The more deeply involved you become in the strength training business, the more you realize that our favorite activity is arguing. Practically every aspect of our avocation is a subject of heated debate: gym rats, writers, coaches and self-appointed gurus alike all love to argue about training volume, training to failure, low carb or low fat, machines or free-weights, isolation or compound movements, bulk or cut, Jessica Alba or Jessica Biel... you name it, we fight about it.

Some issues will never be resolved.

The area of performance-enhancing supplements is no exception. At one one end of the spectrum you have those who are easily seduced by the claims of any and every product on the supplement store shelves. These guys eagerly read the seven-page "ad-articles" that plaster the pages of the most popular muscle magazines, devoutly believe every word, and loudly champion their chosen supplements to the world, regardless of the gains (or lack thereof) the supps have helped them make.

Shelves chock-full of seduction. But will they really help you maximize your potential?

Then on the other end of the spectrum are the folks who either consider supplements to be an evil sub-product of anabolic steroids, to be avoided at all costs, or else they believe that every single supplement on the shelves is crap.

So which is it? Are supplements necessary to reach a high level of physical development? Or are they crap? Like most things in life, the truth lies somewhere down the middle. A great number of supplements are actually scams, and there's usually a direct correlation between how big and loud the ad in the muscle rag is, and how crappy the product is!

People, can't we get along?

However, quite a few supplements really do work, and really will contribute to an improvement in your gains from training. The problem is telling the good stuff from the crap. Especially for a newbie, it can be confusing trying to hack through the jungle of junk to find the few products that will help you attain your goals.

This article will help you avoid wasting a lot of your hard-earned dollars on products that won't do anything for you, while giving you a few basic supplement strategies to help you get the most bang for your buck. It isn't a supplement guide or an encyclopedia of everything that's out there, but rather an explanation of things that will maximize your training gains.

"Blue Chip" Supplements

In the world of finance, some stocks are considered "blue chips," rock solid, safe and secure investments. They might not be as sexy as the high-risk securities, in that the chances of striking it rich are low, but you'll get a sure rate of return, and won't have to worry about losing your shirt.

The same is true for supplements: there are plenty of sexy, seductive, "high-risk" supps out there, with new ones popping up all the time, but many of them fail to meet expectations, and half of them won't be around this time next year. Then you have your blue-chips, the ones that will always deliver what they promise. Call me old-fashioned, but when I spend my money, I like to make sure that I get something in return; in this case, more muscle growth, more strength, and less fat.

Here are my picks for the best investments in the supplement market. Later in the article we'll talk about the best strategies for combining these supplements to yield the optimum rate of return in terms of muscular strength and growth.

Area 1 — Optimizing your workouts: It's a fairly obvious fact that high quality training leads to greater progress. The better your workouts are, the more growth they'll stimulate. So the first area worth our investment is in supplements that increase our performance in the gym.

In this class of supplements, we have the products that can increase physiological performance by allowing our body to do more work (creatine, beta-alanine, BCAAs, pre- and during-workout nutrition) and those that help get our body in the zone (stimulants and nootropic agents). These products don't contribute directly to a lot of muscle growth, but because of their impact on the quality of your workouts, these are the supplements that should be your primary concern.

Area 2 — Optimizing your recovery: Having great workouts is only the first part of the growth equation. The second and equally important part is how fast and how well you can recover from your workouts. The more physical work you can perform without exceeding your capacity to recover, the more you'll grow and progress. It follows that by increasing your capacity to recover, you'll increase your rate of progress.

This second area focuses on products that will assist recovery of muscles (post-workout nutrition, BCAAs), tendons (fish oil), energy stores (post-workout nutrition, glutamine and creatine), nervous system (nootropic agents) and hormonal/adrenal system (glycine, phosphatidyl serine). In some ways this second area is even more important than the first. After all, what's the point of having the workout of your life if you can't recover from it?

Area 3 — Concentrated nutrition: You are what you eat, nowhere is this more true than in bodybuilding and strength training. Without the proper amount of nutrients, your body won't grow optimally, if at all.

Two nutrients are absolutely essential for optimal function, performance, and health: essential amino acids and essential fatty acids (note that there are no essential carbohydrates). If you want to function properly and keep growing, you need to eat enough protein and fat. The problem is that it's often hard to get the optimal amount of those nutrients from our diet, especially for those of us with busy schedules.

For optimal muscle building you must consume protein frequently, at least 4 times a day and preferably 6 times or more. Not many people have time to prepare 6 protein-rich meals per day. This is where concentrated nutrients like protein powders and fish oils can come in handy. This third area of supplementation isn't as necessary as the first two, if you're able to prepare 6 high quality meals per day, meals that give you enough protein (1.25 — 1.5g per pound per day) and omega-3 oils (10-20g per day) than you won't need to use this area of supplementation. But those of us who can't be in the kitchen 24/7 might want to resort to this area, at least for convenience.

Area 4 — Physiological optimization: This category includes all the products that might address specific problems that may be impairing your progress, such as digestion problems (betaine HCL, digestive enzymes), insulin resistance, low testosterone levels (tribulus), high estrogen levels (resveratol, various aromatase inhibitors), chronic fatigue (BCAAs, tyrosine), liver problems (cleanse protocol), etc. This area is bit more touchy since it requires some knowledge to be able to pinpoint the exact problem.

Area 5 — Maximizing Fat loss: Losing fat is probably the most popular goal among gym enthusiasts, men and women. There are a number of ways a supplement can help you lose fat: it may increase the release of fat from the fat cells, stimulate the production of the active thyroid hormone T3 (which prevents fat storage and lipogenesis), it may increase your metabolic rate, or it may suppress your appetite.

I won't get into an in-depth analysis of all the fat-loss supplements out there, but the two that gave me and my clients the best results are HOT-ROX Extreme, and the good old ephedrine/caffeine/aspirin stack. I personally prefer HOT-ROX because it attacks fat loss from more angles than the ECA stack, not to mention that just mentioning the word "ephedrine" these days is enough to convince the average Joe that you're a dope-head.

The only downside to HOT-ROX Extreme (if you can call it a downside) is that it's almost too potent. A friend of mine, who is a great strength coach himself, actually had problems getting in more than 1500 calories a day because HRX was so effective at blunting his hunger!

HOT-ROX Extreme: almost too effective.

These are my top five area worth investing in. Yes, there are quite a few more products out there but a lot of them are either worthless, dangerous (several products being sold are chemically the same as anabolic steroids, with all their side effects, but are less potent, which is why they were not marketed as steroids), or both.

Thib's Supplement Strategies

Here are the protocols I use myself and with my most serious clients.

WORKOUT OPTIMIZATION

Strategy 1 — Pre-workout

• Power Drive: 1 — 2 servings (neural activation) or Spike (1 tablet)

• Taurine: 3-5g (neural activation)

• Vitamin C: 1000-1500 mg (increase fat mobilization, lowers cortisol)

• BCAAs: 10g

• Whey isolate: 10-15g

• Creatine: 5g*

* A lot of people think taking creatine prior to a workout isn't a good idea, but recent research has shown that it's actually one of the most effective times to take it.

I'm not a huge fan of stimulants and I don't like to be dependent on them. But if you have to take a stimulant to get through a particularly grueling workout, Spike is the way to go as it's much less stressful on the adrenal glands than most stimulants.

Physical and mental focus for the most grueling workouts, in a little yellow pill.

Strategy 2—During workout

• BCAAs: 10-20g spread throughout the workout

• Surge: (one serving if you're at 10% body fat or under, one half serving if you're between 10 and 15%)

• Whey isolate: 10-15g (instead of Surge if you're above 15% body fat)

Strategy 3 — Throughout the day

• Beta-7: (beta alanine) 3 capsules 3-4 times a day (to increase work capacity)

Strategy 4 — Post-workout recovery

• Surge: (same as with strategy 2)

• Whey isolate: 25-50g and glutamine 20g (instead of Surge if you're above 15%)

• Glycine 20g: (to lower cortisol)

• Vitamin C: 1000-1500mg (to lowers cortisol)

• Phosphatidyl serine 400-800mg (to lower cortisol)

• Power Drive: 1 serving (to help with CNS recovery)

• Creatine 5g

If you follow these first four strategies you'll get amazing results. I truly believe that proper peri-workout supplementation accounts for at least 50% of your gains. As Tim Patterson once said, ''If people really nail their peri-workout supplementation, they could almost screw up the rest of the day and still grow!'' This is very true. However, don't be the meathead who reads this and thinks, "Cool, I can go eat a dozen cheeseburgers because Thib said it was ok!" Wrong answer. Don't even think about it.

Even if your peri-workout nutrition is perfect, Thib still says "forgeddaboudit!"

All I'm saying is that the gains you make are directly related to the effort you make in the gym. This goes for your peri-workout supplement protocol as well.

Ideally, you'd use the whole package, because it really will make a huge difference in your rate of progress. Realistically, though, these four protocols can add up to a pretty penny. If you happen to be strapped for cash, here are some low-cost "poor man's" strategies.

Poor man's Strategy 1— Pre-workout

• Spike: (1 tablet)

• BCAAs: 10g

• Vitamin C: 1000-1500mg (increase fat mobilization, lowers cortisol)

• Whey isolate: 10-15g

• Creatine: 5g

Poor man's Strategy 2 — During workout

• BCAAs: 10-20g spread throughout the workout

Poor man's Strategy 3 — Throughout the day

• Beta-7 (beta alanine): 3 capsules 3-4 times a day (to increase work capacity)

Poor man's Strategy 4 — Post-workout recovery

• Surge: (1 serving)

• Power Drive: 1 serving (to help with CNS recovery)

• Vitamin C: 1000-1500mg (to lower cortisol)

• Creatine: 5g

CONCENTRATED NUTRITION

There are three moments during the day where I like to use concentrated nutrition.

a) Peri-workout period (pre, during, and post workout): At this time, Surge and other concentrated foods like protein powders are superior to solid food because of their high absorption rate.

b) Morning: The same can be said for the time when you wake up. You have spent 8-10 hours without ingesting food so you need to get some nutrients in your body as fast as possible. At this time I normally suggest a meal where half of your protein intake comes from solid food (eggs for example) and the other half from a fast absorbed protein (GROW! Whey protein for example). Don't take casein (Metabolic Drive) at this time since it isn't absorbed fast enough. A sample breakfast could look like this:

1 Scoop Grow! Whey
3 Egg whites
3 Whole eggs
1 medium orange

c) Before bed: I like to use a mix of casein/whey blend (low-carb Metabolic Drive), green veggies (celery, broccoli, lettuce) and good oil (macadamia nut oil, olive oil, fish oil) before bed. This type of meal will be absorbed slowly and should prevent any nightly muscle catabolism. A good strategy is:

Low-carb Metabolic Drive — 1 or 2 scoops
1 cup of mixed green veggies
1 tablespoon olive oil

Finally, no concentrated nutrition program would be complete without providing enough EPA and DHA fatty acids for optimal health, anti-inflammatory purposes, and improved insulin sensitivity. You could go the route of using up to 20-30 caps of regular fish oil or 4-6 caps of Flameout. Flameout is hyper concentrated so you don't need to take in as much to get the same results. It also contains the effective isomers of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which have been shown to help reduce fat accumulation and help with muscle mass increases.

SPECIALITY STRATEGIES

Depending on your goal there are some supplements that you might want to add to the program. Here are a few proven suggestions:

Increasing Strength:

If strength is your main objective, use creatine. 5 grams every morning and every evening. Plus, on the days you train, take in 5g prior and 5g after your session. Yes this is more than what most people recommend, but from experience, this dosing protocol favors cell hypersaturation and volumization. Cell volumization itself helps with strength because the increased intramuscular pressure gives you a better strength leverage.

Creatine is quite possibly the most-studied supplement, and more than 90% of those studies have found a significant effect on strength and power performance.

We talked about using Spike and Power Drive in the workout strategies section. For optimal results I like to use Spike pre-workout to give me a boost and Power Drive post-workout to help with nervous system recovery. Power Drive enhances blood flow to the brain and increase the production of several neurotransmitters, two key things when it comes to neural recovery.

Increasing Size:

If size is what you're after, I still recommend creatine because the cell volumization it provides has been shown to act as a stimulus for protein synthesis. In other words, stretching the muscle cells stimulates protein synthesis (muscle growth). But to make the most out of this volumizing effect I suggest adding glycerol/glycerine to the mix. One tablespoon taken three times a day will drastically increase cell volume. Why? Because glycerol attracts water.

When glycerol is stored in the muscle, it will bring water in with it. The water will make the muscle swell and will increase intramuscular pressure. As an added benefit, glycerol will give you a lot of vascularity (if you're already lean) and a fantastic pump, which is why bodybuilders use it before stepping on-stage.

Thib's pick for both strength and size gains.

Losing Fat:

If you're on a carbohydrate-restricted diet and are looking to lose fat, two of the best things you can take are HOT-ROX Extreme and glutamine. HRX isn't only a metabolic booster (it will increase the amount of calories you burn) but it increases the conversion of the relatively inactive T4 thyroid hormone into the active T3 thyroid hormone.

A quick recap might be in order: thyroid hormones, especially T3, play a very important role in regulating your metabolic rate. When your T3 levels are low, your metabolism decreases, which means that you're burning fewer calories. The conversion of T4 into T3 is drastically reduced when you're on a low carb diet and that's when the diet loses its effectiveness.

The best way to know if your metabolic rate is down is to evaluate your morning temperature every day. When it goes down 1 degree it means that your metabolism has slowed down by around 10%. Even if you don't take your morning temperature, you can feel when this happens. You'll feel much cooler than usual.

This is where HOT-ROX Extreme comes into play, by facilitating the conversion of T4 into T3, thus preventing metabolic slowdown. So not only will HRX help you burn more calories, it'll keep the diet effective for a longer period of time.

My other low-carb supplement is glutamine. I know that a lot of people wrinkle their noses when they hear the word "glutamine," and truth be told, when you're on a regular diet it isn't that effective. However, when you're on a low-carb diet it can be beneficial, because the body converts it into glucose and stores it in the muscles as glycogen. So you you can use glutamine instead of carbs to replenish the glycogen you burned during your workout.

Studies have shown that at equal doses, glutamine is almost as effective as carbs at restoring muscle glycogen. This means that you'll need to work up to taking at least 30g post-workout to have decent effects. Do this gradually, because some people have digestive tract problems when consuming high doses of glutamine.

Raising Testosterone:

If you're looking to optimize your hormones, here's the ugly truth: no "Testosterone booster" supplement will raise your Testosterone to "unnatural" levels. We're not talking here about M1T (methyl-1 Testosterone) and other pro-hormones that might still be available by way of some legal loopholes.

These are pro-steroids, and even if you can buy them legally, you should not take them lightly. They have all the side-effects of pharmaceutical anabolic steroids (including a shutdown of your natural testosterone production) and are only mildly as effective. In my opinion, they are not a viable option. But what about herbal Testosterone boosters like tribulus, maca, avena sativa, and others? They work, but they will only allow you to optimize your natural Testosterone production. In other words they'll allow you to be the best 'you' that you can be.

For that reason I see these products as especially effective in three special circumstances:

1) In older individuals with diminished testosterone levels. Testosterone levels tend to go down with age. A product like TRIBEX or Alpha Male will help older gym rats stay on top of things and continue growing like younger guys.

They both help older gym rats keep growing and stay on top of things.

2) During periods of intense stress. It's well established that when you're under a lot of stress, either psychological or physical, testosterone levels tend to go down while cortisol goes up. A very bad environment for growing muscle. During those periods, Alpha Male and a neural recovery agent like Power Drive will help you get back to a more normal and productive hormonal state. This is also true of athletes during periods of super intense training (training is, after all, a form of stress).

3) For individuals coming off of a steroid cycle. The key to maintaining the muscle gained during a cycle of anabolic steroids is quickly recovering your natural testosterone production as well as rebalancing the testosterone to cortisol ratio. While a natural herbal product might not be enough to fully recover after a cycle, it will certainly help when used along with a pharmaceutical post-cycle therapy.

I've personally been a huge fan of tribulus for years. I began using it way before I began writing for T-Nation. In fact I was using it even before Biotest existed. I started in 1995 with a product called "Tribestan," the first tribulus product, which came from Bulgaria.

I always loved tribulus, as it never let me down. No, I take that back: with some products I would get great results from one bottle and nothing from another. That turned out to be because they weren't always using the effective part of the plant, or did not harvest it at the right time of year. This isn't a problem with TRIBEX and Alpha Male, as both only use the purest form of the right portion of the plant.

Reducing Inflammation:

When we train hard, it's normal that at some point we might start to have muscle/tendon pains due to tissue inflammation. In fact inflammatory problems are not only limited to hard training individuals; it's a pretty widespread problem, evidenced by the increasing popularity of anti-inflammatory medication. A good supplement strategy can certainly help solve some minor aches and pains and might drastically reduce the symptoms of even relatively inflammatory conditions.

The foundation of this strategy is obviously Flameout. I recommend double-dosing to get the optimal benefit from the product, around 8-10 gel capsules per day.

A second product worth adding is the enzyme bromelain. While this product is great to facilitate digestion, it also has very real anti-inflammatory benefits. Doses of 1000 to 2000 mg per day in 2-3 daily doses is a good place to start. One caveat though: bromelain increase the potency of antibiotics, so if you're taking this type of medication you should think twice before adding bromelain to your regimen.

I know that some people recommend glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM for anti-inflammatory purposes. I've only found marginal benefits, at best, with these products. Obviously a lot of people have been claiming good results (placebo?), but I personally don't feel comfortable recommending these products.

Improving Digestion:

When it comes to repairing and building muscle, protein is obviously of prime importance. A lot of people think that the more protein you eat, the more muscle you build. This is not entirely true. The amount of muscular growth you can achieve depends on how much protein you can absorb. What good is it to eat 400g of protein per day if you only digest and absorb 150g?

This is why supplements aimed at improving protein digestion are so exciting: they allow you to maximize the benefits of the food and powders you're consuming. Do you feel bloated after a high protein meal? Then poor protein digestion just may be holding you back. By improving digestive function you can easily bump protein synthesis by 25%.

Good supplements to use for this purpose are betaine HCL at around 1000-1500mg with each protein meal, and bromelain (once again) at 500-750mg with each meal. While there are other good digestive enzymes (pepsin for example) these first two products should be enough to restore lagging digestive function.

What about all those 'advanced' supplements I read about in the magazines?

You'll notice that nowhere in this article did I mention the latest supplement crazes like NOBurst and the various other products that need 7 pages of glossy muscle rag ad-articles to be able to sell properly. Simply put, in my mind these "wonder supplements" are a lot like that great looking girl with the big breasts that you met in the bar. She looked good: great face, nice rack, tight body, etc. But once you get her home you find out that the face is the result of 3 coats of heavy duty makeup, the "nice rack" is a Britney Spears collection push-up bra and the nice body is the result of a pair of jeans three sizes too small!

"Wonder supplements" aren't always so wonderful.

All I'm saying is that these latest and greatest products are more often than not all show and no go. Take those NO boosters for example. The main ingredients are arginine and ornithine. Back in the early 90s these two products were sold together as a product called "GH fuel" It was supposed to boost growth hormone production.

It sold like hot cakes, but bodybuilders quickly found out that this product didn't do anything for their body. So arginine and ornithine disappeared for close to a decade only to reappear again, but this time as a pump-boosting supplement. Listen, it didn't do anything ten years ago, it won't do anything today even with that super cool packaging! Just say no to NO boosters.

Some people call me old school because I stick to proven stuff and prefer to design my own protocols rather than let a 'stack' dictate what I need to take. Does that make me old school? Maybe, but at least it gets results and it doesn't make me broke! And even if I did have more money than brains, I'd probably do it just the same, because it works.

Christian Thibaudeau is a strength coach, bodybuilder, Olympic lifter, and an old-school kind of guy who expects results when it comes to supplements. He transformed from a chubby dud to a super stud, and with proper training, good nutrition, and thoughtful supplement protocols you can too. Be sure to read his other Newbie series articles, then go transform yourself!