Foundation Supplementation by Mark-Anthony Bailey

You have been training consistently for over 18 months. Your diet and training program are on target. You have made great progress in your first year and a half of training but that progress is slowing down now, almost to a frustrating halt. You have changed your routine around and are even more detailed about your dietary intake, but that scale refuses to move up. It may be time to supplement your food intake with a few tried and true supplements. The athlete must be very careful nowadays when shopping for supplements. Not only must he/she be wary of false claims and crazy mark-ups on prices but also cross contamination that may lead to a positive result on a drug test. The road can be confusing and dangerous but here are a few pointers to get you and your wallet through safely.

What to buy?

First, stick with the basics. Too many young, under-trained, under-nourished athletes go straight for the pro-hormones. Leave these until much later or maybe even never at all. Two supplements that will help increase your strength, power and muscle size are Protein Powder and Creatine Monohydrate (in that order). Add in a good multi-vitamin/mineral tablet and these should cover all your bases.

Protein is the basic building material for muscle tissue and it is required in higher amounts in the diets of strength-training athletes. Studies have shown that strength athletes (that would be you) need anywhere from 0.8-2.0 g/lb per day. Using the lower end if you are 175lbs, you need 140 grams of protein per day and more as you increase your muscle mass. Considering that an average chicken breast has 24-30 grams of protein and a cup of milk has 8 grams, your food intake can easily fall short of your target amount and rob you of your progress. By adding a protein supplement to your diet you can easily start fully the holes that may have been left wide open by your diet. There are a few advantages to using a protein supplement over just increasing your protein intake via food. A protein shake is fast and convenient; it requires very little preparation and can be carried with you almost anywhere. Also, you know exactly how much protein you are taking in and you need not worry about unwanted calories. A protein shake will be digested faster than normal food which is important especially post-exercise when you want to get nutrients into your blood stream as quickly as possible. Drinking a protein shake post-workout and before bedtime can be open of the biggest difference makers to your strength progress.

There are various types of protein (whey, milk, egg, soy etc) and you can find out more about each by checking out our "Adding Mass" article here. My current favorite based on quality, easy of use and taste is Biotest GROW. You get 40 grams of a calcium caseinate, whey protein concentrate, milk protein isolate blend, which is high quality. It also gives you 24 grams of carbohydrates with only 3 grams coming from simple sugar. Surprising considering its great taste. If you are really watching your carbohydrate intake they also offer a low-carb version with only 3 grams of carbohydrates. As always, Biotest backs their products with a 100% money back guarantee, so you really cannot go wrong.

Creatine Monohydrate is probably the most popular supplement on the market and for good reason: it works. Numerous studies show that supplementing with creatine can cause an increase in muscle strength and power. This increase can allow the athlete (again that's you) to train at higher intensities. Training at these higher intensities leads to greater muscle gain. Plain and simple.

Now, understanding how creatine works is not so simple. Your body converts creatine into ATP (Adonesine Triphosphate), which the primary source of energy for the body during short (10-30 seconds), intense bouts of exercise. Unfortunately, the body takes around 3 minutes of rest to replenish ATP stores to about 80% of normal. This is the number one limiting factor in short, high intensity activities such as sprinting and weightlifting. Your body simply runs out of ATP and cannot make it fast enough to support your high intensity movement and thus the sprinter is forced to slow down or the weightlifter has to rack the weight and end his/her set early. Now, by supplementing your diet with creatine your base ATP stores will increase. With this elevated level, your body will be able to replenish your ATP stores faster, thus cutting your recovery periods down and getting more done in the same amount of time. This extra ATP will allow you to perform at the same high intensity for slightly longer times. This will translate into you being able to perform a extra 1-3 repetitions at a specific intensity. For example, if you normally bench press 225lbs for 8 repetitions, you may increase it to 225lbs for 10 reps while supplementing with creatine. This increase allows you push/pull more weight for more reps, which will in turn give you more strength, and more size. ALL GOOD STUFF.

The initial weight gain one gets when starting creatine is all due to additional water retention, water binds to the additional ATP molecules and is fundamental in the chemical reaction. But as you get stronger, your muscles are forced to grow to be able to handle the new weights/reps and this is the muscle gain you are looking for. To enhance creatine uptake it is recommended that it be taken with a carbohydrate such as dextrose or maltodextrin. These cause an insulin spike as a result of the elevated blood sugar levels and the insulin causes the muscle tissue to "open up" and lower blood sugar levels by absorbing the glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream. Since creatine will also be in the bloodstream, it too will be absorbed in greater amounts than usual.

Supplements are sold with this special formula such as MuscleTech's Cell-Tech but I would recommend a supplement from a relatively new company over the popular Cell-Tech. I "discovered" Nutrex's Vitargo-CGL while I was at the Southern States Bodybuilding Show. They were giving away packets of their Vitargo Creatine Glycogen Loader so me being the cheap bastard I am grabbed as many as I could and sent my friends to grab some also. Examining the label I expected to see a large amount of sugar as is usual of creatine/glycogen formulas, but to my surprise it stated that it contained 70 grams of carbs but ZERO sugar! They use a maize starch (corn) base to create the 70 grams of complex carbohydrates which in two flavors taste quite good. These quality calories not only help creatine absorption, but also help replenish glycogen stores depleted from intense workouts with high quality complex carbohydrates. Follow the proven 3-5 day loading scheme and you will see great results. Also be sure to increase your water intake by at least 60 oz while supplementing creatine monohydrate to ensure proper hydration.

By adding these two supplements to your already great diet, you can be assured that you will continue to progress in the gym and push through whatever previous plateaus you may have thought you had. I would recommend that you cycle creatine on 6 weeks off 4 weeks and time it so that it coincides with your strength/power cycle in your training program. Give them a try and let us know your experience at our forum.

Mark-Anthony Bailey is the Editor-in-Chief of MostMuscle.com. As an Exercise Physiologist and competitive natural bodybuilder, his goals have been to ensure that his clients get the latest information on training techniques, nutritional guidelines and lifestyle modifications needed to obtain optimal health. He can be contacted at: markanthony@mostmuscle.com