The Essential Must Have Supplements that'll take your Physique to the next Level!

9 min read

Today we are going to talk about one of the most discussed topics in the bodybuilding & fitness world, Supplements.

What supplements to take, how much to take, when to take them? These are the questions that every bodybuilder goes through multiple times in his/her life. So today, we’re going to talk about it all, the best supplements that your money can buy & how you can use them to get the results you need in your life.

So let’s begin the topic, the Essential Must Have Supplements that you can buy.

First off, you must understand the definition of Supplementation –

A thing added to something else in order to complete or enhance it.
- Cambridge

And that is exactly what supplements are guys. You add supplements to enhance your diet, to make it much better & thus ensuring that your body has everything it needs to rebuild itself & grow bigger!

Remember, we don’t grow in the gym, we grow outside the gym by providing our body with the rest & nutrition it needs. By working out in the gym, we tear our muscle sarcomeres up, and then later, provide it with the rest & nutrition it needs to grow back bigger.

How?

Well, you must understand how our muscles grow for this. When we workout, we actually damage our muscles. Yes, by working out, our Muscle sarcomeres get torn apart. Then, our body sends blood to those torn muscles which carries all the nutrition that those muscles need to repair themselves.

This state, when the blood is present in the damaged muscles is called the Pump.

Then with rest & nutrition, our muscles repair themselves & thus grow a bit bigger than before. This leads to growth.

So, providing the nutrition our body needs, at the right time, helps our muscles grow faster than not having that nutrition at that right time. This is where supplements come into play.

Supplements, when consumed at the right time in the right quantities, can substantially help with the muscle & strength building process.

So, when is the right time?

This depends on the supplement, and on the Demand of our muscles.

Demand???...

Yup, that’s right, the demand of our muscles.

After we finish our workout, our muscle is in a dying demand for nutrition, so that they can repair themselves up. At this point, there’s a demand for a specific kind of nutrition.

Nutrition, that is fast digesting & can get easily digested by our body at this very point in time, can be very beneficial for our body & can substantially aid the muscle building process.

Similarly, there are different supplements that you need to take at different times during the day to get their benefits.

Timing in supplementation is so, soo important, that consuming a supplement at a wrong time in the day, can go undigested & thus our body will literally piss/shit out that supplement, thus pissing out our hard earned money!

Now, let's stop talking & get down to the essential supplements you can try.

Note: These are the essential supplements I recommend. You can take less/more, as per your goals/requirements.

Again, it’s not about what you take, it’s about what your body digests efficiently.

Now, let’s talk about these Supplements as per their timing.

1. Pre-Workout

   These supplements would be taken about 15-20 mins before your workout
   
   
   a. Creatine
   Creatine monohydrate, 5 gram before & 5 gram after the workout
   Creatine doesn’t build muscle, it aids the muscle building process by increasing the energy levels in our muscles.
   Forget about any loading phase & deloading phase that people tell you, 5 gram before & after your workout is enough.
   
   Also, in creatine, you need to take about 1-2 weeks off after every 3-4 weeks of intake, to ensure it remains effective without upping your intake
   
   
   b. Caffeine
   Increases the blood flow, wakes the body up.
   
   
   

2. Post-workout

   The most important meal of the day, this is when the demand for nutrition is the highest, so make use of this time as much as possible.
   
   After you finish your lifting session, your post workout meal should be in your body, within the next 45 minutes.
   You can have your post workout meal with water or skimmed milk. The reason behind this is that after a workout, our body needs protein, carbs but no fats.
   
   
   a. Creatine
   
   Again, 5 grams in your post workout shake.
   
   Note: While consuming Creatine, you need to increase your water intake, on average, you should consume about 2-3 glasses more than your normal intake. And given that water is great for you, so it’s good anyways
   
   
   b. Whey protein
   
   The most important supplement! Protein is the building block of muscle, so ensure you take enough of protein throughout the day.
   
   Whey protein is a fast digesting protein, so after working out, it’s an amazing supplement
   
   0.25 grams x (your bodyweight in pounds) = How much protein your body can digest at a time
   
   
   c. HMB
   
   Has an anti-catabolic effect, ie it reduces the breakdown of muscle mass during exercise as a source of energy. In short, HMB stops our body from using our muscle mass as a source of energy & thus helps build more muscle.
   
   Yes, for our body, our muscle mass is a source of energy! HMB thus helps protect it.
   
   
   d. Glutamine
   
   Glutamine is the fastest digesting Amino acid out there, thus it goes the fastest to our muscles in need & thus helps in the recovery process. Adding glutamine into your diet will really help you to build muscle faster.
   
   
   
   

3. Rest time

   
   The timing of these supplements varies from a supplement to supplement. The details are as followed:-
   
   Casein Protein
   
   Casein protein is a slow digesting protein & digests over a period of 6 hours or so
   0.25 grams x (your bodyweight in pounds) = How much protein your body can digest at a time
   
   So 30-40 grams on casein protein before sleep for overnight recovery will be extremely beneficial as most of the recovery work of our body is done as you sleep
   
   Timing – Right before sleeping
   
   
   a. Omega 3 fatty acids
   
   Omega 3 fatty acids are not naturally produced by our body, you must rely on external intake in order to have them in your body. These are found in fish, flaxseed oils etc
   These are really good for your joints, brain & overall body health & so on.
   
   Timing – Before sleeping (Fish/fish based supplements should not be consumed with dairy based products)
   
   
   b. Multivitamin
   
   Vitamins & minerals play a major role in our body, so take a multivitamin a day to ensure that your body has everything it needs to rebuild itself.

And that’s about it, if you’re looking to start investing in supplementation, then these are the ones that I would recommend you. You can add/subtract supplements as per your liking, however, these are the supplements that have been proven to show results scientifically, and will surely help to take your physique to your next level.

Though remember, the timing of your supplementation is more important than the supplementation itself. Also, supplements alone won’t do anything, you need to maintain a great diet along with a good training regime to ensure you get the most out of your investment.

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