To say that I have taken part in “questionable” experiments during my many years of profession working out is an understatement to say the least. Combining youth with a little knowledge lots of recklessness and and a thirst for more can make a monster…hopefully that monster survives.

I can’t say that I still don’t feel more chemist than CrossFitter at times, but I can say that years and years of trial and error have taught me a lot. Mostly, what NOT to do. And of course, what to do first.

1. Subtract

Here, and I am very sure like a million more places on this blog, I described some of the supplements and their doses that can be added to a CrossFit career. However, the meat of it is, I bet most of us don’t need to add anything, I bet we need to subtract.

Supplements will do nothing if the drugs (food) taken alongside them compete, conflict, or dampen us in any way. They are not get out of jail free cards, they are calculated additions to refined behavior, they are not shortcuts.

No supplement will override ignorance at the dinner table, the gym or the bed. If your not willing to eat for fitness, if your not willing to sleep for recovery, if your not willing to spend time in the gym to get better, then your still a baby on the bottle. Real food is for real, serious, humans, and real results are marginally enhanced by correct supplementation.

Before you ever consider buying some silly pyramid scam vitamin from someone who has no clue of what a vitamin even is, before you start “cycling” creatine and thinking you will get “jacked”, subtract everything else that may be preventing the results you want. You may even find that your just fine, o’natural.

2. Don’t buy the hype

Buzzwords are for salesman and shamans who rely on myth and mirth to bring profit. “Toxins” is code for, “I don’t know what the hell I am talking about”, and detox is an umbrella you can hide a country under.

It’s not that toxins don’t exist within our biological make-up, it’s that saying the simple term “toxin”, as it relates to our insides, covers too broad a scope. It would be like saying the sun only makes dark go away. Toxin does not specify delivery, function, or anything else than can help us measure the effectiveness, need, or benefit of any supplement available to help “detox” us before we can get healthy like all the experts say selling you something every chance they get.

In fact, I specified the one and only way to “detox” us from “toxins” in step number one. It doesn’t come in a pill, or a bottle, or a powder, it comes in emptiness. We were made awesome, we change that by our actions, we become toxic by our behavior, and no supplement will fix that. Toxins do exist, and detoxing is very necessary, but it’s step one…it’s not an infomercial, it’s not multilevel marketing, it’s %$#@ing restraint, and it’s $%#&ing discipline and the day I figure out how to bottle that will be the day every other supplement company goes bankrupt because finally something would work.

3. Be the Archetype

There are prototypes all around us. Original examples of what not to do, and how not to behave. Keep an eye on them, but don’t follow them. Learn from their mistakes, and create your own systems of achievement.

Whey protein studies are a bag of bullshit, Vitamin-C research is for posers, and fish oil is no better than snake oil….until you test them for yourself. Until you personally prove it, or more likely disprove it, then view everything skeptically. Guilty until proven innocent…..or rather fake until proven effective.

I have spent an inordinate amount of time testing and retesting study after study. When it comes to myslef, it is as metabolic-ward as it gets, meaning I do the exact same thing everyday with almost no variables to speak of, and I measure the numbers I want to improve, and watch the ones I worry about. I have dis-proven more studies than I can count with my self, and others as the original. However, just like everything else, this does not work without step one. Bad drugs, no sleep, and laziness are to big a variable to give proper data.

I can tell you this though, today, when I add anything, only one thing, if I change even the smallest thing, I am rewarded. When you are the prototype and you control your variables, feedback is immediate. Basically, the smallest changes, can demonstrate the coolest results. Time management at it’s best.

I learned the three steps above the hard way. I lost a lot of time, and spent a lot of money becasue I did not follow those three simple steps. They may not be exotic, or pretty, or profitable, but they work. And in the end results are what we desire, and time is always paid for with a non-refundable premium. Stop wasting the time you won’t get back by investing in supplements you don’t need.

Strength:

Back Squat
10×3@92% 1RM

For Score:

75m-Run
1-Power clean 135/205
max rep-Handstand push-up
75m-Run
2-Power clean 135/205
max rep-Handstand push-up
75m-Run
3-Power clean 135/205
max rep-Handstand push-up
*Continue this pattern until time.
**Score total HSPU, and rounds..
AMRAP 11 Minutes

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