So on a scale of 1 to 10 for taste, I’d give it an 8/10.

Currently I’m going through a bottle of Ultimate Nutrition Prostar Whey, and I have to say that this is the worst tasting chocolate whey protein that I’ve had to date. I don’t know exactly what it is that is making this product taste so bad, but I literally have to choke down every glass that I drink of it. Something in this product is giving it a really bad aftertaste.

So when it comes to taste, I would have to give Prostar Whey a 1/10.

The Extra Pump

One of the major benefits that people always talk about with NO2 is the additional pump that you get from using the product. I admit that on my first workout or two of using NO-Xplode I definitely felt a better and longer pump than I usually do. But after about a week of using it I didn’t notice it as much.

As I’ve gone through different forums and sites I’ve seen the same concern all over the place. People tend to get a great pump feeling for the first week or two, but then that feeling soon fades.

In my mind this doesn’t mean that the product isn’t working. The way I look at it is that the body adjusts and so you don’t feel it as drastically as you did at first. I will say though that if I really push myself during my workout I do seem to feel a harder pump than I remember feeling before.

Alertness

I’m currently working out at 5am and admittedly, there are some mornings where the brain really isn’t working when I get up. But I have noticed that within a few minutes of taking NO-Xplode I am much more alert and ready to get to the gym. Since I work out so early this has been the most positive benefit for me.

Strength and Power

Another claim made by BSN is that using NO-Xplode will give you more strength and energy to power through your workouts. I don’t know if this is really due to the NO2 aspect of the supplement as much as the creatine and caffeine, but so far I have noticed that I’m able to get more reps out on most exercises.

Final Thoughts

Overall I think that NO-Xplode is a good product. I will say that I personally don’t recommend taking more than 1 scoop of it though. I get the jitters if I do.

For me the biggest benefit to using it has been the energy boost and mental focus that I have during my early morning workouts. If I was working out in the middle of the day or the evening I don’t think this would be as necessary, but for those of us that work out early it’s a great benefit.

Once I finish the bottle I’m using now I’ll go off it and see if I notice a difference after being off it for awhile.

Now I’d like to hear your thoughts on it. If you’ve used this product before, what has your experience been?

Over the last couple of years Dymatize has become one of my favorite brands. I personally feel they have one of the best tasting whey protiens around, along with other high quality products.

In case you aren’t familiar with this company, here is their history from their website:

Dymatize was founded In 1994 to supply the highest quality nutritional supplements to college, Olympic, and professional athletic programs around the world, from pro football, basketball, hockey and baseball teams, to U.S. government programs such as the US Naval Academy, We now supply more than 300 different programs with nutritional supplements. One advantage of supplying college athletic programs is that many have their own testing facilities where our products are constantly evaluated.

For this reason, we believe that Dymatize is the most independently tested brand of sports supplements available. Recently, Dymatize began offering the same products used by world class athletes to the general public. Since then, athletes at all levels have enjoyed the results they have achieved with Dymatize products. today, Our commitment to quality endures. developing and offering new cutting edge products along side our proven product line, we continue to be associated with the top quality products demanded by the top athletes of the world.

Production of Dymatize products takes place in two separate, brand new and state of the art manufacturing facilities. Spanning more than 45,000 square feet, these plants should serve Dymatize well into the future. Because of the cost, most nutrition companies do not own their own manufacturing plants, however, we felt it was a necessary investment in order to insure the quality of Dymatize products down to the smallest detail. With the purchasing, processing, blending, and packaging of our products under our direct control, we not only keep prices low, we ensure quality at every step. We believe the manufacturing of our own products in our own facilities is one very important reason Dymatize products enjoy such consistently high quality ratings.

If you haven’t given Dymatize products a try you could be missing out on some really high quality products. Visit the Dymatize page on SupplementPricing.com to find the best prices on some of their more popular muscle building supplements.

There are several bodybuilding supplements on the market that are considered to be the basics – supplements that just about everyone should consider using. One of those is glutamine (also known as l-glutamine). But what does it do and how can you benefit from it?

What is Glutamine?

Glutamine is one of the most abundant amino acids in the body. The body uses it to help with immune system function and other benefits which will be listed below. One that is very important to bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts is that glutamine plays a very important role in protein metabolism.

Benefits of Glutamine

One of the biggest benefits to supplementing with glutamine is that it can help reduce muscle deterioration after working out. In other words, it helps to prevent catabolism. You see, when you put your body under a lot of physical stress it tends to use up the glutamine in your muscles. By supplementing with glutamine you can help your body use the extra glutamine you are supplementing with rather than the glutamine stored in your muscles. This prevents the body from breaking down the muscles to replenish glycogen in the muscles.

Here are some other reported benefits of using glutamine:

• Supplementing with glutamine can help give your immune system a boost
• Glutamine can help increase growth hormone levels
• Glutamine is used to help maintain cell volume and hydration

With all of these benefits of using glutamine, you can see why it is commonly one of the most recommended muscle building supplements.

Who Should Consider Using It?

Normally glutamine is most used by bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts. But with the benefits listed above, it should not just be considered by them but by almost anybody! Think about it, this is a supplement that can help boost the immune system, replenish your muscles not just from workouts but from a hard day’s work.

But as with most supplements of this nature, the people who will use it the most and honestly probably benefit from it the most are those that are actively working out and putting extra strain on their muscles.

Sources:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/glutamine.html
http://bodybuildingforyou.com/supplements-reviews/glutamine-side-effects-benefits.htm

If you’ve spent any time on a bodybuilding supplement website, you have undoubtedly noticed that there are a lot of supplements to choose from. You could probably spend hours on one of these sites and still not know what you should use, or what each one does for you!

The purpose of this article is to go over three of the most common basic supplements that you should seriously consider using: whey protein, creatine, and glutamine.

Whey Protein

Whey protein is probably the best protein that you can use while working out. It is absorbed quickly by the body which explains why it is so popular with people that consistently work out. As you know, proteins are the building blocks of muscle and so you need to make sure that you are getting enough protein in your diet. Using a whey protein powder is a great convenient way to get high quality protein into your diet.

Creatine

Creatine is one of (if not the) most popular bodybuilding supplement on the market today. Creatine can help you increase lean muscle mass and also help increase your energy levels. The other great thing about creatine is that you can get it for a pretty low price. There are a lot of companies that put out supposedly more advanced formulas, but just adding plain creatine monohydrate is a great way to use this supplement.

Glutamine

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the body. Many bodybuilders will supplement with glutamine because it can help to reduce muscle breakdown after workouts. Here’s how it works: when you put a lot of stress on your muscles the glutamine levels in your muscles can be reduced by as much as 50%. This leaves your muscles open for breaking down rather than growing. By supplementing with glutamine, you help reduce the amount of muscle that breaks down. It also helps boost your immune system!

Glutamine is also rather cheap, but make sure you mix it in with something because it has a rather nasty flavor if you take it plain!

There are other useful bodybuilding supplements on the market, but these three are a good place to start for anybody. Also be careful of all the hype out there about products that say that you will put on insane amounts of muscle without doing anything. Building a great body takes time and dedication. Use supplements to help you achieve better results – they won’t do the work for you.

If you’ve been to a supplement store or website any time in the last couple of years, you’ve probably noticed that there are now several different types of creatines that you can buy. So what is the difference between the different types? Is one better than another?

If you go out looking for creatine, you’ll find a couple different types: creatine monohydrate, creatine ethyl ester, and liquid creatine. There are other creatine supplements on the market as well, some with extra transport systems and additional incredients, but these are the most common basic forms of creatine.

So let’s take a look at the difference between these types of creatine supplements.

Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine monohydrate is creatine without anything added. This is just the most basic form of creatine that you can find. As such, it’s also the cheapest way to go. You can also look for different qualities, and some claim to be more pure than others. Creatine monohydrate is 100% natural and occurs naturally in many foods, so you’ll never see it on the list of banned supplements. It’s natural and has so far been proven safe for use.

Creatine Ethyl Ester (CEE)

One of the main problems that regular creatine monohydrate has is that the body doesn’t absorb it very well. That’s where the idea behind creatine ethyl ester comes in. By attaching an organic compound called an ester, CEE is more easily absorbed by the body. This means that your body will be able to use more of the creatine that you ingest, resulting in smaller but more effective doses. CEE is also said to reduce the ‘bloated’ feeling that some people feel when using creatine monohydrate.

Liquid Creatines

The idea behind liquid creatine is that your body can absorb them quicker than a powdered product. One problem with powdered creatine is that it has a tendency to bind with food, making it less effective and making it so you have to not eat for a good period of time before using it. But if you take it in a liquid form you can potentially reduce this problem, and the time you have to wait before using it.

Conclusion

Creatine ethyl ester and liquid creatine products have had a lot of buzz around them lately about whether they are effective or not. It seems that at this time there have been enough studies done on CEE to show that it can improve the effectiveness of creatine, but I haven’t seen as much backup information for the liquid products.

Either way, creatine is one of those muscle building supplements that you should definitely consider as part of your supplementation. It has long been proven effective, and many creatine supplements are very inexpensive.