What Should You Take Before, During & After a Workout? A Complete Supplement Guide
Getting more from your training isn’t only about what happens during the workout itself. What you consume before, during and after training can influence how prepared you feel, how effectively you maintain performance, and how well you support recovery afterwards.
But that doesn’t mean you need a cupboard full of supplements.
A well-designed supplement routine should complement the fundamentals: quality nutrition, adequate protein and calories, hydration, consistent training and sufficient sleep. Once those foundations are covered, the right supplements can make your routine more convenient and help support specific performance or recovery goals.
So, what should you actually take before, during and after a workout?
Here’s a practical guide to building your training-day supplement routine.
BEFORE YOUR WORKOUT: Prepare for Performance
The goal before training is relatively straightforward: arrive hydrated, fuelled and ready to perform.
Depending on your training style, session length and goals, your pre-workout routine might include anything from a simple coffee and meal to a dedicated pre-workout formula.
1. Pre-Workout
Pre-workout supplements are designed to support different aspects of training performance. Depending on the formula, they may contain ingredients such as caffeine, citrulline, beta-alanine and other performance-focused compounds.
Caffeine is particularly popular before training because it can help improve alertness and concentration while supporting exercise performance.
However, more stimulation isn't automatically better. Your caffeine tolerance, training time and overall daily caffeine intake should all be considered. If you train later in the day, a stimulant-free pre-workout may be a better option if caffeine is likely to interfere with your sleep.
At SUPPS247, you'll find both stimulant and stimulant-free pre-workout options, making it easier to choose a formula suited to your training style and caffeine preference.
2. Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine has become one of the most established supplements in sports nutrition, particularly for people performing repeated bouts of high-intensity exercise.
Consistent creatine supplementation can support increases in physical performance during repeated short bursts of high-intensity exercise, making it particularly relevant to resistance training and other explosive activities.
One important point is that creatine doesn't necessarily need to be consumed immediately before your workout.
Consistency matters more than chasing the perfect timing window.
If adding creatine to your pre-workout drink makes it easier to remember your daily intake, that's a perfectly practical approach.
3. Carbohydrates
If you're heading into a demanding workout, particularly after several hours without eating, carbohydrates can be useful for providing readily available fuel.
This doesn't necessarily mean you need a carbohydrate supplement. A normal pre-workout meal containing carbohydrates may be completely sufficient.
For athletes completing long, high-volume or particularly demanding sessions, however, easily digested carbohydrate products can provide a convenient alternative.
4. Hydration & Electrolytes
Hydration shouldn't begin halfway through your workout.
Starting a session already dehydrated can make training considerably harder, particularly during longer workouts or when exercising in hot conditions.
Water will be sufficient for many recreational sessions. However, athletes who sweat heavily, train for extended periods or exercise in hot environments may benefit from paying closer attention to electrolytes particularly sodium.
DURING YOUR WORKOUT: Hydrate & Maintain Performance
Walk through a gym and you'll see everything from plain water bottles to brightly coloured intra-workout drinks.
Do you actually need an intra-workout supplement?
Sometimes—but not always.
For a typical resistance-training session lasting around an hour, water may be all that's required if you've eaten and hydrated appropriately beforehand.
As training duration and intensity increase, however, intra-workout nutrition can become more relevant.
1. Water & Electrolytes
For most people, hydration should be the first priority during training.
Sweating results in losses of both water and electrolytes. How much you lose varies significantly depending on factors such as body size, sweat rate, temperature, humidity and exercise duration.
This is why electrolyte products can be particularly useful for:
- Long or high-volume training sessions
- Endurance exercise
- Training in hot environments
- Athletes with high sweat rates
- People completing multiple sessions in one day
The objective isn't to drink as much as physically possible. It's to maintain sensible hydration throughout your session.
2. Intra-Workout Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates become increasingly useful as exercise duration and workload increase.
For someone completing a relatively short weights session after eating a proper pre-workout meal, additional carbohydrates during training may provide little practical benefit.
For endurance athletes, high-volume bodybuilding sessions or prolonged training, intra-workout carbohydrates can provide an accessible source of fuel.
This is where products containing rapidly digestible carbohydrate sources can fit into a more advanced performance-nutrition strategy.
3. Amino Acids
BCAAs and EAAs remain common intra-workout supplements, but context matters.
If you're already consuming enough high-quality protein throughout the day, additional amino acids aren't automatically essential.
EAAs may be useful in certain circumstances, such as training when you haven't eaten for an extended period or when convenient whole-food protein isn't available around training.
Rather than treating amino acids as mandatory for everyone, think of them as situational tools within your overall nutrition plan.
AFTER YOUR WORKOUT: Recover, Rebuild & Prepare for the Next Session
Finishing your last set doesn't mean your training strategy is finished.
The post-workout period is about giving your body the nutrition it needs to recover and adapt to training.
And despite what traditional bodybuilding culture sometimes suggests, you don't need to sprint towards a protein shaker the second your workout ends.
1. Protein
Protein is one of the most important nutritional considerations for anyone trying to build or maintain muscle.
Resistance training stimulates muscle protein synthesis, while consuming sufficient dietary protein provides the amino acids needed to support muscle repair and growth.
Whey protein is particularly popular after training because it's convenient, high in protein and easy to incorporate into a busy routine.
Options can include:
Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC) – a versatile everyday protein option.
Whey Protein Isolate (WPI) – typically higher in protein by weight with lower levels of carbohydrate and fat than concentrate.
Plant-Based Protein – useful for people following plant-based diets or those who prefer to avoid dairy-based protein powders.
The bigger priority, however, is your total daily protein intake rather than obsessing over a tiny post-workout window.
2. Creatine—Again
Didn't take creatine before training?
You can take it afterwards.
Creatine doesn't have to belong exclusively in your pre- or post-workout routine. The important factor is maintaining consistent intake over time.
For convenience, many people simply mix creatine into their post-workout shake.
Simple, effective and easy to remember.
3. Carbohydrates
Training uses stored carbohydrate in the form of muscle glycogen.
After training, consuming carbohydrates as part of your normal diet can help replenish glycogen stores.
How urgently you need to replenish them depends heavily on your circumstances.
Someone training once per day recreationally generally has plenty of time to refuel through normal meals. An athlete training multiple times in the same day may need to pay much closer attention to rapid carbohydrate replenishment.
4. Electrolytes & Rehydration
Recovery also means replacing fluids lost through sweat.
After particularly sweaty sessions, drinking water alongside appropriate electrolytes can help restore fluid and electrolyte balance.
This becomes especially important during Australian summers, endurance training and extended high-intensity sessions.
What About Magnesium, Fish Oil & Other Recovery Supplements?
Not every useful supplement needs to be taken immediately around your workout.
Some supplements make more sense as part of your overall daily health and recovery routine.
Magnesium
Magnesium contributes to normal muscle function, energy metabolism and electrolyte balance. People who use magnesium supplements often include them in their evening routine, although timing ultimately depends on the particular product and individual routine.
Omega-3 Fish Oil
Omega-3 supplements aren't traditional "post-workout" products, but they can be incorporated into an athlete's broader nutrition strategy when dietary omega-3 intake is insufficient.
Protein-Based Foods & Convenient Nutrition
Recovery doesn't have to come exclusively from supplements.
Protein bars, high-protein snacks, cream of rice, oats and other convenient foods can make meeting daily calorie, protein and carbohydrate targets considerably easier.
Ultimately, supplements should support your diet—not replace it.
So, What Does a Simple Workout Supplement Stack Look Like?
For many gym-goers, it can actually be very straightforward.
Before training:
A suitable pre-workout if desired + creatine + adequate hydration.
During training:
Water, with electrolytes and/or carbohydrates added when training demands justify them.
After training:
A quality protein source + carbohydrates according to your nutritional requirements + fluids.
That's it.
You don't necessarily need eight different powders surrounding every workout.
More advanced athletes may benefit from a more detailed approach, but a supplement stack should become more sophisticated because your training demands require it—not simply because more products exist.
Your Supplement Routine Should Match Your Goal
A bodybuilder, endurance athlete, combat-sports athlete and someone training three times per week for general health don't necessarily need identical supplement routines.
Your ideal approach depends on factors including:
Muscle Growth: prioritise sufficient calories, protein, progressive resistance training and proven performance supplements such as creatine.
Strength & Performance: focus on appropriate pre-training nutrition, creatine, hydration and potentially caffeine depending on individual tolerance.
Endurance: carbohydrates, fluids and electrolytes become increasingly important as training duration increases.
Fat Loss: supplements shouldn't replace calorie control and adequate protein. Low-calorie hydration products and convenient protein sources can make the overall nutrition plan easier to maintain.
General Fitness: keep things simple. Protein where required, creatine if appropriate, hydration and a quality diet will cover far more ground than an unnecessarily complicated supplement stack.
Build Your Training Stack at SUPPS247
One of the biggest mistakes people make with sports supplements is buying products without understanding why they're taking them.
A good supplement stack isn't necessarily the biggest stack.
It's the one that makes sense for your training, diet, goals and lifestyle.
At SUPPS247, you'll find a comprehensive range of pre-workouts, protein powders, creatine, electrolytes, amino acids, carbohydrate products and everyday health supplements from leading sports-nutrition brands.
Whether you're putting together your first gym supplement routine or refining an advanced performance stack, the SUPPS247 team can help you compare products and find options that suit your individual needs.
Train with purpose. Fuel appropriately. Recover properly. Then do it again.
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