SideSteel Member

Are you familiar with research directly comparing creatine to a placebo and what this means as far as identifying whether or not creatine is just a placebo?

What evidence would it take for you to change your opinion about BCAAs? (That's a genuine question by the way, and often an important one in the context of debates)

Would you change your opinion if I showed you research that compares creatine to a placebo and shows creatine coming out ahead? If creatine were just a placebo we shouldn't see it demonstrating a stronger effect when compared to a placebo. Your original statement was that supplements are BS, and that statement is patently…

This is an example of swinging the pendulum too far in the other direction. Many supplements are overhyped and don't work but it's inaccurate to suggest they ALL don't work other than steroids. Creatine, caffeine, whey protein, EFAs, are just a few examples of supplements that can definitely help in certain contexts.

Finally, regarding the gummy bears thing and insulin: The main benefit of insulin post workout is that it essentially blunts muscle protein breakdown and so more accurately we can say it's anticatabolic rather than anabolic. The need for an immediate carbohydrate to bring insulin levels up is quite questionable given that…

One thing I'd like for you to question yourself about, is the reliability with which we can make accurate observations and then attribute cause and effect based on those observations. One of the reasons we place a high value on research is that depending on the nature of the study, they can attempt to demonstrate cause and…

Giving this a new years eve bump -- I'll pop in a few times today if anyone has anything to add to the thread.

Best of luck this time around and feel free to let me know if you have any questions =)

Oh I'm sure it's coming. Three of my moderators in my Facebook group are both clients and feminists. I will never claim to truly understand what women go through but I can confidently say that these amazing women on my team have opened my eyes to both direct aggressions and hidden/indirect biases and it's definitely made…

Strong way to blame the OP for your inappropriate behavior.

Or another thing we could do just as an experiment would be to not be a random creepy dude on the internet. How about let's do that instead? To the OP: Unfortunately you can't control where your lose fat from, but it's reasonable to think that as you lose fat they will get smaller. It doesn't ALWAYS happen but in the…

Great questions. 1) You could make a theoretical argument for remaining somewhere between about 10 to 15% bodyfat based on how changes to insulin sensitivity could affect nutrient partitioning. If I'm being brutally honest, I wouldn't be able to go into great detail or quantify how important this is as it's not something I…

If it helps any, I don't think you are imagining things. It's likely a change in appearance due to fluids. Consider it a bonus! Its like an immediate source of feedback for training =)

We call that pubertygains, but either way you're doing great and congrats!

Provided that you meet the following conditions: 1) Your total calorie intake for the day lands in a reasonable spot for your goals. In other words are you able to reach or maintain a healthy bodyweight with your dieting habits? 2) The amount of added sugar in your diet does not cause you to become deficient in other…

This was incredibly thorough and also enjoyable to read. 1. If you're asking about focusing your efforts in terms of how to structure things for the goal of rowing, truth is I wouldn't know enough about the sports specific demands in order to help you structure that, but the info on the main page of this blog looks pretty…

So this post is in regards to both of the previous posts as it pertains to program selection. This is purely in the context of resistance training. There are some considerations I'd want to observe with respect to choosing a program and off the top of my head those would be as follows, and I'll also include what any good…

I would want to identify what movements you find embarrassing or silly and I'd remove those up front so that you're as comfortable as possible when exercising, so that your adherence/enjoyment of the program remains high. Another thing to consider is that strength can be defined in different ways. For example as a…

It will probably work but there are aspects of it I don't like. However, I'm likely biased in that I tend to program less movement variation in the main lifts for powerlifters. I would prefer to see more time spent doing competition movements. I do think some movement variation is fine but this particular program doesn't…

Hey dude! Yeah I thought I'd check in :)

Hi.

Two resources I often hear great things about are the following: 1) You are your own gym 2) Convict Conditioning The latter of the two has been posted online in pdf format for free so you may be able to google it and use that as a starting point. One thing to keep in mind is that we really want the big picture items taken…

I would urge you to go over this with your primary care physician. PHYSIOLOGICALLY yes it's possible. I think it's more a matter of what sorts of things you need to do in order to cause muscle growth and is there a stage in pregnancy where "those things" are no longer advisable. Additionally, recomping implies changes to…

I would first ask how things are going so far. Are you losing and are you able to stick to your diet? If the answers are yes, I would likely say "keep doing it". Having said that, I think the following things are likely valuable: 1) Protein is generally a very satiating macronutrient and diets higher in protein tend to…

I first need to disclose that for a fitness professional I know very little about the sport of weightlifting. I can make some assumptions about it but they are only assumptions. I would think that you are best off learning how much water weight you can SAFELY cut in the final week of prep and by SAFELY I mean such that it…

Also Rae, if you need help assessing this (sumo vs conventional) feel free to take a few vids and message me with them on facebook and I'd be happy to take a look.

If you'd like to cheat, yes. LOL Serious answer though: It depends on your goals. For pretty much all of my clients I'm going to base the decision on whichever one they are more comfortable with and/or perform the best in. If it's a competitive powerlifter or someone who cares most about 1rm strength I'll go with whichever…

Hey! Moving this up one last time then I'll let it die it's deserving death, lol. I'll be around today and tomorrow to check in. I hope everyone is doing well!

I'll be honest, this looks like a pretty big misrepresentation of low carb dieting at least as far as the title goes. The only potential mechanism mentioned would be tyrosine deficiency with no attempt to quantify it whatsoever. And so suggesting that it has anything to do with high carbs seems disingenuous.

Giving this one bump up, will check in this weekend. Thanks everyone!