Are you considering adding supplements to your fitness routine? Discover their potential benefits and drawbacks before you decide.
As you become more confident and experienced in your fitness journey, you may start wondering about ways to support your workout routine. What we do outside the gym (ie, nutrition, water intake, etc) can go a long way towards seeing the results we want in the gym.
If you spend any time in the fitness industry corners of social media, you’ve probably seen the growing popularity of “supplements” as a supposed way of improving fitness performance.
But what exactly are supplements? And do you really need to add supplements to your workout routine?
Read on to find out what you need to know about the potential benefits - and drawbacks - of supplements as part of your fitness journey.
Let’s start with the basics. What are supplements?
The term “supplements” is pretty broad, and can include lots of different products that claim to support your body by providing additional nutrients, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals beyond what you might get through your nutrition.
Many of these supplements aim to support your overall fitness goals by enhancing your workout performance in different ways. Let’s dig into a few of the most common supplements out there.
We know that our bodies need protein to build muscle. Amino acids are sometimes called “the building blocks of protein” because they’re the molecules all living things need to make protein. Our bodies need 20 kinds of amino acids to function, but we only make 11 of these amino acids naturally. We can typically get the other 9 from our diets, but supplements are another way to get those additional 9 amino acids that help build muscle.
Creatine is an amino acid, and can often be consumed through meat or fish in our diet. Powdered creatine supplements can be mixed into water and can help provide your muscles with additional energy. Many fitness professionals encourage creatine consumption post-workout instead of pre-workout.
“Pre-workout” is another broad term that generally refers to a type of powdered supplement meant to be mixed with water and consumed before your workout. The goal is to provide you with more energy for your workout. There are lots of different formulations of pre-workouts on the market, but typically a pre-workout will contain some combination of caffeine, creatine, other amino acids, and artificial sweetener
Protein powder is one of the most common supplements, because protein is such an important component of muscle growth and recovery. Many people struggle to consume enough protein from diet alone, so protein powder can be a helpful way to get additional protein by mixing this powdered supplement with water.
Vitamins and minerals are organic and inorganic micronutrients that our bodies need to function. Our bodies don’t create these on our own, so we typically need to get them from the food we eat. Multivitamins and other vitamin or mineral supplements can be used when diet alone isn’t getting us the amounts we need.
The purpose of adding supplements like the ones above to your workout routine is typically to support energy, recovery, muscle growth, and your overall fitness goals in ways that your diet alone may not be doing.
So, what are some of the specific benefits supplements can provide?
While you’ve probably seen some anecdotal stories online about how a fitness influencer improved their workout performance once they started taking certain supplements, it’s important to note that most supplements don’t actually do anything and most people don’t need to take them.
In fact, Harvard Medical School actually advises people: “don’t waste time (or money) on dietary supplements.”
Supplements are not a magic bullet. That is, you’re not going to miraculously see an improvement in your fitness performance overnight just because you start taking supplements.
That said, there are some ways that certain supplements can help support different aspects of your fitness journey.
For example, caffeine has been shown to improve exercise performance in some cases, and can certainly help to boost energy before a workout.
Consuming protein after your workout has significant positive associations with muscle mass and strength, as well as recovery, with perhaps even more benefits depending on the type of workout you’re doing, your age, and what type of protein it is.
There are also some supplements that may help to improve workout endurance, such as beetroot or beet juice, and caffeine.
And studies have shown that creatine supplements taken as part of a regular resistance training routine can actually help to build lean body mass more quickly than the same resistance training routine done without creatine supplements.
But even though supplements have the potential to offer some workout support in some cases, there are potential drawbacks as well.
One of the most significant drawbacks of supplements is that they are largely unregulated.
While the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) does provide some regulation of supplements after they’ve entered the market, it does not approve supplements for safety or effectiveness before they are sold to consumers.
This means that a supplement brand can claim their products are safe and effective, and there’s no oversight to confirm those things are true. In fact, they may not even have accurate labels before they’re sold; they could even include harmful ingredients like heavy metals or steroids. The FDA will only investigate these aspects of a supplement if it is reported by consumers as a concerning product.
In addition to supplements not necessarily being safe, not necessarily doing what they say they’ll do, or potentially not containing the ingredients they claim to, they can also be expensive.
Some fitness professionals make the claim that protein powder is a less expensive way to manage your protein intake than incorporating more high protein food into your diet. But there are actually lots of ways to increase your protein intake with affordable choices at the grocery store.
And while protein is just one supplement, if you decide you want to add a bunch of supplements to your routine, the cost of those will add up. In 2019, depending on their age, Americans spent between $60 and $130 on supplements per trip to the store. If you go to the store once a week, you could be spending over $500 a month on supplements!
At the end of the day, the best choice for you is one that you can make consistently and sustainably.
For many people, the most consistent and sustainable option for making sure they get the proper nutrients they need is a thoughtful, balanced diet.
In fact, experts recommend getting your nutrients from whole foods as much as possible, rather than relying wholly on supplements. This is because when we consume our nutrients from whole food, we’re getting them in a way that our bodies know how to digest and process because they’re in their original structure.
When those nutrients get processed into supplemental forms (powders, for example), it’s not clear how or to what extent their benefits get absorbed by our bodies.
And there are lots of ways to make sure your diet is working for you in ways that support your fitness goals. For example, rather than spending a bunch of money on post-workout supplements, you might take a look at what you’ve already got in your pantry or fridge and use those ingredients to make the perfect post-workout meal.
Rather than using supplements to replace foods in your diet, consider how you might use some supplements in addition to the nutrition you get from whole foods.
Supplements can be a great way to maximize some aspects of your fitness routine, from giving you more energy when you start your workout to helping with recovery after your workout. But at the end of the day, it’s all about balance.
Supplements can be expensive, and they don’t always do what they say they’ll do. And they won’t improve your fitness overnight. With every aspect of your fitness journey, it’s a good idea to focus first on what you’re able to do consistently and in a way that works for you, and that includes your nutrition.
Not sure where to start when it comes to making sure your nutrition is supporting your fitness goals?
That’s where trainwell can help.
With trainwell, you work with a certified personal trainer who you choose, and you work out where you want to. But many of our trainers also carry nutrition certifications and can provide some guidance on healthy eating habits. Most importantly, they stick with you as a source of encouragement and accountability.
Ready to get started? Great! Trainwell offers a free 14-day trial so you can see if this personal training experience provides everything you’re looking for, including support for your nutritional goals.
Explore trainwell’s 14-day free trial to find your next personal trainer: https://join.trainwell.net/
Written by Ella Browning.
