So, do you have to eat big to get big?

If you read articles pertaining to putting on mass from any of the muscle comics, they usually tell you that you need to eat, and eat BIG! Read enough of these and you’ll be brainwashed to the point of pile driving the plate into your mouth at the end of your meal!

Before loading up on Maalox and Pepto Bismol on your next visit to the grocery store, have comfort in knowing you don’t need to eat till you have food coming out of your ears. Yes, you do need to eat more calories than you burn in a day to put on muscle, however, there comes a certain point you’re just going to be wasting time and money eating foods that will go to waste and add junk to yer trunk.

It’s true that one of the main aspects for optimal muscle gains is to be in a state of daily caloric surplus, i.e., consistently eat more calories than you burn in a day.  The problem is

that the ambiguity of the statement causes most people to confuse it for a green light to become a buffet molester.

So, the problem here isn’t so much that this point is untrue as much as it’s an excuse for people to get sloppy with their nutrition plan.

Your body can only grow at a certain speed. It can only use a finite amount of macronutrients to repair and build up your body.  Over feeding past this point doesn’t cause you to build more muscle, you’ll simply store the excess calories as fat – I like to call this “The Point of Expanding Returns.”

The point isn’t to put anything into your system to try and reach your daily caloric requirement.  It’s important that a mass building nutrition plan is made up of quality foods consisting of the proper ratio of macronutrients

If you want to have that “hard look” from training, gaining what amounts to a blanket of flab surrounding your body is going to ultimately hide the results from your hard work.

It’s true that to optimize muscle gains you need to eat more calories than you need in a day which will lead to putting on some fat.  However, it’s also important to watch the calories so it’s your muscles, and not your waistline, that’s stretching the measuring tape a month or two down the road.

While a few actually do want to gain extra fat for various reasons, if you don’t watch your body fat levels when adding mass, blindly terrorizing the buffet table is going to cause you grief down the road.

Yes you’ll gain all sorts of muscle and strength if you’re training and resting properly, however, if you want to lose body fat, you’ll have to shift your focus off of gaining muscle mass, strength and performance, and on to losing fat.  Depending on the amount of fat you want to lose, and the rate at which you want to lose it, there’s a good chance you may sacrifice some muscle

The truth is your body only needs proper resistance training, sufficient rest and a properly balanced nutrition plan that includes about 300-500 more calories than your daily caloric requirement to gain muscle.  Individual difference may mean some people will require more or less, and yes, there are a few people who seem to do better with 1000 or more extra calories.  Start off with a smaller amount and slowly build up until you find your ideal amount of excess calories.  However, remember that eating more than you require for optimal muscle growth doesn’t force your body to grow more muscle than what it’s naturally capable of.

By keeping an eye on your nutrition plan and body composition you won’t be in for a rude awakening a month or two down the road.

Action Steps

Choose a body fat limit

Avoid the consequences of a sloppy mass building nutrition plan by watching your body fat percentage.  Many get lazy about this, but the smart one’s keep an eye on things and make adjustments to make sure their body fat levels don’t get out of hand.

Check things weekly and adjust your nutrition plan and/or level of activity appropriately.

Remember the caloric intake required when trying to maximize strength and especially size gain, will lead to an increase of fat levels.  If you limit calories too severely you will limit your gains as well.

Body fat Scale

There are many scales on the market that can read your body fat percentage; Tanita is one of the leaders in this field.

Measuring tape

A cheaper, but less accurate way, to track your body fat levels is to use a tape measure to measure your waist.  Take the measurement at your belly button level without a shirt, and ideally at the same time of day each time you measure.

I recommend using both methods at the same time if possible.  Record your measurements in a notepad, and limit this to once a week.

Adjust caloric intake and/or activity levels when BF levels get too high

If you notice your BF% is climbing too high, adjust your caloric intake or expenditure (i.e. activity level) appropriately to bring it back to a satisfactory level.  By doing this you minimize the amount of fat you’ll accumulate, and the amount of time you’ll spend having to lose it if you choose to.

© Raymond Toulany

Muscle Growth

Muscle building is magnificent ways of accomplishing strength by replacing a novel body structures having curves, organic strength as well as lines. This requests accurate work out with muscles. Muscle building is an overwhelming practice, also a leisure pursuit which is highly authoritative, in view of the fact that it is worthwhile in addition to that it also offers you some real great paybacks; such as an enhanced appearance, increased strength, growth in confidence plus including all, a hale and hearty look. It is an acknowledged fact that encompassing muscles, is to a great extent more gorgeous than a fat body. Building muscles is not an easy task to perform, but it is fairly simple. If you are ready to put in the appropriate effort, then you will surely not face any problem in building muscle.

Muscle building is extremely in good turn with fitness devotees all over the world. A grand look along with budding self confidence nature is what everybody desires to accomplish. Muscle building is the course of accomplishing muscle from end to end with the amalgamation of exercising using weights, hoisting the sum of calories addicted, along with its recreation. The spirit lying behind muscle building is to be figured up as follows: promoting the muscle with an adequate amount of calorific in take to give support in the muscle development and no more.

Muscle building is over and over again perplexed with burning of fat. Despite the fact that some quantity of fat is burnt, it does not go ahead in losing weight. Muscle building is confirmed to be obliging not only for development in athletic aptitude but at the same time it also set in motion your basal metabolism as well as endorses fat smoldering. Muscle building is incredibly significant if losing fat is a preferred consequence of your work out. The moment you bend over your body your mass reaches up to a certain extent, you can intake more for the reason that the muscle requires a more fuel to utility.

Muscle building is an extended procedure which can even take months for noticeable outcome. It solely depends on your permanence, calorie ingestion as well as proper rest which recompense you with immense prizes, which is an overwhelming body everybody will envy. Muscle building is a progression, easy to trail but it desires effort as well as uniformity to bring about your goals.

Muscle Gain

Dave Garran asked:


If you are like me, you probably said a thousand times “I’m going to start to start a muscle building program”. So you went to the local gym and for four months or so you worked out everyday in a muscle building program until eventually you start felling bored, your muscle building program consumes precious hours of your day and you eat 6-9 meals a day – not to mention looking at steroids with good eyes. Eventually you quit, and all that extra fat won’t go, in fact it becomes worse than before!

I realized this doesn’t work. I convinced myself that spending 3-4 hours everyday at the gym is not a good investment – we have families, time-consuming work, even we want to relax instead of lifting weight.

Muscle building program that can change your life

Most of these so-called gyms are relatively new in our society. A society that makes you spend $100 monthly on gym, a few more dollars in steroids and a couple of complements more. At this time you may be feeling the same as I did once, but I wondered, “how it was in the old days?”.

When I was a kid, my father gave me a small book about muscle building program. This book was only 20 pages or so, with exact exercises to workout all the muscles in the body, an ideal muscle building program. After an initial laugh – the pictures where very funny for a 15- year old kid – I started to look this muscle building program and the fact is, none of the exercises used weights or anything, they where simple and straightforward, all you needed was to form the figure and produce resistance between the parts of your body. So I started to workout with this muscle building program, and I must say, the results were incredible. As years went by and gyms started to pop out all over, I forgot about this muscle building program.

Now I have a 9-hour job, a family, and many obligations and the gym – as I told you before – doesn’t sound like a good way to stay in shape. so I remembered this little book. Of course I’ve lost it years ago but I figured out someone would have thought the same way somewhere. So I started to look for muscle building programs that resembled that little book. Soon I found this muscle building program based on the same principles that little book had: short exercise – 7 minutes! -, high results muscle building program.

At first I was reluctant. I thought “Oh my, another of those muscle building programs” but somehow I was attracted by the concept, a concept I realized myself 20 years ago. So I thought “80 bucks is worth it to try, in fact I’m spending this same amount every month in a gym I don’t go”

I have to tell you…this muscle building program uses the same principles of that little book and extend them further. Thanks to muscle training videos I don’t have to guess the exact positions to get the best results and everything is explained in detail. I started this muscle training program about two years ago and there was no single day I didn’t want to exercise, it is fun, I don’t get tired and the results are amazing, fat loss, incredible strong, and with only 7 minutes per day! Even my wife joined me when she saw the results. Now we workout together and if you see her you wouldn’t believe it’s because this simple muscle training program, you would think that it took several hours at the gym to get that slim body!

I’m sure you’ll be delighted to get your time back and be in shape at the same time. Believe me, we are in a consumers’ society, and mankind had survived gyms, steroids, nutrition meals and all that stuff. Take a chance and change your lifestyle, and save a few bucks on the road with this muscle building program!



Build Muscle

Shawn Lebrun asked:


Starting a muscle building program can be very helpful to your body.

Not only will you burn more fat but you will look great. It is important that you have a plan of action on place though before you start.

Identify what you wish to accomplish from the program.

Some people just want to tone up because they have loose skin in areas of the body. Others want to get stronger.

There are also those that wish to engage in a muscle building program so they can bulk up and even compete.

There are plenty of different exercises out there you can choose from when you start a muscle building program.

Take the time to explore many of them so you can find those you like. You will be more likely to stick to the program if you are enjoying what you take part in.

It is vital that you understand the right way to do each of those exercises. You can injure yourself if you do them incorrectly.

You also will be wasting your time if you do them wrong as they aren’t going to help with the muscle building process.

Take your current physical strength and condition into consideration.

Too many people make the mistake to trying to do more than they can when it comes to muscle building activities.

You need to start where your body is comfortable and move forward from there.

Focus on being able to increase repetitions with weight lifting instead of moving on to heavier weights.

As you reach a goal of repetitions then you want to add more weight to what you are working with.

Give your body time to rest as well because that is when they muscle building process will actually take place. You should only be lifting every other day for optimal results.

Lifting every single day is only going to increase your risk of becoming injured.

You do want to work out each day but alternate days with cardio exercises which will help you with burning fat as well.

You definitely need to pay close attention to your diet when you start a muscle building program.

Your body is going need more energy so you will need to increase the calories you consume.

You will also need more protein so a healthy diet plan is essential. Your muscle building efforts will be hindered if you don’t pay close attention to this aspect of it.

Muscle building is an overall process that requires many things to be in place. You need proper nutrition in order for your body to be able to work well.

Eating right will help you to build muscle quickly. You also need to get enough rest so that your body can repair from the workouts.

Pay attention to signals your body gives you that you may be pushing too hard.

Instead of just jumping in with a muscle building program take your time to do it correctly.

Find out the information you need so you can be confident your effort are going to result in muscle building.

Get all of your questions answered before you start so that you are on the right track. Be realistic about your goals and your expectations.

It is going to take dedication and hard work for muscle building to occur. However, you will be very proud of yourself with the results that come from it.



Build Muscle

Vince Delmonte asked:


So you think you know everything about building muscle? If you have read everything, tried everything and heard everything about muscle building but still resemble the silouette of a Calvin Klien model instead of a buff fitness model than I promise these three ‘little-known’ muscle building tips will accelerate your muscle gains immediately!

1. Body Weight Training

This was once a popular muscle building technique but is very commonly ignored. Why? Perhaps because most body weight training is simply hard and can put a dent in your precious ego! As far as I am concerned, if you can not work with your own body weight than you have no freaken business using external loading such as barbells and dumbbells.

It’s incredible how many attempt to use heavy weights with a microscopic range of motion but can’t do a set of push ups, a squat to the floor or even one chin up. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a place for external loading with heavy weights but not until you have the ability to master the following bench marks:

Males should aim for 1 set of 80 push ups, 1 set of 20 chin ups, 1 set of 20 1-leg squats, 1 set of 40 dips and 1 set of 20 pull ups.

Females should aim for 1 set of 40 push ups, 1 set of 5-10 chin ups, 1 set of 10 1-leg squats, 1 set of 10-15 dips and 1 set of 3-5 pull ups.

These standards will ensure a solid foundation of general fitness and muscular endurance and lead to building muscle mass more easily in the following stages of your weight training program.

2. Flip Your Program Upside Down Every 3 Weeks

This is an extremely powerful tip to building muscle mass, not to mention one of the easiest tricks to ensure your body side-steps plateaus forever. Consider that you have been training your chest shoulders and triceps every Monday. In you next phase, three weeks later, you should do the complete opposite. You will train your triceps, shoulders than chest on Friday. This will prevent plateaus because each muscle group will have an opportunity to train completely fresh.

Let’s say you are training your back, biceps, forearms and abs on Friday. Than you will train your abs, forearms, biceps, and back on Monday (in the opposite sequence). You will literally switch everything upside down. Again, this will ensure that these muscles receive an opportunity to train first in the week when your body is the most fresh.

You will curse my name when you blow the heck out of the smaller muscles first and than train the larger muscle groups last. Yes, I know this months issue of Bodybuilders Digest said to never train the smaller muscle groups before your larger muscle groups. I have heard it before so stop analyzing, trust me and give it a try. You be the judge and don’t be surprised if you see new levels of muscle mass and strength after this one technique.

3. Spend More Time At The Grocery Store

If you are serious about building muscle, accept the fact that you will need to spend more time than you do right now in the grocery store. Have you ever opened the fridge for something to eat and all you found was Aunt Wilma’s Thanksgiving turkey leftovers with mold on it? Ever gone into the cub boards and discover only a few leftover bags of potato chips from last weeks Super Bowl party?

To ensure a optimal environment for building muscle and fat loss you must ensure your cub boards and fridge are constantly stocked. This will mean more frequent trips to the grocery store. Chuck the crap that is in your kitchen right now and replace it with good stuff and keep on replacing it. Don’t ever let that supply of good food run low.



Muscle Gain

Shawn Lebrun asked:


There are many different muscle building exercises out there to try.

Some of them are more common than others so you may have already heard about them. It is a good idea to find out what is out there to choose from though.

That way you can select those you are able to do into your exercise plan.

You want to have a variety of muscle building exercises that you try in order to gain the most mass from your efforts.

Squats are the perfect muscle building exercise for you to get muscle mass in your legs. Take your time to do each one correctly and all the way through.

You want to work on repetitions more than on the amount of weigh you are using.

As you can do more and more reps you can increase the amount of weight you use. Make sure your feet are wider than your shoulders in order to help you balance the weight properly.

Straight leg dead lifts will also help you with muscle building in the legs. Such exercising will work your hamstrings.

Make sure you are flexing your hamstrings as you are lifting in order gain the most benefits from this type of muscle building exercise.

You also want to bend your hips so that you avoid any type of strain on your back during the routine.

Dead lifts are often returned to as simply weight lifting. This type of muscle building exercise is very common. It is going to help you build muscles in many areas of your body.

It is a good idea to do this type of muscle building exercise with a spotter. That way someone is there to assist you if you need it.

Work on your reps and continue to increase the weight as you are able to.

You also want to have a spotter when you use the bench press for muscle building.

Your overall form during this type of exercise is going to determine what type of results you get from it. Your body needs to remain in place.

Focus on keeping your bottom firmly on the bench as you lift. If you are raising it up then you are hindering your muscle building efforts.

Make sure you are using your chest muscles to help you with the lift as well instead of just your arms.

Paying attention to safety is very important when you engage in muscle building exercises.

Make sure you understand the right way to perform them. If you aren’t sure ask someone to show you.

If you are working out on your own then you can look in a book or you can watch a video online.

While you want to push your body to do the best it can dont require it to do more than it should.

You want your muscle building exercises to be beneficial to you and that won’t happen if you don’t take care of your body properly.

As you become more comfortable with these common muscle building exercises you can move on to those that are more advanced.



Muscle Gain

CHRIS WEST asked:


When you use the program, No Nonsense Muscle Building,  you will learn the principles that Vince Delmonte uses to help you with your bodybuilding efforts will help you to get past all of the things that have been holding you back.  The first page of the book will let you know where Vince stands on the issue of an unattractive body.  You will understand that the book is based on the opinion that you are the only thing that stands between you and a **** body. 

The program places the focus on the hard work that you will have to do and eliminates the negativity that may have stopped you in the past.  If you follow the program exactly as it is presented, you will gain the results that are promised.  There are many things that are included in this program that you will not find anywhere else and that makes this a worthwhile program to start with.  You will find a focus placed on your flexibility and your endurance that is not often found in other programs. 

The focus of this program is on adding muscle to skinny bodies that are in need of some training.  When you follow the approach that is taken in this program you will be able to reach the goals that you have set.  There are no excuses in this program and Vince will eliminate all of the notions that you might have about your skinny body.  Once you are free of the excuses, you will be able to use the program to its fullest extent.

When the goal of your program is a massive amount of gain, you will have to follow the methods and techniques that are presented in the program.  Explanations will help you to understand why you are using the techniques and methods.  This is important if you are to fully understand the program.  It is written very clearly so that you will have no problem understanding the information that is contained. 

Vince has dedicated two chapters of the book to recovery and hormones. He says that proper rest is very essential for the body to build up your strength. Hormones play a major role in developing muscle mass, Vince has made it an important element, and his diets and trainings are aimed at increasing the hormones that help in muscle building.  Life isn’t that easy with Vince as your trainer, he just won’t settle down for a gym session. He prefers cyclic periodization program, followed by a change in sets and the reps that can avoid adaptation and trigger the muscle fibers.

You might find the program to be a little complicated in the beginning.  When you get past this part of the program it becomes easier and easier.  The members part of the program will help you to get past this part of the program.  It will answer all of the questions that you might have in the beginning.  A calendar is included so that you can schedule your workouts and make sure that you stay on track.  The exercises are completely described and animated so that you have a very clear picture of how to use the exercises properly. 

This helps you to set your goals and have a clear understanding of what you are supposed to be doing.  The program will require you to use a three week gym session that gives you full body workouts that are extremely intense.  The program can be personalized to help you determine where you need improvement and how you can work the program to your benefit.  All of the issues that you might have with the program are dealt with and an individual program that works for you will be determined.

You will learn flexibility training and how it impacts your workout.  When you are able to lessen the imbalances in your body and work on your weak areas, you will find the workout is much easier to follow.  Weight training is where you will begin the program and you will work toward a more modern technique toward bodybuilding. 

Vince actually aims to teach you the genuine methods of enhancing your body, he emphasizes on listening to what your body demands, apply your intuition powers and guide the training sessions. A trainer needs to be aware of the how, why and what of affect of various stimuli on our body, this will lead to a significant change in the physique.



Build Muscle

Thomas Webb asked:


Muscle building is a great experience and also a hobby that is highly recommended, since it is rewarding and also gives you some really great benefits; such as better look, increased strength, improved confidence and overall, a healthy body. It is a known fact that muscle is much more attractive than fat. Muscle building and fat loss go hand in hand. Muscle building helps in improving your actual physique along with overall health. There are many health benefits to muscle building. The mass of muscle is approximately half as big as the mass of fat deposits.

Don’t be surprised if you are exercising in order to lose weight but actually end up gaining weight. It is not a shocking or bad thing really and there is no reason to be sad about it. Such weight gain means you are building muscle mass and you will look much better than you were before. You will look slimmer around your waist. Muscle building includes burning calories very rapidly. Muscles tend to use energy, but fat just stores it. So when you have more muscles, you will tend to burn more energy and maintain a healthy body weight more easily.

In order to gain maximum benefits, it is not essential to build a lot of muscle mass. According to study, building five pounds of muscle mass will make you healthier and provide ability to fight off disease. Just thirty minutes thrice a week is enough to reach your goal.

The most obvious and common ways to muscle building is weight lifting. But there are other ways by which you can improve muscle building. They are running, swimming and even just brisk walking. Brisk walking actually means walking rapidly.

Another essential fact about muscle building is diet maintenance. If you are lean and wish to develop a better physique, you will definitely need to maintain a good diet. So, you will need to change your eating habits in order to maintain your newfound looks. Even lean people can gain a lot. Hence you should eat healthier diet, which will help you to improve your physical and mental health and allow you to have more strength and energy to do things.



Muscle Growth

Steve Robbins asked:


You see the same people in the gym day after day, week after week, and they never look any different, which is okay if that is their goal. But for most it isn’t. Most people lift weights to get bigger and stronger. After years of seeing these types of people come and go, but never grow, I’ve identified the 5 most common muscle building mistakes that will hold you back forever.

The first and probably the most common is doing too many reps. If doing a lot of reps was the way to build size wouldn’t carpenters have arms like Arnold did? Or wouldn’t marathon runners have huge legs? Only doing high rep (anything over work outs will NEVER allow you to add size and mass.

Secondly most people do not use enough weight. This is partially because of the high rep counts they do. The idea of “lifting big to get big” seems so obvious, yet few do it. Who is bigger and stronger, the person who lifts 500 lbs once or the person who lifts 100 lbs 5 times? They both move 500 lbs of weight, but the mass building effect of each is totally different. You will never add mass or get stronger if you don’t try lifting weight amounts that you presently can’t! How does anybody ever think their muscles will grow to handle loads that they never try to lift? It is the essence of muscle building.

Thirdly, most people lack the workout routine necessary to build muscle. The workouts they do seem to have no rhyme or reason. Building muscle requires a plan. Your workouts should follow that plan. You can not show up at the gym and begin doing stuff and expect it to have a positive effect on your physique. Until you adopt a muscle building plan and stick to it any gain you get will be by sheer effort and luck.

The fourth common error I see is you can not, efficiently build mass and lose weight/fat at the same time. One, the other, but most likely both, will fail. This means lifting for mass gains and doing a lot of cardio exercise simultaneously will undermine your efforts. And not why you think. It has nothing to do with calorie burn. Adding muscle to your body requires a MAXIMUM effort in the weight room. If you have the energy to do a bunch of cardio before or after your lifting, then you left mass building in the gym. You should be physically spent after a muscle building session. And most definitely don’t dilute a lifting session by doing cardio first.

The last common mistake I see people make is related to the previous one. Some people try to make the case that cardio workouts done on non-lifting days is the answer to the above problem. I will say it’s better than doing it the same day, but the truth really is that you need to rest 100% on your non-lifting days because it is on these days that your muscles actually do their growing. Allowing your muscles to recover is the only way you are strong enough to go back in the gym and lift more than you did before. Which is what muscle building is all about, isn’t it?



Muscle Growth

Bill Willis asked:


Given the huge array of nutritional supplements in fitness and bodybuilding, it can be very frustrating when you want to take your training and diet to the next level with supplementation. Most of these are a waste of money- There are 6 nutritional supplements available, however, that are indispensable for enhancing muscle-building and fat loss. Given the importance of a good diet, this should be the highest priority in any fitness training program. Once your diet is tuned to perfection, adding the right nutritional supplement at the right time will take a great thing and make it better.

Certain bodybuilding supplements are extremely valuable in particular situations, especially when the goal of your weight training program is to lose fat while building muscle. Our bodies have been designed to survive the harshest of conditions, readily storing body fat during times when food is plentiful and shedding it (along with muscle-tissue) when food is scarce. While this characteristic of our metabolism kept us alive through the ice-ages, it makes things really difficult for building a lean-muscular physique (that is if you are not busy running from saber-tooth tigers and fighting rival tribes!).

The right supplementation in the context of your bodybuilding or fitness workouts (pre and/or post-workout) can “trick” the body into thinking it has what it needs so that muscle-mass is preserved. What happens during intense weight training and cardiovascular exercise is that our bodies, along with burning glycogen and body fat, are also very efficient at breaking down muscle tissue. This metabolic adaptation helps to preserve energy stores at the expense of metabolically costly muscle-tissue; if you are starving the more muscle you have the quicker you will die (good for us back in the cave-man days, but bad for us now!). Our muscles are constantly being broken down and built back up from hard weight training, and if we could shift the balance just slightly away from degradation (catabolism) and toward accumulation (anabolism), this would have a huge effect on the effectiveness of our muscle training program.

My top-6 list of indispensable nutritional supplements:

1. glutamine

How Glutamine works: glutamine is known as a “conditionally essential” amino acid; it becomes “essential” during intense exercise such as weight training or cardiovascular exercise, as the need for glutamine is greatly increased. During bouts of intense activity (or stress), glutamine enters the bloodstream and travels into the liver where it is converted into glucose; this newly synthesized glucose helps to fuel the working muscles. This process is known as gluconeogenesis-the process of turning a non-carbohydrate substance (glutamine and some other amino acids) into glucose which can be used for energy. While this all sounds great for the muscles, the problem is that the primary source of glutamine during exercise is from broken down muscle tissue; the body actually breaks down muscle tissue to help fuel the working muscles by preserving their glycogen stores1. Supplying the muscles with an exogenous source of glutamine (i.e a glutamine supplement, has been shown to reduce muscle degradation during intense exercise-the body is “tricked” into not breaking down as much muscle tissue.

2. Branched chain amino acids (BCAAS)

How BCAAs work: Unlike glutamine, BCAAs, consisting of leucine, isoleucine, and valine, are essential amino acids, meaning that the body cannot synthesize them from precursors-they must be obtained from the diet. Like glutamine, there is a greater requirement for BCAAs during intense exercise such as weight training and they are derived primarily from catabolized muscle tissue. BCAAs are broken down into (among other things) alanine and glutamine (remember glutamine?) which are in-turn used to generate glucose in the liver. Supplementing with BCAAs will help to prevent their degradation in muscle tissue, limiting muscle-degradation and speeding up recovery. Leucine itself has been shown to stimulate protein synthesis, and research has shown that the BCAAs have a positive effect on recovery, can reduce fatigue, and encourage an overall anabolic state in the muscle. BCAAs seem to be especially effective in times of reduced calorie intake (i.e. while dieting down to lose that last 5lbs).

3. Protein: (whey protein isolates)

How whey protein works: This one may seem like a no-brainer; proteins are made of amino acids and as discussed above, certain aminos can greatly enhance your weight training efforts. Whey protein is a great protein source because it is very high in both BCAAs and glutamine; any whey protein will have these qualities, but after a weight training workout timing is the key. Many whey proteins are a mixture of both whey isolate and whey concentrate. Whey protein isolate is absorbed extremely fast, while whey concentrate is broken down more gradually over time. Fast-acting proteins such as whey isolate are known as “anabolic proteins”, dumping tons of amino acids into the bloodstream very quickly, promoting muscle-growth. Slower acting proteins such as whey concentrate, soy protein concentrate, or calcium casienate (milk protein) are known as “anti-catabolic proteins”; they provide a slow, steady release of amino acids into the bloodstream helping to reduce muscle-protein breakdown for fuel. After a weight training workout, we want our protein to get there fast-whey protein isolate is ideal for this purpose.

4. Creatine monohydrate:

How creatine works: Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the primary energy source to fuel intense muscular contractions, such as those during sprinting or weight-training. ATP contains a high-energy phosphate bond, which is broken down into ADP (adenosine monophosphate), releasing the energy necessary for muscles to contract. Every muscle cell has a store of phosphate, from which ADP is recycled back into ATP to continue fueling contractions. As this pool of phosphate gets depleted, so does our ability to make ATP; when we run out of ATP the muscle is exhausted and unable to further contract (i.e. the muscle fails such as on the last rep of a bench press). It was discovered some time ago that our muscles can actually be “loaded” with additional phosphate, which can extend our capacity to do high-intensity exercise. Phosphate is stored in the muscle as creatine phosphate, which acts to replenish cellular phosphate stores. When creatine monohydrate is ingested, it is converted to creatine phosphate and absorbed into the muscle cell, helping to replenish the phosphate pool. After an intense workout, muscle phosphate levels are drastically decreased. Supplementing with creatine post-workout replenishes creatine phosphate stores much faster, speeding recovery. Creatine also acts through unknown mechanisms to increase protein synthesis and muscle growth. For every molecule of creatine absorbed into the muscle, several molecules of water are absorbed, giving the muscles a fuller, more pumped appearance. A hydrated muscle is an anabolic muscle.

4. Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs)

How EFAs work: Without getting too much into fatty acid biochemistry, EFAs are required by the body for a countless number of processes, and are an essential element to any nutritional supplementation regimen whether for bodybuilding, athletic training, or general fitness training. The typical American diet is largely deficient in EFAs, and dieters often have less than optimal levels while on low-fat diets. There are 3 basic EFAs which are named based on their chemical structure, including omega-3, 6, and 9. Most commercial EFA supplements are a blend of the various EFAs, providing an ideal EFA profile.

5. Meal replacement powders (MRPs): Commonly known as the “protein shake”, MRPs serve not only as a convenient protein supplement, but as a substitute for regular meal.While real food is always best, the busy schedules of most people simply cannot accommodate the optimal 5-6 meals per day-MRPs are a great way to stay on the diet in spite of the most hectic of schedules. There are many brands commercially available with different nutrient profiles; choose the product that tastes good and provides the nutrient profile that fits for your particular diet plan.

6. Multivitamin/multi-mineral supplements: While in an ideal world we would get all the vitamins we need directly from the food we eat, in practice we can all benefit from a quality multivitamin. Stay away from the typical once/day tabs found at the supermarket. It is questionable whether these are absorbed well at all. Stick with those vitamin/mineral supplements derived from whole-food extracts-these are more readily absorbed. In addition, whole-food based multis may contain unknown substances which are found in food which are either essential or beneficial; science is constantly discovering new nutrients present in food-our current list is far from comprehensive.

There you have it, the only nutritional supplements you need to care about. They have been proven both anecdotally and with rigorous peer-reviewed research to enhance the muscle-building and fat-burning effects of any weight training and fitness program including.



Muscle Building