Professional Supplements for Wise Athletes

Author of over 30 books on running & endurance

Matt Fitzgerald, a certified sports nutritionist, started running on April 19, 1983, one day after watching his father complete the Boston Marathon. This began a lifelong love affair with the sport. Having completed 50 marathons of his own, authored more than 30 books, cofounded the world’s largest online provider of endurance training resources, and coached dozens of his fellow runners to their goals, Matt lives by the motto, “Let your passion, not your ability, decide how far you go.” That’s why he created Dream Run Camp–to enable runners of all abilities who share his passion for the sport to see just how far they can go.

How do you know what you are capable of doing if you don't try? Matt Fitzgerald trains athletes of all ages, including older athletes, but he doesn't have "older athlete training plans". Matt says everyone has limiters...you have to choose to go at them or around them, or let them define you. Older athletes often self-limit themselves to play it safe but with careful attention to building up capacity, older athletes are proving themselves to be capable of more speed, more strength and more endurance than ever before.

Our talk today is about how can the older athlete avoid settling for being older...how to find compensations and motivations and expert tricks for retaining or regaining the athletic capacity of yesteryear.

Some important notes:

• Don’t let the expectations of declining athletic capacity turn. Into a self fulfilling prophecy
• …”not every man truly lives”
• You have to push the envelope regularly or the envelope shrinks in on you
• Focus on the big rocks: training hard frequently (finding your own way that works for you), keeping the joy in it, setting and reaching for big goals )
• Everyone has limiters. They are unique to the individual and they change over time. You have to treat the training process as an open ended experiment. You have to identify the limiters and then work towards or around them. But find out what they really are not what you think they are because you are older.
• Keep moving. But use different forms of movement to spread the load.
• Scale back the volume but maintain the intensity
• Treat “niggles” with care. Incremental Retreat — backed progressively to be careful without being fearful and losing big chunks of fitness.
• Training as treatment - ryan whited. Motion is lotion.
• Disadvantages AND advantages of being older: youth is wasted on the young.
• Compensate for losing some athletic capacity by tightening down the lifestyle that you couldn’t bother to do when younger. Diet, sleep, better training protocols.
• Diet: eat enough of a wide range of whole foods with enough of all macros. Avoid processed foods.
• Avoid reductionist rabbit holes.
• Supplements: case by case. Most people can benefit from: fish oil , iron (if you need it), creatine
• Cross training: lifting weights, physical skill acquisition, balance and coordination, don’t stop playing
• Periodization is a good practice. Weekly / monthly / seasonal cycles

• Stronger, Faster, Older

Professional Grade Supplements for Wise Athletes

Trevor Connor is an exercise physiologist, endurance sports coach, and former professional cyclist with nearly 20 years of racing experience. He has coached at national performance centers in both Canada and the U.S., managed teams such as Team Rio Grande, and holds a master's degree in exercise bioenergetics and nutrition. He is also the co-host of the Fast Talk podcast, which focuses on the science of endurance performance.

Trevor earned his master's degree in exercise bioenergetics and nutrition from Colorado State University, where he was the final graduate student of Dr. Loren Cordain, the originator of the Paleo Diet. His research focused on the effects of a Paleo-style diet on autoimmune conditions, including multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease

• CEO of The Paleo Diet, LLC: Since 2018, Connor has led the company, overseeing its programs, certifications, and branding initiatives
• Co-founder and CEO of Fast Talk Laboratories: He co-founded this platform dedicated to endurance sports science, offering resources on training, nutrition, and performance
• Cycling Career: A former semi-professional cyclist, Connor trained at the Canadian National Center and managed Team Rio Grande, a top-ranked amateur team in the U.S.

The Paleo Diet. Initially skeptical of the Paleo Diet, Connor's perspective shifted after personal experimentation led to improved health and a return to competitive cycling at age 40. He now advocates for whole-food nutrition and challenges traditional high-carbohydrate sports diets, emphasizing the benefits of healthy fats and reduced sugar intake

Our talk today is mostly about how can the older athlete get the most out of the Paleo Diet and how to personalize it to make it work for each of us. What are the most important guidelines of the Paleo Diet that should guide and simplify our food decision-making. Foods to emphasize and minimize. Eating (and not eating) patterns that matter.

Some important notes:

• Macronutrient based diets are hard to get right because there are healthy and unhealthy versions of all macronutrient diets. Paleo is not about macros, but instead about whole foods that mimics the food supply 10,000 years ago. Fruits, vegetables, naturally grown meat and fish, and nuts and seeds sparingly. Limit grains and minimize dairy. Some people should also limit legumes (beans / pulses / lentils / etc)
• Eating whole foods means not just getting the vitamins and minerals and macronutrients but also the food matrix....all the other stuff in things that were once alive. Everything provides some benefit as long as we don't overdo it. But eating processed foods without the food matrix is a poor health choice.
• An ancestral diet is hard to define exactly and impossible to replicate today, but some features can be mimicked: not eating the same things all the time or out of season, not eating the full daily calorie requirements every single day, eating foods that were recently alive are hard to chew (good for oral health and is satiating), not over-eating foods that didn't exist (dairy, processed food) or were in short supply (grains, beans).
• Eat more potassium and less sodium (people generally get too much sodium; avoid processed food with sodium)
• Eat more magnesium and less dairy (less calcium). Target 2:1 calcium to magnesium; most people are 4:1 calcium to magnesium.
• Supplements recommended by Trevor: Vitamin D, Fish Oil (EPA/DHA), Magnesium (especially if consuming dairy: heavy calcium source), Taurine (especiall...

Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

The TriDoc Podcast is a bi-weekly show hosted by Dr. Jeff Sankoff, the host of the TriDoc podcast, is an emergency physician, Ironman triathlete, certified coach, and older athlete (58). Dr Sankoff is the exact type of expert for the Wise Athletes podcast. Dr Sankoff specializes in providing athletes with evidence-based insights into health, wellness, and training, and helping us all distinguish scientific facts from marketing hype.

• TriDoc Podcast
• TriDoc Coaching
• Tempo Talks Podcast

• OTC Drugs -- impact on exercise performance -- aspirin, ibuprofen, Tylenol, anti-histamines
• Pharmacutical Drugs - impact on exercise performance -- cholesterol, BP, heart rhythm, prostate meds, ED meds
• Jeff's 3 Supplements

• Episode 36 | Dr Jeff Sankoff is the TriDoc

3 ways to support our show:

• Leave a review (or share this episode)
• Check out our Fullscript site to save big on high quality supplements. Thank you!
• Email us your questions at info@wiseathletes.com.

*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice.

Episode 36 | Dr Jeff Sankoff is the Tri-Doc

Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

On today's show, Dr. Merijn van de Laar, a recovering insomniac, sleep therapist, and the author of How to Sleep Like a Caveman: Ancient Wisdom for a Better Night’s Rest, will tell us how learning about our prehistoric ancestors’ sleep (via studying the Hadza) can help us relax about our own imperfect sleep. He explains that the behaviors we think of as sleep problems are actually normal, natural, and adaptive. Merijn destroys the myth that you have to get 7-9 hours of sleep a night, and how being awake during the night is normal, and how efforts to change normal healthy sleep into "perfect" sleep scores is detrimental to our health.

Today’s episode is not for those few, lucky souls who fall asleep the moment their head hits the pillow, cruise through the night, and bounce out of bed in the morning ready to take on the world. Good for you—but seriously, get out of here. This one’s for the rest of us wise athletes who work hard to be fit and healthy—through exercise, through diet—only to be undone by poor sleep. The poor sleep that slows your recovery, ramps up your risk of illness, and leaves you reaching for caffeine just to survive the day, and then something else entirely just to shut down at night and squeeze 7-9 hours into the 6-hour window we allow for.

This talk is not a list of sleep hygiene factors and discount codes for fancy tools that work well to lighten your wallet without addressing the real reasons for poor sleep. Dr. Merijn van de Laar says "sleep is cheap" and that we've been sold a bunch of BS about sleep. This isn’t about chasing perfection. This is about letting go of the pressure and easing into realistically healthy sleep—the kind your ancestors would recognize—without needing to track every blink and breath.

So unplug, lie back, and listen up—because it’s time to learn how to Sleep Like a Caveman.

Dr Merijn van de Laar (https://merijnvandelaar.com/the-sleep-scientist/)

Merijn van de Laar studied biological psychology at the University of Maastricht and obtained his PhD on the subject of personality and sleep and the treatment of insomnia. He worked for years at Kempenhaeghe, Center for Sleep Medicine, and treated people with insomnia, parasomnia and delayed sleep phase syndrome. He is now adjunct director at the University of Maastricht.

Merijn’s professional and personal mission is to create restful nights across the world. His motivation to give people a better night’s sleep arose when he experienced what it was like to have chronic insomnia in his twenties. He did not receive the right care and, in retrospect, not the right scientifically substantiated information that could have helped him get rid of the problem much sooner.

Merijn’s slogan is “Sleep is Cheap”. By this he means that most people with insomnia do not need expensive products, apps or medication at all and that these often don’t help or even worsen the problem. For most people, a good night’s sleep can be achieved through natural solutions that cost little but are very effective. In many ways, we should learn to sleep like Cavemen again.

Merijn van de Laar website

• Why do modern people report worsening sleep quality, despite the emergence of optimized sheets, mattresses, sound machines, and sleep trackers have emerged during that time, and despite the fact that the amount of time people are sleeping hasn’t decreased...

Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

Roger Seheult, MD, MedCram Co-Founder & Instructor (MedCram.com website)

Dr. Seheult is currently an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine, and an Assistant Clinical Professor at the School of Medicine and Allied Health at Loma Linda University. Dr. Seheult is also quadruple board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care Medicine, and Sleep Medicine through the American Board of Internal Medicine.

NEWSTART Pillars of Health are different than any other "pillars" I've encountered....the typical pillars, and there are so many, are so generic as to be useless. NEWSTART is different in two ways: (1) it brings attention and priority to aspects of health that are missed by the generic pillars, and (2) uniquely, it brings a focus to the entire point of remaining healthy or returning to health and fitness....and that is "purpose". Why do you want to be a fit, strong athlete? Is winning races really that important, or is health and fitness ultimately an means to an end. Where will your fitness take you? What will you do with the gift of life you have been given?

This is what I am thinking about after my conversation with Dr Roger Seheult of MedCram.

I hope you get as much to think about as I did.

• Episode 148 | Adventure for Life | Brian Keane
• Episode 143 | Nasal Breathing | George Dallam PhD
• Episode 144 | Muscle for Athletics & Healthspan | Mark Tarnopolsky MD PhD
• Episode 149 | Near Infrared Light is the Missing Puzzle Piece | Scott Zimmerman

• Yield and Overcome Mindset
• https://newstart.com/home

3 ways to support our show:

• Leave a review (or share this episode)
• Check out our Fullscript site to save big on high quality supplements. Thank you!
• Email us your questions at info@wiseathletes.com.

*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice.

Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

Bill Harris, PhD in Human Nutrition

Dr. William (Bill) S. Harris is an internationally recognized expert in omega-3 fatty acid research, particularly concerning cardiovascular health. He earned his Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from the University of Minnesota and completed post-doctoral fellowships in Clinical Nutrition and Lipid Metabolism at the Oregon Health Sciences University. In 2009, Dr. Harris founded OmegaQuant, a company specializing in omega-3 blood testing, notably the Omega-3 Index test, which he co-invented in 2004. This test measures the levels of omega-3 fatty acids in red blood cells and has been widely used in research and clinical settings. ​

Over his 40-year career, Dr. Harris has authored more than 300 scientific papers on fatty acids and health. His significant contributions have earned him recognition as one of the top 2% of scientists worldwide based on research impact. ​ In late 2020, Dr. Harris transitioned from his role at OmegaQuant to establish the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI), where he serves as President and focuses on conducting and publishing research on fatty acids and health. ​

Dr. Harris is also a Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition and has co-authored multiple American Heart Association scientific statements on fatty acids and cardiovascular disease.

Omega 3. EPA/DHA. Our talk today is mostly about how can the older athlete get the most out of the omega 3 nutrient…sources, forms of supplements, how to dose, what to take it with for better bioavailability, and anything else we should know. We also explore three other areas:

1. what does our body do with omega 3’s? Is more better?
2. should we take only EPA or only DHA?
3. what’s the real story behind the recent negative headlines on omega 3’s (failed pharma studies, Afib risks, DHA is detrimental)?
4. what’s the deal with the new stuff being marketed to us now such as SPMs (specialized pro resolving mediators) and Fatty 15 (they sure are good at marketing…is this a replacement for EPA/DHA?)

EPA & DHA are not "essential fatty acids" but if you are interested in any of the many available benefits, eat more fish....or take fish oil or algae oil. Don't let your body be short of these vital nutrients.

• Lower resting HR (resulting in better oxygen to heart)
• Anticoagulation like aspirin but without stomach issues
• Reduced homocysteine
• Lower triglycerides
• Improved mitochondrial energy production
• Lower chronic inflammation
• Speeds resolution of acute inflammation (from injury or training)

• Nature article: Blood n-3 fatty acid levels and total can cause specific mortality from 17 prospective studies
• OmegaQuant website

3 ways to support our show:

• Leave a review (or share this episode)
• Check out our Fullscript site to save big on high quality supplements. Thank you!
• Email us your questions at info@wiseathletes.com.

*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice.

Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

Mark Faulkner, President & Founder of Vireo Systems. After graduating college with a degree in physics, accompanied by a heavy emphasis on biochemistry and research, Mark began his career in the “business of science” at one of the largest publicly traded multinational diagnostics, pharma, and medical device businesses. Mark later co-founded a forensic toxicology and healthcare laboratory that provides science-driven drug testing, post-mortem, and consulting services. Based on that experience, Mark founded Vireo System to manufacture CON-CRET, the only US manufacturer of creatine to provide athletes and everyone else high quality creatine formulations.

• https://vireosystems.com/

• https://con-cret.com/pages/science

Creatine is no longer just for muscle building or improving power; creatine makes cells everywhere in the body more efficient at making energy. Creatine is now at the top of my supplement list, but I've been taking it incorrectly for 30 years. Check out my conversation with Mark Faulkner, Founder & CEO of the only US manufacturer of creatine. We discuss how creatine helps the muscles, brain, bones, immune system and more, how to dose, what to mix creatine powder with to improve absorption, and much more.

Discussion points:

• What is creatine? Arginine, Glycine, Methionine in a chemical structure.
• How does it help so many aspects of health? The body makes creatine so it is expecting it. More than we can make or eat can be used.
• How to dose and take creatine to get the benefits desired? The key is solubility via chemical make-up or via temperature of mixing liquid.
• What are the various types of creatine....why not just use the regular variety (monohydrate)? Consider, gut issues / bioavailability (do you have stomach upset?) vs cost (modesty higher expense for higher solubility and US/European manufacture)
• Considerations for quality? Testing certifications. Country of origin.

## Creatine's Role in Energy Efficiency and Oxidative Stress

Creatine does make cells more efficient at energy production, particularly during high-intensity activities, while also potentially reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation through several mechanisms:

1. **Energy buffer system improvement**

• Creates a rapid ATP regeneration pathway independent of oxygen
• Reduces the demand on other energy systems (glycolysis, oxidative phosphorylation) during intense efforts
• This metabolic efficiency means less byproduct formation per unit of work

2. **Mitochondrial protection**

• Recent research suggests creatine helps stabilize mitochondrial membranes
• May improve mitochondrial function and reduce electron leakage (a major source of ROS)
• Can potentially increase mitochondrial efficiency, reducing the oxygen required for ATP production

3. **Direct antioxidant properties**

• Some studies indicate creatine has mild direct free radical scavenging abilities
• May help neutralize certain ROS, though this is not its primary mechanism

4. **Anti-inflammatory effects**

• By reducing cellular stress and improving energy efficiency, there's less metabolic disruption
• Less disruption means reduced inflammatory signaling cascade activation
• Studies sho...

Professional Grade Supplements for WiseAthletes

Bob Seebohar is a board-certified specialist in sport dietetics, an exercise physiologist, a strength and conditioning coach, and a USA Triathlon certified elite, youth, and junior coach and a competitive endurance athlete.

Bob Seebohar was the director of sport nutrition at the University of Florida and a Sports Dietitian for the US Olympic Committee where he traveled to the 2008 Olympic Games as the sports dietitian for the U.S. team. He now runs his own practice eNRG Performance (enrgperformance.com) and serves as the consulting sports dietitian for the Las Vegas Golden Knights professional hockey team and the consulting dietitian for the entire University of Denver athletics program.

He has authored many books including:

1. Nutrition Periodization for Athletes,
2. Metabolic Efficiency Training: Teaching the Body to Burn More Fat,
3. Caffeine Protocol for Endurance Athletes,
4. Sodium Loading for Endurance Athletes,
5. Metabolic Efficiency Recipe Book,
6. Neuromuscular, Dynamic and Functional Exercises for Athletes,
7. Prehab Exercises for Athletes,
8. Fuel4mance Smoothie Recipe Book,
9. Performance Nutrition: Applying the Science of Nutrient Timing, and
10. Sports Nutrition for Young Triathletes.

He currently also owns & operates

• Fuel4mance, a sports nutrition consulting company (www.fuel4mance.com),
• Elite Multisport Coaching, an adult endurance coaching company (www.teamemc.com) and
• Kids that TRI, a non-profit youth triathlon organization (www.kidsthattri.org).

Teach your body to burn more fat to improve health and performance. The concept of Metabolic Efficiency (ME) can be applied to individuals just beginning exercise, fitness enthusiasts and the seasoned athlete.

Metabolic Efficiency describes the relationship between the body's ability to use fat and carbohydrate as energy sources across a variety of exercise intensities. ..more than ability…it’s the training of the body to use the right fuels at the right time. Being more of a "fat burner" will allow you to improve your health, reduce risk for chronic disease, lose weight and body fat, improve athletic performance and eliminate gastrointestinal (GI) distress.

According to Bob Seebohar, older male athletes looking to improve fat burning and reduce insulin resistance should focus on these specific strategies:

1. Train in Zone 2 consistently - Prioritize longer, lower-intensity aerobic sessions (heart rate around 60-70% of max) to enhance mitochondrial function and fat oxidation
2. Implement "fuel timing" - Practice strategic carbohydrate periodization by limiting carbs during easy training and saving them for around higher-intensity sessions
3. Practice overnight fasting - Extend the natural overnight fast (12-14 hours) to enhance fat adaptation, potentially combined with some fasted morning training
4. Focus on protein quality and timing - Consume adequate protein (1.6-2.0g/kg bodyweight) distributed throughout the day to maintain muscle mass, which is crucial for metabolic health in aging males
5. Include strength training - Incorporate 2-3 weekly sessions of resistance training to support muscle mass and insulin sensitivity
6. Address testosterone naturally - Support natural testosterone production through adequate dietary fat intake (especially monounsaturated sources), zinc-rich foods, qua...