They’re hundreds of different supps that people love and support and will tell you you’re retarded for not taking. I want to keep the list as simple as possible and only include things with copious amounts of scientific support. At the bottom I’ll cover things that I think are generally over rated but may have some merit for specific individuals.

Zinc Dose:30mg/day Type: Picolinate, aspartate or monomethionine are all highly bioavailable. This mineral is incredibly important for physical and mental health. It plays a role in over 300 different enzymes and even a mild deficiency can be greatly debilitating. Athletes are particularly susceptible to deficiencies in zinc and magnesium. I can’t even list all the things zinc is crucial is for without making this post solely about zinc.

Testicular function, cognitive function, liver function, immune system integrity, etc…

The list sort of just goes on and on about how much it impacts. When beginning zinc supplements you should be weary of possible side effects from excessive copper. Zinc and copper are antagonistic in the body and loading one will lower the other. In society today copper excess is much more likely to occur than zinc excess.

Magnesium Dose: 400mg/day Type: Chelated Magnesium, malate, taurate, gluconate, and many more acceptable versions. The only one to really avoid is Magnesium Oxide as it’s bioavailability is just terrible. I’d also avoid citrate and sulfate tbh.

This falls in to pretty much the same slot as zinc. It’s also a part of over 300 different enzymes and deficiencies affect the whole body greatly. About half the US population isn’t consuming the RDA which over time leads to chronic mild deficiencies and suboptimal health.

It helps with oxidative stress from toxic heavy metals, learning and memory, depression, sleep Quality, insulin sensitivity, etc… You can really play around with the dose and go higher than 400mg, some studies use up to 10mg/kg BW. If you take too much at once the osmotic effect of mag will cause some unpleasant GI distress. I suggest taking 100mg doses sporadically throughout the day if you want to avoid this.

Creatine Type: Creatine Monohydrate. It’s incredibly cheap and extensively studied. Dose: 5g/day I don’t even need to make an argument for this one. If you’re not using it and you’re weight training then you’re missing out. It essentially functions by increasing creatine stores intramuscularly and this does a few things.

It increases the duration for maximal power output as creatine phosphate rapidly donates its phosphate group to ADP to produce more ATP and keep you hammering away. The effect is short lived and won’t really benefit people doing extended types of training (i.e. longer than 30seconds).

It also has a volumizing effect on the cell by pulling in water and this is beneficial for two reasons. A bigger cell has a higher capacity for anabolism and you’re also literally inflated. Once you’re loaded up on creatine you’ll have gained a few lbs of water weight. It will be almost solely intramuscular making you look bigger and more defined, not bloated like some are lead to believe.

The overall impact is that it helps you train slightly harder and heavier producing more significant gains long term. There’s an acute effect on strength that is significant but will level off once you’re fully saturated. It takes roughly 4 weeks to saturate with creatine and if you stop using it then it will take about 4 weeks to return to base line status. You can do a loading period if you want the effects acutely. For loading dose 5g 4 times a day for about a week and you should come fairly close to saturated. You can also take it with a high carb meal as insulin improves uptake. Overall its not an issue and you don’t need to overcomplicate things with creatine. Just aim to get about 5g/day and enjoy the benefits.

Some people are ‘non-responders’ to creatine, meaning they notice no benefits with creatine supplementation. It’s a small percentage of people who have naturally high CP stores. Supplementation can’t augment those already high levels in a statistically significant manner.

Taurine Dose: 1-2g x2-3/day This is a sulfonic amino acid that has a myriad of benefits and I personally like having as a staple. It’s really fairly cheap as well.

Reduces oxidative damage in skeletal muscle, increases muscle force production, positive effects on liver lipids, immune function and is one of the primary antioxidants protecting testicular function and can help maintain healthy testicular function into old age.

Trimethylglycine Dose: 2.5+g/day It’s also known as betaine anhydrous and you should avoid confusing it with betaine HCl. This compound is particularly new to the supplement industry but has been around for some time. Many studies have been done in the last 4 years in regards to it’s effects on body comp and exercise performance.

It positively influences the endocrine response to training, can improve exercise performance, can improve body composition, potential hepatoprotectant and has been used in animal feed to produce more muscular and less fatty animals..

TMG has a saturating effect so you should take it every day. 2.5g/day is the typical studied dose in regards to exercise and body comp but you can go higher(wouldn’t go over 10g/day) although it will be more expensive. TMG isn’t costly when dosed normally. You should watch out for possible GI distress and you can split the dose up if you want to avoid it. The volumizing effect with TMG should be similarly benefical as the one from creatine.

The above supplements are the only ones I think pretty much everyone should take. I’m not saying others won’t beneficial for certain people but they won’t apply to everyone. Other popular supps you might want to look into and see if you personally might benefit:

Iodine: a lot of people very deficient, like 2 billion globally. If you’re not deficient then this will fuck with your thyroid and be more problematic then beneficial. Selenium is beneficial with thyroid disorders. If you’re someone who consumes a lot of brominated foods then iodine will be a life saver. You can detox the bromides with high dose iodine supplementation although the sides are incredibly unpleasant. There’s a few articles online about this that will be more informative. A guy named Dr. Brownstein talks about this a lot and has a few books on it.

Vitamin D: most people are going to be on the lower end of the spectrum because of a lack of sunlight. That being said there is conflicting data on the benefits although it’s definitely mostly positive. Vitamin D isn’t as straightforward as people make it seem. It’s a functional hormone with its own receptor and I’d rather just wait for some conclusive supporting studies for healthy people who live an active lifestyle. If you do want to use it make sure to take it around fatty meals for optimal intake. Doses vary from 2,000-10,000 iu/day.

Multivitamins: these are over rated. A few major studies have found almost negligible positive effects and they can be pricey if you get a high quality one. Having deficiencies will cause real problems definitely but trying to fix it with a multi is like trying to bail water out of a sinking ship, you’re not fixing the real problem. A better diet is a great start but the best thing to do would be to get an RBC mineral test done and see where the tissue levels of your minerals are actually at. Excess of certain things can actually be as bad as deficiencies and is often over looked. For example beta-carotene supplementation increased the rates of lung cancer in smokers.

Fish Oil: most supportive studies are in the sedentary, old or obese. I don’t really think supplementation is warranted for athletes. It increased the oxidative stress in Judo athletes at a dose of 1g/day. It might be easier to just vary up your diet so you’re not ODing on omega 6’s like the typical westerner. That being said DHA has a number of positive studies with its effects on cognition and a daily low dose might help long term.

If I didn’t mention something you’re curious about just post about it and I’ll let ya know what I think. I’m not saying my word is law here and that you have to follow these guidelines because for some people a multi really will help and for some people Vitamin D is amazing. Those people are statistical outliers though and the average person will do best following the advice above.