What are the best supplements for running stamina in the UK?

Stamina is three limiters, not one: maximal oxygen uptake, the threshold fraction and running economy, what trains each, and which supplement touches which

What are the best supplements for running stamina in the UK is a question whose key word hides three quantities, because running physiology has for decades described a runner's performance as the product of three limiters, and a supplement has to be placed against one of them before it means anything. The first limiter is maximal oxygen uptake, the ceiling, the most oxygen a runner's heart, blood and muscles can take up and use per minute, trained by hard intervals and set partly by genetics and partly by the blood's oxygen carriage. The second is the fraction of that ceiling a runner can sustain at the lactate threshold, the pace above which acid accumulates faster than it is cleared, trained by tempo running at or near the threshold and the limiter that most separates a trained runner from an untrained one with the same ceiling. The third is running economy, the oxygen cost of holding a given pace, trained by volume, by strength work and by years of running, and the limiter that most separates elite runners from very good ones. Stamina, as a runner means it, is the product of all three, and the supplement shelf touches them unevenly. Dietary nitrate from beetroot juice touches economy: at 6 to 8 millimoles taken two to three hours before, it lowered the oxygen cost of a pace and improved time to exhaustion in the trials, through its effect on the vessels and the muscle's efficiency, with the effect clearest in recreational runners and smaller or absent in elite ones whose economy is already high, which makes it the park runner's supplement rather than the county champion's. Caffeine touches the perception of effort across all three limiters rather than any one of them: at 3 to 6mg per kilogram thirty to sixty minutes before, it lowers the rating of perceived exertion at a given pace and improves time trial performance from five kilometres to the marathon, through the adenosine receptors rather than through oxygen or fuel, and it is the one aid that a five-kilometre runner and a marathoner use for the same reason, with the authorised claim for alertness and attention and a gut that some runners find it unsettles. Beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate touch the threshold limiter in the specific window of one to four minutes, by buffering the acid that limits efforts of that length in the muscle and the blood respectively; that window is the 800 and 1500 metres, and a park run, a ten-kilometre race or a marathon sits outside it, so that a distance runner taking beta-alanine for stamina has bought a middle-distance tool.

Three limiters, three different supplement answers, and the pattern is already visible: the supplements that touch a runner's stamina do so through effort and economy rather than through the ceiling, which is set by training and by one thing a capsule can change in one kind of runner, which is the subject of the next section.

The one supplement that raises the ceiling and the test that finds who it is for, the fuel under all three limiters, the lifter's shelf that a runner does not need, the worked example, and the verdict

The ceiling, maximal oxygen uptake, is set by the heart, the muscles and the blood's capacity to carry oxygen, and the last of these is where one supplement changes a runner's stamina more than any other, in one kind of runner and in no other. Iron is the oxygen carrier, low ferritin is common in female endurance athletes and not rare in male ones, since running raises losses through sweat, foot strike and the gut, and the trials show that supplementing iron in a deficient but not yet anaemic athlete improves aerobic capacity and performance while supplementing a replete athlete does nothing. The ferritin test therefore comes before any iron, and it is the one blood test a runner with fading stamina should have: a low result is a ceiling raised by correcting it, a normal result is a runner whose stamina lives in the other two limiters and their training, and a man or woman who takes iron without the test risks storing what they do not need, with the haemochromatosis gene that a meaningful minority of northern Europeans carry making routine iron harmful. Under all three limiters sits carbohydrate, the fuel that a long run exhausts: an effort beyond about ninety minutes is limited by muscle glycogen, set by carbohydrate across the day and sustained by 30 to 60g an hour on the run, and no capsule on any shelf replaces it, so that a runner asking about stamina supplements who is not managing carbohydrate on long runs has asked the second question first. The lifter's shelf, which the same stores sell to runners, has nothing for them: creatine's territory is repeated sprints and sets, and its kilogram of water is a kilogram a runner carries; protein above 1.6 grams per kilogram builds nothing a runner wants; and the pre-workout's caffeine is the one useful thing in it, bought as a tablet without the tingle.

The worked example is taken for electrolyte balance and muscle function on the long run and not for a stamina claim it does not have: {FL}, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, two capsules with the evening meal, carrying the authorised claims for electrolyte balance, normal muscle function, normal energy-yielding metabolism and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, with sweat losses on long runs and a diet short of the mineral making the survey's shortfall likelier in a runner, and no claim about stamina, endurance or performance because none exists, batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium with the certificate on request, UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day. The verdict on the best supplements for running stamina in the UK is the three limiters read for the runner's event: caffeine for the perception of effort at any distance, nitrate from beetroot for the economy of a recreational runner, beta-alanine and bicarbonate only for the middle-distance window, iron for the ceiling of the runner a ferritin test finds low and for nobody else, and carbohydrate on the long run as the fuel under all of it, with the lifter's shelf left to the lifters and the runner's stamina otherwise bought with the intervals, the tempo runs and the volume that train the three limiters a capsule barely touches.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

What supplements improve running stamina?

Placed against the three limiters running physiology names: caffeine at 3 to 6mg per kilogram lowers the perception of effort across all three and improves time trials from five kilometres to the marathon; dietary nitrate from beetroot at 6 to 8 millimoles two to three hours before improves running economy, mostly in recreational runners; beta-alanine and sodium bicarbonate buffer efforts of one to four minutes, the 800 and 1500 metres, and do nothing for the park run or the marathon; iron raises the ceiling in the runner a ferritin test finds low and in nobody else; and carbohydrate on the long run is the fuel under all of it that no capsule replaces.

Does beetroot juice help running?

For running economy, the oxygen cost of holding a pace, dietary nitrate from beetroot at 6 to 8 millimoles taken two to three hours before lowered that cost and improved time to exhaustion in trials, through its effect on the vessels and the muscle's efficiency, with the effect clearest in recreational runners and smaller or absent in elite ones whose economy is already high; it is the park runner's supplement rather than the county champion's, it does not touch the ceiling or the threshold fraction, and it is bought as a measured dose of nitrate rather than as a glass of juice of unknown content.

Should runners take iron supplements for stamina?

Only the runner a ferritin test finds low, who is more often female than male and not rare in either: running raises iron losses through sweat, foot strike and the gut, low ferritin lowers the blood's oxygen carriage and so the ceiling, and the trials show that supplementing a deficient but not yet anaemic athlete improves aerobic capacity and performance while supplementing a replete one does nothing; the ferritin test comes first, because unneeded iron is stored rather than excreted and a meaningful minority of northern Europeans carry a gene that makes routine supplemental iron harmful.

Is beta-alanine useful for distance running?

No; beta-alanine raises muscle carnosine and buffers the acid that limits efforts of one to four minutes, with a benefit of around three per cent in the meta-analysis concentrated in that window, which is the 800 and 1500 metres and not the five or ten kilometres or the marathon, where the threshold fraction is trained by tempo running rather than bought by buffering; a distance runner taking beta-alanine for stamina has bought a middle-distance tool, and the tingle a pre-workout delivers is a side effect of the dose rather than a sign it is working.

Do runners need creatine or protein powder?

Rarely: creatine's territory is repeated sprints and the work between sets, and its kilogram or so of stored water is a kilogram a distance runner carries around a course, so it is a tool for the sprinter and the lifter rather than the park runner; protein above around 1.6g per kilogram builds nothing a runner wants and most runners reach that from food; and the pre-workout sold to runners contains one useful thing, caffeine, bought as a tablet at 3 to 6mg per kilogram without the beta-alanine tingle and the citrulline pump that serve efforts a runner does not make.

Sources

1. The endurance performance model (Joyner and colleagues): running performance is set by maximal oxygen uptake, the fraction of it sustainable at the lactate threshold, and running economy, three limiters with different training stimuli and different responses to any ergogenic aid. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18076943/
2. The dietary nitrate literature: beetroot juice and other nitrate-rich vegetables raise plasma nitrate and nitric oxide availability, lowering blood pressure by a few millimetres of mercury and improving exercise economy in meta-analyses, the clearest acute circulation effect of any food, acting within two to three hours. PubMed record
3. The iron and endurance athlete literature: low ferritin is common in female endurance athletes, iron supplementation in deficient non-anaemic athletes improves aerobic capacity and performance in trials, and supplementation in iron-replete athletes does not, so that a ferritin test precedes any iron. PubMed record
4. The caffeine and perceived exertion meta-analysis literature: caffeine lowers rating of perceived exertion during exercise by around five to six per cent and improves performance in part through that reduction, the clearest cognitive-performance link any supplement holds for training. PubMed record

Related answers

• What are the best supplements for endurance and stamina in the UK?
• What are the best third party tested supplements?
• Are Amazon supplements 3rd party tested?
• Are NOW supplements on Amazon legit?
• What are the best made supplements?
• Which supplements are approved by Informed Sport?