Bodybuilding Tips and Tricks

Glutamine is one of the most plentiful amino acids in the body and great addition to your supplement “tool box”. Supplementing with L-Glutamine will:

- Aid in muscle recovery and growth
- Buffer fatigue-inducing chemicals that occur during exercise so you can workout harder and longer
- Promote normal digestion and immune function
- Insure that your muscles are not broken for fuel (catabolysis) in order to access the stored glutamine

Here’s the brand Im currently using:
NOW L-Glutamine Caps, 240 Capsules

Dose: Start out with 2-3 grams a day. Eventually, you want to work up to work up to 5 grams, taken in the morning, before and after you workout, and at bedtime.

The two best times to perform cardio are:

- First thing in the morning before you’ve eaten anything
OR
- Immediately following your weight workout

In both cases, you are more likely to burn fat because your glycogen energy stores are depleted, in one case by a night of sleep (and lack of food) and in the other by your weight training routine. If you’re concerned about not having enough energy or about possibly burning muscle when performing cardio at these times, supplement with 20-25 grams of whey protein, 3-5 grams of L-Glutamine, and 3-5 grams of L-Carnitine beforehand.

Simply put, L-Carnitine promotes fat burning. L-Carnitine encourages the body to burn stored fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. It does this by forcing fat into the muscular cells. Carnitine is the only nutrient that can transport fat to the part of the cell that will burn it, the mitochondria. If you can’t get fat into the mitochondria, you can’t burn it. So without carnitine, no fat burning can occur. Optimal carnitine levels, on the other hand, allow the body to burn fat at an optimal rate.

In addition to it’s help with fat burning, benefits of supplementing L-Carnitine include:

- More energy to exercise and increases endurance and performance
- Increased energy levels
- Decreased cholesterol and triglycerides
- Reduced food cravings
- Better heart and liver health
- Promotion of healthy circulation

Dosage: In order to maximize the fat burning capabilities of L-Carnitine, take 3-5 grams before and after your workouts. Here’s the brand I’m currently using:
NOW L-Carnitine, 1000mg/100 Tablets

Interval training refers to varying the intensity of your workload during cardio sessions. This can be done by upping the speed or the level on the machine at regular intervals throughout the workout. For instance, on a treadmill, you might try a brisk walk or jog for a minute followed by sprinting for a minute and then go back to the jog, etc. You can also apply this technique to a stair stepper, an elliptical, or a cross trainer. Proceed at a moderate pace for a prescribed period of time (typically 1-2 minutes), then kick things up to a fast and furious pace for another prescribed period (typically around 60 seconds), then return to moderate pace. Rinse and repeat. Research shows that not only does training in this manner burn more calories during the actual cardio session, it also increases your calorie-burning during the hours following your training.

You’ve probably already heard of Creatine; it’s one of the most highly touted bodybuilding and athletic supplements to come around in the past decade. Studies have shown that it can significantly increase muscle size and strength. Basically, what it does is provide you with quick energy that you need for powerful muscle contractions and it also allows your muscles to hold more water…which makes them stronger and fuller…which ultimately stimulates additional muscle growth. The specific brand I use is:
IDS Muscle Volumizer, 30 Servings, Fruit Punch
(of course, you can choose whichever flavor ya like!)

I particularly recommend this brand because it’s formulated in such a way as to eliminate the gastric distress (cramping, etc.) that some people experience when taking creatine. As far as dosing, you should take 3-5 grams of creatine before and immediately after your workouts.