Supplements for Building Muscle

It is important to understand that food should always be prioritised in instances where the supplement can easily be attained from food (i.e. whey protein). However, in some cases like creatine, the amount found in meat can make it difficult to comfortably consume the desired amount from food sources.

So back to the original question. Heres a list of the supplements recognised by the AIS as safe and effective:

For Performance:

1. Creatine (Post-Workout)

Benefits: improved muscle strength, endurance, size, exercise performance, recovery and brain health.

PMID: 27328852, 35984306, 34472118

2. Carnitine (Post-Workout)

Benefits: improved fat metabolism, muscle recovery and endurance performance.

PMID: 32359762, 34959912, 32154768

4. Beta-Alanine (Post-Workout)

Benefits: improved exercise performance and fatigue resistance.

PMID: 27797728, 34024507, 31622158

5. Caffeine (Pre-Workout)

Benefits: Increased alertness, fat metabolism, reduced perception of effort, and improved exercise performance. 

PMID: 33255240, 29527137, 29876876

For Recovery:

1. Collagen (Pre-Workout)

Benefits: Improved tendon, ligament and skin repair, improved bone strength, reduced risk and symptoms of osteoarthritis. 

PMID: 33742704, 34491424, 30368550

2. Whey (Whenever) 

Benefits: Convenient source of high protein, increased strength and hypertrophy, decreased DOMS

PMID: 29462923, 28698222, 31041966

3. NAC

Benefits: Reduced oxidative stress, exercise induced inflammation and pain caused by inflammation from intense training. 

PMID: 21896942, 20673252, 29958049

Supplements that are NOT backed by the research:

- *Fat Burners: These tend to have multiple ingredients with little research available and contain inadequate doses of carnitine, which is the main ingredient that promotes fat metabolism along with caffeine.

- Testosterone Boosters 

- Leucine 

- Tyrosine 

- HMB

- Glutamine 

- Apple Cider Vinegar