When it comes to working out, you aren’t just a weekend warrior. You don’t hit the gym for a half hour and then call it a day. Extreme athletes push their minds, souls, and bodies to the limit.
Whether you are a serious bodybuilder, marathoner, or competitive athlete of any kind, you need to pay extra special attention to caring for your body. This includes eating the right diet, choosing the correct supplements to improve your performance, and maybe even turning to IV therapy for athletes.
IV therapy for athletes can quickly and effectively replenish the macro- and micro-nutrients you lose during intense training. Below, we’ll take a look at the most popular supplements for athletes and then dive a little deeper to consider vitamins and minerals that might be especially useful for hardcore athletes. We’ll also discuss why IV recovery could be a good choice for athletes who need to replenish after particularly punishing workouts.
Any time you exercise, you deplete your body of energy and stress your muscles, bones, and tendons. This is even more the case for extreme athletes who may put in hours of training per week and push their bodies extra hard. Supplements are designed to help athletes re-energize and support the growth of new muscle. They can also aid in focus and recovery.
Some of the most popular supplements for athletes include:
Athletes can find supplements that contain these popular ingredients in most health food stores. It’s also possible to purchase singular supplements or pre-workout and post-workout mixes that include multiple supplements.
While this list of supplements might be enough for the everyday exerciser, extreme athletes may need additional vitamins and minerals to do their best. After all, intense or long workouts require significant energy and can deplete an athlete’s store of micronutrients. By not replacing micro-nutrients, extreme and endurance athletes may feel fatigued or hit a plateau in their performance. However, the right performance recovery with IVs can help.
Experienced athletes know recovery is just as important as training. In fact, without a good recovery routine, you won’t enjoy the full benefits of all your hard work.
Intravenous (IV) therapy is a special type of recovery intervention that delivers IV fluids directly into an athlete’s bloodstream. The fluids can contain powerful vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and even medications that are fully and quickly absorbed into the body. This means you’ll get the full benefit of the ingredients in the IV infusion.
IV therapy can also include unique supplements that may be of special benefit to athletes who like to push themselves to the limit. Some ingredients we include in our IV therapy for athletes include:
B12 is an important micronutrient that supports the production of red blood cells and is crucial for nerve and brain health. It is necessary for energy production and helps support a healthy metabolism.
This powerful antioxidant can help fight the destructive free radicals the body produces during a tough workout. Glutathione’s benefits for athletes are well known, as it is an excellent supplement for performance recovery and helps reduce oxidative stress on the body.
Vitamin C is needed to form blood vessels, cartilage, muscle, and collagen. It’s also vital to your body’s healing process and can support your immune health. A cold or flu can throw off your training schedule or even force you to withdraw from a competition. Vitamin C can help keep you healthy and ready for anything.
An often underrated supplement, taurine plays an important role in several of the body’s metabolic processes. Taurine is believed to possess antioxidative properties, which can reduce oxidative stress on the body, and some research shows that it can enhance athletic performance.
This supplement stands for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and is essential to many cellular processes within the body as well as energy creation. Adding NAD+ to your supplement regimen can support metabolic health, especially since NAD+ naturally declines with age.
Good hydration is a must for any athlete—especially extreme athletes. You see, when you sweat, you lose more than just water. You also lose electrolytes, mainly in the form of sodium (which is why your sweat is salty).
Dehydration can result in poor performance, dizziness, and muscle cramps. In extreme cases, severe dehydration can lead to serious health consequences.
IV therapy for athletes is a powerful way to quickly rehydrate. Every IV contains saline solution, which is a combination of water and electrolytes. The IV goes directly into the bloodstream, giving you fast-acting hydration. Receiving a rehydrating IV is a great idea after a long training session or competition, especially if you were outside in warm weather.
Sore muscles are all part of the package for extreme athletes. Tough workouts result in microscopic tears to the muscles, which, along with lactic acid buildup, cause muscle soreness. While this soreness shows you’ve worked hard, it can also make it difficult to do your best during training the next day.
IV therapy for muscle recovery can help you manage muscle soreness. Many of the supplements already discussed, including glutathione, can assist with muscle recovery.
Magnesium is another important supplement you can often find in IV therapy for muscle recovery. This powerful mineral plays a role in over 300 enzyme reactions in the body and assists with muscle and nerve function. It also supports the production of proteins, which can help build muscle. Research suggests that many people in the United States don’t get enough magnesium, so athletes should strongly consider adding this mineral to their supplement regimen.
Extreme athletes aren’t afraid to push their bodies to the limits or test new protocols to improve their performance. IV therapy for athletes can help boost your energy and support a faster, smoother recovery. Different uses for IV therapy also include fatigue, illness management, and even hangover recovery.
Ready to give IV recovery a try? At Rocky Mountain IV Medics, we will send a certified medical professional to your home, gym, training facility, or hotel room to provide IV therapy. One of our most popular products for athletes is our Performance Plus IV, which includes
You can also choose one of our different IV packages or customize your IV by adding ingredients to your IV, such as magnesium, vitamin C, glutathione, and zinc, and more!
Learn more about us and check out the areas we serve. See the difference in your performance and recovery when you schedule your vitamin IV with us today!