Should weightlifters take fish oil?

Notes one and two, the weight class and the wrists and knees, where the sport's own concerns have no fish oil file

Should weightlifters take fish oil is a question the sport asks for its own reasons, and the honest page answers by the four notes a weightlifter's concerns actually consist of, because a general answer serves the sport badly and the sport's own concerns turn out to have no fish oil file until the last. Note one, the weight class: weightlifting is a weight-class sport, and a lifter a kilo or two over the class in the last week makes weight by water, sodium and carbohydrate manipulation and gut emptying, the weight-cutting literature's methods, on which a softgel has no lever, being a gram of mass that holds no water and touches no glycogen, so the softgel is left out of the final twenty-four hours for the sake of an emptying gut and comes back at the refeed meal after the weigh-in, the cutting-weight page's instruction, with the months-long pool losing nothing from the days without. Note two, the wrists and knees: the sport loads the wrist in the rack position of the clean and the overhead position of the jerk and the snatch, and loads the knee in the deep receive of both lifts, and a weightlifter's joint complaints are those, the wrist that aches in the rack and the knee that aches in the bottom, and neither has a fish oil file, the one joint file being inflammatory arthritis at several grams for months alongside a rheumatologist's treatment, the four-joints page's grading, so a loaded wrist belongs to a coach's work on rack position, mobility and bar path and a loaded knee to load management and a physiotherapist's programme, with a deload settling most of both in a fortnight while a softgel would still be building membranes, and a joint that swells, locks or stays sore beyond a deload belongs to a GP.

Notes three and four, the power that belongs to other supplements and the plate that decides, and the notes filed

Note three, the power: weightlifting is a sport of explosive strength, and the supplements with a performance sentence on the register are the ones to ask about it, creatine holding the claim that it increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high-intensity exercise at three grams a day, a sentence written for exactly the sport's demands, and caffeine holding the alertness and concentration sentences at its own doses, with the sports nutrition position stand grading creatine as the best-evidenced ergogenic aid there is, while omega-3 holds no performance sentence and the trials that added it to trained athletes found no consistent effect on strength, power or endurance, the performance review's null, so a weightlifter who wants a supplement for the lift buys creatine and, for the session, a coffee, and a fish oil is not on that list at any dose. Note four, the plate: the note that finally decides, and it decides as it does for anyone, by the oily-fish audit, a weightlifter on chicken, rice and white fish, the sport's typical plate, carrying the 250mg heart claim unmet and the omega-3 index unbuilt, which one standard softgel meets and three build over a season, while a weightlifter who eats salmon, mackerel or sardines twice a week needs no softgel at all, the audit's two fixes, with the soreness footnote, a point or so lower at two to three grams over months, as the one training-adjacent finding and not a reason. So should weightlifters take fish oil: not for the class, the wrists, the knees or the power, which have their own routes, and yes or no by the plate, which is the desk worker's answer applied to a lifter who happens to be strong. The notes filed: the weight class with no lever and a refeed return, the wrists and knees with no file and a coach and a physiotherapist, the power that belongs to creatine and caffeine, and the plate that decides by the audit, with the worked example being the plate note's softgel, £14.99 for 90 at 17p.

The verdict, four notes of which only the last says yes, and only by the audit

Should weightlifters take fish oil: by four notes specific to the sport, the weight class on which a softgel has no lever, being a gram of mass left out of the final day and returned at the refeed, the wrists and knees the sport loads, which have no fish oil file and belong to a coach's technique and a physiotherapist's loading, the power, whose register sentences belong to creatine at three grams a day and to caffeine with no omega-3 performance effect in the trials, and the plate, which decides by the oily-fish audit as it does for anyone, one softgel for a chicken-and-white-fish diet that leaves the 250mg heart claim unmet and none for two oily-fish portions a week. The plate note's softgel: Futuro Labs Omega 3 Fish Oil, one with food, 180mg EPA and 120mg DHA, 90 for £14.99 at 17p a day.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Does fish oil help weightlifters lift more?

No: omega-3 holds no performance sentence and the trials that added it to trained athletes found no consistent effect on strength, power or endurance, while creatine holds the register's claim for performance in successive bursts of short-term, high-intensity exercise at three grams a day, the sentence written for the sport's demands.

Is fish oil good for a weightlifter's wrists and knees?

No: a wrist loaded in the rack and overhead positions and a knee loaded in the deep receive have no fish oil file, the one joint file being inflammatory arthritis at several grams for months alongside treatment, so they belong to a coach's technique work, a physiotherapist's loading programme and a deload, with a GP for a joint that swells or locks.

Should a weightlifter take fish oil before a weigh-in?

No: a softgel is a gram of mass with no lever on the water, sodium and carbohydrate manipulation that makes weight, and a fat slows gastric emptying, so it is left out of the final twenty-four hours with everything else and comes back at the refeed meal after the weigh-in, the pool losing nothing from the days without.

What supplements are actually worth it for weightlifting?

Creatine at three grams a day for the performance sentence, caffeine for alertness in a session, protein powder as a convenient way to reach around 1.6 grams per kilogram if the plate falls short, and fish oil only by the oily-fish audit for the heart claim, with nothing else on the register for the sport.

Should weightlifters take fish oil at all, then?

By the plate: a chicken, rice and white fish diet leaves the 250mg heart claim unmet and the index unbuilt, met by one standard softgel at 17p and built by three over a season, while two portions of salmon, mackerel or sardines a week make the softgel unnecessary, the same answer a desk worker on the same plate would get.

Sources

1. Kreider RB, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2017;14:18. PubMed record
2. The weight-cutting literature for weight-class sports: making weight is done by water manipulation, sodium and carbohydrate restriction and gut emptying in the days before a weigh-in, with performance depending on how well the deficit is restored between the weigh-in and competition, and no supplement altering scale weight beyond its own mass. PubMed record
3. Reviews of omega-3 supplementation and exercise performance: no consistent improvement in strength, power, endurance or performance tests in trained adults, with the more consistent findings being modest reductions in perceived soreness and inflammatory markers at gram-and-above doses over weeks. PubMed record
4. Goldberg RJ, Katz J. A meta-analysis of the analgesic effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation for inflammatory joint pain. Pain 2007;129(1-2):210-223. PubMed record

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