Benefits and Drawbacks of Taking Supplements When Exercising

Most people aim to have an incredible physique through exercising, often accompanied by a healthy, well-balanced diet. With this, one can achieve the most desirable results with their workout goals.

But many people also tend to take supplements to enhance their performances, help them deal with body pains after the workout, and more. However, there are also risks in taking these supplements that might affect your body after some time.

Hence, before you continue with your fitness journey, we’ll be talking about the benefits of taking supplements for exercise and the drawbacks that may occur in your body.

The Benefits

Here are the benefits that supplements can provide your body:

Building Skeletal Muscle

When performing various kinds of exercises, your body will need more skeletal muscle since the body is actively working and breaking down the fats during this process. This will increase the strength of your muscles and possibly increase their sizes too. Moreover, more cross-bridges in the muscles will be built.

One of the building blocks for skeletal muscle is Branched-chain amino acids, or BCAAs. The best BCAA supplements will help you boost muscle growth by stimulating muscle protein synthesis or the process of developing the muscles.

But taking only BCAA will not be enough for the body to build or rebuild the muscles being broken down. You can incorporate some proteins into your diet to maximize the healing of the muscles faster.

Lessens the Soreness

Muscle soreness after your workout routine is inevitable since your muscle just underwent tension and stress. But sometimes, it has a delayed onset and does not occur until 24-48 hours post-exercise. Thankfully, there are available supplements that can aid and relieve muscle soreness.

Glutamine is an essential amino acid responsible for rebuilding, repairing, and recovering muscle mass after vigorous exercise to lessen muscle breakdown and soreness. Take this supplement after working out. You can also take it before sleeping to boost the recovery of your muscle much faster.

Allows You to Do More Exercise 

Creatine is an amino acid located chiefly in your muscles and also in the brain. When you take this supplement, you will be able to perform more repetitions than your usual routine. More reps can assist you in adapting to high-intensity training and can cause an increase in body mass. It will then provide you strength and satisfactory exercise performance.

Moreover, you do not have to worry about its safety since it is one of the most tested supplements worldwide and has an excellent safety profile.

Healthier Joints

Every time you perform your exercises, the body isn’t the only thing that gets stressed. Your joints will be stressed as well, mainly the articular cartilage that coats the joints. Hence, keep this small part of your body lubricated by taking supplements.

Fish oil supplements can lower the chances of inflammation in the joints and sustain the cartilage longer. While people with arthritis and similar conditions take fish oil to make their cartilage strong, you can take this supplement during your training or workout to keep your joints healthy.

Gives Motivational and Energy Boost

Some gym-goers do not really get hyped up whenever they go to the gym and exercise. They tend to become drowsy or tired of thinking that they are going to exhaust themselves again and experience body pains afterward. Thankfully, some supplements can aid those concerns.

The most basic one is caffeine. It is widely known to stimulate the central nervous system, boosting your energy and focus. As a result, this will improve your performance in your workout routine. But to maximize this, make sure you take caffeine in the optimal amount during the appropriate time. It can mostly be found in coffee and tea, but is also available in pill form.

Another one is the pre-workout. This supplement is now raising its popularity in the fitness world. It can provide you with an energy boost, enhance your muscle contraction, and vasodilate your muscle to make your blood flow in your veins better. However, please be aware this supplement can pose risks to your health. Make sure to consult a doctor first before using.

The Drawbacks

Here are the disadvantages that supplements can have:

Supplements are not FDA-regulated

Supplements are called “dietary supplements” because they’re not being regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA does not monitor any of these supplements. The Administration classifies them as food products and not medicines. Hence, no strict standards in marketing are imposed.

The disadvantage is that the FDA has little authority to associate themselves with the companies producing these products because they are not drug manufacturers. They are only marketing these nutraceuticals.

In addition, the FDA cannot inspect the manufacturing company unless cases about the product causing harm to someone arise. This can endanger public health, especially since recorded cases only appear once the harm is done.

The FDA recommends that you first talk and consult with your doctor before taking any dietary supplement for your exercise routines.

Might Affect Your Liver and Kidneys

With all of the supplements you are taking, too much chemical intake can put pressure on your kidneys and, most importantly, your liver. Although this does not pose too much damage, it would be best to go easy with your supplement intakes.

However, recent studies reveal that liver damage from taking supplements is now on the rise. Results suggest that injuries associated with those supplements are rapidly rising―from seven percent in 2004 to around 20 percent in 2014.

Researchers linked bodybuilding and weight-loss products to this rising issue. Another problem is that they cannot pinpoint the accurate harmful substances since supplements contain multiple ingredients.

Potential Risks for Harmful Chemicals

It is important to note that the chemicals incorporated in supplements are not on a high level and are being measured accurately. However, multiple doses from multiple supplements can be highly unhealthy and harmful.

For instance, synthetic food dye is widely used in food supplements. Too much intake of this chemical can cause health and behavioral problems, like cancer or changes in behavior, especially among kids.

Not Nutritionally Balanced

Supplements contain combinations of various ingredients that have different vitamins and minerals. This can result in unbalanced levels of those vitamins, which make these supplements not nutritionally balanced. Some vitamins are at higher levels, and some are not.

With that, it is possible that you might have an excessive intake of certain vitamins but can also have nutritional deficiencies to the other minerals. This scenario can disturb your current diet plans and adversely affect your digestive system.

Unwanted Weight Gain

One of the objectives why people do exercises and workouts is to lose weight. Supplements can generally help you with that. However, some supplements also can put some weight on your body if your exercise level is not high enough to burn them all.

This is possible to happen due to the presence of carbohydrates, fats, and calories in the supplements. Some of those include protein supplements, creatine, caffeine, and many others.

Hence, make sure you only take a moderate amount of the supplements and complement them to your exercise level for a desirable result.

Final Thoughts

Knowing the benefits and the drawbacks of taking supplements to aid your exercise routine promotes awareness of the positive and negative effects of those products. You must carefully weigh these things by contacting your doctor and asking them for their recommendations. With this, you can guarantee your safety while working out.