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Workout supplements are a multi-billion dollar industry worldwide. Pills, powders and even meal replacements with wild claims about fat loss, building muscle, having more energy throughout the day and much more. They vary from pre-workout supplements that supposedly give you more energy during a workout, to protein supplements to build more muscle. Some supplements are supposed to keep you healthy while others like creatine and caffeine can help with sports performance! Or can they?
Workout supplements – Which types are there?
There are enormous amounts of supplements, which effects ranging from “none” to “we’re not sure” to “likely to be useful” – and this depends on many factors! We’re going to cover three types of workout supplements in this post.
The first one consists of protein supplements. Normally, protein is ‘just a nutrient in our food’ and it’s necessary for letting our muscles recover, as well as things like skin and nail health! The primary purpose of protein supplements is to make sure you’re getting enough (high quality) protein to let your body recover.
The second category is that of pre-workout supplements. These are things you take before (or sometimes during) training so that you have more energy, can do more in training or have another training related effect. Fun fact – coffee can also count as a pre-workout supplement! Read on to find out why.
Aside from these two categories, we’re going to cover one of the most well known sports supplements: creatine. It’s also one of the most well researched supplements of all time, helping people recover, build muscle and even helping brain function… But is it that great? And are there risks to using creatine?
Creatine
Let’s start with the last one. There are stories going around that it might harm your kidneys or make you go bald. There are also stories that it’ll help sports performance. So what does creatine do?
There’s actually a complicated story behind this, but the short version is that the body is constantly trying to (re-)generate energy that we can use to let our bodies function. Creatine basically speeds up this process, in particular for short lasting movements. In practice, that means you get better at repeating intense things like sprints, olympic lifts, jumps or heavy barbell movements. Creatine may also aid in brain function as you age as well as after brain trauma like concussions. It has also been linked to more muscle mass and strength gains in the long term.
Benefits of creatine
Long story short – basically anyone can benefit from creatine use. But how much creatine per day is optimal? Not all studies agree on the impact of creatine use, and not everyone seems to benefit as much. That probably has to do with how much creatine your body is already storing naturally. As for how much creatine to use, 5 grams per day is probably fine for anyone looking to use it. When to take creatine? Well, it doesn’t matter that much for many people, but to improve the chance of absorbing it optimally, take it along with a carbohydrate rich meal. Just take it right before or after your biggest meal of the day that has rice, bread, potatoes, pasta or another carbohydrate source and don’t overthink the details.
Are there downsides to creatine? Well, hardly. The only exception being if you have pre-existing kidney issues. In that case – definitely consult a doctor, ideally with specialized knowledge on strength training and creatine! Luckily, creatine itself does not cause kidney issues. Creatine use may raise the levels of something called ‘creatinine’ in your blood. Completely normal for someone using creatine and doing intense sports, but if your doctor does not know about it, they may get a scare from your blood work, so let your doctor know if you have any issues!
Creatine also requires more water to be properly stored, so keep your fluid intake high to make sure you don’t end up dehydrated and with cramps. In some cases, some people complain about some stomach aches after taking creatine. Drinking more water could fix this. Alternatively, spread the creatine intake over 2 moments of the day or consider using micronized creatine. It’s a bit more expensive but makes it easier to digest.
And all the claims about going bald from creatine use? Just horror stories based on bad science. Nothing to worry about there.
The best researched type of creatine is ‘creatine monohydrate’. Other variations may not work as well, so keep it simple. It’s also the cheapest version!
Pre-workout supplements
What is the best pre workout supplement to improve your sports performance? This is probably the most anti-climactic type of supplements. There are countless pre workout supplements and the majority do not do much, if anything. Most of them mix a bunch of ingredients where 1 or 2 may do something, and the rest are just an excuse for the supplement producer to raise the price.
Caffeine is king
Interestingly enough, the most useful pre workout ingredient is probably caffeine! Study results vary wildly, because it’s hard to quantify how much caffeine you need, how this changes if you’re used to large amounts of caffeine already from your daily coffee, and to what extent caffeine has a placebo effect. Not to mention that most people have a caffeine addiction, so is extra caffeine making you better, or just keeping withdrawal symptoms away?
As a general rule of thumb, if you normally don’t consume (much) caffeine, caffeine may give you a bit of a boost in terms of things like focus and motivation. Just 50-100mg of caffeine half an hour before training can help improve motivation and focus slightly. For reference, most energy drinks contain about 80mg. Bigger cans of energy drinks like some FITAID can have about 100mg. A cup of coffee can go from about 40mg for a small espresso to about 100mg for a solid cup of black coffee. Tea and chocolate also contain some caffeine, but that really depends on the type.
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What about a direct, physical benefit? Well, caffeine can improve explosiveness in some people when you’re not used to it and take a relatively high dose - over 5mg per kilogram of bodyweight, which quickly means several cups of coffee! This is probably not worth the hassle for the majority of people, which brings me to possible downsides.
Downsides to pre-workout
Coffee has two big downsides. One is that it can cause restlessness and related discomfort in some people. If you’re that type of person you have two options. Either don’t take caffeine, or take theanine – a compound found in tea that mitigates the downsides of caffeine. The combination of caffeine and theanine -which is coincidentally found in tea- can improve focus without things like heart palpitations and such. Again, for most people it’s probably better to avoid caffeine if you’re that sensitive to it.
The other big downside is the impact on sleep quality. For people that are sensitive to caffeine, it may be harder to fall asleep for many hours after ingesting caffeine. Even if you’re not sensitive to caffeine and fall asleep easily, it can still impact the quality of your sleep. Worse sleep means worse recovery, more fatigue and eventually worse performance! As a rough guideline, avoid caffeine at least in the 8 hours before going to sleep, and preferably in the 10-12 hours before.
As for other pre workout supplements, some may be useful in very specific situations. Beta alanine, sometimes used as a separate product, sometimes as part of a pre workout blend, can help postpone the burning sensation in your muscles when doing high rep work. Perhaps that means you can do two reps extra in your workout, but is that worth the money and effort?
For most people, limit caffeine usage overall and have yourself a coffee or FITAID before your (morning/afternoon) workout and you already have most of the benefits.
Protein supplements
Opinions vary from “necessary to optimally build muscle” to “complete waste of money” – but what does the science say? Is there a difference between protein bars and protein powder in terms of sports performance? Are the popular whey proteins better than other types? Do you have to take a protein shake after training?
To properly recover from training, your body needs nutrients. Proteins are among them, regardless of the sport you do. For health, roughly 1 gram of protein per kilogram of bodyweight is generally enough. Older people and people that casually do sports could go a bit higher to be sure. People that specifically want to build muscle often need more to optimize muscle building, up to 2 grams of protein per kilograms of bodyweight. The actual guidelines are actually more complicated but to keep it simple, I’d recommend the following.
Protein guideline
Let's take an example for someone weighing 80kg.
Protein Guideline for health
At least 1g per kg of bodyweight
This means 80+ grams for our 80kg individual.
How to get there
Eating 200 grams of meat, 300 grams of dairy and 100 grams of legumes (before cooking) in a day can easily add up to almost 80 grams. The rest can come from other foods.
Protein Guideline for overall sports performance
Go up to maybe 1,3-1,5g per kg of bodyweight.
This means 105-120 grams of protein for our 80kg individual.
How to get there
The above plus a protein shake can easily put you there.
Protein Guideline for specifically building muscle and/or optimizing strength training
Aim for 1,5-2g per kg of bodyweight.
This means up tot 160 grams of protein for our 80kg individual.
How to get there
Increasing the dairy/meat intake or, if you prefer to go plant based, legumes can help get you there.
Plant based protein
Although on paper plant based proteins tend to be inferior to animal based protein, recent studies have disputed the extent to which this matters. The jury’s still out, but where we used to say that vegetarians and especially vegans needed to increase their protein intake compared to other people, perhaps that’s not as important as we once thought. When in doubt with a plant based diet – just round up your protein intake a bit higher than the above guidelines. Side note for the heavier people among us: If you’re on the heavier side, perhaps the above guidelines are much higher than you need. In that case it can get a bit more complicated. Consider shooting info@unscared.fitness a message for 1-on-1 nutrition advice to make sure you’re not overcomplicating things for yourself!
Protein supplementation
So where do protein supplements come in? It’s actually very simple, they have little to no benefit on top of regular except for one big thing: convenience. Having a protein bar might be preferable to eating even more beans. Having a rice/pea based protein shake might be preferable if you eat a plant based diet.
Yes, if you look at different types of protein supplements there are some differences in quality, absorption time, biological availability and other complicated stuff but for most people this is not that important. If you get enough protein and space it roughly over your meals throughout the day, most of your health and sports benefits are already there.
As a general rule of thumb:
- Protein bars are very convenient to bring along, but a bit more pricey. The same with protein drinks like those from Barebells.
- Protein powders / protein shakes are cheaper, but a bit more inconvenient to bring along and many people don’t like the texture/taste. Tip: If you don’t like it, look for ‘clear whey’. It makes a sort of lemonade rather than a weird milkshake. Tastes can vary wildly.
- Other ‘protein enriched foods’ like protein bread, protein pasta and even protein chips often sacrifice a bit of taste for more protein – for a price.
Are there downsides to protein supplements? Well, aside from the price it’s mostly up to personal preference. An excessive protein intake becomes boring and expensive pretty quickly. Unless you have a pre-existing kidney issue (go talk to your doctor about this!), protein supplements generally don’t have big downsides in terms of health. There are some smaller exceptions though. For example, sugar alcohols (or ‘polyols’) are often used in protein bars to add to the taste and texture with fewer calories, but large amounts of these can irritate the bowels leading to stomach cramps. Unless you have gut issues, a single protein bar shouldn’t be an issue but it’s good to be a bit prudent with that.
Not sure which protein supplements to take? For most people, looking for convenience and decent pricing is most useful. Some protein powders may be 20% cheaper than the next, but also contain 50% less actual protein – it’s just filler! If you really want to go the extra mile to optimize your protein and supplement intake, just send an email to info@unscared.fitness to see if we can help you with 1-on-1 nutrition advice!
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