The Supplement Trap

Workout supplements; who doesn’t love scanning the shelves at GNC and reading about what amazing new sups have come out this month?
Okay, probably most of you don’t do this. I know I enjoy it though and there are plenty of other gym rats out there who do too. Workout shakes have become a staple of the gym. You can’t enter a gym without hearing the familiar rattling of a blender ball in a mixing cup. The rise of popularity of different supplements has grown exponentially. So much so that many of them are unregulated by the FDA. So the question is; are all of these supplements good for you?
First and foremost a supplement needs to be seen for what it is, a supplement. Proper diet and exercise need to come first, and I do mean them in that order; diet and then exercise. After those have been established then one can start looking at supplementation. They can be beneficial when used appropriately.

Let's talk about the one that comes to mind first when we think of the words “workout supplement”. Protein shakes rose in popularity before any of the others and paved the way for the rest of the supplement industry. A good protein shake will have a balance of protein, carbs, and fats. I’ll answer the most frequent question I get. No, they are not necessary for muscle growth. It is possible to get all of the protein you need from a well-balanced diet. Many of us have hectic schedules though, and balancing your gym time, sleep schedule, work, everything else you need to do and making good meals for yourself can be overwhelming. So a good quality protein drink can be a lifesaver. Aside from that, someone who has a high metabolism because of inherited hormonal traits can also greatly benefit from protein shakes.

The next big one my clients often have questions about are BCAA’s. They are often sold as “during workout” drinks but can be taken up to an hour before a workout as well. BCAA’s supply the 3 main amino acids that comprise 50 to 60% of all muscle tissue. They are; leucine, isoleucine, and valine. If sufficient BCAA’s are present in the muscle for catalyst formation (for energy production), other amino acids can be used for protein synthesis (muscle building and repair). I will stress again, a proper diet will take care of this.

I saved the most controversial one for last. Pre-workout drinks have been gaining traction more rapidly than any others and there is certainly a large variety to choose from. Most pre-workouts contain the same basic ingredients; caffeine, BCAA’s, Beta-alanine, creatine and a vasodilator. First of all, caffeine has been proven to be an effective ergogenic, that’s a performance booster. The danger is how much caffeine a pre-workout contains. Some pre-workouts can hold as much as 419mg per serving. To put that in perspective a single cup of coffee (8 fl oz) has about 95 mg. That is an intense amount of caffeine and one should definitely not consume other forms of caffeine when taking pre-workout. The second ingredient, BCAA's, have already been discussed thus I will not touch on them again. The third ingredient is beta-alanine, now this one I will put into as simple terms as possible since the science behind it is quite involved. Beta-alanine is a natural chemical made in the body in small amounts. It helps prevent muscle fatigue, the theory is by introducing more one will be able to take their workouts further.  Tests of beta-alanine supplementation have proven mostly positive. The biggest drawback is the tingling or itching feeling one gets when using it. In my opinion, it is distracting but some people enjoy it. Next comes creatine. it is used to push one further in heavy load lifting and other explosive movements. While extensively tested the results have been inconclusive. Half of the subjects showed great responsiveness in both performance and muscle recovery while the other half showed no response what so ever. Lastly comes the vast dilators. These are used to increase blood flow to the working muscle groups, increasing oxygen uptake in these parts of the body. It also gives people the “pump” they love to feel after a workout.
While these ingredients are some of the most common they are not the only ones used. This is where the potential danger comes. Many new pre-workouts include these ingredients in varying amounts and sometimes with other ingredients I have not talked about. All of the ingredients have been tested but not necessarily together at once, so there is not always a sure way to tell how you will react with all of the ingredients mixed together.

There is nothing inherently wrong with supplementation, I just encourage those who choose to supplement to cycle on and off. The industry tends to make it sound like we need to supplement in order to workout and get the results we want to see. This is not the case at all, protein and BCAA’s can be handled with proper diet, creatine is not a necessity and if you need a boost before hitting the gym a cup of coffee is more than enough. I always encourage functional, sustainable and longevity minded living in all of my clients, reliance on supplementation undermines those healthy long-term goals.