Supplementation

[Elton Wong]

Hi Mr. Santana,

My friend recently shared this article with me regarding BCAAs: Branched-chain amino acids and muscle protein synthesis in humans: myth or reality? | Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition | Full Text
The article seems to suggest that BCAA in and of itself doesn't do much. It seems any time a performance supplement picks up steam, it either gets shot down by science, or is banned. The only exception being creatine monohydrate.

What are your opinions of supplements in general for strength training and general health. IIRC, you do not take any supplements, correct?

For me, I rather not spend $50 for my ¢50 squat, and rather spend the money on food. I use to take a lot of supplements, like vitamins and fish oil, but it all seems like a waste of money. I never felt better taking them or felt worse when I stopped. The only supplement I am currently taking is creatine monohydrate.

Thanks

Elton

[Robert Santana]

Great post!

So yes I do not take supplements mainly bc I’m noncomplaint with the ones that work and there’s far too many that are wasteful.

BCAAs are pretty much pointless if you are eating most of your protein from animal products. Most of the claims to them are based on acute studies looking at blood amino acid levels after a single bout of exercise. However, changes in these acute variables are not predictive of chronic changes in body composition or performance. So you train once, take whey post workout, and you have more circulating leucine or an increase in fractional synthetic rates. So does this mean that this will happen after 36 workouts? 48? 64? Does this mean that muscle mass will increase? The answer is we don’t know because we’d have to take measurements after every workout for the duration of a training program to really find out.


Is that necessary when we know that if we eat enough protein and train progressively we’ll get bigger and stronger? No right or wrong answer here but that’s my $0.02 on leucine/bcaas tsken exogenously.

As far as fish oil and multi vitamins I’m all for it them you aren’t getting them from your diet. However, certain vitamins, such as b12 should be taken separate from a multi because other nutrients will take priority in terms of absorption. Same with magnesium, always wanna take it separate from calcium. Ultimately you still need to get your micronutrients and if you aren’t getting them all from food, then a supplement isn’t the worst thing in the world.

[Elton Wong]

I didn't know that timing of supplement matters, like with B12/Multi and Magnesium/Calcium. My parents take their supplements all at once every morning with coffee, for the sake of convenience, so this is useful info.

What are the training supplements that works? Do supplements help with advanced lifters more than novice/intermediate lifters, who has an easier time making progress with just proper recovery (diet, rest, sleep, stress) interventions?

Thanks!

[Robert Santana]

I didn't know that timing of supplement matters, like with B12/Multi and Magnesium/Calcium. My parents take their supplements all at once every morning with coffee, for the sake of convenience, so this is useful info.

What are the training supplements that works? Do supplements help with advanced lifters more than novice/intermediate lifters, who has an easier time making progress with just proper recovery (diet, rest, sleep, stress) interventions?

Thanks!

Absolutely! Vitamins interact with each other and fiber can also impair the absorption of certain vitamins. Just because you are consuming a vitamin does not mean that you are activating and absorbing it.

I'm not sure that vitamin supplementation necessarily helps advanced lifters perform better in the absence of insufficiency. Extremely difficult to measure and without a better way to measure nutrient intake we'll never really know for sure. What we do know is that when you are a trained individual or an athlete you are burning more calories and thus running more TCA cycles so you'll need more vitamins and minerals (especially b-vitamins) to facilitate that versus an untrained individual burning fewer calories.

[Elton Wong]

Thanks for your insight. Much is appreciated.

[kanahan]

Hi Robert
Is there any absorption issue with vit D and if so, when/how should it be taken?
Cheers

[Robert Santana]

Thanks for your insight. Much is appreciated.

You are very welcome!

Hi Robert
Is there any absorption issue with vit D and if so, when/how should it be taken?
Cheers

As with any fat soluble vitamin (A, D, E, K) you want to make sure you are taking it with fat otherwise you won't absorb it as well. Now it doesn't take much fat to get this effect but a few grams of fat will get the job done.

[Inverstone]

I've read in several sources that Zinc also competes with calcium (dairy especially) as magnesium does. I've been taking magnesium and zinc separate from my other vitamins and separate from dairy. Sometimes nuts and green veggies are involved when I'm taking these supplements but figure it's a lesser evil?

[Robert Santana]

I've read in several sources that Zinc also competes with calcium (dairy especially) as magnesium does. I've been taking magnesium and zinc separate from my other vitamins and separate from dairy. Sometimes nuts and green veggies are involved when I'm taking these supplements but figure it's a lesser evil?

That is correct about the microminerals. Keep taking those separate. If you take the supplements you will absorb more of the minerals in the supplement than the food due to saturation kinetics.

[Jay Mullis]

That is correct about the microminerals. Keep taking those separate. If you take the supplements you will absorb more of the minerals in the supplement than the food due to saturation kinetics.

I did not know about the interferences of several of the minerals/vitamins you described above. Would you have a recommendation regarding a guide or book that would help the average person (me for instance) understand what needs to be taken with certain substances ( ie fat with mineral/vit x) and what combos should be avoided?