Top 10 Bodybuilding Supplements Brands

Below is a list of the best bodybuilding and sports supplements brands available in the UK right now, in our opinion:

1. Allmax Nutrition - Newly available supplements brand, which is going to be massive in the UK. Their most popular product, which is a rapid muscle gainer, called Quickmass, seems true to it's claims of adding 10lbs in 10 days and is running out of stock quicker than it cn be imported at the moment.
2. AST Sports Science - Best known for VP2 Whey Isolate, Muscle XGF and Micronised Creatine
3. CNP Professional - Best known for Pro-Mass, Pro-MR, Pro-MS and Pro-Peptide
4. Nutrabolics - Newly available manufacturer in the UK, but already well known for Fighter's Food and Hemorush
5. Gaspari - Best known for Superpump 250, Myofusion and Size On
6. MHP - Best known for Dark Matter, Up Your Mass and Probolic-SR
7. Isatori - Best known for MX-LS7, Isa Test GF and Lean System 7
8. BSN - Best known for No-Xplode, Syntha-6 and Axis HT
9. Dymatize - Best known for Mega Gainer, Elite MRP and Super Mega Gainer
10. Cytosport - Best known for Cytogainer, Muscle Milk and Monster Milk
11. Universal - best known for Animal Pak, Animal Cuts and Animal Stak

Protein Supplements, Diet Advice and Nitrogen Balance

Protein supplements are the number one supplement for anyone wanting to gain lean muscle, but which do you choose? Well, the most obvious choices are fast digesting whey protein, slow digesting micellar casein and hybrids of both.

Whey Protein is perfect for adding to low protein meals, as it adds 20-23g of protein to the meal, but only 100 extra calories.

Micellar Casein is perfect for before bed, as it digests slower than whey protein, providing a more sustained release of protein during the night, when your body would otherwise be losing muscle.

Hybrid supplements, such as CNP Pro Peptide combine fast and slow digesting proteins, making it ideal as a meal replacement protein, which can be combined with a low GI carbohydrate source and some good fats to provide a full meal, i.e. Pro Peptide, 1 banana, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds - blend in 400ml of water and drink.

To stay in an anabolic muscle building state, with a positive nitrogen balance, you need protein every 2-3 hours, so make sure that however you set up your diet, sleep, supplements, etc. you eat meals every 2-3 hours, including plenty of protein. Otherwise, you will be wasting your time training to trigger muscle growth, gaining muscle, losing muscle and training again, never making much progress, like the masses. Eat smart, train smart, get big!

Gain an Inch on The Biceps with Supersets

Everyone in the gym, whether new starter or experienced bodybuilder, wants bigger biceps. So, straight to the point, to get your arms bigger, your triceps make the biggest difference, followed by your biceps and then your brachialis, the muscle on the outside of your arm between your biceps and triceps. So, straight to the supersets:

Triceps:
Perform a 1 minute dip, starting from the top position and lowering slowly for 30 seconds, before lifting back up to the top over another 30 seconds. Get your training partner to call out in 5 second intervals so that you can time the 1 minute dip right. Use perfect form and be as smooth as possible. Within 3 seconds of completing the dip perform cable triceps extensions on aweight that makes you reach failure after 6-7 reps.

Biceps:
Similarly to the 1 minute dip, do a 1 minute pullup, underhand grip, starting from the bottom position. 30 seconds to the top, then 30 seconds back down. Instantly superset with standing barbell curls on a weight that allows 6-7 strict reps.

For best results, start your next 3 workouts with these supersets and you should gain up to an inch on your arms, assuming your diet is perfect and contains enough calories and protein for muscle growth. Try using mass gaining protein shakes, such as Allmax Quickmass or AST Muscle XGF to boost results.

For the brachialis, perform one set of strict, high intensity standing reverse EZ curls after every other workout from now on. Do not do any extra sets on the arms, just make sure you reach progressively higher intensities, by adding more weight to the dips, pullups, extensions and curls. If you do too many sets, you could overtrain the arms, halting your gains.

Just remember, no matter how hard you train, your results will be severely limited unless you provide your body with the nutrients required to grow. Three normal meals, supplemented with protein powder (if necessary), with 3 protein shakes between meals and before bed seems to be the easiest way of achieving the perfect diet. Let me know how you get on.

Best Bodybuilding Supplements

Best Weight Gainers

Cytosport Cytogainer, Allmax Quickmass, MHP Up Your Mass and CNP Pro Mass are amongst the best weight gainers available in the world. All four weight gainers are low GI and low GL if you keep the serving size small enough. They each provide plenty of protein from fast and slow releasing sources and are exactly what your muscles need between your regular 3 meals per day, to up the calories, protein and nutrient intake. Allmax Quickmass is probably the best product, as it contains much more than protein and carbs, it also contains a massive amount of glutamine, flax seed oil, MCTs, coconut oil, sunflower oil, CLA, creatine monohydrate, creatine ethyl ester and more besides.

Best Creatine Supplements

AST Micronized Creatine Monohydrate has been around for many years and is still the best creatine supplement. No stomach cramps, fantastic results. What more do you want.

Best Whey Protein Supplements

AST have just launched a new protein powder, simply called AST Whey Protein. It is probably the best whey protein available and can be used alongside their popular VP2 advanced protein supplement, which is probably the best overall protein supplement. Other popular protein shakes include Reflex Instant Whey and USN Pure Protein IGF-1.

Best Nitric Oxide Supplements

BSN No-Xplode and Gaspari Superpump 250 are the best two products in this category, but make sure you start with a low dose, because you may experience diarrhoea if your arginine intake is too high (p.s. whey protein shakes are high in arginine).

Hope this was useful.

My Quickest Ever Muscle Gains - 14 pounds in 4 weeks!

After 10 years or so of averaging 3-4 sessions per week, lifting weights in the gym and following a strict, but healthy diet and supplementing with protein shakes, I have had about 3 years of not training properly, or at all. In fact, I hadn't been to the gym for about 4 months and I finally stopped telling people 'I'm getting back into it', cos I wasn't.

Anyway, for the last 4 weeks, I have been training again, high intensity. My first session lasted 15 minutes and I was feeling sickly, so I went home. I went again 3 days later and lasted 40 minutes and subsequent sessions have been the optimum 50 minutes of hardcore training. I have already increased my bench press, rows and deadlifts by 50% in four weeks, gained 14 pounds and look much better. I therefore thought I should tell people how I trained and what supplements I used. By the way, I am aware that the 14 pounds gained will be muscle, some fat, better hydration, etc., but either way, I am much stronger and look more toned and bigger.

Basically, I followed a high intensity training routine, using about 6 multiple joint compound movements per session, for a total of about 12 working sets, starting with a whole body routine for the first two weeks, then doing an upper body, lower body split. Reps were in the 6-8 range, using constant tensions and slow rep cadence, making sets last about 30-40 seconds, emphasising the negative part of the movement.

My diet was as follows:
Calories: 20 x bodyweight in pounds per day
Protein: 1.5g for every pound of bodyweight per day, split over 8 meals
Macronutrient Split: 50/30/20 (protein, carbs, fat)
Protein Shakes: AST VP2 Whey Protein Isolate - 4 times per day
Post workout shake: 1 pint of skimmed milk + banana
Breakfast: 75g oats in 500ml water, with 1 scoop of VP2 and 1 banana
Before Bed: VP2, 2 slice wholemeal toast with peanut butter

Maybe because I am nowhere near the shape I was in 5 years ago, it has been easier than normal to make such big gains in 4 weeks, who knows? All I know is that my diet was absolutely perfect, I drank lots more water, less caffeine, slept more and trained harder than ever, using drop sets, supersets, pre-exhaustions and other tricks and I made the best gains of my life. By the way, I think VP2 is an awesome protein shake.

Whey Protein Shakes

Whey protein shakes are the most important supplement for any athlete who wants to improve their physical appearance and/or phyiscal ability. Whey protein shakes make for a very low calorie, convenient, high protein snack, that can act as a meal replacement up to 3 times per day, helping you reach your target of 6+ meals per day.

Consuming 6+ high protein, low calorie, low GI, low GL, highly nutritional meals per day will provide a sustained release of nutrients to your muscles, allowing them to grow, whilst keeping insulin levels regulated, which keeps energy high and allows for fat loss at the same time.

Eating 6 meals per day is very tough to achieve 7 days per week, 365 days per year, which is why there aren't many people at the top of their physical game in the local gyms. However, planning your diet and having plenty of protein shakes in the fridge, will allow you to keep up to your diet, without much hassle. Below is the typical diet:

Whey Protein Shakes and Your Typical Daily Diet

• 6am: Breakfast - 6 scrambled egg whites, 50g porridge oats (blended in 450ml water and then drank), 1 banana


• 9am: Mid morning Snack - Protein Shake


• 12pm: lunch - Chicken salad


• 3pm: Mid afternoon snack - Protein Shake



• 6pm: Evening Meal - Chicken, Brocolli, Cauliflower, Carrots
  
  
• 9pm: Evening Snack: Protein Shake

When referring to protein shakes above, I mean ready to drink protein shakes, in cartons, that can be carried to work with you. Of course, if your normal meals are low in protein, you can also top them up with a normal whey protein shake, i.e. 1 scoop of whey protein powder in 250ml water.

Now Your Hig Protein Diet is Sorted, Get To The Gym!

Assuming your diet is of the form above, i.e. you eat 6 even sized meals per day, which each contain a sixth of your daily protein requirements of 1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight; and if you are training high intensity, 3-4 times per week, then you will see the best improvements to your physical apperance and ability ever.