Hockey Supplement Guide
Which Supplements Are Best For Hockey?
Hockey is an exciting game of fast paced tactical strategy and anticipation. To be effective, the hockey player must play his or her position perfectly, moving and counter moving with the opponent. This necessitates a well-developed skills set that is made possible only by fully developed and fully functional muscles. Muscular development correlates with muscular functionality, and muscular weakness with functional impairment and injury.
To perform optimally and withstand the physical requirements of the game, you must have explosive strength, cardiovascular fitness and you must be coordinated. To excel at sport, you must have well developed skills that are honed to produce maximum results during game play, and you must supply the body with appropriate nutritional measures to speed recovery.
Your energy requirements demand that you eat a diet rich in carbohydrates, but do you know what supplements are appropriate for you? The answer to this question can be the difference between success and failure.
This guide will help you answer this question and will recommend supplements specific to your sport. Each supplement listed here complies fully with the rules of hockey. This means that you can focus totally on athletic excellence and being your best!
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Multivitamins
The hockey player has unique physical requirements. During a shift, you must have the energy and mental focus necessary to dominate your competition. Off-shift you must be able to rest and recoup for the next shift. These requirements can be met only if you have enough of the vitamins and minerals necessary to perform and recover at the highest level. Any deficiencies will result in poor game play or worse.
The time-released multivitamin and mineral preparation of choice for you should contain generous amounts of water-soluble vitamins, and should contain choline, ferulic acid, inosine, inositol, l-carnitine and zinc. These vitamins and minerals will help provide your body with energy, and inositol will help regulate blood sugar and energy levels.
Multivitamins are best taken with a meal in the morning upon rising, and then again at mid-afternoon with lunch.
Glutamine
Glutamine helps you to stay healthy. It does this by supporting the immune system, by preventing muscle loss and by enhancing the ability to recover from intense shifts on the ice.
Glutamine increases growth hormone levels and it slows the ageing process. This is especially important for you, because you may age at an increased rate from taking and giving crushing hits on the ice. By staying younger, you can perform better for longer. This will dramatically increase performance and ability, and may add years to your playing career.
Glutamine is best taken in divided dosages throughout the day. It is commonly taken upon rising, at lunch, midday, and then before going to sleep. In this way, glutamine is in the body at all times throughout the day and it can best deliver results.
Vitamin B
B-vitamins are essential for the hockey player. B-vitamins help to protect the immune system from damage, help build muscle, increase energy levels, increase endurance, heal injuries, and improve performance.
The physical demands of hockey make it impossible to withstand hit after crushing hit unless your body has a way to protect itself as much as possible, and to heal itself as much as necessary. B-vitamins make it possible for your body to heal itself and to withstand injury. This means that you will recover faster and perform better.
Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine monohydrate is the worlds most popular supplement and has been used by hockey players for years. Creatine monohydrate is of great benefit to the hockey player because it can increase energy levels, protect against muscle loss, and prevent dehydration.
Creatine also increases explosive strength, and enhances your body’s ability to endure physical stress. This means that creatine will help you shoot harder and deliver crushing body check after body check to the opposing team! Creatine also improves mental function and memory, helping you to remember advanced plays.
Creatine is often “loaded” into muscle tissue by taking twenty grams for five days, followed by five grams daily for the duration of the cycle. A more effective way to use creatine is to take ten 2.5gram doses daily, divided throughout the day. This will ensure maximum absorption and maximum results. Taking creatine with water is best, as excess sugars from juice can make you put on body fat.
Creatine has been proven safe for millions of athletes around the world and is used by most hockey athletes today.
Whey Protein
Whey protein isolate is the best protein supplement to supply you with energy. It is quickly absorbed by the body and is the highest known quality protein source.
Whey protein prevents the buildup of muscle-destroying hormones, and can build new muscle tissue for the athlete. New muscle tissue will enhance performance.
Like creatine monohydrate, whey protein can improve your mental function and it has also been shown to promote fat loss. Building new muscle, eliminating unwanted body fat and improving mental function will make you more agile, lean, aerodynamic and focused on the ice.
Whey protein isolates are digested more easily than whey protein concentrates. For this reason, whey protein isolates pre, during and post game are an ideal choice to provide your body with the materials necessary to promote energy levels, muscle growth and recovery.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E supports your body’s immune system. A healthy immune system is really important for you because you are not only in constant motion, but you also deliver and receive crushing on-ice hits.
Vitamin E is an anti-inflammatory and prevents muscular fatigue. In this way it helps to boost performance and reduce post-game muscle soreness. Vitamin E comes in gel capsules, and is quite easy to use. You should strive to obtain at least 400 I.U.’s of vitamin E daily.
BCAA
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. Proteins are the building blocks of muscle. A long game can put you at a risk of losing muscle. Branch chained amino acids can protect your muscle tissue.
Moreover, branched chain amino acids can give you more energy and enhance endurance. BCAA’s support your immune system, and help you recover after a long game. For these reasons you should use BCAA’s pre and post game.
Flax Seed
Flax seed improves athletic performance by increasing endurance. Flax seed oil helps to increase testosterone, and this will result in fat loss and an increase in immune system function.
By supplementing with flax seed oil, you will supply your body with a source of long-lasting energy. This means that you will last longer on the ice and avoid the mid-game energy crash that can come from taking check after check and going all-out during game play. Flax seed oil will improve your mood and give you extra motivation to perform your best.
Flax seed oil comes in liquid or capsule form. The liquid form is the best and most effective, and is taken in divided teaspoon dosages throughout the day. Many do not like the taste of flax, but it does not taste that bad, and the results that it delivers are well worth any possible disliking of its taste.
Citrulline
Citrulline Malate has become a very popular supplement because of its ability to increase endurance and enhance performance and promote recovery. Research into this new substance is ongoing, but no known side-effects exist.
This unique combination of the amino acid citrulline and the organic salt Malate offers athletes with a new choice in improving performance and recovery. As an intermediate in the Urea Cycle, citrulline aids in the removal of endotoxins such as lactic acid and ammonia. These endotoxins are produced through intense physical activity, protein metabolism, and catabolic states. Endotoxins damage living cells and wreak havoc on athletic performance.
Ginkgo Biloba
Ginkgo biloba is popular because it protects the cardiovascular system and rids the body of damaging pollutants. Ginkgo increases the delivery of oxygen to the brain, and it improves memory and mental performance.
Ginkgo also improves hand-to-eye coordination by protecting the eyes and brain from damage. This means that gingko will not only help you to remember complex plays meant to dominate your competition, but it will also help you to perform better by enhancing your reaction time and your on-ice awareness. Ginkgo will prevent mental fatigue, and will give you the mental endurance needed to control the psychological aspect of the game.
Ginkgo is taken orally in capsule format. Not much of this potent supplement is required to enhance oxygen efficiency and endurance.
Colostrum
The factors in bovine colostrum help to boost immune function, build muscle tissue, slow the aging process, and reduce body fat. Bovine colostrum is of benefit to you as a hockey athlete for this reason.
A new study done by researchers at the University of South Australia has demonstrated that colostrum supplementation increase anaerobic power.
Become The Best!
Hockey is an explosive and fast-paced competitive game of skill.
The hockey athlete must be able to turn, stop, shoot, body check and maneuver at a moments notice, often while at accelerated speeds that make all of these actions quite difficult to perform.
To perform optimally and withstand the physical requirements of the game, you must have explosive strength, cardiovascular fitness, coordination, and you must be physically rugged. To excel at sport, you must have well developed skills that are honed to produce maximum results during game play, and you must supply the body with appropriate nutritional measures.
The level at which you perform will be, to a large degree, a function of athletic conditioning and nutritional regimen. However, supplementation is also a factor that is often overlooked.
The supplements outlined here will serve to enhance your natural abilities, and will allow you to compete at the highest level possible.
