Fish Oil
I know, I know, everyone and your dog is probably telling you the benefits of fish oil but this stuff is legit. If you have had the opportunity to read any books about our paleolithic ancestors you know that in most modern, Western, tragically horrible eating styles we do not get enough Omega-3 fatty acids. It helps our cell membranes which are comprised of lipids, healthy cells = healthy people. (That is such a basic, basic connotation sorry for lack of words for that haha) Omega 3's help with circulation, and reduce inflammation, and so on and so forth.
Fish oil is one of the few supplements I take and I have personally benefited from it. Honestly, I CAN tell when I have forgotten to take my dosage in the day. The fish oil brand that I like the most as far as EPA/DHA levels and price is Barlean's fish oil. These are the capsule form and orange flavor; no sugars are added to them. I take approximately 7 grams of fish oil a day; this is about 1.3 grams of EPA and .8 grams of DHA. With much more than this, I start to get sluggish and just feel plain weird so 7 grams is good for me.
There are a lot of aspects about fish oil that are intriguing. Personally I notice behavior benefits as well as anti-inflammatory benefits. The anti-inflammatory responses are great for recovery from workouts. Especially when a person is lifting heavy weights and stressing the joints, it is even more important to take care of those joints. My knees are the biggest victim to pain, and when I wake up after not taking any, or enough fish oil the day before my knees are the first place I feel it. (Fore warning: This is an overused analogy for sure but it is SO true!) Our bodies are very much like cars. The food is the gas to keep us running, and fish oil provides the lubricant for the all the pistons and stuff ( I don't know shit about cars so I think oil helps with those ) of which are your joints and heart. If your car doesn't have oil then it's harder for it to keep running as well as you would like it to.
The behavioral benefits are combined with the hormonal regulation that paleo provides so it is a double bonus!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/health/healthspecial2/15fishoil.html -- Behavioral benefits
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fishoil.shtml -- More evidence of the benefits of fish oil; great article!
Bicarbonate Loading
I don't take a lot of supplements. I have always been kinda sketched out by all of the different ones out there. Currently, I am taking an Exercise physiology class and I have learned some really interesting facts about different supplements and the actual effects they produce. One that was the most fascinating to me was bicarbonate loading. This consists of loading the system (your body) with sodium bicarbonate which is a natural buffer. This helps combat the elevated pH in the blood and would allow for higher levels of lactate in the blood. By buffering the blood and having a higher lactate threshold fatigue would be delayed during exercise. This is true only in short term bouts of anaerobic exercise (cough cough O-lifting and short GPP bouts of exercise) The time frame for the anaerobic work out where bicarbonate loading is beneficial is between 1-7 minutes bouts.
The one deterring factor is in order to get the results purposed above one would have to consume/ingest 300mg/kg body weight. This has to be separated into 5 equal servings consumed over a 1-2 hour period. That is a shit done of baking soda down the hatch, and if you're a big boy.
I don't have any personal exposure to it...yet. If I do try it out I will post my experience. Here is a good website where I found some more supporting evidence
W. Larry.Kenney - Jack H.Wilmore - David L.Costill - Jack H.Wilmore - Human Kinetics - 2012
Zone Vs. Paleo (08/09/2012)
I have tried multiple different ways to make the zone work for me. And finally, I found the perfect managing technique; not doing to zone. It is one of those deals where it just didn't work out for me. I could do the zone for about 5-6 days straight and then down went a whole jar of almond butter. Afterwards, sitting on the couch licking the spoon and solemnly thinking damnit not again. Food blackout haha. I don't know if it was a lack of will power or what! I was doing 12 blocks a day with paleo foods. I felt like I wasn't recovering from my workouts like I should, I was often lethargic and pretty much felt like a worthless slob. Another downside that I faced was the constant need of devising a plan for my day, how many blocks for each meal, how many hours spaced in between how many blocks for a post workout meal, proper ratios, etc. I am an over-analyzer anyway and the zone on top of that made me a NIGHTMARE! So I thought it was best for my own sanity to do something different about it.
I have heard many people praise the zone, they look great, recover great, and feel great. But there are others, like me, who had a less than desirable experience with it. Not just less than desirable but probably somewhere closer to hating life/the world. I think it goes to show that there isn't a perfect regime for everyone. People are so individualistic in every other part of their life so it isn't surprising that biochemically we are different too. There is only so much a person can to do alter their genes to be expressed a certain way. It is just like how everybody sets up different in their snatch or clean & jerk. What works for one person isn't necessarily going to work for you.
Stopping the zone and now just doing paleo has been a blessing. My recovery from heavy lifting is superb, I have oodles of energy throughout the day. I now have to wake up earlier in the morning so that I can actually fall asleep at night I have some much fucking energy. The zone has been incredibly helpful though. I still regulate and know how much I am eating of what, but I don't restrict myself as much. The zone has allowed me to gain the knowledge of about how many grams of carbohydrates their are in a serving of brussel sprouts, or how much protein in a piece of chicken, and how much fat is in a certain oil. Now, I can create different ratios that are much more conducive to Olympic weightlifting. With my workouts consisting of largely anaerobic activities I realized that I don't need as many carbs. I now only consume about 60-70 grams of carbs a day (trying to get closer to 63 kg by September), 100-120 grams of protein and lord only knows how much fat...probably around 70 grams I'd say.
The craziest thing of all is that the main reason I was doing to the zone was to try and improve body composition, but because of the external stress I was placing on myself plus the lack of recovery I only felt worse about myself! Now that I have switched, the funny thing is that my body composition is much better, and I don't feel like shit. Win, win situation if you ask me :)
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