Supplements & Nutritional Aids

"I am not qualified to nor do I desire to recommend supplemental or nutritional aids. But as a coach it is my job to be aware of the risks and rewards of these substances as they relate to endurance athletes."

There are many factors that go into nutrition, athlete performance and overall health and wellbeing. I view nutritional supplements for endurance athletes as one of the final things to be evaluated as a limited part of a holistic approach to health. These substances should be the final touch, or as the name indicates, a small supplement to a well thought out training and nutritional plan. Supplements have a good place in the life of an athlete but they should be added in after everything else is finalized and not until those other larger items are in place successfully. 

I want to address several key areas that I interact with in the life of my college athletes. The development of these thoughts have been influenced by my education and through experiences with athletes I work with everyday.

Vitamin Supplements:

As stated several places on this site, I believe that athletes should do their best to meet all nutritional needs with their regular diet. However, there is research that would indicate even well balanced diets do lack some vitamins or minerals due to food processing or lack of taste for certain foods. However taking a single super-sized dosage of specific elements unprescribed by a medical professional is very rarely necessary. A simple adult multi-vitamin, sometimes broken into a male or female option, are all that is really needed.

  • Choose a multi-vitamin that offers 100% DV (daily value) of as many elements as possible
  • Purchase from pharmacies, grocery stores or other reputable sources
  • Verify that your vitamin is compliant with your campus athletics training professionals
  • Look for USP Verified products (United States Pharmacopeia)
  • Do not withdraw things from your diet just because you are taking a vitamin

Recovery Supplements

Once again, I believe that regular whole foods are the best option for recovery from most of the general running workouts endurance athletes complete while training in college. However, there are benefits to using legitimately developed recovery supplements in a post workout environment within a 45 minute window following a long (60+ minutes) or strenuous (weights, strength, plyos, speed, tempo, etc.) session.

  • The goal of post-workout recovery nutrition is two-fold:
    • Replace spent glycogen stores
    • Repair any damage to muscle tissue
  • Aiding recovery is important for athletes in serious training allowing them to be prepared for each workout and avoiding potential overtraining issues related to nutrition
  • Most easy runs of less than 60 minutes do not require extra nutritional supplementation beyond a post-workout snack
  • The window for ideal recovery nutrition is within 15-45 minutes of working out
  • Most athletes will find that 50-100 grams of carbohydrates (choose low fat foods) will be sufficient
  • Though research results differ, a basic rule for post-workout nutrition includes a balance of 4 grams of carbohydrate to 1 gram of protein so 50 grams of carbohydrate would also be accompanied by 12.5 grams of protein
  • Because it is difficult to know what each specialty recovery nutritional aid contains its best for most college athletes to use food as their most common recovery tool
  • WHEY & CASEIN protein are both necessary in recovery
  • CREATINE is often mentioned in recovery supplementation discussions and it is my opinion that this substance is not necessary to include in a runner's preparation
    • Creatine is more helpful for those looking to gain muscle mass
    • Water weight gain is common with creatine usage; a negative for runners
    • Most college runners are not maximizing their diet, training or sleep patterns
  • Often during college some athletes experience the freedom of choosing a VEGETARIAN or VEGAN diet
    • These athletes should be aware of the challenges that some athletes experience while switching to these lifestyles
    • This type of change should be done in the off-season if possible
    • If possible these changes should be accompanied by consulting a sports nutrition professional
    • These alternative diets are not intrinsically more healthful or harmful for individual athletes
  • There are basic principles for recovery nutrition but there is no single perfect solution for everyone; athletes should work to build a routine that works for them as individuals

References

Clark, N. (2014). Nancy Clark's Sport Nutrition Guidebook (5th Ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Eberle, S. G. (2014). Endurance Sports Nutrition (3rd Ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics

Williams, M. H., Anderson, D. E., & Rawson, E. S. (2010). Healthful Nutrition for Fitness and Sport: The Consumer Athlete, Nutrition for Health, Fitness & Sport (10th Ed. pp 37-81).  New York: McGraw-Hill.