Best supplements for boxing

The list of supplements with serious evidence behind them for a boxer runs to 5. The rest of the shelf is food in a tub, a habit, or a risk to your license. I sold all of it, from 2010 to 2017.

The 5 with evidence

Every one of them carries a catch in a weight-class sport. Creatine adds scale weight, and bicarbonate brings a large dose of sodium, so both need a place in the cut plan before the first scoop.

What my shop sold, and what the research says

Years of orders show something a trial cannot: what people come back for.

On the one-time buys, the till and the research agree. People tried carnitine and fat burners, saw nothing that matched the label, and did not return.

The repeat buys are where they part. Protein keeps selling because it is food: it replaces a meal, and nobody has to believe in it. Amino acids and joint supplements kept selling on far weaker evidence.

Reviews told me even less. Most buyers arrived sure the product would work, and they reported that it did. The exception was people buying to lose weight. Many had never trained, or had not trained for years, and wanted the result at once. When a pill did not deliver it, they said so. Neither group was measuring anything.

The test matters more than the evidence

For a boxer in a testing program, strict liability means anything found in the sample is his responsibility, whatever the label said.

Contamination is where supplements actually end careers. Across 18 years of anti-doping cases in one analysis, a supplement was proven to be the source 27 times. Pre-workouts accounted for 20 of those cases and fat burners for 4. Caffeine itself is not prohibited; the problem is what else goes into the tub.

So buy batch-tested products only, from Informed Sport, NSF Certified for Sport or the Cologne List. They lower the risk without removing it, and no product anywhere is WADA approved.

What goes in a boxer's cupboard

For most boxers I work with, the list is short:

• Creatine monohydrate in pre-camp and early camp, stopped 4 to 6 weeks before the weigh-in, which is about how long muscle stores take to fall back.
• Caffeine, tried in sparring at the hour the fight will start.
• Protein powder, batch-tested, for the days when food cannot be arranged.
• Sodium bicarbonate or beta-alanine only after a trial in training. Some boxers tolerate bicarbonate well, and some never will.
• Vitamin D in an indoor or winter camp on restricted eating rather than by default, and iron only if a test shows a deficiency.

Everything else from my old shelf stays on the shelf.

Check what you already own

If there is a tub in your bag right now, run it through the free Doping Risk Check on the tools page. It asks about the product and gives a straight answer on how much contamination risk it carries. A full review of everything a fighter takes, contract clauses included, is one of the services.

Common questions

What supplements should a boxer take?

The ones with the strongest evidence are creatine monohydrate, caffeine, sodium bicarbonate, beta-alanine and dietary nitrate. Protein powder is useful as convenient food. For a boxer who can be tested, buy only batch-tested products from Informed Sport, NSF Certified for Sport or the Cologne List.

Is creatine good for boxers?

Yes, for strength and repeated high-intensity work across a camp. It also adds weight: across 61 controlled trials, body mass rose by 0.89 kg on average, so in a weight class it is usually stopped 4 to 6 weeks before the weigh-in.

Can a supplement make a boxer fail a drug test?

Yes. Under strict liability the athlete is responsible for anything in the sample, whatever the label said. Pre-workouts and fat burners are the highest-risk categories, and batch testing lowers the risk without removing it.

Do BCAAs help boxers?

Very little once daily protein intake is adequate. They were still among the products my shop's customers bought again and again, which says more about habit than about performance.