I’m a bit depressed, as today is my 47th Birthday:without abs!..I’m on “blood pressure” medication (Verapamil), work in a “high stress” occupation, and hit the gym 2-3 times a week to lift (I do no cardio, hate it from my long ago Infantry soldier days:0)…Any suggestions on supplements that can help one in my situation? I’m currently using a sublingual GH spray and Tribulus daily, and pre-workout use liquid creatine and carnitine…First execises/warmup are abs (hanging knee raise and back raise, also use a 5lb dumbell for rotator cuff rehabilitation due to military injuries also) before touching any “heavy” weights…Appreciate any ideas/concepts/advice to help out this “Mean Ole’ Bastard”, who does not want to be an “Old Fat guy”…Thx in advance: “Snake”
Sublingual GH spray- Garbage, waste of money. Remember, real injected GH costing thousands of dollars a month in some cases is only known as a mild aide to fat burning, so what’s a legal supplement (probably homeopathic crapola) going to do?
Liquid creatine- Garbage, unless you’re talking about the creatine in Ribose-C. All the others are bunk.
I don’t think you need a supplement right now, except for something like a low carb protein powder or other “food” products. You didn’t mention diet. What diet are you using? Are you keeping a food log? Read “The Diet Manifesto” and “The Missing Ingredient” at T-mag. Then read all the past “Dawg School” columns. These are all written by YT. After you do that, post back and we’ll talk details and help you out.
Shugart covered it on diet. There are some ab training articles you should read, I would progress from Thinking Man’s to Evolution to Hanging Circumduction.
Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION
Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION
Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION
Snake, Never give up! I am 44 and have been training for 4 years. Diet is important, but getting motivated to keep your ass in the gym and do the cardio is critical. Supplements can help burn fat like T2 and md6, but it doesn’t do shit if your still eating donuts and only doing 2 to 3 half hour cardio sessions per week.
I quit drinking alcohol some 6 years ago (Don’t worry TC Im not the greeting card loser you wrote about last issue) and decided to spend my bar money on a kick ass trainer. I have cut 9% body fat over the last 3 years and am entering my first bench deadlift competition this Sept.
Whats the point, don’t quit. Keep trying to find various changes in your cardio to keep you going and to burn fat. It can be done. You might have to get radical on your food and program, but you can do it. Your mind will give up befoe your body, so listen to music, switch from 20 min. on bike to 20 min on tread mill to 20 min on stair stepper to keep it interesting. Good luck
true dat. gh spray=bullshit. If taking a tribulus product, most are garbage also. Tribex is the best from the research I’ve done, and there are 1 or 2 others that may be decent. Liquid creatine is not worth the hype, not any better than cheaper counterparts. Try androsol if legality is an issue(or even if it isn’t)and md6 with a keto diet. Haven’t tried t2 yet, but it sounds great.
Wow, glad to get some feedback!..I should be more specific in a few areas, for example, understand that since I’m on “blood pressure” meds, I cannot safely use any of the “fat burners”, especially the ECA style stacks, or risk ending up in Hospital/Morgue with an embolism! (which would really inhibit seeing my abs for the first time in 47 years, eh?:0)…If I can find a way to “burn off” my “handles” and such with the energy created in my weightlifing gym time (again, I do NO cardio, just lifting, except for starting out with ab work, knee raise/back raise + rotator cuff rehab work before hitting any “heavy” stuff)…Diet wise, I generally eat “semi-clean” but am not fanatical about it (like fried chicken & corn on saturdays; sushi, veg, eggs, fish, etc the rest of the time, but usually in 2+ feedings a day, due to job stress, just now learned to avoid carbs except for green veg after 1300 Hrs, which i’m starting to incorporate…I have no sweet tooth, hate dairy, & fruit, love veg and carbs…Gimme Chow Mein and Burritos please!/;0)…It was suggested I try Androsol, since the GH spray and liquid creatine have been said by the majority to be inneffective “crap”, and MD6 is out of the question as it could kill me…Methoxy7 is advertised as being the perfect anabolic for me as it claims to build lean and burn flab, my main concerns, without condraindicating my BP Meds (True or not?), and Andro/Nandrosol sound good, except that the directions for use are unclear for weeks 3-5, since they do not say if one must use Tribex alone at that point or Tribex and And/Nan with the tribex or Tribex alone…At my age, I don’t have a lot to “lose” by taking a few extreme chances for the results I need (Only have a few “bangin” years left, and won’t get any “play” as a “fat old guy”/;0)…So I reckon if I have the intestinal fortitude to get my butt in the gym and do the work, I should at least get some reward from it, which I have not been seeing the past few years…Anyway, I hope this info will help you “dial in” on the specifics of my predicament…Ideas, comments, advice?..
Sounds like you have no idea how many calories you comsume per day or grams of protein, fat, and carbs. Also, are you only eating two meals a day or did I misread that?
Anyway, the problem is clearly your diet, so I’m going to forgo offering any supplement advice until you start a food log and are able to give us some numbers to work with.
If you wanna look better than the other guys your age, you are going to have to do the things they are not willing to do. Keep a food log, get some discipline, make this happen for you. Abs will not come by accident, or by making a half-hearted attempt. Money spent on supplements will not make up for lack of control in the food dept.
Once you are able to get your diet under control you may not even have to use meds for high blood pressure. I just turned 40 today, I’ve been working out for about 2 1/2 years and although I’ve never been fat, I’m now in the best shape of my life! 6’ 205 lbs 18%bf
I still want more mass, so I have been packing it on rather than cutting. I know I’ve got a great set of abs under there somewhere. I have a plan to be ripped, at least for awhile in my 40’s again in my 50’s & 60’s. Maintaining it may not be possible, but I’ll get shredded off & on each decade, just so I can be a shredded old fart!
I am just starting a log… what ya got to lose snake (other than a few pounds)?
Hmmm…I have been fanatical about keeping a workout log, but have not even considered keeping a food log, the concept is “new” to me, believe it or not(!)…I’ve never quite understood this thing about percentages of fats, carbs, protein except in very general terms, after all, there are no “labels” on a slab of steak or a bag of broccholi! (i.e. I try to eat equal proportions of say meat/rice/veg, much like Cantonese Chinese style cooking promotes, except for the final meal of straight protein, canned crabmeat tonight BTW:0)…Hope I’m making some kind of sense here)…Grasshopper awaits some enlightenment!;0)
Snake, read this:
Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION
Two suggestions to make the food thing easier: #1, go to the cyberdiet website (just add a .com) and click on “eating right”. You will find any nutritional content of almost any food. This will take care of the broccoli and steak thing. #2, go to the innovativelogic website (again, add the .com) and download crosstrainerII. It is a program you can try free for a month (and afterward it’s cheap anyway). You tell it what you ate, it will tell you the percentages of carbs fat protein and it will tell you calories. I plan my whole day’s food before I take my first bite. You can also log your aerobics and weight training on the program if you want.
Snake, this may help also, if the moderators will let me post a link:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl
It’s a link to the USDA nutritional database. You can find everything from Steak to Corn Flakes in there.
Chris, Ironbabe & Spanky: Appreciate the info, will follow up on it…Again I want to say that my diet is “relatively clean” as I have no “sweet tooth”, fruit cravings or dairy cravings…Please re-read my earlier posts on the subject for more detail…I suspect my age and metabolic rate have more to do with growing “handles” on my obliques, but I will defer to opinions from you all that have “been there done that”…At the least I know the sublingual GH is a scam now (although I’m already out about $140 bucks using em’ already)…Bottom line is that I simply hope to maximize results for the sweat I’m putting out lifting in the gym…(Just a little ab square, please?:0)…Gards’