Body building supplements are those substances, which aid in building muscle mass, in addition to assisting in faster recovery from damage caused to the muscle tissues (owing to the resistance training undertaken by bodybuilders). It is not that these body building supplements bring forth a chemical change in the body or that they boost the natural levels of hormones such as testosterone or any other growth hormones. Unless accompanied by the right kind of diet and an optimum workout routine, these body building supplements can hardly trigger any positive changes, let alone help in building muscle mass.
What role do body building supplements play?
When a person is performing regular workouts, then he needs to supply his body with loads of nutrients in order to meet his body’s increasing energy demands. The growing and repairing muscles are at a highly active metabolic state and consequently, require higher amounts of nutrients to allow repair, replenishment and growth of the muscle tissues. Therefore, during body building, you need to increase the intake of nutrients such as proteins and amino acids; carbohydrates; vitamins and minerals; essential fatty acids; and most importantly, water. Not only do the energy demands increase significantly, but the need for other supplements that are required for building muscle mass such as Creatine, anti-Cortisol, antioxidant supplements, protein supplements, etc, also get escalated.
Therefore, we need to supply these essential muscular growth supporting substances to the body through dietary supplementation because we can not supply sufficient quantities of these substances through food alone. These supplements are considered to be very important for body building and unless supplied in the required quantities, they can result in nutrient deficiencies, or hamper the repair and recovery of damaged muscle tissues.
Which are the essential bodybuilding supplements which aid in building muscle mass?
Some of the most important bodybuilding supplements are -
1. Protein supplements: Protein supplements having a high biological value (BV), (such as whey having a BV of 104, egg proteins having a BV of 100, milk proteins having a BV of 91) must be taken by body builders because these protein supplements greatly aid in building muscle mass.
2. Creatine: Although Creatine is inherently present in the human body, yet it must be taken immediately after a workout because Creatine intermittently supplies the muscle tissues with energy to fuel the workouts and to support anabolism. In addition, Creatine aids in faster recovery of the damaged muscle tissues and must therefore be taken immediately after a workout.
3. Natural Hormone Modifiers: It is also recommended to take body building supplements to boost the levels of testosterone and the other growth hormones in the body by taking the prescribed dose of natural hormone modifiers, which greatly aid in building muscle mass.
4. Anti-Cortisol: In order to prevent the onset of the catabolic breakdown of the muscle fibers, caused due to a workout, body builders must take anti-cortisol supplementation soon after a workout.
Apart from these essential bodybuilding supplements that aid in building muscle mass, there are several other supplements also such as – multivitamins, mineral formulas and antioxidants (such as polyphenols and resveratrol, essential fatty acids and Vitamin C and E), without which the desired body building results cannot be achieved.
Tags: bodybuilding, Building, essential, Mass, muscle, Supplements