reasoned that the ingredients were relatively simple to get;  I actually walked right into a random GNC and walked out with everything I needed.  He told me to survey the forums at Bodybuilding.com and find out what I needed for my supplement.  After some browsing on that site, I found the most common supplements thrown out were L-Arginine, caffeine, BCAA's, and creatine occasionally.  

So far, I have used a combined mixture of GNC Pro Performance Amp Amplified Muscle Igniter 4x - Orange, GNC Pro Performance Rapid Drive BCAA 5000, GNC Pro Performance Rapid Drive Arginine 5000, and GNC Pro Performance Creatine Monohydrate.  The first thing I want to say is that I had a hard time drinking the first mix because, in my opinion the Muscle Igniter 4x tastes terrible.  One review on the GNC website said that one person wouldn't even give it to their enemies.  It was completely my fault for not doing the research on the thermogenic before buying it, because I was only looking for a powder-form thermogenic.  I plan on returning it as soon as possible.

Other than that, I felt great when I used this self-made supplement.  Separately, these supplements can be quite costly, but when looking at things from a long-term goal perspective, it is cheaper to do things this way than paying for those pre-mixed supplements that you have no control over.

As time goes on, I will update my status with the quality of my homemade pre-workout supplements.  For the future, I am hopeful that this turns out to be the thing I've been missing.

-Andy

Primal Blueprint 30 Day Challenge - Day 9

Rounding up the end of day nine of the 30 Day Primal Blueprint Challenge; I am feeling pretty accomplished today!

Currently, I'm sitting at home and drinking a protein shake.  I just finished up a nice workout at the gym and I feel great.  My workout included:

1. Treadmill Warmup - 4 minutes
2. Bench Presses - 25 x 90lbs (plus bar and 1lbs x 2 holders)
3. Planks - 4 x 30 seconds
4. Kettlebell Swings - 16lbs x 2 minutes
5. Lateral Pulls - 25 x 180lbs
6. Double Bell Squats - 25 x 90lbs

This is my second workout of the week, the first being almost identical to this.  As you can see, I'm not going to the gym every other day or every three days like I used to.  However, I am much more active at home than I used to be and my diet has changed slightly.  

Oh, and my weight?  Here's the answer to that:

Current Weight: 341.6 lbs

Weight Lost Since Last Time: 4.4 lbs

Total Weight Lost: 59.1 lbs