Beginners gym supplement guide

Beginners Gym Supplement Guide: The word supplements have a great misconception. Some people even compare supplements to drugs. 

To maintain a healthy lifestyle, It is generally recommended to have certain proportions of macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients in a day through healthy foods.

But what if you fail to feed your body enough nutrients? The supplement exactly works here. The actual meaning of the supplement is ‘Alternative’.

If you’ve been to the gym or into fitness, you might have come across some supplements that promise to give magical results. This includes pre-workout supplements, Intra–workout supplements, test boosters, HGH boosters, nitric oxide supplements, fat burners, and the list goes on and on. 

The supplement companies cashing in BIG by simply tricking your mind with their advertisements. It is a scientifically proven fact that your simple belief in the effectiveness of a medicine or supplement can make it work. This effect is called the placebo effect. 

Beginners Gym Supplement Guide

These supplements seem to be worthy in the beginning. Well, it would probably take a while before you realize the simple truth that almost everything you see in the world of workout supplements is utterly worthless. Not all. But most.

There are some supplements that really help you in your healthy lifestyle. The aim of this article is to provide information and probably the beginners gym supplement guide. In this beginners gym supplement guide, you’ll get to know about 8 most popular supplements.

Beginners gym supplement guide

Most of the commonly heard supplements in the Indian gyms are covered in this Beginners gym supplement guide.

1. Protein Supplements

Protein is a macro-nutrient that is responsible for muscle growth and repair. Whey protein, casein protein, soy protein, egg protein, and plant protein are some of the protein supplements. It is not a drug. Protein supplements are just an alternative protein source.

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Now, a big question arises, “Are protein supplements mandatory?” If you cannot fulfill the daily protein requirement from your diet, you need to supplement with protein. Protein supplements are not mandatory but they are necessary.

2. Weight Gainers Or Mass Gainers

Weight gainers are actually fat gainers. Mass gainers or weight gainers are used to be popular as a “solution” for “hard gainers”. Most of the gainers are too high in sugar and other junk carbs. Carbs are everywhere. Instead of gainers, I recommend you to have whole foods to gain a healthy weight.

Gainers are for you if you are too thin if you can’t eat whole foods in 4-6 meals, if you are a pro athlete or if you are in the off-season. Else, invest in protein supplements.

3. BCAA’s

These are the essential amino acids, cannot produce by the body and have to get from food. Branched-chain amino acids(BCAA’s) are Leucine, Iso-leucine, and valine. 

The makeup about 35% of your muscle mass and must be present in the body for muscle growth and repair to occur.  BCAA’s are commonly used as Intra workout supplements (between workouts).

Companies claim that BCAA’s are helpful in fast recovery, immediately after muscle breakdown during workouts. But this isn’t the case. BCAA’s are not necessary if your pre-workout meal has a good amount of protein. 

You can have BCAA’s if you’re training in a fasted state, which is a state wherein you haven’t eaten in 3+ hours and your insulin levels are low.

4. Pre-Workout Supplement

The main ingredients of Pre-workout supplements are green tea extract and caffeine. 
Supplement companies use chemical names of every day compounds to mislead you into thinking the products have special ingredients.

For example, Epigallo–3–catechin–3–O–b–gallate is nothing but a green tea extract, and 1,3,7–trimethylxanthine is just caffeine. Advertisements on pre-workout supplements exaggerate that taking pre-workout supplements gives “highly explosive energy” and yes, they may help to some extent.

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You can simply have a black coffee 45-60 minutes before Workouts and can feel the same pump. Generally, these supplements are used if you have less or no time if you are an advanced lifter. Pre-workout supplements are not necessary.

5. Creatine

It is the most researched and safest supplement in the fitness industry. Creatine is naturally produced within the body. Creatine helps build muscle, improve strength, Reduce muscle damage, and soreness from exercise. Creatine has no side effects
However, people with kidney disease are not advised to supplement with creatine.

Creatine supplement has several variations such as creatine monohydrate, creatine micronized, creatine citrate, creatine ethyl ester, liquid creatine, creatine nitrate, buffered creatine, creatine hydrochloride. Among those, creatine monohydrate is the most studied and researched and more likely to retain water in muscles and helps you in bulk.

Creatine monohydrate is very cheap among supplements and beginners friendly.

6. Multi-Vitamins And Minerals

These are the micro-nutrients and are required in fewer amounts by the body. 
Vitamins and minerals also are involved in numerous reactions involved with exercise and physical activity, including energy, carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism, oxygen transfer and delivery, and tissue repair.

To maintain a healthy lifestyle vitamin and mineral supplements are necessary because one can not have a wide variety of foods to get the required vitamins and minerals. Apart from macro-nutrients, if you consume a wide variety of foods for micro-nutrients your daily calories will increase. Multivitamins are lifetime supplements. You can supplement with multivitamins till 65-70 years of your age. 

7. Fish Oil

Fish oil is a mixture of fatty acids, Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). These are known as “omega–3” fatty acids and are considered “essential” fatty acids, meaning they can’t be synthesized by the body. 

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There are two most popular types of Omega 3 fatty acids are there namely fish oil made from oily fishes and flaxseed oil made from seeds of plants. Researches have shown that essential fatty acids are very essential for the brain, heart, and skin. 

Fish oil supplement

Researches have also shown that consumption of essential fatty acids can increase muscle protein synthesis, Reduce muscle soreness, inflammation, Decrease blood pressure, depression, and negative effects of stress. You can have essential fatty acids through foods but in fewer amounts. Therefore, fish oil supplements are necessary and worth your money. 

8. Fat Burners

Many people incorrectly believe that a fat burner supplement can trigger massive fat loss. This simply isn’t true actually. Fat burners rely on caffeine and other stimulants to boost metabolism, but there are a few other ingredients that can help too. 

And mostly this supplement works on the placebo effect. If your training and diet are good enough, you definitely don’t need fat burning supplements. Lose fat without fat burners(click here)

The conclusion

These supplements seem to be worthy in the beginning. Well, it would probably take a while before you realize the simple truth that almost everything you see in the world of workout supplements is utterly worthless. Not all. But most.

However, supplements are not actually bad. You just require proper knowledge. There are no side effects for supplements unless and until if you over supplement. Supplements are costlier than your regular foods.

I hope this article (Beginners gym supplement guide) is helpful to you. share this article to your friends.

Any queries? Ask me on Instagram.

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Mujja Saikumar, founder of The Muscly Advisor is an Aeronautical engineering graduate formed an obsession with fitness and helping people to clear all the health and fitness-related doubts through Blogs, videos, and social media. Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

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