Whether you are an experienced athlete or a fitness lover, you’ve probably heard of Sports Nutrition before.
In any case, we are here to take a deep dive into what Sports Nutrition truly is, and what role it has in improving your health, and sports performance.
What is Sports Nutrition?
An athlete requires different nutrition than a non-athlete to keep their bodies in optimal conditions before, during, and after exercising, here is where Sports Nutrition is important.
Sports Nutrition belongs to the field of modern sports medicine that helps athletes maintain good nutrition to keep their energy levels balanced, have strength, improve their performance, and have a solid recovery.
Important elements of Sports Nutrition
- Food schedule and food portion are extremely important aspects of Sports Nutrition, the times we eat throughout the day have an impact on our performance levels and on our ability to recover.
- It focuses on the biochemistry of nutrients, and their metabolization process during intensive physical activity.
- Sports Nutrition pays extra attention to the meals eaten before and after exercising.
Supplements in Sports Nutrition
Supplements are used to help meet nutritional needs, improve deficiencies, and enhance athletic performance.
The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) indicates that a good training program should be based on a nutrient-dense diet, and supplements could be used to complement your diet if there’s research that supports them.
Most used supplements in Sports Nutrition
Proteins
Protein is one of the most important ingredients in building and preserving muscle mass, and in repairing injured tissue.
The most common Protein Supplements are powders, which can be made from plant or animal sources.
When to take protein?
Protein Supplements should be consumed during the ‘anabolic window‘, right after training, especially if you want to focus on the repair and growth of muscle fibers.
In order to improve sports performance, the protein supplement you choose should contain all nine essential amino acids.
Amino Acids
Amino acids are the basic compounds of proteins and are known for their benefits in sports training. Amino acids support the growth and maintenance of muscle mass, this is why they are essential nutrients for sports and exercise.
There are 22 amino acids of which 9 are considered “essential.” These are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.
BCAA
If you want to be able to still feel your arms after doing pull-ups, and move after a hard leg training, then BCAA is for you.
BCAA stands for branched-chain amino acids: leucine, isoleucine, and valine.
These three amino acids are essential, they help to prevent fatigue, reduce muscle soreness, build muscle, burn fat, and prevent muscle wasting.
Creatine
Creatine is made of three amino acids: glycine, arginine, and methionine.
Creatine works as a muscular boost that helps athletes achieve bursts of speed and energy, ideal for high-intensity sports athletes, in sports like football, rugby, boxing, and weightlifting.
Benefits of ingesting creatine as part of a workout
- Increase muscle speed
- Increase muscle strength
- Increase lean muscle mass
- Increase muscle power output
Remember that you can find these, and many other Sports Nutrition supplements in Nature’s Discount.
Sports Nutrition helps athletes accomplish their goals in a healthy way, and that’s what we also love to do here at Nature’s Discount.
