The Core 4- The Four Supplements Everyone Can Benefit From
The Core 4â„¢ – The Four Basic Supplements Everyone Can Benefit From
The first step to fueling your body is a healthy diet that specifically and accurately addresses the entirety of nutritional requirements in relation to the volume and intensity of activity you perform on a daily basis. All diets, no matter their composition, lack enough of some of the most basic nutrients…nutrients we need to properly recover and function. Addressing those deficiencies in the diet should be an athlete’s priority with their supplement applications.
Those most important for supplementation, are four supplements that will improve your health and recovery the day you begin taking them. The four supplements, The Core 4 as we cleverly nicknamed them, are Vitamin D3, Essential Fatty Acids, Magnesium and Zinc. Each plays an integral role in an athlete’s metabolism, performance and recovery.
Vitamin D3 has been shown to be vital for bone health, cancer prevention, blood sugar regulation, brain and heart health, both male and female fertility, and improving numerous auto-immune diseases. If these benefits alone are not enough, the main advantages of supplementing D3 for athletes are increased muscle force production via improved contractile response, (remove and) decreased damage to muscle proteins from exercise and better immune function.
Essential Fatty Acids, classified as essential since the body cannot produce on its own and most commonly known as fish oil, improve immune system function and recovery by reducing systemic inflammation. The actual ways EFAs benefit us are too many to list here. Athlete’s concerns lie with improved cortisol to testosterone ratios, which equates to better recovery, higher training drive and positive changes in body composition. Take EFA’s just before meals to improve the overall glycemic index of the meal and to avoid the “fish burps” commonly experience after taking this supplement.
Magnesium is involved in over 300 metabolic processes known to regulate sleep, the stress response, protein synthesis, testosterone production and insulin sensitivity. Essential to gut health, Magnesium is also a cure for constipation. Athletes enjoy the lowered risk of muscle cramping during exercise and improved recovery, due to the sleep quality they experience when Magnesium levels are topped off. Take it post workout and at night to get the best effects and avoid drowsiness during the day.
Zinc has a more exciting effect on the body than Magnesium, literally. Zinc increases nervous system activity and improves the performance of neurotransmitters like dopamine, thereby positively affecting mood and energy. Moreover, Zinc has shown to improve cardiovascular health, reduce symptoms of ADHD in children, help prevent some cancers and diabetes, and support reproductive system health. Athletes praise Zinc for being one of the most cost-effective testosterone boosters/estrogen reducers. It increases the rate androstenedione converts to testosterone while simultaneously inhibiting the aromatase enzyme, the enzyme that converts testosterone to estrogen.
When you add these four, basic and essential sups, you start becoming healthier and recovering better day one. Address your deficiencies now.
