A little off topic here, but kind of related to our post about starting a supplements business, I thought I would post this extract from Wikipedia about setting prices, as it seems to resemble the pricing structure in the supplements industry…

A Technical Look at Pricing, Resembling the Supplements Industry

“According to neoclassical price-determination theory and game theory, the independence of suppliers forces prices to their minimum, increasing efficiency and decreasing the price determining ability of each individual firm. However, if firms collude to increase prices loss of sales is minimized as consumers lack alternative choices at lower prices. This benefits the colluding firms at the cost of efficiency to society.

One variation of this traditional theory is the theory of kinked demand. Firms face a kinked demand curve if, when one firm decreases its price, other firms will follow suit in order to maintain sales, and when one firm increases its price, its rivals are unlikely to follow, as they would lose the sales’ gains that they would otherwise get by holding prices at the previous level. Kinked demand potentially fosters supra-competitive prices because any one firm would receive a reduced benefit from cutting price, as opposed to the benefits accruing under neoclassical theory and certain game theoretic models such as Bertrand competition.”

Profit Margins for new Supplements Sites

That’s right, you start a supplements business, set your prices, feel upset at the low profit margins, then see other sites selling cheaper. You reduce your prices, virtually eliminating profit to match other sites, then you see other sites selling cheaper still. To match their prices you would make a loss. The only way you can increase your profit margins is to increase sales volumes to get better prices from the manufacturers, but that is never going to happen when other more popular sites are cheaper. Like in my other article about starting a supplements business, I’m not saying it’s impossible, but you need to be realistic about your expectations.

Over time, the industry is becoming ever more saturated and since the recession, profit margins are getting squeezed from every angle in terms of shipping, VAT, merchant fees, packaging, etc. and it would be a massive task for anyone to start from scratch and compete with the biggest sites.

I’m not trying to falsely put people off launching their own site here, I’m simply trying to help like minded people. We receive 2-3 emails per week from individuals replying to our other post (link above) saying they have “a plan”, are extremely dedicated, know SEO, etc. and ask various questions, stating that they are going to go for it no matter what, all believing they will succeed. At least they take our comments on board and consider things they may not have even know existed.

The Supplements Layer Cake

The supplements industry resembles the analogy made to the drug suppliers in the film Layer Cake in that there are higher and higher levels of companies, from the biggest US Manufacturers down through major importers, smaller importers, supplements companies, smaller supplements companies, supplements shops and finally dropshippers. They all want a slice of the profits, with the biggest profits at the top of the cake… collusion springs to mind! We are at a good place in the Supplements Layer Cake, somewhere in the middle and we therefore welcome newcomers to the industry, as after making initial contact, some of them go on to order their supplements from us, or even dropship through us… “It doesn’t mattter. It’s all profit” – Ray Liotta, Goodfellas.

Regards,

Martin, Promart Supplements

Top 50 Bodybuilding Tips

Below is a list of the Top 50 Bodybuilding Tips, covering training, lifestyle, diet and supplementation for bodybuilders. Applying these tips to your bodybuilding programme will improve your results significantly.

Training Tips For Bodybuilding

1. Do not spend more than 60 minutes in the gym, or your body will start releasing a stress related hormone called cortisol, which is associated with muscle loss. The 60 minute rule applies to any high intensity exercise.
2. Remember that bodybuilding is an art and requires serious concentration to achieve a proper mind muscle link. The mind-muscle link is important for recruiting muscle fibers when lifting heavy weights. Over time, with practice, you should be able to recruit more muscle fibers from each muscle, allowing you to lift more weight on each exercise. There are lots of ways of improving the mind muscle link, but the most memorable is the quote by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Pumping Iron.
3. To continually build more muscle, you need to keep increasing the intensity of your training. It is therefore essential to your progress as a bodybuilder that you achieve maximum intensity in each and every work set at the gym. I personally recommend the views of Dr Darden (Massive Muscles in 10 Weeks, HIT, etc.), Stuart McRobert (Braun series of books) and Dorian Yates (Blood N Guts book).


Lift Free Weights, including Presses, Rows, Squats and Deadlifts

4. Use an ever increasing training intensity, suited to yourself. For someone who hasn’t been to the gym in the last few months, just going is ‘high intensity’. After a month or two, supersets are worthwhile. After supersetting for a couple of months, include drop sets, pre-exhaustions, timed sets, post-exhaustions, super slow sets and everything you can imagine on every work set. Training to a higher intensity than your body is used to signals your body to grow more muscle. Training to too high an intensity too quickly can leave you overtrained, which makes you feel like you have flu and is awful.
5. Every 3-4 weeks, perform a testosterone boosting workout, followed by 3 days rest for maximum results. By this, I mean go to the gym and do 10 sets of super slow full squats, starting with a weight that allows 12 slow, controlled reps for your first set and adding weight each set until you can only manage 2-3 reps on your 6th or 7th set. Then, reduce weight and increase reps again up until your 10th and final set. Take a 90 second rest between sets and complete the workout within 20-30 minutes.
6. Finish each workout with a fast set of 100 light, fast, controlled reps on a body part worked in your previous workout, i.e. if you trained your back Monday, then on Wednesday you train your legs, then end your leg workout with a set of 100 light pulldowns, aiming for a maximum muscular burn. Not only does this send blood to your recovering muscles, but it gives your body a GH (Growth Hormone) boost, which helps muscle growth and fat loss.
7. Go heavy. Heavy weights lifted with correct form are key to overloading the muscles, leading to hypertrophy.
8. Use a smooth, slow rep cadence. This helps avoid injury and makes your target muscles do the work, rather than momentum and avoids sticking points on exercises leading to plateaus in progress.
9. Emphasize the negative part of your reps for maximum muscle gains. 1 rep super slow sets, such as a 1 minute-rep on the pullups, i.e. 20 seconds in positive phase and 40 seconds in negative phase, really work the muscles and give big results.
10. Build your training routines around the big multiple joint movements, such as squats, deadlifts, weighted pullups, weighted dips, rows and presses. Increase your reps and weights on these exercises and you are guaranteed to see muscle gains. Don’t worry about isolation exercises until you are 6 months away from competition. I’m not saying don’t do isolation exercises, I am saying that if you do isolation exercises, do them at the end of your workouts, keeping them under 60 minutes and don’t do more than 2-3 sets.
11. A true high intensity workout should involve no more than 12-18 actual work sets. If you can do more than this, then you aren’t trying hard enough. Each work set should leave you out of breath, sweating, maybe a little light headed due to blood flow to muscles, etc. and 12-18 sets will leave you feeling very tired.


Full range squats and deadlifts with good form are the biggest overall muscle building exercises. Get stronger on these exercises and overall strength and muscle mass will increase significantly.

12. For some reason, many people avoid training their legs, despite them being the biggest muscle in your body and having a big effect on overall progress. If your legs are lagging behind and you struggle to achieve high intensity on the legs, then start your next three workouts with this superset:
    1. leg press (10-12 reps to complete failure); immediately followed by
    2. leg extensions (9-10 reps to absolute failure will hurt badly); immediately followed by
    3. full squats (8-10 reps to absolute failure)

    Gains of 1 inch on the quads in one week are possible.

13. Warm up for each work set by performing 1-3 sets with 20%, 40% and 60% of your work set weight. Do not reduce your work set ability, but feel the movement and prepare yourself mentally for the work set.
14. Use a full range of movement for each and every exercise, without stressing your joints. Follow this principle 95% of the time, other than for forced reps at the end of a set.
15. Use partial reps occasionally, to allow your body to feel a heavier weight for maximum overload, or to achieve more reps on the same weight, for bigger muscle pumps
16. Perform light cardio sessions first thing on a morning before breakfast for maximum fat burning. Your hormone levels on a morning place your body in the perfect environment for fat loss and seeing as your glycogen levels will be depleted from not eating since the night before, the only energy source that can be used is (mainly) body fat. This will make you feel sluggish, but it really works. Keep the cardio low intensity, to avoid stressing your body, which would result in catabolism.
17. As a 2nd best alternative to early morning runs for fat loss, follow up your weights sessions (40 minutes) with a 20 minute cardio session. Again, glycogen levels will be depleted from your weights session and body fat will provide the main energy source for light cardiovascular exercise at this point.
18. Never miss a training session, no matter what the reason. As soon as you miss one session, the rot can set in and before you know it, you no longer go to the gym. In advance, check with your gym for closing times over bank holidays, Xmas and Easter, as you may need to find another gym for those periods.
19. Try and find a training partner, or better still, two training partners. It is not a social gathering though, you know that of course, but what about your training partners? Make sure they are as dedicated as you are. Incline dumbbell press drop sets are much better with two spotters. Also, seated dumbbell lateral raises, with your training partner pushing your elbows down on the negative phase are not possible on your own. This is a very good exercise!
20. Finish your routines with 3 sets of perfect form standing barbell curls, alternating between you and your training partner repping to failure. Start with a weight that allows 12-15 reps. Reps will reduce quickly and therefore rest reduces and you get a real burn and a massive pump in the biceps. Just make sure you don’t overtrain the biceps.
21. Don’t use weight gloves, use chalk. Weight gloves do protect your palms from blistering, but they make your grip less effective on heavy pulls, such as deadlifts. With chalk, your grip on the deadlifts should improve enough for you to increase the weight by at least 25%, without straps, as long as your back is strong enough.
22. The only exercise where partial reps are okay all the time is deadlifts. The bottom 10% of normal deadlifts for some individuals can be impossible without rounding the lower back. Use a power rack, or similar and put the bar on the lowest setting, so that you are pulling from your lower shins, rather than from the floor.
23. Keep your toes in line with your knees on the squats and leg press, or risk injuries.
24. Think of any big compound exercises you hate doing and are relatively weak at and start your next 10 workouts with 1 work set of that exercise, until it becomes one of your favoured exercises. Wide grip pullups, deadlifts and most back exercises are common for people to avoid. This is probably because a lot of gym goers are extremely vain and prefer to train their front, rather than their back, as they can see it in the mirror. Not you though, of course!

Lifestyle Tips for Bodybuilding

25. Keep motivated and track progress monthly with realistic goals and photos.


Sleep well, be happy, avoid stress and alcohol and your bodybuilding progress will be optimised

26. Avoid stressful situations, as stress related hormones are associated with a loss in muscle mass.
27. Ensure you get sufficient rest, by doing as little as possible during the day when you are out of the gym
28. Sleep 8 hours every night at the same times. People often say its what you do when you are out of the gym that makes you ‘big’. Eating a good high protein diet, drinking lots of water and getting plenty of sleep is what they mean. It is hard to follow a good diet, but it becomes routine after a few weeks and gets easier.
29. Obvious one here… don’t drink alcohol. If you must, then drink lots of water before during and after your night out, to avoid dehydration. Guinness is high in iron, so would be a better choice than vodka and red bull, etc. Gin & Tonic aint a bad choice either. If you are going to have a takeaway, then a chicken kebab with chilli sauce is better than a burger, etc. Don’t make habit of it though, or you will add a bit of flab to your muscles, making you just look big and round.

Diet Tips for Bodybuilding

30. Spread your daily calories out evenly over at least 6 meals per day, so that you ‘stay hungry’. This will help regulate your insulin levels and optimise and maximise nutrient absorption.


Tuna is a great source of protein, but limit yourself to 2-3 tins per week, or the high levels of mercury in tuna can be poisonous!

31. Ensure that each of your 6+ meals per day contain the same amount of protein, to reach your daily protein requirements. Too little protein per meal and your body may become catabolic, too much and it may de-sensitise your body to protein, as well as either being excreted as waste, or used as energy through a process called gluconeogenesis. Using protein shakes, protein powder or other protein supplements makes this task much easier.
32. Drink 3-4 cups of green tea per day for it’s anti-oxidant qualities as well as naturally burning an extra 100 calories per day.
33. Try this breakfast shake:
    1. 500ml water
    2. 1 banana
    3. sprinkle of sunflower seeds and pine seeds
    4. 1 cup of fine milled plain oats
    5. 1 scoop of whey protein

    Blend and drink quickly, before the oats settle. You may have to stir between sips, but it is the quickest way of consuming 100g of oats by far.

34. Consume enough protein per day to keep your body in an anabolic muscle building state. You can use a macronutrient calculator to work out your daily protein requirements.
35. Don’t eat more than 3-4 tins of tuna per week. Tuna is very high in mercury, which is toxic in sustained high doses and can seriously and permanently affect your health.
36. Fruit is good for you and your bodybuilding diet. However, due to the sugars in fruit, it is best to consume small servings of fruit, spread out throughout the day. Also, it is better to consume fruit before your meals, as it digests much quicker than regular food and would give you gas if eaten after a large meal.
37. Low fat cheddar cheese is low calorie and 30g of protein per 100g. Not bad on wholemeal toast!

Supplements Tips for Bodybuilding

38. Don’t buy your bodybuilding supplements from the supermarkets, they sting you with much higher prices, than online supplements stores.
39. For convenience, if you don’t have a post workout shake available, drink a pint of skimmed milk, as it is high sugar, high protein and low fat, making it ideal for this purpose.


Protein shakes, such as Cytosport Muscle Milk really taste great and can be enjoyed in many flavours

40. Use a hand held blender (available from most supermarkets for under £10) to mix your protein shakes in a measuring jug. All you do is dip the hand held blender in the top of the jug, blend for 15-20 seconds and your shake is ready. Swill the blender under the tap and it is ready for your next protein shake. Much less faffing about and washing up than using a proper blender!
41. Drink 8-10 glasses of water per day, to keep your body well hydrated. Dehydration can drastically affect physical performance, which means that your training sessions will be less intense.
42. Help your body avoid overtraining by eating a good diet, high in fruit and vegetables, wholegrains, rice, lean meats, fish and poultry.
43. Avoid sugary foods at all times except for before, during and after training, when glycogen levels are depleted, to avoid the accumulation of body fat. Your liver can only hold about 150g-200g of glycogen and any more will be excreted and/or stored as body fat. Also, sugary foods play havoc with your insulin levels, which in turn results in hunger pangs and a downward spiral with your diet.
44. Do not listen to all the sales hype on the internet about ‘supplements awards’, etc. 9 times out of 10, the company or magazine promoting a particular product or brand of supplements, usually owns the brand as well and the awards are more about self promotion.
45. Always consume a sugary high protein post-workout shake immediately after training, to restore glycogen levels and restore a positive nitrogen balance in the body to allow muscle gain, rather than muscle loss.
46. Use protein supplements, to achieve a high protein diet that is low in fat.
47. Use protein bars and high protein flapjacks for convenience, rather than missing meals when on the go
48. Use creatine supplements to increase reps and strength, resulting in higher intensity training, leading to hypertrophy of the muscles. You will gain weight whilst using creatine, mainly due to the increased hydration of the muscles. It is up to you to make sure you build muscle whilst using creatine, so that when you stop using it and normal hydration levels return, the net result is a quicker increase in muscle mass than could have been achieved without creatine.
49. Use multivitamin and mineral supplements to boost micronutrient intake throughout the day. Benefits include better protein absorption, transport and synthesis, as well as many other benefits.
50. Use nitric oxide supplements, such as Gaspari Superpump to increase strength during your training sessions and to achieve a bigger pump, allowing better nutrient transport in the muscles. Be warned that using nitric oxide supplements can lead to diarrhoea if you already consume excessive amounts of arginine from your protein shakes – the tolerable amount varies widely person to person.

Remember, it is a lot harder to build a world class physique than it is to lose it. That is good news though because that’s what sets you apart from the crowd. Only an elite group of individuals can become professional bodybuilders due to the level of determination required, as well as your genetic disposition.

This list is a ‘Work In Progress’, so any additional items, or improvements would be greatly appreciated. Please leave your comments and feedback below.

Regards,

Martin Procter
Promart Supplements

What is Myoplex?

Myoplex is a nutritional supplement manufactured by a US based company called EAS. Myoplex is available in many forms, such as bars, ready to drink shakes and powders, with varying amounts of nutrients, making them suitable for both people wanting to gain weight, tone up at the same weight or lose weight. What are the Benefits of Myoplex? Myoplex tastes really good in all forms, with the milkshakes tasting better than from fast food outlets, but not containing the sugars or fats. Myoplex is a high protein, low calorie supplement which provides 100% of your RDA of most vitamins and minerals Myoplex uses the MyoPro protein blend of Whey Protein Concentrate, Calcium Caseinate, Milk Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Isolate, Egg Albumin, Taurine And L-Glutamine which provides the optimum release of protein between meals, helping retain or gain muscle mass, without gaining fat. Myoplex comes in a variety of forms, with diet and lite versions of each product, for people who want to increase tone and lose fat at the same time, which is the number 1 aim for anyone trying to lose weight and look good, rather than skinny fat. Where Can You Buy Myoplex in the UK? Here at Promart Supplements, we stock a wide range of EAS Myoplex products. Our prices are the lowest in the UK, include Free Next Day Delivery and we also provide further discount options in the form of loyalty points, refer a friend, buy together and save and multibuy. Our Myoplex range of products are below: Myoplex Original Meal Replacement Powder (20 Sachets) Myoplex Deluxe Meal Replacement Powder (20 Sachets) Myoplex Diet Bars x 12 Myoplex Carb Sense Bars x 12 Myoplex Diet Meal Replacement Powder (20 Sachets) Myoplex Original Bars x 12 Myoplex Original Variety Pack – Meal Replacement Powder (42 Sachets) If you try Myoplex, you will love it. It tastes great and gives excellent results, both for people trying to gain muscle and people trying to lose fat, which is the reason why our Myoplex customers re-order so often. Give it a try today and start getting results tomorrow.

Regards,

Promart Supplements

What is best for athletes, sports people and bodybuilders: Sports Supplements or Good Food?

Without doubt, good food is always best. A good diet, which contains plenty of fruit, salad, vegetables, wholegrain cereal, wholemeal breads, rice and pasta, along with high protein foods, such as eggs, milk, fish, beef, turkey and chicken will always out-perform a supplement based diet. This is because eating a varied diet supplies your body with all of the macronutrients and micronutrients that your body needs, in their natural form. Also, these foods are likely to contain other nutrients that are unknown, or unresearched that have a positive effect upon the body. Compare this with someone who eats a poor diet containing greasy bacon sandwiches on white bread, crisps, chocolate, pasties, ready meals and takeaways, then boosts their protein intake by using protein shakes five or six times per day. Assuming genetics were comparable, the person with the good diet would always achieve higher performance leves and would most likely have a lower body fat level, lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure… not to mention better recovery times, more energy and better fitness.

What is the Point in Sports Supplements Then?

Sports supplements are intended for sports people, athletes and bodybuilders, who already have a good diet, but perhaps need to:

1. increase their protein intake, without adding to their calorie intake too much; or
2. require a fast absorbing energy drink before during and after exercise/sport to boost performance; or
3. want the extra strength and power that creatine would give; or
4. don’t have time to prepare and consume 6 healthy, high protein meals per day, so use meal replacement shakes between their regular meals; or
5. need to reach a higher intensity during training to achieve better results, so use Nitric Oxide.

The list of uses of sports supplements is endless and the positive benefits are seemingly limitless. The point we are trying to make though is that you should make sure you eat a good diet before you consider using sports supplements to boost performance. You could boost your performance much quicker by ensuring that your daily diet contains all of the types of foods mentioned at the top of the article and that you keep well hydrated. There is no reason why you can’t make the changes to your diet tomorrow and start using sports supplements as well, that would be the best of both worlds.

Sports Supplements and Good Food: Conclusion

1. Eat a good diet – every nutrient has it’s own process in the human body and when certain nutrients are lacking, so is your performance.
2. Keep Well Hydrated – dehydration, even slight dehydration can significantly affect performance.
3. Sleep Well – your body needs sufficient sleep anmd rest to perform optimally.
4. Be smart with Sports Supplements – don’t use them unless you are going to commit to using them continuously over time, or you will never appreciate their benefits. Figure out where your diet or performance could be improved most and buy a supplement to make the improvements. The following types of supplements come to mind: Protein Shakes, Meal Replacement Powders, Creatine, Nitric Oxide and Joint Protection supplements.

You can browse our range of supplements, by visiting our Sports Supplements website. Every product comes with free UK delivery.

Regards,

Martin.

Promart Supplements are now stocking several new brands of bodybuilding and sports supplements, which will be made available from our site over the coming weeks. These brands of supplements, which are mainly from the USA and Canade include:

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.

Want More Speed, Strength & Power?

Are you a competitive sports man or woman, wanting the extra edge over your rivals or opponents? Then why not consider using sports supplements such as protein shakes? 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

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

What are Sports Supplements?

Sports Supplements are products that are suitable for use by athletes and sports men and women, to enhance physical performance. Sports supplements are a subset of bodybuilding supplements, as sports supplements only make up about half of supplements available to bodybuilders. For example, whey protein supplements, creatine, energy drinks and fat burners are all types of sports supplements, but they are also bodybuilding supplements. Whereas, testosterone boosters, nitric oxide boosters and amino acids are types of bodybuilding supplements, but are not of much use as sports supplements.

Which Supplements are Suitable for which sports?

Below is table showing which sports supplements are suitable for which sports:

Why should you use Sports Supplements?

There is no reason for you to use sports supplements, other than to increase your performance. If you do not want to use them, don’t! But, be aware that your team mates, rival clubs and many other sports people are already using a combination of supplements that may be allowing them to overtake you in your chosen sport. If you want to catch up, or reach a higher level in your particular sport, then take a look at the table above and decide which sports supplements would be most useful for your particular circumstances. Make sure you leave your comments below, to show people how much sports supplements have helped you!

Sports Supplements, such as protein powders, were first introduced in the UK in the 1950s, which were made from milk. These sports supplements were used by bodybuilders of that era, but the products were very basic, with a lower bioavailability, poor mixability, poor taste and could cause stomach upsets. These protein powders were intended to allow bodybuilders and other athletes to consume more protein, which is needed to grow and maintain muscle mass, whilst keeping calories low, so that they didn’t gain excessive body fat at the same time.

Since the 1950s sports supplements steadily increased in popularity, up until the 1980s when they really took off, possibly related to the rise of movie stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Hulk Hogan, who were all known for their impressive physiques. Since then TV programmes, magazines, newspapers, etc. have all contributed to people becoming more and more aware of their physiques, leading to the sudden increase in gyms seen in the 1990s, such as the surge of new David Lloyd Centres and Bannatyne’s gyms. This has all led to an increase in awareness of supplements and an increase in their demand.

Over the past few years we have seen 100s of new bodybuilding and sports supplements companies being founded, with new products seemingly being released every day! However, people need to remember that supplements are not an alternative to eating a good diet, high intensity training, adequate rest and above all, consistency – they are intended to supplement your existing efforts, making results better and life easier.

The most popular, advanced, well known and thoroughly researched sports supplement is whey protein, which is basically the whey protein from milk, with the sugars and fats removed. All of the problems associated with mixability, taste, digestion, absorption, denaturisation, etc. that were experienced years ago with protein powders is no longer seen, due to advances in the extraction from milk and improvements in the production of the powders. In fact, most research into whey protein is now related to how it can boost the immune system and give significant positive health effects, but that is another story! If you are new to using sports supplements, then a whey protein powder is definitely the first supplement that you need, with CNP Professional’s Whey Protein being one of the best and giving best value for money.

Many other supplements are available these days which can help you reach whatever goal you require, but remember, supplements are just supplements. It is up to you to put in the hard work!

Regards,

Martin