Fitness Bull!@#$ Part 3: Science and Supplements

Fitness Bull!@#$ Part 3: Science and Supplements

Well here we are: the conclusion to what I hope was a highly entertaining and informative series on Fitness Bull!@#$. It has been very fun to write but it is not over quite yet. I will conclude this series with the science of supplements. I will be providing statements made from a variety of supplement companies on how their products work and weather or the not the real science behind the statement is provided. We will look at the good, the bad and the downright ugly.

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

The Good (I use this word sparingly):

VPX NO Shotgun Pre-Workout

This product claims

VPX NO-Shotgun Pre-Workout Study: Effects of 28 days of resistance exercise and consuming a commercially available pre workout supplement, NO-Shotgun, on body composition, muscle strength and mass, markers of satellite cell activation, and clinical safety markers in males”

Here is the link to the study that VPX did in 2010 to prove this statement.

http://www.vpxsports.com/scientific-studies/university-studies/effects-of-28-days-resistance-exercise

Why is this good? A few reasons, first it was very easy to find all of their studies on all of their products. Go to the VPX website hit the “news” tab and click on scientific study/research.  All of the studies done on their products are all listed.  Click on any of them and the full report pops up. All the information you could ask for is right there at your fingertips. Now is this the best study ever done? No. The sample size is only 18 men; which, my friend, is an extremely small sample size to say this product will do this for everyone.  Also 28 days is a very short amount of time. If you are an untrained person you will see immediate results after 28 days of consistent exercise.  Think about it as if you didn’t work out for years and then out of nowhere started working out every day, for 28 days. No matter what supplement you took, you would see some kind of positive results. This product and company get a good rating because they at least provide you with some kind of science. Granted, it’s not that best, but it is more then they legally are required to do. So the good rating goes to VPX.

The Bad:

Muscle Meds Supplement Company

Why the bad rating? The lack of science! There is none, nadda, zilch on their website to show the science behind their claims. Two products have the chemical graph chart but that doesn’t prove anything, it’s just a chart. Every product has the same basic claims that you see in the magazines.  No mention of studies or results can be found.  So why is this not getting a downright ugly rating? It’s because they are not making any claims based on a study.  There is a lot of information on their products but nothing that reads “subjects who took this product gained, lost, increased etc.” That gives it a bad rating because they are not showing any science to prove that their products work but they are not listing any fake science either. So it’s a bad rating due to lack of science.

The downright ugly:

Muscle Tech

This is bad, just bad! Why you may be wondering? Let me tell you, here are Muscle Tech’s claims:

Um…what test subjects? Could we maybe get some more information please?

“MuscleTech – Real science. Real results! Unflinching commitment to science and research as a means to producing the best supplements in the world has been the backbone of the #1 Selling Bodybuilding Supplement Brand in America since the emergence of MuscleTech® supplements back in 1995.To continuously research, develop, patent, produce and market the most effective diet and sports supplements in the world. – Team MuscleTech mission statement”

You read that and maybe you think, “well Wild Will why are they the worst? This sounds pretty good.” Exactly it does sound good, too good. Just how good it is is posted all over their website. Do you know what is not posted to their website? Any actual science at all. They throw around the word “science” a lot but when it comes to actually finding any like we did with VPX there is none.  Here is an example for their Weight Loss pill Hydroxycut:

“Designed with a key weight loss ingredient, which has been shown to be effective in two scientific studies. Subjects taking the key ingredient (green coffee extract [C. canephora robusta]) lost 10.95 lbs. in 60 days with a low-calorie diet and 3.7 lbs. in an 8-week study with a calorie-reduced diet and moderate exercise. Most thermogenic formulas don’t have any scientific studies backing their key weight loss ingredients, let alone two.”

No link to the study is given. We know nothing of the who, what, when, why and how of these two studies. This is downright ugly. It is a great marketing tool for this company. They are hiding behind “science” without actually showing any real science.

So there you have it fitness friends. The Good, The Bad and The Downright Ugly of supplements and science. Click back a few blogs ago when I talked specifically about supplements and what they truly are and now try to incorporate them properly into your plan.

Supplement companies are a necessary evil. They provide us with the supplements that we need to live our fitness lifestyle; on the other hand they contribute to the biggest block of Fitness Bull!@#$.

To conclude this series I want you all to take away this final thought. You have one body and you have one life, who are you entrusting your health too? Who are you letting dictate what goes in your body and how you train it in the gym? Don’t just believe it because it looks or sounds good, research it. This is the only body you have don’t screw it up because you digested too much Fitness Bull!@#$.

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