Sports Nut Supplements

Many athletes believe taking nutritional supplements may help their athletic performance. We call these substances ergogenic aids. The following table includes many of the popular supplements used in training today. To learn more about a particular substance, click on the name of the substance.

Our list is not meant to be all-encompassing, our goal is to educate athletes on some of the more popular supplements. We do not provide, endorse or promote use of these supplements. Be sure to read our page on quality control!

Supplement	General usage and thoughts
creatine	Used to help increase the immediate energy available for muscle contraction. Thought to be most beneficial to athletes requiring bursts of power and strength. Likely some folks respond nicely to creatine and others do not.
caffeine	Used to increase mental alertness for some athletes. Others may use it intending to increase fat fuels to the muscle for endurance activities.
ephedrine	This stimulant is used to increase heart and respiration rate and is akin to taking "speed".
pyruvate	Pyruvate is a product of glucose breakdown. It may add more energy to the system but has not had great research results.
carnitine	Carnitine helps transport fats into the mitochondria of a cell for more energy from fats. Reasearch has not shown performance enhancement from this product.
ornithine arginine	These are amino acids commonly taken to try to stimulate growth hormone to help a person gain more muscle and size. Exercise and effort can get as much result as these amino acids. Arginine is also utilized in the body to make creatine and has been implicated in immune system modulation as well.
branched chain amino acids	These can be used for fuel by the muscles during exercise. However, recent research shows they might actually decrease performance.
gluosamine	This is a component of cartilage in our joints. Many folks take this supplement hoping to have healthier joints. The research is split.
chromium	Chromium likely helps insulin act at the muscle membrane and insulin brings in more glucose and amino acids into the muscle. Chromium has only proven useful to some diabetics in research studies.
vanadium	This is one of many substances used by weight-lifting athletes to get bigger. It likely pulls water into the muscle with it so it makes the muscle bigger or "volumizes" it. Research has not shown any positive influences on strnegth gains. The wrong form of this one can be TOXIC!
HMB	HMB is tauted to help athletes lose fat and gain lean body mass while avoiding tissue breakdown from training. This has not been proven in any human research. HMB helps cattle and other animals avoid shipping sickness....be careful thinking those animals are like humans!
Betagen (see HMB and creatine)	This product is creatine and HMB mixed so should have the combined effects.
CLA	Conjugated linoleic acid is a form of an essential fatty acid thought to have many postivie influences in the body.
glutamine	Glutamine has been clearly demonstrated to be helpful in burn patients and gastrointestinal ailments. It is suspected to help with the immune function in many stressful situations including exercise. It may be helpful in prevention of overtraining syndromes but more research needs to be carried out.

There are obviously many other substances athletes use in an effort to enhance performance. The supplement industry is a multi-billion dollar enterprise, as you can see by walking into any GNC or other popular nutrition store. Many of the above ergogenics are combined into power bars or powder drink mixes as another way to market the substances.