My philosophy on fitness, or wellness at large, is that it is something that I must do to keep myself at my highest possible physical, mental, spiritual, social, and intellectual conditioning. The old adage, 'use it or lose it' is definitely true. Moreover, to me these efforts are akin to sleeping and eating. Never ever has any human said on a consistent basis...'I don't like to eat, so I don't...' Or, 'I don't like to sleep, so I choose not to...' Yet I have had conversations with many others that basically tell me they don't like to eat healthy foods, or exercise. The reasons given are somewhat vast. To them, it is almost this thing where they feel it is beneath them. To me, as in someone who has been on a wellness regimen for decades now, it seems like apathy. Their reasons just seem like excuses. Some of these very same people are now deep into middle age, take medications for high blood pressure, cholesterol, and are pre-diabetic. Yet STILL refuse to eat well and exercise.
On the other end, over the years I have seen some people exercise with a focus more on vanity than on their health and wellness. In other words, they go to the gym to get the six pack abs, big butt and thighs, and slim down to an ultra shred level. Often they use means that involve ingesting nefarious substances as an aid, or to expedite the process. One such person I can remember from my early twenties, happened to be just a few years younger than myself. To my recollection he was much less than 5' in height, perhaps even born with the genetic disorder known as dwarfism. Regardless, he was a very engaging and popular dude. One time, he told me about how he and his friend were taking steroids. When I asked him why, he told me that when he went to the club and saw all the buff dudes in their tank tops getting all the attention from the ladies, he wanted a bit of that for himself. He was not overly muscular, neither was his friend, but they still wanted whatever they could get from steroids. Later on, his friend got into a motorcycle accident. The doctors and nurses treating him at the hospital suspected he was on steroids and bluntly asked him if this was true, to which he was forced to admit to it. Reason being is apparently he needed steroids for the recovery process, and a normal dose would not suffice due to some tolerance the young man had built up at that time. Which seemed kinda crazy to me.
Present day, on the odd occasion, I can hear people openly talk about their steroid use at my gym. Better yet, I can go up on YouTube and find videos of young men, with say an average age of 30, articulately justify why they have been undergoing testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) at such a young age.
Both are used (some say abused) for the same reasons. To get them gym gains. To get buff. To recover quicker. To hold less body fat. To look great on your social media posts. Steroids are illegal, and wildly abused. TRT is medically administered by doctors who should only be giving this to people with a deficiency in testosterone, like the elderly.
Regardless this doesn't faze me one bit since it entirely is not my scene. I've seen these very same things happen in various different ways over the years. I just keep to myself, put in 4-6 hours per week (not including socializing at the gym and round trip travel) of exercise, eat fresh whole minimally processed foods and that's it. If others want to go that route that is their decision and it doesn't affect me. However they must be aware that other people are watching. And in the case of these popular social media influencer's that admit to using these things for an aesthetic gain, millions of young kids are watching.
Ever since the pandemic there has been an uptick of teenagers that have begun to join my gym. This time without parental supervision which was the case prior to shutdowns. If I can hear these steroid conversations when I workout, so can they. Some of these teenie boppers even become acquainted with these individuals who casually let people know within an earshot what they're up to behind closed doors. Like the other day when I overheard a buff middle aged man, whom I believe is a school teacher, talking to a younger man, perhaps 18-22 years old, about how he doesn't really regret taking steroids because it really helped him place well at a body building competition... But otherwise wish he never took it.
Not sure about you, but I would not want a child of mine to be exposed to those type of conversations. Well, at least I would want to be there myself to help my kid digest and understand that information without taking an influence.
Then there is the pre-workout phenomenon, which is the title to this whole post. What is pre-workout you ask...? It's basically dubbed as a physical performance enhancer that comes in powder form. Just mix it with some water, chug it before your workout, and boom...! Show up and show out at your local gym. The four main ingredients I have seen are: caffeine, creatine, BCAA's, and something to facilitate elevated or accelerated blood flow to those muscle groups in need.
Caffeine is self explanatory. Recently I've stopped drinking coffee. Never have I consumed it right before a workout. On a rare occasion I will go for dark chocolate for a small dose of the stuff. Anyway, I will explain my reasons why I stopped drinking coffee at large and my experiences on and off such large quantities of caffeine in another post.
Creatine is generally used for muscular performance. It is an amino acid available via seafood and red meat. Your body even produces about 1 gram per day via the liver, pancreas, and kidneys. It may help in physical recovery efforts, cognitive abilities, and increasing muscle mass by attracting water to muscle fibers. I once heard from a triathlete that on creatine, his thighs became so big he felt it was a detriment to his biomechanics, particularly during the run portion. But some people like it perhaps ignoring issues it may have created, or having none whatsoever.
Branch Chained Amino Acids (BCAA's) are used to increase muscle energy. From my research, it seems as though these reduce the need for your liver to keep increasing levels of glycogenolysis, or the breakdown of glycogen. Perhaps even keeping the glycogen stores within your muscles topped up for longer. Glycogen is blood sugar, one of the main sources of energy in your body. Glycogen stores is stored away glycogen in your muscles of course. About 75% of the glycogen in your body is found in your muscle mass. Once those go, so does your energy levels. Personally, when I want to do a big lift, say for a personal record or something, I get it done right after my warm up. And, I try not to take out too much energy from said warm up. Once the big lift is completed in my first set, my energy is notably depleted. If I try to do the same big lift by working up to it on my last set, it won’t work. I will have lost too much energy. I'm sure the BCAA's would help with this. But it still doesn't make me want them.
To improve blood flow to your extremities, nitric oxide production helps. In your body, it relaxes your blood vessels. Once relaxed, they open up allowing increased volumes of blood to reach your muscles at a faster rate. Blood carries glucose and oxygen, both of which can be used for muscle energy. The more muscle energy the more you lift. Nitrates found in green leafy vegetables can improve nitric oxide levels. Deep breathing through your nose and out of your mouth can increase nitric oxide levels. Not using a mouthwash can as well. But the supplementation industry wants you to have more more more.
When I was in my early twenties pre-workout was not a thing. But creatine and whey protein was. I tried both. After a visit to the doctor for a checkup when I was 23, I got a call at work from the man telling me to get back to him immediately. Worried, I called him back and he stated that my liver enzymes were elevated and that I should stop all supplementation. Or maybe it was me that decided all by my lonesome to stop, can't remember. All I know is that for a few months afterwards I had to do a bunch of tests at specialists. EKG's, trips to the gastroenterologist to test for hepatitis-c. It was kinda scary. Especially the hepatitis-c thing since it is basically signs of an inflamed liver, which apparently is bad. Your liver filters your blood. These two, particularly I feel the creatine, were trashing my liver to the point where the elevated enzyme levels were acting like a canary in a coal mine. More reason for me to stop. So I did. And never had a problem since.
Personally, my wellness regimen is to facilitate my performance as a human in general. In all aspects of my life. Everything else is secondary. The amount of weight I see these young people lifting at the gym today is insane. At the moment, I deep squat 204 lbs for ten repetitions, a personal record. I've seen a 19-20 year old female, with a normal build, do 204 lbs for 8 reps, easy. I just saw a high school student do 314 lbs for multiple reps the other day. He has an athletic build, not a super buff one. He is not terribly tall or muscular. I commend them, because that's impressive. But, I know that the pre-workout is popular these days. And it makes me wonder.
I like my joints. I respect my spine. And if I take a physical performance enhancer of any kind, I would be worried about my joint and spine health long term. Because, my muscles will be fueled to such an extent that I would physically be able to lift weight that both would potentially not be able to handle. In other words, those systems of my body would be in jeopardy. And I most certainly don't want to trash my liver once more. So I chose to stay away. Me thinks you should as well...!
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