Supplement Science & Bodybuilding | The Lab Rats Inform the Gym Rats
Supplement Science & Bodybuilding
The Lab Rats Continue to Inform the Gym Rats
Research Overview
These past 12 months has been rough for the supplement industry in the news. At first, fish oil was the cause of prostate cancer. Then it was the buzz that high-protein diets can kill you with cancer and heart disease. Further articles suggested that multivitamins, vitamin D and calcium supplementation are unable to protect us from heart disease and osteoporosis. Green coffee beans aren’t “magic” pills? Whatchutalkinbout? Dr. Oz, in his infinite wisdom, ended up on the hot seat in front of Congress. Many companies made false claims and took the heat of the FTC with recalls and fines.
Despite the crazy political environment surrounding your favorite nutritional supplements, there were some bright spots. Even though there weren’t really any extra special additions to the supplement ingredient market, we have made great strides in understanding the mainstays. One might even say that timing was everything. Whether or not to take your protein or creatine pre-, post-, during or whenever around your workout was a popular topic. Here’s four research findings that will help boost your muscle gains.
1) The Anabolic Window
The “anabolic window” was brought into question by a meta-analysis performed by Dr. Brad Schoenfeld at the very end of 2013.1 This comprehensive review of the literature drew the conclusion that the window of opportunity to build muscle from post-workout protein may be broader than once thought. Furthermore, it was surmised that the amount of protein consumed throughout the day was more important than timing.
It is my belief that although the stats across the board do not add up to a “significant” effect of consuming your protein pre- or post-workout, there really isn’t any study that says it could hurt your gains to consume it. In fact, since there are some studies that demonstrate an existence of an anabolic window2,3, and I know my muscles feel like nutrient sponges after a workout, I’m still going to have my whey immediately post-workout. Besides, I need my 0.05 grams per kilogram of bodyweight of leucine every three hours to optimize my muscle anyway.4,5
In the face of my personal defiance of statistics, research in suggests that the review of the literature on the “anabolic window” will continue. When it comes to reviewing the literature on nutritional supplements, it is important that the research participants fit a profile similar to yours. Studies on experienced bodybuilders will produce different responses to a supplement than studies on inexperienced lifters. The naive weightlifter is metabolically different than the experienced weightlifter. Remember how quickly you responded to the weights the first time you entered the gym. I certainly do, and I wish I could get that response every day. This is why we take pre-workouts, to get that incredible pump that once caused painful stretch marks.
In 2014, research revisited the anabolic window by comparing protein, carb and lipid supplementation immediately post-workout, against consuming this combo six hours later (with the same lunch in between).3 Further, the researchers compared these results in experienced and naive weightlifters. In the naive weightlifters, the 0.3 grams per kilogram of whey protein didn’t result in any statistically significant changes in nitrogen balance, whether taken immediately post-workout or six hours later. However, the experienced weightlifters seemed to respond better to having the protein immediately post-workout, with nearly twice the nitrogen retention. It would seem that the anabolic window exists in me and YOU, the experienced bodybuilder.
2) How Creatine Improves Performance
In 2013, research also supported the need for creatine in that post-workout shake; as we will touch on later.6 Creatine is by far one of the most researched supplements. It has the ability to help you build muscle and perform better. There are many mechanisms that have been proposed for how creatine improves performance and even markers of physical health and well-being. This year, a couple of new mechanisms have been proposed.
One of the mechanisms that creatine improves performance appears to be hormonal modulation.7 When compared to a carbohydrate placebo, loading creatine at 20 grams per day for six days led to reductions in post-workout and resting cortisol concentrations. This does lead to a chicken versus the egg argument. Whether this reduction in stress hormone leads to creatine’s ability to boost performance or whether it is a result of creatine’s performance boosting through another mechanism is unclear.
Beyond suppression of training-induced cortisol elevations, creatine also appears to modulate the infamous muscle-squashing compound called myostatin. As we have discussed at length in many features, myostatin is an inhibitor of muscle growth. A study in 2014 explored the effects of the most effective muscle-building compounds in our arsenal on the actions of myostatin: leucine, HMB and creatine.8 Although this was a study on muscle cells in a laboratory dish, the data shows that these compounds have the ability to block the muscle-inhibiting actions of myostatin. Although the mechanisms are still not completely clear, this research opens the door for some interesting studies in 2015 and beyond.
3) Timing of Creatine Supplementation
In keeping with research on bodybuilders, the timing of creatine supplementation has also been brought into question.6 Revisiting the anabolic window, studies have shown that consuming a protein, carbohydrate and creatine supplement pre- and post-workout results in greater gains in muscle mass and strength than consuming the same supplement in the morning and evening instead.9 However, broscience has made some unproven giant leaps. First, because a creatine combination with carbohydrate seems to increase creatine stores more10 and second, it has been pretentiously believed that a sugar boost in insulin is needed to grow, post-workout.2 And by deduction, one should take their creatine with sugar, post-workout. However, until now, this concept hasn’t been adequately studied in bodybuilders.
In my opinion, there is enough research to say that an anabolic window exists, and preeminent researchers at Nova Southeastern University, the broscience debunkers, seem to agree.6 These researchers, including Dr. Jose Antonio of the I.S.S.N., studied whether taking creatine before or after training improved its effects on muscle in somewhat experienced recreational bodybuilders.6 By smartly looking at creatine supplementation without confounding sugars or proteins, they showed that consuming your five grams of creatine monohydrate post-workout was more advantageous than consuming your creatine pre-workout. Although the data was on a limited number of participants, the trends toward increases in strength and muscle mass via consuming creatine after training ads credence to including it in your post-workout whey protein shake. As long as you have the leucine-rich whey and creatine, you are on the right road to suppressing myostatin and building muscle.
4) The Power of Whey Protein
I must add that Dr. Antonio was prolific in 2014 with further information about the power of whey protein.11 First of all, I commend him on publishing a study where subjects consumed the amount of protein that many bodybuilders in this magazine would consume. The quantity of 4.4 grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day would not be atypical of a Mr. Olympia contestant. Unfortunately, the good doctor did not measure indices of toxicity in this eight-week study, but none of the participants died as the lame-stream media might suggest. Second, his study showed that despite consuming remarkably higher calories and five times more protein (added in the form of whey), the experimental subjects did not gain fat! With the athletes performing the same amount of weight-training exercise, those that consumed nearly 300 grams of protein per day didn’t get fatter than those consuming only 140 grams per day. There are many theories, including the thermic effect of whey protein, which might help to explain these remarkable results.11
Overall, research in the supplement performance arena is prolifeating. In looking forward to future research, make sure that you critically analyze the data. If this is a little beyond your expertise, look to resources like the columns in MD and features online and my blog at YourGAINPlan.com. When you apply supplement research to your training, make sure that the research pertains to you, THE BODYBUILDER. Look for articles studying experienced, resistance-trained, healthy individuals similar to your age. If you’re not experienced, you soon will be! Keep pumping and keep pumping.