Supplements! Everyone wants to supplement with everything and most of the time they don’t even know the reason why. In this article, SNI Interviews Our Resident HMB Expert, Jacob Wilson PhD, Dr. Wilson explains 5 training supplements, their benefits, and who needs them.

Read on!

SNI Interviews Our Resident HMB Expert, Jacob Wilson PhD

SNI: Below are listed 5 supplements; tell us in 100 words if you think it is worth taking, why, and at what dose.

Dr. Wilson:

1. HMB

HMB works by speeding repair of damaged muscle, increasing fat loss and preventing muscle loss during extreme dieting, aerobic exercise, and aging. HMB consistently works in non-athletes because it’s easy to damage their muscles. Studies in athletes using HIGH INTENSITY / HIGH VOLUME training show increases in muscle size and strength. Studies in athletes with inadequate training programs don’t work for obvious reasons. So if you are untrained use it. If you are an athlete and your training program is legitimate and periodized, then I recommend it. For muscle mass, take at least 3 grams. For fat loss, WE DON’T KNOW the ideal dose, but 3-6 grams does work.

2. EAAs

The EAAs determine overall “protein quality.” In fact, research shows that the EAAs alone stimulate as much protein synthesis (muscle building) as a whole protein. Diets low in EAAs result in lower gains in muscle mass and strength than diets high in EAAs. Supplementing with EAAs may be beneficial. One study by Paddon-Jones et al. found supplementing with an EAA supplement in between meals drastically increased protein synthesis throughout a day. I’d recommend 10-15 grams per serving. Foods highest in EAAs are meat, egg, and dairy products. Selection of these food choices will result in greater gains.

3. Leucine

Leucine is the king of amino acids. In fact of the EAAs, leucine seems to be the actual TRIGGER for protein synthesis. My brother, Gabriel Wilson, and colleague, Layne Norton, have shown that choosing foods higher in leucine results in greater muscle mass. Two to three grams of leucine maximize protein synthesis. Meats contain about 8 % leucine, eggs about 9 %, and dairy about 10-12%. Athletes can base protein consumed each meal on its leucine content. For example whey (11 % leucine) and chicken (7.5 % leucine) would require about 18-26 and 27-35 grams, respectively, to maximize protein synthesis.

4. Glutamine

Glutamine is the most abundant free amino acid in our body. Individuals who train ALL OUT (not those who bring cell phones to the gym and never squat) may benefit from it. Glutamine has been shown to decrease the incidence of reported infections and protects white blood cells (our immune cells) following exhaustive exercise. Additionally glutamine has been shown to increase muscle carbohydrate stores. Twenty-five grams a day during intense training cycles or when low carb dieting may be efficacious. I’d also recommend reading Dr. Jose Antonio’s recent article entitled “Glutamine’s a Friend of Mine.”

5. Taurine

The finding that taurine levels decrease during exercise has led sports nutrition scientists to study the amino acid. Taurine may protect muscle against exercise induced DNA damage and protein breakdown. Moreover Dr. Zhang et al. found that 7 days of taurine supplementation increased V02max and prolonged time to exhaustion while cycling. While Jay Hoffman found a taurine containing supplement-increased resistance training performance, it is unclear what its effects are alone. However, we do know that taurine increases force of isolated muscle fibers. Although the optimal dose is unknown, 6 grams a day has been effective.

SNI: Bonus question: If you could have superhero powers, what powers would you want and why?

Dr. Wilson: Ha ha! I have always wanted wolverine’s regenerative powers. Why? It’s simple, it would mean that I could easily train 20 times a day, and make gains each workout!Dr. Jacob Wilson, Ph.D. is a researcher and assistant professor in the department of health sciences and human performance at the University of Tampa, Tampa Fl. Jacob has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers, abstracts, and book chapters on sports nutrition, supplementation, and resistance training in athletic and clinical situations. His research has covered both the cellular and molecular responses to supplementation and nutrition, as well as the whole body changes in muscle size, strength, and power. Dr. Wilson is also a proud member of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and President of Abcbodybuilding.com

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We’ve all had those training sessions when you feel invincible.

Everything in your mind and body seems to come together in one ass-kicking hour of pleasure and pain when you feel you can lift anything, don’t need any rest and you’re almost disappointed that you have to put the weights down and toddle off to work.

You want more. You know you could do more.

Unfortunately, these sessions are so uncommon they almost scare the crap out of you when they come along.

The good news is that recently I’ve been trying out a new supplemental combination around my training with pretty devestating effects. My last session was pretty brutal and left me buzzing for hours afterwards!

A1: Hang clean 5×5

B1:Dead lunge 4×6
B2: Barbell punch jerk 4×10

Finisher circuit: Prowler-battling ropes. Continuous for 10 minutes

I’ve been using this new rocket fuel before/during/after both weight training and my cycling training for our cycle across the USA, taking place in 4 weeks.

An very long post could be written on these supplements but my intention is to give you the basics so you can consider them for use in your training. You’ll be amazed at the difference in training intensity.

Importantly, I have increased both my clean, clean and jerk and snatch numbers and added 2kg of muscle whilst cycling over 10 hours per week.

The four main ingredients are as follows:

Vitargo S2

This is a carbohydrate solution which has been shown to improved gastric emptying and absorption over basic maltodextrin used in most pre-training drinks.

This means it gets in quicker both during training for continued intensity and after training for much faster refuelling of muscle glycogen and recovery, ready for the next session.

Citrulline Mallate

Citrulline is a non-essential amino acid which has been shown to prevent lactic acid build up and remove ammonia waste products during intense exercise. In short this means you can go harder for longer by prolonging the crippling build up of lactic acid.

I have really noticed the difference during intense leg sessions and on the bike.

The malate (or malic acid) component also aids the recycling of lactic acid aiding energy production and delaying fatigue during intense work periods.

Overall this is a powerful combination for increased ATP (energy) production and aerobic performance.

D-Ribose

D-Ribose is a form of sugar which has been shown to be a limiting factor in the availability of ATP resynthesis. Limiting ATP production means a drop in intensity as the body is unable to continue producing energy repeatedly over the duration of a training session or competitive bout.

Supplementing with D-Ribose can therefore increase endurance and muscle output during intense exercise and improve recovery afterwards.

It has also been suggested that D-Ribose can reduce exercise-induced muscle cramping which can bring a premature end to any hard session or race!

BCAA

The acronym for Branch Chain Amino Acids

BCAA’S are ’special’ amino acids which by-pass the usual processing in the liver and instead get metabolized in the muscles. This means they are highly effective in building new proteins in the muscles or for use in energy production in the muscles.

Supplementing with BCAA’s has been shown in numerous studies to improve muscle recovery and reduce muscle soreness which if not properly managed can ruin the rest of a training week!

The three BCAA’s are leucine, isoleucine and valine.

Leucine in particular is highly anti-catabolic which means it significantly reduces the muscle breakdown associated with intense training and competition.

Putting it together

My peri-workout nutrition looks something like this…

30-45 minutes before: 6g of BCAA, 5g of citrulline malate, 5g of d-ribose

Just before starting my warm up and movement preparation: 20g of Vitargo

15 minutes after: 80g of Vitargo, 20-25g of rice and pea protein, 5g of creatine

45 minutes after: 20g of Vitargo, 20g of rice and pea protein

During cycling, I’ll consume around 60g of Vitargo for every hour cycled and add Alkalizing Salts (bicarbonates of potassium, calcium, magnesium and sodium) for electrolyte replenishment.

This has proved a powerful combination enabling me to keep up a high volume of training along with all my business commitments. In the past, insufficient recovery has made life tough trying to complete business commitments whilst feeling lethargic and like I just wanted to sleep!

Whilst base nutrition is always the key to improved health and performance, well-structured supplementation will be the difference between good training and frickin’ awesome training!

Post any questions below!

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If you’ve been trying to improve your health and fitness, lose body or improve sports performance, you will undoubtedly have taken or at least thought about supplements of some kind.

The most common tend to be protein supplements, meal replacements (avoid these like the plague), fish oils and multi-vitamins.

Over the next couple of months I’m going to be reviewing various ones – some are VERY useful and should be part of everyone’s approach to health, some are useful in certain situations depending on personal environment including stress, time spent indoors, exercise levels and type and a whole myriad of factors.

Others, are utter crap.

One of the overarching points you need to get your head around before reading these reviews is that you have likely been misled by attempts to isolate particular nutrients into single products.

This is great for those who cash in on you buying them, but the truth is vitamins and minerals work together in such a complex manner that you can’t hope to get close to full benefits without addressing nutrition and health as one ’service’ to your body.

Isolating nutrients ignores the fact that they work much more like a well-oiled production factory where synergy is the key and the sum is much, much greater than its parts.

Take out one of them and the whole machine become much less effective. Your body will still work but you may never know just how energetic and strong your body could be!

For now and for simplicity sake, I’m going to assume you’re an average Joe in Western society but that you already follow a clean, nutrition program and drink lots of clean, bottled water. Only then is it worth worrying about the finer points!

As I’ve just got back from Tenerife and had a good dollop of sun, I thought I’d start with Vitamin D!

Vitamin D production occurs in the skin following exposure to the UV rays in sunlight. In some ways it functions more like a hormone than a vitamin as it is produced in one part of the body but used in another.

Whilst we can obtain Vitamin D from certain fish oils and supplements as well as fortified milk, these forms are nowhere near as effective as sunlight, yet another reason to use the natural source before the scientific version!

Once the Vitamin D has been produced in the skin it travels down to the liver where it is converted into a substance known as a metabolite which is the human body’s storage form of Vitamin D (like keeping it in storage until we need it!)

When our body needs Vitamin D, some of this storage form is transported to the kidneys and converted into another Vitamin D metabolite but this time it is around 1000 times more powerful than the previous stored form. T.Campbell refers to this as the ’supercharged Vitamin D’.

Now that we have some supercharged Vitamin D ready for use, why is it so important?

Maintenance of healthy cells

One key job for Vitamin D is to prevent healthy cells becoming diseased which can lead to any number of diseases resulting from cell degeneration including all forms of cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Obviously poor nutrition is also a factor but this is likely to be one of the reasons why there is a marked increase in the incidence of such diseases the further you travel from the equator.

As always, the truth is that it is the combination rather than one factor that causes problems. An acidic diet too high in protein and chemically-enhanced ‘food’ may reduce the effectiveness of the kidneys in producing the supercharged Vitamin D so even if you get lots of sun, your diet could prevent you fully utilising the benefits of Vitamin D.

Along the same lines, Vitamin D aids apoptosis (natural cell death) rather than allowing the growth and proliferation of diseased and potentially cancerous cells.

Reduced heart disease

We know now that Vitamin D is essential for liver function. As the liver produces bile which aids in the digestion of fats, a deficiency of Vitamin D may lead to high levels of fat in the blood vessels, ultimately increasing your risk of heart disease.

Reduced risk of diabetes

Disruption of normal insulin production leads to diabetic conditions. Insulin is produced by the beta cells in the pancreas and as they have Vitamin D receptors to make them work, it follows that a lack of direct sunlight could contribute to the development of diabetic conditions where nutrition is also poor.

Improved sports performance and fat loss

Vitamin D has also been shown to aid the production of natural steroid hormones in the human body thus aiding muscle growth. This will clearly effect everything from strength and power to burning body fat more efficiently.

Also, Vitamin D is important in calcium absorption in the body (remember how we can’t isolate nutrients). A Vitamin D deficiency can therefore lead to weaker bones thus increasing the risk of injury (as well as osteoporosis) and enabling your body to cope with heavy weightlifting sessions.

As you can see below, the increase in Vitamin D production helped my performance on the outdoor cycling installments at Los Christianos beach…

Getting enough Vitamin D

Now you know how critical Vitamin D is to your overall health and athletic performance, how much do you need and what’s the best way to get enough?

Ivy et al (2004) suggest that athletes require 400-1000 IU of Vitamin D per day (approximately 20mg to 45mg)

This can be achieved easily by exposing as much skin as possible to the sun for 10-20 minutes per day.

However, you should note that it is the UVB rays from sunlight which are required for Vitamin D production but…

1) UVB rays are blocked by cloud and pollution so don’t assume just going outside your office in the city is enough.

2) UVB rays are only effective when the sun’s rays are at particular angles – namely between 10am and 2pm.

3) These rays are blocked by sunscreen along with the ‘burning’ UVA rays.

So your best bet is to expose your skin WITH NO SUNSCREEN for 10-20 minutes EVERY DAY then cover up. Should you wish to be out in the sun more (as we all do on holiday), apply sunscreen at other times to prevent burning and increased risk of skin cancer.

If this is not possible or practical (taking your shirt off at your conference may not go down well…) look to increase your intake of fish oils, eat more fish and take a Vitamin D supplement aiming for 30-45mg per day.

Obviously your nutrition protocols will need to be adjusted according to where you live, time of the year, holidays etc.

References

Campbell.T, The China Study (2006)

Colgan.M, Optimal Sports Nutrition (1993)

Ivy and Portman, Nutrient Timing (2004)

Train with Jon Le Tocq, Guernsey’s leading personal trainer.

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