PARAMOUNT FITNESS TRAINING

BY PAUL YOUST ©Copyright-2009 Houston5ABaseball.com

If you watch the tube at all, you've seen all the media coverage about A-Rod and many other top MLB players. These great athletes have been linked to the use of steroids in some way, possibly wrongfully so in some cases. You can judge for yourself, but many athletes have placed the blame on supplements for testing positive. The purpose of this article is to explore a few supplements and if you should consider taking them.

Quite honestly, I feel everyone needs to be on a supplement in some way shape or form. I think this is true for the competitive athlete, fitness enthusiast and even sedentary person. A lot of this is because the quality of food in this day and age is beyond poor - putting it lightly without getting too political. Some supplements will provide you with positive health and performance benefits you cannot get from your diet alone. Still others are overpriced placebos at best, but you get the point.

So the question is this: What do you take? I feel everyone, especially competitive athletes, needs to be on a whole food multivitamin, fish oil and a post workout drink of some kind. And before you ask, none of these should make you test positive for a banned substance. Why? Because they're food sources. You won't find banned stimulants, hormone boosters, fat burners, etc. in these supplements. Here's my list of minimal needs to keep you healthy and performing optimally - exception being the post workout shake for the sedentary:

The Essential Supplements

1. Multivitamin - Recently, there was an article on yahoo about the need for a multivitamin. It was a fairly interesting read because the conclusion basically said most people should be taking one. Up until that point, it seemed to argue that you didn't need one. I'm also assuming it was addressing the OTC (Over The Counter) products at a typical grocery store. From what I know, most of them are absolute junk because the pills cannot be fully broken down in the gut. This means you cannot access the full nutritional value of the supplement and essentially waste it.

Because of this, I strongly recommend using only a whole food multivitamin. A good multivitamin will list out the specific foods in the product instead of a bunch of science jargon that makes no sense to the layperson.

I feel a good multivitamin is essential to covering all your "nutritional bases". It doesn't make up, however, for a very poor diet. You still need to work on your nutrition in addition to taking the supplement. Combine these two and your body will thank you.

2. Fish Oil - Do you eat a lot of fish? I didn't think so. Unless you live on a tropical island somewhere, you probably need to be taking a fish oil supplement. Fish oil has been highly touted for its numerous health benefits. It can assist you with: body composition (read: help you lose body fat), reduce inflammation caused by training and/or injury and reduce your disease risk. Just like with multivitamins, make sure you get a quality product. Make sure the EPA/DHA levels are as high as possible per serving, particularly the DHA levels for men.

3. Post Workout Drink - If you train at all, you definitely need to be taking in a quality post workout beverage. This helps speed the recovery process so you can come back stronger than before. Optimal protein: carb ratio should be somewhere around 1:2, according to Dr. John Berardi, a Sports Nutritionist and Owner of Precision Nutrition. Get this taken care of and you'll see faster progress with your training.

Conclusion

Supplements have now officially been covered. I figured it would be appropriate considering all the press about it these days. Supplements are not evil like some will have you believe. You just need to be cautious about what you're taking and select only the essential supplements to keep your health and performance up. In my mind, you don't need much more than what I've listed above. I hope this helps alleviate some concern and steers you in the right direction towards a better performance.

PAUL YOST can be reached at Paramount Ftiness Traing