Supplementation

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Contents 1 Supplementation 1.1 Vitamins 1.2 Minerals 1.3 Carbohydrate Loading 1.4 Protein supplementation

Supplementation

• Can be legal and illegal
• Include vitamins, minerals, creatine, glycogen etc
• Reasons for use: beliefs: eat poorly, will improve performance, advertising claims
• The industry is not regulated

Vitamins

• Deficiencies can be avoiding by following a balanced diet and health lifestyle
• Affects of deficiencies: early fatigue, infections/illness, slow recovery
• Eg Vitamin C (resistance from disease), Vitamin B (energy releasing)
• Fat soluble: ADEK (can be toxic), water soluble: B,C
• Guidelines for use:
  • Consult doctor/dietician if you think they are necessary
  • Don’t consume anything >100% RDI
• Only use if: ill health, unavailability of balanced diet (eg when travelling)

Minerals

• Can help: muscle contractions, fluid balance, energy systems
• Are all available in a balanced diet
• Eg calcium, iron, potassium, sodium, chlorine
• Iron and calcium deficiencies are the most common in athletes (esp women)
• Sports anaemia: general fatigue at the commencement of a heavy training program because iron is being used for energy production and not producing red blood cells

Carbohydrate Loading

• Traditionally (about 1960’s): exhausting the muscles of glycogen then loading them. By doing exhaustive training the week before. The first 3 days: no glycogen, then load heavily.
• This almost doubles the body’s capacity to store glycogen
• Problems: fatigue, loss of motivation
• Contemporary method:
  • Balanced diet with a carb focus (10g carbs per kg of body weight per day)
  • Tapering of exercise
  • Hydration as glycogen retains water
• Loading only works in events that are 60-90 minutes + long eg marathon running
• It won’t increase strength, only prolong the ability to perform
• High GI: digest rapidly, eg glucose, Low GI: eg pasta, porridge, baked beans

Protein supplementation

• RDI = 0.8 > 1.2 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day
• We need 20 amino acids, 10 of these comes from our diet

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