Tag: workout

Five Creatine Myths Exposed

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness

With all the misinformation that is being passed down, we talked about 10 Fitness Myths That You Might Still Believe last week!  Here are FIVE common myths regarding creatine:

  • Myth #1:  Creatine will make your belly fat when you stop taking it

Contrary to what some people believe, creatine will not make you store fat anywhere on your body when you stop taking it!  Fat is actually stored due to an excessive caloric intake.  As you eat more calories than what your body needs, it stores them calories as fat for any possible oncoming genocide.

So it is safe to say that the fat isn’t caused by creatine.  Sadly, that means that “creatine makes you fat” is probably just a scapegoat used by someone who doesn’t want to diet or add more cardio.

Creatine doesn't make you fat. Donuts do. ..image by newgrounds.com
Creatine doesn’t make you fat. Donuts do. ..image by newgrounds.com
  • Myth #2:  Creatine will make you store too much water weight

This is partially true!  However, I add this to a list of creatine myths because of how exaggerated this statement often is!  While creatine will add water weight, it won’t make you look like you’ve been on prednisone for five months!

If you’ve ever been on prednisone or any other corticosteroid for illness, you’ll understand.  The moon face you get from those is all water weight, and creatine won’t do that.  In fact, creatine will help you build some nice muscles so the pros will far outweigh the cons! 😉

"I should have never taken creatine!" :(
“I should have never taken creatine!” 😦
  • Myth #3:  Creatine is bad for your kidneys!
..image courtesy of iheartguts.com
..image courtesy of iheartguts.com

This is the most common myth regarding creatine and it’s understandable!  I get the logic behind it:  Creatine works, therefore there has to be something seriously bad about it.  That’s how steroids are, and even preworkout recommends you take a week off now and then to avoid some bad side effects.  However, countless studies have shown that creatine is actually healthy and won’t harm your kidneys.  In fact, this next myth is going to shock you..

  • Myth #4:  Creatine is NOT natural

Contrary to this myth, creatine is completely natural and can actually be found in some of the foods we eat on a daily basis but in small quantities.  Creatine is found in different forms of meat, and if you eat red meat you will have plenty of creatine phosphate saturation.

Epic Chris Farley image is courtesy of pinterest.com
..Epic Chris Farley image is courtesy of pinterest.com
  • Myth #5:  Creatine Needs To Be Cycled

Absolutely not!  Creatine saturates your muscles so when you’ve taken it consistently it starts to have its charm.  If you take a week off every so often you are actually just dehydrating your creatine stores and not getting the most benefit from creatine.

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I use 10 Grams of the GNC brand of creatine every day.

Thanks for reading!  Remember, those are just five myths related to creatine.  Always receive your information with a grain of salt, and do the research yourself so you know what you’re putting into your body.

Routine Comes First

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness, Motivation

With the exception of getting hurt really bad and having a death in the family, you should always make time to do something you’re committed to every day. It’s acceptable to have an off day, but let’s say you work out. If you’re working out, you do not want to get into the habit of missing days, ever.

Now you may be thinking, isn’t it a little harsh to only miss when something as extreme as mentioned above happens? True. It is fairly extreme, but the point in being dedicated and committed to something is to make sure that you develop the character needed to be punctual and to achieve your goals. It’s about having the attitude that dictates you’ll never want to miss an opportunity to better yourself.

Remember this, and if you’re feeling like skipping a day just make sure you know that an attitude of skipping, quitting, and not trying is never going to bring you the benefits of being the person who gets things done every time.

Thanks for reading. Comments are open so leave your thoughts below if you’d like to.

Good Attitude For Good Gains

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness

One thing that I feel is often overlooked is our mindsets in the gym. It’s almost as if simply believing you can lift ten more pounds can get you a rep at times, and attitude is also crucial for committing to your gym endeavors.

Today, hopefully, you can reflect on this thought: Your attitude with life will carry into working out. Try to keep yourself calm and happy with your life and take your lifting experience to a new level by having the proper attitudes of commitment and self belief.

See how this works for you, and if outside of the gym, it makes you a happier person in general.

Working Out – Make Time!

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness

People often complain about not having time to work out. This is oftentimes laughable because it can become quite clear that they just aren’t dedicated to their fitness endeavors.
I’m not saying this is you. You may be a rare one percent of people who actually don’t have time, however I doubt that you can’t find time once or twice a week at least.
The purpose of this is not to attack anyone, but to shed light on the whole situation of not having enough time. Just think about how many people are at the gym. Most of the people I see are adults and probably work full time jobs, yet they still find time.
You could always work out before or after work. You could find time on the weekends if necessary.
In the end, just do what you want to do and what works best for you. Any questions or comments? You can comment on this post, and if you’d like free updates on new content hit the subscribe button. Thank you.

How to Diet – Basic Advice

by Christian Boyles, posted in Lifelong Fitness

This is just basic advice for anyone wanting to follow a diet for whatever reason. It’s pretty simple. You just have to experiment a little bit with your calorie intake and make sure that it matches up with your goal.

If you’re wanting to get bigger and have lean muscle you should aim to eat more calories and also pay attention to your protein, and try to eat about .8 grams of protein per pound. You may try eating .8 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass. You can find your lean body mass by finding your body fat % and subtracting your amount of fat from your total weight.

If you’re trying to cut up and lose some weight you will want to experiment and lower your calories a little bit. You don’t want to go overboard because you could be setting yourself up for failure doing a diet that is hard to maintain. What I’d recommend is starting out by dropping soda and simple sugars like cake, candy, or ice cream. From there you can set a new goal every couple weeks like lowering your fast food intake, etc.

If you want to maintain what you’re at then you probably just need to keep doing what you’re doing. This may not hold true for someone who has spent a long time building muscle as a person with a lot of muscle probably needs to keep working out and needs to eat slightly more calories than a regular person.

If you want to find an easy way to keep track of all of this, learn a bit more about nutrition, and have an easy way to count your calories then you can try an app I’ve used and played around with. It’s called nutritionist and it should be in the apple App Store and if you have an android you should be able to get on there too. I’m sure there’s other useful apps like that too, such as fitness tracker and my plate. 

Do whatever works best for you, and if you have any other advice to add to my own feel free to add it down in the comments below.