The Top 10 Supplements for Training

The Ten Most Popular Supplements

1. Protein Powder

A high quality Whey Protein Isolate is essential to anyone’s diet.These protein supplement powders are an easy way of reaching the daily requirement of protein intake, especially if you are training hard. A high protein intake is essential to any person who wants to get greater results from his or her training. Make sure that each serving of any protein powder has at least 2 grams of L- Glutamine. { refer to the importance of protein intake for more details about this valuable nutrient}.

2. Vitamins and Minerals {Multivitamins}

In a broad sense, vitamins and minerals are considered “essential dietary nutrients this means our bodies don’t make them. Therefore they must be obtained from our diet or through supplementation. Vitamins and minerals as “micronutrients” { micro coming from the Greek word meaning small} this is why only small quantities are needed by the body to play a vital role in maintaining proper biological functioning of everything from muscles to memory. When we start resistance or cardiovascular training the average Australian diet can’t keep up pace with our training so therefore we create a deficiency for these micronutrients. Taking a multivitamin contributes to good health, muscle growth, and proper fat burning by regulating the metabolism and assisting the biochemical processes that release energy from digested food. If you don’t take enough of these vital micronutrients to maintain proper biological levels, deficiency symptoms, which include muscle weakness, connective- tissue deterioration, and suppression of the immune system, just to name a few will appear.

3. Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine is a compound that’s naturally made in our bodies to supply energy to our muscles. Chemically it is called “methylguanido-acetic acid”. Creatine is formed from the amino acids Argine, Methionine and Glycine. Typically the average person metabolizes two grams per day, and that same amount is normally synthesized by the body, thus you generally maintain a creatine balance group, it is permanently stored in the in a cell as phosphocreatine until it is used to produce chemical energy called adenosine triphosphate {ATP}. When this takes place it can be mass released to spontaneously form creatinine, which is then removed from the blood via the kidney’s and excreted in the urine. Creatinine is routinely checked in the blood tests serving as a crude, suggestive marker of how well the kidneys are filtering the blood. Although creatine supplementation can raise blood creatinine, it has never been shown to be toxic or harmful to the kidneys. The richest source of creatine in food is in animal muscle, such as meats and fish. But, to increase athletic performance and boost lean body mass, creatine must be taken in concentrations which are not reasonably obtained from whole food diet. For example you would have consumed 4 kilo’s of raw steak a day to load your body with creatine. Creatine helps in three ways. 1 It helps build lean muscle mass which allows still greater force to be used, 2 provides energy so duration of exercise or work can be lengthened, and, 3 most importantly speeds recovery so exercise frequency can be increased.

4. L-Glutamine

For decades scientists have been fascinated with many important functions and numerous possible applications of amino acid supplements. Since the early 80’s bodybuilders have also been experimenting with these building blocks of protein in an effort to gain more muscle, but supplementation with amino acid L-Glutamine in recent years, has become extremely popular, and rightfully so, Glutamine is the important of all aminos. Glutamine is generally not considered an “essential amino acid” by nutritionist. It can be synthesized from number of amino acids, notably Glutamic acid, Valine and Isoleucine. But in times of disease and stress {weight training is stress}; certain parts of the body demand so much glutamine that the body can not manufacture enough. In these instances supplementation can make a world of difference. It should be noted that 60% of muscle is composed of this amino acid so supplementing with this amino acid especially if you are dieting hard, recovering from a cold or just putting in the hard yards at the gym makes perfect sense. L-Glutamine has been shown in scientific studies to prevent muscle wasting and produce a potent anti-catabolic effect. Best times to supplement with L-glutamine is right after training, or right before you go to sleep, you help satisfy the immune system’s hunger for large amounts of L-Glutamine through precision supplementation, thus preserving glutamine levels in muscle. How much glutamine per serving? 3 grams per serving 2-3 times a day is more than adequate mix it in with your protein shake or have it in water. Please note that some high quality protein powders do contain L-glutamine or glutamic acid so you will in effect be getting the amino acid inadvertently, make sure there is at least 2 grams per serving.

5. HMB

HMB is acronym for a compound called “beta-hydroxy, beta-methylbutyrate’. It’s a metabolite of the essential amino acid Leucine. In an addition to what’s made in our bodies, we derive HMB from food, both animal and plant, including, grapefruit, and catfish. HMB is neither a steroid nor a drug in fact, HMB is a natural component of mother’s breast milk, and it’s classified as a dietary supplement. HMB appears to up-regulate our ability to build muscle and burn fat in response to intense exercise. In fact in one study published in the prestigious journal of applied physiology, it was revealed that athletes who supplemented their diets with 3 grams of HMB a day, for just 3 weeks, gained 2 times as much lean body mass and experienced an increase in strength one and half times greater than test subjects who followed the same workout program but used a placebo. HMB in my opinion supports a decrease in protein turn over or muscle damage. In turn, this decrease in muscle breakdown could result in more rapid neural recruitment by the muscle fibers and may act as a catalyst to faster strength development.

6. Antioxidants

Antioxidants are a class of compounds {many are vitamins} that attack substances in your body known as {free radicals}. These aggressive molecules circulate in your body; impairing proper cell function and other molecules that move in the blood. Technically, free radicals are molecules that lack the appropriate electrons necessary to be stable; they indiscriminately kill cells, destroy enzymes, and produce toxic chemicals which disrupt cellular membranes. It is suspected that free radicals are involved in numerous diseases, including cancer, and they are associated with the aging process and even death itself. Other diseases that might be caused by free radicals include Alzheimer’s disease, immune deficiency, arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease, to name a few. Scientific research has demonstrated that strenuous exercise increases the number of free radicals roaming around your body, thus many experts agree that there needs to be an increase in antioxidant supplementation by highly active individuals, and I totally agree with that wholeheartedly. Some of the most effective antioxidants, which are vitamins C, E carotenes {like beta-carotene and lycopene-tomatoes are full of this red stuff}, N-acetyl-cysteine {NAC}, selenium and perhaps lipoic acid. Other high concentrations of these antioxidants can be found in green tea. Antioxidants will not help you put on lean mass or burn fat, but they do the most important thing to your body, they help it by guarding it against “oxidizing” it certainly worth investing in after all your health is the most important thing in the world

7. Branched Chain Amino Acids

Amino acids are the building blocks of muscle tissue, so it only makes sense that the liberal use of a branched-chain amino acid will enhance muscle growth. New studies show taking as little as two grams of BCAA’s before exercise preserves muscle tissue. That can be effective prior to weight and cardio workouts. BCAA’s are especially critical if you do cardio on an empty stomach for enhanced fat burning, but anytime is a good time. Your body is constantly looking for reasons to reduce muscle, but circulating BCAA’s cam slam the door on that catabolic cascade. BCAA’s should be used liberally throughout the day especially with solid food meals, so taking two to four capsules a day will ensure that you have muscle building blocks available immediately, independent of solid food digestion.

8. N.O Vasodilators

N.O begets better blood flow, NO is nitric oxide and it’s primary precursor is the amino acid L-Arginine. L-Arginine is a means to increasing N.O production in the body, which can also facilitate the muscle building process. Better blood flow means better nutrient delivery to muscles. More blood flow to muscles will help facilitate the use of protein, glycogen and other nutrients, furthermore you will feel better pumps in the gym and give you a bit more motivation to keep training harder. Take N.O before and after a workout or use the directions listed on the bottle of your chosen N.O precursor bottle.

9. Beta Alanine

It’s simple if you can train longer and harder you will stimulate more muscle growth, it all boils down to the size principle of fibre recruitment. On the first few easy reps of a set you engage the low-threshhold motor units, mostly slow twitch fibers, on the middle rep range you engage the medium threshold motor units, which recruit a few more fast twitch fibers with the most growth potential until the last hard reps of a set. That’s when the high-threshold motor units kick in. Unfortunately, if you do reps in the hypertropic zone eight to twelve muscle burn can stop you before you get many, if any high threshold motor units. Beta Alanine can help as it converts to Carnosine in muscle tissue. Carnosine acts as a buffering agent that postpones the burn. Result you power out more growth reps on every set. Beta-Alanine works especially well in conjunction with Creatine, but there’s more good news, on the health front. Beta- Alanine has antioxidant properties in that it increases Glutathone and Taurine levels in the liver. So it appears to be a natural liver protector that also heightens the organ’s detoxifying power.

10. Arachidonic Acid {X-Factor}

Clinically tested at Baylor University for safety and effectiveness, Molecular Nutrition’s Anabolic X Factor is the world’s first patented hypertrophic catalyst. By enhancing the storage of arachinonic acid in exercised muscles X-Factor drastically amplifies the body’s sensitivity and responsiveness to resistance training. This means faster and more profound increases in muscle size strength, even the rate of lipolyses {fat loss} Clinical trails at the Exercise & Sport Nutrition Lab at Baylor University have demonstrated increases in muscle strength, peak muscle power, and anaerobic endurance. Having passed the ultimate test of clinical investigation and peer review Arachidonic Acid joins the elite ranks of a select few clinically proven ergogenic agents.