Merry Christmas from Aesthetic Muscle!

Merry Christmas everybody! 


Christmas isn't one of my favorite holidays due to all the materialism it promotes but I don't absolutely hate it. I do like the fact that it does bring everyone together and makes many people happy :)


So here's wishing everyone an Aesthetic Muscle Christmas!


I won't be following this today but if want, give my strategy for preventing fat gain on a holiday a try: Thanksgiving Fat Gain - How to Prevent It.

You may also want to read Dr. Andro's blog post on some other things Christmas can bring you besides materialistic gifts :)


Santa is Coming to Town and You Better Beware of His Gifts: Fat Gain, Muscle Loss and Increased Mortality Rates.

Happy Holidays!

Weird Things I See at the Gym

I usually workout at Snap Fitness which is a smaller 24 hour type of gym. However, these past few weeks I was visiting my parents so I was working out at a different bigger chain type of gym known as LA Fitness. My brother has their "elite" membership where he can bring in two guests with him, so it was awesome I got to workout at the gym for free :)


I used to workout at this LA Fitness years ago when it first opened and have worked out at several different LA Fitness locations since then as well. Since moving to Minnesota, I've been at Anytime Fitness and currently Snap Fitness. I chose these gyms instead of the bigger gyms mainly due to location and cost.

My transformation occurred working out at Snap Fitness :)

After working out at a smaller type gym for two years, what I realized coming back to this LA Fitness is that there are a lot more tools, douchebags, and people doing the strangest things at these bigger gyms!


Here are some of my observations during my three weeks at LA Fitness.


Kipping pullups
I've heard about these kipping pullups before. I've read they're a part of Crossfit, something I had no interest in and didn't know what it was until I recently read about it in Men's Health (I still don't have any interest in it and don't really agree with their principles). I've seen a video of someone doing these before and thought to myself "what's the point....these are just extreme cheating pullups". Extreme cheating on anything is pointless in my opinion. I thought it looked stupid in the video, but seeing it done in person was even more ridiculous!

WTF!!! Just as the commenter on youtube said: Fifty-four Butterfly Kipping Pull-ups, yet zero real pull-ups!

Kipping dips
Same thing as the kipping pullups...these looked reeeeeaaally stupid. I don't understand the point of doing these movements if you're going to kip in order to do them!


Large groups working out together
By large, I mean any more than two people together. You normally see these groups in three's but I actually saw a group of four too! These guys do more talking with each other than working out. I don't see how anybody can get a good workout rotating with more than one other person. The rest periods are too long and they end up socializing more than exercising. The worse part is if you need the equipment they are using...you can't really ask to work in and then you have to wait forever until they are done with it!


Socializers
These guys come to the gym mainly to socialize. They might fit in a couple sets of chest and biceps in between their socializing. They wander around and look for people to talk to. Whether the person is resting, doing cardio, or even in the middle of a set, it doesn't matter. These guys will want to talk to anybody....anything to avoid actually lifting a weight.

It's gym time...Not social hour.

Partial rep guy
It seems there's always at least one of these guys at every gym I go to (even my small gym).  I'm not talking about the guys that do partials in order to lift more weight. These guys actually seem to do a total body partial workout...on every exercise they do! It's like their doing it because they think it's more effective or safer for their joints or something. Looks very odd (not to mention ineffective)!


Everyday bencher
There's seems to be one of these guys at every gym I've been at too. Everyday is a chest day for them. They start off with flat barbell bench, usually bouncing big weights off their chest. And they seem to do 50 sets before finishing off with a couple sets of lat pulldowns and bicep curls. LOL!


Ridiculous outfit guy
Whenever I saw this guy at the gym, he was wearing the same thing: cut off jean shorts, under armour headcap, a black string racerback tanktop, and workboots. WTF! Firstly, how can he workout in cut off jean shorts?! Secondly, how can he go out in public like that?! I wish I could have snapped a picture to upload here to show the ridiculousness! This is a specific example but I've seen a few other very odd outfits as well.

It looked something like this but imagine a fat guy instead of Marzia Prince LOL!

LA Fitness...where you might see the weirdest things in your life

Have you guys seen any of these same things at your gyms? What other weird, odd, or toolish things have you seen at your gym?

Velocity Shot Preworkout review

It may seem like the only products I've been reviewing are preworkouts. There's a good reason for this. They are one of the few supplements that show an immediate effect, and these are the samples that I've been receiving :)


So this brings me to the latest sample preworkout I received, Neogenix Velocity Shots  This is the first "shot" type of preworkout that I've tried. It was nice to not have to drink so much additional liquid before working out.  So onto the review...


Taste

Being that this was a shot, it's really not meant to be drunken slowly and held in your mouth but this is what I did for the sake of the review. It tasted like a diluted orange flavored cough medicine, which wasn't exactly delicious. But again this wasn't meant to savored so I'd think I had just took the shot, I barely would have noticed the taste.

Energy

Good thing about this preworkout was I didn't feel any jitters. But I also didn't feel a boost in energy so I thought this stuff wasn't going to do anything. However, once I got to the gym and started warming up, I was hyped and ready to lift! 

Strength

I was able to achieve a new personal best during this workout, getting 160 lbs for 5 reps on weighted dips. I felt very strong during this exercise and for rest of my workout as well.

Endurance

I had great energy throughout the workout and all the way to the end. I never felt tired and felt like I could rest minimally especially during the weighted dips.

Pump

I don't normally have an issue getting a pump and would have to say there was no noticeable additional effects in this area.

Overall

I felt this was a effective for a preworkout and would do the job of making sure I get a good workout in. I would use this product again if I get more samples or can get it on sale :)