hey what's up guys so in this video we're gonna be talking about the most essential nutrients
and supplements for optimal workout performance so let's go ahead and dive right in yeah buddy it's
on now hey guys my name is zach and welcome to nutrition library where we take an evidence-based
approach to nutrition and supplementation so in this video in particular what i want to do is kind
of divide this into two primary categories when it comes to nutrients and supplements in order
to improve exercise performance and so the first category that i want to talk about are supplements
that improve kind of neurological stimulation and somewhat delay the onset of neural fatigue
and then the second category of supplements that i want to talk about are supplements that kind of
increase what's been termed the proverbial pump so to speak let's say you drain your biceps blood
is rushing into your muscles and that's what we call the pump and so again let's go ahead and dive
into the top supplements to delay the onset of neural fatigue now the first one on our list today
is obviously going to be caffeine now caffeine is one of the most proven ergogenic aids that exists
um it's one of the most studied ergogenic aids that exists as well and one of the primary reasons
for this is that it has been repeatedly shown to increase power output as well as cardiovascular
performance as well and the reason for this is that it's been shown to be able to kind of
increase the contractibility of muscle tissue as well as delay neural fatigue specifically
now it does this by primarily blocking the adenosine receptor which is one of your primary
inhibitory neurotransmitters that kind of induces sleep and so by blocking this neurotransmitter
pathway it is able to one inhibit the feelings of sleepiness and tiredness but two is also
able to just generally speaking increase neuronal excitement now i do think it's worth noting here
that um it would probably behoove you to avoid things like coffee and tea before your workout
now this might be too big of a topic to dive in um into in this video in particular however
coffees and teas in particular are extremely high in polyphenol content which are typically looked
at as health promoting compounds however within the context of exercise specifically they have
been repeatedly shown to inhibit the adaptation to exercise which is not a good thing and so
polyphenols are fairly potent anti-anabolic agents as well as anti-androgenic agents and so again
avoiding caffeine sources like coffee and tea would probably be in your best interest if you're
one trying to maximize exercise performance and to maximize recovery as well now i also think
it's worth noting here that caffeine is somewhat of a double-edged sword one it obviously increases
power output and increases cardiovascular output but it also seems to inhibit the mtor metabolic
pathway which is not necessarily a good thing mtor is your primary metabolic pathway that induces
muscle protein synthesis and so by inhibiting this pathway caffeine may actually prevent the
adaptation to exercise if taken in too high of a dosage now the second reason that caffeine is
somewhat of a double-edged sword is that it also causes peripheral vasoconstriction which also
isn't necessarily a good thing vasoconstriction is kind of like the opposite of what you want
during a workout which is actually why people typically take nitric oxide boosters in order
to cause vasodilation and so caffeine actually causes again vasoconstriction and specifically
peripheral vasoconstriction which actually causes the blood vessels to constrict which somewhat
inhibits your body's ability to actually get blood to muscle tissue and so in my opinion this is why
dosing caffeine is so important and why it's so important to somewhat limit your caffeine
intake in order to one be able to get the benefits from caffeine the increase in power output as well
as the improvement in cardiovascular output but it's also important to not dose it in too
high of an amount to inhibit mtor and cause too much vasoconstriction now the second supplement
on our list today is creatine now i'm not going to spend a ton of time on creatine here i have
an entire video series that i did a couple months ago on the benefits of creatine and
its benefits to exercise performance however just for the sake of simplicity here i do want
to kind of touch on its three primary benefits as to why i take it in my pre-workout shake and
one is that it aids in muscular hydration too is that it improves the output and production
of atp on a cellular level which is your primary energy substrate within the context of the body
but three is that it also seems to be a fairly potent myostatin inhibitor and so myostatin's
actually a compound in the body that inhibits muscular growth and so by creatine's ability
to inhibit myostatin it theoretically also has the capacity to kind of maximize muscular growth
now there is a singular study that does suggest that it might be slightly more beneficial to take
creatine after a workout however i do like to take it before my workout and after my workout just to
kind of cover my bases and to be quite frank the the benefit does seem to be quite uh quite nominal
at best now the next supplement on our list today for energy specifically is uh n-acetyl-l-tyrosine
now n-acetyl-l-tyrosine is somewhat of a semi-immediate precursor to the neurotransmitter
dopamine in the central nervous system a lot of people like to refer to it as quote unquote
the pleasure neurotransmitter but this isn't necessarily the most accurate way to describe
dopamine dopamine is actually more accurately described as the motivation neurotransmitter or
the anticipation neurotransmitter it actually gets released in anticipation to pleasure not actually
pleasure itself dopamine is the neurotransmitter that actually motivates you to actually pursue
something that your brain perceives as pleasurable now i think one of the clearest examples of this
would be with things like sex and junk food and even exercise the culmination of
all three of these behaviors is a massive release in serotonin which is actually more accurately
described as your quote pleasure neurotransmitter and so when you climax after sex or eat a ton of
junk food and even at the end of a workout there is a massive release of serotonin that actually
destroys dopamine levels and dopamine again is the neurotransmitter that actually drives you uh
to pursue that release of serotonin that you get at the end of sex eating junk food and exercise so
in the context of exercise specifically you want to specifically increase dopamine levels as much
as possible before and during a workout because when you do this it actually delays the onset
of fatigue and delays the onset of that serotonin spike that comes from the fatigue at the end
of the workout and so again it's super important that you try to maximize the availability of
dopamine before and during your workout now there are typically three primary compounds that are
used to increase dopamine levels one is the amino acid fetal alanine two is the amino acid tyrosine
and three is mucuna parians and so because mucuna pregans is so potent and somewhat
addictive i'm not a huge fan of taking it on a super regular basis and because phenylalanine
and tyrosine are already found in super high quantities in food sources my favorite option
when it comes to increasing dopamine levels is in acetyl-l-tyrosine which is just simply the amino
acid tyrosine that's been acetylated to actually be able to cross the blood-brain barrier slightly
more proficiently than just the regular old amino acid tyrosine and so n-acetylene tyrosine is just
better at again crossing the blood-brain barrier and providing the available substrate that your
brain needs in order to produce adequate amounts of dopamine now the last one that i've recently
added to my pre-workout stack is nicotinamide mononucleotide which is somewhat of kind of a
of a fringe supplement currently in the anti-aging community however there is some recent research
that suggests that it could be a possible ergogenic aid and aid in muscular recovery
muscular retention as well as performance and so the jury's still out on this one however i do
actually like it and put about 300 milligrams in my pre-workout shake and i do tend to see
somewhat of a benefit from it now the second category of supplements that i like to prioritize
immediately before my workout are supplements that have been shown to increase what again is called
the proverbial pump the most satisfying feeling you can get in the gym is the pump now there are
two primary ways to do this one is by increasing nitric oxide levels in the bloodstream and two
is by increasing and intaking compounds that have been shown to be osmoregulators which are just
simply compounds that are able to balance fluid in the body now the first supplement in this category
is obviously going to be citrulline which is the most well-studied supplement in terms of
its ability to increase nitric oxide levels now arginine has been typically used for the
last couple of decades in order to improve nitric oxide production however it's been recently shown
within the past 10 years or so that citrulline is actually more effective at being absorbed than
arginine is and citrulline is readily converted into arginine by the liver once it's absorbed
through the gut lining and so one of the reasons that you want to increase in nitric oxide levels
before a workout is that it one is going to increase oxygen availability to the muscle
tissue during periods of high energy demand and two is it's going to cause
a vasodilation which means that your body's actually able to get more blood flow to the
muscle tissue which is going to increase not only oxygen uptake but also nutrient and fluid
intake into the muscle tissues as well and so long story short here is that citrulline is one
of the most effective supplements in order to increase nitric oxide in order to again
increase oxygenation to the muscle tissue as well as increase the the delivery of nutrients to the
muscle tissue during a workout now the next supplement on our list today is nitrates now
nitrates are actually arguably more effective at increasing nitric oxide production than citrulline
is however it does appear that it's doing this through a slightly different mechanism and one
of the reasons that it again is so important to increase nitric oxide levels before a workout
is especially if you are consuming things like caffeine which again is causing vasoconstriction
and and so combining things like citrulline and nitrates together do a fantastic job of
counteracting the negative effects of caffeine on the circulatory system now unfortunately
nitrates are extremely difficult to find in supplementation form now there are a couple
of companies that are making things like betaine nitrate as well as creatine nitrate now that you
can find in a few different supplements however it is almost impossible to buy these as kind of like
a one-off supplement or a single ingredient supplement and so when it comes to nitrate
intake in particular i am a huge fan of consuming beet root juice before a workout simply because
it contains a ton of nitrates in it as well as other beneficial compounds that we'll get to
here in a minute and it does appear that consuming roughly 250 to 500 milliliters of beetroot juice
before a workout does appear to provide enough nitrates to significantly increase nitric oxide
production and so what i like to do is combine beetroot juice with citrulline and because of this
i've actually noticed that i don't have to take as much citrulline if i take too much citrulline with
beetroot juice i do notice that i get a little bit nauseous because my blood pressure actually
drops too much too quickly and so when it comes to combining citrulline and beetroot juice before i
work out probably would be prudent to limit your dosage of each just to assess your tolerance and
kind of increase it from there now when it comes to beetroot powder i know this is going to be a
common question in the comment section i would avoid beetroot powder simply because it takes
roughly 40 grams of beetroot powder which is just a ton of beetroot powder in order to
equal the amount of nitrates that are found in beet root juice and then when it comes to
beetroot extracts most beetroot extracts i would also avoid simply because they are
typically isolated and extracted for betaine content not necessarily nitrate content and so
again if you were specifically looking for high nitrate content beetroot juice is going to be
your best bet now the next supplement on our list is actually not a nitric oxide precursor but it's
actually an osmo regulator and that is betaine now betaine is also referred to as trimethylglycine
or tmg for short and again is just simply an osmo regulator and helps to increase fluid balance in
the circulatory system which again is going to cause a vasodilation and improve nutrient
and oxygen delivery to the muscle tissue during exercise now betaine is technically a choline
derivative and a choline metabolite specifically and is super important in the body for overall
circulatory health as well as helping the body with methylation and so betaine is actually
typically looked at as an overall health compound not just an ergogenic aid now lucky for us betaine
is also found in super high amounts in beets and that's actually why betaine is called betaine
it's because it's found in beets and this is just another reason why i'm such a huge fan of beetroot
juice not only does it have super high amounts of nitrates but also has super high amounts of
betaine as well as sugar which actually brings us to our next compound on our list which is
sugar now honestly i think carbs and more specifically sugar get super slept on when it
comes to improving athletic performance especially kind of in like the the low carb health world that
we kind of find ourselves in right now now to be clear i am somewhat of a fan of a moderate
to low carbohydrate diet however specifically within the context of exercise carbohydrates
and sugar in particular are extremely important to exercise performance now carbohydrates and
sugar in particular obviously provide an immediate substrate for energy production at a cellular
level however they are also extremely important for osmoregulation as well so when you increase
blood sugar it also draws a ton of water into the bloodstream and that's simply because of the fact
that water follows anywhere sugar goes and so if you want to increase hydration as well as
just overall energy production during a workout consuming carbohydrates before and during a
workout is extremely important to maximizing overall athletic performance now lucky for us
again beetroot juice is extremely high not only in nitrates and betaine but also some simple sugars
as well and so i love loading up on beetroot juice before my workout and then consuming things like
honey during my workout and more specifically dextrose i've recently added some dextrose into
my intra workout shake just to kind of improve overall hydration and energy production during my
workout and to somewhat delay fatigue but again i can't overstate the importance of of simple
carbohydrate consumption before and during a workout in order to maximize athletic performance
now the last one on our list today i think is another one that gets super slipped on which is
salt and the reason salt is so important to athletic performance is one that it's one of the
most potent osmo regulators in the body sodium is your extracellular cation that draws fluid outside
of cells and in particularly into the bloodstream and so it helps to improve overall body hydration
but it also is extremely important for just overall nerve development and nerve signaling
and so when you have a a sodium deficiency in particular there can be a lot of cramping and
just hindered nerve function in general now other than that guys i think that's all i have for this
video i was going to add in some supplements that i would avoid taking before a workout however i
do think i'm going to save that for my next video just because it is a topic in and of itself and so
if you guys have any questions about anything that was in this video please feel free to leave a
comment uh down below but other than that i think i will see you guys next time thank you so much