Topic: Weightlifting supplements

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

So not taking supplements is the proper attitude of a weightlifter?

Yes, I think so. I think it creates the wrong mindset and the money could be better spent in eating higher quality lean meats, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, healthy whole grain breads, nuts, etc and getting lots of massage and excellent coaching and training.

[Arden Cogar Jr.]

Coming from a bb'ing/pl'ing background, I know way too much about this subject.

I agree with a lot of what has been said about supplements.  I've tried just about everything out there and a few work, but most are simply advertising hyperbole at it's finest.

I probably take more than most because of the following: a 60 to 70 hour work week, family requirements, and training - I don't have a lot of time to cook what I need.  Plus, I prefer to save my money than eat at any fast food places.  I try to get three "whole food meals" a day and three to four liquid/bar meals in between.

All that said, protein powder, essential oils (DHA primarily), and post workout recovery shakes (simple carb, fast acting protein with some glutamine and BCAAs) and  are the ones I've determined work best for me.   To be frank, some of the PWO recovery stuff is unnecessary, IMO, if you are looking at cutting weight.  It's about the only thing I've kept since I converted to athletic training from bbing/powerlifting training.  And I bet I've saved myself about $150 a month.  Simply more funds to save toward the purchase of Werksan bars and training plates.    Someday.  Someday.

All the best,
 Arden

[Justin Ott]

yah, I agree with you.
I do eat 4 real food meals a day, eggs and vector cereal for breaky, sandwiches with lean chicken and whole grain bread w/ soup for lunch, and steak, roast or pasta with hamburger meat for dinner. I hunt so I get lots of lean deer, moose, bear, and elk meat.  I also have a couple protien shakes a day, before bed, and after a training session.
I just started taking a glucosamine triple joint formula and omega 3's along with vitamins.

[Paul LaDuke]

Yes, I think so. I think it creates the wrong mindset and the money could be better spent in eating higher quality lean meats, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, healthy whole grain breads, nuts, etc and getting lots of massage and excellent coaching and training.

I whole heartedly agree with you Chris!  

Here are my rules for supplement use that I pass on to my athletes (HS aged kids):

1.  The word supplement means "in addition to."   This means get your diet right BEFORE you think about supplements.  Too many athletes think supplements first, food second.  This is the wrong mentality that Chris alluded to.

2.  There is absolutely no supplement for hard work.  No matter if you take supplements or rely on smart nutrition and massage, you still have to work incredibly hard.  Just because you take a supplement will not make that hard work any easier.

3.  Do your own research on a supplement long before you ever try it.  This is very easy now-a-days because of the public access to these journals through pubmed.  Google "pubmed" and you will find a powerful government website with access to thousands of REAL research journals and articles.  If you can't find scientific research on the supplement and its effectiveness in a refereed research journal (i.e. New England Journal of Medicine), don't waste your money on the supplement.  Since the supplement industry is unregulated, their claims are usually bought and paid for and their "research" is suspect at best.  DO NOT TRUST THE SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY.

4.  Be wary!  The supplement industry today is the snake oil salesmen of the old west.  This industry will do everything it can to make a buck.  This includes placing legal and illegal substances into their products without putting the substance on the label; marketing and selling substances that they know can do harm (remember ephedra?); lacing early runs of a product with steroids; and using slick marketing to lead you to believe in their product.  I know many Olympians have been busted for doping when they thought they were using a "legal" supplement.

5.. Supplement use may lead to a mentality of looking for the next best thing and for an answer in a bottle.  This can often lead to steroid use because most supplements don't work as advertized and ultimately it is known that steroids do.  This is also a wrong mentality as Chris alluded to.

6.  Always check the USADA and WADA lists of banned substances and cross reference with what the ingredients of the supplement.  Additionally, the supplement industry has a history of product cross-contamination and purposeful lacing of illegal supplements.  If an athlete will possibly be tested, make sure they know what they are taking and the risk involved with taking an unknown supplement.

[Dave Chiu]

Sleeping enough is the best performance enhancer by a mile.

Especially when you consistently hit the hay before 10p (oops, not tonite ;( -- oh well).

I have found really good results w/ the carbed-up creatine you can get at Wal-mart,

and have been very pleased w/ the fish oil gels that were given as samples at Americans.

I use the former sparingly rather than all the time, and will use the latter in preference

to the Costco kind unless they are too much more expensive.

[Michael Cayton]

    It is interesting to read what you are saying here, basically that most of the supplements are NOT effective  (except maybe when they are laced with banned drugs, mainly steroids), in comparison with what they tend to believe here in Bulgaria. Here I think probably a large majority, especially of people seriously connected with sports, believe that there are all kinds of super-supplements out there in the market, substances which are not banned (at least not yet) and which are highly effective for improving sports performance -- especially in that they promote rapid recovery or recuperation after hard training. And, they believe, elite athletes living in countries with big-bucks-sports, including Russia, China, and the US, have access to those drugs, whereas the athletes in Bulgaria don’t. I have heard several times here statements like, “Yeah, well, how could Michael Phelps win all those medals if he was not using special supplements, supplements that our swimmers don’t have.” Likewise regarding the Chinese weightlifters.
   As an example, I just got through reading an interview with Konstantin Milanov, one of the very top track-and-field trainers here. Here is  a quote: “A big problem for our (ie, Bulgarian) sports is that we don’t have the recuperation supplements so that we can be competitive with the world elites.” And so he wants the government to fund a special lab to test the various available supplements (especially the ‘recuperation supplements or aids’) to make sure they don’t have banned substances in them.
   Are there really any such ‘recuperation aids’ that are not banned and which have been shown in controlled tests to be effective???  I think WADA should put out special literature, maybe every month as a newsletter, send it around to all the sports federations, informing everyone as to just what the latest and best research tells us with regard to the effectiveness of non-banned supplements.

[Jesse Reynolds]

Chris,

I do not want to advertise and I will not talk about any specific supplements or companies, but I do not understand how you can ignore results that have been attained in a safe and effective manner by certain athletes that choose to use certain products.

I also do not agree that it is always more cost effective or nutritious to buy whole foods.  They are obviously the staple of a good diet, but there is clearly benefit to certain athletes using certain supplements in the appropriate way.


Respectfully,
Jesse

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

I do not want to advertise and I will not talk about any specific supplements or companies, but I do not understand how you can ignore results that have been attained in a safe and effective manner by certain athletes that choose to use certain products.

A discussion of the efficacy of supplements is within our rules, but WE consider discussion of brand names and contact info for vendors to be advertisements. Another reason for this not listed so far is to prevent being flooded with supplement spam.

But I see no evidence any thing legal does anything significant. I do see science occasionally identifying new nutrients in various foods that carry benefits. So clearly replacing foods carries the risk of losing these as yet unidentified benefits and since eating healthy is expensive, I simply believe it is a better use of the budget, along with massage, training camps, etc.