Monday, January 28, 2013

Which Supplements Do You Need To Take To Build More Lean Muscle?

By Russ Howe


At one stage or another, most gym users want to learn how to build muscle more effectively. One of the areas people tend to get a little lost is supplements. Today we will be teaching you which supplements to take if your goal is to build a more muscular physique.

While the huge advancements we have made in nutrition and sports science are a great advantage for our generation to have on our side in our quest to build better bodies, the sad fact of the matter is most people find this to be a disadvantage. They find this because it presents them with a situation where there is simply too much information.

One of the most common reasons people quit on themselves when they are trying to lose weight or build a more muscular physique is contradicting information. You've probably known somebody in your life who tends to turn something like fitness into rocket science, over complicating it to a point where you don't know where to even begin. The wealth of information we have at our fingertips in today's society is meant to be an advantage, but it often becomes a disadvantage to many people.

The bottom line is that fitness is not rocket science.

It is very easy to see why so many gym users get lost in the world of bodybuilding supplements. It's a billion dollar business, so you are going to find that competition for your money is very strong indeed. This often results in companies trying to out-do each other with bold statements on why you need their product to get a good gym session.

The first thing you will notice when you begin to learn what to look for in a product is that things are not as complicated as they seem. There are a few basic rules with each product to look for.

* Whey Protein

* Creatine

* Like whey, casein protein also has it's uses

* Quick-release carbohydrates

* BCAA's

* Glutamine for recovery

The six products listed above are by far the most important when it comes to achieving more muscular development in a short space of time. They're listed in order of importance, too, making it easier to prioritize them to suit your goals. We'll now run through a brief explanation of what you can expect from each one.

Whey protein is easily the most popular health product on the market nowadays. Despite this, many people falsely believe that you should only use it if you intend to get bigger. This often puts many people, particularly women, off the product entirely and it is simply not true. Whey is a great way to pack in more protein to your daily diet and it's such a popular product due to the speed at which your body can digest it. There are three main categories of whey, they are hydrolized, isolate and concentrate. Hydolized is the quickest digesting form and therefore tends to cost the most money. Isolate is second and concentrate is third.

Most products contain a mixture of all three formulas, but if you look for the first item on the ingredients list this will tell you the main formula which was used. While hydrolized blends will return greater results, the truth is the difference between hydolized, isolate and concentrate isn't great enough to justify the massive price differences. So if you can't afford to go with hydrolized whey, don't worry because the other formulas are definitely effective as well.

Creatine first hit the market twenty years ago during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. It was primarily used by sprinters as it helps you to increase your ability to perform short bursts of explosive activity. It's a perfectly safe and natural substance which is actually produced by the human body, too. It made the transition into bodybuilding due to the fact that it helps you to increase your short-term explosive strength, meaning it can lead to more reps in the gym.

There are tons of different formulas available with this particular product. However, this is one supplement where it isn't difficult to discover which one you should use. Most of the newer forms are surviving purely on hype and word of mouth alone, with few scientific studies to show their true effectiveness. Believe it or not, creatine monohydrate is the blend which has by far the most proof to back it up, despite it being the oldest and cheapest form.

Casein is an underrated protein product which can yield great results if used correctly. This product is a great example of how the world of supplements operates. Despite being on the market for many years now, it actually had no scientific evidence to back up it's claims until just 4 months ago. This shows you why it's easy to get lost in hype if you're not careful. However, this particular product does now hold sufficient proof to back up it's claims and is a very good way to keep the muscle building process switched on while you sleep.

Studies revealed that using casein prior to sleep kept the body's muscle building process activated for far longer and resulted in superior gains in lean tissue to those using whey alone.

Over the last ten years or so, carbohydrates have got a bad rap from those in the fitness industry. This is mainly due to the celebrity diet trends which tell people to cut carbs from their diets if they want to lose weight. That approach is, of course, nonsense and results in the individual piling all of their weight back on and more when they finish their diet. Carbohydrates are very, very useful even if your goal is losing weight.

Complex, slow-release carbohydrates are your main sources of energy but in the 45 minute window which follows any gym workout you should look to find the opposite. Remember, during this time your body wants nutrition it can use immediately. So eating some oats which take hours to digest isn't going to cut it for you. Quick-release sources of carbohydrates, such as dextrose and maltodextrin, are very useful during this short period of time.

BCAA supplements are growing in reputation as one of the key choices for size and strength. There are over 20 amino acids, some essential and others non-essential. While you will get a good spread of these from any whey protein product, you can enhance your results even further by supplementing it with an all-out BCAA product as well.

The final item on our guide is glutamine. Glutamine is mainly used by people who are trying to boost their immune system and it can have good results on your progress throughout a long-term fitness routine. This is because it helps you to recover quickly from workouts and keeps your bodily functions able to fend off minor illnesses such as colds, which you will be susceptible to if you are regularly pushing your body hard in the gym.

Learning how to build muscle can become an experience which is thoroughly enjoyable if you are able to see past the huge amount of nonsense and sales pitches which populate many of the products you will see on store shelves. Rather than having to use an expensive trial and error approach, you now have the knowledge to determine which supplements to take to achieve a leaner, muscular body this year.



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