Nutritional supplements for athletes

An essential part for an athlete to perform at their best is their diet. Likewise if he is an elite athlete or an amateur runner who is dedicated to 10K or mountain races; its performance depends on the feeding. Many times we are forced to resort to supplements to meet our nutritional needs, so we take advantage to know a little better nutritional supplements for athletes.

Steps to follow:

1. We start with sports drinks, the best known that will cost us nothing to find in the supermarket. They help us fight dehydration and recover energy and have an affordable price. A more complex version are gels or these same drinks but in powder form so that we can prepare them at home. It is recommended that you choose those that have between 6 and 8% carbohydrates.

2. The whey proteins and casein are in the milk but we find powdered formulas that allow us to increase our dose until we meet the amount of protein that we recommend (depending on sex, age or sport). It helps to increase or maintain muscle mass.

3. A similar purpose is creatine, which improves strength, muscle mass and performance in high intensity exercises. It is in meat and fish but can also be found prepared for shakes, in liquids, pills, bars or even chewing gum. The ideal is to take 3 to 5 grams a day, after training. It must be taken in cycles.

4. Every day we drink caffeine with coffee or green tea but we can also find it in capsules, formulas or gels. It increases the performance in resistance exercise, stimulating the central nervous system and promoting fatty acids, it takes an hour or two to take effect and is expelled at the next 3 or 5 hours. An adult should take about 3 milligrams per kilo of body weight.

5. To recover muscle and increase protein formation we have the branched chain amino acids that are naturally found in milk, eggs, meat or fish. As a supplement we can find it in capsules, liquids or gels and it is recommended to take between 6 and 20 grams a day and you can take them before training, afterwards, in full training or in different doses throughout the day.

6. The glutamine also helps us to recover after exercise, but if we take a dose of 20 grams also prevents degradation of proteins and helps improve the function of the immune system. Naturally it is present in cares, dairy, spinach and nuts, but its cooking reduces the amount; and we can buy it in capsules, powdered formulas, shakes or energy bars.

7. Another of the nutritional supplements for athletes is citrulline that occurs naturally in our body and uses lactate that is produced in the exercise to synthesize energy and delay fatigue. Although its absence in the body is very strange, powdered formulas can be found and it is recommended to consume 6 grams a day between meals or with the main meals.