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Can You Mix Creatine with Pre-Workout for Greater Gains?

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If you’re serious about gaining muscle and strength, you probably take creatine and pre-workout . You may have also heard conflicting opinions about whether mixing them is a good idea. Some say combining creatine and pre-workout is a simple, effective way to stack two of the best performance-enhancing supplements. Others disagree, claiming certain ingredients in pre-workout can blunt creatine’s benefits—so taking them separately is the smarter move. Who’s right? Can you mix creatine with pre-workout , or is it counterproductive? Get evidence-based answers in this article. Key Takeaways You can mix creatine and pre-workout, but large doses of caffeine may slightly reduce creatine’s benefits. To safely mix pre-workout with caffeine, limit your intake to 350 mg of caffeine and 5 grams of creatine. Research shows pre-workouts with creatine and caffeine can boost performance, but results vary by dose. To maximize benefits, take pre-workout 30–60 minutes before training and...
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How Ozempic Exposed the Big Body Positivity Lie

It’s time to stop pretending that “acceptance” was the philosophical bedrock of the Health at Every Size/body positivity movement. The success of GLP-1 drugs has produced irrefutable evidence that when an “easy enough” exit exists, people take it. Economists refer to this as “revealed preference.” Ignore what people say in surveys or on Instagram Stories. Watch what they do when the cost of an action collapses. If body positivity was a deeply held belief—if fatness was truly a neutral or positive state—a new drug wouldn’t drastically change behavior. People would just stay fat and proud. But they aren’t. Given a real choice, millions are choosing thinness. It turns out that “making peace” with our body is just what we do when we think we’re stuck with it. That includes many celebrities, influencers, and “curvy and proud” brand ambassadors who made entire careers out of telling you that wanting to be thinner was internalized oppression. Suddenly, they’ve gotten very quiet, ver...
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Does Pre-Workout Break a Fast?

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If you’ve ever taken pre-workout while fasting, you’ve probably had this thought: “Did I just ruin my fast?” Here’s the simplest practical answer: Most pre-workouts don’t break a fast because the core performance-enhancing ingredients (like caffeine, beta-alanine, and citrulline) provide essentially no calories. Some formulas include calorie-containing add-ins—most commonly sugars or amino acids like BCAAs—and therefore will break a fast. Even when a pre-workout breaks a fast, it usually doesn’t change your results unless it meaningfully increases your calorie intake or makes the fasting routine harder to stick to. This article will help you understand whether your pre-workout technically breaks a fast, and decide whether that matters based on why you’re fasting. Key Takeaways A pre-workout “breaks a fast” if it contains meaningful calories (often from sugars or amino acids like BCAAs). Most pre-workouts contain very few or zero calories because the main performance ingr...
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How to Take Perfect Progress Photos: A Step-by-Step Guide

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The Scale Is Not The Only Metric That Matters Scale weight rarely tells the full story. It’s entirely possible to gain a pound of muscle and lose a pound of fat simultaneously; the scale won’t budge, but your body composition has improved. Because of this, Legion Coaching clients take progress photos before they start and every 4 weeks. While these instructions were designed for our clients, the principles are just as effective if you’re training on your own. It gets easier. This process might feel like a lot of work at first, but it quickly becomes second nature. And while it requires effort upfront, having visual proof of your hard work is 100% worth it. Don’t skip the “before” photos. If you are currently far from your goal, you might feel hesitant to step in front of the camera. Do it anyway. In 6 to 12 months, having visual proof of where you started will be invaluable. Ultimately, while target body weights and body fat percentages are useful, your satisfaction with ...
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What Is Creatine HMB? Is it Better than Creatine Monohydrate?

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A little-known fact about creatine:  It doesn’t enhance muscle growth by increasing muscle protein synthesis, but by decreasing post-workout soreness, increasing post-workout recovery, and increasing cellular hydration and glycogen storage in muscle cells. This, in turn, allows you to train harder and more frequently and experience less muscle damage, which, over time, leads to more muscle and strength. It’s little wonder why creatine is such a popular supplement—and why supplement companies are fighting to stand out in a crowded market. Since the monohydrate form of creatine is cheap, proven, and apparently impossible to “reinvent,” many brands are adding extra ingredients and selling the mixes as premium “upgrades.”  One of the most popular mash-ups is creatine monohydrate combined with HMB. If you go by influencer posts or Reddit threads, this combo supposedly results in significantly more muscle growth, athletic performance and post-workout recovery and less muscle...
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