Hey guys, Dr. Axe here. Welcome to our 30 day program designed to help you increase your athletic performance. In this session, I’m going to be talking about supplementation. What are the best supplements that you as an athlete should be consuming if you want to run your fastest times, lift your heaviest weight, and score your best goal or basket, or score your best touchdown? Whatever your goal is, these supplements can help support you in giving your body the nutrients it needs to perform at your best. And there are three main supplements I want to talk about that I think all athletes should consider taking. One is taking a high quality protein powder. As athletes, we need more protein compared to other people, because when you’re working out more your body is needing more amino acids to build lean muscle tissue.

And so, starting off getting great quality protein sources, and my favorite is doing a grass fed whey or grass fed milk protein with a whey casein blend, and I’ll show you here. This is my favorite. This is what we have in the draxe.com online store, this healing protein. Doing a good quality protein powder is essential. And so, when you want to take protein, I typically do it first thing in the morning as part of a superfoods smoothie.

Also, right when you’re done with a workout to help speed recovery is another great time to do it, or even a little bit before you go and work out. Actually, studies have shown that your body can best absorb this form of protein right after a workout, but it can actually be absorbing it even while you’re working out, or if you consume it before, it’ll be the fastest way to absorb it, right afterwards as well. So getting a good quality protein powder, so important for athletes. The other thing is doing a greens powder. I think greens powders are vital for athletes because as athletes we tend to accumulate a lot of acid in our bodies. We’re hard on our joints. If you don’t want to have joint issues, especially when you get older, then you really need to be getting some good quality alkaline-based vegetables and superfoods in your diet.

And so doing great, green superfood powder that has something like chlorella spirulina and wheat grass in it. Now, these compounds are very high in chlorophyll, and chlorophyll helps alkalize your body. So in Green Superfood with things like chlorella spirulina, absolutely fantastic for alkalizing your system. The other amazing thing about doing most greens powders or quality greens powder like the one I’ve got here, is they contain adaptogen herbs. Adaptogen herbs like rhodiola have been shown to increase athletic performance. In fact, there was a study done and they found by consuming rhodiola, they did a study on animals, and they found the animals were able to swim much longer.

So whether you’re a swimmer or a football player or any type of endurance whatsoever, we know rhodiola can help give you extra endurance when you’re working out. And also another key compound is beetroot. In fact beetroot juice has been shown to increase something in your body called NO2, that’s nitric oxide, which can help you build muscle. It improves your overall VO2 max. And so also finding a good quality greens powder like this one, that also has beetroot juice in it, is also great for athletic performance. So again, one thing you want to look for also, this has things like turmeric in it. Turmeric is an herb that’s been shown to help reduce inflammation. And then, last but not least, as an athlete, there are really two things you want to focus on as an athlete. You want to be looking for nutrition and supplements that increase your performance, and then you also want to take nutrition and supplements that help speed your recovery. And so that’s why doing a good quality fish oil supplement is vitally important to improving your athletic performance. Fish oil contains the omega-3 fatty acids EPA.

And DHA, which have been shown to help reduce inflammation throughout the body. As an athlete, whether you’re weightlifting or out there running, you are building up inflammation in your joints. And so again, taking around 1000 I.U.s typically of a good quality fish oil a day can help you be your very best. A few other things that you’ll find in the best quality fish oils in the world are astaxanthin and vitamin D3. Astaxanthin is the antioxidant that’s actually found in fish oil or found in wild caught salmon today. If you’ve ever had a really nice piece of wild Alaskan salmon, you noticed it’s that nice red and orange color. That color comes from the antioxidant astaxanthin. And so, again, when you’re doing a fish oil supplement, you want to make sure that fish oil has astaxanthin in it, because it’s the natural antioxidant that goes along with omega-3 fats.

They reduce inflammation and may help support athletic performance. Also, vitamin D3 during the winter months, it’s a prohormone that can support your body in balancing hormones which is also important for athletes. And a few last tips for athletes, especially if you’re an endurance athlete, you may also consider taking a quality probiotic supplement. If you’re doing things like triathlons or marathon running, it’s actually very hard on your gut and your digestive health and probiotics can help protect your gut, improve nutrient absorption which is so important for athletes. So probiotics are important as well, along with minerals like zinc, and certain B vitamins like vitamin B12 have been shown to support athletic performance. Put all these together; training, nutrition, and supplementation, and you’re going to be performing at your absolute best..

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