Best Nutrition Supplement?

[kevinpeter]

Please let me know which is the best nutrition supplement which work fast?

[Coach Sommer]

Please let me know which is the best nutrition supplement which work fast?

 

#1 - sweat

 

#2 - time

 

 

All other supplements are secondary until you get these two in order.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Toni Laukkavaara]

^what is said above. There isn't much to do supplement wise for conditioning purposes

[Nicholas Sortino]

Adding on to what coach said: Diet.  If your training and diet aren't in order, even Anabolic Androgenic Steroids and Growth Hormones will be of limited effect. 

[Kevin Conley]

Vegetables.

[Blairbob]

Adequate protein and caloric intake. Some of this can actually balance out less than optimal sleep (though it'll bite you in your butt eventually but it's somewhat doable with large quantities of food and stimulants).

After food, water, sleep and a good training schedule...caffeine can help A LOT so long as it doesn't mess with your sleep.

Also NAPS really help. Even some downtime during the day of just laying on your back. Even just laying on the floor when foam rolling can be a godsend.

Even just the difference of a snack before or during training (if it's longer than 2hours) can make a big difference. Protein powder and gatorade for example. And a spare redbull if need be. That being said, training is still rough if you are fighitng off hunger because not enough calories have been consumed prior.

[Mikkel Ravn]

I totally agree with what's stated above:

Sweat

Time

Adequate diet

Caffeine

 

A good cup of coffee (preferably espresso) can be the most kickass pre-workout supplement, especially if it's one of those days where you can't seem to get your ass in gear.

[Jesse Frigo]

Vegetables.

This is the concise version of what I wanted to say.

[Mikkel Ravn]

This is the concise version of what I wanted to say.

It's really not very concise. Not to be splitting hairs, but it's not.

[Sean Murphey]

Rhino Milk

[Jon Douglas]

You guys are really getting stuck into this stuff lately

I'm experimenting with creatine at the moment. So far I think my recent strength gains have been mostly placebo and consolidating shoulder rehab, but I will happily accept result regardless.

[Jesse Kim]

This is going to be long but you would need:

 

Sleep- You want adequate sleep (6-8 hours, or 7-9 hours from what I heard). Power naps are incredible, too. They help for those long random days. As long as they don't disrupt your sleep schedule, DO IT. It's God's way of saying, "Here, have a cookie".

 

Exercise- The right attitude is the right way. Have fun with your training, be humble with your progress, and keep looking forward.

 

Diet- Whether you're following paleo, vegan/vegetarian, or SAD, always include dark, leafy vegetables with your meals. I include vegetables with all my meals. Also, diets are like clothes; there are different sizes and styles so pick one that fits you. I personally eat animal products once/twice a week, while following something close to a vegan for the majority of the week. It feels great.

 

I found coffee (black) and fruits to be helpful helpful with energy and recovery, the former and latter respectively. But don't drink too much coffee, as you will build a tolerance for it. Fruits contain fructose, which is a type of sugar, and like all sugars, you can gain fat from eating too much. But because it is natural it's better than fructose syrup or other artificial replicates. Also fruits are mostly made from water, which can help with hydrating yourself, and in return, with your recovery. From personal experience and other sources, you would have to eat an insane amount of fruits to get the negative effects like from eating fructose corn syrup; so you can eat a lot of fruits, but not TOO too much. Variety helps.

 

*As with supplements, protein powder and/or creatine can help. Make sure you choose the right brand, though. They only supplement your diet, so don't think of them as crutches. Sleep and diet is where you'll lose weight the most; about 70% of weight loss will come from them. Training makes up about a quarter of weight loss while supplements only help with the remaining 5% if you really want to go that route. So again, a supplement is like extra credit: it can help, but don't rely on it*. 

 

Yeah.

[Keilani Gutierrez]

I used to be biased on the subject, thinking supplements were a holy grail.

after quite a while training, experimenting dropping my supplements for windows of 3-6months and then re-inserting them i've arrived at a list that is specific to my dietary needs, when I travel to America the story is quite different. little produce is actually grown on the island i live and when it is, it's grossly expensive. I'm pretty sure my list would look different having the exposure of all the produce available where you guys live. I could not believe my eyes when I saw all the apples at a farmers market in Oregon. mind BLOWN! before that, i had only seen perhaps 5-6 varieties.

these days I focus on:

1. Vitamin C( not exceeding 2,000mg, in my case, which I find interesting. still haven't learned enough chemistry to explain why, but this is where my body likes my vitamin C levels to stop at)
2. Soy lecithin / viamin E
3. Calcium / Magnesium / Vitamin D
4. whey protein
5. that's it. the rest is food, sweat, recovery and a sense of zen.

I'm pretty particular of the type of water I drink. that's about it.

every once in a while when my mom makes her morning brew, i'll throw some in a morning smoothie but for the most part, I don't drink coffee. maybe that's why i've been on F1 for so long.

suddenly.....everything makes sense.

[Kevin Herring]

Just my nutritional theory:

1. Hard work

2. Work smart

3. Smart recovery

4. Consistency

5. Patience

6. Hard work

I believe that when I master these six things first most of my questions will be answered.

[Matthew Jefferys]

Quite a few silly answers here. The guy asked about supplements.

 

The #1 supplement will always be creatine. There's always things like citrulline malate as well, but you can't beat boosted phosphagen reserves. Creatine hydrate is the most common supplemental form. Powder is superior to the premixed solutions because the latter catalyses degradation into creatinine, which your kidneys have to flush out.

 

Your diet will determine how well it works. A really creatine poor diet will mean the strength gains become highly noticeable once you're on it. Try a loading cycle (take about 0.2g - 0.4g per kg of lean mass) once a day for about a week. After that starts your maintenance cycle, which is one tenth of a daily loading phase dose per day (0.02g - 0.04g/kg lean mass). Any other supplements aren't worth the money. They're often expensive and do little to nothing. If you're at maximum capacity for a certain nutrient or metabolite, ingesting more won't do you any good.

 

If you eat lots of animal products, use 0.2g or 0.02g per kg of lean mass as your dose.

If you eat little animal products, use 0.3g or 0.03g per kg of lean mass as your dose.

If you're a vegetarian, use 0.4g or 0.04g per kg of lean mass as your dose.

[Matthew Jefferys]

There's also always caffeine, but that just makes you a bit hyper. Never worked for me, but it seems to be popular given the entire preworkout supplement industry.

[Coach Sommer]

Supplements at your guys' level are highly overrated.  The ones who profit most are the manufacturers.

 

Bottom line; there is no substitute for consistency, patience and hard work.  After that we add solid basic nutrition.

 

Until you get these four factors in order all the fancy supplements in the world will accomplish exactly nothing.  Except to waste your money and create interestingly colored urine.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Matthew Jefferys]

I thought we were assuming he knew that training and nutrition are paramount. Supplements are always secondary. One should never rely or count on them. 

[Matthew Jefferys]

Creatine worked wonders for me because I'm almost vegetarian. The strength gains were insane. I went from struggling with one arm chin-up negatives to doing 10 one handed chin-ups a set. For anyone with an omnivorous diet, especially one with high meat consumption, it won't be as effective, so don't pay heaps of cash for it.

[Ryan Bailey]

A nutritional supplement does not have to be a store bought pill that gives you a jolt of energy, or quick boost in muscle growth; it can be an actual food.

Example, we dehydrated liver and made capsules for a winter "supplement" here and there as my wife was not into my cooked liver I made (I don`t know why) :-)

[Matthew Jefferys]

A nutritional supplement does not have to be a store bought pill that gives you a jolt of energy, or quick boost in muscle growth; it can be an actual food.

Example, we dehydrated liver and made capsules for a winter "supplement" here and there as my wife was not into my cooked liver I made (I don`t know why) :-)

It's possible to develop hypervitaminosis A that way. In any case, creatine is found in food, just not to the amounts you can get from a supplement. Your own body produces around half your daily creatine requirements. It's not some foreign synthetic chemical that your body has never been exposed to; it's an essential nutrient, and you'd die without it.

[ASForum]

Supplements at your guys' level are highly overrated.  The ones who profit most are the manufacturers.

 

Bottom line; there is no substitute for consistency, patience and hard work.  After that we add solid basic nutrition.

 

Until you get these four factors in order all the fancy supplements in the world will accomplish exactly nothing.  Except to waste your money and create interestingly colored urine.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Ha ha! Coach you crack me up - I hope I can remember to use that "colored urine" thing when someone raves about supplements. 

Creatine worked wonders for me because I'm almost vegetarian. The strength gains were insane. I went from struggling with one arm chin-up negatives to doing 10 one handed chin-ups a set. For anyone with an omnivorous diet, especially one with high meat consumption, it won't be as effective, so don't pay heaps of cash for it.

All that just because of Creatine? Hmm.. 

[Travis Widmann]

I still don't know how that isn't an Appeal to Nature Fallacy, but whatever floats your boat 

 

Huh? All I see in this thread is an appeal to hard work and consistency, aka an Appeal to the Basics.

[John Koliopoulos]

very little constructive answers in this post.

 

My recommendation is:

 

-Vitamin D (works great for me, especially mentally. I am depressed less often, you will really notice a difference, esp if you are not outside in the sun a lot or in the winter season)

-Zink

-Omega 3

-Caffeine

 

I personally cannot say creatine had any noticeable effect on my training. Monohydrate completely failed for me, I just retained large amounts of water and could not increase strength. Cre-Alkalyn (buffered creatine) was better, as the dosage can be reduced by quite a bit. Again, I didn't notice any changes.

 

Keep in mind, supplements make maybe 3% difference. It always amazes me how much money people spend for this stuff, when most of it has zero to no effect. Guess its due to genius marketing and general lack of knowledge For that kind of money most people could run a steroid cycle^^

[Matthew Jefferys]

All that just because of Creatine? Hmm.. 

"Essential for life" shouldn't be taken lightly. And if increased lifespan and improved brain function weren't enough for you on top of the strength gains, it also contributes to increased bone density: http://www.ergo-log.com/creatinebones.html