Welcome to the controversial world of bodybuilding supplements. Here lies the question “Are supplements even effective?” In this article we’re going to dive in and find out for ourselves if muscle building supplements are effective, and if they are, which ones are the best muscle building supplements.
The first thing that we need to understand is what a supplement really is. By definition a supplement is not some magic powder that will gain you 20 pounds of muscle overnight. That might be a marketing tactic for some bogus supplement company. But the fact is, a supplement is simply a boost of nutrition is the required area.
So with that said, really all that supplements are is additional nutrition where your body may be lacking. This automatically cancels out all of the magical revolutionary pills that promise insane muscle gains and show no biology behind the claim.
We have established that supplements are nothing more than additional nutrition. So with this knowledge alone, we can safely say the following:
No, supplements are not needed to gain muscle.
This statement remains true as long as your diet provides your body with every possible nutrient that it needs. This of course is ideal. Our bodies are meant to separate and process individual nutrients from whole food sources. But how many of us really get every last mineral and vitamin in our diet. Not only that, but how many of us reach our 100% daily intake of each?
Answer: Very few… if any.
But at the same time, if you only consume 50% of your daily recommended amount of zinc, is your body going to fail to gain muscle? Of course not… Your body will still find a way to work around the small deficiency and adapt as needed. However, you may not adapt to your full potential. The best muscle building supplements are those that complete your diet.
Here’s the truth about legitimate supplements. You do not need them! But, they will allow you to reach your optimal level of results at a quicker pace. Many bodybuilders were able to obtain very impressive physiques long before supplements came about. The only difference these days, is that results can come faster and surpass previous records due to smart and effective supplementation.
We’ve now established that training with a workout routine to gain muscle and eating well will give you impressive results. We have also established that working out hard, eating well, and supplementing properly will provide you with faster and slightly more impressive results. So what’s involved in supplementing properly? What’s credible and what’s not?
There are basically only four main supplements that have biological proof to be highly effective. I’m not talking about steroids or pro-hormones. These are illegal substances and cause unwanted health problems (especially when abused). The four supplements I am referring to are strictly about optimal body nutrition. Let’s go through each one individually.
1) Multivitamin
This supplement is not going to rock your world and allow you to instantly show babes where the beach is. However it is scientifically proven to enhance your body’s ability to perform efficient protein synthesis. Thousands and thousands of biochemical reactions occur in your body every day. The reason they can occur is thanks to amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and water.
You obtain all of these nutrients from the foods that you eat. But the simple fact of the matter is that you cannot possibly eat enough variety every single day in order to receive 100% or more of every single vitamin, mineral, and amino acid allowing for optimal muscle growth. The amount of food, and diversity of foods would just be too great.
A high performance multivitamin takes care of this problem. Certain types of multivitamins, such as Animal Pak, balance your daily amounts of each nutrient specifically for bodybuilding. As you train with your workout routine to gain muscle, certain minerals and vitamins deplete faster than others. As a bodybuilder, you need more of certain nutrients than the average person does.
For this very reason a high performance multivitamin designed specifically with bodybuilders in mind is a very effective supplement. To judge if a multivitamin is truly designed for working out, make sure that the label lists a very wide range of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.
Don’t be concerned If you see that vitamin B6 is 9000% or something crazy like that. Anything in excessive amounts will be water soluble and your body will only use what’s immediately needed.
Creatine
Here’s a controversial supplement… the vast majority of people who think they know what creatine is have no idea how it works or what it’s made up of. I’m going to give you a quick crash course so that you know what creatine is all about.
Creatine is nothing more than 3 amino acids. That’s all. It is not some genetically engineered powder made by mad scientists. You naturally have creatine in your body already. You consume creatine every time you eat fish or beef. The 3 amino acids that it’s made up of are glycine, arginine, and methionine.
Here’s the functionality behind creatine. Simply put, it’s extra energy for your muscles to use. Your body breaks down food and converts it into ATP. This ATP is stored in your muscles for when your muscles need to contract. When ATP is used by your muscles the result is energy and ADP. ADP is a waste product. A lot like exhaust coming from your car’s engine. Your body simply disposes of this ADP through your urine.
What creatine does is it performs a chemical reaction with this ADP which then converts it back into ATP resulting in extra energy for your muscle to use up. This is why strength increases with the use of creatine. Think of it this way, creatine is like a catalystic converter on your car. Exhaust is passed through the catalystic converter which then turns some elements of that exhaust back into fuel and is then filtered back to the engine to be combusted again.
Creatine usually gets a bad rep because people say “Ohh… it’s just water weight, you didn’t actually gain any muscle you moron.” Well, first off, yes water weight increase is a result from using creatine, but this moron clearly doesn’t understand how important water is when training with a workout routine to gain muscle.
The use of creatine results in super hydration of your cells. In turn, this allows your cells to absorb more nutrients and function at a higher capacity. Because of this, protein synthesis is increased and more muscle is built when compared to a normally hydrated cell. So when you stop taking creatine, yes your overall weight will drop, but the extra muscle that was built will remain.
Boiled down, creatine allows your muscle to exert more energy and absorb more nutrients. 100’s of scientific studies have proven this time and time again. Creatine monohydrate is the basic most tested form of creatine.
The only other type of creatine that I personally recommend is a Ph balanced buffered creatine. This type of creatine claims to be able to pass the destructive digestive phase which converts creatine into the toxin creatinine. Creatinine is what’s dangerous for your liver and kidneys if you have too much of it in your body.
Overall, yes, training with a workout routine to gain muscle and supplementing with certain products will give you very impressive results. With that said, to gain a significant amount of muscle you don’t need to buy these supplements. In part two of this series I am going to talk about the two other legitimate supplements. Those supplements are whey protein and glutamine.