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No matter what sport or exercise, workout supplements can enhance the ability to perform, endure, and recover. Workout supplements, also known as sports nutrition, is a big category that includes popular supplements like protein powders, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), creatine, testosterone boosters, and many more. These workout supplements are popular because they work, and athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike love their benefits.
There are three primary goals from a supplement perspective to aid in getting the most out of workouts and training:
Taking a multiple vitamin and mineral formula that provides the recommended dietary intake of these essential nutrients provides a very good nutritional insurance policy in supporting the body before, during, and after exercise.
Exercise increases muscle metabolism producing an increased demand for many nutrients. Nutrients particularly important to athletes are those involved in energy metabolism, especially the B vitamins and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and iron.
Iron is especially important to female athletes of child-bearing age due to iron loss during menstruation. Low iron levels are associated with significantly decreased physical energy and are one of the most easily reversed causes of poor physical performance and fatigue. Iron deficiency is very common in female athletes. One study of female competitive swimmers found evidence of deficiency in 80% of the women. Other studies have found iron deficiency in 30-60% of female athletes. It requires a dosage of 120 to 180 mg daily to prevent iron deficiency.[1,2]
To determine whether a woman needs iron, a blood test known as serum ferritin is performed. It measures the body’s iron stores. Ideally, the level should be at least 60 ng/ml. The most popular iron supplements are ferrous sulfate and ferrous fumarate. However, the best forms appear to be ferrous bisglycinate and ferric pyrophosphate. Both are free from gastrointestinal side effects and have a higher relative bioavailability, especially if taken on an empty stomach.
Another mineral that is often critical to athletes is magnesium. The RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) is 420 mg for men and 320 mg for women. Since the average magnesium intake by healthy adults in the United States ranges from 143 to 266 mg/day, most people in the U.S. only get about half of the magnesium their body needs. If magnesium levels are low, it is a huge problem for athletes as magnesium is involved in more than 300 biochemical reactions of the human body, including the activation of many enzymes, regulation of the concentration levels of other vital nutrients, and optimal functioning of cells throughout the body, especially muscle and brain cells. Low magnesium levels in athletes can result in less endurance and stamina, muscle cramps, and poor recovery.
For best results, magnesium supplementation should be taken at night to take advantage of magnesium’s ability to promote overall relaxation and restful sleep.[3,4] Highly absorbable forms of magnesium, like magnesium citrate, malate, or bisglycinate, are recommended at a dosage of 250 to 300 mg at bedtime.
Another popular option is taking magnesium with zinc and vitamin B6, popularly referred to as a ZMA supplement. B6 and zinc assist magnesium with cellular growth, tissue repair, and a healthy immune system.
Muscles need adequate protein to enhance muscular growth and repair. For athletes, the dosage recommendation is a total protein intake of approximately 2.2 grams of protein for every kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight. In addition to eating a diet focused on high-protein foods, supplementation using protein powder as the base ingredient in high-protein smoothies is an easy way to boost protein intake.
Whey, egg whites, casein, and other milk protein concentrates are the highest-quality protein powders. Whey protein has the highest biological value of all proteins. Biological value is used to rate protein based on how much of the protein consumed is absorbed, retained, and used in the body.
One of the key reasons why the biological value of whey protein is so high is that it has the highest concentrations of glutamine and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) found in nature. These amino acids are critical to cellular health, muscle growth, and protein synthesis.[5]
Vegan protein sources are not as high in essential amino acids or BCAAs. The better vegan protein powders consist of soy protein isolate, pea protein, spirulina, and pumpkin seed protein. Vegan protein powders from rice, sunflower seed, flax, chia, hemp, and sacha ichi are lower in protein quality, meaning higher dosages would be necessary to meet protein needs from these sources. Vegan protein powders provide other beneficial compounds beyond protein, including dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals.
Here are some guidelines for the use of protein powders to supplement protein intake in athletes:
Collagen peptides and bone broth proteins are incomplete because they have virtually no tryptophan. However, when these protein sources are incorporated into a typical dietary protein intake, they are also excellent protein supplements.[6]
The most popular energy-enhancing pre-workout supplements provide caffeine. Considerable scientific evidence shows that caffeine does have value in increasing exercise performance, whether it is endurance exercise or those activities that require bursts of energy like sprints or weightlifting. Caffeine works best when taken 15 to 60 minutes before the workout; dosages are generally between 200 and 400 mg.[7,8]
Creatine is another popular pre-workout dietary supplement. It is used primarily as part of the training routine to increase strength and muscle. It works by increasing muscle energy levels, which allows athletes to work a bit harder during strength training workouts. Creatine also improves muscle protein synthesis. The usual dosage recommendation is 1 gram of creatine for every 25 kg of body weight. So, if a person weighed 75 kg (160 pounds), the dosage would be 3 grams daily.[9]
The best supplements for helping with muscular growth, recovery, and repair are those that contain the three essential branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) valine, leucine, and isoleucine. The BCAAs are important to muscle metabolism and account for roughly 15% of the amino acid content in human skeletal muscle. One of the key benefits of BCAAs is that they assist mitochondria in energy production during exercise, helping to prevent both mental and physical fatigue during exercise. This makes BCAAs also a popular pre-workout ingredient as well as post-workout.
BCAAs are available as isolated amino acids in with a ratio of 2:1:1—two parts leucine, one part isoleucine, and one part valine. Whey protein is also rich in BCAAs. One of the advantages of pure BCAA supplements over a protein powder as a pre- or post-workout is that they are less likely to cause nausea or stomach irritation. The general recommended dosages for BCAAs is 100 mg per kg of body weight per day.
BCAA supplementation can enhance the muscular growth response from exercise[10] and help to fight fatigue, but one of their key benefits is dealing with after-exercise muscle soreness and, in particular, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) that occurs one or two days after a workout.[11,12] DOMS is due to small muscle tears leading to inflammation. And DOMS not only can be painful, it also can decrease muscle strength and range of motion.
Human clinical research shows that taking BCAA supplements before or after exercise can reduce muscle soreness and damage. When muscle cells are damaged, the cells leak an enzyme called creatine kinase (CK) into the blood making it a marker of muscular inflammation. BCAA supplementation has been shown to significantly lower post-exercise CK levels indicating less muscle damage from exercise and a reduced risk for DOMS.
Perhaps the best superfood for athletes is regular consumption of beetroot juice or powder because of the high content of nitrates and the plant pigment betalain responsible for the dark red color. While much of the clinical research has been done with beetroot juice, Beetroot powder has emerged as a fantastic way to capture all the nutritional and health benefits of beet juice in a convenient manner.
Consumption of beetroot juice or powder increases the production of the compound nitric oxide, which helps improve blood flow. This benefit leads to improved delivery of oxygen and nutrients to muscles as well as the removal of carbon dioxide and cellular waste products. This explains the considerable scientific research showing the benefits of beetroot juice or beetroot powder on exercise, muscle strength and stamina, and post-exercise recovery.[13]
Supplementation can also enhance overall physical performance and heart functioning during exercise. Beetroot is helpful in enhancing endurance exercise performance as well as high-intensity exercise performance that involves explosive movements like weightlifting or sprinting.[14,15] Results from a systematic review showed that in 4 of the 10 sprint-type studies, beetroot supplementation improved sprint time and power output. In the weightlifting studies, 4 of the 10 studies showed improvements in the power and velocity of free-weight and isokinetic exercises.
Beetroot can also boost exercise-related recovery and help with quicker strength recovery and a reduction in post-exercise pain, inflammation, and muscle damage. According to a meta-analysis of six double-blind, controlled studies, beetroot also prevents DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness).[16,17]
Most studies used daily dosages of beetroot juice between 70 and 250 ml, and the best results were seen when taking at least 140 ml of beetroot juice for more than 14 days and taking it between 1-3 hours prior to workouts to take advantage of peak blood nitrate levels peak. The dosage for beetroot powder should approximate this level. There is variation in quality in beetroot powders, and dosage will vary accordingly.
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