Find out all the positive and negative qualities of one of the most popular weight gainers in the sports nutrition world. It must be said right away that not every bodybuilder should use mass gainer in bodybuilding. If you have a lean physique, and even with quality nutrition, problems with weight gain arise, then you can start looking at gainers. In other cases, you most likely will not need this type of sports food. Moreover, for those athletes who tend to be overweight, it is not recommended at all.
Also note that in the West, gainers are not as popular as in our country. For example, American manufacturers of sports food send most of the produced carbohydrate-protein mixtures to Europe. Since this supplement is sold very reluctantly in the United States. But this was a small digression, and now let's move on to considering the main issue of today's article.
Benefits of mass gainers in bodybuilding
Let's first look at the benefits of a gainer and how it can benefit you:
- Additional energy source. Perhaps the main advantage of this type of sports food is the ability to provide the body with additional calories. As we said above, this is true for ectomorphs, who find it very difficult to achieve the necessary energy value of the diet only with the help of food. This is where a protein-carbohydrate blend can help you. To gain mass, the calorie content of the diet must be high, and in ectomorphs, the metabolic rate is quite high. Gainers are easy to use and, if necessary, you can quickly prepare yourself a sports cocktail, increasing the calorie content of your diet.
- A source of healthy fats. If you are interested in bodybuilding, then you should be interested in proper nutrition, because without this you will not be able to gain weight. In this regard, you probably know that the body needs certain types of fat. These substances are part of the gainers, which is also a rather significant advantage of their use, since it is far from always possible to satisfy the body's need for healthy fats only thanks to ordinary food products. At the same time, fat in gainers is contained in small quantities, which is guaranteed not to lead to their overdose.
- Additional creatine. Very often, manufacturers add creatine to the gainer, the importance of which you probably also know for builders. Although some athletes prefer to use gainers that do not contain additional ingredients, and use creatine alone.
- Additional glutamine. The situation here is similar to creatine - many protein-carbohydrate mixtures are additionally enriched with glutamine. This substance promotes the activation of regenerative processes after training and will definitely not be superfluous.
How to take mass gainer in bodybuilding?
The question of how to use mass gainer in bodybuilding is quite relevant. We have already talked about the category of athletes who can benefit from this supplement. Now you should learn how to take carbohydrate-protein mixtures as efficiently as possible.
To begin with, when purchasing a gainer, pay attention to its composition. A good product is one that contains at least 30 percent of protein compounds.
It is worth taking the supplement on training days no more than twice a day, and once during rest. Most often, athletes take a gainer in the morning and after the completion of the training, after about a quarter of an hour. This will allow you to first slow down the nocturnal catabolic reactions, and after training, accelerate the recovery of the body.
On non-workout days, you can use a gainer to replace your meal. However, this is often not worth doing, but only in emergency cases, when it is not possible to eat normally. Serving size is also quite important. This is where you should experiment to determine how much of the supplement is right for you.
To do this, use a gainer for 14 days and watch the results. If you notice that fat mass is starting to grow, then switch to a gainer with a lower carbohydrate content. If the mass gain has gone, and the amount of body fat does not increase, then you have hit the mark and you do not need to change anything. It is also possible that there are no changes. Try increasing the serving size and observe the results again.
It should also be said that you definitely won't need a gainer during drying. This is understandable and should be clear to everyone, but sometimes athletes use this additive during drying, and then wonder why there is no result. Any sports nutrition can be effective only in certain situations. The use of mass gainer in bodybuilding is no exception. How to take a gainer for gaining muscle mass, you will learn from this video:
