- What is a supplement?
In simple terms, it's something that you take
along side your normal food that will
help your overall well being and also to make sure
that your body meets its nutritional demands.
So in this video, we're going to be going into
a little more detail as to exactly what a supplement is
and then covering my topics that can help
enhance your training and your performance.
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You might already be taking supplements
and not even know it
because say for example you're having a protein bar
as a mid morning snack or maybe when you wake up
in the morning you have your vitamin drink
or you head home from training and you've got a milkshake
with some four to five vitamins,
then you are already supplementing your diet.
It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be having
a pill that you bought from the chemist, for example,
or sports drink that you've actually gone
to a specific sports shop to buy, although,
that is another whole industry in itself.
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With such a huge array of supplements on offer
and manufacturers trying to convince you
that it's their product that you need,
it can end up being a complete and utter mine field.
So, how do you know if you actually need
to take a supplement?
Well, that's a tough question
and in the ideal world, you'd go and have a blood test
and the results would clearly tell you.
But realistically, that's not gonna be an option
for most of us, so to a certain extent,
it is a matter of trial and error.
Start by looking at your diet.
If you have a normal, healthy balanced diet
with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables
and you just do a small amount of exercise
then there should be no reason that you need
to supplement that.
However, if you are, say, putting your body
through a lot of stress training for maybe an iron man,
or you're someone is aware that you don't get
that good balance of food in your diet,
then supplements could help you
meet those nutritional needs.
And it's worth noting that if you're on a vegetarian
or vegan diet you will be missing out on certain nutrients
and even if you're gluten free,
you're going to be missing out on some of the fortification
that you find in flour.
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So what I've already touched on,
there are so many supplements out there to choose from
and today's video I've chosen just five
that will help with some of the more common
nutritional deficits found in athletes,
so let's take a look.
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First up, we've got Omega-3, or fish oils
and the name is interchangeable because
high levels of Omega-3 are found in fish oils
and fish oils themselves are a natural way
to get a high dosage of this nutrient.
So as you'd expect, oily fish such as tuna, salmon,
herring, mackerel, all have high levels of Omega-3
and it suggested that you do have two portions per week.
If rather you don't eat fish, then there's things
such as flax seeds, walnuts, dark leafy greens
will also help you top off that nutrient.
So why are fish oils so often talked about?
Well they are essential for brain, heart, eye health,
they make sure that your nails are brittle,
your skin isn't dry and if you've got low levels,
you might also find that you're having problems sleeping,
you're irritable, or you've got mood swings.
Omega-3 is also important in immunity
and that's another really key point
if you're training for a triathlon.
And as with all these nutrients,
if you can consume them through food
then you'll get the most positive impact on your health
but if you do need to have a supplement
then you can use these fish oil tablets
but just make sure that you do check dose first
and build up so that your gut has got time to react.
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Vitamin D is created naturally in our bodies
as a result of having direct sunlight.
That is, if you're lucky enough to actually find any
and it's needed to have healthy bones
because it allows your body to absorb calcium and phosphate,
both of which are essential
for repairing and rebuilding your bones
and if you don't have enough, then that can lead
to weak bones so you might have heard of something
called Rickets, but at the severe end of the spectrum
it could lead to stress reaction and even stress fractures.
And it's worth noting that your body requires
adequate levels of magnesium in order to be able to
metabolise vitamin D, but with a healthy balanced diet,
that shouldn't be a problem.
Obviously, we can't always get enough natural sunlight.
Especially if you live in a climate
like we do here in the UK and different skin colours
will absorb sunlight and vitamin D at different rates
and also if you're wearing an SPF sun cream factor
then that's gonna cancel out any absorption of vitamin D.
Now you can get small amounts from oily fish, red meat,
and eggs but quite often,
supplementation is gonna be required.
So a recommended daily allowance is actually ten micrograms
of vitamin D a day, but that's anyone
that's not adequate sunshine or having said that,
for athletes it's actually recommended
for a dose of up to 25 micrograms can be useful
because of the extra stress that you're putting on your body
and the IOC, the International Olympic Committee,
even recommend athletes consider using vitamin D
if they're not getting enough sunlight.
As well as bone stress, it actually helps importantly
for the immune system so again another key point
if you are training for a triathlon.
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Well before heading back inside,
I thought I'd come and grab a coffee.
Partly because I need a caffeine hit,
but it might seem a bit left field, but this is a supplement
as you have it outside of your normal meal
and if used wisely it can actually give a massive
performance benefit to both your training and your racing
so much so that up until 2004, in some Olympic sports,
it was actually on the banned list.
If you're not a fan of tea or coffee,
you can find caffeine in gels, soft drinks such as Cola,
Red Bull, a lot of sports energy drinks
and of course caffeine tablets.
But if you are gonna use caffeine,
make sure you practise it before race day
as it can give you some GI issues
and it is a mild diuretic and also remember obviously
it's a stimulate so if you're gonna use it before
your evening training session
just remember you might struggle to sleep afterwards.
Well one thing that actually surprised me
is the amount of caffeine that you need
to be able to experience that real benefit.
Now it's recommended that you need around three micrograms
of caffeine per kilo of body weight.
So for me that would equate
to around 180 micrograms of caffeine.
But the difficulty comes with knowing how much caffeine
is in say something like this latte
but if you do want to measure it exactly
you're probably best to use tablets
then you know the exact dose
and if you've already experimented with caffeine or coffee
and you know what works for you
then the recommended upper dose
is five or six micrograms per kilo of body weight.
Anyway, enough about caffeine.
I think I need to finish this coffee
and probably head back inside.
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Right.
So, onto whey protein.
Now as endurance athletes you need between
one point two and one point six grammes of protein
per kilo of body of weight.
So for someone my size, I need roughly between 90 and 100
grammes of protein.
Now that might just sound like numbers to you
but to give you an idea, a small or average size chicken
breast weighs in at about 30 grammes of protein
so if you're not a vegetarian and you eat a normal diet,
you're probably going to meet
those protein levels quite naturally.
That said, protein is essential for muscles to repair
and to get stronger and whey protein
is an easy way to top this up.
So it's actually derived from milk
when it gets separated into cheese
and then the liquid that's left over is the whey
that is then processed to become a powder
and it's full of essential amino acids that are needed
for that muscle repair, that muscle growth,
and on top of this, it's very easy and quick
to absorb as a protein.
While it is easy to get obsessed with making sure
that you have enough protein, but it's worth noting
that your body can only digest and absorb a certain amount
and that's suggested at being around
two grammes per kilo of body weight and if you exceed this
then all it's gonna do is make your kidney's work harder
to process it and basically excrete it through your urine.
Whey protein and protein powders like these
are now pretty easy to find.
You can get them in you local sports shop
or your health food shop
but the thing to note is contamination.
A lot of these products are made in factories
where banned substances might be made as well
but we'll be covering a little bit more on that later on.
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Iron deficiency, anaemia, is more common in female athletes
and in adolescents and can represent
as general weakness and fatigue.
Now, iron is essential for your body to be able
to make red blood cells which in turn are needed
to be able to carry oxygen around your body
so it's pretty vital.
On the plus side, there are so many ways
in which you can get iron into your diet naturally.
Anything from red meat to shellfish, chicken, salmon,
soy beans, lentils, raisins, dried apricots,
dark leafy greens, the list goes on but it is worth noting
that actually you do require vitamin C
for your body to be able to absorb the iron.
So for example, having a dark green leafy salad
with some lemon juice or a lemon type dressing
would be a great way to do this.
And there are a few things that can actually inhibit
your iron absorption such as tea and coffee
so try to avoid drinking tea and coffee at the same time
as having an iron rich meal.
And also stress interestingly can affect your absorption
so say you've done a really hard training session,
it's actually a good idea to wait four or five hours
before you're having your iron rich meal.
Iron is an actual supplement.
It's only recommended if you've been to a doctor
or you had a blood test to show that you are deficient
in iron because iron tablets can actually cause
side effects and digestion issues.
Okay, I by no means saying that you need to go out,
after watching this video, and buy all of these supplements.
I've chose these five, as these could potentially improve
your triathlon performance in your training and racing
only if you don't get the adequate and max nutrition
in your diet naturally.
It's also important to note the recommended daily allowance
for whatever supplement you're using
and not to supersede this and also to note
that as athletes, we're responsible for whatever it is
that we ingest so make sure that you check that
that supplement is allowed in your sport.
Finally, I cannot emphasise enough the importance of
concentrating on having a healthy balanced diet
full of whole grains, lean proteins, vegetables,
healthy unsaturated fats before you start
looking into the supplement route.
But if you've enjoyed this,
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And then if you want some tips
on how to lose weight as a triathlete,
I made a video on that, just here
and if you want to see
what the pros eat for breakfast on race day
we did an ask the pros video and that's here.