Supplements for Improving Fitness | Dr. Andrew Huberman
00:00:00.000 | [silence]
00:00:02.500 | Now, the list of tools I'm about to describe
00:00:04.080 | is not exhaustive,
00:00:05.400 | meaning it doesn't even begin to come close
00:00:07.940 | to the total number of tools
00:00:09.720 | that one could glean from the discussion
00:00:11.200 | about nutrition and supplementation
00:00:12.660 | that I had with Dr. Andy Galpin on this podcast.
00:00:15.760 | But they are the major ones
00:00:16.940 | that are definitely worth knowing.
00:00:18.600 | And those include supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids.
00:00:22.400 | Now, omega-3 fatty acids are found, of course, in foods,
00:00:25.520 | things like fatty fish and krill, of all things,
00:00:28.720 | certain forms of algae, et cetera.
00:00:30.540 | But most people do not get enough
00:00:32.720 | of so-called EPA form of omega-3s.
00:00:34.880 | And for that reason,
00:00:35.720 | I and many other people choose to supplement
00:00:37.440 | with a minimum of one gram per day,
00:00:40.160 | and in some cases, as high as two grams per day,
00:00:42.720 | of omega-3s in supplement form.
00:00:45.280 | So typically, one would get to one to two grams of EPA
00:00:48.600 | by supplementing their nutrition, their diet, that is,
00:00:51.840 | with fish oil capsules or liquid fish oil.
00:00:55.040 | There are many different sources of these.
00:00:56.480 | That was discussed in an episode
00:00:57.800 | that I did with Dr. Rhonda Patrick.
00:01:00.160 | I find that it's most cost-efficient
00:01:02.840 | to get that one to two grams of EPAs from liquid fish oil.
00:01:06.720 | Despite what you might see on the internet,
00:01:08.460 | I don't have any relationship whatsoever
00:01:10.360 | to a liquid fish oil company.
00:01:11.640 | You just wanna make sure that you go with a reputable brand.
00:01:14.480 | I like the ones that are flavored with lemon
00:01:17.120 | so that it offsets the taste of fish oil.
00:01:19.960 | And I'll take a tablespoon or two of that per day.
00:01:23.120 | And if I'm traveling, and even if I'm not,
00:01:25.220 | I will often use fish oil capsules.
00:01:27.240 | And there are a variety of different sources
00:01:28.600 | of those as well.
00:01:29.540 | Getting sufficient amounts of omega-3
00:01:31.640 | has been shown to be important for mood, okay?
00:01:33.880 | So as a way to offset depression,
00:01:36.460 | but also for enhancing overall mood.
00:01:38.920 | That probably relates to the omega-3s effect
00:01:41.540 | on neurotransmission,
00:01:43.520 | not just for neuromodulators like serotonin and dopamine,
00:01:46.120 | but for all neurotransmission.
00:01:48.320 | And neurotransmission, of course,
00:01:49.660 | is essential for neuromuscular performance.
00:01:52.040 | And the omega-3s have been implicated
00:01:54.160 | in reducing the inflammation response,
00:01:56.780 | cardiovascular health, et cetera.
00:01:58.720 | I realize that there is some debate about omega-3s,
00:02:01.120 | but when I look at the bulk of literature
00:02:03.440 | about the omega-3s,
00:02:04.680 | it's very clear to me that getting one to two grams
00:02:08.000 | of EPA form of omega-3 per day
00:02:10.700 | is the right thing for me to do.
00:02:12.640 | And many others find that as well.
00:02:14.480 | The second tool to enhance your fitness
00:02:16.080 | under this category of nutrition and supplementation
00:02:18.560 | is creatine.
00:02:19.480 | Now, again, creatine is not just found in supplement form.
00:02:22.040 | It's also found, of course, in foods,
00:02:23.680 | in particular, red meat.
00:02:25.040 | However, the amount of red meat that one would have to eat
00:02:27.440 | in order to get the amount of creatine
00:02:30.080 | that one would start to see
00:02:31.440 | a real performance-enhancing effect is just far too high.
00:02:34.280 | You'd be ingesting far too much of other things in red meat
00:02:37.280 | that you wouldn't want that much of.
00:02:39.720 | And for that reason,
00:02:40.760 | I and many other people will take creatine daily.
00:02:44.160 | We now know there's no need to so-called load creatine
00:02:46.840 | in the old days, as it were.
00:02:48.680 | So old days, by the way, meaning mid '90s and 2000s,
00:02:51.520 | we were all told that we had to load creatine.
00:02:53.320 | We had to take high-dose creatine for four or five days,
00:02:55.720 | and then you could back off to a maintenance dose.
00:02:58.000 | Now it's very clear
00:02:58.840 | you can just take a daily dose of creatine,
00:03:00.560 | and that it really doesn't matter
00:03:01.720 | when you take that creatine.
00:03:03.200 | You could take it post-workout, as many people do.
00:03:05.280 | You could take it pre-workout.
00:03:06.320 | It really doesn't seem to matter.
00:03:07.880 | I happen to take it post-workout just as a matter of habit.
00:03:11.300 | But again, you could take it any time of day.
00:03:13.480 | Now, the point I want to make about creatine
00:03:15.420 | is one that's a bit different
00:03:16.440 | than the other discussions out there.
00:03:17.800 | I have no issue with the majority
00:03:19.880 | of what's discussed about creatine out there.
00:03:21.920 | For instance, that creatine monohydrate
00:03:23.860 | is the most effective form.
00:03:24.940 | Fortunately, creatine monohydrate
00:03:26.560 | is also the least expensive form of creatine
00:03:28.880 | that's sold out there.
00:03:30.060 | I see no evidence whatsoever
00:03:31.800 | that the other forms of creatine
00:03:33.120 | are superior to creatine monohydrate.
00:03:35.500 | But what you'll usually hear
00:03:37.160 | is that taking five grams of creatine monohydrate per day
00:03:41.500 | is ideal for everybody.
00:03:43.400 | And that advice is simply not well-informed
00:03:45.520 | by the scientific literature.
00:03:47.060 | If you are a larger person,
00:03:48.540 | so for instance, I weigh 100 kilograms,
00:03:50.480 | so that's about 220 pounds.
00:03:52.700 | Well, it turns out if you look at the literature
00:03:54.640 | on creatine and athletic performance,
00:03:56.720 | and if you look at the literature on creatine
00:03:58.640 | and cognitive performance,
00:04:00.000 | because as some of you already know,
00:04:01.840 | creatine is a fuel,
00:04:03.760 | or the phosphocreatine system is a fuel system
00:04:06.840 | for the brain as well.
00:04:08.880 | And if you look at the studies on creatine,
00:04:11.820 | they almost always gauge the amount of creatine
00:04:14.360 | to give an individual based on their body weight.
00:04:16.920 | So you don't have to get really specific about this,
00:04:19.360 | but if you weigh, say, 185 pounds to 250 pounds,
00:04:24.100 | you can get away with,
00:04:25.520 | and probably should be taking 10 grams or so
00:04:28.000 | of creatine per day, which is what I do.
00:04:29.920 | Whereas if you weigh less than that,
00:04:32.160 | five grams or maybe even three grams is sufficient.
00:04:35.060 | Now, I discussed this with Dr. Andy Galpin
00:04:36.800 | during that series,
00:04:37.880 | and one of the things that I've started to do
00:04:39.880 | since the closure of that series
00:04:41.400 | is to take more creatine per day.
00:04:43.240 | So now I'm taking 10,
00:04:44.280 | sometimes even as much as 15 grams per day of creatine.
00:04:47.520 | And again, this is powdered creatine monohydrate.
00:04:49.960 | My stomach tolerates it very well,
00:04:52.360 | but frankly, I don't tend to get stomach aches
00:04:54.560 | or gastric distress from pretty much anything
00:04:57.400 | unless it's some form of food poisoning,
00:05:00.280 | which is exceedingly rare for me.
00:05:02.120 | So some people out there
00:05:03.640 | find that creatine really disrupts their gut,
00:05:06.120 | and they need to take it with food,
00:05:07.260 | or they really need to slowly increase
00:05:09.120 | the amount of creatine that they're taking each day.
00:05:11.360 | I find that I can put 10, even 15 grams of creatine
00:05:13.920 | into a whey protein shake
00:05:17.080 | or into some water with a little bit of lemon juice
00:05:19.360 | just to make it taste a little less chalky, drink that,
00:05:21.340 | and I don't have any gastric distress from that.
00:05:23.200 | So you'll need to find what works for you.
00:05:24.920 | But the point here is if you're going to take creatine,
00:05:27.100 | you don't just want to, quote unquote, take creatine,
00:05:29.280 | you know, one scoop per day.
00:05:30.600 | You really want to adjust the amount of creatine
00:05:32.760 | that you're ingesting according to your body weight.
00:05:35.360 | And I would give you a very specific formula
00:05:37.880 | of X grams of creatine per kilogram or pound of body weight,
00:05:41.840 | but believe it or not, no such specific recommendation
00:05:44.680 | has ever been published in the scientific literature,
00:05:47.260 | at least I couldn't find it,
00:05:48.880 | in a way that's consistent with all the other papers,
00:05:50.960 | meaning you see a lot of variation.
00:05:52.780 | So what I'm talking about here is if you weigh 185 pounds
00:05:56.760 | or so, okay, plus or minus five pounds,
00:05:59.020 | out to about 250 pounds, 10 to 15 grams of creatine per day
00:06:02.800 | is probably more appropriate for you than is five grams,
00:06:05.880 | meaning it's going to be more effective
00:06:07.820 | for enhancing physical performance.
00:06:09.220 | And perhaps, again, perhaps even cognitive performance
00:06:11.940 | as well.
00:06:12.780 | And if you're somebody who weighs, you know, 180 pounds
00:06:16.380 | down to say 130 pounds,
00:06:18.180 | five grams of creatine per day is probably sufficient.
00:06:21.400 | The point here is if you are taking creatine,
00:06:23.320 | again, not everyone has to take creatine.
00:06:25.220 | There's no law that says that you have to take creatine.
00:06:27.620 | Some people don't like it.
00:06:28.740 | I know some people fear it's going to make
00:06:30.000 | their hair fall out.
00:06:30.840 | We already talked about that in previous episodes
00:06:32.940 | and the lack of data to support that idea.
00:06:35.660 | But I realize some people steer away from creatine
00:06:37.700 | for whatever reason.
00:06:39.260 | But if you decide that taking creatine is right for you,
00:06:42.080 | adjust the total amount of creatine that you take
00:06:44.460 | according to your body weight.
00:06:46.060 | The next supplementation-based tool
00:06:47.540 | for enhancing your fitness is a Rhodiola Rosea.
00:06:51.420 | Now this very esoteric sounding supplement
00:06:53.380 | is one that I learned about both from Dr. Lane Norton
00:06:56.180 | when he was a guest on this podcast, expert in nutrition
00:06:58.820 | and frankly, training as it relates to resistance training,
00:07:02.740 | and from Dr. Andy Galpin.
00:07:05.260 | Rhodiola Rosea is a supplement
00:07:07.140 | that's gaining increasing attention
00:07:08.800 | because it is what's called a cortisol modulator.
00:07:12.060 | It does not necessarily suppress cortisol.
00:07:14.900 | It does not increase cortisol.
00:07:16.940 | It's a cortisol modulator.
00:07:18.560 | And frankly, the mechanism by which Rhodiola Rosea
00:07:21.580 | modulates cortisol is still under investigation.
00:07:24.700 | I hope to do an episode about it in the future,
00:07:26.780 | or at least make it part of an episode
00:07:28.660 | because the hypothesized mechanism
00:07:31.260 | that's starting to emerge is really interesting
00:07:33.460 | as it relates to neurons in the brain
00:07:36.100 | that control the stress response
00:07:37.460 | and glands in the body like the adrenals
00:07:39.380 | that control the stress response and that secrete cortisol.
00:07:42.460 | Regardless, there's a growing body of research
00:07:45.100 | that has explored Rhodiola Rosea supplementation
00:07:48.540 | and one's subjective perception of fatigue or output
00:07:53.400 | during high intensity training of various kinds,
00:07:55.920 | both resistance training
00:07:57.060 | as well as running and endurance type training.
00:08:00.260 | So I started taking Rhodiola Rosea about six months ago
00:08:04.380 | in response to conversations that I had,
00:08:06.680 | again, with Dr. Lane Norton and with Dr. Andy Galpin.
00:08:09.980 | And it's a supplement that I take
00:08:11.500 | before high intensity workouts.
00:08:13.660 | So I don't take it before a run
00:08:15.380 | because frankly, my runs are either very long and slow
00:08:17.980 | or they're very brief,
00:08:19.420 | like a high intensity interval training session.
00:08:21.820 | And I find those to be pretty easy to recover from
00:08:24.580 | even though they are very intense.
00:08:25.980 | I might take a Rhodiola Rosea supplement
00:08:28.980 | before doing a 30 minute hill run that's very intense,
00:08:32.540 | but typically I only take it about 10 to 15 minutes
00:08:35.900 | before any sort of high intensity resistance training session
00:08:39.100 | in particular, my leg day,
00:08:40.820 | which falls on day two of my exercise protocol
00:08:44.140 | or the torso day or the small body parts day.
00:08:47.140 | Again, here I'm referencing the way that I train
00:08:50.440 | across the week and you can find that training protocol
00:08:52.660 | as a downloadable, completely zero cost PDF if you like.
00:08:55.700 | But I realize other people are using
00:08:57.340 | different body parts splits and different combinations
00:08:59.900 | of resistance training and endurance training.
00:09:02.780 | The reason I mentioned Rhodiola Rosea in this episode
00:09:05.260 | is that I realized that while some people
00:09:07.340 | might not yet be supplementing omega-3s,
00:09:10.380 | they might not be supplementing creatine,
00:09:12.480 | there are many of you who are already doing those things
00:09:14.920 | and you're looking for additional tools to give you an edge.
00:09:17.580 | So again, the Rhodiola Rosea would not fall
00:09:19.860 | into the category of foundational supplements.
00:09:22.340 | Certainly get your nutrition right,
00:09:23.500 | get your sleep right, get your sunlight,
00:09:24.900 | all the basics first, please,
00:09:26.140 | before even thinking about any supplements.
00:09:28.340 | However, once you get into the category of supplements
00:09:31.420 | that can enhance fitness, Rhodiola Rosea does seem
00:09:34.620 | to have some good research to support it
00:09:36.640 | in the context of lots of different forms
00:09:38.580 | of high intensity exercise.
00:09:40.300 | Now, I can't tell you whether or not it's purely subjective
00:09:43.300 | or whether or not it's objective and subjective,
00:09:46.200 | but my experience has been that when I take Rhodiola Rosea,
00:09:50.200 | I definitely notice that I can exert myself harder
00:09:53.500 | without feeling like I'm bringing myself
00:09:55.880 | to the brink of fatigue,
00:09:57.460 | either during the exertion or afterwards.
00:09:59.980 | In other words, I feel like I can do more work
00:10:03.380 | without feeling so exhausted,
00:10:05.020 | and I feel as if I'm recovering
00:10:07.200 | from my workouts more quickly,
00:10:08.460 | in particular across the day after my workouts.
00:10:11.760 | In fact, if I had to cite one specific subjective effect
00:10:14.700 | that I've experienced from taking Rhodiola Rosea
00:10:16.700 | before very high intensity workouts,
00:10:18.820 | is that prior to taking it,
00:10:20.660 | I would often find that three or four hours
00:10:24.100 | after the workout, having eaten a good meal,
00:10:26.200 | taking a shower, et cetera, and I was tired.
00:10:29.200 | I'd have a real dip in energy.
00:10:31.160 | But now I notice I have a lot of energy throughout the day,
00:10:33.480 | even after these very high intensity sessions
00:10:35.680 | in the early part of the day.
00:10:37.160 | And frankly, I haven't changed anything else
00:10:39.400 | about my supplementation or my nutrition,
00:10:41.580 | at least nothing major.
00:10:43.440 | So I personally am going to continue to take Rhodiola Rosea
00:10:46.200 | before these high intensity workouts.
00:10:47.720 | So for me, that's about two or three times per week.
00:10:50.240 | However, if I forgot to take Rhodiola Rosea before a workout,
00:10:53.440 | I have no reason to think that that workout
00:10:54.900 | would go much worse.
00:10:56.300 | This is a supplement that is designed
00:10:58.100 | to sort of give you an edge to be able to exert more focus
00:11:01.820 | and intensity during your workouts
00:11:03.420 | with less perceived exertion and to enhance your recovery.
00:11:06.780 | The typical dosage of Rhodiola Rosea
00:11:08.500 | that you'll find in most supplements
00:11:10.100 | is 100 to 200 milligrams.
00:11:12.620 | And of course, anytime you're going to take a new supplement
00:11:15.180 | you would be wise to figure out the lowest effective dose
00:11:18.600 | from that supplement.
00:11:19.440 | That's just logic, right?
00:11:21.400 | Why spend more money taking more of something
00:11:23.260 | that you don't need more of
00:11:24.220 | if you could get away with taking less of it
00:11:26.640 | and it's just as effective, maybe even more effective.
00:11:29.100 | So I typically will take 100 to 200 milligrams
00:11:31.540 | of Rhodiola Rosea about 10 to 20 minutes before a workout.
00:11:35.320 | However, I've taken as little as 100 milligrams
00:11:37.860 | on a consistent basis.
00:11:39.060 | And frankly, I don't really experience much difference
00:11:41.460 | whether I take 100 milligrams
00:11:42.860 | or I take 200 milligrams before a workout.
00:11:44.740 | So lately I've just defaulted to taking 100 milligrams
00:11:48.080 | of Rhodiola Rosea before any high intensity workout.
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