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I guess you Mean Mass here we go,.,,,.,,
Why you need it: ZMA is a patented mineral formula that is turning a lot of heads. Minerals you say ? Well, if that just turned you off, think again. The statistics show that the majority of athletes is deficient in both of the minerals contained in ZMA: magnesium and zinc. This has many reasons, often that there are other factors in the foods we eat that inhibit the minerals from being absorbed. Calcium for one, is a mineral that will block the uptake of zinc. And most zinc supps use a calcium filler. So now the idea was to bond it (a process called chelation) with an amino acid, in this case methionine and aspartate. This would facilitate absorption and aid the minerals in their intended function, which is improving recovery and raising natural hormonal levels. Testosterone was shown to increase overnight by almost 100 percent.
How it works: The methionine bonded to some of the zinc is consequently the stuff needed to shuttle zinc out of the blood and into the cells, creating a great absorption system immediately raising the efficacy. Methionine is also particularly effective in freeing and using more cholesterol, allotting the zinc enough raw material to produce more testosterone. Its also one of the three amino acids needed to make creatine. Magnesium is added because it increases the formation of both protein (and muscle synthesis) and fatty acids (needed to transport fat-soluble vitamins and to make cholesterol). It makes more blood cells, produces ATP and starts the Krebs cycle making it crucial to almost any athlete looking for peak performance. And on top of that it helps secrete insulin, controlling adipose storage, and acts as an enzyme in over 300 bodily actions. The last product is pyridoxine, or Vitamin B6, which decreases liver toxicity, enables fat absorption and maintains a positive electrolytic balance between potassium and sodium, and so enabling good contraction of the muscles and assuring good pumps from your workout.
How to use it: Tests have shown that night-time use is beneficial for many reasons. The first being that zinc tends to make your sleepy, and nodding off under a loaded barbell isn't the smartest thing in the world. It also helps improve the quality of sleep, a huge boost to recuperation you want to take advantage of. Plus its just plain more effective. You take a single dose of ZMA (30 mg zinc monomethionine, aspartate, 450 mg of magnesium aspartate and 10.5 mg of pyridoxine) roughly half an hour before bed on a relatively empty stomach and without the presence of calcium (so don't take it with milk) If like so many bulking bodybuilder you eat before bed, observe the same rules. Half an hour is plenty of time to absorb the zinc, after which you can have your last meal (half an hour later) and go to bed. Warning: never buy a product that contains ZMA and either calcium or NAC, which will either inhibit
Creatine
Why you need it: Creatine is an all-natural and perfectly safe compound that has the amazing ability to regenerate ATP stores in the body. ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) is the primary energy currency of the body and when short-term anaerobic energy is produced ATP splits into ADP (adenosine-diphosphate) and an extra phosphate ion. Creatine can recycle the ADP to ATP again, ensuring a short-term burst of energy that can increase your strength levels 10-20 percent easily. Creatine also has a strong water retention effects. Meaning that for every bit of creatine stored in a cell, a large amount of water is also stored. This gives you a temporary size increase but also draws more nutrients, like protein, in the cell, which can, long-term, lead to real muscle growth.
How it works: In the body the molecule of creatine monohydrate turns to creatine phosphate once absorbed in the blood. When absorbed in a cell, because of its structure , it can donate the extra phosphate ion to the ADP, thereby recycling it to ATP. As a sustained energy cycle this effect can give a serious boost to your anaerobic (not requiring oxygen, as in weight-lifting) strength levels. Because of the high storage and hydrophyllic properties, a lot of water is also absorbed, exerting a temporary gain in size and several anabolic traits in the absorption and facilitation of the other nutrients.
How to use it: This is possibly one of the most asked questions I ever got. Ok , first of all, ignore all the hyped-up brands. The benefit they offer is little compared to the increase in price. Plus a sugar-overdose will kill your figure, I assure you. No matter what they tell you, noone lost body-fat while on Cell-tech unless they were stacking it with Lasix. Instead get yourself a good micronized brand like Twinlab or any brand offering Creapure quality creatine monohydrate. Creapure is the brand offered by the leading manufacturer of creatine, SKW in Germany. For more info read my related articles on creatine at:
Why you need it: These have been around for a while now. Mostly because of their anabolic and anti-catabolic properties. These properties have been questioned a lot recently and this has lead to their decreasing popularity in favour of new, hyped and expensive products despite the fact that they have had incredible effects for a lot of people. So I wanted to correct matters first. Who would claim that BCAA's are not anti-catabolic, needs to look in to the physiology of leucin, the first of the BCAA's. It's a precursor to the metabolite HMB which has been proven to illicit anti-catabolic responses by avoiding the burning of muscle-tissue in catabolic states. By virtue of that alone, but also the strong synergistic effect between leucin and its metabolite, that makes BCAA's very anti-catabolic. As for anabolic, let me remind you that amino acids are what all tissue is made from. Anabolic meaning that it promotes growth, I would say that alone proves it is anabolic. Moreover people often believe in the anabolic properties of non-essential amino acids. Non-essential amino acids on a healthy high-protein bulking cycle will be just that, non-essential. They are not needed. First of all there are plenty, and if there weren't the body can make more of them from essential amino acids. Those two factors combined makes it highly unlikely that a non-essential will be absorbed at all. They basically bypass the system and get excreted. Yet still a lot of bulking bodybuilders prefer to take glutamine or arganine over essential amino acids. Essentials however are always absorbed and used, if not directly then to manufacture non-essentials or metabolites. Of all 9 essentials, BCAA's (valine, leucin, iso-leucin) are most directly involved in muscle-tissue formation. That makes them probably the best choice for extra amino acid supplementation. Branched Chain amino acids are definitely not your first choice for supplementation, but as a proven staple in bodybuilding they should be prioritized over some of the newer, more expensive crap out there.
How it works: Amino acids make up proteins. Dietary proteins are storage for amino acids, but not all proteins contain the right balance of amino acids that we need. And we can't be choosy about food when bulking. An imbalance of non-essentials can be overcome, but to get the right amount of essentials you need to gear intake towards it. So it makes sense to get extra of the most anabolic of them. Basically they work the same as the aforementioned amino acid formulas. BCAA's are just targeted more specifically to an athlete.
How to use it: BCAA's are best used around training time to really make them worth the money. If you train in short intense sessions it makes sense to get a 5-10 grams with your post-workout meal shortly after your session to promote recovery and muscle-formation. If you are the type that loves endless hours of lifting followed by long cardio-sessions, you may be better off getting 5-15 grams prior to your training to avoid catabolic circumstance and promote recovery from such activities. This is also a good idea for multi-sport athletes. It can't hurt to get them both before and after a workout, but you'll find that this will soon become a very expensive hobby. There are better ways to spend your money.
There is no designated dosage, the bigger you are the more you need. What you do need to watch is the balance between the amino acids leucin, iso-leucine and valine which should be as close to 2-1-2 as possible. I know from experience that not many companies have such a mix, so as close to it is the best advice I can give.
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" You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let slip
through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to teach found us will-
ing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in the desert."
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