The supplement industry is massive; i mean seriously massive. Combined sales of exercise supplements is valued at over 15 billion dollars a year and just like any industry, they are always looking to grow in profits.
The thing with most supplements is that anyone can produce a product and then make wild claims about what it does for the user and then charge whatever they want for it whether it actually can get the claimed results or not. The health supplement industry is largely unregulated and therefore they can say pretty much whatever they want on the boxes or bottles.
Sure they may have some laboratory results on there that are impressive, but 9 times out of 10 these studies were conducted by the very people that are selling the product and that's not terribly reliable now is it? In some cases the study is completely made up as well, there's no way for us to really know.
This doesn't mean that all supplements are peddling lies, but a lot of them are. If the claim on the bottle seems a bit too outlandish or shows someone going from zero to hero in muscle mass, you can probably be pretty assured that it is selling lies.
Pre-workout powders that are meant to pick up your game in the gym are usually just loaded with sugar and caffeine, and well, we already know how to get this stuff without involving GNC in the process.
Protein powders and BCAA's (branched chain amino acids) normally don't have any sort of additives and these are clinically proven to help in the growth of muscle mass so therefore these are probably good to use but they certainly are not essential and the things inside can easily be found in a load of other more natural food items.
These days most protein powders have combined BCAA's into their mix, so that is an added bonus. I believe in Whey Protein simply because it is difficult to acquire as much protein that is contained in one shake by conventional means, unless you never get tired of eating chicken breast.
For the most part, i think that normies and pros alike are looking for some sort of magical concoction in a bottle that is going to make fitness, particularly getting ripped, easier than it is and this simply isn't ever going to be the case. If a supplement you are eyeing up has some crazy claims on the container about gains or performance, there is a really good chance that the claim isn't true at all.
There is no substitute for the work you have to put in!
