5 Healing Supplements

Here’s something you may not realize: Recovery from injuries due to indoor or outdoor sports or even too-strenuous workouts can often be hastened with the aid of nutritional supplements. This month, I’d like to talk about the attributes of five supplements – and why they’re super healers.

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Timing Is Everything

Does it matter when I take my nutrition supplements?

Yes, the “when”  of taking supplements is just as important as the “why.” By timing your supplements to coincide with your workout schedule, you’ll maximize your performance, energy levels, muscular growth, and more. Here’s a closer look at when to take certain supplements.

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How to Start the Parrillo Supplement Program

Maybe you’ve looked over our list of supplements, believe they can help you maximize lean muscle (they can!), but don’t know where to start. In this column, I will show you how to establish a step-by-step supplement program that will help you reach your physique goals. If you’re ready, let’s get started.

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The Cortisol Controversy

Most of you know that testosterone is one of the principle hormones responsible for muscle growth and I’m sure you have also heard of cortisol. You might have some vague idea that cortisol is bad in so far as muscle growth; but do you know exactly what cortisol is or how to control it? This month, I thought I would explain what cortisol is and what we can do to favorably manipulate it.

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Join the B-Team For Super-Progress

Hard training affects the status of a certain group of vitamins, collectively known as the B-complex family. These vitamins are important for the proper metabolism of protein, carbohydrates, and fats; as well as for energy production. Research shows that if you’re deficient in B-vitamins, your physical performance will suffer. (1) So for optimum training and performance, you need a good supply of these nutrients, both from food and supplements. What follows is a look at specific B-vitamins and how they relate to training status.

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Think Trace Nutrients For Health

Minerals may not be the most glamorous sports nutrition supplement, but they are very important and frequently ignored – particularly in the bodybuilding diet. The typical bodybuilding diet, for example, focuses on egg whites, oatmeal, chicken breast, rice, vegetables (sound familiar?) I knew one bodybuilder who ate nothing but tuna and brown rice (even for breakfast). I pleaded with him to take a mineral supplement, but he didn’t think it was important. Mineral supplements cost a few cents a day and can provide valuable insurance against some major problems you really don’t want, like osteoporosis and anemia.

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Calories: Watch Them Go Up!

Most people hate counting calories because it generally equates with food deprivation to lose weight. If you follow the Parrillo Nutrition Program, do you have to bother counting calories if you get enough quality protein and carbohydrates and keep your fat intake low?

The answer is unequivocal and absolute: yes, you need to count calories. But unlike conventional diets, I want you to gradually increase your calories from quality foods. This builds your metabolism, and as long as you’re training hard, increasing calories decreases your body fat.

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CREATINE & WHEY: A MARRIAGE MADE IN MUSCLE HEAVEN

If you want to push the envelope of size and strength, make sure you’re taking a combo cocktail of whey protein powder and creatine. This powerful blend has been studied intensely in recent years, and results are promising.

Case in point: Researchers from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada, tested lean tissue mass, bench press, squat strength (one-rep max), and knee extension power in 36 males during and after six weeks of resistance training. The exercisers were randomly assigned one of three supplement groups: whey protein (about one-half gram per pound of bodyweight daily) only; whey protein plus creatine monohydrate (about 0.45 gram per pound daily); or a placebo.

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Control Your Hormones, Control Your Weight

Trying to lose weight? Following a precontest program for ripped abs and rope-like quads? The challenge of weight loss is impacted by your hormones. If you know how to manipulate them through diet, stripping away body fat gets easier. Let’s talk about how hormonal influence on weight management works.

Hormones are produced in the endocrine system, which consists of several organs in the body, including the pituitary gland, the thyroid gland, the parathyroid glands, the pancreas, the adrenal glands, the testes or ovaries and the kidneys. The endocrine system transmits information in the form of chemical messengers called hormones. (When parts of your body talk to each other using the nervous system, it’s like making a phone call, and when they use the endocrine system, it’s more like sending letters.)

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CapTri® – The MCT Metabolic Enhancer

Now Available in Plain & Butter Flavors!

With overeating and obesity on the rise, researchers are working hard at finding a “cure,” so it doesn’t surprise me that there’s more good news coming from labs on the power of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) to fight fat.

For background, MCTs are a special class of fatty acids; our MCT oil is CapTri^®. Normal fats and oils contain long-chain fatty acids (LCTs). Compared to these fatty acids, MCTs are much shorter in length. Therefore, they resemble carbohydrates, and act like them in the body, more than fat. As a result, CapTri^® is more easily absorbed, digested, and utilized as energy than conventional fats. This structure accounts for the ability of CapTri^® to stimulate the thermic effect of food and increase body temperature.

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