General Health Supplements For Peak Performance

These are the critical few supplements, that if taken in the right dose, will have you operating at peak performance both mentally and physically, pain-free, focused, healthy, and happy, with a sex drive pegged to the max.

“Slow down and remember this: most things make no difference.” – Tim Ferriss

Supplements can either be your best friend or your worst enemy…

All too often they are the latter.

Marketing hype and a lack of real research fuel most purchasing decisions. As consumers, we make purchases based on emotion. Nobody knows this better than supplement companies who specialize in exploiting our weaknesses.

Just flip through any fitness magazine and count how many ads and articles there are about supplements. You’ll quickly notice the entire magazine is nothing more than a supplement ad. It’s no wonder most people, myself included, can’t get enough.

Further, marketing hype sets outrageously unrealistic expectations for what most supplement can actually do – at least anything legal. And worse, most of the time you’re not even sure if the supplement is working.

How many times have you got all excited and bought a supplement…

The day it arrives is like Christmas morning and it feels like you’re 8 years old again. You open it up full of excitement, anticipation, and the possibilities of what your new body will look like. A rollercoaster of emotions ensues:

• This is going to work…
• It’s definitely working…
• I think it’s working…
• I’m not sure if it’s working…
• Wait…
• No, it didn’t work.

At that point it’s time to reorder a new bottle.

This is the exact reason why companies keep packing more and more supplements with insane stimulants so you can “feel” them working. If you can “feel” it, you’re more likely to continue buying.

As if that’s not bad enough…

The fitness “experts” you rely on to provide unbiased information and insight into the mysterious and treacherous world of supplements are blinded by spokesmodel contracts and affiliate marketing deals.

The reality is, most fitness models and personal trainers simply cannot provide you with unbiased and transparent information because of these deals…. which leads to even more misinformation.

As a result, most supplements end up being nothing more than a complete waste of money for the vast majority of people. This is the reason why I included a quote from my favorite author and podcaster, Tim Ferriss, to set the tone for this article.

Simply put, most supplements make no difference. I’m here to change that for you.

At this point, you might think I’m anti-supplement. I’m not, not even close. I’ve just seen the worst this industry has to offer.

In the past 18 years I’ve spent 10’s of thousands of dollars on supplements. Supplements guaranteed to “kill fat cells”, “add 6 lbs. of lean muscle in 6 weeks”, “boost testosterone by 300%”, or provide me with tons of “explosive focused energy” – I’ve tried them all.

In addition to my own personal experience… I’ve read hundreds of research papers, studies, and reviews of various supplements on a quest to find what actually works.

I’ve also worked with over 1,000 men and women to find out EXACTLY what works on other people. I did this in person while working as San Francisco Magazine’s “Best Trainer For Abs.” Now I do with my Online Coaching clients.

Don’t have time to read the entire 3-part series right now?

Get my complete “Cheat Sheet” Guide To Supplements That Actually Work Without Breaking The Bank as a convenient downloadable PDF. You’ll also get access to a bonus video of me explaining my top 10 supplements 👇👇

This article series is a collection of the knowledge I’ve gained and will cut through the marketing hype. Here’s what you can expect:

• A list of the critically few, scientifically proven supplements that actually work.
• A description of how they work including research to back up my claims.
• The specific brands that I take and recommend to my clients based on quality and price.

Lastly, I’ll outline the supplements into three categories: General Health, Fat Loss, and Muscle Gain. This article is going to cover General Health.

And since I’ve voluntarily passed up on lucrative spokesmodel contracts and affiliate deals, I’m able to recommend the absolute best brands at the absolute best price.

To set expectations, this is not a complete and comprehensive guide of every supplement that I’ve ever tried. Instead, it’s a quick “cheat sheet” style guide…

These are the critical few supplements, that if taken in the right dosage, can dramatically accelerate your results. Whether you want to pack on pounds of lean muscle or melt fat off your body like butter… I got you covered.

Ready? Here. We. Go.

General Health Supplements

I recommend a few general health supplements to every single one of my clients regardless of their goal. From a priority standpoint, these are all extremely high on the list.

I recommend these to anyone and everyone that asks me about supplements. They are that important and should come BEFORE any specific fat loss or muscle building supplements.

Will General Health Supplements help me burn fat and/or build muscle?

Just because these are “General Health Supplements” doesn’t mean they don’t also help burn fat or build muscle. In fact, general health supplements build a strong foundation other supplements can be stacked to maximize health, performance, and recovery.

For example: taking a mixed greens supplement is sure to help you better digest your food, absorb more nutrients from your food, prevent illness, and reduce inflammation.

That will absolutely have a positive spillover effect on burning fat and building muscle.

Capiche? Thanks Uncle Jesse, I got it from here.

Mixed Greens & Probiotics

Research shows eating larger quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables leads to a longer, disease free life. Yet research and my experience working with 1,000+ successful clients confirms adults simply do not eat enough.

Before you start screaming, “But I take a multivitamin!”

Research from several doctors at Johns Hopkins University concluded that multivitamins are at best, a waste of money and at worst, harmful.

Three (3) issues with multi-vitamins:

1. Most are synthesized in a lab as opposed to being from whole food sources.
2. Most contain additives, which are chemicals added during packaging to preserve their shelf-life. That’s why they last for-ev-er.
3. They don’t absorb well in the body and often contain too little of the things you actually need.

On the flip side, a greens supplement is made of dehydrated whole foods and extracts, high in vitamins and minerals, contains no additives, a great source of vegetables, and is easily absorbed by the body.

A mixed greens supplement is sure to help you better digest your food, absorb more nutrients from your food, prevent illness, and reduce inflammation.

As Tim Ferriss says, a greens superfood drink will act as “nutritional insurance.”

Which brand of mixed greens & probiotics do you recommend?

Green Vibrance – It’s from a fantastic company, they provide transparency into their ingredients, it has fantastic reviews, and it’s well priced compared to its competitors.

The only downside, it doesn’t taste amazing. This shouldn’t be a surprise since it’s called Green Vibrance and not Vanilla Swirl Sprinkles Cupcakes.

To be honest, most green drinks I’ve tried taste like dirt and grass mixed with dog feces…

Don’t ask why I know what dirt, grass, and dog feces tastes like — unless I’m at least 3 cocktails in. In which case you’re in for a pretty rad and disgusting story.

This isn’t that bad, but it’s not awesome either. Adding cinnamon helps, then again adding to cinnamon to anything makes it better.

How much Green Vibrance should I take?

I like to take one (1) serving immediately upon waking in the morning with about 30 oz. of water. If you are doing intermittent fasting, don’t worry — this will not break your fast. If you aren’t doing intermittent fasting, you should start.

But either way, I still recommend taking it first thing in the morning upon waking. If you wait, you’ll likely forget to take it altogether. Make it part of your morning routine to increase adherence and build the habit so you never forget.

I recommend two (2) servings if you are traveling by plane or on vacation. This will help combat any issues related to a poor diet, lack of sleep, and airplane travel.

UPDATE: I tried a different green superfood supplement called Legion Genesis recently and I LOVE it. Legion Genesis tastes 10x better than Green Vibrance, is from a well-respected company that I trust, and backed by scientific research. Give it a shot.

Fish Oil (Omega-3)

What would you say if I told you there is a supplement that can:

Help build muscle, prevent weight gain, improve fat loss, reduce inflammation, enhance the look & feel of your skin, strengthen your hair, boost mood, sharpen cognitive function, and elevate brain health.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot — it can prevent many diseases including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and strokes as well.

You’d probably say I was crazier than a shit-house rat. On the contrary, the list of proven benefits from fish oil is mind-blowing:

• Prevent weight gain and improved fat loss.

• Improved mood, cognitive function, and brain health.

• Improved protein synthesis. In other words, helps you build more muscle. #gainz

• Improved insulin sensitivity. This makes it easier to burn fat and build muscle. For more info on how to increase insulin sensitivity, read 7 Simple Steps To Increase Insulin Sensitivity.

• Reduced inflammation. This subsequently reduces your risk of disease because most diseases are related to inflammation. This will also help with muscle soreness and joint pain.

Not taking fish oil is the new smoking, in other words – a perfect way to passively kill yourself. Okay, it’s not that bad but you get the point.

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Which fish oil supplement do you recommend?

Viva Labs Fish Oil – It’s from a well-respected company, it’s high quality, well priced, and low in mercury. It’s also #2 on Labdoor’s Fish Oil rankings.

How much fish oil should I take?

If you’re working out several times per week, you’ll require more Omega-3’s than the average John or Jane Couchpotato.

As a result, I recommend women take 2 – 3 grams per day and men take 3 – 4 grams per day. I take one serving in the morning upon waking on an empty stomach with Vitamin D (more on that later) and another serving before bed, again – with Vitamin D.

There isn’t an official upper limit for fish oil meaning there is very little risk of negative side effects from taking too much outside simply wasting your money.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiency is extremely common. This is because the human body cannot produce Vitamin D naturally without sun exposure.

Bummer. So, if you’re a surfer bro hitting the beach looking for some gnarly waves on the regular — you can probably ignore this advice. For the rest of us, supplementing with vitamin D will be an absolute must.

This is because vitamin D deficiency is associated with dementia, schizophrenia, erectile dysfunction (oh shit), heart disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, and depression.

If that’s not bad enough, vitamin D deficiency is also linked to low levels of testosterone.

That means if you’re lucky enough to avoid cancer and your brain turning to mush… you’re probably going to have erectile dysfunction. If you manage avoid that, you’ll be too depressed to have sex anyway.

Don’t freak out just yet, there’s hope: This study showed that when healthy male participants take 3,332 IU of vitamin D daily for a year, they end up having 25.2% more testosterone on average when compared to a placebo.

It gets better, this study shows men with adequate levels of vitamin D often have high levels of testosterone.

Your sex life just might be saved after all. This is also important because higher levels of testosterone are linked with decreases in body fat and increases in lean muscle mass. Boom! Goes the dynamite.

For more information, read 8 Scientifically Proven Methods For Naturally And Safely Boosting Testosterone Levels.

Anecdotally, speaking from experience and that of my clients… lower levels of body fat and increases in lean muscle mass are also associated with more frequent and better sex — although I’m still waiting for a formal scientific research study to back me up on this.

If any research scientists or economists are reading this, I’d like to personally volunteer as a candidate for this study. I understand the commitment involved and I’m ready to sacrifice my body for science. It would be an honor. Anyway…

If you get a decent amount of sun, are under 200 lbs., or are less active I’d stick with 5,000 IU per day. If you don’t get enough sun, are over 200 lbs., or very active I’d take up to 10,000 IU per day. I take 10,000 IU per day.

Women should take between 2,000 to 5,000 IU per day.

Research shows 40,000 is the daily upper limit, but I haven’t seen anything that indicates anything over 10,000 IU would be beneficial on a daily basis.

Zinc

After visiting a hormone specialist and finding out I had low-T, I’ve been looking for ways to naturally and safely boost my testosterone levels. My doctor and my own research led me to Zinc.

I go into more detail about my experience, findings, and action plan in an article I wrote called 8 Scientifically Proven Methods For Naturally & Safely Boosting Testosterone Levels. As you might have guessed, Zinc is one of the methods.

Zinc deficiency has been linked in studies like this one to low testosterone. In fact, a Zinc deficiency can cause a drop in testosterone by as much as 50%. That means supplementing with Zinc will be great for your sex drive, maintaining low body fat, building lean muscle, and basically being an all-around awesome alpha-male but it gets better…

Everyone hates getting sick, but what if you could recover from colds 3x faster than the average human?

This study showed supplementing with Zinc can turn you into a quasi-Wolverine-like specimen because you’ll recover from cold symptoms 3x faster than the normal person. And if you’re on my website, well… the last thing you want is to be average.

Zinc is needed to balance many hormones including insulin — the main hormone involved in the regulation of blood sugar. Therefore, if you’re pre-diabetic or have full-blown diabetes supplementing with Zinc will be a wise idea.

Supplementing with Zinc will boost your testosterone, improve your body composition, give you a quasi-Wolverine-like ability to recovery from colds, and improve the regulation of blood sugar in your body. 

Which Zinc supplement do you recommend?

My favorite Zinc supplement is Nature Made Zinc.

Nature Made is a fantastic company with a great reputation for making high-quality supplements and it’s #6 on Labdoors’s Zinc Rankings for value.

How much Zinc should I take?

For men, take ONE (1) 30mg soft-gel upon waking in the morning an ONE (1) 30mg soft-gel with dinner in the evening. Women should take half that dosage.

Magnesium

Magnesium is another one of those super-supplements that nobody talks about, yet nearly everyone seems to be deficient in. Symptoms of magnesium deficiency range from high blood pressure and headaches to anxiety, depression, muscle aches, back pain, tendonitis, poor sleep, and even brain fog.

The BIG problems is most people eat like shit… and when you eat like shit, you don’t get enough magnesium, and you have many of the symptoms I listed above. Magnesium rich foods also tend to be super-healthy foods including:

Almonds, avocado, spinach, Swiss chard, dark chocolate, yogurt, banana, black beans, figs, and pumpkin seeds. In other words, you aren’t getting these from In-n-Out, McDonald’s, or the interior aisles of the grocery store. You’re only going to find these foods on the perimeter, well — maybe everything except the dark chocolate and black beans.

Here’s how magnesium can help:

A magnesium supplement can also help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes because magnesium plays a role in glucose metabolism. In a Journal of Internal Medicine study, an increase of 100 milligrams a day of magnesium was found to decrease the risk of diabetes by 15 percent in a meta-analysis of the data.

Magnesium deficiency has also been shown in this study to decrease testosterone by as much as 26% in healthy males. And low levels of testosterone can cause several negative outcomes including:

• High levels of body fat.
• Low levels of lean muscle mass.
• Low sex drive.
• Less all-around alpha male awesomeness.

Supplementing with Magnesium will have you operating at peak performance both mentally and physically, pain-free, focused, happy, and well-rested with testosterone levels naturally pegged to the max. 

Which Magnesium supplement do you recommend?

Now, before you run off like JoJo The Idiot Circus Body buying every magnesium supplement on the shelves of your local Vitamin Shoppe or GNC…

Beware: Most Magnesium supplements are salt forms like Magnesium Oxide. These salt-based magnesium supplements are cheap to make, but hard for the body to digest. Therefore, due to lack of absorption they don’t do you much good. In short, they are a complete waste of money. You’re literally pissing your money away when you buy these.

But there is hope in the form of Magnesium Chelate. It’s more expensive, but it’s highly absorbable by the human body. Therefore, you’ll actually get the intended benefit from taking Magnesium Chelate and instead of pissing away your money you’ll investing your money into a better body and a healthier future.

My favorite Magnesium supplement is Viva Naturals Chelated Magnesium.

Viva Naturals is a well-respected company that produces high-quality products in a GMP (Good Manufacturing Process) and FDA inspected facility that are 3rd party certified for label accuracy. It’s also #3 on Labdoor’s Magnesium Value Rankings.

How much Magnesium should I take?

Take ONE (1) 400mg pill in the evening with dinner.

Vitamin C

You’re hitting your workouts hard, getting shit done at work, and basically crushing life. Then a cold virus decides to takeover your body for a week. Suddenly, you go from ass-kicker to a sick little namby-pamby and everything gets put on hold until you recover. It’s the worst, and yet it’s so avoidable.

That is, if you’re taking Vitamin C and you participate in regular strenuous exercise like Metabolic Resistance Training. This study showed 1-2g of Vitamin C can reduce the length and severity of a cold by about half.

Even better, this study showed a megadose of Vitamin C can reduce cold symptoms by 85%.

Here’s how to do it:

When you feel the onset of a cold coming, take 6000-8000mg of Vitamin C immediately. Split the megadose into smaller 1000mg doses taken every hour for maximum absorption.

After the Vitamin C megadose, take 3000mg per day until your symptoms disappear. Split the 3000mg into three (3) smaller doses of 1000mg taken in the morning, midday, and evening.

If getting over a cold 85% faster isn’t good enough for you…

Vitamin C is actually incredibly beneficial for patients with type-2 diabetes. This study showed that 1000mg of Vitamin C taken daily may be beneficial in reducing the risk of complications from diabetes. The benefits derive from decreasing blood glucose and lipid levels.

Which Vitamin C supplement do you recommend?

My favorite Vitamin C supplement is Viva Naturals Vitamin C.

Viva Naturals is a well-respected company that produces high-quality products. They use a GMP certified and FDA inspected facility. And their products are 3rd party certified for label accuracy.

For some weird reason, Labdoor did not rank Viva Naturals in the Vitamin C category. Due to their reputation and other rankings I trust they would do well if included.

How much Vitamin C should I take?

Take ONE (1) 1,000mg pill in the morning upon waking and ONE (1) 1,000mg pill in the evening with dinner.

Tips For Your Success

1. Multi-vitamins don’t work.
   1. The solution is to supplement with green superfood drinks like Green Vibrance or Legion Genesis to work as your “nutritional insurance policy.”
2. Fish Oil is pure health awesomeness in a bottle and not taking fish oil is the new smoking.
   1. Fish oil can help build muscle, prevent weight gain, improve fat loss, reduce inflammation, enhance the look & feel of your skin, strengthen your hair, boost mood, sharpen cognitive function, elevate brain health, and prevent many diseases including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and strokes.
3. Vitamin D deficiency is extremely common because the human body can’t produce Vitamin D naturally without sun exposure.
   1. Supplementing with Vitamin D can prevent disease, naturally boost testosterone, and improve insulin sensitivity.
4. Zinc will boost your testosterone, improve your body composition, give you a quasi-Wolverine-like ability to recovery from colds, and improve the regulation of blood sugar in your body.
5. Magnesium deficiency is extremely common because magnesium-rich foods tend to be healthy foods found in the perimeter of the grocery store where few people shop.
   1. Supplementing with Magnesium can solve a range or problems from high blood pressure and headaches to anxiety, depression, muscle aches, back pain, tendonitis, poor sleep, and even brain fog. But mostly, Magnesium prevents low levels of testosterone.
6. Vitamin C has been proven to reduce cold symptoms up to 85%. It’s a must for active individuals that are regularly performing strenuous workouts like Metabolic Resistance Training.