From protecting your brain and heart to facilitating your recovery, omega-3 can perform many functions not always explored.
Exercising is efficient at achieving your goals, but it can also wreak havoc on your muscles and joints if you don’t take the proper precautions, including getting the right nutrients.
Nutrients that can help repair damage that occurs during training is one of the main reasons people seek nutritional support.
Why use protein?
One of the most popular nutrients in this regard is protein; Whether you’re a runner, swimmer, hiker, powerlifter, bodybuilder, or cyclist, your muscles are always engaged regardless of activity.
Ensuring your muscles are fed the right nutrients is crucial to making them stronger and more resilient.
How much protein to take? Well, that depends on your activity level, but the general rule seems to be that the more you use your muscles, the more protein you will need to strengthen and repair them and, although this is not linear, it is related to muscle mass and your protein needs to stimulate protein synthesis.
What about omega-3s?
The same appears to be true for omega-3 , EPA and DHA, the long-chain fatty acids found in fatty fish like salmon, algae, and krill.
EPA and DHA can help keep arteries clean and blood flowing efficiently through the body and muscles, and even the brain.
This would work to reduce inflammation during the day, without interrupting the process of breaking down and starting muscle cell regeneration, in addition to boosting muscle growth, strengthening your cardiovascular system and preparing it for physical activity, stimulating your brain to achieve the mental focus that is crucial for the mind-muscle connection and even helping you burn body fat.
Reduces inflammation, accelerates recovery
omega-3 EPA and DHA, found in marine sources like fish, algae and krill, are anti-inflammatory by design.
And seeing as exercise itself is an inflammatory activity, adding omega-3s might be just what you need to avoid delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
DOMS can occur a day or several after strenuous exercise and significantly affect your ability to maintain training at a high level.
On hard training days, you need to be recovered and reduce DOMS to face your fight against the irons.
One study (1) has shown that omega-3s reduce muscle pain and swelling, as well as increase range of motion after training.
However, experts advise taking it after post-training and not when that anabolic window begins, which is crucial to start the process of muscle hypertrophy.
Another study (2) done with rugby players investigated the effectiveness of consuming a protein-based supplement containing 1546 mg of fish oil (551 mg EPA and 551 mg DHA) twice a day compared to a placebo protein-based.
In this case, markers on muscle pain and psychological well-being were measured during five weeks of preseason training.
The researchers concluded that adding omega-3 to the protein-based supplement significantly reduces fatigue and muscle pain.
The omega-3 and muscle growth
One study (3) showed omega-3 fatty acids increase protein synthesis, which is the process your body goes through when it converts the protein you eat into fuel for your muscles they need to grow and stay strong.
In this study developed by researchers at the University of Washington, 4 grams per day of purified fish oil were used.
The study ran over an eight-week period in an effort to evaluate the impact on the rate of muscle protein synthesis.
The Americans discovered that omega-3 increased the muscle building response of subjects in the presence of insulin and amino acids, which are released into the bloodstream during training.
It seems that having a greater amount of omega-3 fatty acids in the muscle cell prepares it for protein synthesis.
Prepares the cardiovascular system for training
Another study (4) showed that fish oil could work within the healthy heart and skeletal muscle to reduce the oxygen demand of both the whole body and the myocardium during training, without a decrease in performance.
Part of the benefit for heart health of omega-3 is that they decrease the heart rate and the amount of oxygen that your body burns every minute and on the training or competition day this is ” a lot. ”
It means that during each minute of exercise, your body needs less oxygen than your competitor or that you get the best cardiovascular performance from yourself when you perform a repetition or a moderate to intense movement.
Do omega-3s burn fat?
Many people start exercising with the goal of losing weight; Well, according to a study (5) published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, omega-3s can help you burn fat when used for energy.
The same rule applies as it did for protein synthesis: the more omega-3 you have, the better your body will function, as you burn more fat for energy while you train.
In this study, 44 men and women received 4 grams per day of safflower oil or 4 grams per day of fish oil (1600 mg EPA and 800 mg DHA) and all tests were repeated after six weeks of treatment .
Researchers found that fish oil significantly increased lean mass and decreased fat mass.
It is also noted that it is a nutritional adjuvant and not necessarily the key nutrient to achieve these objectives.
Do you use fatty acids daily?