Performance drugs

M|A|R|T|I|N

Recently, in a magazine, i think it was either an outdoor buyers guide or bike mag, there was a few different write ups on some drugs you could buy all legaly that according to the reviews in these magazines can have some really amazing effects on your bodies fitness and cycling.

I forget the names, one was a pill similar to what's in gatorade,the others were supposed to help with vo2max and i think the other helps raise your lactic threshold, but i could be wrong.

This isn't the first time seeing this type of "natural" performance enhancing drugs and i'm wondeiring if this is here to stay and it's a good thing to add to the healthy diet, or is it just a fad/scam that will go away eventually.

Has anyone used any of this stuff?

Thanks

Orange Fish

Don't bother. If you find a supplement with the same ingredients that are in Gatorade, then of course it will help since the main performance enhancing ingredient in Gatorade is carbohydrate.

These companies that claim to enhance VO2 max, LT, and performance with "natural" supplements are full of hot air. Any performance enhancement, in my professional opinion, is due to a placebo effect. These supplements are just a fad and in time will fade away...hopefully.

The best performance enhancing supplement you can take is to have a qualified coach to work with who will give you the proper training to reach your goals.
Happy training!

tay-nut

This may help.
http://www.bsnonline.net/new/teambs...=Antony&sec=bio

WarrenG

Help with what? Wasting money?

I don't use any of that stuff. I have a really good coach.


-Warren
Masters National Champion 2004 and 2005, match sprint, team sprint

tay-nut

My bad, I didn't realize you were M|A|R|T|I|N. I don't believe I sent you saying anything was good for you, yourself.

WarrenG

Yes, you just pointed him towards a bunch of stuff he doesn't need, my example providing some evidence of that. As OF and I have both said, good coaching is far more useful than the stuff you linked.

tay-nut

Ok, just to be fair, do you use any type of nutritional supplements other than the ones I pointed him toward?

WarrenG

First, those that you pointed to have so much useless stuff in them along with half-truths and misrepresentations on all of the labels I looked at it's bordering on fraud. I don't like seeing that kind of business get any support. Definitely buyer beware.

I take a few vitamins and magnesium, creatine monohydrate (for sprinting) when I'm not eating much red meat, a whey protein drink most mornings and/or right after riding, and I drink Gatorade during rides.

tay-nut

That's fair. Ok, back to M|A|R|T|I|N's question. Do you know of anything that he may be talking about? I personally reccomend Cytopsort products to most of the cyclist/runners I sell to. I sponsor a road team and a triathlon team who all prefer cytomax, musclemilk, gulp-n-go and amino vital. Do you think those are all worthless?

WarrenG

I know most of those and I wouldn't put them in the category of those others that you linked.

These claims about gulp-n-go are untrue and/or misleading though.

"Alpha-L-Polylactate, besides buffering lactic acid production in your muscles, ...The succinates in Gulp N' Go are proven to enhance oxygen delivery to working muscles by 11% during intense exercise. "

Read about lactic acid and what it really is and how it actually behaves and you'll learn it doesn't need to be buffered. Their claim about succinates isn't true either. The carbs in the product are still useful. Years ago when cytomax first came out they said they had a study that showed that using cytomax would allow you to ride longer, faster, etc. It was discovered that their "study" compared cytomax to plain water. When cytomax was later compared with other sports drinks it was no better than other sports drinks.

The amino-vital products (protein drink) aren't bad, they're just not including enough aminos to matter. Some milk, or whey protein or egg proteins will have substantially more of virtually all of those aminos.

As an example, here's the breakdown of an inexpensive whey protein drink and you can see that there are 3 to 10 times as much of some important aminos compared to the amino vital product.

in milligrams...
L-Cysteine 336
L-Histidine 311
L-Isoleucine 1112
L-Leucine 1820
L-Lysine 1576
L-Methionine 370
L-Phenylalanine 554
L-Threonine 1361
L-Tryptophan 314
L-Tyrosine 375
L-Valine 1022
Non-essential Amino Acids
L-Alanine 913
L-Arginine 451
L-Aspartic Acid 2114
L-Glutamic Acid 3256
L-Glycine 280
L-Proline 342
L-Serine 1114
L-Glutamine 966

Muscle milk is fine but some of cyctomax's claims about it are untrue. Like enhancing your body's natural creatine loading??? There's no creatine in it (not listed on the label) and no food without creatine that I know of enhances your body's loading of creatine. Your body produces/stores x amount per day from certain foods (mainly meats) that contain creatine. Certain training stiumlii might enhance creatine storage but not muscle milk. Here's a gentle review that you might find helpful.

http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/p...k-cytosport.htm

You may want to check out some of the other reviews on that page in the left hand column.

tay-nut

Very good reply. Very informative of the products. I liked the link and bookmarked it for future references. Thanks for the assistance...John

Orange Fish

YES. Unless those athletes are in a state of starvation or malnutrition (PEM) for the most part, those are useless. For one thing, Amino Vital's research that supposedly backs their products is not at all related to the athletes they are prescribing it for. I've researched AA supplementation exhaustingly over the years and have found nothing to support AA supplementation in the recommended doses in packets of Amino Vital.