I already tried to post it in the moderated section in this forum, but it seems like it didn’t work. I don’t know what the technical problem was, so I try to post it here.
I ordered GainzZz Rx and also the Whey protein from Barbell Medicine. Because of my location (Switzerland) I have to pay 20 USD to ship one can of GainzZz Rx. The second one gets cheaper. But the average price will be about 60 USD per can. So if I use it as recommended (twice per day every day) I will need 2 cans per month. So I will pay about 120 USD per month only for GanzZz Rx. Additionally I want to consume whey which I can get cheaper. But finally I will have to spend about 160 USD per Month only for supplements. Thats a lot for me. So I tried to figure out what I really need and I did some online research in my local supplement-shop. I noted, that in Switzerland u can’t get HMB and Betaine Anhydrous isolated. You will find it in overpriced pre-workout-boosters.
But for the other parts:
Creatine: 0.10 USD per serving (5g)
Beta-Alanine: 0.20 USD per serving (3g)
Citrullin-Malate: 0.30 USD per serving (5g)
So my supplement plan will be:
every day:
Creatine 5g after workout or in the evening on non training days (10 cents)
Beta-Alanine 3g before training and 3g after training or 3g in the evening on non training days, (20-40 cents)
Citrullin-Malate 5g before training or 5g in the evening on non training days (30 cents)
Whey Protein between meals and post training
So finally I am going to pay 80 cents a day plus the costs for the whey. Thats 24 USD per month.
I will leave HMB, Betaine Anhydrous and Sodium away. I will get my BCAAs from my whey.
The option would be: my every day plan, BUT use GainzZz Rx on training days. Would I have a an advantage with the GainzZz during training days? Do I really need HMB and Betaine Anhydrous? Is there evidence for it?
I would argue there’s nothing particularly special about GainzZz Rx other than it conveniently has everything you need in one scoop. This is great for Americans, but the international shipping costs makes it prohibitive for anyone else to get.
In my opinion, since you can get everything you need except HMB and Beta Anhydrous locally in Switzerland, I would not recommend spending the extra money to get GainzZz.
Those two supplements can be useful according to some studies, but the effects are minor and not worth $160USD. They won’t have as big as an impact as whey, caffeine, and creatine.
Just make sure you’re buying a whey protein that has lots of leucine, greater than 3g preferably.
The Drs Baraki and Feigenbaum have stated in one of their podcasts (episode 12, around minute 36-42) whey protein isolate is the best whey. A serving that has 20g (protein) has about 2.2g leucine 0.8g isoleucine 1.0g valine. GainzZz protein is supplimented to be 3 g leicine, and 1.5 of isoleucine and valin. That way, you can use 1 scoop to induce muscle protein synthesis, where other brands might require 2 scoops to get enough BCAAs.
Cheap whey protein products actually remove leucine to save cost.
Yeah, I buy Gold Standard Whey too. One scoop has 24g protein and 2.4g leucine. Dr. Feigenbaum says you should try to get at least 3g of leucine in a meal, so I always take at least 1.25 scoops to get enough leucine.
As smmetz said, some cheaper brands have very little leucine, and some vegan protein powders are also very low in leucine.
I checked my proteins I have at home, they are all fine in leucine. But I really didn’t take a look at it before. Maybe I was just lucky. I will also start to take 1.25 scoops of my Gold Standard
Jordan has said that the two supplements that should be taken everyday at least in GainzZz RX are the creatine and beta-alanine so your plan looks good.
I used to stress out a lot about supplements but then I realized that actually I get much better results if I get my 8h of sleep than from any amount of supplements. Now I just take protein, beta alanine and creatine the gains from supplements are imho way overrated and hyped by the industry (got to get that dollar)
This is completely wrong. Actually, the cheap whey protein has more leucine content than whey isolate. The only reason to use whey isolate is due to digestion issues or needing to completely remove the carb and fat macros.
However, just because a product says it is whey protein does not mean it is 100% whey protein. This is where manufacturers will add other non-essential amino acids, that are cheaper, to increase the protein macro. I have gotten a response from ON that their gold standard whey does contain ~2.2g of luecine per serving. Another good brand is Myprotein. I actually like the taste of Myprotein better. Plus it is generally cheaper than ON, even at discount from Costco. Not sure about international though.
Betaine anhydrous is also called TMG. Look for that. They should have it available in tablet form. It is very cheap too.
For HMB, I actually just buy the powder. I have a pill maker and make my own pills. This is because the stuff tastes horrible. It is a lot cheaper this way. I buy the Bulk Supplements brand off of Amazon. I think it comes out no more than half the price of buying the pills.
HMB: I pre mix it with 1:1 lemon juice. There is some argument (some say questionable data) that it’s better in the “free acid” form rather than bound as a calcium salt, and theoretically this accomplishes that as well as improving the taste somewhat.
