The Fitness Supplements That Actually Work
Episode Stats
Summary
In your journey towards becoming stronger, fitter, and healthier, there often comes a point where you wonder if taking some supplements will help your progress along. But what fitness supplements are actually effective and worth investing in? Here to answer that question is Dr. Lane Norton, a powerlifter and doctor in nutritional science who has a passion for debunking health-related myths and promoting evidence-based recommendations.
Transcript
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Brett McKay here, and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.
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In your journey towards becoming stronger, fitter, and healthier, there often comes a
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point where you wonder if taking some supplements will help your progress along, but what fitness
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supplements are actually effective and worth investing in?
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Here to answer that question is Lane Norton, a powerlifter and doctor in nutritional science
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who has a passion for debunking health-related myths and promoting evidence-based recommendations.
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He's also, full disclosure, the owner of a supplement company himself, but I don't have
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any financial connection to Lane's company and we keep this conversation neutral and high
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In our conversation, Lane argues that there are three top-tier research-backed supplements
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to consider, whey protein, creatine, and caffeine, and we unpack how to use each of them for optimal
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We discuss whether plant proteins are sufficient for building muscle, whether it's true that
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creatine causes bloating, acne, and hair loss, how to best time your caffeine intake to
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At the end of our conversation, Lane shares some additional supplements that seem promising
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After the show's over, check out our show notes at aom.is slash supplements.
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All right, Lane Norton, welcome back to the show.
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So we had you on a few years ago to talk about the science of fat loss, and that is episode
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number 475 for those who want to check that out.
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I brought you back because I wanted to talk about supplements.
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This is something that you talk a lot about on your Instagram page.
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You do a lot of great content making the scientific research about supplements accessible and understandable
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And the reason why I want to talk about supplements is because I think I've noticed this particularly
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I know I did this when I was like, I want to get strong.
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One of the first things I would do, I would kind of glance over, okay, here's what I need
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But when do you think people should actually consider incorporating supplements into any lifestyle
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Well, to be quite frank, anybody who's listening to this is probably not going to pay attention
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to my advice in terms of what I recommend, which is there are supplements that can be helpful.
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However, what supplements can do, so just even the phrase, what supplements do I need?
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By definition, there are no needed supplements.
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They are on top of whatever you're already doing.
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And yes, like even things like, for example, creatine, which is probably the most tested
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and proven supplement there is, it has a significant effect, but the effect is relatively
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small when you consider just what you can get from consistent training and nutrition.
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Now, that being said, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't take creatine, especially if you're
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somebody who's looking to maximize muscle mass and strength.
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But this idea that there are supplements out there that you can take that are just going
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to give you these drug-like pharmaceutical effects, they just do not exist, period.
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You could have argued for a time that there were some that would give drug-like effects,
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So pro-hormones, pro-steroids, and even like basically designer steroids were able to be
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brought to market by companies basically because there's thousands of supplement companies out
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And the idea that the FDA can just monitor all this stuff at all times is ridiculous.
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And so there were companies basically bringing out like actual steroids and selling them as
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And so, yeah, of course, like that could give you, you know, pharmaceutical-like effects.
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The problem was those steroids tend to be less effective with more side effects than what
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So when it comes to actual like truly legal supplements, even the most effective ones, you're
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But again, that doesn't mean that you can't or shouldn't use them or that it doesn't make
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It just means that if you're somebody who's, you know, taking piles of supplements, but
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you don't even understand how to train hard, you aren't even consistent with your training
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and you don't really pay attention to your nutrition.
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I mean, you're basically stepping over, you know, dollars to pick up pennies essentially.
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So it sounds like if you focus on your nutrition first, your exercise, your rest and recovery,
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and that's something I think a lot of people underplay is the value of sleep, stress management.
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That's going to get you, you're going to be great.
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Now, if you're looking for a little bit added, supplements can come in handy there.
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Yeah, and I think a lot of people, you know, it's just our like hack culture, our biohack
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culture, which is how can I hack my way around really hard work over a really long period
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And I will tell you to anybody listening, if people took the amount of time, effort, and
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money that they spent trying to hack their way around hard work and just applied that
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In fact, that is actually the hack just to do the work.
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And most people, unfortunately, don't want to hear that.
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And I think a lot of it's just how society is set up now for instant gratification.
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And, you know, you can pop on your cell phone, order food, order anything you need off the
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Your genetics and your body are, you know, the summation of billions of years of cells
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going through natural selection to reach where we are now.
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And this idea that you're just going to rapidly change things.
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And so I think if people could just embrace this idea of hard work and consistency, they
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But that's a pretty big ask in today's society, I think.
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So, you know, there are a lot of supplements out there.
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But there are a few supplements that do work and they're well vetted by research and they're
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And the top tier of these are whey protein, creatine, and caffeine.
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But before we start talking about whey protein specifically, let's talk about protein in general.
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How much protein do people actually need for health and strength?
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I'm glad you put that caveat at the end because most people use the term need inappropriately.
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So the protein you need is just to, you know, not have a deficiency, which is about 0.8
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But if the goal is to maximize muscle mass or to build muscle, you probably at least want
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And if you're really concerned with maxing out, I'd probably look at up to 2.5 grams per
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By the way, for those listening, this is something that's just annoying to me.
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Um, just divide by 2.2 and also just learn the metric system.
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I'll tell you when measuring macros, I've recently just shifted all the metric grams.
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Well, I mean, if you think about the, I don't want to get too much of a rant, but you know,
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metric makes sense because it's all in units of 10.
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You know, like everything is moving in units of 10.
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Whereas like, if you're trying to do, you know, the English standard system, you know,
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And then it looks like all these units all over the place, you know, whereas, you know,
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metric makes sense because it's based off of increments of 10.
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But I understand that the U S audiences is always going to struggle with that.
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But yeah, if you're, if you're worried about it, it's about one gram per pound of body weight.
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So that's just, if you're looking for like strength, for overall health, it'd be even
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You'd probably be fine with, you know, 0.7 grams per pound.
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I do think, you know, having enough protein is a benefit because even if your goal is fat
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loss, protein increases energy expenditure and it helps to retain lean body mass when dieting.
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So that can help because people who lose more lean mass when they diet are more likely to
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So I do think protein has some benefit and protein has better satiety, a gram per gram
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So I do think protein has some added benefits that, you know, people could get beyond the
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And would you recommend people try to get most of their protein from food sources as opposed
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I mean, if you're somebody who just doesn't like protein containing foods, I think that
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using a whey protein or a protein powder or whatever it is, I think those are totally
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I don't think that's necessarily worse for you or anything like that.
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But, you know, in general, if you can get it from food, then it's, it's not better.
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I don't want to say it's better, but you don't have to use a protein supplement.
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You can just get it from food and it'd be perfectly fine.
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The one caveat to that is if you are vegan or, you know, plant-based, that plant-based
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sources of protein, especially the intact plant.
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So like if you're having, you know, instead of having soy isolate, if you're having soy
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beans, in those cases, the protein or the amino acids are bound up in the fibrous material
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So I would say in those cases, a supplement could be superior, but if you're consuming
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like an omnivorous diet, you don't need to consume a protein supplement as long as you're
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So if you do take a protein supplement, why is whey protein a great supplemental source
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So the bioavailability is like nearly a hundred percent.
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The second is it has a great amino acid profile, a very high in essential amino acids, very high
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in branched chain amino acids, very high in leucine.
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And leucine is the branched chain amino acid that I did my PhD research on and is responsible
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for increasing or triggering muscle protein synthesis.
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So, you know, instead of basically the body evolving to sense all the amino acids for triggering
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muscle protein synthesis, the body evolved to just sense one, which is leucine.
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And that's probably because leucine is not really metabolized by the gut or liver.
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So it reaches the bloodstream and quantitative values, similar to what you see in diet, and
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So basically what your muscles are seeing in terms of leucine reflects what you're consuming
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in your diet and high leucine sources of food are almost always high in all the essential
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And so it makes sense that the body would have evolved to sense leucine as opposed to
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any other amino acid, at least in terms of initiating muscle protein synthesis.
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So that's another reason that whey protein is great.
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Like for example, most animal-based sources of protein are around eight, nine percent leucine
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in terms of grams of leucine per a hundred grams of protein.
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And then if you look at like plant-based sources, which are like six to 8% leucine, you know,
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And then whey protein is typically, just by its nature, pretty easy to flavor because
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even like unflavored, whey protein does not have an objectionable flavor.
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It's like, I wouldn't say it's sweet, but it's not a bad taste.
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Whereas like if you've ever tasted like casein by itself or soy by itself or wheat by itself
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or egg protein by itself, it's pretty gnarly when it's unflavored.
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So those are some of the reasons that whey protein, and it's very competitive price-wise
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For a long time, it was very, very inexpensive.
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And now just, I think COVID increased the price of darn near everything, but whey protein
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Is there a difference between isolate and concentrate?
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So concentrate, so when a milk comes out of a cow, it's obviously whole milk.
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So you centrifuge it, which is basically you spin it really, really fast, and that separates
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out some of the gunk, especially like the fat from the protein.
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You take off the fat, you take that, and now you add acid to it.
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And that will cause the, if you add basically what's called an isoelectric point, the casein
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So milk protein is about 80% whey and 20% casein.
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If you add the appropriate amount of acid to that mixture, it will cause the casein to
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precipitate out, which means it basically becomes a solid.
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And so then you can take the supernatant, which is the liquid, which contains the whey.
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You pour that off, and then you basically dry that.
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So it's a liquid, but you dry it, remove the acid, and now you have whey protein concentrate.
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There's a few other steps in there I'm glossing over, but that's essentially the process.
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Now, whey protein concentrate is usually about 70% to 80% protein, and it is still a high-quality
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Whey protein concentrate does have a little bit more fat, a little bit more lactose, and
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so some people don't tolerate it real well just because of the lactose.
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For those people, going to an isolate can be really, really helpful because basically doing
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an isolate adds an extra filtration process to it, which essentially removes almost all
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And so what you're left with is a very, very almost protein-exclusive, especially based on
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weight, like whey protein concentrate is like 70% to 80% protein based on weight.
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So you're just getting a very, quote-unquote, clean source of protein with not calories from
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carbs or fats, really, and you're removing most of the lactose.
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So most people tolerate a whey isolate really well, whereas a decent proportion of the population
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But if you can tolerate a concentrate, you know, it's just as good for muscle building.
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Let's talk about, people hear a lot about the best times to take whey protein.
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Is there a best time or is any time a great time to take whey protein?
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It's just any time you need a high-quality source of protein.
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You know, people will say, you need to take it right after your workout because it's a
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It's that casein, which is the other component of whey, casein is kind of an oddball.
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And that is because it basically kind of congeals in the stomach, which slows down the emptying
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of that we call material that's moving through digestion.
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So it slows down the emptying of that chyme from the pyloric sphincter into the duodenum,
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which the duodenum is where a lot of digestion and absorption takes place in terms of enzymatic
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And so you get kind of this slow trickle of those amino acids into the duodenum when using
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There's not really many other proteins that behave that way.
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So the idea that whey is a fast protein is not really supported by data, in my opinion.
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Well, the idea behind casein is, well, if you're going to go a long time without having
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whey protein or without having any protein, you take casein, it can take up to six to
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And so you're getting this like, quote unquote, slow drip of amino acids.
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I would argue that based on some data that we had in our lab on what's called the muscle
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full effect and some other data, I don't think that it really makes a difference at
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But some people prefer to have casein like before bed since they're going to be fasting
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It's certainly not going to hurt anything, but I don't really think it's going to make
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So you mentioned some other protein supplement products.
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There's like eggs, soy, you know, other plant-based, can you get the same muscle building benefits
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You know, it's so hard to pick this stuff apart.
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If you look at the muscle protein synthesis response, whey tends to be a little bit better
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But when you look at the studies on actual muscle building, it's less clear.
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The issue with some of those studies is a lot of them are, you know, 8, 10, 12, 16 weeks.
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And so could there be a difference over the course of a year or years?
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There could be, but there's never going to be enough money to run a randomized control
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So we don't know, my wager would be that egg would be very similar to whey, if not like
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Soy, there may be a small difference over time in terms of whey is probably a little bit
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better, but you're not going to get a clear cut answer reading the research data.
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Pea protein, probably similar to soy in terms of muscle building properties.
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The downside to pea protein is I believe it is almost frank deficient in methionine, I
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So soy protein has the benefit of, it is a complete protein.
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There's a decent amount of essential amino acids in it.
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So not that it doesn't contain them, but they're in such low amounts that you would become
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So if you're going to do a pea protein, it's usually good to combine it with another plant
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based protein that kind of fills in those gaps.
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Now you can combine it with like wheat protein, for example, like wheat protein isolate, and
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you would kind of cover your bases because wheat is deficient in lysine, but I don't believe
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So you could combine those two and get the benefits.
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Now, a lot of people are opposed to using soy because, oh, it's going to take my testosterone.
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There was a recent meta-analyses done looking at this, and it found that at least like if
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you're talking like one or two servings of soy a day, soy protein, had no effects on
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So I think those concerns are very, very much overblown.
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So I guess take away the protein, get one gram per pound of body weight if you're looking
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You don't necessarily need to take a protein supplement if you're getting it from food
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sources, and if you are way isolate, it's probably going to be your, it's easy on the
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stomach, it tastes good, and most bang for your buck.
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I mean, if you're, if you're, if you tolerate a concentrate, okay, you can save a little bit
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We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.
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And now back to the show, let's talk about another supplement that has a lot of research
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behind it and that you recommend, and that's creatine.
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So what is creatine and what are the benefits of it?
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So creatine is a combination of different amino acids and it's produced naturally by the
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So some people say, well, just eat, just eat meat.
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But because cooking can reduce the bioavailability of creatine and meat, if you were eating raw
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meat, you'd need about three pounds of raw meat a day.
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And if you were cooking it, you'd need probably closer to six or seven.
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So pretty difficult to get in enough creatine to maximize muscle phosphocreatine stores.
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So that's, I want to point that out, that usually you have to supplement with it if you
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want to max out your muscle phosphocreatine stores.
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And so when I say phosphocreatine, phosphocreatine is the active form of creatine.
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So if you take creatine, it goes into your digestion, your bloodstream, your muscle can
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pick it up, and then it adds a phosphate group to it.
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And now that creatine is a high energy phosphate donor.
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So many of you may have heard, you know, the term ATP, adenosine triphosphate, which is
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That's what your body uses to literally generate energy and get unfavorable reactions to happen
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because it's such a high energy phosphate, it can power those reactions.
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Well, when you use ATP in a reaction, it forms ADP.
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So you get a free phosphate and adenosine diphosphate molecule.
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Phosphocreatine can donate its phosphate to ADP to reform ATP.
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So that's why we see, or at least why we think we see some performance benefits when using
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creatine because you're helping reform that energy substrate.
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Now, the other thing with creatine is it does increase lean mass.
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And the way it does this is a little bit less known, but we do know very conclusively that
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And part of that may be through increasing cellular volume.
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And people have said, well, creatine causes water retention.
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Not the kind of water retention that looks bad.
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And this idea that creatine is going to cause water retention, it's causing water retention
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Now, people who have said things like, well, I take creatine, I get bloated.
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What you are experiencing is GI discomfort because creatine is a gut irritant for some folks.
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So, and especially if you're taking it with caffeine, because caffeine is also a gut irritant.
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So if you're taking them together, you can really have like quite a bit of gut irritation.
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Now, what I would say with creatine is in order to get the benefits from creatine, you want to
00:23:55.720
saturate the muscle cell 100% with phosphocreatine.
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If you supplement with 5 grams of creatine monohydrate per day, within 2 or 3 weeks, you will likely saturate
00:24:09.760
You can also load it, which where you take 15 to 25 grams per day, and you'll saturate it within a week.
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The downside is most people experience some kind of GI discomfort using a loading phase.
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So if you're somebody who doesn't want to feel, you know, bloated or feel like you're
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retaining water, quote unquote, then I would recommend not loading and just taking a maintenance
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So I guess the benefits of creatine can help increase lean muscle mass and can help with
00:24:44.120
And it improves performance in terms of, it might improve like fatigue resistance.
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And there's some more recent literature demonstrating that creatine may actually have cognitive benefits
00:24:57.580
And so again, the dosage on that, you can just do five, is it five grams a day?
00:25:02.700
If you're somebody who has GI discomfort with that, then I would recommend splitting up two,
00:25:08.620
And then that should help with the GI discomfort.
00:25:13.120
Like after a workout, you have to take, I've heard things like, you gotta take it with a
00:25:19.060
So I would say that whatever time of the day that you'll take it, it doesn't really matter
00:25:23.520
because it's not like you take creatine and all of a sudden you get the benefits.
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Let's talk about some of the myths of creatine.
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I remember when creatine first got a lot of, I guess, I don't think it was, this was like
00:25:43.260
98, 99 when the home run, the steroid era home run race was going on.
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I think it was mentioned like Mark McGuire took creatine.
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Can it cause, I've heard like it could cause hair loss, acne, anything to that?
00:26:09.640
The one that has seemed to stuck is the hair loss thing.
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This comes from a single study in 2009 that has never been replicated.
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And they did not show that it caused hair loss.
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What they showed was that people who took creatine had greater levels of DHT, which is a hormone
00:26:34.820
And I think hair loss as well, but showing an increase in a hormone that's associated with
00:26:39.620
hair loss is not the same thing as showing hair loss.
00:26:42.180
This is something that gets screwed up by people all the time in terms of them jumping to conclusions.
00:26:48.880
There are all kinds of things that you can show as markers or mechanisms increase in response
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So a great example of this, for example, is high protein diets and calcium excretion.
00:27:05.780
So if you eat a high protein diet, they've shown it will increase your calcium excretion.
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And some people have said, see, it causes bone loss.
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When they actually measure bone density, high protein diets do not cause bone loss.
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So you can't just say, well, A equals B and B equals C, so therefore A equals C.
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So DHT is a metabolite of testosterone, actually.
00:27:38.520
They didn't see their other hormones change in response to creatine supplementation.
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So those things, coupled with the fact that the study 15 years later has still not been
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replicated, I would say you don't have to worry about hair loss on creatine based on
00:28:00.320
I'm curious that maybe there's parents listening to this, their kids.
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They're getting into late middle school, early high school, where they're starting to take
00:28:05.800
their physical training a little bit more serious.
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Is there like an age limit when kids start supplementing with creatine?
00:28:17.880
If you're under 18 years old, make sure you talk to your mom and dad and make sure you
00:28:23.140
That being said, I'm aware of no research data showing that creatine supplementation is
00:28:30.040
I have yet to see any research data demonstrating that it's a bad thing for kids.
00:28:35.340
And it sounds like, I mean, could creatine be something that even just regular people
00:28:38.360
who aren't really focused on getting, you know, on performance in the gym?
00:28:44.560
Is it a good supplement just to take for overall health and well-being?
00:28:49.360
I mean, given it can increase lean mass, there may be some cognitive benefits and it's pretty
00:28:55.860
I think it's like, you know, you can get plain old creatine monohydrate for like 20, 30
00:29:03.640
So that's talking about whey protein, about creatine.
00:29:06.700
I want to go ahead and touch this as well in terms of creatine mist.
00:29:13.340
They come out with creatine ethyl ester and buffered creatine and creatine hydrochloride.
00:29:20.680
Creatine monohydrate saturates the muscle cell 100% with phosphocreatine.
00:29:26.980
Every other form of creatine is either not as good as creatine monohydrate in research studies
00:29:37.480
So I just don't see any point to using anything other than creatine monohydrate.
00:29:42.540
Like creatine ethyl ester has actually been shown to convert to creatinine, the waste
00:29:46.520
product, at a greater rate than creatine monohydrate.
00:29:49.600
So creatine ethyl ester is an absolute waste of money.
00:29:53.400
It's also like two or three times more expensive than monohydrate.
00:29:56.440
And then buffered creatine seems to be as good as creatine monohydrate, maybe just a touch
00:30:08.840
So this idea that you need these special forms of creatine, that is for one reason and one
00:30:18.480
Creatine monohydrate is so ubiquitous that the companies are in such competition with
00:30:25.260
What happens when a bunch of companies compete with each other?
00:30:28.120
They sell things really, really cheap because they're trying to slim their margins so that
00:30:33.100
they can sell in bulk and they can get a bigger market share.
00:30:36.040
And so in an effort to convince the public that they should spend more money because they
00:30:43.240
can make a lot more money, they've made these new forms of creatine that either aren't as
00:30:49.860
good or they are as good and just way more expensive.
00:30:52.220
So I will say, do not waste your money on any form of creatine other than creatine monohydrate.
00:30:58.240
Let's talk about the third supplement you recommend.
00:31:01.700
What are the health and performance benefits of caffeine?
00:31:03.780
So caffeine has been shown to block the adenosine receptor, which can improve wakefulness and
00:31:13.180
It's also been shown to decrease fatigue and even some studies showing it modestly increases
00:31:19.880
maximal strength, but you have to get the dose pretty high for that.
00:31:22.900
So for increasing strength, it's like closer to 0.6 grams per kilogram.
00:31:29.440
So for me as a, you know, 95 kilogram person, you know, I'm going to need to be, you know,
00:31:37.280
close to five or 600 milligrams of caffeine at a dose in order to get those benefits.
00:31:42.700
The performance benefits on fatigue are slightly lower.
00:31:49.080
And then you can get the benefits of like becoming less sleepy or more alert at, you know,
00:31:57.740
So if you want the strength before, you have to take a lot, that's a lot.
00:32:05.080
So are you doing that before a competition, like before a big lift?
00:32:12.720
So I usually have like 300 to 600 before lifting sessions.
00:32:17.300
If it's just like a kind of an upper body session, I might only do two or 300, but if it's
00:32:21.920
a, you know, lower body squat deadlift where I'm going to go to a pretty high RPE, I'll
00:32:27.080
do, you know, four to 600 milligrams of caffeine.
00:32:31.060
So what about someone just like regular person who's like not really doing what you're doing?
00:32:37.840
I mean, it just depends on what they want to get out of it.
00:32:39.660
You know, if they're just looking to feel focused and, oh, by the way, caffeine also
00:32:45.920
If they're just, and caffeine is something that unlike creatine, caffeine will work the first
00:32:52.300
So I would say for the average person, 150 to 300 milligrams of caffeine, depending on
00:32:58.900
And it just depends on what they want to get out of it.
00:33:00.580
You know, if they, the more you take, you know, up to a certain point, the more of the
00:33:05.860
benefits you're going to get, but you also have to balance that with some people don't
00:33:13.980
And so they just need to balance that in terms of, you know, the not enjoying the feeling,
00:33:19.620
but then also wanting to get the benefits from it.
00:33:23.120
Does it matter if you get your caffeine from coffee or a pre-workout or anything like maybe
00:33:29.980
I will say coffee is relatively not low in caffeine, but it's not as high as some people
00:33:35.920
I mean, if you have like a pretty tall cup of coffee, you might have 100 to 150 milligrams
00:33:43.020
of caffeine that just compare that to the same size of like a, some of these energy drinks
00:33:51.460
So again, you can get it from caffeine or from coffee.
00:33:55.300
The other issue with coffee is there's other phenolic compounds in there that are also gut
00:34:01.240
So a lot of you may have noticed that when you take a pre-workout or have a lot of coffee,
00:34:06.160
you end up in the bathroom and have to, you know, go number two.
00:34:10.440
That is because of the gut irritation from not just caffeine, but those other compounds.
00:34:16.100
So say you were going to take caffeine to improve performance in the gym.
00:34:18.520
So let's say you're taking 250 up to 500 like you are.
00:34:22.820
How early before a workout should you, like how should you time the caffeine consumption
00:34:27.120
so you get the benefit during your workout session?
00:34:29.280
You probably want it about 45 minutes before your training.
00:34:32.280
And the reason is it takes about that long for caffeine to peak in the system.
00:34:38.840
So meaning even at six hours post-caffeine ingestion, there's still half of it available
00:34:45.460
So, or on average, half of it available in your system.
00:34:49.380
So, you know, these people getting to the gym, whipping out their pre-workout of their gym
00:34:54.080
bag and dry scooping, this is not the way you would do it to maximize optimal performance.
00:35:01.260
Do you recommend cycling on and off caffeine to avoid tolerance or do you not have to worry about
00:35:09.440
And in fact, they have shown that even over time, you still get the performance benefits
00:35:14.900
of caffeine, even if you've been using it habitually.
00:35:17.840
So I would say you don't have to cycle off of it.
00:35:20.520
I tend to cycle off of it before a big meet just because I like to, if I haven't taken
00:35:26.280
it for a while, I do get like a pretty, it may be a placebo effect, but I feel it a lot
00:35:32.380
Now, does that actually lead to more, you know, better outcomes?
00:35:36.940
I, who knows, but I personally, for the most part, do not cycle off of it.
00:35:45.520
Speaking of pre-workouts, there's a lot of, a lot of them out there on the market.
00:35:50.540
Like if you're looking at a label and you see that has X ingredient, is that like a deal
00:35:54.600
breaker for you when it comes to a pre-workout?
00:35:56.060
Um, not particularly, I mean, there's a lot of, uh, ingredients that I would be like, okay,
00:36:04.440
But the thing I really look for is, does it say proprietary blend or does it list the absolute
00:36:13.700
Because if it says proprietary blend, then it's probably worthless.
00:36:21.900
So the idea of a proprietary blend was that, you know, you didn't need to disclose exactly
00:36:27.480
how much of each ingredient was in your product, because what if companies have a secret sauce?
00:36:33.160
You know, the reality is everyone has access to the same studies.
00:36:41.720
The reason people or companies use a proprietary blend is so that they can say, for example,
00:36:51.240
citrulline malate, let's say citrulline malate as an example, because we have citrulline malate
00:36:58.400
Six grams of citrulline malate is the minimum dose that's been shown to be effective in research
00:37:03.260
And at six grams of citrulline malate, it is 40% of the cost of our pre-workout.
00:37:10.560
Now, imagine you're somebody who wants, if you're a company and you want to improve
00:37:15.700
your margins, you can simply say it has citrulline malate in it, put 500 milligrams in, and now
00:37:25.360
And you can still claim that citrulline malate is in it, even though it's not nearly enough
00:37:31.840
So if something says proprietary blend, I typically tell people to run the other way.
00:37:36.140
You want to see the transparency in the label, how much it has of everything in there.
00:37:44.200
Are there any other supplements you think might have some benefit beyond those?
00:37:49.380
So, I mean, again, you have to look at creatine, caffeine, whey protein.
00:37:53.780
They're like the first tier of supplements, right?
00:37:56.780
But then you have things like betaine, which is also called trimethylglycine.
00:38:00.740
And that's been shown in some studies to increase lean mass, power output, and some other benefits.
00:38:06.500
And then you have things like carnitine, especially carnitine L-tartrate, which has been shown to improve recovery from lifting and increase androgen receptor density in muscle cells.
00:38:16.760
Now, whether or not that actually leads to more muscle mass, that's never been shown.
00:38:20.520
And then you have things like other recovery products like tart cherry extract, which has been shown to decrease the late onset muscle soreness and improve time to recovery for strength.
00:38:29.660
Ashwagandha is a supplement that I'm pretty bullish on.
00:38:34.840
There's quite a bit of research data showing that it's kind of an adaptogen in terms of like it reduces stress, may improve sleep, and has been shown to modestly increase testosterone.
00:38:47.980
And there are studies showing it to increase lean mass and strength.
00:38:52.840
I want to see more research on it because the research on it is pretty fresh.
00:38:57.040
But I'm pretty – based on what we've seen so far, I'm pretty bullish on it.
00:39:01.580
And then in terms of like pre-workout stuff, you know, we talked about citrulline malate.
00:39:07.620
Some other things I really like getting into the nootropics, which is like basically cognitive enhancers or things to enhance focus.
00:39:14.400
There's rhodiol rosea extract that's been shown to decrease fatigue and the perception of fatigue.
00:39:22.340
And there's some evidence that also – I believe it also increases the cognitive function like when looking at like time tasks.
00:39:29.580
And then L-DOPA, which basically can become dopamine.
00:39:33.660
It's a great addition to a pre-workout because the best way to describe it, at least in my experience, is you just feel good and like confident.
00:39:40.860
And so those are obviously some things we include in ours.
00:39:42.980
I realize I'm talking about ingredients that are in our supplements.
00:39:45.780
But of course, I'm going to include the ingredients that I think are really helpful.
00:39:50.780
And then, you know, another thing I've been getting bigger and bigger on is sleep.
00:39:54.620
There's a lot of research out there showing that if you get enough sleep, it's beneficial for not just lean mass but also reducing fat mass.
00:40:08.720
And in fact, there's a research study, a randomized control trial, showing that melatonin actually increased lean mass in a study of resistance traders.
00:40:22.980
But interestingly, the increase in lean mass appears to be beyond what you get from just improving sleep.
00:40:28.560
So it may be that melatonin actually has some kind of direct anabolic effect as well.
00:40:33.200
And then things like theanine, which is it helps with sleep, but it's actually more of like an anti-stress and reduces anxiety.
00:40:41.140
But it does reduce the time to fall asleep and has been shown to reduce insomnia.
00:40:46.980
And so, you know, those are some things I think are worthwhile because a lot of people could do with better sleep.
00:40:53.420
But then you've actually got to go through the process of, you know, not being on your phone screen right up, you know, before you go to bed and making sure that you're having good sleep hygiene overall.
00:41:02.660
You can't just take a supplement and expect, you know, just to miraculously fix everything.
00:41:06.380
And oh, by the way, you know, if you have to wake up at six and you're getting in bed at midnight, none of this stuff is going to help.
00:41:13.920
So I am pretty bullish on like the sleep supplements, especially for improving performance and lean mass.
00:41:19.520
But most people don't do the front end work that they need in order for those supplements to be really effective.
00:41:25.720
And also, we want to reiterate these supplements you listed.
00:41:27.580
Like that's like the second, like if you could do, first off, if you just take care of nutrition, sleep, exercise, just focus on that first.
00:41:36.000
After that, consider bringing in a whey protein if you need to.
00:41:40.480
Caffeine has performance enhancing, it can help enhance performance, has other benefits.
00:41:44.720
And these other ones you listed, these are kind of like nice to have.
00:41:52.760
Where can people go to learn more about you and your work?
00:41:55.660
So if you go to, I think Instagram is my best business card.
00:41:58.860
You know, just go to Instagram and my screen name is BioLane.
00:42:02.640
And you can find me as BioLane on most social media, B-I-O-L-A-Y-N-E.
00:42:09.840
And you can find all the stuff that we do there.
00:42:12.200
And then if you're interested specifically in our supplements, Outwork Nutrition is our supplement company.
00:42:18.520
And you can go to OutworkNutrition.com and find all our products.
00:42:28.200
You can find more information about his work at his website, BioLane.com.
00:42:31.380
Also check out our show notes at AOM.IS slash supplements, where you can find links to resources where you can delve deeper into this topic.
00:42:43.720
Well, that wraps up another edition of the AOM podcast.
00:42:46.600
Make sure to check out our website at ArtofManless.com.
00:42:48.740
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00:42:53.980
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00:42:58.760
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