Yes

by Jeffrey Wright

Created on: November 01, 2010   Last Updated: November 02, 2010

Most people are concerned about their health and how they look.  To reach that goal many go to gyms or buy home workout machines or routines, but despite their best efforts many never see the results they want, expected or any results at all!  And the preverbal question of “why” rings out again and again and in that, the miss the answer.

Simply stated, the answer is nutrition.  We have such an abundance of good food as close as the local supermarket, but the majority utilizes only the junk foods.  The ones that utilize the better foods out there still only end up getting a small amount of what they need,  Supplements, both vitamin and otherwise are so very important if one hopes for success in reaching their goals.

First of all, vitamins are extremely important.  The focus of this article is gym nutrition but its still important to understand that if your body lacks the vitamins and minerals then you can have all the gym geared nutrition you want, but you still wont see results.  Without maintaining proper levels of vitamin and mineral intake your body will simply not function correctly, making it hard to lose fat and gain muscle.  So be sure to be taking a good vitamin supplement.    Look at the ingredients.  If it contains such things as copper, Iron and magnesium, and those three things are followed by the word “oxide”, move on.  They have as much nutritional value as a placebo.

With that said, if your going to the gym to gain muscle mass, your taking a good first step.   Its not the only step though.  Most people don’t realize what they’re actually doing  at the gym where their muscles are concerned.  Did you know that when you lift weights and work out, your actually causing damage to your muscles?  don’t worry, that’s a good thing, because when your muscles heal from that damage, they become just a little stronger.  In fact it’s the act of causing small level damage to muscles and the healing they go through thereafter is how body builders gain those bulging muscles they have!

Did you know that muscles use protein to  heal?  In fact muscles are made up with a number of different kinds of proteins.  The problem is that protein is not naturally occurring in the body.  In other words, unlike red blood cells that are created in the body from other things the body produces, protein only comes from outside sources, such as meat, eggs and fish.  The problem with this is that most people don’t eat enough of these protein sources.  When one want to gain muscle, they need to adjust their protein intake accordingly.  A person who is working out and doing so moderately should be getting somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 to 140 grams of protein if you’re a male and 80 to 100 grams of protein if you’re a female.  This gives your body the  material it needs to recover faster then it would normally.  It should be mentioned that it is recommended that you eat or drink whatever your using for a protein supplement within 15 minutes to a hour after your workout so that you get the most benefit.

Going to the gym is a great way to get your body in the shape you want it.  Using supplements to help things along is a fantastic way to help things along.

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