How important are supplements? For muscle growth

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As a publisher of a fitness website, we are sometimes surprised that the articles about supplements score so well, in terms of page views. Because supplements are actually not very important for a successful strength sports career.

In our opinion, supplements are not even the icing on the cake. Supplementation is a small addition to the bigger picture, in which a well-thought-out training program (with attention to the right parameters of intensity, volume, frequency), the right nutrition and sufficient rest/recovery are decisive.

DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS VERSUS STRENGTH SUPPLEMENTS

We distinguish between nutritional supplements (vitamins, minerals, proteins and trace elements) on the one hand and power supplements (including creatine and citrulline) on the other.

You normally do not need food supplements with a healthy and varied diet, perhaps with the exception of vitamin D in the winter. Vegetarians, vegans and the elderly need extra vitamin B12. In addition, there may be medical indications to use such a supplement. And finally, in a serious cut it may sometimes be necessary to supplement your diet with a pill, for example a multivitamin. Protein powders are certainly not a must, but can be useful if you find it difficult to eat a lot of protein in a healthy way.

There are a handful of strength supplements out there that may “do” something, but much less than you might suspect based on the attention these receive. More on that in the rest of this article.

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

Let’s hear what the muscle growth experts have to say about supplements.

According to hypertrophy professor Brad Schoenfeld, the use of strength supplements is heavily overrated:


And if you then ask which supplements make up that 5%, most experts will say: creatine, possibly caffeine and if necessary protein powders. ‘If necessary’, because:


Among those experts is bodybuilding coach Eric Trexler. He says :

If you spend a whole training career with a slightly boosted capacity to train (from supplements, ed.) there’s a likelihood that there’s still that kind of razor-hin benefit.

However:

I don’t think anyone would ever get to the end of a career and look back and say: “If not for the creatine, I never would have gotten this far”.

In some circumstances, supplements can be useful to boost your capacity, for example if you have been ill for a while and have had to lose a lot of fitness. Or, for example, in the cut, if you have been living and training with an energy deficit for quite some time.

But even then it only concerns short-term effects that make little or no difference in the overall picture, according to coach/author Greg Nuckols and coach/podcaster Dave Maconi.

SO JUST CREATINE?

As has often been said on our site, creatine is actually the only strength supplement that can actually make a small difference and whose effect has been extensively researched and sufficiently proven. It’s also fine to use creatine in the cut; it may help you a little to maintain your training performance.

Is there really nothing else under the sun than creatine and caffeine? Maybe there is. For advanced natural bodybuilders, it may be worth experimenting with caffeine, citrulline, beta-alanine and betaine.

CONCLUSIONS

Supplements play a much less important role in strength training than is often suggested and assumed.

Dietary supplements such as vitamins and proteins are only necessary if it is not possible to obtain sufficient valuable nutrients through a regular diet. That can sometimes be the case in the cut.

Power supplements have traditionally been hyped way too much. The only widely researched and proven supplement for strength gain/muscle growth is creatine. But even creatine supplementation is not a must to achieve optimal results.

Last updated July 7, 2023.

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