Recommend a protein supplement?

Friend of mine is a vetinary pharma rep and she reckons the best bet is the Glucosamine supplied for animal use- she reckons the stuff sold for human use is useless.

Something to do with it being a sulphate from (very poor) memory.

glucosamine (chondroitin), was one of 3 supplements that were actually proved to work. The rest of the shite you get in healthfood shops is snake oil, but there's allot to be said for the placebo effect.

Cetainly my knees are better with it than without, shame it takes laying off for a few months to realise it does work. Although some say the effects are limited and only help with recovery.

A recommendation for www.myprotein.co.uk - does the trick for me. I'm also a complete convert to the benefits of glucosamine. My wife's knee specialist/consultant was singing it's praises to high heaven which persuaded me to start stealing hers - I think the worse your knees are the bigger the benefit...

I normally use SIS Rego for after hard sessions on the bike, Stawberry is my favourite but Bannna is alright. Bought Rego Rapid by accident the other day, more expensive and the Berry flavour is the most disgusting tasting protien drink I've ever had.

This is my daily shake recipe:

2 x bananas
2 x apples (peeled)
2 x egg whites
handful of rolled oats
handful of frozen blueberries
little bit of organic peanut butter
two scoops of whey protein
bit of water to get it blending

Makes about a litre in the blender, tastes like heaven, fantastic start to the day.

Check out this topic to see some fantastic food recipes to aid your regime

This is my daily shake recipe:

2 x bananas
2 x apples (peeled)
2 x egg whites
handful of rolled oats
handful of frozen blueberries
little bit of organic peanut butter
two scoops of whey protein
bit of water to get it blending

Makes about a litre in the blender, tastes like heaven, fantastic start to the day.

Check out this topic to see some fantastic food recipes to aid your regime

Awesome mix, I would maybe halve the quanitity of apples and bananas though as thats extra uneeded carbs I reckon, but that depends on your personal needs, bodytype ecto/endo morph etc.

Yeah I should cut down slightly I think, I'm currently on a "no carbs after 2pm" routine that my buddy uses (England 7's player) and he swears by it, so if it's good enough for him then I'm game to check it out.

Talking of intakes, this PT in my old gym in London was on 8000 calories a day for his bodybuilding. I've no idea how it was split into carbs / protein / etc but the dude was massive. Not cut like a Mr Olympia Final, but just huge. Kinda scary really.

Yeah I should cut down slightly I think, I'm currently on a "no carbs after 2pm" routine that my buddy uses (England 7's player) and he swears by it, so if it's good enough for him then I'm game to check it out.

Talking of intakes, this PT in my old gym in London was on 8000 calories a day for his bodybuilding. I've no idea how it was split into carbs / protein / etc but the dude was massive. Not cut like a Mr Olympia Final, but just huge. Kinda scary really.

That is a helluva lot, even when I was over 17 and a half stone, I didn't manage more than 5000-6000 a day, and I was pretty strong back then.

Made these badboys earlier:

Whey
organic peanut butter
organic honey
sunflower seeds
roasted oats

They're just set in the fridge, not baked

And now I'm watching Conan the Barbarian

^ needs more skunk ^

I try my hardest too eat like Patrick Bateman whenever possible.

5% off myprotein.co.uk if anyone is isnterested.
code: MP137863
works only once I think.

psychopaths.

Made these badboys earlier:

Whey
organic peanut butter
organic honey
sunflower seeds
roasted oats

They're just set in the fridge, not baked

And now I'm watching Conan the Barbarian

I dont understand why there are so many no-bake protein/energy bar recipes out there. They are pretty rubbish compared to baked ones which dont collapse at room temp and taste better too.

I occasionally make some out of just oats, milk, natural peanut butter, baking powder, fruit such as dried cranberries and a tiny amount of sugar. No other fat except the peanut butter which has the bonus of being exceptionally protein rich. I think ive used egg before but its not necessary. Comes out a wonderful half flapjack-half light cakey texture. Id consider adding whey protein if I had some, but I find it a bit weird getting supplements.

... You do not need supplements. They are useful if you have severely limited time and availability of good food. But for 99% people, nope. ...

At the moment of writing, 13 weeks or so after I started this thread I've gone from 64kgs to 71kgs. That's a 12% gain. My body fat is down slightly, not much, but if you compare that to the new weight it's down even more in relative terms.

I know all the "no need for supplements" advice given in this thread was well meant, but I'm posting this as other skinny muppets like myself might want to know it works for some. Not that I didn't revise my diet otherwise. I've been on about 100g protein a day from food, but then 50g a day from powder which there was no way I could have managed from food.

(writing this, I will have bumped the thread to the front qualifying for now end of pisstaking..... posting about my own weight like a bulimic teenage chick, I kind of deserve it though...)

BUT, what training were you doing?

which muscles grew ?

BUT, what training were you doing?

which muscles grew ?

lifted weights three times a week, regime given to me by a friend who used to be a personal trainer. not sure which muscles grew, I only measured my chest which increased a bit. perhaps my thighs too, since I cycle all the time?

come on, what weights? how many reps? which exercises?

all this is useful to others who might have similar aims

come on, what weights? how many reps? which exercises?

It's kind of like a pyramid. Train 3 times a week for a six week cycle. You start with a set of excercises for what you want to bulk up a bit. Presumably chest, arms, back for most. Not too many exercises since you just end up training the same supporting muscles several times over and wearing them out. Think practically, if a chest or shoulder exercise makes your arms go tired, there is little reason to train biceps separately afterwards.

Find your ideal weight at 10 reps of any exerciese and note this down. This should be as heavy as you can do, but not to the point of you gasping for breath, struggling to get trough all 10 reps etc. OK, now you've got your number down for your ideal ten reps, then comes the calculations. In a six weeks routine, you go from training 3 x 15 reps of each exercise to 3 x 5 reps. Take your ideal 10 rep number. For the first exercise day of the first week multiply this by 0.65 and do your 3 x 15. Second exercise day of first week it's that number times 0.7. Third exercise day of that week it's times 0.75 and so on. Does this make sense? After two weeks of this you go for 3 x 10 reps, your weights will be heavier now, the exercises the same. After another two weeks you go down to 3 x 5 reps of the same exercises. The weights are now quite heavy for you, you're now multiplying with 1.25, 1,3 ..., but should be just about doable if you did your preliminary notes right.
After the 6 weeks are up you have a week of rest before your next 6 week cycle. Reconsider your ideal 10 rep number, add a few kgs to the ones you got trough OK, other exercises might stay the same for another round.
Reps should be done quite slow. 1 second on the up, 2 seconds on the down. Some say that it is the down bit that really exercises your muscle. When I was thaught this routine I was also given a fairly complex warm up routine for each muscle group, but I must admit I just skipped it. Once you've worked up a bit of sweat, most muscles should be ready to go anyway.

If you are really interested I could rework my notes and PM them to you. Might take me a few days though.

It's kind of like a pyramid. Train 3 times a week for a six week cycle. You start with a set of excercises for what you want to bulk up a bit. Presumably chest, arms, back for most. Not too many exercises since you just end up training the same supporting muscles several times over and wearing them out. Think practically, if a chest or shoulder exercise makes your arms go tired, there is little reason to train biceps separately afterwards.

Find your ideal weight at 10 reps of any exerciese and note this down. This should be as heavy as you can do, but not to the point of you gasping for breath, struggling to get trough all 10 reps etc. OK, now you've got your number down for your ideal ten reps, then comes the calculations. In a six weeks routine, you go from training 3 x 15 reps of each exercise to 3 x 5 reps. Take your ideal 10 rep number. For the first exercise day of the first week multiply this by 0.65 and do your 3 x 15. Second exercise day of first week it's that number times 0.7. Third exercise day of that week it's times 0.75 and so on. Does this make sense? After two weeks of this you go for 3 x 10 reps, your weights will be heavier now, the exercises the same. After another two weeks you go down to 3 x 5 reps of the same exercises. The weights are now quite heavy for you, you're now multiplying with 1.25, 1,3 ..., but should be just about doable if you did your preliminary notes right.
After the 6 weeks are up you have a week of rest before your next 6 week cycle. Reconsider your ideal 10 rep number, add a few kgs to the ones you got trough OK, other exercises might stay the same for another round.
Reps should be done quite slow. 1 second on the up, 2 seconds on the down. Some say that it is the down bit that really exercises your muscle. When I was thaught this routine I was also given a fairly complex warm up routine for each muscle group, but I must admit I just skipped it. Once you've worked up a bit of sweat, most muscles should be ready to go anyway.

If you are really interested I could rework my notes and PM them to you. Might take me a few days though.

Sorry to be a pedant but that is completely wrong, chest and shoulder specific excercises hardly work your biceps at all, only pulling exercises such as:
lat pull-down, close-grip row, wide grip pull ups, barbell rows etc will do that.

If you want to add overall strength (regardless of bulk which will come naturally to a degree with increased strength anyway), you want to focus on compound exercises that engage multiple muscle groups in the same movement, you also want to use freeweights wherever possible as this again recruits more muscle fibres than certain machine exercises, which generally speaking tend to isolate muscles more and burn less calories, and also not recruit the muscles required to stabilize weight in the air.
This is quite a valuable strength to have, as muscles used to stabilize the joint in this manner can often help protect you from more severe injuries in the event of a crash on your bike, not to mention improve general joint strength and overall strength more so than isolation exercises.

Compound exercises include:
Bench press
Barbell squat
Box squats
Overhead barbell squat
Front barbell squat
Jump squats (only recommended with a very lightweight and when good technique has been achieved)
Power snatches (essential this is done with good technique and a low enough weight to avoid injury)
Full snatch (from the ground, again essential this is done with proper technique!)
Barbell rows
Close grip rows
Wide grip pull-ups (good to combine with lat pull-down machine until lat/shoulder strength improves)

Standing military press (much better than seated as recruits additional muscles to stabilize the weight whilst you lift, stand with both feet shoulder width apart not like those cheaters who stand with one foot in front of the other!)

The above are all great compound exercises that will help build strength and power throughout the body, when combined together as a weekly routine, the above were pretty much the only exercises I did, apart from some occasional barbell curls, for 2-3 years of heavy training and powerlifting, and I did alright.

yeah, you're right, my bad. I guess I just wrote the first thing that came into my head in order to illustrate my point.

however speaking of chest/bench, what do you reckon about doing both butterfly (with free weights) and various angles of bench press in one session? I currently do bench angular upwards, angular downwards and butterfly, all with free weights.

Drop the butterfly, they are a waste of time when it comes to building strength/speed
(or chest flys as I like to call them), and instead try dedicating more energy to your incline/decline/normal bench with a pause at the bottom of the movement then pushing the barbell up as fast as you can on your last one or two sets once you are properly warmed up.
Fast intentions or attempting to move the weight with speed even if it is not actually "visibly" moving that fast, improves the development of fast twitch muscle fibres (thats a good thing) and vastly improves explosive power over normal slow bench presses, but importantly, do not let the weight drop suddenly, bring the weight down slowly, and explode upwards into the bench press. Take a look at Olympic lifters and top olympic sprinters (who utilise a lot of powerlifting/olympic lifting techniques in their training schedules) to witness fast twitch muscle fibre development at its best, explosive power and overall strength is far more useful and enjoyable than just "bulking up a bit".

I'm off to do deadlifts, squats and lunges. It's been 3 weeks. I may cry.

Deadlifts, I knew I was bloody well forgetting something! One of my favourite lifts as well, PB was 200kg at my peak :)

I would drop the lunges personally though, i've always thought that short sprints with a drag sled or some parachutes are far more effective, and safer on your knee's. I know too many people that have been injured doing lunges.

Oh yeah and avoid maxing out, or maxing out and working to total failure (negative reps down from your maximum) more than once every 6-8 weeks, its not healthy when you're just starting out, I maxed out once a month for 2-3 months once but other than that I kept it pretty much to every two months, dropping down to no less than 4-6 reps on my final sets.