Video summary
Dr. Layne Norton categorizes essential supplements into tiers, identifying creatine monohydrate and caffeine as his personal "Mount Rushmore" of supplementation due to their extensive safety profiles and high yield benefits supported by thousands of studies over decades. He addresses common concerns regarding hair loss associated with creatine, clarifying that a single 2009 study linking it to increased DHT has not been replicated; notably, the original study failed to show changes in testosterone levels or viable mechanisms for actual hair loss. Norton emphasizes that creatine increases lean mass and strength while also offering cognitive benefits comparable to SSRIs regarding depression effects. Similarly, he positions caffeine as an original performance enhancer with a nine-hour half-life, noting its ability to improve both exercise and cognitive performance despite potential sleep disruptions if taken too late in the day. Regarding dosage and timing for these top-tier supplements, Norton suggests that while there is no single optimal dose, acute strength benefits from caffeine typically require between 300 to 600 milligrams, whereas anti-fatigue effects can be seen at lower doses around 50 to 100 milligrams. He acknowledges the existence of withdrawal symptoms and a slight analgesic effect when reducing intake gradually rather than stopping abruptly, recommending a taper down to about 100 milligrams daily for maintenance if one wishes to avoid severe headaches or fatigue. For creatine, he recommends a standard dosage of five grams per day, noting that higher amounts like ten grams might offer additional cognitive benefits as discussed by Tim Ferriss, though the safety profile remains robust even at these levels. Moving into his second tier of supplements, Norton highlights whey protein isolate and concentrate for their role in improving body composition through high bioavailability and palatability. He distinguishes between concentrates, which are cheaper but contain more lactose and fats that may cause sensitivities or digestive issues like bloating, and isolates, which eliminate most lactose to accommodate those with specific intolerances. While he notes that hydrolyzed whey is pre-digested for better tolerance in sensitive individuals despite its higher cost and less pleasant taste, his primary recommendation remains on isolate forms due to their balance of efficacy and accessibility. He also mentions plant-based alternatives like pea protein as a viable option if dairy proteins are not tolerated at all. In the second tier category, Norton lists adaptogens such as Rhodiola rosea, beta-alanine, citrulline malate, Jiaogulan (Gynostemma pentaphyllum), and Ashwagandha for their potential to enhance fatigue resistance and recovery. He specifically cites Matt Fraser's use of high-dose beta-alanine during his CrossFit career as a prime example of its ability to increase work capacity acutely by buffering acid buildup in muscles. For Rhodiola, he suggests dosages ranging from 150 to 450 milligrams for cognitive and fatigue benefits, while Ashwagandha is recommended at 300 to 600 milligrams daily to help lower cortisol levels modestly and potentially increase lean mass without significantly altering testosterone. Norton expresses a desire to understand the specific mechanisms behind some of these effects, particularly regarding how they influence strength gains beyond simple muscle stimulation or hormonal shifts. Throughout the discussion, there is an underlying theme of balancing evidence-based efficacy with practical application in daily life, often referencing data from Whoop users which showed interesting correlations between caffeine intake and sleep quality that might be influenced by healthy user bias among wearable device owners. Norton maintains a pragmatic approach to supplementation, advising listeners not to view these substances as magic bullets but rather as tools that support foundational health habits like exercise and proper nutrition. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of listening to one's body regarding tolerance levels, whether it is managing lactose sensitivity with whey isolates or adjusting caffeine consumption based on sleep needs, ensuring that supplementation stacks remain sustainable and effective for long-term performance goals.
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what are supplements that everybody
should have in their stack on average do
you think what are the supplements that
really work okay so I kind of like
Branch these into like tiers right so my
Mount Rushmore of supplements would be
uh creatin monohydrate would be number
one um dosage frequency five grams a day
there may be evidence that like 10 or
even maybe a little bit more has
cognitive benefits Tim Farris been
talking about that yeah so it's very
safe I mean there are people who have
been hand ringing about creatin for a
long time and the the worst thing that
you can say about it is people say Well
it causes hair loss no there was a
single study in 2009 that showed creatin
supplementation increased DHT that is
not the same thing as showing hair loss
DHT is a marker and that is a mechanism
now that's never been replicated and
they didn't show a viable mechanism by
which it does it because the
the the their testosterone levels didn't
change which is the precursor and then
the in the the the product after DHT
didn't change so either creatin is
having some direct effect on this enzyme
or this is a data artifact that has not
been
replicated I tend to lean towards the
ladder um so creatin monohydrate
increases lean mass improves strength
improves performance performance
improves cognitive performance it has
been shown to have a similar effect on
depression as
ssris I'm not saying for people to do
use cre come off your SSR and switch it
out for cre I'm just saying that this
seems to have some really ubiquitous
benefits so and even like some of the
more disease States we starting to see
some benefits for creating
supplementation so I'm not saying
everybody should be on it but it is a
lowcost high yield supplement that is
very safe and we're not talking about a
couple studies we are talking about
thousands of studies done over decades
in Labs all over the world I am very
confident um now caffeine caffeine is
the original neut Tropic it is the
original performance enhancer um and if
you look at the benefits of caffeine
increases cognitive performance
increases exercise performance um
downsides negatively impacts sleep so if
you're going to take it do it earli in
the day preferably unless you've got a
podcast yeah uh you know what one of the
wildest Things is uh whoop release a uh
aggregated set of their data at the end
of each year and on whoop you can track
behaviors and it will correlate those
behaviors with outcomes that you get HIV
resting heart rate sleep sleep quality
duration blah blah blah one of the best
predictors of good recovery and sleep
was caffeine
interesting yeah so that and that's
likees tens of thousands of people
that's interesting so this could be a
case where you know there's confounding
variables of perhaps people who are
taking in more caffeine are exercising
harder and that's helping them get
better sleep right that's interesting so
there's obviously like I mean we know
based on the mechanistic human
randomized control trials that caffeine
negatively impacts sleep I wonder what
about is there a potential that you've
got kind of like a healthy user bias
here with people that doing whoop know
that You' got a 9 hour half life for
caffeine so maybe they're pumping a
couple in a morning and then by the time
that they get to an evening time that
adenosine is yeah I mean I I think um
what's probably the most likely outcome
is some sort of healthy user bias with
people who are using wearables also
taking a lot of caffeine probably more
likely to exercise and have other
healthy lifestyle behaviors but why
would all of the people that are using
whoop are using whoop like it's
interesting it's something I I try and
reach out to the guys and get a little
bit more data I could send that to you
all right so creatine caffeine for
caffeine uh couple of questions first
off there's no real like Optimal dosage
but what do you think about when it
comes to dosage what do you think about
when it comes to timing and what do you
think about when it comes to dependency
so obviously earlier in the day is going
to be better for Sleep based on what we
know um as far as dosage I mean you get
some anti- fatigue benefits like 50 100
milligrams you get get start to get the
performance benefits once you get up
around 2 300 milligrams of caffeine like
for
exercise strength benefits like acute
strength benefits are more like 3 to 600
milligrams of caffeine Christ so I mean
I'm I'm a a pretty big fan of caffeine
and before the meat on Saturday I'll
probably have about a nice 5 600
milligram shot right at the beginning
and I'll probably have a 200 milligram
boost which I'm lifting in prime time at
600 p.m. so I probably won't be sleeping
real great that night but that's okay
just one night um so yeah for the for
the more like standout kind of
performance
benefits um you know you got to get a
little bit higher dosage dependency yeah
I mean you can definitely get I mean
there are absolutely caffeine withdrawal
symptoms I go through them whenever I
start tapering off for a meat because
I'll usually taper down to I used to
completely cut it cold turkey and I just
found that that was intolerable so I go
down to about 100 milligrams a day uh
because actually the other thing people
don't realize in I found I'm like when I
cut out caffeine completely I started
like feeling like aches and pains and
stuff it's actually a slight uh
analgesic it has a slight analgesic
effect and I started getting all these
like like feeling why am I like having
like back pain that I haven't had before
the other things and when I just went
down to kind like 100 milligrams a day
to kind of like just maintain um I
noticed that that stuff went away all
right
caffeine um one other thing to add you
you can completely reset your caffeine
tolerance in about a week if you go cold
turkey but you're going to feel pretty
miserable for a couple days it's it's I
mean I thought it I thought it was a
placebo thing and then I did it and I
was like why does my head hurt and why
am I so freaking tired and then my ex
was like you haven't had caffeine in two
days duh I'm like oh yeah duh uh creatin
caffeine whey protein uh whey protein
tasty relatively cheap
soluble um been shown to improve body
composition numerous times it's not
magic it's just a very tasty kind of
ubiquitous form of protein that's highly
bioavailable so I put it on my Mount
Rush isolate concentrate concentrates
perfectly fine in fact there may be some
benefits to concentrate in that it has
uh some of the um uh some of the
components that positively influence
glutathione and antioxidant status um
but a lot of people don't tolerate a
pure concentrate well
um because there's lacto there's quite a
bit of lactose in it and um some people
have sensitivities to the lactalbumin in
way uh a we isolate is going to
basically eliminate the lactose so if
you have any kind of lactose sensitivity
most people tolerate whe isolate like um
my company outwork nutrition the protein
we sell is a whe isolate people like is
is that because it's more anabolic than
concentrate I'm like no we just want to
make sure that almost anybody could use
our protein uh it is more expensive
typically mix is better too so there's
just there's trade-offs uh weight
concentrates cheaper but there's more
carbs and fats and more
lactose uh if you don't tolerate either
of those well then a way hydrate will
probably work for you which is basically
pre-digested way so they've chopped up
The lactal Bu tastes it does not taste
very good and it's expensive but it it
will work well for somebody who can't
tolerate the lactalbumin in a way and
then we go down to like my tier two
which is stuff that I feel strongly is
beneficial uh but I just want to see
like more research done over a greater
period of time and those would be things
like uh rodol Rosa um uh things like
beta alanine citrine malite um Jin sing
actually has quite a bit of good
research on it naming the ingredient
profile of neonic here I'm just there we
are yeah there it is that's what we're
here for baby that's what we're here for
uh uh B ashwaganda ashwaganda another
one so B ranine everyone went crazy for
that when Matt Fraser said on Rogan that
that was maybe it was Rogan or something
else he basically retired from Crossfit
and said that I think he was taking like
some obsurd amount of berer alanine and
attributed a lot of his sort of
increased work capacity acutely to that
um was citrine malet in there was that
one of the ones you just said yeah yeah
why uh fatigue resistance it also seems
to there's some studies suggesting it
may simulate mour that may be a small
anabolic effect we don't know if that's
like independent of other things that
stimulate him tour but it seems to incre
improve performance uh and improve
fatigue resistance just going through
what we went through there the uh Rola
the jinang the uh citrine berer alanine
and the ashwaganda have you got dosages
that you prefer for yourself with those
yeah so Rola it seems like anywhere from
like 150 milligram to 450 milligram and
then after that it actually seems to be
like a a kind of shap off end shape yeah
um you know we
um actually even as low as 50 milligrams
there might be some benefits as well but
if you want like the like there's some
studies that show like uh actual
decreased fatigue and actually decreased
perception of fatigue as well as well as
like uh cognition benefits and it seems
to be like a very um we call an
adaptogen ashwag is kind of like that as
well so it kind of
um puts you back to Center for lack of a
better term
um but yeah some good data on fatigue
resistance for that uh
ashwaganda oh man dosage why did it
escaped my mind just now I think that's
actually uh about 150 to 300 milligrams
or sorry 300 to 600 milligrams for
ashonda
um that's uh in our recovery product and
downside to that is doesn't mix super
well um when you when you mix up our
recovery product it tastes great but it
kind of looks like uh Beach water a
little bit um because of the the
sediment but the
ashwaganda it's interesting
because I'm convinced pretty convinced
because there's been quite a few studies
now showing reliably it increases
strength lean mass um and decreases
cortisol and modestly elevates
testosterone but the effects of on
cortisol and testosterone would not be
enough to show those lean mass benefits
so my one hesitation is I kind of want
to know what theck mechanism yeah what
the mechanism is for that cuz whenever I
see an outcome but we don't know the
mechanism I kind of get the heebie
jeebies yeah we'll get back to talking
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