Top 4 Supplements for Muscle Gain

Written by Mark D. Burg 

It’s important to note that no legal supplements will make your muscles grow by themselves. 

But the supplements highlighted in this article have scientifically proven to increase the intensity of your workouts and speed up your recovery, which will ultimately optimize your muscle growth. 

Creatine 

Decades of research vouch for Creatine’s safety and its ability to increase exercise performance, especially in intense exercises like weightlifting. 

Your cells use Creatine to regenerate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is life’s energy currency. 

Creatine optimizes ATP’s usage by your skeletal muscle. 

This helps your muscles perform better under pressure, so you can knock out those last few reps. 

These final reps can make all the difference in your ability to stress the tissue to a point where it’s forced to grow given enough recovery time. 

Creatine is very safe to use, its only known side effects are nausea, stomach cramps, and diarrhea from too large a dose. 

Contrary to what you might have read in the past, Creatine isn’t likely to hurt your kidneys. 

Creatine is likely to cause water retention around your muscles. 

This is normal and nothing to worry about. A subtle side effect is that you start looking bigger just a few days after taking the supplement. 

This effect subsides after taking Creatine for a while. 

How to take it: 

The recommended daily dose for an average size male is 5g. You need not worry about the timing of your supplementation. I take it typically after training in my post-workout drink or after dinner on my off days. 

Creatine can be added to any liquid, even hot coffee or tea, but it must be drunk within the day, as it degrades in fluids over time. Do not buy liquid creatine products.

I use the Creatine Monohydrate Powder by Bulk Powders on a daily bases. Some other brands may contain soy and other unnecessary ingredients. So make sure your powder is pure.

Should you find yourself particularly sensitive to Creatine’s digestive side effects, try drinking more fluids. You can also split your daily dose and take it with meals. 

Protein 

Protein is the building block of life. Among others, our body needs it to make new cells and repair damaged tissue. 

To maximize muscle growth, exercise performance, and recovery, you need to consume enough protein. 

Whole food like meat, fish, eggs, and nuts are best, but if your food intake does not cover your daily protein needs, you could add a supplement, preferably a powder. 

How to take it:

Whey protein and casein powders are both derived from milk protein. Whey protein digests quickly, and it is best to take around your workout to promptly feed your muscles. 

Whereas casein digests slowly and can be taken before bed to keep your muscles fed overnight. It can also be taken on your off days or as a meal replacement. 

If you’d rather buy only one type of protein powder, go for a whey protein as it is more important to feed your muscles around workouts than throughout the day – a healthy diet will take care of that. 

If you are lactose intolerant, whey protein isolates are a better option as they contain very little or no lactose. I would not recommend soy protein for its likely oestrogenic effect on men. 

The recommended daily allowance for protein is 0.8g to 1.2g per kilogram of body weight. So if you weigh 70kg, taking 70g of protein per day is plenty. 

If you have an especially hard workout, you aim for the higher end of that range, but I would not overdo it. Your body will not be able to process all that protein and likely excrete it or, worse, turn it into glucose, which will be stored as body fat. 

For the same reasons, you should not take more than 40g of protein per serving. For whey protein, I use Premium Body Nutrition Whey Isolate as it has no soy in it. Unfortunately, most brands do use soy. 

For casein protein, I use ESN Micellar Casein Iced Latte. If you don't like the Iced Latte flavor and would like to avoid soy as I do, make sure that you check the ingredients before purchasing. 

The soy content may vary even within the same product category. 

I would not recommend taking branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) as a supplement. 

Since they are part of any protein powder and you ingest them each time you drink a protein shake. So supplementing with BCAAs is mostly redundant. 

Beta-Alanine

The amino acid beta-alanine binds with the amino acid histidine to create carnosine. 

Carnosine buffers lactic acid during exercise, which delays muscle fatigue. That has proven especially effective during intense activities like weightlifting, which are performed in a 1-3 minute range. 

Like Creatine, Beta-Alanine can help you to delay muscle failure and squeeze out these essential last reps. 

As a nice plus, Beta-Alanine has anti-aging and antioxidant properties and has proven to be good for your general health. 

How to take it: 

The recommended daily allowance for Beta-Alanine is 4-6g. If you have a hard workout planned, aim for the higher end of that range. While beta-alanine can be taken at any time of the day, it may be better absorbed with a meal. 

A common side-effect of beta-alanine is paresthesia, a tingling sensation when your leg falls asleep. This is entirely normal and nothing to worry about. 

If you don’t like this prickling sensation, then take smaller doses throughout the day. The effect will get less intense after taking the supplement for a few weeks. 

On the bright side, when you feel the prickling you know the supplement does its magic in your body. I use the Beta-Alanine Powder by Freak Athletics. 

Caffeine with L-Theanine 

Caffeine can block different adenosine receptors in the brain, which can stave off sleepiness, and increase endurance as well as focus and power. 

If taken at the same time, L-Theanine can amplify caffeine’s stimulating properties and further improve focus and attention span, which will ultimately enhance exercise performance. 

How to take it: 

For a boost in workout performance, take 100–200mg of caffeine (up to 400mg/day) with an equal dose of theanine half an hour before exercise. 

You can double the dose before an especially strenuous workout, no more than twice a week. If tolerance starts to set in, drop down to once a week, or skip a week. 

You should not take caffeine if you workout in the evening, as this will disrupt your sleep and increase your recovery time. 

There should be at least 6 hours between your last coffee intake and sleep. 

Taking caffeine and L-Theanine on an empty stomach can increase the rate of absorption, but it can also cause gastrointestinal upset. 

I use Caffeine Plus+ by Freak Athletics, which combines caffeine and L-Theanine in one tablet making it very convenient to use. 

Don't worry about the higher dose of L-Theanine in the tablet but make sure you don't go way beyond the recommended daily caffeine dose. 

Disclaimer: This blog post is a general health article for adults 18 or over. Its aim is strictly educational. It does not constitute medical advice. Please consult a medical or health professional before you begin any exercise-, nutrition-, or supplementation-related program, or if you have questions about your health.

This guide is based on scientific studies, but individual results do vary. It is possible for any supplement to interact with other supplements, with foods and pharmaceuticals, and with particular health conditions. If you engage in any activity or take any product mentioned herein, you do so of your own free will, and you knowingly and voluntarily accept the risks. Supplements do not replace a healthy diet.