Current Advice for Supplements That Aren't a Waste of Money

About 6 years ago an article was published on SS about supplements which weren't a waste of money (or at least not a complete waste).
Curious if you have thoughts on these today?

I've come across more recent discussion that BCAAs are not effective and EAA supplements are the new thing for inter-meal MPS for example. In this context, I'm referring to an EAA powder, not the EAA's as part of whey protein powder, or meat for example.


Original Article: Stop Wasting Money - Nutrition Supplements that Actually Work


PS. Might be good fodder for a podcast episode. We kids love to obsess about supplements, no. :)

I think if you are taking a good protein powder and eating a total of 200 grams of protein per day you don't really need EAAs or BCAAs. I think we'll move that up on the roster for an episode, valid suggestion. Kids love to obsess about supplements because they want to minimize the length of time it takes to get results, how hard it's supposed to be, and how many resources they must allocate to it. Much easier to take drugs and supplements and "do arms and chest" every other day. How is your training coming along Erich? Been a few minutes.

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Originally Posted by Robert Santana

How is your training coming along Erich? Been a few minutes.

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Going great! After the increasingly growing severe shoulder/upper arm pain episode and my subsequent layoff of 4 weeks from mid May - mid June, I reset by 30% and thanks to you fixing my DL form, I just sailed back past my prior sticking point of about 340lbs, so much so that I forgot to stop dead lifting every other workout. After initial 10lb jumps, Did +5lbs, all the way to 395x5. I had to claw up to 410x5, (with reduced DL frequency and one day on/two days off in general) where I concluded my NLP. I was determined to hit 405x5 by year's end.


At this point I was starting to miss reps on bench (240x5x3), and Press was grinding (though I didn't need to go back to using backoff sets). This was in late December ('21).
I'm now a few weeks into an HLM program. Boy is it weird to not be doing 3 sets of 5 all the time. :)

Thanks for your coaching and support. Just amazing how relatively easy DL was after fixing form and healing up a bit! It got heavy, but not "hard".

PS. I probably should have just given it two weeks off, pain was still 30-40% present when I reset/resumed NLP, but was 95% better after two weeks back to NLP.
PPS. I remain a diet cleanup failure. GOBAD still not being foreign to my diet.

Yep. When you don't fuck up the deadlift it's the simplest of the lifts. Glad you broke past 405, much needed and long overdo. Enjoy intermediate training, it starts off as an extension of LP before the hard nonlinear shit that is the life of a post-novice begins. Still GOBAD eh? Maybe 3/4 GOBAD? I'm still negotiating with you on this as fun as that may be. Glad the shoulders aren't all fucked up anymore that was such a hindrance. What is up with the squat?

Hi Rob, in line with what you said about EAA's, is there some metric in terms of protein sources that negate the need to supplement creatine also? Or is it worth supplementing regardless?

Squat was at 350x5x3 when I decided to wrap up NLP. Squat definitely had more NLP left, I suspect I could have gone to 370+ without issue. it was still just heavy, but not hitting a wall at all. After obsessive reading, it seemed like it would be easier to just move everything to HLM. Squat three times a week does seem to be challenging for my shoulders, even with HLM. I don't really have room to store a SSB, so I might just need to do body weight squats on "Light day". Still trying to figure that out.

I'm still mega fat by the standards of most folks around here. But The jacket I bought a few years ago which barely I could zip up over my belly, and for which the sleeves were half way down my hands now fits well, and the sleeves now are at my wrists, not below. I assume due to my shoulders filling out. Baby steps on physique... but very happy with strength progress.

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=Robert Santana;1837433 What is up with the squat?

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As an aside. I'm still a fat dude. But I no longer struggle to do stuff like pick up tidbits from the floor. Trim toe nails, tie my shoes or setup for deadlift. For anyone reading along. Even if you remain a fat fuck, this stuff makes your life better, a lot.

Well that sounds like you are doing better and are less fat and less fucked up. Progress. Squatting twice per week is pretty common in intermediates so you may want to consider that in the long haul. Good work Erich