Just like high-performance race cars rely on premium grades of fuel and the finest equipment to run the fastest and most efficiently, the same way your bodily mechanisms cannot perform at their peak without the proper nutrients and supplements. Fuel your strength-and-muscle-building efforts with clean and quality foods combined with the right pre workout products to maximize your performance and, consequently, your gains. Do not stuff your inside with sugary and greasy foods that will only add to your waistline rather than your bench press.
After all, you know what they say – you are what you eat. Especially in bodybuilding. So, what’s it going to be – the junk food you’ve been craving for an hour, or the body you’ve been craving your whole lifetime? It’s up to you, play it smart. The basic principles in bodybuilding nutrition are as they follow:
- eat 5-6 small meals a day every few hours
- consume carbohydrates to fuel your energy levels
- eat lean protein sources to build and repair muscle
- a limited amount of dietary fats which are important for hormone production and provide energy.
Since the body responds quickly when undertaking a bodybuilding program, it is essential that you provide it with raw materials to help ensure an anabolic state. Obviously, protein and fast-digesting sugar to spike your insulin levels should be on top of your list. In addition, we present you a few other pre workout products you should consider.
Creatine
Creatine is a supplement derived from meat sources which is quite popular among fitness enthusiasts due to its amazing properties and the various benefits it offers. The two most notorious ones? Increasing protein synthesis by pushing water into muscle cells (which is a signal for anabolism), as well as increasing the phosphocreatine stores in the muscle tissue (used to make more energy for longer and more intense workouts).
Whey Protein
Whey is the protein that is separated from the curd during the production of cheese, which with processes such as cross-flow microfiltration, has become maximally purified. Whey is absorbed rather fast and it provides a steady stream of amino acids which quickly enter the bloodstream. This consequently leads to gains in strength and lean mass, body fat reductions, as well as an increased growth of hormone release.
Caffeine
Being a great stimulant which helps mobilize fat cells into the bloodstream, caffeine is known to increase the intensity of workouts as well as the muscle strength when taken before working out. Besides that, research has shown that caffeine can reduce the post-workout muscle soreness by 50%.