The term ergogenic aid refers to any substance that can increase the capacity for bodily or mental labour, especially by eliminating fatigue symptoms. Nutritional ergogenic aids are substances that can enhance performance and are either nutrients, metabolic by-products of nutrients, food extracts, or substances commonly found in foods (e.g. caffeine and creatine) that are provided in amounts more concentrated than commonly found in any natural food supply. Nutritional ergogenic aids work by entering well-established nutritional metabolic pathways, and these are the ones we'll be looking at today, more specifically creatine monohydrate, caffeine, and carbohydrates, in order to better understand how they can enhance our training performance.
Creatine Monohydrate
Quick story time. I bought my first tub of creatine monohydrate from pharmacists in 2006 when I was 15. I asked the staff to make sure that what I was buying wasn't steroids, and they assured me it wasn't. I hid the tub at the back of my wardrobe in the deepest pocket of my tennis racquet bag so my mum wouldn't find it (she was barely on board with me taking whey protein back then). She found them a few weeks later and told me to flush them down the toilet, which I did because she thought I was taking something illegal.
Rest assured, creatine is NOT a steroid. Creatine monohydrate has been around for a long time and is probably one of the most researched supplements in the world. It's a compound made from 3 amino acids, which joins with phosphorus to make phosphocreatine (PCr). Phosphocreatine is basically a storage depot for maintaining adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels during high-intensity activities such as sprinting, which can quickly deplete ATP. How creatine is believed to work by enhancing athletic capacity to maintain high-energy ATP and delay fatigue in high-intensity activity, including resistance training. This happens through the saturation of muscles with creatine.
It's important to note that creatine can also be obtained from meat, though the amounts are likely to be so small that additional supplementation is needed to see benefits.
As always, supplements are the least important in the hierarchy of needs, and creatine will have a negligible effect as a performance enhancer in the absence of sufficient caloric intake.
How to take it: contrary to what is still prescribed on the side of tubs by supplement companies, there is no loading period necessary (this is partly based on outdated information and a sales tactic so that you have to buy it again sooner). 3-5g daily is sufficient to keep muscle creatine levels saturated and can be taken at any time with or without food. There is also no need to cycle creatine, as it can be taken year-round. Look for Creatine Monohydrate, which is the purest form of creatine sold.
Caffeine
Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant and a muscle relaxant. It has been shown to improve endurance-type performance, resistance-training performance, and mental acuity.
As a side note, as well as being a performance enhancer it can help with common gut issues such as constipation, as caffeine can excite the bowels (much like nicotine). So, for anyone reading who may be contemplating reducing their caffeine intake or going cold turkey, it's common for bowel movements to become disrupted with lower intakes. If you're someone who already experiences gut issues, a gradual reduction can be beneficial.
As is common with stimulants, we adapt to them very quickly, and frequent and regular consumption results in a reduced dose effect. Put simply, the more you consume, the more you need to consume to achieve the same effect.
Below is a list of caffeine intakes in common foods and drinks:
Coffee, brewed | 100-150mg in 250ml serving
Coffee, instant | 50-70mg in 250ml serving
Coffee, espresso | 50-110mg in 250ml serving
Green tea | 25-40mg in 250ml serving
Black tea | 40-60mg in 250ml serving
Energy drinks | 80-150mg in 250ml serving
Coca-Cola | 35-55mg in 330ml serving
How & when to take: everyone has their own coffee rituals, and as such there are no hard and fast rules for amounts. That said, if performance enhancement is the goal, then there is an inverse relationship between how much and often you consume caffeine and its effect, so those who consume less caffeine will experience a greater ergogenic aid than those who consume a lot.
From a dietary perspective, as already stated caffeine can help ensure regularity with bowel movements, and it also works as an appetite suppressant, which can be beneficial during periods of dieting where hunger is going to be present (photoshoot prep, bodybuilding shows, and even less aggressive fat loss phases at the tail-end for non-competitive individuals).
As it stimulates the nervous system, limiting caffeine intake to earlier in the day can reduce disruptions to our normal sleep cycle, which can have a positive impact on our overall stress levels, hunger hormones, and training performance.
Carbohydrates
It's well-known and accepted now that carbohydrates are hugely beneficial for training performance, never mind just being goddamn fun to eat. Carbohydrates are the main energy source during high-intensity exercise. During low-intensity activities, fat may be the primary fuel source, but fat requires carbohydrates for complete oxidation or use. In either case, carbohydrate depletion results in a dramatically reduced exercise performance. Probably one of the most common examples is for long-distance runners who experience the 'bonk', a point of glycogen (carbohydrate) depletion where the body has to start burning fat or in extreme cases breaking down muscle, and via metabolic pathways use it to create carbs (known as gluconeogenesis).
The types of carbohydrates make a difference in how quickly and well our bodies can use them for energy. Different forms of carbohydrates have different rates of digestion and provide varying rates of glucose release into the blood. At a more extreme level (athletic populations), how quickly we can recover from exhaustive exercise by reestablishing muscle glycogen is also an important performance factor, particularly in sports where athletes compete on sequential days. As such, during high-intensity exercise, it's quite common and indeed advisable to consume carbohydrates during the activity in order to avoid glycogen depletion, which can occur in 2-3 hours depending on the type of activity being performed.
How and when to take it: this is going to be largely dependent on the type, duration, and intensity of the physical activity being performed as well as the time between ingestion and needing to perform.
For resistance training, carbohydrates that are digested and release glucose into the bloodstream faster can be eaten closer to the training window, 30-60 mins, and slower digesting carbohydrates 90 mins to 2 hours before. Post-training it is advisable to consume carbohydrates alongside protein in order to reduce the likelihood of protein breakdown and aid in protein synthesis. Failure to consume carbohydrates after exercise results in a higher than necessary level of muscle breakdown, which reduces the benefit that is derived from resistance training.
For endurance events, even though lean individuals have a great deal of energy stored as fat, carbohydrates are needed for the complete combustion of fat, as they are still the limiting energy source. In the interest of sustained performance, mixed sources of carbohydrates (e.g. glucose + fructose rather than glucose alone) are usually better during exercise, because while the oxidation of glucose plateaus, the mixed-carbohydrate oxidation continues with increasing intake. Nutrient timing plays a more important role, and each meal represents an opportunity to ensure glycogen stores are kept 'topped up' in advance of the activity.
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