Ergogenic nutrition is nutritional supplements that enhance exercise performance like strength, endurance, speed, force and energy levels. It also improves recovery after exercise. Athletes use different ergogenic nutrition aids to improve their athletic performance. Why do they do it?
For millennia, people have been using substances to improve their physical performance and appearance. Descriptions of athletes ingesting special foods to enhance their performance date back to ancient Greece. Recently, the use of creatine and androstenedione in professional sports has been heavily publicised. Substances that are used to improve physical performance are collectively known as ergogenics, which is a term that is derived from a Greek phrase meaning ‘work production’. In relation to athletic performance, the term refers to any means used to enhance energy production, control or efficiency.
Caffeine
Caffeine can improve your endurance during athletic performance by giving you an extra bout of energy. It can also improve your speed and help to reduce soreness after exercise.
You don’t need more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day. In fact, you probably shouldn’t drink more than that, as it can cause headaches, irritability, an upset stomach, dehydration and trouble sleeping.
Creatine
Creatine helps to improve performance during short bouts of intense exercise. It also helps to improve recovery after reps.
While your body produces its own creatine, when you do a lot of reps, you can use up your natural creatine store. Creatine supplements boost the amount of creatine, which increases the amounts of rep you can do.
You can also naturally boost your creatine levels by eating beef and pork.
Beta-Alanine
When you do short bouts of exercise with the maximum effort, your muscles make a lot of lactic acids. This is what creates the burning sensation from exercise. Athletes take beta-alanine supplements to ease the burning sensation so they can push through their workout.
Branched Chain Amino Acids
Branched-chain amino acid supplements can help to reduce muscle breakdown, which occurs during exercise. This means that you don’t need to lose a lot of muscle before you start gaining it back.
Whey Protein
Like branched-chain amino acids, athletes take whey protein after workouts to try to curb muscle damage and boost growth. It works best after resistance exercises.
Anabolic steroids
Athletes can only get anabolic steroids with a doctor’s prescription, although some manage to get them without it 0 which is illegal.
They use anabolic steroids to enhance muscle strength and size.
It is essential to know the side effects of anabolic steroids, as it can stunt growth in children and can cause long-term heart, skin and other organ problems.
Fish Oil
Fish oil is a source of omega-3 fatty acids, which improve the recovery process. The two essential fatty acids that are found in fish oil is EPA and DHA which support a healthy inflammation response after exercise. This helps to reduce soreness after exercise.
Athletes often use ergogenic nutrition to improve their athletic performance. This additional nutrition boost helps to improve their strength, endurance, speed and the recovery process. Some supplements also help to reduce muscle damage during exercise. While most ergogenic nutrition can be found in natural foods, some athletes use supplement drugs. They need to know the benefits and side effects of each supplement.
Multivitamins
Eat a healthy diet that is varied to get your vitamins. Make sure that you eat vegetables and/or fruits with every meal in addition to meat, fish and eggs. Here are some of the benefits of multivitamins:
- Better sleep: Zinc helps you to get good-quality sleep.
- Less illness: Vitamin C strengthens your immune system.
- Faster recovery: Calcium and iron help you to recover from strength training.
When taking ergogenic aids, make sure that you don’t go overboard and stick to the recommended doses. If you take too many of these, you could end up reversing the benefits that these will give you!
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