that stuff gives you a little muscle bloat, but no real strength gain, or lean muscle gain. Your best bet on sups are numero uno, Protein and lot\'s of it. Most people don\'t eat enough of it so that no matter how hard you workout your body can\'t complete protein synthesis, thus no muscle gain. Try to get about a gram of protein per pound of lean body mass, per day.
The second most important sup would be creatine. Besides anabolics, this is the only sure fire suplement. The idea behind creatine is that your muscle uses a fuel known as ATP. When you run out of ATP you experience muslce failure (you know how your arms feel after you max out on pushups? That\'s failure, just incase you didn\'t know what I meant) Creatine allows you to replenish ATP faster, thus you\'ll get about one more rep per set. This is the most important rep, the muscle builder, thus you will become stronger and bigger by using creatine. It will also give you a little muscle bloat because of the creatine, you\'ll look bigger immediatly.
Only side effect of creatine is cramps due to dehydration, so drink water and lots of it.
Another great sup would be L-Glutamine. When your body runs out of it\'s favored fuel sources, it will begin to eat muscle. This happens in just about everybody when they workout. This is called catobolism, while it doesn\'t nececarily mean you\'re loosing muscle while you workout, it does mean your taking 3 steps forward and two steps back. L-Glutamine has been proven to stave off catobolism, thus maximizing your gains.
Besides these the only other semi-effective and non-anabolic sups would be your Multi-Vitamins and HMB. HMB or Hydroxy Methylbyrate is semi effective, but over priced, so just ignore it.
*edit
forgot to mention that all these brand name overpriced sups are just the cheap stuff with added flavorings and empty carbs, so when you buy Creatine, or Glutamine, just buy the cheapest and purest stuff they have. GNC Pro Performance brands are good if you buy brick and morter, or on netrition EAS is good. As for protein, head on over to protein factory and make up your own back for about 4.75 per pound of whey protein.