Cycling Supplement Guide
Which Supplements Are Best For Cycling? from Athletes.com

There you are at the start of another training day. The sun is shining, your bike is ready, miles of open road lay ahead, and the wind is blowing through your hair. It’s perfect.

Almost.

As you cycle down the road, you perform your mental checklist. Is my equipment in order? Check. Training program appropriate? Check. Is my nutrition program top notch? Never been better.

Supplement regimen? …and suddenly it hits you like lightning. BAM! Your supplement regimen is no good!

Thoughts rush through your mind: “what’s my competition doing?” Feeling frantic and overwhelmed, you think “I pray that they’re not using supplements or else I’m finished!”

You continue pedaling – with fear as your only motivator. Not a good picture, is it?

If you’re a competitive or recreational cyclist, you need to avoid the above situation at all costs.

To win and be your best, you need an edge over your competition. To gain this competitive edge, your nutrition program must be perfect, your training program must be perfect, and you must use the very best nutritional supplements that money can buy.

While most cyclists train correctly and eat moderately well (most do not eat perfectly – this is true of athletes in every sport), very few cyclists have a dietary supplement program that is optimized to enhance their sports-specific performance.

This supplementation guide will help you to learn about the dietary supplements that are appropriate for cycling. Each of the dietary supplements listed here will allow you to naturally enhance the skills that you require to compete at your best and be successful.

Use this guide when trying to decide what dietary supplements are appropriate for you, and use this guide to construct a supplementation plan that will give you the edge over your competition.

Multivitamins
 

Many athletes make the mistake of buying the latest protein powder or creatine formulation being advertised in the magazines - believing that these products will allow them to dominate their opponents and take their game to the next level. This is a mistake because regardless of your sport, multivitamins form the foundation of a solid supplementation plan that is geared for results – and without multivitamins and minerals, no other supplement have any effect.

The body uses vitamins and minerals for every basic process. They body uses them to help digest food, to supply energy to your working muscles, to help you lose unwanted body fat and to help you recover from intense exercise and training. And, without adequate vitamin and mineral intake, these basic functions of the body cannot take place. Simply: if you suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiencies, your basic health and your athletic performance will suffer.

As a cyclist, you're always moving - whether you’re on or off of the bike. As a result, your time for recovery is limited and great stresses are placed upon your body. The good news is that a quality multivitamin and mineral product will give you more energy and focus, all the while helping to offset the impact of stress on your body; You’ll recover more quickly.

Your ideal mineral and vitamin formulation is high in antioxidants like vitamin C and vitamin E, and is also high in zinc, iron, vitamin A, calcium and L-carnitine. These vitamin and minerals will support your immune system (thereby keeping you healthy), will support hormone production, help protect your muscle tissue (by causing your body to get energy from body fat), and support proper muscular contractions.

Because your training sessions can be long, it is recommended that you use a time-released multivitamin and mineral formulation. These products are slightly more expensive, but the added benefits are worth the additional cost. You’ll get less stomach upset, and you’ll retain vitamins and minerals better.

Multivitamins are best taken with a meal in the morning upon rising, and then again at mid-afternoon with lunch.

Glutamine
 

Glutamine is an essential immune system boosting supplement that you need to stay healthy and to perform at your best.

Simply, glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the body and comprises roughly 60 percent of the body’s free amino acid pool. The free amino acid pool is critical to your overall health because it can serve as a source of amino acids for the body to use in glucose manufacture in times of nutritional deficiency or when the body’s stored fuel sources (glycogen and circulating glucose) become exhausted.

Glutamine has additional benefits.

Clinical studies have shown that glutamine stimulates the pituitary gland at the base of the brain. As a result, the pituitary gland increases its secretion of growth hormone – a hormone that is responsible for helping you build muscle, shed fat, and slow the ageing process.

You need to supplement with glutamine if you want to protect your body from overtraining and maximize your potential.

Whey Protein
 

Here is a fact: If you want to build muscle, you need protein, and lots of it.

Here is another fact: Not all protein is created equal, and some proteins are better than others for building and repairing muscles.

Choosing a quality protein supplement is critical if you hope to maintain your health and build functional muscles that work as you want, on demand. No other protein is as suited as whey protein for building this kind of muscle.

Whey protein is one of the highest quality proteins on earth. It has a high biological value (BV), and it helps build and repair your muscles by creating an anabolic environment.

In addition to helping you gain muscle, whey protein also gives you energy by giving you amino acids that your body can convert to glucose in times of glucose and glycogen depletion.

Glucose is the body’s preferred source of energy, and glucose powers brain and organ function, as well a muscular contractions; glucose also protects muscle tissue from wasting, so you’ll protect your muscles from loss by drinking whey protein.

After exercise, training or competition, whey protein helps you recover. Its amino acids are quickly released into your gut and are taken up by skeletal muscle for tissue repair. Best of all, quality whey protein is not heavy in the stomach, and is digested quickly and easily. This means that you can get the protein you need without adversely affecting your performance.

By taking whey protein, you’ll be less sore from exercise and you’ll be ready to train again in less time.

Vitamin B
 

B-vitamins are important because they protect your vital organs from damage, they increase your endurance, repair your joints, give you energy, help you digest food, heal wounds, enhance focus, and improve your athletic performance.

But that’s not all.

As a cyclist, you’re at risk for losing muscle. And, if you do lose muscle tissue, you may end up losing functionality, which may lead to injury. B-vitamins help protect your muscle tissue from this kind of injury and loss by aiding in the digestion of food.

Ideally, the multivitamin and mineral formulation that you use should contain adequate levels of b-vitamins, but supplement with B-vitamins in the event that your vitamin falls short in this important area.

B-vitamins are water-soluble and are not easily stored by the body. Therefore, they are best taken throughout the day.

Carbohydrates
 

Carbohydrates provide the energy you need to finish the race. We've all heard of athletes hitting the wall. Carbs and electroylyes are what the body needs to keep your energy levels high so you can be strong during the last part of the race.

The right kind of carbohydrates are needed, which is what supplements provide. They give you sustained energy and endurance!