chris said:
Stay away from combo stuff like creatine/glutamine/ protien combos...they are just gimmicks, from what I can recall taking these supplements seperately and at slightly differnent times improves absorption (though i could be wrong about that too)
No, you're right, but the more important aspect to consider is the amount of these things you're getting. We had a customer in last Thursday who wanted a "super protein" -- one that had a high amount of protein, glutamine, amino acids, and EFA's. Well, we had one that had most of what he wanted, but if you looked at the servings, you ended up with something like 250mg of Glutamine, for example.
For those of you who aren't glutamine addicts like me, you should get a minimum of 5g (5,000 mg compared to the 250 mg in the combo protein) in a day, though usually I recommend 10g a day - 5g after your workout, and 5g before bed.
So the amount you're getting is negligible. If what you're basically looking for is a way to reduce the amount of supplements you have to take for your training regimen, you can stick to the major groups : a protein, an amino supplement, creatine, a combo EFA supplement (they're usually sold this way anyway). I also recommend on top of your amino supplement taking glutamine separately -- but if you don't mind the downtime after your workouts, that's between you and your muscles
Regarding absorption, you don't want to overload your system with nutrients all at once because many of them will get wasted. Your body has a limited capacity to utilize what it ingests, and trying to get all your supplementation out of the way at once is usually a way to not get results from them. That's why 6-a-days tend to be more effectual than one-a-days: the absorption throughout the day means that you're constantly utilizing the nutrient, rather than an hour-long utilization followed by a period of nothing.
This is why tablets are better than caplets for potent multivitamins - you want that array of vitamins to be absorbed slowly. This is the same principle behind taking your supplements with food - you slow down absorption, which leads to greater utilization/bio-availability.
