Supplement roundup, revisited

(Previously, previously.)

Let’s play this game again.

• Protein powder — yup, still on the whey isolate train.  Lately I’ve been making two kinds of protein shakes: two scoops of whey isolate and 5g creatine for workouts, and the same plus a teaspoon of Metamucil and a teaspoon of Greens+ for the rest of the time.  I don’t have any direct evidence that the latter does me huge amounts of good, but the opportunity cost is negligible so I figure it can’t hurt.
• Creatine — still cheap as hell, still silly effective at maintaining strength during glycogen depletion.
• Beta alanine — ditched it over the summer, don’t miss it.  I’ve been doing a bunch of conditioning lately, and it turns out that “doing a bunch of conditioning” is better for increasing lactate-threshold performance than beta alanine.
• L-carnitine l-tartrate — still great.  My pre-workout lately is 20mg ephedrine, 200mg caffeine, 1.5g LCLT.  It’s super effective!
• Melatonin and ZMA — I’m pretty well convinced that these two help me sleep longer and better.
• Waxy maize — dropped it.  Rather than drinking sawdust shakes for my carb-ups I’m eating sushi.  More expensive, but I actually enjoy it.
• BCAAs — picked up an “off” bucket of these (smelled sour and foamed on contact with water) and haven’t bothered to replace it.  Looking back I think pure leucine was more effective.  Gonna see if I can find some of that when I start bulking again.
• Liv-Tone — the Greens+ people make this shit, and it is an honest to Jesus hangover preventative.  I take two caps of this and two grams of time-release Vitamin C before I go out drinking, and if I get really lit up (and have the presence of mind to remember) the same when I get home.  As long as I drink a reasonable amount of water, not only does this leave me with nearly no hangover the next day, but my sleep quality actually seems decent (rather than the usual unhelpful drunk-sleep).  I mean, it doesn’t make chronic heavy drinking magically okay from a physiological perspective, but it sure makes occasional shitfacery a lot easier to fit in, even if it’s the night before leg day.
• Fish oil, D3 gelcaps, glucosamine/chondroitin/MSM — still.  They are cheap and easy.