What supplements should I take ?

Wow, there's a lot of stuff here, isn't there? YouTube, what is going on? In this video, we are going to cover every single thing you need to know about supplements. And there's just so much stuff going on here. There's so many things. Do you need to take all of these things? Should you take all of these things? Do you need them to see progress? Hopefully by the end of this video, I'm going to cover every single thing you need to know. I'm gonna Calm your worries. I'm gonna educate you. I'm gonna have you leaving this video hopefully knowing every single thing you, the individual, you need to know about your supplement intake and whether you should take them, whether you shouldn't take them, what should you take, what's worth it, what's not worth it. Gonna cover everything, right? So there'll be 3 main categories that I'm gonna cover here, and I'll say the first is The big 4, and these are kind of like the 4 things I think everybody should be taking no matter what your goals are really, whether it's fat loss or muscle building or general health. These are the 4 main things that most individuals should be taking. I'm then going to cover the next kind of segment where it's like these are some additional things you can kind of take, and they're not necessarily the big 4. They don't really fall in that big kind of category. Might be 4 or 5, kind of 4 or 5 category depending on the individual, but They're kind of some additionals. If you want to kind of rock those out, you absolutely can. And then I'm going to do a section on which ones I think might not really be worth your money and you don't really need to worry about nor spend time or money on. Because let's be honest, I— we don't just have— I mean, unless you do have just endless money to spend on supplements, like, that's great, but most of us don't. So what really matters and what you should— should you be looking for and all of these things we're going to cover. All right, so I'm going to cover each one of these things in depth, break it down piece by piece, and you're going to learn. Now, 2 quick things I want to say before starting this video. Number one, you need none of these things in order to see progress. None. Literally not a single one. You don't need any of these things in order to see progress. Now, what I will say is, can they help? Absolutely. But that's why they're called Supplements, okay? They are supposed to supplement your diet and training program. You can't just take these things and expect to see results, or like, just because you take them, it doesn't guarantee results whether you work out or don't work out. Like, you don't need these things in order to see progress. Are they going to help if you get the right ones and you have a good training program and you have a good diet with your nutrition? Of course they can help, but the training program, workouts, exercise, and the diet program, that's gonna be where you see the most bang for your buck. These things can just help you either enhance your training program, they can enhance your dietary needs, or just give you that next step if you're looking to optimize everything. I'm the type of person who, like, I wanna optimize everything in my life and my fitness and business and all that kinda stuff. I like to optimize things, right? Right? So these things can help you with that, but you do not need them. So please, like, if people are telling you, you gotta buy this or you gotta buy that, it's not true. You don't have to buy anything. You can see progress without taking any of these things. These are just supplements that can help you either adhere to or enhance your training program or your dietary program, or just kind of take things to the next level. So that is number 1. Now, number 2, as you can probably see here, a lot of the same brand. So this Legion Athletics right here, Full disclaimer, that is who I work with. I work with them because I believe in their supplements, I believe in their brand, and they're one of the only science-based brands out there. One of the coolest things I like about Legion is 2 things actually. Number one, they actually fund scientific research studies, which I just think is freaking awesome. And not just for supplements, not just for their own benefit, but they fund supplements for, you know, looking over how much lean muscle mass can you build in a certain program. It's like they fund all types of research studies. Which they don't have to do because they don't have to do that, but they do it to further the education of us coaches and people in the industry and so on and so forth, which I thoroughly enjoy. But again, number 2, all of their ingredients are properly dosed and science-backed. And one of the coolest things about that is you'll see in the supplement world, like, for example, if you've ever gotten a supplement that says, like, here's this blend of ingredients, right? We're gonna take creatine, for example, just really quickly and stick with me here. We're going to take creatine for example. Creatine monohydrate, the proper dosage is roughly around 5 grams per day, right? You can get a supplement that says, oh, here's this blend and it's 5 grams. Okay, let's say it has— it says in the blend it has creatine, it has this, it has that, it has this, it has that, but it doesn't actually tell you like what exact amount of that ingredient is in that blend. So let's take creatine for example. If you have a blend of 5 grams and creatine is one of the ingredients, but there's like 6 other ingredients, You don't know how many grams of creatine is in that particular product. And so it might not actually do what the benefits of creatine are going to do, which we'll talk about here in this video. But it might not actually even do that just because it has the ingredient. If it's not in the proper dosing, it won't matter. Okay? And that's why I like Legion. And so all of these things I'm gonna talk about here are basically gonna be Legion supplements. Some aren't and just products, which is great. But a lot of Legion Athletic supplements, it's the brand I use, it's the brand I trust. I recommend it to my clients, everything. Here's what I'll say. Number 1, if you want to check out Legion Supplements, I'll put a link here below and I'll put my— you can get like, I think it's like 20% off your first purchase and all that kind of good stuff. I think my code is just my name, Eric, so you'll get 20% off. But number 2, you don't have to take Legion Athletics. So this is not like, oh, I'm going to shove these down your throat. No, if you want to take other stuff, like, feel free to go ahead. But again, this is just the brand I recommend. This is the— again, like, we'll talk about creatine, we'll talk about, you know, fish oil, that kind of stuff. And I'll tell you the benefits of it, but you don't have to take Legion, but I suggest you do look into taking Legion because of all of the reasons I just listed. So now that those 2 things are out of the way, let's go piece by piece on each one of these things so we can learn and talk about what's going on here. First, we are going to start with the big 4 or 5. I forget how many there is. There's either 4 or 5 of these things. Okay? So the big 4 or 5, these are the ones that I think most individuals should be taking pretty much no matter what your goal is. Now, the first one is gonna be protein. And the reason I say that is honestly, I don't even consider protein a supplement because people ask me, hey, should I drink a protein shake if my goal is weight loss or fat loss or muscle build or whatever? Protein, like, drinking a protein shake is just like eating a chicken breast. You know what I mean? Like, it's literally just protein. That's it. It's extra protein to add to your diet. And again, talking about what I talked about with supplements. Supplements earlier, if you are taking a supplement that can help enhance or optimize your dietary intake. And one of the most toughest things for people to get in their diet— I'm gonna put my arm up here 'cause I'm tired. One of the toughest things for people to get in their diet is protein. It's the most underconsumed macronutrient out there. And so if you have a protein powder that is super easy and it tastes really good, like for example, this Fruity Cereal from Legion, oh man. It's so good. It literally tastes like Fruity Pebbles, like the milk after Fruity Pebbles. It tastes so good. And so if you have a protein shake that you like, that you enjoy, it's a super easy way to get 20, 30, 40, 50 grams of protein extra in your day. Which, if you don't know the benefits of protein, I've done an entire video on the benefits of protein, so feel free to check those out and how much to eat and all that kind of stuff. So feel free to check that video out. But having a good solid protein powder can help you hit your protein goal as well as, for example, right now I'm in the middle of, almost at the end of a calorie deficit phase for me. So I've been losing body fat over these past 10 or 11 weeks here. Now I'm down roughly 22 pounds, but this protein powder has been a staple in my day. And actually, again, I've done a video on like exactly what I eat to lose 22 pounds. And so if you want to check it out, check it out. But this has been a staple. And the coolest thing is like I actually enjoy eating this. So again, drinking, eating, whatever, right? But going back to like it can help enhance and help you with your dietary intake. If you find a protein powder you enjoy, for example, you won't mind drinking it, which would make the calorie deficit suck less, which would mean you would adhere to your calorie deficit more, which would then mean you're gonna stick to it better, which means you're gonna see better results, right? So a protein powder, in my opinion, is just a super simple and a Yeah. It's a staple thing most individuals should be having in your diet. And again, there's tons of protein powder. What I'd say about protein powders is if you can, make sure to get a whey isolate. That's kind of like the cleanest form of whey protein you can get. Also typically leads to the least amount of digestive issues. So if you can, get a whey isolate. Then number 2 on top of that, again, find one you enjoy. Find one that tastes pretty good. Again, literally all of Legion's taste freaking amazing. So if you wanna try it out, feel free to try it out. Again, you don't have to take this one, but this is the one I recommend. I also want to say 2 quick things. You see right here it says casein and whey protein. What's the difference? The main difference is whey protein is just a quicker digesting form of protein, whereas casein is a slower digesting form of protein. I usually have whey protein either before my workout or after my workout, and I'll have casein protein just kind of throughout the day. Now, do you really need to worry about which one you take? No, not really. For the longest time I've just taken whey protein. That's really all you need. If you're somebody who like you want a slower digesting protein, maybe before you go to bed or like during the day when you know you're going to have a long day and won't get to eat a lot, like maybe this will help because it might help keep you a bit more full than whey protein does. But again, either one is totally fine. And the third one is they do have plant-based proteins as well. I'm just going to keep it real with you. They don't taste the best, but if you have a, you know, kind of like an intolerance to dairy or you're just somebody who practices that lifestyle, it's totally fine. You can find vegan protein options out there as well. I believe Legion has one as well. Straight up, I have not tried it yet because I don't have an intolerance to dairy, so I'm gonna stick with my whey. But, you know, they have a vegan option as well, a plant-based option as well. So that is proteins right there. And last but not least, I wanna say really quickly, I get asked like, oh, what about like Premier Protein shakes and ready-to-drink and so on and so forth? There's nothing wrong with those. So if you enjoy those, Try them, get them, use them, all good. I just think that these are more optimal, right? They're cleaner, they're easier to digest, they're typically a bit lower in calories as well. So I just like having it in the powder form. I think they taste better too, honestly. But if you're somebody who, for example, likes Premier Protein shakes, keep rocking it, man. It's totally up to you. If you want to do that, do it, man. So that's the first of the big 4 or 5. Now, number 2 is going to be a multivitamin, right? And listen, Here's my stance on multivitamins. Do you absolutely need one? No, probably not. Like, you don't probably absolutely need one. Now, the way I think of multivitamins is kind of like it's insurance, right? It's almost like your life insurance policy, right? It's like you have it because why would you not, right? Like, for example, when I'm taking my multivitamins, I think of it as like, again, why would I not wanna make sure And listen, I'm somebody who eats very nutrient-dense whole foods, a very clean, healthy diet. I'm very confident in my choices of my food, and I try to be conscious of the minerals and vitamins, all that kind of stuff I'm intaking. But even then, why would I not make sure I'm doing all that I can to ensure I get all of my vitamins for the day, all of the minerals for the day? Again, I think of it more like an insurance policy. So, I don't really see a reason. Again, if you have a good quality brand of multivitamin, Now, I'll be honest with you, some brands just aren't that good. So again, like why I like Legion, but if you have a good quality brand and you wanna just make sure you kind of have that like insurance policy, there's nothing negative about taking a multivitamin from what I think. I mean, unless like there's something in here that like you already are excelled in or whatever the case may be, there's no real drawback to taking a multivitamin. It's just literally making sure all of your bases are covered. Which again, I'm somebody who likes to optimize my health and just all things. And so if I wanna make sure I'm like firing on all cylinders and I make sure I get everything in, why not throw in a multivitamin, right? So I just take that every single day and I will add some extra vitamin D. And I think most people could benefit from this because most people are deficient in vitamin D unless you like maybe live in California and like you just like bathe in the sun all day long. We can't get it from food unless it's like a fortified food. So like, we don't get it from food. Most people aren't getting it from a ton of sunlight. We have desk jobs, so on and so forth. And so I kind of just mix these 2. These 2 are kind of together. I take an extra dosage of vitamin D. Check with your doctor if you wanna take some vitamin D, but like, I take, I believe, 6,000 IUs a day. There's 2,000 IUs in this Legion multivitamin and I take 4,000 just separately from that, 'cause I do think most people are lacking in vitamin D. So you could think about taking some extra vitamin D as well. There's so many benefits to taking vitamin D. Helps with your sleep, helps with energy, helps with recovery. There's so many positive— helps with bone density. So many things that come with vitamin D. So those 2 things right there, again, I think of that as kind of like my insurance policy. Why not take these things to optimize all that kind of stuff? So that was number 2. Number 3, we got fish oil here. And fish oil is, I believe, one of the most undervalued supplements out there. I think people overlook it because they just hear it so much and so on and so forth. Fish oil is great for a few things, number one being mainly anti-inflammatory. And when talking about inflammation inside of our body, the thing about inflammation is it's not necessarily a bad thing. Like, we need inflammation in order to make sure we can do our functions and our— like, we need inflammation. It's gonna have to happen, right? But too much inflammation or just chronically elevated inflammation, that can be where, like, you start to under-recover from workouts, your sleep starts to suffer, your digestion kind of gets messed up, like, you're super water weight, super bloated, like, all those things tend to happen when you're chronically elevated in inflammation. Fish oil is a potent anti-inflammatory. Now, and again, going back to inflammation really quickly. Let's say you're getting inflammation from your workouts, right? That's a good thing because when you work out, you tear your muscle fibers apart, you create damage inside of your muscle cells, and like your body needs to send inflammation to your muscles to say, hey, it's basically saying, hey, knock, knock, knock, like we need to make sure we repair this. And that's how your body grows stronger, more defined muscles, which is awesome, which is what we all want, right? But if that inflammation doesn't eventually get to go down, then 2 things happen. Number one, when inflammation is inside of your muscles, in just any cell, inflammation blocks off nutrients, right? So if it's like, if your muscle cell is inflamed, which it's supposed to be, but while it's there, it's like it can't get nutrients into the muscle. And so if you're always inflamed, you'll never be able to get the nutrients needed in order to recover from your workouts, which means you won't get stronger, you won't build more defined muscles. So Some inflammation is good to signal your body we gotta repair, but that inflammation has to go away or else you're never gonna see a change. And so, for example, taking fish oil can help make sure you keep your inflammation in check and you can actually recover from your workouts, see better progress, see better results, so on and so forth, right? So, and again, inflammation comes from all types of things. If you have too much inflammation from your food choices, for example, that can lead to some gut inflammation. Some gut inflammation can be bad for for a whole slew of things. Be bad for your brain health, be bad for your physical progress, for recovering, for sleep, so many things, right? So an anti-inflammatory, huge. Also has some benefits for brain and cognitive health as well. Now, the thing about fish oil, this is really important. Fish oil, just fish oil is not good enough. And what I mean by that is like the actual fish oil isn't the most important thing. It's the 2 things inside of fish oil, and that's gonna be EPA and DHA. EPA and DHA. and DHA. And if I show you right here, you can see the EPA and the DHA of this fish oil, right? For EPA, you wanna be at least above 800 milligrams, if not 1,000 milligrams. And for DHA, you wanna be at least above 600 to 700 grams of— milligrams of DHA. As you can clearly see in this fish oil, it has almost 1,500 milligrams of EPA and 950 milligrams of DHA. Not all fish oil is created equal. And again, this is where going back to finding a brand that actually has proper dosage, right? That's why I like Legion Supplements. They properly dose their ingredients. If you go to the store and get a fish oil and it has 200 milligrams of EPA, that's doing next to nothing for you. And you'd have to take like 18 pills per day to actually get a benefit, which means like it would last you like a week and you have to go back and buy more, right? So Finding a brand that actually has a good, properly dosed fish oil is massive, massive, massive. So fish oil is number 3 on the big 4 or 5 list. Now, number 4 is gonna be creatine. No matter what your goals are, there are literally almost no negative drawbacks to creatine. The only real— before I get into the positives, which are like so many, the only real drawback I see from creatine is if you have preexisting kidney issues, Check with your doctor before you take creatine because sometimes that can cause some issues. And so if you're somebody who has that, check with your doctor. But beyond that, like all the benefits of creatine: increased strength, increased stamina, increased endurance, increased energy, increased cognitive and brain health, mental focus, mental clarity. I could go on and on and on for the benefits of creatine. Like it'll allow. And again, this isn't like a steroid. You're not gonna like. Build tons of muscle when you take creatine. I wish that was the fucking case, 'cause that'd be sweet, but it's not the case. That's actual steroids. When you take creatine, what's gonna happen is, for example, you will be able to do one more rep, or you'll be able to do one more set, or you'll be able to push 2.5, 5 more pounds. And doing that, adding a rep here, adding a rep there, adding 5 more pounds here, over time, that's how you're gonna see the progress. Excuse me. It's like a miracle thing. Like, but over time, if you continue to take it and you continue to add a rep here, add a rep there, so on and so forth, this is going to increase all those things I said. Again, stamina, endurance, strength, lean muscle mass, all of those things. Again, not to mention like cognitive health and brain function, those kind of things. And so literally no drawbacks from taking creatine as far as I know. A lot of people will say, Number one, that it's gonna cause water weight and bloating. And like, people ask me, hey, should I take creatine if I'm looking to lose fat? The answer is yes, because I've taken creatine this entire time and I've lost 22 pounds. Like, it's not gonna stop you from losing body fat because as long as you're in a calorie deficit, you're going to lose body fat. Now, when it comes to bloating for creatine, what I would say is number one, this is why you should get a brand that is, it's micronized creatine. So like, for example, this This creatine right here, Recharge from Legion, it's a micronized creatine so it's easier to digest and it causes less bloating, less water weight. That's number 1. Number 2, will you gain some— will you get some water weight from creatine? Everybody's different, but quite possibly. But again, I wanna make sure this is understood, if you're in a calorie deficit you will lose body fat and you will look better because what happens is creatine pulls water into the muscle cell. And so what'll happen is like your muscles, your muscles will actually look more defined and you'll be stronger because you're pulling water into the muscle cells. It doesn't mean that you're gonna be super bloated and a big stomach and this and that. Like, no, that's not what that means. Again, I, I, I've already shown you my progress pictures. Like you can lose body fat and look great and take creatine. So if you're somebody who's like, oh, but I'm losing body fat, no, like you should absolutely still take creatine. Um, things about creatine, again, get a micronized creatine if you can. And then number 2, When should you take it? Technically, the most optimal time of the day is to take creatine post-workout with carbohydrates and protein because that will help push the creatine into your muscle cells and start to, you know, get that repair and recovery process. But the most important thing with creatine is you take it every single day. So once you take creatine, it'll elevate your creatine levels and then that will allow you to keep, as long as you take it every single day, That will keep your creatine levels elevated. Some people are gonna tell you, you gotta load it. I don't think you have to load it because either way, as long as you take it, it's gonna get into your system and, like, eventually your creatine levels are gonna rise. And so I'm not a big fan of, like, loading. Just take it every single day. Again, the proper dosage is roughly around 5 grams of creatine per day, which again, Legion has in here. So make sure if you're not gonna use Legion, make sure you find something that has proper dosing. But 5 grams per day. Take it every single day. If you wanna optimize it, you can take it post-workout with protein and carbohydrates. And yeah, that's what I'd say on creatine. So we'll go with kinda like a wildcard number 5 here. So for the big 4/5, I put magnesium citrate here, and that's for 2 reasons. Number one, I think people, again, just going back to like the multivitamin thing, right? Most people with their diets don't get a ton of magnesium in their diet, and magnesium is super important for It's super important for central nervous system function. It's super important for turning on your parasympathetic nervous system, which is your rest and digest state. It's super important for muscle contractions and those kind of things. And so I say 200 to 400 milligrams of magnesium citrate per day. And the reason I say this is because I like to take this like roughly 60 to 90 minutes before bed because like I said, it helps you get into that parasympathetic nervous system. What is that? Essentially, you know, you know how you have like fight or flight or rest and digest? Parasympathetic nervous system is your rest and digest nervous system state. And so if you take this like 60 minutes before bed and you can kick on that rest and digest, that parasympathetic nervous system state, you're gonna rest better, you're gonna get to sleep better, you're gonna stay asleep better, your body's gonna rest and digest better, which is what it's supposed to do. to do when you're sleeping. And so I'm a big fan of taking this. Um, again, I think most individuals can benefit from taking magnesium. Again, I like the form magnesium citrate, um, just the one I've seen help the most. And again, in terms of like turning on your parasympathetic nervous system and stuff like that, this is normally the, the type of magnesium that is going to be the most advantageous. And again, I just got this from like, I think it's from BJ's or Costco or whatever. So again, not, not super expensive either, but I do think a lot of people can benefit from that right there. So again, these are your big 5 right here. Again, so we got protein, we got multivitamin/vitamin D, we got fish oil, we got creatine, and we got magnesium citrate. It's kind of like a wild card. Those are my big 5. No matter who you are, no matter what your goals are, no matter fat loss, muscle building, no matter your age, anything, you can more than likely massively benefit from all of these things right here. And again, this is more like Yes, it's gonna help workouts and that kind of stuff, but it's also gonna promote just general health, which, like, by the way, like this, you know, we work out and diet and stuff for vanity reasons, which is fine. You wanna lose weight, build muscle, whatever, that's awesome. But we also have to take into consideration our general health because if we're not healthy inside, how are we gonna perform outside? How are we gonna lift more weight? How are we gonna do more reps? How are we gonna look good if, you know, our inflammation is super high or we're not getting proper micronutrients? Or if we're eating next to no protein. Like, these are things that can help you not only on the outside but the inside as well. So those are the big 4/5 things right there. Now let's dive into some things that might be some bit extra. Maybe you might benefit from, might not benefit from, should you take them, so on and so forth. Which, by the way, if you're liking the video thus far, let me know below and give it a thumbs up and subscribe. All right, so what we got up next is pre-workout. And I know a lot of people go the pre-workout route and they like, oh, this pre-workout, that pre-workout, So Legion has their pre-workout called Pulse. Now again, do you need a pre-workout? No, you don't need a pre-workout, right? Like, I didn't include this in the big 4 or 5 because you don't need this. But again, this is something where if you're looking to optimize your training, if you're looking to make sure you get the most out of your training, if you're looking to make sure you can, you know, do more weight— it's in the same kind of way I talked about creatine will allow you to kind of like do one more rep here, do Do one more set there. That kind of stuff. Pre-workouts are the same kind of concept for me where it's like if you take a pre-workout and you can do one more rep or you can do 5 more pounds because, you know, you have good blood flow, you have good energy, you have good endurance, you have better stamina, you have more strength and more neurological capacity, you can do a rep here, a rep there, 5 more pounds here, and over time that stuff adds up, right? So that's kind of why I like to taking pre-workout. It's more for, again, like the thought process of over time, if I'm taking this and I can get one more rep or I can get 5 more pounds or I can do this and I can do that, that's why I like taking pre-workout. And so what I would say for pre-workouts is, so there's gonna be some caffeine, some have caffeine, some don't have caffeine. So like I kind of do a mix of both honestly. Some days if I really want it, I'll take the pre-workout with caffeine and other days I don't. But again, Whether you do caffeine or no caffeine, the biggest difference there is like obviously with caffeine you'll probably get a bit more energy, right? But the one without caffeine still has ingredients like, um, citrulline malate, for example, where you're having blood flow, right? So if you have better blood flow, you can get nutrients to your muscles more. Again, that will produce better endurance, better stamina, better, better strength, those kind of things. Uh, beta-alanine, for example, is an ingredient inside pre-workout. That's the one that kind of like Makes you itch. So if you've ever been itchy during a pre-workout, um, that's why you're doing that. It's because of beta-alanine. But like, that ingredient right there can help with endurance, can help with stamina. And so again, like, going back to if you have these ingredients in your system, you'll probably be able to do one more rep or 2 more reps or 5 more pounds and do, you know, an extra setter here and there, take the set a bit longer. That's how you're going to see some change in your body. And so if you want to take pre-workout, again, I thoroughly enjoy this Pulse. Again, I take each Either the stim or the stim-free. I think either one is totally fine. If you're somebody who obviously has a thing with caffeine, just go with the stim-free version. You don't need it, but it can absolutely help because the ingredients inside of pre-workout can help. I used to just say, well, if you want to take a pre-workout, just take caffeine. That's true. I mean, just take coffee. That's true as well, but coffee doesn't allow, again, for example, the citrulline or the beta-alanine, those 2 things I just talked about, right? Coffee doesn't have that. It just has caffeine. So like if you just want caffeine, it's fine. But like I also prefer to have like, you know, better blood flow, better endurance, better stamina, all those kind of things as well. So again, just optimize my workout that much more. But again, totally up to you. You don't have to take this, but if you do want to, again, I would suggest these 2. Now something I actually really enjoy and I honestly do think most people can benefit from is, so Legion has a supplement called Balance. And that is their gut support supplement, right? People don't really know how important your gut health is. If your gut health is off, again, more inflammation inside of your body, which chronic inflammation is not a good thing. I know, for example, people who eat very high protein diets, myself included, sometimes digestion can become an issue because protein is quite literally just harder to digest. And so that's why, honestly, that's why I started taking this. Because I eat roughly upwards of 260, 280 grams of protein per day and I wanted to make sure my digestion was on point. This is— some background here as well, I probably should've mentioned this earlier, but I used to work in GNC, the supplement store, for 2.5 years. And I tried a lot of supplements during that time period. I tried a lot of gut health supplements as well because, again, like, when you eat so much protein, like, you know, it wasn't like really bad, but I wanted to optimize my digestion that much I've tried a lot of gut health supplements. I really haven't seen a difference in any of them besides this brand right here, Legion's Balance. I've started taking it for almost 3 or 4 months now and I seriously noticed a huge difference. Again, going back to gut health, gut health has a link to, again, inflammation. It has a link to muscle building. It has a link to brain health and cognitive health and cognitive function as well. If you're somebody like you're always bloated, you're always like You know, a ton of inflammation inside your GI tract that can actually have an impact on like your mental health and your clarity and focus. You won't be able to build muscle as much or build strength as much. And so I think taking a gut health supplement can help. Again, is this something you have to take? No, you don't have to take that. But like, it— can it help? It's helped me, absolutely. So I think that's where, you know, this is getting into like, if you might benefit from it, maybe try it out and see what it does for you. See if you feel better, see if you don't feel better. And like, but I don't I don't want you to think you have to use this, but I do think it can help for a lot of people. Now, number 3, or another thing in terms of the additional, um, so this right here is basically electrolytes. Um, most people, when I say electrolytes, I mean sodium, potassium, and magnesium. We already covered magnesium earlier, right? This right here is basically sodium and potassium. When it comes to sodium and potassium, why is this important? For many reasons. Number one, just keeping proper electrolyte health. Again, most people don't understand, especially if you're somebody who works out, you need proper electrolyte balance. Like sodium, for example. Sodium is huge for central nervous system function. It's huge for muscle contractions. It's huge for energy and stamina. I actually talk about in one of my other videos, my pre-workout video, I talk about having salt pre-workout can help with your endurance and stamina and so on and so forth. And whenever people try that, they're like, Their minds fucking blown. But having a proper electrolyte balance, especially if you're somebody who works out, and if you don't work out, but especially if you do work out, this is massive. Again, I have nothing to do with this company. It's called Cure, C-U-R-E, but it's literally just pink Himalayan salt and some potassium. Pink Himalayan salt and coconut water, which is again just potassium. So it's sodium and potassium. With my magnesium that I take, I make sure no matter what, my electrolytes are good for the day. And again, electrolytes can help with not only workouts but also like just feeling energetic, not feeling lethargic. It can also help with, once again, digestion. It can help with so many things. And so, I thoroughly think if you're somebody who's working out and you want to kind of, again, just optimize— do you have to take this stuff? No. Again, absolutely not. But if you want to optimize what's going on, I would say— I'm taking something like this either pre-workout, intra-workout, or post-workout. I take this intra-workout. That's when I take it and I enjoy it. Um, you can take it pre-workout, you can take it post-workout, you can take it first thing in the morning, whenever you want. Like, as long as you take it and get your electrolytes in, um, that's the most important part. But taking something like this, especially if you work out, can help optimize your electrolyte balance, which again will also help you, for example, recover from your workouts better. If you can recover better and recover Recover quicker, you can do more in your next workout. So this is where, like, again, supplements, just like little things here and there, can add up, add up, add up. We talked about creatine, we talked about pre-workout, we talked about fish oil. Like, if you're adding 3% here and 2% there and 5% there and 8%, it's like all this stuff starts to add up, right? So if you're somebody who wants to optimize these things and see the best progress, like, this is something where, again, you can optimize your workouts and optimize your recovery, optimize your electrolyte balance. Not to mention, let's say for example you're low on sodium, potassium, magnesium, you're probably going to be more hungry, you're probably going to have more cravings, you're probably— it's going to be harder to stick to your deficit, your calorie deficit or your diet in general because you think you're hungry but you're really just actually low on electrolytes. And so again, this is where like these things come into play. So hopefully that makes sense. Any questions, let me know. But I think taking something like this right here where it has some sort of like sodium, potassium, magnesium, that can be a huge benefit as well. Now, we can also cover sleep supplements. And so I also, I talked earlier about magnesium. Honestly, this is normally just what I take to help me sleep. And again, it's just like, just turns on your parasympathetic nervous system. So I'm a huge fan of magnesium citrate. Now, if you're somebody who like wants some extra sleep help, this right here is called Lunar by Legion Athletics, right? And this is something where, again, like if you're somebody who like seriously struggles with sleep or you don't get a lot of sleep or you want better quality sleep, like taking something like this right here can help you in conjunction with magnesium. Like sometimes if I really want to make sure I get a good night's sleep and like I just want to like sleep great like a baby, I'll take this with magnesium and it'll be a great, a great combo, right? I'll sleep phenomenal. But some ingredients you want to look for when talking about sleep, it's not just melatonin. Like melatonin is one thing, that's great. But when it comes to sleep support, sleep supplements, there's a few in here that I like. One of them is called lemon balm. And again, for example, lemon balm, you can get this separately. You don't have to take this from Legion, but you can get lemon balm separately. But for example, lemon balm just helps promote that kind of like de-stressing, kind of like getting you in the mood to sleep, getting you in the mood to just kind of like chill out and decreasing your anxiety, decreasing your cortisol, decreasing your stress to help get And so if you're somebody who wants like some sleep support, sleep supplements, that kind of stuff, I would definitely try out Legion. Again, it's— I take it when I— I don't take it every single day. I enjoy it when I do take it though. And again, if you're somebody who— I don't really struggle a ton with sleep. I take my magnesium to make sure I sleep pretty well. I don't really struggle with sleep. But if you're somebody who does struggle with sleep, this could be an option for you. Covers everything I have here with me right now. There's a few other things that I want to touch on. In this video, and these are the things that, you know, maybe necessarily you don't need, and I don't even know if you wanna spend your money or time on. The first one is going to be fat burners. Listen, I work with Legion Athletics, and I will say this about their fat burner and any other fat burner, I don't think you should waste your money. No. Like, a fat burner is not gonna burn fat. Your calorie deficit through your nutrition is going to burn fat, not a fat burner. So, I personally, no. I don't think you should be taking fat burners. I don't think you should waste your money on fat burners, no. The only time I would recommend a fat burner is like one of two reasons. Number one, if you're like 4% body fat and you're trying to get to 3.5% body fat and you're stepping on a bodybuilding stage, maybe at that point because of like the thermogenic effect and that kind of stuff. But if you're like 30% body fat or 40% body fat or 20% or 15%, it's just not gonna do that big of a deal. Number one, maybe that, or number two, if you just want like extra caffeine, I guess, like, 'cause most fat burners have caffeine. So if you want like extra caffeine, maybe. But again, like, is a fat burner going to burn fat? No, absolutely not. So I don't recommend that you waste your money. I don't recommend you spend your money. I would much rather you, you know, buy protein powder or buy creatine or buy something we talked about earlier because I— yeah, I just would not waste it. And again, I work with the company, I work with the brand, but I'm gonna be honest with you. Like, I don't think you should buy No. So that is fat burners right there. The second thing is gonna be BCAAs. And again, this is something where BCAAs, if you're hitting your protein goal and if you're drinking whey protein or any kind of protein, if you're eating protein and drinking whey protein and hitting your protein goal for the day, I don't see a reason why you need to spend money on BCAAs. No, I just don't see a world where that's gonna be like super advantageous for you. The only thing I'll say about BCAAs maybe is like when you're taking them during your workout, your body might be able to use those because what will happen is your body will convert those amino acids because what BCAAs are, it'll convert those amino acids into glycogen to use for your training session maybe. But again, like it's just not— I don't recommend spending your money on it. If you're gonna buy some sort of amino acids, I would buy essential amino acids, so those are EAAs. Those have proven to be a little bit better, but again, if you're hitting your protein goal and you're drinking whey protein, I don't really think you need to spend money on BCAAs either. Again, as you can see, I'm gonna tell you straight up. I'm gonna give you my honest opinion here. I don't really see a world where— again, I guess BCAAs maybe if you like the flavor, because some flavors taste really well. If you like the flavor of BCAAs and And that helps you, for example, drink more water, well then cool. Maybe BCAAs might be great for you because it helps you drink more water and you're getting the benefit of drinking more water as opposed to the BCAAs helping your recovery or whatever the case may be. So that would be kind of a cool thing as well. But other than that, in terms of a muscle recovery standpoint, that kind of stuff, get your protein, get your creatine, sleep, and that's really where you're going to see the best benefits. Now, the third one that's kind of interesting is a greens powder and here's what I'll say about greens powder. Number 1, eat your vegetables. Like, so many people try like, oh, well, I'm not gonna eat my vegetables today so I'm gonna take a greens powder. No, it's not how it fucking works for many reasons. Number 1, it's just not how it works but number 2, think about like you drinking a greens powder and think about eating a huge-ass salad. Think about those 2 things. Think about how much food volume is going into your stomach from this big-ass salad versus like this greens drink. Like, you're missing a lot of the benefits from what a salad would bring to you in terms of you can fill your stomach up for very low calories. And that way, if, for example, if you are in a fat loss phase, you can fill your stomach up with a very low calorie that'll help you be more full, that'll help you stick to your calorie deficit better. And so it's like a greens powder, no, I'm not the biggest fan. Now, will it maybe give you some like extra antioxidants? Quite possibly, yes. And if you are interested in that, awesome. Um, will it possibly, I don't know, maybe help with like digestion to a degree? Quite possibly, yes. Maybe. Um, will it also, kind of funny enough, but like, will it also give you a placebo effect of like drinking my greens powder and I'm starting my day off healthy? Like, I've heard that before where people like, hey, I just do this because Because like I start my day off healthy with a greens powder. I'm like, all right, you know what? Like if that like gets in your head, you're being healthy for that day and like promoting more exercise and activity and a healthy diet. Like, you know, to each his own, man. You know what I mean? So it's like, it could be interesting for those reasons right there. But again, like eat your vegetables. Um, you do not need a greens powder. No. If you're eating your vegetables, at least 2 servings of vegetables per day, eating your vegetables, eating fruit. Um, I don't really see a huge need for a greens powder. If you If you have some extra money to throw around and you want to take it, feel free to go ahead. Nothing wrong with that, but that's kind of my opinion on greens powders. The last one would be a nootropic. I don't have it with me here. I actually just finished it. I don't have it with me, but this is something where it's kind of like a cognitive health and kind of like a mental focus, mental clarity thing. This can be used for a few reasons. Number 1, if you're somebody who, like for example, in your workouts you want to make sure you're very focused for your workouts, you could possibly take a nootropic before your workouts and that can help you be focused and be more intense and so on and so forth. Number 2, if you're somebody like me who sits at a desk all day and does computer work and so on and so forth, it's an interesting concept to help yourself be a bit more focused, maybe possibly be a bit more creative, hone in and zero in a bit more on your work. I've taken it before. I've seen a difference. Again, if you're somebody who wants to optimize that, That could be a thing where, hey, maybe you take that and try this and try that. If you don't really care about that, then again, I wouldn't maybe spend your money on it, but just for my two cents. So that was the video. Again, there's so many supplements out there. I'm not going to continue to keep going on all of them, all of them, all of them. There's a lot, obviously. But again, the main thing I want you to understand is, number one, you don't need supplements to see progress. Number two, I hope I kind of cleared things up on which ones might be worth the money, which ones might not be worth the money, which ones should you focus on, again, the big 4 to 5 there: protein, creatine, fish oil, multivitamin/vitamin D, magnesium as well, possibly. Those are your big 4 or 5 ones. And then, again, maybe some pre-workout, maybe some gut health, maybe some this, maybe some that. That kind of depends on you. And, again, those ones that are kind of on the fence of, like, don't waste your money on a fat burner, and then talking about some greens powders and stuff like that, like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if I'd spend your money on it. So hopefully this video helped you. I tried to be as open and honest as I possibly could. Again, if you wanna try Legion products, I will put the link here for Legion Athletics in the description of this show, of this show, this video here below. I'm thinking of my podcast, which if you don't follow me on my podcast, Eric Roberts Fitness Podcast. I'll put the link here below for Legion Athletics. You can use my code to get some 20% off. And yeah, other than that, man, hopefully this helped you. And any questions, drop below and we'll chat soon. Thanks, man.