There are some topics that everyone has a strong opinion on, whether it’s an informed opinion or not. Religion, politics, parenting, relationships – most of us are pretty set in our ways. That’s probably why we’re told to never discuss those topics in public settings if we wish to keep our friends.

Supplements can be one of those hot topics. Anyone who has even touched a supplement suddenly believes they know everything there is to know about nutritional health in the modern universe. I’ve met many fitness trainers, certified professionals, that don’t even understand supplementation properly, yet think they do.

Supplements, whether used correctly or incorrectly, can be expensive and dangerous. Always respect your body.

ASSUMPTIONS

I said all of that to say this:

These opinions on supplementation are just that, my opinion. My opinion is based on a lot of personal research, a lot of leaning on and quantifying the research of others, personal experimentation, guinea pig testing on loved ones, and diligently tracking every symptom, side effect, benefit and result that has occurred in the last few years of exploring supplements (as I got seriously concerned about the recent issue of http://sideeffectsofxarelto.org/current-xarelto-lawsuits/). What is said here may or may not work for you. Our physiologies are unique but there are some common best practices that will be of use to you.

FOOD

First and foremost, it’s imperative to understand food. What goes in is what comes out. Your body really is a machine. If you feed it poorly, you will perform poorly. You will live poorly. Period. If you cannot accept the following statement, you should stop reading this particular post as it will honestly be a waste of your time, and I have no intention of wasting your time.

Food does not provide us all the nutrients our body requires.

Today’s foods are packed full of hormones, additives, preservatives, nitrites, artificial ingredients. Our quality of food is far less than that of our forefathers two generations ago. Of course, healthy “organic” food is more expensive, so it must be good, right? Wrong. Just wrong.

If it’s in a bag, box, or container, don’t eat it. If it can sit on a counter more than two days without going nasty, don’t eat it. If it has ingredients you can’t pronounce or don’t know what they are, don’t eat it.

Natural foods provide us with the best source of nutrients. It’s not always easy to find natural food sources, but when you do, don’t let go. If you live in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area, try JW Foods. That’s where I go exclusively for my meats. Not only is everything as natural and healthy as can be had in this time, but I can fill out an online meal plan and they will literally bag my meats by meal per day. How awesome is that?

VITAMINS

Regardless of how good your food source is, unless you’re working a farm yourself and have full control over the entire life-cycle of your meats, fruits, vegetables, and grains, you’re not getting all of their nutrients. You need a good multivitamin.

What makes a good multivitamin?

• dosage – how often do you need to take it? Is it one pill once each morning? Four caplets three times per day? What is the overall daily dosage? Why are they splitting it? Ask the tough questions.
• absorption – your body’s ability to make use of the nutrients on a cellular level. You could be ingesting 1000 mg of vitamin c but if the absorption is only 20%, your wasting nearly 800 mg of that and would be better off getting a 200 mg vitamin c with 90% absorption.
• grade – the ingredient quality of the vitamins themselves. Not all vitamins are created equal. Just as meats, eggs and other foods have grades, so do vitamins. If you have two 200 mg vitamin c 90% bottles in your hand, and one is $10 and the other is $25, check the grade. Hopefully that explains the price difference and not just some branding marketing. Grade is important. Continuing the machine analogy, if you put the best grade fuel in your car, you’ll get the best performance. You can use a lesser grade, save a little money, but your car won’t perform optimally and you will reduce its lifespan. Poor car.

What do I use as a multivitamin? Naka Nutri Multi for Men. Being a liquid it has very high absorption and you can see in the link it has more ingredients than most vitamins you’re probably familiar with. There are specialized formulations to meet the needs of men, but there is also a Women’s formula with higher iron and selenium.

PRE-WORKOUT

If you’re going to eat right, chances are you know the importance of sleep already and of exercise. Any form of exercise is beneficial to you, but there are ways to maximize your time spent to yield the best possible results for yourself. Proper form is important. Supplementation is important.

1. Never workout on an empty stomach – I always have something light in my stomach half an hour before exercise, usually fruit or a single scoop protein shake
2. Creatine (men only) – If you want to maximize your muscle development take a non-phase loading creatine like Purple K. What does non-phase loading mean? It means it’s not water bulk that will disappear within days of you stopping the creatine. Also be aware to only use creatine for a maximum of 8 weeks in a row. After that, your liver will start to take a pounding.
3. Pre-training Stim – These are called many things, but a stimulant is a stimulant. One of the best I have used in the past is Razor 8. If you’re over 40 or have heart issues, avoid these stimulants; they can be hard on the system.

What do I use pre-workout? To be honest, I don’t use much anymore. Like I said, something in my stomach is key. I don’t use creatine at all. Or a training stim. I’ve switched over these last few months to an amazing product I’ve come across that provides clean cellular energy, offering me a far higher rush than anything else on the market without any crash or side effects to my system. It’s simply brilliant. I’m still in the testing phase of this product so won’t reveal the name of it soon, but let’s just say I’m so impressed thus far that my wife and I are seriously considering buying into the company. I’ll keep you posted.

WORKOUT

There are many schools of thought surrounding what to drink during a workout. In the gym workouts say to drink lots of protein. Distance runners say drink/eat your electrolytes and salt packets. I say screw them all. The key to being efficient during any workout is hydration. Hydration equal water. Plain and simple. Have a bottle of water with you. Stay hydrated always.

POST-WORKOUT

Your resting state is when your body recovers. When your body recovers is when it repairs. When it repairs is when you become stronger, faster, leaner, better. The single most powerful weapon for this is a consistent eight hours of sleep.

1. Protein – after a workout, you only have a 25 minute window to absorb protein to aid in your body’s recovery process. Most proteins don’t even absorb in that time. Hydrolized whey protein absorbs in less than five minutes. I carry a bottle with me to the gym, separate from my water bottle. It contains one scoop protein, 1/8 cup egg whites, and it used to have two scoops of glutamine …
2. Glutamine – This is like having a secret weapon you can’t overdose on. Glutamine helps with recovery to the point where you don’t even feel that dreaded “second day” syndrome or barely any pain at all. Wonderful stuff that everyone should have.

What do I use? I don’t take glutamine anymore. This same company I’ve been sampling from also has an incredible product that reduces inflammation on the cellular level. Not only does this help prevent over 84 common and dreaded diseases, but it also makes my workouts stronger, my muscles last longer, and recover quicker. Again, still testing, but will keep you posted.

DAILY ROUTINE

In order to be thorough, here are two different examples. The first is what I used to take for the longest time. The second is what I take now:

EXAMPLE 1 – What I was doing

• 5:30 AM (pre-workout) – Whey Isolate Protein/fruit, Razor 8, Arginine, Creatine
• 6:45 AM (post-workout) – Hydrolized Whey Protein, Glutamine, egg whites, Testosterone (upd: learning what the Fenugreek testosterone is at the moment)
• 7 AM – breakfast = 75% protein, 25% carbs, 0% fat
• 7 AM – Naka Nutri Multi for Men, Naka Vital Greens, CoQ10, odorless garlic, Vitamin D
• 10 AM (morning snack) – Casein Protein, Whey Isolate Protein, fruit
• 1 PM – lunch = 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% green veggies
• 1 PM – Testosterone, Arginine
• 3 PM (afternoon snack) – Casein Protein, Whey Isolate Protein, Natural Peanut Butter
• 6 PM – dinner = 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% green veggies
• 9 PM (evening snack) – Casein Protein

EXAMPLE 2 – What I do now

• 5:30 AM (pre-workout) – Mystery Product 1 (cellular energy), Whey Isolate Protein/fruit, Razor 8, Arginine, Creatine
• 6:45 AM (post-workout) – Hydrolized Whey Protein, Glutamine, egg whites, Testosterone
• 7 AM – breakfast = 75% protein, 25% carbs, 0% fat
• 7 AM – Mystery Product 2 (high absorption multi-vitamin), Mystery Product 3 (cellular anti-inflammation)Naka Nutri Multi for Men, Naka Vital Greens, CoQ10, odorless garlic, Vitamin D
• 10 AM (morning snack) – Casein Protein, Whey Isolate Protein, fruit
• 1 PM – lunch = 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% green veggies
• 1 PM – Mystery Product 3, Testosterone, Arginine
• 3 PM (afternoon snack) – Casein Protein, Whey Isolate Protein, Natural Peanut Butter
• 6 PM – dinner = 50% protein, 25% fat, 25% green veggies
• 9 PM (evening snack) – Casein Protein

As you can see, not much has changed as far as my nutrition goes but my supplementation has been greatly simplified. I like simple.

CONCLUSION

I can’t even hope to address everyone’s individual issues in a single introductory post, so please, comment below with your specifics, or if you’re feeling a little shy, clicking my picture on the right hand side of this blog (unless you’re on mobile) and send me an email. I’m always happy to help where I can and maybe we’ll even learn from each other.

Fly strong.