Is weight training enough or do I need to take supplements to build muscle? You’ve probably asked yourself this question at some point. Supplements are one of the most controversial, money making, overcomplicated and deceitful topics often discussed amongst men that want to build muscle.
Giving the billions of dollars generated by supplements, it is probably the least important part of your overall diet plan, but the one topic with the most questions that need answering. For example:
- Are supplements necessary?
- What supplements work best?
- What are the benefits?
- What do they do?
- Do they really work?
- What brand is best?
- Are supplements safe?
- How much should I take?
- How should I take it?
- How often should I take it?
- When should I take it?
In order to answer these questions, we first need to look at the facts…
Do You Need Supplements To Reach Your Fitness Goals?
The answer is no!
Whether your goal is to build muscle, lose weight, shred body fat, increase strength and/or improve performance, there is not one supplement that is required to reach your goal.
Just by creating a diet plan that contains the required amount of protein, carbs and fats combined with a quality training programme, you can achieve your goals.
So, before we continue, the first thing you need to know about supplements is that none are needed. So, no matter what you read or hear, you don’t need to spend your cash on anything.
Whatever you want your body to do, it can be achieved without using any supplements – fact!
Most Supplements Are Ineffective
It’s true. Almost all supplements are ineffective.
As mentioned above, supplements are a billion dollar industry and it’s built on lies. The claims, the benefits, the testimonials, the results and the before and after pictures…it’s all lies.
So why do they lie? Simple answer – supplement companies want your money, and they’re willing to say or do anything in order to deceive and trick you into buying their products.
The truth is, no matter what it says on the bottle, no matter what it says in its description, no matter what it claims in the advertisement, no matter what your friends tell you, no matter what you’ve read online… Most supplements are pointless and a waste of money.
Some are useless, some are just unnecessary, some are just unsafe, some are a combination of all three. This describes the majority of supplements available on the market.
So, are there actually any supplements that are useful? Yes and we’ll tell you about them below.
The point we’re trying to make here is that almost all supplements are a load of rubbish and don’t do anything no matter what they claim.
Supplements Are Not A Substitute For A Good Training Program And Diet
Despite what supplement companies are willing to tell and the amount of lies they are willing to give, there is no such thing as a magic pill or powder that’ll produce results by itself. There is no legal supplement that’ll cause fat loss and there is no legal supplement that’ll build muscle.
Only a consistent diet plan and training programme are capable of making these things happen. Once you’ve got your diet and training program sorted and put them into action, supplements can only help you at the very most. Supplements won’t help at all until you’ve reached that point. Even the ones we’re about to explain are useful. The lack of a consistent diet plan and training programme will render them pointless.
So, the supplements that are useful won’t actually do anything. They can only help once you’re already doing everything else (diet and training program) properly.
What Supplements Are Worth Taking?
Now you know the basics of supplements and the supplement industry in general, it’s now time to learn about the few supplements that can be taken.
However before we jump into this, there’s one more point that we’d like to make clear.
Any supplement you take must meet the following to requirements:
- They must be scientifically proven to be useful or beneficial in some way.
- They must be safe to use.
Now let’s discuss the most commonly used supplements that meet these two requirements…
- Protein Powder (Whey and Casein)
- Creatine
- Multivitamin
- Fish Oil
- Vitamin D
- Calcium
- Beta-Alanine
- Branched Chain Amino Acids
- Glucosamine
There might be others but these are the main ones. So which supplements should you use?
The only way to answer this question would be to provide a breakdown of each and every supplement on the list above. The problem is, doing that would quickly turn this article into a complete supplement guide.
Although we plan to do something like that in the near future, for now we’ll tell you about the four main supplements you really need to build muscle:
- Protein Powder
- Creatine
- Multivitamin
- Fish Oil
What to Look Forward to in Part II
These are the four main supplements that we and most others often recommend. In Part II we’ll cover everything you need to know about protein powder.
