Now the list of tools I'm about to describe is not exhaustive, meaning it doesn't even
begin to come close to the total number of
tools that one could glean from the discussion about
nutrition and supplementation that I had with Dr. Andy
Galpin on this podcast. But they are the major ones that are definitely worth knowing. And those include supplementing
with omega-3 fatty acids. Now, omega-3 fatty acids are
found, of course, in foods, things like fatty fish
and krill of all things, certain forms of algae, et cetera. But most people do not get enough of so-called EPA form of omega-3s. And for that reason, I and many other people
choose to supplement with a minimum of one gram per day, and in some cases as high
as two grams per day, of omega-3s in supplement form. So typically one would get
to one to two grams of EPA by supplementing their nutrition, their diet that is, with fish oil capsules or liquid fish oil. There are many different sources of these that was discussed in an episode that I did with the Dr. Rhonda Patrick. I find that it's most cost efficient to get that one to two grams
of EPAs from liquid fish oil. Despite what you might
see on the internet, I don't have any relationship whatsoever to a liquid fish oil company. You just want to make sure that
you go with a reputable brand. I like the ones that
are flavored with lemon so that it offsets the taste of fish oil. And I'll take a tablespoon
or two of that per day. And if I'm traveling, and even if I'm not, I will
often use fish oil capsules. And there are a variety of different sources of those as well. Getting sufficient amounts
of omega-3 has been shown to be important for mood. Okay, so as a way to offset depression, but also for enhancing overall mood. That probably relates
to the omega-3s effect on neurotransmission, not just for neuromodulators
like serotonin and dopamine, but for all neurotransmission. And neurotransmission, of course, is essential for
neuromuscular performance. And the omega-3s have been implicated in reducing the inflammation response, cardiovascular health, et cetera. I realize that there is
some debate about omega-3s, but when I look at the bulk of literature about the omega-3, it's very clear to me that getting one to two grams
of EPA form of omega-3 per day is the right thing for me to do. And many others find that as well. The second tool to enhance your
fitness under this category of nutrition and
supplementation is creatine. Now again, creatine is not
just found in supplement form. It's also found, of course, in foods, in particular red meat. However, the amount of red
meat that one would have to eat in order to get the amount of creatine, that one would start to see a real performance enhancing
effect is just far too high. You'd be ingesting far too much
of other things in red meat that you wouldn't want that much of. And for that reason, I and many other people
will take creatine daily. We now know there's no need
to so-called load creatine in the old days, as it were. So old days, by the way,
meaning mid-'90s and 2000s. We were all told that
we had to load creatine. We had to take high dose
creatine for four or five days, and then you could back
off to a maintenance dose. Now it's very clear you can
take a daily dose of creatine, and that it really doesn't matter when you take that creatine. You could take it post-workout
as many people do. You could take it pre-workout. It really doesn't seem to matter. I happen to take it post-workout
just as a matter of habit. But again, you could
take it any time of day. Now, the point I want to
make about creatine is one that's a bit different than the other discussions out there. I have no issue with the majority of what's discussed
about creatine out there. For instance, that creatine monohydrate is the most effective form. Fortunately, creatine monohydrate is also the least expensive form of creatine that's sold out there. I see no evidence whatsoever that the other forms of
creatine are superior to creatine monohydrate. But what you'll usually hear is that taking five grams of
creatine monohydrate per day is ideal for everybody. And that advice is
simply not well informed by the scientific literature. If you are a larger person, so for instance, I weigh 100 kilograms. So that's about 220 pounds. Well, it turns out, if you look at the literature on creatine and athletic performance, and if you look at the literature on creatine and cognitive performance, because as some of you already know, creatine is a fuel, or the phosphocreatine
system is a fuel system for the brain as well. And if you look at the
studies on creatine, they almost always gauge
the amount of creatine to give an individual
based on their body weight. So you don't have to get
really specific about this. But if you weigh, say,
185 pounds to 250 pounds, you can get away with and probably should be
taking 10 grams or so of creatine per day, which is what I do. Whereas if you weigh less than that, five grams or maybe even
three grams is sufficient. Now, I discussed this with Dr. Andy Galpin during that series, and one of the things
that I've started to do since the closure of that series is to take more creatine per day. So now I'm taking 10, sometimes even as much as 15
grams per day of creatine. Again, this is powdered
creatine monohydrate. My stomach tolerates it very well. But frankly, I don't
tend to get stomach aches or gastric distress from
pretty much anything unless it's, you know, some
form of food poisoning, which is exceedingly rare for me. So some people out there find that creatine really disrupts their gut and they need to take it with food, or they really need to slowly increase the amount of creatine that
they're taking each day. I find that I can put 10, even
15 grams of creatine into a, you know, whey protein shake or into some water with a
little bit of lemon juice just to make it taste
a little less chalky. You drink that, and I don't have any
gastric distress from that. So you'll need to find what works for you. But the point here is if
you're going to take creatine, you don't just want to "take creatine," you know, one scoop per day. You really want to adjust
the amount of creatine that you're ingesting
according to your body weight. And I would give you a
very specific formula of x grams of creatine per
kilogram or pound of body weight. But believe it or not, no such specific recommendation
has ever been published in the scientific literature. At least I couldn't find it in a way that's consistent
with all the other papers, meaning you see a lot of variation. So what I'm talking about here is if you weigh 185 pounds or so, okay, plus or minus 5 pounds, out to about 250 pounds, 10 to 15 grams of creatine per day is probably more appropriate
for you than is 5 grams, meaning it's going to be more effective for enhancing physical
performance and perhaps, again, perhaps even cognitive
performance as well. And if you're somebody
who weighs, you know, 180 pounds down to, say, 130 pounds, 5 grams of creatine per
day is probably sufficient. The point here is if
you are taking creatine, again, not everyone has to take creatine. There's no law that says that
you have to take creatine. Some people don't like it. I know some people fear it's
going to make their hair fall out. We already talked about
that in previous episodes and the lack of data to support that idea. But I realize some people
steer away from creatine for whatever reason. But if you decide that taking
creatine is right for you, adjust the total amount
of creatine that you take according to your body weight. The next supplementation-based tool for enhancing your
fitness is rhodiola rosea. Now, this very esoteric
sounding supplement is one that I learned about
both from Dr. Layne Norton when he was a guest on this podcast, expert in nutrition, and, frankly, training as it
relates to resistance training, and from Dr. Andy Galpin. Rhodiola rosea is a supplement that's gaining increasing attention because it is what's called
a cortisol modulator. It does not necessarily suppress cortisol. It does not increase cortisol. It's a cortisol modulator. And frankly the mechanism by which rhodiola rosea
modulates cortisol is still under investigation. I hope to do an episode
about it in the future, at least make it part of an episode because the hypothesized mechanism that's starting to emerge
is really interesting as it relates to neurons in the brain that control the stress
response and glands in the body like the adrenals that
control the stress response and that secrete cortisol. Regardless, there's a
growing body of research that has explored rhodiola
rosea supplementation, and one's subjective perception of fatigue or output during
high-intensity training of various kinds, both resistance training, as well as running and
endurance type training. So I started taking rhodiola
rosea about six months ago in response to conversations that I had, again, with Dr. Layne Norton
and with Dr. Andy Galpin. And it's a supplement that I take before
high-intensity workouts. So I don't take it before a run, because frankly my run's
either very long and slow, or they're very brief, like a high-intensity
interval training session, and I find those to be
pretty easy to recover from, even though they are very intense. I might take a rhodiola rosea supplement before doing a 30-minute
hill run that's very intense. But typically, I only take
it about 10 to 15 minutes before any sort of high-intensity, resistance training session, in particular, my leg day, which falls on day two
of my exercise protocol, or the torso day, or the
small body parts day. Again, here I'm referencing the way that I train across the week, and you can find that training protocol as a downloadable, completely zero-cost PDF if you like. But I realize other people are using different body parts splits and different combinations
of resistance training and endurance training. The reason I mentioned rhodiola
rosea in this episode is that I realized that while some people might not
yet be supplementing omega-3s, they might not be supplementing creatine, there are many of you who are
already doing those things and you're looking for additional
tools to give you an edge. So again, the rhodiola
rosea would not fall into the category of
foundational supplements. Certainly get your nutrition
right, get your sleep right, get your sunlight, all
the basics first, please, before even thinking
about any supplements. However, once you get into
the category of supplements that can enhance fitness, rhodiola rosea does seem
to have some good research to support it in the context
of lots of different forms of high-intensity exercise. Now, I can't tell you whether
or not it's purely subjective or whether or not it's
objective and subjective, but my experience has been that
when I take rhodiola rosea, I definitely notice that
I can exert myself harder without feeling like I'm bringing myself to the brink of fatigue either during the exertion or afterwards. In other words, I feel like I can do more work
without feeling so exhausted, and I feel as if I'm recovering from
my workouts more quickly, in particular across the
day after my workouts. In fact, if I had to cite one
specific subjective effect that I've experienced
from taking rhodiola rosea before very high-intensity workouts is that prior to taking it, I would often find that
three or four hours after the workout, having eaten a good meal,
taking a shower, et cetera, and I was tired. I have a real dip in energy. But now I notice I have a lot
of energy throughout the day, even after these very
high-intensity sessions in the early part of the day. And frankly, I haven't
changed anything else about my supplementation or my nutrition, at least nothing major. So I personally am going to
continue to take rhodiola rosea before these high-intensity workouts. So for me, that's about two
or three times per week. However, if I forgot
to take rhodiola rosea before a workout, I have no reason to think that that workout would go much worse. This is a supplement that is designed to sort of give you an edge, to be able to exert
more focus and intensity during your workouts, with less perceived exertion,
and to enhance your recovery. The typical dosage of rhodiola rosea that you'll find in most supplements is 100 to 200 milligrams. And of course, anytime you're going to
take a new supplement, you would be wise to figure
out the lowest effective dose from that supplement. That's just logic, right? Why spend more money
taking more of something that you don't need more of if you could get away
with taking less of it and it's just as effective,
maybe even more effective? So I typically will take
100 to 200 milligrams of rhodiola rosea about 10 to
20 minutes before a workout. However, I've taken as
little as 100 milligrams on a consistent basis. And frankly, I don't really
experience much difference whether I take 100 milligrams
or I take 200 milligrams before a workout. So lately I've just defaulted to taking 100 milligrams of rhodiola rosea before any high-intensity workout. [MUSIC PLAYING]
