Anyone have nay experience with PRe/Post training supplements?

Since I started my summer job, I've been up everyday at 5 and working outside doing a bunch of manual ass-busting labor, and it's been affecting my performance during my strength training sessions. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with the oft-cited NO boosters and creatine delivery systems like BSN NO Xplode, Dymatize Xpand, NOS GC, White Blood etc? I'm currently not supplementing heavily, only a multivitamin, CEE, Whey, and Glutamine. It's been working, but lately I've been feeling the fatigue. I've never tried Nitrous enhancers before, so I was wondering if anyone had any reviews before I made a purchase as they're relatively pricey.

try no-explode, if you need that extra boost it will wake you up and you will get more out of your workouts. You might want to up your protien intake to double what your taking rght now, because that wll help greatly. Like 40g of protien you use for post workout and eat some protien rght after your summer job, but it depends what your trying to do.

I would avoid NO. I've heard alot of bad things about it. Alot of people I know have experimented with it and have said that it really lets you down. You may get a good rush the first time you use it or for the first week, but after that you just might not feel it anymore. It's also overpriced. Plus, caffeine is highly addictive and you don't want to feel like you need it to get a good work out. I also wouldn't use it because you have no idea what kind of long term health effects it could have on you. The stuff really pumps up your veins and sends alot of blood throughout your body. Try the Ajinmoto Amino Vital products. I used to take the pills everyday before wrestling practice and they were a great natural energy booster. They also have a drink mix. Here's some more info about it.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/aj/af.html

Also stick with the whey and the glutamine and all that. That's good stuff!

[quote name='fatmanforlife99']try no-explode, if you need that extra boost it will wake you up and you will get more out of your workouts. You might want to up your protien intake to double what your taking rght now, because that wll help greatly. Like 40g of protien you use for post workout and eat some protien rght after your summer job, but it depends what your trying to do.[/QUOTE]

I usually take about 46G before and about 32G after, I do need to up it, but money has been tight lately and I'm waiting for my check to roll in. Basically I'm doing a fullbody routine 4 days a week (think football player routine Squats, Hang Cleans, Deadlifts, Front Squats, Rows and so on and so forth) with a core session on weds (abs) and each day I do 20-30 minutes of cardio.





[quote name='Ranger Rick']I would avoid NO. I've heard alot of bad things about it. Alot of people I know have experimented with it and have said that it really lets you down. You may get a good rush the first time you use it or for the first week, but after that you just might not feel it anymore. It's also overpriced. Plus, caffeine is highly addictive and you don't want to feel like you need it to get a good work out. I also wouldn't use it because you have no idea what kind of long term health effects it could have on you. The stuff really pumps up your veins and sends alot of blood throughout your body. Try the Ajinmoto Amino Vital products. I used to take the pills everyday before wrestling practice and they were a great natural energy booster. They also have a drink mix. Here's some more info about it.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/aj/af.html

Also stick with the whey and the glutamine and all that. That's good stuff! [/QUOTE]


Yeah, I heard of some side effects to NO products, but I almost ALWAYS hearthat it's the caffeine. I know that Dymatize Xpand doesn't have caffeine, so I figure I should try that and if I don't like it, don't order it again (though I'll be out $40). Everything is so complicated =(

I definitely need to follow this thread. I've been working out like crazy but lately I feel as though I've hit the wall or something. I don't take any supplements right now other than Nutrex Lipo 6 which is supposed to help me lose weight (I think all it really does is make me shit and keeps me not hungry but whatever). I want to start taking something else to give me more energy and help me recover quicker after I'm done lifting/running. I was thinking about trying some powdered protein or something but I honestly have no idea what to start with.

[quote name='javeryh'](I think all it really does is make me shit and keeps me not hungry but whatever). [/QUOTE]
I think that's the point of diet pills....

[quote name='javeryh']I definitely need to follow this thread. I've been working out like crazy but lately I feel as though I've hit the wall or something. I don't take any supplements right now other than Nutrex Lipo 6 which is supposed to help me lose weight (I think all it really does is make me shit and keeps me not hungry but whatever). I want to start taking something else to give me more energy and help me recover quicker after I'm done lifting/running. I was thinking about trying some powdered protein or something but I honestly have no idea what to start with.[/QUOTE]

:lol: Have you tried changing your routine? I know it sounds simple, but you'd be surprised at all the people who stick with the same weight/ 10 rep set for 4+ months. Find yourself a good Whey Isolate (I like Dymatize Elite, it's cheap and most of the flavors taste good. I would recommend Chocolate, Chocolate Mint, and Buttercream Toffee). If you want to spend some money, get some Creatine. I like Creatine Ethyl Ester because there's no loading/deloading phase, but it's more expensive than standard monohydrate. Remember to take a good multivitamin (I use AST 32x), L-Glutamine(essential, IMO) and make sure you're getting enough sleep. There's tons of other things you can buy if you have the money to spend, but a lot of them don't work (or at least don't make you huge like they would have you believe) so do your research.

ya the football routine is good, it helped me out a lot in high school in football and power lifting, but you should take all the protein after workout, because it is useless before hand, eat protein, tuna is the best man its cheap about 30 grams of protein a can, and has all the AAs you need that are natural, eat that before hand and save the supp for after workouts. make sure your getting plenty of the 5 essential amino acids for muscle building

oh ya, my favorite topic. At work right now, will go more in depth later. I wouldn't take any of the N0x crap. Gives you a better pump at the expense of your health. Im not aware of any good preworkout supps for energy, but I would recommend just eating oats or a sweet potato about 45 minutes before your workout. The good carbs in those will give you a huge boost when you are about to work out. Whole bunch of good post workout supps, ill post later about them.

As for your creatine esther whatever, the last time I researched creatine, creatine monohydrate was the only type of creatine that has been proven to do anything positive. This was a couple of months ago and science advances so fast, this might have changed, but i would recommend researching that. Especially since you said yourself it is more expensive than monohydrate.

Cool info. Thanks. I really need to read up on this stuff.

[quote name='afedock']oh ya, my favorite topic. At work right now, will go more in depth later. I wouldn't take any of the N0x crap. Gives you a better pump at the expense of your health. Im not aware of any good preworkout supps for energy, but I would recommend just eating oats or a sweet potato about 45 minutes before your workout. The good carbs in those will give you a huge boost when you are about to work out. Whole bunch of good post workout supps, ill post later about them.

As for your creatine esther whatever, the last time I researched creatine, creatine monohydrate was the only type of creatine that has been proven to do anything positive. This was a couple of months ago and science advances so fast, this might have changed, but i would recommend researching that. Especially since you said yourself it is more expensive than monohydrate.[/QUOTE]

I've just heard of NO boosters helping people out, so I figure I'll try it once. Like I said, I bought some Dymatize Xpand as it's one of the few NO products that DOESN'T contain Caffeine. If it sucks or screws with me, I'll be done with it. I'm not going to lie; my diet is pretty piss poor. I've cut out sweets and shit, but it's REAL hard for me to maintain a proper diet at my job (I'm outside ALL day doing manual labor), and my university strength center closes early in the summer, so I essentially only have about an hour after work before I have to be at the gym or my routine won't get finished. It's something I have to work on, I know, and since I'm living on campus this year I should be able to better monitor myself.

As for Creatine Ethyl Ester, it's basically creatine with an Ester attatched to it which is suppossed to better penetrate the cell-wall so you don't have to go through a loading/saturation cycle. I'm not sure how WELL it works, but it definitely works to some degree because when I don't take it, I notice a decrease in performance. I was thinking of trying monohydrate to see how it is, but I've heard of some bloating problems.

Anyway, I've seen that you know what you're talking about, so I'll take any input you have.

Ask me specific questions if you have any. If not, Ill just post all the supplements I take. What supplements you take really depends on your motives. If you are just trying to get big with as little effort as possible, then taking cellmass and celltech and cellmasstechmilkmuscles or whatever all that shit is called, will do the trick. Those supplements will get you jacked, but are also mixtures of shitty supplements, pro hormones, and some good supplements that are all mixed together, hence impossible to get the timings and dosages correct.

I dont take any of that shit. I work out to get bigger and also healthier. I find it pretty stupid to waste all that time in the gym to be ing up your insides. So, that is the first decision you need to make. Going the natural way is about 10x harder, you gotta decide if it is worth it to you. ( i have no idea why i just typed all of this because it has nothign to do with what you asked about)

About the creatine. I would just get some Optimum nutrition plain creatine monohydrate. Loading is really pretty easy and that shouldn't be a reason to not take the monohydrate. Its just 5 grams every 3ish hours for 5 days. Then maintain by taking 5-10 grams in the morning and 5-10 grams post workout (PWO). A cycle will last you up to 8 weeks, so it isn't really a big deal, just carry around a little ziplock and measuring spoon with you. As for the bloating problems, you will gain 5-8 lbs in water weight after you load, but if your Ester isn't doing this, then it isn't working. Creatine draws water into your muscles, I don't see how it would work without the water gain.

Since you are taking creatine, I would inform yourself about it so you can tell people to shut the up when they see the creatine in your house and they start calling it steroids.

Read these, report back later.

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/creatine myths and_facts.php
http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/creatineresearch12final.php (scientific research paper, probably hard to understand)
http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/creatineresearch2.php (much easy to read)

I'm basically trying to get bigger while developing real, practical strength. I'm just looking for something that will give me a boost, really. I'm not rich, so most BSN created shit is out, and I really don't waant to be ing with my horomones directly (otherwise I'd just buy a steroid stack, as they cna be purchased easily over the intertubes).

I'm just looking for supplements that get results (outside of Whey, Glutamine, and a solid vitamin of course).

Heh, you don't have to wory about the steroid thing (in relation to creatine), as most people who say that are twiggy morons anyway. I don't know about the water weight thing though. I've spent so much time trying to not look like a tubby bitch that I'm always terrified of gaining weight that's not lean mass. I went from 230lbs to 176 in 6 months (fat-ass to not fat ass) and I'm back at 206 right now with not a lot of fat(I'm in athlete to optimum fitness range % wise). I'd like to continue that trend, especially since I do not do mass/ diet cycles. Regardless, I know that Creatine helps. As for my CEE, since I've never tried monohydrate, I have nothing to compare it to, so perhaps when my CEE runs out I should just try monohydrate for a few months.

I would look into ZMA (zinc magnesium and vitamin B6 stack) and a supplement called HMB (its a branched chain amino acid). Also, an amino shooter might help, but I have never taken them as I am poor.

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/zman.php ZMA article

For best results, you need to make sure you are following the proper post workout nutrition. Read this article. I follow this protocol every time I workout and Ill tell you it works.

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/laywindownon.php

( if you are afraid of dextrose and maltodextrin being expensive, they aren't. 10$ for like 10lbs)

The thing I would recommend the most to you would be to follow that PWO protocol. That will get you the better results over these other vitamins by far.

Thanks for the links. I took your advice and had some oatmeal about 40 minutes before my session today, and while I didn't rack any extra weight, I just felt better. I'll give your suggestions a shot. Many thanks.