Intravenous therapy has advanced and become a popular choice among many target groups, including people doing sports recreationally or professionally. If you are one of them, you might be wondering does IV therapy help athletic performance.
Today there are available a variety of IV therapy cocktails containing different nutrients, allowing you to choose the best one for your needs. Some IV cocktails are advertised for boosting your energy, while others focus on speeding up your recovery. But do they actually influence the sports performance? Let’s find out.
Does IV Therapy Help Athletic Performance
In recent years, athletes have been leveraging the IV therapy benefits to rehydrate before exercising or during the recovery process. But does IV therapy help athletic performance?
Generally looking, high-quality and specially created IV therapy cocktails might improve your athletic performance. However, to feel the benefits you should research the IV solutions offered and find a reliable mobile IV for athletic performance provider.
To increase your chances of having the best outcome from mobile IV therapy, you should consult with the provider and explain what you expect from the treatment. With IV therapy, typically, you have two universal options:
Pre-workout IV therapy
Recovery IV therapy
In addition, with some IV therapy providers, you can customize the nutrients, vitamins, and fluids in your IV bag according to your needs and desired outcomes.
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How Does IV Therapy Help Improve Athletic Performance
IV therapy might improve your athletic performance by providing your body with the needed vitamins, nutrients, and fluids for that activity. So, why is IV therapy good for athletes? Depending on the ingredients, IV therapies might help with:
Electrolyte replenishment and hydration
Nutrient infusion
Recovery and muscle repair
Electrolyte replenishment and hydration
When you exercise, your body produces sweat. In medical terms, sweat production means your body loses water and electrolytes.
As an athlete who is physically active, your body might need fluids and electrolytes in order to achieve your best athletic performance. Electrolyte replenishment through IV therapy provides you with salt and minerals. They contribute to the normal function of your body, prevent hypohydration, cardiovascular and thermal strain, and decrease aerobic performance.
In the group of minerals, athletes need potassium, magnesium, calcium, and phosphate. Aligning with the needs of the athletes and their increased physical activity, there are IV therapy solutions that contain saline and minerals for hydration and replenishment.
Nutrient infusions
The nutrition needs of an athlete are not the same as those of a person with normal physical activity. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, athletes need vitamins and minerals to have enough energy, enhance their performance, and have good bone health.
Energy production
While a healthy diet is the best way to get all the nutrients your body needs, you might also benefit from IV therapy. To assist in your energy production, IV therapies typically contain different types of vitamin B. Vitamin B1, B2, B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine), B7 (biotin), and vitamin B12 are crucial in the process of energy production.
In addition, other nutrients that are essential ingredients in IV therapy that might improve your energy levels are:
Vitamin C
Iron
Magnesium
Athletic performance
Still contemplating how does IV therapy benefit athletic performance? When athletes want to enhance their performance, they are advised to take nutrients such as vitamin B12, iron, and vitamin A.
Intravenous therapy is one of the quickest ways your body can get the nutrients it needs. The administering of nutrients is also a popular choice because it has high absorption rates, which may maximize the effects of the treatment.
To enhance the results from the administration of vitamins and minerals, athletes may improve their performance by consuming enough proteins, carbohydrates, calories, and fluids. The recommended amount generally depends on the type of sport and the frequency and the duration of your training.
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Bone health
There is no doubt that as athletes exercise, they are contributing to better bone health. However, athletes still might have lower bone mineral density, making them a high-risk group for bone stress injuries.
Vitamin D and calcium play a crucial role in athletes’ bone health. Other nutrients that are good for the skeletal system are potassium, magnesium, vitamins K, vitamin C, folic acid, and sodium. An athletic IV therapy with the right ingredients might also improve your bone health.
Recovery and muscle repair
The recovery period is extremely important because it prepares you for your next endeavor. Your body needs time and nutrients to recover and heal properly after an extensive workout or a competition.
During the recovery period, the focus is on your muscles. More specifically, your muscle system needs rest and nutrients to reduce the inflammation and restore its strength and function.
IV therapy in athletes is also used because it may promote faster recovery and muscle repair during the post-exercise process. IV therapies have carefully picked ingredients that might speed up the process, such as:
Vitamin C
Vitamin B12
Zinc
Taurine
NAC
Pyridoxine
NAD+ and others
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The Do’s and Don’ts of IV Therapy for Athletic Performance
Now that you know whether does IV therapy help athletic performance, you might have other questions in mind, such as do pro athletes get IVs, or can I workout after IV therapy. Before you start looking for an athletic IV therapy provider, you should get familiar with the do’s and dont’s of the treatment.
Firstly, you should be aware that the World Anti-Doping Agency doesn’t allow athletes to get intravenous therapy higher than 100 milliliters in a 12-hour period. Whether you will be obligated to apply for TUE approval depends on the substances the IV therapy contains.
All in all, WADA only regulates the substances that athletes are allowed to get through intravenous administration and the amount they can get in a certain period of time. That doesn’t mean they are forbidden entirely. Consequently, there is a high percentage of both professional and amateur athletes that leverage the benefits of IV therapy.
And lastly, to answer one of the most common dilemmas, working out after IV therapy is generally allowed and safe. After all, there are special IV bags that are designed for administering before working out, as they might help with your athletic performance. On this topic, the medical professional administering the IV therapy can give you the most precise answer because they will monitor your well-being during the treatment.
Conclusion
IV therapy may be beneficial in many cases since it directly provides the body with the nutrients it requires. One of the most popular IV solutions is created for athletes. But does IV therapy help athletic performance? We hope that this scientific approach has solved this dilemma and you can now decide whether IV therapy will help you achieve your personal goals.
