I remember the very first time I walked into a supplement store, I was completely overwhelmed with all the different options. But luckily, I had a sales rep there right by my side to guide me 10 minutes later, and I was set with $400 worth of different supplements that I was promised would get me and I quote, absolutely jacked. A month later though, all I had to show for my investment was an empty wallet. Fast forward to now and I've learned through research that the vast majority of muscle building supplements out there do absolutely nothing or use and marketed totally out of context to take advantage of those who don't know any better. That being said, there are a handful of supplements that, when used properly, actually do live up to their claims and can help speed up results. In this video, I'll cover four such supplements and go through not only how they work, but also the results that you can expect from each of them just to give you some realistic expectations. protein powder is by far the most widely consumed supplement in the industry. Whey protein powder in particular has been shown to rank as the highest quality protein source when compared to several other protein sources, mainly because of its high leucine content, one of the main factors that determines the quality of a protein source, but this does not make it some magical muscle building supplement. Despite what your supplement store sales rep says protein powder does not seem to directly help you build muscle faster, consistently eating enough protein does. And you don't need protein powder to get there as Whole Foods alone can do this for you just fine. But for a few reasons, protein powder can help you do this more efficiently. First off, it's typically very low in fat and carbs and instead very high in protein content, which makes it very calorie and macro friendly, we'll compare it to various other protein sources. Second, it's convenient, it can be used in many different ways to both save you time and as more life into your diet instead of relying on the same boring protein sources every day. And lastly, it's actually quite affordable when viewed at a price per gram basis with the average cost of whey protein being comparable to that of chicken breast. And this all just makes it easier for you to consistently reach the optimal daily protein intake that otherwise can be a struggle to hit, which is exactly how protein powder can indirectly speed up your growth. In fact, a one man analysis showed that in subjects who were ingesting only round 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of their body weight per day, added in 50 grams of protein into their diet mainly through the use of protein powder experienced significantly faster gains and muscle size and strength. Another meta analysis found similar results indicating that protein supplementation is generally associated with about a 38% faster gain muscle and 33% greater increase in strength if you're currently not hitting the optimal protein today. So if you're currently having a hard time getting sufficient quality protein through whole food sources alone, than whey protein is definitely a good option to help you reap those extra gains that you're missing out on. Next is creative, which is probably the most well researched and science back supplement on the market. So creatine is a substance that's already naturally found in our bodies. And how it works is actually very simple. Whenever we lift weights, we use something called ATP, the main energy source of our muscles. As we lift we deplete these ATP stores to the point where we fatigue it can no longer perform any more reps or lift the weight up. And this is where creatine comes in. It improves our strength and muscle endurance by facilitating a faster regeneration of ATP and thus ultimately enabling master perform that extra rep or two or lift slightly more wager in our workouts. In fact, a meta analysis reviewing 22 creatine studies found that creatine supplementation provided a boost of roughly 8% greater strength and 14% greater gross perform when compared to no supplementation. Now, that doesn't sound like much of a boost. But these small gains do add up over time and have been shown to speed up the rate of muscle and strength gains as a result. But just be wary that there does seem to be quite a bit of variation with regards the response to creative with vegetarians, vegans and those who are just naturally low in creating levels experiencing the most benefit. And lastly, I just want to emphasize that creatine does not simply do the work for you the benefits that you get from supplementing with it only apply if you're actually pushing yourself harder in your workouts as a result. Next is caffeine. Another well researched and well known substance that can indirectly speed up our growth. Research has shown that caffeine ingestion prior to our workouts not only enhances our muscle contractions, but can also enable us to perform more reps by altering our pain thresholds and our perception of how hard we're working. As for how much of a benefit you can expect a recent meta analysis found little to none benefit of caffeine ingestion on strength or the amount of weight you're able to lift in an exercise, but did find quite a significant and consistent effect on muscular endurance and the number of reps you're able to perform. On average, caffeine ingestion enables subjects to perform around two to three more reps per set, leading to about a 10 to 20% boost in the total rest performed in their workout as a result, researchers speculate that these effects likely speed up growth over time due to the increased volume that subjects are able to achieve by ingesting caffeine prior to their workouts. However, the benefits that we see with caffeine supplementation seemed to favor lower body workouts more than upper body workouts, likely because they're just generally more strenuous and require more effort. And we also see a greater effect when it's used during early morning workouts, if you're not accustomed to doing them, as well as during workouts where you're sleep deprived from a poor night's sleep the night before. And one more consideration that you want to take into account is your habitual caffeine intake, because those who consume caffeine on a regular basis tend to see somewhat of a blunted response to its ergogenic effect. So what I'd recommend to avoid becoming overly dependent on the supplement and to avoid developing a caffeine tolerance to quickly is to preserve it's used for workouts where they'll reap the most benefit from it. So lower body workouts, early morning workouts or days where you just need that extra kick are typically going to provide the best opportunity for you to read the most benefit from caffeine. As for dosage, most studies found a beneficial effect only when using roughly three to six milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight, which can be delivered through a pre workout supplement coffee or caffeine supplement. However, do keep in mind that this range is quite high, especially if you aren't accustomed to taking caffeine. So what I'd recommend is start on the very low conservative and and just increase as needed. Now here to help us with the last supplement a beta alanine is internationally renowned fitness expert and researcher Dr. Brad Schoenfeld, who has done a considerable amount of work within the field of supplements in the fitness industry in general. So Brad, aside from the three other supplements that we've previously covered, there's actually one more that you'd also add to the list and it's beta alanine, would you mind just briefly explaining how exactly the supplement works?
Sure, beta alanine is an amino acid and it increases muscle levels of a substance called carnosine. And it actually increases carnosine, more than taking carnosine itself. carnosine is a hydrogen ion buffer. And hydrogen ions are acids in the body. And you feel that when you get a burn, when that burns starts to build up. When the hydrogen ions in turn, start building up, you're gonna it's gonna interfere with your ability to continue training. And the buffering effect of carnosine allows you to get additional reps
based on the research you've covered. How much of a benefit Can you average lifters to get in terms of actual performance benefits and additional gains from taking this,
I would say that from what we have, you get an extra couple of reps, it might enhance you to enhance your body and it is specific to higher rep training. So training with let's say, 10 reps and above, if you're doing let's say, a set of three reps, three RM, it's going to be primarily in your ATP system, your ATP phosphocreatine system. So it really isn't going to help you in that respect, you're not going to get much acidic buildup, and thus buffering doesn't really affect it. So when you're training with 10 reps, 15 reps, 20 reps, that's when you're going to see this benefit to buffering the acids and potentially allowing you to get an additional couple reps.
And then I guess those additional couple reps would just add up over time in terms of increased volume and then potentially increased muscle growth as a result, correct.
There's really not a lot of longitudinal work to look at it does that actually enhance your muscle building effect? But logically, that would be the case where if you're able to increase the volume load at a given loading range, then it would enhance your ability to build more muscle?
Lastly, how exactly does one go about safely taking a supplement to maximize its benefit?
It takes several weeks, usually three to four weeks before its full effects come into play. And the general consensus from the literature, it's about four to six grams a day, and you'd want to spread out the dosages. So it's generally less effective. If you're taking one lump sum of let's say you taking five grams at once. It's better to spread it out to less two or less grams per per serving. So let's say three servings of two grams spread out in the morning, afternoon and evening. The symptoms that you'd get are the side effects generally or a tingling sensation or some people kind of like that. But it can be, I think, kind of annoying and spreading out when you're taking it in larger dosages, the effects of the tingling sensation are magnified. So when you spreading out the dosage, you will reduce the tingling sensation.
So hopefully you're able to see that supplements are not magic, you still need to put in the work and even then they aren't extremely effective. But the little boosts that you do get from each of these supplements can add up to a meaningful difference over time, especially when you do combine them with the right training and nutrition program for step by step program that uses science to guide you week after week with your training, your nutrition, and even your supplementation so you can truly maximize your results. And simply head on over to built with science comm and take our analysis quiz to discover the best program for you and your specific body. And big thank you to Dr. Brad Schoenfeld for his oversight involvement on this video. I've left some links down below for you guys to check out his work, including his recently launched book that I've personally read through and would highly recommend as it goes through pretty much all of the applicable research out there regarding muscle growth. Anyways, that is it for today. Guys, I hope you enjoyed this one. Please don't forget to show your support by giving the blog a like leaving a comment down below as to what you'd like to see me cover next, subscribe to the blog and turn it on notifications for the blog as well as this hole really does help me out. Thank you so much.
