Month: July 2011

Advanced Creatine Cycling Schedule

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If you’re not making the gains you want on creatine, give this advanced cycle a try.

Many people find that after a few weeks, the gains they make on creatine monohydrate begin to taper off or even disappear altogether. There’s an increasing belief among hardcore trainers that cycling creatine intake may help one experience continued progress with this proven supplement.

Here’s a typical creatine cycle you might try adding to your supplement program:

week 1: load (20 g / day)
week 2-4 : maintenance (10 g / day)
week 5: load (20 g / day)
week 6-8: OFF
Repeat Cycle.

You’re basically “on” for 5 weeks (higher than average doses), then “off” completely for 3 weeks. This seems to work well and can help give you continual progress with
creatine supplementation.

Of course, another important factor is what type of creatine you’re using. I never made great gains with creatine until I switched to a creatine formula as opposed to just mixing the powder up myself.

In particular, AST’s Creatine HSC has really worked well for me. Other people see good results with EAS’s Phosphagen HP and MET-Rx’s Micronized Creatine. And at 10 grams creatine per dose, MuscleTech’s Cell-Tech is very popular.

With creatine it’s best to avoid generic powders (the cheap stuff), as its purity is often in question and it doesn’t seem to work nearly as well as the quality formulas on the market.

Spinning Is Taking America By Storm

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Spinning is just the newest fad for fitness fanatics, a bizarre blend of cardiovascular activity and wild imagination geared at packing the fun into your everyday workout.

Just one glance into the aerobics room during a spinning class will convince you of its electrifying appeal.

Originating in Los Angeles in the early ‘90’s, spinning has since been a growing beneficiary from the fitness boom, racing through fitness clubs throughout the United States. Spinning has caught fire particularly in East Coast cities like New York and Boston, while a number of spinning studios are also being built in southern Florida. There are currently over 4,000 gyms throughout the world featuring spinning classes, nearly half of them inside the U.S.

Much of the appeal of a particular spinning classes lies with the effectiveness of the instructor. A fun, highly motivating instructor with a colorful imagination can provide the participants with the most riveting of sessions.

Another perk to spinning, particularly for newcomers, is that it is not a difficult activity to jump into. Unlike the step classes, you do not need to learn any specialized moves for this class. You just plop down on a cycle and start chugging away.

Also, because the activity is virtually stress-free on your joints, it is appealing to athletes and trainers who are injury-prone.

Meanwhile, spinning can give you a great full-body workout, especially throughout the muscles in your legs and buttocks.

But keep in mind, spinning classes are not for everyone. While spinning is generally regarded as a low-impact form of cardiovascular activity, it can also be quite rigorous, especially for newcomers who are not accustomed to such a workout.

However, because spinning does not require tremendous athletic coordination, it is starting to catch on with a wider variety of workout fanatics.

But unlike many aerobics classes, spinning does require a small fee to participate.