Had\u00a0an IM chat\u00a0this morning w\/Simon, the admin for the forums I mod,\u00a0about Rick Gray.\u00a0 I hadn’t finished my coffee yet, and wasn’t quite awake…so when Si asked me if I’d ever heard of the guy,\u00a0I\u00a0momentarily\u00a0confused him with the\u00a0author\u00a0of\u00a0“Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.”\u00a0\u00a0A quick Google search revealed the error, however\u00a0(the “Mars\/Venus”\u00a0author is\u00a0JOHN Gray, not Rick), so my (still-foggy) response was: “Never heard of him.”<\/p>\n
So who is he???<\/p>\n
As I\u00a0discovered, he’s\u00a0the author of a “free” e-book: Muscle Overload Training – which is being heavily promoted around the internet.\u00a0 It’s 65 pages long:\u00a0 a pretty good length for a training manual…except that’s not REALLY what it is.\u00a0 Oh sure…there are 27 pages with\u00a0some\u00a0fairly banal info on training and nutrition…but the rest\u00a0is nothing more than a blatant pitch for several muscle-building supps\u00a0sold\u00a0at\u00a0anabolicsecrets.com.<\/p>\n
In other words, the book is a supp ad in disguise…which is\u00a0WHY it’s free.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(If you believe the lame-ass reason<\/span>\u00a0rationale\u00a0given on the “Muscle Overload Training”\u00a0web site (i.e., it’s free because\u00a0Rick\u00a0has to collect more testimonials before the publisher will “promote and sell the book”), then there’s a bridge I’d like to sell you.\u00a0Unlike hard copy\u00a0books and mags,\u00a0YOU\u00a0DON’T NEED A PUBLISHER to create e-books…anyone with\u00a0a desktop publishing or\u00a0word processing\u00a0program\u00a0+ the ability to\u00a0create .pdf files\u00a0can\u00a0do it.\u00a0 Likewise, Rick could easily sell the book through anabolicsecrets.com, seeing as he’s the President of A.S. Research<\/a>\u00a0– the parent company.\u00a0 He has all the marketing infrastructure he needs, already.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Anyway…I flipped through the copy Si sent me, page-by-page,\u00a0looking for\u00a0more info on Rick.\u00a0\u00a0Obviously, he markets supps, but that doesn’t translate into any special knowledge.\u00a0 And ANYONE can write an e-book (I’ve created and contributed to several, myself), so before I take an author’s\u00a0advice on training, nutrition, or supplements, I want to know WHY I should listen to him (or her).\u00a0 Has he won bodybuilding contests?\u00a0 Has he trained serious competitors?\u00a0 Has he studied under other famous strength coaches?\u00a0 Does he have any specialized education or training credentials?<\/p>\n In other words, just because\u00a0someone\u00a0CLAIMS to be\u00a0an expert, doesn’t mean s\/he IS one.\u00a0 Like I wrote earlier<\/a>, an expert is someone with “…experience, credentials and\/or training that\u2019s relevant to the subject in question” and “…has some standing in his\/her field”.\u00a0 This is especially critical when the “advice”\u00a0involves spending money!\u00a0<\/p>\n So, who the hell is Rick Gray?\u00a0 What’s his background?\u00a0 NO idea…the book doesn’t say.\u00a0 The book web site doesn’t say, either.\u00a0 All\u00a0I found\u00a0was this:<\/p>\n “My name is Rick Gray. I\u2019m a former hard gainer who finally discovered the secrets to gaining muscle mass FAST<\/strong>…\u00a0<\/strong>after years of searching for the TRUTH.<\/p>\n Listen, I\u2019m not a professional writer, but what I\u2019ve discovered is so amazing and so effective I wanted to write you myself. So please bare with me and my occasional bad grammar.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Awwwww….that is SOOOOOO CUTE!\u00a0\u00a0Let’s\u00a0“bare” with him and his bad grammar, cuz he’s not a professional writer!\u00a0 I’m amazed he didn’t deliberately misspell “grammar” as “grammer”\u00a0too.\u00a0\u00a0After all, clumsy writing PROVES he’s authentic, right? That one would really drive the point home!<\/p>\n (Note to the unwary: you don’t need to\u00a0be a professional writer\u00a0to figure out the difference between “bare” and “bear.”<\/a>)<\/p>\n And what about those supps?\u00a0 Rick’s peddling five of ’em:<\/p>\n There’s a similar-looking web page for each one.\u00a0 Only one, the “Ultimate Protein Complex” displays any ingredient information, however, and it’s nothing special.\u00a0 It consists of calcium caseinate, whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate and egg albumen.\u00a0 Whoopti-do –\u00a0 you can find a\u00a0number of similar products over at bodybuilding.com, for less than what this is selling for (nearly $50 US per kilo).<\/p>\n But the supp pushed the hardest in this “book”\u00a0is “HyperGain” – which is a creatine-based formula.\u00a0 Here’s what\u00a0his ad\u00a0says about the main ingredient:<\/p>\n What we came up with BLOWS AWAY plain old-fashioned creatine monohydrate!<\/strong><\/p>\n We’ve successfully altered the creatine molecule to insure maximum absorption.<\/p>\n Creatine ethyl ester is creatine monohydrate with an ester attached. The attachment of an ester is important because esters are found in the fat tissue of mammals.<\/p>\n But, why is that important?<\/p>\n You see, creatine monohydrate is semi-lipopholic<\/em>. This means that it inefficiently<\/em> uses fat as a transport mechanism.<\/p>\n Esterified creatine will use fat more efficiently to permeate the cell wall and exert its positive effects on cellular function.<\/p>\n This means you can use significantly lower dosages but the absorption of esterified creatine will be significantly<\/em> increased… and the “creatine bloat” will be totally eliminated! <\/strong><\/p>\n In other words, Hyper Gain allows you to safely take creatine to its full and most potent effects, with only a fraction<\/em> of previous dosages.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n and…<\/p>\n Here’s a shocking discovery we made…<\/p>\n When creatine supplements were tested after mixing with any liquid, most of it rapidly converts to the by-product “creatinine<\/em>.” That means there is very little pure creatine left to get to your muscle cells where it’s needed.<\/p>\n And it gets even worse…<\/p>\n After the creatine converts to creatinine… it is a toxic substance capable of causing some nasty<\/em> side effects!<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of the side effects from increased creatinine levels are stomach cramps, bloating, diarrhea, water retention, dehydration, headaches… and potential liver and kidney problems.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n These statements are readily disproved. Rick Gray and his cronies<\/span> colleagues\u00a0didn’t\u00a0“come up” with\u00a0creatine ethyl ester (CEE) – it was originally\u00a0invented by researchers at the University of Nebraska (click here for the patent<\/a>).\u00a0 It’s been on the market for several years.\u00a0 And – contrary to claims –\u00a0it is NOT superior to creatine monohydrate.\u00a0 Here’s\u00a0what\u00a0a recent research study concluded<\/a>:<\/p>\n Since creatine ethyl ester supplementation showed a large increase in serum creatinine levels throughout the study with no significant increase in serum and total muscle creatine content<\/strong>, it can be concluded that a large portion of the creatine ethyl ester was being degraded within the GI tract after ingestion. Furthermore, it appears that the skeletal muscle uptake of creatine ethyl ester uptake was not significant enough to increase skeletal muscle creatine levels<\/strong> without significant degradation to creatinine occurring.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Emphasis mine.<\/p>\n\n