Ergogenic Aids: Training & Performance

• Purpose of training?:

  • For performance
  • General health
  • Fun
• Use in competition vs training:

  • Using/training to stress a particular physiological system
  • To reduce strain / homeostatic perturbation
  • should you use in training (?)
• Suggested guiding principles in evaluating ergogenic aids:

  • What does research show? How was it done?
  • Experimental design
  • Sources of bias
• Experimental Design:

  • Intervention “clinical trial”, randomised assignment of participants
  • Control group or cross‐over
  • placebo effects, familiarisation
  • Blinding of participants
  • hard to do w/ exercise
  • Blinding of researchers (have expectations)
  • Statistical Power (N)
  • Sample size, bigger = better
  • Appropriate statistics and interpretation - is it truely related to data?
  • Confounding variables (covariates) accounted for
• Sources of bias:

  • (Low) training status
  • doing in untrained as is easier for them to improve
  • Physiological state
  • (Commercial) funding
  • for a given outcome
  • Publication bias
  • not gonna publish unless find significant effect
• Limitations/Applicability, valid for your context?

  • Performance measure
  • Training status
  • Variety creates variability
  • Sex
  • Most studies done w/ males
  • Dosage of intervention
  • Timing of intervention
  • Before, during or after
  • Time course of effect (acute or chronic)
• Sports Drinks & Performance:

  • CHO supplement for limited stores of muscle and liver glycogen; enhance glucose availability, help maintain blood glucose and glucose oxidation
  • CHO gives higher rate of ATP
  • Need supplement if stored glycogen is depleted
• Sports Drinks & Performance:

  • Replace sweat losses; dehydration physiological impacts, e.g. plasma volume decrease, thereby reducing CV strain, maintaining cardiac output & thermoregulation
  • Dehydration decreases SV which increases HR
• Sports Drinks & Performance:

  • Evaluation of literature difficult - variations in CHO & electrolyte content + pre‐exercise fasting protocols
  • Glycogen compromised individuals benefit from CHO sport drinks
  • Performance improvement in glycogen sufficient individuals is less certain
  • Consumption during intermittent (not continuous) exercise + prior to & during prolonged exercise improves performance
  • when intensity / duration sufficient to deplete glycogen
• Sports Drinks & Performance:

  • Conclusion: sports drinks important if glycogen stores are depleted
  • Alternative Conclusion: breakfast is important!! + if long enough & intense enough to go thru stored glycogen sports drink important
• Train low (CHO) perform high? Acute effects vs chronic adaptations:

  • Why take CHO during exercise/train in the fed state?
  • enhance CHO availability & use, support higher intensity exercise
  • might improve performance
  • might increase intensity of training
• Train low (CHO) perform high? Acute effects vs chronic adaptations

  • Why not take CHO during exercise/train fasted?
  • Enhance lipolysis, lipid oxidation
  • Enhance mitochondrial enzyme activities
  • Deplete glycogen, enhances glycogen store in recovery (supercompensation)
  • More depleted more fat going to use
  • Supercompensation = replenishing glycogen
• Train low (CHO) perform high? Acute effects vs chronic adaptations

  • Bear in mind session goal (performance, high intensity, or adaptive response), immuno‐suppression with low CHO = lower immune response (if stay depleted after for a long time)
• Compression Clothing:

  • Purposes
  • Enhance blood flow, venous return
  • Prevent blood pooling
• Compression Clothing:

  • Customary use (clinical)
  • Lymphedema
  • Immobilisation & post- surgery
  • Air travel
• Compression Clothing (rationale):

  • Venous velocity & pooling
  • (Compression should be graded)
  • Myogenic decrease of constriction?
  • Shouldn’t always wear them, myogenic response reduced
• Compression during exercise:

  • Proposed rationale
  • Increase blood flow / venous return
  • Increase movement efficiency
  • Increase proprioception
  • Decrease oscillation
  • Thermoregulation (cooler)
• Compression during exercise Evidence:

  • Not outstanding!
  • Need to consider placebo effect (hard to blinds participants) & training outcome
  • Isolated findings of some small improvements & impairments in physiology
• Comparing recovery methods:

  • Massage most effective reduced DOMS, perceived fatigue
  • Perceived fatigue also reduced w/ compression garments, water immersion (cooler being better)
• Comparing recovery methods:

  • Meta-analysis of studies: DOMS perceived fatigue, muscle markers damage, inflammation
  • Massage & cold best to reduce inflammation
• Inflammation not reduced by cold-bath recovery after resistance exercise
• Comparing recovery methods

  • Issues to consider for athletes
  • Data mostly from muscle that is damaged (that caused swelling & inflammation; not always happening in real world situation)
• Comparing recovery methods:

  • Issues to consider for athletes - Is suppressing inflammation good?
  • Not really, good acutely to feel better to keep going BUT not good for adaptation
  • Inflammation part of re-modelling, adaptation processes, healing implications
  • Post-exercise cooling impairs muscle (myofibrillar) protein synthesis (not good)
• Cold immersion recovery blunts aerobic & strength adaptations
• Mitochondrial biogenesis:

  • Enhanced mitochondrial biogenesis (more mitochondria being made) in cold water
  • Done w/ untrained people so mitochondria not maximised (more room for improvement)
• Hypoxic Training:

  • Evidence Living High, Training Low enhances EPO, RBC, VO2 max, performance
• Hypoxic Training:

  • Training hypoxia reduces intensity/ training stimulus, reduced O2 flux, worse outcomes than training in normoxia, but successful if competing at altitude
  • Worse training outcome in a hypoxic environment - depends what doing it for
  • eg to prepare for high altitude competition
• Hypoxic Training:

  • Based on EPO responses, tent sleeping < 12 h inconsistent EPO results, large inter‐individual differences. Exposure time is a significant factor in EPO release
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Health risks
  • similar to sudden exposure
• Hypoxic Training has inconsistent results
• Nitrate Supplementation (Beetroot):

  • Vasodilatory, vasculoprotective, enhanced mitochondrial respiration, reduce fatigue development
  • Conflicting findings on performance enhancement
  • Positive results in men, untrained, but small effect size
  • Limited application to competitive athletes, women? (numbers small)
  • Dose equivalent to (6‐12 mg/kg BW) ~ 500 g raw vegetable!
• • Ergogenic aids abound
  • Usually supported by what sounds logical and appealing
  • Some aids persist (e.g. caffeine), many fade
• Endorsements are gained easily, esp. in sport, good evidence is not (increase anyway with exercise)