Sodium for Muscle Cramps
Get salty! If youīre doing heavy exercise in hot weather, you may find muscle cramps become a problem. Often, this can be solved by adding a little salt to your sports nutrition diet, especially if you ordinarily avoid salt. Your body can lose up to 2,000mg of sodium in hot and severe conditions! Sports nutrition drinks and a sports nutrition supplement with sodium work too. If the cramps persist, check with a doctor to rule out serious conditions.
Donīt Skip Meals You may be so dazzled by your triple-jump time you forget lunch. Don't, and don't rely on a sports nutrition supplement.
Performance in moderate-to-high intensity exercise of 35-40 minutes duration was better when a meal was eaten 3 hours before exercise than when the previous meal was 6 hours before exercise, in a study in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition. The meal used in the study's sports nutrition diet was moderate to high carbohydrate, low fat, and low protein. Donīt skip meals before competition or training.
Fruit Juice
Grab that OJ for sports nutrition! Fruit juices are not easily absorbed during activity, but are good to drink as part of your sports nutrition diet after a hard workout, to both help with rehydration and replenish glycogen.
Carnitine
Carnitine as a sports nutrition supplement aids fat metabolism, which is important to endurance athletes and others who work out long and hard. However, it is classed as a nonessential amino acid, which means the body manufactures it from other amino acids. There is a theory that the body does not manufacture enough for strenuous exercise and a carnitine sports nutrition supplement can help.
Studies on supplemental carnitine for increasing performance are inconclusive, but there is no sound evidence that including it in a sports nutrition diet can help athletic performance, and it has little value for weight loss.
If you want to try it anyway, make sure itīs L-carnitine. D-carnitine can be dangerous. Follow instructions on the label.
Pre-Marathon Meals
In an ideal sports nutrition diet, with or without a sports nutrition supplement, you should eat 2 grams of carbohydrate for every kilogram of body weight (divide your weight in pounds by 2.2) 2 hours before a marathon. Experiment with pre-run sports nutrition and your long training runs to see what works for you.
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