CDZ Workout Supplements, Which ones work at what Cost?

[william the wie]

Being 65 recovery is getting more difficult. So, I want to know if I have missed something and/or who has better prices and products.

 

[Zander]

Just my opinion - feel free to disagree.

Supplements are bunk. A scam. Garbage!! Save your money and spend it on the highest quality foods you can buy.

My big THREE - regular strength training, get good quality sleep, and eat well!

Work out - stick to the big compound movements - Squats, Bench, Deadlift, Rows, Overhead press, Power cleans. Workout 3 x per week- no more is needed or recommended. You gain strength when you rest, not when you exercise. I walk on my off days. I use 5 sets of 5 and increase the weight by 5lbs each workout. After I fail 3 times, I drop the weight for that exercise by 20% and start over.

Sleep - I try to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day.

Eating - I eat lots of high quality fats (butter, avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, etc...) , a moderate amount of protein (under 80 grams per day) , and only good carbs (veggies!). very little bread or starches.

Good luck!

 

[william the wie]

I figure anything banned by the Olympics but available for sale OTC like creatine probably works and is reasonably safe. I did use a similar routine and diet before I reached my current age but I find that recovery takes too long now to really progress with weights.

 

[Zander]

I figure anything banned by the Olympics but available for sale OTC like creatine probably works and is reasonably safe. I did use a similar routine and diet before I reached my current age but I find that recovery takes too long now to really progress with weights.

I hear ya!

Eat more good fats (avocado, butter, olive oil, coconut oil) Your joints will thank you!

 

[william the wie]

I do, in fact I'm going to go get a handful of almonds and eat them soon as I post.

 

[Toronado3800]

When I think about fertilizing my yard I have a soil test done.

Are you deficient in anything? My mother has a calcium deficiency for example. Nothing exciting but to satisfy her need to have a health problem the doctor told her to take an over the counter calcium supplement. None the less, its targeted and helps.

 

[usmbguest5318]

I figure anything banned by the Olympics but available for sale OTC like creatine probably works and is reasonably safe. I did use a similar routine and diet before I reached my current age but I find that recovery takes too long now to really progress with weights.

I'm 59, I'm not trying to do anything other than maintain a fit body (6% to 8% body fat, washboard belly, overall strength and balance, healthy diet). Aside from eating properly to fuel and recover from my workouts, I use creatine and whey protein. My typical pre, during and post workout intake is:

• ~30-45 before working out:
  • 1/2 cup of oatmeal with fresh fruit or dried fruit (usually apple slices or raisins) and brown sugar
  • ~4 oz. of microwaved fish (flounder, catfish, or salmon usually) seasoned with S&P and lemon juice.
    or
    MetRx protein shake
  • Pint to quart of water, however much I feel like drinking.
  • Creatine supplement
• During my workout -- All workouts include aerobics (~20-30 minutes), core strength and balance (10-15 minutes), and resistance training (~50-70 minutes):
  • Gatorade or Vitamin Water whenever I feel thirsty
  • Banana or a candy bar somewhere in the middle to end of the overall workout
• Immediately after the workout ends:
  • Another piece of fruit or maybe some trail mix
• After showering (usually 30-45 minutes after the workout is over):
  • ~ 4-6 oz. clean protein (grilled/baked/steamed chicken, turkey, fish, or pork tenderloin)
  • ~8 oz. of unrefined carbs (brown rice, sweet potato, whole wheat pasta, corn, etc.)
  • ~4-6 oz. steamed or grilled veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, squash, peas, bell pepper, etc., not corn)
  • Creatine supplement

That's what I eat between 4 a.m. and around 8 a.m. For the rest of the day, I graze on nuts, fresh fruit and raw veggies, and maybe a PB&J sandwich and/or another protein shake. I have my third large meal of the day around 8 p.m., and that meal is heavy on clean protein and raw veggies and very light on carbs and fat. I sleep as much or as little as my body wants or doesn't. Aside from the holiday season, my diet is super healthy,

My lifting is uses the "body part" approach:

• Monday: Chest
• Tuesday: Back (more types of back exercises on this day than I do M-F as part of core)
• Wednesday: Arms and abs (more types ab exercises on this day than I do M-F as part of core)
• Thursday: Legs
• Friday: Shoulders
• Sat and Sun: Light aerobics and, if I feel like it, balance exercises, but no resistance training

On the above regimen, any given body part has recovered by the time I have to exercise it again, but usually it takes about a day or two for all the soreness of recovery to disappear completely. Frankly, it's been decades since I've had a day when some body part wasn't at least mildly sore from the prior days' workout.



I'm losing a small bit of muscle mass, but I'm fine with my size, shape, health and fitness as it is, so I don't care. Ages ago when I started working out with a trainer, I told him I have one and only one goal: to look good naked. I don't care if I'm "big;" I care that I look "hot." That has never changed. As far as I'm concerned, and given the feedback I receive, I still look good, so being a little smaller is okay with me.

This isn't me, but my body fitness and size is almost exactly this. Judging roughly by his neck and facial structure, this guy looks to be of a slightly more naturally svelte body structure that I. I'm pretty a "middle of the road" mesomorph; he may be a slightly more svelte mesomorph or "heavy" ectomorph.

​

If that or something pretty near it is not what your current fitness level is, you've got a lot of hard work to do. You may need to go with scrip hormone supplements to get there because at 65, time is not on your side. I'm sure you know that, but sometimes it helps to be told it. I suggest you meet with a doctor (I'd suggest a gerontologist) and trainer to discuss your options, ways and means for achieving your goals while minimizing risks.

Be very selective about the trainer you choose. Mine has an MS in kinesiology, is nationally certified and routinely attends continuing education seminars and whatnot. The last thing you want is a trainer who's not got experience and training that prepares him/her to best serve late middle aged clients. "Overdoing" things, any things, at 35 is very different than is doing so at 65+.

The thing to keep in mind is that I've been keeping fit ever since high school. I say that because I think it's easier to maintain fitness than it is to create it. Back when I was in my 30s, I found I needed to pay more attention to my diet and started using a trainer to help with diet-exercise balance that I wasn't achieving on my own. With his guidance, I got really massive and ripped, looked amazing and loved it -- one of the best feelings in the world is strolling a beach as a 40+ dude with my lady-friend and seeing 20-something women's heads turn, and my lady friends liked that too because they loved giving that "it's good, it's mine and looking is all you get to do with it" look back to them -- but when I hit my late 40s, early 50s, I lost interest in being "big," so I slimmed down a bit.

My trainer's designed my workouts and diet plans for decades now, and I just followed instructions. Some five years or so ago, he was very clear that I was going to gradually lose mass unless I went super intensive and started on prescription hormone supplements. So far, I haven't felt the need to do that, and my trainer says that I can maintain an overall "hot" body, albeit slightly less massive, by just tailoring my exercise and diet and workouts to account for the natural drop in hormone levels and metabolism. I've followed his guidance and it's been working well enough for me to look "tight and ripped." That's good enough, even though I'm not "big" like I was just a few years ago.


Truly, I'm less worried about keeping my body duly fit than I am about keeping my face from looking old. I'm fine with a "grown man" face that comes with being in one's 40s and 60s. I'm not at all keen about the "old man" face that will show up at some point. The guy in photo above has an older looking face than I want to have before I'm 75. If that happens, I'll go under the knife. I want my face to retain roughtly the level of "youth" that the guy below has. I don't mind being old or growing old. I just don't want my face to look older than middle age (40-50-something), at least not until I'm 80-something. After 80, whatever happens, happens.

 

[usmbguest5318]

Until you posed this thread's central question, I hadn't looked into the effects of creatine. My trainer recommended using it, so I have simply followed his guidance.

In light of the OP-er's question, I looked into creatine's effects. Here are the documents I read:

• Creatine supplementation with specific view to exercise/sports performance: an update
  • Creatine is positively effective for:
    • Amplifying the effects of resistance training for enhancing strength and hypertrophy
    • Improving the quality and benefits of high intensity intermittent speed training
      
    • Improving aerobic endurance performance in trials lasting more than 150s
      
    • Seems to produce positive effects on strength, power, fat free mass, daily living performance and neurological function in young and older people
      
    • Up regulation of gene expression when creatine is administered together with resistance training exercises
      
    • Amplify favorable physiological adaptations such as: increased plasma volume, glycogen storage, improvements of ventilatory threshold and a possible reduction of oxygen consumption in sub maximal exercise
• Effect of Creatine Supplementation on Muscle Damage and Repair Following Eccentrically-Induced Damage to the Elbow Flexor Muscles
  • In summary, creatine supplementation had no effect on muscle force loss, muscle strength recovery or muscle soreness following eccentric exercise of the elbow flexor muscles, in young healthy subjects relative to placebo and control subjects. This suggests that supplementing creatine at a rate of 20/day for 5 days leading up to a muscle damage protocol does not reduce indices of muscle damage, or rates of subsequent muscle force recovery even with the inclusion of a creatine maintenance protocol (5 g·day-1) for the 4 days following damage. Thus, CrS does not reduce the amount of damage, or increase the rate of recovery following eccentrically-induced muscle damage specifically to the elbow flexor muscles.
    
  • My take: 5 gms a day has no impact on muscle recovery, at least not on elbow flexor muscles
• Creatine supplementation enhances muscle force recovery after eccentrically-induced muscle damage in healthy individuals
  
  • The major finding of this investigation was a significant improvement in the rate of recovery of knee extensor muscle function after Cr supplementation following injury.
    
    Participants in this study took creatine before and after exercising. That's what I do and my recovery seems (anecdotally, judging by how I feel) about the same as ever was. That I do the "body parts" workout (have for decades) rather than "whole body" may have something to do with that.
• The effects of pre versus post workout supplementation of creatine monohydrate on body composition and strength
  
  • If one must choose between taking creatine before or after one's workout, take it after.