Supplements can help, but you need to ask the right questions

In the past few years, I have written very few articles about supplements.

Perhaps it’s because of the years spent experimenting as a teenager that led to little or no gains, perhaps it’s the sick to my stomach feeling reflecting how much money I spent on false promises, or perhaps it’s the lack of knowledge I had in using supplements for the right reasons.

The secret lies in the word ‘supplement’. The Oxford dictionary defines supplement as “a substance taken to remedy the deficiencies in a person’s diet”. This means that you already have a good nutritional foundation and now you need supplementation to assist you in getting the extra percentage in dietary change. If you are zinc deficient, why go out and buy it in tablet form when you can get zinc from meat, legumes, seeds, nuts, eggs and dark chocolate?

Buying supplements without making sure your food intake is nutritious is like going down to the docks to catch a fish and giving it to a poor man to eat. Yes, you are both happy at first, but soon the poor person becomes dependant on you to catch him fish each day, and when you can’t go down to the docks he goes hungry because he has learned helplessness.

Instead, you should teach the man to catch fish. By learning the basics, he is now empowered to feed himself, his family and his community.

Buying supplements as a quick fix does not fix anything. It harms you and you learn helplessness.

Instead, teach yourself what foods are high in zinc, learn to make delicious recipes and then you are empowered with zinc for life.

This rule applies to 90% of the population. The other 10% of people are the variance in the rule.

If you are eating and training properly but still need that performance or recovery gain, then you look outwards to supplement your dietary concerns with supplements. The problem is that 90% of the population don’t want to learn to fish. They want quick fixes.

The next question you must be truthful in asking yourself is: Why are you wanting to supplement?

This is always met with a shallow reply. If you are a skinny person playing rugby, your answer might be, “I need to get bigger”. But you need to unpack the term ‘bigger’. Do you need to put on muscle size? Do you need to be more explosive? Do you need to tackle harder? Or do you want to get bigger because everyone else is bigger?

Ten years ago, the mentality for props in rugby was to be as big as a brick house, not requiring a neckline. All they needed to do was push forward. Nowadays, if you look at our front rankers in rugby, they are built more like an eighthman.

I promise you every front-row coach had the same mentality – you must get bigger, eat more and put on size. If this was not the advice, this was the culture, because the past generation of front rows were massive.

The current generation, however, are more functional, more powerful and even score tries. This would have been unheard of in the past.

As a rugby player, the right questions you should be asking include: What position am I playing? What do I need to perform in my position at a high standard? What skills do I need to be different from the herd?

Why would you want a chest like a flank when you are a flyhalf? What is a chest, or big biceps, going to do for you when you need to be fast, strong and as quick as possible in delivering a ball?

Your personal reason for taking supplements is to get bigger, yet it does not answer the real question. Your real reason is much deeper than that.

If chest and biceps is not what you really need, then what is it? Once you have answered that question you are in the right space to buy the right supplements.

As much as people want size, a rugby player must understand that size is mass which needs to be carried and moved across a field for 80 minutes.

If a player’s core and surrounding muscles are poor in strength, then they will end up having severe back pain.

In the second half of a game, when they are fatigued, their mass becomes a missile that can barely be controlled and when they go into a tackle, the one who has a solid core, solid mass and technique, will dominate most of the time, which places others in a high-risk injury zone.

So do your homework on the reasons you want to supplement. With good nutrition it could be your missing link to performance gains or faster recovery.

While you are figuring out your “why” and making the right choices, here’s a Harvard review on what some of the best supplements are to look out for:

Vitamin D – This is needed to help absorb calcium, which is required to build stronger, more dense bone structure.

Calcium – For stronger bones you need your daily dose of at least 700 – 1 000mg per person.

Antioxidants – Vitamin E, A, beta carotene and Vitamin C are all powerful antioxidants that help fight off diseases and protect cellular integrity.

Vitamin B – B6 helps turn food into energy, which is much needed for athletes, while B12 helps keep the body’s nerve and blood cells healthy. It also helps make DNA in cells, improves mood and reduces the risk of muscular degeneration.

Multi-vitamin – a complete multi-vitamin taken every other day is recommended because if your body is missing key micronutrients, a multi-vitamin can help, especially if you are very active.

Sean van Staden

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