How to gain muscle mass?

The only way for you to gain muscle mass is to eat more, consume enough protein, and lift heavy. All those hyped up supplements like noXplode and jack3d are just L-arginine supplements (nitric oxide) and are placebos. BCAA and glutamine supplements are also popular, but they're really not needed for a typical person. You can get a good amount of those from proteins.

Creatine is one of the few supplements that will work, but not in the way people think it is. Creatine is just a nutrient that is found in red meat that helps your muscles produce energy (ATP), which will help you pull off some extra reps where your muscle would normally be fatigued. 5g a day at any time will get you to reach muscle saturation and enjoy the full benefits of it. No need for complex loading and de-loading phases that the companies want you to go through.

Protein powder is honestly the only "must-have" supplement to help you fill your daily protein quotas.

First of all, the most important thing when it comes to diet and exercise is research. You need to know what you are doing before you do it. Or you will find yourself wasting a lot of time and effort. If you have been working out for 7 months and only seen 5lbs of gain (and you have no lost body fat) obviously you haven't been working out properly or been on the proper diet and you've wasted a lot of effort. You don't need unhealthy cheater supplements. You just need to figure out what you are doing wrong, and fix it. If you aren't eating enough protein or working out appropriately, supplements won't help you. They can't compensate for what you aren't doing right.

Make sure you are eating around 120-150 grams of protein on the days you workout. Protein is 100% necessary for muscle mass gain. Without it your muscle cannot repair and get larger. This is one of the things people miss out on. You also need to make sure you are doing exercises correctly, using the right amount of weight, and doing a reasonable set/rep combination.

Supplements are just as much cheats as hormones and they can be just as unhealthy. Things like Creatine cause liver and kidney problems. Things like NO Explode can lead to sexual and heart problems. etc. Supplements are dangerous and unhealthy, you should avoid them.

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