Tuning up my supplement mix for strongman performance
 

Ok team, a question/survey for the nutrition and supplementation gurus that are here.

I've read the top five supplements thread and clearly there is a pattern there but i figured i'd see what advice you guys have for me.

Situation

I'm 30 years old and have been training for about 12 years, the last 5 or so seriously and the last two 2 very seriously with the focus being improved performance as a 105kg / 231# Strongman in whats turning out to be a very competitive division.

Lifestyle - I run my own business training people and running workshops which means some odd hours and early mornings and typically I don't get as much sleep as i'd like.

Diet - Last year I put on 14kg / 30lb by eating everything in sight and found that I was recovering brilliantly and progressing nicely. Now i've hit my goal training weight of 107kg/240# I have cut down my food a bit so that i don't get too heavy and i'm finding that my recovery and progress are a bit compromised.

Supplements - This is where i'm hoping I can make some gains without resorting to eating bulk cheese burgers again. Currently all I use is plain whey protein powder 2-3 times a day, a generic multi vitamin and 4g of fish oil each night. For longer gym sessions I drink gatorade but have just got some Endura stuff that has magnesium, potassium, sodium etc in it.

Training - I've run out of easy gains in the big lifts and have pretty much run into the situation where i've got to use some more sophisticated programming and all round higher workloads to see progress these days, this of course means my recovery needs to be spot on to avoid an enormous crash and burn.

So this leads to my question

Back in the old days I used to use creatine, glutamine and a few other odds and ends and am now thinking off adding some stuff back to my supplement plan.

Based on what i've read here and elsewhere some candidates include

Creatine, glutamine (although i see it's not getting as much love as it used to), BCAA, Vit D, ZMA.

What are everyone's thoughts on taking some (or all of these) to enhance performance in the big basic lifts and strongman performance while doing very heavy and hard training such as the hormonal fluctuation cycles outlined in practical programming?

The ones you list are good basics, I do all of them except BCAA.

Do you do any AAS (or legal designer AAS)? Obviously this would be optimal for performance for strongman competition (or any performance competition for that matter) if you're willing to take the plunge.

If not - Marc Bartley over at EliteFTS suggests trying a month natural test boosting "cycle" of 4g Tribulus with some other stuff (Stinging nettle leaf, etc) and apparently has people having good results with it. I'm thinking about starting a thread about it here to collect thoughts (may not have to now)... but it may be beneficial if in fact it works how it claims (I know there's a few studies out there that contradict tribulus' claims). Anyway --- worth maybe checking out.... maybe guys with more experience with this can chime in.

The issue with Tribulus and other natural Test boosters is that they usually don't boost levels outside of the normal range.

They may be good to get someone from low to mid-normal, but that change would be unlikely to result in a substantial increases in strength, muscle mass, recovery etc.

What I think would make sense would be to get a hormonal profile done as well as getting Vitamin D levels checked.

Whatever you decide to do, I would only add one supplement at a time. Otherwise if you add more than one supplement it's impossible to tell if all are working or just one.

If you are reducing food intake to keep weight in check, a natural side effect of this would be the decreased recovery and slower gains. Additionally, judging from the #'s in your training log, it makes sense you are in need of more complex programming.

Martin Berkham wrote up a list of useful supplements:

http://leangains.blogspot.com/2010/0...y-find_09.html

Ive not read the leangains site before to know his credentials, interesting he rates calcium in his top 3 supps(T boosting affects withpubmed link) ive seen a previous study with same type of results before. I guess with D supps and good alkaline balance you should need less, im still taking 500mg daily though.

Sleep of course is good (that GH spike at night) and stress can be an issue. Elevated cortisol will only signal want to conserve and use more glycogen and cause less AA uptake at the muscle level...aka you are lowering protein synthesis. Hence why I think especially for a person who works long stressful days or has longer workouts, sipping on BCAAs in water will have some benefit in controlling that cortisol response. Try it....see what happens...worst case you spent $30.

That guy (Berkham) has the freakiest looking bicep muscle I've ever seen from his photo on his site, either that or some really bad Photoshopping...

And he says he got them from Weighted Chinups. HMM...

Really? That would be interesting. I'm sure genetics played no role at all...

It's scary when I look at my dad's old photos compared to mine, and now when I look at my baby girl's compared to me around the same age. There's only so much change that one can do.