What Supplements do I take?

I often get asked about supplements:

"Which supplements do you take?" "What do you think about this or that?"

As most of you know, I spent a couple years while in school working at a Vitamin Shoppe in Los Altos. I learned a lot about what to look for in terms of supplements. I can confidently say that I wouldn't use over 90% of the stuff out there right now, and good nutrition and sleep is far more important than any supplement; but at the same time, there are supps out there that are good and can help you. I'm just going to cover some of the basics in this post:

To keep it brief (focusing on muscle building, maintenance, power, and strength)

1.) Whey Protein Isolate
2.) BCAA's
​3.) Creatine (Ph Buffered)

All of the above have decades of research behind them, demonstrating both effectiveness and safety. There are some other products that I use occasionally, but these are the basics that I have on hand most often. I'm not going to get into dosing or the super fine details about each specific product but I will give an overview. These are not blanket recommendations for anybody, I am just communicating what I do and what I think. 

​Whey protein is a protein that is found in Dairy products, such as milk and cheese. Everytime you eat dairy, you consume some whey protein. What's great about whey protein is that it has an extremely favorable amino acid profile (very important) and it digests extremely quickly. Both of these things are important for fueling muscle growth and for taking advantage of the favorable hormonal environment (for muscle growth) that results after weightlifting. 


BCAA's, Branched Chain Amino Acids, or more specifically, (Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine) are amino acids that have been found to be particularly important. BCAA's are effective anti-catabolics; that is they help prevent the loss of muscle mass, even during prolonged periods of inactivity, or extreme prolonged endurance activity such as trekking, and  even during calorie restricted diets. Leucine has been found to be a stimulator of the mTOR pathway, which is an important muscle building pathway in the body. BCAA's are your friend if you are trying to minimize possible muscle loss and improve muscle growth. 

Creatine is a naturally occurring substance that is composed of amino acids. It is found in animal proteins such as steak. Everytime you eat steak, you consume some creatine. Creatine use results in increased power output as well as increased max strength. Creatine is effective because it has a lot of phosphates in it. The body uses phosphates to replenish ATP, the energy for work. 

Examples of products I typically have: (every one of below products has either NSF Certification, or Informed Choice certification, or both! - more on that below) 

You can find the exact products through my affiliate links below to support my business :)

General Suggestions:
1.) Look for (NSF Certified for Sport) and/or (Informed Choice Trusted by sport) logo's on the bottle! These are quality assurance processes. (many supps do not have either of these logos!)

NSF means: Products do not contain any substances banned by major athletic associations, WHAT IS IN THE BOTTLE MATCHES WHAT IS ON THE LABEL, there are no unsafe levels of contaminants, and the products are manufactured at a facility that is GMP certified. 

Informed Choice means: Commercial end products have gone under full manufacturing audit, and are WADA banned substance tested.  The RAW materials also undergo full audit, and are WADA tested. Even the manufacturing facilities are audited and certified as well. 

2.) Look for products that have NO Artificial Sweeteners, NO Artificial Colors, No Creamers or fillers, No FAKE CRAP, no PRO HORMONES and NO HARDCORE STIMULANTS.

Visit the NSF or Informed Choice websites for more info! In future posts, I'll get into why specifically each of these is an excellent product, and go into more detail about exactly what you are looking for when choosing a protein, BCAA, or creatine supplement. I'll also cover other supps that can be helpful as well in future posts :)