Aaahhhh Supplements where do I start with this subject I have a reasonably strong opinion you see supplements have a place in a diet especially at the high-end level of performance my problem with supplements is that............
without being too offensive
Most of them don't do Shit! They are pseudo miracle products wrapped up in a shiny wrapper and placed on a pedestal peddled my marketers looking to make a quick buck. And then even the ones that are effective effect performance and body composition to such a small degree that you'd never notice the difference unless you were at the top of the game.
So for my sanity and to save valuable time
- Fat burners............DO NOT WORK - Calorie deficits are responsible for the decrease in adipose tissue (fat loss) not fat burners.
- BCAA's........... I'm still yet to find a study that says BCAA's are useful in individuals who consume sufficient protein to support their training goals. So eat a goddam meal and be done with it.
- Glutamine .............When Digested it never makes it to the muscles the gut hordes it for its self. So you know it could have potential benefits on gut health but for muscle recovery Mmmmm yeah it's minimal at best and loading up won't increase how much reaches the muscles.
- Testosterone Boosters........ Yeah, these don't work either. Pretty much always based on cherry picking rat studies. They might increase your, but they don't do anything to affect your actual test levels. Want to improve your test start sleeping more, lift weights and eat a nutritionally complete diet.
- Whey Protein....... Well, I don't consider whey protein to be a supplement because it's technically a food source. But yes whey protein can be a useful "supplement" to support protein intake. Only required if protein levels are deficient and you cannot eat more protein. Or it could be helpful in extreme bodybuilding style dieting because in the end stage they require an extremely low caloric intake while maintaining a high level of protein intake to support muscle retention so in this instance it could be useful for its high protein low calorie.
- Creatine........Yes, finally a supplement that has some real benefits. Enhanced ability to do reps in any one set, Enhanced recovery between sets, Intramuscular water retention. Creatine has 20+ years of research to support its reliability. But look don't be silly taking creatine will not make you in a superhuman its effects overtime might mean a 1-5% increase in overall strength and power but again this because of the extra reps that you have to do that add up over time. Supplementing creatine may also have benefits for the brain Studies show an improvement in cognition, delayed mental fatigue, short-term memory and intelligence/reasoning of healthy individuals.
- Stimulants....... The most popular being Caffeine can offer small but considerable advantages to those undertaking extremely strenuous training. Caffeine can increase motivation for training if you've ever had four espressos back to back you'll know what I mean when it feels like you can take on anything in the world. Caffeine can also increase pain tolerance which might be useful on those high rep widowmaker sets. A slight fat burning effect due to increased metabolic rate but this is pretty minimal I wouldn't take caffeine for specific attempting to increase fat burning. My main problem with caffeine of stimulants is that many people fall into the trap of needing them to train and using them to offset fatigue, this isn't a good idea because your body is fatigued because it needs rest and eventually you'll break it down beyond normal recovery and become overtrained. So yes you can use stimulants to enhance training but make sure you don't need them for every session or that you're using them to mask actual fatigue.
Old Reliable - The placebo effect People often get upset when you tell them that their favourite supplement isn't doing anything other than burning a hole in their wallet. It's kinda funny to see how annoyed they get insisting its the reason for all their progress, and it's also amusing when they say I started moving more eating less and taking this "sugar+Caffine" sorry fat burning pill and they lost 10lbs. You sure it wasn't the fact that you are now exercises and have restricted calorie intake likely putting you into a calorie deficit that's the reason for the weight loss? It just goes to show how effective marketing is!
If you made it this far, I'd like to say thank you for reading. There are probably 100's of spelling and grammatical mistakes, and I'm sure the grammar nazis will be sure to fly into my inbox to let me know. Haha, I always find it funny when the grammar nazis fly into the mailbox so yeah I'm sorry for providing all this free information that you would otherwise have to pay for. I have been getting up before 5 am every day for two weeks to get this content out before my working day starts, so I appreciate you guys reading it.
Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare. I may not be the smartest person in the room, but I have one thing going for me, and that's an absolute refusal to quit.
Stay Strong
J.