How To Take Supplements ?

[niceshotman]

Hello friends. I have a few questions here, but I’d like to start off with a quick note. I suffered from a severe traumatic brain injury & anoxia that left me comatose for months, so I am not the smartest guy around. So please understand that my questions are serious, & that I am trying to follow & respect all the rules here.

I just purchased some supplements. I don’t know if they are the right ones, but I just felt that I had to get started doing "something" to get my body to make some muscle. I have my diet & excercises under control.

I got the following items: creatine ethyl ester, L-leucine, Arginine ethyl ester, MSM, WMS, & BCAA’s. I’m not sure if I can specify the brand name, but it comes in a white plastic container with a black label with green stripes.

I just tried to use these supplements, and I noticed that aside from the creatine & WMS, the others seem to clump when I put them in the blender with water. Is this normal? How are these powders supposed to be taken? It seems like they clump and make a foam that floats. There are no instructions for use on the label, so I am confused if you eat these, drink them, or mix them with pudding/peanut butter or something?

Any advice on how to take these would be greatly appreciated. Someone had told me that they are used this way:

Pre WO:
2.5 g Creatine
3 g Arginine
8 g BCAA’s

PWO:
75 g WMS
5 g Creatine
8 g BCAA’s
8 g Leucine

20 Minutes after PWO:
50 g WPI protein
Complex carbs

Another question that I had was about MSM & Glutamine. Is Glutamine taken with the WMS, Creatine...or is it taken with the WPI protein?

Thank you for your help. - NSM

[RATTLEHEAD]

i'll comment more on this later, im pressed for time right now but let me add this. you should definitely be taking a fish oil or flax seed oil supplement. its been shown to have positive effects on the brain. there's a ton of studies going on right now about those supps and people with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's. but your supplemet list looks fine, although leucine is a BCAA and glutamine can be taken whenever with either protein or creatine, usually its taken post work out though because its more of a recovery agent. Also, I'd take like 40 minutes before working out and after working out as well. the clumping is normal, it just means your protein doesnt mix very well. Also, you can take your protein however you want. you can cook with it etc. I use to take peanut butter, protein powder, oats and fresh fruit and roll em all together with some honey and refrigerate em. hope that helps you out.

[niceshotman]

yes, thank you for the feedback. I have been taking fish oil & flax oil, & overall, I'm happy with my brain recovery...because at my rehab I've seen people that weren't so lucky.

my big confusion right now is how to take these powders. the supplements that I got all come in powder form. some are very fine & fluffy, & others are hard & clumpy. i just kind of expected the powder to mix with water, but it didn't quite happen that way.

i also heard that the powders can be taken by being poured straight into the mouth, & then chased down with water. i gave that a try, but it didn't work out so good. the clumps in some powders were pretty big, so I grinded up the powders in a mortar to make it easier to swallow. i mixed the powders together and poured them into my mouth using a big plastic scoop & chased it with water.

maybe i took too much at once, but afterwards, the back of my throat was really dry & irritated, almost as if it was burned. i don't know if maybe since the powder was so dry, or maybe it has a pH or something. i had a trachea tube in my throat for a long time, so its easy for me to choke & aspirate, so maybe that's my problem. or maybe i had too much powder at once.

after pouring the powder in my mouth, it kind of clumped in my mouth before i could even get the water in, and i had to try not to breathe or else the powder would surely get in my lungs or up my nose or something. i must be doing something wrong here. or maybe my powder measurements are way off.

when i get it all measured out, there is quite a bit of powder there...it looks like about 1/3 cup or maybe more? using the bottle labels, i figured out the powders in these amounts:

Pre WO: …TAKEN 1 HR PRIOR
2.5 g Creatine (1.5 TEASPOONS)
3 g Arginine (1.5 TEASPOONS)
8 g BCAA’s (5 TEASPOONS)

PWO: …TAKEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER
75 g WMS (2.5 SCOOPS)
5 g Creatine (3 TEASPOONS)
8 g BCAA’s (5 TEASPOONS)
8 g Leucine (7 TEASPOONS)
5 g Glutamine (1 TEASPOON)

any tips on how to take these powders would be great. i'm thinking of maybe just switching to pills in the future, unless i can find the trick to using these powder. thanks - J