Weekly Vitamin D 3 Supplementation Improves Aerobic Performance in Combat Sport Athletes
Eur J Sport Sci, 1-19 2020 Mar 18 DOI: 10.1080/17461391.2020.1744736
Andrew Marley 1 2, Marie Clare Grant 1 2, John Babraj 1 2
50,000, 80,000, and 100,000 IU Vitamin D weekly for 6 weeks
Wikipedia: Common combat sports include mixed martial arts, boxing, wrestling, judo, fencing, savate, kickboxing, Muay Thai, Sanda, Tae Kwon Do, Capoeira, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, HMB, Sambo, Sumo, Kyokushin, and Kūdō.
- 50,000 IU of Vitamin D once every two weeks proven to prevent/treat 22 diseases
- 18 additional Health Problems fought when taking 50,000 IU Vitamin D weekly
- Athletes helped by weekly 50,000 IU Vitamin D – RCT Aug 2019
Overview Sports and vitamin D has the following summary
Athletes are helped by vitamin D by:
- Faster reaction time
- Far fewer colds/flus during the winter
- Less sore/tired after a workout
- Fewer micro-cracks and broken bones
- Bones which do break heal much more quickly
- Increased VO2 and exercise endurance Feb 2011
- Indoor athletes especially need vitamin D
- Professional indoor athletes are starting to take vitamin D and/or use UV beds
- Olympic athletes have used UV/vitamin D since the 1930's
- The biggest gain from the use of vitamin D is by those who exercise less than 2 hours per day.
- Reduced muscle fatigue with 10,000 IU vitamin D daily
- Muscle strength improved when vitamin D added: 3 Meta-analysis
- Reduced Concussions
See also: Sports and Vitamin D category 282 items
Sports category starts with
Sports benefits from up to 50 ng (click on chart for details)
see also:
Overview Sports and vitamin D Concussions
Military Muscle Overview Fractures and vitamin D
Vitamin D supplementation increases strength of lower muscles – Meta-analysis April 2019
Athletes helped by weekly 50,000 IU Vitamin D – RCT Aug 2019
College swimmers helped by daily 5,000 IU of Vitamin D in the fall – RCT Feb 2020
Shin splints decrease with vitamin D
Less muscle inflammation after exercise if high level of Vitamin D (50 ng) -July 2021 50 ng
Only 1 NCAA basketball player getting 10,000 IU vitamin D daily achieved 50 ng goal – Jan 2020 50 ng
NCAA trainers are getting on board the Vitamin D train (40-50 ng)– Nov 2019 50 ng
Is 50 ng of vitamin D too high, just right, or not enough 50 ng
The only independent predictor of aerobic power: Vitamin D - 2021
Olympic Committee consensus on Vitamin D, Omega-3, Zinc, etc– May 2018 not consdered "doping"
Some Foot and ankle problems are treated by Vitamin D – many studies
Typical stress fracture during US Navy training cost 14,953 dollars, most had less than 40 ng Vitamin D - June 2022
Vitamin D trials by military – all 4 found benefit – review Sept 2019
Vitamin D supplementation increases strength of lower muscles – Meta-analysis April 2019
Omega-3 helps muscles - many studies
Download the PDF from sci-hub via VitaminDWiki
Vitamin D3 supplementation can affect the strength and power of an athlete, however the effect on endurance performance remains unclear. Twenty-seven recreational male combat athletes with at least 12 months experience within combat sports were recruited (age: 24 ± 4 years, stature: 176 ± 6 cm, weight: 77 ± 14 kg). Participants completed baseline testing for blood haemoglobin and haematocrit, upper and lower body VO2peak and upper and lower body Wingate. Following testing participants were stratified to 50000IU (D1), 80000IU (D2) or 110000IU (D3) of vitamin D3 per week. They then completed a 6-week placebo period followed by a 6-week supplementation period. Retesting was carried out after the placebo and supplementation period. There was a significant effect for time for haemoglobin and haematocrit, upper and lower body VO2peak and upper body Wingate power (p<0.01) but no effect for dose of vitamin D given. Performance data was normalised to vitamin D intake and there was a moderate effect size between D1 and D2 for lower body VO2peak (d=0.6), upper body VO2peak (d=0.13) and upper body average power (d=0.75), with a large effect size between D1 and D2 for haemoglobin (d=1.19), haematocrit (d=0.93) and upper body peak power (d=0.95). There was a large effect size for D1 compared to D3 for all variables (d>0.8). Therefore, there is no additional benefit to increasing dose above 500000IU vitamin D per week.
Given the endurance adaptations from vitamin D supplementation and the importance of endurance for combat performance, recreational combat athletes should supplement at 50000IU per week for six weeks.