Phosphate or Creatine or neither

[Monkey]

Hi All,


Been looking to supplement my diet (or whetger I should) and came up with these two possibiklities that might improve performance.

As I understand it:

- Phosphate for endurance (long moderate activity)

- Creatine for short high intensity activity.


Currently I eat a balanced Paleo style diet (with a few cheats Rice occasionlaly etc. ) and I do not feel low but wanted to get some educated views.

ATB

Monkey

[James Boelter]

Monkey, I am only semi-educated :) , but I think that in terms of what you seem to want from your training, (to improve performance), 'supplements' are beside the point. IMO you are doing the right thing by working with a Paleo type diet. You are covering the bases the way you need to by giving your body/mind a decent 'base' to work from. With this taken care of, I would ignore any and all propaganda from the supplement industry, and concentrate on the 'mental' aspect of your training. If the 'intent' and focus and will to succeed is there, supplements are beside the point. If the intent, focus, and will to succeed are NOT there, supplements are nothing more than another example of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

One of the most helpful things I ever heard in regards to athletic peak performance was in one of the 'Maximology' tapes, where Coach Sonnon talked about the way we all tend to create self imposed 'limits' on our own abilities and capacities. Most of your own 'limits' are mental barriers, created by fear-reactivity and societal pressures to conform (in Transactional Analysis terms, this would translate into your parents and peers resenting your ambitions and asking you 'Who do you think you are? I suppose you think that your sh*t don't stink now??')


Just my opinion. Every major success in 'performance' oriented athletic activities I've ever had was a matter of intent, focus, and will to succeed...as long as my basic diet was healthy and didn't subtract from my basal health line, no supplement ever made a real difference. Or if it seemed to make a real differerence, in retrospect I realized that I had invested it with a power that actually lay within my self. In 46 years on the planet, I've only found two exceptions to this, and they were not nutritional supplements, but seeming self-help New-Age 'gimmicks': bio-circuits (popularized by the 'Tools for Growth group') and the 'Immortality Device' finger magnets developed by Alex Chiu. These two little dinguses, both of them relatively cheap and simple in conception, seem to have a extremely helpful and tonic effect on my 'chi/energy circulation' and ability to rejuvenate and recharge my vitality. But neither of them have helped my performance in athletic terms. Rather, they have improved my quality of life, and my abililty to relax and enjoy myself.

Bottom line: If you want to improve, and you are committed to improving, and you are focused on improving your athletic performance, and you believe you can surpass your percieved limits, then you will do it. It's as inevitable as the sunrise.

Hope I didn't come off as another smug, solicitous, New Age 'type'. I owe Coach Sonnon an enormous debt for his help in perceiving my own self-imposed barriers in terms of 'Fear-Reactivity' and hope I can help other trainees understand the nature of the barriers to true transformation.

[Monkey]

James,

Thanks for the reply. Sounds good to me.


Monkey