As the largest multi- brand retailer in the UK, Discount Supplements sell a plethora of different supplements and supplement brands. We are profoundly aware of the need to keep on top of what is, and is not conducive to recreational and professional athletes, as well as professionals such as soldiers and martial artists. Our Braintree base in Essex means we outskirt a major army town in the form of Colchester, so we recognise the importance of staying clean during compulsory drug testing (CDT).
We occasionally receive emails and calls from servicemen wanting to know which supplements are ‘clean’, ‘legal’ and suitable for the Ministry of Defence (MoD). This is not always easy to answer on the basis that all of our supplements are completely legal (we wouldn’t sell anything less), but we also acknowledge that some supplements can come back with a ‘FAILED’ stamp plastered all over it! So how do you go about covering your back as a professional soldier or athlete…Informed Sport.com, that’s how. This site is a quality assurance programme for sports nutrition products, suppliers to the sports nutrition industry, and supplement manufacturing facilities. The site can verify whether your supplement of choice is certified as being tested for banned substances by the world-class sports anti-doping lab, LGC. Not all supplements are tested, so if they do not appear on the site then this doesn’t mean they contain banned substances, however, this will not cover you should you fail a future test. Any supplement you take is at your own discretion, we stock the largest and most well-established brands in the UK so chances are if the brand is listed as ‘certified’ on Informed Sport.com, then chances are we stock it!
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See the importance of staying drug-free in the British Forces by checking out the video below as seen on www.army.mod.uk
The above educational video was produced by the MOD to inform soldiers of the risks involved with drugs testing and sports supplementation. The risks are small, and it is widely accepted that supplements will be consumed in the army because of their irrefutable benefit to training. However, despite the valued opinion of WO2 Dusty Miller, I have to politely refute his comment that labels supplements as ‘a little bit of a short cut’ and ‘a little bit of a short term fix’…I personally think this view is ‘a little bit sweeping’. Although I see what he’s getting at, supplements by definition are designed to be consumed in conjunction to a healthy balanced diet i.e. they ‘add to’ you regular habitual intake. Therefore supplements most definitely do have their place, they most definitely do support growth and energy, and they do have ergogenic properties (improves performance).
So supplements do have their place, heck you’ve only got to look at your local gym and Crossfit Box to know this, the key here is ensuring they are used properly and sensibly. Stay informed guys, and do it by checking the appropriate sources such as Informed Sport.com and The 2014 Prohibited List on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).