Competition Supplementation for Field Events

Nutrition Discussions Supplements
1

I’ve been reading a lot lately and was wondering what people in the field events do for during competition supplementation.

Sometimes you have wait a long time between jumps/throws so remaining mentally alert etc seems important.

I was looking at something along the lines of:

ATP/Arginine/Methionine pre event

Vitalyzee pre event

BCAAs during event.

Are there any good field athletes out there who could give some recommendations?

Thanks,

TC

2

Mental alertness TC?

3

Lots of athletes keep sipping red bull (or any other energy drink) during the rounds.

4

Mental alertness… most of the field events are pretty technical. Things like pole vault and hammer take a lot of concentration so I woundn’t want my blood sugar levels going up and down for example. Events like shot put and hammer also cause neural fatigue (umm how much) and eat into the ATP-CP stores (again how much?). Just wondering if supplementing during these events would lead to higher performance or if you already have enough stores beforehand for it not to be an issue.

With caffine how long does the “kick” last? If your competition lasts an hour will you see a drop off towards the end of your event? My thinking is you want to be concentrating 100% for the full hour not 110%-85%-95%-70% etc…

5

I’ve found that using Red Bull is great for mental alertness IF there aren’t many races/rounds involved in the meet. From personal experience, If I start drinking Red Bull during my warm up, I don’t feel the effects until AFTER the race. If I start on the Red Bull about 1.5-2 hours before I reach a level of super alertness and confidence. This buzz lasts for about 40-50 mins,so lasting long enough to take me through the warm down and post race mental analysis (which is more vivid to me when I’m more alert). At this point I can then sip on the Red Bull in the warm up as the caffine is in my system to stay ontop of the buzz that I’ve already built up.

6

are you Jason Gardener

7

TC I have no experience of use of such ‘stims’ in prolonged events.

First of all ‘Stims’, ‘chemical’, and ‘nootropic’ are all widely used terms so I’m not distinguishing between them, but I’m obviously talking about legal nootrpic elements.

For once off events the prescription can be much simpler and has less complication.

As a general (i.e. obviuous) rule …

  1. Chem use in the preceding weeks influences greatly the direct effectiveness of certain chemicals

  2. Certain people react differently to certain supplements

  3. Over complication or overconsumption (mixing) of different stims can often result in overhyperactivity or over arousal resulting in a mental fatigue or haze.

  4. Blood sugar levels also exacerbate menatl alertness, i.e. macro nutrient intake is (almost as) important as isolated chemical supplemetation

  5. Macro nutrient manipulation in the preceding weeks can also influence neural alertness.

  6. Try out supplements before use in comp

  7. Neural Fatigue must be identaify and adrenal glands must be repaiered or regenerated post event or supp use to increase effectveness.

  8. There have been papers written on stimulant use and Supplement Periodisation - an often overlooked term.

  9. Macronutrient intake can greatly influnce the effectiveness of supplemnts, as can certain foods- some can even negative their effect, others can even spped their response time.

  10. My thoughts on Multi event use is start with Macro nutrient planning and then schedule the supplement intake based on events and food intake or stomach content.

  11. Caffiene source can be as important as the actual timing. Coffee can have very negative GIT effects on certain people. With others it can highten effectiveness of macro’s

As for specifics I’ll pm you my thoughts.

8

With caffine how long does the “kick” last? If your competition lasts an hour will you see a drop off towards the end of your event? My thinking is you want to be concentrating 100% for the full hour not 110%-85%-95%-70% etc…

tc,
I’ve experimented with caffine in the past in the form of pills. Occasionally, I would take a few pills before the meet and the kick seemed to last for a while as I had events scattered throughout the day. Looking back now, the caffine really didn’t help my performances, but it did help me stay mentally “alert” I suppose (although some would say it made me act like I was three sheets to the wind). Actually, it caused me to be unusually gregarious and verbose. I was talking to everyone about anything, laughing , yelling, and carrying on like a wild man—personality wise.

9

No23, Thankyou for the in depth list. I look forward to hearing your specific ideas. Usually I only use supplementation during competition for one off events and the final rounds of compeition (e.g. finals etc). However, the field events intrigue me because of thier unique nature and often long duration and high rest to work ratio. Learning from others who have more in depth knowledge than oneself is what I love about CF.com.

Heatwave, Jason - thanks for your input. As an athlete and then a coach I have found caffine worked well if timed correctly but I only have experience in the sprints and not field events. I have also found it detremental during training over long sessions because it seems to cause peaks in performance followed by a lul but quantifying this is hard without laboritory testing.

Thanks,

TC

10

personally stimulants (caffeine, spike, redbull) dont work for me
the best stimulant for me is loud music and pouring water on my head inbetween rounds to wake up b4 i jump (music isnt allowed at most big meets tho)
the only drink that worked for me was redline, which is borderline cocaine…lol

11

No…sorry dude.

12

Haven’t forgot about you man - give me a day - 2 max!

V. Busy

13

No worries, take your time…

TC

14

as far as im concerned there is no better controlled stimulation than 25mg of ma huand ( ephedrine laced with caffeine. your best and easiest way to get it right is to get a generic fat burning pill with those quantaties in it. i have tried three or four diff ones and yes if u don’t time it right, and u don’t know your sensitivity and your body etc it might get u over hyped and or not work. but i found dymetrdaride extreme awesome it gives a garaunteed kick evertime that is contolled that doesnt over hype. Yes they are now banned or have been etc but you wanted info so ive given it, the combo has l-tyrosine in it which does wonders when stacked withthe ma huang. if you have any ordinate stiffness or probs that you just can’t shake off combining the fat burner pill with a nsaid works amazinglyy up are both euphoric confident and in a ZONE. i find that arcoxia (MSD generic name etoricoxib to be the most potent and fastetst working that really makes diclofenac look loke aspirin but thats a whole other ball game. On a lesser evil i find 2x 500mg o f l; tyrosine exceptionally good for mental focus along with some caffeine and fish oils/ omega 3 to be very mind stimulating especially when reading al ot try it for some time i garantee you will be better focused. hope this all helps im well of the ma huang now but itys good to know eh?