While lifting weights and eating a healthy diet are crucial to building muscles, Timesunion.com also recommends using muscle-building supplements to maximize muscle growth. With this in mind, incorporating muscle-building supplements into your workout routine should be a no-brainer.
However, muscle-building supplements aren’t the same and contain different constituents that help you realize the optimal building of your body’s muscle mass. There are certain ingredients that are especially effective at helping you realize your fitness objective. Let’s dive right ahead and take a look at the ingredients you should look for in a muscle-building supplement you’re considering using.
1. Creatine
The first ingredient you must ensure is contained in a muscle-building supplement is creatine, which comprises three amino acids, methionine, arginine, and glycine. While this amino acid is naturally found in the muscles, the body transforms it into phosphocreatine to be stored in the muscles, where it’ll be used to generate energy.
The use of creatine among bodybuilders and athletes is quite common because this supplement boosts muscle mass and workout efficiency. Creatine is very effective at boosting muscle building because it boosts the amount of fast energy generated by your muscles while working out. This greater amount of fast energy allows you to do more intense workouts within a certain weight. As a result, this makes your muscles become stronger and bigger over time.
The best thing about creatine is that it doesn’t have any adverse effects on your body. Therefore, this ingredient is an ideal choice if you want to see long-term results of growth in your muscle strength and size. When using creatine, you should ideally mix it with a carbohydrate, for instance, juice which best prevents urinary creatinine loss and boosts muscle creatine stores.
It’s best to use a supplement containing creatine when you want a quick injection of energy. This is why this supplement is quite popular among weightlifters and athletes.
2. Protein
Protein naturally exists in the human body as it’s one of the components that make up the cells. It’s also a vital ingredient when looking to grow your muscles because it performs the function of building and maintaining cells. And considering working out destroys cells, protein is an essential ingredient; otherwise, your muscle-building goal will end up being futile.
With protein playing such an integral role in muscle gain, you need to eat more protein in your diet. There are numerous protein-rich foods that can help with this, including chicken, beef, eggs, whey, soy protein, and casein. However, it’s recommended you still supplement your serving, and this is why you should use muscle-building supplements that contain protein as one of the ingredients.
The use of muscle-building supplements will help boost strength and gain more muscle. This is ideal, especially after an extended duration of resistance training. For optimal effectiveness, you should use the protein-filled muscle-building supplement two hours after your workout.
Besides its benefits, muscle-building supplements that contain protein do have a couple of downsides. One is that they contain a lot of added calories and added sugar. Because of this, you must always check the supplement’s labeling to prevent a spike in your blood sugar or eat more calories than needed.
3. Beta-alanine
The beta-alanine amino acid is produced in the liver and is an effective ingredient in any muscle-building supplement because it helps boost training performance and reduce fatigue. Therefore, this ingredient enables you to put in additional reps while training. This will go a long way in helping you to realize your muscle fitness goals quickly. Knowing this, you should stick to using supplements containing beta-alanine if you’re serious about enhancing your muscle mass.
Another advantage of beta-alanine is that it buffers the pH in your body’s muscle cells. This is vital because pH dropping usually causes you to experience a burning sensation that can make you feel quite uncomfortable. You don’t have to worry about such an issue when using a muscle-building supplement containing beta-alanine. Therefore, your muscles can continue working a lot more efficiently and for a prolonged duration.
The recommended amount of beta-alanine you should use is two grams each day for a period of six weeks. You also should use the supplement right before your workout, and you’ll see its benefits after working your muscles. In addition, the use of 4 to 6 grams of beta-alanine each day is also considered safe. You shouldn’t exceed this amount because some people have reported getting a tingling feeling, a condition which is scientifically referred to as paresthesia.
