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Sports nutrition
Most of us associate creatine monohydrate with building muscle mass, increasing strength and explosiveness. Recently, however, it has also been receiving attention in the area of brain function. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that this supplement may have a fundamental influence on our cognitive function, memory and recovery after a head injury.
Do you know that feeling when you are trying to give absolutely everything? Whether it is a heavy set of squats, a maximal sprint on the track or an explosive jump, at that moment your muscles are working flat out. These short but extremely demanding efforts require an enormous amount of energy in the shortest possible time. And this is exactly where creatine comes into play.
After the 1992 Barcelona Olympics the popularity of creatine shot up - four years later, in Atlanta, an estimated 80 % of athletes were using it. Today it belongs to the narrow group of supplements with very reliable scientific evidence of both effectiveness and safety.
Creatine has long been one of the most researched food supplements on the market. While its benefits for building muscle mass, strength and explosiveness in combination with strength training are well known and well proven, with endurance sports the situation is more complicated. So what are the real benefits of creatine for endurance athletes, and in which situations can it actually slow us down?
L-glutamine is a non-essential amino acid present in the human body in the greatest quantity - it makes up the most abundant share of free amino acids in both skeletal muscle and blood plasma. This amino acid is often credited, as a food supplement, with anabolic and immunostimulating properties, but how does modern sports science view this?
Tryptophan (abbreviated Trp) is one of the 20 amino acids commonly found in proteins and belongs to the group of indispensable (essential) amino acids, meaning that the human body cannot produce it on its own and must obtain it through diet. In the body, tryptophan plays an important role not only as a building block for muscles, but primarily as a key precursor to substances affecting our brain and perception of fatigue.
Tyrosine is a non-essential amino acid that the human body can synthesize from the essential amino acid phenylalanine. In sports nutrition, it is known as a dietary supplement that can affect our ability to react to stress and maintain mental alertness. Although there is scientific evidence supporting this claim, L-tyrosine supplementation is not entirely without risk.
Ornithine is a non-proteinogenic amino acid, which means it is not typically used for muscle protein synthesis but plays a crucial role in metabolism. In the body, it is closely related to arginine and the urea cycle, where it helps remove toxic ammonia. In the world of sports nutrition, it has become popular primarily due to claims that it can naturally stimulate the hormonal system.