Sports Supplements...

jimmy_custard

Hi,

ive been reading alot about sports supplements and their effectivness in cycling recently.
Im curious to know how many of you cyclists actually use protein shakes, recovery shakes etc, and how effective they have been for you.

am i missing out on a key training aid??

emx

jimmy_custard wrote:

am i missing out on a key training aid??

depends what you are training for and how heavy/hard your training load is. A sensible, balanced diet is usually sufficient for most people, whether they know it or not....

aripallaris

protein will help stop muscle wastage that can be caused through intensive cardio workouts. as EMX says usually you can maintain your muscle mass through diet by eating fish, chicken and occasional red meats.

as for recovery it will certainly help if you take a shake just after a workout or intense cycle (golden period is 1hr after a workout. the faster the better though). if you've decided to go down the protein route my advise is to get whey protein. avoid isolate whey its too pure and a waste for money for what you need.

also products like maximuscle are expensive and over hyped. checkout this stuff
http://www.myprotein.com/uk/products/im ... ey_protein cheap and its very good as a general workout protein. choc being the best tasting...

if your budget allows consider getting cytosport muscle milk... it has a balanced concentration of carbohydrates, good quality whey, branch chain amino acids (very important) plus a host of other stuff. I can personally vouch for muscle milk. I've tried a fair few over the years and this is definitely my choice and the one i often recommend to others. great for recovery, good for strength and you can get a decent size if your pushing heavy loaded weights. its not cheap though so my advice is try myprotein whey and see how you go with that. hope that helps mate

Monty Dog

IME you only really need to take supplements if doing a heavy training load - for me that means a fairly brisk 5 hour group ride on Saturday followed by an even faster 4 hour group ride on Sunday. Likewise, if doing maximal-level intervals and you don't want to be too-stiff the next day. For beginners and steady riding it probably won't make much difference because you haven't gone 'deep' enough to inflict the 'muscle damage' that these products help repair.

Dodger747

Milk? Cuts through all the marketing...