How Supplements Boost Your Workout

It helps to have an exercise plan in mind before you hit at the gym, being prepared with the right pre workout nutrition snack will keep you on track with your fitness regimen. A pre workout nutrition snack is simply an aid to help you move faster and perform better. You can schedule your workouts around breakfast, lunch or dinner so you don’t require any pre workout aid and hence consume no extra calories you then need to also burn off.  Some people train on empty early in the morning before breakfast. At that time, the body hasn't got any sufficient energy in the stores and will use your reserves to function. The body will consume fat stores straight away. Another plus of this type of training is since your body isn't busy digesting anything all of the energy will be directed into working out. It will burn more fat but it is a brutal and a taxing way to exercise because of that so not many people can do that long-term. 

When you plan buying at a store, you should at least already have an idea of what you are looking for your workout needs. You need to know more than just building muscle or losing fat each pre workout nutrition supplement is different due to the fact that they all specialize in these different categories. Knowing the ingredients and their functions, you will be able to tell the difference between certain products. You must also learn how to cycle your pre-workout supplements to prevent your body from adapting to them. But it’s not always the ingredients you need cycling from; it’s mostly the stimulants like caffeine. These stimulants can cause fatigue to the adrenal glands which lowers your tolerance levels.

BENEFITS OF PRE WORKOUT SUPPLEMENTS:

• Helps to improve your daily workout
• Helps to increase strength at muscles
• Increases muscle endurance
• Decreases muscle breakdown during training, has got anti-catabolic abilities
• Increases protein synthesis within the muscle cells
• Improves energy and focus
• Increases metabolic rate and fat burning
• Anyone can benefit from taking pre-workouts. Whether you are a strength, endurance, fitness physique athlete or just an individual trying to get in shape!

Pre workout nutrition is the food you eat after pre workout. For the majority of gym goers, it’s taken in the form of protein shakes often with the addition of carbohydrates for the post workout shake. The purpose of these meals is to; refuel your body’s energy stores, encourage muscle repair and growth and prevent the breakdown of muscle mass. However, for the average gym goer there is some debate over the need to adhere to such rigid principles and whether or not you can get all the same benefits without needing to be so bound by timing and reliant on protein shakes.

During an exercise, your main focus should be hydration, therefore in most cases, water is enough. Still, if you are for example running a marathon, you should add a sports drink or gel with fast digestible carbs during your workout.

Creatine and Protein

For every pre-workout nutrition needs, Protein and creatine can both help you build muscle, but only if you’re doing the work. Creatine is fairly cheap, and over the years its quality has improved considerably. Long gone are the days of Chinese creatine. Creatine monohydrate in the powder form is the recommended type, as attempts at stabilizing liquid creatine serums have not been met with success. Dextrose is beneficial when taken with Creatine, as it takes effect is an insulin spike, thereby shuttling more creatine into the intended target: the muscle. Somehow, reducing the amount of dextrose, and introducing Whey protein into the mix may elicit a greater insulin spike. By doing this an insulin spike equivalent to using 90g of dextrose may be seen.

Some said that it may be unfair to use the average person as an example for adequate protein intake when we’re talking about building muscle, since most folks aren’t tearing down muscle by grunting and groaning under a barbell at the gym. So here’s a figure that is more relevant to the active individual: a recent study found that a protein intake of approximately 0.45g per pound of body weight resulted in a negative nitrogen balance. Nitrogen balance is a measure of protein metabolism, and a negative nitrogen balance indicates inadequate protein intake for muscle gains. The same study also found that protein intakes above 1.2 grams per pound of bodyweight provided no additional muscle building benefits, and actually increased the risk of kidney damage and dehydration.

While on the process of strength and muscle-building program, ZMA is useful in that due to increase testosterone levels brought about by increased calories and its use, a great increase in strength can be seen. ZMA is a supplement that boosts natural testosterone levels to their maximum. It does this by employing a unique synergistic combination of three minerals [Zinc, Magnesium, and Aspartate]. Most experts include ZMA in the supplement regimen, and found it useful especially when on a fat-loss program. Consumption of adequate protein can help you build muscle, but you shouldn’t go overboard.

To put it simple, they work together to provide your body with the necessary foundation to create the amino acids that are needed to build muscle tissue, quicker and more efficiently. The reason athletes and bodybuilders benefit so much from the intake of pre-workout nutrition supplements is that intensive physical activity requires higher than usual levels of protein. By increasing your protein intake you are also giving your muscles more time to recover but they also grow faster as a result. Throughout the digestion process protein is broken down by dietary enzymes known as proteases. The quicker these a broken down, the faster they can be converted into amino acids which can repair muscle tissue faster and promote quicker but natural growth. It is also known to improve the overall immune health of an athlete, helping them to stay healthier, fitter and stronger for longer through intense training campaigns. A pre-workout nutrition supplement program is an integral part of a bodybuilder's arsenal. An effective supplementation program will be tailored around pre-existing medical conditions as well as bodybuilder's goals for body-composition modification.

The selection of effective supplements manufactured by reputable companies will ensure that products chosen will meet label claim, and will assist the bodybuilder to achieve his or her respective goals.

Vitamins and Supplements

Multivitamins have long been considered an essential pre-workout nutrition supplement for an overall better quality of life. Researchers gathered evidence from three studies assessing the potential benefit of multivitamins for overall health. Glutamine is the most commonly occurring amino acid in the human body. It is responsible for transporting nitrogen into your muscles. Glutamine also plays a large role in metabolism, the functioning of your immune system, protein synthesis and energy restoration. During heavy workouts, your body’s glutamine levels can become depleted, sometimes taking a week to get back to a normal level. Supplementing glutamine allows you to work out rigorously without running the risk of depleting your natural stores.

Whey protein shakes are probably the most widely used pre-workout nutrition supplement on this list. They are a clean and simple way to reach your daily protein intake quota. If you come in shy of the amount of protein you need per day (0.7 grams per pound of body weight) you risk falling into catabolism. Protein helps your muscles repair and grow after exercise. Vitamin C is probably the most widely used single vitamin. It's known as an antioxidant, and is often recommended as a remedy for the common cold. There is even research to suggest that it may have cancer preventing properties due to its ability to aid the body in fighting off malicious cells. The RDA for Vitamin C intake is 40mg per day – although, as with many health guidelines, the numbers suggested only really take into account the amount necessary to avoid health problems relating to a vitamin deficiency. In the fitness industry they’re far more focused on optimising health. Most people take vitamin C year round to avoid minor colds and flus, and if you do feel something creeping up on, some takes a high dose of 2000-3000mg. In other opinions, anyone with a strenuous and active lifestyle should consider supplementing Vitamin C as a general boost to the immune system.

Beta Alanine is a non-essential amino acid responsible for the amount of Carnosine in our muscles. Carnosine is heavily involved in sports performance. It’s a pretty intricate process to go into how exactly Beta Alanine acts in the body, but the upshot is that it creates more Carnosine, which stabilises the PH level of your muscles and in turn translates to a better performing athlete. Creatine has a bad reputation, but fundamentally it's a nitrogenous organic acid that occurs naturally in your body. It leads to greater ATP creation in the body, which translates into greater amounts of energy available under strain. An athlete who could squeeze out 5 reps on a given weight without creatine could feasibly expect to get 6 or 7 reps out of the same weight. As long as other things are optimised, it would lead to extra size and strength gains. ZMA (Zinc monomethionine and aspartame and Magnesium Aspartate) is used by many bodybuilders and athletes as a recovery aid. Researchers suggest it raises testosterone production by up to 30pc. Others find that it helps recover quicker from exercise, sleep better, and increases the body’s libido pretty significantly.