Vitamin D, Fish Oil, ZMA

I’m not a perfectly “clean” eater. I am not a health nut, I don’t care about life extension and could care less about living perfectly healthy. I drink a beer or two every few months, eat bread on the regular, and even drink milk almost daily. With that being said I think its pretty obvious I’m not the Paleo type and I don’t read too many nutrition guru articles.

About a month ago I hit a real plateau in my training. All my warm ups felt heavy, my joints were constantly aching, my sleep was horrible, and my sex drive was close to non existent. I took a few days off and upped the calories but that didn’t seem to help.

It was then when I read a post by MorePain I believe that stated how so many lifters get so caught up with all the fancy creatine, super pumpilicious supplements but forget about the basics.

I introduced Vitamin D, Fish Oil, and ZMA back into my daily regimen and the difference has been night and day.

I believe that besides and even before a protein powder these should be the absolute staples of any hard trainers regimen.

I take
5,000 i.u. of D a day.
10 Grams of Fish Oil with Breakfast
4-5 Caps of ZMA before bed.

My muscles feel fuller, I’ve got a ton of energy, my bicep tendon feels normal, I’m sleeping like a baby, and my sex drive is through the roof. I literally gained 10 pounds in about two weeks after introducing the basics back into my regimen. I suggest everyone do the same.

Yes, those are the staples

I would also add some daily amount of quality coconut oil and a Superfood/greens-type product to the bare-bones list

EDIT - and a fiber supplement, of course

It is amazing at how much vitamin D helped my overall health and lifting. I guess it has been found to increase testosterone levels in one study. (about half way down the page)

VITAMIN D AND MALE SEX DRIVE

your the same weight n height as my but im 43 . i’ll say this ,while youre still young you can get away with not eating clean and healthy etc etc .
youve already felt symptoms you would normally start to feel in your late 30’s .
i changed my diet n life style when i was about 21 and now i’m older im F’in glad i did. what you do to your body now you’ll feel in 20 years time.
i train weights 6 times a week and ride about 40 or 50 miles a week .
the only aches or pains i get now and again is muscle soreness from the weights and never have aches in my bones etc plus if you start to change for the better now you’ll look and feel ten years younger when youre older .
my daily staples for the past 20 years have been fish oil ( dont measure it just swig it from the bottle a few times a day ) ,vit c about 2000 mg , vit D 5000IU ( didnt start this till about 8 years ago ),creatine , ground flax seed and at least 3 lt water .

I would include plain old creatine pretty frequently as a staple, added it back recently after maybe a decade more indurece, strentgh, fuller musceles in a few days of use, dirt cheap i just mix 5 grams with some whey in the morning, maybe after a workout, probably put it ahead of ZMA supplements