Beginner's Guide to Supplements: 5 Essential Supplements You Need Now

Beginner's Guide to Supplements: 5 Essential Supplements You Need Now

Navigating the world of nutritional supplements can be daunting for newcomers seeking a straightforward approach to fitness. This beginner's guide starts with the essential ingredients you need to know!

Supplements will never replace a proper diet, but they can accelerate your fitness goals! They complement your diet and fill nutritional gaps, ensuring your body has everything it needs for peak performance. No matter your training goals, the right supplements can enhance your health, performance, and physique.

Remember, always be informed about what you're adding to your "engine." In other words, don't use anything you don't understand. Assuming you're already taking a multivitamin, these five mini-guides will help you build a solid supplement foundation!

• PROTEIN Open a diet book from 20 years ago, and the protein section won't look anything like today's nutritional literature. It was thought that the human body needed 10-15% of its daily caloric intake from protein, a figure still propagated by official government guidelines.

Now, after extensive studies and testing, it's commonly believed that 20-30% is more accurate, especially for athletes training hard and weekend warriors.

Educated by strength coaches and trainers, athletes consume high amounts of protein. Their coaches have discovered what works best through decades of trial and error. Only recently has this information become widely known.

The first and most obvious step to getting enough daily protein is through food, preferably complete animal sources. This can be time-consuming and expensive.

Eating every 2 to 3 hours isn't possible for some people, while others simply don't want to eat that frequently. This is where protein supplementation becomes useful.

Protein supplements act quickly and allow you to comfortably and conveniently meet your daily protein goals, even when busy at work.

Especially after a workout, protein supplements can be more beneficial than food. Since whey protein is digested quickly and easily, it's the ideal post-workout protein source.

• FISH OIL The numerous benefits of fish oil come from its high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly EPA and DHA. Omega-3s are considered "essential fatty acids," meaning they're necessary for human health but not produced by the body.

Omega-3 fats are found most abundantly in fatty fish, eggs, grass-fed beef, and wild game (deer, elk, etc.). They're also present in various non-animal products, like Brazil nuts, walnuts, and flaxseed.

In Paleolithic times, omega-3 fats were more abundantly found in numerous animals. Due to industrial farming, modern preservation methods, and reduced soil quality, today's animal products typically contain less omega-3 fatty acids.

Because of their rich EPA and DHA content, fish oil supplements are an ideal omega-3 source. Fish oil is an essential supplement, whether you're looking to build muscle, burn fat, or improve overall health.

Benefits of fish oil include:

• Cognitive function
• Normal and healthy immune system function
• Heart health
• Healthy skin
• Vision
• Joint health
• And more!

• BRANCHED-CHAIN AMINO ACIDS (BCAAs) Branched-chain amino acids are leucine, isoleucine, and valina. When taken during exercise, BCAAs can enhance prolonged performance and promote recovery. BCAAs may also reduce muscle breakdown (catabolism), potentially leading to more complete muscle growth.

BCAAs can:

• Increase energy
• Improve protein synthesis
• Increase strength and power
• Enhance muscle-building potential Naturally found in protein-rich foods, BCAAs are already part of anyone's diet. As a supplement, however, BCAAs are particularly useful during a workout to increase energy, reduce total muscle breakdown, and improve recovery.

They're also useful on non-training days to help maintain lean body mass.

• GLUTAMINE Glutamine is an adaptogenic amino acid found in proteins. It's the most abundant amino acid in skeletal muscle and plays a vital role in the immune system, affecting the health and well-being of the entire body.

As a supplement, glutamine can provide additional benefits to help build muscle mass.

Benefits of glutamine include:

• Muscle growth
• Reduced muscle catabolism
• Normal and healthy immune system function
• Gut health Glutamine is particularly useful after workouts because it has the ability to re-synthesize muscle glycogen and glutamine levels lost during exercise without affecting insulin release.

This is great news for people who train multiple times a week, especially on a low-carb diet. Longer recovery times mean longer times to reach your goals. Start supplementing with glutamine!

• CREATINE Creatine is one of the most well-studied supplements on the market. It's been shown to improve sprint times and enhance athletes' performance in high-intensity activities like weightlifting and strength training.

Creatine can increase maximum strength and energy produced during exercise, allowing you to lift heavier, longer. It also acts as a "cell volumizer," making muscles fuller.

Creatine is a byproduct of amino acid metabolites found in the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. About 95% of creatine is stored in skeletal muscle, with the remaining five percent in the liver, kidneys, brain, and testicles.

Although multiple forms of creatine are available, creatine monohydrate has been used the longest and is the most tested.