These are the seven legal performance enhancing supplements that are worth every single penny. They're inexpensive and they work. And some of the numbers that they put up on the scoreboard are pretty darn impressive.
I'm going to jump right in. The first one is one I've talked about before. It's taurine. However, when we look at recent research, it's very fascinating.
There was a study that was published in 2021. The study was published in the International Society of Sports Nutrition. It took a look at 19 different studies. So it looked at a lot of data and what they ultimately found is that simply one to six grams of taurine supplementation ranging from 10 minutes before exercise to two hours before exercise and in some cases just chronically taking it consistently at random times throughout the day this led to increases in VO2 max, increases in peak power, increases in time to exhaustion, increases in recovery, decreases in inflammation.
Just all these markers that we're interested in when it comes down to performance and recovery. Now, what's really, really interesting is when you look at creatine kinase levels, these are the levels that elevate when we break down a lot of tissue. It's sort of like if you went out and did a hard workout, it's like hitting your muscle with a meat tenderizer and you leak out creatine kinase.
Simplest way to explain it, right? Well, these creatine kinase levels decreased, showing that taurine has a really potent buffering effect and may act as a powerful antioxidant. that sort of works in real time while we're exercising.
So very fascinating there. And we need a little more research. But then there's even some very interesting stuff talking about potential hyperplasia. Okay, hyperplasia is not hypertrophy.
Hypertrophy is where you build muscle. Hyperplasia is where you potentially build more density and more fiber. And the research here is still in animals, but it's still fascinating.
Essentially, there was a study that gave animal subjects a 1.2% concentration of taurine. And it was found that taurine is a very important ingredient and they found that they had pretty significant increases in muscle density in just a matter of weeks. So that doesn't mean you're magically going to turn into one of those, you know, Belgian cows with the myostatin deficiency that look freaky.
You're not going to just magically grow muscle, but there's some interesting research that needs to be done there. Okay, number two, creatine. Don't skip over this because I've got sort of the dosing strategy for you as well. There was a study published in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. It looked at 300 studies.
And this was as of 2003. This is ongoing. We have newer research that suggests even more. But with this aggregate data, large pool of data, 70% of the studies showed not just modest, but significant improvements across the board in performance. Particularly peak power, strength, explosiveness, and just overall like independent strength.
None of the studies whatsoever showed decreases in performance. So you may look at this and you say, 70%, there's still a 30% chance I don't have performance benefits from it. No, there's a 30% chance that you probably won't notice anything in the short term, but there's a 70% chance that you'll have significant improvement. On average, you see about a 5% to 15% increase across the board in strength, in power, in explosiveness, and even in recovery in ranges of like 5% to 8% as well, and modulation of inflammation that enhances the recovery. and gets you back into the gym faster.
But what we're starting to see now is that creatine may even upregulate signaling proteins that have to do with muscle mass. So creatine doesn't directly increase muscle mass, but what it can potentially do is compound the effects of the strength increases you get. So you get the strength increases, but if it increases the signaling proteins that tell your body to build more muscle, then you're indirectly building more muscle as a result of the extra strength.
This is where the research is getting fascinating. So before we thought, Creatine is just a strength building supplement, but it actually might have signaling properties that allow you to build more muscle as well. For dosing with creatine, you don't need to be doing these copious amounts. You can start at like three grams, work your way up to 10, whether you're man, woman, child, creatine is really darn safe. I also put a link down below for TriCreate, which are these creatine gummies.
So if you want to try dosing creatine, and not get water retention, what I would recommend is taking one or two grams multiple times throughout the day. These gummies make it really easy and yes, they have a couple grams of carbs in them, but that's on purpose. Creatine is taken up better when it's with a little glucose, and we're talking one to two grams here, small amounts.
So this way with Create, you can take these little gummies throughout the day. It's worked very, very well for me because I am hypersensitive. If you retain water with creatine, it typically means you're a hyper responder.
So it means you're getting good benefits from it, but it can be kind of annoying because the water retention, like for me, I don't like it. But if I space it throughout the day, I don't get that. So that link down below is going to save you a good percentage off of these...
...gummies. So they're trying to stop the stigma behind creatine. Like make it so that this is something that's good for your brain, it's good for performance, it's good for everything. But I highly, highly recommend if you've ever tried other creatine gummies, they don't taste good, they don't work.
So these ones are great. The link is down below in the top line of the description. Next one is one that's kind of funny because you wouldn't think of it as a performance enhancer.
It's going to be simple whey protein. Yes, believe it or not, whey protein. The Journal of Applied Physiology published a paper comparing soy protein, whey protein, and casein protein. They found that when they looked at all this, all the EAA content was the same. So the same amount of amino acid content, but the whey protein signal muscle protein synthesis 93% higher than casein protein and 18% higher than soy protein, but that's just at rest.
So if you were just like cruising around, just drinking a protein shake, whey protein is going to signal muscle protein synthesis significantly more than these other shakes, these other kinds of drinks. post-exercise, having a whey protein shake was 122% better at muscle protein synthesis than casein and 31% better than soy, even when the essential amino acid levels were the exact same. So it has to do with the insulin spike.
It has to do with the leucine availability. And when you look at BCAAs and you look at leucine in general, you find that this is the main thing we should focus on. There was a study published in the journal Nutrition that looked at BCAA specifically and looked at leucine. Leucine compared to others, yeah, you have this big spike in mTOR, big activation and phosphorylation of P70S6K, which triggers the downstream muscle protein synthesis. So whey protein, just periodically throughout the day, is one of the most anabolic things that you could consume.
If you're trying to build muscle and build strength and build recovery, intermittent whey protein shakes are powerful. I recommend isolate generally. but concentrate is fine too if that's all you can get your hands on.
This leads me into the next one, essential amino acids. This is a supplement that people throw under the bus a lot. I have been a huge proponent of EAAs for a long time because there's literature that suggests that when you take it with protein, it can increase the bioavailability of that protein.
So very powerful stuff. But there was a study published in the Frontiers of Physiology that was fascinating with EAAs. They took a look at EAAs versus placebo, no EAAs, and resistance training.
Okay, what they found is that when EAAs were in the equation, muscle contraction was stronger, period, okay? And when EAAs were not in the equation, lactate accumulated faster during a workout. Now, what this suggests is that there may be a practical application to taking EAAs prior to a workout.
Personally, I like to train fasted, so I don't use EAAs before a workout. But if you are training later in the day, sipping on some EAAs prior to a workout, prior to or possibly even during, there's evidence now that suggests it might lower the overall lactate accumulation and lower the hydrogen ions in the acidic environment, making you push a little harder. But let's forget the pre-workout performance stuff.
Let's look at recovery. There was a study published in Clinical Nutrition that took two separate five-day occasions where they reduced calories by 30%. Huge caloric deficits, okay?
And what they found is that when EAAs were in the equation versus not... Muscle protein synthesis was significantly higher and muscle protein breakdown was significantly lower. The difference here is one group had 0.1 grams per kilogram of body weight of EAAs and the other group had 0.3 grams per kilogram of body weight.
So not even a huge difference, not even a huge amount. But just the difference between 0.1 and 0.3 made a tremendous difference in overall muscle preservation. Long story short, if you're in a caloric deficit, sipping on essential amino acids could be absolutely the difference between you losing muscle and not. This next one is one of my personal favorites, beta-alanine. Here's the deal with beta-alanine.
I think this is one of the most underrated supplements that is out there. It's super cheap. You need maybe four to eight grams to get an actual effect and it works. There's a study published in the journal Amino Acids, took a look at 15 different studies. Okay, what they found here is that beta-alanine dramatically increased performance in the second ranges of 60 seconds.
to 240 seconds. So it's that sort of aerobic, high aerobic range. Anything faster, quicker, or more aggressive than 60 seconds, like less than 60 seconds, it didn't have that much of an effect. So you're not going to get a huge effect out of immediate strength, but you're going to get an effect like if you're doing crossfit style workouts or sprints or fast resistance training where you're moving quick. There's a study published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism took a look at rowers that were doing a 2,000 meter row.
Okay, and they gave them beta alanine for 28 to 30 days. The groups that had the beta alanine had a 6.4 second improvement on their 2000 meter time, which is about a 13 to 14% improvement in their overall trial time. That is unbelievable and this is the exact kind of range where we'd see a benefit from beta-alanine.
And the reason is carnosine. Carnosine is in our muscle and it requires histidine and it requires beta-alanine, okay? And when we work out, we have fluctuating levels of these but they tend to step ladder down, therefore lowering carnosine.
Carnosine plays a critical role because when we work out, we build up lactate, okay? You heard about the lactic acid burn. The lactic acid burn isn't real.
What happens is the lactate builds up and this creates more hydrogen ions, which creates an acidic environment. And that acidic environment makes it impossible for glucose to break down, starving your muscle from glucose fuel. Exactly in that 60 to 240 second range where we would really pivotally need glucose.
So when we support carnosine levels, we support the ability to buffer the hydrogen ions more. and allow for overall glucose to still fuel the muscle, allowing us to push, well, I don't know, 13 to 14% harder and longer. Next one is one I'm not going to spend a ton of time on, but I'll give you the exact amount. Three to six milligrams per kilogram of caffeine. I don't need to waste your time.
Caffeine is probably the most studied ergogenic aid when it comes to fat mobilization, when it comes to mental focus, when it comes to cyclic adenosine monophosphate and sort of the systems that it engages in the body. You are missing out if you don't use caffeine around a workout. Not saying you have to, but it's effective. And the last one is one specifically for men, and that is Tonkat Ali. We've heard Andrew Huberman talk about it.
You've heard me talk about it with Derek from More Plates, More Dates. It's potent stuff. There was a study that was published in the International Journal of Preventative Medicine that showed that when subjects were supplementing with 300 to 600 milligrams of Tonkat Ali, it increased their peak power.
Okay, like... We also know that it has huge effects on free testosterone and lowering estrogen and affecting SHBG. All that stuff is great, but in the side of performance, like you get that in tandem with peak power, that's potentially more muscle, potentially more strength, explosivity, recovery. So not saying it's foolish not to take it, but it's something that's so inexpensive.
All of these things are some things that you can get for less than $50 and there'll be longer than a month supply. I know that sounds like a lot, but things like creatine, things like taurine, You can get for 15, 20 bucks. So at the end of the day, there's no excuse to not experiment a little bit and be your own N of one. As always, keep it locked in here on my channel.
I'll see you tomorrow.