Weight Lifting Supplements – What You Should Know Before You Buy
Take a good look at some of the pictures you can find of body builders from decades past. Perhaps from back in the 1940s and 50s, and it’s plain to see that there was something lacking back then compared to the today’s bodybuilders. Is it better equipment today, or perhaps more knowledge and information? The answer to that question is a simple no. What we have today that they didn’t have back then are weight lifting supplements, and the granddaddy of them all is anabolic steroids. Now rather than going into all the side effects of steroids, I’ll just say “don’t do them”. If a shrinking penis and losing all your hair isn’t enough to scare the hell out of you then take a little time to read up on some of the more serious, and even life threatening side effects before you consider using any of them.
Weight Lifting Supplements
Multi-Vitamin Supplement – A multi-vitamin supplement is the cheapest and most sensible of the most common weight lifting supplements you can take. No it won’t make up entirely for a bad diet, but it can be your insurance that your body has all the vitamins it needs for its basic biological processes on those days when you don’t eat a well rounded diet.
Nitric Oxide – Don’t confuse nitric oxide with nitrous oxide. They’re two entirely different molecules. Nitric oxide works on several levels in your body but the one particular function that’s caused it to create the huge buzz that it has in the body building community, is as a blood vessel relaxer. Quite simply this weight lifting supplement works by allowing “more blood” to reach your muscles during and after workouts, so no it doesn’t actually build muscles. However, it does make for less tiring workouts and faster recovery periods. There are strict dosing guidelines though so understand them before you use it.
Creatine Monohydrate – Creatine Monohydrate is one of the weight lifting supplements that pro baseball player Mark McGuire used to bulk up and set a new home run world record some years back. The stuff works and it works good. The nice thing about it is that it’s produced naturally in your body, so it’s considered safe.
Arginine – Argenine is one of the building blocks of protein and it performs a whole host of physiological functions in your system, including building and maintaining muscle mass. Your body doesn’t produce arginine naturally, so it must be consumed as a food or in weight lifting supplements. Do be aware though that in supplemental form, just as with any other amino acid, overdose is always a consideration so make sure that you understand its dosing guidelines and side effects on your system before you start in using it. (stomach cramps fatigue & diarrhea)
Whey Protein – Whey protein powder is a great way to make sure that you get an adequate protein intake. It’s easily digested, gentle on your system and packs up to 20 grams of protein per scoop. It doesn’t taste bad either and is great for tossing into a blender when you’re whipping up fruit smoothies and protein shakes.
Caffeine – Now caffeine is by no means a muscle builder. Instead it’s used by a lot of athletes body builders to give them an extra “energy boost” during their games, and workouts. By the way, it’s also the safest of all the energy boosting weight lifting supplements you can find on the market. Take it in pill form if you like or it can be had from any number of natural sources, including the most popular of them all which is coffee. Check out green tea though. Ounce for ounce it packs a much higher concentration of caffeine, and is also far gentler on your stomach.
