From Flabulous to Fabulous

Amino acids are a vital supplement that should be in every bodybuilders arsenal of pills, powders, and potions. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Amino acids don’t necessarily have to come from supplements, because they’re also found in protein rich foods such as: meat, fish, dairy, and vegetables. But often times amino acids in food sources only provide the basics foundation of muscle growth.

To get the full effect of amino acids’ potential, it’s vital to take amino acid supplements. Plus, many people are allergic to some of the main food sources amino acids are found in such as fish and dairy.

What’s the science behind amino acids?

Amino acids, much like protein help in the repair, rebuild, and growth of muscle tissue. Think of amino acids as the icing on top of the cake. Amino acids give you that extra boost of muscle growth that protein alone can’t handle. The science behind amino acids is it’s extreme digestive properties; specifically, it’s digestive properties related to protein intake. After protein is ingested, it’s broken down into amino acids. The amino acids then filter out all of the excess "garbage" to send good pure protein throughout the muscles. This process also significantly aids in food digestion.
What are some benefits to amino acids besides muscle growth?

Amino acids are primarily used as a means of creating more muscular development in the bodybuilding world, but amino acids are also responsible for some other major body functions and provide great health benefits for the average individual. Some of these health benefits include: greater concentration, release of aggression and tension, better sleep, and normalizing your mood.

Who needs amino acid supplements and why?

Vegetarians by design don’t eat or drastically reduce their consumption of meat and dairy products. Because of this, vegetarians need amino acid supplements, because they’re almost completely taken out of their diet because of the meat and dairy reduction.
What is the daily suggested serving of amino acids?

For the best results one and a half grams should be taken three times daily.

Are there any side effects of amino acid supplementation?

There are no known side effects of amino acid supplementation when taken properly.

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Every bodybuilder, fitness junkie, or average exercise person knows the importance of protein. Protein supplements on the other hand, may be a different story. When you visit the endless aisles of GNC or your local sports nutrition store, you’ll find that there are several different protein supplements to choose from.

When you read the label, you may become further confused because all of the choices claim to be the best protein supplements. There’s a few things you need to consider when purchasing protein supplements. They are as follows:

- Effectiveness rating: The effectiveness rating is not necessarily a "real" rating. It’s more of a testimonial. To get an effectiveness rating, ask the workers at the store and/or your local gym what kind of protein supplements they think work best for them. You’ll typically have about 2-3 different answers; but this will help you drastically narrow the field.

- Brand: Brand is one of the biggest factors of finding the best protein supplement. There are some brands that are irrefutably the best protein supplements. I have tried off brand supplements and I personally feel they are not up to par. Off-brand protein supplements are macro-filtered and clump when you blend or shake them. Studies have shown that consuming these types of protein supplements can cause irregular bowel syndrome and explosive diarrhea. (sorry if I grossed you out) Higher quality proteins, such as Optimum Nutrition are micro-filtered, and therefore have a much finer powder that’s more easily digestible.

- Price: Price is a personal decision based on your budget. I must say though that when it comes to any health supplements, you typically get what you pay for.

- Servings: Amount of servings, serving size, and the amount of grams per serving is very important. Servings is also based on price. You want to try and get the best bang for your buck. But more important than price is how many grams of protein your getting per serving. Many of the lower quality protein supplements are cheaper but also cheat you because they only have 17-20 grams of protein per serving. A top quality brand like Optimum Nutrition has 24 grams of protein per serving. It’s more expensive than the cheaper, lower quality proteins, but it’s worth it.

- The Verdict: The best protein supplements by consumers and bodybuilders alike are the following:

Optimum Nutrition, Pro Lab N-Large 2, CytoSport Muscle Milk, and EAS Myoplex. Some of these are more specific to weight gain and bodybuilders, so do a little research on each of these proteins to find out which one is best for you.

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In February 2007, I was a flabby fatty. I was living the life of a typical college kid. I was sucking down Miller Lites’ night after night, and I was fueled by Ramen. In high school I played Football for a year until I was in a major car accident. After the car accident, I was diagnosed with scoliosis. Scoliosis is a curvature growth in your spine. Instead of having scoliosis in just the top or bottom of my spine, I had it in both places. That day, I knew my sports career was over. I was always more of a scholar and not playing sports didn’t drive me to insanity like it would do to most people in my position.

The most important thing to me was staying active. After high school and college, was when I resorted to the crap diet. The crap diet consists of high intake of fast food, heavy alcohol intake, and lots of ramen noodles.

In October of 2006, I moved into my first apartment. Me and my roommate got our first real jobs. After 2 weeks we were fired over something really stupid and petty. We couldn’t find jobs for months. I went into a deep battle with depression. And this is where the poor eating habits came in. Not to mention I was broke, so .99 cent fast food and ramen was just about all I could afford.

From November 2006 - November 2007 I went through hell. I couldn’t find a good enough job to pay the bills, so I always seemed to just barely make it. This further progressed my depression. This is starting to sound really depressing

In December 2007 I was diagnosed with Graves disease. It’s a condition that affects your thyroid gland. In my case, just like with scoliosis, I had the worst case of Graves disease possible. My condition spiraled out of control so bad, that I lost 85 pounds, my eyes began to protrude from their sockets, and I was deathly ill. I could barely stand up straight most of the time. It was absolutely awful.

In January 2008 I was treated with radioactive iodine and began to get my body back in check. I was 155 pounds of solid skinny.

Here’s the good and positive part…FINALLY! In January 2008, I got a great job in the field of internet marketing. It’s a work from home job, and I make awesome money. It seemed that things were beginning to turn around for me. My spirits were lifted after nearly two years of hell.

It’s now May 2008. In 5 months I’ve gained 41 pounds of relatively lean muscle mass and I attribute it to good positive thoughts, (mental clarity) good eating habits, and a hardcore workout routine.

I hope I didn’t bore you too much, but I just wanted to share my story and hope it inspires someone. Below are pictures I’ve taken of my journey so far. I’m going from Flab to Fab, and this journey will continue until the end of my time. I want to be the best I can be, and get as naturally big, lean, and cut as possible. So this won’t be the last time you hear about my progression. I will be posting updates every 90 days.

Good luck on your journey of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

January 2007: 225 lbs.

February 2008: 155 lbs.

May 2008: 196 lbs.

weight loss support

I’ve been taking creatine for the past 4 weeks, and I’ve noticed that my heart has been racing like crazy after each set in the gym. Is this normal? It might not be the creatine, but I don’t remember this happening before I started taking it. I hope this s**t doesn’t kill me.

I love the results though. So I don’t want to stop taking it.

I’m trying to bulk up and am wondering… How much protein powder is safe to take each day? How many grams in particular. I’m currently taking 30 grams twice a day, but I wanted to kick it up to 30 grams four times a day. Is this safe?

Those that have a hard time gaining muscle most of the time think that it has something to do with their workout routine or their supplementation. After they’ve been lifting weights for a while without seeing any muscle building results, they immediately think that they must be on the wrong bodybuilding program.

They start to add in all kinds of techniques that they read in some bodybuilding magazine or website. They start to add in supersets, forced reps, negatives, giant sets, heavier weights, static contractions, stretch overload, so on and so forth. Or they’ll begin to add more exercises, sets, frequency, etc.

Or, they’ll run to the nearest supplement store or internet site and begin to pour their hard-earned money on testosterone boosters, prohormones, weight gainers, protein bars / shakes, pre-workout / post-workout drinks, creatine, NO2, glutamine, branch chain amino acids, etc., etc.

Yet, after all of that extra effort, time, and money spent, they still are getting the same muscle gaining results……….nothing!

Wanna know why?

Because they fail to look at the number one factor on how to gain muscle ………eating more calories. That is 99% of the time the problem, not their training or supplementation.

And I love it when I hear someone complain that "no matter what they do they can’t gain any muscle mass". But when asked how many calories or food their eating, it is always, and I mean always, not enough, even though they swear up and down that they do.

Sure, they think their eating a lot of food, and they may be doing so a day here and a day there. But when you look at how they eat over the course of several months, you’ll see that they are eating like a bird, and that’s why they look like one.

Trust me, I know what it feels like. A lack of an appetite is what kept me from gaining muscle mass naturally for years on end.

Well, here are a few tips and tricks to increase your natural appetite so that you can actually start to eat enough to grow, even though you may be fooling yourself into thinking you already are (but hey, regardless of what your stomach may be telling you, if you haven’t gained any significant amount of muscle in a while, it’s time to look in the mirror).

First, avoid eating foods that are very acidic, like carrots, orange juice, tomatoes, lemons, limes, and other citrus fruits……since a high level of acid tells the brain to slow digestion down, which will result in a lot of food just sitting in your stomach, killing your appetite.

Second, don’t eat too much protein, since this releases certain hormones that also tell your brain to slow digestion down.
Third, don’t eat a lot of foods that contain a lot of sodium, like frozen foods and canned soup. Again, sodium also tells the body to slow digestion down, and, again, taking away your appetite.

And, avoid a lot of fiber, since fiber stretches the intestines, bloats you, and fools the brain into thinking you’re "full".

Athletes who are engaged in weight training or in the sports, which are requires the building of muscle mass uses these bodybuilding supplements. Bodybuilding supplements on usual manner are used by athletes. Sometimes, supplements helps in meliorating the performance in sports. They are also proved to be helpful in improving the level of convalescence from events as well as training.

Significance of Body building Supplements with protein

The bodybuilders require to intake more protein supplements than any average human being. The reason behind this is that, bodybuilders do workouts, which demands more metabolism. At the time of workouts our body experiences an increase in the consumption of amino acids as they are important for the production of oxidative energy. At the time of workouts if the protein in a large amount are broken down and simultaneously not supplanted, one can develop a negative amino acid balance. This will effect in falling back of the body at the time of hard work. In order to compensate these negative effects one needs to gain bodyweight of 1-2 grams per pound in the assemblage of protein supplement as well as foods.

Content of Protein Supplements

Protein Supplements are made of amino acids, which are considered as the primary units of muscle. One can not build muscle without having protein. For bodybuilding one needs to have fat, carbohydrates along with protein. Whey, soy, egg and casein are the commonest Protein supplements amongst the bodybuilders and athletes.

Whey Protein: Whey Protein contains all the amino acids that are essential at their high level. On usual manner the human body does not produce them originally. The body immerses this protein very promptly.

Casein Protein: This type of protein is also known as Milk Protein. Casein Protein is enriched with glutamine. This protein helps in fast recovery. It also has casomorphin. It helps in absorbing the amino acids across a long time.

Soy Protein: Soy Protein is comprised with all essential amino acids. For the vegetarians Soy Protein has been considered as the alternative protein. Isoflavones, a type of phytoestrogen is also present in Soy protein.

Egg: The white portion of egg contains lactose- and dairy-free protein. It works also as the most effective protein supplement and is extremely beneficial for health of the young and old alike.

Blended Proteins: Acombination of Whey Protein, Soy Protein, Casein Protein, egg protein altogether is known as Blended protein.

Bodybuilding supplements on usual manner are used by athletes. Athletes who are engaged in weight training or in the sports, which are requires the building of muscle mass uses these Bodybuilding Supplements. Sometimes, Bodybuilding Supplements helps in meliorating the performance in sports. They are also proved to be helpful in improving the level of convalescence from events as well as training.

Nitric Oxide in Bodybuilding

The Nitric Oxide is a faded gas form, which has been formed out of the mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. The oxide in humans as well as in animals serves as the signaling molecule. Fundamentally, the Nitric Oxide is the responsible factor behind the dilation of the blood vessels that are present in the body. This process is known as hemodilation. This process has the like effects of Viagra. As it works quick, the result of it will also be fast, in just 5 days. Within the span of 12 to 15 days, a full body modification can be found with the use of Nitric Oxide. In other cases of muscle supplements, one needs to wait for moths to notice result. In the world of bodybuilding the use of NO2 or Nitric Oxide has become progressively popular. This helps to transforming power in the body. This supplement in the field of bodybuilding has been termed as the most magnanimous breakthrough in the history of bodybuilding supplementation.

Health Products containing Nitric Oxide

Most of products used as Nitric Oxide supplements for body building comprises of amino acid Arginine. Intake of an excessive dose of Arginine can contribute to physical problems like diarrhea, nausea and physical weakness. Most of the side effects come usually from Arginine rather than the Nitirc Oxide itself. Some products containing this available in market are, MRI NO2; Pinnacle NoX2 (the Pinnacle helps in utilizing the sole A-DS Advanced system of delivery in NoX2, which helps in impaling assimilation of the active compounds); BSN Nitrix (it helps in ensuring the utmost effects scientific effect of Nitirc Oxide); Syntrax Nitrous (this nitric oxide supplement has been considered as the supercharged muscle injection which results in prompt pumps, energy as well as recovery) and many more. Syntrax Nitrous has a neutral taste. It is like a solid powder and is easy to mix up with beverages.

weight loss support

Athletes who are engaged in weight training or in the sports, which are requires the building of muscle mass uses these bodybuilding supplements. These on usual manner are used by athletes. Sometimes, supplements helps in meliorating the performance in sports. They are also proved to be helpful in improving the level of convalescence from events as well as training.

Amino Acid Supplements

Amino acid supplements are considered as another most significant supplements necessary for bodybuilding. In science the Amino acids most popularly are known as the “building blocks” of the body. In an actual sense they functions as the molecular units that contains proteins. Now these proteins can be of 20 specific amino acid by nature. The functioning of them includes the configuration of antibodies. On usual manner these antibodies fights against bacteria and viruses. It also helps in constructing of nucleoproteins. The operation of them also includes building up cells and renovation of tissues. It also acts as the transportation system in the whole body of Oxygen. Another most important function of Amino Acid is that is participates in the activities of body muscles. In the hormonal and enzyme system of the body also, it plays crucial roles. These are the core reason behind the Amino acid being the essential supplement of body as well as bodybuilding.

Amino Acid supplement products

There are many Amino acid supplements available in the market. Amongst them top 5 products are as follows:

ISS Research Complete Amino 2200: Particularly meant for the bodybuilders. This product enriched with amino acid helps in developing muscle tissue, fast recovery and obviously in growth.

SciVation Xtend: Xtend has been considered as the scientific blend of aminos, which helps in generating energy. This blend contains established ratio of a chain comprised of amino acids, glutamine, citrulline malate and vitamin B6. This branched chain helps in generating energy as well as quick recovery.

Universal Animal Nitro: This product contains the perfect ratio of them depending upon the human muscle protein. That is why this Animal Nitro has been considered as the first as well as the only amino acid supplements beneficial for bodybuilding. It is also known as Human Muscle Protein complex.

Optimum Amino 2222 Softgels: Optimum Amino 2222 Softgels gives 2,000 miligrams amino acid of high quality.

For human beings there are 20 standard Amino acids, which are considered as essentials. These are Lysine, Valine, isoleucine, leucine, threonine, methionine, phenylalanine and tryptophan.

Bodybuilding is necessary for the heavyweight lifters and body builders. So mostly they are the buyers of Bodybuilding supplements. Other than them, the people who want to low down their body fats are also the users of the Body Building Supplements. These not only helps in building our body but also aid in improving the performance of the body. There are two types of Body building Supplements- the exercise supplements and the dietary supplements. Dietary Supplements contain amino acids and other nutrients those are required to build a body. Exercise Supplements are those that help to increase the nutrient level of the body. Now a days the players commonly used creatine as bodybuilding Supplements since this product provides them instantaneous strength and saturate their muscles in such a way that they can perform in a higher level without getting weak.

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Digestive Enzymes present in Bodybuilding Supplements

Body Building Supplements mostly include egg, meat, milk and milk products and soy proteins. The supplements when taken regularly help in bodybuilding by promoting tissue growth. After the vigorous activities of exercises intake is very important. Enzymes are one of the main components that are present in the bodybuilding supplements. In order to digest and absorb food Enzymes play the prime role. The digestive Enzymes secreted in our alimentary canal break down carbohydrates and lipids of the food. The enzymes can be secreted from the digestive glands as well as from the hormones. The digestive glands of our body are pancreas, liver and small and large intestine.

Proper Dose of Bodybuilding Supplements

Before using the Body Building supplements doctors should be consulted for necessary advice since these might not suit all individual’’s body type. In cases of malnutrition ions and whenever there is problem with absorption of digested foods, the body building supplements are often used. They are present in all the food products, especially in fruits and vegetables. When food is prepared at very high and low temperatures the bodybuilding supplements present in the food material are destroyed. So it should be kept in mind before cooking food that the food should be cooked in such a manner that the vitamins and mineral content of the food retained its original value. The other things to be noticed are the intake of them in proper quantity as per the instruction of the doctor and trainer. Researches are going on to make body building supplements which are best for future use.