Supplements
Supplements are not required, but some have small benefits. Look for the designation “USP” on the label to ensure some confidence that the label is accurate. A supplement that meets the requirements of the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) meets the standards and ensures the product is pure and actually contains the listed ingredients.
Multivitamin
Dose: 1 serving
Purpose: Cover any potential nutrient deficiencies
You don’t need to go expensive here. Look for products that have close to 100% RDA on most vitamins and minerals. Avoid ones that have too little or too much (common in bodybuilding brands). Pay specific attention to Vitamin K, Magnesium, Calcium and Zinc, which is what most people lack. If you’re a woman, make sure it has a good amount of Iron. And if you’re a man, make sure it has very little or none.
If you hate taking pills, I wouldn’t even bother with the multivitamin as there isn’t a lot of good evidence that it actually makes any difference, but it’s not a bad idea just for a safety net. As an alternative to a multivitamin, you can also take a green supplement, which is vegetables grounded into a powder. This is not a suitable replacement for vegetables in general, but it’s likely better than a multivitamin.
Vitamin D3
Dose: 2000-5000+ UI (depending on sun exposure)
Purpose: Eliminate Vitamin D3 deficiency (which is almost inevitable without supplementation)
If you can, take a blood test to see what your vitamin D levels are. Your blood levels should be between around 40 ng/ml. As a general rule, it takes 100 IU (2.5 mcg) of Vitamin D per day to raise levels by 1 ng/mL. It’s not a perfect formula as different people metabolize the vitamin differently, but it’s a good guide. If you can’t take a blood test, a general and safe estimation for the dosage is around 2000 UI, although this may be too low, hence the importance of the test.
If you can, take it with 100 mcg of Vitamin K2 as MK-7, or look for a product that has both. This is recommended but not critical.
Fish oil (Omega 3)
Dose: 2-3g of combined EPA+DHA (with a meal)
Purpose: Increasing HDL-C and reducing LDL-C. It might reduce blood pressure, inflammation and joint pain.
Fish oil is overrated and the evidence is mixed, but I still think it’s worth getting if you don’t eat fatty fish. Getting Omega 3 through fish is much more preferable than supplementation. But if you must supplement, make sure it contains vitamin E and store it in your fridge. This is important to make sure it doesn’t oxidize. I’d also avoid buying in bulk (otherwise, the fish oil is older and has a higher chance of oxidation).
Caffeine
Caffeine is likely one of the best supplements you can take, although I think a periodized approach is best, especially since tolerance builds up very quickly. For the pre-workout caffeine, take around 60 minutes before training. If you train late in the day (less than 6 before bed), then caffeine is likely to interrupt your sleep, and supplementing is probably not a good idea.
Below is the method I recommend, assuming you’re doing a 5:1 paradigm with training, which most of my clients are. In addition to the table, the same information is repeated in text afterwards, as tables aren't very readable on mobile.
Week 1
No caffeine
0-100mg
Week 2
100mg
100mg
Week 3
200mg
100mg
Week 4
200mg
200mg
Week 5
200mg
300-400mg
Week 6 (Deload), Day 1-2
200mg
0mg
Week 6 (Deload), Day 3-4
100mg
0mg
Week 6 (Deload), Day 5-7
0mg
0mg
Week 1: No caffeine + 0-100mg pre-workout
Week 2: 100mg baseline caffeine + 100mg pre-workout
Week 3: 200mg baseline caffeine + 100mg pre-workout
Week 4: 200mg baseline caffeine + 200mg pre-workout
Week 5: 200mg baseline caffeine + 300-400mg pre-workout
Deload
200mg baseline caffeine for two days
100mg caffeine for two days
No caffeine for 3 days
At the highest end, you total 500-600mg of caffeine for the whole day. Only take this dosage if you know you can tolerate a high caffeine intake. Some people are sensitive and may get headaches or anxiety.
This method is just a guide, of course. You can take more or less depending on your preference and individual caffeine response.
Baseline caffeine means caffeine outside of the training window, generally right after you wake up. This is useful if you’re losing weight (as caffeine, like any stimulant, blunts appetite), or if you need caffeine for other purposes (like increased attention at work/school). You can skip it entirely if you don’t need it.
You can take caffeine from any source. Caffeine pills are the most practical to achieve a specific dose (you need to get 100mg pills for more control over your dose, most are 200mg). But if you want to have caffeine from coffee, tea, energy drinks, or something else, that’s also fine.
Caffeine is synergistic with L-theanine. It promotes cognition and attention, and it can maintain caffeine’s stimulant properties while attenuating the ‘edge’ of caffeine high dosages. Take it alongside caffeine. It’s not necessary, but it can be useful for high dosages. Around half or the same dosage as caffeine is recommended. So for 200mg of caffeine, take 100-200mg of l-theanine.
Theacrine & Methylliberine
These are both stimulants, and they may be helpful if caffeine doesn’t sit well with you. If you tolerate caffeine well, don't bother with these. They are more expensive and likely won't benefit performance as much.
Theacrine is useful because it also enhances mood like caffeine but doesn’t build tolerance nor has the typical “crash”. Methylliberine is useful because it has a much shorter half-life than caffeine. If you train later in the day, you shouldn’t use caffeine as it will likely mess with your sleep. Since Methylliberine gets out of your system much quicker, it’s likely a better alternative.
The typical dosage for Theacrine is 100-300mg, and for Methylliberine 100- 200mg.
Creatine
Dose: 3-5g per day
Purpose: Greater power output
Use creatine monohydrate. When first taking it, you can do a loading phase, taking 20g per day for a week, spreading over 2 or 3 doses per day to avoid stomach discomfort. This will make the creatine levels saturate faster and start giving results quicker, but it’s not necessary to do. If you want to just take 5g that’s ok, it will take longer to start having the benefits from supplementation
I’ve written an in-depth guide on creatine here:
Protein powder (Whey/Casein)
Dose: As needed, usually 1-2 scoops per day.
Purpose: Increase protein intake.
Useful if you have a tough time reaching your protein intake. Whey is especially good pre and post-workout because it digests very quickly and with little stomach discomfort. Casein is the opposite, and digests very slowly, so it’s more useful at bedtime. If you’re losing weight, casein makes you fuller than whey, so if you’re using protein powder outside of peri workout nutrition, casein is likely a better choice when cutting.
Popular but ineffective supplements:
Glutamine:
Studies fail to show an increase in muscle growth or strength. CLA
(Conjugated linoleic acid):
Doesn’t increase fat loss (except in rats).
BCAAs:
Leucine is important for muscle growth and triggers protein synthesis, but it needs the other amino acids to sustain it. Just taking BCAAs in isolation doesn’t seem to do anything.
Beta-alanine:
While this has good evidence to improve performance, it seems to be more beneficial for more endurance-type sports where the effort is prolonged (over 60 seconds). Lifting, even with high-ish reps, is unlikely to have a significant effect.
If you want to take any other supplement besides the ones mentioned here, I’d encourage you to message me first.
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