Best Muscle-Building Supplements for Beginners
Confused about what muscle-building supplements you should start with? M&F ranks the best choices for beginners.
By Steve Stiefel
Young bodybuilders know they need to start someplace when it comes to supplementation, but it’s often hard to figure out where—and how much to spend. The first two rules to help you get the most from your supplements are to make sure your training and nutrition are on target:
1) You should weight train no more than four times a week for no longer than 75 minutes a session as a beginner. More than this and you’re overtraining, tearing your body down more (and faster) than it can recover between workouts.
2) For nutrition, you should consume several meals a day—up to six or seven, getting in plenty of protein (at least 20 grams) per meal, striving to eat a total of at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight every day—even on rest days.
Once you’re following these basic rules, you’re ready to make the most of beginning supplementation. Here’s what we recommend, ranked in order:
1) Use a whey protein supplement before and after workouts.
Whey protein is one of the fastest-digesting protein sources. This means it’s readily absorbed by your body so that it can get to work promoting recovery and muscle-building from your training and providing amino acids during workouts to support training and physiological processes that support muscle-building (such as delivering oxygen and nutrients to hard training muscles). The good news is that whey protein products can be found in different price ranges, and you can use them as your budget allows to supplement your whole-food protein intake.
What you should take: A whey protein shake before and after workouts. You can take in up to about ¼ gram of protein per pound of bodyweight at each meal. This means a 200-pounder can take in 50 grams of whey protein before and 50 grams after weight-training sessions. A 160-pounder should target up to 40 grams before and after workouts.
2) Consume fast-digesting carbs before and after workouts.
One mistake many beginners make is to overemphasize protein at the expense of carbs—either dietary or supplemental. But carbs are essential to fueling muscle growth because they help promote recovery, driving nutrients to your muscles. Fast-digesting carbs such as sugar should be consumed before and after workouts. You can also take supplemental forms of carbs such as Vitargo, or a hardgainer shake that has carbs in it. As far as the type of sugar you should consume: dextrose is the best option (it’s a specific type of glucose), or sucrose, otherwise known as table sugar. Fructose, especially high-fructose corn syrup, is less desirable than other forms of sugar or carbs that are typically found in carb-based supplements.
What you should take: A good rule of thumb for beginners is to match the amount of protein and carbs you consume before and after workouts. That means getting in about 100 grams of carbs for a 200-pounder, split evenly before and after workouts. And don’t shy away from whole-food carbs such as starches (whole-grain breads and pasta), and slow-digesting carbs (oatmeal, yams and brown rice) at other times of day. The only exception is to cut back on carbs before bedtime as they’re more readily stored as body fat at this time of day.
TAKEN FROM http://www.muscleandfitness.com
