Many sports nutritionists believe that an athlete in training can obtain all the necessary nutrients by eating “three full meals a day.” They believe that weight lifting supplements are not important. Not so, others say; most notably, Dr. Michael Colgan of the Colgan Institute for Nutritional Sciences in La Jolla, Calif. Dr. Colgan states that there are factors and variables in modern life that may be preventing us all from getting vitamins. and minerals that we need for optimal health.
Crops are often grown in mineral-free soils.
During processing, storage and cooking, food can lose much of its value.
Insecticides are often used on the ground and sprayed on food.
Our air and water often contain pollutants
Given that sedentary people may not even be able to get the recommended amounts of vitamins and minerals from the foods they eat every day, how will strength-training athletes get the essential components to achieve their performance goals? Here are several reasons to use weight lifting supplements in conjunction with a healthy diet.
There is a large body of research showing that there is a shortage in the diets of athletes for many well-documented reasons.
There are many studies showing that many supplements improve performance and help support muscle gain by supplying specific nutrients in amounts not available from diet alone.
In recent years, weight lifting supplements have been designed that can push the body beyond normal biochemical functioning.
So if weightlifting supplements can help athletes gain muscle and improve performance, which ones should be taken and which brands are the best? It is beyond the scope of this article and a complete book would be needed to discuss all the different supplements and what your body needs. I can highly recommend Dr. Michael Colgan’s book “Optimum Sports Nutrition” for further research. At the time of writing his book, he had worked with many professional athletes and had been trying sports nutrition for almost 20 years.
With that said, here are a couple of things you can take to get started.
1. You can start by taking a good multivitamin and mineral supplement. As mentioned above, even if you are eating fresh fruits and vegetables, crops are often grown in soils with few minerals.
2. A protein supplement should almost certainly be part of your diet. A general guideline for the amount of protein a weight training athlete should consume in a day would be 1 gram for every two pounds of body weight. That’s a lot of protein that you get from food without eating a fat-laden diet.
3. Chromium picolinate is a very beneficial inexpensive supplement for weight training. Chromium won’t build it up overnight, but it will slowly and safely help you build more muscle by helping insulin metabolism get more amino acids into cells.
These three weight lifting supplements would be a good start. Pushing the weight is what builds muscle, but getting the proper nutrition is an important part of the process. If you are serious about lifting weights, I urge you to obtain a copy of Dr. Colgan’s book “Optimum Sports Nutrition.” The last time I looked it was available on amazon.com. A good source for supplements online is Global-Nutrition-Inc.com. They carry all the major brands at great prices.