Supplementation for Optimal Gains in Muscle Mass

In order to get the best results from your workouts, it is a fact that you must make available to your body all the necessary vitamins and minerals in addition to enough of the major components of the diet i.e. protein, carbohydrate and fats and oils (lipids).

The proteins, carbohydrates and lipids are the ‘macro-nutrients’ of the diet since they are consumed in much larger amounts compared to the ‘micro-nutrients’ which are the vitamins, minerals and other biological substances consumed in much smaller amounts in the diet than are the ‘macro-nutrients’, but are found in varying amounts accompanying the macro-nutrients in food.

It is true that most of the micro-nutrients are already present in the foods that make up the macro-nutrients,
but hard-training bodybuilders have been shown to require much more than food can provide in terms of the micro-nutrients which are often lost out of foods through cooking.

In addition, the stresses of training the body uses up a large amount of the micro-nutrients in growth and repair of body tissues, and extra levels are required at amounts that could not be acquired by food alone, and so are taken via a few pills from a health-food store in the morning, evening, and with meals.

The main question is what to take and when during the day. A good time in the day to take a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement is along with the first meal of the day and this meal SHOULD be breakfast. If you are inclined to skip breakfast then you really are working against yourself in terms of any lean muscle mass gains that you would otherwise make if you had a good breakfast every day.

After you have been asleep for a number of hours, then when you awake your blood sugar level is low, and the body is at the point where it has to start accessing materials to raise blood sugar and this ALSO means that your muscles can be accessed to raise blood sugar i.e. the muscles are being broken down (catabolised) in such a situation which is the exact opposite to what we want which is building muscles (anabolism) i.e. BODYBUILDING!

Therefore, as you can see, a good breakfast is a very important meal, and along with milk to drink, an egg-white omelette with a couple of yolks only (using about eight or ten egg-whites is a good basis for a great breakfast; for instance, you can add complex carbohydrates by having some boiled rice with your omelette, and indeed, complex carbs are another important part of breakfast and boost blood sugar levels steadily as they are digested).

No making the excuse that a good breakfast takes too long to make, because it doesn’t!

Some people may not have much of an appetite at first, but as long as you eat something good for breakfast (even if it’s only a banana), then don’t worry, because your appetite can be your guide, and will probably increase along with gains from your training.

Why the appetite increase? Because your body has more muscle tissue to nourish as your training progresses.Many people may benefit greatly from extra vitamin B-complex supplementation, and also extra vitamin C. The B-complex vitamins and vitamin C are water soluble vitamins and so are not stored to any great extent within the body, but are used up quickly in general tissue metabolism and VERY much so when your muscles are growing !!!

Therefore, it would be a good idea to try supplementing with extra B-complex and C vitamins in the morning and before sleep, and perhaps before your workout that day. When using high levels of vitamins such as this, remember to take in extra amounts of water / fluids which may come from just drinking water (recommend bottled water) or water used in making brand-name carbohydrate sports drinks and for mixing your creatine with.

Consuming a couple of litres of fluid each day may be enough for some, not enough for others. Optimum hydration is required to flush out waste products from the body tissues that lower levels of fluid intake could not accomplish.

Until next time, train hard and be strong !!!

By Dr. Marshall Brown,
Contributing Author For Mick Hart Training Systems
Dr. Marshall Brown. B.Sc.(Hons). Ph.D.

Bananas And Bodybuilding