Sports nutrition – when should men consume it?

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2012-10-25

This article is for men. If you are a woman, then you should read this article)). Almost every day I am asked: "Do I need to consume sports nutrition?" And so I decided to write this article to avoid repeating myself every time. I will outline the situations in which it makes sense to use it and discuss what sports nutrition is best to take.

1. You can’t recover after workouts

For these purposes, there are gainers, amino acids (including BCAAs), and creatine. Gainers restore overall body performance and glycogen levels in the muscles. Amino acids restore muscle structure, while creatine replenishes the stores of creatine phosphate in the muscles.

Creatine phosphate in the muscles is used to restore adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is synthesized in the mitochondria and serves as the "fuel" for muscular effort. However, during this very effort, it breaks down into ADP. I seem to have gotten carried away...))

So, if you are unable to recover, you can take all three of these supplements at once. They complement each other very well. But in terms of importance for recovery, I would prioritize gainers first, then amino acids, followed by creatine.

2. Muscle mass isn’t increasing

For this, we have gainers and protein to help us. In brief, here’s the difference between the two. A gainer is a mixture that consists mostly of carbohydrates (60% - 90%) and to a lesser extent of proteins (10% - 40%). In protein, it’s the opposite, with a higher protein content.

So, if you are skinny and want to gain weight, a gainer will be perfect for you. With it, you will gain both muscle and fat, which is, in principle, neither scary nor unusual.

If, however, you are satisfied with your weight but want to improve the quality of your mass, it’s better to take protein. It leads to a somewhat slower weight gain as it primarily increases your muscle mass.

In fact, I am simplifying things a bit to help you better understand the essence and differences. For more details, see the article "Protein or Gainer – Which is Better for Gaining Mass."

3. You want to lose weight but are struggling

You’re probably thinking that I'm going to start recommending fat burners? No, they are of little use (I’ll need to create a separate article on this). In this situation, the same protein can help! But in a different role.

Typically, protein serves as a supplement to regular food. But in this case, you should replace part of your meals with protein. For example, instead of breakfast or dinner. This way, you will reduce your overall daily caloric intake while increasing your protein ratio. This will help preserve your muscles, which is very important when losing weight. Because, as you know, when you lose weight, you lose both fat and muscle mass. More details can be found in the article "How to Eat to Lose Weight and Preserve Muscle."

4. You want to become even stronger

Here, either amino acids (including BCAAs) or creatine from sports nutrition will help. I mentioned them earlier. Amino acids indirectly affect your strength (by restoring their structure). Creatine works similarly, as it allows you to perform more sets and reps with heavier weights, which means you can become even stronger. More details can be found in the article "Does Creatine Provide Strength?".

Keep in mind that all the situations mentioned above assume that you have been training for a while. This suggests that you should not load up on sports nutrition from the very first days. Train for a couple of months without it first, and then you will better understand what you specifically need.

At the end of the article, I will list some good samples of sports nutrition, in my opinion. This is certainly not a complete list of good nutrition, and I don't claim to have the ultimate truth. But, for those interested – take a look.

Proteins:

• Whey Protein from Dobromil Fit (74% protein and 6% carbohydrates)
• Syntrax: Whey Shake (77% protein and 5% carbohydrates)
• Syntrax Matrix 76% protein and 10% carbohydrates

Gainers:

• Mass Gainer from Dobromil Fit - 38% protein and 51% carbohydrates
• Pro Gainer - 34% protein and 55% carbohydrates
• Nutrabolics: IsoGainer 33% protein and 49% carbohydrates
• Universal Real Gains - 32% protein and 56% carbohydrates
• Nutrabolics: IsoGainer - 33.5% protein and 49% carbohydrates

Amino Acids:

• Dymatize Super Amino 6000
• Scitec Nutrition: Amino 5600
• Hardlabz Aminoz

Creatine:

• Creatine from Dobromil Fit
• BioTech: Creatine Monohydrate
• Dymatize: Creatine Micronized

That’s all I wanted to say in this article. If you liked it, please subscribe for new articles and share it with your friends. Good luck!