Do I need to take supplements?

You’ve finally taken the first steps to regularly exercising. You’ve become a member at the local gym and even bought your new gym gear! The next thing new gym enthusiasts often look into is what supplements they should take and how often they should work out to get to their goals in the quickest time possible.

There are some supplements that have been studied for many years and do have many health benefits. Creatine monohydrate being a great example. Regardless of how well studied a supplement is - or what the research shows about doing weight training and cardio exercises several times in the week when trying to build muscle and burn fat - nothing beats you getting good quality sleep and resting adequately between workouts.

Your body does need a challenging stimulus to illicit change, but that should never come at the expense of proper rest and recovery. Adaptation occurs after your body has recovered from the compounding effects of exercise (and daily life) so it becomes vitally important to have a consistent night routine that allows you to get the rest that your body needs. Training hard but knowing your limitations so that you’re not sore leading up to your next training session, and regularly aiming to get between 7-8 hours of uninterupted sleep will give you more value than any health supplements would.