GNC Employee Here

Nutrition
21

[quote]Terumo wrote:
That thought brings me to my final recommendation:

You should invest your money in those things that truly give your body those precious materials required for constructing gains that are more permanent than a simple “pump.” I would recommend, in order, the following products for someone in your situation:

  1. A solid, all-purpose protein powder
    *Grow!
  2. A concentrated EFA supplement
    *MembersMark Omega3 and/or Udo’s Oil Blend
  3. A multiple vitamin
    *GNC Ultra Mega Gold w/out Iron
  4. Plain creatine monohydrate
    *ProLab, Labrada, or AST

And if the stuff comes back anytime soon, Biotest’s Surge is as solid of a post-workout drink as you can get.

Save the “new-fangled” ergogenic aids for after you have a strong nutritional base. You will thank yourself, and your wallet will be fatter.

~Terumo[/quote]
Great advice.

22

About every 3 months for the past 2 years I buy a multivit at GNC. This product has never once been in the same spot on successive visits to the same store.

Why does GNC constantly change the store and product layout?

23

No offense but 6’2 and 160lbs means that you have never gotten good results(unless you weighed 135 before). You need to eat like there is no tomorrow, get on a solid basic training program that empahasizes the basic compound lifts: bench press, deadlift, squat, military press,bent over row, weighted pull-ups and weighted dips. Fuck the supplements and get your trianing and calories in order.

Mike Mahler

24

Atreides: I’m not plugging GNC, I hate GNC. There are so many bad qualities about it. I’m just saying I have access to lots of stuff.

I’ve read a whole lot of articles on this site, I’ve just never posted before. I keep hearing how great Surge is, and how sold out it is. Is it sold in any stores? I don’t recall seeing it. But I want it.

I do compound lifts, I just started the the Total Body Training routine. I have a protein shake within 45 minutes of working out. I don’t keep a food diary, which I’m sure would do me good. I do eat some protein source every meal.

I don’t think being injured is a lame excuse. I had bad shoulders for a while from baseball, horrible tendonitis in some wrist/elbow ligament in both arms, and I with asthma I get sick enough twice a year to need antibiotics and steroids. I’ve been doing things about both the injuries and the sickness, maybe I just stop eating to keep my muscle gains, but I sure as hell have tried working out and its made things worse.

The ZMA I took before was about 5x the price of the Biotest stuff, it had L-dopa and other goodies, but for cheap is good.

Terumo: I appreciate it. Yeah, I do my best to actually talk to people and inform them about things, but it’s hard when some of the best products don’t get you money. The Zmass I took explicitly had extras like L-dopa extract, there are 2 kinds of Zmass. I even called the company to ask before I got it. I’ll never pay for NO2. For the little effect I felt, it was not nearly worth it. You seem like you should know this, if vasodilation is so good (in principle, I understand what you mean by the drop in blood pressure), why do people have caffeine? Doesn’t it constrict the blood vessels? I do take omega-3’s and the multivitamin. I have a stockpile of protein powder because it was all reaching the expiration date so I got it dirt cheap. I did like creatine when I used it, so I’ll look for one of your recommendations. I was basically looking for some advice about what kind of creatine and similar products when I started this post, not some wonder-pill.

Atreides: Some people have to justify their do-nothing jobs, the way I see it.

Mike, I do all those lifts. People have told me I’ve gotten bigger than at some point before, if you could imagine that. I know training and eating are most important. I’m working on it.

25

Well,

it seems to me you should be looking at all the “hardgainer” articles on this site. Drinking a LOT of whole milk for someone with your apparent metabolism I think is a great idea (a lot of the “old timers” used to swear by milk for muscle gains). There’s ample knowledge now to understand why. Keep in mind this probably wouldn’t be a good idea for someone with less than your turbo powered metabolism.

Your use of TBT (total body training) I think is ideal. However, you might want to consider one small modification. Since you’re young and presumably don’t have a great number of years training, and want to gain muscle, I’d suggest you do two of your weekly three workouts in the 5 rep range, one in the 8 rep range. Sandwhich the 8 rep workout in between the 5 rep workouts. This will ultimately lead to greater neural effeciency, strength, and ultimately muscle mass. You might want to ask Chad Waterburry what he thinks.

Now, to your question about supplements:

  1. protein powder/MRP (whey for post-workout; a casein/whey mix otherwise). You shouldn’t think of protein powers, and especially quality MRP, as supplements. They are food. The whole idea behind met-rx when it first came out was that it was an engineered food. This should be the foundation of your nutrition. Now, some people will argue that I’m placing too much emphasis on a “supplement” and not enough on plain ol’ food. While it’s true, you don’t want to consume nothing but protein/MRP shakes, the reality is that with todays quality protein powers/MRP’s you can get an easily transportable protein source that is both easier to prepare and overall higher in quality than traditional soild food. The QUALITY of your protein sources are just as important, if not more so, than the quantity.

  2. Creatine. For God’s sake this debate has gone in circles for years now. No, you don’t need massive quantities as many used to advocate, yes it is effective, especially in the long run, for setting up an enhanced anabolic environment in the muscle cell.

Now, having said that, not all creatine products are created equal. The carb source that accompanies the creatine (as an insulin stimulator, among other things) has a very large impact on the efficacy of the product.

There is a creatine/carb product out there (and I won’t mention the name because the powers that be might not let this post through–although I don’t know why, I’m not plugging a product that competes with any Biotest product). Anyway this product (and you’ll be able to look around, say, on the internet and figure it out) uses a unique carbohydrate that was developed and tested at the Karolinska Institute in Sweeden. This carb is light years ahead of any other carb source in terms of creating an active transport system for creatine, as well as replinishing muscle glycogen. This product, in my opinion, has no competion.

The carb is called Vitargo, and it is VERY popular amongst european athletes. However, only one company in the U.S. has sole licensing rights to use it in their product.

  1. A good muti vit./mineral w/o iron (or at least with minimal amounts).

  2. Vit. C–especially post workout

5)I think you might be able to benefit from a good testosterone booster, like Biotest’s Alpha Male. However, due to your age T levels should be peaked, but the Alpha Male will ensure they’re at the high end of normal. By the way, I’d skip the pro-steroids because of your age, naturally high T levels, and the fact that you haven’t stopped growing yet and pro-steroids (or steriods) can stunt full development in people who are still growing

  1. EFA’s. I use a mix I make of 2parts flax oil: 1 part olive oil. I also use fish oil caps for the EPA/DHA

  2. ZMA. A mineral supplement that has been shown in research to both improve quality of sleep (and thus aid recovery)and help keep Testosterone levels within peak range.

Hope that helps,

Crowbar

26

I read this thread and just had to get this off my chest after today. I went to the mall with a friend who got caught up with a salesman at another store. Trying to bail out I walked into the GNC next door. Out of curiosity I asked the kid working if they had any biotest products (I’m out of Low-Carb Grow!). He thought for a minute then walked me over to a shelf where there were two tubs of Classic Grow! I asked how much he said 50 bones! He said he could get me 20% off and I said he could kiss my arse.

Either way I still need some Grow!

This was not intended to flame you verve. Just wanted to clarify that.

vd