Video Friday - Awesome Squats

Here is an incredible sequence of various people doing squats. Squat til you drop! Have a great weekend.

Tags: squats, video, weight lifting, you tube

Fat Burner or Cough Syrup??

I recently reviewed the fat burner by SAN called Tight. My next review will be of the ready to drink (RTD) fat burner Redline. The tagline for Redline products is "freeze and burn". I'm not actually sure what the "freezing" part is about but I'm sure the "burn" is inferring fat burning. Initially, I wasn't really impressed by the ingredients:

Caffeine Citrate
Caffeine Anhydrous
EvoburnTM (Pure Evodiamine)
N-acetyl-tyrosine
Yerbe Mate
Green Tea
5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan
CAMP (adenosine cyclic 3',5'-monophosphate)
Vinpocetine
Yohimbine HCL

It is a bunch of stimulants sort of like Tight, fat loss by brute force nothing really elegant. I thought that the addition of cAMP was rather interesting. cAMP is a second messenger that is responsible for many things, one of which is lypolysis (freeing stored body fat). But I highly doubt that ingesting cAMP is going to help that AT ALL. Plus it is probably in such small amount that it couldn't possibly do anything (Note: I'm researching an article on supplements that stimulate cAMP so look out for that).

I knew off the bat that this supplement would take away my appetite (and it did) as it has my friends yohimbine HCL and caffeine. Like a jerk I drank the whole 8oz bottle without taking the time to "determine my tolerance level". To make it even worse I took it at 4pm before I went for a jog. Well, I was up literally all night. Man was I wired! I just laid in bed staring at the ceiling for hours. I finally got 2 hours sleep but woke up extremely jacked up and not rested at all. I found I did best with the Redline if I only took 2-4oz.

In the end I only used 2 of the 4 Redline RTDs that came in the package because the taste was awful! It tasted like cough syrup!!! I gagged every time I drank it. Even if the drink was chilled it was nasty. VPX (the makers of Redline) need to go back to the drawing board in the flavor/taste department.

I'll be testing out a free sample of MuscleTech's naNOx9 tomorrow. Now MuscleTech says that "Within 9 seconds of taking naNOX9, rapid compound diffusion is initiated, setting the stage for the most extreme, skin-stretching muscle pumps you'll ever experience." I've never used a nitric oxide supplement before (because I think they are a waste of money) but I'll let you know how it works out.

Technorati Tags:fat loss, supplements, reviews

Fish Oil Q & A

I've recently participated in a inpromptu questions and answer session online regardings fish oil supplementation. Here are some of the highlights:

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Mike R: I just glanced through Charles Polquin's new article and I noticed a misleading/incorrect statement that is important to note:

"4. Fish oils diminish C-reactive proteins..."

There is an epidemilogical study that shows that people that eat more fish have lower levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) HOWEVER data from randomized clinical trials (the "gold standard" of research) show that EPA/DHA have no effect on CRP (I wish it did). Alpha linolenic acid (ALA) as found in flax does have powerful CRP reducing effects.

IK: Charles mentions consuming 45 grams a day. He mentions 3 tablespoons a day, instead of the 45 capsules you'd have to take.

That's a LOT. Mike, what do you think about that?

Mike R: The problem here is the same problem that I mentioned in my 27 Nutrition Facts article on T-Nation

2. I hate it when people give fish oil recommendations and talk in terms of capsules or grams of fish oil. Talk in terms of EPA and DHA! Otherwise it just confuses people! There is no standard concentration of fish oil so saying that you take 3 one gram capsules means crap. EPA and DHA is what matters.

Charles didn't specify EPA/DHA and if you go to his website and look at the liquid fish oil he sells you can't see the nutritional facts to see how pure it is. I would assume (it is a pretty safe assumption) that Charles' fish oil is 30% pure and thus 45 grams of fish oil is only 13.5g EPA/DHA. Thus he is recommending 9-13.5 grams of EPA/DHA. This isn't that outrageous in that studies have found that 25-30g EPA/DHA is well tolerated without adverse bleeding effets. But as Canadian_Bacon has pointed out "results may vary". I wouldn't recommend that you follow Charles' recommendations using a 30% pure fish oil supplement as your exposure to potential toxins will be greatly increased. But if you choose a higher purity/potency product, increase you dosages in a stepwise manner over time, and spread your intake out across the day (I wouldn't consume more than 5 grams at a time) I'm sure you would see a benefit....to what extent I'm not sure because the most I've ever consumed was 7 grams EPa/DHA per day......

Oh yeah just a CYA...check with your doctor first.

IK: So Mike, when you say "purity", you mean the percentage of EPA/DHA per gram?

If that's the case, then mine is 50% pure. (Vitamin World's Super Omega-3)

I had a discussion with Alan the other week on this, and he was of the opinion that, like so many other products, more isn't always better, including fish oil.

What I take now is 6 pills = 3g epa/dha.

Obviously you don't know my specifics, but would you say that if I slowly ramped up to say 6g epa/dha, that I would feel noticeable differences? Would those be largely joint related? I know there are myriad benefits to the stuff, but what would be noticeable to me in the short run (over 4-6 month period)?

(I'm mainly just curious, but my asthma has been "less than under control" recently, and I'm curious as to how supplements might help.)

Mike R: A rough inference of purity is potency (% of EPA/DHA per gram). 50% is not bad.

I agree that more is not alway better, even with my most loved fish oil. But if you are increasing the amount for a specific reason (e.g. improve asthma) then it can be warrented. If I were you would I move up to six grams EPA/DHA to see if it improved my asthma, yes.

The data with EPA/DHA and asthma is far from conclusive but it is suggestive (wow that was a vague statement!). You would notice the difference much sooner than 4-6 months. Red Blood cell levels of EPA/DHA can equilbrate in as little as 4 weeks (4-6wks is the range found in the literature). So I would imagine that if you were going to see a difference then you would see it by then.

Keep a journal so monitor the status of your asthma (inhaler use, frequency of chest tightness, response to exercise, etc) as that will be the marker of improvement in this situation.

Again...check with your doctor

Tags: fish oil, supplement, asthma, omega-3, nutrition

When to supplement with BCAA

Branched Chain Amino Acids or BCAAs are one of the hottest supplements on the market. People always want to know:

"Do BCAA work?"
"When should I use BCAAs?"
"What BCAA should I buy?"

I've recently participated in a great discussion on BCAA, their effectiveness, and use. You can check it out (and you definately want to) over at the JP Fitness Forums.