If you’re on a fitness journey, power to you! You don’t have to be a seasoned athlete to be into fitness, but proper supplementation can ensure that you achieve your goals and get where you want to be in your fitness. Supplements help you to push through plateaus and accelerate your recovery after a workout. Supplements can also enhance your overall performance, especially when your body undergoes significant stress while you’re training. With the right supplements, you can ensure that you replenish vital nutrients and repair muscle tissue. So, if you’re in the beginning or even the middle of your fitness journey, here’s ten reasons to supplement while you’re in training mode:
- You’ll boost your recovery. Muscle recovery is super important after an intense workout. If you don’t recover properly, you’ll find that the micro tears in your muscles won’t recover at all. Supplementing with BCAAs (branched-chain amino acids), glutamine or whey protein can work to speed up the whole recovery process. BCAAs, especially, are the essential amino acids that will help to reduce muscle soreness and promote muscle protein synthesis.
- Your energy levels will improve. Training is fun, exciting and allows you to express yourself. But it takes a toll on your energy reserves. If you want to take on high intensity workouts or longer training sessions, you can supplement and boost your energy. With pre-workout formulas and caffeine based products, you’ll enhance your stamina, focus on overall performance levels. All of this will help you to maximise your training sessions and improve your performance as an athlete.
- You get to optimize your testosterone levels. Testosterone is a vital hormone, especially for muscle growth, fat loss and vitality. Testosterone naturally declines with age, but certain factors like poor diet, stress and intense exercise can exacerbate this decline. With the help of testosterone boosters, however, you can support and optimize your testosterone levels in the body. This allows you to train harder, and see better results from your efforts. Often, supplements will have ingredients like fenugreek which will have been shown to naturally enhance testosterone production. When you supplement with testosterone boosters, you improve the anabolic environment of your body and that can result in greater muscle mass and reduced fat storage.
- Improved joint health leading to better mobility. Regular training puts a strain on your joints. When you’re involved in heavy lifting or high impact workout activities, this places a huge stress on your joints. Over time, this can lead to injury – way beyond general discomfort. With the help of supplements that focus on joint health like glucosamine and collagen, you will improve the flexibility of your joints along with their mobility.
- Improving fat loss levels. Training means that you’re looking to improve your health and a part of that will be to enhance fat loss as part of your process. Fat loss is a common goal for many in the fitness community and there are supplements that can help accelerate that process. The ingredients in these supplements include caffeine, green tea extract and L-carnitine, which work together in a way that supports a burning metabolism. You are better placed for fat loss results with the right supplements.
- Improved hydration and electrolyte balance. If you want to sustain your workouts, you need to be hydrated and while you can push back the water, you need to avoid dehydration – which goes far beyond a bottle of water to sup. You lose salts when you work out, so replenishing your hydration is also beyond the water. You need to make sure that you are taking electrolyte tablets or powders, so that you can ensure that you enhance your optimal fluid levels and electrolyte during intensive training sessions. Electrolytes can also help muscle cramping and muscle recovery, which is the goal!
- A better, stronger immune system. Training hard can really suppress your immune system and leave you more vulnerable to illness and infection. With the right supplements, including Vitamin D and C, you can strengthen those defenses and protect your cells from oxidative stress. Zinc is a supplement that is necessary for a proper immune response along with tissue repair, and by ensuring that your immune system is strong, you can reduce the risk of illness.
- Better endurance. You want your workouts to be effective and athletes need to have high levels of endurance and performance. Supplements like creatine and beta-alanine can help to enhance endurance and overall performance. Creative is a well-known supplement and it works to improve your strength. When you supplement with performance-enhancing products, you can push your limits during cardio and strength training.
- Better focus and mental clarity. An excellent reason to supplement, wouldn’t you say? You need both mental clarity and focus in your workouts and supplements that enhance your cognitive function can help. Nootropics and adaptogenic herbs can help to improve mental performance and this ensures that you stay focused and motivated during your workouts. The right supplements will help you to stay sharp both mentally and that’ll help with the physical side of things. You need to push through the mental barriers and perform at your best, and supplements help.
- For better sleep. Sleep is so important for your overall health and also your post workout recovery. Many athletes really struggle to get rest, and poor sleep hinders muscle repair. With the right supplements, you’ll sleep better, you’ll help your body to relax and you’ll repair while you sleep. Magnesium and valerian root both are well known for their calming effects, and when you improve your sleep you’ll accelerate your recovery.
With supplementation, you can improve muscle recovery, boost endurance and support your joints. The RIGHT supplements are what counts, however, so consult with a health professional before you start adding anything to your routine. With their help, you can make a point of choosing the right supplements for your specific needs. Now you know why they’re a good idea, you can choose the ones that best support your fitness routine needs.
