Energy Drink Wars

When Michael Buffer says his famed Trademark statement "Let's Get Ready To Rumble!!!!!", he's not only referring to the epic battles that occur in the "squared circle". He's letting us know that the Art of War also applies to the economic, political, and social dimensions of business. The energy drink industry can teach the fight game itself a few lessons. In the battle for productivity supremacy, the market for energy drinks has gotten so fierce, that even apparel companies have gotten in on the mix. When most people think of ingesting these liquefied productivity enhancers, the image of standard brands in stores comes to mind. The hard part here is not mentioning any of these brands, the challenge of which I accept. Here's a little secret for those in intense productivity situations, and even the hackers looking to code their wares for even longer stretches in Python, PHP, Perl, C, Lisp, and other powerful programming and scripting languages. The vast majority of energy supplements found in regular supermarkets and stores are not good. The good stuff is at the sports nutrition outlets with energy drink categories that cater specifically to bodybuilders, powerlifters, and hardcore trainers alike. There's an old saying: What works for the bodybuilders will work for the general public, not the other way around. Here's a case in point. Most energy drinks sold in supermarkets rely heavy on the basic combination of Vitamin B12, caffeine, copious amounts of taurine, and sugar. While this will give you a bit of a spark, the subsequent crash could seriously ruin productivity efforts, after the average 2-3 hour high. The energy drinks sold in sports nutrition centers tend to be sugar-free and rely on substances in addition to caffeine that not only stimulate the adrenals for consistent catecholamine output (i.e., adrenaline and norepinephrine), but also maintain the central nervous system's and brain's neurological sequence by preventing excess acetylcholine depletion and the downgrade of dopamine and serotonin. In other words, in sea of casualties in the energy drink wars, buyers are better off going to these outlets and looking for drinks laced neuro-transmission precursors, in addition to stimulants, but in sugar-free versions. Hackers, trainers, and other intense participants at work will not only get more bang for their buck, but also for their production.


Recommended Product(s):

ALRI Venom Sport Energy Drink

ALRI Hypershot Energy


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Necessary Nutrition

Do not even think about investing in sports nutrition unless the most basic vitamin and mineral requirements for active people are met. Does this sound fair enough? Probably, but it's easier said than done. Many people who suffer from training related ailments due to a specific vitamin and/or mineral deficiency already take supplements. So the issue becomes which one or more of these products' components does one take, while still in the area of deficiency? Once you find the answer, it becomes a simple task of leveraging up the amount needed to satisfy nutrient requirements, thus eliminating the deficiency. Someone spoke to me earlier about the elimination of cramps, which many times are due to a mineral deficiency and/or electrolyte imbalance. But this person makes the investment in nutrition, and to the extent that he should not have had to experience cramps. An illustration is occurring here: Nutritional value in terms of the amount necessary is more like a calculus equation, in which [n] number of components are required in its function. Or better yet, think of a regression analysis, in which one is placing multiple factors and their rates of change into this long equation, whose final summation which parallels one's nutritional requirements yields the precise amount needed based on the totality of one's condition(s). Again, the moral to the story is that this an example of nutritional value having only relativities, and no absolutes. Not to put this in a axiomatic sense, but viewing requirements in absolute terms (i.e., FDA requirements) ignores the fact that the body bio-chemically calculates and processes nutrients purely on the conditions of its internal needs, almost all of which are influenced by myriad of internal and external factors, at any given time. Remember, if more of a certain vitamin or mineral is needed at a given time, review the amount of stress incurred to justify the increase in necessary nutrition.


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Product Selection

Everyone states that he wants more products (wider product selection), but actual buyers really want solutions. Know the difference between a prospect and a buyer. Since all buyer's were prospects, it obviously is not the case that the reverse is even remotely true, by any statistical stretch of the imagination. The name of the game is conversion, but its a coin with two sides: The other side is value-engineering. If you don't create enough value to elicit a transaction, then there can be no conversion. And without conversion, economic rents are absent. Now, this brings us back to the concept of Product Pre-Selection. Prospects may overlook sellers with limited, but high quality items for products accessible at the lowest price points in mass market arenas. Buyers with consistent purchase histories tend the leverage the value of intangible assets (i.e., seller knowledge) to craft a viable solution, within a given a set of products. Buyers usually attain greater results, and paradoxically save more money (over time more so than prospects), by figuring out how to limit their selection to only high quality product areas early. Buyers tend to focus their energy on a higher level of abstraction - the solution, while prospects tend to focus their energy on a lower level of abstraction - the product. In supplements, the physical asset is only the medium; the real value is in the product's intangible proven ability to deliver suggested results, within reasonable scope. The old saying still holds; you can't be all things to all people. Widening out the selection to satisfy the eye of prospects without investment in the conversion process is a recipe for disaster. It's the reason why so many supplement stores are characterized by huge inventories and [un]knowledgeable staff. So when prospects request inferior products (not only in supplements, but in business in general) stick to your guns and focus on selling superior products to buyers.


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Thinking

We live in not only in an over-communicated world, but also in the era of Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything, which is also a famous work by author and Chaos Theory proponent James Gleck. You ask, what does this have to do with sports nutrition? Everything! The Internet has rapidly accelerated the external and internal quest for answers, even at the neurological level. People don't want to think, but be given answers automatically. This sounds like the perfect proposition, but upon further inspection is the root cause of the problem (the flood of inaccurate and misleading information), which is designed to encourage impulse buying. And what is this based on? - Speed of thought, as applied to purchasing products without a basic method of assessment to [raise the chances] of acquiring good product quality and selection. In other words, a little thought behind why users by the products they want will go a long way towards protecting their interests, as buyers. One doesn't need to be a scientist, but s/he should have a base of rationale if s/he's going to assume the risk of not getting what's desired in the virtual arena of the supplement product space. A little thought can help tremendously in selecting the best stacks, evaluating the basic propositions of new supplements, saving money, etc. Everyone wants to accumulate more optimal experience during his or her lifetime, but doing it right is key. Instead of clicking through pages and tabs of different supplement web sites in the browser and increasing one's exposure to inaccurate information that appears correct, users should employ meta-cognition by taking a little time to learn about and modify their thought processes and subsequent behavior in the area of product selection. The incorporation of very basic rationale will equal, if not surpass the return on investment in any sports nutrition product.


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Arm Training

People like to show off their muscles, and are in many cases infatuated with concepts related to arm training, getting that bench press up, etc. But there's a paradox here concerning one's ability to develop his biceps and triceps: The more direct movements such as the isolation movements for the arms do not put on muscle as well as the indirect movements for the torso areas, in which the arms are involved. In other words, heavy bench presses, inclines, and dips will put more size on the triceps than triceps pressdowns or similar isolation movements. On an outrageous note, even the squat has been scientifically proven to add more arm mass than pressdowns. Heavy pulling movements, such as pull-ups, chin-ups, barbell rows, and deadlifts actually add more mass long-term to the biceps than arm curls: Bicep curls should be done with either dumbbells or the straight bar, as they produce a superior contraction compared to the EZ curl bar, and they should be done with at least one of the aforementioned pulling movements to maximize arm mass. Another perspective on this issue is that compound movements maximize muscle fiber recruitment to the extent that fibers from adjacent areas will come into play, during high intensity execution. This will strengthen the anabolic signal and reinforce amino acid uptake and optimal partitioning, even within the indirect muscle areas of primary concern in this post (hint). And this will happen to an even superior extent than if one employed high intensity effort performing isolation movements. In sum, if you want fast arm growth, focus on simple compound movements, and minimize isolation.


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Innovate

How many supplement manufacturers are truly innovating...really? Not too many, if many or any at all. There are a lot of new products, with some flashy brand positioning and market segmentation. But all in all, what's the core theme among these or a class of these products? Manufacturers would do better to question their own position and choose their niche instead of mixing and matching ingredients and rolling the dice on brand development and management. This brings back memories of the old EAS, when Bill Phillips positioned the company to own the position of being the first with creatine in America (after Almada and Byrd discovered it for nutritional use at the Univeristy of Nottingham in England). And he astutely developed that position and carefully leveraged the incorporation of other highly synergistic developments, such as HMB (by Dr. Steve Nissen and Co. under MTI through collaboration of ISURF, Iowa State University Research Foundation and Vanderbilt University) and Myoplex into a highly focused system geared towards lifestyle maximization. Here Phillips has set the example, and many other manufacturers still have not read the blueprint correctly. Notice that every product endorsed by BioAvail Knowledge is sourced only from highly focused manufacturers. Why?! Because they make better products, and their resources are always focused on superior future developments, instead being diffused on current brand trends, which are already on their way out. Here's an example. There are a number of manufacturers heavily lacing pre-workout creatine drinks with testosterone boosters, along with their every 5-minute product releases. Anyone versed in biology and chemistry immediately understands why such product propositions are not effective. On the opposite side, companies like Metabolic Technologies, Inc. will release a new product once in a blue moon, but whey do, it hits big and reinforces the accurate perception of the company's dedication to manufacturing products geared solely towards addressing muscle wasting and atrophy, due to physical ailments, diseases, and training stress. These and other examples have already been set. All that's needed now are learning and proper execution.


Recommended Product(s):

HMB

Micronized Glutamine

Pure Whey Protein Isolate


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Protein Consumption

I recently overheard someone state to a group of people that one should consume 1.5 - 2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, everyday. This is actually the default paradigm of protein consumption in sports nutrition. Fitness enthusiasts, bodybuilders, and other gym participants the world over adhere to this logic without question. I would agree that this consumption range has its time and place among very high level training intensities, but only within very specific periods of extreme exertion. The day-to-day consumption pattern as outlined above makes for a nice recipe for increased health risks to the liver and kidneys, over time. In addition, the United States Marine Corps. nutritional requirements explicitly state that the optimal consumption range of protein is between .65 - .85 grams per pound of bodyweight. Now, let's examine the logic behind the standard convention. The assumption of taking even the amount of protein equal to one's bodyweight let alone more inversely assumes that a high percentage of those amino acids will make their way to skeletal muscle cells. This is not the case. The body continuously destroys excess nutrient capacity to protect its internal ecological systems from certain occurances, such as long-term nitrogen overload. Speaking of nitrogen overload, the body has been scientifically proven to assemble a chemical sequence designed to remove excess nitrogen 72 hours after excess consumption is detected. The only people who've been able to sustain highly exaggerated protein consumption long-term and facilitate genetic increases in protein assembly and muscle growth were those on anabolic steriods. That is up until the side effects from steriod usage set in. As far as natural people are concerned, the amount of protein consumed beyond a certain point (according to one's genetic limits in response to training, nutrition, and overall stress) will not further assemble into new muscle proteins. And it shouldn't, for the reason that you need your protection mechanisms to survive. Amino acid release in continuous fashion and timing (i.e., fast amino acid release post-training, and slow amino acid release all other times) is the key to long-term growth. The body assembles muscle proteins and creates new muscle based on long-term consistency at medium to low consumption capacity, not high volume over health threatening periods.


Recommended Product(s):

Pure Whey Protein Isolate

HMB

Mass Meal


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