Nutritional Supplements for Endurance Athletes

Abstract

Endurance athletes often seek nutritional strategies inclusive of dietary supplements to maximize their performance. Effective supplement routines, however, are only benefi cial when built on a sound training diet, training regimen, and an appreciation of dietary needs relative to their training schema. While traditional dietary interventions are based on the glycemic index of carbohydrate, coupled with the addition of protein quality and quantity, recent innovations have introduced the potential utility of long chain glucose polymers and dietary nitrates, such as beetroot juice. Consideration is also given to the utility of supplement strategies aimed at attenuating immune responses accompanying training and competition. A key to implementing successful supplementation routines is the appreciation that athletes should be considered on an individual basis and training volume and intensity must be taken into account.

Metabolomic signatures in elite cyclists: differential characterization of a seeming normal endocrine status regarding three serum hormones

“…Last, glutamine, another putative biomarker of the outliers' subgroup in the Normal class, is a key anaplerotic precursor of the Krebs cycle and a non-essential glucogenic amino acid in normal energy expenditure conditions. But it is considered as conditionally essential in case of metabolic stress (Earnest & Rasmussen 2015). This explains its large use as nutritional supplement with its supposed anti-proteolytic effect on skeletal muscle as well as anti-catabolic effect on branch-chain amino acids (BCAAs) (Raizel et al 2016).…”