Supplements for athletes

The athletic supplement aisle is dominated by marketing claims; the published evidence base is much narrower. The IOC, ISSN, and Cochrane converge on a small set: creatine for strength and power, beta-alanine for 1–4 minute efforts, sodium bicarbonate for similar durations, caffeine for endurance and reaction time, dietary nitrate / beetroot for endurance, and protein (whey or complete equivalents) for recovery and hypertrophy. Tart cherry for soreness has decent evidence; BCAA monotherapy mostly doesn't. The list below ranks supplements that have published athletic-performance data.