You’ve been training and using supplements for years. However, nobody can know everything, and there will always be pieces of information or determining factors that slip through the cracks. Here are a few things you may have overlooked on your journey from bodybuilding newbie to supplemental guru.

Caffeine and Creatine do not mix

Without a doubt, creatine is among the most effective supplements of all time. It forces your body to retain a greater amount of water, which leads to larger, fuller muscles which are capable of moving more weight. Caffeine is also an effective supplement for bodybuilders, bumping the metabolism and giving the alert bodybuilder more energy to complete workouts. However, since creatine has a hydrating effect and caffeine can dehydrate the bodybuilder, the two supplements are in competition with one another. Specifically, caffeine blocks the absorption of creatine. It’s acceptable to take both, as long as you allow at least 3 to 4 hours between your morning creatine dose and your afternoon pre-workout caffeine shot (or vice versa). However, since caffeine is generally used when leaning out, and creatine works best for loading phases when some bloating occurs, you may not want to use them both at the same time anyway.

Supplement overdosing

Yes, you can have too much of a good thing. Many supplement companies will design stacks for customers that will include 2 of these pills, 2 scoops of this powder, and more. Add these to your regular diet and the normal vitamins you should be taking outside of bodybuilding purposes, such as a multi-vitamin, Vitamins E, C, and B, as well as EFAs (essential fatty acids), and you’re suddenly looking at a situation where you are taking 10 to 20 pills per day. Your liver has to process these chemicals, just as it would have to metabolize any harsh anabolics you would take. This means your body may be working as hard processing supposedly safe supplements, as it would with a harsh anabolic mix. Avoid this by trying 1 to 2 new supplements at a time.

Temperature matters

If you are mixing your creatine or glutamine with juice for faster absorption due to the glucose, you’re doing the right thing. However, you may be limiting your own progress by using liquid that isn’t the right temperature. Right from the fridge, the juice you use is probably cold and delicious. Unfortunately, powders dissolve much more completely in room temperature liquids than they do in cold liquids. If you don’t believe this, try making your oatmeal with cold water! This isn’t to say you shouldn’t take your powders with cold juice, if you need to. However, if you can tolerate the taste, you should keep an opened bottle of juice available to use for mixing. Just remember that juice spoils faster when it isn’t refrigerated, so the smaller, single-serving bottles might serve your supplementation needs better if it fits your budget.

The road to becoming a supplement genius is littered with plenty of “a-ha!” moments. Perhaps you’ve just enjoyed three. Keep on learning!

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