Boost your ride
Performance Q&A The big cycling questions answered by our team of expert coaches, nutritionists and riders
WHAT SUPPLEMENTS WILL IMPROVE MY PERFORMANCE?
Creatine, sodium bicarbonate and caffeine all have a solid base of evidence behind them. But what about the new wave of performance-enhancing supplements? We investigate four credible options...
Collagen
Collagen makes up a whopping 30% of total protein mass in your body and is a must for performance enhancers such as joint mobility, strong bones and healthy muscles. It’s why Greg Whyte OBE launched U-Perform with collagen at the heart of the range.
Nutritionist Peter Res has worked with Ajax FC. “We’ve improved recovery rates of our athletes by supplementing with gelatin,” he says. “It’s a powder and you dissolve it in hot water.”
The theory goes that collagen is essentially the same ‘material’ as that found in tendons, ligaments and bones. When you break a bone or tear a ligament, the first bridges over the injury are collagen. “The ingested collagen contains the same amino acids as the collagen in our body, so provides all the building blocks,” says Res.
Exercise also increases collagen production. A 2017 University of California study found that short periods of exercise with at least six hours of rest increased collagen production. When participants took 15g of gelatin an hour before six minutes of skipping, it doubled the rate of collagen synthesis. This means cyclists could take a gelatin or collagen supplement before a short session in the morning to boost their collagen levels and so increase their resilience to a lengthier afternoon ride.
Cannabidiol (CBD)
“Pain relief and improved sleep are two reasons for taking CBD,” says Graeme Close, professor of human physiology at Liverpool John Moores University. “The body has an endocannabinoids system, which is crucial in pain management, and CBD is a cannabinoid that can bind to these receptors.”
However, you may need to take a huge amount to
enjoy much pain relief. Two CBD products, Sativex and Epidiolex, have licences to treat MS sufferers and epileptics, respectively. “With Epidiolex, you start at 500mg [a day],” says Close.
“Whether athletes would take it in those quantities, with the potential risk of anti-doping plus the cost (£35K a year in that amount), is unlikely. But the evidence behind the smaller dosage isn’t quite there.” This is reflected in the experiences of rugby players that Close has studied, who admitted little pain relief. They did, though, report better sleep. The Food Standards Agency recently lowered its recommended safe upper limit of CBD to 10mg a day for healthy adults.
Ketones
Ketones are an energy source produced by the liver during periods of low carb intake. If you consume extraneous ketones, the idea is that you’ll spare precious glycogen for hard efforts by tapping into these more readily available ketones that deliver a higher energy yield than carbs.
So are ketones more important the longer you ride? Not necessarily. “We had cyclists ride for 180mins before a 15min time-trial, both with and without ketones,” explains Leuven University’s Peter Hespel. “The glycogen en concentration in both groups ups was the same, as were the TT results. I’ve never understood ood the physiological mechanism sm behind ketones improving intense efforts. And, actually, ally, they could impede hard efforts.” That’s because ketones are acidic. When you climb a hill, you generate lactic actic acid and hydrogen ions, which hich also have a low pH and, eventually, they cause a drop op in power output and speed.
Arguably, the benefits of ketones come when you’re sedentary. Further research by Hespel saw cyclists do three weeks of intensive training, with one group consuming ketones and the other a placebo. The ketone group kept up a higher training load as time wore on by maintaining caloric intake and sleeping better.
“During extreme day-byday exercise, athletes struggle to eat, and sleep badly. We showed that these groups had different hormonal profiles, specifically the stress-induced hormone GDF-15, a key hormone involved in appetite regulation.” A gradual increase in GDF-15 concentration kills the urge to eat, but ketones suppress s this. Cue the greater calorie c intake and better performance. p One idea why sleep s may have improved is though t delivering more ‘brain fuel’. f So if you’re a top cyclist, there’s t a case for ketones (a month’s m subscription from HVMN H is $108), yet arguably for recovery r rather than directly increasing in your physical output.
Probiotics P
The T use of prebiotics (fertiliser for existing bacteria) and/or probiotics (adding bacteria) in the gut microbiome for boosting performance has been attracting attention. The research is equivocal when it comes to a link between better gut health and a new PB, but prebiotic and probiotic supplements are still useful. “There isn’t strong evidence that both directly influence athletic performance, although one study showed probiotics improving running time-toexhaustion in the heat,” says Dr Patrick Wilson, author of The Athlete’s Gut: The Inside Science of Digestion. “What’s more plausible is that probiotics indirectly facilitate performance by keeping athletes healthy,” Wilson adds. “There’s evidence in both athletes and non-athletes that taking a probiotic can reduce the chances of coming down with an upper respiratory tract infection (URTI).”
So, time to start fermenting? “Taking a probiotics is the wisest approach if you’ve a specific goal like reducing the odds of picking up an URTI or preventing diarrhoea while being on antibiotics,” says Wilson. “Probiotic-containing foods like yoghurt and sauerkraut are great but offer less certainty in terms of the specific strains and dosages that you get from eating them.”
“What’s plausible is that probiotics indirectly facilitate performance by keeping athletes healthy”