15 February 2007, 13:58 in

Buying sports supplements in Australia

At the moment I am pretty active with either grappling, knife fighting, or weights training pretty much every day of the week in conjunction with full-time work. I eat a lot of food, but to maximize my strength and muscle growth gains I also use supplements such as protein powder, creatine, and glutamine.

While I don’t think you can place a price on good health, these supplements are fairly expensive, so I try to keep my costs down. All the local shops I’ve been to in Perth charge like wounded bulls, so I began looking for cheaper alternatives.

For a while I was a happy customer of the US-based Bodybuilding.com. They have the lowest prices I have ever seen, and stock a vast range of products. Getting the items shipped to Australia adds to the cost substantially, but you still end up paying a lot less compared to buying from retail stores here. Unfortunately issues with Australian Customs Service (ACS) have made the process unworkable for me. Seemingly at random, ACS would reject an order for some stupid reason. I have had them reject the exact same products that are available here on the shelves of Australian stores, claiming that I need to give them a manufacturer’s declaration about the product’s ingredients. It feels as if ACS are trying to make it as difficult as possible for people to bring anything into the country themselves. If an order is rejected by ACS and sent back to Bodybuilding.com, fortunately they will issue a refund, but not for the shipping cost. I just lost a fair bit of money when two large orders that I placed in conjunction with some friends got rejected.

So with Bodybuilding.com no longer viable due to problems with ACS, what else is there? I have used CityHealth.com.au in the past; they have cheap prices (for Australia) and a flat rate $8 shipping cost per order. However I can’t stand their crappy website which returns the same results multiple times when you search.

Yesterday I came across MrSupplement.com.au. They are based in NSW, have reasonable prices, free shipping on orders over $150, and a good range of products. In addition they have an excellent website which makes it easy to browse or search their product range. I placed an order late last night and it shipped today. So far, so good.

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21 July 2006, 18:07 in

Lower back injury

My lower back has troubled me in the past, ever since I hurt it during rowing training one cold morning in 2000. Since then I’ve occasionally hurt it doing something really minor such as picking up a piece of paper or walking up some stairs, completely without warning.

I’ve been pretty inconsistent with my gym workouts lately. I went on Wednesday evening after work, and my first exercise was deadlifts. After a few warm up sets and then a set of 3×140kg, my back felt a little niggly. I should’ve listened to it, but instead I decided to try a new max of 150kg. Twang! Muscle spasm in my right lower back…

I drove home immediately (with some difficulty), had a hot shower, and got into bed. After about two hours, I tried to get up, but it was so painful that I couldn’t even roll onto my side, let alone get out of bed! Eventually, after numerous attempts, I made it out of bed, screaming in pain. I took some Voltaren anti-inflammatories which seemed to help.

It was markedly better the next day, and better again today. Yesterday I saw a doctor and today I went to a physiotherapist. The physio seemed very good, and tried to explain everything in detail. I’ll be going again a few times. To prevent this injury from bothering me again in the future I want to learn some appropriate stretches and strengthening exercises for the core muscles which support the lower spine. Hopefully I’ll be ok to do exercise again within a few weeks!

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12 October 2005, 06:52 in

Ridiculous weight gainers

Bodybuilders often do a “bulking” phase, where the objective is to pack on as much (muscle) mass as possible by eating excess calories in conjunction with heavy weights training. For lean or scrawny people that have trouble putting on mass, there is a group of supplements known as “weight gainers” or “mass gainers”. These are similar to a normal protein powder, but rather than consisting primarily of protein, they also contain carbs (typically a 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein) for energy, and the serving sizes are usually quite large.

When I was recently browsing the bodybuilding.com online shop today, I came across a weight gainer called Twinlabs Super Gainers Fuel, and when I saw the serving size I almost fell off my chair. Here is some of specs…

Twinlabs Super Gainers Fuel (10 lbs)
Serving Size: 4 Scoops (661.7g)
Servings Per Container: 7

Amount Per Serving:
Calories 2560
Calories from Fat 240
Total Fat 27g 42%
Saturated Fat 25g 125%
Dietary Fiber 2g 8%
Sugars 35g
Carbohydrates 478g 159%
Protein 102g

660 grams of powder per serving!!! 2500 calories! You only get 7 servings from a 10 lb container! Woah! That’s crazy. Another one was the Weider Giant Mega Mass 4000:

Directions: Mix 3 cups (3 scoops) 447g powder with 3 cups 2% reduced fat milk, using an electric mixer. Or mix 6 cups (6 scoops) 894g powder with 6 cups of 2% reduced fat milk, using an electric mixer.

Um…. 894g of powder with 6 cups of milk???! No one thatI know could drink (eat?) that in an afternoon, let alone one sitting! Holy crap.

I love the fact that products like this exist. :)

12 October 2005, 06:25 in

Sports supplement prices in Australia

Normally I order protein powder from some Australian online shops which are slightly cheaper than the local shops, even with shipping included. Recently, two of my friends placed orders from a USA based online shop that ships internationally. I had a look and I was pretty shocked at the price difference…

For example, a 5lb (2.2kg) tub of a certain brand of protein powder has a RRP of AU$85. In the local shops it is usually around AU$80, and from online shops I can find it for AU$75. The USA based online shop had it for US$28.89. With the current exchange rate that works out to only AU$38! Of course, the cost of shipping to Australia is substantial and negates some of that saving, but it still works out cheaper.

Time and time again I’m amazed by the price difference between identical products sold in USA compared to here in Australia. I prefer to support Australian businesses when I can, but it’s hard when the prices are this uncompetitive. Someone, probably the Australian distributors, is making a killing.