Endurance Athletes

[aphextwin]

I think a few of you guys are involved in triathlons. Drugs aside, what supplements have helped you recover?

 

[Achilles-reborn]

Bump

 

[triathloncoach]

Rest and good nutrition.

You need understand and practice training periodization. You need to build in easy weeks. Overtraining is a killer. Id much rather be undertrained than over trained. respect the off season.

Proper hydration. Injury avoidence. stretching, rest, nutrition, cross training.

I dont know how much I believe in OTC supplementation. Honestly I dont believe in them at all. But I could be wrong.

 

[aphextwin]

Of course rest and proper nutrition is key. I wonder how well BCAA's, Beta-alanine and/or glutamine might aid in recovery?

 

[aphextwin]

Forgot

I meant to mention WHEY as being necessary with carbs and EFAs

 

[triathloncoach]

I would lump that mentioned above with good nutrition. Nice incremental perhaps, but not critical. Are you an elite national level runner, biker, swimmer, tennis player?

If you arent talking about PED, then I would focus on getting a balanced diet, less so than OTC supplementation. Save your money. Imho, a bad return on your investment.

Do the correct work outs. Get your rest. Eat the proper amount of nutrient rich calories. Injury provention.

Dont be very concerned with the marginal garbage sold at stores like GNC. Get the other 97% of whats important first. Not performance is a vitamin store bottle.

 

[triathloncoach]

Of course rest and proper nutrition is key. I wonder how well BCAA's, Beta-alanine and/or glutamine might aid in recovery?

They 100% will not help even remotely as much as not over training, and getting sufficient sleep. But if money is no object...why not? But I wouldnt expect much.

 

[Amazon Doll]

For me it is not over training as TC says.

Recovery, sleep, nutrition and hydration.

I make sure to get a lot of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, manganese and zinc to help my body hold fluids. Even eating a really clean whole foods diet I do not get enough vitamins and minerals so I supplement them. I like to use FitDay to see what amount of nutrients I am getting from my foods so I can see exactly what I need to add supplement wise.

I never used any OTC type supps, I think they are all BS.

 

[triathloncoach]

For me it is not over training as TC says.

Recovery, sleep, nutrition and hydration.

I make sure to get a lot of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, manganese and zinc to help my body hold fluids. Even eating a really clean whole foods diet I do not get enough vitamins and minerals so I supplement them. I like to use FitDay to see what amount of nutrients I am getting from my foods so I can see exactly what I need to add supplement wise.

I never used any OTC type supps, I think they are all BS.

I agree. Line 2 of your post is key. I know many triathletes who's body broke down from too many miles. Injuries, illness. Thats why an endurance athlete like Floyd Landis takes test. So he can train unnaturally hard, and recover in time for the next workout.

And then we have epo, blood doping, elevation sleeping chambers.

Ok, im done.

 

[aphextwin]

We all know PED drugs will aid in recovery. Someone would be an idiot to assume otherwise.

Nutrition and rest are the key ingredients.