No supplements

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by Zerodauto, Jan 17, 2011.

  1. Zerodauto

    Zerodauto Valued Member

    Is it a bad idea for someone who is a fighter to not take supplements? I take vitamins on a regular basis, but should I also take supplements, or is this one of those things that just come down to the individual?
     
  2. slipthejab

    slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

    it's all going to depend on what your goals and what your lifestyle is like. I think I'd find it pretty hard to train as much as I do without some type of supplement. Some days thats a protein shake. Some days that a heavy dose of caffeine... most days it's ZMA and L-Glutamine.... there's also regular cycles of creatine.

    I don't keep weight on very easily and I try but don't always have time to get in enough calories during the day so I don't mind to chuck back a shake or two if time is tight.

    Again it all depends on what your training schedule is like, how your body reacts to that, how important maintenance is for you and a fair bit of experimentation with supplements. Not the least of which is how much budget you have.

    Diet and sleep are the first two things you should be looking into.
     
  3. Gary

    Gary Vs The Irresistible Farce Supporter

    The advantage gained from supplements is minimal IMO, especially compared to good diet and rest. There's also a habit of people to go for the cluster bomb style of supplementation where they take all kinds of stuff just in case. If you use them go for an approach where you take them to fix an issue, not as a preventative measure and certainly not to cover mistakes in other areas.

    Edit: slip beat me to it on half of those points!
     
  4. slipthejab

    slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

    But this part is well worth repeating... almost a mantra really. It's free and it's the most immediate thing anyone can do to improve their training. Jeez if I could only package it and sell it I'd be a gazillionaire.:hat:
     
  5. Gary

    Gary Vs The Irresistible Farce Supporter

    I'm writing a concise yet exclusively priced manual called Eat, Rest, Lift. It's a lot better for you than that other book about spirituality and much better for me if you all buy it.
     
  6. Zerodauto

    Zerodauto Valued Member

    Thanks, that was extremely helpful. I'll work on resting more and maybe if I need take a supplement to fix a problem.
     
  7. Gary

    Gary Vs The Irresistible Farce Supporter

    Tbh most of the fitness industry is paid for with supplement revenues. There's a thin line with personal trainers between performance and sales and sadly it's been moving toward sales for a while now. A lot of good articles will be peppered with adverbs for supplements or worse actually referenced directly the article. The supplement articles themselves are the worst, even the referenced ones. A claim like 'proven to increase performance by 75%' will be linked to a genuine study which 99% of people won't go and look up. This is sad because the 75% increase will often be from a study on muscular dystrophy victims, elderly patients or worse a rat study, which then demonstrates the supplement raised concentrations of a chemical linked to performance from 0.4% to 0.7%. Not something you want to spend £30 a month on yet that's why they need the big sales pitch. It works too, there's no shortage of supplement fanboys on the Internet raving about the results they get and how great it felt, which is usually a double whammy of caffeine and placebo effect.
     
  8. Zerodauto

    Zerodauto Valued Member

    Thanks, I'll be sure to look into what ever supplements I consider more closely.
     
  9. Emil

    Emil Valued Member

    Bang on! It's scary how many people overlook this as being important, but to me this is just as important as diet. A good few years back i was training pretty hard, and had an excellent diet. however, due to unsavory working hours I was sleeping very little, and it is surprising just how much this effects your weight, performance, and reaction to exercise. So many seem to overlook this as a factor though.

    With regards to th OP, I have fought competatively, and have rarely used supplements, as I generally have a pretty sound diet, and this seems to work well for me. However, there can be benefits to using supplements, but you need to be careful when choosing. Coma is spot on with his points IMO, but id like to add that you must also consider what is in certain supplements. By this I mean, as an example, I know a lot of bodybuilders who swear by whey proteni, esp Whey optimum Pro, which is loaded with protein. However, it is also very fatty, and so if you're not careful, you may also end up increasing body fat %

    Em
     

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