Why I built Core Protocol
Every time my goal changed, I had to start my supplement research again from scratch. Core Protocol is what I built so that neither I, nor you, have to keep doing that.
It started with my own training
I started training seriously with a clear goal: put on weight, get stronger and build muscle. Like anyone starting there, I wanted to know what was actually worth taking, so I started reading.
Then I was injured, and what I needed from my nutrition changed. Then my goal became Battle Cancer, a fitness competition in the UK, which I went on to compete in, and it changed again. After that I started training for a sprint triathlon, with a half Ironman as the next goal and a full Ironman after that.
None of those goals needed the same thing from a supplement routine. Each time, I went back to the beginning.
The research was the real cost
I would spend hours at a time reading about compounds. The trouble is that the information is a mess. Some of it is genuine research. A lot of it is bro science: loud, confident and hard to check. Studies disagree with each other, doses are quoted with no context, and the front of a tub tells you very little. I regularly finished a long session of reading with a list I was not sure about.
Then I had to buy it. Different compounds came from different companies, and I ended up ordering from about twenty of them. I could not be sure the products were the right ones, or whether they overlapped with each other.
I do not think I am the only one
A lot of serious athletes are also busy working professionals. You have a full-time job, a training plan and recovery to fit in, and often a partner, children and everything else that comes with a family. When your time is that limited, hours of research and a pile of orders from twenty companies is not a good use of what is left.
There is a second group I had in mind too: athletes at a high level, including professionals, who do not yet have the money for a nutritionist or a supplement specialist. They face the same noise, with a lot riding on getting it right and less help to cut through it.
What I built
You answer a short quiz about your goals, your training, your events, your body and what you already take. From your answers, Core Protocol builds a protocol from a library of evidence-based compounds. Then:
- Every compound shows why it is there, so you can see the reasoning rather than take it on trust.
- Doses stay within established safety limits, and ingredients are added up across everything in your protocol, so the same mineral is not quietly counted twice.
- It tells you when to take what. A daily schedule and calendar reminders mean you are not working it out yourself, including on days when you train twice.
- It is rebuilt every 28 days. When your goal changes, your protocol changes with it, which is exactly what I needed and never had.
- If you have a race coming up, there is a race-week protocol, with doses scaled to your body weight.
- It arrives as one order, not twenty.
I wrote about why a fixed list stops working in why static stacks fail serious athletes.
What I wanted it to be
I wanted it to be evidence-led, and to say so plainly when the evidence is thin. That is why every compound shows its reasoning, and why this Journal exists: to show the working, including the parts that are not settled. The articles on electrolytes, sodium bicarbonate and caffeine and L-theanine are the kind of thing I wish I had found when I was doing this by hand.
I also wanted it to be honest about its limits. Supplements are the last small percentage on top of consistent training, food and sleep. They do not replace a good coach, and they do not replace advice from a doctor. For someone who cannot yet afford a nutritionist, I think a careful, evidence-based starting point is better than guessing. It is not a replacement for an expert when you can afford one.
The aim is simple: take the research, the sourcing and the scheduling off your plate, so that your time and energy go into training, recovering and the people who matter to you.
If any of this sounds familiar, I built it for you.
Jordan