Chapter 4 – Muscular Strength and Endurance
Supplements and Performance Enhancing Drugs
Many active people use nutritional supplements and drugs in the quest for improved performance and appearance. Some supplements can be a safe addition to a healthy diet and balance training program. Others are ineffective and expensive, and many are dangerous. A balanced diet and consistent training should be your primary strategy.
Below is information about a few of the better known supplements and training aids. Descriptions should be considered a very abbreviated form of information for basic knowledge. Any person considering supplementation should perform their own independent research from a variety of reliable sources without influence from manufactures or peers.
Nutritional Suppliments
The best source of nutrients for any level of training is through a healthy and balanced diet. Nutrients in whole foods are most easily absorbed, in the proper concentrations and ratios for a body to use. However, busy lifestyle, budget, or other factors may have a person considering nutritional supplements.
Dietary Supplements for Exercise and Athletic Performance – National institute of Health
Protein
Training Aids
Creatine
Creatine is one of the most thoroughly studied and widely used dietary supplements for exercise and sports performance. Creatine is a naturally occurring substance in the body used to help generate ATP to supply muscles with energy, particularly for short-term events. (Remember the ATP-PC -Phosphocreatine cycle for energy production discussed in Chapter 3.)
Creatine might improve muscle performance in four ways:
- by increasing stores of phosphocreatine used to generate ATP at the beginning of intense exercise
- accelerating the re-synthesis of phosphocreatine after exercise
- depressing the degradation of adenine nucleotides and the accumulation of lactate
- enhancing glycogen storage in skeletal muscles
Supplementation with creatine over weeks or months helps training adaptations to increased workloads over time, predominately for activities using the immediate and non-oxidative energy systems. Creatine supplementation does not seem to have training or performance benefits for endurance sports, such as distance running or swimming, that do not depend on the short-term ATP-creatine phosphate system to provide short-term energy.
Caffeine
Caffeine is commonly used in energy drinks, gels and pre-workout supplements marketed to improve training or performance. It is often combined with carbohydrates and electrolytes as well. Many studies have shown that caffeine might enhance performance in athletes when they ingest about 2–6 mg/kg body weight before exercise by improving endurance, strength, and power in high-intensity team sports activities
Caffeine supplementation is more likely to help with endurance-type activities (such as running) and activities of long duration with intermittent activity (such as soccer) than more anaerobic, short-term bouts of intense exercise (such as sprinting or lifting weights)Heavy caffeine use (500 mg/day or more) might diminish rather than enhance physical performance and could also disturb sleep and cause irritability and anxiety.
Anabolic Steroids
Anabolic steroids are medications that are manufactured forms of testosterone. Though both men and women have testosterone, this androgen stimulates the development of male characteristics so it naturally much higher in men than in women.
Anabolic steroids are the most common appearance- and performance-enhancing drugs (APEDs). Some athletes, bodybuilders and others misuse testosterone in an attempt to enhance performance and/or improve their physical appearance. For athletes, increasing muscle mass may also promote strength, which can improve strength-based sports performance. Anabolic steroid misuse can be associated with a form of body dysmorphia called muscle dysmorphia as well.
Side effects and complications of anabolic steroid misuse for anyone include:
- High blood pressure.
- Blood clots.
- Heart issues, including heart attack.
- Stroke.
- Liver damage.
- Short stature (if you’re an adolescent).
- Severe acne and cysts.
- Male-pattern baldness.
- Aggression.
- Mania.
- Delusions.
- Major depressive disorder.
Side effects and complications of anabolic steroid misuse in men include:
- Decreased sperm production.
- Enlarged breasts.
- Decrease in testicle size.
- Increased risk of testicular cancer.
Side effects and complications of anabolic steroid misuse in women include:
- Voice deepening.
- Decreased breast size.
- Excessive body hair growth.
