Muscle Building Drinks - Are They Great Or Just Hype?

All of a sudden muscle building drinks seem to stare at you out of every health magazine. Every one seems to want to convince you that if you are not taking muscle building drinks, you are lacking in some vital ingredient or the other. Good old food is just not good enough anymore it seems. Is this just hype or is there a grain of truth in all this? Let us examine the evidence together.

You certainly need muscle building drinks if you are into heavy exercise - by heavy, I mean exercise that strains your muscles to the limit, and when you use weights, you cannot repeat the movement for more that eight to ten times. It is clear that what may be heavy for me may not be heavy for you. However if your muscles are reaching that point of stress, then you can be sure that they will get stretched and damaged and will also be stimulated to grow. That is when they need some protein and they need it fast. This is when a protein drink or a muscle building drinks comes in handy.

If your exercise consists of only a jog around the park or a brisk walk, you may still be doing your body a lot of good, but you certainly are not straining it to the point where muscles need to be repaired. Therefore, in such a situation any muscle building drink will only add to your weight problem. If you are into this sort of exercise, it is a reduction of calorie intake you need, not the other way around.

OK, so we have got to the point where the old muscles are straining and stretching and you need to give them something that touches the right spot. You do need muscle building drinks. What should you use and how much of it should you take? There are literally hundreds of combinations that are advertised in the health magazines. But a little judgment is needed here. You do not need any of the fancy stuff. What you need is a muscle building drink and no surprises here, you can make it yourself.

The most basic muscle building drink you need after a workout is something that has a lot of proteins that can get quickly absorbed into the body and help in repairing damaged muscles even as it help them grow further. Look for protein powders. They come in all kinds of flavors. Choose a couple you like, chocolate and vanilla being great favorites. Blend the recommended quantity with whole milk or fruit juice (fresh is better), peanut butter and fruit. Add ice if you need and you have a shake that is wholesome and will rapidly replace the energy you have burnt away even as it helps the body get on with the task of muscle building.

It is not enough to take protein supplements alone; you need to take supplements of multi-vitamins and antioxidants as well. The multi-vitamins are required to speed up the healing process and build more immune systems. The antioxidants help neutralize the waste products generated in the muscle cells during the intense exercise sessions.

You may find many commercial muscle-building drinks having a combination of protein, multivitamins and antioxidants. You can achieve much the same effect by going in for home-made muscle building drinks we have discussed here.