The reason that you train might be for aesthetics, strength, or overall health, but no matter the case, muscles will help you accomplish your goals. As you continue to train your muscles, they’ll take some damage, but that’s the point.
For your muscles to grow, you have to break down the muscle fibers; this damage is known as a “micro-tear.” Your body works to re-fuse the muscle fibers, which ultimately increases the mass and size of your muscles.
We all want our muscles to repair themselves as quickly as possible and grow. The faster they recover, the sooner we can get back into the gym and continue to make progress towards reaching our goals.
With proper rest and consistent protein-heavy meals, your body will surely repair itself over time, but in most cases, a bit of extra support can do wonders. How can you speed up the process? It’s simple, add Ultimate Nutrition’s Muscle recovery supplements to your daily routine.
Ultimate Nutrition’s Best Supplements for Muscle Recovery
There are many muscle recovery supplements on the market, but here are a few of our favorites from the Ultimate Nutrition team. Each has been thoughtfully designed to support the most active of lifestyles.
BCAA 12,000 Powder
Add some of this powder into your post-workout shake for great taste and maximized muscle recovery. ‘BCAA’ is the popularly used acronym for branched-chain amino acids. Three of the nine essential amino acids that you need are BCAAs: leucine, isoleucine, and valine.
BCAAs help your body in numerous ways and are especially useful to athletes and people who live an active lifestyle. BCAAs are proven to increase muscle growth, decrease muscle soreness, and reduce exercise fatigue.
BCAA 12,000 has 6g of BCAAs per serving and has been a trusted recovery fuel for athletes globally. Drink BCAA 12,000 twice daily to get the recommended 12g of BCAAs that are shown to maximize muscle recovery and performance.
Glutapure
Glutamine helps prevent the loss of body mass. During weight training, the body can lose a significant amount of glutamine which can cause muscle breakdown. Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in our bodies, and it helps create the proteins that build muscle. Although our bodies naturally produce glutamine, you may require more when sick or injured.
Studies have shown that when athletes use glutamine as a supplement, they experience less muscle soreness and strength loss. Glutapure®’s only ingredient is glutamine making it a great choice when trying to reduce muscle soreness, rebuild muscle tissue, and speed up the recovery process.
Intra Gold
Intra Gold is our multi-faceted performance supplement. The special ingredient that makes Intra Gold great for muscle recovery is L-Carnitine. L-Carnitine is a chemical that your body naturally produces that’s important for heart and brain function, muscle movement, and many other processes.
Studies show that adding L-Carnitine to your daily dietary supplementation can positively impact the recovery process after exercise. It is demonstrated that L-carnitine alleviates muscle injury and reduces markers of cellular damage linked to muscle soreness. If you’re looking for muscle recovery, look for L-carnitine in the ingredient list of your supplements.
Ultimate Nutrition’s Intra Gold is offered in sour apple and wild strawberry flavors, making for an easy and delicious post-workout drink.
Amino 2000 and Xtreme Amino
Amino 2000 has essential amino acids and BCAAs that provide the body with the support it needs to produce proteins. As previously mentioned, amino acids are important for building and maintaining muscle. Support from supplements like Amino 2000 helps keep the amino acid supply in the bloodstream within a healthy range.
When you’re under stress from high-intensity exercise, amino acids in the blood can become depleted. This depletion can disrupt your body’s ability to produce chemicals and hormones in the right amount, at the right time, or in the right place. Ultimate Nutrition® Amino 2000 and Xtreme Amino provide a full spectrum of amino acids to help maintain optimal levels in the bloodstream and promote good health at any stage of life.
Pure Muscle Carbs
Training and post-exercise nutrition are essential for consistent performance. All macronutrients play a part in muscle recovery but to prevent and delay fatigue related to muscle damage, using carbohydrate replenishment is particularly important.
This replenishment is also called carbohydrate loading because high carbohydrate consumption helps athletes avoid burnout and persistent muscle damage. A high carbohydrate regimen yields the most significant benefits for endurance athletes like runners and cross-fitters.
Any physical activity, but especially intense exercise, requires a recovery period. After any high-performance workout, the body recovers in three distinct phases:
Phase 1: This is the rapid recovery phase, which begins immediately after exercise and lasts roughly 30 minutes. In this phase, the metabolic rate returns to pre-exercise levels.
Phase 2: This is the intermediate recovery phase, which lasts between 90 minutes to two hours. During this phase, the body begins to restore fluids by a process called rehydration. This is the most critical phase of recovery and requires an intake of carbohydrates. To facilitate rehydration, you should ingest carbohydrates soon after an event or training session.
Phase 3: Finally, in the more prolonged phase of recovery, which can last from two to 20 hours, carbohydrate replenishment continues. During this long phase of recovery, the damage done to the muscle by heavy exercise is repaired.
In general, carbohydrate replenishment is effective for any athlete who participates in an event lasting more than 90 minutes. Ultimate Nutrition's Pure Muscle Carbs™ is specifically designed to help athletes recover from post-exercise strain and restore muscle strength and integrity quickly and efficiently.
Pure Muscle Carbs™ is a unique combination of carbohydrates from natural sources and contains no refined sugars, and is as refreshing as it is nutritious. Pure Muscle Carbs™ is formulated to help you restore muscle strength, enhance performance, and promote good health.
ZMA
Zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B6 can all play a role in helping your body recover post-workout. Together, these nutrients are offered in dietary supplements called ZMA. Zinc supports your immune system and muscles. Magnesium plays a role in metabolism, muscle health, and sleep. Vitamin B6 may boost energy and helps your body process and use protein.
Ultimate Nutrition’s ZMA® capsules are a unique anabolic formula that contain highly bio-available forms of its contents, meaning your body will be able to make the most of each ingredient. ZMA is a powerful, 100% natural supplement designed to heighten muscle strength in training athletes. The synergistic combination of zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B6 is formulated to enhance muscle strength, endurance, healing, and recovery after exercise.
Recover From Your Workouts
Grab your favorite post-workout drink and take your muscle recovery supplements. No matter how much sleep you get or how well you nourish yourself, there are always benefits to having some additional support.
You can reach new heights with vitamins and supplements designed to improve your body’s healing process. You should always listen to your body and give it exactly what it needs to recover and perform time and time again.