Fake Creatine Gummies, End of Tren Twins, New Calum Interview

Plus Arnold increases prize money, and Ozempic is slowing down gyms

Author

Rafael Renteria
March 10, 2024

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We are so back (again). A few things happened this week with the Tren Twins being up to their anabolic antics, Calum making podcast rounds again, and surprise surprise, creatine gummies are bullshit.

We’ve also got some changes to bodybuilding’s prize money, along with some classic fitness industry garbage. Thank you for being here.

The elites tried their hardest to keep it away from us. They even had the original manufacturer take Crystal Pump’s money and run. Sick shit, but we are back, despite the horrors.

If you’re looking for a preworkout that emphasizes clean caffeine, mental clarity, and sick pumps, check out this week’s sponsor: Crystal Pump.

It’s not a preworkout, it’s an experience.

Thank you mustache man, let’s get into this week.

At a Glance:

Entertainment

  • Tren Twins: The Anabolic Ending

  • New Calum Von Moger Interview

Sports

  • Arnold Classic Recaps from the IFBB

  • Arnold Classic Prize Money

  • Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul

Business

  • Creatine Gummies are Fake

  • Ozempic Causes Gym Slowdown

Let’s get into it.

Entertainment

Tren Twins: The Anabolic Ending

Chris has really done it this time. But not to worry, the absolute boys are still alive (for now).

The Tren Twins’ editor, who runs the outofcontexttren tiktok page, posted this slideshow earlier this week telling the short story of caffeine, some upper deckies, and an anabolic ending.

What followed was this clip of Chris in a hospital bed:

Following this video, Greg Doucette made his expected video on the incident, and texted the Tren Twins via Whatsapp.

And of course, the absolute boys with the based response, “Not reading that, never text me again”

When I initially wrote this, that was the end of the Tren updates. That was until Nick Trigli of Bodybuilding and BS posted this clip to his Instagram, showing the aftermath of the Tren Twins’ crashed Hellcat.

The crash appears to be confirmed by the comment under Nick’s post from the Tren Twin’s IG account..

Rip the cat man had to swerve out of way no other way out. Me and Carly are safe thank god

trentwinss via Instagram

Rough week for the boys, but I hope they have a speedy recovery.

Speaking of Greg Doucette, there’s a lot of shit going around between him, the reason why he was banned from IFBB judging, his interactions with the Tren Twins, and I was trying to piece all of it together and I realized I just don’t fucking care that much yet. I might go into it in a blog post or something but the back and forth between him and other creators probably isn’t over yet so I’ll let all that settle. Onto the next.

New Calum Von Moger Interview

On February 29th , Calum Von Moger appeared on The Kris Fade Show hosted on Virgin Radio Dubai.

In the interview he discusses his beginnings, his physical and mental setbacks in his fitness journey, and how he continually overcomes those setbacks as they keep recurring.

Really nice to see him making the rounds again.

Sports

Arnold Classic Recaps from the IFBB

As a part of the IFBB’s continued commitment to providing more transparency to the sport, VP Tyler Manion is back with another round of recaps of the different bodybuilding divisions including Open, Classic, Bikini, Men’s Physique, Wellness, Fitness, and Wheelchair as of 3/9/24.

Arnold Classic Prize Money

The 2025 Arnold Classic has increased its first place prize to $500,000, which is its answer to the Mr. Olympia’s prize increase to $400,000 for this year’s contest.

The Arnold Classic had previously trailed in prize money due to a promise that Arnold had made to Ben and Joe Weider that he would not compete with the Mr. Olympia. In a seminar on the Sunday of the Arnold Classic, Arnold stated:

For years, we kept the money below because that’s what I promised Joe and Ben Weider. That I would not compete with the Olympia. But now, they have passed on and I know Joe and Ben are smiling down from heavan to see how successful we are. And they would want me to go and put a little bit of pressure on the Olympia and say ‘Okay, we’re gonna give $500k so maybe you go to $600k.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

With events like the Arnold and the Olympia, there’s certainly enough money to go around; especially as the sport grows and more companies are created and get involved. It’ll be interesting to see where the lifter money arms race takes us.

Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul

On Saturday, July 20th 2024, Mike Tyson will face Jake Paul in a boxng match streamed exclusively on Netflix at AT&T Stadium.

The announcement was made via X.

This marks the first-ever partnership between Netflix and Most Valuable Promotions, a combat sport promotion company founded by Jake Paul.

“Within just two and a half years of founding MVP, we’re about to produce the biggest fight in history, a fight in the biggest NFL stadium in the US, broadcast live, on the biggest streaming platform in the world – a testament to all we’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time. Whether you’re tuning in on Netflix or showing out in person, whether you’re team Paul or team Tyson, or whether you’re a lifelong boxing fan or watching your first fight, you’re not going to want to miss this event.

Jake Paul

Rightfully so, many point out that it’s a bit silly since he’s not fighting prime Mike Tyson, who would demolish Paul without question.

But even in his 50s, Mike Tyson can still move, and he can still hit.

As long as there’s no funny business in who’s allowed to win, I think it’ll actually be a good show.

Via Netflix

Business

Creatine Gummies are Fake

NOW Foods, a natural supplement company, has released the results of testing that investigated the dosages of creatine in popular “creatine gummy” products. NOW Foods saw a disconnect between the claimed dosage of these products and the technical capabilities of these products, so they put these top brands to the test.

Out of 12 brands selling creatine gummies, half of them failed to meet their label’s claim.

Below are photos of the gummies (1-Astro Labs, 2-Bear Balanced, 3-Beast Bites, 4-Bod, 5-Create, 6-Con-Cret, 7-Effective Nutra, 8-Greabby, 9-Iron Labs Nutrition, 10-Njord, 11-Peach Perfect, 12-Zhou), as well as the table of results.

NOW tested the creatine content in the gummies, purchased either on Amazon or direct from the brands, by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Creatine quantitation was performed using a creatine reference standard of a known concentration. 

The brands Bear Balance, Bod, Effective Nutra, Iron Labs Nutrition, Peach Perfect, and Zhou all met their label claim. However, Astro Labs, Beast Bites, Create, Con-Cret, Greabby, and Njord failed to meet the label claim.

Creatine is the real shit that improves athletic performance and output. Creatinine is a waste product of creatine, and does not have the same effect. And from what I understand, the creatine that was put into the supplements breaks down into creatinine somewhere during gummy production. So while the companies may not be flat out lying about the creatine content, they don’t account for how it breaks down during the production process. This was partly why BANG Energy’s Super Creatine which was the only “water soluble stable creatine,” was outed as bullshit.

Long story short: Grow up and just take the stable powder. Otherwise, you deserve to waste your money on creatinine gummies.

Ozempic Causing Gym Slowdown

**Disclaimer: Some NY Post bullshit, but I still wanted to read it**

The article starts with “Fewer Americans are hitting the gym in 2024 — and trainers are blaming Ozempic.”

“I’ve seen a handful of new and experienced clients throw up while taking the drugs because of the dizziness and nausea the drugs can induce,” personal trainer Salim Javed told The Post.

The whole article is just talking about how all these people at gyms are taking Ozempic and vomiting doing workouts that they were previously doing with no issues pre-Ozempic.

Ozempic works by mimicking a naturally occurring hormone that tells your brain that you’re full and slows digestion, increasing the time it takes for the food you eat to leave your body. So you are literally full for longer.

And allegedly, this drug’s negative effects are “causing a historic slowdown at gyms.”

My first reaction while reading all this was that it was probably an isolated incident at some Mickey Mouse bullshit chain like Equinox; and as I kept reading, it was in fact at some Mickey Mouse bullshit chain, specifically Equinox and others.

According to Bloomberg, foot traffic to major gyms was flat from January 2024, according to mobile phone location data for 10 chains tracked by Placer.ai. The chains used were 24 Hour Fitness, Anytime Fitness, CRUNCH Fitness, Equinox, F45 Training, Fitness International, Golds Gym, Planet Fitness, Ultimate Fitness Group, and Xponential Fitness.

According to Bloomberg, Equinox still saw a 12% increase in traffic, but the stories from NY Post were Equinox members so PEMDAS, stat is invalid.

I have the solution to this problem before it becomes an epidemic.

Someone needs to create a lifter elixir that tastes great and keeps you going all night long with the highest quality stims, extendo clip caffeine, and gets promoted via memes. Oh wait, CRYSTAL PUMP ALREADY EXISTS.

Flush your Ozempic down the toilet and get on the real shit.

Via NY Post

Rafi’s Desk

I got a couple new shirts out, the Monday Iron Racing Tee as well as the Mike and Ron JDM Tee, one designed by me and the other designed by a very appreciated member of Monday Iron Gang, thou.feral.lady.

It never fails to amaze me how many great people are in this community, and I’m grateful to have your support.

Pretty hyped for today since we’re going to continue to get more sunlight throughout the day as the weeks go on. Common Lifter W, more daylight for the iron.

Also, National Lifter Day is this Friday, giving out free dimebags of Crystal Pump with every order. Keep an eye out.

Hope you all kill it this week.

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