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 By: James Stettler
An important point that will make everyone understand the importance of protein and good nutrition first and supplements and/or steroids second.  View Protein Powders Sorted By Top Seller Here.
I thank my old biology teacher for this explanation of how muscles are built, although Mr. Chips will obviously forgive me for adding to it myself, as Mr. Chips was not talking about bodybuilding on those occasions. This explanation can make sense of the bodybuilding process, supplements, diet and more.
Now let us imagine a muscle cell. It is round and looks like a single frogs spawn. That is a jelly like surrounding with a black dot in the middle. This is a muscle cell, the outside is the cell membrane, the inside is the factory of the cell which instructs the body to use the nutrients that surround the cell to make, in this case, muscles. It is surrounded by liquid. That liquid is called the lymph and it is where the food you eat ends up around the muscle cells. It is also where toxic waste from the cells reactions are dumped and this is why, every three hours, your lymph is drained and you loose not just the toxic waste, but any amino acids and other nutrients from around the cell. This is why we must eat every three hours. Protein Articles: Now in order for the nutrients to end up in the lymph, you must get it into the blood stream. You get it into the blood stream by eating it. This is the basis of muscle building. You must eat nutrition, this goes into the blood, into the lymph and then the muscle cell instructs and uses it to build muscle. You cannot build muscle unless you provide the raw materials, which is nutrition.
So if you use this biological example you can do two things. One you can see if it actually aids the muscle building process (eating, protein supplements does for example) and secondly if the supplement or method you are using does not, in some way, enhance this process, it can be discarded.
  Click Image To Enlarge.Protein Aids The Muscle Building Process.
Now I could go on and on about nutrition and protein and make it sound real fancy and complicated so I come across as some smart @ss. But I also note that second word - @ss.
Remember that biological example I gave at the beginning of this article? About the cells? Well lets recap. If you are trying to build a brick wall what do you need? Bricks. Now if I gave you ten bricklayers and no bricks what would happen? No wall will be built. But if I give you two bricklayers and lots of bricks, we will get the wall built without a problem. Now your diet is the bricks, what we need to build the wall with. The bricklayers are products that allow this to take place or speed up the process. Things such as supplements, steroids and so on.
Now many people have this the wrong way around. They supply all the bricklayers by taking supplements and steroids but fail to give the bricklayers anything to work with. So nothing gets built no matter how much products you take. You have to grab this and reverse it so first and foremost you are supplying the bricks. Then these products have something to work with. Everyone and their pet beaver will know that the first and most important nutritional point for bodybuilders is protein. This is the building bricks of life and what makes everything you want from bodybuilding happen. If training breaks down the muscle, protein is what builds it up and stored protein is what keeps muscle because muscle is stored protein.
 Click Image To Enlarge.Protein Is The Most Important Nutritional Point For Bodybuilders. Everything is built from protein and the body will want to repair all of this before it starts building bigger muscles because on a survival basis bigger muscles are not a priority.
Having big muscles is not a natural state of being. It isn't. Your body is actually so keen to keep you smaller because again, in a survival point of view, the smaller you are the less you need to eat and so the easier it is to keep you alive.
Steroids Articles: If you are natural you have to have pay even more attention to your diet and protein needs and have to be smart when using supplements. That is why you don't grow eating 100 grams of protein a day. It is almost not possible because that protein will be used for a 101 different biological processes before muscle building. So to grow massive, to grow fast, you need to eat quality protein and lots of it.
 Click Image To Enlarge.To Grow, You Need Protein And Lots Of It.
Otherwise eat lots of protein, make this a priority over carbohydrates which are useful for bodybuilders but basically make almost everyone, but the very lucky (with high metabolisms), gain fat. For energy it is better to have more good fats than carbs.
Excess protein will be either used as energy (so protein is like an excellent slow release carb) or it will be stored as - give that man a trophy - stored muscle.
The chain used to build human muscle is made up of 22 amino acids. No need to know them all, pretty boring really. If one of these amino acids is missing then you cannot make the chain in the structure needed to build muscle. Amino Acids Articles: In plain terms you stop the muscle building process. Now the body can other amino acids to make up those lacking but we are discussing optimum nutrition here and so it makes sense to provide all 22 amino acids in the first place.
Now the only food source that contains all 22 amino acids is, in fact, two protein sources in one neat little package - the egg. Nothing else contains 22 amino acids. Complete proteins are anything but and are not like many people believe proteins that contain all 22 amino acids. They do not but they contain the amino acids needed to provide 22 amino acids if these amino acids are missing. This is not optimum nutrition.
This is one of the best pieces of advice you will ever follow in terms of nutrition and many people do not do it. It's not even a new idea, I first read about it in 1980s, but it's not as simple, I guess, as eating 1 tin of tuna but all you need to do is add this to say, a bean source and bingo - you have 22 amino acids. If you eat steak and chicken throughout the day, have half the steak with half the chicken one meal and the rest in another meal - yes it's that simple but who hand on heart knowing this actually does it day in day out? Real solid results can be seen by doing just this. It is not a small difference. The difference between providing all 22 amino acids at the point of entry (eating) is mind blowing compared to eating a substandard protein source (i.e. one protein source) day in day out.
If you cannot get down two sources of protein then simply have an amino acid supplement that contains all 22 amino acids. If you cannot find that then have this blend, which you can make yourself for less than the cost of a Big Mac and chips, and contains HMB, Glutamine and all 22 amino acids needed for monster growth. Take this blend or amino acid supplement with each single protein meal to make it a complete meal. Other than that have a protein powder that contains all 22 amino acids. This must be a blend of proteins because no single source of protein contains all 22 amino acids. Throwing in free form amino acids to make up the difference is not the answer.
 Click Image To Enlarge.Have A Protein Shake That Has All 22 Amino Acids. Even the mighty whey is missing one amino acid - taurine - which is needed for muscle growth. So whey taken on its own has its uses but for maximum growth on its own leaves one of the amino acids missing and therefore cannot build muscle tissue at the maximum rate. So with each meal just think - does this contain all 22 amino acids? If not do the suggestions above. It is that simple folks, don't let anyone confuse the issue. If you want to build muscle you eat protein. If you want to eat optimum protein you must get down all 22 amino acids. This done, that's protein sorted.
Directly after training a unique event occurs which can make everyone reading this article gain 1 stone in a year if you follow just this one tip.
After training independent studies show you can absorb 1 gram of protein, per 1kg of lean bodyweight, when normally you can absorb far less than this per meal. So if you weight 100KG you can get down 100 grams of protein and the body will use almost every gram of it. This never happens at any other time.
So directly after training get down a big protein shake and you have taken a huge step towards your maximum potential. Add around 20 grams of simple sugars (at this time it is needed) to replenish muscle glycogen. Again many, many people will simply not do this and miss out on such a dramatic opportunity to progress to their ultimate potential. They wait a few hours and then have a protein shake. It must be downed within 45 minutes of your last set in the gym, or the biochemical event is missed.
Do it, you will never regret it. If you can only use one serving of protein powder a day, make it at this time on training days. You will be getting double the benefit by doing so. I have more magic to teach you in my other publications see my site for details. So what should you eat before training? I would say keep it sensible, keep it light. I would have 1 gram of carbs per 1KG of bodyweight before training. Maltodextrin is ideal for this purpose but get the brand that does not contain lots of lactose and sugar. This boost of carbs gives you energy for the workout but it also opens up that post workout meal window.
I would have 1 hour clear before training, so one hour before training have a light meal of chicken and rice with some amino acid blend. Throughout the work simply have water. As much as you can get down. That is protein in a nutshell. No need for any confusion. Do these simple steps, read the important bit first and do the protein steps and you will grow faster than you ever imagined.
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