Performance Supplements: How to Choose Yours by Goal

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Walk into the supplement aisle (or scroll one online) and it's a lot: creatine, protein, pre-workout, beta-alanine, a dozen versions of each. These aren't really competing products, though, because each does a different job. The easier question isn't "which one's best," it's "which goal am I actually trying to hit."

Shop Picks

• Best for purity: Promix Non-GMO Creatine
• Best for convenience: Create Wellness Core Creatine Gummies
• Best value: Swolverine Creatine Monohydrate
• Best for sensitive stomachs: Swolverine Kre-Alkalyn
• Best for everyday use: Promix Whey Protein Powder
• Best for convenience: Barebells Variety Pack
• Best for focus plus energy: Onnit Alpha BRAIN Pre-Workout
• Best for a gentler start: Bounce Nutrition Pre-Workout Gummies (Mushroom+)
• Best stimulant-free: Onnit Shroom Tech Sport
• Best for high-intensity training: Swolverine Beta-Alanine

Browse the full Stridekick Protein & Performance Shop for more options.

How to Choose a Performance Supplement

Before picking a product, sort yourself by what you're actually trying to solve:

Strength and power. If heavy lifts, sprints, or explosive movements are the goal, creatine has the deepest research behind it — the form (powder, gummy, or buffered) is mostly a matter of preference.

Muscle repair and recovery. If you're training hard and need the raw material to rebuild, that's protein's job, a different function than anything else on this list.

Energy and focus going into a session. Pre-workouts solve for this, and they range from a full caffeine* hit to stimulant-free. This is worth matching to your actual caffeine tolerance rather than defaulting to the strongest one.

Pushing through the last stretch of a hard set. That's what beta-alanine targets specifically, not general energy or strength.

*Pre-workout supplements with caffeine aren't for everyone. Skip them close to bedtime, if you're pregnant or nursing, or if you're sensitive to stimulants, and check with a doctor first if you're on any medications.

Best Creatine for Strength and Power

Creatine is one of the most studied supplements out there, and it works by helping your muscles produce quick energy during hard efforts. Think heavy lifts, sprints, or anything explosive. It comes in a few different forms, and picking between them mostly comes down to convenience and preference rather than one being dramatically better than another.

Best Creatine Powder for Purity: Promix Non-GMO Creatine

This is creatine with nothing else added: no flavors, no fillers, just plain powder that dissolves easily into water, a shake, or a smoothie. It's the pick if you'd rather keep your supplement stack as simple as possible, though the tradeoff is exactly that: no flavor, so it's not the one to reach for if the taste of a plain powder is what's kept you from being consistent before.

Shop Promix Non-GMO Creatine | HSA/FSA Eligible

Best Creatine Gummies for Convenience: Create Wellness Core Creatine Gummies

Same creatine, different format: a chewable gummy instead of a powder you have to mix. If remembering to bring a shaker bottle everywhere is the thing standing between you and consistency, this removes that excuse entirely. 

The tradeoff is that hitting a full daily dose means eating a few gummies rather than one scoop, which some people find easier and others find like an extra step.

Shop Create Wellness Core Creatine Gummies | HSA/FSA Eligible

Best Value Creatine Monohydrate: Swolverine Creatine Monohydrate

A straightforward, third-party tested creatine powder with no proprietary blends or extras. It’s just a reliable daily dose at a fair price. A solid pick if you want a no-frills option from a brand that's transparent about exactly what's in it.

Shop Swolverine Creatine Monohydrate | HSA/FSA Eligible

Best Creatine for Sensitive Stomachs: Swolverine Kre-Alkalyn

Kre-Alkalyn is a buffered version of creatine, marketed as gentler on digestion with no loading phase needed. Worth being honest here: independent research hasn't found it actually outperforms regular creatine monohydrate, and the reduced bloating some people notice is more likely from the smaller daily dose than the buffering itself. 

Still, if standard creatine has bothered your stomach before, this is a reasonable one to try.

Shop Swolverine Kre-Alkalyn | HSA/FSA Eligible

Best Protein for Muscle Repair and Growth

Protein powder isn't a performance booster in the same way creatine is; it's about giving your body the raw material to repair and build muscle after you've broken it down training. Whey is the most common form because it digests quickly and delivers a complete set of amino acids.

Best Whey Protein Powder for Everyday Use: Promix Whey Protein Powder

Grass-fed whey, processed gently so it mixes smoothly without the chalky texture or stomach discomfort some protein powders cause. No artificial sweeteners or fillers, just protein that tastes decent enough to actually want to drink daily.

Shop Promix Whey Protein Powder | HSA/FSA Eligible

Best Protein Bars for Convenience: Barebells Variety Pack

Not everyone wants to mix a shake. Sometimes you just need something to grab on the way out the door. Barebells bars deliver 20g of protein per bar with minimal sugar, and taste closer to a candy bar than a typical protein bar.

The variety pack lets you try flavors like Cookies & Caramel and Salty Peanut Caramel before committing to a favorite, and it's an easy way to hit your protein goal without any prep at all. 

Shop the Barebells Variety Pack

Best Pre-Workout for Energy and Focus

Pre-workout supplements are built to make a hard session feel more doable, usually through a mix of caffeine and other ingredients aimed at focus and reduced fatigue.

Worth knowing: the caffeine and beta-alanine in these formulas are well-studied on their own, but full pre-workout blends often include additional ingredients with much thinner research behind them individually. 

The three below span the intensity spectrum. Make your pick based on how much stimulant you actually want, if any.

Best Pre-Workout for Focus Plus Energy: Onnit Alpha BRAIN Pre-Workout

This pairs a moderate 200mg of caffeine (about two cups of coffee) with beta-alanine and a blend of nootropic ingredients aimed at mental clarity along with physical energy. One thing worth flagging if you're also considering standalone beta-alanine below: this formula already includes some, so check your total intake before stacking more on top.

Shop Onnit Alpha BRAIN Pre-Workout | HSA/FSA Eligible

Best Pre-Workout Gummies for Beginners: Bounce Nutrition Pre-Workout Gummies (Mushroom+)

If Alpha BRAIN's caffeine hit sounds like more than you want, this is the milder alternative: 180mg of caffeine (still a real dose, just less than a double espresso) paired with Lion's Mane and other functional mushrooms instead of a nootropic blend. 

It's also a gummy rather than a powder, so there's no mixing involved. A reasonable starting point if you're new to pre-workouts or tend to get jittery on stronger formulas.

Shop Bounce Nutrition Pre-Workout Gummies (Mushroom+) | HSA/FSA Eligible

Best Stimulant-Free Pre-Workout: Onnit Shroom Tech Sport

If caffeine is off the table entirely, this skips it altogether in favor of Cordyceps Sinensis mushroom. This is aimed at supporting cellular energy and oxygen use during exercise rather than a jolt from stimulants. 

However, Cordyceps' research for exercise performance is far thinner and more preliminary than caffeine's, so treat this as a different, lower-certainty approach rather than a stimulant-free equivalent. 

It's still worth trying if you want something that won't interfere with sleep or stack with the caffeine you're already getting elsewhere in the day.

Shop Onnit Shroom Tech Sport | HSA/FSA Eligible

Best Supplement for Muscular Endurance

Beta-alanine works differently from anything above by building up a compound in your muscles called carnosine, which helps buffer the burn that builds up during hard, sustained efforts (think the last few reps of a set, or a hard interval). 

The research behind it is solid, particularly for efforts lasting somewhere between 30 seconds and 10 minutes.

Best Beta-Alanine for High-Intensity Training: Swolverine Beta-Alanine

A simple, unflavored powder with a clinically studied dose per serving. 

One thing to expect: a tingling or prickling sensation on your skin shortly after taking it. It's harmless and actually a sign it's working, and it fades as you get used to it. Effects build over several weeks of consistent use, not overnight.

Shop Swolverine Beta-Alanine | HSA/FSA Eligible

Which Performance Supplement Should You Start With

Start with the goal, not the supplement aisle. Most people only need one or two of the five categories above at any given time. Creatine and protein cover the fundamentals for most training goals, while pre-workout and beta-alanine are worth adding once you know specifically what's holding you back, whether that's energy, late-set fatigue, or hydration.

If you're not sure where to start, creatine and protein are the two with the most research behind them and the broadest usefulness, so they're a reasonable default before anything more specific.

What Does "HSA/FSA Eligible" Actually Mean?

Most of these are flagged HSA/FSA eligible, which is worth explaining. FSA is employer-sponsored, pre-tax payroll money that usually doesn't roll over; HSA is individually owned, pairs with a high-deductible plan, and rolls over indefinitely.

Our full breakdown is in HSA vs. FSA: How Do These Things Work?

Supplements aren't automatically eligible just because they support fitness — it usually takes a Letter of Medical Necessity (LMN) linking the product to something like age-related muscle loss or a musculoskeletal condition. 

That's why most of the products above carry the eligible badge: Stridekick's shop uses Truemed to help facilitate that LMN process. 

More on how that works in How to Save an Average of 30% Using Your HSA or FSA With Truemed.

Browse everything currently eligible in the Stridekick HSA/FSA Shop.

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