Whey Protein, creatine, and pre-workouts are among the most effective. Before diving into supplements, focus on your diet and get that straight. 

 

Before we go into the details of which supplements to take for powerlifting, let me ask you a couple of questions:

 

 

These questions will make all the difference between your success and failure. Research shows that people who write down and reflect on their goals are more likely to achieve them. When was the last time you sat down to proactively form your future, better self? Probably that was a long time ago if it ever happened. Many people go about their lives like this:

 

 

This is a pretty good way to get nothing accomplished. If you mainly focus on what you want you will be chasing your own tail. What you want changes hundreds of times a day depend ing on who you are with, what you do and where you are. If that becomes the everchanging guiding principle of your life you will go in every direction and arrive nowhere. Your resources will be spread thin and time scattered between too many activities. Something interesting happens, when you flip the running order of these questions on their head:

 

 

This way your innermost desires and will take center stage. Your thought and actions will become more connected and success will follow. If you want to know how this works on a psychological basis read Daniel Kahneman's thinking fast and slow. Simon Sinek's TED talk on the golden circle will change your life.

 

It all starts with forming better habits and rituals. The best way I found to do this is to keep a self-journal. You can check it out via this link.

 

 

To know which supplements are best for you or whether you should take them at all it is important to determine what your goals are. There usually three main goal sets in dieting for powerlifting:

 

 

For all of these scenarios will use supplements in different ways to achieve your goal. If you want to maintain your weight you will need a lot less artificially products to maintain your body. On a cut for fat loss, you might want to use fat burners, vitamins, and shakes to get to your goal quicker while still maintaining body function at a high level. When you want to gain muscle you might use supplements to make up for the extra calories you have to get into your body but do not want to chew.

 

 

Whey Protein is a form of Protein that is said to enter the body more quickly than regular protein to be turned muscle. Whey protein shakes are a great way during the day to get some extra calories in when you are on a bulk or maintain the bare essences on a cut in an easy fashion.

 

 

Casein is said to be a protein which is digested more slowly than whey protein and its effects are released over a longer period of time. This makes it the go-to option for many bodybuilders and powerlifters to be consumed before they go to bed. 

 

 

There are many multivitamins and special vitamins out there which you can use. The most commonly known are the ones you will find at your local supermarket. The sky is the limit based on your needs. As many people have gaping holes in their diet based on lack of greens, it makes sense to get some extra Vitamins in. 

 

 

BCAAs are the building blocks for protein. They are usually being sold as an extra to whey shakes. They probably have their uses although I personally think you will get more bang for your buck. 

 

Creatine is a substance you can kind of think of like whey protein on steroids. It is one of the few legal powders that actually work to boost your growth. Creatine is usually taken in cycles and discouraged to be taken for a sustained time. You can scatter two or three cycles through a year. I usually gain 1 to 5 kg based on my form entering the cycle. 

 

Pre-workouts are usually a mix of creatine caffeine and taurine. This stuff basically gets you super hyped up for your workout. Just be careful as you might not want to constantly overshoot on caffeine. 

 

Fat burners usually work with getting surplus water out of your body to lose weight. They work, but not for a long time. Once you are getting off them you will regain the weight you lost. 

 

Many people obsess too much about supplements. If there is something to obsess about it is your alcohol intake and diet. Clean that up and you probably won’t even need the supplements.