EXAMINATION OF WORKOUT SUPPLEMENTS: THE PHYSIOLOGICAL PATHWAYS AND MECHANISMS IN RELATION TO EXERCISE PERFORMANCE

Abstract

Nutritional supplementation to enhance exercise performance has become a growing interest in the athletic industry. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate how the workout supplements 𝛽-Alanine and creatine monohydrate function at the physiological level by studying their cellular pathways and mechanisms in order to determine their overall effect on an individual’s exercise performance and health. To research information on these topics, I employed various engines such as the University of Arizona’s database, PubMed, and NCBI using the keywords “nutritional supplementation,” “workout,” “𝛽-Alanine,” “creatine monohydrate,” “exercise,” and “performance” to gather research articles pertaining to my thesis topic. A review of the available literature and clinical studies demonstrate that the ergogenic supplement of 𝛽-Alanine has a positive marginal improvement on high intensity exercise performance with no negative health effects by increasing the buffering capacity of the muscle cell. The ergogenic supplement of creatine monohydrate has a positive improvement on high intensity exercise performance with a gain in fat-free mass with no negative health effects by improving the phosphorylation of ATP within the muscle cell.