Deal For A Day
f you don't visit www.wheycheap.com on a daily basis, you should. This site is actually bodybuilding.com's outlet store. It's a site that features a different product, every 24 hours, at a vastly discounted price. Often they sell out within hours. There's no predicting what's going to be up there or available on any specific day, and many different supplement companies are featured.
Saturday the 9th the featured deal was Nutrabolics Iso-MRP, 2 lbs, chocolate milk flavor, for $22.99 (MSRP, or as they refer to it, "girlyman price", is $49.99). This day's deal was 54% off retail! We all know there are many websites selling supplements at a discount, but this was a great price; about what you'd pay late in the afternoon on the last day of the Arnold Classic Expo.
Make wheycheap.com a part of your Internet browsing and you'll occasionally strike gold!
The Prowler Flu
Dave Tate has found a way to make it into this column for the second consecutive week (look for a review of his new book next week). All you strongmen and many powerlifters know what a Prowler is, right? This simple, innocent, appearing portable platform has upright pegs for weight plates, and handles. It's used by simply stacking a bunch of weight on it, then pushing it back and forth across the parking lot of your gym. Sounds simple, and it is.
But it's also terribly difficult; while employing most of the muscle groups in your body simultaneously, you're kicking your own ass. You don't have to know much about Dave Tate to not be surprised that he sells Prowlers, touts their training advantages, and feels they are one of the best tools available for those wishing to be functionally strong.
But Tate has taken his fascination with the Prowler one step further, and now has a section of Elite Fitness devoted to home video footage of people using Prowlers, reaching their limits, and passing out or puking!
There's hardcore, then there's Dave Tate.
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/prowler_flu.htm
The Gospel of Macadamia Nut Oil
Regular followers of Dave Palumbo, and anyone smart enough to have been listening to his radio podcasts for the last couple of years, has heard him tout the benefits of macadamia nut oil. But just why is it so special?
Macadamia nut oil is comprised of high amounts of monounsaturated (Omega-9) fats, even more than extra virgin olive oil.
Your follow-up question may be, why are Omega-9 fats important?
They help protect us from cancer and heart issues, reduce inflammation and basically police the health of our internal environment. I don't know about you, but that's all pretty damn important to me.
Did you know that thousands of years ago, our hunter-gatherer ancestors consumed an equal balance of linoleic acid (Omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (Omega-3)-- essential fatty acids? In today's society, our grocery stores and convenience marts are full of junk food, vegetable oil-based food products, and meat and fish that was force-fed grains. Due to these food supply changes, most people today eat 20 times as much Omega-6 as they do Omega-3.
Macadamia nut oil has the perfect ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids, 1:1. As a huge health bonus, macadamia nut oil has a very high smoke point (410 degrees), so it's wonderful for stir-frying and baking. In other words, when heated, it remains stable and nutritious. Olive oil, commonly fried with in western society, has a much lower smoke point (325 degrees or less) and degrades when used for cooking. Some nutritionists and scientists warn that olive oil essentially becomes a carcinogen when heated too much. Think about that before using it to cook chicken breasts or vegetables.
Topping it all off, Species Nutrition Macadamia Nut Oil tastes great, with a subtle nutty flavor. This 100% cold-pressed product contains four times as much vitamin E as olive oil and resists oxidation to boot. That means your opened bottle isn't going to go rancid in the kitchen cupboard.
I drizzle a little Mac Oil on my chicken breasts before grilling and use a tablespoon on spinach as I cook it down before my scrambled eggs go into the pan. Even more mportant to those of us dabbling with the ketogenic diet, a tablespoon in each protein shake is essential. Having bought macadamia nut oil in the past from mail-order food vendors, hands-down Species' Mac Nut Oil tastes better than any other brand I've used.
www.speciesnutrition.com $19.99 per bottle
The Father of Modern Physical Culture
Mr. America (How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr McFadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet) by Mark Adams
Initially I assumed this oddly-titled book was a history of the Mr. America bodybuilding contest. I thought that would be an ok read, but McFadden is far more interesting. From humble beginnings as an apprentice strongman in the Vaudeville era, he went on to publish Physical Culture magazine. This became the flagship publication of an empire of periodicals and newspapers, health-food restaurants, resorts, and bodybuilding competitions held worldwide. For decades he ruled the world of health and diet, was one of the best-known men in America, sold millions of magazines, and lived a life that testified to the benefits of healthy, low-calorie, diets combined with rampant exercise.
Of course, McFadden was eccentric and an oddball. He would often walk 25 miles to work in New York City, barefoot. He staged women's physique contests so he could find a wife (and married the winner!). Fasting was his solution to most sickness and ills; he disliked doctors and the medical establishment. To say McFadden abhorred overweight people would be an understatement. At one point in his life he ran for the U.S. Senate on a physical fitness platform and nearly won. New employees in his companies often were shocked to discover mandatory calisthenics periods in the work-day.
Diet and nutrition was McFadden's life, and is the hallmark of his career and reputation. All his publishing and business ventures were propelled by his trying to convince the world they should work out with weights, eat properly (he only ate twice a day), fast often for general health, and generally excel at everything they attempted.
Physical Culture sold millions of copies, lasted for decades, and set the tone for entertainment and photo-based journalism to this day. It's pages were crammed with exercise routines, editorials about health, medicine, and food, and advertisements selling cures, training equipment and courses, books, and kooky inventions. Supermarket tabloids and entertainment TV shows owe quite a debt to Bernarr McFadden; he used photographs of nearly naked physique stars and models in his magazines and newspapers decades before anyone else. He sensationalized the news to a degree never before seen in the publishing industry, and created bestsellers in the process. Modern legends in bodybuilding and weight-training, such as Joe and Ben Weider, and Bob Hoffman, were heavily influenced by McFadden and Physical Culture.
Adams did a good job of bringing to life one of the true originals in the world of health, nutrition, publishing, and bodybuilding with Mr. America.
Hardcover, $25.99, www.harpercollins.com
Jumping Rope in the Digital Age
Grizzly LCD Digital Jump Rope
Jumping rope is one of the basic exercises everyone grows up with. Most of us have seen enough training scenes from Rocky movies to be aware of how much boxers enjoy jumping rope, and Franco Columbo displayed his skills in Pumping Iron (more boxing connection). Today CrossFit people seem to enjoy it, but for most of us, it's a childhood memory.
If we all agree jumping rope is a good cardio exercise, spiking the heart rate nicely if done for short periods between sets while weight-training, who would have imagined that digital technology would become involved with this most simple of exercises? Well, it has.
Grizzly has a new, fancy jump rope with digital readouts built into the handles. It tells you how long you've been jumping, how many times the rope has gone under your feet, and (theoretically) how many calories you've burned. To set up the calorie counter, you must enter your bodyweight in kilograms-- a somewhat clumsy conversion in this non-metric society. Needless to say, I didn't even attempt to set up the calorie burning feature, as I don't believe it would be close to accurate, nor relevant.
Bottom line, the jump rope has comfortable foam handles, adjusts to 10 feet in length, and works. For me, the digital read-out features are unimportant and clearly increased the cost of the jump rope too much.
LCD Digital Rope (8816-0432) $25.99 www.Grizzlyfitness.com
True Strength Is Built From the Inside Out
Full Strength Premium Nutrition Shake
Most readers of Rx Muscle are experienced protein shake consumers. Recipes abound for blender combinations of protein and carbohydrate powders, fruit, fats, fiber and green foods. Threads go on and on as people detail their favorites and dislikes (can you say tuna in a blender?).
Not too many years ago, MRP (meal replacement powder) products were the norm. Met-Rx was the first powdered meal in a packet most of us encountered, and to this day is remembered as one of the most effective and tasty of the bunch. Every major supplement company has presented their own version of the MRP at one time or another, with varying results. When I worked with Testosterone/Biotest we had a great MRP product called Grow! which was marketed and sold in fancy, slick packaging; however, it was quite expensive to produce and sell. The last few years it seems the emphasis in the supplement world has gone from MRP packets to protein powders, in part due to the popularity of ketogenic diets.
Enter Shawn Phillips and FullStrength. If you don't know Phillips' history in the supplement game, listen to his recent radio interview with Dave and John on Heavy Muscle Radio to get some background. I'll sum it up for you. Shawn and his brother Bill worked with Dr. Scott Connelly on Met-Rx for several years. After parting ways with Connelly, the Phillips' founded EAS and Muscle Media 2000 magazine. The brothers then grew EAS into a gigantic, successful, supplement enterprise, selling it several years ago for lots of money! Shawn and his abs were part of the branding of EAS-- on the covers of magazines and DVDs, on supplement products, and in advertisements.
Yeah, THAT Shawn Phillips! But there's much more to Shawn than his fantastic abs and his winning personality. He's smart, loves to write, and takes joy in sharing his passion for health, nutrition and helping people change their lives for the better.
He considers his Full Strength MRP to be the highest quality product in the marketplace, both taste and content wise. That's a big statement, and in an industry chock-full of outlandish ads, dizzying images, crazy product names, and wild claims, it's one that got my attention.
First, I examined the packaging of Full Strength. If you've ever had spilled packets in the bottom of your gym bag, you know how annoying and expensive that is. Full Strength are heavy-duty packets with a slick coating. They don't appear fragile, whatsoever. I haven't tossed any around in the gym, but I'm confident they'll keep their contents where I want them. Tasteful graphics and color schemes contribute to the sales and marketing side, a strong suit for Phillips.
Full Strength are full meals; nothing needs to be added to your blender or shaker. I have been mixing the Chocolate in my Blender Bottle with water and finding it mixes easily. The result is a smooth shake with virtually no residue on the shaker interior. All of it goes into my mouth, where I want it.
Unlike some of the kitchen-sink products in the supplement world, Phillips knows why each ingredient is included, from a sound nutritional perspective, not so that he can list them on advertisements. The 25 grams of complex carbohydrates are oat based; 6 additional grams of dietary fiber are in here; chelated minerals, antioxidants, Beta-Glucans, a probiotic blend, and essential fats in the form of 5 grams of high-Oleic sunflower oil. This "fuel" side of the Full Strength equation composes nearly half the nutritional supply.
On the "build" side are 40 grams of protein; more than 50% of them are whey protein isolate. The balance is caseinate and milk protein. In addition, Phillips added to his formula 10 grams of glutamine, additional Taurine, Tyrosine, Aminogen Enzyme and a complete roster of vitamins and minerals.
Lastly, how the hell does this incredible MRP taste? I am confident that no matter how great the nutrient profile, if the taste sucks nobody will buy it. However, I was even more confident that with Shawn's background in excellent-tasting products (Met-Rx and EAS were all delicious), Full Strength would taste wonderful. Let me assure you it does; I love the smooth texture, and my often-ignored taste buds are excited. This may be the best-tasting MRP in the marketplace today.
No matter what your sport or activity, Full Strength is an ideal meal replacement powder. Packets are much easier to travel with than jugs of powder, taking less space in both gym bags and luggage. And it supplies you with an ideal balance of protein, carbs and healthy fats. Combine convenience, great taste, and a strong combination of nutrients, and Full Strength is a winner.
I'm happy to have Shawn Phillips back in the industry, and cannot wait to see what he may come up with next.
$54.45 / box of 14 packets (www.fullstrength.com)
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