What supplements do weight lifters take?

Two columns that do not match: what the surveys say lifters take and who told them to, what the evidence supports, and the two products that appear in both columns for good reason

What supplements do weight lifters take is a question with two honest answers, and they do not match, which is the most useful thing a page can say about it. The first answer is descriptive: what lifters actually take, which the surveys of gym members and resistance trainers report with some consistency across countries. A majority use at least one supplement. Protein powder is the most common, creatine next, and then a long tail that is widely used: pre-workout blends, branched-chain amino acids, fat burners, multivitamins, and in smaller shares glutamine, testosterone boosters, mass gainers and omega-3. The surveys also report where the advice came from, and the answer is training partners, the internet and shop staff, ahead of any qualified practitioner, which is the mechanism by which the first column fills: a product is taken because the person on the next bench takes it, and the person on the next bench took it because of a video. The second answer is normative: what the evidence supports, which is a shorter list that the sports institutes and the consensus statements agree on, creatine, protein for the shortfall, caffeine, carbohydrate for long sessions, and the vitamins and minerals for correcting a measured or likely shortfall. The page lays the two columns side by side, places each product in both, and reads the gap.

Two products appear in both columns for good reason, and they are the first two in the survey. Creatine monohydrate is taken by a large share of lifters and supported by the largest body of evidence of any supplement, one to two kilograms of lean mass and a few percent on strength over a training block at 3 to 5g a day, with an authorised claim and the best-studied safety record; the lifters have this one right, and the one refinement the evidence adds is that the plain monohydrate every trial used is the form to buy and the blends and the hydrochloride are not. Protein powder is taken by most and supported as a way of reaching around 1.6g per kilogram a day when the plate falls short, which for many lifters it does; the refinement the evidence adds is that it is a food purchase for the shortfall, not a supplement with an effect of its own, and that a lifter already at the target gains nothing from it. The two products a lifter and the evidence agree on are the two cheapest on the shelf, which is not a coincidence, since the products with the most evidence are commodities and the products with the most marketing are not.

The first column's third entry is where the columns start to part. Pre-workout blends are widely taken and appear in the second column only as their caffeine, at 3 to 6mg per kilogram before a session, which lowers perceived effort and improves strength endurance and power output; the rest of the blend, the pump ingredients, the amino acids and the proprietary stimulant stack, appears nowhere in the evidence, and a lifter who wants the second column's version buys a caffeine tablet of known dose for a penny and keeps it for the sessions that matter, rather than a scoop whose stimulant content is undeclared and whose sleep cost is paid on every evening session.

Two columns with two products in both and one that is half in each, and the four products in the first column and not the second, the one in the second and rarely the first, the gap read, and the worked example, which is the next section.

The four products in the first column and not the second, the one product in the second and rarely the first, the gap read as the size of the marketing, the two columns for a tested lifter, the worked example, and the verdict

Four products sit in the first column, widely taken, and not in the second. Branched-chain amino acids are taken by a large share of lifters on the belief that they build or protect muscle, and the trials find that they add nothing to adequate protein, since the three amino acids they contain are already in any protein a lifter eats and the muscle-building signal needs the full set; a lifter at the protein target has bought a flavoured drink. Fat burners are taken by a share of lifters cutting, and the trials find weight differences measured in grams over months, with a stimulant load and a price in pounds a day, and nothing that a deficit with protein and lifting does not do better. Multivitamins are taken by habit on the belief they cover something, and the general-population trials do not support them, with the one line a lifter needs, vitamin D in winter, available as the one line. Testosterone boosters are taken by a smaller share and were audited across dozens of products with almost no data and no effect on the hormone. Glutamine and mass gainers sit beside them: no recovery evidence in healthy lifters for the first, and fat beyond the usable surplus for the second.

One product sits in the second column and rarely in the first. Vitamin D through the UK winter is supported for everyone, with the national survey finding a large share of adults short from October to March and authorised claims for muscle function, bone and the immune system, and the surveys find lifters take it far less often than they take branched-chain amino acids; it is the cheapest line in the evidence column and the one lifters most often miss, because nobody on the next bench is selling it. Iron on a ferritin test for women who lift, and omega-3 for the lifter eating no oily fish, sit beside it as conditionals that the first column rarely contains.

The gap between the columns, read product by product, is the size of the marketing in each category: zero for creatine and protein, where the lifters and the evidence agree and the products are commodities; large for pre-workout, branched-chain amino acids, fat burners and boosters, where the lifters take what the evidence does not support and the products carry the shelf's highest margins; and negative for vitamin D, where the evidence supports what the lifters do not take and nobody profits from the gap. A tested lifter, competing in any sport with anti-doping rules, adds a third column to both: whether the product is batch tested and enrolled in a certification programme, which under strict liability makes every first-column product a risk and most second-column products a certified purchase.

The worked example is placed where its evidence puts it, which is the second column for a specific lifter: {FL}, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, two capsules with the evening meal, a mineral lost in sweat and found short in a share of young adults' plates by the national survey, with authorised claims for normal muscle function, electrolyte balance, normal protein synthesis and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium, UK made, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day, in the evidence column for the lifter whose plate is short and in neither column for the lifter whose plate is full. The full label breakdown is here.

The verdict: lifters take protein, creatine, pre-workout, branched-chain amino acids, fat burners and multivitamins, advised by the next bench and the internet, and the evidence supports creatine, protein for the shortfall, caffeine as a tablet, vitamin D in winter and a few conditionals. The two columns agree on the two cheapest products and part on the dearest, which is the marketing; and a lifter who moves their cupboard from the first column to the second spends less and loses nothing the trials can find.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

What supplements do most gym goers take?

The surveys of gym members and resistance trainers find a majority use at least one supplement, with protein powder the most common and creatine next, followed by pre-workout blends, branched-chain amino acids, fat burners and multivitamins, and in smaller shares glutamine, testosterone boosters, mass gainers and omega-3, with the advice coming from training partners, the internet and shop staff ahead of any qualified practitioner; laid against the evidence, the first two are supported, the pre-workout is supported only as its caffeine, and the rest are not.

Do I need to take supplements if I lift weights?

Two the evidence supports and most lifters already take: creatine monohydrate at 3 to 5g a day, for one to two kilograms of lean mass and a few percent on strength over a block, and protein as food or powder to reach around 1.6g per kilogram a day if the plate falls short; one most lifters miss, vitamin D through the UK winter; a caffeine tablet for the sessions that matter if wanted; and iron only on a ferritin test or omega-3 only for a diet without oily fish; everything else in the surveys' list is taken because the next bench takes it.

Are BCAAs worth taking for lifting?

No; branched-chain amino acids are widely taken on the belief that they build or protect muscle, and the trials find they add nothing to adequate protein, because the three amino acids they contain are already in any protein a lifter eats and the muscle-building signal needs the full set, so a lifter at the protein target has bought a flavoured drink; the product sits in the column of what lifters take and not in the column of what the evidence supports, which is the gap the marketing fills.

Is pre-workout worth it compared with just caffeine?

The evidence supports the caffeine and nothing else in the scoop: caffeine at 3 to 6mg per kilogram before a session lowers perceived effort and improves strength endurance and power output, while the pump ingredients, the amino acids and the proprietary stimulant stack appear nowhere in the trials, and the blend's stimulant content is often undeclared and its sleep cost paid on every evening session; a tablet of known dose for a penny, kept for the sessions that matter, is the second column's version of the first column's pre-workout.

Do weight lifters need magnesium?

The lifter whose plate is short of it does, which the national survey finds a share of young adults' plates to be, and the mineral is lost in sweat; magnesium has authorised claims for normal muscle function, electrolyte balance, normal protein synthesis and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, and the worked example is 300mg elemental at 80% NRV in two capsules with the evening meal for 22p a day, batch tested for four metals and UK made, placed in the evidence column for the short plate and in neither column for the full one.

Sources

1. The surveys of supplement use among gym members and resistance trainers: a majority report using at least one supplement, protein powder and creatine most commonly, with pre-workout blends, branched-chain amino acids, fat burners and multivitamins widely used, and with the main sources of advice being training partners, the internet and shop staff rather than qualified practitioners. PubMed record
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. Wolfe RR. Branched-chain amino acids and muscle protein synthesis in humans: myth or reality? Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2017;14:30: branched-chain amino acids alone cannot sustain muscle protein synthesis without the other essential amino acids, so that in people eating adequate protein they add nothing a complete protein does not. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28852372/
4. Maughan RJ, et al. IOC consensus statement: dietary supplements and the high-performance athlete. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2018;52(7):439-455: the performance supplements with good evidence are caffeine, creatine, nitrate, beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate, with most other products lacking support. PubMed record

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