Health and Fitness

Going down the Gym and training hard is probably the easy part of trying to build muscle and strength, in order to successfully see results you need the correct Nutrion.

What Nutrition do you need?

You need to increase your protein intake this can be done be increasing the amount of protein rich food you eat, egg whites for example are an excellent source of protein. Egg Yolks however contain quite a bit of fat and egg whites on their own tast Yuk, a protein supplement can help deliver the muscle building material your body needs without the belly building lard.

You may want to look at more sports specific nutrition such as supplements for wrestling.

Creatine is another good muscle builder a natural ingredient found in foods mainly from animal origin. Red meat like beef, veal and mutton are rich sources of creatine. Creatine has been much discussed in recent years. The bodybuilders and weightlifting champions are using this element with a good result so I believe are many football clubs including the England National side at one point.

Before buying for this product, you should consult your doctor who will be able to tell you about all the health benefits you will derive from creatine.

But here are some of the benefits of creatine for your ready reference –

• In our body, a substance called ATP (Adenosine TriPhosphate) helps to transfer energy from food to our muscles. Creatine is required in the process to produce ATP.
• Glycogen stored in our muscles releases energy during vigorous exercises. Creatine helps in breaking down process of glycogen.
• As creatine is available only in the foods of animal origin, the vegetarian people lack this element. By taking creatine supplements, they can replenish the need of their body.
• Cardiovascular activities are closely related to creatine. It helps in the blood supply in the vital organs. During any vigorous exercise program, the vital organs like heart, brain, liver and kidney need extra amount of blood to work properly. Creatine helps them to overcome the workload.
• It also helps in the fat burning process. Our stored body fat is essential to provide extra energy. Creatine helps in the fat braking pathway.

Protein and nutrition supplements will definitely help you to gain optimum benefit from exercise. For more information on which nutritional supplements you need see this nutritional supplements 101.

Creatine side effects

Creatine is a molecule, naturally present in our foods of animal origin. It facilitates in various bodily enzymatic processes. The major action of creatine is to help generating ATP. ATP is the prime factor to transfer energy in any bodily function. It also helps to build muscle mass.

As creatine is found only in the foods of animal origin (red meat, veal, mutton), vegetarian people usually lack the element if they opt for a stringent exercise schedule to build muscle. Creatine supplements are suitable for everybody but vegetarians may find them particularly beneficial.

In random double-blind control studies, no severe side effect of creatine has been noticed by the experts. However creatine side effects include muscle cramping, the usually wanted side effect of increased weight as creatine helps in water retention from the kidney. You may appear flabby due to increased water in your body. As the muscles also store a huge amount of water (almost 50% of the total body water), it may feel softer to touch. But with regular exercise, the water retention decreases and your muscles feel normal as ever. Some experts link creatine to formation of kidney stones. But it can not be ascertained due to lack of enough evidence. We have a misconception that creatine is an addictive product like anabolic steroids (nandrolone, testosterone). These all are baseless. The chemical property of creatine does not match with steroids. In fact it is a precursor of proteins.