Do you take any workout supplements?
renae161
Posts: 334 Member
Do you take any workout supplements for your workout routine? If so what? And, what's the purpose of it?
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Replies
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I take BCAAs because they're literally just amino acids. They're good for muscle growth and post-workout muscle recovery. Other than that, I do a protein shake afterward. I used to do preworkout (C4/Noxplode), but it makes me too itchy.3
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astrocosmiczoom, Maybe you're allergic to the one that made you itchy?
Mjaykup, I think i've seen the one you're currently taking online. There's so many products out there I dont know what is what or if I need it.0 -
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Not really, no. I'm not advanced enough in any sport or competing in any field to need to be faster by a few seconds or to do one more push up than I'm able without. I see no point, personally. On a very long hike after a while of inactivity once I did get some baking soda in me and I opt to drink my coffee before workouts sometimes, but I don't buy stuff specifically to supplement workouts.3
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i take creatine every day. dk if it makes me 'stronger', but it does significantly improve my muscle hydration levels, and that means i'm far less prone to friction damage and irritation. whey isolate is my other thing that i do every day because i find protein a chore.
bcaa's occasionally when i'm afraid of the doms. fish oil and/or glucosamine when i remember. so most of my stuff is directed towards maintenance and damage control more than 'performance' per se.1 -
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Daily I take..
Multi Vitamin/Fish Oil/HMB
Preworkout:
Creatine/Beta Alanine/Hemavol or some other vasodilator.1 -
So then which one should I be taking? Or what should I look for in ingredients? I'd like one that is plant based.0
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Omega 3
Joint support
Black coffee, lots of black coffee3 -
Protein powder to help reach my protein goal.
Creatine for increased muscle endurance.
BCAA's to help with muscle recovery.1 -
Black coffee only.
Though I did take creatine for a couple years until my doctors took me off when my kidneys were showing signs of failure as a precaution.1 -
That's good they took you off creatine as a precaution. So now it's just coffee then?1
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Yes. Large cup of black coffee. Warms me up from my motorcycle ride in the 30-40s and give me the same boat as a pre workout.1
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no pre-workout usually. very occasionally if I'm super tired but don't want to take a rest day I'll take a scoop of beta-alanine (pure). The only time I was needing the pre-workout was when I was cutting because so *kitten* tired and hungry and miserable. When I am normal and happy I don't need the extra energy to work out.
BCAA + Glutamine (again, pure forms, not flavoured because not too into all the additives personally)
Vegan Protein powder (normal one makes me bloat)
and have used creatine in the past (pre-workout) but then had a couple of people tell me not to use it so I'm not currently using it but may do so again - gives a nice looking pump after working out
coffee or green tea should do the trick if you want to stick to natural/herbal. Do you feel you NEED the energy? You can't just get to the gym and work out without buzzing?
First time I took beta alanine I felt sooooo weird at the gym - it reminded me too much of my youth taking drugs in nightclubs.2 -
Do you take any workout supplements for your workout routine? If so what? And, what's the purpose of it?
Not really...
Most people honestly aren't training at a level for which there would be a whole lot of benefit to taking most of these supplements...Pre-workout supplements for example...the only people I've actually observed really needing them are people who are high level, competitive athletes where training bouts can be long and/or intense.
The only time I really do anything outside of my normal diet is if I go on a long ride on the bike...If I'm out for more than about 30 miles I make sure I have some kind of recovery food when I'm done...I don't really do supplements though...I have a recovery smoothie that I make for that purpose.
Pre-gym I sometimes have an apple...a coffee if I'm feeling sluggish.
I will occasionally use a whey supplement to help me hit my protein targets, but by and large I do that through my diet as well.1 -
What vegan protein powder do you take? I've had a few day's recently when I feel I can't do it, but eventually push myself to workout.0
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canadianlbs wrote: »i take creatine every day. dk if it makes me 'stronger', but it does significantly improve my muscle hydration levels, and that means i'm far less prone to friction damage and irritation. whey isolate is my other thing that i do every day because i find protein a chore.
You don't know if it makes you stronger but you do know it improves "muscle hydration levels"? I'm intrigued as I'd say strength is very easy to measure, track and assess whereas I have not seen a "muscle hydration level" machine in my gym. Or do you perform biopsys on yourself each week?2 -
astrocosmiczoom wrote: »I take BCAAs because they're literally just amino acids. They're good for muscle growth and post-workout muscle recovery. Other than that, I do a protein shake afterward. I used to do preworkout (C4/Noxplode), but it makes me too itchy.
Out of curiosity, why do you do both BCAA and a whey shake? Every whey shake I know of has equivalent levels of BCAA in them. Seems a little redundant.
I cook with whey, but I don't take pre -, post -, or peri - workout supplements.1 -
For normal gym workouts or cycle rides up to 2 hours - no supplements or special routines required, just my normal meals and water for thirst.
Over 2 hour rides will be fuelling as I go do a degree.
Over 3 hour cycle rides will ensure I have plenty of carbs on-board beforehand and fuel as I go (sports drinks and/or glucose/fructose mix gels or just snacks for easy to digest quick energy).
For 100+ mile events I might carb load and use beetroot juice (helps sub-maximal endurance cardio to a small degree).
On the longer rides may well take more care over recovery with a mix of carbs and protein, mostly just from food but sometimes shakes for convenience.
Hot/sweaty/long rides I might use electrolyte tablet.
IMHO the use of most exercise supplements for ordinary people doing ordinary workouts is unnecessary.2 -
astrocosmiczoom wrote: »I take BCAAs because they're literally just amino acids. They're good for muscle growth and post-workout muscle recovery. Other than that, I do a protein shake afterward. I used to do preworkout (C4/Noxplode), but it makes me too itchy.
Out of curiosity, why do you do both BCAA and a whey shake? Every whey shake I know of has equivalent levels of BCAA in them. Seems a little redundant.
I cook with whey, but I don't take pre -, post -, or peri - workout supplements.
BCAA's pre-workout ,if fasted, then whey post-workout would not be redundant.0 -
Whey (Occasionally)
BCAA (Occasionally, mostly when I'm saving up for a bigger meal later in day)
Fish Oil (Daily)
Vitamin D (Daily)
Creatine (Daily)
Multi (Daily)
Caffeine (Hourly)3 -
BCAA pre-workout (fasted) and sometimes whey (post) if I might be short on protein (not meeting goal through food alone). Caffeine is a must.2
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trigden1991 wrote: »You don't know if it makes you stronger but you do know it improves "muscle hydration levels"? I'm intrigued as I'd say strength is very easy to measure, track and assess whereas I have not seen a "muscle hydration level" machine in my gym. Or do you perform biopsys on yourself each week?
yeah true . . . that was a pretty sloppy way of expressing it when it's totally experiential
but fwiw, here's the strictly-experiential deal: my muscles feel different. maybe having rheumatoid arthritis makes that especially relevant to me, maybe it's my age at 51. i have pretty full rom based on functional tests, but without creatine there isn't a movement of any kind i can make without getting some little stick or catch or twinge or sting. i remember being really hurt a few years ago when a massage therapist commented out of the blue that my muscles were 'dry'. i thought i was doing everything right - water, stretching, the whole bit. but she didn't even have to tell me - i could hear the gritch-gritch noises when she was working across fibres spindles in certain zones. i just thought it was normal, actually.
creatine takes that away. go figure, but i feel better on creatine than i ever did on any of the nsaids and dmards i'm supposed to take for the r.a. i assume it's because every atp molecule needs water molecules to bind to, but that's just a guess. empirically there's just no question of it. i move without clicks or snaps or catches, and even palpating the muscles feels different. the individual fibre spindles are still there, but they're fatter and springier. it absolutely is not just how much i'm drinking; i drink about the same amount all the time and i tried keeping the water and skipping the creatine back when i was uncomfortable with feeling like i 'need' something like this to feel good. all the gritching and sticking and grinding came back. now i just put the stuff up there with anything else that you take because it helps with some problem of yours.
as far as assessing my strength with or without, that's something i don't even try to do. it's not very reliable with me, since it fluctuates a fair bit day to day anyway. and creatine isn't really one of those instant-effect things anyway afaik. so i'm a moving target already. trying to assess how well a slow-moving bullet is tracking that target seems sort of futile to me.0 -
Just creatine, its the most studied/proven to be effective.
I used to take BCAAs but then i stopped, they did absolutely nothing except make my water taste better.0 -
Ok so BCCA's are amino acids, pre workout is for energy when you're not up for it, I think whey is to bulk up, right? But, it's not vegerarian friendly? And, what are creatines? There's so many products. I'm not training for anything, but there are some things I'd like to get to try out for myself to decide if I want to add them in my routine or not.0
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whey is to bulk up, right? But, it's not vegerarian friendly?
whey is not necessarily to bulk up. it's a good source of protein, that's all. and it's made from milk, not from meat, so it's vegetarian-friendly but presumably not good for vegans.
creatine is . . . stuff.
idek what it is, but honestly, if you're brand new to lifting or not even thinking of doing it i don't know how much you need any of this. i think a better approach is to see how it goes for you and if you can identify a specific lack, then look into whatever type of supplement might be useful. that's just throwing expensive *kitten* at a wall without even knowing if you'll realise which bits of it stick.
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Ok thanks0
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I've been taking 5g of creatine daily for 2 months but I can't tell if it's having any effect on my workouts or body at all. Don't feel I'm getting any great boost of energy from it lifting and, as far as I can tell, I haven't experienced any weight gain.
Since it doesn't seem to hurt or have any noticeable negative effects, I'm going to continue to use up what I bought and then see if I notice any effect after I stop using it, which won't be for quite awhile.
On the other hand, I've been using a variety of protein supplements (plus normal food) to maintain my high protein diet (40% macro) of about 180g/day or about 1.1g/pound on 1800 cals/day, which is within the generally accepted level to build or maintain muscle growth while losing fat, which is what I am still trying to do.
BTW, this is about 3x's the RDA for protein for males 18-64 BUT w/in the recommended level of 1-1.2 g/lb for seniors (like me) 65 and older. However, there are studies that say that senior athletes need even more protein -- up to 1.2-1.5 g/lb to enhance performance but I don't think that I am "so" athletic that I need to increase my protein intake even more.
Don't think I could include up to 250g (1k cals) of protein/day in my diet unless I increased my daily food intake to 2500 cals/day and started to bulk, which is not what I currently want to do.1 -
tillerstouch wrote: »Just creatine, its the most studied/proven to be effective.
Proven to do what?0
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