I know a lot of the T-Mag readers use ZMA; I haven’t yet, so I’m learning. I have two questions:
1)A recent “FLEX” article reccommends taking ZMA on an EMPTY STOMACH, before bed (3 caps 30-90 minutes before bed). For you guys, how does this jive with taking a “slow”, “long acting” (i.e. casien in the form of Cottage Cheese or Whey and Skim Milk) prior to bedtime? 2)How important is ZMA? (For “newbies”; ZMA stands for “ZINC MAGNESIUM ASPARTATE”. Training depletes Zinc and Magnesium. Both minerals aide in recovery and sleep efficiency and appear to increase free testosterone and IGF-1).
I think its a good supp to take. As far as seeing noticable muscle gains I didn’t, but I felt pretty good one it and mornings. I was always a little harder if you know what I mean. I also felt a little more rested in when I woke up. I’ve been sleeping kind of crappy and am going to get some more to help that. As far taking it with a protein shake I’m not sure I always took a shake about an hour before bed and the the ZMA half an hour before and it seems to have worked OK. Thats a good question though. I was worried about that too.
Hi Jim. Because zinc & magnesium “compete” for absorption with calcium, the Biotest guys recommend not consuming it with a protein shake. What I’ve done in the past (as recommended by t-mag) is take the ZMA between my last two meals. For example if I go to sleep at say 11pm. I’ll have a meal at 8, take the ZMA at 9:30 or so, and my protein shake at 11. Hope this helps! See ya, the other Jim.
A general principle which so far as I know will NEVER steer you wrong is, never compromise your nutrition for the sake of getting some supplement to supposedly work better. That means, all this “empty stomach” stuff, toss it in the trash can.
It is completely absurd for anyone to claim that zinc cannot be properly absorbed in the presence of calcium, or a meal. Life on Earth has been doing this for billions of years.
In fact, it’s not that hard with zinc supplementation to OVERDOSE on zinc, and if you’re already eating a good amount of red meat and especially if on top of that you are consuming MRP’s with zinc, I doubt you’ll be deficient and don’t think anyone has shown that under those circumstances deficiency occurs.
There are times I use ZMA, when on a severe diet that does not include enough zinc. There are probably people that don’t eat much red meat and don’t consume very much supplements containing
zinc, and they may benefit quite a bit from the supplement.