Maintaining
and Developing Strong Bodies with Bodybuilding Supplements
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Since the beginning of Civilization people have been interested in maintaining good health, developing strong bodies and extending their live span. However, figuring out just how to achieve this ideal has been an endless quest that continues today.
Attaining a great body and reaping the benefits of great health and longevity is no easy task. Although, a combination of genetics, good nutrition and a good work-out regiment may contribute to this goal, that alone, may not be enough. Unfortunately, no matter how good our gene pool is, how hard we workout, or how well we eat, some of us may never get that perfect body. Whether you are trying to shed excess weight or gain lean muscle mass there is no easy or painless way to achieve this.
There is no question
about it, if you want a fabulous body, good health, live longer and improve
your game, you are going to have to work hard. There are no easy short
cuts. However, consuming a proper diet, exercising, getting enough sleep,
and taking the proper bodybuilding supplements will help.
Bodybuilding supplements are best explained as supplements to enhance
your athletic prowess. These supplements may be consumed by ingesting
tablets, capsules, liquids or powders. They include vitamins, synthetic
(manmade drugs) and hormones and are available over-the-counter,
without
the necessity of a prescription.
However, years ago it was considered by most taboo
for athletes to use nutritional supplements. This was mostly attributed
to the lack of information available and
presented to trainers as well as athletes. None the less, over the last
30 years these products have gained significant recognition. This is
mainly due to the recent surge of scientific interest in dietary supplements
and the investment of billions of dollars by the nutritional industry
as well as an increased interest in public awareness. Manufacturers
are creating better and better products and more and more people are
reading and learning more about the benefits of these nutritional products.
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Supplements
to enhance your diet program
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Also, during strict dieting, supplements may help prevent catabolism (muscle
wasting). Pro-Anabolics can be a great help in this area.
Today, we have a generation of modern athletes chugging protein shakes,
ingesting various vitamins and amino acids, and drinking omega 3 fatty
acids. From police officers to football players to weight-lifters, we
have droves of athletes passing through plateaus by supplementing with
these products, which help to enchance and recover the body.
Many factors aid in being a great athlete—including your diet, how
much sleep you get, genetics and heredity, and your training program.
However, bodybuilding supplements may help you develop more strength,
muscle, stamina, and endurance. For instance, using supplementation to
make weight for a match is extremely effective. Unlike jumping in a sauna
every day for three days, before a fight to make weight and then balloon
right back up one day later. It is important to start a diet 12
weeks
before the match with a proper nutritionist and implementing the proper supplments, as needed. You will be far more pleased
with your results. Attention—by no means are we advocating ingesting only supplements.
This would be a route for disaster. The body needs many different types
of food to perform as a super human machine, as well as the proper amount
of sleep. These nutritional products serve as an enhancement of athletic
performance.
However, some bodybuilding supplements offer real advantages to the athlete.
Some products work by producing a direct performance enhancing effect
(e.g. creatine and caffeine), which help to charge your system with intense,
sustained energy, and provide the endurance you need, while bodybuilding,
to get through those marathon workouts. Others can be used by athletes
to meet their nutritional goals and, as an indirect outcome, allow them
to achieve optimal performance (e.g. meal replacement products). Furthermore,
several herbal medicines may have therapeutic medicinal value applicable
to athletes. Finally, some products may help to optimize body composition. |
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The Best Supplements
for improving your game
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Sport
supplements have not yet been tested on teens or kids. However, if you
take the same teenage athlete, put him on a balanced diet to meet his
bodies nutritional needs, add in sport supplements, make sure he gets
a minimum of eight hours sleep a night, prohibit use of drugs and alcohol
from his body, over the next six months you will see a young man develop
into a lean mean fighting machine. When we are interested in increasing muscle mass, we are basically saying
that our muscles are too small and too weak. So, in essence, we have a
body that is inferior to what we would like it to be. In order to improve
these muscles, we all know, we have to hit the gym and train hard with
weights. Also, in order to achieve maximum muscle growth, you must have
an adequate supply of amino acids to feed your muscles. Certain amino
acids, called the Critical Five amino acids—glutamine, Arginine
and BCAAs (leucine, isoleucine and valine)—are more important nutritional
products than others for stimulating and supporting muscle growth.
According to two leading experts in scientific research and a background
in athletic training, Dr. Jeff Volek and Dr. John Berardi, assert that
when we hit the gym and start weight training, in many ways, this weight
training destroys our muscles slowly. And
that is a good thing, because as we are destroying our “inferior”
muscles we are developing “superior” muscles—bigger,
stronger muscles. If we hit the gym and do some heavy training, the chemical-mediated
and force-mediated muscle damage we impose on our muscles forces the body
to adapt, so that in the future, the same type of work doesn’t cause
the same magnitude of damage. And this is where nutrition comes into play.
Without enough calories, macronutrients and micronutrient support, the
body breaks down yet doesn’t have the energy to adapt properly.
Repair and adaptation to muscle damage is an energy (caloric) costly process
and requires micronutrients (vitamin and mineral) co-factors as well.
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Attention: If you are training to get bigger and stronger, it is important to constantly vary your training type. Remember, the body adapts quickly to the training style you are currently using, so that the same training doesn’t produce the same damage in the future, and you want to damage, as it’s the damage that often makes the muscles bigger. It’s important to nourish the body with adequate calories, carbohydrates, proteins, fats and micronutrients, so that the muscle damage you’re causing is being repaired.
Getting nutrients into your body after a work-out is critical for recovery. If nothing is consumed after exercise, protein balance is compromised and glycogen synthesis is negligible. Protein-carbohydrate drinks are great, because they serve two purposes. The amino acids provide the precursors for building muscle proteins. However, increasing amino acids isn’t very anabolic without insulin.
So, the carbohydrates increase insulin, which drives the amino acids and glucose from the blood into skeletal muscle to stimulate protein synthesis and glycogen formation, respectively. Rapidly digesting carbohydrate- protein drinks taken both during (sipped) and after training is very important! Any athlete or bodybuilder who wants to force adaptation to heavy training loads needs to be sipping a drink like this throughout intense training sessions and needs to be sipping during and after training sessions. Why? Because this type of drink provides energy and macronutrients critical to recovery and adaptation at the best time to stimulate recovery and adaptation during and after training. Also, the hormonal response to such drinks is favorable for growth and repair. Attention:
Supplementing with a good recovery drink should contain rapidly digesting glucose-maltodextrin, and protein. In an effort to maintain and develop good health and strong bodies you will need a plan to complete this mission, which should include iron, discipline, hard work, patience and a good nutritional program Therefore, you should make sure your body is getting the proper nutrients it needs to build muscle. If you are training hard, eating properly and using the right nutritional products, then you are bound to grow. Just make sure you are taking in enough carbs to give you the energy to blast through your intense workouts. And don’t forget about essentials fats—they are important, too, when it comes to building muscle. Your protein intake, however, is the most important. It is the very foundation of muscle development. The more protein you consume, the more protein you can shuttle to your muscles to get bigger gains. So, after every hard-training exercise, make sure you consume an advanced whey protein product of the highest quality.
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