Athletes are highly vulnerable to pervasive supplement marketing and are largely unaware of how real, whole–food solutions stack up to some of the most popular supplements on the market. In this session from the NSCA’s 2016 Coaches Conference, sports dietitian Lara Gray presents a variety of nutrient profile comparisons between top–selling sports supplements and whole–food options that can alternatively provide sustainable, cost–effective solutions to common training goals.

This continuing education opportunity explores a variety of topics as they pertain to nutrition and supplement information. Articles 1) Betaine Supplementation: A Critical Review of Its Efficacy for Improving Muscle Strength, Power, and Body Composition 2) Energy and Macronutrient Considerations for Young Athletes 3) Evidence-Based Nutritional Strategies to Enhance Athletic Performance 4) Green Tea and Black Tea for Exercise Recovery: A Systematic Review 5) Understanding the Scientific Evidence and Regulatory State of the U.S. Dietary Supplement Industry: Considerations for Health and Fitness Practitioners

How can tactical athletes ensure they are getting enough protein, what is the best timing for protein intake, and what should they look for in a protein supplement?

Eating a diet rich in leucine and supplementing HMB may be beneficial for tactical athletes as long as they are following the recommended guidelines.

This excerpt from NSCA's Essentials of Tactical Strength and Conditioning explains the importance of third-party certifications on supplements in the tactical population.

Do you know what is in your client’s pre-workout drinks? This article discusses the most common individual ingredients typically found within pre-workouts and describes “the good, the bad, and the ugly” associated with its usage.

This excerpt will briefly discuss the importance of exercise, dosage of the supplement, efficacy, body mass changes, and adverse effects of creatine.

Although it may be possible to increase skeletal muscle levels of carnitine by combining it with relatively large amounts of carbohydrates repeatedly throughout the day, or by taking it with choline, there is limited data that shows that carnitine is a fat-burner that results in significant reductions in fat mass.

Taurine is a well-known free amino acid that has gained prominence in recent years despite its little or no role in protein formation. Few studies on the ergogenic effect of taurine exist with inconsistent results. The answer to the question of whether performance markers demonstrate the benefit of taurine remains unclear. This study aimed to reach a consensus about whether taurine supplementation is effective on aerobic (time to exhaustion [TTE], maximal oxygen uptake [V̇O2max], and rating of perceived exertion) and anaerobic (power outputs, fatigue index, jumping, and blood lactate level) performance outputs. Google Scholar, PubMed databases, clinical trial websites, and gray literature were reviewed until November 2021. Mean differences (MDs) were pooled using random or fixed-effects models according to the heterogeneity degree of the related output. Although 18 studies were detected for the meta-analysis between 2001 and 2021, 16 studies were grouped. Only randomized controlled trials (single or double-blind) were considered. Taurine supplementation had a significant effect on vertical (MD 5 3.60; 95% confidence interval [CI] [2.32 to 4.89], p , 0.00001) and countermovement (MD 5 8.50; 95% CI [4.78 to 12.22], p , 0.00001) jump performance when compared with a placebo group. Taurine supplementation had no significant effect on the V̇O2max level and rate of perceived exertion (respectively, MD 5 20.54 mL/kg/min; 95% CI [26.84 to 5.75], p 5 0.87; MD 5 20.24; 95% CI [20.74 to 0.27], p 5 0.35) when compared with a placebo group. Overall, it looks to be effective for jumping performance and TTE. Taurine supplementation may be useful for people who want to improve these performance outputs.

The purpose of this article is to present evidence for implementing wellness coaching practices for enhanced dissemination of knowledge and improved efficacy of lasting behavior change, positively affecting the service member’s fitness performance levels and decreasing risk of lifestyle disease development.