It’s not uncommon for someone to come up to me at the gym and go- “Hey Noah, what do you think about monohydrophysioglutaminatate?” Everyone wants to improve their fitness, and it’s very human of us to look at a $50 tub of strange powder as an attractive potential fix. I’ve done it myself, many a time. It’s a bit of a quick fix mentality mixed with the ease of just adding a scoop of something to our water bottle and hoping that will be what puts us over the top.Supplements range from the “probably pretty useful and harmless” (protein, creatine), to the “use sparingly or for very specific reasons” (preworkout, especially ones with 12,000mg of caffeine), to the “idiot food” (the other 99% of stuff out there.) They aren’t bad per se, but their benefit is relatively marginal. I like to think of supplements as a luxury, a reward for being dialed in with all the other aspects of our fitness routine.I’m not gonna even get into nutrition, which is hugely, insanely impactful, but also can be tricky, can benefit from expert coaching (ahem, Robin), and is something most people will work on, tweak, and modify all their lives. No, let’s talk about something that you can dial in immediately and that will have a bigger impact, guaranteed, than any supplement you can buy.Sleep. 7-9 hours a night, preferable in a darkasfuck room that’s relatively chilly. That’s it. If you aren’t doing that, go to bed right now. It can be a tough habit to get dialled in initially, but once you establish good “sleep hygiene” you are set and the combination of a fairly easily repeatable practice AND the results you will see will cement it into your routine.(Editor’s note- 7-9 hours of sleep means actual time sleeping- I used a sleep tracker for a bit and was wowed to see that what I considered 8 solid hours was often more like 7 or less many nights. Err on the side of caution and if you aren’t sure, use a tracker!)I can get into all of the elements of sleep hygiene in another post, from blackout curtains to the f.lux app for your computer to setting “bedtime alarms” but for now just trust me. Take the bottle of West Peruvian Warthog Oil out of your Amazon cart and go to bed, you can thank me in the morning.
The Best Supplement You Probably Aren’t Using
