SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

You can sure get the cheap stuff from the supermarket, but if you realize it's working for you, buying several kg in bulk costs hardly more than the packets on containers you will find in the baking section of your local grocery store. For SuppVersity veterans, it's no news that you can take your 0.3-0.5g/kg body weight of baking soda, i.e. NaHCO3 or sodium bicarbonate, spread across three days before an event and still see enormous benefits. I discussed this strategy and corresponding evidence in form of a study in trained cyclists as early as in 2012 (My, that's more than 5 years ago... reminds me that I have been doing this for quite some time, now ;-). In the meantime, I have repeatedly addressed the performance enhancing (and health) effects of bicarbonate, but ... and that's relevant for those of you who cannot stomach large(r) quantities of baking soda... 99% of the newer studies on performance are conducted with acute sodium bicarbonate dosing in the prev

If that's what your PWO meal looks like, you're doing it right. I am sorry it took me so long to complete the follow-up to last week's article about the latest "recovery science" - my real job took a toll... in fact, I still have to hurry and will, therefore, skip a lengthy introduction that won't add to the educative value of today's article, anyway... the only thing I would like to say in advance is: I am going to do my best to decrease the interval between SuppVersity  articles again. Maybe it will comfort you to hear that there are five studies in today's research update - five studies that are not all directly related to exercise recovery and yet still practically relevant for your training and nutrition planning (see "What's the practical implication?" at the end of each bullet-point if you want to read only the gist(s)). Learn more about building muscle and strength at www.suppversity.com Acutely Increased Hormones Don

The use of and effects of post-workout stretching and related purported recovery boosters on the adaptational response to sports is IMHO astonishingly under-researched (Barnett 2006). The latest issue of the  European Journal of Applied Physiology  features not one, but rather a bunch of interesting and (in many cases) practically relevant papers. Reason enough for me to address them in this year's first Exercise Research Update - a research update I will publish in form of two individual articles with the first one (the one you're about to read) addressing recovery techniques and their potential role in modulating your training results. More specifically, we are going to take a fresh look at the latest data related to the effects of different cooling techniques and the use of active recovery on your performance, size & strength gains... but now, without further delay, here's the gist + implication for today's studies. Both, hypoxia / BFR and compression

You may, in fact, already take these. In a recent systematic review, Christopher Tack et al. have recently analyzed "The Physiological Mechanisms of Effect of Vitamins and Amino Acids on Tendon and Muscle Healing" (Tack 2017). In the corresponding paper in International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism,  the scientist from the  University of Hertfordshire , list six amino acids and vitamins (and their respective combinations) as potential tools to accelerate, help, and support soft tissue, specifically muscle and tendon healing. You can learn more about taurine & other amino acids at the SuppVersity Taurine Strength & Recovery?! Taurine or Caffeine? Taurine ➲ +180% Testosterone Taurine + BCAA Good Combo? Taurine Boosts Good Gut Bugs Taurine for Glycogen The scientists came up with this list by digging through the standard databases, i.e. BSCO, PUBMED, Science Direct, Embase Classic/ Embase, and MEDLINE looking for terms