Demystifying Nutritional Supplements
Everyone reads the magazines, watches the TV infomercials, reads the hype across the internet about the hottest new supplement. Well, let’s put all this on hold for a second … Think, are you ready for this? Are you ready to put a catalyst into your body that fires you up, and puts you on a whole new level of body sculpting excellence? Well, keep reading.
Definitions of supplement
add as a supplement to what seems insufficient; “supplement your diet” a quantity added (e.g. to make up for a deficiency) serve as a supplement to; “Vitamins supplemented his meager diet”
Supplements are meant to be an addition to your diet, weight training, and cardio. My biggest gripe against supplements is that people see them as the easy way out, they see meal replacement bars or protein shakes as a complete meal. The shakes, bars, cookies – whatever it be, are meant to ‘supplement’ what whole foods cannot give you. Whole foods have a hard time providing a protein that breaks down fast, can be absorbed fast, and is readily available. So, science developed Whey Protein to fill the void for a protein supplement. This was truly revolutionary, and opened the door for more great supplements to be developed.
Among the top of the list; creatine, glutamine, glucosamine, nitric oxide, and many more have led to people shattering their goals and creating the body they have always desired. But people always looked towards supplements as an easy way out, “Well if I take this and this I can do this!”. Not necessarily, while the benefits far outweigh the negatives for supplements, there is still a very strong need for real food, and hard work.
Then came fat loss drugs, Ehphedra, Dexedrine, and countless others burst onto the market and turned many, many people’s lives around – and ruined just as many. Those with pre-existing heart conditions, or people who took more than recommended found themselves with heart disease, stroke, and many many more deadly side effects.
This also ushered in a whole new generation of supplements, anabolics. Though we had seen this for many years with the use of Testosterone, and other synthetic variations of the chemical, but there were now becoming more and more oral versions which were readily available, and not always needing a prescription (or your friend’s friend at the gym across town). Pro hormones really became big in the 21st century, with Andro and then M1T, and the dozens more that filled supplement stores and prompted hundreds of retailers to open online to carry such supplements.
All this has led to the normal person not knowing what they need to take, but more important – what they should take.
Stay tuned as I will outline basic, and advanced, supplement strategies – covering everything from whey protein to an ECY stack.
I had been training for about a year and a half when I started taking amino acid pills at the end of my workouts. My strength shot up and I noticed a big change in my body. I took them for 3 months. I was already taking a protein shake during the day normally and as I drove home from the gym.
I had taken glutamine and glucosamine but noticed no change or benifit.
Glutamine helps with recovery time, did you notice any change in recovery? I had the same effect with amino acids when I first took them too.
At the time I used it, I was doing Power Factor workouts, working out only once per week, so with that much downtime, I wouldn’t have noticed any difference with recovery.
I’m doing HIT right now from Mentzer’s Heavy Duty 2. Only thing I’m doing is diet (no sugar, reduced portions).
Glutamine is very effective in the recovery stage, I have always used it in training just because I used a specific method which increased frequency of workouts. Since I was doing more workouts, I needed to recover faster – and glutamine really worked for me.
I took liver tabs for BCAA’s, they’re cheap … but, they’re huge horse pills. High in protein in general, they are a great supplement.
Glucosamine is great when you start to feel sore joints, a good Clucosamine Sulfate taken regularly over time is great for joints and tendons.
I take whey protein in the morning and after workout and normal protein powder before bed. Then I also take glutamine, multivitamins and fish oil.
For creatine only as specified in the ebook metabolic surge which I’m following, it’s only 3 days loading dose every 12 days, not really using it like it’s intended to.
At the moment I’m simply following the ebook as many times as will be necessary to get the fat % down to a reasonnable level and then I’ll be able to think about what to do next.
Thats similar to what I was doing, the supplements not the loading. Protein is something I want in my diet. I
That’s exactly what I take, though at the moment I’m on a clean bulk – trying to gain as much muscle as possible before I go on a cut. It’s just about winter here anyway 😉
Nice information, thanks.
I’ve taken creatine before.. didn’t really notice any difference really.
Other than that I take whey protein, but probably too inconsistent to really notice a difference (oh well.. it’s quite healthy anyway).
Don’t really care much for supplements to be fair, it costs quite a lot of money and most people try to use it as an ‘easy way out’. I mean, if you’re a UFC/MMA fighter.. you have to take supplements in order to restore energy and speed up recovery time. Most gym warriors don’t train hard enough to really benefit from supplements.
Become a warrior. lol. Either way, taking whey protein will help ya.
I’ve also tried creatine and it didn’t effect me too much. I find leucine and glutamine help with recovery and strength.
And of course I take whey protein as a PWO shake. It helps a bunch.
thanks bro, really useful for me