Your pulse is racing, your muscles are burning and the sweat is pouring off you. Hell, that was a tortuous workout. You took your body further than it’s been before. And it hurts. You feel invigorated but exhausted. But it’s far from finished. More training tomorrow – plus another the next day, and the next……
You aren’t Charles Atlas but you’re no weakling either. You’re just testing your body – pushing it hard to see and feel the results. But it’s tough going – and just maybe the time is right for you to think about taking a muscle building supplement to give your body that extra boost.
The truth is, supplements aren’t magical powders but they can give you an edge when it comes to muscle gain. Muscles get damaged each time they go through a gruelling training session and they need to be repaired. Each time the muscle tissue is repaired, it grows, but for effective repair, your body needs a boost of protein and amino acids.
Protein needs to be provided regularly as the body is unable to store it. One of the problems however, is that many people lack sufficient protein in their daily diet. Taking a protein supplement is one way of ensuring that your body is getting sufficient nutrients to enable the muscles to repair and grow effectively and quickly.
In fact, consuming a protein shake within thirty minutes of a strenuous work-out has been shown to improve recovery by up to 80%.
There are several types of body-building supplements such as protein, creatine, l-carnitine, nitric oxide, glutamine etc – but protein based ones are the most popular. The composition of protein powders differ, ie the different amino acids, the ratios of concentrate and isolate, fat content, energy per serve, carbohydrate, calorie count and of course the cost – and it’s advisable to discuss a personalised supplement plan with an expert in order to ensure it’s the right product for effective and sustainable results.
The body is in a very nutrient-receptive state within the first thirty to forty five minutes after a vigorous workout, say a leading supplier of strength training supplements throughout Australia, For Fitness. High intensity workouts trigger the release of adrenal hormones such as epinephrine and norepinephrine which improves the uptake of nutrients, they say.
But….. just as supplements work – they only work if you work out ! There will be some muscle mass gain if protein supplements are taken after low or moderate intensity training sessions, but the harder the work-out, the harder the supplements will work. The bottom line is – added protein provides both building blocks for the body and a boost for recovery – and the quicker your body recovers, the further you can push it. As the saying goes – Rome wasn’t built in a day – but it won’t take too many days before you are properly ‘built’!