Before you head off into your training session, you should be prepping your body for all out war. Okay, maybe that’s a little bit over the top, but you should be making sure that your body has everything it needs to perform at its best every time you step into the gym.
Supplements to increase mental and physical performance have been around for quite a while now in the fitness industry, but have increased in popularity recently, with quite a few new ingredients coming through in the past few years.
While supplements shouldn’t be the difference between a good training session and a bad one, they are scientifically proven to increase your performance. Whether that be miniscule or quite a big increase, an increase is an increase.
So, we have the basics that should be an absolute minimum before a training session. Making sure you are well hydrated, well fuelled and well rested should be ticked off before you even consider adding in any supplements to your training program. With that said, let’s look at some of the supplements that are proven to increase performance.
Caffeine – quite possibly the most researched compound ever. Not just in the fitness industry, but everywhere. That’s how popular caffeine is. It increases energy, focus, helps burn fat and improves tolerance to pain so you can perform exercises for longer. If you are going to add just one ingredient into your pre workout supplements, start with this.
Citrulline malate 2:1 – in my opinion, this is the best supplement for obtaining a great pump. This however, isn’t the main reason for taking it. Citrulline malate has been shown to increase force output, delay fatigue and decrease muscle soreness. That means this supplement not only helps you whilst you are in the gym, but it also helps you outside of it by helping you recover faster and get ready for your next session.
Creatine – along with caffeine, this is one of the most researched and tested supplements in the fitness industry. Creatine increases ATP production, which is important when performing short, intense bursts of exercises. By increasing our ATP production, we can perform these short bursts of intense exercise for longer. Think of it by being able to perform 10 reps instead of 8. PB anyone?
Beta-alanine – Ever taken a pre workout and felt the famous burning, tingling sensation? That my friend is beta-alanine. Don’t worry, it's quite harmless. In fact, it’s very beneficial and has been shown to increase your time to exhaustion in both long- and short-term exercises. That means performing at your best but for longer.
Huperzine A – a relatively new kid on the block, Huperzine A is known as a Nootropic and comes with a range of health benefits that can help you both inside and outside the gym. The main reason you will see it in pre workouts is for its ability to boost focus. Pairing this with caffeine can result in laser like focus, making your workout a breeze to get through. Whilst taking it by itself will still result in impressive increases in focus. As well as this, it has also been shown to improve memory, ability to learn and improve information retention.
The supplement industry is worth billions. It seems like every month something new comes out that claims it is going to help you build muscle faster, lose more fat or increase your performance two-fold. Whilst many will help, the above are my pick of the bunch and will give you the biggest bang for your buck.
