October 13
Supplements for building muscle – A beginners Guide
For those of you looking to build muscle supplements can seem like the holy grail, the easy way to achieve your goals. Whilst I am a firm believer in the benefits of supplements, which ones should you take and how much?
Currently debate still rages in the bodybuilding, scientific and sporting communities about everything and anything to do with supplements. Essentially what this means is there is very little facts to work with especially with the newer supplements they are coming up with these days. But there is enough anecdotel evidence to help you out.
Now I am not a bodybuilder. I successfully put on 10 kg of muscles in about 3 months for sport and most of this infomation is based on research I have read and what worked for me. Actually on that note and this is probably the most important factor of exercise and fitness in general is not everything will work for you. You are unique and because of that your body may react differently with certain routines, diets or supplements then everyone else in the world.
There are thousands of suplpements available on the market these days but the big three are protein, creatine, and glutamine.
Protein
The building blocks of muscle. A high protein diet is a must. No matter how hard you train and how much you eat if you do not get enough protein in your diet you will get nowhere. I have used a whey powder protein drink for moderate success. Every bodybuilder on the planet would have a couple of these a day to maintain or build muscle mass. However I had most success when I swapped my protein shakes for a high protein diet. Eggs and chicken featured predominently and allowed for large muscle gains. Even if you do go the protein supplement path (which is totally fine) make sure you have plenty of meats, fish, nuts, eggs and milk products in your diet to keep your daily protein intake high.
Creatine
In simple terms creatine is a naturally occuring substance in the body that is used by the muscles to generate power. Its popularity has soared over the last decade and many people sware by it. Generally you take a creatine supplement before a workout so that you can push your muscles harder. I have used it in the past but did not notice much if any effect during my workouts. Creatine is still very much in the theory category we know that it is beneficial but its still debated the best way to introduce it into your body for maximum effects. Creatine can be found in very small amounts in meats (particularly red meat) but you will need a supplement version to get the benefits from creatine loading.
Glutamine
Glutamine is another naturally occuring substance in the body. Without being too technical Glutamine is vital in the recovery of muscles (as well as other body functions) after stress (exercise). Anyone and everyone will tell you how important glutamine is to the body and for muscle building it allows you to recover quicker and train more which is important. Glutamine can be found in most animal and plant products in the average diet but it is recommended even for non bodybuildrs to supplement your body with extra glutamine. From my experience I always felt better when supplementing glutamine especially the day after a heavy workout I did not feel as sore as I do without it.
So there you go folks the 3 most common and important supplements for building muscle mass. Its up to you what you use and how much but I strongly recommend a diet full of protein to help repair and grow muscles at the very least.
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These are definitely the 3 basic supplements to be using. Have you had any good results from using other products like NO2, HMB, or any of the other products out there. I always hear mixed reviews, so I’m curious what your experience has been.
I have not used the other supplement types. I was getting great gains with the basics that it was neccessary. I too have heard mixed reviews on many of these products but I would suggest they would not be neccessary for the beginners. KISS – Keep it simple stupid seems to apply here.
[...] Supplements for building muscle – A beginners Guide [...]
does not sound realistic
First of all, good post.
I’ve tended to just use pure whey as the only supplement but I know practically nothing about this subject.
Based on these three above, what is the relative quantities that should be taken of each. Is there a product out there which contains all three in their optimum ratios?
Hey man great post! Appreciate the info.
Very good!
I often get requests from my customers during massage sessions asking about stuff like this. Thank you for this post, I shall be telling my client about these three supplements for muscle building when next we meet.
That’s a great overview of the most important supplements for building muscle. It’s true that there’s a lot of supplements out there now which promise all kinds of results, but covering those bases as well as a high protein diet will go a long way to building muscle.
How we can achieve goals, It is an amazing story. Some are internet junkies and they get all the stuff from there, others are computer haters and they do believe on instructors, there are others who use mix combination and they rock. As I have said in another comment here, it is not easy to find good blogs and sites. How I landed on this blog, it is along story which can be a separate post itself.
Good post. There are a lot of bad products on the market, and the ones highlighted here are for sure the ones to be using.
Good all-around post. I agree with the thought at the end; make sure your diet is full of lean protein and you’ll grow like crazy (just as long as you’re lifting the weights properly, too).
It was interesting to read this article. Thanks to it’s author
How did you administer the creatine? Did you use monohydrate? Or did you use another version (effervescent, ethyl ester, etc.)?
“Even if you do go the protein supplement path (which is totally fine) make sure you have plenty of meats, fish, nuts, eggs and milk products in your diet to keep your daily protein intake high.”
Couldn’t agree with your there more. Protein supplements are exactly that… supplements. They shouldn’t replace other protein sources completely.
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so! really nice post.
We here in Australia eat a lot of beef and fish. Beef is good for building muscle, fish is good for learning how to use it.
Interesting read!
Thank you for making this post so clear. I echo what the others have said. These are supplements. Take them but they should not substitute a high protein diet.
Supplements are used for those who cannot attain 100% nutrients consumes.
But there’s nothing can replaced real protein rich diet.
Just to throw my 2c in, I agree 100% that if you want to gain big muscles and don’t currently know how to get big muscles then the fastest way is to use the CORRECT supplements.
After nutrition, supplements are an absolute must!
Care to exchange link with me? hit me back if you’re interested, thanks.
Protein has always been a trial and error. Then once I learned about exactly what my body needs I had to take multiple shakes daily to get what I needed. I found a protein from maakoa. that had pro athletes combine all the different proteins they were taking into one. It is going to be great once it hits!
Good article. I’m specially interested in muscle mass building since for some professionals the muscular fiber has an important role if you’re looking to lose weight. For each pound of muscle, the body expends 75 calories per day to mantain the added muscular mass. In my opinion is for far superior than aerobics for weight loss.
That is very good. I like how you was able to give information yet keeping the post short.
Just as an additional tip if you happen to see this. It’d be good for you to state that supplements are just pills that will supplement your diet. This means, you need a natural diet plan based on whole foods already in place. Otherwise, supplements won’t help you much.
Anyway, nice post.
In my experience there are 3 important factors in achieving that ultimate six pack:
1. Strength exercises using weights
2. Aerobic exercise in short bursts of maximum effort such as sprints.
3. Correct diet.
Why do you think professional 100m runners have the physique they do?
There are some good tips here on nutrition. I wasn’t sure which protein to use but it seems like everyone says that whey is the best so I should go with that. I started with soy, but people seem to think that that isn’t very good.
I believe that creatine supplements can be great at getting that extra bit of energy to work your muscles harder. Pure creatine monohydrate has been shown to be relatively risk-free (in the short-term, its long-term effects have not been studied), so it probably wont hurt to try it. But at the end of the day, hard work is going to get you the muscle mass no matter how much supplements you use.
This is the kind of information I’m looking for. I just started working out with weights for the fist time. I want to do things the right way, and that includes which supplements to take. I am a 16 year old male, and about 155 pounds. Thanks in advance!
These are the core sports supplements you need. You can now buy all in one supplements that have worked well for me. It also helps keep the costs down too.
But we must remember that solid foods are still a must in our diets
Should you are looking to construct solid lean muscle, the most important component may be the muscle building diet plan. You would have thought it muscle building diet would be the training. If your not getting the diet plan correct the muscle building just won’t occur.
Very good article lots of useful information. I was a firm believe that people have built muscle up over hundreds of years without the use of supplements and other such ‘holy grails’! However it wasn’t until a friend mentioned that the use of supplements can mean that you can train more efficiently and thats where there main benefit comes from in my opinion.
Some great information here on the various supplements available, glutamine is a personal favorite of mine but thats mainly due to its ability to help supplement strength in joints especially the knees which is where i have some difficulties.
Protein is obviously the main ingredient but needs to be part of a balanced diet, in order to promote muscle growth.
Supplement is needed in order to gain muscles fast. But people prefer to lose body fat as well before continue to gain muscles. It is so important to watch your diet closely. You must ensure that you keep the caloric intake below the maintenance level. At the time when you reduce the amount of calories, make sure that you consume appropriate portions of protein. A majority of the calories often come from the carbohydrate intake; however you must monitor the fat intake. Here the supplement can be applied.
i always use whey, but now I think i may reconsider
Food is the most important factor in building muscle. Then you can add some supplements like protien powders, creatine and multi-vitamins but never rely only on the supplements as they are just helpers.
I agree that those are really the three most important supplements, and in that order, but supplements alone wont do anything, they need to be combined with a good workout program and a proper diet.
My take as a personal trainer on supplements – skip them. I advise my clients to eat eggs, actually lots of eggs, then lean chicken or turkey meat and buckwheat in combination with quinoa. Buckwheat is not from the wheat family as the name might suggest, but rather a berry, full of best veggie protein out there. Quinoa is also awesome. I barely do any supplements these days. I am not saying supplements are bad but they can’t be a replacement for natural food.
protein makes sense since the body needs it, although the best type is as natural from foods as possible. What I’ve found that works best is creatine in morning and 30-60 minutes pre workout so I have a good “boost” and get a great, intense workout session and then protein immediately after and before bed. Worked really well for me.
I have to agree, creatine is great before a work out with a good protein diet.Good blog. Thanks.
If your going to work your body extra hard, then some sort of supplementation and rest is necessary for muscle building and strength gains, otherwise your body will go into a catabolic state. I find that taking whey protein first thing in the morning and then within about an hour after working out really helps me recover fast. I feel that protein should be a must. Other supplements such as creatine and glutamine can be a good secondary level of supplementation.
Jack
Nice article. Whey Protein is a necessity in today’s world, its nearly impossible to eat enough protein every day. I never used glutamine, I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, for now I just stick to whey creatine, multi, and fish oil.
I agree with you that those 3 supplements are needed for building muscle. Nowadays supplements can be made be anyone because they no longer need approval before they go on sale, therefore some are badly made. Finding good quality supplements is a must, check the ingredients!