Supplements Primer
Posted on | September 22, 2009 | No Comments
An acquaintance of mine recently wrote a great article on supplementation for baseball players on his website Driveline Mechanics, but the information is just as valid for about any trainee or athlete.
Some take away points: the best supplements are extremely inexpensive – they run me at most $50 or $60 a month and this includes at least 2 protein shakes a day, creatine, and fish oil. Employees at GNC or similar retail outlets will often try to upsell worthless products like NO Explode, complicated protein formulations, enhanced creatine compound, and pro hormones. None of that stuff is worthwhile, and is extremely expensive as well.
Where to Start
Buying a jug of whey protein powder and making a shake to drink along with a piece of fruit is probably the easiest and most effective “supplementation” I can recommend. If you find yourself hitting up a Starbucks and Tim Horton’s once or twice a day for a bagel and a muffin, switching to a scoop of protein powder and a banana will not only reduce your overall caloric intake, but also provides a filling and nutritious snack full of protein and vitamins.
Hit up Supplements Canada for some reasonable prices on protein powder blends. The stuff is much cheaper in the US, but at around $40 a 5lb jug will last over a month at 2 scoops per day.
Your results may differ.
Fish oil capsules are another supplement that almost everyone will benefit from. The modern diet has very little Omega 3 Fatty Acid content – a near miracle drug. The easiest way to increase your intake of this type of fat is to supplement with fish oil capsules. Look for bottles that contain lots (100+ grams) of eicosapentanoic (EPA) acid and docosahexanoic (DHA) acid, as this is the stuff that will do your body good. Alternatively, you can simply eat more fatty fish like salmon throughout the week. However, that can get pretty expensive and you’ll need to be mindful of mercury content. A month’s supply of capsules (around 4/day) shouldn’t cost more than $20 or so with Walmart being a better bet on price than a health food store. If you want to learn more about healthy fats and fish oil check out an article by Alan Aragon here. He cites a lot of studies to back up the almost too good to be true benefits of Omega 3 Fatty Acids.
Creatine and a multivitamin are other cost effective supplements you can look into. However, they’re going to offer fewer benefits than a diet of adequate protein and added fish oil. If you don’t (and won’t) eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables, it might be worth looking into a multivitamin. Otherwise, keep it simple.
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