Man, I feel like I was fortunate that I was at least taught a decent program when I first got into lifting outside of school.
I never read any magazines and never tried anyone’s programs until I started reading T-Nation. I had success with my first program so I had no need to search for anything else.
In regards to supplements, I used to down two Heavy Weight Gainer 900 shakes every day. It was 2 scoops mixed with 2 cups of milk totaling over 900 calories. It was delicious.
The only product I wasted money on was the creatine serum. Turns out it barely had any creatine in each serving.
I think (hope?) I’ve avouded most if these in the short time I’ve been lifting, but I remember buying in hard into glutamine and… Men’s Health Magazine
I stopped getting morning erections after 10 weeks (and needed significant “help” at other times) and it took about 3 months to return to full, magnificent, glory.
I remember taking N.O. Xplode (pronounced it no explode back then of course just to make it more cringe) at age 16 as my first ever pre-workout. I remember waiting for my veins to start bulging like an IFBB pro and me and my friend/training partner would “smuggle” it in school and take it before weight training and all the kids thought we were on drugs. “woah they bench two plates cause they on that crazy NO explode…man…where did they get it, do they also do creatines and wee protein???”
Sadly, I remember hardly feeling anything at all and being acutely disappointed and found myself having an existential crisis followed by years of chronic disillusionment that persists today. Not sure how I got this strong tbh.
smilax drops or some such product, early 1990’s.
Basically anything to do with bodybuilding that’s marketed by a steroid user, aimed at young natty males. ie any product that had the Joe Weider name on it.
Not really a fad or scam but I went my first few years of lifting operating under the belief that the body can only digest up to 30g of protein at a time. My brother read it somewhere and I took it as fact.
One that no one has mentioned, and that almost every one seemed to take as fact, was the absolute essential need to chug back a carb and protein shake within an hour of hitting it hard in the gym so as to capitalise on the anabolic window where muscles become pumped up nutrient devouring sponges and heros are made.
I mean the basic premise of the right nutrition in and around work out time is hard to fault, performance alone clearly improves, but it was that specific anabolic window after the session that seemed to seep it’s way into men’s health, gq and the like. Still see a good majority of my fellow gym goers racing to add their shake mix go their water as soon as their final rep is done.
The window might be bigger than 30 minutes but it doesn’t hurt to slam your post workout meal soon after.
This morning I had a half cup of oatmeal and scoop of protein in my pre-workout shake and then another half scoop of protein and cup of oatmeal for breakfast afterwards (normal breakfast for me).
I must admit the pre-workout was a new addition this week as I’ve been getting nauseous during my Thursday morning deadlift and squat workouts when I do them fasted.
I loved this stuff. I never took more than 1.5 scoops on a bad day so I guess I didn’t love it so much that I maxed out the serving size, but I did enjoy that supplement. According to my supplement store, pre-workouts have more caffeine in them now than the original NO Xplode. That must mean that I’m severely desensitized to caffeine because I just don’t feel much of anything anymore.
First hand experience on NO Xplode. I remember after cycling off of it for awhile that I took a heaping scoop and repeated a back and bi’s workout from earlier in the month. On close-grip pull-downs I did 5 x 10 with increasing weight compared to 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2 at the same weight. I also distinctly remember my arms swelling so much during incline DB curls that I couldn’t finish the curl. My muscle was actually so pumped that it was in the way of finishing the concentric.
This sounds ridiculous but it’s true. The sad thing is that I didn’t experience the same effects day in and day out.
I’ve often thought that meth or cocaine would probably be a pretty good pre-workout since caffeine doesn’t phase me anymore… but I enjoy having all of my teeth.
Not so much bodybuilding, but I took the StrongLifts gospel to heart when I started lifting and developed some bad form habits trying to push through plateaus. Fortunately I found Tnation pretty early, and I’m not a total dumbass, so I was able to bypass a lot of the bullshit the industry tries to sell.
A lot of the posters on this forum have been a great help, so thanks for that!
