Seeing as its kind of on topic anyway, what is everyones views on supplements like whey protein and creatine.
Creatine is found naturally in your body and it's used to synthesize ATP, which powers your muscles. Creatine is also found in small amounts in meat. The idea behind creatine supplementation is to saturate your muscles to capacity to increase the intensity you can work out at (and therefore increase your results). Whey protein is a protein isolate. Aside from the protein from cooked eggs, whey protein is one of if not the most bioavailable protein you can consume. Studies show whey to be more effective than other isolate sources for muscular hypertrophy.
What would someone suggest for someone battling "bad genes" (waistband wise in the family) with these stats:
It's my professional opinion that "bad genes" are over-hyped. It's not the inheritance of genes but the inheritance of lifestyle that's truly the issue here; our gene pool didn't suddenly devolve into mediocrity over the last 5 decades, our lifestyles did. Your genes are going to be the determining factor between being fit and being an Olympic athlete, and there are legitimate obstacles that your genetics will present, but if the goal is to simply be reasonably fit they should not stop you.
5 foot 6 inches
150ish pounds (apparently a decent amount is muscle, so said the nurse at my surgery)
I'm looking to lose a bit of a small gut i have going and some fat on my chest, as well as build up a bit more muscle.
Any suggestions? I'm looking to hit the gym on campus around 3 times a week or really whenever im bored.
As
Leekohler said, talk to somebody and learn proper form. I can not stress this enough. 95% of my clients — even ones who are fit — can't do a proper bench press.
100% of them can't do a proper squat. You're going to do a squat and your glutes are just going to flop there and your vastus lateralis is going to fire up with your vastus medialis limping along like a car with a flat tire. If you're lucky you're going to use maybe 33% of the muscles you should be using, and the one that is firing is
already going to be chronically overworked. The same thing is going to happen on the bench press, you'll over-protract your shoulder girdle, your pectorals won't be isolated or properly stretched, and you're just going to be firing maybe 40-50% of your potential. If you're working your ass off but only using 1/3 of your ass, you're not only going to get tired way quicker, but you're wasting 2/3 of your potential.
Find somebody who knows what "glute activation" is, and just listen to them.
Oh, and do yoga. Not to lose weight, but to be healthy. I hate yoga, I think it's boring and annoying, but for a beginner who is self-directed, it's really useful. If you improve your flexibility you improve your biomechanics. Just getting your hamstrings stretched out improves your squat form immensely and automagically.
@The article:
The article was only as good as it's source, and it sounds to me like the author has the right idea, but isn't really going to a very good gym. I know the fitness industry in the United States is way different than it is here, and not in a good way. Sales driven gyms that are interested in getting people signed up for a bajillion sessions with trainers with high school track and field and a certificate they got over a weekend selling supplements are not a good source of information, and are in no small way playing an integral part in ensuring sub-optimal health.
Going to a gym any time after you're 20 years old isn't working out. It's actually a lot closer to post-rehab. You spent 20 years largely sedentary in a chair in a school eight hours a day, with gym class consisting of the jocks throwing balls at you and high-fiving each other. Humans didn't evolve to sit in a chair for large periods of time, they evolved to be constantly moving, to be upright, and to engage in long periods of slow, easy motion punctuated by brief moments of intense activity. Think about the position your body is in when you're sitting in a chair. Now lay down on your side and put your arms and legs in that position; all of a sudden it's like you're curled up in the fetal position. Some of your muscles are all scrunched up all day, and others are all stretched out. When you get up and walk around half of your body is a limp noodle floppin' around, and the other half is all tight and hunch-y.
Sitting around all day in a chair isn't healthy. I'm not suggesting that after 20 years of school your body is a useless wreck, but if those 20 years had been spent "as nature intended" you would have spent a lot more time moving, a lot more time upright, a lot more time sleeping, and a lot more time using those muscles. These are things that we just don't get in school. And it's not like the school structure would have to change radically to accommodate this, it'd really just be a matter of getting some truly well educated gym teachers and making gym compulsory for all of school. Yoga twice a week for half an hour and bam, solved. Don't build a hospital if you can just put in a stop sign.
The part about "rewarding" yourself after exercise is a big part of the problem, as well. Exercise isn't a good deed for which you should be rewarded. Exercise should simply be a part of life. The state of phys ed in schools is truly appalling, and I could probably launch into a diatribe here long enough to qualify for a University essay. We have to get out of the mindset that exercise is this thing that is hard and crappy and like work, and recognize that some good habits, a good attitude and a little integration is really all you need. I would kind of like to make my profession entirely irrelevant and see it relegated to rehab and post-rehab for accidents and injuries through some school reforms.
If you're already healthy and fit, you can maintain that with only about two to three hours of "work" a week. That's it. According to the Neilson ratings, the average person watches 4.5 hours of television per
day.
