Supplements

#Creatine monohydrate — 5 g/day

The only supplement with a large, consistently replicated effect on training performance and lean mass.

Creatine is phosphorylated to phosphocreatine, which holds a high-energy phosphate bond that regenerates ATP from ADP faster than glycolysis can. It is a buffer, not a fuel — it flattens the ATP trough during the first ten seconds of maximal effort, which raises repeatable high-intensity work and, through that, training volume.

No loading needed. Loading 20 g/day for 5–7 days only saturates faster; 5 g/day gets there in about three weeks. Monohydrate, not the expensive forms — none of them outperform it and several have worse evidence.

Timing is irrelevant. Consistency is not.

#Caffeine — 3–6 mg/kg, 45–60 min pre-session

A real acute increase in force output and reps to failure, via competitive adenosine receptor antagonism — caffeine occupies A1 and A2A receptors without activating them, removing an inhibitory brake rather than adding stimulation.

Tolerance develops through receptor upregulation, which means a habitual daily user's pre-workout dose is largely restoring baseline. Cycle it, or it stops being a tool.

#Protein powder — as needed

Not magic. It is convenient food. That is the entire claim, and it is sufficient.

#Vitamin D3 — only if deficient

Corrects a deficiency that is genuinely common at temperate latitudes and does impair force production. Titrate to a measured 25(OH)D of 30–50 ng/mL. Not ergogenic if you are already replete, so do not take it blind.

#Deliberately not on this list

Beta-alanine — real but small, and only for efforts of 60–240 seconds. Almost nothing in this program is in that window.

HMB — effect sizes that failed to replicate outside one research group.

BCAAs — an incomplete amino acid profile. They compete for the same transporters without supplying what protein synthesis actually needs. Whole protein makes them redundant.

Test boosters — nothing.

Pre-workout blends — caffeine plus expensive fillers plus proprietary-blend labelling that hides the doses. Buy caffeine.

Anything sold as anabolic without a prescription — either it does nothing or it is not what the label says.

#The honest summary

Creatine and caffeine. Protein powder if it helps you hit the target. Vitamin D if a blood test says so.

Roughly £8 a month. Everything else in the shop is competing for money that would do more as food.