Axe Supplements That Are Not For You
The world (or universe) of dietary supplements is as vast as it is complex. There’s supplements designed to help individuals lose weight, build muscle, train harder, and be more productive.
There are even supplements to help reduce stress, promote general health, and improve sleep.
But, here’s something 99.9% of supplement companies won’t tell you -- you don’t actually need supplements to get the results you want. You can attain everything you want from being consistently on top of your diet, training, and sleep.
Now, that’s not to say that supplements are worthless...far from it.
Supplements can (and have been shown) to be helpful in helping many, many people reach their goals -- be it aesthetics, performance, or health and well-being.
The difficult part for consumers is trying to identify which supplements are best suited to their goals, and at the same time helping them understand that hard work, dedication, consistency, and patience is still needed to obtain the results they want.
Today, we discuss how to use supplements based on your needs and/or goals and axe supplements that are not for you.
What Are the Right Supplements for Me & My Goals?
As overplayed as the expression “everyone is unique as a snowflake” is, the truth is that every individual has their own unique goals, aspirations, and desires.
Sure, two people may have the same end goal (e.g. build muscle, lose fat, increase productivity, etc.), but the tools employed and the work ethic applied may be vastly different. This can be due to several things, including genetics, training experience, time available, etc.
So, this is why it takes a bit of customization and understanding of an individual’s wants, needs, and goals when deciding which supplements to use.
At the same time, there are a few supplements which could be considered “core essentials” that form the underlying foundation of most physically active individuals' supplement regimens.
Everyday “Essentials”
By definition, no supplement is “essential.”
However, there are certain supplements that are purchased and consumed far more frequently than others.
At the top of this list is…
Multi-Vitamin
Multivitamins help fill in the gaps of your daily micronutrient needs that may not be sufficiently addressed by your daily diet. These micronutrients are essential to the body’s ability to optimize your overall health, energy levels, mood and muscle building processes.
Glory MV is an affordable, high potency blend of bioavailable vitamins and minerals formulated to support your micronutrient requirements
Protein Powder
Consuming enough protein is essential to achieving your fitness and physique goals, not to mention overall health, hormone production, and immune function.
Yet, many individuals struggle to consume enough protein each day.
Whey protein powder provides a very high quality source of protein that is extremely bioavailable, rich in essential amino acids, and easy to digest. It’s also low in calories and carbohydrates, easy to prepare, and tasted delicious.
Moreover, whey protein is perfect for any fitness goal, be it muscle building, fat loss, or body recomposition.
Primeval Labs offers a dynamic duo of delicious-tasting, high quality protein powders is ISOLIT and WHEY.
Creatine Monohydrate
Whie creatine is typically thought of as purely a “muscle building” supplement, the truth is that the benefits of creatine extend far beyond increasing the size of your biceps.
In addition to supporting lean mass gains, supplementation with creatine has also been found to:
- Improve maximal strength
- Improve power production
- Increase anaerobic threshold
- Increase single and repetitive sprint performance
- Support heart health
- Support recovery from injury
- Aid energy production
- Offer neuroprotective benefits
- Enhance cognitive function
These days, there is a lot of hype around “alternative” forms of creatine that tout superior bioavailability and/or mixability, with the belief that you can either get better results or get similar results from a smaller dose.
The truth is that these claims lack substantial backing. Creatine monohydrate has been and continues to be the king of creatine.
3-5 grams per day is all that is required. There’s no need to load, cycle, or try different forms of creatine.
If you’re looking to improve performance, build muscle, and boost overall day-to-day function, creatine is about as close to a “must have” supplement as they come.
Primeval Labs offers an incredibly affordable, premium-quality creatine monohydrate powder that supplies 5 grams of creatine per serving.
Fruit & Vegetables Supplement
There’s no other way to say it -- the prototypical Western Diet is deplorable from a health standpoint. It’s woefully low in protein, fiber, and micronutrients and bloated with refined carbs, simple sugars, cheap fats, and empty calories.
As a result, most individuals don’t get enough fruits and vegetables in their diets. In fact, some estimates indicate that just 10% of adults meet the recommended daily intake for fruit or vegetable.
This is a serious concern when you consider that numerous studies have found an association between low fruit and veggie intake and an increased risk of several chronic disorders, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.
Priority #1 should be on increasing daily fruit and vegetable intake. Eating a diverse selection of tasty fruits and vegetables provides a vast array of essential vitamins and minerals as well as fiber, water, antioxidants, and polyphenols.
Try as we might, even the best “clean eaters” have days when they’re on the go and/or come up a bit short on their fruit and vegetable intake.
That’s when it may be helpful to have a delicious-tasting fruit and vegetables supplement, such as Day2Day.
Day2Day is a delicious-tasting nutritional support supplement delivering 5 grams of powdered fruits and vegetables. Each serving of Day2Day also includes a comprehensive blend of digestive enzymes to support gut health and nutrient absorption.
Muscle Building
Moving beyond the “everyday essentials” class of supplements, you can start to consider supplements based on your particular goals, such as building muscle or losing weight.
We should mention that we’ve already discussed two of the most common (and useful) supplements for supporting muscle growth -- creatine monohydrate and protein powder. This list extends beyond those basics and considers some other useful supplements/products to consider adding to your supplement regimen.
Up first, let’s discuss some supplements that may be beneficial for improving training and recovery, as those two have a direct impact on your muscle building results.
Pre Workout
Resistance training provides the stimulus your muscles need to adapt and grow bigger and stronger. Without a sufficient stimulus, they really have no impetus to grow.
That means everytime you step foot into the gym treat it as an opportunity for growth. You need to attack each session not merely with a mindset of “working out” but training.
Working out is great, if your focus is on maintaining your results or supporting overall health.
But, if you’re serious about building muscle, then you need to have a plan of attack and execute it.
For instance, you should be following a well-designed training program, tracking weights, reps & sets, and trying to improve upon those numbers every time you hit the gym.
This grind can become physically and mentally fatiguting as you’re continuously pushing your mind and body to outdo what it’s previously done.
Having a premium-quality pre workout, such as Mega Pre Black or Ape Sh*t, can go a long way to helping you have a great workout.
Pre workout supplements can help increase energy, delay the onset of fatigue, and improve athletic performance, which ultimately help you lift more weight for more reps and build more muscle.
Intra Workout
Moving beyond pre workout supplements, intra workout supplements supply your muscles with important nutrients it needs, like fast-digesting carbohydrates, electrolytes, and essential amino acids, that allow them to sustain a high-level of output for the duration of the workout while also delaying the onset of fatigue.
Now, it should be mentioned that not every individual hitting the gym, nor every workout requires the use of an intra workout supplement.
For instance, if you’re simply going for a 30-minute walk or hike, you don’t need an intra workout supplement as that brief of a workout isn’t really all that glycogen depleting or catabolic.
But, if you’re focused on building muscle, then chances are good that your training is fairly intense, both in terms of how much weight you’re lifting and how much volume you’re doing each session.
In this situation, a premium-quality intra workout supplement, like Intracell, may be useful for delaying the onset of fatigue, thereby enabling you to complete more work and supporting the muscle building process.
One thing that many individuals are concerned about with intar workout supplements is the carbohydrate content. But, if there ever was a time that carbohydrates could be useful, then it would be in the peri-workout window when your muscles will utilize those carbohydrates to power muscle contractions, replenish glycogen stores, and support the recovery and growth processes.
Still, if you’re on the carb-conscious side, an intra workout may still be useful if you’re focused on optimizing muscle recovery and growth. That’s why we created EAA Max -- a delicious-tasting amino acid supplement that provides a full spectrum of all nine essential amino acids to support the muscle building process.
Phosphatidic Acid
Phosphatidic acid is a naturally-occuring phospholipid synthesized during resistance training, especially eccentric lifting. Phospholipids are a major constituent of cell membranes (including muscle cells), that also act as signaling messengers inside the cell.
Researchers have discovered that phosphatidic acid is unique in that it can directly stimulate mTOR -- the pathway that drives protein synthesis in the body. In a sense, phosphatidic acid is to lipids what leucine is to amino acids -- it gives the signal to the muscle cell telling it to grow.
Supplementation with phosphatidic acid has been shown to increase strength and lean mass gains.
If you’re already using creatine, protein powder, and intra workout supplements and looking to further support your muscle building desires, then phosphatidic acid is a very appealing choice.
Primeval Labs PA Max contains the full research-backed dose of Mediator Phosphatidic Acid in every serving.
Weight Loss
Weight loss is a $70+ billion enterprise.
This means there is no shortage of people trying to lose weight. Many have tried and failed, and they’re willing to try anything to get the results they want, including all sorts of whackadoodle diets, extreme exercise programs, and silly supplements that don’t do much of anything.
Far and away this is the segment of the supplement industry where consumers can get hoodwinked and spend lots of money and be left with markedly underwhelming results.
From the outset, we’ll tell you that, despite what you read on “expert” websites, you will not lose weight (or fat) if you are not in a calorie deficit.
There is no “hack”. There is no “trick”. There is no magic pill.
If you want to lose weight (much the same as if you want to build muscle), then you need to be willing to put in the work.
That means you have to be in an energy deficit whereby you’re burning more calories than you eat.
Far too many individuals pin their weight loss hopes on fad diets and fat loss pills that simply don’t work.
We’ll say it again, there is no quick-fix, hack, or trick for long-term, meaningful weight loss.
Sure, adopting an ultra-low carb diet can help lose some water weight in short order, but the second you reintroduce carbohydrates into your diet, you’ll regain the weight.
Now, don’t let this rant discourage you.
Weight loss is an admirable goal, and one that many people successfully achieve each year. It’s just that a significant portion of the weight loss seeking population goes about it the wrong way.
To lose weight, you must be in a calorie deficit.
To further optimize your weight loss (i.e. losing fat and not muscle), necessitates tweaking things a bit further by ensuring that you’re consuming enough protein and resistance training. Both of these help protect against muscle breakdown and facilitate fat loss.
Going yet another layer deeper brings us to the supplement side of things.
Provided your diet and exercise regimen is on point, weight loss support aids (aka “fat burners”) can help make the process go much more smoothly.
For instance, low energy and motivation are common side effects of dieting, which is largely due to consuming less energy than the body requires.
Weight loss support aids, like Pyretic X or Ape Sh*t Cutz, contain ingredients that help boost feelings of energy, motivation and focus, such as caffeine, huperzine, or yohimbe.
The best weight loss supplements aren’t merely just a combination of stimulants, though. They also contain ingredients that support fat metabolism, help with feelings of hunger, and enhance exercise performance.
Collectively, this helps the body burn more fat for energy as well as more overall calories during exercise while helping keep calorie intake under control. Together, these effects support weight loss as well as make it more manageable.
Again, weight loss aids (much like supplements that help with muscle building) only work if you’re doing things right concerning your nutrition and training program. Without those things in place, no amount of supplements will help you get the results you want.
But, if you’re willing to do the work, trust the process, and have the dedication to see it through, supplements can help make the process more efficient, less stressful, and more enjoyable!
Click here to learn more about Primeval Labs extensive range of premium-quality supplements formulated to help you reach your goals!
