Written by Christa Smith, RD, LD, CSSD, MCN, CPT

Have you ever wondered what kind of supplements are best for runners? If you are an athlete you are probably always looking for a competitive edge and supplements are typically at the top of that list. While we always advocate for a food-first approach that ensures a nutrient-rich diet, there certainly are supplements with quality evidence to help improve performance. 

In this article, we aim to provide you with a comprehensive list of supplements for runners that can further improve performance, given a well-balanced healthy diet and lifestyle shifts to reduce stress and promote recovery are in place. 

Of note, if you are a competitive athlete that is subject to random drug tests it is vital that you utilize safe supplements, those that are free of banned substances. To do so, look for supplements that have certifications like NSF Certified for Sport, Informed Choice, or Banned Substances Control Group to ensure the supplement meets rigorous standards. You can also use trusted resources like the US Anti-Doping Agency, World Anti-Doping Agency or WADA, US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and the NCAA for guidance on safe supplementation for your sport environment. 

Foundational Supplements for Runners

Sunfiber 

Many runners experience gut symptoms like runner’s diarrhea, reflux, nausea, or abdominal pain related to their training. Trailing different supplements is often top of mind for many athletes trying to reduce symptoms and improve performance.

Before trailing supplements however, it is recommended to address diet and lifestyle factors that may be contributing to unwanted gut symptoms such as eating too close to exercise, eating high fat or high fiber foods prior to exercise, not drinking enough fluids, and/or not giving yourself enough time to have a bowel movement before exercise.

If those factors have been addressed then other interventions could be helpful. Some examples include the list below.

• Runner's diarrhea: increasing soluble fibers in the diet and trying B2B+ before a run. Feel free to check out our article on runner's diarrhea too.
• Reflux: wearing loose-fitting clothing while running and trailing an alginate, such as Reflux Raft, prior to a run.
• Nausea: spacing out hydration during the day rather than guzzling lots right before a run, ensuring bowels are empty before a run, and trialing ginger tea prior to a run.
• Abdominal pain: ensuring bowels are empty prior to a run, you are properly hydrated, and targeting improving the microbiome through consistent B2B+ use daily.

If you are someone living with a digestive disease like Crohn's, Ulcerative colitis or Microscopic colitis - consider working closer with a licensed dietitian that practices medical nutrition therapy so that you can get more individualized care that fits where you are at.

High Quality Multivitamin

Multivitamins are popular, an estimated ⅓ of the US adult population takes a multi and about ¼ of adolescents and teens use them. Nearly 40% of all vitamin and mineral supplements in the US are multivitamins.

As noted by the name, multis contain a broad variety of nutrients and can be classified as Broad Spectrum, High Potency, and Specialized (for a specific condition).  

Multivitamins like our complete activated multi can be viewed as a sort of nutritional ‘insurance’ that provides essential nutrients at high enough amounts to account for any lack in dietary intake.

This is often a helpful strategy for the most people and particuarly those who are at increased risk of nutrient deficiencies. We suggest always using high quality and third-party tested options in order to glean the most benefit from the supplement. 

In particular to the runner, nutrients of concern that are typically found in a multivitamin include B vitamins like B12 and folate, calcium, magnesium, vitamin D, zinc, and vitamin C. All of these nutrients are necessary in vital physiological processes: 

• Vitamin B12 - necessary for energy production, energy metabolism, nerve health and red blood cell health 
• Folate - important in blood cell health 
• Calcium - necessary for bone health and repair as well as maintaining heart function and blood pressure
• Magnesium - important in bone health, muscle contraction, and heart function 
• Vitamin D - necessary for bone health and repair and muscle strength as well as immune health
• Zinc - important for immune function, wound healing, and protein synthesis 
• Vitamin C - immune health and antioxidant support 

Iron, a very important nutrient for runners, is typically not found in multivitamins, or if it is there isn’t very much present, because iron is tightly regulated in the body and must be dosed specifically based on an individual's labs.

Consult with your dietitian and healthcare provider for appropriate dosage and information regarding iron supplementation. 

Gut Friendly Protein Powders  

Protein powder is one of the supplements runners ask us most about. Meeting protein needs is an important part of any athletic strategy and particularly for runners to help repair muscle damage and prevent any lean tissue loss. It must be said that total calories and carbohydrate needs must also be met and not ignored in attempts to exceed protein needs. A sports dietitian can help with personalizing and tailoring nutrient needs related to the specific exercise demand! 

While protein needs can certainly be met with food alone, protein powders provide a convenient way to ensure adequate intake. Not all protein powders are created equal, however, and it’s important to consider if the product has all nine essential amino acids, it tastes good, has good texture, and is not filled with additives and other fillers.

Performance Supplements for Runners 

Creatine

If you have been scouring the internet for supplements to help improve your training, then surely creatine is at the top of the list. Creatine is one of the most well-studied supplements on the market for a variety of sports performance enhancements, including increasing strength, power, and muscle growth along with cognitive improvements as well. 

How Does It Work?

Creatine is a compound derived from the amino acids arginine, glycine, and methionine in the kidneys, liver, pancreas, and to a smaller degree the brain. The total body creatine pool includes creatine and phosphocreatine, which helps us understand the mechanism of action.

Skeletal muscle is the primary site of creatine storage, making up about 90% of the total body pool. This creatine pool can be increased through eating creatine-rich foods as well as supplementation. The body is able to make half of its creatine needs but the other half must be supplied through the diet. 

Phosphocreatine (PCr) is an important energy source for short duration, high intensity movements and creatine is essential for the regeneration of PCr to maintain fluctuating energy demands of the body.

Creatine supplementation can increase power production, sprint performance, and total work performed in the short term (5-7 days) and lean mass gains with improved strength and power when chronic training and elevated creatine levels are maintained over the long-term. 

Although creatine has the largest impact on short, high intensity movements there have been noted improvements with endurance athletes that have been proposed in the literature which include lowering lactate production at the same workload and decreased oxygen cost. Research is finding that the benefits of creatine can go beyond just skeletal muscle though.

Improvements to brain health, mental health, mitigating sleep deprivation impacts, enhancing blood sugar control along with helping with age-related muscle loss. Creatine can even reduce inflammation and muscle soreness, making it a great addition to any routine!

Dosage 

A dose of 20 grams for 5 days or 3-5 grams for 30 days will maximally load creatine levels in the body. Thereafter, a maintenance dose of about 5 grams or 0.3 g/kg/day should be maintained for maximal benefits.

It is not recommended to cycle on and off of creatine but rather continue with consistent intake. Further benefit can be experienced when creatine supplementation is ingested with a carbohydrate or carbohydrate and protein-rich meal or after exercise. 

Are There Any Cons?

Creatine has many benefits and its safety and efficacy have been extensively studied throughout the years. Creatine monohydrate has been the focus of most of the creatine supplementation research and has been proven to be the most effective.

Suggestions have been made that creatine may cause muscle cramps or negatively impact renal function or thermoregulation, however studies have failed to confirm this. 

The only potential side effect of creatine supplementation is weight gain due to the creatine being stored with water.

This phenomenon typically dissipates over time and many don’t notice. Overall, creatine is well-tolerated, inexpensive, has a good safety profile, and can benefit a wide variety of active populations. 

Caffeine

Speaking of well-studied supplements, caffeine is actually the most well-studied and widely used supplement for performance enhancement.

As you may know, caffeine is a natural alkaloid that acts as a central nervous stimulant and can decrease perception of effort and pain. 

How Does It Work? 

Again, because caffeine acts on the central and peripheral nervous system as an adenosine receptor antagonist, athletes are able to perform more work with less perception of the pain and exertion felt.

This usually creates improved reaction times, concentration, energy levels, endurance performance, velocity loss attenuated over consecutive bouts of exercise, and enhanced glycogen resynthesis. 

Dosage

Lower doses of about 200 mg (~1.5-3 mg/kg) are effective and should be used initially. Caffeine can be taken before, during, or late into exercise depending on the need of the athlete.

Levels appear in the bloodstream 15-45 minutes after ingestion and peak at about an hour after. Consuming caffeine in beverages, bars, gels, capsules or tablets, gums, or mouth strips are all effective ways to ensure delivery.

Sources of caffeine like matcha can often have less of a stimulating impact and create more of a level focus due to the L-theanine content that is present.

Plus, matcha is rich in antioxidants too that can help with post race day muscle recovery or even post work out. Consumption of matcha also has many great gut benefits too!   

Are There Any Cons?

Moderate to high doses of caffeine (5-9 mg/kg) can improve performance but are more associated with GI symptoms, higher heart rate, nervousness, confusion, and insomnia. We suggest using a lower dose to mitigate these symptoms.

It’s also well known that some will not respond to caffeine, which is likely due to genetic variations. Many also feel that caffeine can be a diuretic, however this is not the case in exercise and all caffeinated beverages do count toward hydration goals. 

*Of note, the IOC and NCAA have restrictions on caffeine in competitive sport. 

Nitrates/Beetroot 

Dietary nitrates may be a new ergogenic aid option but they have many physiological functions in the body and can enhance performance.

An example of a nitrate supplement is beetroot, which is rich in nitrates. Other leafy greens and root vegetables are rich in nitrates as well. 

How Does It Work?

Nitrates are naturally occurring in the body and contribute to the synthesis of nitric oxide, which regulates blood flow, muscle contractility, and mitochondrial respiration. L-arginine and nitrate convert to nitric oxide during periods of low oxygen availability, such as in endurance exercise. The ergogenic benefits produced by nitrates include reduced oxygen cost of exercise, improved muscle efficiency, and increased time to exhaustion particularly during high-intensity efforts. 

Dosage

Appropriate intake of nitrates ranges from 5-7 mmol per day. This dosage must be maintained daily in order for nitric oxide to stay elevated in the body. Levels peak 2-3 hours after ingestion and stay elevated for 6-8 hours, so ingesting nitrates about 3 hours prior to exercise is typically recommended. 

Are There Any Cons?

There are no known side effects of nitrate supplementation, however adaptations to training are unclear and some highly trained individuals may not respond as acutely to intervention. Some athletes may experience discolored stools or urine with prolonged beetroot ingestion, however there are not any harmful effects on the body. 

Buffers 

Sodium bicarbonate and beta-alanine fall under the umbrella term, buffers. The term is used because it helps describe how they work in the body. 

How Does It Work?

Buffers do just that, they help buffer hydrogen ions out of muscle cells. When hydrogen ions build up acidity does too, which causes muscular fatigue. Beta-alanine is converted to carnosine in the body and it works within the muscle to keep pH stable and hydrogen ions buffered out.

Sodium bicarbonate, on the other hand, provides carbonate ions that circulate in the blood and stabilize pH outside the muscle cells and allows for more hydrogen ions to be shunted away and into the bloodstream. 

Dosage

Beta-alanine is recommended at doses of 4-6 g/day divided in 2 or less doses chronically loaded over 2 weeks to see the most benefit. This benefit is most apparent in short duration, high intensity exercise lasting up to about 4 minutes, with more modest improvement with events lasting between 4 and 10 minutes in duration.

Sodium bicarbonate recommendations are doses of 0.2-0.5 g/kg of body weight per day with the most ergogenic benefit being in events lasting between 30 seconds and 12 minutes. There is evidence to suggest that combining beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate or creatine may have added beneficial effects. 

Are There Any Cons?

Even though these supplements show promising ergogenic benefits, they don’t come without some nasty potential side effects. The most common side effect of sodium bicarbonate use is abdominal pain, gas, diarrhea, and nausea.

It is certainly recommended to trial this in a low stakes training environment before any competition days! The reason for the split dose of beta-alanine is related to its potential side effect, paresthesia, or skin tingling.

This is typically noticed in the face, neck, and back of hands and is more pronounced in larger doses. Time released formulations tend to reduce paresthesia and improve tolerance. Again, trialing these supplements in training is recommended. 

Wrapping it all up

This isn't a full list of all of the sports supplements out there for distance runners and sprinters, but we hope it was a good comprehensive overview for you.

Remember that a balanced diet can never be replaced by a dietary supplement so always start there when it comes to improving exercise performance overall!

While supplements aren't crucial for improving running performance, when used appropriately they can help with recovery and help give you an added edge to perform at your best. 

Other articles:

Matcha - Is there really a difference with ceremonial grade?