Thursday, February 22, 2018

The Power of Supplementation, performance edition

In my previous post, I discussed how supplementation can help improve your diet & nutrition.  This post highlights more of how supplements can boost your performance.

Most athletes view supplements as a way to improve their performance.  In honesty, I thought that too when I first was driving into the field.  The first supplement that I had ever taken was a form of creatine monohydrate called Cell-tec (or Cel-tec, I don't remember exactly).  In any case, I was supplementing with it largely because my friends were and because it seems that what limited knowledge I had at the time was that it was supposed to get me ripped and huge.

Nevertheless, nothing is what it seems.  I can no longer take creatine without becoming violently ill.  It's a rare side effect associated with it's use.  The moment it hits my stomach I vomit, nearly every time.  Pretty terrible if you ask me.  So I go on, not taking it.

My friends & colleagues now can take it without any adverse effect.  Most of them take it so that they can lift more weight or to put on mass.  I envy them to some degree.  The primary effect of supplementing with creatine is an increase in performance, specifically lifting and sprint performance.  One of the major ways that this is accomplished is by increasing the water in the cells, of which is what binds to creatine at a molecular level.

I mentioned in my previous post BCAAs, or Branched Chain Amino Acids, these are amino acids that are primary metabolized in the muscles rather than going through a chain of events to get there.  My primary reason for use is to preserve as much muscle tissue as I can in a caloric deprived state.  I find that in hyper-dosing (a lot of BCAAs), that I don't experience the same degree of soreness as I would otherwise.

Regardless, some supplements are designed to boost performance.  The ones that I had talked about are some of the best out there.  In my next post, I want to discuss the superpower, Omega 3.  

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