Best supplements for muscle gain holland and Barrett review: is it worth it for lifters?

The shelf is sold on offers, so the review is arithmetic: converting every multi-buy to pence per gram or per dose, and why half of zero is zero

A high street health retailer's muscle shelf is reviewed here by its offers rather than by its products, because the offers are how the shelf is sold and a lifter who has not done the arithmetic has been priced by the shelf rather than pricing it. The retailer's muscle section runs on multi-buy promotions as a standing practice, a second tub at half price, three for two, a seasonal penny sale where the second item costs a penny, and the shelf-edge ticket shows the saving in large type and the price per unit in small, which is lawful so long as the reference price is genuine and is designed so that the saving is what registers. The lifter's defence is one conversion, applied to every tub before the offer is looked at: the price divided by the grams of active it contains, or by the number of effective doses, which gives pence per gram of creatine, pence per gram of protein at the labelled serving, or pence per 200mg of caffeine, and which is the only number that survives a promotion intact. A second tub at half price lowers the pence per gram by a quarter across the pair; three for two lowers it by a third; the penny sale lowers it by nearly half; and once the offer has been converted into the number, the question is whether the number is good against the commodity price for the same active elsewhere, which for creatine monohydrate and plain whey is low and public and for everything else on the shelf is a comparison with itself.

The conversion has a second use, which is the point of the review: it exposes that an offer on a product with no mark on the lean-mass ruler is an offer on nothing. The ruler is the meta-analyses' kilograms of lean mass gained over a training block beyond training alone, and most of the muscle shelf reads zero on it. Branched-chain amino acids read zero in lifters eating enough protein, since the trials are null and the nutrient is protein sold by the gram at ten times the price. Testosterone boosters read zero with a safety note, after the 2020 audit of fifty found under a quarter with any data and several over vitamin upper levels. Mass gainers read exactly what their protein grams read, with the sugar and maltodextrin around them costing a fifth as food. Pre-workout blends read zero on the mass ruler, their caffeine being a session supplement priced at ten times a tablet. Glutamine, HMB in trained lifters, arginine and the rest have null or absent mass trials. A multi-buy on any of those lowers the pence per gram of something that adds no kilograms, and half of zero is zero; the shelf's most heavily promoted products are, not by coincidence, the ones whose offer arithmetic cannot be checked against a result, and a lifter who buys three for two of a booster has saved a third on a product the ruler says is worth nothing. The honest review of the shelf is therefore two columns: the products with a mark, where the offer arithmetic lowers a real cost, and the products without one, where it lowers the cost of nothing.

The two products the offer arithmetic favours, the own-brand question answered by the ordinary reads, the claims on the shelf-edge ticket, and the verdict

Two products on the shelf read above zero, and the offer arithmetic favours both because both are commodities whose pence per gram is low and public. Creatine monohydrate is the longest mark on the ruler, around one to two kilograms of lean mass over a block at 3 to 5g a day with an authorised claim for performance in short bursts, and on a high street shelf it comes as plain powder, as capsules at several times the price per gram, and as branded forms at several times more; the conversion sorts them in seconds, the plain powder's pence per 5g dose is a few pence at full price and fewer on an offer, and the purity statement on the tub, or a certificate for the batch, is the only quality question the product has. Protein powder reads 0.3 kilograms for a lifter whose total intake is below about 1.6 grams per kilogram and zero for one above it, so the first thing the conversion needs is the lifter's own number, and the second is the grams of protein per serving printed on the tub rather than the serving weight, since a 30g scoop may carry 18g of protein or 25g and the high protein nutrition claim requires at least 20 per cent of energy from protein, a threshold most whey clears and some blends do not; pence per gram of protein, not per tub, is the number, and an offer that lowers it on a powder that clears the threshold is a real saving for the lifter who needs the grams. Everything else on the shelf is left on the offer it came with.

The retailer's own-brand products are reviewed by the same reads as any brand, because an own brand is a brand: the label read for grams of protein or creatine per serving and for the elemental dose on any mineral; the batch certificate requested through the chain's customer service, quoting the batch number, which a national retailer's quality team can supply and sometimes will; the ingredient list read backwards for the excipients; and the claims on the shelf-edge ticket and the tub against the register, since a retailer's ticket saying supports muscle growth is making a claim the register does not contain and the advertising regulator has ruled against, and a ticket saying creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term high-intensity exercise is quoting the register. The mineral is priced the same way, pence per elemental milligram at the labelled serving: the worked example, {FL}, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, two capsules with the evening meal, carrying the authorised claims for normal muscle function, normal protein synthesis, electrolyte balance and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue and no muscle gain claim because none exists, batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium with the certificate on request, UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day, or about seven pence per 100mg of elemental magnesium, which is the number a shelf magnesium on an offer is compared with. The verdict for a lifter walking the retailer's muscle shelf is that it is worth it for the two products that read above zero, creatine monohydrate as plain powder and protein powder for the lifter below 1.6 grams per kilogram, bought on the offer that lowers their pence per dose, and not worth it for the offers that make a zero cheaper, which are most of the offers on the shelf and the reason the shelf exists.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Are Holland and Barrett muscle supplements worth it?

A high street health retailer's muscle shelf is worth it for the two products that read above zero on the lean-mass ruler, creatine monohydrate as plain powder, around one to two kilograms over a block at pence per 5g dose, and protein powder for the lifter whose food falls short of 1.6g per kilogram, priced per gram of protein against the high protein threshold, both bought on the multi-buy offer that lowers their pence per dose; and not worth it for the offers on BCAAs, testosterone boosters, mass gainers and pre-workout blends, which read zero on the ruler, since half of zero is zero.

How do I work out if a supplement multi-buy offer is actually good value?

Convert every tub to pence per gram of active or per effective dose before looking at the offer: the price divided by the grams of creatine, by the grams of protein per serving times the servings, or by the number of 200mg caffeine doses; a second tub at half price lowers that number by a quarter across the pair, three for two by a third, and the penny sale by nearly half; then compare the number with the commodity price for the same active elsewhere, which for creatine monohydrate and plain whey is low and public, and ask whether the product has any mark on the lean-mass ruler at all, since an offer on a product that adds nothing is a saving on nothing.

Is Holland and Barrett own-brand creatine any good?

An own brand is a brand and is reviewed by the same reads: the label for grams of creatine per serving and the form, with plain monohydrate the only form the trials used and the branded forms costing more for the same molecule; the purity statement on the tub or a certificate for the batch requested through the chain's customer service, since contamination of cheap creatine with manufacturing by-products is the product's one quality risk; and the pence per 5g dose after the offer, which for plain powder should be a few pence; a retailer's quality team can supply a certificate and a buyer who asks finds out whether it will.

Which supplements on the muscle shelf should lifters skip?

The ones with no mark on the lean-mass ruler at any price: branched-chain amino acids, whose lifting trials are null in people eating enough protein and whose nutrient is protein at ten times the price per gram; testosterone boosters, where the 2020 audit of fifty found under a quarter with any data and several over vitamin upper levels; mass gainers, which read exactly what their protein grams read with sugar around them costing a fifth as food; pre-workout blends, whose caffeine is a session supplement at ten times a tablet's price; and glutamine, HMB in trained lifters and arginine, with null or absent mass trials.

Can a shop label say a supplement supports muscle growth?

Not lawfully on a food supplement; supports muscle growth, builds lean muscle and similar phrases are health claims not on the authorised register, and the advertising regulator has ruled against them repeatedly, whether they appear on a tub, a listing or a shelf-edge ticket, which is a listing in every sense; the claims that may be made are the register's, such as creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term high-intensity exercise at 3g a day, protein contributes to a growth in muscle mass, and magnesium contributes to normal muscle function and normal protein synthesis, in substantially those words.

Sources

1. The consumer protection and advertising guidance on pricing practices: reference prices, multi-buy and was-now offers must reflect genuine prior pricing, and a promotion's value is tested by the unit price, the price per gram or per dose, rather than by the headline saving. https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/prices-promotions.html
2. Kreider RB, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2017;14:18. PubMed record
3. Morton RW, et al. A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2018;52(6):376-384: protein supplementation added around 0.3kg of fat-free mass, with the benefit plateauing at total intakes around 1.6g per kilogram a day. PubMed record
4. The nutrition claims conditions: source of protein requires at least 12% of the energy value from protein and high protein at least 20%, the thresholds a protein powder must meet to carry the claims. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2006/1924/annex

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