According to the World Health Organization, adults aged 18-64 should get between 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise. But even if you’re meeting those goals, you may not be seeing the results you want.
Adding exercise supplements can help you get more out of your routine. Discover some of the best nutritional supplements for both before and after your workout.
Protein Powder
Protein plays an important role in the body. It’s an extra energy source, after carbohydrates and fats, that professional athletes rely on to keep the body going. Protein also helps you from losing muscle when you start to lose fat.
Common protein sources include poultry, fish, lean beef and pork, tofu, dairy products, and eggs. However, not everyone gets enough protein in their diet.
Sarcopenia is the age-related loss of muscle function. It can lower muscle strength by 50%, which can be especially dangerous for older adults. A loss of muscle strength and mass can increase the risk of falls and injuries, such as fractures.
Adding protein powder can help bring you up to recommended levels. Experts recommend that men over the age of 19 get 56 grams of protein, and women aged 14 and older get 46 grams.
When strength training, adding Rebuild protein powder to your diet can help you build more muscle.
BCAAs
There are 20 amino acids in the body. Nine of them are considered essential amino acids, which means your body can’t make them naturally. You need to obtain these through your diet.
Of those nine, three are called branched-chain amino acids.
Branched-chain amino acids or BCAAs contain three valuable amino acids—leucine, valine, and isoleucine. These molecules are often found in foods containing protein, such as animal products like meat, dairy, and eggs.
Taking BCAA supplements may help to improve endurance or reduce mental and physical fatigue. Exercise fatigue is fairly common depending on how often you exercise, the type of activity, and your state of health and wellness. However, BCAAs can help a little bit.
Also, BCAA supplements may help after working out if you experience sore muscles. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMs) is also fairly common and can sometimes last up to 72 hours. Most researchers believe this soreness is the result of the tiny tears on the muscles caused during exercise.
BCAAs reduce muscle damage, which can shorten or lower the intensity of muscle soreness felt after exercising.
Nitrate
You might be consuming a nutritional diet, but are you getting enough nitrate?
Nitrate is usually found in your vegetables like turnips, beetroot, and spinach. Nitrate may help boost exercise performance. It can turn into nitric oxide, which is a vasodilator.
Vasodilators like nitric oxide help relax and widen the blood vessels, which can improve blood flow and lower blood pressure.
In addition, the right supplement can help decrease muscle soreness, much like BCAAs.
Citrulline
Although citrulline is an amino acid that’s produced naturally in the body, taking supplements can help your body and may improve performance.
Citrulline helps increase blood flow to the body’s tissues. This helps provide your muscles with the nutrients and oxygen they need to perform, recover, and grow strong.
There are two types of citrulline: L-citrulline, often used for endurance studies and citrulline malate, related to weight training.
You can find citrulline in foods such as watermelon, cucumber, bitter melon, gourds, and pumpkins. If you don’t get enough of these foods, you can also take supplements.
Caffeine
Caffeine molecules are found naturally in sources like coffee and tea. Caffeine is a fairly popular pre-workout supplement that might help improve performance, depending on the type of exercise.
Caffeine takes some time to work, which is why it might help you see more from endurance workouts like cycling or running or intermittent exercises like soccer.
While we’re not yet sure how long you have to work out to see a benefit from caffeine, most studies tested the effects of caffeine on a body after about two hours. The energizing effects of caffeine can last between three to six hours.
Make sure to follow safety guidelines when taking caffeine to avoid overdosing. Too much caffeine can cause sweating, tremors, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, and vomiting. However, if you’re careful with the dosages, caffeine can help you power through those long workouts.
Creatine
Creatine is often considered one of the best supplements for improving power and strength and certainly one of the most studied.
How does it work? Well, when muscle cells have more energy, you can perform better.
Creatine supplements boost your phosphocreatine stores. This plays a part in forming adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which cells use for energy and other basic functions. When you work out, the body breaks ATP down for energy.
You use ATP faster than the body reproduces it, which is why creatine supplements can be so useful.
Creatine helps to increase muscle mass, improve strength, and boost exercise capacity. If you’re strength training, adding a creatine supplement can help you get more out of your routine.
A recommended starting dose is usually 20 grams a day, and a maintenance dose is around 3-5 grams per day.
Beta-Alanine
Beta-alanine is another amino acid that can help fight acid buildup in the body during exercise. Athletes often take this supplement to help with performance.
This amino acid produces carnosine which helps reduce lactic acid, which can help to improve athletic performance by reducing fatigue. Essentially, carnosine acts as a buffer and reduces the acidity in your muscles as you work out.
Try These Exercise Supplements Today
If changing your diet and proper exercise isn’t getting you the results you want, exercise supplements might be able to help. Try some of these supplements, and you might see a big difference when you work out.
For more health and lifestyle tips, check out some of our other posts.
