Many pills, powders and beverages available today claim to increase strength or athletic performance. Some are scientifically sound while others could pose health risks or lead to positive tests for banned substances.
Popular supplements often serve as ergogenic aids to increase energy production and decrease time to exhaustion during sports activities. Functional medicine lab testing can identify any nutrient deficiencies which might limit athletic performance.
Creatine
Creatine is a naturally occurring compound found in high concentrations in skeletal muscle. It helps the body produce more Adenosine Triphosphate, or ATP, an energy source used during intense physical exercise and also alters several cellular processes that result in increased muscle mass, strength and endurance.
Studies consistently demonstrate the beneficial ergogenic effects of creatine supplementation on both single and repeated bouts of short duration, high intensity exercise. Creatine increases sprint performance, increases intracellular creatine pools, which further enhance the body’s ability to synthesize Adenosine Triphosphate and aids cell resynthesis processes.
Creatine can be taken either alone as a supplement or mixed into sports drinks, and has been shown to reduce water loss during exercise, helping prevent dehydration and muscle cramping. Furthermore, creatine helps the body repair micro-tears caused by intense exercise, speeding recovery times and allowing athletes to perform additional repetitions of strength training, swim more laps during a workout session, or hit faster sprint repeats on the track.
Caffeine
Caffeine has long been recognized as an effective performance enhancer. It can increase alertness and response time, reduce pain perception, increase energy and endurance capacity (see here), all the while stimulating your central nervous system and increasing noradrenaline release. Furthermore, caffeine raises body temperature and increases fat burning rate which allows for prolonged muscle glycogen preservation during high intensity workouts ( see here).
Research suggests that taking low to moderate caffeine doses before and during exercise may boost performance by up to 10%, according to most estimates. An athlete consuming an average weight body could receive approximately 3-6 milligrams per kilogram of bodyweight or 2-3 cups of coffee is believed to achieve this benefit. There are multiple methods for taking caffeine such as pills, capsules, dissolvable mouth strips, lozenges and energy drinks; additionally a newer trend in using nasal aerosol delivery could potentially activate sensors directly connected with the brain and potentially provide greater effectiveness than oral ingestion alone.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D improves muscle protein synthesis, concentration of adenosine triphosphate levels and increases strength, jump height, power and endurance in athletes. Furthermore, it can prevent muscle degeneration while reverse myalgia symptoms; studies of vitamin D’s effects in athletes often yield conflicting results.
Athletes who lack Vitamin D may suffer from decreased immunity, increased inflammation and pain. Furthermore, lack of Vitamin D could even hinder muscle performance.
Note that vitamin D needs can vary widely for each athlete depending on factors like season, training location and skin color. Vitamin D intake can be met through both direct exposure to sunlight (arms, legs and back at solar noon several times each week) as well as supplementation.
Optimized 25(OH)D status is vital to many body functions and should be the goal of all athletes. Therefore, athletes should annually assess their serum 25(OH)D levels through supplementation or diet; targeting an aim blood level of >40ng/mL in summer through supplementation alone and then maintaining it through lower maintenance intake during winter is recommended.
Magnesium
Magnesium has long been seen as an underdog when it comes to sports nutrition, but is now widely recognized as an essential mineral that may help athletes reach peak performance. Magnesium plays an essential role in numerous metabolic functions including carb and protein metabolism as well as controlling blood sugar levels and nerve function regulation.
Studies indicate that proper magnesium consumption can enhance athletic performance by improving oxygen delivery to muscles and minimizing fatigue-inducing buildup of lactic acid in your system. Magnesium also plays an essential role in protein and bone development, so your body can repair itself after intensive physical exertion.
Magnesium should ideally be consumed through food supplements. They should be taken either before or after exercise to maximize muscle recovery, with experts often suggesting taking it after because this increases muscle repair rates and promotes efficient energy metabolism – something endurance athletes like cyclists or marathon runners especially require in their meals as magnesium makes this conversion process more efficient.
