If you exercise, do you take any supplements? Have you heard of precursor type supplements? Synthetics? This stuff almost ruined me a few years back, and it has taken many months to return and surpass the point I was at when I started dabbling in this junk.
Unless there is a clinical study backing the claims – it is garbage from someone likely getting their stuff manufactured in a plant overseas that has questionable manufacturing practices. Even just one study would likely disqualify many of the bottles lining your local GNC or non-franchised nutrition store. There are absolutely synthetic precursors that can get converted into testosterone being sold today in the grey market. Chemically speaking – the claims are spot on – however, I still question the manufacturing processes being employed to get that golden pill into your hands.
In the past few years, I have taken too many supplements to get my pre-workout going.
I have taken too many supplements to get my in workout energy sustained.
I have taken too many supplements to get my post workout recovery powered up.
I have taken way too many different protein supplements, many of which are way over engineered and likely unabsorbed and digested fully.
I have taken too many testosterone supplements that had claims of ramping my T.
I have even fooled around with a post cycle supplement that supposedly blocked the post testosterone ramp that resulted in extra T from becoming estrogen.
I have even continued to mess around with fat burners and cognitive supplements for a variety of energy needs.
Apparently, I’m a bio hacker. Tim Ferris is probably the most famous biohacker out there. I had no idea this was even a label or a thing until about a year ago – when I realized that Tim had popularized this notion given his ongoing experimentation across so many facets of his life.
What I have learned is this.
I am definitely open to trying things out, and I have done so a bit recklessly in the past in the hopes of ‘hacking’ my way ahead in terms of physical and energy improvements.
I have greatly reduced the focus of my supplementation on the muscular systems and hormonal systems for a variety of reasons.
The biggest reason is this – the shit does not really work.
The risk that many of these supplements pose is just too high. The synthetic stuff wrecked me for a good six months back in 2016, and it caused a number of near failures for a few of my inner systems. Speaking from personal experience – these synthetic anabolic/testosterone/ precursor type supplements are completely unregulated with specious quality levels.
At the time, I was going through some of the most stressful days of my entire life, and I was focused on maintaining a seemingly healthy lifestyle that was devoid of good quality sleep and filled with overtraining and questionable supplements.
From today’s perspective, I know that my body was already under severe stress from the lack of sleep and the waking stress in my life. Combining these two factors with overtraining and over supplementation – my body started to shut down. It has taken me well over a year to recover from all of it, and I can honestly say that I am physically better today than at any other point in my life.
All but one supplement that I take now has been prescribed to me by a medical professional or by my whole health nutritionist who carries multiple degrees and is in many ways more qualified than many of my doctors. This has been a huge difference, and I’ll outline the journey in terms of my health outcomes in the coming weeks.
Going back to August, 2016 my primary care doctor really gave it to me for doing all of the supplements. I honestly thought he was full of it. How can they sell this stuff that could have all sorts of filler in there? How could they have other ingredients in there that can jar your estrogen production when they claim to juice your testosterone production?
Over the course of the next year, he began to convince me that bioavailability and absorption were two key factors in any of this stuff. I also took on another primary care doctor that is from Europe – she’s more of a holistic mind than my American trained, clinician – both began to point me towards resources that were way more specialized as I had to get a number of organs evaluated due to my crazy blood tests among other tests that were conducted to measure the chemicals in my body.
I’ll go into those various episodes in a future post.
So where am I today?
I have fixed my sleep issues, as in completely fixed. I’ll post about this later.
I have cut the shit with all of these supplements. I will still do an occasional protein shake, and I take a slew of vitamins and minerals that are tied to a 3 month cycle of bloodwork that I do based upon the ongoing guidance of three different professionals. Two doctors and my holistic nutritionist.
I have gone largely organic and whole foods in nature. What that means is I do not do the processed stuff very much anymore. It is more expensive, but not by that much if you are smart about it. So between simplification of my diet intake and the quality of my sleep – major gains.
I have continued to grind away in the gym each day, but not to the point of fatigue. This approach of strong amounts of sleep, professionally guided supplementation, and simplification of my diet has truly transformed a ton of things in my life.
There is no hack to quote Jocko.
Diet, sleep, and exercise.
Simple stuff and daily routines.
It really comes down to putting in the work, and enjoying the daily wins that will result in transformations months and years down the line.
You will not get it in the form of a grey market precursor pill. I have lived to tell you about it…