“Are you taking that mega, ultra, green, muscles have muscles, pre-workout shake? You know, the one that makes your pee a funky color and your body odor clear rooms?! You can’t lift without it brother!!” Ah, remember the days of the high school gym? Although long removed from this scenario, many of you may have had experienced something like it. People raving about supplements and how amazing they are. A conversation that tends to become the hot topic of people trying to get shredded in ten minutes, without having to do any work. Unfortunately, people still live the lifestyle of buying bottles of supplements for their sweet labels and the giant, vascular man vouching for the product. To stop you from that nonsense, I’m here to tell you what your body actually needs, and why.
First, let’s realize something. Supplements are supplementary, or additive to your nutrition. For this reason, I highly recommend looking into your diet before you hop on the supplement train. When taking these additives correctly, they are being used for reasons of enhanced performance and health. If your diet is crap, start there, and build health/performance by eating right, working out, and sleeping properly first! Only then should you begin adding supplementation.
But there are tons of supplements out there, which ones should we take? Let’s get one thing straight, I am not marketing for any companies here, and I will not name specific supplements, and will be broad with my recommendations.
Protein(whey) - Besides whey showing the best results in studies, it is also a complete protein. For you vegans out there, maybe check out hemp protein.
Creatine - Creatine is a part of our metabolic pathways and is energy for our muscles. Most people walk around with a deficiency of creatine, and this is extremely helpful during short and intense bouts of exercise.
Fish oil - I believe fish oil to be a daily necessity. The good it does for your body is second to none out of all the supplements you should take. It has been linked to joint health, reduced risk of cardiac disease, possible prevention to alzheimer's, and much, much more.
Carbohydrate shakes - Simply make it easier to take advantage of your anabolic window, similar to a protein shake. Not a necessity, but extremely helpful for the serious athlete for promoting recovery of fatigued muscles and building lean muscle.
Lactic acid buffer - Lactic acid is not bad for your body, in fact, it is another way we recycle and create more ATP. However, the acidity of lactic acid tells our brain to slow down ATP production and directly correlates to us feeling fatigued and reduces athletic performance. A lactic acid buffer is a fantastic way for us to push further into our lactic acid threshold and keep our body in a more alkaline state, promoting better recovery and longer thresholds of work.
And that’s it folks. So let’s recap. Protein shakes are a great way to not have to eat a chicken breast after a workout but still get nutrition in your anabolic window. Creatine helps support our first energy pathway (ATP-PCr) and has proven over and over in studies to make us more explosive athletes when supplemented correctly(3-5g per day). Fish oil reduces chances of cardiac disease and has a plethora of other fantastic benefits. Carbohydrate shakes pre and post workout can help energize you for strenuous activity and make your muscles repair faster, yielding faster positive adaptations. Lastly, lactic acid buffers can help you push past your walls and even increase your VO2 max. Be sure to do your own research into any product you’re looking into purchasing, there’s a lot of crap products out there - pick a good one. :)