Sumi Singh – regular contributor to BrinkZone – in her small BZ logo shirt. Look at those abs!
Michelle Falsetta training in her “No Pink Dumbell Zone!” Shirt
Annette M Rockin’ her “No Bro-Science” shirt,
If you have watched my videos over the years, you know I’m a fan. Here’s why; Sandbag training is some of the most productive “functional” training around. The sandbags Ultimate Sandbag takes sandbag training to another level. They have handles and grips, and are very well made. The number of exercises you can do with the sandbags is virtually endless. A must have for home gyms and those who want to take their functional strength and fitness to the next level! I use them with teams I work with and clients at all levels, and keep a small, medium, and large bag in my home gym. If you watch the various vids on the site here, you will see I use these bags for a large variety of training. I have added additional vids to watch below, and if interested in more info, click HERE
Is whey isolate toxic? Is whey made from “grass fed” cows superior? Are there hormones in your whey?
For more info on the topic of hormones, etc found in whey protein, click HERE
A common question actually. Counting Calories, is it essential for reaching your goals of gaining or losing weight? In this vid, I give the simple answer and a formula for those who do decide they need to count calories to make progress.
You know E-pub such as Kindle, Nook, Itunes, etc is hot right now, but don’t know where to start? Or, want a package of print and e-pub in the most cost effective approach? Need cover art?
Writing the book is often the easy part! Thus, a new service I am offering – via Brink Consulting Group – which is Publishing Services! I have been in the industry of print and E-pub a long time, so save yourself years of wasted time and $$$ and have a book done faster than you thought possible via my new service.
An example of the cover art quality!
You can go at it alone, but I promise you, unless you know the details and requirements of EACH platform (that require ISBN #, specific formatting, etc, etc), you’ll spend FAR more time and energy then you would ever think possible…
See what’s offered for Publishing Services HERE if interested.
Not everything that gets posted to the BrinkZone is about fitness or bodybuilding or nutrition. Some times it’s food for the mind & soul 
My father was a well-known violinist in his day, and he sent me some CDs of Mozart and Bach Sonata’s to upload as I told him it was a way to reach many who had never heard his music. He’s 88 now, and does not do concerts any more, but still teaches privately on occasion. He still practices the violin every day and has for over 80 years now.
He has no ‘net access, but he’s excited a new group of people world wide might get exposed to good classical, and his playing. I put up a YT page for him:
Here’s a Mozart Sonata in E Minor, K. 304 Movement I. Movement II is linked at the end of this vid and can be found in his YT page above. Enjoy!
BTW, Also added a music play list on my own YT page with that Sonata:
I am planning to put up more music for those who love good classical, and my fathers specialty and personal favorite, is Mozart. Although he’s recorded 30+ albums, I believe these recordings have not been heard outside their original venue ’till now.
Of course not. However, by some of their biographies, you may think they are. They will often list a string of accomplishments that sound almost identical to each other, and too good to be true… That adds confusion for people as they attempt to decide who has the credibility, experience, and accomplishments worth listening to for getting their health/fitness/bodybuilding advice. Some of you already know me from the magazines and other places, and some may be new to the BrinkZone, and perhaps looked briefly at my bio
However, as human beings are highly visual creatures, I decided a vid on some tricks used to “pad” resumes may be of interest and utility, and show some of my own accomplishments and “creds” as it relates to the health/fitness industry. Note, there are some very smart people out there giving some great info and advice.
However, for everyone of those, there’s 100 wanna be types who truly have no business supplying the advice they do, and use all manner of tricks to sell products to people. That is bad for the industry in general in my view. Thus, it behooves people to take some extra time to perhaps track down some of the claims made by those giving advice on health, fitness, bodybuilding, weight loss, etc., and don’t take claims of accomplishments at face value.
As mentioned in the vid (“See bio below this video” comments made in the vid), click HERE or the “Bio” option at the top of the page for additional info if interested.
When I wrote The Creatine Graveyard, per comments in THIS recent vid, creatine ethyl ester (CEE) was all the rage and the “high tech” creatine that was gonna show itself to be “9,372,401 X better absorbed & superior to monohydrate blah blah blah” and so the marketing hype machine claimed. CEE, like every “superior” form of creatine before it (e.g., liquid creatines, serum creatine, etc, etc) dropped off the radar after numerous studies showed it was not only not superior to monohydrate, but clearly inferior. To those who know a thing about creatine, none of that came as any surprise but we had to wait patiently while studies were done to confirm what we knew. See article linked for that info on CEE if interested.
So fast forward to 2012. Although “buffered” creatine (BC) existed at the time (see list) it was not as popular as it came to be (after the fall of CEE there was less competition of course) and made steady increases in popularity. Me, I had it firmly in the graveyard for reasons outlined in the article. As of writing the article I’d say it had “one foot in the graveyard” as they say, and as of now, both feet firmly planted.
A recent study done at Texas A&M examined the claims made my makers of buffered creatine (Kre-Alkayn®) to test it’s claims of being superior to monohydrate and found it was neither more effective than good old monohydrate nor had an improved safety profile over CM.
When looking at whether BC was superior to CM for increasing tissue levels of creatine, strength, and LBM, the study concluded “Neither manufacturers recommended doses or equivalent loading doses of KA promoted greater changes in muscle creatine content, body composition, strength, or anaerobic capacity than CrM. These findings do not support claims that KA is a more efficacious form of creatine.”
If one looks at the graph, one can see CM actually had a slight edge over BC in terms of actual muscle creatine content…
On the issue of whether or not BC has a superior safety profile over CM, the study authors concluded “Neither manufacturers recommended doses or equivalent loading doses of KA compared to CrM resulted in any negative side-effects or health outcomes. Additionally, there was no evidence that CrM supplementation experienced a greater degradation to creatinine. These findings suggest that KA is just as safe to consume as CrM with minimal side-effects.”
Color me not the least bit surprised…People can read the study poster session and abstract – “Kre-Alkalyn® supplementation does not promote greater changes in muscle creatine content, body composition, or training adaptations in comparison to creatine monohydrate” & “Kre-Alkalyn® supplementation does not exhibit a safer clinical profile or have less side effects in comparison to creatine monohydrate” – on the Texas A&M web site HERE if interested and hopefully it’s submitted for publication as a full length paper.
Folks, just attended the Iron Master Strongman Challenge, put on by The Weight Room, Newton MA. Here’s my highlight vid. You can also see another vid I made at the Weight Room which focused on the benefits of thick bar training HERE if interested.
As you all can see, a very tough series of event were chosen, but no quitters and a good time had by all! 
Folks, firstly a quick update on the state of another “improved” form of creatine, which when put under real scientific scrutiny, didn’t live up to it’s claims (read hype and pseudo science) as I predicted in a prior article (The Creatine Graveyard). Additional comments with links to the study, can be found here The Creatine Graveyard Update 2012!
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