| I am a 40 year old former high school and small college athlete (baseball/football). I have weight trained on and off for the last 20 years (started 165 lbs, now 210). Three years ago I began a regular workout routine and have been consistent ever since. At that time I said I would not use supplements. As I made good gains over the years I became hungry for more. I will summarize my choices of supplements and the results.
Workout routine - 5 days/wk, M-F, minimum three days rest between body part workouts, heavy once, light/high reps other, diet consists of about .75 g protein/lb body weight, low carbs, mod/low fat, occasional MLO Protein with milk, multi-vitamin mineral supplement 2xday.
L-Arginine - promotes the release of growth hormone, decrease proteolysis (protein catabolism). I felt like I had much more energy, even on minimal sleep due to extremely busy schedule.
Creatine Monohydrate - cycled creatine for a 2-3 month period once, noted significant strength gains, cycling creatine once more for a similar period, experiencing gains again, small cramping once each time in right calf muscle - dosage ~5g/day only before workout days.
Silymarin (milk thistle) - helps strengthen kidneys, I was concerned about affects on kidneys from both the L-arginine and creatine and began supplementing with silymarin daily - even when not cycling creatine, no problems noted.
L-Glutamine - desire to increase cell volume, fluid retention - 3g/day, definite increase in size/weight and strength.
HMB - just started, 3g/day only on training days, good results first day.
Bottom line:
- do your homework and educate yourself, be sensible and realistic
- supplement one at a time to determine effects
- eat a balanced diet, high in protein
- don't expect huge increases in a short amount of time , in my opinion, these are just cases where the subjects weren't training to their full potential to begin with!
- an increase in 1 rep max of 25 lbs/year is good, more is rare
- train heavy and hard!
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Wow, sounds like you have lifting down to an absolute science. I agree with having a good diet. Too many people believe that supplements are miracle drugs that will make you gain muscle, but the truth is that the maximum gains can only occur with a good diet free of junk foods and things such as beer and coffee. In my opinion, eating right is the most important part of a lifting program and anything else just helps give the body nutrients that it can't get in those amounts through normal eating habits such as creatine and glutamine.
I weighed only 155 freshman year in high school football. My bench was only 155 1 rep max. As a junior it went up to 270 and I weighed 195. Now as a senior, I weigh 220 and my one rep max is 300 pounds and I can squat 400 as my one rep max. These are significant gains made by a supplementation of creatine, glutamine, protein, and a healthy diet.
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