Supplements for powerlifters.

The supplement industry sells confidence. A bottle promises that if you just take this one thing, your bench will jump 20 pounds. The reality is less dramatic and more useful: a small handful of supplements have decades of evidence, a medium pile has situational value, and the rest is colored sugar with a flavor-of-the-year label.

Here's the short version of what we actually recommend to powerlifters who train seriously.

The proven stack

These four are the closest thing to settled science. If you take nothing else, take these.

Creatine monohydrate

The most studied performance supplement on the planet. Five grams a day, every day. Adds roughly 5–10% to maximal strength over time, increases work capacity, and has no meaningful downside in healthy adults. Don't bother with the "loading phase" — saturation happens within a few weeks at 5g either way. Don't pay for fancy versions. Monohydrate is the form that has the evidence.

Whey or casein protein

Not magic — just convenient. The performance benefit is hitting a daily protein target (roughly 1.6–2.2 g/kg of bodyweight), and a protein shake is the fastest way to bridge the gap on days when real food won't. If you're already eating enough, you don't need it. If you're short, it's the cheapest fix in the cabinet.

Caffeine

Reliable, dose-dependent, and short-lived. Three to six milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight, taken 30–45 minutes before a heavy session, is the well-supported range. Cycle off periodically — tolerance creeps fast. Skip the proprietary pre-workouts that hide the dose; just buy caffeine pills and know what you're taking.

Vitamin D (if you're low)

Not a performance enhancer in the gym sense — but deficiency is extremely common, and it's associated with worse strength, recovery, and immune function. Get tested. If you're low, supplement until you're not.

The honest supplement list is short. The honest training list is also short. That's a feature, not a problem.

Situational tools

These have evidence in specific contexts. Useful when the context applies. Useless when it doesn't.

• Beta-alanine — small benefit for high-rep work in the 60–240 second range. Most powerlifting sets are too short to benefit. Causes harmless tingling.
• Citrulline malate — modest improvement in repeat-set performance and reduced soreness. Worth trying on volume days; less useful on heavy singles and doubles.
• Sodium — yes, table salt. If you cramp, sweat heavily, or eat low-carb, adding electrolytes around training is genuinely useful.
• Fish oil — recovery and joint support, especially if your diet is short on fatty fish. Effect is modest but real.
• Magnesium — helpful if your sleep is poor and your diet is low in greens, nuts, or whole grains. Glycinate or citrate, not oxide.

Skip these

Heavily marketed, weakly supported, or actively wasteful for the powerlifting use case.

• BCAAs — if you're hitting your protein target, you're already getting them. The standalone supplement is a solution to a problem most lifters don't have.
• Glutamine — marketed for recovery, fails to deliver in trained populations.
• Test boosters — herbal blends do not move testosterone in any meaningful way. If they did, they'd be regulated.
• Proprietary blends — anything that hides individual ingredient doses behind a brand name is hiding it for a reason.

The hierarchy

Supplements sit at the top of a pyramid that has training, sleep, food, and consistency as its base. A great supplement stack on top of three hours of sleep and a meal-skipping habit will move nothing. Average supplements on top of solid fundamentals will move plenty.

Get the base right first. Then take creatine, eat enough protein, drink coffee before sessions, and stop scrolling through promo codes for the rest.