This one's for the bodybuilders out there, or at least the fitness gurus that are very concerned about building or maintaining muscle mass.

I'm considering starting a course of Glutamine and Creatine to aid and preserve my gains in the gym. Frankly, at 2.5 months out, I feel weak as hell. All my reading suggests this is a safe and effective path, in the right moderation of course. I've seen many threads on here where folks are using supplements to aid their workouts. But I'd like to consolidate and see what your full day looks like for supplementation - if you'd be so kind as to humor me.

Me:

whey isolate - 2x day

B12 1x day

Multivit 2x day

Calcium & magnsium liquid 3x day

Creatine (gym days)

Glutamine (gym days)

Thanks in advance!

Jay

No madness here. Lol. I am more an athlete focusing on good technique then an animal in the gym. I want to get the best time possible on doing the workout though while keeping good technique. Wall balls suck energy though and require so much perseverance as your muscles fatigue...

C4 all the way then. 2 scoops.

The c4 2 scoop dosing was pretty awesome.

1. Ran a 5:05 minute mile for warmup and then 20 m mobility

2. Did 40 double unders, 30 pull-ups, 30 push ups and 60air squats for more warmup

3. PR'd my dead lift in a 10-10-8-6-4 sequence from 185 to 320 #. Completed these pretty quickly and perfect form (according to coach). Felt really good after these.

4. Completed the 100 wall balls with 20# ball in 4:41 seconds. I was shooting for 6-8 minutes, but did way better as I found good rhythm.

And still had energy. Before I jumped on the pull-up bar to bust out some 20 chest 2 bar, I had to tell myself "good workout, now go home". This was still only 1 hour in the box. 1 hour is average for me in the box, but I got so much done today!

Yup, c4 is a good energy and focus supplement. I like that it doesn't bring on any madness or uncontrolled energy like other sups. I still think it is primarily the caffeine of c4 that helps the energy, focus, stamina and endurance.

Wow awesome job, with it without C4. I like to think it just gives me that extra little push.

Assault has something in it that makes my face feel like it is on fire for the first 5 minutes after drinking it. I can feel it hit though a little into warm up. Wow, love it.

Fiddleman, are you taking HMB? Also do you get the magazine "Train"? Get both ASAP!! Read up on the HMB. Pretty sure you will heading to the store right away!

Wow awesome job, with it without C4. I like to think it just gives me that extra little push.

Assault has something in it that makes my face feel like it is on fire for the first 5 minutes after drinking it. I can feel it hit though a little into warm up. Wow, love it.

The face flush would be caused by beta-alanine or niacin. The flush is harmless as it is just your nerves waking up. Sometimes the flush will go away after a few weeks. The beta-alanine works great, especially if you take 3-4 weeks to load it. It reduces the effects of lactic acid from working out. Hence, you can workout longer and more efficiently. It is just one of the few supplements they recommend in the cross fit circles. That and creatine.

Fiddleman, are you taking HMB? Also do you get the magazine "Train"? Get both ASAP!! Read up on the HMB. Pretty sure you will heading to the store right away!

Have not heard about HMB. Will need to research it.

Sounds very reasonable based on the following article :

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/beast7.htm

Nice. I am going to start on it today.

The interesting thing about HMB is that it is a metabolite of l-luecine. And you know that l-leucine is prevalent as one of the BCAA in the xtend product (3500 mg is l-leucine per serving).

Post your findings in 5 weeks or so and let us know what it has done for you. I would be interested to know if taking the metabolite of l-leucine, in fact, makes a noticeable difference in advanced Protein synthesis. See if you can measure your lean muscle mass before and after in order to have a quantitative means to demonstrate effectiveness.

That's a good idea Fiddleman. I will have a trainer measure me tomorrow morning and get differences. Starting ZMA as well (should have been all along).

Lot of great ideas here! I'm putting it all in my notebook.

I'm finding a lot of the gym performance products contain stimulants and I need to avoid those.

I did a little research yesterday on ZMA as I have heard of it, but have never looked into it. So it seems to be a very particular blend of zinc, magnesium and B-6 which promises up to 43% improvement in protein synthesis. That is a fairly heavy claim. One detail that I picked up on is that ZMA uses magnesium aspartame and not magnesium citrate. I wonder what the difference is. I use magnesium citrate in the natural calm product I take. If anyone that is more chemically minded knows the answer, please share.

Ya and you have to avoid your Calcium sup when you take it. No biggie for me as I take that in AM. Got size measurements today. I will post them as this is second day on both sups.

There are some pre work outs that are stim free. NO Xplod has one.

How has HMB been working out so far? And ZMA?

As an aside, have you watched buff dudes on you tube? These videos are really helpful and I can only imagine how the sups would make it even better. I do not do these isolation exercises that so many gym guys are into, but man, I respect what they can accomplish both aesthetically and functionally. I love the episode about the 5 exercises to improve the performance of the back. Very practical for me in order to understand which muscles I need to strengthen to get more power out of cross fit.