Intra-Workout Supplements

Intra-workout supplements

A relatively new innovation in sportsnutritionis the use of nutritional supplements during training in the form of intra-workout drinks.

Intra-workout supplements commonly feature either branched chain amino acids, essential amino acids or short chain peptides derived from hydrolyzed whey protein. The use of these is for their rapid absorption and the fact the body has a high requirement for essential amino acids, especially BCAA's during training. Advocates of intra-workout supplements argue by supplying these critical constituents of muscle tissue during a time when blood flow to working muscles and muscle tissue breakdown is at a high level, trainees can have faster intra-set recovery as well as faster recovery and less soreness the day after training.

In addition, many intra-workout supplements will include nutrients such as beta alanine (for improving muscle endurance), citrulline malate (a nitric oxide precursor and ergogenic aid particularly for aerobic activity) or nootropic complexes to enhance mood and combat stress. Anecdotal feedback suggests these products can be effective particularly for advanced athletes.

Pre-Workout Supplements

Pre-workout supplements are supplements designed to enhance anaerobic and aerobic power, muscular endurance, heighten mental stimulation, and enhance recovery from exercise. In the past athletes might use a cup of black coffee or caffeine tablets to give them a boost in performance but the advances in sports nutrition in recent years means that supplements combining a range of ergogenic aids within one product are now extremely popular.

Commonly used nutrients included within pre-workout supplements include:

·  Stimulants such as caffeine, tyrosine, 1,3 Dimethylamylamine, and Phenylethylamine.

·  Nitric Oxide Precursors – Commonly used nutrients include Arginine, Agmatine, Glycocarn, and Arginine Alpha Ketoglutarate.

·  Ergogenics – Nutrients such as creatine, citrulline malate, beta alanine are used for their ability to increase strength, endurance and aerobic capacity.

·  Amino Acids – The three Branched Chain Amino Acids are frequently to be found within pre-workout supplements.

Although appropriate for bodybuilders and recreational trainees, all athletes who compete in drug tested sports should ensure that their pre-workout supplements abide by rules laid down by their governing bodies as certain ingredients will be legal yet not permitted by athletic bodies.

Supplements

Some of the supplements detailed below are banned in some sports. The current prohibited list of supplements is available from the World Anti-Doping Agency(WADA).

Alcohol

·  Alcohol is a depressant drug which will induce relaxation and reduce anxiety at low doses making it used in sports where even a slight twitch in action will impede performance such as Archery, or Snooker. In higher doses it will reduce co-ordination significantly as well as impede recovery from training. At seven calories a gram, alcohol will soon cause athletes to put on weight if consumed in excess although the body's inability to store the alcohol itself means the extra weight gained will be a result of food consumed in conjunction with alcohol, not the alcohol itself. With deleterious effects on the liver as well at high doses, alcohol intake for athletes should be monitored carefully.

Amphetamines

·  Amphetamines are powerful central nervous stimulants which have been abused widely in the past to boost athletic performance. However, they can increase body temperature and causedehydrationand were linked to the deaths of athletes such as Tommy Simpson, a cyclist from Great Britain. They are a controlled drug and banned by all international sporting bodies.

Anabolic Steroids

·  Anabolic steroids are used to increase muscle mass and strength.

·  If over-used, it can cause heart, liver, and immune system problems. Blood cholesterol levels often increase because steroid use changes how sugars and fats are handled. This and increased blood pressure can lead to the early development of heart disease, which can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Tendons andligamentsmay not strengthen at the same rate the muscle tissue develops. As a result, these tissues appear to be injured more often among steroid users.

·  Oily skin and acne are also common among steroid users.

·  Behaviour changes may include aggression, paranoia, mood swings, low sex drive, and depression.

·  Men's testicles shrink, the prostate gland enlarges, and sperm levels drop.

·  Female athletes may take on more male like characteristics, such as broader backs, wider shoulders, thicker waists, flatter chests, more body and facial hair and deeper voices.Menstrual cyclesmay become irregular or stop.

·  For adolescent athletes, steroid use may cause the growth plates in long bones to close faster than usual, which can result in reduced height.

Aspartates

·  Increases free fatty acid use, sparing muscle glycogen

Aspirin

·  Aspirin is a common painkiller used by athletes mainly to deal with training related pain. Its anti-inflammatory actions may make it have a useful purpose but athletes should be aware that by taking this after their training sessions they may lessen the adaptive response of the body to the inflammatory stress imposed by training. It is also an anti-coagulant, meaning it will make the blood thinner, hence its adoption as a strategy to reduce the risk of deep vein thrombosis when flying on long haul flights.

Beta-Alanine

·  Beta-Alanine is a non-essential amino acid that combines with histidine to produce carnosine. Carnosine is found in a high level in type 2 muscle fibres, acting as an intracellular buffer. By increasing carnosine levels explosive activities should be enhanced, and several university studies demonstrate Beta-Alanine helping to enhance athletic performance.

Beta blockers

·  Beta blockers decrease anxiety, have a positive effect on fine motor control but a negative effect on aerobic capacity.

Beta2 agonists

·  Beta 2 Agonists include drugs such as Clenbuterol, Salbutamol and Ephderine. Medically these drugs are used to reduce the symptoms caused by asthma, but their use in oral form has fallen markedly since the introduction of inhalers. Nowadays they are used predominantly by athletes seeking to enhance fat loss (via their thermogenic effects) and strength (via their stimulant effects). Although animal studies have reported lean muscle gains attributed to Clenbuterol, this has never been shown to be the case in humans, and the dosages used in animal studies would be enough to kill people so would be impractical. These drugs are all banned by major sporting bodies.

Blood Doping

·  The practice of blood doping involved athletes taking a certain amount of blood out of their systems, and then, later, when their bodies had made up for the blood taken out, injected back into their systems after the blood being kept in a refrigerated state in the meantime. This practice would increase red blood cell count allowing blood doping to improve performance in sports requiring high levels of aerobic activity. It was a dangerous practice though and risks of infection and heart trouble were relatively high, as well as very inconvenient having to keep the blood stored in a fridge. In the modern era blood doping has largely been replaced by the use of the drug Erythropoietin (EPO).

Branched chain amino acids - BCAA

·  The three branched chain amino acids are Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine. These three essential amino acids comprise a large part of muscle tissue and are frequently recommended to athletes to enhance recovery from training. One study on the use of branched chain amino acids showed they were able to enhance fat loss while keeping performance up in calorie restricted elite wrestlers.[1]

1. Mourier A, Bigard AX, de Kerviler E, Roger B, Legrand H, Guezennec CY. Int J Sports Med. 1997 Jan;18(1):47-55.

Caffeine

·  Caffeine is a central nervous stimulant, with mild diuretic properties, found naturally in coffee, tea, as well as many soda drinks and chocolate. It is often used by athletes as a pre-workout stimulant and appetite suppressant, and is found in many products designed to aid in fat loss. Overuse, or taking this too late in the day can affect sleep patterns and removing caffeine from a diet heavy in caffeine can frequently lead to caffeine withdrawal symptoms such as headaches. Caffeine enhances the contractility of skeletal and cardiac muscle, and helps metabolise fat, thereby sparing muscle glycogen stores. Side effects can include irritability, restlessness, diarrhoea, insomnia, and anxiety.

Clenbuterol

·  Clenbuterol affects the central nervous system, growth, muscle, and body fat.

·  The side effects include tremors, anxiety, faster heart rate, nausea, anorexia, insomnia, heart attack, or stroke.

Chlorella

·  Marketed as a superfood, high in protein, nutrients and minerals, Chlorella is a type of green algae with a long history of use, since at least the early part of the 20th century and was previously viewed as a possible solution to world population growth due to the fact it provides a diversity of nutrients at a low cost, but it has fallen out of favour somewhat in recent years.

Citrulline Malate

·  Citrulline Malate is a combination of the non-essential amino acid Citrulline and Malate, an apple derivative. It has been promoted as the endurance athlete's equivalent of creatine, enhancing aerobic performance, where creatine, enhances anaerobic performance. Studies[1]have shown that citrulline malate supplementation enhanced aerobic performance in basketball players and its use has gradually grown amongst both endurance and non-endurance athletes such as bodybuilders, attracted to its ability to increase nitric oxide production.

1. Janeira, M. A., Maia, J. R., & Santos, P. J. (1998). Citrulline malate effects on theaerobic-anaerobic thresholdand in post-exercise blood lactate recovery. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 30(5), Supplement abstract 880.

Coenzyme Q10 (ubiquinone)

·  Delays fatigue, acts as antioxidant

Coenzyme Q12

·  Increases aerobic capacity, speeds muscle repair

Creatine Monohydrate

·  Increases muscle energy, endurance, strength and lean muscle mass.

Diuretics

·  Diuretics are any compound which helps the user to shed water weight fast. Although they have a legitimate medical use for people suffering from Edema, they are abused by athletes looking to drop weight quickly, mainly by those who participate in sports with weight classes such as wrestling and weightlifting. Some supplements such as caffeine or vitamin C will have a natural diuretic effect, but prescription drugs such as Aldactone and Furosemide will work in a much more powerful way and pose a real danger to the athlete's health. A number of athletes have died as a result of diuretic use.

Ephedrine Hydrochloride

·  Ephedrine Hydrochloride is a beta agonist which means it will increase heart rate, increase blood pressure and suppress appetite as it is a strong stimulant. It is popularly used by athletes either as a pre-workout stimulant or to suppress appetite when dieting. It has also been shown to sparelean body masswhen dieting. Ephedrine is classed as a drug now, and illegal to supply as a nutritional supplement.

Erythropoietin

·  Erythropoietin – Better known as EPO, Erythropoietin is a drug used to treat anaemia by increasing red blood cell count. It has replaced the practice of blood doping used in sports during the 70’s and 80’s and its use has been attributed by many to the increasingly faster times set in long distance aerobic sports such as running, and cycling, where its use has become synonymous with the sport. EPO use has been shown to increase the risk of death due to coagulation of the blood causing heart attacks as the increased red blood cell count makes the blood much thicker than normal. A number of professional athletes’ deaths have been blamed on EPO.

Glucosamine

·  Serves as NSAID alternative, enhances recovery

Glutamine

·  Boosts immunity and growth hormone levels

·  Further reading : "The effects of oral glutamine supplementation on athletes after prolonged exhaustive exercise", Nutrition, Vol 13 (7-8) pp. 738-742. 1997

Human growth hormone - HGH

·  Human growth hormone is used to decrease fat and increase muscle mass.

·  The side effects are heart and nerve diseases, glucose intolerance, and higher levels of blood fats.

Leucine

·  Decreases muscle breakdown and spare muscle glycogen stores

Magnesium

·  Magnesium is required for more than 300 biological reactions in the body, including those involved in the synthesis of fat, protein, and nucleic acids,neurologicalactivity, muscular contraction and relaxation, cardiac activity and bone metabolism. Even more important for athletes is magnesium's pivotal role in both anaerobic and aerobic energy production, particularly in the metabolism of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the 'energy currency' of the body. The synthesis of ATP requires magnesium-dependent enzymes called 'ATPases'. These enzymes have to work extremely hard; the average human can store no more than about 3oz of ATR yet during strenuous exercise the rate of turnover of ATP is phenomenal, with as much as 15kgs of ATP per hour being continually broken down and reformed.

Nitrate

·  Nitrate supplementation has been shown to enhance exercise tolerance and performance, reduce restingblood pressure, improvecognativefunction, improve muscle recovery followingeccentricexercise and reduce oxygen consumption of sub maximal exercise.

·  Beetroot juice has been used in many studies.

·  Cholineis a very important and versatile nutrient in beetroot that helps with sleep, muscle movement, learning and memory.

·  Further reading: JONES, A. M. (2014) Dietary Supplementation and Exercise Performance,Sports Med,44 (1) p. 35-45

Phenylethylamine

·  Phenylethylamine is a powerful central nervous stimulant used widely as an aid to suppress appetite and increase energy before workouts. Phenylethylamine is found in small amounts in chocolate but has amphetamine like effects in high doses. It is a popular ingredient in a number of bodybuilding supplements today designed to act as fat burners

Prohormones

·  Prohormonesare substances with effects similar to anabolic steroids. They are essentially precursors to anabolic steroids but sold legally as food supplements. They have the capacity to increase muscle mass, strength, and athletic performance possibly. On the downside they can cause the user to be at risk of a range of androgenic and estrogenic effects including aggravating hair loss, gynecomastia, as well as impacting negatively on health functions such as increasing LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and causing stress on the liver as these supplements are almost always in oral form

Pyruvate

·  Increases lean body mass