Youth supplementation

My daughter Skye is 14 years old, and is a rhythmic gymnast. She represents KZN and has represented SA twice. She trains between 5 to 6 days a week for about 4 hours a day. With all this training, she still has to fit in school work as well. I am an avid reader of Fitness Magazine and your article this month focused on sports nutrition. Would you recommend my daughter takes Whey protein, Creatine and Joint Support Formula, or is she too young? What are your thoughts on this?
Carol Kelly via info@fitnessmag.co.za

The Pro’s Respond

Dear Carol,
With that amount of physical exercise I have no doubt that intelligent nutritional supplementation is required in order for your daughter to combat the ravages of intensive exercise, recover sufficiently and perform at her peak. First and foremost you need to be taking care of her increased micro nutrient intake by ensuring she supplements daily with a high potency multi vitamin. It is doubtful that she will be able to obtain the level of vitamins her body requires from whole foods (eg. fruit and veggies) alone. In addition to a high potency Multi Vit, I’d have her getting extra anti-oxidant protection by way of vitamin C & E supplementation. Intense and high volume exercise cause the body to produce tons of tissue damaging free radicals, which need to be combated by anti-oxidants before they wreak havoc on the body, hindering recovery, suppressing immunity, increasing injury susceptibility etc. Supplementing her diet with a minimum of 1000mg of Vitamin C & 400iu of vitamin E daily will go a long way to counteracting the negative effects of increased free radical production.

In addition to these aforementioned micronutrients, I would also suggest supplementing daily with a well formulated calcium supplement (eg. Sandoz Calcium or Caltrate) as a pro-active means of supporting her long term bone health. Taking a joint support formula, as you suggest, which contains at least 1500mg of glucosamine and 1000mg of MSM, is similarly an intelligent pro-active means of supporting and protecting her joint tissue which I can imagine comes under a fair amount of stress in her chosen sport.
Last but not least, supplementing with a good quality protein powder such as whey protein (1-2 servings per day) will help her to acquire the essential amino acids her body (particularly her muscle tissue) requires to recover from her daily training schedule.

Personally I do not think that creatine supplementation at her age will have a significant effect on her performance. I’d rather see her spending that money on something like omega 3 supplementation.

Combine the aforementioned supplements with a nutritious diet, ample hydration, rest & recovery and I’m sure she’ll soon be feeling all the better for it with more energy, less fatigue, fewer injuries and better recovery.

Good Luck.