The Supplements Actually Worth Knowing About
THE GAINS HUB #014
Reading Time: 6 minutes
Walk into almost any supplement shop and you'd be forgiven for thinking that getting fitter requires a fairly substantial shopping list. There are powders for before training, powders for afterwards, capsules for recovery, drinks for hydration and increasingly specific products promising to improve everything from your energy levels to the quality of your next set. Some are genuinely useful, plenty are useful only in the right circumstances, and others have become popular largely because somebody has done an excellent job of marketing them.
That makes supplements surprisingly difficult to talk about sensibly, particularly when you're a company that sells them. The easiest position for us would be to tell you that you need everything, but you don't. Good nutrition, effective training, enough sleep and consistency still do most of the heavy lifting, while supplements are there to fill gaps, provide something useful in a more convenient form, or give you an advantage that has enough evidence behind it to justify taking.
Creatine is probably the clearest place to start, because few sports supplements have accumulated the same weight of research behind them. Creatine helps increase the availability of phosphocreatine in muscle, which plays an important role in producing energy during short, intense efforts such as lifting weights or sprinting. Taken consistently, creatine monohydrate can support improvements in strength, high-intensity exercise performance and muscle growth alongside resistance training. It isn't particularly glamorous and you don't feel it suddenly kick in halfway through a workout, but that's partly why it has survived decades of changing fitness trends.
The important word there is consistently. Creatine works by gradually increasing muscle creatine stores, so obsessing over whether you take it at 8am or immediately after your final set misses the point. A typical daily intake is around 3 to 5 grams, although smaller servings can still contribute towards intake, and some people choose to use a loading phase when they begin. You don't have to cycle it, and taking it on rest days makes sense because maintaining those stores matters more than matching it to a particular workout.
Protein supplements sit in a slightly different category because protein itself isn't something you're adding to the body for a special performance effect, it's a nutrient you already need from food. If you're comfortably getting enough from meat, fish, eggs, dairy, pulses and the rest of your diet, there is no requirement to add a protein supplement simply because you train. Their biggest strength is convenience. Reaching a suitable daily protein intake becomes considerably easier when you have an option that doesn't involve cooking another meal, particularly for people training regularly or trying to build muscle.
Then there's caffeine, arguably one of the most familiar performance-enhancing substances in the world, even if most of us first encountered it in a mug rather than a supplement tub. Used appropriately before exercise, caffeine can improve alertness and reduce perceived effort, with evidence supporting benefits across endurance exercise and some forms of strength and power performance. The catch is that more isn't automatically better. Individual tolerance varies considerably, and taking a large dose for an evening workout isn't much of a victory if you're still staring at the ceiling at one in the morning.
That is also why pre-workout supplements need to be judged by what's actually in them rather than by how aggressively the label promises to make you train. Caffeine is often doing much of the immediately noticeable work, while other ingredients depend on the formulation and dose. A pre-workout can be a convenient way of combining useful ingredients before training, but tingling skin and a racing heartbeat shouldn't be confused with evidence that you've suddenly unlocked a better workout.
Electrolytes are another product where context matters far more than the marketing. If you're doing a normal 45-minute gym session and eating a balanced diet, you probably don't need to treat every bottle of water like a chemistry experiment. Sweat contains electrolytes, however, particularly sodium, and replacing them becomes more relevant when you're exercising for longer periods, training hard in hot conditions or sweating heavily. For runners, cyclists, endurance athletes and anyone doing prolonged sessions in the heat, that can make electrolyte supplementation considerably more useful.
There are plenty of other supplements with legitimate uses, and what belongs in someone's routine will depend on their diet, training, goals and individual circumstances. That's precisely why a huge supplement stack shouldn't be treated as a sign that somebody is taking fitness more seriously. Taking six products you don't need isn't better than taking one or two that genuinely serve a purpose, and sometimes the sensible answer is that you don't need any.
The easiest way to judge a supplement is to ask what problem you're actually expecting it to solve. If you struggle to reach your protein target, a convenient source of protein makes sense. If strength and high-intensity performance matter to you, creatine has an enormous body of research behind it. If you need a lift before training, caffeine can be effective, while electrolytes become increasingly relevant as sessions get longer, hotter and sweatier. Once there's a clear reason for taking something, it's much easier to separate a useful supplement from an expensive habit.
Supplements can absolutely have a place in a good training routine, but they're most effective when they're added to foundations that already work. Get the training right, eat properly, recover well and then use supplements where they make your routine easier or offer a benefit you actually value. You don't need the biggest stack in the changing room, you just need to understand why anything in it is there.
Supporting Your Goals
We'd rather help you choose supplements that make sense for your goals than convince you that you need everything on the shelf.
Our supplement range covers performance, recovery and everyday wellness, including Creatine, Protein, Pre-Workout and Electrolytes, so you can build your routine around what you actually need rather than taking products for the sake of it.
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