7 supplements to boost your performance without side effects, here’s what today’s article is all about!
The following supplements will help you improve your physical strength, your resistance and while we are at it, your muscle mass.
These natural products are excellent alternatives to much dangerous synthetic ways to improve performance.
However, depending on your own body some will work better than others.
To determine the best supplement for you, only use one of them at once. Also, keep track of your performance improvements on a sheet.
This will really help you to see progress and figure out what supplement works out the best for you.
Now, this carefully curated selection of supplements are some of the most efficient ones to boost performance.
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7 Supplements to Boost Your Performance
Creatine
Creatine is a compound derived from an amino acid found in the fibers of the brain and muscles.
In the world of supplements, creatine isn’t usually associated with performance.
Nonetheless, creatine is very useful to boost strength, speed and power. As such, it is a great supplement to improve muscular mass and strength.
Research on this compound is abundant.
Creatine supplementation has been shown to reduce recovery time and increase muscular resistance during an intense physical effort. (1)
Recommended Dose: 3 to 5 grams daily
Protein
At the end of the day – or the beginning, in this case – protein is the building block of your cells and that includes your muscles.
So, regardless of your dietary needs or choices, protein is not something that you can afford to avoid to increase performance.
Also, when exercising for prolonged periods of time, your body uses up protein as a secondary or additional source of energy. And if you haven’t got enough protein in your organism, it will start eating up your muscle mass to get protein.
Thus, make sure to eat enough protein!
They can come from animal sources (meat, dairy products, fish, eggs, etc.) or vegetable alternatives such as legumes (chickpeas, lentils, beans, etc.), soya, tempeh, quinoa…
Recommended Dose: 0.5-0.7 grams per pound of body weight. Increase your protein intake to 0.9 grams per pound of body weight, when doing intense or high-volume training. This will help muscular maintenance and the reparation of lean body mass.
Beetroot Powder or Juice
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However, beetroot can do much more than just boosting your sexual life.
The regular consumption of beetroot – particularly as a powder or a juice – can increase your physical performance by a whooping 14%! (2)
The cause behind it?
The same one that makes your penis harder, beets contain nitrates, compounds that increase the amount of nitric oxide, a gas, in our bodies.
Then, the increase of nitric oxide helps the body to use oxygen more efficiently.
Recommended Dose: 3 to 5 grams daily
Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAAS)
Branched-chain amino acids compete with another major amino acid, tryptophan. Since both amino acids need the same protein carrier to get to the brain.
However, an increase of BCAAS has been effective to reduce lactate production – which means that it can improve your endurance capacity.
Moreover, supplementing with BCAAS can decrease recovery time, the breakdown of muscular protein and boost the immune system.
Recommended Dose: 3 to 6 grams before exercising
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Beta-Alanine
Here’s another derivative from an amino acid that can help you improve performance and reduce physical fatigue.
Supplementing with beta-alanine helps your body do its job better.
During highly physical exercise, our bodies accumulate hydrogen ions. These ions contribute in a lower PH, which in turn will makes us tired faster.
Beta-alanine increases the body’s ability to reduce these hydrogen ions.
Recommended Dose: 3 to 6 grams throughout the day (in 800 mg doses to reduce the effects of a possible side effect called paresthesia – a temporary tingle or numbness in the limbs).
Caffeine
I couldn’t not talk about one of the most known performance-booster there is, could I?
Caffeine has been used for ages by endurance athletes to improve their performance. Caffeine makes you feel less tired, reduces the perception of effort and is an ideal quick pick-me-up.
Furthermore, caffeine also increases fat oxidation, which is highly useful for weight-loss and weight management.
Nevertheless, high doses of caffeine are dangerous. So, make sure to stick to the recommended dose and skip on the coffee that same day.
Recommended Dose: 1.3 to 2.7 mg per pound of body weight – preferably 1 hour prior exercise
Glutamine
Glutamine is quite literally the most abundant amino acid in our bodies.
However, intense physical activity quickly depletes our body’s reserves and it can’t replenish them fast enough.
Thus, this will lead to your body cannibalizing its own muscle tissue.
As such, supplementing with glutamine prevents the loss of muscle mass.
Furthermore, low levels of glutamine can impair your immune system, placing you at a higher risk for infections.
Finally, glutamine supplementation has been shown to improve recovery. Consequently, helping you train and recover faster. (3)
Recommended Dose: 20 grams daily
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This article “7 Supplements to Boost Your Performance” was written by Michael King.
(1) Effect of recovery interval on multiple-bout sprint cycling performance after acute creatine supplementation. Cottrell, G. T., Coast, J. R., & Herb, R. A. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. 2002
(2) Beetroot juice and exercise: pharmacodynamic and dose-response relationships. Wylie LJ, Kelly J, Bailey SJ, Blackwell JR, Skiba PF, Winyard PG, Jeukendrup AE, Vanhatalo A, Jones AM. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2013
(3) Does glutamine have a role in reducing infections in athletes? Castell LM, Poortmans JR, Newsholme EA. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1996