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Supplement timing

There are lots of supplements now available for bodybuilding to help add more muscle or to get stronger and to recover faster. As the number of supplements that one can use and afford gets greater and people have to figure out when the best time to take various supplements is and what amount to achieve the greatest affect so that the money you spend is spent wisely and you get the greatest gains in the shortest amount of time.

To look at what supplements you should take during the day there are some key times of day that supplementation is based around these are early morning, pre-workout, post-workout and before sleep.

In the morning you have been asleep and without food for about eight hours and you have to prepare for the day you haven't had any food and your body is running low on fuel.

Pre Workout-This is the time before you hit the gym and put your muscles under stress to stimulate them to grow. What you take before hand can help improve your workout performance thus generating a stronger stimulus for muscle growth.

Post Workout- After you have worked out your body starts to go into recovery mode after the stress that has been put on it, you need to make sure that you body doesn't slide into a catabolic state causing you to start to lose muscle mass. This is the time to kick start your body into a phase of growth.

Before sleep- You are preparing for sleep, sleep is when your body does a lot of recovery and growth. Levels of growth hormone rise during sleep and muscle growth occurs at this stage certain supplements are needed to help maintain the growth.

Some supplements are more important than others, there is some debate about which supplements are ranked more important but there is general agreement that protein is the most important followed by creatine then following those are arginine, tribulus, glutamine and BCAAs. There are other supplements available the ones I have mentioned here are some of the most popular ones. You may want to experiment to see what works best for you but here is a schedule of these supplements if you had access to all of these you may want to experiment to see which combinations work best for you.

Here is a schedule that you could follow if you were using these six supplements
Morning
40 Grams of Protein
2-3 Grams of Arginine
This is needed to supply the body with protein and amino acids after 8 hours fasting this will help prevent any muscle breakdown. The Arginine help dilate blood vessels when exercising and helps boost levels of growth hormone

Pre Workout
3-5 Grams of Creatine
20 Grams of Protein
40 Grams of Carbohydrate.
5 Grams BCAA
Creatine is taken pre workout to help boost strength and endurance with the whey protein as well and the carbohydrate to provide energy. During exercise you body may turn to amino acids for fuel BCAAs stop the body from turning to muscle tissue for fuel and may also stimulate faster fat burning.

Post Workout
3-5 Grams of Creatine
40 Grams of Protein
40 Grams of Carbohydrate.
5 Grams BCAA
The body is under stress and needs to start to recover the protein is utilized by the body to help repair muscle tissue and the carbohydrate help replenish energy levels from exercise. The creatine helps improve strength and endurance. BCAAs also provide fuel for recovering muscle as they are readily absorbed into the bloodstream.

Sleep Time
40 grams of Protein
2-3 grams of Arginine
Before you go to sleep you need to endure your body has adequate protein for 8 hours, carbohydrate is avoided at this time to prevent it being converted to fat. The Arginine helps boost growth hormone levels during sleep.

This should hopefully serve as a guide to then is the best time to take certain supplements you may want to experiment with different amounts or adding other supplements and you don't have to use all the ones listed here. Just one or two at the roper times can help with your progress and it is still essential to have a good diet and to weight train proper supplements aid you they will not do all the work.