Archive for Star Wars

Supplement Talk Part 1

Hey guys! Happy Star Wars Day!! Haha, i heard that on the radio today. I’ve never actually seen Star Wars, but I’m celebrating anyways. Join me? 😉

I get a lot of questions from friends, fellow gym members, and readers about supplements. Most of the questions involve the NEED to take certain supplements. Without them, you couldn’t possibly get the results that you want, right? Well, no. Not at all, actually.

Supplements are just that: supplements. Let’s break it down:

sup·ple·ment (spl-mnt)

n. 1. Something added to complete a thing, make up for a deficiency, or extend or strengthen the whole.
A supplement is something used in ADDITION to the most important pieces of your program. It is the icing on the cake, not the batter.
 
There are literally THOUSANDS MILLIONS of different supplements. Natural supplements, artificial supplements, plant and fruit extracts, vitamins, minerals, food derivatives, YOU NAME IT. I guarantee that for any thing you can think of, someone has made a “necessary” supplement to help, treat, cure, fix, screw up blah blah blah you get the point.
The amount of supplements on the market are enough to make you dizzy. I should know, I could open up a store with the amount of supplements in my kitchen, b ut that’s beside the point. The true point is that first of all, we don’t know the safety of most of these supplements. Very few studies are done on supplements and the FDA does not regulate them, so you can pretty much put anything in a bottle and say what you want about it. There are quality supplements and there are definitely things that can help you acheive your goals, but they are NOT NECESSARY.
What is necessary?
A clean diet(diet meaning the way you eat, not a “diet”), an active lifestyle(activity level is different for every single individual based on goals, age, desires, health etc. ) and a healthy mind. That one is probably the most important piece. The rest of it follows when your mind is in a good place.
The next time someone tells you that you HAVE to take a certain supplement in order to acheive your next goal, come back to this post. Like I said, supplements CAN help and sometimes it is the boost that pushes you forward a little bit, but without a solid foundation, those supplements aren’t going to do a thing. Set your foundation, then you can start peaking into the supplement world, but until then. EAT  CLEAN AND WORK HARD 🙂