1+ years away from gym - help with strategy + supps

[giantoctopus]

Hi all,

I had been going to a body building gym for a little over a year where I had made some good gains both physically and mentally - unfortunately I stupidly fell down the stairs while on my phone (had it been a beer not a drop would have been spilt) and broke 3 bones in my ankle.

This took me out of action for about 5-6 months as I suffered some complications while healing and now have occasional pain and numbness over areas of my affected foot.

The accident made it difficult for me to shop etc so I found myself relying on takeaways and due to the complications I pretty much was a house slob for that 5-6 months.

After my foot healed life took over and I ended up with a new job and moving house - things have only just started to settle down and upon jumping on the scales im now a good 10kg heavier than a year ago and have lost a large proportion of muscle tone.

I'm about to head back to the gym this week where I was going to focus on getting my fitness level backup up as well as easing my ankle into exercise. I've been considering taking up some core strengthening classes as well to see if that will make any overall differences to my workouts.

I've been reading a lot of the forums and through a process of elimination I ended up with the following sups:

Recreate, CLA, AP, Modern BCAA, Jack3d,ZMA,Powerfull.

To me it looks like a lot (even more so because my order was stuffed up) - I havent really taken sups before to lose weight or gain (only protein shakes and a multi if they count) so I'm seeking a bit of advice on this front. I've read good things about a Recreate + AP + CLA stack but I'm unsure if that also includes mixing in some BCAA's or jack3d etc in with it.

I'm looking to document what I can as I go and am also eagerly looking for some good knowledge about nutrition / food plan / meal prep etc as I need to work my way out of my current bad food habits.

I'ld appreciate any and all feedback.

 

[EasyEJL]

Realistically, i'd start back up without using any supplements at all, and go that way with control over diet/nutrition instead for the first two months. You'll make your most gains/losses during that time anyhow, no sense spending money on something that will provide minimal additional gains/losses during that span. After that, as progress slows, adding in supplements will help.

 

[giantoctopus]

I hear what you're saying - do what I can first without needing to use supps, then once I level out start incorporating them into my regime to help push myself further.

And i think you're also on the money in regards to getting my diet under control first - sounds obvious hearing it back.

Cheers for the feedback - much appreciated.

 

[gymrat827]

you should start without any supps. Than add the CLA, L-carnitine, caffine, ECA stack after 6-7wks. Dont buy modern BCAA any more, you can get Xtend from Scivation and it has glutamine in it, B vits, citrulline malate too. Much more than modern BCAA's.

After wk6, start taking 3 caps powerFULL, 1 serving ZMA 30min pre bed. That will help you burn more cals while sleeping, increase the GH release, etc. You will grow and repair itself better during the night with those 2 sups.

 

[giantoctopus]

Thank for the reply gymrat,

I'm still wrapping my head around all these supps (never heard of xtend before) - quick bit of research seems to be in favour of it so i'll give it a shot when my modern bcaa runs out (which im guessing is a month).

I have both recreate and powerful - my tolerance to caffeine is quite low, anything more than a cup day and I get the jitters (i don't drink coffee anymore as a result). Do you think I should start with recreate first then move onto powerful or jump straight into the mix?

I've tried some Jack3D before and even one scoop of that makes me feel a bit ... special.

Cheers for the feedback and sorry for the late reply.