What Supplements Should You Take To Build Muscle?

I’d ~~probably~~ definitely be able to ~~enslave the entire planet~~ end world hunger if I had a dollar for every time someone asked, “What supplements should I take to build muscle?”

As much as I tire of the question, asking about supplements is perfectly logical.

After all, each one of us have seen it, whether on Instagram, elsewhere on the net, in a magazine ad, or TV commercial. And what have we seen? Yeah, some hunk or babe with a smoking hot bod promising us that [insert supplement] is just the ticket to help us burn fat and grow slabs of beef on our body.

There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it: [insert supplement] with its NEW & IMPROVED formula is all we need!

Is that true?

Are supplements necessary?

That’s the $37B question!¹

So what’s the answer?

Are supplements necessary?

Nah, not really because, for the most part, the overwhelming lot of them don’t work.

Take, for instance, BCAAs.

Have you seen someone walking around the gym with a jug full of fruity colored water? Well, that person is using BCAAs, the shorthand name for branched-chain amino acids. Why they’re taking them is for their advertised muscle-building benefits. On the surface it makes sense because protein, which is what amino acids are, is the building block of muscle.

Too bad the science doesn’t support it!

Published data reveals that isolated BCAAs are nothing more than a waste of money. For one, animal-based products come fortified with more than enough BCAAs.² The same with most protein powders. As such, most people already meet, if not exceed, their requirements via food alone. Second, excess BCAAs confer no advantage. It’s for these reasons why there’s no need to supplement with BCAAs if the goal is muscle growth!³

What was just said about BCAAs goes for test boosters, HMB, arginine, and a slew of supplements advertised as the missing link to give you superhuman strength or magically transform you into whatever the hell your ideal body is.

So what supplements should I take to build muscle then?!?!

Well, there are a couple…

PROTEIN POWDER

As was just said, protein is the building block of muscle. To build it, it’s not only essential that you lift weights but also consume more protein than the body breaks down, which it does quite a lot of. Why? Because muscle is metabolically expensive. In other words, it requires a lot of energy, or calories, to maintain so the body is always looking for a reason to dump it. For these reasons, adequate protein is as important as staying in the gym. Now, while you can and should obtain protein from food, protein powder is helpful because it’s much easier to drink calories than it is to eat them since it’s less of an effort to swallow than chew. Also, making and drinking a shake requires less time commitment than cooking and cleaning.

CREATINE

Creatine is the most researched supplement on the market. Over 20 years of scientific research on it prove its efficacy not just as a performance enhancer but also as an indirect muscle builder. In the most simplest of terms, creatine helps resupply you with energy so you maintain power output. What that means is that it helps you perform 1-2 more reps than you’d be able to complete without it. Over time, this equals more muscle growth. Another thing about creatine is that it raises the water content in the muscle cells. Evidence suggests that this volumizing effect decreases myostatin levels, boosts levels of anabolic hormones like IGF-1, and slows down protein degradation. Yeah, that means MORE MUSCLE GROWTH!!!

CAFFEINE

Caffeine doesn’t act on muscle cells to make them grow. So why is it included here as a muscle-building supplement? It’s included for no other reason than for its proven energy and endurance properties. As a preworkout stimulant, it can lower feelings of exertion and help you push past fatigue. And you know what happens when you work the muscle beyond the limits of your mind and body? Yeah, MORE MUSCLE GROWTH!!!⁴

BETA-ALANINE

Have you ever downed preworkout and felt your body tingling all over? Since you were never bitten by a radioactive spider (at least not to your knowledge), it sure as hell isn’t your spidey-senses going all abuzz! No, that’s just the beta-alanine that’s part of that preworkout’s bullshit proprietary blend. While most, if not all, of the ingredients making up the proprietary blend are worthless, beta-alanine serves a purpose besides just making you feel like the preworkout is doing something special, which is one of the reasons why its usage is so popular among supplement companies. Research suggests that beta-alanine is much like creatine in that it enhances muscular endurance so you can perform more work.⁵

CITRULLINE MALATE

Citrulline is what’s known as an NO booster. That is, it helps elevate nitric oxide levels in the bloodstream so oxygen, nutrients, and anabolic hormones reach the skeletal muscles. From there, these items help delay fatigue, increase recovery time, and accelerate muscle growth. What sets citrulline apart from arginine, another NO booster, is that it actually works thanks to its better absorption rate.⁶

The list of supplements that don’t work is far greater than the list of those that do. I’ve highlighted just a few from the latter. But let’s imagine that it were the opposite, with more supplements than not actually living up to the hype.

So close your eyes and picture us living in such a world as that.⁷

Got it?

Good!

Now, I have a question for you.

Matter of fact, I have a series.

You’re someone who just picked up a weight for the first time in their life, right? So…ummmm…do you really think that you need to not only take but also exceed the recommended dosage of that supp promising to have you go full Hank McCoy mode in the gym?⁸ What, so you can cluelessly wander from station to station and do those struggle reps with 5 lbs dumbbells?!

Nah, for a beginner it wouldn’t make sense to take supplements in that world where the large many of them actually work when the person in question isn’t even training hard enough to reap the benefits of those products meant to help push their limits or aid in recovery.

Neither does it make sense for a beginner to do likewise in this world where a large number of supplements are trash.

This is why I say the same thing to the large majority of the people who ask me, “What supplements should I take to build muscle?”

And what I say is

DO NOT waste your money on anything other than quality food!!!

– Monster, offering you sage advice that you’ll ignore and only come to recognize for what it is when you’re broke and destitute after all the money you’ve spent on bullshit

This is advice that also includes a good powdered protein source.

Oh yeah, and every once in a blue moon I may even suggest creatine. That depends on who I’m talking to, though. But that’s it.

Just protein and maybe creatine.

Once you’ve advanced from a beginner to an intermediate — that is after you’ve learned how to eat properly and have spent possibly a year or two training with intensity and purpose, not just merely exercising or working out — that’s when it might be advisable to start taking some of the other supplements, as well as some of those not listed that are also backed by science.

Why just those two products?

Because most times all that’s needed is for newbies to make an adjustment to their macronutrient intake to see a profound boost in performance, energy, and muscle repair.

THAT’S WHY!!!

Placing it all together, don’t look for a miracle in a bottle.

As far as I know, miracles don’t exist, except on ice, on 34th Street, and at St. Anna during World War II.

Despite the clever marketing around many of these stupidly named products, no one has ever built a muscular, athletic body on supplement usage alone.⁹ Proper nutrition and sound training are the foundation on which you should set about achieving your fitness goal, with you then using supplements to…hmmmm…I don’t know…supplement what you’re doing. And this applies to those with a couple years under their lifting belt as much as it does to newbs.

But hey, if you can justify spending $59.99 on a half-filled tub with a measly 10 servings that either (a) doesn’t work or (b) you’re ultimately going to do nothing with because you train like a pussy, then all the more power to you.

With that said, I guess this post is one long kiss goodnight to any supplement sponsorship.

Look at the things I do for you people!

Glossary: calories, cardio, diet, dumbbell, exercise, fat, fitness, goal, gym, hormones, intensity, lifting belt, muscle, nutrition, reps, supplement, work out, workout

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Monster Longe

Monster Longe is a personal trainer in San Diego. He has been lifting weights for +25 years and training clients in the gym and online for about half of that time. When not working with clients or making content that's easy to read, understand, and apply to everyday life, he enjoys long walks and leaving buildings crushed and entire city blocks decimated in his wake.