Little Known Secrets To Results In The Gym with Carl Germano
Athletic supplements abound these days. Shops dedicated to helping athletes achieve their gains and goals are everywhere, but with a large supply comes products that are lackluster and sometimes even dangerous. They promise to help you gain muscle, power through your workout, lose weight, and help you get that rockin’ bod you’ve always wanted. The truth, however, is that these products often contain unhealthy amounts of caffeine, artificial sweeteners, and other unnatural chemical substances that often get banned once out on the market. Is it possible to achieve the results without the use of these products? Absolutely.
Meet Carl:
On this week’s episode we speak with Carl Germano, RD, CNS, CDN, a registered, certified/licensed clinical nutritionist presently appointed to the NY State Board of Dietetics and Nutrition and a frequent radio guest and lecturer. He holds a masters degree in clinical nutrition from New York University and has over 30 years experience using innovative, complementary nutritional therapies in private practice and in product development. For the past 25 years, he has dedicated his efforts to research and product development for the nutritional industries (dietary supplements, functional beverages, medical foods), where he has been instrumental in bringing cutting-edge nutritional substances and formulations to market. We talk with Carl about what to look for when choosing athletic supplements, how to dose, and buy to achieve results. If you’re an athlete, gym rat, or weekend warrior, this is one you don’t want to miss.
Some Topics We Discussed:
How do we determine high quality vs low quality sports nutrition products? (5:05)
What are products that help with strength and endurance? (11:29)
What is the truth about caffeine in sports nutrition supplements? (12:31)
What about endurance athletes? (13:20)
What should we take post workout? (15:06)
What are great supplements for the elderly? (25:10)
Key Takeaways From This Episode:
While exercise has many health benefits, we also have to look at it as a stressor on the body. (6:38)
Look for products that are NSF certified. (10:36)
Caffeine in smaller doses is great, but when you get into the larger doses like 300-400 mg, you see issues arise. (12:46)
2-3 grams of creatine is all you need. (23:24)
Products + Resources:
Thanks to our sponsor today: Lifeseasons
Get Social With Carl:
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Brian Strickland 00:43 Hello everyone, you're listening to The Holistic Navigator Podcast where we believe in the body's ability to heal itself if given the proper nutrients and care it deserves. My name is Brian Strickland. I'm the producer of the show and on today's episode we'll be speaking with clinical nutritionist Carl Germano about sports nutrition and supplementation. So let's not waste any time and jump right into this episode so please allow me to introduce the host of this show Mr. Ed Jones.
Ed Jones 01:15 Thank you Brian. This is Ed with The Holistic Navigator again always excited to do this weekly podcast because I want to leave a legacy of sharing the 41 years experience I have in health healing nutrition functional medicine everything and all things. I want to have as an encyclopedia for people I have been into if you look at my Instagram on The Holistic Navigator I post all kinds of things from the gym. I started working out when I was 14 years old. I actually weighed 119 pounds and had a bicep that measured I remember all too well 10 and a quarter inches, people. My girlfriend's wrist is 10 and a quarter so it was as small as you can get. And so I started working out and fell in love with weight training at age 14. Well here I am 62 and other than a six month sabbatical when I ran a marathon that was the only time I did not enter the gym. And I have to say this the nutrition industry has one of the most impeccable safety records of any consumable product in almost every area except in one and that is the sports nutrition category. And today I want to have a guest that is the ultimate expert on this topic because I want people to know two things. You don't want to throw the baby out with a bath so some people would say well since it's kind of iffy we're not going to do anything. Well that doesn't make sense as we age because we need things to help support, nourish, and make a 62 year old really help recovery that I you know used to have a lot of at 32. And the only way to do that is through your habits and your supplements and the way that you work out. But the devil is in the details. You do not want to walk into these body building stores and purchase many of these products. They're dangerous in certain ways for certain people, they're very impure, they use a lot of chemicals and really legal amphetamines. So saying all of that I want to welcome a guest today that I met about well I probably met him 10 years ago as some of the shows but I actually met him in person about five or six years ago because he was part of a lecture that he came down that he did for a group of people here in Chattanooga. And it was called a book that he had written called The Misled Athlete. Carl Germano is a board certified clinical nutritionist and vice president of Verda Oasis. He holds a master's degree in clinical clinical nutrition from New York University and has 35 years experience in product development for some of the largest supplement companies and even producing medical foods and functional beverages. The thing is this guy has has more than just knowledge, he has wisdom. He's lived it he if you saw what it looked like I mean i'm not gonna tell his age unless he wants to he looks like he's 20 years younger than what he says but he is 65 maybe you'll let me slide by since I just said that. But he is a prolific educator. He also has written the book Nature's Painkillers, The Osteoporosis Solution, The Brain Wellness Plan, and the new one The Road to Ananda. Welcome Mr. Germano.
Carl Germano 04:35 Thank you so much, Ed. It is a pleasure to be here.
Ed Jones 04:37 All right what I want to do is kind of keep it down to a couple bullet points here for listeners. The people who would be listening to this most likely would be gym nuts or people who are consistently into fitness. Now if they're listening to The Holistic Navigator they probably are quite a bit more open minded than say the general public. Let me just Kind of propose a question here. First off, and I don't even know your answer. First off, there is two sides to sports nutrition supplements, one of which is very concerning. But the other side is very promising as far as a potential to elevate any male or female to better performance and better recovery. But we have to know the details of how to separate these two, and I want you to help people understand that.
Carl Germano 05:28 Sure, well, we've been bombarded over the past few decades with a campaign that's been really misleading people who are active or seasoned athletes, and that is the use of protein and stimulants like caffeine. That is not the answer, nutritionally, to help an athlete perform better or recover better. Today, we view the athlete as a patient. And back in the day when I wrote this book, I was working with oncology patients, and I posed to the powers that be at the time, do you understand that the cancer patient and the athletes are identical to me at a cellular level? And they looked at me like I was insane. They said, what are you talking about? Well, after strenuous exercise, we look at physiological things that I see exactly in a oncology patient. Both patient populations break down muscle, fatigue, there's a triad transient immune suppression, muscle loss, inflammation, and oxidative stress. So I'm looking at a subset of the population who are doing things to their body that are very helpful. Exercise is a tremendous attribute to staying healthy. But at the same time, we have to look at exercise as a stressor, no different than the stressor of disease at the cellular level. And so I was asked to prove what I was saying. I was given a budget, we went to Rutgers University, we took the division one football team strength athlete, division, one soccer team, the endurance athlete, and we put this to the test. We took them preseason, when we knew that we're going to get the daylights beat out of them. And they would be under a lot of stress running out in the field pricking their fingers taking bloods. Lo and behold, what do we find? At the end of the day, if the strenuous activity, elevated inflammation, elevated oxidative stress markers, elevated muscle breakdown markers and changes in hormone, cortisol, testosterone levels, fatigue, immune suppression, everything you see in the Clinical Oncology patient. And so today, outside of the campaign that's going on with just protein and caffeine, we've kind of transcended to a more important message, that the way to perform better is to recover better. And the way to recover better, involves both dietary changes, as well as the use of other supplements that are known to help the body adapt to the stressor, and recover so they can go out the next day, and perform well.
Ed Jones 08:18 So well spoken and you know, the fact the analogy between an athlete and a cancer patient hits home pretty hard, because, you know, I remember you speaking that at one of the conventions where you were and we actually had made some CDs, like I remember 500 we made of your lecture, and we gave them out and people were like, amazed, and it really turned people's heads around because they haven't kind of connected that theory that an athlete, hardworking athlete is similar to kind of the wasting away that can happen in a cancer patient. So we're not going to really talk too much about the foods right now, because that's for another day. But let's just use someone as an example or talk about how can a person make a wise choice first off for the quality product? And then secondly, what would be the basic core program of a 40 year old, a 50 year old, a 60 year old who's working out hard four to five days a week wants to look better, as much as be healthy? I mean, we have to be honest, everybody walking in that gym is not there for the ulterior purpose of just longevity. We are people and I am too that wants to maintain a certain level of physique. And you know, I have a fear of being overweight. And so I forced myself to work out very hard. What can a person like the average person do to accelerate this process of recovery? And no, they're not making the wrong decisions. If they are ordering say mail order, or they go into a store they're not familiar with. Now I am a huge proponent of local nutrition stores. Most times local stores have far more ethics and more knowledge in order to guide you through this jungle, but give us some of those answers, if you will, Mr. Germano?
Carl Germano 10:05 Well first of all, in terms of whether you be a parent looking to take care of your young child who's embarking on sports activities in school, whether you're a seasoned athlete, whether you are someone who's what we call a weekend athlete, it really doesn't matter. The way you look at products, one of the ways to really assure that you're getting safe products, and that's the key, because sports products are typically riddled with a lot of banned substances. And so NSF is an organization that tests for all banned substances, and gives you a certification and a seal that you can put on products. They test for all events, substances that are on the World Anti Doping Association lists, the NCAA lists US Olympic Committee lists. And so those companies who submit each and every batch of the material that they put into their sports products, who obtain the NSF seal and certification that you should look for. On the front panel or side panel would have you are really the choice that you want to make in terms of safety. In terms of efficacy, we look at the athlete and we look at various stages of what do we provide for the athlete to help the body perform, help the body recover at all stages. And so for pre workout, before you get into the gym, go on the field, get on the court, what can we do for the athlete to you know, help them in terms of muscular strength and endurance? There are plenty of these amino acid amino acid derivatives that help supply energy to muscle. You're looking at certain amino acids that raise nitric oxide, nitric oxide, a compound that acts as a vezo dilator opens up the blood vessels to get more blood flow to the muscles so that the muscle can be more efficient and doing work. And you're looking at things like branched chain amino acids, l arginine, citrulline, creatine, things that also support the energy cycle in muscle. And creatine is a phosphate donor. Ubiquinol is involved, co q 10 is involved in the energy transport chain in the cell. So there are things we can do to kind of jumpstart an athlete. Now when it comes to that pre workout issue, which is probably the most popular supplement in the sports marketplace, people have been riddled with problematic products that are loaded with caffeine. Now want to set the record straight. Caffeine in smaller doses is absolutely helpful. And there's plenty of data to prove its performance capabilities. But when you get up into the levels of 300-400 milligrams of caffeine, which is not uncommon in typical sports products that are not NSF certified, you you have to deal with the the issues that and the dehydration that can occur when given high doses of caffeine. It's not in the best interest of any athletes to take those high, high doses. Putting that aside, you now look at anybody who's going to be embarking on exercise greater than an hour, you have to be concerned with the fact that in order to generate muscular strength, you have to provide sources of energy. The source of energy for muscle is primarily glucose sugar. Now, this is one of the few times that I would recommend the use of simple sugars to help with the endurance issue because the two storage areas for sugar in the body or your liver, in the form of glycogen and also in muscle. After about an hour strenuous activity, you pretty much exhausted all sources of sugar and energy to muscle and therefore you have to replenish it. So for endurance sports, cycling, swimming, running a soccer basketball, you need to replenish that if you want to compete. And I know Gatorade was popular in the past, but that's just simple sugar, which I don't recommend. And there are products in the marketplace that have varying chain lengths of carbohydrate that can spew out that sugar at slower rates, which makes it easier and then couple that with chromium lipoic acid and cinnamon to help the body utilize sugar. That's the type of product that I would be looking for.
Ed Jones 14:44 And so that would be before you get to the gym?
Carl Germano 14:47 Before you get to the gym, the pre workout amino acids and potentially some source of simple sugar during the exercise when you have a great day. In an hour of activity, you want to start replenishing some of the carbohydrate that's lost in the liver and muscle. And then we look at the most important phase and that is post workout. Post workout to me is the most important product is the most overlooked product because this is when the damage that you have done to your body, we need to rectify. Strenuous activity, as I mentioned is a stressor, you're breaking down muscle, you're raising inflammatory markers and oxidative stress markers that can have an impact on hormone levels. And so you're in a period of recovery. And you need to make sure you use these post recovery workout beverages or nutrients that can help the body get to a system get to a state of balance or homeostasis much quicker. And that's the use of certain carbohydrate to protein ratios, along with, again, branched chain amino acids, glutamine, just to name a few. These are substances that help the body recover a lot faster.
Brian Strickland 16:11 Everyone, let's press pause for just a moment and tell you about our sponsor for this week. Lifeseasons wants to help you live life to its fullest. Starting with the belief in the body's own innate healing force, their product development team provides formulations that work synergistically to deliver maximum potency. each ingredient is carefully selected, sourced, researched, and tested throughout the manufacturing process, providing a product that will deliver results, life seasons, nature works, science proves it.
Ed Jones 16:50 And like you said, recovery is key because when you dig into the recovery system of the human body, well, nothing, I mean, muscle fitness and everything that you want from a gym comes or exercise, comes from the rebuilding from a slight tear down, and then you get bigger, you get stronger, you get more endurance. And so we're just trying to nourish that system, so it's more efficient. So to boil it down. So going into the gym, and I'll be honest with you, I don't I do a big drink in the morning. I speak about a lot on my podcast, which has to do with it's a it's a protein drink is got the amino acids, I put some vegetable greens in it, I put fiber in it. And I have a modest amount of carbs because I work out for 50 minutes, and it seems to be stumbled upon the right formula. What I don't do, Carl, which I should do is I don't supplement with a post workout. And I know I always used to say this to people. I don't know how really scientifically valid it is. But then we have a one hour window of opportunity to do a vast amount of rebuilding, if we can access it within that hour. What should I be doing and if there's a certain brand that you again, brand preference and brand choices are the key to being safe and effective. And feel free to mention any brand that you feel totally confident in recommending. But what should I be doing right after I finished that workout?
Carl Germano 18:15 Well, first of all, I would like to see you take that protein drink that you make in the morning and make it your post workout beverage. You understand that when you eat foods, multiple ingredient type beverages or foods. When you dump that down to the gut, all blood is now concentrated in your intestinal tract to digest, absorb and utilize those nutrients. And that takes away from blood going to muscle where it's going to be used for, you know, strength exercises or endurance exercises. So I like a lighter, mild, mild amount of carbohydrate along with things like arginine and citrulline and creatine, as these pre workout simple, easy to digest and rapidly available compounds for muscle. And I like the larger beverage that has more intact protein and foodstuffs. Not just for recovery of muscle, but to help lower inflammation and oxidative stress and all those goodies that you put in your drink have a lot of good antioxidants and anti inflammatory compounds. And so I'd like to do that. As far as supplements and companies are Bluebonnet Nutrition has a great line called Extreme Edge and they have a pre workout. They have a Carbo load for the endurance athlete during activity and then they have the post workout formula of formulations. There's a few accessory ingredients that they have a stabilized form of arginine which raises nitric oxide better than others. Additional branched chain amino acids and glutamine that can be used both pre and post workout. But all of those supplements in the Bluebonnet Extreme Edge line are NSF certified for sport, which means every batch is tested for all banned substances. So the parent buying it for the child, or the seasoned athlete who's worried about getting tested, will have no issues with these products, they're scientifically well thought out. And that would be the the ones that I would recommend.
Ed Jones 20:24 I love that because it makes it very clear to people just find a brand. That's NSF and I have used Bluebonnet with great success. I actually know the owner, totally ethical people from top to bottom, I would trust them with anything that they produced as far as safety. And you know, I have a new grandchild that just came into the world. And, you know, all of a sudden you get things in your life that give you a different perspective than you haven't thought about. Well, you know, he's just now eight weeks old. But you know what, if I'm still around, he's gonna start working out when he's 14 and 15. And I know so many of these kids in high school, they're searching and grabbing for anything that gives them that edge. The problem is, sometimes they're grabbing things that are not healthy, certainly not certified. And the parents don't know because you know, you Google it, you can't find it. It's all advertising and happy song, but it's behind the scenes is so much corruption. So, NSF, Bluebonnet. Now, real quickly before I run out of time, I've never been one to truly throw in many of these athletic supplements in the past 15 years. One that I started and I want your honest opinion, I know you'll give it is beta alanine, I seem to feel better get a better pump and it doesn't bother my stomach. A second question is on my stomach. Creatine seems to always bother it and anything more than three grams a day. Can you answer the two questions beta alanine and creatine?
Carl Germano 21:51 Yes and beta alanine is an excellent pre workout addition to a pre workout formula and and certainly, you'll find it in the bluebonnet pre workout formula. Beta alanine is interesting in that it helps to increase pH, the pH in muscle, and that's critically important you have to understand when muscle is exposed to a low pH, more acidic environment, it doesn't work very well. And quite frankly, when we do exercise, some of the metabolic byproducts just from breathing oxygen, are important free radicals and acids like lactic acid, that acidify muscle and when you have acidified muscle, it doesn't work very well. So beta alanine works to help raise the pH to a little bit more alkaline levels, so the muscle could work efficiently. Now when it comes to creatine, and this has been a very controversial subject over the past two decades or more. Creatine is what we call a phosphate donor. It donates phosphorus. Why is this important? Well, the currency that the muscle uses to do work is called ATP adenosine tri phosphate. And in order to make energy from ATP, you have to break off a phosphorus which becomes then a dp adenosine diphosphate. Now you have to rebuild ATP. So you need a phosphate donor and that's where creatine comes in. And it works very well. The problem has always been in the early stages of creatine on the marketplace, they were talking about loading the body and using 15-20 grams at a time and creatine monohydrate will hold on to water and people will getting water weight. To make a long story short, two to three grams of creatine is all you need. You don't this is not a numbers game where you need a lot. In addition to creatine and all the other accessory nutrients we've discussed, it makes for a wonderful pre workout, as well as post workout. There are studies to show that little bit of creatine after working out also is helping to repair and rebuild muscle as a phosphate donor. So I would say stick with the small amounts one to three grams at best. And depending upon how tall and how much muscle you have, you don't need to use a lot and you won't have any issues with regards to stomach issues or water weight retention.
Ed Jones 24:25 Man I love that and you know what I'm leaving this podcast starting tomorrow following your advice because I want to kind of switch the drink because I know we need that one hour window of opportunity to rebuild and I'm not getting because I'm drinking my drink at 5:15 and you know hitting the gym at seven and then you know not doing a post workout. So I'm switching that. Number two is I am going to try again on the creatine because like most people, I was doing 5 to 10 grams. And I completely agree with you that number one the loading is a joke. No one should I ever load creatine again, and I will be at you know, starting at about two which is probably plenty as you say, I'm a sensitive person I don't need much. And you know, I know that you know all too well that I mean creatine even in Lou Gehrig's disease and some other studies is valuable for an ageing human being. We're not even talking an athlete. I advise people who walk in who talking to me and saying, I have no stamina anymore. I'm seventy years old, I used to go to cut the grass and not be tired. And I would say, let's do three to five grams of creatine, and they're like, oh, that's a bodybuilding product. And then we, you know, of course, talk him through that. But Bluebonnet makes creatine does don't they?
Carl Germano 25:40 Well, it's in their sports line. But I could tell you, you bring up an important issue. And that is a lot of the sports products are more than adequate for the elderly. The elderly, who lose protein, lose muscle, don't eat well and so not only something like a whey protein isolate drink would be important for them. But yes, things that help the muscle work more efficiently. And that's true. Creatine has been used in certain conditions, where muscular strength is hampered, again, all because of its role as a phosphate donor. Whether you are an athlete, or just a or just someone walking around, it doesn't really matter. You're always producing ATP, your muscles are always doing some work. And creatine can be helpful in small doses for a variety of clinical conditions.
Ed Jones 26:35 Well, thank you so much. For people listening, if they want to know more about you, or how to learn more about this subject, do how can they contact or order your books? or How can they do this?
Carl Germano 26:45 Well, the new book Road To Ananda, you can get right online roadtoananda.com. I have a website carlgermano.com. It's a little bit older, but it's my product development website. So my contact information is there.
Ed Jones 27:01 Wonderful. I cannot thank you enough. And I want to thank all the listeners for tuning in again. And if you're working out or know someone or actually have a family member who has teenagers send them this link, because your teenager is going to do something people most likely if it's a guy, the girls probably not that the guys they're going to they're going to experiment, have them experiment with knowledge. And you know, I ran across a saying yesterday that says if you're not willing to learn, no one can help you. But if you're determined to learn, no one can stop you. Thank you everybody. This is Edward at the holistic navigator.
Brian Strickland 27:43 The information on this podcast and the topics discussed have not been evaluated by the FDA or anyone of the medical profession and is not aimed to replace any advice you may receive from your medical practitioner. The holistic navigator assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials. The holistic navigator is not a doctor nor does he claim to be please consult your physician before beginning any health regimen.
“The two storage areas for sugar in the body are your liver, in the form of glycogen and also in your muscle. After about an hour of strenuous activity, you’ve pretty much exhausted all sources of sugar energy to muscle and therefore need to replenish it. So with endurance sports … you need to replenish that if you want to compete.”
-CARL GERMANO, RD, CNS, CDN