The Only Supplements that Athletes Should Take

I recommend taking these supplements to the athletes in my coaching program if they can answer yes to these 4 questions. I'm Kelsey. I'm a sports nutrition coach for elite high school athletes, and hundreds of the athletes that I coach all wanna be taking supplements, and you probably do too. I get it. It's exciting, it's enticing, but athletes, you gotta understand that you're kind of like a cupcake. This is a metaphor. The base of the cupcake is your training, the foundation of you as an athlete. If you're not strength training, speed training, plyo training, skill training, You're not gonna get very far as an athlete. That needs to be the foundation. That's gotta be your cake in your cupcake. Now going to the frosting. The frosting is your nutrition and your recovery. If you have amazing nutrition and recovery, it's going to enhance the cake itself, which is your training. Once you have those two things dialed in and put together, then you move to the sprinkles and you put 'em on top. You don't start with the, the sprinkles first, and the sprinkles are sleep. Supplements. They will enhance the finished product. They will make you a little bit better, but you're never gonna make a cupcake strictly out of sprinkles. And if you guys need help with your nutrition, that is what my program is for and what my entire job is for. And my whole life goal is to help you guys get good at nutrition. So come and join my program and we'll help you dial that in. So my 4 questions that I ask every single athlete before they take supplements are number 1, is it safe? In one of my sports nutrition classes in college, we heard about this story of an Olympic athlete. She had trained her whole life to be in the Olympics. She was so excited. She was ready to go. And every Olympian has to take a drug test before the Olympics start. When, when she took the test, something came back positive that she had been on a certain drug and they were so confused cuz she'd done everything right, everything by the book. She never took any drugs and they were very confused cuz because she was gonna get disqualified from competing in this dream of hers. And they came to find out that from the ChapStick, and I don't know what brand it was or anything, but from the ChapStick that she was using, it had a trace of a banned substance from what would disqualify you from the Olympics that got into her body and was able to be traced into her blood, which then disqualified her from the Olympics. The story is not to make you guys never use a chapstick or scare you. We just want to make sure that supplements are safe, that they have what they say they have in them to make sure that they're safe for you as an athlete. My number one recommendation would be to, to look for the NSF Sport Certified label, which will tell you that it's been tested for like 200+ banned substances to make sure it's free of that. That was Question number 1, is it safe? If you can answer yes to that, move to question number 2, does it work? This is similar to question number 1, whereas a lot of supplement companies can make claims that are larger than life. If deer antler velvet is going to make your muscles so much bigger and get you that pump that you're looking for, probably won't do that and it probably won't help you out that much. You're going to waste your money. After we go through these 4 questions, we're going to talk about the supplements that I actually think work really well for athletes in certain situations. Now, question number 1, is it safe? Does it work? And then question number 3 is, does it work for you? There are some supplements that a 6'3 linebacker would be taking that a 5'8 volleyball player might not need. Or there are some supplements that cross-country runners can really benefit from, whereas basketball players aren't going to do much with. It depends on the sport and it depends on the individual. So question number 4 is, are you old enough? What's your age? I have a lot of parents and athletes in my DMs all the time ask me, hey, my athlete is 12 years old. Do you think that they're old enough for X or Y or Z supplement. Hey, my athletes ate— what do you think about this? Honestly, guys, getting back to the cupcake, if you are younger, if you have a young athlete, focus on the cake, which is the training, then focus on building really good frosting, which is your nutrition and recovery. And then once you hit puberty, get to those supplements. Performance-based supplements don't really need to be focused on until you get dialed in and have an amazing cupcake and cake. And a lot of the studies that are done on the supplements, they ethically can't do them on, on kids that are younger ages. So we don't know a ton of information on how creatine will affect a 9-year-old. Therefore, I'm going to just stay away from that and say, wait till you hit puberty. And guys, always just make sure to consult your doctor, your child's pediatrician, if you're ever nervous or wondering about a certain supplement or a certain thing that they should be doing for their nutrition or for their health. Now let's get to the fun part and actually talk about which supplements are going to help y'all. If you can answer yes to those 4 questions, then we're gonna get to part 2 of this, and that is the 7 supplements that I recommend. Now there's 2 different types of supplements. The definition of supplement is it supplements your diet, right? It's something that you're not getting enough of in your diet, and we're gonna supplement it to make sure that you're getting enough of it. Now there's 3 of those. We've got protein, we've got omega-3s, and we've got vitamin D plus K2, and I'm gonna break this down for you why you might need it. Not every single kid or every single athlete needs to be taking a protein supplement. So when I say protein supplement, That's gonna be like protein powder, protein drink, protein bar. Not every single athlete needs that. I will 1000% recommend get 90% of your protein from real food sources, meat, dairy products like cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, et cetera. However, if you are a bigger athlete, if you are trying to gain muscle and your protein goal is high, this can be really helpful to get 20 to 30 extra grams. So how much an athlete should be taking if you feel like you do need it? I would recommend 1 scoop a day or about an equivalent to 20 to 30 grams of protein a day. So this would be like 1 scoop of protein powder out of a bag of like whey protein powder. The reason why I wouldn't recommend more than that is 'cause I want athletes to be getting it from real food sources. 'Cause real food sources like meat have a lot of iron in it, has a lot of vitamin B in it, and a lot of other good micronutrients that their bodies need. So I'm gonna encourage real food consumption over this any day, but this like one scoop of this isn't going to hurt them at all. The timing of this protein supplement honestly doesn't matter that much as long as the athlete is hitting the total daily goal. However, it can be beneficial to take it within an hour post-lift or post-workout. So if you're really wanting to get nitty gritty and, and specific with it, that could be a great option. Cool. Protein done. Now we get to omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s are awesome. They help reduce inflammation. They aid in recovery. They help with your heart health. This is just an amazing supplement overall. It usually comes from fish, salmon, fatty fish. If you are not having fish 2 to 3 times a week, you are deficient in omega-3. And if you're a parent watching this and you're not having omega-3s 2 to 3 times a week, you are also deficient most likely in omega-3 fatty acids. So this is honestly something that I would recommend to 90% of the, the human race. I have my 2-year-old take omega-3s. So how much? The general amount is 2 to 4 grams. You can always check with your child's doctor cuz it just depends on how, how big they are. And, but between 2 to 4 grams per day, is going to give you a good ballpark of the amount that they need to be shooting for omega-3-wise. On the back of the package, there will also be dosaging stuff, so you can follow the recommendation for that. It's pretty easy to find the recommended dosages for omega-3s and vitamin Ds for kids of all ages. And then the third supplemental supplement is Vitamin D K2. The reason why we have this is because vitamin C, vitamin B, all of those are really easy to get through fruits, vegetables, meat, real foods that you're eating every day. Vitamin D is tough. It is fortified in milk, and so they put a little bit, a little trace of it in milk. But ultimately vitamin D helps support bone health. It, it's, it's like calcium's best friend. And so a lot of athletes are deficient in vitamin D and that can lead to them getting sick, that can lead to them getting injured. So we wanna keep those bones healthy and strong. Vitamin D comes from the sun, which is really cool. So if your athlete is a cross-country runner and they're in the sun multiple hours a week and they're getting sun exposure on their arms and their face, amazing. They probably don't need to supplement vitamin D. But if you are an inside athlete, if it is winter, if you're not getting at least 15 to 20 minutes of sun 3 times a week, you probably need to be supplementing with vitamin D. So the amount that you need to be taking roughly is probably about 1,000 to 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily. And then there's a lot of recommendations to take it with K2, and there's a lot of supplements that you can get that are just like vitamin D plus K2, 'cause that just helps with the absorption of the vitamin D and helps it actually be used in the body for how it needs to be used. Amazing. So these are the, these are the 3 that I would say even younger athletes can look into this. The protein, probably not. You probably can just get it from real foods. Omega-3s and vitamin D, as long as you're talking to the athlete's doctor and you're making sure that it's the right dosage for them, this could be something to look into. So now that we have those, we are going to get into the performance-based supplements. Number 1, creatine monohydrate. Creatine is awesome, guys. Creatine is a form of energy and it's the fastest form of energy we have. So when you're sprinting down the court, when you're trying to hurdle somebody, when you're doing something that's very explosive, your body's running off of creatine. So what creatine monohydrate does is it gives you energy faster and allows you to go a little bit longer. So in the weight room, if you're lifting 3 sets of 4 reps, it might be able to help you get a 5th or a 6th rep. It's gonna give you a little bit more in the tank because you have that extra energy that it's providing for you. It also has some really cool like recovery and cognitive brain benefits. And so there's a lot of information about creatine monohydrate out there if you wanna study up on it. It's pretty cool. So any athlete who is old enough and who trains in the gym and who wants the extra strength and power, could benefit from creatine monohydrate. The amount that you could be taking is between 3 to 5 grams per day. It doesn't really matter what time you take that at as long as you're taking it. You could always combine your, like, protein shake and your creatine and just put them together to make it easier to remember. Again, teenage athletes, this is not medical advice. This is me giving you some recommendations. You take it to your parents, you take it to your doctors, and then you make an informed decision with them. Next is beetroot. This can come in the form of a shot or beetroot juice. What this does is it helps open up your blood vessels to carry more oxygen to your muscles. So if you think about your blood vessels as a small hot chocolate straw, that thing is small. Not a ton of liquid comes through it at once because you don't wanna burn your mouth. And then if you were to take beetroot juice, it's going to open that straw up into being more of a milkshake size straw where more fluid can come through at once. The fluid that goes through your blood vessels is blood, and blood carries oxygen, and your muscles need oxygen in order to perform better and to have more endurance. So if you are an endurance-based athlete, a runner, maybe soccer player, basketball player, football player, an athlete who needs stamina for a long period of time, this could be a really awesome supplement for you guys to look into. The amount that you're looking for is roughly 400 milligrams of nitrate. It should say that on the label. If you're taking it in shot form, most shots will have roughly 400 milligrams of nitrate. If you're taking it in like actual juice form, you wanna look for cold-pressed juice because if it's hot, it like kills the nitrates in it and then it makes it so you're not actually gonna have the benefit that it needs to have cold-pressed beetroot juice, 1.5 to about 2 cups, or because beetroot juice does not taste very good, you can do a shot, which is just a tiny little shot that's concentrated beetroot juice. So you can get all of the nitrate into your body so it works. You gotta make sure though that you take it at the right time. This is one of them that you can't just take it daily and hope that it works. It has to be taken at the right time for it to actually have a good effect for it on your performance. And what that's gonna be is 2 to 3 hours Pregame. From the time that the shot hits your lips, it takes 2 to 3 hours for your body to convert all the nitrate in that little shot into nitric oxide and to open up those blood vessels for it to actually have a performance benefit. So you've got to make sure that you're taking it 2 to 3 hours to actually see a benefit. And let me plug this in here too. Don't try this first at a game. Practice during practice before you ever try something for the first time during a game, because sometimes supplements can do weird things on your digestive system. And the last thing we need is a trip to the porta-potty during your game. Okay. All right, beetroot juice done. Next is caffeine. Now let me say this, don't cut this clip up and just show your parents the caffeine part, proving to them that you should be able to slam down a Monster or Reign every single day. That is not what I am saying. I'm saying caffeine can be used to enhance your performance if used in a responsible way. Real energy comes from food and sleep. So if you're deprived of energy, you need food and sleep before you ever look at caffeine. But caffeine can be awesome performance enhancer. Let's go. Caffeine, it can increase focus. It can increase endurance and stamina. It can be awesome for endurance-based sports. So a lot of runners, maybe some swimmers. You wanna be careful if you're like a technical sport, cuz sometimes caffeine can make people jittery. If you're like pitcher or a hitter and you, you need some technique, you might wanna be careful with caffeine cuz you don't want it to, to cause you to have jitters and really cause an adverse effect on your performance. So just make sure that it functions well in your body. But endurance-based sports are going to have the most benefit here. So the amount that you need is 3 to 6 milligrams of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. You need to take your body weight in pounds. So say you're 150 pounds. I always say 150 because I'm 150. You divide that by 2.2. That's going to give me my weight in kilograms, which is like 68.2 kilograms. Then I'm going to take— I'm going to come over here so you guys can see it. It's going to be 68 kilograms. I'm going to multiply it by 3. This is the lower end of the amount of caffeine that I would need. 68 times 3 is 204. So I'm going to just say 200 milligrams. Of caffeine. That's the low end. If I want to find the high end, I would multiply it by 6, and that's going to give me 400 milligrams. So that tells me I need between 200 to 400 milligrams of caffeine to actually see a performance benefit. I would go on the lower end. Okay. The upper end is not probably something that we want to be playing with in high school. We'd probably play around with that more into the professional NFL, NBA type players. Okay. So lower end, multiply it by 3, your weight in kilograms, Buy 3, it's gonna give you around what you need. I will say this, if you're a football player and you play in the evening, or if you have, if you're a sport that competes in the evening, don't take caffeine. It stays in the system for way too long. It's gonna keep you up at night. It's gonna, it's gonna make it so your sleep sucks. Even if you claim that it doesn't affect your sleep, it will affect your sleep whether you think it does or not. So don't do it if your game starts late. If your games are in the morning, or say you have a combine earlier in the day, that's a time that you could use it, maybe a cross-country race, but if it's starts, let's say 3 PM or later. Uh-uh. Just cross that off the list. All right, cool. I need to put one more plug in here with caffeine. 3 to 6 milligrams per kilogram. You got to take it 1 hour before your game or your event to help it get into the system. 3 to 6 milligrams per kilogram, 60 minutes before. The last and final one that I'm going to talk to you all about today is beta alanine. And honestly, probably the least important. You probably don't need this one, but I'll talk to you guys about it anyway. Beta alanine is really cool. When you are doing high-intensity short bursts of effort, let's say like 1 to 4 minutes, your muscles start burning. It feels like there's freaking fire in your muscles and you can't keep going. Beta alanine puts a buffer between the burn and you. So maybe in a 400-meter race, instead of starting to feel the burn at 200 meters, maybe you start feeling it at 300 meters, right? So it just buffers it away a little bit to allow you to go a little bit harder for a little bit longer. So who this is for is for sports that do short bursts of effort, about 1 to 4 minutes total. So this could be swimmers, this could be some sprinters or mid-distance sprinters like the 400 or the 800, maybe the mile if you're really cooking. Um, this, this could be really cool for it to buffer that muscle acid away from you guys. Other sports, you probably don't need to play around with this very much, which is why I saved it for last. The amount that you need to be taking, you need 4 to 6 grams per day. Okay, this is one of those that you have to take consistently. You need to take this for like 4 weeks straight for it to actually get into your system. This is also what kind of causes the tingling if you've ever felt that from like pre-workouts. I wouldn't probably get it from pre-workout. There's like beta alanine pills that you can get from, from reputable sources to make sure they're safe and they actually work. But 4 to 6 grams per day is what you're looking for. And most of the time, if they come in pill form, you want to take it throughout the day. So say one pill is 2 grams and you're looking for 6 grams a day. I'd take a 2-gram pill in the AM, a 2-gram pill at lunch, and then a 2-gram pill at dinner. And then you want to take that consistently for 4 weeks. So honestly, guys, I probably wouldn't recommend this to you unless you're a swimmer or a runner and you're really looking to shave just like a couple seconds off of your PR. This could give you an edge, but it would be probably the last supplement that I would add into any of my athletes' regimen on, on game days or clutch days or race days to actually see benefits. We got deep today, guys. You made it to the end. This is amazing. The whole point for this video was, is it safe? Does it work? Does it work for you? Are you old enough to take it? If you can say yes to those questions, then you can start diving into what I just taught you on the back of this board. And if you're an athlete and you feel like you need to focus on your frosting to the cupcake a little bit more, you need to dial it in. You need to know what works for you, how much you need to be eating, when you need to be eating it to really dial in and to level up your sport. Come join my program. We give you a personalized plan. We help you know what to eat on game days, how much of it to be eating, when to be eating it so you can maximize your performance, and then get into these fancy supplements as well.