First to give you a little background, I used to work at GNC from the age of 18-20 years old starting in 2001. You might think that's not really a long time to think of myself as an expert, and you're right. I'm not calling myself an expert. But during that time I immersed myself into the supplement world. Tried just about everything during that time. Read as much as I could, and learned quite a bit. However, since I hadn't been in the "game" for over a decade, I forgot a lot of stuff and the whole market has changed. For the better I believe. These days you walk into the store and gone are the methoxyisoflavone that was made out bugs, effervescent and liquid creatine, protein that made you think you could change your DNA to block myostatin and be like a Belgian blue bull. A lot of the hype products have vanished which I believe to amazing because now it's whittled down to the core products. At least from what I have seen in the current supplement store I go to. Now that's not to say that bullshit products are completely gone. Oh no, someone is still out there to relieve you of your hard earned dollars. You can spend A LOT of money on products to help you grow. Believe me, I know. I used to sell the stuff, get people to buy more by doing cross selling. But also, I used the stuff myself. Even with my 30% discount at GNC, I was still breaking me. Granted of course I only worked 15 hours a week making maybe $7/HR. But the commissions were good; especially if I sold you a gold card. Just remember, for growth, strength, and weightloss, proper diet, nutrition and sleep are key to making a better you. #1 Protein- Anyways, we're here to talk supplements. If you look anywhere from bodybuilding.com to forums, everyone will say Protein is number one. And it is. You need to have protein to feed your muscles. Either you need to get it from food or from protein powders. But which ones on the market are good? Well that really depends honestly. I personally use MusclePharm. I like it, it's water solubility is great when it comes to the chocolate flavor. I bought the strawberry cheesecake and while it's good, it doesn't dissolve very well. Protein does so much other than make you build muscle. It can help you lose weight, it helps your skin look better, your hair to grow and look shinier. It's very important. Recommendations for protein powders, I'll be honest and won't really tell you which brand to get. There's so many and I've only had experience with a handful in comparison. Just remember, whey protein (in forms of whey or whey isolate) digest really fast. Perfect for after a workout. Casein and egg proteins digest slowly. So those are good for before bedtime to feed your muscles or when you wake up and it's going to be a while before breakfast. #2 BCAA- branched chain amino acids. To tell you the truth, I was on the fence about these years ago and I'm still on the fence now. I didn't take them then, but I do now. I can't really say for certain they work or don't work. But I do use them. So I'll leave it at that. I used Allmax Aminocore for 2 jugs and then something happened after I bought a third one and when I mixed up a jug of aminos, it tasted like garlic and smelled like egg farts. So currently I'm using MAN sports BCAAs that taste like sour patch kids. I had the ones that tasted like nerds and didn't like it. Went back to the sour patch flavor, sour batch I should say. BCAAs seemed to have stood the test of time. I'll give them that. Used you'd see OPTIMUM NUTRITION 2222 AMINO ACIDS which had all the different and necessary amino acids the body needed. Problem was that the pills you had to swallow looked like an iPhone 6plus. And here's another problem I had with them. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. So when you ingest protein sources and after they digest, they become amino acids. So basically these 6plus amino acid pills would only equate up to 2.2 grams of protein. No thanks. #3 creatine- Creatine is another one I personally am on the fence about. I tried it back in the day and one thing I could never get over was the dull kidney ache. Maybe I didn't drink enough water? Maybe that's just the way it is, but I didn't like that. Also I didn't use it long enough for me to get results. The kidney thing wouldn't let me get that far. But that's not to say it's not a great product. I have and had friends who love/loved the stuff. And why not? It's one of the mostly highly tested supplements ever. All the universities tests this stuff. There are lab reports going back 30 years about it. There are 2 different types out there. Creatine monohydrate and HCl. Mono is the one that has been extensively tested. HCl is supposed to not cause bloat or stomach issues. Please feel free to try it and tell me your results. #4 Omega 3/fish oil and glucosamine/chondrointin- I use omegas to help with heart health and it's even supposed to help with joint care as well. Which is something I'm totally after because I was genetically blessed with terrible joints. Which is also where the glucosamine and chondrointin fall into place. I'm on my feet all day and night at work for 12 hour shifts. Work has given us lately some of THE worst shoes ever. So now a days when I wake up I'm hobbling to the bathroom or 6to the kitchen. But since I started taking these I'm a little bit looser and it's not so much effort to walk anymore. It's really sad to say that about myself at the age of 33, but here I am. Once I'm "warmed up" I'm fine and off I go. #6 vitamin and mineral supplement- I highly suggest a multivitamin. And the more money you spend the better. Don't get the plain Jane "one a day" because really, you still need to take 2 a day. You piss out a lot of the excess. And the Cheaper vitamins make your urine smell SO BAD. The one that I use actually comes from fruits and vegetables and I believe it's even vegan safe. Which technically it's not because the capsule itself is not truly vegan. However if you pull it apart and mix it in with your smoothie, boom, vegan. My only complaint about mine is that it's 4 pills a day. I only take 2 because I'm not falling for their market scam. What's great about them is that the bottle doesn't smell horrid when you open it up and the pee not smelling thing. That's all I have for right now. If you stick with the basics, you won't have to worry about going broke buying everything on the shelf. If you're being budget minded, there are the old tried and true products that don't cost much and doesn't have any flavor with it. The "high tech" products are obviously more expensive, and some with good reason. Again, if you're being budget minded buy what you feel like you need to start off with. And then as you can afford add more into the mix. Also on Amazon search "bulk supplements" and you can get things pretty cheap.
