Hey gang!  Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted—I’ve been busy having awesome workouts and eating LOTS of healthy food!  I LOVE offseason!!!  We’re still on track for another show in the Fall.  Bring on the gainz!!!

Tonight I thought I’d talk briefly about supplements.  This is a subject area that most people don’t know a lot about. When taken correctly, supplements can really help you get the most benefit out of your training, help your muscles recover, and keep your energy levels up to keep pushing hard in the gym.  The point of supplements are to “supplement” your nutrition to provide your body with the right nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.  Supplements can include pre and post workouts, BCAAs, proteins, and vitamins, just to name a few.  There are a million different types of supplements, from a million different brands, and it can all be really overwhelming!  I know I was overwhelmed when I first started looking into them.  Where’s a girl to start?!  In true Lipglossandlifting form, I thought I’d break them down for beginners, and what I would suggest you incorporate as basics.  Be forewarned, however, this stuff is expensive.  Be sure to do your research with brands and go with QUALITY.  Supplements are usually cheaper when you buy bigger quantities as well.  We usually buy ours on www.Amazon.com, www.lockoutsupplements.com, or www.bodybuildlng.com.

Multi-Vitamins

I highly suggest a good quality multivitamin to take everyday.  WE don’t get all of the vitamins we need from the food we eat, and a good multi will help keep your immune system up and help with your skin, nails, etc.  I personally use Optiwomen by Optimum Nutrition.  Two a day—easy!  Recently I also incorporated a calcium supplement and Vitamin D supplement as well, since they’re beneficial for women in particular.  Fish Oil or EFA (essential fatty acids) pills are good to take too since they help your body repair, particularly in regard to reducing inflammation and promoting heart health.

Pre-Workouts

Every true gym lover needs a pre-workout!  They are designed to give you an energy boost, improve muscle strength and stamina, therefore helping you get the most benefit out of your weightlifting.  They help you power through like a beast!  Some have caffeine, or stimulants, others don’t.  Creatine is a muscle-building ingredient that many preworkouts have as well, but I would research it before deciding whether or not taking a “pre” with creatine in it is for you.  If you’ve never tried one or are sensitive to caffeine, I would start with BSN’s N.O. explode.  It’s pretty mild, but will definitely help you focus and give you more of a pump after your training.  Some of my favorite pre-workouts are Formulation 1’s, N.O. Explode, and Optimum Nutrition’s Pre-Workout.   These typically run you between $20 and $30.

Post-Workout

Every workout you have is taxing on your body.  It’s super important to give your body the nutrients and protein it needs right after you workout so that your muscles can begin to recover and grow.  The “anabolic window” that you may have heard of is really the 30 minute timeframe after you workout in which is the ideal time to do this.  Branch Chain Amino Acids or BCAAS and protein are the two biggest things your body needs after working out.  BSN has a great product called AminoX that I love!  Optimum Nutrition and Formulation 1 also make great BCAA products.  AminoX Fruit Punch flavor is the absolute best—Shane and I use it EVERY SINGLE workout!  I use it as an intra-workout supplement, and then follow with a protein shake afterwards.  Ideally you need to consume an equal ratio of grams of protein to grams of carbohydrates within your anabolic window too, but I would suggest starting with BCAAs.  There’s another product called Aftershock I used for a long time as a post workout that was pretty good.

Whey Protein

Whey protein is a really easy way to incorporate more protein into your diet.  Most people don’t know this, but to build muscle you really need to be consuming 1- 1 ½ grams of protein per pound of bodyweight a day.  To give you an idea of how much that is, 4oz of chicken has about 25 grams of protein.  See what I meant by eating 5-6 times a day and incorporating protein into each meal??  Protein is the main building block of muscle.  Remember that muscle burns fat, so if you’re really wanting to lose body fat, start eating more protein, lift heavy, and build that muscle!  Whey protein comes in a powder form most often, and you can mix it with either water or almond milk to make it into a shake.  It can be blended or baked too, and you can really get creative with how you incorporate it into your diet.  I usually use Whey protein as a snack, and as my post workout shake with a carbohydrate supplement as well.  Keep in mind that protein also keeps you feeling fuller longer.  Most whey proteins have about 120 calories and 25 grams of protein per serving, and are sugar free with low carbs as well.  My favorites would be Cellucor’s Red Velvet Cake Batter (it tastes like a Sprinkles cupcake!), Optimum Nutrition’s Caramel Toffee Fudge and Birthday Cake, and Dymatize’s Mint Chocolate.  They are all DELICIOUS!  I would never steer you wrong with flavors!!  Whey protein is expensive, so it pays to buy larger quantities.  It stays good a long time, and 5lb container will run you $50-$60, but will have 75 servings or so.

Here’s my current “stack” of supplements.  Most people don’t need all of these, but this I thought I’d share mine in case you were curious.

• Optimum Nutrition Optiwomen Multi
• Calcium supplement
• Vitamin D3 supplement
• MRM Smartblend EFA capsules
• Hydroxycut Hardcore Elite Fatburner
• Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout (Green Apple tastes like a jolly rancher!)
• BSN AminoX taken while I workout (the Fruit Punch flavor is just fabulous)
• Post-workout shake with Whey Protein and Glycoject carbohydrate supplement
• Creatine 2x a day
• L-Glutamine mixed with pre and post workout supplements
• I also use whey protein as a snack from time to time

If any of you have questions or other product recommendations you love I’d love to hear about them!  Feel free to email me at lipglossandlifting@gmail.com.  Happy lifting!

Till next time,

-Mere