Written by World's Strongest Man Contender, Laurence Shahlaei

These days we get bombarded with advertisements about supplements that will help us lose weight, gain muscle and improve sports performance. There are so many things to choose from that it can become very confusing, particularly if you are after supplements for sports performance and not body building.

When I started training for Strongman competitions, I couldn’t find sport-specific information, so I thought I would pass on some of my knowledge and inform you of the supplements that have helped me improve performance in strength, power, and strength endurance.

Top of the list is a quality Whey protein. This should be taken upon awakening in the morning as a shake or you can add it to porridge if you like. A Serving after your workouts is also vital to start rebuilding muscle breakdown.

Next on the list is Creatine, this is a supplement I haven’t used for long but have seen great results in my strength training since starting to use it. As with protein there are thousands of brands to choose from. I have been using Muscletech Creakick which is a tablet form. This suits me as I find the powders very acidic to drink.

Another great product to use is the Animal Pak. This is a stack of mulit vitamins, minerals, amino acid complex, performance complex, antioxidant complex and digestive enzymes. This product is great for me as I know I’m getting a huge amount of the nutrients I need to help with performance and recovery without eating copious amounts of food.

When you’re training and competing on a regular basis your joints can take a beating so I use a quality joint supplement complex to help with my aches and pains. Currently I’m using Sci-Mx Joint support. You need to make sure with any joint supplement complex that it contains approximately 1000mg Glucosamine Sulphate and 1000mg of MSM (Methylsulfonymethane) per serving.

The final product we will look is another Sci-MX product - Enduro fuel. This is a GREAT product for helping you get through a tough workout, contest or match and also for recovering faster. It’s a complex of carbohydrates and electrolytes which are lost during vigorous activity. I have a serving during training and if it’s a really tough workout or competition I will have one after to help me recover as fast as possible.

A category of product I would avoid if you’re an athlete in strength sports or in a sport that requires a good level of strength and endurance are Nitric oxide products. These are fantastic for bodybuilders but the give you nasty pumps which are not good in sports that involve movement and fast recovery.

Explosive Nutrition are proud to sponsor Laurence Shahlaei - England's Strongest Man. We'll be posting regular blog posts following Laurence's progress as he trains towards the 2010 World's Strongest Man competition!