Maximizing Gains From Weight Training

Whether you are an experienced weight trainer or a novice to the muscle building scene, we all want to know one thing; "How can I make the most of my workouts?" It doesn't matter if you're involved in strength training, powerlifting, or you simply exercise just to stay in shape, here are some basic weight lifting guidelines you need to follow if you want to maximize your time spent in the gym.

· Correct form while performing exercises
· Ample sleep time
· Drink plenty of water
· Adequate protein intake
· Sufficient caloric intake (includes protein intake)
· Proper nutritional supplements

After weight training for 15 years and competing in bodybuilding for 6 years, I know that if you are lacking in any of these areas, your workouts and your physique will suffer.

There are many different weight training routines circulating about that will help to guide you along the way. However, in this article I will be focusing on which nutritional supplements to take to push you through those workouts.

First and foremost, you need to be supplementing with a multi-vitamin/multi-mineral pack. I say "pack" because generally those one-a-day pills do not give enough of these essential nutrients to combat today's hectic lifestyle. Vitamins and minerals are essential to every single function that goes on within the human body. If you're lacking in one of these nutrients, your body is not functioning at its top level.

The next supplement you're going to want is an excellent protein powder. If you're not supplementing with a protein powder, your muscles may not be getting the adequate amino acids needed to recover and optimize muscle mass. Protein is an absolute must when it comes to building muscle. As far as which type of protein you should choose (whey, casein, etc.), we'll save that for another, more in-depth article.

After these two essential nutrients, there are an abundance of nutritional supplements out there that you can use to add fuel to your weight training fire, but I'll keep it simple for now.

The last supplement I will recommend today is glutamine. Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the human body. Given the proper internal environment, your body can manufacture glutamine on its own. However, under intense periods of stress (i.e. weight training) your body cannot make enough glutamine, so supplemental glutamine would be a necessity to optimum performance.

Some of the benefits of glutamine include:

· Improved recovery time
· Less muscle soreness
· Improved immune system function
· Better strength gains

The addition of these three nutritional supplements, plus following the previous basic rules I stated, will help to make sure your body is operating at its peak level. When your body functions at its best, you will undoubtedly feel better and look better as well. When you feel good that will lead to better workouts and that means time well spent in the gym!

Tim Mielke is a former competitive bodybuilder, article contributor for www.i-supplements.com and published author. His book "The Book of Supplement Secrets: A Beginner's Guide to Nutritional Supplements" is currently available through www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.