Posts by Brenda Parker5

Seven and The Game are my absolute favorites—honestly, it’s a toss-up which one takes the top spot.

I also think The Social Network is incredible. That soundtrack seriously leveled up the whole movie.

It feels a bit like Fincher's The Social Network—you know, that vibe where something super mainstream is being made that I couldn't care less about—but honestly, the director and the lead actor just absolutely nail it here. Though, if we're being real, in TSN, it was really Trent Reznor's score that carried the whole movie alongside Fincher.

slyraven12 said:Look, I’m not expecting any miracles from creatine either—I just stopped taking it once I saw those elevated levels in my bloodwork. I haven't touched it in years, honestly, but like most experts will tell you, it can bump those numbers up.

Plus, I’m not exactly someone who sees massive gains from training, let alone from creatine. I feel like I know my stuff when it comes to lifting—my workouts are solid and my nutrition is dialed in—but the progress is just slow... I mean, sure, it gets harder to see results once you've been training for a long time, but still 😁

Taking 5g of creatine monohydrate a day isn't going to hurt anyone—there's really no risk there.

slyraven12 said:Look, I’m no geneticist or anything—I just happened to pack on a ton of mass back in my teens and haven't stopped hitting the weights since.

I'll take a scoop because there are other perks too, and honestly, I don't think 5 grams a day is going to wreck my kidneys.

Not gonna happen. The only way you'd mess up is if you were sipping straight lithium carbonate. XD
Just make sure you're drinking about 7 or 8 glasses of water throughout the day.

If you happen to fall into that 30% of people who don't see results from standard creatine monohydrate, try kre-alyt.
Personally, I just stick to the basic monohydrate from Optimum Nutrition.

slyraven12 said:Sorry for the off-topic rant—hope nobody minds. I wanted to get your take on creatine and kidney health. I know most people say it’s just a myth and that if you're healthy, you've got nothing to worry about, but my natural creatinine levels run a bit high. I'm carrying a fair amount of muscle—I've been training for maybe 15 years now—and I'm sitting at around 260 lbs at 6'3" (though honestly, I'm probably around 15-20% body fat). I've heard in a few places that guys who are naturally stronger tend to have higher creatinine levels just because of the sheer muscle mass and intense training. Even a buddy of mine, a natural bodybuilder, has elevated levels, which kind of made me hesitant to supplement. That said, I've decided that once I lean out a bit, I'll try it for a few months to see if it actually does anything for me. I used to take about 5 grams a day back in the day, but I didn't really feel much of a difference. Sorry again for drifting off-topic...

Look, if you already have a solid amount of natural muscle, you probably won't even notice a difference from creatine—it might not even work for you. I'm actually the exact opposite—I've got pretty mediocre genetics, so I respond to creatine incredibly well.

slyraven12 said:look, we all know he’s not just built on whey and creatine, let's be real 😁

exactly. LOL
but the guy is a genius—before USADA stepped in, everyone was basically juicing...
take Badr Hari, for example—his genetics are honestly rough, so once he hit the roids, he finally looked absolutely shredded, even if he did start losing fights right after. XD

Creatine is actually like a mini peptide. Some people just respond to it incredibly well. I think Black athletes naturally have slightly higher levels of it. Lately, I've been using Creagatine since it comes in those little pouches—I don't know, it supposedly has maybe 0.1% more benefit than standard monohydrate, though it's still just monohydrate but with that Alpha Lipoic acid added (which acts as a precursor). Apparently, about 30% of people don't respond to regular monohydrate, but they say they do to this stuff.

Back in the day, when whey was cheap, I used to knock back like 60g a day. MusclePharm used to have some killer whey back when they were sponsoring the UFC—it had something in it that got banned later, which is why it doesn't have the same impact anymore... I can't quite remember exactly what it was...

Forget the whey protein, forget the creatine... everyone's just born with Jon Jones' genetics in the heavyweight division. XD

Personally, I’ve had the best results taking 100mg of R-lipoic acid alongside some whey isolate—just a heads up though, if you have any amalgam fillings, you probably shouldn't touch it since ALA acts as a mercury chelator.
R-ALA is basically the active, bioavailable version you actually want.

Alpha Lipoic Acid also works like an insulin-mimetic carb shuttler. It helps drive those carbs exactly where they need to go: straight into your muscle tissue.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10468203/

https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/arti...70-020-00389-y

Two killer products from right here in the States—fish oil and cod liver oil—that you can basically grab at any CVS or Walgreens:











I actually take safflower and hemp oil together myself.👍

I've been tossing this powder into my shake every single day!

NAC is going for 50% off this November!
https://www.iherb.com/pr/lake-avenue-...capsules/97436

Here’s exactly what Warner Bros. uses—and honestly, I’ve got a fresh shipment of ALCAR, taurine, and emiqa quercetin headed my way, so my own supply isn't quite caught up yet.

The holy grail of nootropics () :

Austin Turner said:I’d actually love to keep this thread going—I have a close family member who deals with this constant burning sensation in their feet.
How do you even prove it’s actually neuropathy?

You basically need a full neurological workup—EMG, an MRI of the brain, and a color Doppler. Small fiber neuropathy (SFN) is ultimately confirmed through a biopsy, though that’s a pretty rare diagnosis to get officially cleared here in the States.

It's becoming way more common lately since it's usually the go-to lingering symptom from Long COVID.

Megan Rodriguez78 said:Is this what you mean?
https://www.amazon.com/now-foods-supplements/

Yeah. It'll get here via FedEx in about two days—shipping is like 9 bucks. The tablets are a little bulky, but you can manage—I just use a pill cutter to snap them in half. Those 600mg capsules come pre-mixed with selenium and molybdenum, so the mercury detox might actually work better that way. Doesn't matter if you have fillings or not; the only thing that really pulls mercury out of dental work is R-lipoic acid. Since I don't have any old amalgams left anyway, I'm totally fine just crushing the R-ALA. XD

You might want to try Fluimucan based on N-acetylcysteine, or honestly, just grab some pure NAC—it’s cheaper and usually comes in bigger capsule packs.
For me, it was a total lifesaver when I had COVID, especially when I paired it with quercetin and high doses of Vitamin C...

I actually take NAC daily along with my other antioxidants to help manage neuropathy, but man, it completely cleared out my lungs. I swear I coughed up half my body weight. XD

Megan Rodriguez78 said:Jacob Lopez51, which specific NAC capsules are you on—and where do you even find them?

You can grab the 600mg ones from Vitamin Shoppe...
But honestly, I'm pretty consistent with my NAC routine—I usually order the 1-gram, 120-count bottles from Vitacost and just split them in half. It works better for me that way—I take 500mg twice a day, once in the morning and again around 4:00 PM.

brisktrucker51 said:Try hiking in the mountains for three days wearing Merino wool versus some cheap Bangladeshi polyester, then tell me if you can actually feel the difference. 🙂

Look, when I hit the mountains, I'm going in full Arc'teryx gear. Period.🙂

bluemason3 said:So, just an expensive, branded smile 😁

Let's be real—the whole thing is trash.
If you threw a Balenciaga tee in a room with a Jack & Jones one and did a blind test, there’d be zero difference other than which $500lol
logo was on them.
But hey, at least this stuff is actually comfortable and looks high-quality!

bluemason3 said:There aren't any details on the materials used.

Probably just synthetic or a cotton blend. At that price point, it's basically trash—you could grab Merino or even Alpaca gear for what they're asking.

This polyester is from Bangladesh and honestly? It’s a top-tier zipper. This hoodie is one of those rare finds for me—perfect fit, zero squeezing, just right.
I can't actually see the image you linked—the link isn't pulling anything up on my end. If you want me to take a crack at describing it or writing something based on it, just upload the file directly or give me a quick rundown of what’s going on in the shot. Once I know what we're looking at, I'll get to work.

I picked this exact one up for half off—honestly, a steal. I actually grabbed that Venum gear way back when, back before even Aldo was rocking it as one of the early adopters.
Check out this Champion sweatshirt—honestly, it’s such a classic look. It's one of those pieces that just works, you know? Very clean, super versatile, and honestly probably the easiest way to level up a basic outfit without looking like you tried too hard. Definitely worth picking up if you want something reliable for everyday wear.