New to Supplements? Here’s What You Need to Know
by Abby Austin
Which supplements are best for you? What brands can you trust? Do they actually work? What’s best for women? How much should you take? Thousands of supplements, hundreds of companies, a billion dollar industry… copious questions. Let’s cover the fundamentals.
Supplements can be intimidating and confusing for newcomers to training and nutrition. While no supplement is meant to replace a balanced diet, they do complement your regimen and help you reach your fitness goals faster by ensuring your body has the right nutrients for peak performance. For safety and efficacy, supplements supported by science are best. You shouldn’t use anything you don’t understand.
By learning the basics of supplements and being able to filter the good from the bad, you will be able to save time and money. Though a structured training and nutrition plan are foremost, investing in these six supplements will build a solid foundation.
- Multivitamin: No matter your fitness level, a daily multivitamin is essential. In order for the human body to function throughout the day- especially at maximum potential, it must be supplied with a complex array of essential nutrients. While most vitamins and minerals can be consumed in your everyday balanced diet, a multivitamin is taken to ensure you are covering all your bases. Becoming deficient in any single vitamin or mineral will diminish nutritional status and physiological functions causing health concerns and declined performance. Taking a multivitamin supports a healthy immune system, promotes metabolism efficiency, as well as maintains bone and tissue health.
- Protein: Protein helps regulate and maintain the functions of your body, including energy, immune function, hormone and enzyme production, as well as muscle growth. Research advocates 20-to-30 percent of your diet be protein intake. Consumption may be greater for those trying to build muscle. Ideally this consumption would be through (animal sourced) foods. However, with demanding excess protein and eating every 2-3 hours, finding the requirements in food can be strenuous, time consuming, and inconvenient. Therefore, protein powder and bars have helped alleviate the hassle without sacrificing quality. Protein supplements act fast and allow you to meet your daily protein goals. Protein supplements are the ideal post-workout protein source, especially whey protein because it is digested quickly and easily. There are 5 types of protein supplements, all with different benefits: whey, casein, soy, egg, and plant.
- BCAAs: The building blocks of protein are amino acids; branched chain amino acids are the essentials including leucine, isoleucine, and valine. Your body cannot synthesize essential amino acids and must be ingestion via food or supplementation. When BCAA’s are taken during training they extend performance via increased energy, reduce catabolism, and aid in recovery.
- Fish Oils: One of the supplements that offer the most benefits, fish oil is comprised of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly EPA and DHA. Omega-3’s are considered essential fatty acids meaning they are crucial for overall health but not produced by the body. Therefore, they are most abundant in oily fish, eggs, grass-fed animals, and nuts. To ensure adequate daily intake, fish oil supplements are still important. Fish oil supplements support a healthy cholesterol level, preserve bone health especially as your bones thin while growing older, and maintain levels of serotonin known as the “feel-good” hormone. Whether you want to build muscle, lose fat, or improve overall health, fish oil is an needed supplement.
- Glutamine: Over 60% of skeletal muscle is Glutamine, the most common amino acid in your muscles. Glutamine levels in your body decline during extreme exercise, which depreciates your strength, stamina and recovery. In some cases, it could take up to 6 days for the body to return to normal. L-Glutamine supplements help abate this breakdown of muscle, support a healthy immune system, and improves protein metabolism. With a longer recovery time and anti-catabolism ability, glutamine is ideal for leaning out.
- Creatine: When your body exerts energy, a molecule called ATP (Adenosine Tri Phosphate) acts as an energy source. In the process of heavy activity/training, ATP becomes ADP (Adenosine Di- Phosphate) by releasing a phosphate and de-energizing. To restore ATP and energy production, your body’s creatine phosphate steps in. That’s why one of the most popular products on the market is supplemental creatine, which enhances this re-energization process. Specifically, creatine is used to supply the type11b muscle fibers or fast-twitch fibers. As a result, creatine helps you achieve more reps, sprint faster, and enhance high intensity work causing greater muscle size and performance gains. There are various options of creatine, but creatine monohydrate is best-tested and longest standing.
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