Fitness
According to IBISWorld, the U.S. Online Vitamin & Supplement Sales industry is worth $31.9bn in 2022. It’s also an industry that’s growing fast, with hundreds of new products and new advice coming out all the time!
If you find it hard to choose supplements for fitness, don’t worry, plenty of us run into this issue. One way to focus on the right fitness supplements for different people is to look at their fitness goals. Plus, body type and current condition are important factors to consider.
Now, let’s explore how you can determine which supplements might suit your specific needs best.
Learning About Stacks
There are a few fundamental fitness supplement types that might be applicable to nearly all fitness goals in some way. Others may be better for fitness and sporting pursuits than others. The main thing you need to know before you go onto an online supplement store is the type of “stack” you want.
A “stack” is just a term that we can use to describe two or more separate supplements that you want to take in combination. You may continuously want to take your unique stack or change it up over cycles to achieve different fitness goals.
For example, bodybuilders may do an 8-week cycle on one type of stack to build bulk and lean muscle. Later they may switch their stack to one that suits a cutting phase where they want to get leaner by having less fat, water retention, and bloating.
Fitness Supplements for Every Goal
So the fitness supplements you choose are all about your fitness goals and your current condition. You can train with supplement stacks that promote:
- Mass
- Strength
- Less fat and more tone
- Increased endurance
These categories are not exclusive. You can combine fitness goals and therefore combine different types of fitness supplements to achieve them. So let’s look at what you could take now to help achieve the fitness goals above.
Training for Mass
We could characterize a person training for mass as a bodybuilder, a strongman, a heavyweight athlete, or just someone who wishes to gain more weight in lean muscle.
So there are a few foundational supplements everyone can stack together to build mass. These include:
- Whey protein
- Casein protein
- Creatine
- Beta-alanine
Choosing a whey protein should be pretty straightforward. All of the top brands have “mass-building” options that you can take. Just follow their instructions.
Casein protein can complement whey protein very well if you take it post-workout with whey protein. It’s also useful to take before bed as it will slow release protein into your body throughout the night meaning there’s less chance of muscle atrophy.
Creatine allows you to work harder and for longer in the gym, meaning you can get more mass gains quicker. In general, creatine will increase your muscle mass by a good percentage once your start taking it for a while.
To complement your creatine intake, you can use the amino acid beta-alanine as part of your stack. It enhances what creatine does to your body by forming carnosine. The more you have carnosine in your body, the more mass and strength gains you can expect!
Advanced Supplements for Mass
We’ve run through the foundational supplements you can always take to build mass. If you want to take it to the next level, then you can explore some SARM options to add to your stack.
SARMs are non-anabolic steroidal options that have a similar effect to anabolic steroids but without some of the unwanted side effects that steroids can bring about. We recommend you buy Ostarine to add to your foundational supplement stack to get more impressive gains.
Just ensure that after your cycle you do post-cycle therapy (PCT) to prevent testosterone suppression. Even though Ostarine is one of the milder SARMs out there, it still requires a little attention in the post-cycle territory.
How to Stack Your Supplements for Mass
A typical way of stacking the supplements we have just mentioned for mass could be to make a protein shake of 20-30g and mix in 4 to 5g of creatine. You can also mix in a couple of grams of beta-alanine and then have this shake 30 minutes before your workout.
For post-workouts you can mix 30g of whey protein, 10g of casein protein, and then the same amounts of creatine and beta-alanine as mentioned for the pre-workout shake.
If you want to add in Ostarine, you can do one dose per day for an eight-week cycle. Check the recommended doses that the manufacturer provides for the minimum and maximum daily amounts. It’s up to you whether you want to mix your Ostarine dose in your pre or post-workout shake.
Training for Strength
If you’re training for strength, you might be an athlete or aspire to be stronger for various other reasons. You might also be training for mass alongside wanting strength gains.
Whatever your reasons, your strength gain stack could look like this:
- Whey protein
- Creatine/betaine
- Taurine
- Wheat Germ
Whey protein is a must for strength gains as you need protein to develop your muscles. Creatine is also going to help you lift heavier weights and allow you to do more reps.
Betaine is a similar alternative to creatine that boosts strength as it tells your body to create creatine naturally among other things. We recommend you choose creatine or betaine, but not both as you may overload with creatine which is not good for your health.
Few might realize that taurine is an amino acid that has strength-boosting properties. You can gain better endurance and muscle strength when the substance is at higher levels within your muscles. Many also feel more energized when they take taurine, which can make it easier for them to sustain their training routines and goals.
Wheat germ is a supplement you can take that has minerals, vitamins, healthy fats, and proteins in it. It is as a whole a slow-release carb, but the amazing thing is that it improves your muscle endurance and strength when you take it.
Advanced Supplements for Strength
We’ll come back to SARMs again for the option of advanced supplements for strength. Ligandrol might just be the best SARM for incredible strength gains.
You can stack it on top of the other supplements we mentioned for strength-building. Just ensure to follow the daily dosage limits you receive from the manufacturer. Also, it’s often the case that you won’t need to PCT on Ligandrol, but you shouldn’t go over the standard cycle length of around 6-8 weeks for most people.
How to Stack Your Supplements for Strength
Make a 20-30g pre-workout protein shake and mix in 2-3g of taurine and half a cup of wheat germ. Also, add in either 1.5mg of betaine or 4-5g of creatine. Take this shake 30 mins before every workout.
For the post-workout shake, just minus the wheat germ. Then just make sure you take it within 30 minutes of finishing your workout for optimum results.
If you want to add Lingandrol into the mix, you should add the recommended dose to your pre or post-workout shake. Or you may want to take it sublingually for better absorption. Either way, ensure you stick to the cycle length.
Training for Less Fat and More Tone
At some point, nearly all of us will want to train for fat loss. For many, it will be to get that ripped and jacked look. For others, you’ll just want to lose the belly fat to a point where you feel better about your image and mobility.
Here’s a stack you can try out for fat loss and creating a more toned body:
- Green tea (extract or tea bags)
- Evodiamine
Green tea is one of the best substances to help you burn fat. It has caffeine that’s great for fat burning because it helps take more fat from your fat cells and then allows your body to burn that fat as energy. Green tea also has powerful anti-oxidants that promote fat loss by boosting your metabolic rate.
Evodiamine is a super fat burner as it works to fat burn with numerous mechanisms. One is where it triggers parts of your central nervous system to increase your metabolic rate and it also uncouples proteins which help to prevent fat gains. As well, it makes you feel less hungry and you will digest food slower when you take it.
Advanced Supplements for Fat Loss
If you need more of a boost in your fat loss efforts, the SARM-like substance Cardarine is an excellent choice. It’s a highly effective fat burner that helps to maintain your current muscle mass and endurance as you shred away the fat.
Since Cardarine does not interfere with your testosterone receptors, you won’t need a PCT when you use it. Yet, doing cycles of it is a wise idea rather than constantly taking it.
How to Stack Your Supplements for Fat Loss
Most of these supplements come in pill or powder form, so it’s up to you when you take them. Since green tea is a stimulant, you might want to take more of it early on in the day and then stay off it towards nighttime so it doesn’t keep you awake (the same goes for coffee).
If you want to take Cardarine, it might be best to take your dose in the morning. Just follow the instructions provided to know how much each dose should be for the substance to work best for you.
Training for Increased Endurance
Many supplements work well to increase your endurance. Here are a few you can stack:
- Creatine
- Beta-alanine
- Caffeine
- Sodium phosphate
- Protein
So you might have thought that creatine is only good for strength, power, and muscle growth. But since creatine has the indirect effects of increasing your body’s storage of phosphocreatine and ATP production, the benefits should be clear to anyone training for increased endurance. Plus, any athlete should want improvements in their anaerobic abilities which creatine can provide!
Beta-alanine offers you improvements in your performance when doing high-intensity exercise, which can be very relevant for people wanting to improve their endurance in the training phases. It also offers you a delay in fatigue meaning your can push harder for longer (useful for rowers, for example).
We all know about caffeine and its benefits of pushing people for longer in their mental and physical endurance capabilities. When you load up on sodium phosphate it boosts your aerobic capacity.
Protein is an essential part of anyone’s diet who’s serious about improving their endurance. After all, if you go on a long run, you are going to rip muscles and they need repairing.
Advanced Supplements for Endurance
We can again go to Cardarine as an excellent substance to increase your endurance. Yet, it isn’t something you can take though if you compete professionally in any sports, right now at least.
If you have personal endurance challenges you want to face and need a big boost, Cardarine might just be the ticket.
How to Stack Your Supplements for Increased Endurance
You should consider taking 4-5g of creatine a day along with 4-6g of beta-alanine. However, try to separate out your beta-alanine into smaller 1g portions throughout the day so you experience some temporary side effects such as pins and needles in your body.
Try to take caffeine 30 mins before you intend to go and train or compete in anything endurance related. With sodium phosphate, the idea is that you build up your stock of it about three days before an event. You can separate around 3-4g into small amounts throughout the day, and do this for 3 days before your big event!
To get the right protein intake, you might want to take at least one whey protein shake (20-30g) straight after exercising. Cardarine is something you take daily on a 6-8 week cycle. You won’t need a PCT after using it.
Choose Supplements for Fitness that Match Your Goals
The way to choose supplements for fitness is to think about what you want to achieve in the next few weeks, months, and years. Various stacks work great for different goals and don’t be afraid to try new things out and mix things up if you have more than one fitness goal.
For more in-depth articles, click on our site logo in the top left corner of this page.
