As athletes strive to enhance performance and body composition through supplement use, many seek to find the optimal mix. Unfortunately, for those unfamiliar with sports supplements this can be daunting task.
Two-thirds of adult and adolescent elite track and field athletes take one or more dietary supplements such as creatine, nitrates, caffeine or protein for supplementation purposes.
Beta-alanine
Beta-alanine is an increasingly popular supplement among athletes looking to improve exercise and sports performance. While it can be found naturally within proteins sources, sufficient quantities are typically only found when supplemented directly.
CarnoSyn is designed to delay muscle fatigue during high-intensity training sessions, enabling more reps before reaching fatigue threshold. Look for CarnoSyn-verified brands offering scientifically validated doses between 3.2-6.4 grams over 4-8 weeks for best results and greater gains. Athletes who utilize CarnoSyn often report enhanced workouts and greater gains.
Creatine
Creatine is an all-natural substance that assists the muscles in producing energy during weight lifting or high intensity workouts, making it a popular supplement among athletes and bodybuilders looking to enhance strength and increase performance.
Over half of your body’s creatine stores as phosphocreatine in your skeletal muscles, providing constant energy during workouts. Most sources for creatine supply are red meat and animal milk products.
Concerns have been expressed that creatine supplementation could cause kidney damage or renal dysfunction; however, research shows that taking creatine in recommended dosages does not lead to such outcomes.
Caffeine
Caffeine is one of the most frequently utilized ergogenic supplements among athletes, as studies demonstrate its efficacy at increasing strength and endurance across a variety of sports.
Caffeine can aid the performance of both aerobic and anaerobic exercises that use glycogen as their energy substrate, including both aerobic and anaerobic activities that rely on muscle glycogen stores as energy storage. Caffeine has also been proven to decrease lactic acid accumulation during exercise while increasing calcium mobilization to strengthen excitation-contraction coupling.
Players should receive proper education on which supplements to take and only choose those which have been independently tested (check for products with the Informed Sport logo). Failure to use tested products could result in banned substances being discovered during doping control samples taken during doping tests.
Nitrates
Nitrates help improve oxygen and nutrient delivery to muscles during exercise by relaxing blood vessels and increasing vascular flow, making them popular with runners due to improved energy, performance, and recovery.
Nitrites can be found naturally in leafy vegetables and root vegetables like beets. Athletes can supplement with additional nitrates by taking beet juice shots or taking nitrate salts.
Research indicates that dietary nitrate supplements improve endurance exercise performance; however, their impact may be diminished when taken by highly trained athletes competing in high intensity sprint disciplines.
Iron
Iron supplements are among the most beloved endurance athlete supplements, often serving as ergogenic aids and helping combat fatigue while increasing hemoglobin.
Studies indicate that taking iron without being deficient is not recommended and may actually increase stress and hepcidin levels which negatively impact performance. Only take it if absolutely necessary and consult your physician prior to doing so.
Calcium
Youth athletes often struggle to meet their calcium requirements from diet alone, whether due to dietary restrictions, increased losses from exercise or poor absorption.
An adequate source of calcium is through dairy (milk and cheese). Supplements are also an option; athletes should consult with a qualified sports nutrition professional prior to using any supplements for safety, efficacy and testing in training sessions before competitions begin. Nitrates have been shown to boost performance on tasks that primarily use the aerobic energy system.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is best-known for its benefits to bone health; however, it also plays an integral part in decreasing muscle injury and illness risks and aiding recovery and increasing workout volumes.
Athletes can achieve sufficient vitamin D status through either responsible sun exposure (30 minutes of full arm, leg and back exposure at solar noon several times each week) or through diet plus supplementation; vitamin D supplements may be helpful during winter months.
Coenzyme Q10
CoQ10 is a fat-soluble molecule essential to the mitochondria’s energy production process and has potent antioxidant properties which may reduce muscle damage caused by strenuous exercise.
Supplementation with CoQ10 has shown promising results, particularly in terms of reducing oxidative stress and muscle damage markers after intense training sessions. Yet more high quality studies must be completed in order to understand its true impact.
CoQ10 phytosome is a new food-grade lecithin-based formulation designed to increase plasmatic and muscular levels of CoQ10. This could be due to its greater bioavailability compared to Ubiquinone alone.
