When preparing for a bodybuilding contest, a competitor primarily focuses on resistance training, nutrition supplements to gain muscle fast,
and cardiovascular training; however, supplements may be used to
further augment preparation. This section will discuss the scientific
evidence behind several of the most commonly used supplements by
bodybuilders.
However,
natural bodybuilding federations have extensive banned substance lists
therefore; banned substances will be omitted from this discussion. It
should be noted that there are considerably more supplements that are
used by bodybuilders and sold on the market. However, an exhaustive
review of all of the supplements commonly used by bodybuilders that
often lack supporting data is beyond the scope of this article.
In addition, we have omitted discussion of protein supplements and supplement pills to gain muscle because
they are predominantly used in the same way that whole food protein
sources are used to reach macronutrient targets; however, interested
readers are encouraged to reference the ISSN position stand on protein
and exercise.
What are the benefits of Creatine Supplement?
Creatine is magical supplement in athletes. The most famous and magical form of creatine is creatine monohydrate. Creatine
monohydrate (CM) has been called the most ergogenic and safe supplement
that is legally available. Creatine supplementation of healthy adults
has not resulted in any reported adverse effects or changes in liver or
kidney function. Numerous studies have found significantly increased
muscle size and strength when CM was added to a strength training
program.
Dosage of Creatine Powder?
In
many of these studies, 1-2 kg increases in total body mass were
observed after CM loading of 20 g/day for 4–28 days. However, the
loading phase may not be necessary.
Loading
20 g CM per day has been shown to increase muscle total creatine by
approximately 20 percent and this level of muscle creatine was
maintained with 2 g CM daily for 30 days.
However,
the same study also observed a 20 percent increase in muscle creatine
when 3 g CM was supplemented daily for 28 days, indicating the loading
phase may not be necessary to increase muscle creatine concentrations.
Recently,
alternative forms of creatine, such as creatine ethyl ester (CEE) and
Kre Alkalyn (KA) have been marketed as superior forms of creatine to CM;
however, as of this time these claims have not been supported by
scientific studies.
In
some study that a greater portion of CEE and KA are degraded in the
stomach than CM. Additionally, recent investigations have shown that
28–42 days of CEE or KA supplementation did not increase muscle creatine
concentrations more than CM.Thus, it appears that CM may be the most effective form of creatine.
Before Or After Workout?
In
February 24, 2015 study found that “Participants who consumed creatine
immediately following resistance training sessions experienced a greater
increase in lean tissue mass than participants who engaged in
resistance training alone (placebo).
The
greater muscle benefits from post-exercise creatine supplementation may
be due to an increase in skeletal muscle blood flow during resistance
training, which would result in greater creatine transport and
accumulation in exercising muscles. Pre-exercise creatine
supplementation had no significant effect on lean tissue mass compared
with placebo[Darren G. Candow,et.al.]
Change
(post-training mean – pre-training mean) in lean tissue mass for
creatine before (CR-B), creatine after (CR-A), and placebo (PLA) groups.
In
conclusion, creatine supplementation increased lean tissue mass and
muscle strength in aging adults. Consuming creatine before and after
resistance training sessions produces similar results; however,
ingesting creatine immediately following resistance training augments
muscle accretion compared with resistance training alone.
What are the benefits of beta alanine?
Beta-alanine
(BA) is becoming an increasingly popular supplement among bodybuilders.
Once consumed, BA enters the circulation and is up-taken by skeletal
muscle where it is used to synthesize carnosine, a pH buffer in muscle
that is particularly important during anaerobic exercise such as
sprinting or weightlifting.
Beta
alanine is a non-essential amino acid, which means that your body makes
it so it is not essential that you get it from other sources. However,
it is beneficial for many to get more beta alanine in your system from
other sources.
Some
protein food sources contain beta alanine. These sources include fish,
pork, beef, turkey, and chicken. Most of these sources also contain
other amino acids.
Dosage of Beta-alanine?
Indeed,
consumption of 6.4 g BA daily for four weeks has been shown to increase
muscle carnosine levels by 64.2%. Moreover, supplementation with BA for
4–10 weeks has been shown improve workload and time to fatigue during
high intensity cardio, improve muscle resistance to fatigue during
strength training, increase lean mass by approximately 1 kg and
significantly reduce perceptions of fatigue.
Additionally,
the combination of BA and CM may increase performance of high intensity
endurance exercise and has been shown to increase lean mass and
decrease body fat percentage more than CM alone.
“Combining
beta-alanine with other single or multi-ingredient supplements may be
advantageous when supplementation of beta-alanine is high enough (4-6 g
daily) and long enough (minimum 4 weeks)” [Trexler ET, Smith-Ryan AE,et.al.]
Although
BA appears to improve exercise performance, the long-term safety of BA
has only been partially explored. Currently, the only known side effect
of BA is unpleasant symptoms of parasthesia reported after consumption
of large dosages; however, this can be minimized through consumption of
smaller dosages throughout the day. While BA appears to be relatively
safe in the short-term, the long-term safety is unknown.
In
cats, an addition of 5 percent BA to drinking water for 20 weeks has
been shown to deplete taurine and result in damage to the brain;
however, taurine is an essential amino acid for cats but not for humans
and it is unknown if the smaller dosages consumed by humans could result
in similar effects.
BA
may increase exercise performance and increase lean mass in
bodybuilders and currently appears to be safe; however, studies are
needed to determine the long-term safety of BA consumption.
3]HMB
Beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate
(HMB) is a metabolite of the amino acid leucine that has been shown to
decrease muscle protein catabolism and increase muscle protein synthesis
[Smith HJ, Mukerji P].
Beta Hydroxybutyrate Benefits
|
The
safety of HMB supplementation has been widely studied and no adverse
effects on liver enzymes, kidney function, cholesterol, white blood
cells, hemoglobin, or blood glucose have been observed. Furthermore, two
meta-analyses on HMB supplementation have concluded that HMB is safe
and does not result in any major side effects [Rathmacher JA,et.al].
HMB
may actually decrease blood pressure, total and LDL cholesterol,
especially in hypercholesterolemic individuals.HMB is particularly
effective in catabolic populations such as the elderly and patients with
chronic disease. However, studies on the effectiveness of HMB in
trained, non-calorically restricted populations have been mixed.
Reasons
for discrepancies in the results of HMB supplementation studies in
healthy populations may be due to many factors including clustering of
data in these meta-analysis to include many studies from similar groups,
poorly designed, non-periodized training protocols, small sample sizes,
and lack of specificity between training and testing conditions [Wilson GJ,et.al].
However,
as a whole HMB appears to be effective in a majority of studies with
longer-duration, more intense, periodized training protocols and may be
beneficial to bodybuilders, particularly during planned over-reaching
phases of training.
While
the authors hypothesize that HMB may be effective in periods of
increased catabolism, such as during contest preparation, the efficacy
of HMB on maintenance of lean mass in dieting athletes has not been
investigated in a long-term study.
4]Branched chain amino acids
Branched
chain amino acids (BCAA’s) make up 14-18% of amino acids in skeletal
muscle proteins and are quite possibly the most widely used supplements
among natural bodybuilders. Of the BCAA’s, leucine is of particular
interest because it has been shown to stimulate protein synthesis to an
equal extent as a mixture of all amino acids. However, ingestion of
leucine alone.
Numerous
acute studies in animals and humans have shown that consumption of
either essential amino acids, BCAA’s, or leucine either at rest or
following exercise increases skeletal muscle protein synthesis,
decreases muscle protein degradation, or both; however, there are few
long-term studies of BCAA supplementation in resistance-trained
athletes.
In march 2011,
study
found that BCAA supplementation increases resistance to fatigue and
enhances lipid oxidation during exercise in glycogen-depleted subjects.
Stoppani
et al. supplemented trained subjects with 14 g BCAAs, whey protein, or a
carbohydrate placebo for eight weeks during a periodized strength
training routine. After training the BCAA group had a 4 kg increase in
lean mass, 2% decrease in body fat percentage, and 6 kg increase in
bench press 10 repetition maximum. All changes were significant compared
to the other groups.
The
use of BCAA’s between meals may also be beneficial to keep protein
synthesis elevated. Recent data from animal models suggest that
consumption of BCAA’s between meals can overcome the refractory response
in protein synthesis that occurs when plasma amino acids are elevated,
yet protein synthesis is reduced.
Before Or After Workout?
Gualano AB et
al. the effects of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplementation
taken before or after exercise on delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
and exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD).
Fifteen
young men (aged 21.5 ± 0.4 years) were given either BCAA (9.6 g per
day) or placebo before and after exercise (and for 3 days prior to and
following the exercise day) in three independent groups: the Control
group (placebo before and after exercise), the PRE group (BCAA before
exercise and placebo after exercise), and the POST group (placebo before
exercise and BCAA after exercise).
Participants
performed 30 repetitions of eccentric exercise with the non-dominant
arm. DOMS, upper arm circumference (CIR), elbow range of motion (ROM),
serum creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and aldolase,
BCAA, and Beta-hydroxy-Beta-methylbutyrate (3HMB) were measured
immediately before and after the exercise and on the following 4 days.
In
conclusion this study confirmed that repeated BCAA supplementation
before exercise had a more beneficial effect in attenuating DOMS and
EIMD induced by eccentric exercise than repeated supplementation after
exercise. [Ra SG,et.al.]
5]L Arginine
L-arginine
is a chemical building block called "an amino acid." It is obtained
from the diet and is necessary for the body to make proteins. L-arginine
is found in red meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products. The best form of l arginine is made in a laboratory and used as medicine.
Benefits of Arginine
“NO
supplements” containing arginine are consumed by bodybuilders
pre-workout in an attempt to increase blood flow to the muscle during
exercise, increase protein synthesis, and improve exercise performance.
However,
there is little scientific evidence to back these claims. Fahs et al.
supplemented healthy young men with 7 g arginine or a placebo prior to
exercise and observed no significant change in blood flow following
exercise.
Additionally,
supplemented either 10 g arginine or a placebo prior to exercise and
found no significant increase in blood flow or protein synthesis
following exercise.
Moreover,
arginine is a non-essential amino acid and prior work has established
that essential amino acids alone stimulate protein synthesis. Based on
these findings, it appears that arginine does not significantly increase
blood flow or enhance protein synthesis following exercise.
The
effects of arginine supplementation on performance are controversial.
Approximately one-half of acute and chronic studies on arginine and
exercise performance have found significant benefits with arginine
supplementation, while the other one-half has found no significant
benefits.
Moreover,
Greer et al. found that arginine supplementation significantly reduced
muscular endurance by 2–4 repetitions on chin up and push up endurance
tests. Based on these results, the authors of a recent review concluded
that arginine supplementation had little impact on exercise performance
in healthy individuals.
Although
the effects of arginine on blood flow, protein synthesis, and exercise
performance require further investigation, dosages commonly consumed by
athletes are well below the observed safe level of 20 g/d and do not
appear to be harmful.
6]Citrulline malate
Citrulline
malate (CitM) has recently become a popular supplement among
bodybuilders; however, there has been little scientific research in
healthy humans with this compound.
CitM is hypothesized to improve performance through three mechanisms:
1) citrulline is important part of the urea cycle and may participate in ammonia clearance,
2) malate is a tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediate that may reduce lactic acid accumulation, and
3)
citrulline can be converted to arginine; however, as discussed
previously, arginine does not appear to have an ergogenic effect in
young healthy athletes so it is unlikely CitM exerts an ergogenic effect
through this mechanism
Benefits of Citrulline malate
Supplementation
with CitM for 15 days has been shown to increase ATP production by 34%
during exercise, increase the rate of phosphocreatine recovery after
exercise by 20%, and reduce perceptions of fatigue.
Moreover,
ingestion of 8 g CitM prior to a chest workout significantly increased
repetitions performed by approximately 53% and decreased soreness by 40%
at 24 and 48 hours post-workout.
Furthermore,
in an abstract reported a 4 kg increase in lean mass, 2 kg decrease in
body fat percentage, and a 6 kg increase in 10 repetition maximum bench
press after consumption of a drink containing 14 g BCAA, glutamine, and
CitM during workouts for eight weeks; although, it is not clear to what
degree CitM contributed to the outcomes observed. However, not all
studies have supported ergogenic effects of CitM.
Sureda
et al. found no significant difference in race time when either 6 g
CitM or a placebo were consumed prior to a 137 km cycling stage.
Hickner
et al. found that treadmill time to exhaustion was significantly
impaired, with the time taken to reach exhaustion occurring on average
seven seconds earlier following CitM consumption.
Additionally,
the long-term safety of CitM is unknown. Therefore, based on the
current literature a decision on the efficacy of CitM cannot be made.
Future studies are needed to conclusively determine if CitM is ergogenic
and to determine its long term safety.
Reference
Strategic creatine supplementation and resistance training in healthy older adults
Darren G. Candow, Emelie Vogt, Sarah Johannsmeyer,Scott C. Forbes, Jonathan P. Farthing Faculty of Kinesiology & Health Studies, University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, Canada.bHuman Kinetics, Okanagan College, Penticton, BC V2A 8E1, Canada.cCollege of Kinesiology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5B2, Canada.
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