The Ethos Behind Our Formulations
The internet is saturated with an overwhelming amount of information and products related to performance, recovery and everything in between. We get it, it’s a nightmare to work out what might benefit you and whether you really need it. You see people talk about protein powder, or BCAA’s or pre workout, but you’re unsure on what makes sense for you?
When creating our products, we wanted to simplify that process by formulating revolutionary supplements that targeted our community's needs from a holistic approach.
In this article, we hear from CMBT Director and Head of Product Development, Sel Berdie to ask him about his ethos around the formulations of CMBT supplements.
Tell us your ethos behind formulating CMBT products and can you give us an example?
The difficulty for the industry is that you have to classify your product into something. You can’t just say, “Take this product because it has everything!”. That doesn’t make sense. So you have to classify your product by what it contains the most of.
For example, CMBT RELOAD is mostly made of protein. In the 40 gram serve, about 80% is made of protein. Therefore, it’s deemed as a protein but it was never an intention for it to just be a protein. It was always meant to be a recovery formula.
Recovery - as you probably know - goes past just protein, past inflammation, past digestive health, past neural health. It encompasses everything. So CMBT RELOAD couldn’t just be a protein, because then you wouldn’t be recovering properly!
Taking protein alone may assist some muscle synthesis and a few other things, but you’re missing the replenishment of electrolytes, the assistance in reducing joint inflammation and general aches and pain, and you’re not restoring magnesium to help with sleep or adrenal fatigue after pushing so hard for so long.
Don’t get me wrong, protein forms a massive component of the recovery process. But it wasn’t our intention to just do a protein, the same way it was never our intention to just do an amino acid for workouts, or just a stimulant for pre-workout. Everything must work synergistically to provide full long-term benefits compared to just band-aiding one small thing because then other small things will pop up. And then what’s the point?
Do the products go further than simply assisting your physical recovery and performance?
I think most people recognise when they’re really under the pump that there’s a physical and a mental impact. The question is, Which one usually gives in first? Everyone always says that it’s all in your head. We always hear this, but there is a true testament in that. If mentally you’re feeling fresher, things are clicking better, there’s less struggle in the brain, and less fatigue, then you can go further physically.
So for example, when developing a product like CMBT Octane, I was trying to look at it back-to-front. Most people think about things from a physical point of view: push harder, punch harder, kick harder, apply more pressure. But if you’re starting off on the front foot mentally with a host of clinically proven nootropics including cordyceps and mushroom complex - which is what we used in this case - then you’ll have the strength to push through physically.
Many people turn to stimulants at really high dosages. Stimulants have their place, but there’s an up and a down effect compared to something that is helping create neural pathways for you to think clearer, see things better, and enhance your mood. I thought that would be a better base to start with because if the mind is right, then the body will naturally be in a much better position to perform. That was the simple format of what seemed like a complex process: if you optimise your mental wellbeing, I have no doubt that you will feel good and perform better. One pulls the other.
I don’t think it works the other way around. There’s no doubt that if your body feels good, then most likely you’ll have great performance. But if it’s the chicken and the egg situation, I think it’s important to feel good mentally to then train better and perform better on fight day if you’re a competitive athlete. This will naturally form a habit that carries over multiple areas of life, whether it be training, work, and so forth.
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