The One Crossfit Supplement All Women Should Have
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The One Crossfit Supplement All Women Should Have
Wonder Woman was the first notable superhero to posses beauty, but amazing strength as well. No longer do women want to look thin, but having a buff body today is considered sexy. Some of the notable actresses that have gotten into amazing shape are Demi Moore, for her role in G.I. Jane., and Jennifer Garner for her role in Electra. Like all superheroes that have their weapons, as a female crossfitter competitor your weapons are your dietary supplements. If you’re not recuperating between workouts, then your hard training won’t make much progress.
Most women know that they need protein, but women may want to try a new supplement to increase lean muscle mass, especially if you’re looking for increased power and lean muscle mass. Most women freak out about creatine because of the increased water retention associated with creatine, but at the end of the article is advice on how to take creatine without weight gain.
Obviously creatine helps facilitate increases in lean muscle mass and performance, in short, explosive workouts which is an essential part of Crossfit.
The supplement that all women looking to increase lean muscle and increase power is Creatine MagnaPower. Creatine MagnaPower is a patented form on creatine and magnesium chelate.
Weapon Number 1: Magnesium
Magnesium is needed by our cells for energy production. This task is a complicated one and involves dozens of chemical reactions, all intimately related and flowing in a very special sequence. In fact, magnesium is necessary for more than 300 chemical reactions in the human body. A diet low in magnesium has been linked to increases in the inflammatory process. Chronic and low-grade inflammation has increasingly been tied to increased risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.
For women, increased inflammation is a silent killer. You don’t feel increased inflammation, but inside your cells, its wreaking havoc! Also, increased inflammation is associated with wrinkles and pre-mature aging.
In addition to its enormous health benefits, taking dietary magnesium can play a role in prevention of age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass, power, and strength directly through physiological mechanisms, or indirectly through an impact on chronic low-grade inflammation itself, a risk factor for loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength. Researchers wanted to examine the relationship between magnesium and lean muscle mass and strength in women. In a cross-sectional study of 2570 women aged 18-79 years, researchers examined associations between intakes of Mg, and measures of muscle mass, leg explosive power and grip. They were also examined associations between circulating markers of inflammation (C-reactive protein) and muscle mass and leg explosive power, and explored the potential attenuation of these relationships by Mg. The researchers also factored in how much protein the women were consuming and how protein intake compared to the performance and body composition variables.
When the researchers crunched the numbers, there was positive associations found between a higher Mg levels and indices of lean muscle mass and leg explosive power. Compared to protein, these positive associations were 7 times greater for lean muscle mass and 2.5 times greater for leg explosive power. So what they found was that despite having adequate protein levels, having high magnesium levels is associated with increased lean muscle and more explosive power. They also found that higher levels of the inflammatory protein (CRP) was negatively associated with muscle mass and higher dietary Mg prevented this negative relationship between higher inflammation and lean muscle mass by 6.5%, with greater attenuation in women aged over 50 years. These results suggest that dietary magnesium may aid conservation of age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and power in women of all ages.
Another study examined the effect of oral magnesium citrate supplementation on resistance exercise and vascular response after intense exercise for an acute and chronic loading strategy on a 2-day repeat protocol. The study was a randomized, double-blind, cross-over design, placebo controlled 2-day repeat measure protocol. Intense exercise (40 km time trial) was followed by bench press at 80% 1RM to exhaustion. The subjects were supplemented for either a 1-week (acute) or 4-week (chronic) loading strategy. Food diaries were recorded. At the end of the study, dietary magnesium intake was above the Reference Nutrient Intake for all groups. Bench press showed a significant increase of 17.7% for acute magnesium on day 1 of testing. Furthermore, cardiovascular responses to the bench press were significantly enhanced by Mg2+ supplementation reducing resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure responses with the greatest effect seen with acute Mg2+ supplementation for rest and post exercise.
Magnesium supplementation that lasted four weeks had no effect, however. The researchers suspected that when Mg reaches a saturation effect in the cells, there are no further increases in performance. To conclude, the researchers stated, “from this study there appears to be no benefit in long-term magnesium supplementation for those who have adequate dietary intake, but there are some benefits for taking an acute dose, particularly before intense exercise.” The studies suggest that magnesium is critical for enhancing performance in the gym, but combining magnesium with creatine can have a synergistic effect, meaning combining both work more efficiently than a single supplement by itself.
| Weapon Number 2: Creatine |
Creatine MagnaPower®, or magnesium creatine chelate, is a patented version of creatine molecularly bonded to magnesium to promote the synthesis and regeneration of ATP. Creatine MagnaPower® is patented from Albion® Human Nutrition, the world leader in chelated mineral science (US Patent # 6114379).
Creating magnesium creatine chelate with a patented technology protects the creatine molecule from transcending into inert creatinine, thus increasing the amount of the physiologically active creatine which is truly available for muscle cell metabolism – resulting in much higher muscle energy. Magnesium has strong alkali properties, decreasing the environment acidity of creatine and maintaining it as fully active in both ready-to-use solutions and the digestive tract.
Study 1: For two weeks, 35 subjects were randomly assigned to two groups: 1) magnesium and creatine monohydrate and a placebo; or 2) magnesium-creatine chelate (800 mg of magnesium and 5 g of creatine). Subjects’ thresholds were measured using a test to exhaustion at 90 percent of subjects’ maximal levels on a treadmill. Repeat tests were performed in each test session with a five-minute recovery between runs. Measurements indicated an increase in the chelate group for the first test. Researchers concluded that magnesium-creatine chelate supplementation may allow runners to reach exhaustion later in exercise, as compared to the control group.
2.) A double blind, three group, format analyzed over a 4-week treatment period. These three groups consisted of an alkaline creatine group, a creatine-magnesium chelate group, and a placebo group. At the end of the study, the Wingate Anaerobic Test demonstrated a 9.5% increase in magnesium creatine chelate subjects contrasted to 4.6% and 3.3% increases in alkaline creatine and placebo groups.
3.) A study in 2001 involving 44 men showed greater mean power in the chelate group (14.5%) versus 1.4% in the creatine + magnesium group.
In sum, Creatine MagnaPower® has some very interesting effects due to its high bioavailability that do not occur with standard creatine and magnesium supplementation. It seems that the high bioavailability of magnesium-creatine chelate can have beneficial effects of strength and increasing anaerobic exercise performance.
Most women avoid taking creatine because they are fearful of excess weight gain. Previous research has shown that creatine loading with 20-30 grams a day of creatine can result in water retention. During the loading phase of creatine, as creatine becomes saturated in the cell, an increasing amount of water is drawn into the muscle cell to compensate for the increased concentration of creatine in the cell. This loading process, therefore, typically results in a water weight gain of a pound or two (or more). Women should realize that the water retention effects of creatine can be completely avoided if low doses are consumed.
2 g of Creatine: No Water Retention/Weight Gain for Women
Researchers examined the effects of 6 wk of low-dose creatine supplementation on body composition, muscle function, and body creatine retention. Twenty healthy men and women were randomized to receive creatine (≈2.3 grams per day) or placebo for 6 wk in a double-blind placebo-controlled fashion. Participants were tested on two occasions before supplementation to establish a reliable baseline, and then were retested after supplementation. Testing included body composition, maximal strength (three-repetition maximal concentric knee extension at 180 degrees/s), muscle fatigue (five sets of 30 concentric knee extensions at 180 degrees/s), and plasma creatine concentration. There were no significant differences in body mass, fat-free mass, fat mass, body fat percentage, total body water, or maximal strength in either group from before to after supplementation.
After supplementation, plasma creatine increased significantly in the creatine group, with no difference in the placebo group. Compared with baseline values, creatine-supplemented volunteers were more resistant to fatigue during sets 2. In placebo-supplemented participants, there was no improvement in fatigue resistance during sets 2. Ingesting a low dose (≈2.3 g/d) of creatine for 6 wk significantly increased plasma creatine concentration and enhanced resistance to fatigue during repeated bouts of high-intensity contractions.
Women involved in Crossfit will likely see major improvements in performance and power from Creatine MagnaPower® , but you’re not going to get the same effect from combining creatine and magnesium, so make sure it’s the patented,Creatine MagnaPower®.
