Boost Your Endurance: Essential Supplements for Athletes

Whether you're a bodybuilder, cyclist, distance runner, swimmer, CrossFitter, triathlete, or participate in a sport, your performance strongly depends on endurance.

Proper nutrition, sleep, and recovery will always be the foundation for optimal performance, but sometimes your body needs an extra boost to maintain energy levels and sustain peak output over time. 

That's where the right supplements come into play. Endurance supplements can make a big difference, helping to fuel your body, enhance stamina, and support recovery.

In this article, we'll break down some of the top supplements designed to keep you pushing through even the most challenging training sessions and competitions.

Why Endurance is Important for Athletes

If you are an athlete, you know how crucial it is to give every training session and event your all from start to finish. To achieve that, you need endurance.

Endurance is the core of athletic performance, especially for those involved in activities that require sustained effort over time. It's what allows you to push through fatigue, maintain focus, and perform at your peak.

Training isn't just about surviving the session; it's about thriving through it. It's not only about lasting longer—it's about working smarter, using your body's energy more efficiently, and recovering faster so you can train harder next time.

When you train hard, a strong endurance foundation gives you the edge to keep going when you want to quit. In competition, it's often what separates winning from losing.

How Supplements Can Improve Endurance and Performance

Imagine being halfway through a long run or intense leg day, and while your legs are burning, you feel like you can keep going. That's the power of endurance—the ability to keep pushing and maintain energy and peak performance throughout your entire workout.

However, sustaining that level of performance requires more than discipline, mental grit, and physical strength. Optimal endurance is difficult to achieve alone. That is where the right supplements come into play.

Here are a few ways supplements can help boost your endurance:

Sustained Energy Levels

Ever hit that dreaded wall halfway through a long training session? Many supplements can help keep your energy levels steady from start to finish. For instance, beta-alanine and caffeine are well known to give you a boost to keep moving without feeling drained. Acetyl L-carnitine (ALCAR) is another supplement widely used by endurance athletes. 

Another excellent (but often overlooked) supplement for optimal endurance is a carbohydrate blend with specific ratios of glucose and fructose. These supplements can provide a steady stream of energy and help maintain blood sugar levels so you can keep your pace without feeling drained.

Electrolyte Balance

Electrolytes play a key role in regulating fluid levels, muscle contractions, and nerve function. When you sweat, you lose these vital minerals. If they're not replenished, it can lead to dehydration, muscle cramps, and a drop in performance.

Maintaining proper electrolyte balance is crucial for athletes, especially during long or intense workouts and competitions. Electrolyte supplements that provide the proper ratios of sodium and potassium help keep your body hydrated, prevent muscle cramping, and support overall muscle function.

For more, read “Why and How to Replace Sodium.”

Improved Hydration

During intense or prolonged exercise, your body loses water and essential minerals such as sodium and potassium. These minerals help to retain fluids and support muscle function. Drinking water alone is usually not enough for endurance athletes to maintain proper hydration.

Endurance supplements like salt and electrolytes enhance hydration by aiding your body in absorbing and retaining water more effectively. This improved hydration is crucial for regulating body temperature, sustaining stamina, and preventing fatigue.

For more, read “The Science of Hydration/Endurance.”

Enhanced Recovery

When you're constantly challenging your endurance, recovery is crucial. Endurance supplements can help speed up muscle repair so you can bounce back faster between sessions.

There are many supplements and supplement stacks that are excellent for recovery. One of our favorites is creatine. While it is best known for enhancing power output, creatine monohydrate is also well-documented to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and help speed up muscle recovery.

The Best Supplements for Endurance Athletes 

Incorporating the right endurance supplements in the proper ratios and dosage and taking them at the correct time can make a huge difference in how you feel during long workouts. 

Here are our top supplement ingredients and dosage and timing suggestions to boost your endurance:

Electrolytes Formulated for Athletes

Electrolytes are essential to keeping your muscles functioning properly. They prevent cramping, support muscle contractions, and ensure fluid levels are balanced, allowing you to sustain energy over time.

Here are a few electrolytes that are crucial for endurance athletes and should be in the electrolyte supplement you take:

Sodium Citrate

This alkaline form of sodium is known for its superior absorption and gentler taste compared to regular table salt. It helps buffer lactic acid buildup in muscles, reducing discomfort and improving overall exercise endurance.

Sea Salt

A natural source of sodium, sea salt contains various trace minerals often missing from processed salts. These minerals help regulate fluid balance, support muscle function, and enhance overall hydration.

Chloride

Chloride works hand-in-hand with sodium to maintain fluid balance and blood volume. It's essential for proper digestion and helps your body efficiently absorb nutrients, keeping you hydrated and energized.

Potassium

Potassium is vital for muscle function and nerve signaling. It helps prevent cramps and supports fluid balance within cells, ensuring that your muscles receive the nutrients they need to perform optimally and recover quickly.

Magnesium

Magnesium is important for muscle relaxation and energy production. It helps prevent cramps and fatigue by supporting muscle relaxation and aiding in the synthesis of ATP, the cell's energy currency.

The Best Electrolyte Supplement

There are a lot of electrolyte supplements out there, but most of them are not formulated with endurance athletes in mind. RAW Replenish is a premium hydration and electrolyte supplement created for athletes.

It is used by some of the world's most elite endurance athletes, such as Charlie Lawrence, a professional athlete who holds the 50-mile world record, 5x IronMan champion Kat Matthews, and endurance athlete Jeff Gloria, to name only a few. 

RAW Replenish is formulated with researched-backed sodium levels and other key electrolytes to provide optimal hydration and fluid balance. While it's widely used by endurance athletes, it is also great for anyone looking to stay hydrated during warm and humid months, during and after illness, or whenever they feel the need to replenish lost electrolytes.

For more information on Raw Replenish, read “What is RAW Replenish? The Benefits and Uses.”

Proper Dosage of Electrolytes for Endurance Athletes 

Dosage is individual and will vary based on your training intensity, how much you sweat, and the electrolyte formula you choose. You can use this guide for calculating sodium and fluid loss.

Consuming too much sodium electrolyte product can lead to an electrolyte imbalance and other health issues, so always follow product guidelines. 

As an example, the dosage for electrolyte formulas such as RAW Replenish might be:

• Higher-intensity training, high-sweat rate sessions, and longer workouts: Drink 1-2 Servings of Replenish with 20-30 oz of water during training.

• Lower-intensity training, a lower sweat rate, and shorter training sessions: Drink 1 Serving of Replenish with 20-30 oz of water during training.

• Upon Waking: 1 Serving of Replenish. You can mix it into water, but the chocolate flavor is excellent in coffee or a smoothie. 

The Best Time for Athletes to Consume Electrolytes

There are many times when taking electrolytes could benefit an athlete. For example, having a scoop of RAW Replenish first thing in the morning is a great way to replenish fluids lost during sleep.

However, there are two times when consuming an electrolyte blend is crucial if you want to boost endurance: during and after an intense training session or competition.

During exercise, electrolytes help maintain fluid balance, prevent cramping, and keep energy levels stable. Afterward, they aid in recovery by restoring lost minerals and supporting rehydration, which is essential for muscle repair and reducing fatigue.

A Glucose + Fructose Carbohydrate Blend

It's well known that carbohydrates are the body's primary energy source. What's not as widely known is that not all carb sources are equal when it comes to boosting endurance.

For endurance athletes, glucose and fructose are the ideal combination. These two sugars are absorbed through different pathways, which helps maximize energy delivery and prevent fatigue.

Mixing glucose and fructose offers distinct advantages for endurance training:

• Consistent Energy Supply: Since glucose and fructose use different absorption methods, your body gets a steady stream of fuel, helping to maintain energy levels throughout long workouts.

• Reduced Risk of GI Discomfort: Large amounts of glucose can sometimes cause stomach issues. By adding fructose, you help ease the load on your digestive system and reduce the chances of gastrointestinal distress.

• Extended Performance: This blend allows your body to sustain energy for longer durations, which is crucial for maintaining peak performance in endurance sports.

The idea that a combination of glucose and fructose is ideal for athletes is backed by science. Research shows that the body can only absorb a certain amount of glucose at once due to limits in the way glucose is transported through the intestines. Fructose, however, uses a different absorption pathway.

By combining glucose and fructose, you can take advantage of both absorption systems, allowing your body to absorb more carbohydrates overall. This helps increase energy during exercise while also reducing stomach issues that can come from consuming large amounts of carbs. As a result, it can improve endurance and performance during long, high-intensity workouts.

If you are looking for more information on the best carb loading meals for endurance athletes, click here. 

The Best Glucose + Fructose Supplement

Correct ratios of glucose to fructose are important. That is why we did a lot of research when formulating our carbohydrate formula, RAW Fuel. It has a total of 24g of carbs per serving that are scientifically optimized with a precise ratio of 1 to 0.8 Glucose to Fructose. 

This is a science-backed ratio that enables athletes to absorb a higher amount of carbohydrates per hour than a single source of carbs without experiencing stomach upset. But the reason our carbohydrate formula is superior to others on the market goes beyond carb ratios.

RAW Fuel also contains 300 mg sodium in a 1:1 ratio of sea salt to sodium citrate, creating an optimal carb-to-salt ratio that is crucial for maintaining energy levels, hydration, and electrolyte balance during prolonged endurance activities without causing gastrointestinal distress.

There is a reason why elite endurance athletes choose RAW Fuel. Collegiate baseball player turned endurance athlete Chris Rodriguez uses it before and after every single training session, and as professional triathlon athlete Natasha Van Der Merwe says … "It gives me steady energy and is easy on the stomach. Whether I'm training for 2 hours or 5 hours, FUEL is formulated perfectly for intense endurance events." 

If top athletes rely on this endurance formula… you can trust it to fuel your peak performance, too!

Raw Intra Workout is a similar supplement many athletes like to consume mid-training session. Click here to learn more about the difference between Raw Fuel and Raw Intra Workout.

Proper Dosage of Glucose + Fructose for Endurance Athletes 

How much glucose and fructose you need varies based on the intensity or length of your training. Most athletes find it beneficial to take 1 serving per. 60 minutes of light training or activity. Then, as duration and intensity increase, up to 5 scoops for optimal performance.

You should always follow the suggested serving size of the product you are consuming, but here is a general dosage guide for RAW Fuel:

• Low Intensity (60 min or less): 1-2 scoops

• High Intensity (60-90 min): 2-3 scoops

• Race/Competition Specific (2+ hours): 3-5 scoops 

The Best Time for Athletes to Consume a Glucose + Fructose

Most carbohydrate blends like Raw Fuel are designed to be consumed both during and after training and endurance events. If you are looking for a supplement to replenish hydration following training or an event, use RAW Replenish. 

Other Supplements that Support Boosted Endurance

Because hydration and electrolyte balance are crucial factors for endurance athletes, our top suggestions for boosting endurance are the above-mentioned supplements.

If you are looking for additional ways to enhance your performance, here are some other supplements to consider:

Acetyl L-Carnitine (ALCAR)

ALCAR is a form of L-carnitine, a naturally occurring amino acid vital for fat metabolism and energy production. It also aids in recovery by minimizing muscle damage and supporting repair, leading to quicker recovery times.

Beyond that, Acetyl L-Carnitine has neuroprotective benefits, helping to maintain mental sharpness during long workouts. It may also improve oxygen delivery to muscles, enhancing endurance capacity.

Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine plays a crucial role in producing ATP, your muscles' primary energy source, and is a go-to for any athlete looking to elevate their performance, especially in strength-based sports. There are several versions of creatine available. Creatine Monohydrate is the most studied and widely used. 

To learn more about the benefits of creatine for endurance athletes, read “Unlocking Potential: The Benefits of Creatine for Endurance Athletes.”

Beta-Alanine

This amino acid is widely used by athletes for its ability to improve endurance and delay fatigue. By increasing the levels of carnosine in muscles, Beta-Alanine helps buffer acid buildup, which allows you to push through high-intensity training sessions for longer periods without burning out.

Salt

During extreme exercise, sodium is lost through sweat. If it is not replaced, the body can become dehydrated and experience a decline in performance. 

Sure, you could throw back some regular table salt, but not all salts are equal. It's best to choose a salt supplement, like RAW SALT, which provides measured doses of easy-to-digest premium sodium sources.

Isolate Protein Powder

Protein is essential for endurance athletes, particularly before and after intense training. Isolate protein powders are ideal for these times because they are quickly absorbed, making them immediately available to your muscles.

The quick absorption helps kickstart the recovery process, reducing muscle soreness and promoting faster recovery so you can get back to training sooner. For endurance athletes, maintaining muscle mass while promoting recovery is essential for long-term performance and progress.

Pre-Workout

If you struggle with focus and energy and don't seem to get a good pump during training, a pre-workout formulated for endurance is another great supplement to consider. 

Some ingredients to look for in a quality endurance pre-workout supplement are 

L-citrulline, Beta-Alanine, L-tyrosine, Taurine, and natural caffeine from green coffee bean extract.

RAW Essential Pre Workout combines all of these ingredients in a formula trusted by elite athletes for sustained energy and focus.

Conclusion 

Sports and activities that require stamina and endurance are not easy on the body. Adding endurance supplements to your routine can not only help you go the distance but also promote faster recovery, allowing you to train more effectively and avoid injury.

While many supplements may be optional for the average gym-goer or those that participate in low-intensity sports, if you're an athlete who pushes hard and aims for peak performance, certain supplements become essential for both your athletic success and overall well-being.

At RAW Nutrition, we have a passion for endurance sports and created an entire line of endurance supplements and even an entire section on our website dedicated to endurance. There, you will find  countless articles, additional supplement recommendations, inspiriting athlete profiles, information on how to join one of our RAW run clubs, and more!

Additionally, all of our products are Informed Sport Certified. Athletes can rest assured the RAW supplements they are taking contain precisely what is listed on the label, and are free from any banned substances.