My Supplement Tier List
The Acid Gambit Supplement Guide
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Hello all. Today’s post is a goodie just for the paid subscribers! I recently shared this post which I think is just hilarious:
One of you reached out with an equally hilarious comment which is absolute truth.
As a result, it’s time I start rewarding those of you who I’m grateful for. You are supporting me in my writing endeavors and it’s time I release special articles for only paid subscribers (substack premium).
The first article is my supplement tier list and an explanation of the actual supplements in the list with recommended dosages and known benefits. Some of these may be obvious and others not. Supplement lists can be finicky in the fitness community and as a result I try to boil mine down to the most necessary. A lot of opinions get mixed in based on anecdotal evidence which can actually be helpful. We know that even if we know we are benefiting via placebo effect it is still worth doing. Obviously most of these supplements have very real benefits, but the additional belief and understanding of others’ subjective benefits can sometimes increase the benefit we experience. In the Huberman Lab podcast Dr. Layne Norton: The Science of Eating for Health, Fat Loss & Lean Muscle, Layne Norton referenced a study that showed people given saline and told it was steroids still experienced greater muscle development than the group told they were not receiving steroids (and actually not on steroids). The mind is powerful, so let’s use it to our advantage.
One caveat however: supplements are just that. They are supplementary to a quality diet and training program. If your sleep, diet, training, and lifestyle habits are off, no amount of supplements will solve your problems. But when everything is in check, supplements can be extremely beneficial. For the record, this tier list took me far longer to make than I would like to admit. So I hope you like it.
If you are unfamiliar with SF tier lists, they’re traditionally used in online gaming communities to rank things from best (S-tier) to worst (F-tier). I promise I’m not a nerd. It’s actually helpful here to visualize how I feel about these supplements. I tried to be objective in my approach to ranking them by using a blend of efficacy, ease of use, accessibility, performance benefit, and general health benefits.
As we move down the tier list from S to F, we get further away from what I take daily and into the only tier I would stay far far away from - F-tier. Never go F-tier. Everything else I like and has real benefits. But please never use C4, that stuff is garbage. Just because something is A through E-tier doesn’t mean I wouldn’t take it - it just means I don’t take it regularly, it has a lower impact on performance or health, or because I do not take it and therefore have less personal opinion on it, but deserves recognition based on publicly available studies. For example, I will still take beta alanine occasionally before a workout because of the tingling effect it gives, known as paraesthesia. But in all of the literature the effects are modest. However, it has been shown to:
Improve exercise performance via daily supplementation with 4 to 6 g of beta-alanine for at least 2 to 4 weeks, with more pronounced effects in open end-point tasks/time trials lasting 1 to 4 min in duration.
Beta-alanine attenuates neuromuscular fatigue, particularly in older subjects, and preliminary evidence indicates that beta-alanine may improve tactical performance.
Additionally, I do not specifically support any of the brands in these tier lists. I simply took a screenshot as an example to use as a picture. As with anything health and fitness related, do your own research before ingesting a random supplement from a niche fitness internet blog. But hopefully this can point you in the right direction or confirm/deny your previously held beliefs on certain supplements. You are also free to disagree with my power rankings on the tier list. There is some personal preference in here, which is why I have also provided an explanation of the supplements below. The tier list is mainly for fun and to give you a visual representation of major (and minor) supplements on the market today, whereas the explanation is to provide actual information on what each does.
So, let’s jump in!
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