When it comes to finding the best muscle building supplements, there is a big difference between effective supplements that can move the needle and ones that just deliver marketing hype.
Depending on a number of factors, including age, genetics and training status, experts say the average amount of muscle you can build is legally pack on your body (read: no steroids) is one to two pounds a month. Can you build more than that? Perhaps. But it takes the right combination of consistent exercises, proper nutritionand targeted supplementation to outperform the average.
What are the best muscle building supplements? The list of ingredients that really work is shorter than you think. But if high performance is your goal, here’s where supplementation can make a real difference.
What is the best dietary supplement for muscle gain?
Protein powder is the foundation of your muscle building supplement plan.
What do proteins do?
Strenuous muscle effort can cause damageand protein is needed to help your body recover and repair that damage, a process known as muscle protein synthesis. When you repair muscle fibers broken strength trainingthen they grow.
That’s why high quality protein powder is so useful. Taken in sufficient amounts, it provides your body with the nutrients it needs for muscle growth.*
All proteins consist of amino acidsand some of them — like leucine (one of three BCAAs) — are more important for supporting muscle growth. International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends protein sources which are rich in leucine and include a balanced sequence essential amino acidsso named because the body does not produce them naturally and therefore must be ingested through food.
How much protein should you consume?
In general, you want to eat approx 1.4 to 2.2 g of protein per kilogram of your current body weight per day. So if you weigh 180 pounds (roughly 82 kg), you should eat about 115 to 180 g of protein per day.
This is why protein powders are the foundation of your muscle building plan: they offer a concentrated amount of protein that is easy to consume.
What is the best form of protein?
Your best options, depending on your dietary preferences, are whey protein and pea protein.
Whey is obtained from milk and is the fastest digestible form of protein. It comes primarily in two formulations: concentrate and isolate, with whey protein isolate being the purer of the two forms that is also used in Beachbody Performance Recovery.
If you follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, or if you are sensitive to dairy, pea protein (like the kind used in plant-based formulation Beachbody Performance Recovery) is your best choice because of its high leucine content. Most other plants – like rice or hemp – offer less complete protein profiles.
How to best consume protein
Aim for the eye 20 to 40 g of protein per meal from any source. Protein powder is best around two hours before or after training.
You can also take protein that is digested slowly – eg casein or milk protein isolate — before bed to promote muscle growth while you sleep.
What other muscle building supplements actually work?
Different supplements take different approaches to the ultimate goal of muscle growth. Here are the main ingredients and their different mechanisms of action.
1. Creatine
A compound commonly found in meat, creatine helps increase strength, endurance and power and supports muscle growth. Perhaps most importantly, it is the most clinically tested supplement you can buy.
Creatine is found in many foods, including beef, chicken, milk and cheese, but in such small amounts that you would have to eat them two to three kilograms of meat per day to get the same benefit from about one teaspoon in powder form.
How does creatine work?
Creatine provides extra energy during short, intense bouts anaerobic activities, lending extra phosphate to the cycle that produces ATP, your body’s primary fuel source. And that extra energy can significantly affect your strength: ua a review of 22 studiesparticipants who used creatine showed an eight percent increase in strength compared to those who did not.
And the boost you enjoy during strength training also appears in short-duration activities such as sprintsleading to improvements in speed and recovery between efforts. It might even help speed up the process of restoring lost muscles.*
How to best consume creatine
Your the best option is creatine monohydrate; no other form comes close in terms of clinical research. In general, aim for 5g per day, i up to 10 years if you have more muscle mass. It also doesn’t matter when you take the supplement as long as you keep taking it every day.
Some favor a “loading” period. during which larger amounts of creatine are initially taken daily for a short period before moving to a permanent schedule of regular meals.*
You can mix creatine in hot or cold liquids, but the higher the temperature, the faster the creatine will break down before consumption. Creatine remains stable in liquid only a a short period of timemaking its powder form the most reliable.
2. Beta-alanine
If you want to build more muscle, there are three main ways to do it: muscle tension, metabolic stressand muscle damage. All three are stimulated by harder and longer exercise. That’s where beta-alanine is your friend.
How does beta-alanine work?
Beta-Alanine helps produce carnosine, which helps reduce muscle fatigue and improves endurance during intense, fast-paced exercise like weight training.*
How to best consume beta-alanine
To see the effects of beta-alanine, you need to consume it at least 1.6 g per daywith an upper limit of 6 g per day. It will take some time to build up in your system so it is important that take beta-alanine regularly. Noticeable benefits may require four to eight weeks of regular consumption.
In some people, beta-alanine may cause mild “tingle” effect which some people consider unusual. The more beta-alanine you take, the more likely you are to experience tingling.
To overcome this effect, you can consume a time-release beta-alanine formula, split your dose, or take it with food and extra water. For example, when taking Beachbody Performance Energizeif you don’t like the burning sensation, simply mix it with more water and take it with food.
3. HMB
Hydroxymethylbutyrate (HMB) is a compound produced by metabolism leucine in the body. Often taken to help combat muscle loss with aging, HMB supplementation is taken with exercise was also found positively affect muscle mass, performance and recovery.
How does HMB work?
The effects of HMB are twofold: on the one hand, it helps to promote muscle protein synthesis, the process in which protein becomes muscle after exercise, and on the other hand, it helps to reduce muscle protein breakdown.
The result is increased muscle growth, strength and power with improved recovery. However, HMB requires an activity level sufficient to cause muscle damage – either high intensity and/or high volume – in order to be the most efficient.*
How to best consume HMB
International Society of Sports Nutrition he says HMB can be consumed for both chronic (permanent) and acute (momentary) benefits. For either, you would need to consume more than 600g of protein per day to synthesize the amount of dietary leucine (60g) needed for the daily recommended dose of HMB used in human studies, so HMB is usually increased by supplementation.
For chronic benefits, ISSN recommends consuming 3g of HMB, divided into three meals per day, two weeks before intense training sufficient to cause muscle damage. For acute benefits, the organization suggests taking 3g of HMB at least 60 minutes before intense exercise, longer if accompanied by glucose.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat or prevent any disease.
