Just thought I'd chime in with experience. Do NOT take more than the recommended dosage. I bought some supplements that were 2x the recommended daily dosage and every time I took it I thought I was dying for an hour.

That would be fine. You can use the 3000-4000 cal plans that I provided you with. Both of which have sufficient protein.

NOW! ZMA is a great product. Virtually all of NOW! brand is of very high quality and reasonable price (no, they don't pay me to say nice things about their products lol)

You can rely on your daily multivitamin/mineral supps to achieve the necessary copper.

As with any supplement, do NOT overtake or overdose, as it can lead to sickness, disease, or death.

However, do not confuse this with FDA guidelines, which are far below what your body actually needs for optimal health.

With regards to zinc specifically, 30-40mg per day is sufficient.

Yeah, pretty sure I took this stuff: http://www.gnc.com/GNC-Zinc-100MG/product.jsp?productId=16513376
100mg. I DO NOT RECOMMEND.


Unrelated, but I just ordered those Orion high tops you suggested a while back and they're on their way. I'll let you know how awesome they are.

Thinking about getting some of these, let me know as well haha

also question for Raynor;

so I'm trying to get on a bit of a healthier eating plan, I checked the 3k and 4k calorie plans you posted a page back they look simple enough but due to my work I would not be able to follow them strictly.

so not really 100% concerned with cal counts right now, would this sound like a pretty 'okay' daily routine

meal 1: yogurt, fruits (probably together with the yogurt), granola / power bar
meal 2: eggs, bacon, toast (generally what my cook makes in the mornings)
meal 3: chicken, rice, veggies
meal 4: pasta w/ some kind of meat (depending on cook)

would you recommend eating before or after workout, like a light snack before, meal after or meal before, light snack after?
light snack consisting basically of protein shake (probably a fruit smoothie with protein added), some fruit if not in smoothie, maybe a handful of almonds/cashews?


I'm not exactly trying to 'cut' weight because right now with the shit storm eating plan i've been on all I have to do is eat consistently and cleaner and i'll be more than fine.

do you wash the sponge in your kitchen sink? if so, how do you do it?

Hi Raynor

What's your take on multivitamins and how important are they?
I heard that iron ones are not that great and iron-free ones are expensive as fk

Hey Raynor, I was back-squatting a warmup set ~135lbs and at the bottom of the second squat I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. I reracked the weight and switched to movements that didn't affect my lower back for the rest of the workout. However, now that I'm sitting at home it hurts when I go from a sitting position to a standing position because of the movement of pushing my hips forward.

Any thought on what this could be? It's not some brutal pain, but it definitely feels like it shouldn't be there. (I've never had back problems before)

edit: turns out walking kind of hurts too.

This post was edited by AnimeFTW on Sep 4 2015 09:38am

For pre-workout, assuming you are bulking or a hardgainer in general, a good amount of simple sugar/carbs would be reasonable with BCAAs. Do not eat a full meal.

Post workout should be an absolute feast if you are attempting to gain mass and/or if you have difficulty putting on mass in general.

The protein shake you mentioned for pre-workout is fine.