For those of you who practise endurance sports, you know how much of an impact proper fuelling and preparation can have on your performance. We all know the dreadful feeling of hitting ‘the wall’ during a long run, or burning our legs out halfway through a long cycle, so how do we combat this? (Other than with more training of course.)
First of all let’s recognise that not all endurance sports are equal, and different activities require different types of fuel. So rather than go through each sport separately, I will reveal the benefits of several endurance supplements below, so that you can see which are most suited to your style of training. Some supplements ease muscular fatigue, some improve blood flow, and some are for general health. Regardless of your sport, whether it’s running, cycling, swimming, hiking or other, there are beneficial supplements available for you.
Let’s begin with Carbohydrate supplements
A great example of which is Carb Max by Universal Nutrition. The general rule of thumb for fuelling an endurance athlete through training or racing is that they will require between 2.5 - 4.5g of carbohydrates per 1lb of body weight, or 55-65% of their total diet being carbs. Many sources of Carbohydrates can have undesired amounts of processed sugar and saturated fats, so without a professional nutritionist, a better way to meet our carbohydrate requirements can be to supplement with powders, gels or bars. Powders are fantastic to drink before and after workouts, gel’s are excellent to carry while you train, and bars can be great post-workout or throughout the day.
Next let’s discuss Pre-Workouts
of which there are many different kinds. We’re going to focus on Nitric-Oxide Boosters and Beta-alanine for now. Taking a dietary supplement to boost nitric oxide in the body can significantly boost stamina during high-intensity exercise. This is clearly important for endurance athletes as Nitric Oxide supplements can bring a legitimate improvement to race times. A nice example of this would be 5150 by 5% Nutrition. As for Beta-alanine, supplementation can significantly improve sprint performance at the end of an exhaustive endurance exercise session. If you’re looking to finish a race strong, then Beta-alanine can help you with the final push. BiotechUSA do a great Beta-alanine, go check it out!Now it’s time for Amino Acids!
I’d first like to encourage you to opt for an essential amino acid blend, rather than just a branched chain amino acid, especially if you’re not sure about your protein intake, or if you’re vegetarian/vegan, to ensure that you’re receiving all nine essential amino acids rather than just three. Amino acids help to enhance your metabolism, which promotes cell proliferation and improves exercise performance as well as functional recovery during exercise. Amino acids are highly versatile, and have fantastic benefits pre, intra and post workout! You should consider trying Purple Wraath by Controlled Labs as a fantastic essential amino acid powder.
Last of all, and perhaps the most surprising, is Creatine.
Besides the clearly marketed benefits of muscle-building, it can help with injury recovery, general recovery, aiding your cognitive state and even boost your training performance. It’s also brilliant for vegetarians and vegans who will likely lack Creatine in their diets. Supplementing Creatine into your daily diet will surely improve your endurance sport performance. A great Creatine supplement to try is Applied nutrition Creatine Monohydrate.
Hopefully this has helped you to find supplements which can benefit your performance with endurance sports. Each supplement has a unique benefit to overall performance, and so it’s important to see what works best for you. Give some of these a try and see the results for yourself.
