PROTIEN SUPPLEMENTS ARE NOT NECESSARY FOR BODY BUILDING.

By Daryl Laws / Special to the
Times-News
Published: Monday, February 11,
2013 at 15:41 PM.
Q: Do I need to use a protein
supplement or a pre-workout
energy supplement? The advice
of the bodybuilders in the gym,
one of whom has won the Mr.
Alamance, is that you can’t
grow without them.

A: No matter what the muscle
heads in the gym or the
advertising in the muscle
magazines "report," you will
grow tremendously just fine by
eating, as long as it’s the
nutrition your body needs. While
protein supplements are a
convenient option to assist you
in consuming the protein
necessary for consistent growth,
they are not a necessity.
The "Golden Rule" of protein
consumption is one gram of
protein per pound of body
weight. Bodybuilders, in their
efforts to force growth, will train
their muscles to a point of
exhaustion and use from 1.5 to
2.5 grams of protein per pound
of body weight.
For a 200-pound guy, this can be
300 to 500 grams of protein per
day. In the off-season, this is only
a portion of the 4,000 to 7,000
calories a day a bodybuilding
athlete may eat. Often this kind of
food intake may be necessary
considering the intensity of their
training, their body’s need to
recover, and in some instances,
PED use.
We had an 18-year-old kid who
came in weighing 168 pounds
and carried 8.9 percent body fat.
His protein use was maintained
at 190 to 200 grams a day. Only
40 grams of that came from
protein, a supplement with the
rest coming from food.
Additionally, he trained four to
five days a week, but on the days
he did not train, he didn’t use a
supplement. The majority of his
protein was from fish, chicken,
beef and eggs. He used a whey
protein supplement on training
days within 45 minutes after his
workout because of the easy
absorption rate of the whey
protein.
Exactly 12 months later, this kid
had increased his body weight
by 30 pounds to 198 and was
only 8.5 percent body fat. Lee
Haney didn’t use protein
supplements. After our workouts,
he would have two chicken
sandwiches on whole wheat
buns from the restaurant across
from his gym, "Animal Kingdom."
He won the pinnacle
bodybuilding title, Mr. Olympia,
eight times without supplements,
and the young man put on 30
pounds of muscle with limited
use of them.
While a useful tool, protein
supplements aren’t a necessity.
As for pre-workout energy
drinks, they are not even close to
a necessity. They can help you
achieve a good pump, but that’s
about it. The energy boost you
get is artificial and in time, they
tend to lose their effectiveness.
Eating healthy and training hard
will take you a long way toward
your goal. God bless and keep
training.
Daryl Laws is a certified personal
trainer and owner of Body
Unlimited Inc., 325 Holly Hill Lane,
Burlington, N.C. 27215. Contact
him at (336) 538-0012 or
daryllaws@aol.com