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In today’s world, good food is hard to get. 

Vegetables and protein are getting more expensive, while junk food is cheaper. 

For footballers, nutrition is essential for performance on the pitch. 

Without proper nutrition, footballers are not able to perform at their best. That’s where supplements can come into play. 

Supplements help your diet by giving you the nutrients you aren’t getting enough of from food. 

But do supplements work for footballers? Stick around, and let’s find out!

Do Supplements Work?

The short answer is yes! 

Supplements are an excellent way to fill in various gaps in your nutrition. 

For supplements to work their best for you, your nutrition still needs to be pretty good. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but you should be eating well. 

If you’re eating around 3-4 meals per day but don’t feel like you’re getting stronger, taking a whey protein shake like Recovery is an easy way to get more protein in your diet. 

A pre-workout drink like Kick Off can improve your energy levels if you get good sleep and eat sufficient amounts of good carbohydrates, but you are still feeling sluggish before a match. 

Supplements build on what you already do, but they can’t fix a bad diet or a lack of sleep.

What Supplements Work Best for Footballers?

The three supplements every footballer should look into are

  1. Whey protein
  2. Creatine
  3. A pre-workout formula

Whey protein will help you build muscle and keep you strong. It will also help with muscle repair and reduce muscle soreness after a game.

Creatine helps your muscles recover faster and will add size to them. It can also help to boost your ability to keep your sprints going during a match.

A pre-workout drink boosts alertness on the pitch and can increase energy. 

These three supplements will be enough for most athletes. They help you perform, recover, and feel better during your matches. 

Along with a balanced diet providing sufficient amounts of good quality carbohydrates and proteins, supplements can be the edge some footballers need to outperform the other team. Carbohydrate-containing drinks like Isotonic and gels like Extra Time can provide readily absorbable sources of football fuel just when you need it, both in training and during a match

While other footballers may be focused on training and nutrition fads, a proper diet and supplementation are more than enough for you!

How often should I use Supplements?

The answer to this question is every day! 

Supplements are there to help your daily nutrition. 

You wouldn’t just train a couple of days before your match, right? 

So, why would you think to only use supplements if there is a match soon? 

By being consistent with your diet and supplements, you will make more progress in your performance than if you only did it once a week. 

Supplements build off of previous uses. Take creatine, for example. The more often you take creatine, the more effective it will be for increasing muscle size and improving your repeated sprint performance. 

Now, not all supplements are the same. If you don’t have a match or training one day, you don’t need to take a pre-workout supplement. 

You should still take some other supplements that help your overall health and performance – protein, creatine, vitamins, etc. 

Just like you eat every day, most supplements should be taken daily to gain the most benefit from them.

Should You Bother with Supplements if you have good nutrition?

The answer to this is still yes! 

Even if your nutrition is perfect, it’s likely you’re still not getting enough of every vitamin, mineral, or protein you need. Here are some of the reasons why:

  • Some nutrients are difficult to obtain in sufficient quantities from diet, or may require excessive energy intake and/or consumption of other nutrients
  • Some nutrients are abundant only in foods players do not eat or just do not like
  • The nutrient content of some foods with established ergogenic benefits is highly variable
  • Concentrated doses of some nutrients are required to correct deficiencies and/or promote immune tolerance
  • Some foods may be difficult to consume immediately before, during or immediately after exercise

You can think of supplements as that final bit you need to give you the edge over the opposition and become a top-tier footballer. If you can recover faster on the pitch with the help of a supplement, wouldn’t you take the chance? 

As a footballer, you need every edge you can get, and supplements can do that for you! 

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