You’ve got your goals and are committed to crushing them. Let’s cover some basic workout and supplementation know-how to make sure you’re set up for success.

How Do Workout Supplements Work?

Workout supplements fill in gaps in your nutritional intake. Your body may be lacking macros, like protein, or micros like BCAAs. Taking supplements can give your body more of what it needs to perform at a higher level.

What Are The Best Workout Supplements?

Supplements aren’t a one-scoop-serves-all secret to maximum gains. Your needs will be based on your health and your goals, like cutting fat or recovering more effectively. Regardless of your goals, seek out high-quality products that have been tested and approved by third parties for quality and purity.

How To Know If Your Workouts Are Working

Inseparable from workout supplements are your workouts in general. Knowing whether your workouts are working out comes down to essentially one thing: measuring your gains. 

Simple metrics to track bodybuilding improvements:

• Measure strength improvements: Set performance baselines to measure workout progress. You can set baselines from past performance to measure progress to date or set them today to measure your gains going forward.
• Monitor endurance and recovery: Don’t just track how much you put up, but also how hard you get put down. Monitoring energy and strength levels after intense workouts and how long it takes you to get back to 100% may illuminate areas for improvement and supplementation.
• Track body weight metrics: Strength is just one performance metric. If you’re looking to get shredded, measure your body fat percentage. If you’re looking to bulk up, bust out the tape measure and track gains in your targeted muscle groups. 
  Following these tips will help keep your progress on track and let you know if you need to add or change up your workout supplements or routine in general.

You’re already an animal in the gym. You've outlined your objectives with clarity and attack each workout with fierce determination. But there’s still that plateau you haven’t been able to break through or that goal you’ve been so close to for so long. If this sounds like you, chances are what you need isn’t to workout harder, it’s to workout smarter. 

Refining your workout regime isn’t always about learning new trendy hacks for how to get stronger or how to build power. Weight lifting exercises and technique have long been perfected. What remains uncharted territory for many people—even people who’ve invested ample time with the iron—is tapping into the resources already at your disposal. Resources like diet, recovery, and supplementation geared toward maximizing gains. 

Ensuring your workout and supplementation strategy is not just effective but also smart and sustainable takes some figuring out. Let’s navigate the essentials of workout supplements, the fundamentals of how to get stronger, and realistic expectations for how long to see workout results. This guide is your road map to achieving excellence in physical fitness.

Do I Really Need Workout Supplements?

Some people don’t, it’s true. Granted, these are people who have the time and financial resources, as well as the nutritional wherewithal, to calculate their body’s exact needs and meet them with a balanced diet of fresh, always perfectly prepared meals. The rest of us have a significant advantage to gain by harnessing high-quality workout supplements to fill in nutritional gaps and flush our body with more of what it needs to become even bigger, even stronger, even more of a beast.

At this level in the game, supplements become key to better performance, both in the short and long term. Think of your body as a sophisticated machine, one that requires the right kind of fuel to operate at peak efficiency. Workout supplements serve as this fuel, targeting nutritional gaps that might be hindering your performance. They're not mere add-ons but essential elements that provide your muscles with necessary nutrients—proteins for repair, BCAAs for recovery—ensuring you can perform at your best, consistently

How Do Workout Supplements Work?

Workout supplements are much more than a mere boost; they're the foundation of any serious training regimen. Animal supplements specifically are engineered to fill the nutritional voids that even relatively dialed-in diets can leave. Whether it's the sustained surge of energy from a powerful pre-workout, the foundational body-fortification of industry-leading multivitamin complexes, or the recovery acceleration from BCAAs, these power-packed supplements are targeted to supercharge your performance.

But it's not just about shoring up deficiencies. Effort does play a massive part in your ability to realize gains. Supplements designed specifically to optimize each workout session are also going to give you the fuel you need to ignite your energy levels, push yourself to new limits, and finally break through your current personal record barriers.

Common advantages realized with high-quality supplements:

• Significant boosts in sustained energy
• Heightened muscular endurance and output
• Faster, fuller recovery periods
• Amplified focus, clarity, and general cognitive power
• Increases in muscle mass and strength
• Feeling healthier and more hydrated
• Coursing nitric oxide for an incredible pump
  

Generally speaking, you should begin to see results in about 4 to 8 weeks. Why the wide window? Because every body is different, and so is every supplement. You may start to notice the energy boost of an Animal pre-workout, like Primal or Fury, almost immediately; whereas the the benefits of our incredible Animal Pak multivitamins may take weeks to correct nutritional imbalances. 

Another consideration is your goals. You want to ensure you’re taking the optimum supplement for the results you want to see. Sub-par supps will definitely slow down your progress.

Navigating the world of supplements can be overwhelming, with countless options each promising superior results. The truth is, the effectiveness of a supplement is deeply personal, depending on your body's unique needs and your fitness objectives. Whether your aim is to lean out, bulk up, or enhance recovery, the priority should be on selecting supplements of the highest quality, verified for purity and effectiveness through third-party testing.

Here are some general guidelines to get you going further:

• If your energy is feeling under-tapped or outright drained throughout your gym session, hone your focus on Animal pre-workouts like Animal Fury, Animal Primal, and Animal Pump. Each is a little different but incredibly powerful.
• If you’re wondering how to get bigger and stronger, taking Animal creatine workout supplements should be your first move. Creatine is the most researched workout supplement in history, and has been proven time and again to improve performance, muscle mass, recovery, and even cognitive function.
• If you know your regular diet is lacking—or even if you suspect it is—explore our lineup of micronutrients, like Animal Pak multivitamins or Juiced Aminos. These will provide you with key micronutrients and amino acids that aid in immune empowerment, ATP production, muscle endurance, and even bloodflow. 

Hormones aren’t to be taken without consideration. Different people have different hormone needs. Obviously, men and women require different hormones and at different levels to maximize performance; but every individual regardless of gender will have different hormone requirements for building muscle. Know yours, then find a supplement to match.

Integral to any fitness journey is the evaluation of progress. Understanding whether your efforts are yielding the desired results is crucial for adjusting your strategy and keeping your motivation high.

Measuring Strength and Performance

Begin by establishing baseline metrics for your performance. This could involve recording the maximum weight you can lift or the maximum reps at a specific weight. Tracking these over time allows you to chart your progress, identify trends, and set increasingly ambitious goals. It’s a methodical approach to continuous improvement.

Endurance and Recovery

Strength is not just about lifting capacity but also about how efficiently you recover from intensive workouts. Pay attention to how your body feels post-exercise, the time it takes to recover fully, and how your energy levels fluctuate. These indicators can help you pinpoint areas needing attention, perhaps signaling a need to adjust your supplement regimen.

Body Composition Metrics

Fitness goals often extend beyond strength to include changes in body composition. Whether you’re aiming to reduce body fat or increase muscle mass, using the right metrics is crucial. Body fat percentage for those cutting and circumference measurements for those looking to bulk provide valuable insights into your progress.

Breaking It Down

Knowing your body’s needs and meeting them with high-quality workout supplements is integral for performing at your absolute best on a consistent basis. Whether it’s regulating weight, putting on muscle mass, or just energizing the heck out of your workouts, the supplements covered above should prove to be enormous allies in your pursuit.