Best Muscle Building Supplement: Clash Of The 2 Titans?

Two completely different supplements truly deserve the title of The Best Muscle Building Supplement, and thus the title must be shared. Those supplements are whey protein and creatine monohydrate. Both have a long and proven track record both in practice and in studies, so are safe and highly effective at promoting muscle growth, and are probably the only two supplements definitely worth spending your money on. The best part about these two titans is they work in completely different ways so can work independently through their own mechanisms to help you pack on some serious muscle mass. Let’s explore both supplements further and see what they’re all about and how they can help you gain muscle…

Whey Protein

Your muscles absolutely require the amino acids contained in protein to grow. Whey protein is one of the most straightforward muscle building supplements – it’s a nutritional supplement. That means it replaces (or adds to) your dietary intake. So, if your food diet is lacking in protein, whey protein can help bring it up to par with the best muscle building amino acids and lots of them.

Whey protein is derived from cow’s milk during the cheese making process. I’m sure you’ve heard of the nursery rhyme, when Little Miss Muffett was ‘eating her curds and whey’ – well, ‘whey protein’ is the product of whey, having being filtered to increase purity and turned into a fluid-soluble powder, ready-to-drink or bar.

What’s special about whey protein in particular is, it contains all of the essential amino acids. It’s also the most bioavailable and rapidly digesting protein of them all. This means whey protein could well be a better source of protein for muscle growth than regular protein foods, including fish, beef and chicken.

That’s not just supplement-seller hype or jargon, either. As a matter of fact, whey protein stacks up far better than other sources of protein in the bioavailability stakes. [1]

Scientists are also seriously looking into the possible antioxidant and immune system benefits whey protein has to offer due to its unique composition. The possible antioxidant and cancer-fighting effects of whey protein are also being seriously looked at. [2]

Creatine Monohydrate

If whey protein is the gold standard of protein, then Creatine Monohydrate is the gold standard of creatine. Creatine isn’t a food nutrient, it’s something else. The body naturally manufactures creatine from amino acids in the kidney and liver, and its purpose is to help supply energy to the body, in particular the muscles. In the larger recommended doses you get from creatine supplements, anaerobic energy levels can be boosted significantly. Creatine helps you train harder, longer, and recover more quickly. The net result is more muscle gains.

But, more recently, creatine is thought to work through another mechanism, specifically, lowering Myostatin (a protein which actually inhibits muscle growth) levels. [3]

Conclusion

Given both of these supplements work in completely different ways, it really is impossible to pick one as the best muscle building supplement over the other. However, whey protein is guaranteed to work for you because the amino acids your muscles need to grow are there in abundance. Although creatine monohydrate can do wonderful things for many people, other people don’t experience a significant improvement.  That’s not to say you shouldn’t try it if you can afford to, it’s cheap enough when purchased in its purest form (the best form). Like everything in the world of muscle building – nothing ventured, nothing gained.

References:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_value#Typical_values

[2] http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/10/5/555.long

[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20026378