Stop Getting Scammed on Supplements!

October 20th, 2009

Weight Gain Supplements

October 15th, 2009

Weight gain supplements are a nutritional aid that can help individuals seeking to add muscle mass. While the majority of the population are often looking for ways to lose weight, many athletes can get a competitive advantage in sports in which speed , power and size are necessary by increasing their lean muscle mass.

In order to increase muscle growth the muscles must be stimulated to grow through a well designed resistance training program then fed the right amount of nutrients to fuel muscle growth. Weight gain supplements are designed to assist with the latter.

Additional calories are needed during a muscle mass building training phase because a calorie surplus is needed to achieve muscle mass gains. Anaerobic exercise such as resistance training uses the stores of glycogen within the muscle. This glycogen needs to be replenished if intense training is going to be performed over a period of time therefore sufficient calorie intake is vital.

Protein is another macronutrient that is important however recommendations on how much protein a training athlete should consume range from 1-2g per kg of body weight each day. Fat is also an essential macronutrient and key to the production of muscle building testosterone. However moderation is key and excess saturated fats is never a good idea.

One of the biggest challenges of building muscle mass is doing so without adding too much additional body fat. Most weight gain supplements will market themselves as the optimum way to build muscle mass without adding fat but what do these supplements actually contain?

Most are a combination of protein (often whey, BCAA’s and glutamine) and carbohydrates, often in the form of maltodextrins. Some of the best weight gain supplements will use more complex carbohydrates in their blend to lower the Glycemic Index.

Like all supplements, weight gainers should be used to supplements a healthy well balanced diet. You should aim to get as much of your carbohydrate, protein and fat through your food and supplement any deficiencies such as a missed meal with a weight gain supplement or add them through the day as an easy way to boost your overall calorie intake.

Typically weight gain supplements are used by bodybuilders during a mass building phase of low repetition, heavy weight exercises. Often bodybuilders will avoid doing any cardiovascular work during this period as they do not want to burn any additional calories.

Weight gain supplements are also popular with ‘skinny guys’ or those that who have a high metabolism and are often called hard gainers. Some of the most popular weight gainers are Mammoth 2500, Prolab N-large and Instant Mass.

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Are Cheap Supplements Ignored by Industry Awards?

October 12th, 2009

Bodybuilding.com recently announced the 2009 winners of thier anual supplement awards. As one of the largest sellers of nutritional supplements this ideas give an idea of the most popular supplements currently on the market as the nominations are based on sales with the final winners chosen by a public vote.

Over 350,000 people voted in the end on a wide variety of catoriegories like pre workout supplement, energy supplement and protein bar of the year.

The problem with a sales driven contest is that sales are as a result of effective marketing thserefore these contensts really just become a competition in who can sell the most supplements.

While the industry would argue that the public would not buy these products if they were not the best wq

The case that the industry presents for using a sales based selection to define ‘award winning supplements’ is that the supplement buying public would not purchase the top products in such vast quantities if they were not good. Making the assumption that the population will find the best.

However I doubt very much that McDonalds make the best burgers in the world yet they sell more burgers than anyone else becasue they have effect marketing and excellent systems.

Many people are not aware that these supplement “Awards” are just another marketing tool and part of an effective system used by the supplement companies to get us to buy more supplements that we do not need.

By telling people which supplements are the most popular people will use this in thier own buying decisions as this social proff leads people to believe that these must be the best.

It is a shame that these awards could not be based on empirical research or sound scienfic study. With the amount of money these companies make it would not cost them much to fund some university studies into the most effective supplements for various parameters of fitness.

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Determining a Starting Point and End Goal Before Buying Cheap Supplements

September 23rd, 2009

Before you spend one hard earned penny of your cash on cheap supplements you must have a clear idea of what exactly it is that you are trying to achieve. By knowing your end goal means that everything else is backwards planning.

Let’s take an example of a 160lb guy that wants to build muscle; well his priority should be on supplements that support this goal such as a whey protein rather than a fat burner. You may be saying “well duh!” but you would be surprised how often people buy supplements they simply don’t need or that are designed to produce a result opposite to their goal simply because the products are so well marketed.

To fully understand your starting point you should examine your body type, the lifestyle you have. How often and how long you workout for as well as the time of day you work out. Generally guys fall into one of the following five categories.

Underweight, athletic build, overweight, over 40, over-worked. Each has its own unique supplement starting point requirements and we will examine those now. The underweight guy is commonly called the ‘hard gainer’ who seems to struggle to keep any sort of muscle mass if they are not continually training. Their goal is to add muscle and will need to look at supplements such as whey protein and mass gain formulas.

The athletic build is the envy of most. This is the guy who adds muscle easily and seems to be able to keep it without much effort. His supplement goals will be simply to compliment his gifted genetics for the best gains possible. The overweight guy is likely to envy the underweight guy more than the athletic build but his goals should be to develop the underlying muscle so that it can help to burn fat and get the body fat levels below 20%.

The over 40’s are looking to reverse the aging process, specifically by keeping metabolism high and avoiding the natural reduction in the sex hormone testosterone. The overworked and stressed guy needs to watch how the levels of the catabolic stress hormone are affecting his workouts and find supplement and lifestyle solutions that can reduce stress as much as possible.

Of course some people may fall into a number of categories but these starting points give you a guide as to where your goals lie and deciding what it is that is most important to you before you go spending money on cheap supplements.

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Cheap Supplements from the body Building Old School!

September 16th, 2009

All too often when we go looking for cheap supplements we try and hunt down the ‘magic formulas’ that contain a whole lot of every thing because we have been conditioned to think more equals better. Some of the best supplements however are basic, individual supplements that have a good scientific research to back up their effectiveness.

The reason why you don’t hear about these supplements as much any more is because they are just not as attractive for the supplement companies who can make bigger profits by having everyone chasing the latest and greatest “super formula” they come out with.

One of these cheap supplements you hear so little about anymore is called “medium chain Triglycerides” (MCT). Medium chain triglycerides are one of those supplements that have been proven to increase the rate of fat burning while maintaining mass.

MCT’s are in actual fact fats, however they help to burn body fat as they do not trigger fat storage and produce a LOT of energy and are burned very quickly, thereby saving the muscles from being broken down when training hard.

The best time to take your MCT’s are in the morning just after you wake up or half an hour before your weight training workout. This is great cheap supplement can be used if your goal is burning body fat while still training with weights as it will give you an extra energy boost when dieting without massively increasing calories intake.

But what if your goal is to build muscle? What cheap supplements will help you add on that extra poundage?

If you have ever spent money on expensive proteins only to meet with the frustration of stubborn muscles that just won’t grow then you are likely to be one of those hard gainer guys. What is actually going on is you have a high level of the stress hormone cortisol in your blood stream and it’s catabolic effect inhibits protein synthesis.

Couple this with the fact that protein actually requires more calories for digestion than any other nutrient should make it clear that simply eating more and more protein is not going to help the hard gainer add the additional muscle mass they desire.

One solution is to add digestive enzymes to your meals. These cheap supplements include pepsin, papin or papaya and they could help break down the nutrients from food into usable energy.

What is also interesting are the results from a recent clinical study that found these enzymes improved the absorption of amino acids and increased nitrogen retention, essentially helping to support muscle repair and growth.

As protein has a high ‘thermic effect’ meaning that it takes a lot of calories to digest it. Using these digestive enzymes could lower the thermic effect of protein and thus help to better maintain the calorie surplus that is necessary for muscle growth and weight gain.

These cheap supplements are easy to add to your diet before meals and can be picked up at your local health food store or online.

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Are Cheap Supplements Safe for Professional Athletes?

September 9th, 2009

In this post I want to discuss the safety of cheap supplements and see if you are in anyway putting your self at risk by using cheap supplements. To clarify supplements we are referring to common supplements such as protein powders, creatine and fat burners that can be readily bought over the counter at any UK sports supplement shop.

In the UK the term supplement is a broad name for vitamins, minerals and herbal remedies, and other substances taken orally and regulated as foods. These are subject to the general provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990, the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 and the Trade Descriptions Act 1968.

Under these laws manufactures need only to exhibit proof that their product can do what it says only if they contain medical claims. For example if you wanted to produce a supplement that cured cancer you would need proof that your product could indeed do this. The manufactures of cheap supplements however can say their product improves speed and strength without requiring any proof that they do so.

The situation is similar in the US where the supplement industry is also poorly regulated. U.S. law defines supplements as foods and cheap supplements can go on the market until they are proven dangerous, unlike drugs which must first be proven safe before they can be sold. Even a dangerous supplement is then difficult to get pulled from the shelves as the manufactures do not have to report adverse side effects.

One example is the case of Metabolife and its popular Ephedra products. The FDA tried for years to make them hand over health complaints they received and when they did there were 13,000 of them – despite the company president claiming they had not received a single one!

cheap supplements

Unfortunately not all cheap supplement manufactures have your best interest at heart and some can be dangerous to your health. That is why even when buying cheap supplements you should exhibit due diligence on the companies product you are buying. This is especially true for competitive athletes who could find themselves slapped with a hefty ban and fine if the supplement they are using has traces of a banned substance. So always make sure your supplement has been tested doping safe.

Even at that, professional athletes are advised by the IOC to avoid all cheap supplements as often traces of banned substances may not show up in a test of the product but that level may show up in the test of a drug tested athlete. Contamination can occur with the raw materials, capsules the supplements or stored in or the machines used in the manufacturing facility even when equipment is thoroughly cleaned.

A 2003 study carried out by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) found that of 643 supplements tested, 15% contained banned substances high enough for an athlete to fail a drugs test yet not listed on the product labels.

Therefore any athlete that could be subject to doping control needs to exhibit great care and due diligence before using cheap supplements.

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Where to Find Cheap Supplements

September 1st, 2009

Supplements are a great way to ensure we get all the macronutrients, vitamins and minerals for optimal recovery from training. It can be difficult however to keep up with all the latest products that hit the market, each one claiming to be the next big thing to justify it’s hefty price tag. It seems like it is becoming increasingly difficult to find high quality cheap supplements.

Unfortunately not all of us are professional fitness models that get given the latest supplements free of charge. Most fitness enthusiasts are part time trainers even though they may be training up to five times a week. Most have jobs and bills associated with modern life. After around $50 a month on gym membership there might not be much left over for expensive supplementation.

Fortunately there are still some great supplements out there that do not have to break the bank. The problem we have all be programmed to believe that more expensive equals better when unfortunately this is not always the case. The smartest move you can make is to shop around and talk to people that work with, use and sell these products everyday. I would not trust your bodybuilding or fitness magazines to make your supplement buying decisions for you as various magazines are individually heavily sponsored by some of the main supplement manufactures so unbiased reviews are unlikely.

A great place to get cheap supplements is to buy wholesale from the companies themselves, the problem with this is they often do not allowed trade accounts without you having a business entity of some sort such as being self employed or own a business. The next best thing is to then look online and shop around the various sites. Some companies with good cheap supplements are Universal nutrition and Reflex. Reflex whey is one of the cheapest but most popular whey proteins on the market.

One thing to be aware of if you play professional sport at any level, make sure any supplements you take have been thoroughly tested and do not contain even a trace of a banned supplement, this is something that is not always easy to tell with new cheap supplements that come onto the market.

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