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Vitamins & Minerals for Speed Endurance & Speed Recovery

Jul 17, 2011 | By Melissa Biscardi
Vitamins & Minerals for Speed Endurance & Speed Recovery
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Professional athletes, amateur athletes and weekend warriors all aim to get a competitive advantage over the competition. While your success depends on such things as genetics and physical training, athletes at all levels turn to sports-specific diets and dietary supplements that claim to offer improvements in sports performance, including speed endurance and speed recovery. The list of dietary supplements marketed to athletes includes vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs and botanicals, metabolites, constituents and extracts, or a combination of any of these ingredients, according to Dr. Melvin H. Williams of the Department of Exercise Science at Old Dominion University.

Vitamin B-12

Virtually every individual vitamin, as well as clusters of vitamins, have been studied for their performance-enhancing potential. The B vitamins have undergone extensive study because they play a role in carbohydrate metabolism. Research findings have shown that in well-nourished non-vegetarian athletes, B vitamin supplementation does not improve speed endurance and speed recovery, states Williams. In fact, excess B3, or niacin, intake may actually impair speed endurance. This is because niacin reduces fat metabolism that leads to premature glycogen depletion, reports registered dietitian Dan Benardot in the book "Advanced Sports Nutrition."

Multivitamins

If you are eating a well-balanced diet, the use of a multivitamin is unnecessary. This is true if you are an athlete or physically active. The effect of multivitamin supplementation of 100 to 5,000 times the recommended daily intake over seven to eight months in a number of sports where speed endurance and speed recovery play a key role in performance -- basketball, gymnastics, rowing and swimming -- show no significant benefit, reports a study in the June 1992 issue of the "International Journal of Sports Nutrition."

Antioxidants

Antioxidants, including vitamins such as C, E and beta-carotene, protect your body from damage caused by free radicals -- highly charged molecules that cause damage on a cellular level. Exercising produces oxidative stress that may result in damage to your muscle tissues. Preventing this stress has the potential to optimize training and speed recovery. However, research supporting antioxidants' ability to prevent exercise-induced tissue damage and speed recovery is lacking. Health-care professionals indicate supplementation is not needed for those who eat a well-balanced diet. However, most individuals do not consume an optimal amount of vitamins by diet alone, and so a vitamin supplement may be beneficial for all adults, states Williams.

Minerals

Phosphates are minerals involved in energy metabolism and have the potential to affect physical performance and speed endurance. Significant improvements in aerobic endurance performance following phosphate salt supplementation have been reported in four well-controlled studies, reports Williams in a 2005 review published in the "Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition." Furthermore, phosphates may reduce your perceived effort and as a result increase speed endurance. However, supplementation with other minerals -- calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper and selenium -- does not enhance sport performance in healthy athletes who eat a well-balanced diet.

References

Article reviewed by Eric Lochridge Last updated on: Jul 17, 2011

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