EndurElite Chief Endurance Officer Matt Mosman gives his recommendations on the best single supplements for health, endurance performance, and recovery.
Video Transcription:
Good morning, endurance friends. Matt Mosman, the endurance guru over at EndurElite, coming at you with today's endurance fast fact, while also representing the beautiful city of Spearfish, South Dakota. I would never recommend coming here. It is horrible. Said no one ever. So, today I got a question from my good friend Michael, and he asked me, "What are the top three ingredients that you would recommend for, one, general health, two, for endurance performance during an event, and then three, for recovery?" So these are Cheetos, Mountain Dew, and chocolate cake. Oh, wait, oh sorry, those aren't supplements, but man, they are sure tasty. So let's go through these one by one. And you may disagree with me on some of these and that's okay, but here are just my opinions on the top three.
Best Supplement For Overall Health - Vitamin D
So my top pick for the best single supplement for overall health is vitamin D, also known as the sunshine vitamin. Now, why is this? Well, one, vitamin D is the most common vitamin deficiency in developed countries. So vitamin D plays a lot of crucial roles in the body. It plays a role in cognition, overall well-being, bone health, immunity. It can help prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease, all things which you generally want to avoid. Now, what's the recommended dose of vitamin D I would be getting on a daily basis? You're looking at about 400 to 800 international units. What the hell is that? I don't know. It's just some weird European standard. But that equals about, for us Americans, about 10 to 20 micrograms daily. And here is the thing you wanna do with vitamin D though. You wanna take it with a meal containing some fat to help with absorption. So that is my recommendation for overall general health, vitamin D.
Best Supplement For Endurance Performance - Caffeine
Let's go to the next one. My single supplement recommendation for event performance or endurance performance hands down has to be caffeine. And why this is is thousands of studies have shown that 3 to 6 milligrams per kilogram by weight of caffeine about 60 minutes before an endurance event can improve performance by about 5 to 15%. It can decrease time to fatigue. It makes harder exercise seem easier. It may enhance the way you burn fat instead of glycogen. It may help with more efficient muscle contractions. And the list goes on and on and on and on and on and on. And I would dare anybody to argue with me that any other supplement is more effective at increasing endurance performance than caffeine, you know. Come at me, bro. I'll slay you with some science and then show you what's up. So that is my single ingredient or supplement recommendation for increasing endurance performance or event performance.
Best Supplement For Recovery - Whey Protein
Let's move on to the last one. What individual supplement would you recommend for recovery? I mean, that's super easy. A good whey protein. Again, lots of studies behind whey protein. You can go with a whey protein. You can go with a whey isolate. You can go with a plant protein if you want. But just a supplemental protein powder is B, my top recommendation for a recovery supplement. And the way you wanna use this is you wanna choose one that has at least 25 to 30 grams of protein per serving to promote muscle protein synthesis. And that is the process that basically tells your muscles, "Hey, it's time to get fixed and repaired and repair those little micro-tears in there and have you feeling good as new."
So those are my top three. For general health is the vitamin D, for event performance, caffeine, for recovery, a good whey protein. Now, I thought about including things like fish oil in there for general health. But, again, the research isn't super solid behind this. It's kind of hit or miss. For the caffeine, something else that I would recommend possibly if you actually don't like to take caffeine is a beetroot powder. That could have some pretty major benefits for endurance performance. And then for recovery, I mean, you could do a BCAA. But I would still go with a whey protein or some type of protein powder.
So there you have it. If you wanna check out all these different ingredients and a more in-depth explanation of why I'm recommending these, head on over to the EndurElite website down in the corner here, www.endurelite.com, check out those articles, and so, so, so, so much more on endurance training, nutrition, and supplementation that it'll make your head spin.
All right, my endurance friends, until next time, stay fueled, stay focused, and stay fast.
