I have been working out at a local gym now for about 4 months which in and of itself is not unusual.  What is unusual are the strange folk that inhabit the workout facility at 5:00 am.  Yes, there are quite a few normal people there as well, but it only takes a few odd balls to make heads turn.  Let me take a moment to elaborate on a few of the oddest types.

The Singer
There are two people who regularly work out in the morning who feel that they should grace each and every exerciser with a healthy dose of song.  One is what you might call a soft singer.  She sings just loud enough for people within a machine or two radius to hear her.  Not a terribly annoying person, just odd and of course, totally off key.  The second singer is the one who belts out "Jingle Bells" at the top of his lungs as he moves between machines.  In-between songs he will make loud and disturbing sounds such as clucking like a chicken.  Perhaps they do this for attention, but my feeling is they are a few bricks shy of a full load.  Clucking like a chicken while exercising is definitely padded room material.

The Grunter and Growler
These are the people who feel that they must make as loud a grunting sound as possible between each repetition during weight training.  Now, I know that sometimes to make it through a demanding set it is ok, to huff and puff a bit, but this is the totally over the top grunting that the whole gym can hear.  There are at least three of these types who can regularly be found in the mornings working out.

The Over-exerciser
There is nothing more satisfying than seeing someone who is obviously meeting their exercise goals and taking it to the next level, but that is not what I mean by "Over-exerciser."  The over-exerciser is someone who exercises so intently that they end up using the exercise machine in a way that it was never designed to do.  It is very difficult to explain this person, but I will attempt to do so.  One over-exerciser lady at our facility is often seen bending down at 90 degrees while running like a mad women on the treadmill.  She often does odd gyrations while attempting to do leg-ups.  What kind of madness has overtaken someone like this?

The Wanna-be
He is the guy who picks someone else every week to try to learn from but never seems to get anywhere in his training.  This is not horribly odd, but what is odd is the tenacity in which he tries to get advice.  If he worked out as hard as he seeks advice, he would be one ripped guy.  I feel sorry for this type of person because the reality of it is they really don't want to exercise they just want a friend, but they go about it all the wrong way and try way too hard.

The Life of the Party
We don't have a huge problem with this at our gym but we have a couple. I am afraid you know this type all to well from other life activities. This is they guy that everyone knows and he diligently makes sure everyone knows him because he goes from machine to machine talking to each person.  Folks if you want to chat, then go to the coffee house.  Keep it out of the gym please.

Conclusion
You know sometimes I really find the above people more than I can handle, but often I find them a true source of entertainment.  After all we are all different and I know people think I am odd at times.  So let's embrace the crazy folks in our life.  I mean they are there, they are not going to go away, and sometimes they are just plain funny.

If you have struggled to get through intense weight training sessions then you may have no doubt looked into supplements as a way to help make your workouts more successful.   If you have looked at EAS Phos Force, but have been hesitant to buy it then this review is for you.

Phos Force is a pre-workout weight training supplement designed to give anyone who seeks energy a needed boost.  It contains 5.25 grams of creatine, 34 grams of carbs (needed for a proper creatine reaction in the body),  1.6 grams of CarnoSyn, 50 milligrams of magnesium and 100 milligrams of caffeine. I am always skeptical of any supplements but I thought I would give it a try.  First, the product comes, as far as I know, only in a thirty day supply in either fruit punch or orange flavor.  I opted for the fruit punch flavor mostly because it was on sale.

The instructions say to take an eight ounce dose about 30 to 60 minutes before your workout.  Since I workout at 5:00 am I did not have time to take it a full 30 minutes prior to my workout.  Instead I took it about fifteen minutes before my workout.  So my experiences are based on that change in the prescription.

The taste of the drink is palatable, but does have a little bit of an off flavor compared to say a glass of Koolaid.  I assume this is the active ingredients which cannot be masked completely by flavorings, but I think Abbott did a fine job with the flavor.   The powder needs to be mixed quickly, if you let it set without mixing even for a minute, the powder will crystallize in the bottom causing major headaches.  Just remember to put the water in your mix bottle then the powder and mix quickly.  Ok so let's move on to what really works or does not work with this supplement.

About 15 minutes after taking Phos Force  I felt the caffeine hit my system.  This is about the time I was doing the chest press.  The caffeine did its job by easily allowing me to finish 10 reps of 210lbs and the next two sets.  So my initial reaction is a positive one to the caffeine.  For me, at age 39, the caffeine is a good boost this early in the morning.

At about 30 minutes there was indeed a second boost of energy.  I do not  know if this was the creatine or the CarnoSyn, but there was something clearly happening.  I was able to get through 3 sets of preacher curls, 3 sets of incline dumbbell curls and 3 sets of seated curls without a huge amount of muscle fatigue.  I will tell you that this has not been the case in the past.  I could not get through that many sets for the same muscle group without significant muscle fatigue.  As an added benefit the caffeine also helps with cardio which I do directly after my weight training.

In conclusion, I have been taking the product for about two weeks and it does work.  Don't expect miracles here as it is just a supplement  but I do recommend it to anyone seeking to build muscle.  It is important to also note that with some individuals, creatine does not work as it does in others.  Even without the creatine, there are other benefits with the powder.  For example it does have CarnoSyn which is stated to give more muscle stamina and it has magnesium which more and more is known as a good muscle builder.  Give it a try and see what you think.  Let me know how it does for you.


Today is indeed a dark day for America!  Yes, I know it is a trite expression and  for those who voted for Obama trite means overused or in common use.  Yes, it is a dark day not because a republican did not make it into the office of the presidency, but rather it is a dark day because a man who has no vision for America did.

America, where is the "hope and change" which Obama so eloquently delivered to us four years ago in his speeches?   When he took office in 2008, America was in debt at $9.986 trillion and now we have gone to almost $16 trillion.  This was according to both conservative and liberal media outlets  Obama's administration has alienated Israel, our strongest ally in the Middle East and left Americans to die in Benghazi.  Our unemployment rate is higher now then when Obama took office. So why are people still willing to vote for someone who demonstrates such failure?

I think first, people do not attempt to educate themselves to the facts and the truth that already exists.  We have a nation which is generally apathetic and unwilling to participate and engage actively in the political process. Being engaged is not simply voting but educating yourself on the facts about each candidate. The failure of this country to engage was proven yesterday by the number one search term in Google which was something to the effect of "who is running for president?" How can anyone of voting age be so disengaged in American culture to miss who is running for president?

Secondly, I think people are educated in the public school system which generally speaking perpetuates the belief that conservatives are rich, angry, uncaring, religious, gun owning men.  I and almost every conservative I know truly want the common man to  succeed.  We truly care about the individual and his right to succeed and live the American dream.  Yes, I am religious and I believe in a God of love who genuinely wants us to care for those around us.  In fact we are commanded in the Bible to feed the poor and take care of widows and orphans.  I attend a church that does just that on a daily basis.  Yes, I own a gun and I keep it locked up and safe.  I like to go shooting for sport and I like to have the guns there to protect my family.  I do not commit violence against others as the gangs do on the streets of the predominately liberal cities.  I do not even hunt animals as my family does not need the meat to survive.  I believe in a clean earth where my family can go to parks and experience God's creation. I live in a very modest 1300 square foot home and drive a four cylinder Kia with 142,000 miles on it. This definitely takes me out of the rich category.

Finally, people in America voted for Obama because they are not a follower of Christ.  They do not abide by Judeo-Christian ethics so they have no compass to give them wisdom to make the right decisions when voting.  Our churches are bursting with people who have no concept of who Jesus Christ was and where he stood on issues.  They do not understand that killing a child in the mother's womb is murder.  Jesus spoke of those who are quick to shed innocent blood as being those who are not his followers.  Furthermore, there are those who sit in our churches and claim to follow Christ, yet  no longer follow the leadership of their pastors which God setup for them to follow.  They ignore their teachings because they have a form of godliness but deny its power.  They want to live their own secular lives apart from the teachings of scripture but come into church and pretend to be a Christian.  Christ said if you are a lukewarm Christian he would spit you out of his mouth.

I appeal to you America to change!  Do not let brainwashing and foolishness keep you from making the right decisions for this country and yourself.  America is unique in that we have the ability to vote and change the country for the better. We did not do that yesterday!  Instead we took a failed president and believed he would somehow improve over the next four years. Please, America, wake up, change for the better!

Here is a shot of a round hay bale near Asaph, PA.  When I was a kid we called these "Giant Shredded Wheat."  The photo was taken with my Mamiya RB 67 PRO SD, 90mm Sekor lens.  I believe the exposure was f22 at 1/15 of a second on Fuji Velvia 50.   Anyway, I found this to be a very colorful scene so I couldn't resist the temptation to shoot it