I get asked all the time about supplements and nutrition for the wildly popular P90X workout program. This is an intense workout routine, so nutritional supplementation can definitely benefit people on the P90X program; however, recommending one supplement is hard. First, the end goal of the person training has to be considered. Are you trying to lose weight, shred up your muscles, or just last the entire duration of the workout with fatiguing? An additional consideration is your current diet: how clean is your diet, what quantities are you consuming, how many meals and snacks are you consuming? Some essential vitamins and minerals might already be in your current diet. Consuming more than your body can metabolize is not going to benefit you.
Okay, we’ve all been in a vitamin store and the selection at some of these stores can be mind numbing. I, personally, gravitate to the sports performance section where the more manly products are found. These products have muscled up gorillas on them and half of them contain huge doses of stimulants, which can greatly impact your energy level but they speed up your heart and can cause energy crashes. P90X is a program designed for lean muscle; thus, the typical body building vitamins aren’t necessarily designed for this type of training. Picture a body builders program; low sets, breaks in between, lots of weight. These guys transform their bodies, but most of the guys on the label and ads are on heavy doses of steroids. Supplement companies marking to this demographic usually take ‘more is better’ approach and load these supplements up with excess ingredients to bulk of their labels – not the person using their product. Again, your body will pass anything that it can’t metabolize.
I have noticed great success from men using MMA specific supplement brands, which are designed for Mixed Martial Arts fighters. Reason being, most fighters do similar training programs to P90X that involve cardio, resistance, and plyometric training in one continuous session. These supplements can help increase muscle mass and endurance while helping maintain strength and flexibility.
Next is the vitamin area, which has a lot of good offerings to choose from. I would go with a good multi-vitamin, an omega-3 product, and a joint complex to round out the stack. The joint complex should contain ingredients like glucosamine and chondroitin, which help protect joints from wear and tear. The omega-3 capsules are known as the “good fat”. Omega-3s greatly benefit fat loss, skins, and hair health. The male or female multi-vitamin should have a good dose of all the daily minimums for the basic vitamins.
Links to my favorite supplements online:
Vitamins
MMA Supplements
The proper supplementation program can help you reduce recovery time, balance glycemic levels, volumize blood flow, aid in fat loss, and help build lean muscle. Sticking with the basics, most of which can be found at the local drug store, will greatly impact your results with P90X. Don’t forget to eat healthy foods and keep a daily journal to help track your diet and progress. Best of luck with P90X!
Posts Tagged ‘Supplements’
Nutritional Supplements For The P90X Program
Sunday, October 3rd, 2010Nutritional Supplements – Selecting the Right Nutritional Supplement for You!
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010The benefits of taking nutritional supplements are endless no matter if you have a chronic illness or feel that you are perfectly healthy. In today’s world of instant gratification, high-paced lifestyles with fast food and on-the-go meals, it is no wonder that our society’s personal health is degenerating at an alarming rate. Although we do have more medical resources in order to diagnose and treat illnesses quicker and easier, wouldn’t it be more feasible to prevent an illness before it even starts, or at best minimize the results of having a chronic illness.
Nutritional supplements range in price and product depending on what you are looking for. Nutritional supplements can help aid muscle aches, cell regeneration, providing the body with actively fighting antibodies against harmful substances in the home or work environment. Anti-aging benefits, balancing your daily intake of vitamins and minerals and helping your body rid itself of environmental toxins are just a few of the positive aspects of using a nutritional supplement on a regular basis.
Tips For Choosing Nutritional Supplements
1. The first thing you must do before running out to your local health food store is to examine what you take in each day as part of your balanced diet. Are you lacking fruits or vegetables? Should you be drinking more milk or eating too much protein?
2. Once you have narrowed down what your natural diet is lacking, then you can begin your search to fill that void with a nutritional supplement. If need be, keep a food journal for one week to recognize any patters you may have or a specific food group that you are not getting enough of during your regular routine.
3. Consulting your health care provider will be your next vital step on the road to better health. You will need to examine your strengths and weaknesses in your diet and make calculated decisions on what supplements will fit your lifestyle and current diet best in order to give your body what it needs.
4. Analyze any medication that you are currently taking. You should not go out on your own and start taking nutritional supplements without consulting a health care provider in order to avoid any medical or health disasters in the future.
5. Reading the labels carefully will be an important part of choosing which exact brand of nutritional supplement you purchase once you have found what you need in order to maintain your health. What it says on the label may not be what is inside, and you may only be receiving trace amounts of a mineral that you desperately need.
6. Many multi-vitamins do not have the amount of isolated vitamins or minerals you are lacking, or you may be overloading your system with too much of one type of nutritional supplement if you are taking more than one product during the same time period. Utilize the staff in your local health store; let them know what you are currently taking or what you are looking for in order to get recommendations for your nutritional supplements.
Nutrient dense supplements are nutritional supplements that are packed full of natural occurring nutritional compounds from fresh whole live foods. These specific supplements are especially beneficial for those looking for an all-in-one, natural and convenient way to receive a balance of minerals and supplements. These products do come in a variety of types and those, which are concentrated to over 100 nutritional elements, can in fact save you money in the long run by limiting the amount of separate nutritional supplements that you would have purchased previously to obtain the same results.
Although some nutritional supplements look appealing and healthy on the label, often our bodies are not able to absorb the entire benefit of those capsules. If you are looking for a nutritional supplement that can bypass the digestive system and is able to be absorbed right into your body to maximize the effects than a liquid nutritional supplement is the best choice for you. If you are spending money in order to purchase the vitamins and minerals you are lacking, you will want to have them available for your body to take advantage of them wouldn’t you?
With some research and a little help from your health care professional, you can use a combination of your own diet along with nutritional supplements in order to take advantage of the benefits that your body requires in order to stay healthy and live longer.
Protein Supplements Should Be Part Of Your Sports Nutrition
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010If you are one of those ill-witted who perceive athletes as gods who don’t need to stop to take in air, or to relax when there is need for relaxation, then perhaps it would be much of a disappointment to you to find out that athletes are not so different from those who are not athletes for they also make use of supplements to get them going.
It is part of their diet to take in supplements to have an enhancement of their endurance, and also to increase or, if not increase, maintain the appropriate muscle mass to be able to improve size and strength.
Protein supplements should be part of sports nutrition, without these said sports nutrition supplements; athletes would not be the way they are at present. However, contrary to what most people think, diets jam packed with protein do not necessarily build up muscle strength.
Building up muscle strength would be the job of regular physical activity. So if you want those big muscles you have to do exercises, not necessarily at gyms but could be also at your residences, daily. Doing so not by the day would not be producing the same result if you do so daily.
Sports nutrition supplements need high levels of protein, which you can get from protein-rich foods and enumerating all will be a total waste of space in this article.
But to enlighten you, here are a few of the foods that are rich in protein. There is fish, poultry and dairy products,and these are the foods you usually get your protein from because some sources of protein are high in fat and also in calories. So basically, you must take note which sources are high in fat and which are not.
Yeah, sports nutrition supplements sound so good but they can also put a strain on your liver and kidneys, which is the main reason why sports nutrition experts discourage taking them.
Some other sports nutrition supplements also have high amounts of nitrogen, which will only be excreted from your body as urea. But it is not as easy nor is it as safe as it sounds for this said excretion often causes fluid imbalance, which will then lead to dehydration.
There is also a higher risk of heart disease due to the high fat intake associated with sports nutrition supplements that have high amounts of protein from animal sources.
Another disadvantage of sports nutrition supplements is that there is a huge tendency that you will ingest amino acids that are capable of interfering with other amino acids, which will have a result of a metabolic imbalance.
Sports nutrition supplements that have high amounts of amino aids can also cause gout; diarrhea and stomach cramping that can rank from mild to severe pain.
Even if sports nutrition supplements are being discouraged by sports nutrition experts, Bricker Labs, a sports nutrition supplement manufacturer, still do a lot of advertising and manufacturing as well.
Bricker Labs has over thirty years to blame for their success in their provision of sports nutrition supplements. They do not apply to sports nutrition only too, but also to weight loss, diet, health and other nutritional aspects.
So if you have plans to take any kind of sports nutrition supplements, then Bricker Labs is probably the sports nutrition supplement manufacturer to trust. Why? It is because they use ingredients that are safer than what other sports nutrition supplements contain. What kind of ingredients, you ask?
They make use of the L-Carnitine, which is mainly there for weight loss, energy and also for having a healthy heart function; Colostrum, which gives your body a healthy immune system function and also gives your body an improved stamina and also for an easier recovery in almost all cases; Vandayl Sulfate, which is capable of growing your muscles and also has the ability to define your muscles; Protein, everyone knows what protein is for and that is for sports nutrition, and also for health and muscle growth.
Another is the Creatine, which is also for sports nutrition and muscle growth but it also involves bodybuilding this time; HCA or Garcinia Cambogia, for losing weight and suppressing your appetite; and last but certainly not the least, Vitamin B-12, this one is for overall health and nutrition.
So what more could you ask for? Sports nutrition supplements give you what you need, what your body needs and boosts your ego all the same time.