Do Bodybuilding Supplements Offer The Guaranteed Path To Muscle Gain or Fat Loss?
Often when the term "natural bodybuilding" is thought of, those who participate in such a hobby contemplate grueling weight training workouts and disciplined bodybuilding diet plans, but one additional element, supplementation, is promoted as a requirement for any individual to excel in building muscle mass to his or her natural bodybuilding potential. Since steroids are avoided by many due to their serious health risks, bodybuilding supplements become the legal and "safe" steroid substitution that bodybuilders feel compelled to pursue.
Because so few who experiment with bodybuilding supplements have performed their weight lifting workout routines without using such products, they are unable to determine the true impact of the bodybuilding supplements they are constantly consuming, and therefore, mistakenly attribute any fat loss or muscle building to these products, even when making modifications to a weight lifting or diet plan that, in fact, is the basis for any fruitful muscle building or fat loss pursuit. Instead of conducting legitimate testing to note muscle building or fat loss with specific bodybuilding supplements using the exact same weight lifting and diet plan, many tend to become frustrated with their muscle gain or fat burning progress, and once they return from a vacation with newfound weight training zest, they not only seek a new weight training workout plan and diet, but also purchase numerous bodybuilding supplements to use simultaneously, and if they build muscle or burn fat, they do not credit the weight training workout plan or diet, nor do they consider the ease of building muscle following a sabbatical with nearly any marginally potent routine, but rather feel that the bodybuilding supplements are the catalyst behind any noticeable change, even when this progress is short lived.
This skewed hypothesis leads weight lifters around the world to believe that bodybuilding supplements are a required component for impressive progress, and infamous bodybuilding magazines, most of whom generate the bulk of their advertising profits from bodybuilding supplement manufacturers, also convince the readers that they should, without question, rely on bodybuilding supplements as the secret weapon to maximizing muscle building, especially when champion professional bodybuilders are shown holding the latest bottled craze (of course, he fails to mention that his muscle gains are due to steroid abuse as opposed to supplement use!). Nevertheless, the overwhelming lesson sent by the bodybuilding industry that these products are the natural key to dramatic muscle gains fuels many to accept this idea as truth, and the bodybuilding supplement industry profits as a result.
Yet, what is the real story behind the bodybuilding supplement craze? I have been involved in weight training for well over a decade, and through my own experimentation, along with emails received from those who are frustrated with their own muscle building, despite using bodybuilding supplements, and have therefore designed a standard of thinking that I hope all who read this article will decide is logical enough to consider adopting for their own muscle gain or fat loss career. Most bodybuilding supplements do not offer advertised results, and you will spend large amounts of money (or may already have) proving this to be true, but even if you were to find a bodybuilding supplement that enabled you to burn fat or gain muscle mass quicker than is possible through a correctly structured weight lifting workout plan and bodybuilding diet, you will then potentially harm long term health. The only method of knowing for certain whether an artificially induced product will potentially pose a risk to health is with a long term controlled study as to its impact, and since no such legitimate research will ever exist on any bodybuilding supplement, you should be skeptical of their safety since, as we realize with the deadly smoking epidemic, legality does not ensure safety, and, in the long term, there are serious concerns that bodybuilding supplements can lead to cancer, organ abnormalities (due to added stress on the kidneys, liver, etc), endocrine damage, and premature death.
For the many bodybuilders who wish to produce maximum muscle building and fat loss, yet embrace the term "natural" due to its connection with preservation of health and clear rejection of all potentially harmful external aids towards such progress, bodybuilding supplements that promise quicker muscle gain or fat loss than is possible through weight lifting and diet alone are a contradiction to such a philosophy. You can either learn from my warning, or waste massive amounts of your hard earned money as do so many each year searching for the ultimate steroid substitute that offers complete health preservation, when this, in fact, is an oxymoronic statement that has no realistic way of being fulfilled.
Francesco Castano authors the www.MuscleNOW.com web site, which is a bodybuilding routine for building muscle mass without supplements or drugs. He also owns the www.IncrediBody.com online fitness superstore, selling protein powder at guaranteed lowest prices.
www.MuscleNOW.com
