Now, the list of tools I'm about to describe is not exhaustive, meaning it doesn't even begin to come close to the total number of tools that one could glean from the discussion about nutrition and supplementation that I had with Dr. Andy Galpin on this podcast. But they are the major ones that are definitely worth knowing.

And those include supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids. Now, omega-3 fatty acids are found, of course, in foods, things like fatty fish and krill, of all things, certain forms of algae, et cetera. But most people do not get enough of so-called EPA form of omega-3s. And for that reason, I and many other people choose to supplement with a minimum of one gram per day, and in some cases, as high as two grams per day, of omega-3s in supplement form.

So typically, one would get to one to two grams of EPA by supplementing their nutrition, their diet, that is, with fish oil capsules or liquid fish oil. There are many different sources of these. That was discussed in an episode that I did with Dr. Rhonda Patrick. I find that it's most cost-efficient to get that one to two grams of EPAs from liquid fish oil.

Despite what you might see on the internet, I don't have any relationship whatsoever to a liquid fish oil company. You just wanna make sure that you go with a reputable brand. I like the ones that are flavored with lemon so that it offsets the taste of fish oil. And I'll take a tablespoon or two of that per day.

And if I'm traveling, and even if I'm not, I will often use fish oil capsules. And there are a variety of different sources of those as well. Getting sufficient amounts of omega-3 has been shown to be important for mood, okay? So as a way to offset depression, but also for enhancing overall mood.

That probably relates to the omega-3s effect on neurotransmission, not just for neuromodulators like serotonin and dopamine, but for all neurotransmission. And neurotransmission, of course, is essential for neuromuscular performance. And the omega-3s have been implicated in reducing the inflammation response, cardiovascular health, et cetera. I realize that there is some debate about omega-3s, but when I look at the bulk of literature about the omega-3s, it's very clear to me that getting one to two grams of EPA form of omega-3 per day is the right thing for me to do.

And many others find that as well. The second tool to enhance your fitness under this category of nutrition and supplementation is creatine. Now, again, creatine is not just found in supplement form. It's also found, of course, in foods, in particular, red meat. However, the amount of red meat that one would have to eat in order to get the amount of creatine that one would start to see a real performance-enhancing effect is just far too high.

You'd be ingesting far too much of other things in red meat that you wouldn't want that much of. And for that reason, I and many other people will take creatine daily. We now know there's no need to so-called load creatine in the old days, as it were. So old days, by the way, meaning mid '90s and 2000s, we were all told that we had to load creatine.

We had to take high-dose creatine for four or five days, and then you could back off to a maintenance dose. Now it's very clear you can just take a daily dose of creatine, and that it really doesn't matter when you take that creatine. You could take it post-workout, as many people do.

You could take it pre-workout. It really doesn't seem to matter. I happen to take it post-workout just as a matter of habit. But again, you could take it any time of day. Now, the point I want to make about creatine is one that's a bit different than the other discussions out there.

I have no issue with the majority of what's discussed about creatine out there. For instance, that creatine monohydrate is the most effective form. Fortunately, creatine monohydrate is also the least expensive form of creatine that's sold out there. I see no evidence whatsoever that the other forms of creatine are superior to creatine monohydrate.

But what you'll usually hear is that taking five grams of creatine monohydrate per day is ideal for everybody. And that advice is simply not well-informed by the scientific literature. If you are a larger person, so for instance, I weigh 100 kilograms, so that's about 220 pounds. Well, it turns out if you look at the literature on creatine and athletic performance, and if you look at the literature on creatine and cognitive performance, because as some of you already know, creatine is a fuel, or the phosphocreatine system is a fuel system for the brain as well.

And if you look at the studies on creatine, they almost always gauge the amount of creatine to give an individual based on their body weight. So you don't have to get really specific about this, but if you weigh, say, 185 pounds to 250 pounds, you can get away with, and probably should be taking 10 grams or so of creatine per day, which is what I do.

Whereas if you weigh less than that, five grams or maybe even three grams is sufficient. Now, I discussed this with Dr. Andy Galpin during that series, and one of the things that I've started to do since the closure of that series is to take more creatine per day. So now I'm taking 10, sometimes even as much as 15 grams per day of creatine.

And again, this is powdered creatine monohydrate. My stomach tolerates it very well, but frankly, I don't tend to get stomach aches or gastric distress from pretty much anything unless it's some form of food poisoning, which is exceedingly rare for me. So some people out there find that creatine really disrupts their gut, and they need to take it with food, or they really need to slowly increase the amount of creatine that they're taking each day.

I find that I can put 10, even 15 grams of creatine into a whey protein shake or into some water with a little bit of lemon juice just to make it taste a little less chalky, drink that, and I don't have any gastric distress from that. So you'll need to find what works for you.

But the point here is if you're going to take creatine, you don't just want to, quote unquote, take creatine, you know, one scoop per day. You really want to adjust the amount of creatine that you're ingesting according to your body weight. And I would give you a very specific formula of X grams of creatine per kilogram or pound of body weight, but believe it or not, no such specific recommendation has ever been published in the scientific literature, at least I couldn't find it, in a way that's consistent with all the other papers, meaning you see a lot of variation.

So what I'm talking about here is if you weigh 185 pounds or so, okay, plus or minus five pounds, out to about 250 pounds, 10 to 15 grams of creatine per day is probably more appropriate for you than is five grams, meaning it's going to be more effective for enhancing physical performance.

And perhaps, again, perhaps even cognitive performance as well. And if you're somebody who weighs, you know, 180 pounds down to say 130 pounds, five grams of creatine per day is probably sufficient. The point here is if you are taking creatine, again, not everyone has to take creatine. There's no law that says that you have to take creatine.

Some people don't like it. I know some people fear it's going to make their hair fall out. We already talked about that in previous episodes and the lack of data to support that idea. But I realize some people steer away from creatine for whatever reason. But if you decide that taking creatine is right for you, adjust the total amount of creatine that you take according to your body weight.

The next supplementation-based tool for enhancing your fitness is a Rhodiola Rosea. Now this very esoteric sounding supplement is one that I learned about both from Dr. Lane Norton when he was a guest on this podcast, expert in nutrition and frankly, training as it relates to resistance training, and from Dr.

Andy Galpin. Rhodiola Rosea is a supplement that's gaining increasing attention because it is what's called a cortisol modulator. It does not necessarily suppress cortisol. It does not increase cortisol. It's a cortisol modulator. And frankly, the mechanism by which Rhodiola Rosea modulates cortisol is still under investigation. I hope to do an episode about it in the future, or at least make it part of an episode because the hypothesized mechanism that's starting to emerge is really interesting as it relates to neurons in the brain that control the stress response and glands in the body like the adrenals that control the stress response and that secrete cortisol.

Regardless, there's a growing body of research that has explored Rhodiola Rosea supplementation and one's subjective perception of fatigue or output during high intensity training of various kinds, both resistance training as well as running and endurance type training. So I started taking Rhodiola Rosea about six months ago in response to conversations that I had, again, with Dr.

Lane Norton and with Dr. Andy Galpin. And it's a supplement that I take before high intensity workouts. So I don't take it before a run because frankly, my runs are either very long and slow or they're very brief, like a high intensity interval training session. And I find those to be pretty easy to recover from even though they are very intense.

I might take a Rhodiola Rosea supplement before doing a 30 minute hill run that's very intense, but typically I only take it about 10 to 15 minutes before any sort of high intensity resistance training session in particular, my leg day, which falls on day two of my exercise protocol or the torso day or the small body parts day.

Again, here I'm referencing the way that I train across the week and you can find that training protocol as a downloadable, completely zero cost PDF if you like. But I realize other people are using different body parts splits and different combinations of resistance training and endurance training. The reason I mentioned Rhodiola Rosea in this episode is that I realized that while some people might not yet be supplementing omega-3s, they might not be supplementing creatine, there are many of you who are already doing those things and you're looking for additional tools to give you an edge.

So again, the Rhodiola Rosea would not fall into the category of foundational supplements. Certainly get your nutrition right, get your sleep right, get your sunlight, all the basics first, please, before even thinking about any supplements. However, once you get into the category of supplements that can enhance fitness, Rhodiola Rosea does seem to have some good research to support it in the context of lots of different forms of high intensity exercise.

Now, I can't tell you whether or not it's purely subjective or whether or not it's objective and subjective, but my experience has been that when I take Rhodiola Rosea, I definitely notice that I can exert myself harder without feeling like I'm bringing myself to the brink of fatigue, either during the exertion or afterwards.

In other words, I feel like I can do more work without feeling so exhausted, and I feel as if I'm recovering from my workouts more quickly, in particular across the day after my workouts. In fact, if I had to cite one specific subjective effect that I've experienced from taking Rhodiola Rosea before very high intensity workouts, is that prior to taking it, I would often find that three or four hours after the workout, having eaten a good meal, taking a shower, et cetera, and I was tired.

I'd have a real dip in energy. But now I notice I have a lot of energy throughout the day, even after these very high intensity sessions in the early part of the day. And frankly, I haven't changed anything else about my supplementation or my nutrition, at least nothing major.

So I personally am going to continue to take Rhodiola Rosea before these high intensity workouts. So for me, that's about two or three times per week. However, if I forgot to take Rhodiola Rosea before a workout, I have no reason to think that that workout would go much worse.

This is a supplement that is designed to sort of give you an edge to be able to exert more focus and intensity during your workouts with less perceived exertion and to enhance your recovery. The typical dosage of Rhodiola Rosea that you'll find in most supplements is 100 to 200 milligrams.

And of course, anytime you're going to take a new supplement you would be wise to figure out the lowest effective dose from that supplement. That's just logic, right? Why spend more money taking more of something that you don't need more of if you could get away with taking less of it and it's just as effective, maybe even more effective.

So I typically will take 100 to 200 milligrams of Rhodiola Rosea about 10 to 20 minutes before a workout. However, I've taken as little as 100 milligrams on a consistent basis. And frankly, I don't really experience much difference whether I take 100 milligrams or I take 200 milligrams before a workout.

So lately I've just defaulted to taking 100 milligrams of Rhodiola Rosea before any high intensity workout. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)