Sports Supplements FAQs

Supplements are specially formulated products that aid certain areas of your diet either lost or naturally deficient through you workout. When you exercise, you lose a lot of natural nutrients and minerals from the body, and sports drinks and supplements are recommended to replace any of these things lost during exercise. Electrolytes, for example, are lost through sweat; sodium and potassium are needed for electrical pulses within muscles, and calcium along with magnesium are needed for the contraction and expansion of muscles. Maintaining dietary balance and hydration is important for the functioning of the body, and these vitamin, mineral and nutrient supplements will help your body to restore its internal balance to work properly. 

Supplements help to restore your body’s natural balance which can be disrupted by exercise, adding particular nutrients or minerals to ensure your body thrives at its optimum levels.

Low levels of certain vitamins, minerals and exhausted levels of nutrients can affect the body negatively which may be exasperated by your workout, and supplements aid the restoration of these elements to enhance your exercise. Other forms of supplements such a protein shakes do not focus on replenishing things that are deficient or lost but instead aim to add nutrients burnt off during exercise, which ensure your repair and growth after your workout. This branch of supplements focuses on aiding you to reach your goals, particularly encouraging muscle growth at a quicker rate. 

Sport places specific demands upon your body, internally and externally, and a balanced diet alone may not be able to cope with the demands of exercise. Deficient energy reserves, burning nutrients and the exertion of minerals can cause the body to perform inadequately, supplements however can aid these problems inevitably encountered in the course of exercise. Your diet should be the main source of nutrients and minerals, but exercise can use up some of these elements and so you must consider when using supplements that they are for additional purposes, not to replace your diet as only food can provide the entire range of nutrients and benefits your body needs. Supplements merely top up elements lost through your workout. 

If your diet already provides enough minerals or nutrients then the rewards of supplements will not be seen as your body is at its optimum level, but if exercise exhausts your body of its natural and dietary supply of vitamins and nutrients, then supplements will be very effective in restoring your body to its natural balance and healthy default. Dietary supplements, particularly protein will aid your natural intake and replace those nutrients lost during exercise, they should not however replace your natural intake. As helpful and beneficial as they can be at improving health and fitness, a balanced diet and well rounded health is key.  

There is no set rule as to who can or can't take them, each individual is different and has slightly different requirements. Even light exercise can cause a loss of vital nutrients or minerals that you need and it is important to make sure all elements needed for your body’s natural functioning are present. Sweating, for example, can remove electrolytes from the body which are important for many internal functions, which water cannot replace, therefore making supplements a beneficial addition to your workout. Supplements ensure your optimum performance when working out again by replacing those that have been lost. 

The best time to take supplements, whether for dietary, health or exercise purposes, is both before and after you workout to ensure that all vitamins, minerals and nutrients are available and restored. After exercise your body is most sensitive to what you consume, you have just exhausted its sources of nutrients and minerals, and so refueling your body straight away is ideal to ensure its maximum absorbance. Supplements are also most effective before and after sleep. When you are resting your body is still burning up its stores of nutrients and minerals over a long period of time, it is therefore important that before and after sleep your body is well stocked with all the elements it requires to repair itself through the night. 

Supplements are generally considered as food and so are not subject to the same restrictions, testing or labelling as medications are, potentially affecting their safety. This means that advertising teams and companies can claim their products produce results which you may not necessarily see. However they are still subject to national food standards which provides a certain level of safety, you will be able to see all ingredients inside the products on the label for example. It is important that you do some research and read the labels when considering a supplement, but national restrictions and laws provide a certain standard of safety with food products which provide a level of protection when using sports supplements.

More and more companies are tailoring more specific supplements in an assortment of categories which can aid you in numerous areas within your sport. A wide variety of products are available for purchase which contribute to different areas of your workout, examples such as building muscle, losing fat, promoting health, increasing energy , recovery and so on. You can pick and choose which areas of your exercise you need to improve or enhance and select products which can provide quicker results. Generally increasing your intake of certain vitamins and minerals, which you individually are deficient in, or increasing your nutrient intake, such as protein to assist the growth of muscle, will greatly help provide an ideal diet to aid your workout. 

Certain supplements are tailored to aid the speed and efficiency of muscle growth and metabolism rate, which are generally considered two major factors in losing weight.

It is commonly thought that the more protein consumed the less fat will be stored and held in tissues, aiding fat loss and general fitness. Although not the primary aim of such products, supplements can aid in weight loss and most notably changes in body shape and muscular retention, particularly protein shakes and powders will greatly help if losing weight is a particular part of your exercise goals. 

Supplements provide a helpful addition to the gaps missing from our diets, such as vitamin and mineral deficiencies; encouraging muscle growth, weight loss and more, though you should mainly rely on natural foods and your diet for your nutritional supply. Our food sources provide a nutritional cocktail of elements needed for a variety of purposes in the body which supplements alone cannot mimic. Although extremely helpful in assisting your exercise, recovery and reaching goals, substituting meals and areas of your diet with supplements is counterproductive as the natural source of nutrients and minerals is alway prefered when trying to achieve your workout potential.