livegirl started this discussion ·
What are people doing to increase their strength? Particularly beyond working out, but in the form of protein supplements? I do plenty of strength training and just dabbling in protein drinks lately. It's a stuggle for me to build and maintain muscle. Thanx!
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I bet you will get some wonderful responses here. I am not aware of food increasing strength but I am not trained in any nutrional or medical sciences so I know not what I speak of. That being said however... I peronally think of nutrition as building blocks that our bodies use to build upon. I try to get my protein from food sources but I supplement with shakes if I am not eating enough. Greek yogurt is a great food based form of protein and it has probiotics. My favorite protein powder is Vega Shake and Go in chocolate (plant based protein with probiotics and green foods). I have found when I pole a few hours a day I need about two servings of bread or cereal like carbs (anywhere throughout the day) to keep from feeling really fatigued. I also like fruits a few times a day to help to restore. Also tons of water! One extremely important element for your muscles to regenerate and to gain strength is adequate rest! Now that seems totally counterintuitive but I see it all the time. I look forward to following this thread to see what everyone has to say.
Great tips JeHanne, are you a vegetarian or vegan? I take a plant based protein supp as well but I do eat some fish and chicken. I'll be starting my conditioning soon. Taking all the tips I can get:-) Thanks for starting this thread livegirl.
Hi Wild Lotus, I have been a vegetarian before but at this time I am not. I do strive to get protein in every meal and most of my meails and snacks are not meat based. Breakfast is often greek yogurt and fruit. I do my dancing at night so I don't eat my carbs until lunch/late afternoon. We all have to find what works best for us! Can really be a lot of trial and error... has been for me.
Oh ok, I take Spirulina for added protein. My body likes it. Yeah and you're schedule kinda sounds like mine. I tend to do any dance stuff or yoga later in the day........and I'm doing better with hydrating as well since it plays a big part in flexibility. I'm wanting a good balance between strength and sexy flexy;-)
@wold Lotus what is Spirlina if you don't mind me asking....
Before looking into protein supplements make sure that the real food that you eat gives you as much quality nutrients as possible. If you're deficient in vitamins or minerals it will hinder your strength progress. Also you need a lot of protein from natural sources (meat, fish, eggs, milk products, ...). Protein supplements are just that ... supplements, not replacements! :-) I like protein powder for the times when I can't get any real protein. So directly after exercicing I have a shake. And if I bake healthy snacks they often contain protein powder ... just because meat would make an apple cinnamon bar taste weird 😀 JeHanne made an important point: Try to get some protein with every meal you have :-)
Well, I'll give you my advice and you can take out of it what you like. How's that? :) Eating a lot of protein is essential. You can build muscle without protein. I personally love to eat meat and dairy, so this isn't an issue for me. But usually what I try to do to maximize my protein intake is to eat small meals throughout the day. I'll have two eggs with some fruit for breakfast. Then maybe some nuts for a snack. Lunch is a salad with chicken breast. Then in the afternoon I'll usually have two snacks- a cup of Chobani yogurt which is 25% of your daily value of protein and then later a muscle milk light. It's only a hundered calories and is 30% of your daily value of protein. Dinner I usually have fish or a lean cut of beef with veggies and maybe a sweet potato or something. I'm not a huge fan of supplemental powders and that kind of thing. The muscle milk light is nice because it's portable and easy but our bodies utilize natural protein much better. In terms of weightlifting, you can maximize your muscle gain by using your fast twitch fibers rather than slow twitch fibers. Basically do reps of five with the maximum amount of weight. This stimulates your body to produce new muscle fibers and viola! More muscle.
That's really helpful. I agree with everyone here in keeping mostly to whole/real food sources of protein. I have a slight challenge in that I'm supposed to stay away from dairy, beef, eggs, soy, and beans!!! Totally sucks. But I can and do eat chicken and fish, tons of veggies, but hence my search for "supplements".... I can eat walnuts and drink flax milk. I'll check out muscle milk. I've been taking bio-chem's vegan protein powder which is made of pea and hemp protein, and juice plus, even though it's got whey. I guess I just need to "beef" up the protein sources I can and do already get from food and I love knowing that 5 reps of max weight us better than 15 reps of lesser weight. That's what I thought, but good to hear the explanation! Thank you! So more pole-ups and less dumb bells. I prefer that anyway ;) Thanks so much everyone, this is great feedback! Keep is coming, and keep poling strong all
