“Do I need supplements to gain muscles fast?”, “What supplementations are needed for body building beginners?”, “Are the nutrients from my daily meals enough for me to gain bigger muscles fast?”

All body building beginners must have asked themselves these questions. You are reading this article because you would have probably asked these questions yourself.

The answer to these supplementation questions is an affirmative yes. Body building supplements are necessary if you want gain bigger muscles faster. This is because various supplements have their own benefits and they work together complementing each other to support muscle mass gain. You will probably not be getting enough of them through your normal meals and that is the primary reason why you need supplementation.

Since there are so many body building supplements in out there, choosing the correct and effective supplementation to gain muscles fast is a daunting task for a body building beginner.

Well, your anxiety will be solved in this article. As a body building beginner, you need only the basic supplementations to gain muscles effectively. You may need some other supplements when you are at the intermediate or advanced stages of body building.

So what are the basic supplementation to help a beginner to gain muscle mass?

•Protein Supplements – Without protein, you will never gain muscles. Protein is the fundamental supplement for every bodybuilder. You need 1 gram of protein for every pound of your bodyweight per day to faster gain bigger muscles. This is a lot of protein and most people will never get enough of protein from their meals.

•Creatine Supplements - Creatine can significantly increase muscle volume along with protein. It will also improve your weightlifting performances and raise your energy levels so that your workouts are more intensive and this provides for greater muscle gain.

•Glutamine Supplements – Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid, which makes up to 60% of the amino acids in the muscles. Glutamine helps in your muscle recovery after your workouts and also prevents muscle lost due to muscle catabolism.

•Multi Vitamins / Minerals Supplement – Your muscles need many vitamins and minerals for every stage of its function and recovery. Some vitamins and minerals are antioxidants and will also help in protecting muscle waste, help in muscle recovery and mopping up free radicals after your muscles are stressed out and damaged during your gym workouts.

As a bodybuilding beginner, these are the only supplementation you will need to help you gain bigger muscles fast.

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Introduction:

Bodybuilding supplements consists of various substances including proteins and amino acids, metal replacement products, prohormones, testosterone boosters and are taken by boy builders and sports persons to help building muscle or supplement fat loss. These bodybuilding supplements are also suitable for improving sports performance.

Amino acids, Branched chain amino acids, glutamine and protein:

Protein consumed by our body metabolizes into amino acids. The bodybuilders prefer most commonly three branched chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine. Muscles metabolize these branched chain amino acids. Additionally these branched chain amino acids are assumed to have resistance towards muscle breakdown.

Although soy protein, a naturally occurring complete protein may sometime exhibit estrogenic activity and is therefore avoided by many of the bodybuilders, however egg protein is preferred as it is also a complete protein. Casein, another richest protein source of amino acid glutamine is preferred as it contains casomorphine additionally, which releases amino acids at regular intervals.

Bodybuilders prefer to take protein just after exercise or as a replacement of meal. Protein powders are available in the market and right quantity of these at recommended helps in making muscles, as muscles are primarily made of protein and protein also helps us in repairing and growth of muscles.

Whenever you purchase a protein packet, you must look for total serving in the pocket and gram protein, gram carbs, gram sugar and gram fat per servings. If you are lactose intolerant, you should select a protein packet, which does not contain lactose. On the basis of all these information you must select the right product suitable for you.

Metal Replacement Products:

The metal replacement products are either available in powder form or in bar form. Powder form can be mixed with water, milk or juice and can be taken thereafter, however bars can be consumed straight away.

These are made available for complete meal replacement and contains high amount of proteins, moderate amount of carbohydrates and also contains various vitamins and minerals.

Various manufacturers of metal replacement products claim to have added soy protein, egg albumin, whey protein or micellar casein as source of protein. For replacement of carbohydrates ingredients derived from oat fiber, wheat flour or maltodextrin have been added. Some may contain essential fatty acids substitute and other mineral substitutes. Some other products such as glutamine peptide and additional amino acids are also added by some of the manufacturers.

Creatine Monohydrate:

Creatine monohydrate is one of the essential organic acids. It is one of the few products suitable for making healthy muscles. Creatine monohydrate is useful for sports persons engaged in weight lifting and short-range sprinters. Creatine monohydrate works in our body and plays a vital role in making and replenishing of ATP. It is also occurs naturally in beef, pork, and salmon.

If you are on creatine, you may notice a weight gain as creatine has a volumizing effect and draws water and various other nutrients to muscle cells.

Some of the common and minor side effects associated with intake of creatine include stomach upset and gastrointestinal distress. Although, some of the recent studies on creatine shows that it has a positive influence on our heart health and it lowers our lipid profile.

Prohormone Supplements:

Prohormones are precursors to both male and female hormones. Body builders are only interested in the supplements capable to increase male hormone testosterone as at elevated level testosterone will lead to improved muscle growth. Studies carried out on various prohormone have not given the desired results. Some of the horhormone are not significant and effective and may have side effects.

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What is St John's Wort?
Extracts of Hypericum perforatum L. (St John's wort) are now successfully competing for status as a standard antidepressant therapy. Because of this, great effort has been devoted to identifying the active antidepressant compounds in the extract. From a phytochemical point of view, St John's wort is one of the best-investigated medicinal plants. Researchers in Europe have studied St John's Wort for decades. They discovered a combination of elements in the plant, foremost of which is "hypericin", react with specific chemicals in the brain to temper emotional discomfort, lift depression, and calm the nerves. Working very much like the common synthetic prescription antidepressants (maprotiline hydrochloride and imipramine), natural extracts from St. John's Wort have shown to relax and soothe the psyche with minimal side effects

St John's Wort Benefits
St. Johns Wort today has been found to be very beneficial in healing wounds and is especially good for dirty, septic wounds. St. Johns Wort has been used in case of putrid leg ulcers, that noting heals. Like the leach that was used not too many years ago for wound cleansing it does not destroy the healthy tissues and healthy cells but it cleans the dirt out of septic wounds. It helps reduce the inflammation in septic sores, in boils, in cellulite and lymhangitis.

The compound Hypericin was isolated from St. Johns Wort in 1942 and has been used as an anti-depressant for emotionally disturbed people. This tranquilizing quality from small quantities hypericin increase blood flow to stressed tissue. There is a reduced capillary fragility and enhanced uterine tone due to the increased Hypotensive blood flow.

St John's Wort Side Effects
The use of St. Johns Wort has been shown to demonstrate a side effect producing a photosensitivity. Hypericin is absorbed in the intestines and concentrates near the skin. An allergic reaction takes place when those with light fair skin are exposed sunlight. That exposure causes tissue damage and in some cases death has resulted. While taking St. Johns Wort one should avoid strong sunlight whether the skin is dark or light. There is a photosensitizing substance produced under the skin by this exposure to sunlight that causes the skin to burn.

Benefits
• relieves mild to moderate depression and anxiety.
• promotes restful sleep.
• improves capillary circulation.
• increases cardiac circulation.
• eases gastrointestinal distress.
• relieves discomfort associated with premenstrual syndrome.
• fights retroviruses.

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What is creatine?
Creatine is an amino acid (amino acids are the building blocks of protein) which is made in the body by the liver and kidneys, and is derived from the diet through meat and animal products. Creatine (creatine monohydrate) is a colorless, crystalline substance used in muscle tissue for the production of phosphocreatine, an important factor in the formation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the source of energy for muscle contraction and many other functions in the body.

What does creatine normally do in the body?
In the body, creatine is changed into a molecule called "phosphocreatine" which serves as a storage reservoir for quick energy. Phosphocreatine is especially important in tissues such as the voluntary muscles and the nervous system which periodically require large amounts of energy.

Why do athletes take creatine?
Studies have shown that creatine can increase the performance of athletes in activities that require quick bursts of energy, such as sprinting, and can help athletes to recover faster after expending bursts of energy. Creatine is best for the serious bodybuilder. It helps increase muscle mass, rather than muscle endurance, so it’s not well suited for athletes participating in endurance activities. However, the increase in muscle mass may be due to water retention and not an increase in muscle tissue.

Why have I been hearing so much about creatine and neuromuscular disorders?
Two scientific studies have indicated that creatine may be beneficial for neuromuscular disorders. First, a study by MDA-funded researcher M. Flint Beal of Cornell University Medical Center demonstrated that creatine was twice as effective as the prescription drug riluzole in extending the lives of mice with the degenerative neural disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease). Second, a study by Canadian researchers Mark Tarnopolsky and Joan Martin of McMaster University Medical Center in Ontario found that creatine can cause modest increases in strength in people with a variety of neuromuscular disorders. Beal's work was published in the March 1999 issue of Nature Neuroscience and the second paper was published in the March 1999 issue of Neurology.

I want to start taking creatine -- is it safe?
For the most part, athletes haven't experienced adverse side-effects from taking creatine, although recently there have been a few reports of kidney damage linked to creatine usage. No consistent toxicity has been reported in studies of creatine supplementation. Dehydration has also been reported to be a problem while taking creatine.

Athletes generally take a "loading dose" of 20 grams of creatine a day for five or six days, then continue with a "maintenance dose" of 2 to 5 grams of creatine a day thereafter.

What are the side effects?
Little is known about long-term side effects of creatine, but no consistent toxicity has been reported in studies of creatine supplementation. In a study of side effects of creatine, diarrhea was the most commonly reported adverse effect of creatine supplementation, followed by muscle cramping.18 Some reports showed that kidney, liver, and blood functions were not affected by short-term higher amounts or long-term lower amounts of creatine supplementation in healthy young adults. In a small study of people taking 5–30 grams per day, no change in kidney function appeared after up to five years of supplementation. Muscle cramping after creatine supplementation has been anecdotally reported in some studies.

Benefits
• increases athletic performance
• increases muscle mass
• beneficial for muscular disorders

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Vitamins are compounds found in food, which help us to be fit and healthy. These organic compounds help in the functioning of the various metabolic systems of our body. Vitamins are found naturally in the various foods, which we consume and we can also obtain vitamins in the form of vitamin supplements. Vitamins also help to protect our body from diseases and infections. Vitamins are also essential for the formation of various enzymes and hormones of the body which control the metabolic activities such as digestion, circulation excretion etc. There are about eleven types of vitamins, which are essential for the human body. Vitamin A is essential for the proper functioning of our eye and it also acts as an anti oxidant preventing certain oxidizing chemical reactions, which cause harm to our body. Vitamin A can be obtained from green leafy vegetables, broccoli, carrot, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, papaya etc. The B group vitamins include thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, cyanocobalamin and biotin. These are essential for the proper functioning of our nervous system and for the conversion of food in to energy by the body. It is also essential for the proper functioning of various metabolic activities of our body. Vitamin B is available from whole grains, beans, fish, lean meat, fruits and vegetables, dry fruits, nuts, milk, egg, soy beans, etc. Vitamin B-12 can be obtained only from animal sources such as liver, egg, meat, cheeses etc. B group vitamins are essential for the amino acid metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, and for the healthy skin. Vitamin C can be obtained from citrus fruits such as lemon, sweet lime, oranges, grapes, grapefruit etc. Vitamin C is essential for the prevention of diseases and infection. It also helps in the absorption of iron. Vitamin D can be obtained from sunlight. It is essential for the bones and teeth. It is also needed for the growth of our body. Vitamin E is an essential antioxidant. It can be obtained from whole grains, asparagus, wheat germ, corn, green leafy vegetables and seeds.

If you do not take a proper nutritious diet then you may suffer from vitamin deficiency health problems. Lack of Vitamin A can cause problems related to eyesight such as night blindness. Insufficient Vitamin B can cause diseases like Beriberi, Anemia, poor resistance to diseases, etc. Lack of Vitamin C causes gum bleeding, weakness, loss of appetite, tiredness etc. Insufficient vitamin D causes deformation of bones and teeth. Deficiency of vitamins in food leads to poor health. An effective way of filling the nutritional gaps due to poor eating habits is the use of vitamin supplements. These vitamin supplements can help us to boost our immune system and to build up stamina.

It is always better to take vitamins as a whole from food sources rather than synthetic vitamins. Taking synthetic vitamins is more like taking half vitamin and our body treats natural and synthetic vitamin differently. It is very essential to provide our body with natural nutrients for protecting various organs and body functions. Our body needs whole vitamins, which are found naturally in the foods such as grains, vegetables and fruits rather than vitamin supplements. Our body utilizes the natural vitamin more efficiently than the synthetic vitamin.

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