Explaning the Creatine Experiment

About a month ago I began to take Creatine, which has been determined a safe supplement and approved by the NCAA. Basically all it does is raise your ATP levels. I'm trying to think of ways possible to test its effectiveness. I don't have a large enough sample size to run an experiment that would be recognized as official, of course, but I want to see what I can do partly for practice, and also just because I'm curious. I think my best option is to not use a control, and just ask people how they feel their performance has changed. Without the control, we wont be able to see how they would have progressed without the supplement. It doesn't matter too much for my project though because the goal is to help people move towards their goals, and if it helps one person a lot, then great. But if it doesn't help another person so much, but they think it does, it doesn't really matter as there is no negative or anything we give up by taking creatine.

I'm recommending using Optimum Nutrition's supplement of creatine because they are a very well known and respected brand that is NSF certified. With Optimum Nutrition you know what you are getting, and there will be no "secret ingredients" added.

Meeting Scheduled

I've scheduled a meeting with Coach Parker tomorrow at 7:00. That means that I have to get all the things I need to show him ready tonight. I'm going to have deadlines throughout the rest of the project set because that's what he's helping me with, and what would be the point of meeting with nothing to discuss.

I still want to have 2 people's research done by tomorrow as well. I'm going to start with myself and Htet Pai because we have somewhat similar goals. So far the project is rolling along well, I think I'm going to get a lot done these next weeks!

Review of other two blogs

Gavy's Thoughts

The blog is easy to read, the dear reader entry is clear and allows the reader to understand what he is doing with this blog and his project. Also the schedule is very clearly laid out. I hope that in the future you can include recordings of your music, or even pictures of the instruments your using. It is a bit hard to understand what is happening with your music when we can't hear it progress. 

The American Dream and Immigrant Perspectives of America 

The blog is fun to read. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the writing. If I were to critique anything, I would say that the writing could be more organized. If you were to look back at the journal to try to find an idea or a goal you had you would have to read the whole entry. Maybe that something that just matters to me, but I like the rest and I think it should help you a lot during your project!

Starting personalized research 3/8

Each person I meet with tells me their goals, and each goal I group into a category of my research. For example Htet is focusing on bodybuilding, so I'll do research on bodybuilding nutrition. I think for my bodybuilding research, I'd like to meet with a large bodybuilder, who has been doing it for a long time. I consider myself a bodybuilder, but I've seen much bigger and stronger people at the Gyms in Ithaca.

Ive met with 8 people so far. I know have 8 people's goals and they have agreed to what I've asked of them. Now to find out what I want to ask of them exactly. I started that this weekend. By Wednesday I want to have 2 peoples research done. By Friday, 4 peoples research done. By next Friday, 8 peoples research done. The Wednesday, March 25th,  after next Friday I hope to be finished, and begin getting ready for check ups with each person, and starting my first YouTube video.

Making first steps - 3/4/15

I've just started to ask people to be part of my project. They don't have to agree to much, just that they will do the recommendations I ask of them, but it still takes a bit of time to gather 10 people. An example recommendation is Elliott has tight hamstrings, so I'll give him a stretch, and he has to do it after every lower body weight session he does. For the people who are more intense with their fitness or want more help, I'm including in the few experiments I'm going to try to run. I'm going to try to test variables such as Frequency, Creatine supplement, etc.

First two weeks outline

Goals: - Get 10 people to agree to be subjects for my project
- Meet with them and get gather their own goals/what they want to be able to do
- Keep this all organized
- Gather data/helpful info on each person's goals
- By the end of the week, be ready to meet again with at least 3 and set a schedule with them.

The work starts with me asking people to participate in my project. I think 10 is a good number. It will be a lot to manage, but I'll be able to experience more. Once I have these people (I have a few in mind) and have determined their 3 month goals with them, its time to gather data specific to what they want to do. There is so much to do with strength and conditioning, I would learn a lot about stuff I don't need if I studied before having any specific goals in mind. Now I have been known to be disorganized in the past. With 10 different people, I need to be very organized. I think creating separate folders for each person in Google docs would be best. By the end of the week, I should have gathered enough info to create at least 3 people's programs for the next 3 months.

Asking around will take time, class time , researching, and planning for the 3 will take much time. I'm pretty sure that 8 hrs a week will be covered between all these. Also, my own training is part of this project and will be added to the time spent.

The Intro

Dear Reader, 

We all compete in some form or way. Strength is defined as a good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person or thing. When a person talks of strength, they could be speaking of many different ideas. There is mental strength, emotional strength, physical strength , etc.  All are important, and need to be developed for different ways of competition and living. This blog will focus on developing Physical strength, but will also hopefully strengthen all of our different types of strength as well by helping us to understand our bodies better.

I chose this topic for my project because I'm very interested in Sports, powerlifting, and bodybuilding.  Strength is not the top priority for bodybuilding, but it still fits into this project because it involves weight training. Also, I will be studying to become a Physical Therapist next year, and I think that this project will help me learn more about what I will be studying.

Nutrition is also key to build muscle, so I will cover it as well. There are ways a powerlifter's diet differs from an athlete's diet, and also from a bodybuilder's.

There will be two main sub-projects to the whole thing. The first is creating a guideline book, or a youtube channel dedicated to help the next part. This will include many varying tips and ways on how to build build strength, muscle, etc. I have not decided on which (book or video) I'll be using yet. The second part of the project is to bring people onto strength and conditioning plans, watch and help them reach their set goals making sure that they stick to them, and then to analyze the results. Similar to what a personal trainer does, but I will not be helping them in the gym. I will only be making sure they try exercises best for their goals, recommend the correct diet and times to consume nutrients, and other various tips.

Each subjects results will be measured and posted here.

I will also be going through the same process and will post my results.