Micronutrients for Ambitious Sportspeople

More power for athletes

Physical exercise offers many important health benefits. It strengthens the cardiovascular system, supports healthy weight management, and can improve overall mood and well-being. Becoming more physically active may also encourage other healthy lifestyle changes, such as adopting a more balanced and nutritious diet.

Apart from professional athletes, two main consumer groups are interested in functional sports nutrition: Performance Nutrition consumers and Active Nutrition consumers.

Performance Nutrition consumers engage in high-intensity exercise and pursue specific performance or body-composition goals. This group includes consumers who work out intensively at the gym on a regular basis, as well as so-called “Weekend Warriors,” who may exercise at a high intensity primarily on weekends or participate in endurance events such as marathons. These consumers choose functional nutrition products specifically to support their performance and help them achieve defined goals.

Active Nutrition consumers, by contrast, exercise regularly but generally at a lower intensity. Their focus is less on maximizing performance and more on maintaining their health and well-being over the long term. They take a proactive approach to healthy living and choose functional nutrition products as better-for-you options that can be conveniently incorporated into their everyday diet.

Micronutrients can optimise performance and help the body during and after exercise

For professional and ambitious amateur athletes, it’s important to match the diet, especially the intake of nutrients and electrolytes, to the training regime. Otherwise the athlete risks a drop in performance, muscle cramps, greater susceptibility to infectious diseases and higher risk of injury. Micronutrients are key aids in supporting professional athletes and ambitious sportspeople. They can optimise performance and ensure shorter regeneration times after intensive training or competition.
 

Protecting the immune system when engaged in sports

Regular exercise may have a positive impact on the immune system. A single session of aerobic exercise can temporarily increase the number of white blood cells (leukocytes) in the bloodstream, helping the body to respond to physical stress. Studies have shown that within the first three hours after a single bout of aerobic exercise, total leukocyte numbers may increase two- to threefold and return to baseline levels within 24 hours.

Exercise increases oxygen consumption, which also leads to the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). While moderate levels of ROS play an important role in physiological adaptation to exercise, excessive oxidative stress associated with intense training and insufficient recovery may negatively affect recovery and immune function. This makes adequate recovery and a healthy, balanced diet particularly important for physically active people.

As part of a healthy diet, certain micronutrients can support normal immune function and help protect cells from oxidative stress. Relevant micronutrients include vitamins A, C, D, E, B1, B6 and B12, zinc, selenium, magnesium and copper, together with secondary plant substances such as bioflavonoids.

Performance and regeneration

Optimal performance depends not only on effective training but also on proper recovery and a balanced supply of essential nutrients. B-vitamins like vitamin B-6 play an important role in the metabolic pathways required for exercise. Vitamin B12 assists with DNA synthesis, which is necessary for the formation of red blood cells. Vitamin B1 contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism and is essential for a healthy heart.

Minerals are essential nutrients as well, and are important for most body functions. Some studies have shown mineral deficiencies in athletes. These can impact sports performance negatively. Magnesium, for example, is crucial for normal muscle function and is involved in numerous processes of energy metabolism. As magnesium is also lost through perspiration, maintaining an adequate intake is particularly important during periods of regular exercise.

Calcium is another electrolyte that is excreted in sweat. An adequate calcium intake is particularly important for athletes to support normal muscle function and the maintenance of healthy bones. Insufficient calcium intake, particularly in combination with low energy availability, may negatively affect bone health and increase the risk of bone stress injuries. Vitamin D supports normal calcium absorption and contributes to the maintenance of normal muscle function.

Potassium supports normal muscle function and plays an important role in normal nervous system function. Potassium is also lost through perspiration, making an adequate intake important for physically active individuals, particularly during periods of prolonged or intensive exercise.

Athletic training can increase the importance of maintaining an adequate iron status. Athletes may have increased iron requirements or be at greater risk of iron deficiency due to factors such as increased iron losses, high training loads, dietary restrictions and, in female athletes, menstrual blood loss. Endurance athletes may be particularly susceptible to inadequate iron status. Iron deficiency anemia can reduce performance by impairing oxygen transport.

L-carnitine and coenzyme Q10 are vitamin-like substances involved in cellular energy metabolism. L-carnitine plays an important role in transporting long-chain fatty acids into the mitochondria, while coenzyme Q10 is involved in mitochondrial energy production. Coenzyme Q10 also has antioxidant properties and can help protect cells from oxidative stress.

Creatine is a substance that occurs naturally in the body and is important for all muscle cells. In the form of phosphocreatine, it delivers energy. It supplies a reservoir of phosphate to rapidly replenish the energy that muscles use up, by regenerating supplies of ATP. Creatine thus enables the muscles to maintain maximum performance during short, intensive bursts of activity. Creatine monohydrate may improve recovery from and adaptation to intense training.

Muscle building

Muscle growth and recovery depend on an adequate supply of high-quality protein and amino acids. While total protein intake is important, the composition of amino acids also plays a key role, particularly for physically active individuals and athletes. Essential amino acids (EAAs), including the branched-chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine, are particularly important for muscle protein synthesis. Leucine acts as an important trigger for muscle protein synthesis, while an adequate supply of all essential amino acids provides the building blocks required to synthesize new muscle protein.

Protein and essential amino acids can therefore support muscle protein synthesis and recovery following exercise. BCAA supplementation may also help reduce muscle soreness and certain markers of exercise-induced muscle damage, although complete sources of essential amino acids generally provide greater benefits for muscle protein synthesis than BCAAs alone.

References

Batatinha HAP, Biondo LA, Lira FS, Castell LM, Rosa-Neto JC. Nutrients, immune system, and exercise: Where will it take us? Nutrition. 2019 May;61:151-156.

Carlsohn A, Braun H, Großhauser M, et al. Position of the working group sports nutrition of the German Nutrition Society (DGE): minerals and vitamins in sports nutrition. Dtsch Z Sportmed. 2020; 71: 208-215.

Kendall KL, Moon JR, Fairman CM, et al. Ingesting a preworkout supplement containing caffeine, creatine, β-alanine, amino acids, and B vitamins for 28 days is both safe and efficacious in recreationally active men. Nutr Res. 2014 May;34(5):442-9.