Pre-Workout Recommendations

Hugesupps and Ekkovision offer great pre-workouts, but they're pricey. If you're inclined to mix your own pre-workouts, the most effective pre-workout dosages/methods that I'm aware of are listed below. You are responsible for being aware of any complications that these supplements could result in, such as cardiovascular issues in response to an excessive dose of caffeine. You should start at the lower end of these doses. I emboldened the most effective supplements.

Energy & Mental Drive

45-90 Minutes Before Your Workout:
Have a moderate-sized meal with a fair amount of carbs. Avoid whey to prevent bad gas, especially on lower body days.

30 Minutes Before Your Workout:
Caffeine: 50-300mg (inhibits pumps & sleep quality)
Tyrosine: 0.1g/kg bodyweight (typically 8g)
Vitamin B Complex: 100%+ daily value
Salt: 0.5g-2g or ~200-400mg sodium
Taurine: 1-3g

Pump

45 Minutes Before Your Workout:
Glycerol/Glycerin: 3-10g. Drink 20 oz water or more with it and be sure to keep drinking during your lifting session.

30 Minutes Before Your Workout:
L-Citrulline: 0.1g/kg bw (typically 8g)

*You should start at the lower end of the range. ie. 3g glycerol, 50-100mg caffeine, 1g taurine, etc.

Pre-Workout Supplements

Caffeine

If you're still lacking energy after having fixed your sleep schedule, caffeine may be worth using for you. Do not use caffeine as a crutch for consistently insufficient sleep. Relevant sources of caffeine include caffeine pills, pre-made pre-workouts, sodas, & coffee. You shouldn’t buy caffeine pills if you suspect that you will be unable to control yourself with the dosages. It is far from ideal to consume caffeine within 12 hours of when you sleep because it will disturb your quality of sleep and therefore muscular/mental recovery. When you find 350mg or more ineffective, you should go on a caffeine ‘deload’ by decreasing the dosage by 50-100 mg weekly until you return back to ~100-200mg. Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor and therefore it should not be used if you want a perfect pump.

Glycerol/Glycerin

Glycerol or Glycerin absorbs water from your bloodstream, saturating it into your muscles. After ingesting it, you should drink at least 20 oz of water to have the full effect in a safe manner. More water is better and you should keep drinking throughout your gym session. It can cause headaches or diarrhea in some people. During events, endurance athletes should use significantly more glycerol than I recommended to stay hydrated. While glycerol is a powder that doesn’t tend to dissolve well in liquids, Glycerin has the same effect and can be found by searching for food grade glycerin online. Glycerin is a liquid version of glycerol that may be much easier to consume. Liquid glycerol is also out there but they all accomplish the same purpose.

Citrulline

L-Citrulline is a pump supplement. The maximal effective dose for an 80kg person would be 8g of L-Citrulline or 12g Citrulline Malate 2:1. The Malic Acid present in Citrulline Malate likely doesn’t increase bioavailability, simply adding a sour flavor. This would be 2 grams citrulline per 1 gram malic acid, so 12g citrulline malate would contain 8g citrulline. This supplement is significantly more effective at raising Nitric Oxide levels than L-Arginine in a timely manner. It is a vasodilator, and should not be used in conjunction with other vasodilators at maximal doses, such as beetroot powder. Citrulline offers no real health or recovery benefits because the effects are quite temporary. However, in some cases,  it has been found to increase performance in later sets when compared to sessions without it.

Taurine

Taurine is a common energy drink ingredient that marginally lowers blood pressure and reduces lower back soreness temporarily through mechanisms I'm currently unaware of. It's found in most high protein source foods. However, it can be helpful to supplement this in anticipation of or the day after a heavy powerlifting session.

Tyrosine

Tyrosine is a non-essential amino acid that slightly increases dopamine and reduces stress for a period of time. It may increase alertness, but it can be found in various cheeses and basic food protein sources. It’s a fair argument that supplementing Tyrosine is completely unnecessary. 

Electrolytes

Sodium chloride and potassium, electrolytes, are essential for proper hydration. While the vast majority of people likely do not need to supplement extra electrolytes, they can be a useful tool for an important event or during a long gym session involving cardio. Soon, I will have a guide on hydration in the health & dieting section.

Everyday Supplements

Creatine

Creatine increases the rate that ATP is delivered to each individual muscle cell by enhancing the efficiency of the phosphocreatine pathways between the mitochondria and contractile tissue cells. This can lead to increased strength, which is important because: the more weight you can move with great form, the more stimulus you receive. Creatine also significantly increases the average rate that muscle grows over time in athletes. There are myths about creatine such as hair loss, loading phases, and that it’s a steroid. Creatine slightly increases the hormone DHT, so individuals genetically predisposed to hair loss may want to be slightly cautious about the use of creatine. While creatine has been found to cause no kidney harm, it should not be used in persons with pre-existing kidney conditions. Someone should increase their water intake while utilizing creatine, though. You don’t need a loading phase for creatine because the changes it makes are relatively insignificant in the first place. Stick to 5g daily. It’s just slightly more effective when taken after working out. It’s present naturally in protein sources such as fish, red meats and chicken so creatine is certainly not a steroid.

Whey

Whey Powder has no risks in persons with standard kidney function. Please refer to the protein section in the Health and Dieting section for now.

Beta Alanine

Beta Alanine raises the levels of carnosine within your muscles to potentially increase your performance for longer sessions & higher rep ranges. The vast majority of the benefit elevated carnosine levels provide is in the 1-4 minute range, which is arguably useless for the purpose of muscle growth. To approach ideal saturation, someone should consider using multiple doses (1.5-3g) daily to add up to 6g daily consumption for 1-2 months of consistent supplementation. Sporadic doses of beta alanine via pre-workout likely have no relevant positive effects. Therefore, purchasing pure beta alanine is essential; someone shouldn’t be using pre-workout 24/7. It causes a harmless tingling effect.

Multivitamins

In the United States, our foods are typically unnaturally saturated with vitamins to prevent deficiencies from occurring in most people people. So, deficiencies are much more rare than someone might initially think; using a multivitamin is unlikely to benefit the average person's muscle growth today, provided they have a reasonably well-rounded diet. However, multivitamins can be a sort of shotgun approach to solving symptoms of a vitamin deficiency. They are cheaper than getting bloodwork to pinpoint the issue yet also may fail to solve any issue. 

Fish Oil

If you consume fish regularly (ideally 2-3x weekly), you don’t need to supplement fish oil. It slightly increases your overall cholesterol, which results in a net neutral effect because it increases both ‘good’ cholesterol, HDL, and ‘bad’ cholesterol, LDL. It has been found to marginally reduce blood pressure levels and significantly reduce blood triglyceride levels. Fish oil is likely more effective at reducing blood pressure for those who already have high blood pressure. Fish oil was determined to have no effects towards increased longevity or heart health; However, consumption of fish was found to improve heart health.

Magnesium

While magnesium is used medically as a laxative, it might offer a variety of benefits to the average person. Magnesium is common in leafy, green vegetables, beans, & nuts. If a person’s diet were to be seriously lacking in those foods or if they happened to be a consistent consumer of alcohol, supplementing magnesium would be a logical choice. Avoid magnesium oxide because of its low bioavailability; use magnesium glycinate instead. L-threonate is perhaps the most unique form, crossing the blood brain barrier to potentially enhance cognitive function. Excess magnesium can cause diarrhea and low blood pressure; reduce the dosage if you experience this. Some common signs of low magnesium levels in the blood are muscle cramps, tiredness, irritability, and depression. Do not use this supplement if you have a heart block or preexisting kidney issues.

Testosterone Boosters

These supplements, ashwagandha, for example, are generally not viable for increasing your muscle growth progress. There are two types of relevant testosterone levels to monitor. The first type is total testosterone; it has no effect on your body, but rather only on your mind and libido. The other kind is free testosterone, which is typically not affected significantly by natural oral supplements. These supplements typically only have an effect on total T and therefore have almost no significant effect on lean body mass. Most importantly, improving your sleep, diet and exercise plan is multitudes more effective at raising your testosterone than supplements are today.

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha is one of the above listed 'testosterone booster' supplements. However, it has other benefits and intricacies of note as well. It only has a significant positive effect on high stress individuals. It works by reducing cortisol which cascades down to a marginal increase in testosterone. It also has therapeutic effects on sleep in some individuals, but it should be utilized in 'cycles' to prevent the effect from stagnating over time. It has no risks of note.

Illness and Injury Supplements

Injury Supps

If you find yourself facing a joint-related injury & want a solution via supplements, it consider Collagen & Vitamin C supplementation. 5-15g/day of collagen has been found to improve joint functionality & pain in a variety of subject ages; 15g/day was found to be more effective than 5g. Vitamin C is a cofactor of collagen synthesis & was found to further increase collagen synthesis–even at a low dose. It’s best to take the collagen an hour before training to optimize collagen synthesis. Please note that there is conflicting research on whether collagen is truly beneficial for tendon health. If you have sufficient protein intake, collagen will likely not help you.

Omega-3 & circumin may also be beneficial in joint health.

Illness Supps

If you start to feel illness coming on, you can consider taking an array of supplements to reduce the illnesses' potential future negative effects & recover as soon as possible. While people have found anecdotal benefit from this approach, there is absolutely no clinical evidence supporting it... at all. Kidney stones are a serious risk of excessive Vitamin C supplementation. Personally, I only use these for a few days at most in response to oncoming illness.

• 3-6g Vitamin C split between mornings & nights

• 50-100mg Zinc

• 2000-8000 IU Vitamin D

• 30-40g Glutamine

• Extra omega-3’s (via fish & supplements)

Illness & Injury Recommendations

PEDs vs. Health

Most Importantly,

• You are almost guaranteed to lose a percent of your natural testosterone production after a cycle

• There are no PEDs without side effects

• Use a testosterone base

• Track your bloodwork & blood pressure

More Widely...

I genuinely believe that anyone wants to use PEDs should have perfectly locked in every parameter of growth (sleep, diet, training, & stress) for at least 1-2 consecutive years before even thinking about cycle design. These drugs may reduce life expectancy by enlarging and stressing your organs, at the benefit of making you become stronger and look better with continuous use. It's vital to recognize that anyone can have a genetic defect that, when coupled with PED use, can lead to a young death on PEDs. If you insist on using PEDs, be intelligent about your cycle design and extra cognizant of the risks if your family has a history of issues that PEDs could exacerbate. Space them out to allow your body to recover. Get bloodwork before, during, and after cycle(s). Track your blood pressure, liver enzymes and other markers measured by that bloodwork. Recognize that you may be forced to use TRT for LIFE after PED use and that returning to your original test levels after a cycle is NOT guaranteed. Use ancillaries, though be cautious so as to only deploy them when absolutely necessary. Avoid the simultaneous use of multiple oral PEDs and be sure to always use a testosterone base. Additionally, if you can not afford all of these safety measures, you should not even be thinking about PEDs. It’s always best to wait at least until you're over 25 years old, as 25 is the age when most brain and body development has completely finished, though some argue that this age should be moved further back to 30. Be smart and health conscious.

Some "Debated" Substances

Enclomiphine and MK677 two subtances that some fitness influencers promote. They claim that these are natural substances. Unfortunately for the gymgoers who fell for the ploy, these are PEDs; anyone who has taken them is no longer natural.

A Common Misconception...

Steroids are not a magic pill. An unbelievable percent of PED users seem to be clearly naturally sized. This shouldn't need to be said, but it is absolute true that people on PEDs still have to put in serious effort into the basic growth parameters (sleep, training, & diet) to obtain serious consistent progress.

Resources

• Examine.com This is a great website to search for deeper information into just about any supplement.