Getting Active! State of the Sports Nutrition Market in 2025

by Mike Straus | March 1, 2025

Here’s how sports nutrition products are evolving this year.

The sports nutrition space is continuing to expand, with the global active nutrition market expected to reach $32.4 billion by 2032, according to WiseGuy Research.1 Sports nutrition consumers are increasingly discerning buyers, seeking out scientifically validated and clean ingredients that they can easily incorporate into their everyday routines. Moreover, the sports nutrition market is spilling over into the general consumer market as general consumers try to capture the lifestyle benefits of sports supplements.

As the sports nutrition and active nutrition markets continue to grow, manufacturers will find opportunities to introduce new ingredients and better support retail sales through educational materials and in-store displays. Here’s how active nutrition supplements are evolving in 2025.

Shoppers Prioritize Holistic Fitness

Sports nutrition consumers are increasingly interested in whole-body, multifunctional solutions that not only help them stay active, but also support their preventative health efforts. Bryan Morin, sports brand manager for NOW Foods in Bloomingdale, IL, said that some of the major trends impacting sports nutrition in 2025 will include healthy aging, preventative nutrition and optimization of personal nutrition. Morin added that clean-label and plant-based ingredients will be the major stars in this holistic fitness trend.

“As consumers’ expectations evolve, the active nutrition market is experiencing a dynamic transformation, presenting opportunities for innovative product development and nutritional solutions,” Morin said.

“There is heightened demand for multifunctional active nutrition products, and a growing interest in personalized performance enhancement.”

Meanwhile, emerging brands are trying to buck the sugar trend and embrace healthier options. Paal Gisholt, chief executive officer at Blueshift Nutrition in Boston, MA, said that legacy sports supplements are filled with artificial sweeteners and artificial flavors, and sometimes come loaded with sugar.

“These supplements are primarily positioned for male athletes and are designed to support weightlifting rather than cardio or other sports,” Gisholt explained. “We also see a heavy load of caffeine in pre-workout supplements, which is counterproductive to recovery.”

While these legacy products still occupy shelf space, innovative new active nutrition brands are catering to underrepresented groups with smarter, healthier options that are backed by scientific data. Maggie McNamara, the vice president of global marketing for Gencor Pacific in Austin, TX, said consumers are looking for products that can enhance performance through a variety of means.

“These products can support muscle strength and mass, body composition, recovery, joint health, muscle soreness, sleep and stress,” McNamara said. “While the last two may not commonly be associated with performance, they are critical for peak physical and mental performance.”

McNamara explained that consumers are seeking alternatives to stimulants, shifting toward natural, multifunctional pre-workout blends that enhance performance.

Carl Germano, CNS, CDN, vice president of Verdant Nature in Lewes, DE, and a board-certified clinical nutritionist, said that a growing awareness of health and fitness is driving an increasing interest in active nutrition supplements even among general consumers. While these supplements were once limited to elite athletes, Germano explained, active nutrition/sports nutrition products are now popular among casual gym-goers, lifestyle users and even gamers.

“The market is seeing a surge in plant-based proteins, creatine, clean-label products and personalized nutrition solutions,” Germano explained. “Companies are focusing on developing products with enhanced bioavailability, nutrient density and specialized ingredients like anti-inflammatory supplements and ingredients that affect mitophagy.”

Emerging Ingredients Support Peak Performance

While traditional sports nutrition ingredients like protein are still popular, there exists significant innovation in the sports supplement space, with brands and suppliers focusing on innovative and targeted solutions for a variety of sports-related concerns. Germano cited the growth of adaptogens and gut health ingredients in the sports space as examples of this trend; he noted that pre-, pro- and post-biotics continue to gain popularity, especially those that target digestive health, immunity and mental health.

“Pea and hemp protein are increasingly being used as alternatives to traditional animal-based proteins,” Germano said. “Meanwhile, mushroom-based supplements—particularly in coffee blends—are trending due to their lower caffeine content and potential to help with transient immune suppression following strenuous activity.”

Creatine, meanwhile, is making a big comeback in the active nutrition space. Germano noted that while creatine is well-established due to its muscle synthesis and cognitive support benefits, creatine combined with HMB is growing in popularity due to the pair’s muscle build/repair properties.

Cellular repair is also on active nutrition consumers’ minds, and Germano said this interest in cellular health during and after workouts is driving demand for NAD+ precursors. Ingredients like nicotinamide riboside, nicotinamide mononucleotide and quercetin/niacinamide combinations are gaining traction.

McNamara noted that consumers in the active nutrition space are also seeking out ingredients like fenugreek and curcuminoids, with interest in specialty ingredients like PEA and unique botanicals growing.

“Levagen+, a branded palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) ingredient, has been clinically proven to enhance muscle regeneration and repair, reduce exercise-induced inflammation, aid recovery, decrease muscle soreness, and improve sleep,” McNamara said. “In a recent study, when combined with eight weeks of strength training, PEA supplementation preserved lean mass gains and significantly increased dynamic lower-body power compared to a placebo.”

Meanwhile, Pharmako Biotechnologies’ patented cold-water dispersible and highly bioavailable curcumin extract HydroCurc has been shown in studies to decrease soreness, improve recovery, reduce lactic acid levels post-exercise, reduce joint pain and discomfort, and support overall joint health.

“What sets Levagen+ and HydroCurc apart is their use of LipiSperse, a patented technology that significantly enhances their bioavailability and solubility compared to other ingredients like PEA or turmeric/curcumin,” McNamara explained. “This improved solubility opens up many formulation possibilities, extending beyond traditional tablets and capsules to include shots, powders, gummies, gels and more.”

McNamara said that Gencor’s patented fenugreek extract Testofen has four published clinical studies demonstrating its ability to increase lean muscle mass, decrease body fat, increase functional threshold power, and boost free testosterone. Similarly, Gencor’s patented Libifem is a fenugreek extract for women that has been shown to increase muscle strength and endurance in women between the ages of 25 and 45. McNamara noted that there exists a massive trend toward targeting women in sports within the active nutrition market, particularly with specialty branded ingredients and plant-based products.

Meanwhile, other ingredients like green tea, guarana, and ashwagandha are growing in use. Gisholt explained that Blueshift Nutrition’s approach to sports supplements is plant-heavy, leveraging natural caffeine from green tea and guarana to support energy during workouts. The company also uses S7, a proprietary low-dose blend of seven plant ingredients, to increase nitric oxide production during exercise, thereby improving blood flow.

“Ashwagandha use is also growing, and for good reason,” Gisholt noted. “In 2021, ashwagandha sales in the U.S. increased 225 percent compared to the previous year. We use ashwagandha in our pre- and post-workout supplements at the clinically proven dose, which improves the rate of strength gains by up to 74 percent.”

Suppliers Leverage Education to Support Retail Sales

Sports nutrition is a well-established vertical, and that means the diversity of products can seem overwhelming for consumers. Thankfully, suppliers are stepping up and offering a variety of educational materials for retailers that can help inform consumers of their options and better facilitate retail sales of these supplements. Morin said that NOW supports retailers by offering educational information on sports/active nutrition products via the NOW website, as well as education on supplement stacks that enhance muscle endurance, muscle mass building, recovery and more.

“Through ExpertVoice, we offer educational videos on the latest products, research, and trends in active and sports nutrition,” Morin said. “Additionally, we recently launched the NOW Sports Hub that serves as a resource for athletes and active nutrition consumers, offering insights on science-backed ingredients, supplement regulations and professional workouts. Retailers can also use the Sports Hub to deepen their knowledge of active/sports nutrition products and ingredients.”

Other ingredient suppliers are prioritizing retailer education as well. Blueshift Nutrition is active on social media creating educational content about their formulations, while Gencor provides retailers with educational sessions on the science behind their ingredients. Meanwhile, Verdant Nature has pinpointed several strategies that ingredient suppliers are using to support retail sales, from developing retailer-specific product lines, to expanding product categories, to helping retailers optimize their e-commerce presence and more.

“Despite the growth of e-commerce, manufacturers are also supporting physical stores by improving in-store experiences and customer engagement,” Germano said. “Companies are also providing retailers with marketing support and educational materials to help them effectively communicate the benefits of new products to consumers.”

Delivery Systems for Sports Nutraceuticals Advance

Advanced technology is revolutionizing the way sports nutrition ingredients are delivered. McNamara noted that Pharmako Biotechnologies in Australia is developing leading advanced delivery systems to optimize the bioavailability and functionality of sports ingredients; she pointed to the company’s branded AquaCelle as an example. AquaCelle is a patent-pending, clinically validated self-micro-emulsifying drug delivery system that is designed to enhance the bioavailability of lipophilic bioactives like ubiquinol, omega-3s, lutein and resveratrol while maintaining product stability.

Other major innovations in delivery systems include Pharmako’s branded LipiSperse, CPOs, and PlexoZome offerings.

“LipiSperse is an advanced cold-water dispersion technology that allows solid and powdered lipophilic active ingredients with otherwise poor bioavailability and poor solubility in water to be easily dispersed in cold water. This increases bioavailability and uptake in the body.”

Pharmako’s Compressed Powdered Oils (CPOs), meanwhile, can optimize an ingredient’s functionality by converting oils into powders. In doing so, this methodology overcomes the challenges of formulating with oily lipid-based ingredients such as product spoilage and leaching.

Pharmako’s PlexoZome technology is a liposomal solution that encapsulates ingredients in genuine liposomes that have been verified via four types of testing. PlexoZome formulations offer targeted delivery and can be fully customized.

Sports Nutrition Products Get Certified

Consumers are rightfully skeptical of exaggerated or misleading health claims, particularly when it comes to sports nutrition and active nutrition products. That’s why, Morin said, brands are increasingly turning to clinical studies and other scientific evidence to provide support for health claims. Products are also moving away from proprietary blends and toward more transparent formulations that are more easily validated.

“Active and sports nutrition products are turning to third-party certifications like Informed-Sport to assure that their products are free from unwanted, WADA-banned substances,” Morin said. “Athletes and general active nutrition consumers want to know that the supplements they are taking are not only effective, but also safe.”

Morin noted that the active nutrition market is garnering a wider audience than just athletes, including aging consumers who want to stay active in old age. Morin said he anticipates that more products that focus on the core areas of active aging will enter the active nutrition market, particularly those that focus on supporting mobility, strength and balance.

“Protein powders and HMB will be key ingredients in products that can support this population,” Morin said. “One of the key parts of active aging is maintaining muscle mass. Protein is essential for active aging, since it is needed to support muscle protein synthesis after exercise. A supplement that supports both active aging and recovery is HMB. HMB is a clinically researched, naturally occurring metabolite of leucine, a branched-chain amino acid.”

Morin noted that HMB normally plays a role in the regulation of protein breakdown by the body, helping to preserve lean muscle tissue. HMB, therefore, can help maintain muscle strength and mass when combined with a healthy diet and regular exercise.

Active Nutrition Products Ready to Level Up

Active nutrition products are ready for primetime, as new ingredients come onto the market to disrupt the space and provide shoppers with smarter options for gaining muscle and improving cardio capacity. Gisholt noted that as more women think about healthy body composition, women are becoming a larger part of the active nutrition market. Even mainstream consumers are entering the active nutrition market as younger consumers prioritize fitness and older consumers look to age in a healthy manner. Emerging ingredients like plant-based proteins, mushroom-based supplements, and herbal blends are giving active nutrition consumers a variety of modern options to stay fit, building on years of clinical research into these ingredients’ efficacy. As the active nutrition market continues its impressive growth streak, retailers can take advantage of this trend by stocking science-backed, clean products with a variety of specializations and secondary applications.VR

References:

1 WiseGuy Research. “Active nutrition market forecasted to reach 32.4 USD billion by 2032 with remarkable CAGR 7.47 percent.” Published online January 22, 2025.