Best Supplements For Gaming

You don’t just need focus, motivation and intense concentration to enhance your gym workouts.

Having the right amount of energy for extended periods of time is needed in other aspects of your life too – from long hours at work to the hours and hours of revision for college.

The longer you can concentrate for, the more productive you are.

Could a pre workout help with gaming?

And if so, which nutrients come out on top?

In this article we take a look…

Gaming, eSports and Supplement Use

As one of the biggest growth industries over the last 20 years, video games have come a long way.

Competitive gaming is both popular and lucrative for those who excel. In some of the more elite competitions, gamers can expect to walk away with prized well in advance of $10 million.

Electronic sports or simply eSports are a form of competition between gamers. They typically involve knock-out, multi-player video game matches where players from around the world are pitted against each other in a survival of the fittest competition.

Come out on top and its not only a life-changing sum of money being wired to your account, it’s the glory, sponsorship and fame that comes with it too.

Lose, and no one will remember who you are.

Gaming requires cognitive skills

With the boom in multi-player platforms and huge prize money pots, the quest for that little added edge has become as important as ever.

Even the scientific community have started to take an interest in the effects of gaming on the brain. Because once you understand what the link between gaming and cognition is; the more you can improve it.

Research has shown that regular video gaming is related to [1]:

• Spatial awareness and hand-eye co-ordination
• Attention and enhanced mental rotation
• Pain management and occupational therapy
• Improve cognitive functional in elderly
• Improved memory and executive control

With hours and hours spent glued to a monitor, fixed attention and focus are paramount for gamers.

Without the ability to pay attention two every aspect of the screen, your opponent can quickly take advantage.

Even if you’re not a pro gamer, boosting your cognitive ability while playing helps you achieve the very goal of gaming – to win, to beat your score and to complete the game.

And that’s where supplements come in.

Best Gaming Nutrients

When t comes to gaming, it’s important that you do everything you can to give yourself the upper hand.

The need for cognitive boosting has become so important that many gaming competition committees have formulated a banned supplements list – much like the Olympic games.

But don’t worry, we won’t be recommending any of those.

This makes it all the more important to get the right nutrients. Choose the wrong ones and you could risk a ban from competition.

Here are the best natural supplement nutrients for video gaming…

#1. Caffeine

Whether its from coffee or a pre workout supplement such as 4 Gauge, caffeine is the most reliable cognitive enhancer you’ll come across.

The physical benefits of caffeine are well documented. It helps to improve endurance, time to exhaustion and even power output.

It’s used by pro sportspeople as well as amateur gym goers wanting to shred fat and improve fitness.

As a gamer, caffeine helps to boost mental clarity with a burst of energy. It inhibits the receptors that make you feel sleepy, meaning you can fight off fatigue and drowsiness for much longer periods than without.

Studies show that when it comes to cognitive tasks such as memory recall, reaction time, visuo-spatial awareness and decision making, caffeine significantly boosts performance [2].

#2. L-theanine

Why would be put a nervous system depressant on the list of cognitive enhancers?

Well it’s all down to how it works with caffeine.

One concern for gamers is accuracy. If you’re playing a game where you’re relying on quickscope or you’ve got to time your jumps just right for a platform game, the last thing you want is jitters affecting accuracy and timing.

While caffeine spikes energy, L-theanine helps to keep it targeted, providing a anxiolytic effects that reduces jitters and restlessness.

Referred to as smart caffeine in the research, the combination of caffeine and L-theanine optimizes the neuro-excitary effect of caffeine stimulation, helping you to maintain focus and concentration when your energy levels are turned up to 10.

#3. Rhodiola rosea

Rhodiola rosea is a plant extract known to reduce fatigue and boost physical endurance.

As an adaptogen herb (a group of nutrients that optimize adrenal function and reduce stress), rhodiola improves focus and concentration.

It also activates AMPK in the body, an enzyme with the ability to boost mental clarity, cognition and human health [3].

Not only does it increase the oxygen-carrying potential of your blood, it also increases your sensitivity to serotonin and dopamine – two neurotransmitters known to elevate alertness.

Studies show that when a group of participants suffering from symptoms of anxiety are given as little as 200 mg of the herb extract, their anxiety and stress decrease.

Not only that, but their cognitive performance improved as well [4].

Summary

There’s much more to pre workout supplements than boosting strength, power and stamina in the gym.

As a gamer you’re looking for nutrients that will support your cognitive abilities and boost your chances of video gaming success.

Choose these pre workout ingredients and boost your mental performance, reaction time and spatial awareness. You won’t be disappointed.

4 Gauge is an exhaustively researched, all-natural pre workout designed to rip the lid off your gym sessions, sports games or workouts.

Packed with performance-enhancing nutrients such as caffeine, L-theanine and creatine, 4 Gauge will take your training to a completely new level.

• Smash your workouts – feel your nervous system firing on all cylinders
• Cell-splitting muscle pumps – harness the power of vasodilation and deliver more nutrients to your muscle cells
• Determination like never before – feel unparalleled focus and motivation
• Relentless energy – train for longer without fatigue

References

1. Feng, J et al. Playing an action video game reduces gender differences in spatial cognition. Psych Sci. 2007; 18(10): 850-855
2. Jarvis, MJ et al. Does caffeine intake enhance absolute levels of cognitive performance? Psychopharmacology. 1993; 110(1-2): 45-52
3. Richter, EA et al. AMPK and the biochemistry of exercise: Implications for human health and disease. Biochem J. 2009; 418(2): 261-275
4. Cropley, M et al. The Effects of Rhodiola rosea L. Extract on Anxiety, Stress, Cognition and Other Mood Symptoms. Phytother Res. 2015; 29(12): 1934-9