Three essential supplements for muscle growth and fast recovery

Most important thing when you want to add muscle mass is eating a surplus of calories, train hard, train heavy, train often and sleep like a baby. Of course genetics plays a role here too. But sticking to these principals will get you a bigger, more muscular physique for sure.

To help you along the way there are a couple of supplements that make it easier to gain muscle mass over time and make you recover faster.

Whey protein.

Whey protein is a milk protein that is easily absorbed by the body. Bodybuilders and athletes use it often as a supplement additional to their diet. This was one of the first things I added to my diet in order to increase my daily protein intake. A couple of shakes a day will just make it so much easier to get the required amount of protein you need. This is perfect for people that don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen and still gain muscle or speed up their recovery.

The awesome thing about whey protein is, is that it’s so easily and fast absorbed by your body. This makes it the perfect choice for right after a hard workout so you can fill those muscles right back up and start recovering right away. Since it is digested so fast I really like to use it for breakfast too. After my body has been starved after 8 hours of sleeping I want to get a good shot of some high quality protein right away. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Well with a few scoops of whey it will be your best meal too.

Getting enough protein in a day is very important to recover properly and if you want to gain a bit of muscle you will actually have to eat a surplus of this macronutrient. A few shakes of whey protein will make it easier for you to reach your goals for sure.

Another big plus I think is that you can make much more with this perfect protein powder. A protein cheesecake for example, whey and oats cookies.

There is a downside though. Because this protein is digested so fast you probably want to think about mixing it with something that will feed you for a bit longer. For example it’s perfect to feed your depleted body right after a workout. To keep that recovery going you do want to get in a solid meal about an hour after taking a whey protein shake. If that’s to difficult you can also mix in a slower digestible protein like casein to your post workout shake.

Creatine.

Creatine is an amino acid found naturally in muscle cells and helps your muscles produce energy during training or competition. It’s one of the most popular supplements amongst athletes to improve strength and amongst bodybuilders to put on more size.

Creatine is found mostly in sea food and in red meat. The amounts of creatine in food are very low though. That’s why people choose to supplement it.

When taking creatine orally it will be stored mostly in the muscles as phosphocreatine and will be used as energy. That can be beneficial for athletic performance and gaining some muscle because more power output will yield greater results. You can simply just work harder.

Creatine is especially beneficial when it comes using that energy explosively. It works best for explosive movements in the 3 - 15 seconds range. This makes it ideal for weightlifting and bodybuilding type of workouts.

My personal experience with this supplement is actually really positive. I think I took it for about 8 weeks when I was 17 years old. I was just doing bodybuilding at the time and I gained more than 10kg over those 8 weeks. To be honest I think this also had a lot to do with changing my diet. But I did get heavier and stronger really fast over the course of those 8 weeks. I still use it, but now it’s more for injury prevention and strength maintenance. Yeah, I’m not 17 anymore.

Casein protein.

Casein protein is just as whey protein derived from milk. Opposite from whey, casein is digested much slower. This makes it a perfect bedtime snack for example. Because when you’re asleep you are not feeding your body and giving it the amount of protein necessary to recover properly. Taking a shake of casein will fix this because it will be very slowly digested over the course of 7 hours. Giving your body exactly what it needs when you are resting. Adding this to your diet, you will definitely start noticing that your recovery goes much faster.

I also add a bit of casein to my breakfast smoothie and my post workout shake. I find that the mix of a really fast digestible combined with a bit of a slower one gives me the best results in the long term.

Conclusion.

These are the most basic supplements that are interesting for anyone that likes going to the gym and likes to get solid results. They will all help you recover from training faster and decrease the chances of you getting injured. Whey protein will benefit you most right after your workout, casein right before bed and creatine will give your muscles the energy to outperform yourself day after day.

To get the best results you can combine all three of them. If you don’t want to commit to that right away I think the whey protein will be your best buy. It’s a really good solid protein source that you can use at any time.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at contact@essentialrecovery.info or discuss it on our forum.