Ergogenic Aids

An Ergogenic Aid is a substance that can improve physical or mental performance. Most of you know them as supplements. There are a bunch of bullshit supplements out there. Some half bullshit ones too. There are two that have consistently been shown to improve performance and be safe for most healthy individuals. Caffeine and creatine. Let’s dig in a little bit... 

Caffeine - Caffeine is a stimulant that activates your sympathetic nervous system. This leads to increased focus, pain tolerance , endurance, and motivation. Caffeine also reduces hunger. These effects can allow you to train harder and maybe consume less calories due to appetite suppression. Studies on caffeine and endurance performance show on average a 3.2% improvement. That's a big number if you’re a competitive athlete. There’s also limited evidence that caffeine can help break down fat stores for use as energy. The general recommendation is 3-6 mg/kg of body weight approximately 60 min. before exercise but most National health agencies say that up to 400mg a day is “safe” for most healthy people. You’d have to test your tolerance because there is a genetic component to caffeine metabolism. Some people have a crazy high tolerance while others are very sensitive. If health is of interest to you then coffee might be the best way to get your caffeine in. Coffee contains antioxidants and other compounds that may protect against disease. Recent studies have found that regular coffee drinkers are less likely to die from coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney disease, heart failure, Parkinson’s, colon cancer and have improved liver enzymes. Dark roast coffee can even decrease DNA breakages. Loading up that coffee with high calorie creamers and sugar is a bad idea. Drink that shit black.  

Creatine - Creatine is the most researched supplement ever. There is NO solid evidence that it is unsafe for healthy adults. Creatine occurs naturally in the human body. It buffers ATP(adenosine triphosphate) which is basically cellular energy. In short intense muscle contraction, up to 5-8 seconds, phosphocreatine is used to make ATP. More creatine in your muscle means more ATP and more work can be done. Instead of 8 reps, you can possibly get 10. Creatine also increases intra cellular fluid. Not under the skin(subcutaneous), but in the muscle itself. The combination of cell swelling and more training volume from increased ATP production can lead to more hypertrophy(muscle growth). More muscle can mean more strength and power. There is also some evidence that creatine can improve cognitive function. Mostly in short term memory and reasoning and more so in vegetarians since they probably have very low creatine intake through the diet. Meat does contain some creatine however cooking meat can degrade it so most supplement with it. The general recommendation is 3-5g a day. You can load with .3g/kg of body weight if you are impatient but over the course of a few weeks 5g a day will get you there. In the long run it doesn’t really matter when you take it as long as you’re consistent with it your muscles will become saturated.  

I’m not including protein powder because it’s basically just food. A convenient source of protein that you could choose to drink or eat whole food. A multivitamin also falls into this category. Not a bad insurance policy. Take some fish oil if you don't eat fatty fish on a regular basis. That covers everything that most of us take on a regular basis. Is there other (legal) stuff out there that possibly “works”? Sure. But they are not as time tested(and literally tested in studies) as the ones mentioned here. There were plenty of strong and jacked people walking around before any of these were a thing. So really, you don’t NEED anything but food and water. If you have the money and like the couple of percentage points these things can give you, have at it.  
​
I’m not a doctor. If you think I’m full of shit or you have a medical condition. Go see your doctor. 
​​