6 Science-Backed Supplements Every Athlete Should Consider

Have you ever stood in a supplement aisle feeling totally overwhelmed? Same. I don't take like 20 supplements a day or follow TikTok trends, but these 6 supplements I'm going to talk about today, these are the main ones I've actually felt a difference with. And if I could only keep 6 in my routine, these would be them. Unfortunately, there's a ton of hype and not a lot of clarity in the supplement world. So today I'm actually going to walk you through what I take, why I actually take them, and my go-to brands that have earned a permanent spot in my routine. Quick thing that I forgot to mention. I realized that I did not disclose something that I think is really important for me to share given the topic of this video. Two things in particular actually came to mind. One is that I wanna make it abundantly clear that by no means am I recommending that anybody and everybody takes the supplements that I take. These are just ones that I take primarily for different sports performance sleep or different particular aspects of my health that I'm trying to improve and is in addition to a pretty solid foundation I have for taking care of my health. So by no means am I using these to replace anything. It's just, again, it is a supplement, right? I wanna make it clear that I am not a supplement pusher normally by any means, but I do think it's important for me to be transparent about the ones that I am taking. So that was thing number one I wanted to share. Thing number two is that you're gonna see me share a lot about Legion supplements. Now that's not the only brand that I'm promoting in this video or talking about in this video, but, um, again, I want to disclose that I do have a sponsorship relationship with Legion Athletics. They provide me a lot of different products to test out and try and give my feedback on, and they are one of the few companies that I do like to work with from a supplement standpoint, primarily because they have a very standup brand, um, third-party tested for purity and accuracy, and they don't do something called fairy dusting, which is very common in the supplement industry. That's one thing that I wanted to mention on that front. But the other thing is I want to say you don't have to get Legion Athletics supplements. You can go with any other brand that is third-party tested for purity and accuracy, or you don't have to go with a brand that's third-party tested if you don't want to. But that's something that's important to me. That's something that Legion does really well. There are other brands out there that do that very well, but I wanted to share that. Relationship upfront so you have that information, cuz it's important to me that, um, I'm authentic in sharing that, uh, information. And it slipped my mind when I was recording it cuz I was just excited to share with you guys the products I'm trying out. So with that, let's dive in. First and foremost, we gotta give the number one spot to creatine. Creatine is one of the most studied supplements out there. It's really effective for strength performance, and now they're even finding for brain health. I've been using this one from Legion Athletics for a good while now, and I absolutely love it. It's micronized, so it dissolves really, really quickly in water, and I prefer the unflavored one so I can just mix it in anything. So how I take it, I take about 1 scoop, which is 5 grams daily. Some people do a loading phase. You don't really need to do that, but it just helps saturate your muscles a lot faster. I have a full video on creatine that I will link down below if you're interested in looking into that. Also, timing doesn't matter. You can take it with your workouts, without your workouts. Any time of day. A common misconception a lot of people have about creatine is that they think it is just for bodybuilders. It's really just helpful for anybody doing strength training or explosive strength training. And like I said, they're also finding that there's pretty good impacts on brain health too. All right, so up next on the list is a high-quality fish oil. I've been taking fish oil for many years now. Why I personally take it is to help support joint health and cardiovascular health. I have genetic predispositions to having issues on both those systems in my body, so just wanted to kind of get ahead of the curve on that one. And also, since I've had ACL surgery, I just really do feel a difference in my knee and the inflammation in my knee when I'm taking a high-quality fish oil. Now again, I use Legion's brand. You're probably going to see a theme throughout this video that, you know, a good amount of these 6 supplements are Legion's, and that is primarily because Legion third-party tests their supplements for purity and accuracy. They also use the effective dosing on all their supplements, so they're not just adding like a little bit of something and saying like, hey, it does all these things, but they don't have like the clinical effective dose in the product. So Legion does. And speaking of that, if you are going to take a fish oil supplement, you want to make sure that it has a certain amount of EPA and DHA in there to actually be effective. So Legion's has actually over 2 grams of combined EPA and DHA, which is phenomenal. That's the main thing I'm looking for in a solid fish oil supplement, on top of being third-party tested for purity and accuracy, of course. But again, since I'm doing a lot of heavy training, it's just really helpful for joint support and managing inflammation. All right, so next supplement is kind of a supplement stack because these two most often need to be taken together to be absorbed fully, and that is iron and vitamin C. So I just take the Nutracost brand. It's also third-party tested. It's the appropriate amount of iron that I need. And the reason why I do, again, iron and vitamin C work together to be— help the iron get absorbed. I'm just anemic. So for all the anemic folks out there, take your iron. You know, consult with your doctor first, make sure you get tested. You don't wanna take iron without needing it. That's a very important thing cuz you can have iron toxicity. We don't want that. So, um, that's primarily why I take it, especially if you're a female athlete. It is very common to have low iron and to be anemic. If you have been fatigued or you feel like you're not recovering well, as a female athlete, you might want to get your iron tested. Next one on the list, most people might not think of it as a supplement, but it's a supplement because it is a food— like a food item, but it's also supplement— is protein powder. Funny story, I never have been able to do whey protein before doing Legion's whey protein. I'm not sure why, I don't know exactly what it is. I can't say it's because of their ingredients or the ingredient quality per se. It might just be that over time I've been able to process it better. So I'm not going to say like this is magical or anything, but, um, I will say that being able to take away protein source of protein has been wonderful. I do really like Legion Athletics, uh, flavors. Like, the cinnamon cereal is great. This one's my next favorite, it's peanut butter fudge. Um, it's amazing. It dissolves really well and blends really well into like an almond milk or any sort of like, again, liquid that you're blending it into. But, um, as an athlete, again, it can be hard to get in the amount of protein that you need to to support your training, and protein powders can be really helpful to do that. It doesn't have to be whey. It can be a plant-based protein powder, but you do wanna make sure that you are going with a company again, that is third-party testing their products, that has good quality ingredients, that isn't just loading it full of like a bunch of artificial flavors and a bunch of stuff that maybe you don't need or might be sensitive to and don't know. So just, you know, be cautious with that. But I do say that it is really helpful to have a high-quality protein powder around. So this next one on the list I do not have with me. I just ran out. It is my magnesium. I take magnesium in the evening. Evenings. Again, as an athlete, I actually— I sweat a ton. I'm a very sweaty athlete, and, um, I used to get a lot of muscle cramps. And even despite having, you know, appropriate amounts of electrolytes and whatnot, I was just finding that I was having some muscle cramps. I was more prone to calf injuries in particular because my calves would be so tight. So I started taking magnesium. So that was one reason why I started taking magnesium as an athlete. Another reason was that it helps to promote good sleep and help you unwind at the end, end of the evening. So I have noticed that effect as well. So both those reasons are why I've continued to take magnesium in the evenings. And in particular, there are two different types that I have oscillated between. One is just the brand Doctor's Best and it is magnesium glycinate. And then the other one is the sucromel magnesium from Legion Athletics. So that's the one I just recently ran out of and I'm waiting for my order to come through. So no magnesium for me lately, and that's very sad. Oh, another benefit I want to add about magnesium is that it helps for nervous system regulation, and God knows we all need a little bit more of that, especially if any of you guys are ADHD gals and guys out there. Hello. Just helping to regulate the nervous system and settle down in the evening can be difficult. So I have found that this has helped me to do that. All right. So the last one I'm going to mention is actually the newest addition to the supplement family, and this is not one I take every day, but it is one I take consistently for certain activities. And that is my stim-free pre-workout. That is this guy. Now, um, this is again, new addition. So I'm still testing it out, but I can say from what I've tried it for, so I'm almost, almost done with the container. I think it's been about 2 months now. Yeah, roughly about 2 months. I've used it specifically for heavy leg day training and for volleyball. Like long volleyball training sessions, beach volleyball training sessions. And I feel like it has helped with my endurance in both of those activities. Now it's hard to say, obviously, like, and be completely objective about it. I don't have any mechanisms to measure that or like look at my VO2 max or anything like that. So you can just take my word for, take my word for it or don't, but this has been something that I think I will probably keep around, especially for like high training season I'm in right now with, with beach volleyball. The reason why I opted for the non-stim version was because sometimes I'll have training sessions in the evening and as somebody who's trying to work on their sleep quality, it's really important for me to not have caffeine after 12 PM. So this has been a good option for that. And again, the perks of doing a pre-workout in general, whether it's stim-free or not, is just increased blood flow for the most part and increased muscular endurance. So again, I'm getting those just sans caffeine. So guys, that's my stack right now. That's it, just 6 supplements, not 20. And half of those 6 are drinkable, so I'm not taking loads and loads of pills each day, which nobody likes to do that. Everything I take has a strategic purpose and has the like effective dosing amount in it, and it's something I've researched and made sure about. And again, all of them are from companies that are third-party tested for purity and accuracy, all the good things. I actually have a supplement guide on how to look for that stuff that I will link down below as well. If you're curious about how to go about the process of finding supplements that are right for you and that are third-party tested and what to look for and all that good stuff. So I'll drop that down below if you're interested in checking that out. And remember guys, supplements are supplements. They are supplemental to a solid foundation that you already should have. They're not there to replace. Sleep or proper nutrition, but when used intentionally, they can really support and enhance how you show up, how you train, and how you feel. All right, so I want to turn it over to you guys. What is a supplement you have recently tried or have been using that you found has made a significant positive impact for you on a day-to-day basis? Drop it below in the comments. I'm curious what your thoughts are. And guys, if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel. I greatly appreciate it, and I'll catch you guys in the next one. Bye!