3 Supplements That Actually Work.

They still won’t transform your body, though. 

The supplement industry. The sleazy cherry on top of the sundae that represents all of the false promises of the fitness industry. I know how hard it can be to navigate the fitness world. I was once a confused young boy, blindy hopping from fad to fad. In that misguided journey of mine, I too, fell for the supplement hype. I believed the marketing and I thought they would transform my body. 

When I was 17, I even took hydroxycut. Which had to be recalled after a liver damage related death was linked to the supplement. I had zero business taking a risky fat loss supplement at that age, but I thought I needed it. I thought it would make me lean. At the time, my happiness was immeshed with my body image. Leading me to believe this supplement was the cure all. Of course it wasn't, though. I took it and just had more energy. Nothing else. I knew nothing about nutrition, so my eating habits didn’t change. I also believed in the 6 week transformations, as advertised. Leaving me devastated, since after 6 weeks, I looked the exact same. 

I share this to give my anecdote into how the shady marketing of the fitness industry can leave you feeling helpless. When it’s advertised that these supplements will get you in shape, but they don't, it can make it feel like you are the problem. When in fact, the false advertising from supplement companies are the real problem. 

With this in mind, I want to write about 3 supplements that actually work. 
They will not transform your body. In reality, they won’t actually do much. They can give you a couple extra percentage points into your training performance and outcomes. Which, if you’re invested in the long game, can be useful. This is what we forget about supplements. They are meant to supplement everything else you’re doing. They are not a crutch for your poor nutrition habits, lack of effective training or for the neglect of your sleep/recovery. They can be the cherry on top of a well balanced sundae. If your sundae sucks, throwing a cherry on it won’t fix it. Same goes for supplements.

The beauty of these supplements is they’re cheap too. Which is the ironic thing about the supplement industry. Once a supplement is consistently studied and the benefits it brings becomes clear, the hype disappears. Then too, the cost drops. As lies can’t be promised from it. There is sufficient evidence to prove the claims wrong in that situation. A good example of this is the first supplement we’ll talk about. Creatine. It works. Plain and simple. Everyone knows this. The issue is that you can’t promise the sun and the starts from it. Why? Because it’s perhaps the most studied training supplement to date. Any bold claims could be swatted down immediately with overwhelming evidence. So the hype has largely disappeared, even though the efficacy (compared to most supplements) is quite high. And yet, it may be the cheapest supplement out there. Ironic eh? 

Okay, supplement rant over. Let’s dive into the science and application now. 

I’m going to break down three supplements. How they work. Benefits you may get from them. Effective dosages and links to buy them cheap (I am not sponsored by anyone, I just love a good deal). Reminder, none of these will change your life. They can improve your training and performance by a little bit. Which is helpful. As long as you know they are meant to supplement everything else, your expectations will be managed. 

Let’s start with the aforementioned supplement above, creatine. 

1. Creatine Monohydrate

Photo from https://unsplash.com/s/photos/creatine

Creatine might be the most boring supplement to talk about. I don’t care, though. It fucking works. It works better than pretty much any other supplement out there. Add the fact that it’s dirt cheap, highly researched and easily accessible and voila — we got the number one supplement I recommend. Within the context of maximizing strength, performance and hypertrophy, that is. 

First let’s breakdown what creatine is and does. 

What is it?

Creatine is a tripeptide. Meaning it’s made of three amino acids. Nothing special. Yet, creatine supplementation can still help quite a bit. When you intake a sufficient dose of creatine over time, it can increase the amount of creatine saturation in your muscles. Which we’ll learn about why that matters next. 

How does it work?

Creatine is needed in the regeneration of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is know as the energy currency of your body. This regeneration is very important when you’re training. As the regeneration will be needed to continue to work at high intensities. Your body stores creatine phosphate mainly in your muscles. Supplementation of creatine can help increase the saturation of creatine phosphate in your muscles. According to this paper, a normal diet of 1–2g of creatine per day (ingested through food) will have your muscle creatine stores at 60–80%. While supplementation of creatine (3–5g per day) can help saturate the stores to 100%. So simply put, we can think of creatine supplementation for increasing energy availability to perform at high intensities. 

Taken from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5469049/ This data is for short term creatine loading. So you’ll see that the creatine with carbs helps saturate your muscle quicker. But in the long term, having carbs with creatine does not have a better effect than just standard on creatine on it’s own. 

One thing to remember is that there is an association (to a degree) between volume and strength/hypertrophy outcomes. So the evidence of creatine helping your performance can probably help you build more muscle and strength. 

Should you worry about water retention?

No. you shouldn’t. It is true that creatine supplementation will increase water retention. That’s not a bad thing, though. Creatine is considered an osomolyte. Meaning it can impact fluid levels in a cell. Since creatine gets stored in your muscle, it will impact the intracelluar water levels of that muscle. Still, not a bad thing. Adding more volume to your muscles will only make them look better. Not worse, or softer. So don’t worry about water retention. Also, if a fancy type of creatine is saying “our creatine doesn’t cause water retention!” they may as well say their creatine doesn’t work.

Which creatine supplement should you get?

Creatine monohydrate. There are plenty of other types out there, but creatine monohydrate is the cheapest, most researched and does the trick. I take the Rivalus creatine monohydrate. Why? Because it was the cheapest one at my local supplement store. Seriously, that’s all you need to do. Don’t let the salesperson swindle you into a creatine thats new and better either. The evidence just doesn’t support it. 

How much should you take?

A standard dose is 3–5 grams per day. This is considered a maintenance dose. Once your muscles are fully saturated, you can take this dose indefinitely. You can also load your creatine. This is where you take about 20 grams per day to saturate your creatine levels quicker. This really does not matter in the long term. You can take creatine indefinitely. So whether it takes 2–3 weeks or 1 week to fully saturate your levels, it won’t make a difference. Loading can also come with GI discomfort. So In general, I don’t recommend it. For maintenance dose, you can base it off your lean body mass. If you’re smaller, you can take as little as 3 grams per day. If you’re bigger, you’ll probably hang around the 5 grams per day dose. Most supplements will give you a 5 g per day scoop though. You can adjust that from there if you’re smaller. 

Lean body mass is your weight when you subtract all of your fat mass. Since creatine matters for your muscle, your fat mass is not a relevant factor for the dose you need.

2. Caffeine

Photo taken from https://unsplash.com/photos/nBJHO6wmRWw

Everybody knows about caffeine. In fact, you most likely take it in some form. We often take it as a “pick-me-up” in the morning. It can also benefit your workout performance and potentially the results from that boost. So let’s explore what impacts it may have and how to use it. 

How does it work?

The main mechanism I’ll talk about here is caffeine’s affects on adenosine (remember ATP from before) and how it may impact your performance. There are so many other ways that caffeine can be beneficial, but to be honest, the science is way over my head in those areas. So I’m going to stick to some basics on how you can use it to benefit your training. 

Firstly, caffeine is considered an adenosine antagonist. Meaning it blocks adenosine receptors. The build up of adenosine can impact your energy levels and make you more tired. So if adenosine binds to the those receptors in the brain, it can increase tiredness. Now with caffeine being an antagonist to this action, it will do the opposite. 

Caffeine also seems to increase epinephrine (also known as adrenaline), which would also help with energy and potentially, training performance. 

When it comes to training performance, there are a couple ways that caffiene can help. Firstly, increased alertness and energy as discussed above would help with your workouts. Secondly, caffeine can blunt pain responses and and delay fatigue with your training. There is also evidence of a reduced RPE in caffeinated subjects versus non caffeinated subjects. 

RPE stands for rate of perceived exertion.

A reduction in RPE could really help you push harder with your training and lift heavier or for more effective sets. This could be quite useful in your strength and muscle building goals. 

How much should you take?

Dosing for caffeine is a bit complicated. With plenty of factors that can impact how an individual responds to it. Some guidelines even get up to 9mg/kg of bodyweight. A number that I feel comfortable giving out is 1–7mg/kg of body weight. With a recommendation to start on the lower side if caffeine isn’t something you’ve used pre workout before. A meta analysis from 2018 used this dosage range for it’s study break down. So there is some evidence behind that number as well and not just pulled directly out of my ass. This should be taken pre workout. Probably not an hour before your workout, but within the hour before your workout. I find I personally feel the effects from caffeine rather quickly. So I take it my pre-workout around 15 minutes before I train. 

How should you take it?

Honestly, take it however you prefer. You can just drink coffee. You can take a pre-workout supplement with it. You just can’t compare pre-workout to coffee fairly. Pre-workout will typically have other ingredients that may help as well. They also tend to have more caffeine than the average cup of coffee does. You can also take caffeine anhydrous on its own. Often in capsule form. It doesn’t seem to matter much here. Overall dose will matter though. 

3. Citrulline

Photo taken from https://unsplash.com/photos/euqiHwS38Rw Watermelons are known for having high levels of citrulline.

This last one is the least researched and seemingly least effective one on this list. We’re also comparing it to two heavy hitters when it comes to supplement science. So I won’t hold that against citrulline. 

This supplement may not be a household name, but it still seems to have benefits. Hence, it being on this short list. 

What is it?

Citrulline is a non-essential amino acid. It’s found it plenty of foods. Most notably, it has been associated with being in watermelon and their rinds. 

Why take it?

This gets a bit complicated. The reason we would take citrulline is because it will be converted to arginine. Arginine will be converted into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator. Meaning it dilates your blood vessels and can help with blood flow. Increasing blood flow to active muscles during your workouts. 

The confusing part is “why wouldn’t we just take arginine?” The reason for this is because when taken orally, cirtulline increases arginine levels more than arginine itself does. 

So the reason you would take it, is to increase your performance in strength endurance. If you’re aiming to increase your 1 rep max, then citrulline probably isn’t a great investment. If you want to increase your overall work capacity and endurance, then it will have a small benefit in that realm. This could be useful for trying to build muscle, as once again, it can impact the amount of volume you can do. It could benefit anyone doing more strength/endurance work like CrossFit/strongman training. It could also benefit you if your strength training relies on more super sets, tri-sets or circuits in general. 

How much should you take?

You’ll rarely find citrulline on it’s own. It will normally be cirtulline malate. The standard dose is going to be around 3g of citrulline prior to working out for the accute impacts we’ve been talking about. This can be confusing if you’re taking citrulline malate though (which is the most common form it’s sold in). If you take 3 grams of citrulline malate, you may only get 1.5–2 grams of citrulline and the rest being malate. So read the label and make sure you’re getting at least 3 grams of citrulline itself. The link I attached above will provide 3.4 grams per scoop. Even though the scoop itself will be 5 grams. 

What kind of impact will it make?

As seen in the study I linked above, you can expect a small benefit in regards to your strength endurance. It won’t transform your training, but it seems to reliably help in that area. Which may sound underwhelming. When compared to supplement hype, it is. But when compared to actual supplement science, it’s great to see. So I like it for that reason. The evidence supports it within a specific context to a marginal degree. When it comes to supplements, it’s all we can ask for. Assuming we’re talking about supplements that aren’t performance enhancing drugs. 

In Summary

These of course, are not the only beneficial supplements out there. They are just three that have enough evidence that we can confidently say they will have a minor positive impact on our training performance and hopefully the outcomes from it. 

This may be deflating for you. Especially if you love supplements and are looking for a magic pill. This is one reason I wanted to write this. I wanted to inform you that even the most well researched supplements, still won’t change your life. They won’t transform your body and they are not a crutch as we discussed before. A lot of supplement hype ends with the consumer having high expectations that weren’t even close to being met. Instead of realizing that no supplement holds the secret sauce, they just hop onto a new supplement fad. Which can be seen on tragic shows like DR. Oz, or in grotesque magazines like “womans’ world”.

I hope this taught you about three supplements that actually do work and how you may use them. I also hope your expectations are properly managed with how you use them and what benefits you may get. 

I also hope that it taught you to think a little bit more critically when it comes to the claims a new supplement is making. If they’re promising you the magic pill, they’re probably selling you some bullshit. 

References:

1. Reactions to Hydroxycut found in Canada as U.S. recalls pills
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/reactions-to-hydroxycut-found-in-canada-as-u-s-recalls-pills-1.788165 

2. Creatine Phosphate
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/creatine-phosphate 

3. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5469049/ 

4. Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis 
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27433992/ 

5. Creatine Supplementation Increases Total Body Water Without Altering Fluid Distribution 
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12937471/ 

6. Efficacy of Alternative Forms of Creatine Supplementation on Improving Performance and Body Composition in Healthy Subjects
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/9000/Efficacy_of_Alternative_Forms_of_Creatine.94079.aspx

7. Caffeine and adenosine
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20164566/ 

8. Adenosine and Sleep 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769007/ 

9. Effects of caffeine on session ratings of perceived exertion
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22926324/ 

10. Effects of caffeine intake on muscle strength and power: a systematic review and meta-analysis
https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-018-0216-0

11. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of oral L-citrulline and L-arginine: impact on nitric oxide metabolism
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17662090/

12. Acute Effects of Citrulline Supplementation on High-Intensity Strength and Power Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30895562/