Best Supps for the Over 35 Crowd?

Hi Gang - I’m new to this forum and have been lifting for a couple of years. I’d like to know what each of you feels are the best products and supplements out there that you use to get better results.

I know it’s hard for me to read M & F without wanting to enhance performance through some new supplements.

Anyway - your thoughts are appreciated…

Moho

[quote]FOXMO4 wrote:
Hi Gang - I’m new to this forum and have been lifting for a couple of years. I’d like to know what each of you feels are the best products and supplements out there that you use to get better results.

I know it’s hard for me to read M & F without wanting to enhance performance through some new supplements.

Anyway - your thoughts are appreciated…

Moho[/quote]

There are two tiers. The first tier consists of those things that in a broad sense can be called “lifestyle” supplements. I’ve found the main ones to be:

  1. supplements that help optimize natural hormone levels (e.g., Alpha Male, DHEA, Vitex, bioidentical hormones for women, gugglesterones, etc…);
  1. supplements that protect joints and connective tissues (e.g., DMSO, glucosamine/chondroitin, cissus quadrangularis, etc…); and

  2. supplements that support healthy organ function and that may have secondary positive effects on health, metabolism, and body composition (e.g., Omega 3 fatty acids, CLA, calcium, cinnamon extract, alpha lipoic acid, etc…).

The second tier is comprised of supplements that are designed to be used for some discrete period of time in order to facilitate achieving a specific goal, such as fat loss or increasing strength. Products such as HOT-ROX, Carbolin 19, prohormones, etc… fall into this category.

Being in my late 40’s, one thing I’ve learned is that the “optimal hormone” thingy is not just nice, but necessary for us “mature” types - both male and female - if one is intent on keeping muscle on and excessive bodyfat off.

Alpha Male and a good protein powder like Grow! = boosted T levels and solid building block for muscle. Good staple combo for those 35 and up.

In my opinion Weider i.e. Muscle & Fiction, Flex, etc. are a total waste of money and time. 100% pure crap. Most of the “athletes” (and I use that term loosely) are steroid/GH guzzling freaks. Regardless, don’t believe all the supplement company hype. The pro bodybuilding game is a lot like pro wrestling, believe only 1/2 of what you see and none of what you hear.

All supplements are just that, supplementation to your diet, not a replacement. Those “drug like” results promised in the mags are pure bullshit. If they produced drug like effects the FDA would swoop down on them like a hawk and pull the product off the market making it available by prescription only. Look what happened to pro-hormones. They worked so they were yanked, same with ephedra.

The only “supplements” that produce drug like results are drugs such as steroids and growth hormones and the ones mentioned above. I’ve never had any hands on experiences with them but know many who have and do. For my money it’s too much of a legal hot potato to mess with and too expensive. Not worth the risk in my opinion although others here will disagree with me on this issue.

The best advice I can give you is; train hard, eat right and you’ll make progress. Be patient and results will come. Don’t waste your money on most supplements. If you must supplement I recommend a high quality protein supplement and maybe a good Creatine product and that’s about all that is worth the money and effort in my opinion.

Best of luck,

Ass Buster

[quote]The Cardinal wrote:
FOXMO4 wrote:
Hi Gang - I’m new to this forum and have been lifting for a couple of years. I’d like to know what each of you feels are the best products and supplements out there that you use to get better results.

I know it’s hard for me to read M & F without wanting to enhance performance through some new supplements.

Anyway - your thoughts are appreciated…

Moho

There are two tiers. The first tier consists of those things that in a broad sense can be called “lifestyle” supplements. I’ve found the main ones to be:

  1. supplements that help optimize natural hormone levels (e.g., Alpha Male, DHEA, Vitex, bioidentical hormones for women, gugglesterones, etc…);
  1. supplements that protect joints and connective tissues (e.g., DMSO, glucosamine/chondroitin, cissus quadrangularis, etc…); and

  2. supplements that support healthy organ function and that may have secondary positive effects on health, metabolism, and body composition (e.g., Omega 3 fatty acids, CLA, calcium, cinnamon extract, alpha lipoic acid, etc…).

The second tier is comprised of supplements that are designed to be used for some discrete period of time in order to facilitate achieving a specific goal, such as fat loss or increasing strength. Products such as HOT-ROX, Carbolin 19, prohormones, etc… fall into this category.

Being in my late 40’s, one thing I’ve learned is that the “optimal hormone” thingy is not just nice, but necessary for us “mature” types - both male and female - if one is intent on keeping muscle on and excessive bodyfat off.[/quote]

Cardinal,

Very nice way to break it down. A few thoughts:

–Under 2 don’t forget MSM (there was a recent abstract showing that adding MSM to glucosamine produced benefit) as well as…celadrin

–AVOID CLA which has been shown to be unhealthy: use the search engine here for details as they have been posted in the forum before, or look at Udo Erasmus’ site.

–Dont’ forget vitamin C and a multi.

I think that the best possible ‘supplement’ for a man over 35 is testosterone.

I’ll agree with Ass Buster to on the legal hot potato problem. But there are legal ways to obtain the hormone that can change your life.

I’m probably biased, but since being on test for the past 8 weeks, or so has changed my life. Not just in the gym, but in every area.

I never want to come off. Once again - not because of the gains I’ve made in terms of LBM or strength, but because I feel like I’ve always thought I should feel for the first time in 20 years.

Why are you reading M&F?

Alpha Male or RED KAT or TRIBEX, Low-Carb Grow! and Surge.

[quote]jlesk68 wrote:
Why are you reading M&F?[/quote]

Word…

Thoughts on any of these :

Cre-ethyl Omega Thunder
AMP
ZMA
Cold Fusion
NO-XPLODE
Higher Power CEE
VPX Redline Caps
Optimum Tribulus or TRIBEX-500

Thanks !

I like Glucosamine and MSM specifically for joints. But there is another less talked about supplement that works extremely well “Wobenzym.” This has been around for a long time. It is a combination of enzymes. Give it a try for joint pain.

Other than that make sure that you take one good Multi vitamin per day. I like Twin Lab or Life Extension.

I also add the following:

  1. Selenium
  2. Bilberry
  3. Garlic Extract
  4. Carnosine
  5. L-Carnitine
  6. CoQ10
  7. Choline

I also take Grow! on a daily basis as it’s the single best protein powder that I have ever tasted, and it works!

I know what you are thinking: “That Zeb takes way to much stuff!” Come on say it! SAY IT! (laughs maniacally).

Seriously, that may seem like quite a lot of supplements to take, but I have had no T problems and I am in my late, late 40’s. (Help can’t someone stop this age thing?)

Oh…and don’t forget to eat natural foods! I consume 9 (or more) fruits and vegetables per day, usually in their raw state so that I am able to benefit from the enzymes which are lost upon cooking.

Honestly, I have limitless energy and my lifts have never been better (I’m not bragging I am comparing me to me)! I think the above (along with other things) has kept me in the game long after others my age, or younger, are on the sidelines.

As one of the older geezers on this one something I have found.
My training partner is 38 and he is doing great with the following;
Protein, whey and caseinated.
the whey is for post workout and mid morning feeding. Caseinated for bedtime.

Creatine, does wonders.

L Glutamine also helps training stamina and strength building.

Glucosamine for joint health,

Vitamin C the greatest for the body.

This is all we do and have great results.

[quote]FOXMO4 wrote:
Hi Gang - I’m new to this forum and have been lifting for a couple of years. I’d like to know what each of you feels are the best products and supplements out there that you use to get better results.

I know it’s hard for me to read M & F without wanting to enhance performance through some new supplements.

Anyway - your thoughts are appreciated…

Moho[/quote]

[quote]Senseial wrote:
As one of the older geezers on this one something I have found.
My training partner is 38 and he is doing great with the following;
Protein, whey and caseinated.
the whey is for post workout and mid morning feeding. Caseinated for bedtime.

Creatine, does wonders.

L Glutamine also helps training stamina and strength building.

Glucosamine for joint health,

Vitamin C the greatest for the body.

This is all we do and have great results.

FOXMO4 wrote:
Hi Gang - I’m new to this forum and have been lifting for a couple of years. I’d like to know what each of you feels are the best products and supplements out there that you use to get better results.

I know it’s hard for me to read M & F without wanting to enhance performance through some new supplements.

Anyway - your thoughts are appreciated…

Moho

[/quote]

I tried Glutamine and never felt, or saw a difference. Do you take it on an empty stomach? I heard this is the best (perhaps only) way that it gets absorbed.

[quote]ZEB wrote:
Senseial wrote:
As one of the older geezers on this one something I have found.
My training partner is 38 and he is doing great with the following;
Protein, whey and caseinated.
the whey is for post workout and mid morning feeding. Caseinated for bedtime.

Creatine, does wonders.

L Glutamine also helps training stamina and strength building.

Glucosamine for joint health,

Vitamin C the greatest for the body.

This is all we do and have great results.

FOXMO4 wrote:
Hi Gang - I’m new to this forum and have been lifting for a couple of years. I’d like to know what each of you feels are the best products and supplements out there that you use to get better results.

I know it’s hard for me to read M & F without wanting to enhance performance through some new supplements.

Anyway - your thoughts are appreciated…

Moho

I tried Glutamine and never felt, or saw a difference. Do you take it on an empty stomach? I heard this is the best (perhaps only) way that it gets absorbed.

[/quote]
Guys; It really really depends on your age and YOU. 35 is NOT old. This category should be 35 -45 and 45 to 55 then 55+ the body goes through many changes during this time. The basic are Protein,your omega’s, Your multi-vitamins,over 45 start your B complex and Creatine works for ALL ages.
oh by the way i’ll be 52 in Aug with 38yrs of lifting.It’s funny how all the things I did when I was real young are now back. My father and his buddies were powerlifters. The supplements they took then were the ones I just mentioned with the exception of Creatine, instead they took dissecated liver(sp). Of those 8 guys 7 are still alive and lifting all 75 an over!

Good advice from everybody but remember everybody is different. What works for one may not work for another. The biggest result you get from supplements is when you have a deficiency and the supplement corrects this. On the other hand instead of supplements concentrate on what NOT to eat e.g. refined sugar products. Type 2 diabetes is on the rise everywhere. Try as much as possible to avoid any sort of processed food. Read the excellent advice on this site. Been lifting for 42 years, 60 years young and still exercising!

The best supplement you can take is the one that gets you off your posterior region and into the gym!

On another note: no supp will do anything if your T is low. After being in many TKD tournaments and getting kicked several times in the groin, my T was very low. Get tested!! Ever been hit ‘there’? Get tested!

Rant over!

Zeb forgot the kitchen sink to wash it all down! ;-).

First time lurker here as I’m 31.

Anybody had experience with a good Avena Sativa. From what I’ve read it needs to be at least 7% avenacosides A&B. Seen claims of a 20% increase in fT.

Best,
DH

MACA all the way, it’s a peruvian tuber that has been show to increase testosterone receptors…

http://health.discovery.com/centers/sex/libido/maca_print.html

Maca: Peru’s Natural Viagra
By Chris Kilham

type size: [A] [A] [A]
The South American country of Peru is home to numerous beneficial plants, including maca, a legendary sex-enhancing root passed down from the Inca. I’d heard about maca for years. It has been dubbed “Peruvian ginseng,” even though it bears no relation to ginseng. But like ginseng, the plant is employed to increase strength, energy, stamina, libido and sexual function, a winning combination of health benefits if there ever was one.

To investigate maca’s health benefits and understand the role that maca plays in Peruvian culture, my wife and I headed down to Peru to explore the maca trail. In the process we met with maca traders, growers and scientists, and came back tremendously impressed by this plant, which is now available as a supplement in U.S. health food stores.

What is Maca?
Maca, Lepidium meyenii, is an annual plant which produces a radish-like root. The root of maca is typically dried and stored, and will easily keep for seven years. The plant is cultivated in the Junin plateau of Peru’s Central Highlands, and was highly revered by the Inca.

During the height of the Incan empire, legend has it that Incan warriors would consume maca before entering into battle. This would make them fiercely strong. But after conquering a city the Incan soldiers were prohibited from using maca, to protect the conquered women from their powerful sexual impulses. Thus as far back as 500 years ago, maca’s reputation for enhancing strength, libido and fertility was already well established in Peru.

Today, maca’s popularity is very much on the increase, as people discover that the plant really does boost libido, sexual function and overall energy. Acreage in Peru dedicated to Maca cultivation is increasing every year to meet demand, and a number of scientists have turned their attention to the properties of the root. In Peru, maca is used by men and by women who want to put more fire into their sex lives. And in the U.S., Europe and Japan, dietary supplements containing maca are gaining ardent devotees.

Maca Nutrition
What natural ingredients in maca promote its reputed sex-enhancing effects? In-depth analysis of maca conducted in 1998 by Dr. Qun Yi Zheng and his colleagues at PureWorld Botanicals shows that maca contains about 10 percent protein, almost 60 percent carbohydrate, and an assortment of fatty acids. These ingredients are common and nothing special. But the investigators also discovered two groups of novel compounds, the macamides and the macaenes. These agents are believed to be directly responsible for maca’s sex-boosting powers.

To test this idea, researchers conducted a series of controlled animal experiments, the results of which were published in the April 2000 issue of the medical journal Urology. Rodents fed MacaPure extract, which contains a concentration of macamides and macaenes, demonstrated greatly increased energy and stamina. The animals also exhibited a striking increase in sexual activity as compared with non-maca-fed animals, or those fed lesser amounts of macamides and macaenes. So how does this translate to humans? Individuals who consume maca also get sexual results. Men and women with low libido feel a boost in sexual desire, and men with erectile problems notice marked improvement in sexual function.

Maca Use in Peru
In Peru, maca is a food. At the Third Annual Maca Festival in Churin, Peru, we sampled numerous products made with the sex-enhancing root. Peruvians make cookies, cakes, hot porridge, chips and blender drinks with maca root, which has a pleasant flavor similar to graham flour.

At several booths, women were making maca blender drinks. Maca roots soaked in jars of water, and the tables were laden with all the ingredients for a drink. The typical shake includes a couple of soaked maca roots and a little bit of the soak water, a handful of fresh papaya (trucked up from the warm lowlands), some condensed milk, an egg, honey and vanilla, all put together with vigor and smiles. I asked a number of people why they used maca, but one woman stands out in my mind. She smiled at my question and replied, “Well, for the sex, of course.”

Doctors Comment on Maca
Users aren’t the only ones making comments about maca. The root and its extracts are used in medical practice in Peru. In the November 1988 Townsend Letter for Doctors, physicians were quoted regarding the therapeutic and salutary uses of maca. Doctor Hugo Malaspina, M.D., a cardiologist practicing complementary medicine in Lima, Peru, has been using maca in his practice for 10 years.

Malaspina first found out about maca through a group of sexually active older men who were taking the herb with good results. “One of this group started taking maca and found he was able to perform satisfactorily in a sexual relationship with a lady friend. Soon everyone in the group began drinking the powdered maca as a beverage and enjoying the boost that the root was giving their hormonal functions. I have several of these men as patients, and their improvement prompted me to find out more about maca and begin recommending it to my other patients.”

Another Peruvian physician, Doctor Aguila Calderon, M.D., is the former dean of the Faculty of Human Medicine at the National University of Federico Villarreal in Lima. Doctor Calderon uses maca for male impotence, erectile dysfunction, menopausal symptoms and general fatigue, and claims good results.

Arizona physician Gary Gordon, M.D., former president of the American College for Advancement in Medicine, is also a maca supporter. "We all hear rumors about various products like maca. But using this Peruvian root myself, I personally experienced a significant improvement in erectile tissue response. I call it nature’s answer to Viagra.

What I see in maca is a means of normalizing our steroid hormones like testosterone, progesterone and estrogen. Therefore it has the facility to forestall the hormonal changes of aging. It acts on men to restore them to a healthy functional status in which they experience a more active libido."

How Much Maca Should You Take?
Keep in mind that maca is a food, and is not used in tiny quantities. Most supplement companies that are selling maca are putting about 500 milligrams of ground, dried maca in each capsule. Some recommend three capsules daily, some six.

I believe that many people think of herbs like drugs, and assume that small amounts will do some good. In most cases, that’s not true. As a rule, consumers take too little of most herbs to derive the benefits those herbs can impart. Rare is the herb that works in small doses. And many herbal product labels offer dosage recommendations based not on efficacy, but on price.

To be consistent with Peruvian use you’d take a minimum of six to ten 500-milligram capsules of powdered maca daily, equal to 3,000 to 5,000 milligrams of maca. You can certainly take more. You can also obtain powdered maca root under some brands. With those products, you can toss a tablespoon full into a blender drink every day and enjoy maca the way the Peruvians do.

MacaPure, which is a standardized, concentrated extract of maca, is a different story. Companies selling MacaPure are recommending one 450-milligram capsule of MacaPure extract twice daily, equal to 900 milligrams of MacaPure extract. I personally think that four to five capsules (between 1,800 and 2,250 milligrams) daily is the right range.

The more maca or maca extract you consume, the more benefit you are likely to get. In toxicity studies conducted in the U.S., maca showed absolutely no toxicity and no adverse pharmacologic effects. In animal studies, the more maca animals consume, the stronger and more sexually active they become. You can be generous with the amounts of maca products you take. With maca, you have a safe, effective, nontoxic way to significantly boost your sexual function, without the hazards of prescription drugs.

Best suppliments are beer and wasabi flavored chips.