Fuelling Your body
EXERCISE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SPORT SUPPLEMENTS MENTS
It took me many years to venture into the world of sports supplements. I was very sceptical for a long time especially when you read about doping and the bans that occur in most sports.
In fact, I even used to think that the sports supplements that come in those big containers at the chemists are illegal supplements. So with that, for a long time, I would eat a banana before heading out for a run or a cycle, drink water during activity and eat a chicken mayo sandwich afterwards.
During running and cycling races the refreshment stations often have Coke, water, a sports drink, bananas and oranges on offer. For short distances, these can work but for endurance events I have learnt they are just not enough and you need specific sports supplements.
My curiosity that led me to trying sports supplements for the first time came around 2012, when I was training for the Absa Cape Epic 8 day multi stage mountain bike race. At one point I was required to survive through 5 to 6 hour long rides and halfway through, I started realising that no matter how much sports drink I drank or how many bananas and peanut butter sandwiches I ate, I just did not have adequate energy to carry me through to the end of the ride.
I often had fellow riders physically push me to help me survive the rides. I then started asking riders what they consume in their bottles and what they eat and I was very quickly inundated with all kinds of options.
I started reading up about the different products and learnt that for assistance with performance and endurance, it’s good to have a supplement before training, called a Pre-Workout.
Many brands also have a supplement for taking during the activity to help sustain your energy levels. It’s normal for you to start with high energy levels but at some point during activity they do diminish so a supplement taken during activity helps to lift and sustain your energy levels. During exercise, muscle fibres get broken down and post exercise they need to repair. Usually when you feel pain the following day, it’s because your muscles have not repaired themselves and often will take another day or two to repair. It’s a normal process for muscle fibres to break during exercise. That is how our muscles grow. I used to o stretch my muscles after training aining and thought that it was enough but I soon learnt rnt it wasn’t. Most products ts have a post exercise recovery eith drink to help with repairing torn or damaged ged muscles fibres. Something ing as simple as chocolate milk ilk has also been shown to have e propes properties that help muscles repair after exercise.
So in essence, with regards egards to sports supplements for or end endurance sports, I would sugduring suggest a pre-workout, during workout and recovery y supmany supplement. There are so many products on the market t and I have had my fair share re of trying many of them.
It boils down to personal rsonn preferences and even taste buds, so go out there and nd try out a few. In a separate artiodally article, I will review the products that I have personally been using the past three ree years and share in-depth pth information.