Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Do you really need supplements for muscle building?

By Jon Cardozo

Are you counting on weightlifting supplements to make up for a poor diet or inadequate training? You would do better to save your money and focus on the fundamentals instead of looking for a shortcut. So many people have found out the hard way that taking muscle building supplements (or weightlifting supplements) is not a shortcut to gaining lean muscle mass.

Even protein powders, which are relatively helpful supplements, are not absolutely necessary. While they're helpful when it's difficult to consume adequate calories or protein, a bunch of powder with artificial ingredients thrown in is not a substitute for a solid, healthy meal plan.

The other day I went to a used bookstore, and as I got thirsty I decided to go next door and buy a bottle of water. It turns out that the store was a supplement store that focused on products for building muscle. On the shelves were protein bars and big tubs of powder with pictures of impressive body builders and flashy headlines. I spent $1.50 on the bottled water (hey, I was thirsty, right?) and started to think about how much money is thrown away on bodybuilding supplements.

I once heard a well known trainer explain that supplements are mostly useless for building muscle.

Vince Delmonte tells us that adding supplements to our muscle building program may only give us a 10% boost, and this number assumes that we have already maximized our strength training and nutrition. He says that in most cases supplements will only give us a 1 or 2% difference, which is probably not enough to make you notice!

If you simply focus on mastering the basics, you'll make more progress and save yourself some money in the process.

The bottom line is that everyone can achieve massive muscle growth by adhering to the basic principles of progressive resistance training and increasing caloric intake. In other words, lift more, and eat more. Repeat until you achieve the desired results. You don't need to consider questionable steroid alternatives, or even more reliable substances such as creatine, until you have practiced basic principles and achieved as much success as you can.

The truth is that building muscle, like many things in life, is actually fairly straightforward. It requires effort, but the fundamental principles are not that complex. What is needed is a self discipline and persistence, which requires much more effort (and is much more rewarding) than popping a few pills or drinking some special powder. Only when you've mastered the basics and truly disciplined yourself should you even consider adding supplements.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment