Let’s Talk Supplements!!

Matt Samansky, Supplement Review Editor

Welcome to Supps with Samansky, Digital Muscle’s weekly supplement review series! Before I begin breaking down products, I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself beyond what my short biography reads above.  You’ll be hearing a lot from me in the future, so we might as well get to know each other.

I love supplements. I love opening a package filled with pre-workouts and protein powders. I love pushing through packets of silica to retrieve capsules.  I even love the journey to the scooper at the bottom of a bottle!

Since I discovered the world of fitness and nutrition in 2010, I became infatuated with supplementation. Now, having said that, I understand supplements are just that: supplements to a perfected diet. No amount of fat burners will compensate for a dirty diet. This blog is dedicated to reviewing products, not preaching the benefits of clean eating.

The first supplement I ever took was Stacker 2, a fat burner suggested by a teammate with whom I used to wrestle.

“It burns fat,” he said.  And that was all I needed to hear.

I spent all the money I had on bottles of Stacker 2, hoping it would ease the process of making weight. Looking back, I probably should have done a little more research than taking my teammate’s word as gospel, but I didn’t know any better. It was when I failed to see any results from the product that I knew there had to be a better way.

I took to the internet, searching any and every website I could find to educate myself on what made for a good supplement.  My wrestling coach caught me on the forums of an online retailer (that will remain unnamed) and took an interest in educating me himself. He had competed in bodybuilding shows in the 90’s, had taken “every supp under the sun” and he took me under his wing.

Which ingredients elicit fat loss? Which compounds promote lean muscle gain? Which formulas improve cardiovascular health and performance? All of these questions and more were discussed at length.

Coach taught me his process behind reviewing supplements and it’s one I hold in high regard to this day. His philosophy is as simple as this; Write everything down!  You can’t make an educated declaration as to the effectiveness of a product without evidence. There’s a section of my bookshelf reserved for composition notebooks, each one filled with daily diary entries to help me better track my progress (or lack thereof).

In my weekly series, I promise to take reviewing supplements a step further to provide you with the facts in a professional manner. Each week, I will provide an unbiased, no-nonsense, detailed analysis of a product, evaluating ingredients, safety, effectiveness, price, and personal testing.

So let’s get started!

Have questions? Requests? Want to discuss products? Send me a tweet, let’s talk!

 

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