1. Allmax Nutrition
2. Champion Nutrition
3. EST
4. Nutrabolics
5. Tapout Sports Nutrition
6. Enzymedica
7. Olimp
8. USN
9. Magnum Nutraceuticals

If you have used supplements from any of these brands before, please tell everyone what you thought, by leaving your comments below. Otherwise, make sure you check back soon, to look out for our special offers during the week we launch the new products.

Regards,

Martin.

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Football is an intense sport, which requires high level of aerobic ability and physical strength. Most amateur footballers perform regular aerobic workouts in the form of shuttle runs, short sprints, circuit training, etc. to maintain fitness levels and endurance, but do not even consider strength training. If you are one of these people, then now is the time to act, because you are not allowing your body to reach it’s true football potential in terms of strength, speed and power. Think about it… who is the best footballer in the world right now? Wayne Rooney, Ronaldo, Messi, Kaka? All of these players have one thing in common – speed, strength and power – especially Rooney. To raise your game and be more like these world class players, you need to include regular anaerobic exercise into your weekly routine. This would improve your shot power, strength on the ball, strength in the air and running speed. Lifting weights for 45 minutes twice per week should be sufficient to achieve the results, without resulting in over training your body. The most effective style of training for increased strength and power is using multiple joint movements, for 8-10 slow, controlled, continuous, smooth reps as below.

Anaerobics: Stick with The Big Movements for the Big Results!

Multiple joint movements include deadlifts, squats, dips, pullups, rows and presses, which increase strength dramatically, when performed with progressive weight over several weeks. Start light, to avoid injury, then aim to increase weight by 2-3% per week on all exercises. Train your legs on a day where the following day is rest, or you will feel slow and lethargic. Train your upper body any day, except the day before a football match. It is always best to have a days rest before a match, to allow the body to recover fully from previous training session. Perform 8-10 high intensity work sets per training session (after sufficient warm ups). Don’t bother with isolation exercises like curls, raises or extensions, they won’t do anything for football.

Enhance your Natural Ability with Protein Shakes!

To enhance results significantly, it is highly recommended that you add a >strong>protein powder to your daily diet, to increase recovery and to provide the nutrients to your muscle for growth and repair. Whey protein is a low cost, high quality product that can be used as many times per day as required and will not make you fat. A typical footballer, wanting increased strength, speed and power should consume 1g of protein for every pound of their bodyweight per day, i.e. if you weigh 180lbs, consume 180g of protein per day. It is best to split this protein up over 6 equal servings, i.e. 30g per meal, as your body needs a constant supply of protein every 2-3 hours, or it will resort to breaking down your muscles for protein. If you eat a healthy, high protein breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, then having a protein shake mid-way between each of these meals will provide your body with the required nutrients to retain existing muscle and build new muscle as well. It can be a good idea to buy a protein shaker cup to mix your protein shakes when you are away from home and don’t have access to a blender. All you do is add 1-2 scoops, add some water, shake for 10-20 seconds and drink!

The Premiership and Protein Shakes

I would be very surprised if there are any Premiership footballers out there who do not use protein shakes at least 2-3 times per day. So, the question is – how are you ever going to get to their level, if you don’t even give your body a sporting chance?

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The front page headline of the Metro today said “Stored vitamins go off in a week“. The Metro article was based upon some recent US research that could have a serious affect on the £600m/year vitamin and health supplements industry. The research stated that whilst the vitamins can become degraded, the product will still be safe to use, but less effective.

Before you start worrying that your supplements are no longer effective, it should be noted that the research is based upon supplements that are kept in humid locations, such as the kitchen or the bathroom. When the lids are taken off, the moisture from the humid atmospheres enters the tub and can destroy the product. Most people keep supplements in the kitchen, which is fine, as long as you only take the lids off when the window is open and the humidity is normal, i.e. not when you are cooking. Also, make sure your hands are dry, to avoid allowing any water into the tubs.

Don’t throw your Supplements Away!

If you have protein supplements with added vitamins and minerals at home in your kitchen or bathroom and you think that they have been affected, then don’t throw them away, just continue using them as protein supplements. You will still get the benefit from the protein, just not the vitamins.

Avoid Vitamin Degradation with Meal Replacement Shakes

To avoid these problems altogether, you could consider using meal replacement supplements – which are loaded with vitamins and minerals and come in individual sachets. This means that as soon as you open the sachets, they will be mixed, then consumed, meaning no time for degradation of the vitamins.

One last thing… don’t believe everything you read in the papers, it could all be hype! Either way, avoid the moisture!

Regards,

Gareth

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Six Pack Abs

The average person probably does not want to look like a bodybuilder, probably far from it. In general, the majority of people probably just want to increase their overall tone, strength and fitness. Having toned six pack abs is probably the biggest goal for most people. Training for a six pack is easy and it only takes a few weeks for the muscles to develop… the hard part is burning off the fat above your abs to make them visible. To make your abs visible, your body fat level needs to be reduced to around 8-10%.

Reduce your body fat using these Diet Tips

To reduce your bodyfat to reveal your abs, you have to do the following with your diet:

1. cut out all sugars from your diet
2. consume the same amount of calories every day (about 12 times your bodyweight in pounds)
3. split your daily calories over 6 equal calorie meals
4. increase protein intake
5. drink 8-10 glasses of water per day

Bingeing on sugary foods, drinking beer, missing breakfast, etc. will stop you getting any results, so don’t do it. Consistency is the main thing when reducing body fat. Aim to lose around 1% body fat every fortnight and do not judge results by your weight. You may lose 2 pounds of fat, but gain 2 pounds of muscle in a week, resulting in zero weight loss, although this would still be good progress.

Getting there now… Just add a little Exercise!

The above diet advice, when followed 100% would improve your physique. However, the diet would work better still when combined with exercise. Subtle changes could make all the difference. Here are some tips:

1. Perform aerobics 3-5 times per week, first thing on a morning before breakfast, but after a cup of green tea (no milk or sugar). This could be as easy as taking a brisk walk to work instead of driving – aim for 20-30 minutes.
2. Perform anaerobics 3 times per week. This means go to the gym and lift medium to heavy weights. Only use multiple joint exercises, performing just 10-12 high intensity sets per workout. Each set should be 8-12 reps, each lasting 4 seconds, with no stopping or locking out. Complete your workout within 45-50 minutes and consume a post workout shake immediately after your workout.

If you feel as though you are getting too muscly, just raise the number of reps that you do on the weights to 12-15, meaning you will then be targeting different muscle fibers that do not get as big.

…And finally, use Supplements to make your goals more Achievable!

There are 3 parts to this advice, i.e. diet, aerobics and anaerobics. Your diet is probably the hardest part to follow and is where most people would fail. To counter this, I would suggest eating a small bowl of unsweetened porridge with semi skimmed milk and/or water every day for breakfast and using a low calorie meal replacement shake for when you do not have the time or effort to eat a proper meal. It is surprising how well meal replacement shakes can satisfy your hunger, so give them a try if this is something you struggle with. I personally recommend CNP Professional’s meal replacement products, with Pro-MR suitable for men and Pro-MS suitable for women. Let me know how you get on, or if you have any questions.

(Note: the above advice is based upon vast amounts of research and experience, both personal and external and will work. I haven’t backed up my recommendations because it would have made this article 4-5 times as long and people would lose interest)

Regards,

Brian

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As a general rule of thumb, when following a mass gain diet, you will need to consume 15 to 20 calories for every pound you weigh, per day. If you have a slow metabolism, consume 15 times and if you have a fast metabolism, consume 20 times. Obviously you would have to tweak this number to suit your individual requirements. When following a cutting diet, consume 10-15 calories for every pound you weigh, again tweaked to suit your individual requirements.

However, calories are just one part of the recipe for optimum lean mass gains and cutting without losing muscle. You also have to ensure that your calories are based upon a macronutrient split of 50/30/20 for mass building. This means that 50% of your calories should come from carbs, 30% from protein and 20% from fat.

For example, if an individual weighs 180 pounds and wants to gain weight, in the form of lean muscle mass, without gaining weight and has a fast metabolism, then they would need 180 x 20 = 3600 calories per day. A macronutrient split of 50/30/20 would mean that 0.5 x 3600 = 1800 calories from carbs per day, 0.3 x 3600 = 1080 calories from protein per day and 0.2 x 3600 = 720 calories from fat per day. Bearing in mind protein and carbs are both around 4 calories per gram and fat is 9 calories per gram, it follows that in this example, the individual would need 1800/4 = 450g of carbs per day, 1080/4 = 270g of protein per day and 720/9 = 80g of fat per day.

For best results these nutrients should be spread evenly over 6-8 meals per day. So, continuing the example over 8 meals per day, each meal would need to contain approximately 450/8 = 56g of carbs, 270/8 = 34g of protein and 80/8 = 10g of fat. Further, carbohydrates should always be low GI, other than during and post workout, protein should be complete (i.e. chicken, beef, turkey, tuna, salmon, milk, whey protein, micellar casein, etc.) and fats should be from healthy sources, such as flax seed oil, olive oil, fish, etc.

If all of the above numbers have left you feeling confused, leave your comments below and if demand is high enough, I will provide a calorie and macronutrient calculator!

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Protein Supplements Requirements

If you want to consistently and progressively improve your physique, you will need 1-2 good protein supplements as well. My advice would be to have a whey protein shake with every meal lacking in protein (usally all meals except your evening meal), have a micellar casein protein supplement before bed (with 1-2 slices of wholemeal toast) and if you only eat 3-4 times per day, increase this to 6 meals per day by using high protein meal replacement shakes.

Whey protein supplements are most easily digested, but don’t use more than 20g every 2-3 hours or the extra protein will be used as energy, or stored as fat. Micellar casein protein supplements digest slowly, ensuring a steady stream of nutrients are bing digested up to 7 hours into the night. Meal replacement powders can be used 2-3 times per day, between regular meals.

Protein Supplements ensure that instead of losing muscle, you just Gain Muscle

Your body needs protein every 2-3 hours, or it starts using it’s own stores, i.e. your muscles – this is called a negative nitrogen balance, when your body is in a muscle losing state. It is therefore essential that you consume your protein every 2-3 hours during the day, to keep your body in a positive nitrogen balance, where your body is in a muscle gaining state. It is then up to you to perform progressively higher intensity exercise, which will result in progressive muscle gains.

Regards,

Martin.

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Myoplex Diet Bars

Myoplex Diet Bars, from EAS, are a convenient, great tasting, low calorie snack bar, ideal for anyone wanting to lose weight. The idea is simple, eating 5 or 6 small nutritious meals per day, whilst staying within your calorie limits boosts metabolism, regulates insulin levels, increases absorption of nutrients and increases energy. Myoplex Diet Bars can act as 3 of your small meals per day, when eaten between normal meals, keeping your daily diet as simple as breakfast, lunch and dinner, with myoplex diet bars in between. A good way of understanding this approach to fat loss, is that when you eat nutritious meals so often throughout the day, your body thinks there is an abundance of food available and there is less need to hold on to your long term energy stores, i.e. body fat! Exercise will increase your fat loss abilities, by burning off more calories and raising your metabolism further, but is not essential.

Typical Daily Diet For Fat Loss, Using Myoplex Diet Bars

1. 7am – Small bowl of porridge oats in semi skimmed milk and 1 banana
2. 9:30am – Myoplex Diet Bar
3. 12pm – Lean meat, cheese or tuna salad sandwich in 2 slices of wholemeal bread and 1 apple
4. 2:30pm – Myoplex Diet Bar
5. 5pm – Small Evening Meal
6. 7:30pm – Myoplex Diet Bar

The above diet will be approximately 1500 calories, but you need to tweak your own diet to suit your weight loss requirements. A good rule of thumb is to consume 10 calories per day for every pound of bodyweight, when trying to lose weight. See below:

Why Myoplex Diet Bars?

Other than the convenience of being able to carry a great tasting diet bar around with you, when away from home, Myoplex Diet Bars are also a highly nutrtitious food supplement. Each bar provides 18g of high quality, slow releasing and highly digestible protein, 27g of carbs to provide energy and 8g of good fats, resulting in just 246 calories. The bars are designed to provide the perfect combinations of macronutrients for weight loss, whilst also helping increase muscle tone. Also included in each bar are 24 vitamins, minerals, trace elements and prebiotic fibres, which optimise bodily functions and improve health. Myoplex Diet Bars are our most popular weight loss bars and you can buy them from our store with free UK delivery, at low cost, with multibuy discounts and customer reward points, see Myoplex Diet Bars product description.

Please note: The advice in this article is intended to give readers the information need to lose mainly body fat, resulting in overall weight loss, to achieve a more athletic toned appearance, rather than a skinny-fat look. Also, there are possibly quicker ways of losing weight, which are doomed to failure – this advice is more about achieving progressive, continued, sustainable weight loss in a healthy way, making you feel good and your weight should only be checked monthly, on a morning, before breakfast, for accurate results. I’m sure you will be happy!

Regards,

Brian

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Are you a competitive sports man or woman, wanting the extra edge over your rivals or opponents? Then why not consider using sports supplements? Sports supplements are intended to address your nutritional shortcomings, thereby boosting your athletic abilities. Below are some examples of sports supplements and when they would be required.

Protein Supplements for Sports People

Whey Protein

The protein requirements of a sports person can be more than double that of the average person, to build and maintain muscle speed, power & endurance. To address this, you can eat a lot more fish, chicken, eggs, beef, etc. which would mean a lot more food shopping, cooking, eating and washing up along with a big increase in your daily calories, leading to a possible increase in body fat. Or, you could supplement your existing diet with a whey protein shake 2-3 times per day, typically costing just £0.35 per serving and only containing 100 calories per serving.

Creatine Supplements for Vegetarians

Micronised Creatine

Another example would be a sports person who is a vegetarian, as their diets do not include foods such as beef, which contain creatine. Creatine is required by the body, for use in the muscles during high intensity physical activity. If your diet is lacking in Creatine, your performance will also be lacking. Creatine has undergone more research than any other supplement and is has been shown to give no adverse side affects, other than an increase in muscle size, strength and power. However, as more water will be drawn to the muscle when supplementing with Creatine, it is essential that you drink 8-10 glasses of water per day, to avoid dehydration. Creatine gives best results for vegetarians, but it also gives results to non-vegetarians, making it one of the best dietary supplements available for any physical sport, with noticeable speed and strength improvements within 7 days.

Meal Replacement Shakes for Sports People with Poor Diets

CNP Meal Replacement

A third example would be a sports person who does not manage to get enough fruit and veg, or protein in their diets. The answer would be to supplement your diet with a meal replacement shake in between regular meals. A typical meal replacement shake contains around 40g of protein as well as 100% of the RDA of most vitamins and minerals. As meal replacement shakes are in liquid form, the nutrients are absorbed better than regular multivitamins that come in tablet form. Vitamins and minerals are required by your body for important processes, and, as they cannot be stored by the body, they needed to be included in your daily diet.

Where Can You Buy Sports Supplements in the UK?

A complete range of sports supplements, including protein shakes, creatine and meal replacement shakes are available at low cost, with free UK delivery from our Sports Supplements website.

Regards,

Martin

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CNP Pro Solo

Pro Solo Overview

CNP Pro Solo is an “all-in-one” bodybuilding supplement, which contains all of the main ingredients required by the body to gain lean muscle size and strength. All-in-one supplements are the most convenient and cost effective way of meeting the nutritional requirements of busy people involved in high intensity sports and bodybuilding. This enables people who do not have the time or the desire to use several different supplements throughout the day to get all the nutrients they need from a quick shake in the morning and another in the evening.

Why Pro-Solo?

Pro Solo is manufactured by CNP Professional, who are a well established bodybuilding & sports supplements company, with a very large following. They have built their reputation based upon the quality of their products and their research into protein absorption and protein synthesis. Pro Solo is one of CNP’s most recent products, which was only first released in 2009, as a rival product to Maximuscle Cyclone and Reflex One Stop, which have both been around for quite a few years now. The difference with Pro Solo is that it has been designed to be a better product and give better results than the competition. When comparing all-in-one ingredients, most have 25-30g of protein and 5g creatine, with variations on the remaining ingredients. This is where Pro Solo stands out, as it contains 8 additional muscle building ingredients, each of which are described below.

Pro Solo Ingredients & Benefits

CNP Pro Solo Serving Size, Flavours & Cost

Pro Solo comes in Strawberry and Choclate Orange flavours in a 1.2Kg tub, providing 20 servings, lasting 10 days when used twice daily – you can expect significant muscle gains within 10 days with this product. Pro Solo is available with free next day delivery from our website, when ordered before 2pm. Also, we will price beat any genuine UK delivered price on this product! To see the product page, click here – CNP Pro Solo

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Whey protein is made from milk and is a by-product of the cheese making process. It is freeze dried and put through various treatments to remove lactose and fat, with natural and/or artificial colours and flavours added for taste and appearance. Drinking whey protein shakes is better than drinking milk, as milk contains a lot of sugar and fat, which means for every 20g of protein from whey protein powder, you would need to drink over a pint of milk, at 2-4 times the calories depending upon whether you use skimmed, semi-skimmed or whole milk. The extra calories from the sugars and fats in milk are likely to lead to the accumulation of unwanted body fat.

How Is Whey Protein Used Efficiently?

To gain lean muscle, when weight training, it is recommended that you consume at least 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day, split over 6 meals. For a 12 stone (168 pound) individual, following a weight training programme, requiring 168g of protein per day, results can be massively improved by supplementing with whey protein. Each meal would need to include 28g of protein and as you cannot eat tuna or chicken 6 times per day, you basically supplement the low protein meals with 20g of whey protein, to reach your daily target. You could literally consume a whey protein shake with every meal, as long as you are still eating a complete diet with plenty of fruit, veg, wholemeal bread, rice, cereal, etc.

The mistake that many people make is that they supplement with 40g of whey protein at a time, which can be wasteful, as 20g of whey protein is the optimum amount in terms of digestion and absorption (subject to genetics), not to mention that consuming too much protein de-sensitises the body to protein and provides additional calories.

The Cost of Supplementing with Whey Protein

A 25g scoop of whey protein generally provides 20g or protein, with a very small amount of carbs and fat and based upon the cost of CNP Whey Protein, which is a high quality and affordable whey protein supplement. Each serving costs just £0.35, which works out to be less than 2 pence per gram of protein, meaning that it is the cheapest (and best) source of protein available, whether from normal food or supplements, whilst providing positive health benefits, such as boosting the immune system.

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