Episode 63 - Reclaiming Body: Leveling up on Supplements

In episode 63 of the Reclaiming Man podcast, host Michael Beckwith, along with Preston and Brad, discuss their experiences with supplements and testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). Michael, inspired by Gary Brekka’s work, emphasizes the importance of effective supplementation. His regimen includes methylated B12, magnesium, omega-3s, creatine, and protein with BCAAs, which have improved his mental, digestive, and metabolic health, as well as sleep quality. Preston takes omega-3, vitamin D, B12, magnesium, and electrolyte solutions, highlighting the importance of vitamin D for immune support and sharing his concerns about the demasculinization of society reflected in changing testosterone level standards. Brad, with a background in fitness and supplementation, follows a comprehensive supplement regimen including magnesium, vitamins D3, B12, C, collagen, creatine, and protein powder. He also discusses his positive experience with TRT, which has significantly improved his physical performance and recovery. The hosts emphasize the benefits of TRT for both men and women and the importance of a balanced supplementation regimen for overall health. They consider compiling a starter pack of recommended supplements and plan to feature guest experts in future episodes.

Transcript

Michael: 0:06

Welcome to episode 63 of the Reclaiming Man podcast. Your host, Michael Beckwith here, at Preston in the Southern Connecticut, Radomski. Brad, Lieutenant Dawson, coming at you with a polo podcast this week right before a holiday weekend, and hopefully all you have some plans of rest and recreation of some form. We're not going anywhere in our family, other than just staying around and having fun. Hopefully getting some stuff done around the house spending some time together as well. So Episode 63, we're on reclaiming body this week And one of the things that we had discussed Revisiting to some extent earlier was supplements And so I wanted to share a little bit about the journey that both myself and my wife are on when it comes to supplements and some of the things that I think are a good source material to listen to as far as experts in the field, far greater level of expertise than myself, but wanted to share some of my experience thus far with where I'm at, what the, again, the path is that my wife has been on to that I've been able to observe and see. I know Brad has some interesting thoughts as well. So on my front, I was originally inspired by my buddy Zach Lenton, who was on the show last year. He had started supplementing. I've always supplemented protein and occasionally BCAA in pill form as well as in the protein powder, but creatine as well. And then he also started talking about some other supplements that he was taking that encouraged me to look into it more closely. And so, first recommendation is check out any of Gary Brekka's work or his 10X program. Both of which I think are really fascinating to read and help understand how we can process supplements in a more efficient manner. A lot of times the supplements, like multivitamins and other, stuff that's readily available in our convenience store, drugstore, etc. Is stuff that we pee out most of our body will filter a lot of it out and we actually don't get a lot of the nutrients from it that we need. One of the things that Gary Brecka talks about is that there are, a certain subset of vitamins and minerals that our bodies are deficient in genetically. And so I have taken some of what he has provided as general guidance and incorporated it into my routine over these last couple months with, I think, really good success or just good results from a overall feeling perspective, mental health, digestive health, metabolic health, and so for me personally, I am taking some methylated versions of vitamin B12, magnesium, and omega 3s. And each of those have generally been determined to be deficient in western diets. I don't personally eat as much fish, where omega 3s, you get those good fatty acids, which are really good for brain health, as well as metabolism and some of the other types of, overall just improved bodily function. So I am feeling really good taking that supplement magnesium. I'm taking partially for the recovery nature with muscles in particular. And then there's positive association with better sleep, better quality of sleep. And I am feeling that, although I think there is a little bit more. Still, I feel like more dreams that I've had over these past few weeks, I've mentioned, I've really eliminated any sort of CBD or THC, which I think was putting me in a more dreamless sleep, or at least I wasn't aware of the dreams when I was waking up, so those are the couple of things I've still been doing, creatine and protein with BCAAs in them. So that's pretty much the summary of what I've been doing and I've been finding some really good success with it. So I encourage you to take a look at Gary Brekka. Yeah, that's really good results and we just sent off the 10x health kit for my wife. And so she's gonna hopefully get some good results back and I'll let you know about that. But, Preston, Brad, curious to hear what supplements you guys are using, any sort of reviews, slash success stories. We'll go from there.

Preston: 4:58

Morning, Michael. Morning, Brad. Or good afternoon. Yeah, looking forward to this long weekend. We are, actually, Brad and I are, the rodeo's playing a wedding up in Illinois on Saturday. So we will be heading up there together. Actually, we're riding separate, because we've got six of us going to this event, and we can't all fit in Brad's truck. So he's taking half, I'm taking half. And then we both got some gigs on Sunday back in town and on Broadway. So it should be an eventful holiday weekend and then Monday will be some smash burger action at my house with the Erica and the kids. So gonna be a delish weekend. Those are some actually pretty cool supplements you were talking about Michael. I'd heard the idea or the concept of how you're talking about like people call it like, Oh, what are you making your pee expensive? Right? You're taking these vitamins and you just pee them out right away. And I guess, yeah, to some extent maybe we do that, but I mean, there's gotta be something to it. I mean obviously it's working for you. I, well, a lot of the things I like to take is the omega three, I'm assuming that's fish oil. Fish oil, I think is what that is. I like to do vitamin D. I got started taking that during COVID because I remember like Rogan was talking a lot about that. He had this doctor on, I think it was still in 2020 and she was talking about how deficient we are in vitamin D and how important that is for our immune system. And that something as simple as just adding that to your daily regimen would have. Helped a lot of people as far as with COVID goes and it's weird that you didn't hear It's so bizarre now going back to that time how you know Joe Rogan was absolutely you know put over the rails by CNN when he had COVID because he mentioned he took ivermectin along with a bunch of other things they put like a filter on him on there and it's just like What the fuck was going on? There's an element now where I'm still like So upset at some of the people at that time, but it's like we definitely need to move past that and like Forgive and come back together as a country. I think we're Anyway i'm getting way off track. Vitamin d Take it every day. I'm actually out of it right now. I need to like I need to get A refill on a bunch of things. But vitamin d b12 I take magnesium as well I do, Every morning I have water that I put like this electrolyte solution in I forget the brand crave Something like that. It's some brand I found that has like no sugar because a bunch of those have sugar in them. The Electrolyte sort of mixes and stuff, which is fine. Sugar's not necessarily a bad thing, but I like this one. I do a greens mix. I was using Jocko Willink has this Hulk greens that I was taking. And then I heard our buddy Ryan mentioned that his brother or someone takes the Amazon one. And the Jocker one's like, almost 50 bucks for, I think, a month's supply or whatever. And the Amazon one was 20. So I was like, well, I'll try that one out and see. And it's just as nice. So like, do that kind of in the morning. It's a great way to start the day. Just get your body hydrated and full of a bunch of good vitamins on an empty stomach. So I feel like your body just sucks that in. It's like, mmm yum, yum. Along with a nice big cup of coffee, so. But I'm definitely curious Brad, because I know you were doing, taking testosterone, not in the sense of, the way a bodybuilder would to like, just get massively yoked. But I have another buddy, I won't mention his name just out of, I don't know if he wants it to be talked about, but he got on testosterone, oh gosh, maybe six months ago. And it's changed his life. He was like, just moods, like everything. Like he just, I don't know. I don't know if it pertains to the amount of you hear, that's funny. I bring up Rogan again, but he was just talking about how much plastic we all ingest on a sort of daily, weekly basis. If you're drinking bottled water, like out of a plastic bottle, stop that right now. Like, don't do that. Get like a metal canteen or whatever, and just I mean tap water is no better but try and get a water filter of some sort but I wonder if the plastics that are like in our lives have an effect on the testosterone of men lately. In the last 20 years. I would, it'd be interesting to have someone on who's, knows more about that but, so that's my kind of vitamin or regimen boys. Let's see what you have to say about your testosterone there Brad, I'm curious.

Michael: 10:27

Yeah, I should also say the electrolyte and salt, specifically Celtic sea salt, that has a bunch of, has the most trace minerals in it. I've been adding that to my oatmeal in the morning. I do also like, liquid IV does have some fake sugar in it, but I like that quite a bit as far as, in addition to the water. So I think. That is generally how I have been supplementing. I was encouraged slash inspired, so I ordered some vitamin D. I've definitely heard about that as well, and I am wanting to also do the same sort of genetic testing that my wife is doing, but we're gonna see. Do it for her first and see. I've also heard that testosterone can be really helpful for women. One of my, I haven't been on the show I believe, but, the president of the company that I used to work for, he was talking to me about the journey that his wife was on. The number of different challenges in life, especially exacerbated by menopause and how testosterone can be a really helpful hormone to supplement during menopause in like a slow release form, like nothing else was really helping, but that was the ticket for her. And so it's interesting to remind ourselves that. Both men and women have testosterone that's produced in their bodies, and it's a really helpful part of regulating moods and regulating a lot of our, our, well, I shouldn't speak unintelligently about it, but that is based on what, he was telling me is it really helps her regulate a lot of the symptoms from menopause. So, Brad, what you got on testosterone? Love to hear a little bit more about it.

Brad: 12:49

What's up guys? Coming at you from the beautiful 5th and Broadway apartment. Yeah, so on a triple shift today downtown. Trying to recover from this little cold bug that's been going around. And sorry for my delayed response on here. But, Yeah, wanted to chime in on supplements and various supplementation, TRT treatment, and just other things to that are in line with reclaiming body. Yeah, so for me, I was in the fitness world pretty heavily working for my cousin who I think we'll have as a guest on the show in the next month or possibly. He is a fitness supplement manufacturer, a private label, a manufacturer, so he formulates supplements. He was a he's a competitive bodybuilder. He was an athlete, entrepreneur. And we'll let him tell his story when he comes on the show, but a lot of experience just from, being close to my cousin and his thoughts on some of these protein powders and different creatines and really any supplement vitamins, how going to what you guys were saying, how a lot of them are, we just don't absorb a lot of the nutrients from them. So you are really just pissing money down the drain and pissing the supplements out of you. So he's got some technology and some other. companies of this technology where it's a, it's on a macro level where these, supplements are released into your system. So I'm going to have him talk more about that. And he also has a really interesting, sweetener that he has formulated that is a probiotic sweetener, which I use and it tastes really good too. Because a lot of these even stevia or any of these other sugars and, of course, sugars and like, Splenda and just all that stuff, I mean you, yeah, you may not be having real sugar, but now you're gonna have risk for cancer and other things that have been proven. So, yeah so my regimen on a daily basis is I take magnesium, I take, Vitamin D, D3, Vitamin B Vitamin C, and, I take a collagen supplement. It's actually a bodybuilding supplement by Rich Piana. A plug there for his stuff. Rich Piana has some really great products. And I trust a lot of the bodybuilders in the bodybuilder world because they've tried this stuff. Like, they know it tried and true and their bodies are operating at an insane level. These guys are spending tons of money on supplementation and I just trust them more than any, anybody. And a lot of them in that world are in the manufacturing business and stuff like that too. So, I trust any products that I'm referred to from that world. But Ridge Piana has a product called joint defender. I'm 40, 40 year old man and I feel it. I play a lot of drums for a living. So my joints and stuff take a, beating, but. I really take it because it has a thousand milligrams of collagen in it as well, so along with glucosamine. So the two things that I really, you know, obviously along with BCAAs and magnesium for muscle recovery and stuff like that and a protein powder, I also take a protein powder. But, glucosamine is huge. So this supplement has a thousand milligrams of collagen. I forget the measurement on the glucosamine. But, collagen is great for hair, nails, bone density. It keeps, you youthful honestly. And so, I feel like that has been great for me. It's 8 capsules a day of that. I think it's what, 40 bucks a bottle, so you're gonna pay for it. But, that is my supplement routine. I do take an AVP. Creatine, whether I'm training or I'm not training, it's a special complex. I wish I had the bottles and stuff with me and I could share it with you. It's called AVP creatine. It's in a tablet form. You got to be careful of creatines. A lot of them just make you hold water and you don't get a lot of the benefits from them. So there's so many supplements out there. You've got to do a lot of research and maybe we can come up with a list and share with some of our listeners of products that we trust that's something maybe when my cousin comes on that we can. Kind of review with him. You can recommend some of his stuff or just some other products that he knows are tried and true. Now, the other one that I found extremely beneficial is testosterone replacement therapy. So I mean, speaking of my cousin, he had a he had pioneered like a lot of great supplements. And one of them that he did was a SARMS product, which is a selective androgen receptor modulator. So it's like a all natural testosterone booster, if you will. So he's got a product called CE6. I took that for a long time for many years and I Take it on and off now as well with my testosterone replacement therapy helps with lean muscle mass trying to just helps like free testosterone to get moving in the body Again, he can talk more about ce6 when he comes on but You know taking that product for a while was in great shape wasn't doing any injected testosterone and then I got off that product and Just was working and got caught in the workforce and was just eating like crap and gained a bunch of weight and felt Sluggish and there was a lot of things contributing to it, but I went to my doctor and I got my testosterone Checked and it turned out. I was like low 200s like super low so They say now what's really funny about the healthy levels of testosterone have changed over the years the other guest that I thought about bringing on was a guy named Paj. He runs Hormone Health, dot com, which is the company that I actually am affiliated with for testosterone. And they're all, affiliated medically with licensed doctors and everything and they work with athletes at the professional level, and I would love to have him on and talk a little bit more as well. But. Testosterone has been just amazing for me. So what happened first is I had really low levels, I went and got tested, and I ended up going through a place out in California, a clinic out in California called Ageless Men and that was the first time I, had received testosterone shots small doses in your glute and you'd go into the office every, What was it every week or so and they would give you, they administer the shot for you and they would also give you what's called H C G. Now I, could have these guys elaborate a little bit more on it, but the important part about taking testosterone is that you balance it out with H C G. Because you don't want to have any issues with gyno, they call it, which is where your balls shrink. You just get, and you're getting too much, Testosterone, so your body creates more estrogen to balance that and so, you need to take HCG and then another product that I take, for estrogen called Novadex. Now these are all bodybuilder kind of type supplements that go along with your testosterone, but just regular testosterone siponate, is what you take. We're not taking Deca or any of these other high powered testosterones that people are familiar with. Or, the stigma is wrapped around, regarding juicing, right? Like, there's just this big misconception that if you take steroids, there's just like one way to take it. You take this one shot and boom, you blow up into a massive dude. No, there's all kinds of different doses and programs that you can be on. And so, you gotta get that stigma out of your head. And you're seeing that a lot in mainstream media now. And you've got those HIMS commercials and you've got all these commercials of like testosterone being, It's being more recognized with your local doctor too your, general practitioner. If you tell them you're a low test, they'll test you and a lot of times they'll prescribe it to you. But going back to what I was saying about the testosterone levels in America, is that they used to be, the standard was I want to say 600 to 1, 000 was like normal. Well now they've actually dropped that down to like 500 to 700. So, you could say that there is a demasculinization going on in society simply based off of the standards of what a normal testosterone level is in a male, is actually lower than it used to be. So, when you're young you're a teenager, you hit puberty, you're in high school, you're gonna be running a thousand, over a thousand, in testosterone. When you're in your prime, so when you start getting older, it just naturally depletes. You lose energy, become sluggish, all those things. So anyway, I got on testosterone and immediately noticed a difference. Now, of course, there's benefits with that lean muscle mass muscle growth. It's not magic. It is not magic. When you do testosterone replacement therapy in a healthy dose, you do one cc I found because of the half life of it to do it more frequently in smaller doses. So. If you can deal with the needles, I've learned how to give myself the shots, not a big deal. I use a 22 gauge needle. In my glute, it's become really easy. It really doesn't hurt. And, I give myself smaller doses multiple times a week. So I go Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and I do about a cc of testosterone siponate. And then every other day you do a little tiny shot of HCG, which is in an insulin needle, which if you know an insulin needle, it's like the tiniest needle in the tiniest amount of HCG. And you do that in your stomach fat. You don't even feel that. It takes two seconds. And then the other one is HGH human growth hormone. That's another one that you hear about bodybuilders taking. They take it in massive amounts, huge benefits if you take small quantities of human growth hormone as well. So. In my more advanced program, I found the most benefits. I'm doing three shots a week of testosterone. Two times, twice a week I do HCG and alternating days with human growth hormone. And it's a miracle. I don't have the greatest diet. I'm a recovering alcoholic and I love to eat. Not overweight by any means, got a little fat on my body, but I've found that it, the benefits of, I'm hanging on to the results of my workouts for longer. Not having to train as hard. My recovery is much faster. People go, man, you look really young. How do you, man, you're 40? I mean, you look at so many other guys that are 40. I mean, I'm passing for my mid 30s all the time. I mean, I had someone compliment me and say I looked like I was 28. Now, I think some of that's genetic. And I don't go flaunting that, but I think if you get on these supplement regimens and TRT early same thing with collagen, you can prevent gray hairs. I mean at 40, I have a full head of hair. I mean, It's like, some of that is genetic, I'm sure, but, a supplement regimen can vastly help you retain some of that youth, so yeah, testosterone levels now, I'm floating around at about eight, nine hundred I tested one time at about a thousand, which is amazing. I mean, your strength is there, you can go harder at the gym, Keeps you leaner You don't have to work as hard on your diet. You can have your little cheat meals, whatever But yeah testosterone is definitely not a magic shot. It's not like you don't change anything and do that I mean you'll see benefits but you know coupled with a good diet and a fitness regimen. I mean you can You know get shredded pretty easily Highly recommend it no side effects for me. No balls shrinking no tenderness in my nipples I don't have man boobs. None of that because we're doing a healthy program, and I do want to say that testosterone has been addictive. People get addicted to it. They get addicted to the needles. Anybody who was a needle user understands that you get this result from a needle. And heroin users have this issue too, where they, become addicted to the needle. I don't seem to have an issue as a recovering alcoholic addict. I wasn't a needle user, so, needles don't really scare me or Trust me, it wasn't easy the first time I gave myself a shot in the ass. I mean, it was like, I'm sitting there trying to like force myself to do it. And it's a little weird when you first do it, but, if you can get past that and you can give yourself the shots, totally worth it. And yeah, supplementation and TRT has been a huge part in my kind of midlife coming up on midlife routine. And also full time musician downtown. I'm on a triple today. I'm playing three shifts today. There's Broadway right there. I'm lucky my buddy Brandon and me have a spot here downtown. Well, he has a spot and he lets me have a room here. Really cool apartment building in 5th and Broad. But, yeah, I've heard a lot about testosterone benefits for women. CE6, the product my cousin manufactures, is safe for women too if they don't want to do, injections. But, there's a lot more to talk about too. Peptides. Peptides are another, popular one in the fitness world. I don't know a whole lot about peptides, but, we can talk more about those when we get Drew on.

Preston: 27:33

Takin that TRT. Wow! That's cool, dude. That's super interesting. I would love to get a, Like a list together. For people to, A starter pack, so to speak, right? Some good stuff right here, gentlemen. Good stuff.

Michael: 27:54

All right, that's it for episode 63.