Friday, September 19, 2008

I'm done with Creatine for now

So...a little 411 on Creatine and how I first tried it, and why I love it/hate it. Right after I graduated High School in 97, I left for Ricks Junior College to play football. My mom bought me some Creatine from GNC and I gave it my best shot. I had heard good stuff about it, but didn't really know what it was. I didn't even drink protein drinks back then.

So when I showed up to Ricks, part of the initial welcome to the football team was to run, lift, and jump, like standard combines. Well i was 175-180 pds tops, since I had just completed my senior season of soccer and summer club soccer. So I was pretty much a wimp. They had us bench press 225pds as many times as we could. The bar pretty much broke my chest. I could barely even hold it, let alone press it. So they had me bench press 185, and I did it 4 times.

So I'll try to cut to it. I bought grape juice to take with my creatine. Ate tons of tuna, eggs, and chicken. I came home after that first semester weighing 205 and pressing 225 4 times. Creatine worked wonders for me. But....

I wasn't playing soccer. I was just playing football, and not running like soccer makes you. Well I've always been a believer in Creatine and would swear by it to anyone looking to get stronger and gaining muscle.

Well at the University of Utah, while studying Exercise and Sport Science, I actually had a chance to learn how Creatine fundamentally works. Why it worked for me. I took it at various times while playing football at the U, and I got to a max weight of 221 there.

Well to break it down, Creatine adds a phosphate molecule to ADP to make more ATP. When you exert energy, the most basic form of energy in the body is ATP. When you use it, you can't fully refill it after rest. Its kind of like going a few steps down a ladder, and never quite being able to go back to the top like you could at the beginning. An example of this. When I bench press as much weight as I can 8 times, the very next set even after a rest I might only press 6 or 7 times. Then the next one maybe 4 or 5. Your body doesn't have the energy to push it. Well creatine enables you to stay near the top of your ability, like Set 1-8x, Set 2-8x, Set 3-6-7x. This makes it so you gain more strength, and tear your muscles even more by pressing more weight, which gives you that much more room to take protein to grow those muscles.

Well there are small side effects from creatine. One which is making me change my decision to stop it for now. Creatine pulls water from your body to bring to the muscle cells, like filling a water balloon. This creates a positive environment for protein synthesis, which is another way of saying growing muscle. Well with that water being pulled from my body, it is making my legs cramp playing soccer.

I hadn't taken it for a few years, cause I never wanted my weight to go over 205pds for more speed in soccer. Well I broke my foot in February and couldn't play any more soccer cause of that. Well I continued to play football as a placekicker and my body wasn't in kicking shape from not playing soccer. Well my leg just started to fade and fatigue during the games and as the season went on. I knew that Creatine would help me get back some of that energy and strength loss at the end of the games. It did and it worked like I planned. I had actually forgot about how it would effect my weight training. That wasn't my intention for taking it, but it made my strength fly out the roof and my weight increase to wear it was at the U. I got back to 220, and as of today I'm 118.

Well I love soccer and love being in shape and quick, but my Tibialis muscle on the front of my shin just cramps like crazy when I'm on Creatine. So as of today, I'm done with it. I bet my weight heads back down to 205-210 like normal, but I'm gonna work my tail off to keep my strength cause it feels nice to improve with my strength. I will let everyone know who reads this blog know how it goes.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

'If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.'

This was a prayer given to the Kansas Senate and voices a lot of concern and truth to the way we behave as a people. Read and enjoy.

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.

We have abused power and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of speech and expression.

We have ridiculed the time honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today;cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!'

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The Dark Knight

I've been biting my tongue on this for too long. If it hadn't had been for Heath Ledger dying, The Dark Knight would have just been a good Batman. I still think Batman Begins had a better story line, plot, climax, and overall theme than this newer one. There were too many flaws in this movie, for it to be classified with the best movies of all time, Braveheart, Godfather, Titanic, Lord of the Rings, Shawshank Redemption.


Here is a spoof that shows how ridiculous some parts of this movie were.


Who would ever go after Maggie Gyllenhaul?
Batman talks like an idiot.

There have been lots of actors who played great crazy people. Just because he died doesn't make it the best of all time.

Brad Pitt-12 Monkeys, Fight Club, Seven, Snatch;
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Jack Nicholson-The Shining;
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Anthony Hopkins-Silence of the Lambs;
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Edward Norton-American History X, Fight Club, Primal Fear).
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Imagine if Jack Nicholson would have been given the same script as Ledger. Anyone can randomly lick their lips.
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Watch and enjoy. Please excuse the few cuss words. The rest is quite funny if you've seen the movie. I feel better now. Thanks.