What's the craziest/funniest thing you've ever seen a competitor do on stage?
This is a good one and I can safely say that the funniest thing I've seen actually came from one of my own clients. A few years back I attended a professional bodybuilding show that I happened to have 3 clients competing in.
One of these clients was a guy named Joe Myers. If there is one thing you need to know about Joe it's that he doesn't have an ounce of shyness in his body. He never takes anything too serious.
Anyway, the pro men take the stage for this large event. Being a pro show, these guys are serious, adrenaline is high, and everyone is mentally dialed in. On a bodybuilding stage first impressions with the judges are very important. So as soon as they line up I begin yelling to my guys. I yell to my first guy and remind him to keep his legs right. I tell my second guy to lean forward a bit more.
I look over at Joe and he is nailing his posing so I simply yell to him that he is doing great! Joe's response to my encouragement was to stop posing, take a slight step forward, give me a big smile and thumbs up, and yell back "Thanks bro, I got this!"
Even the judges had a good laugh. I don't think any of us had seen a competitor take a break from posing to respond to his coach while on stage. Joe ended up qualifying for the world championships at that show, so I'd say everything worked out well.
How important is it to take my beta-alanine before training? I hate training with the tingling feeling it gives me.
The tingling feeling is a common, and perfectly normal side effect from beta-alanine supplementation. For those that are unaware, beta-alanine is a building block of canorsine, which is a molecule that can buffer lactic acid. This buffering can aid endurance for sets that take place in the 60-240 range possibly allowing you to squeeze out a few more reps.
A lot of people mistakenly believe that beta-alanine needs to be taken pre workout but the truth is that beta-alanine can be taken at any point in the day and it will still have the desired effect when training. It simply needs to be taken daily. This means that you can avoid the tingling sensation by splitting your daily beta-alanine dose into 3 separate doses daily. The small doses will allow you to avoid this side effect.
