Bodybuilding Supplements
| "I don't worry about it, because I never took an overdosage." - Arnold Schwarzenegger about Steroids in 1987 |
Bodybuilding Supplements and diet products are a huge market. There is more people taking stuff to enhance their training, than are actually working out. Bottom line is: No product can do the work for you.
There is no magic pill, that will make you look huge or ripped. It is still you and the bar. It is still you who has to go to the gym and it is still you who has to be inspired to work as hard as you can to have a chance in this sport.
But are all bodybuilding supplements just a scam? No, of course not. Supplement might be able to help you achieving certain goals, but there is always also a little risk involved. Research showed that a lot of the steroid use that took place in the 60 and 70s had a huge impact on the health of the athletes, but many supplement users say that steroids are not considered a classic supplement as it changes the body chemistry and hormone levels to an unnatural extend.
| Ronnie Coleman talks about his morning protein shake and diet 5 1/2 week prior to Mr Olympia |
It is hard for many supplements to even find research. It is hard to know where the information that you read on the internet is actually coming from. The description of the products is very often promising, but it is much harder to find scientific back up for the claims. Long term effects of many of the new products are unknown, because the products are not used long enough.
Creatine, which is one of the widely used trainings performance enhancers is still seen as controversial, because there is no long term effects known. Many bodybuilders take that risk and say: "It will not kill me, right?"
The two categories of bodybuilding supplements are to accelerate building of muscle mass and fat loss, but there are also a lot of products geared towards better performance and recovery from events and training.
The distinction between dietary and exercise supplements is a little bit harder to understand. Some say that dietary supplements have a more general cause as to give more of the building blocks that are needed for the sports in a more refined or concentrated form. protein (or whole amino acid profiles) and meal replacement could be considered to be dietary supplements. Exercise supplements, however, are taken for the purpose of an exercise specific effect that is invoked by a particular nutrient or substance in a concentration much higher than naturally ingested with diet.
You make the call if there is a difference. I would say that dietary supplements are those that someone could take advantage of, even when they are not an athlete and exercise supplements do not have a purpose for these people.