Supps are one of the most talked about subjects in fitness, why? Because everyone wants that magic pill that does whatever it is you want to achieve, be that fat loss, strength gains, muscle gains, the ability to fly? Maybe not the last one, but some advertisements seem to promise something pretty close to that. The reality is that most companies are more interested in making money out of you than actually helping. Sorry to break it to you but it’s true and that pill does not exist.

Where to from here? How do you know what to take and what not to take?

Personally with all my clients the first stop is nutrition. If your nutrition is rubbish then we are fighting an uphill battle to begin with. Ensuring you are eating a large variety of whole fresh foods is the best place to start, then once that is sorted I prefer to take the minimalist approach with supps and make recommendations case by case. The roll of supplements should be just that, to supplement, or fill in the gaps that are missed by nutrition. So having look at the most common deficiencies is the logical next step.

In western society three of the most common deficiencies are,

• Vitamin D
• Magnesium
• Zinc

So generally speaking you should be taking these, but not always.

This is easy though, a simple blood test from your doctor will confirm if you are deficient, you want to be aiming for the high end of the optimal range if you are below that, then a high quality supplement might be what you need.

Personally I use and recommend Poliquin Group supplements, but there are other options out there. Just ensure, especially with magnesium, that it is a bioavailable form preferably a blend of different amino acid chelates to ensure maximum absorption.

Eg. Magnesium Taurate, Magnesium Orotate, Magnesium Glycinate, and Magnesium Fumarate.

Zinc, Mag and Vit D are all very important in regulating your metabolic systems, dealing with stress, absorption of other nutrients etc, and bringing your levels up to optimal often brings everything else into alignment, especially if nutrition is on point.

Beyond those three a high quality multivitamin can be a good idea to top up any other deficiencies. I don’t mean the cheap supermarket brands either. Once again Poliquin Group has some very high quality products but also I have found Reflex and Optimum Nutrition multivitamin products to be very good as well. If you are unsure have a chat to your local sports supplement store about which multi they recommend and you should be on the right track.

The next big thing is gut health, which is very often sub optimal, this can be due to any number of factors including but not limited to drinking chlorinated water, antibiotics, alcohol consumption, or medications. We have all seen the television ads where the good bacteria verse the bad bacteria and you have the help the good bacteria win. Well that’s pretty much how it goes, the beneficial bacteria helps to break down food and keep everything in check, an over abundance of the bad bacteria and general digestive abuse can lead to things like irritable bowel, food sensitivities, leaky gut disorder, depression and even cancer or autoimmune disorders. Pretty scary stuff, but keeping things in check with a high quality probiotic coupled with a healthy lifestyle can be good insurance against these things.

But how do you know which probiotics are high quality?

Well I’m so glad you asked. Basically look for a product that is stable at room temperature and has greater than 10 million live bacteria from multiple strains with guaranteed potency beyond the date of expiry. This will make sure you are taking what you are actually paying for. Once again avoid the supermarkets and stick to the organic or health food store for these.

Some people do need a lot more help than that but this is now moving into the realm of individualised metabolic correction requiring a consultation and further testing rather than reading a blog post.

But what about protein powders, pre-workouts, fat burners and all that other fancy stuff? Well look to be honest, don’t waste your money. Once again nutrition always comes first but let’s have a look at the advantages/disadvantages of each and you can make up your own mind if you want to spend the money.

Fat Burners do they work? Short answer is yes with a but. Long answer is not as well as you have been led to believe and this is why.

Usually these fat burners contain fairly high doses of stimulants, such as caffeine, bitter orange extract or DMAA (now banned in many countries) these do speed up your basal metabolic rate, they essentially do this by putting your body into a stress response mode so it runs hot, which inevitably puts a lot of strain on your adrenal glands. This is also why on the packaging they usually say use for 21 days then have a week off. This is to give your adrenals a rest, which is great if you are healthy live in a cave and have no additional stress (which very few people do). Unfortunately if you are already stressed from poor gut health, injury or life in general, all these stimms do is drive up your cortisol levels, which slows healing, increases insulin resistance and inevitably makes it harder to burn fat and easier to store fat. Not to mention when you stop taking them you tend to have some level of metabolic crash as a rebound effect. They also act as appetite suppressants which means you eat less and inevitably weigh less, awesome you might say, but because of the high stress the body is under it will sacrifice muscle instead of fat for energy so in the end you are weak still fat and stressed out but hey you weigh less on the scales. That is until you stop taking them and your metabolism has shut down because you were eating less and now you have less muscle, so your basal metabolic rate is even lower again and your adrenal glands are pushed to the limit so your body has to steal pregnenolone, a precursor hormone to your primary sex hormones, to make more cortisol. Then there none left to make androgenic hormones so you now find it difficult to rebuild muscle and re-establish your metabolism leading to a life of being fat sad and lonely…… Ok maybe that’s a little bit extreme but you definitely get the idea.

The same goes for pre-workouts; they are usually just stimulant loaded crap. There are some nice products available that are stimulant free and contain BCAA’s and maybe some beta alanine to help nutrients reach the muscle cells more efficiently. In saying that, unless you are trying to shave 1/100th of a second off your 100 metre sprint to make the Olympic team or put on that extra 500 grams of lean muscle before competing in Mr Olympia I really would not bother wasting your money.

Protein is much the same as the previous comment regarding pre-work outs. There is a load of scientific evidence to promote nutrient timing and facilitation protein synthesis via the mTOR pathway activation from adequate amino acid presence in particular leucine as well as supporting recovery post competition and workout. This data is what the marketers of these products uses to sell them, but once again unless you are competing at an elite level back to back through peak competition season or trying to squeeze that extra 1-2% out of your performance it is not something I tend to recommend, and definitely not the first thing you should be spending your money on. I’m sure many readers will argue the benefits and be able to tell me why everyone should use protein which is fine, and there is lots of situations I might suggest it but I have just explained why as a general rule of thumb I suggest my clients don’t waste money on it when they can be spending money more effectively elsewhere.

Train hard be safe,

Your strength coach,

Cam