MODULE 5: MUSCLE BUILDING SUPPLEMENTS

LECTURE 1: Glutamine

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid found in the human body

it is not essential that means your body can manufacture its own. However,
one special fact about glutamine is that it is a conditional amino acid. Studies
have shown that in exceptional circumstances like when there are muscle
wounds or a patient has AIDS (which is a muscle wasting diseases),
glutamine can be helpful.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1975037

But if you simply are a muscle building bro and consume enough protein from
whey, meats, you don't need a separate glutamine supplement.

Some research points towards the fact that a glutamine supplement may be
helpful for vegans or even vegetarians, but I am would rather have you
supplement with whey protein which has enough glutamine in it.

Glutamine is abundantly found in animal foods like beef, eggs, poultry, fish
and even green leafy vegetables like spinach, cabbage.

Now I'll straight come to the point. Do you need to add glutamine to your diet
in the form of glutamine powders especially when you are trying to build
muscle?

My answer is No.

As always, if your protein intake is optimal, that is within the range it should
be, then you will get enough glutamine. Your whey protein has glutamine, the
meats that you eat has glutamine.

So extra glutamine supplementation does not aid in extra muscle building or

muscle recovery.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11822473

however, if you have digestive issues or something like a leaky gut syndrome,
studies have shown that glutamine can be beneficial.

As your gut and intestines love glutamine and absorb it like sponges.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22028151

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2642618/

LECTURE 2: BCAA's

Branched chain amino acids. Recall from the diploma in nutrition course,
which is the absolute fundamental of nutrition, we know that there are 20
amino acids, out of which 9 are essential.

Essential amino acids are amino acids that your body cannot manufacture on
its own and needs to be supplied through your diet.

Leucine, isoleucine and valine are three amino acids and are termed as
branched-chain amino acid.

Just like glutamine, they are abundantly found in whey protein, meats, eggs
and dairy.

So the question that demands attention is that is it worth spending your

money on BCAA's when you are already fulfilling your daily quota of protein
and perhaps having whey protein?

No!

There is no evidence that says that ingestion of a BCAA supplement is more

effective than food.

Please note, I would rather have you buy a good whey protein powder and
enjoy the taste in form of a smoothie which can act as one of your meals,
saving time spent in the kitchen and at the same time satisfying your sweet
cravings.

Buying BCAA's is not worth the extra cost, although few studies that show
that BCAA's are effective in building more muscle, had their subjects eat very
less protein otherwise. Not reliable!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9059905

Now, one question which can be addressed here is that: Is BCAA effective
during a fast?

Some of the experts I like recommend this. You see, when you do training
while fasted, there might be a chance of muscle breakdown and
supplementing with BCAA's before training can help prevent muscle
breakdown.

There are many benefits of fasted training. you enter into a fasted state at
least after 6 or even longer hours after you have eaten your last meal.

Usually, training first thing in the morning, can count as fasted training.
Studies have shown that fasted training has benefits. So only in that case,
you can opt for a BCAA supplement but always spend your money first on a
quality whey powder.

I personally haven't used BCAA's and when there are times, my last meal
was more than 6-8 hours before and I am entering the weights room, I simply
have 15-20g of whey powder in water, 15 minutes prior. That's it, the job is
done, money saved!

LECTURE 3: WEIGHT GAINERS

Weight gainers as the name suggests is to help people gain weight.

When someone talks about gaining weight, what they are really trying to say
is that they want to build muscle and not fat. no one wants to gain fat.

Now, I like to consider myself an expert in helping people build lean muscle
and lose fat at the same time. I talk about this a lot in many of courses
including lean and shred.

To gain muscle, you don't need a caloric surplus but calorie adequacy. This is
the topic for some other day, and coming back to the topic on hand, people
buy a weight gainer solely to add calories to their diet.

Let me start by saying this:

Most gainers that you find in the market are simply filled with dextrose/
maltodextrin which is simple sugars and can be outsourced cheaply.

At the same time, the quality of the protein in the gainers is low. Most use a
combination of soy casein protein. As we discussed in Module 2, I advised
against soy protein.

Combine that with sucrose ( not good for your health ), and other artificial
flavourings all you are getting is very cheap ingredients (mostly simple
sugars) combined together at high costs.

Check out this video, titles Fabulous Protein Smoothie, I am making this
monster shake for myself (its close to 1000 calories) and let me tell you every
calorie is a combination of superfoods combined providing you nearly all
nutrients your body require on a day , and most of the calories come from
whole foods, and when you make something of your own, with whole foods,
needless to say, the costs are less.

Save money, don't even think about buying gainers. You don't need too many
calories to gain muscle and whatever you need can come easily from whole
foods.

If you are someone, who eats a lot and still cannot gain weight, the problem
lies somewhere else, probably the food that you are eating is not getting
absorbed or digested properly. In that, look for lectures on fibre and probiotic
supplement that will be more beneficial for you, rather than simply giving your
body cheap calories which the body simply throws out.

LECTURE 4: ZMA

ZMA is simply a combination of zinc and magnesium the two most important
micronutrients when it comes to muscle building. and there is vitamin b6 as
well.

Contrary to popular belief, ZMA is not a testosterone booster. Although

studies have shown that, zinc does increase levels of testosterone.

research is clear on one thing: there is no difference that taking more zinc
than what is needed increases testosterone levels. Only if an adult is deficient
in zinc, can a zinc supplement like ZMA help. the same goes for magnesium.

Magnesium plays a role in over 300 biochemical reactions in the body, many
of which are directly related to muscle function and protein synthesis.

Zinc and magnesium deficiencies are very common throughout the world.

So the question here is this: should I supplement with ZMA to build muscle?

If you are having a multivitamin, then it is not required.

actually, the best way to get zinc and magnesium is through your food.

Foods like lamb, pumpkin seeds, beef, chickpeas, cashews are rich in Zinc.

Fish, nuts, seeds, whole grains, green leafy vegetables are rich in
magnesium.

But then I recommend, that most of us can benefit from a good multivitamin,
and besides eating a good diet, a multivitamin is a great insurance against
getting these two nutrients in the optimal amount.

Bottomline, you don't need ZMA.

If all this may sound overwhelming to you, don't you worry. In the next
lecture, I have created a summary of the top supplements one should take
when they are trying to build muscle, based on their budget and their diet.

LECTURE 5: Summary: muscle building supplements

Ok, let me quickly point out, that in this section I have not mentioned protein
powders and creatine, but they too are included in the list of bodybuilding
supplements.

So lets first list out all supplements that are required for muscle building:

Protein Powders

Creatine

Glutamine

BCAA's

Weight Gainers

ZMA

Let's start with vegetarians and vegans.

Most of you guys will be deficient in protein. Sure, many vegetarian foods rich
in protein like lentils, beans etc, and if you have eggs and dairy then with
proper planning and eating a variety, you can get enough protein.

However, as I mentioned earlier, protein powders add a huge convenience

factor. They are tasty and easy to blend it in a protein smoothie or can be
mixed in your oatmeal.

My number one supplement to build muscle is a good whey protein powder.

not soy, not casein, not hemp, but whey.

Unless you are a vegan, then you can opt for pea or hemp protein.

Supplement no #2 for muscle building:

A multivitamin. As we figured, magnesium, zinc is very important in protein

synthesis and aids in the muscle building process. Other vitamins and
minerals do play important role in acting as enzymes, cofactors. So definitely
a good multivitamin can go a long way in helping you build muscles.

The third supplement to go for is creatine. Scores of research support the

fact that creatine supplementation increases your strength helps in protein
synthesis and increase lean mass.