Sports
supplements - The truth behind them
Sports
supplementation is big business. The gym I use is plastered with
them and photos of rippling physiques demanding you buy their product
to look like the photo.
The
main two supplements I get asked about are protein supplements and
creatine. Protein is recommended by the manufacturers to give the
body the essential amino acids to allow you to build muscle. Creatine
is designed to increase the levels of creatine phosphate within
the muscles, this is the immediate energy source used in the first
few second of exercise. The additional creatine is said to increase
muscle strength, size, power and endurance.
Do
they work?
Protein
supplements has a very limited value in comparison to the alternative
measures you could do. Protein supplements will not work if you
are not eating for your metabolic type and even less so if you are
not training properly! To build muscles you do not just need protein,
but instead all the building blocks for the body to create true
health. This is hardly found in a tub of powder with random synthetic
vitamins and some protein.
Creatine
has been shown to indeed provide an ergogenic effect to the body
in a number of studies. The research seems to indicate that it does
indeed have a benefit to sports performance. However, the majority
of users take it to increase muscle size. One must question the
value of creatine on two counts. The benefits it provides seems
to be while taking the supplement and not long term afterwards.
Put simply it does not increase the ability to store more creatine
in the muscle naturally but just when forced to. Any extra weight
gain would invariably disappear when supplementation ceases. The
second reason to be wary of this is that the effect of taking sugars
into the body when taking the supplements is disastrous on some
metabolic types. Never has a study been done to compare the effects
of creatine to a metabolic typing programme and on athletic performance.
what
is the alternative
The
alternative is two fold, eat right for your metabolic type and learn
how to train properly.
Metabolic
typing will give you the right nutrients in the right amount thus
giving you every building block you need and create the internal
environment to build muscle and optimize sports performance. When
eating for your body chemistry and doing the other metabolic typing
recommendations you will soon see the that you can easily build
muscles supplement free.
Train
right, I don't know how many athletes and body builders I meet who
don't train their legs. This is the biggest mistake you can make.
Muscle is built through consuming enough protein as part of a metabolic
typing diet and placing it in the correct hormonal environment to
allow muscle growth.
In
simplistic terms it is related to the amount of testosterone you
posses. This is greatly increased by whole body exercises, e.g.
squats, lunges dead lifts etc. To build a big biceps, it would be
better to do 3 sets of squats and 2 on the arms than 5 sets on the
arms. It is not about how much damage you do but how well you can
build back the damaged muscle. To those who don't know the gym causes
lots of micro tears in the muscle which is built back up and made
bigger by the body if the above two methods are done.
What
next?
Stop
wasting your money on supplements, a few tubs of protein could be
used for my course which
will revolutionize your physique, athletic performance and outlook
on exercise and training. |