Supplements for athletes

Sports nutrition: strength, endurance, muscles

Whether we’re talking endurance or power – or both: as an athlete, you continuously work hard to reach your goals. A healthy diet with the right nutrition contributes hugely to your success and performance. Sports nutrition is specially designed to help your body build muscle, lose fat and optimise your fitness.

With the right sports nutrition, you can tailor your nutrient intake specifically to your needs. Because as an athlete, you need an extra portion of protein for your muscles – and you also need to up your intake of other vitamins, minerals and trace elements. If you want to find out more about your requirements as an athlete, you can take various home tests, such as our DNA Fitness Test or Amino Acid Test, to find out which diet is best for you personally.

How should I prepare my body for a workout?

With a comprehensive and varied diet, you are giving your body the best-possible chances of reaching its peak performance. By eating the right foods before and after training, you can prevent or tackle any nutrient deficiencies. You might already know that endurance athletes need more carbohydrates than weightlifting athletes, for example.

During a workout, it is especially important to drink enough fluids. Isotonic drinks crucially supply your body with fluids and minerals that it loses during sweating.

What should you not eat before a workout?

Before you start your muscle-building workout, it is best to consume healthy foods and snacks that contain both carbohydrates and proteins. If, on the other hand, you are training to lose weight, you may achieve better results on an empty stomach, because the body turns to fat reserves for energy when carbohydrate reserves are gone. If you don’t feel fit enough without food, simply reach for a light protein snack to help boost your metabolism.

Did you know that caffeine can boost your performance? On two to three training days a week, 100 to 300 milligrammes of caffeine half an hour before your workout will help you perform better. If you take supplements for this purpose, you should avoid drinking a cup of coffee so as not to overdose on caffeine. Daily coffee consumption reduces this boost in performance, as your body acclimiatises to the substance.

What supplements should I take as an athlete?

After your workout, special sports products containing protein and amino acids prevent your body from breaking down muscle proteins and at the same time stimulate muscle growth. A total of 20 to 25 grammes of protein directly after training is considered the ideal dose.

Your post-workout snack should also contain some carbohydrates – quickly available glycogen can be found in dextrose or fruit gums, for example. The insulin that is released eating these snacks transports nutrients to your muscles particularly quickly.

If you want to lose weight, the protein content of your snack should be higher. To be more specific, the ratio of carbohydrates to proteins should be between 3:1 and 5:1, depending on your personal training goals. 

How do endurance athletes recover best?

Consume about 1 to 1.5 grammes of carbohydrates per kilo of body weight within half an hour after training; this will replenish your glycogen stores. You can support muscle recovery with nutrition bars – this works particularly effectively if the bars also contain protein. These bars are perfect for boosting recovery quickly, as you can eat them comfortably at home after your run or on the go!