Blog Post: The truth about supplements
Written by SBG Performance & Nutrition
SUPPLEMENTS
Be honest with yourself, how much money did you spend on pills and powders to help you achieve your health and fitness goals in 2014? If it’s anything like I used to then I’m betting you’d rather not think about it.
I’ve tried it all. From fat burners to mass gainers, pre-workouts and post-workouts, even pre-bed and post-bed which I am particularly ashamed of (a supplement company essentially sold me dinner and breakfast).
With the value of the sports supplements industry well into the billions of dollars worldwide, it is no wonder that companies will go out of their way to try and prise your hard earned cash out of your Arginine pumped hands.
But how much of it is based on good, scientific research? Companies can take studies (often paid for by themselves) and manipulate the data that comes out from them.
For example, if a study was conducted where one group of people are given supplement ‘x’ and another group are given a placebo and both groups were aiming to increase 1RM bench press, if the placebo group increased theirs by 0.1kg and the supplemented group increased by 0.2kg the company can say that taking their supplement improves bench press 100% than if you didn’t take it.
Sneaky, huh?
Often the results that people think they are getting from their supplement stack is actually masking the hard work they put in in the gym and consistency they have with their nutrition, week in, week out.
And if a supplement is giving fast, measurable, obvious results then chances are it’s illegal.
Often the benefits that supplements claim to make are within the 1% difference and are only really going to benefit top level athletes. Are you a top level athlete with an unlimited budget? If so then great, fill your boots. If you can afford to pay for the supplements and you think you may get that extra 1% then why not cover all the bases?
However, for 99.9% of the population 99 times out of a 100 there is always improvements that can be made in the diet, training, lifestyle and recovery before we even think about shooting for supplements.
That’s not to say I don’t think supplements have their place and there are a select few that I go for myself, which I feel help benefit me and are backed up by a hefty amount of research that suggests the same. I will be running through a list of my top 5 supplements (hint: Raspberry Ketones don’t make the cut) next week so if I haven’t bored you to death yet then you should have a look at next weeks post and give me your thoughts and your go to supplements.
