Bandit’s Blog

Reading "Just Dave"’s recent blog of Sep 21 motivated me to supplement it with my experiences.  First of all, our gym is not a "lion’s den".  We are blessed with having all the "toys" and, being a medical rehab fitness facility primarily, we are sparsely attended and everyone is friendly and helpful.  However….the regulars…you know, the same 5 or 6 that are there the same time every day (yea, I’m one of the band members), have the urge to get a little creative and impose some "turf flexing" because we think we "own the place" now (hey, I regularly pay my $35 a month!!).   And, by the way, this is not a MAN THING.  Two of the six are ladies.  So we have a rule - -  Any gruntin or spittin’ on the mirrors results in a 25 cent fine in the "grunt jar".  Same goes for throwin’ dumbells on the floor.

It’s funny…I’ve seen the biggest muscle people never make a sound, then the "casual once or twice a week guys" come in and you think they’re hollering a goblin’s "death cry" - grit their teeth and exhale a water spray on the mirrors.  Never mind, we make lots of $$ off them.  Sometimes they get pissed and we don’t see them again (can’t take any amusement flack!).  Hey….it’s the rule  ;)  If you can’t take the "heat, then onto another kitchen."  LOL- you gotta have some fun in this journey.

Oh, we haven’t figured out what to do with the "piggy bank" yet.  Maybe we’ll buy the owner a couple of cases of Windex???  After all, the mirrors……. are "sacred" territory.

Had my annual physical last week.  Since I took up bodybuilding just late last winter, the Doc, of course had no history that I had jumped into it "big time".  Since I had read on this site and elsewhere that Bodybuilders can "throw askew" blood work and Body Mass indexes, I had a chat with my Doc about that.  Of course when he initially looked at my height/weight stats from the Nurse, the first thing he did was to pull out the BMI graph.  I said….hold on….that doesn’t take muscle mass into consideration.  Oh, he says, you’re right.  I encouraged him to view Body Fat as a better measuring tool for me.  "Oh, good idea - let’s see 6.5%…you have no worries in that department".  Duhhh.  Then came time to order routine blood work.  Again, I cautioned him that I was taking creatine and high protein supplements.   "Well, OK, let’s see how it comes out".  Sure nuff….three days later the letter arrives at the house with a breakdown of the all the blood work.  All looked great, however, the Creatitine Kidney levels (waste creatine levels) reading was at the "top edge of the normal scale" - - which is what I was wondering if it were going to happen.  Doc says to make sure I HEAVILY hydrate during the day if I was going to continue to do that.  We’ve all been told to drink plenty of water to help our muscles mend, but this is another reason to do so.   Also, he says I should alternate months and NOT stay on creatine mono supplements permanently.  He was’t too familiar with Creatine EE (like what Animal Pump has - which is the only creatine I take), so he couldn’t medically comment on that. So there’s some info for everyone to consider.