Supplement Your Fitness Journey
The fitness industry, since I have known it to exist, had supplements within its marketplace. Today the world has top influencers promoting all sorts of fitness aids. Few are great products, while most are often just unsafe and dangerous. Please understand, there are no quick fixes when it comes to your health and fitness. Our bodies are arguably the most sophisticated machine this world has to offer. With the proper diet and exercise selections, eventually, you will surpass your goal for fitness. However, this short post centers around what supplements could help in your pursuit of that goal.
Let me stress the point, I do not support replacing whole foods with supplements, which is ill-advised. Run, if you are getting advised to switch out whole foods (actual real food) for powders, pills, or shots, run, run, run. Hopefully, we are clear on that, “no supplement is so good that it offsets a lousy diet, and no diet is so good that it can not benefit from the right supplementation”, as I quote Tom Nikkola CSCS.
With that, when it comes to weight loss, gaining weight, or athletic performance, those outcomes could have a boost with supplementing micronutrients. A solid multivitamin that includes all the B vitamins is a great start, followed by vitamin D3 for bone health, immunity, and anti-inflammation. Magnesium helps with relaxing your muscles and aids in contracting the muscles. Fish oil is for joint health, and nutrient absorption, and supports overall health functions. Lastly, an enzyme for the digestive system to keep your gut health and immune system functioning well.
After, you have been eating whole foods with supplementing the micros; yet still want to get more bang for your buck. Then you can focus on protein this (not so secret) but largely underutilized gem works wonders. Depending on your goal, which would determine the amount of protein you need per day. As you might know, protein is essential for building, maintaining, and repairing muscle. Whatever you are looking to do; lose weight, gain or maintain weight, start with your protein intake, the other two macronutrients (carbohydrates and fats) will take care of themselves.
Glutamine is another gem of supplements that is the building block for protein. It plays a major role in our energy production and metabolic functions. Glutamine is in red meat, tofu, dairy, rice, corn, and eggs (to name a few). One could supplement glutamine to help gain lean muscle mass, maintain muscle, and lose body fat.
BCAAs stand for branched-chain amino acids. The Essential BCAAs are leucine, isoleucine, and valine, and they do not naturally produce within our bodies. We must consume them. They are in eggs and red meat, but most people usually get them from their protein powders. Why are BCAAs important? They help aid protein synthesis and energy production, which is essential for metabolism. Valine is a mild stimulant; Leucine promotes muscle growth, and isoleucine regulates blood sugar while creating hemoglobin (proteins that carry oxygen throughout the body).
All the scientific studies are available via The International Society of Sports Nutrition and The National Academy of Sports Medicine sites. Protein, Glutamine, and BCAAs all have no safety concerns except glutamine for pregnant women because not enough studies have been conducted.
However, there are many, many supplements out there, which can help advance your fitness journey e.g. creatine. Creatine (if used properly), has been shown to: enhance sports performance by boosting muscle power, increasing sprinting speeds, time to fatigue, and lean body mass. The main issue with creatine: is it can cause bloating from water retention, nausea, diarrhea, muscle cramps, muscle stiffness, and heat intolerance. For those reasons, I like to stay away from creatine. Even though it has been proven when supplemented in the recommended serving, the side effects should not be a problem.
Caffeine is another supplement with benefits within recommended dosages, but also I mostly stay away from it. With any supplement, you decide to take, make sure it is safe because health is a long-term and big-picture investment. If the supplement is promising some immediate result/ quick fix, use your intuition and at least ask the proper care provider for advice.
Live life free and stay fit!
J’Nathan Bullock CSCS