Get ready for a proper workout
Are you ready for a proper workout with C4 Original – a classic no-nonsense pre-workout powder? C4 Original is packed with nine top ingredients including caffeine to enhance focus and alertness, and creatine to increase high-intensity performance. Vitamin C, B6, and B12 reduce fatigue and support energy-yielding metabolism. C4 Original Pre-Workout 60 To top it off C4 Original also includes arginine AKG, N-acetyl L-tyrosine, and the premium beta-alanine form CarnoSyn®. Available in a range of great-tasting flavors.
Whether your goal is to increase muscle strength or size, we’ve taken the guesswork out of supplement shopping with the best products to help you get as big and strong as possible
Caffeine, one of the most popular pre-workout ingredients, is commonly found in tea and coffee and is proven to increase your endurance performance.
To get the best results take 3 mg/kg bodyweight at least one hour prior to exercise but make sure you avoid other caffeine for at least 24 hours beforehand. Combined, the mental and physical benefits of caffeine give you the energy, focus and drive to succeed!
If you’re a serious strength or physique athlete, you’ve surely heard that supplements can help you get the most from your intense training sessions and on-point diet.
But which supplements? The market is overstuffed like a bodybuilder in a child’s blazer! You might be tempted to wander through a digital forest of get-big blogs and personal guru websites,
but unfortunately those places can often be rife with misinformation.
Fortunately,
we’re here to set the record straight. Knowing what to take, how much to take, and when to take it will help you squeeze every ounce of results from your hard work,
so let’s zero in on the right supplement stack for your needs.
If your goal is to get as big and strong as possible, these eight products will help you do it.
Knowing what to take, how much to take, and when to take it will help you squeeze every ounce of results from your hard work, so let’s zero in on the right supplement stack for your needs.
Creatine Monohydrate
This muscle-building, power-enhancing supplement has an extremely high safety profile and a plethora of evidence to support its efficacy.
Creatine supplementation works by increasing the availability of creatine and phosphocreatine (PCr) within the muscle, helping to maintain energy during high-intensity exercise such as weightlifting. Furthermore, increasing the availability of PCr may help speed up recovery between sets.
Long-term creatine supplementation appears to enhance the quality of resistance training, generally leading to 5-15 percent greater gains in strength and performance.[1]
Recommended dose: The fastest way to increase muscle creatine stores is to follow the loading method of 20 grams per day for 5-7 days,
followed by the standard maintenance dose of 5 grams per day. However, a lower dose of 5 grams for 28 days will also increase creatine stores without causing the 2-4 pound weight gain typically seen with a loading protocol.
Caffeine
Caffeine may be the most widely used stimulant in the world, and for good reason. It has repeatedly been shown to be an effective ergogenic aid in both endurance exercise and high-intensity activity. However, when it comes to strength performance, the effects of caffeine are a little muddier.
Recommended Dose
While there’s some research suggesting caffeine consumption prior to resistance training can increase one-rep max (1RM) for the bench press,
other studies have found no strength benefits from caffeine.
That being said, caffeine has been shown to decrease rates of fatigue and lower perception of effort,
which may be of benefit during high-intensity, high-volume workouts, or if you just need a little pick-me-up before hitting the weights.
Recommended Dose: 150-300 milligrams 30-60 minutes before your workout.
Branched Chain Amino Acids
If you’re a strength athlete or bodybuilder,- we can’t think of a single reason not to take BCAAs during your workout.
- Besides the fact that they taste delicious, sipping on BCAAs between sets may help speed up the recovery and repair processes after a tough workout.
A 2010 study published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and
Exercise Metabolism found that participants who ingested BCAAs at 100 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight,
or about 9 grams for a 200-pound individual, experienced significantly less muscle soreness and damage following a high-volume squat protocol.[5]
It appears that BCAAs, especially leucine, help to regulate protein metabolism by promoting protein synthesis and suppressing protein degradation,
which may improve recovery of muscles damaged during resistance training.
Recommended Dose: 6-10 grams before or during your workouts.
Citrulline Malate
Citrulline malate (CM) was originally marketed as an “antifatigue” supplement. In fact, if you were to travel back in time about 40 years
, you’d find CM being prescribed to treat both mental and physical fatigue in post-surgery patients. More recently, CM has become popular for its performance-boosting effects.
The benefits seen with CM supplementation are most likely attributed to the synergistic combination of both L
-citrulline and malate, which may help to increase rates of ATP during exercise, followed by increased rates of PCr recovery after exercise.
Previous investigations have shown that a single dose of CM (8 grams) increased the number of repetitions .
performed during an upper-body resistance training protocol and reduced soreness at 24 and 48 hours post-exercise (compared to a placebo).
7 Recently, researchers from Mississippi State University found that a single dose of CM (8 grams) significantly increased the number of lower-body repetitions compared to a placebo group.
CM may be beneficial in improving exercise performance during upper- and lower-body multiple-bout resistance exercise in resistance-trained men.
Recommended Dose: 8 grams of CM taken 60 minutes before exercise
No Boosters
Nitrate-rich foods like beets, radishes, and pomegranates are a great way to boost the production of nitric oxide (NO). Although there’s very limited research examining the effects of beet root juice and pomegranate extract on resistance training.
these ingredients have previously been shown to increase skeletal muscle blood flow and lead to reduced soreness,
which may ultimately lead to improvements in strength and performance.