2008 Product Round Up

It’s been a while since there was an article reviewing interesting or new products, so I though I’d make my own.

Nothing earth-shattering, just stuff I’ve tried, liked, and you might too.

Please add your own stuff too.

I’m going to post a few products that are related to protein supplements. They aren’t products that directly compete with Biotest, so hopefully they’ll make it to the board. I love Biotest products, and if they did come out with directly competing products, I’m sure I’d buy them…


Love bacon? Love salt? Then you’ll probably love Bacon Salt.

http://store.baconsalt.com/


FAGE.

Greek yogurt. This ain’t your momma’s yogurt. It’s strained so it’s much thicker than the Yoplaits and Dannons of the world. The taste kicks ass too. I buy the traditional full fat version, although they do sell other versions if you prefer low fat. The full fat version is fairly low carb friendly. I tend to eat one every couple of days. I mix with berries and it’s good to go.

http://www.fageusa.com/classic_yogurt_info.html


Spud Inc.

This a company providing various straps, wraps, belts, etc, using the yellow canvas you see here. I have wrist straps and the dead lift belt, which you see pictured. High quality, very durable material. I’ve never been much a belt user, but I do like the feel of this belt. It has a combination of support and give that really helps me feel tight. I’m not sure what, if anything, it does, which is why I’ve never been a fan of belts, but when I’m maxing, this does make me feel tighter, for whatever that’s worth.

Although, it didn’t add anything to my lifts, which I actually think is a good thing. If it did, I’d be concerned that my technique was being compromised and I was relying on this to artificially boost my lift in a way that may not be good in the long run. Like I said, I don’t have much experience with belts…

You can check them out at elitefts.com


Power Push Up 2.

I tore my pec 1.5 years ago. Since then I’ve really focused on dips and push up variations. For adding resistance to push ups I’ve added bands and chains across my back; however, this gets limited fairly quickly. Enter Power Push Up 2. It’s basically a doohickey allowing you to attach various levels of restitance by specially designed bands. Depending on the number and strength of the cable, resistance can be as little as 20 lbs, or as high as 240 lbs.

In reality, you could just use Jump Stretch bands for this, but for $35 this isn’t a crazy investment. It isn’t the end all/be all, but it’s a fun little thing to use to mix it up.

I can pretty much guarantee you that it’s much tougher than you probably think it is.

http://www.qfac.com/gear/ppu2.html

I bought this on a whim from Elitefts.com for $36. I’m surprised by how much I actually use it. I’ve used it for box squats as pictured, also as a board in benching, for kneeling on in various movements including ab wheel and 1 arm pull downs, and here and there. Just a functional, durable high compression cushion that is handy to have.

Dave Tate uses a variation of this that he calls Sponge Bob presses, or Manpon presses. The idea is to use it as a board so that the compression spares the shoulders in a heavy press. I don’t have shoulder issues, but I think it may serve the same purpose for me in sparing my pec when I eventually work up to heavy presses again since I tore it at the bottom of a bench press. Right now I’m doing floor presses with chains, but I hope to work up to the bench again.

Isopure.

Each bottle has 40 g of protein. No fat, no carbs. I’ve been drinking these during my workouts. I’ve drank Surge for a long time, and I decided to experiment w/o carbs around the workout window. There’s a number of reasons for this, one of them being that I found Surge really sat heavy in my stomach when I drank much more than a ¼ serving pre workout. These don’t give me that problem. Also, I really like the fact that they have punch sort of flavors. I love my Metabolic Drive, but it’s nice to have a protein drink that isn’t milky in texture.

They also sell this in powder form. I’ve tried it, but it isn’t as good as the bottled stuff. Cheaper though.

Muscle Milk Pudding.

Nutrition Facts:�?�Serving Size (cup) 1�?�
Calories 160�?�
Fat Calories 50�?�Total Fat (g) 6�?�
Total Carbs (g) 6�?�
Sugars (g) 2g
Proteins (g) 20

It’s a good between meal snack. I throw a few in my desk for a lower carb protein snack.

It’s not as good as Instone pudding, but it’s a bit cheaper.

Gorillapod Tripod.

Flexible tripod. Attaches to your digital camera and the legs then can be wrapped around all kinds of stuff to give you angles you might not be otherwise able to get. Very useful for attaching your camera to racks and what not while taking videos of your form while lifting.

[quote]bino wrote:
Gorillapod Tripod.

Flexible tripod. Attaches to your digital camera and the legs then can be wrapped around all kinds of stuff to give you angles you might not be otherwise able to get. Very useful for attaching your camera to racks and what not while taking videos of your form while lifting.[/quote]

I am buying one of these!

Cool thread.

Great thread. I’ll need to think of some more things to contribute to it.

Might I suggest we open it up to products that we have tried, and hated? Seems just as valuable.

Anyway, here’s one that I’ve been using for a couple years, and swear by:

Eddie Bauer Sport Briefs: http://www.eddiebauer.com/EB/Men/Socks--Underwear/Boxers--Briefs/index.cat#ppl={type%3A"transition"%2CensembleId%3A"23140"%2CformatStr%3A"product"%2CpassedIdObj%3A{"ensembleId"%3A"23140"}%2CcategoryId%3A"24177"%2CpathInfo%3A"C1C2C24175C24177"%2CcolorId%3A"100"%2CcatPath%3A"lineId%3D-1~~pCategoryId%3D1~~categoryId%3D2~~pCategoryName%3DEB~~categoryName%3DMEN"%2Ccs%3A"0"}

Not sure if that link will work or not. Anyway, I’ve found these to be FAR superior to any of the Under Armour, or any brand, of sport briefs out there. I think they’re absolutely essential for anyone whose legs are big enough that they rub together.

[quote]bino wrote:
FAGE.

Greek yogurt. This ain’t your momma’s yogurt. It’s strained so it’s much thicker than the Yoplaits and Dannons of the world. The taste kicks ass too. I buy the traditional full fat version, although they do sell other versions if you prefer low fat. The full fat version is fairly low carb friendly. I tend to eat one every couple of days. I mix with berries and it’s good to go.

http://www.fageusa.com/classic_yogurt_info.html

[/quote]

My kids love this stuff. Trader Joes makes flavored versions, like honey flavor.

Love this stuff.

http://www.dryhands.com/review/review7.htm

Bushy you cheapskate. :slight_smile:

I call this an “I-Pod” I put all my music on it. It’s pretty awesome.

[quote]LankyMofo wrote:

I call this an “I-Pod” I put all my music on it. It’s pretty awesome.[/quote]

Yah Right! do they sell those ipod things in america? They must be thousands of dollars.

welcome to the 21st century people…

[quote]Jacked Diesel wrote:
welcome to the 21st century people…

[/quote]

I wonder why they never called it a foon?

[quote]bino wrote:
Love bacon? Love salt? Then you’ll probably love Bacon Salt.

http://store.baconsalt.com/

[/quote]

I will have to buy in to this…
I LOVE bacon.