When I worked in a health shop, workout supplements was always one of the most popular sections. This is not surprising at all. The fitness industry makes us believe that we can’t have a good workout without a strong stimulant and that chugging protein shakes is absolutely essential to building muscle. I’m going to look at 5 popular gym supplements and whether it’s worth spending your hard-earned money on them.
Pre-workout
Pre-workout supplements usually come in powder forms in a variety of flavours and ingredients. They can also come in a form of a shot, fizzy drink, gel or even tablets or gummies. Pre-workout supplements are meant to boost your energy levels and improve your performance during a workout.
Each brand will have its own ingredient formula. Most include caffeine, carbs, amino acids, vitamins, creatine and some natural energy-boosting ingredients. Just like any product, some pre-workout supplements will have better ingredients than others. However, if you are not an expert it’s hard to know when you are getting a good quality product.
The truth is, pre-workout won’t do your session for you. It will give you energy but so will a good carb/protein-loaded meal a few hours before your session and a snack closer to the session. Pre-workouts are generally high in caffeine. If you train in the late afternoon/evening loading up on caffeine will affect the quality of your sleep which in turn will affect your muscle recovery.
Besides, you never know how your body might respond to any particular pre-workout mix. Instead of having a killer session, you might end up having high caffeine intake related side effects such as increased heart-rate/blood pressure, jitters and nausea.
While making sure you fuel your body with food before the session is important, there’s absolutely no need for an average gym-goer to use pre-workouts.
BCCAs
Branched-chain amino-acids or BCCAs supplements are another popular product among avid gym-goers. BCCAs are essential amino acids that your body needs but can’t produce itself and therefore has to get through diet. You can obtain BCCAs naturally from proteins found in food such as meat, dairy, legumes etc. BCCAs are important nutrients that the body needs and play a role in muscle growth.
You don’t really need to take BCCAs if you are getting a sufficient amount of protein from your diet. This also includes protein powder that contains all essential amino acids. You can also find BCCAs in other gym supplements such as pre-workouts. For example, you can find fizzy drinks with large BCCAs letters on them that also contain large amounts of caffeine. Therefore, it is important to check the ingredient list to make sure you are not getting any additional supplements that you don’t want/need.
Apart from helping build muscles, some people will use BCCAs as a supplement to help with muscle soreness. However, there isn’t definitive information whether this actually helps. The best things you can do for muscle recovery are to maintain an adequate diet with sufficient amounts of protein, get good quality sleep and give your muscles sufficient time to repair before training again.
All in all, BCCAs can be useful if you are not getting enough protein in your diet. It’s important to remember though, that no supplement will substitute macronutrients that come from food.
Fat burners
Despite a very promising name, fat burners won’t literally make your undesired fat melt. Fat burners are supplements that might ever so slightly increase your metabolism and decrease fat absorption. A lot of fat burner supplements contain natural fat burners such as caffeine, green tea extract, cayenne pepper. However, there is no defined list of what goes into a fat burner. Some products might have more questionable ingredients than others.
You can easily buy fat burners in any health or supplement shop. However, it is best to consult with a health professional about whether those supplements are safe for you. You can also get a similar “fat-burning” effect by simply consuming actual foods that are on the ingredients list.
For example, coffee will slightly boost your metabolism as a stimulant, spicy food will do that through thermogenesis (increasing your body’s temperature) and fibre will simply keep you fuller. Unfortunately, none of this will make much difference if you are consuming significantly more calories than your body needs and not expending any energy in return.
Fat burner supplements should be taken with caution. Ultimately, they won’t make much difference to your fat percentage if you don’t make sustainable diet changes and increase your activity levels.
Creatine
When you perform exercises, your body uses different energy sources for different intensity levels. Creatine phosphate is one of those sources. It is naturally produced in your body and is used when you perform high-intensity all-out exercises, for example running a 10 seconds sprint or doing your one-rep max lift. Creatine can also be obtained from foods such as meat and fish. Creatine supplements are well researched and can be beneficial to improve strength and power as well as building muscle when doing resistance training.
Since you already have naturally produced creatine in your body, it is important to follow the instructions on the use of this supplement and not increase the recommended dosage. Some of the side effects connected with inappropriate usage of the supplement include gastrointestinal issues.
While creatine can certainly be a useful supplement for some people, it won’t magically turn you into a superhuman. This is important to remember to avoid disappointment and lose motivation when you don’t see the great results you expected. Furthermore, unless you’re an athlete you don’t really need to push yourself to your absolute limits to build strength and muscle. All you need to do is use progressive overload and pay enough attention to diet and recovery.
Protein powder
Protein powder is probably the most popular gym supplement that even a complete novice would be aware of. It is also the most useful supplement one can take if building muscle is their goal. Protein powder comes from milk. There are 2 types of protein in milk – casein and whey. Whey protein is fast absorbing while casein protein is slow. This makes casein protein a great evening meal since it will help your muscles repair and grow throughout the night.
Both whey and casein are complete sources of protein and provide all essential amino-acid that your body needs. There are a lot of plant-based protein powders – soy, pea, hemp, etc. Some of them are not complete protein sources and would require a bit of “mix and match” to get the full profile of amino acids.
Adding protein powder is a great way to increase your daily protein intake. The best part of protein powder is its convenience as you can easily have a protein shake on the go. Furthermore, if you have a sweet tooth and are trying to lose weight, protein powder can be a great tool for making homemade treats like ice cream, bars, pancakes. Protein will keep you full while and your treats will be lower in calories compared to something from a shop. If you get enough protein in your diet you don’t necessarily need protein powder. However, it can be a convenient snack that keeps you fuller and away from high calorie, unhealthy snacks.
When it comes to training, the majority of people want to see results sooner than is actually possible. This creates an enormous marketing opportunity for companies to sell gym supplements that will surely help you build muscle quick, recover very fast, burn undesired fat and set PBs (personal best) during every session.
The reality is, you don’t need any of the popular gym supplements to achieve progress. All you need is a good training programme that incorporates progressive overload, good exercise technique, adequate nutritious diet and recovery/sleep.