We Tested 100+ Supplements — Only 5 Actually Work

All right, James, I love you. I've known you for over 10 years, but I have a bone to pick with you today, and it's about supplements. I know that there's supplements that you recommend that aren't on my top 5 list, and I want to address it with you mano a mano, man to man. Uh, not going to talk shit about you behind your back. Uh, so I'm gonna go through my list of top 5 supplements and tell you what I think are the number 1 supplements that I pretty much swear by and use very, very regularly with most clients who come through. So the first one is the KTS Solution Electrolytes. Shout out to my buddy Mark Schaus who formulated them. The reason why I love these electrolytes is because not only does it have the perfect ratio of sodium potassium, which is he puts it in a 1 to 1.6 ratio of sodium potassium, which is what's found in the human body. You've got your bicarbs in there. Your bicarbs also act as a buffer for lactic acid, so perfect for training. And also a little fact that people don't know with bicarbs is there is a layer of bicarbs in basically in your gut that help. If you're low in that bicarbs, you, you won't produce as much hydrochloric acid. So also as a byproduct for gut health. The other thing with electrolytes is people don't think about, you know, people think about the cardiovascular system, but they don't think about the electrical system of the body, which is completely run on your electrolytes, which is sodium, potassium. The other thing I'll say is anything that conducts electricity is technically electrolytes. So for example, Coca-Cola is technically, it's not an electrolyte, but you know, on a technical basis you could. So, but obviously it's way too much sodium and no potassium in Coca-Cola, but you wanna have things that bring that balance up. Now the other thing with electrolytes as well, is that if you have, I suppose, low adrenal output, it's gonna show up with low sodium. And most people who train have low sodium. So it's a quick way to bring up energy. I think Mark Schaus really nailed the product. The only downside, which I know you're probably gonna hit me with, is people complain about the taste, which I say, grow up, you're not 3 years old anymore. This is good for you, drink your medicine. And let's face it, it doesn't bad. But the other thing is, if it does taste salty, which most electrolyte products will, unless they have a lot of flavor in them, or artificial flavor in them, it's because you're low. You're low in those— in your electrolytes, and that's why it tastes more salty. But let's face it, if it does taste salty, just put more water. You know, if you're having 2 or 3 scoops in a liter, put 2 or 3 scoops in 2 liters. Now I know you like electrolytes, but you like something else.

Yeah, for sure. So I totally agree, electrolytes are a foundation for a lot of people. I think Electrolytes go hand in hand with hydration. Most people drastically underhydrated, probably dehydrated for the most part, and that's why they feel like shit, for a better term, pardon the language.

Well, just before you continue, we do agree that electrolytes is, is king. Yeah, 100%. So we're not so far off.

We're not so far off. However, the products that we use are a little bit different, so I don't think the re— the KTS is a bad product. I think it's a great product. I think for the needs of the vast majority of our clients, it's awesome. The taste maybe for some people isn't, isn't amazing, which can be a hurdle for, for some, but as a product, it is really good. Now, for me personally, my training is probably a little bit different to most of our clients and even a lot of our staff as well, in that it's a lot more kind of conditioned and aerobic-based. So playing soccer, doing more endurance-based work with things like HIROX and those types of events means that I sweat an awful lot. And what I found over a couple of years is that I would always suffer from getting cramps, and no matter how much KTS I took, it never took the edge off. And I was taking maybe 5-6 scoops per liter, and at that point, if tasted like just drinking salt water, right? So I tried to find an alternative that was more concentrated, but also close to those ratios that you mentioned, so that 1:1.6. And the product that I found was a product called Relight. So it's a product from the US, and it's based on a specific kind of salt, which is the sodium component, which is called Redmond sea salt, which is found in a lake in I'm gonna say Utah, but might be wrong. And essentially they've formulated a lot of these electrolyte products, but the, the really positive thing with them is that the concentrations are a lot higher. So I know the dosage of the sodium potassium is more of, more of a 2:1, um, as opposed to a 1:1.6, but we're talking around 840 milligrams of sodium per scoop and around 400 milligrams of potassium. Whereas if we compare that to the KTS, I think the sodium is about 96, so it's a lot, a lot lower. Um, and look, the, the biggest positive I found was that the cramps were kept at bay, and it's never really been an issue since using that more higher concentrated.

Scoops are bigger in the electrolyte too.

Scoops are bigger. Scoops are bigger.

So gram for gram would probably be somewhat— but because you're using bigger scoops in the Rewire, correct?

And then obviously there's the there's a flavor component. These ones are natural flavors, so it's not any artificial or any added crap in there. It is still a very solid product from the ingredients that are in there.

All right, so we'll probably say then KTS Solutions for the win for general population and the Relight for the win for athletes. I do think special mention probably deserves True, doesn't make a bad electrolyte product either. It's somewhat odd.

True's middle ground between the two.

Yeah, and then the other one I really like is the Jocko one. Which is the ready-to-go drink, and they also have the sachet. So special mention to those, we do like those products as well. All right, so my number 2 product that almost everyone gets is, you know, I, I say this a lot, I wrote about this in my book, but if I could bottle one supplement, I would bottle sleep and give it to people because it's the biohack of everything. Now, Designs for Health Australia, they sell an incredible, and they produce an incredible product called TriMag Night Powder. We— it's our biggest selling product here at Enterprise, and the reason why it's our biggest selling product is because when people use it, they get the benefit the next— straight away they get deeper sleep, they sleep better, they're more rested, they're more relaxed. Uh, relaxed, it's not a word— more relaxed. So magnesium is— does help with that relaxation phase of the muscle. You've got your contraction and relaxation. So the thing with magnesium, it is involved in over 300 chemical functions. Obviously even energy production is involved with magnesium. So it's not to say that magnesium specifically is a sleep product. Magnesium has a wide use in the body. So everyone needs magnesium, and clinically it is the most efficient mineral for, for, for people in subcategories. So for athletes, for example, it's the most efficient mineral. For pregnant women, it's the most efficient mineral. For the elderly, it's the most efficient mineral. So there really is no one who won't benefit with magnesium supplementation. So the reason why I like the night powder is because we kind of tick two birds with one stone, or hit two birds with one stone. And the way we do that is we improve people's sleep whilst giving them a big dose of magnesium, which obviously helps with so many different functions I have tested the Night Powder against other sleep products using my Oura Ring, and my heart rate and heart rate variability always is vastly improved using the Night Powder. One of my sort of stacks that I like to use is the Magnesium 3 and 8 with the Night Powder, so I get the calming of the nervous system, and I also then get the— but sometimes 3 and 8 for me can be a double-edged sword because sometimes it can amp me. It doesn't work because if you are a little bit deficient or your body uses it, you can use magnesium in energy production.

Right?

So we used to think— and the studies used to say that magnesium threonate was specific for sleep. It's not. It's more about— goes towards the nervous system. It calms the nervous system, but it also could, for some people, give energy, like myself. What's your stance on number 2?

Well, this was a hard one for me because I do think the NightPod is a great product, so I don't disagree with it being in your top 5. But I looked at my top 5 as more of a how can I get the most bang for my buck with the 5 products that I have in here?

I know what you're going to say.

So I wanted to try and kill more birds than what you said with one stone, um, with my, with my selection. Now, like you said, magnesium supports sleep, but it isn't necessarily a direct sleep supplement. And the Night Mike obviously has all the, um, herbal components. Herbal components, the right—

it's a precursor to melatonin. So they don't put melatonin in it. I think it's the— because they updated the formula a couple of times. There was the passionflower, and then they put Something California poppy. California poppy, I'm pretty sure it's one or the other. I don't know, one of the hours. Yeah, yeah, it basically works as a precursor to melatonin, so you're not taking melatonin directly. Correct.

So obviously the, the magnesium component is awesome because the majority of the population are deficient in magnesium anyway. And then the real kicker with that supplement is the herbal component, which like you said supports the melatonin production, which then gets people to have better and deeper restful sleep, which is awesome. Now The product I decided to choose does contain magnesium, but it also contains quite a few other things, which means that I could fit some other supplements in my top 5. So it's a new product from Designs for Health called Alkalizing Minerals. Now this almost is like a souped-up electrolyte product, if you like. So I'm stacking this on top of my other electrolyte product to get an even bigger dose of my electrolytes. So it does have your magnesium, your sodium, potassium, calcium are the key ones. Again, in really good doses, but not as high as the, the Relight electrolyte that we discussed earlier. But then additional to that, it has vitamin D, which I'm sure is going to be somewhere in your top 5. So I thought I'd get it in one supplement alongside multiple other things. Vitamin D. It has chromium, it has zinc. Um, what else does it have in it? Maybe has a couple of other things in there as well. So as a, as an all-rounder product where we're killing multiple birds with one stone, we've obviously got electrolyte balance, we've got magnesium, which to some degree will help to support sleep because it's increasing our daily intake of magnesium across the board. We've got the chromium component which helps with with blood sugar regulation. We've got vitamin D, which helps with immune function, cardiovascular health. So I think as a one product that does a lot of different things alongside getting in the magnesium component, I think this is definitely the one.

It is an incredible product. And again, it's hard to disagree with that logic because, uh, yeah, it's a great product and I, I use that one daily as well. And actually, you know, if I have too much coffee, which, you know, 2 coffees for me is too much coffee, but if I have too much coffee, if I find if I balance myself out with more electrolytes, I'm actually okay. So I can push my caffeine tolerance to 2 cups if I have— risky, very risky for me— if I have the alkalizing balance. So it is, it is a great product. I think that's another one they nailed. All right, now this one might be somewhat unpopular, but I think protein powder for me would be my number 3. And not necessarily for me personally, I, I recommend protein powder for most clients. The reason is, is Most people don't eat enough protein. So if we want recomposition with our physiques, you know, the numbers are pretty clear. We want to have at least 2 times our body weight in kilos of grams of protein. Now, by and large, if you look at most people's diet, they are getting nowhere near that. You know, they'd be lucky to getting 1, maybe 1.5. And we know from research that if you have 2 groups and one group eating the same amount of calories— let's say both groups are eating 2,000 calories— one group equates for protein and the other doesn't, the group that equates for protein at say 2 to 2.5 times their own body weight will have far better body composition. So the protein powder recommendation for me is not one that I really, I want to include 'cause there are so many more things that are sexy like the alkalizing minerals that I'd like to include. But I feel like for most people they need to have a protein shake somewhere in their diet if they're concerned about body composition. Now again, if you're sitting there listening to this going, well, I eat 2 kilos of meat a day, my protein isn't a problem, well then I'll definitely forego the protein powder. For me, it's really making sure and ensuring that a client is hitting their minimum protein requirement. And I often see it's very hard for people, particularly office jobs, execs, people who have busy lives, which is basically everyone, to hit that protein goal on a continual basis. So what I like to teach clients is to have a shake and also adding things like blueberries or bananas or just teaching them how to make that shake nice. And now you've got things like traveling blenders, which make it even easier and make it even more tasteful and people can stick to. But for me, hitting a protein goal, and if we need to supplement with that, that is absolutely in my top 3.

Yeah, for sure. It's, it's a very convenient and simple thing to add in, not just for yourself but for a lot of people to hit that goal. Like, we often see people are drastically under-consuming their protein, and as we spoke about on one of our previous podcasts, the ability to maintain muscle mass and build muscle mass has a massive impact on your ability to consume more food. Have a better fat loss outcome. So absolutely, if it's somebody who is miles off where they need to be with protein, then it's, it's a great addition. And a lot of studies are showing now that it's the next best thing to animal proteins in terms of its absorption. So if we compare it to like amino acid supplements and collagen-based supplements, whey protein's far superior. Yeah, so it is really good. Um, my third one I had was creatine. So look, I, I, it's the most studied supplement in the world, and people try and pull it down still, but the, the data is pretty clear that it is an extremely beneficial supplement. And a lot of people are now talking about it, not just for, for adults and men who want to get stronger and build size, but for females, even for kids now. It started to come out as something that should be considered. And a lot of this actually surrounds the cognitive benefits a lot more than just the muscular benefits now. So they're finding that it's neuroprotective, it provides more energy to the brain, it can improve memory function. So they've actually been doing a lot of studies with it in Alzheimer's and seeing that memory and cognitive function of people with early onset Alzheimer's has actually started to improve after really high dosages of creatine. So I think it hits a lot of different areas, whether it's you want to optimize your training or you want to optimize your brain health, you want to optimize the longevity of your brain health and your memory and cognitive function. Um, so yeah, that was, that was absolutely going to be in my—

did you see this study? And one of our trainers pointed it out to me recently, the study that they did with 20 grams of supplemental creatine helps with sleep fatigue. So for shift workers who— if you've got kids, shit sleep Yeah, young kids are keeping up. If you supplement with creatine, it's going to help you with your sleep fatigue. Yeah, so creatine, again, an incredible supplement that has a wide array of uses, not just in the gym of helping with ATP energy production, which is traditionally how it was thought, how you have to load on it. It does have a wide range of, of uses. Now, my fourth supplement on my list is, is my go-to that I recommend for all. I will say I would prefer someone to get blood work before supplementing with this to know where you're— if you're deficient. Now the problem with this is I'm talking about vitamin D. Vitamin D status, if you get a— let your labs from your doctor now. So back in 2011, if you got labs on vitamin D, the reference range for vitamin D was 80 to 125 because of Medicare managing public health costs, and also the average of people every year get sicker. So those mean scores of what average health and public health care— because there's a difference between public health care and what is optimal for health, the score on a lab test for vitamin D is so long as you're above 50 IUs, you are not clinically classified as deficient in vitamin D. But do understand that's bare minimum nutrition. That is being on, on the minimum basic wage, right? You're not going to have great health on that. And because vitamin D is in— from research shown as a key factor in all-cause morbidity and mortality, also works more as a hormone than as a vitamin, works on detoxification, works on testosterone pathways, works on fat loss, works on insulin sensitivity, also cognition as well is what they're recently finding. Vitamin D has so many uses inside the body. It's one of those things that also helps stabilize— I think there's like an immune stabilizer, it works on the immune system as well, so helps calming down the immune system, whereas vitamin A is what you want to be— you want to have when you're attacking, like when you're— you have a— how do you say, um, a virus, you want to have more vitamin A because it helps activate the immune system. Vitamin D is kind of calming down the immune system. Because there's so many uses of vitamin D and it's an easy supplement, I put vitamin D as my number 4. You? Yep.

So obviously in my alkalizing minerals there's vitamin D. And interesting fact, actually, I remember speaking to the, the girl who sorts our Designs for Health account out, and she actually said the form of vitamin D in the alkalizing minerals has been shown to be more absorbed than what the liposomal is.

And if you are having vitamin D absorption issues, you can always add K2, which is also in my alkalizing minerals.

Um, so this is where, like, I've thought about it from, uh, optimizing multiple different angles of getting all these different things in. So my number 4 is something that also does contain a little bit more vitamin D. but also has some additional benefits, and that is cod liver oil. So we are getting omegas from this, we're getting a little bit of vitamin D, we're also getting a little bit of vitamin A as well. A lot of vitamin A. Yeah, so again, it's a supplement where we're killing multiple birds with one stone, and kind of accumulatively across multiple supplements, we're getting a really good dosage in of lots of different minerals and vitamins. Um, and again, one of the big things with like a cod liver oil, or even a, an omega product or a fish oil product, is what— less so in a just an omega product that comes from kind of like your sardines and those types of fish oil products— is they don't have as much vitamin D, vitamin A as what a cod liver oil does. But most people don't eat enough fish.

Do you know what the serving on a tablespoon of vitamin D is in cod liver?

Not 100% certain.

Yeah, I don't think it was that. I thought vitamin A was—

It's not super high.

Yeah, so okay, but you take it more from— and you know the status on like omega-3s in your cod liver?

Um, it's a little bit less than what the Designs for Health omega product is that we have. I think maybe by about 200 milligrams-ish, but it's not huge.

I don't know if you remember this, probably no one does except me, uh, but there was a big scandal because you're old. I don't look old, I look younger than you, thank you. Uh, my skin's glowing. No, but But cod liver— don't ever buy fermented cod liver oil.

Okay, why?

Because you can't ferment fat, and if you did, it would get rancid. So fermented is sugar. You ferment carbohydrates, you don't ferment fat. But there's a big scandal on fermented cod liver oil. Well, how do you ferment fat? You can't, right? So don't buy fermented cod liver oil. And also, if it tastes rancid, throw it out.

Correct. Good cod liver oil brand is Nordic Naturals. That's generally the best one that's really tested and Ethically sourced.

You don't mind me a good cod liver oil.

It's, uh, it's not in your top 5 though.

It's not in my top 5. No, it's not.

You must be eating a lot of fish.

Uh, no, I'm not. I'm eating a lot of meat. So speaking of meat, my number 5 supplement is B vitamins. So the reason why I put B vitamins is you have your fat-soluble and your water-soluble vitamins. Obviously vitamin A, vitamin D, E, K, they're your fat-soluble vitamins. So they store, they can accumulate inside the fat cell. Your water-soluble vitamins require to be topped up every day. So you're going to piss them out, right? That's normal. They should show up in your, in your urine. And you want to think of your fat-soluble vitamins and your water-soluble vitamins as almost like players on a team. You know, he handballs me the— let's say he's the fat-soluble vitamin, he's going to handball me the ball and I'm going to kick the goal, right? So I excrete it, I get out of the body, right? That's how your fat-soluble vitamins are always going to pass the ball, in this case if it's a toxin, to your water-soluble vitamins, because your water-soluble vitamins can be excreted out of the system through urine and sweat. So B vitamins for me is almost like my all-purpose multivitamin. I think most people are somewhat deficient in their B vitamins. I don't look at it specific like, you know, people look at, oh, do you just take P5P or do you take 5-MTHF? Now I was forgetting, escaping my name, the long, methylcobalamin, right? Do you take that? No, I look at the more, the kind of the multivitamin B vitamins, if that makes sense. Like the B Supreme, for example, in the Designs for Health line, I think is a great supplement because it has an array of B vitamins from 1 through to folic acid to vitamin 12, right? So I think you're better off taking an array because every B vitamin, you know, if you go through from B1 to B12, they all have different functions in the body. But those functions from cognitive to detoxification to energy production to cardiovascular health, there is an array of uses for B vitamins. And I think they can, for a lot of people, be quite life-changing. So that's why I've put B vitamins as front and center in, in that number 5. Very good.

My number 5 is also a, a multivitamin, I suppose, is, is what it is, and very heavily towards the B vitamin side of things as well. But mine is a beef liver supplement. So I started using these maybe 2 or 3 years ago, and I looked at it more so from the whole foods approach as opposed to synthetically made vitamins and minerals. So for those who don't know, beef liver is the most nutrient-dense food that we can consume. And people started to freeze dry this and put it into capsules and give us the benefits without the not so pleasant taste, maybe some would say, of beef liver itself. And again, you, you get the B vitamins, but you get some additions to that. So again, you get a little bit of vitamin A, you get iron, you get some other nutrients, minerals that come alongside that product. So it does kind of formulate a greater, um, a greater multivitamin use, if you like, as opposed to just being centered around B vitamins.

Um, have you ever seen a beef liver? They're 20 kilos. When I used to order a whole cow, uh, get chopped up and all that, he— I said, can I have a liver one time? And he gave me the whole liver and it was 20 kilos of liver.

But yeah, what did you do with that?

I chopped it up, tried to eat it, got through a bit of it, and then ended up—

So it's hard to eat, right? Yeah, yeah, it's not the most—

It's— I did try and get through it. I did eat a couple of kilos, but, uh, 20 kilos of beef liver is—

Rather than trying to force it down, just get the capsules.

Look, I, I love, I love the beef liver. I'm actually using it at the moment. Yeah, I love B vitamins, but I like the whole food approach as well. So yeah, I think you can interchange those either way.

Yeah, the company I use as well, so it's a— I'm pretty sure the Melbourne Australian-based company actually, it's called Cell Squared, but they also do like a beef liver or beef organs powder. So it's beef liver, beef heart, and beef spleen, I think. So delicious. Yeah, beautiful. So they, they blend it down into a powder and then you can sprinkle it into your meals as well. So I use it for, for my kids to get them—

we could combine that with my recommendation of number 3. And people, I mean, easy way to get your, your bees. I mean, if this is— have your protein powder and have your, your your liver, spleen, beef, heart, organs, brains, all in the one for sure.

And I look, I think in summary, like, a lot of the things we've chosen are very similar, similar, very similar, with some slight differences, some slight additions, or more bang for your buck options.

Maybe if we review, my top 5 were electrolytes. You had electrolytes as well, just different brands. My number 2 was magnesium night powder. Your number 2 was creatine or alkalizing minerals. Your number 3— my number 3 was protein powder. You had creatine. My number 4 was vitamin D. You had the cod liver oil. And my number 5 was B vitamins, whereas you had the beef liver. So we're definitely not so far apart. We want to achieve the same thing. We're just looking at these through different angles. James, as always, it's been a pleasure speaking to you today. Any final thoughts?

Look, I think the biggest thing with supplements is make sure you're getting good quality supplements is, is the big one. So don't just go out and buy any any random brand off the shelf in your supermarket to, to find what you're looking for. You want reputable brands who get their supplements from really good quality sources, as Mark kind of touched on with the, the fish oil components. And if you are unsure what those brands are, absolutely just reach out and we can guide you in the right direction. But you get what you pay for at the end of the day with supplements, so you want to make sure that you're not just buying cheap supplements that aren't going to actually give you the benefits you want, because a lot of companies dose them really, really, really low, and you'd have to take 10, 20 capsules to get the actual RDI of what you need.

Or just simply the wrong formula completely.

Absolutely.

The classic one is magnesium. Yeah, magnesium oxide, completely unabsorbable, right? You want to shit your pants? Yeah, take magnesium carbonate. They're just— they're not— they're not absorbable forms of— or very low absorbable forms. They might say 800 milligrams, but you got to take an awful lot to even scratch the sides.

It's not giving you the outcome.

Yeah, it's not going to— exactly. So cheap supplements are expensive. And also, like, if you're looking at fish oil, the only way you can buy fish oil for like, you know, 500 caps for $25 is if they're getting it from polluted waters. Exactly right. So ladies and gentlemen, I hope you have enjoyed this podcast on supplements with James and I. If you want more help, visit our website melbournepersonaltrainers.com. Hit us on YouTube. Uh, hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this. Send us some love. We love any feedback, questions, and topics that you want us to cover. Till next time, friends, train hard, eat well, and supplement smart.