Most athletes “”bulk up”" in this manner by consuming extra food and/or weight gain powders. In order to increase skeletal muscle mass, there must be adequate energy intake (anabolic reactions are endergonic and therefore require adequate energy intake). Studies have consistently shown that simply adding an extra 500 – 1,000 calories per day to your diet in conjunction with resistance training will promote weight gain [31, 33]. However, only about 30 – 50% of the weight gained on high

calorie diets is muscle while the remaining amount of weight gained is fat. Consequently, increasing muscle mass by ingesting a high calorie diet can help build muscle but the accompanying increase in body fat may not be desirable for everyone. Therefore, we typically do not recommend this type of weight Ibrutinib mw gain approach [39]. Creatine monohydrate In our view, the most effective nutritional supplement available to athletes to increase high Deforolimus datasheet intensity exercise capacity and muscle

mass during training is creatine monohydrate. Numerous studies have indicated that creatine supplementation increases body mass and/or muscle mass during training [70] Gains are typically 2 – 5 pounds greater than controls during 4 – 12 weeks of training [71]. The gains in muscle mass appear to be a result of an improved ability to perform high intensity exercise enabling an athlete to train harder and thereby promote BCKDHB greater training adaptations and muscle hypertrophy [72–75]. The only clinically significant side effect occasionally reported from creatine monohydrate supplementation has been the potential for weight gain [71, 76–78] Although concerns have been raised about the safety and possible side effects of creatine supplementation [79, 80], recent long-term safety studies have reported no apparent side effects [78, 81, 82] and/or that creatine

monohydrate may lessen the incidence of injury during training [83–85]. Additionally a recent review was published which addresses some of the concerns and myths surrounding creatine monohydrate supplementation [86]. Consequently, supplementing the diet with creatine monohydrate and/or creatine containing formulations seems to be a safe and effective method to increase muscle mass. The ISSN position stand on creatine monohydrate [87] summarizes their findings as this: 1. Creatine monohydrate is the most effective ergogenic nutritional supplement currently available to athletes in terms of increasing high-intensity exercise capacity and lean body mass during training.   2.