Fitness supplements are a $14 Billion industry. A market that size will have products ranging from great to dangerous. Here’s a quick guide to 3 supplements that I personally use, that I like and why.
Ultima
The fitness Police are always on us to drink more water. How much should you drink?
Take your weight, measured in lbs, divide by 2. That’s how many oz of water you should drink i.e. you weigh 200 lbs you should drink 100 oz.
Chugging all that water can feel like a chore. Ultima is a sugar free electrolyte mix that adds nutrition and more importantly (to me) flavor to the water. Electrolytes are minerals that regulate and control the balance of fluids in the body. These minerals play a role in regulating blood pressure, muscle contraction and keep your system functioning properly. They’re important enough that pediatricians measure them (mine came back excellent btw). They also make my water taste better. Win/win.
Kachava
Zac Efron is the current president of the ‘Men who take their shirt off & make me want to put mine back on’ club.
Other members include Rocky 4 Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger (70’s/80’s), and Jason Mamoa.
Zack credits Darin Olien (his costar on their Netflix show) for drastically improving his health. Darin is one of those guys whose life revolves around eating and drinking healthy. He’s like the level 5 Vegan Lisa meets on the Simpsons:
I read Darin’s book ‘Superlife’. Some takeaways: you should only drink lightly salted water from a blue (not red, yellow or gray) water bottle. This was actually something he recommends. Seriously. I guess I’ll just keep my shirt on, then.
How about advice I can actually follow? Darin does co-sign super shakes (like Kachava) as a shortcut to get nutrition, vitamins, and probiotics. This I can handle. Take some, ice, some water, a few scoops of your powdered super shake and you’re good. According to their website Kachava has “all the good stuff your mind and body need for holistic health”. A quick glance at the ingredients… It checks a lot of boxes. I’m impressed. And it tastes good.
Also co-signed by my wife who loves to start the day with a glass every morning. I make it for her because I love her and make her shakes, get her compression boots and appreciate her even when I don’t expressly say so. It’s like I always say, ‘if you love your wife you’ll make her some Kachava this weekend’. This is a test to see if she’s reading.
Ashwaghanda
Anyone else have a recurring case of the winter blues? If you do you should try an adaptogen. Adaptogens are plants and mushrooms that help your body respond to stress, anxiety, and fatigue.
Adaptogens bring your body back to a steady balance by managing both physical and mental stressors. Ashwaghanda is an adaptogen. I picked Ash from a host of others because in addition to the purported calm and wellness benefits it allegedly increases sperm count and I was trying to be a father at the time (The ol’ put a few more rounds in the gun technique worked it’s magic- Baby Allison born 9/5/22!).
The other reported benefits of ashwaghanda include elevated mood, stronger immune system, and lower blood pressure. I snort lines of it at 3 a.m. If you’re flying and scared TSA might rip your Ash stash you can take it in pill form or brew tea if that’s your jam.
I did not participate in any study, or closely monitor stress while using ashwaghanda but I will report that while taking Ash I generally feel better, never fell sick, and my winter blues felt manageable. I did find a study that concluded “a high-concentration full-spectrum Ashwagandha root extract safely and effectively improves an individual’s resistance towards stress and thereby improves self-assessed quality of life.” So there.
Quick note on adaptogens
You should cycle them to prevent your body from building a tolerance. I’ll polish off a bottle of Ashwaghanda and then take several months off. I’m thinking it may become my winter ritual to help me deal with February (the longest month of the year if you catch my drift). Taking them every month isn’t recommended.
There it is. Three supplements I like. They make me feel better, add flavor and let me walk around with my shirt off feeling beautiful. Except when Zack’s around. There ain’t a supplement on the market that’ll give me the stones for that.