Welcome to the VPX Sports Supplement Blog

A “crisp” south Florida winter morning means that the mercury has dipped below 65.  To the rest of you poor souls chilling up north that may seem a bit silly, but when you are acclimatized to the tropics, anything below 70 is not a comfort zone.  However, in the gym, even on a crisp morning, if you’re training hard, breathing hard, and sweating then you are going to have to pay heed to one of natures basic necessities - water.  Lumbering into the gym at 6 AM chased by a blast of cold air does not necessarily motivate one to drink (water), but it still should. You need it.  And I was about to find out just how much.

I'm going to tread on a fine line here. Obviously, any talk of "drugs" raises eyebrows, so l want to make really sure you understand my position.  I have always believed and supported the idea that performance enhancing drugs have their place in both sports and physique development, as well as to aid in combatting aging. That’s not to say, however, that everyone should use them.  Indeed, within that very large group of athletes who opt to NOT use drugs, there is a faction of them that still want to find alternative means to realizing "drug-like" enhancement of their training and/or their chosen sport.

Long before mortgage payments and everything the kids need overtook the pedestrian lifestyle of a Venice Beach musclehead, every saturday a rag-tag lot of us would pile into the finest assortment of junkers $900.00 could buy and headed to World gym to train legs. Those of us who were the first true connoisseurs of prime gym equipment - however crude by today’s standards - knew that the best leg equipment was not at Gold’s Gym - where we all regularly trained, but rather World Gym, a little over a mile north of Venice in Santa Monica. Joe Gold, the original owner of Gold’s Gym, had sold his name sake gym several years earlier and later opened World Gym and the behest of his buddies Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbu who didn’t like the zoo-like character Gold’s had taken on.

For many items marketed today, the term "on steroids" has entered the American lexicon as a term descriptive of some form of extreme enhancement, however with an attitude that this enhancement is benevolent.  "On steroid" denotes added value to a product or service which represents an overly supped-up and limited example of the standard iteration.  This axiom is applied with great success in the marketing of a vast array of products and services.  For instance, a Corvette ZR1 is a standard Corvette “on steroids.” It features tons of performance enhancement - some of which might not even  be allowed according to the rules of certain racing organizations - that create a more powerful, faster, more aggressive version of the standard model, and costing twice as much.  

Many of you know that creatine is a nutritional supplement used to increase creatine phosphate stores in striated muscle and thereby increase functional energy production. It has been proven to safely allow athletes to train at a higher intensity, which stimulates a greater adaptive response, and so improve performance. However, because it has such a profound and proven ergogenic effect, the very same group of alarmists with agendas and political clout that have demonized anabolic steroids, have set their sites on Creatine. Some of these groups have gone so far as to get referendum on the ballot to ban creatine in high school sports and actually add it to the list of "drugs" for which schools should test their athletes.

ESPN's cameras were recently at the VPX/Redline headquarters where CEO/Chief Science Officer, Jack Owoc, was interviewed as part of a segment on the dangers of sports drinks and their nefarious marketing to kids. While the mission of the ESPN reporters was to demonize energy drinks, Jack was able to steer the interview counter to their agenda. According to Jack, "I am surprised that they are airing anything because I tortured these guys for over 4 hours. I even hit them with a VPX, HPLC test of Star Bucks Venti coffee with 444 mgs of caffeine!" In case you don't know, that more than twice the caffeine contained in most energy drinks!

Here is what the secret to unlimited muscle growth is not:  it is not Human Growth Hormone, nor is it anabolic steroids, the drugs responsible for the record-breaking 756 home runs set by Barry Bonds in 2007. So what is the secret? It may surprise you, but the secret to unlimited growth potential is a type of protein produced naturally within your body. This protein is known as myostatin.

A recent study found that dietary supplementation with nitrate-rich beetroot juice reduced both the oxygen cost and the degree of PCr degradation during both low and high-intensity exercise, without affecting muscle pH.  Pretty nifty if I do say so myself.  In English, that means if you drink beetroot juice, which is high in dietary nitrates, it will help you exercise more efficiently and for a longer period of time.  Amen to nitrates! Check out VPX’s Power Shock™, with BCAA Nitrates.

If you're a fitness enthusiast, you'll be in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 24 and 25 for the 45th Anniversary of the Mr. Olympia Weekend, where you will experience the two day muscle building, eye pleasing, heart pumping action that is the 2010 Olympia Weekend Expo!

Come and feel the Ultimate bodybuilding and fitness experience being held for the 6th straight year at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This year's expo is already shaping up to be the best yet, where bodybuilding and fitness fans from all over the world come to see, sample and purchase new products, while having a chance to meet athletes, celebrities and industry icons!

They are also excited to bring back the UFC, FLEX Magazine's Bikini Model Search, Olympia Strongest Man Challenge, Pro Powerlifting Championships, Mr. Punyverse, Figure Olympia, Fitness Olympia, Ms. Olympia, World's Strongest Bodybuilder, 202 Showdown and the inaugural Bikini Olympia and Muscle and Fitness Male Model Search contest.

For only $15, you will have a chance to haul away tons of giveaways such as protein bars, supplements, the latest energy drinks, t-shirts, M and F, FLEX and M and F Hers Magazines and so much more!  Don't take our word for it, come and experience the Olympia Expo for yourself!

For more information, check out www.vpxsports.com or www.mrolympia.com