Building Muscle has Never Been Easier

Halfway to Christmas people! This month we are getting a small window into my physique and performance tools. There are three products that provide substantial impact to my day-to-day in terms of time, efficacy, and supporting my global well-being. We got Slate Milk, Body Health Perfect Aminos, and NuMedica’s Nova Complete. In an era where getting a gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight is nearly impossible for me, both Slate and Perfect Aminos cover my bases on optimal protein synthesis and nitrogen utilization. Nova Complete on the other hand is all about increasing blood flow and vasodilation, which is critical with heavy resistance training and Tabata training (which is all I do).

1. Slate Milk (no financial affiliation)

Slate has done the miraculous with their milk – by taking pretty much everything except the protein out, we have a low-carb, low-fat, excellent fueling tool for the general public and macro-trackers alike. Unlike my previous favorites, Slate is incredibly easy to drink in terms of consuming protein shakes because it’s super thin and yet very creamy, still. With incredible taste, it just goes down like water, which with 20g of protein in an 11oz volume it can easily add 60-80g to my day without preparing a meal or cleaning my Vitamix. Opportunity cost, guys and gals.

My favorite is for sure the dark chocolate, second in-line being French vanilla, although its too sweet for me to drink straight so I usually use it in coffee, granola, pancakes and other baked goods that require milk (still gotta add a bit of olive or avocado oil, though). The caffeinated ones are both great, but I don’t drink them often because I prefer my caffeine to come in the form of a carbonated beverage (capsules for performance).

2. Perfect Aminos (no financial affiliation)

Where was this in my adolescence? If I believed in free will I’d be racking my brain with intimations of the past going differently if I’d had access to Perfect Aminos. The science was there, unfortunately my wisdom was not. There is no shortage of essential amino acid supplements, but the reason I chose to go with Perfect Aminos is because of their data—with tracer studies showing 99% of the nitrogen being utilized for new protein synthesis. By contrast, BCAAs only have three essential aminos – leucine, isoleucine, and valine, which cannot be used to synthesize any protein at all (even though there’s no question that leucine stimulates mTOR and muscle protein synthesis pathways). Even whey only has 18% of its amino acid content in the correct ratio to build new protein, the rest is metabolized in to carbon constituents for glycogen or ketone/fatty acid synthesis. Essentially, how much new protein your body can synthesize from the EAAs in a specific protein source comes down to how much of each essential amino acid exists in the correct ratio within that protein source. Perfect Aminos solved that problem for me!

3. Nova Complete (I DO have a financial affiliation)

Nova Complete is an all-around vascular support tool that I mainly use for performance, but it certainly has its role in promoting health-span and longevity. In terms of performance, this powder enhances the dilation of arteries that carry oxygen and nutrient rich blood to working muscles and the brain, while simultaneously increasing the venous return of metabolic waste and byproducts – gets you a real good pump – especially with Kaatsu training! For health-span and longevity, anything that increases vascular compliance, endothelial function, and mitigates vascular inflammation protects against cardio-renal-cerebrovascular disease, which are major impediments to living a long and healthy life. Nova has several ingredients shown to promote these properties in safe, smart, and effective ways. It greatly improves my perceived exertion and subjective fatigue during both exercise and performing my cognitively-demanding role in clinical practice. If you want to try it out and support my practice, make an account with NuMedica with the following instructions:

• Go to www.numedica.com/start (http://www.numedica.com/start)

• Click on New Patient Registration

• Set up a profile for themselves & use Referral Code 22742

• Click Continue after entering all their information

• Enjoy :)