ZMA in Sports – Rugby

If you play rugby or any other physical sport you will know the usual supplements that make it into most sporting peoples supplement stacks. We all know about the benefits of protein shakes and most of us will have used or heard of Creatine, however you may not have heard of ZMA. As somebody who has always played Rugby, I am always on the lookout for ways to improve performance and for help with my recovery from training and match days. ZMA is a supplement I would now never be without. To explain why this is, lets look at the supplement a little closer. Firstly, what is ZMA? ZMA is a combination of Zinc, Magnesium and vitamin B6. You can find these dietary minerals in some of our every day foods such as red meat, nuts and leafy greens. However these minerals are not supplied adequately in our natural diets so that is why I would recommend supplementing it with ZMA. So how can ZMA tablets improve performance? As a Rugby player I need to be able to build, maintain and repair lean muscle tissue. ZMA has been shown to help increase the rate of protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is the body’s ability to take amino acids and bring them together to build proteins. With this increase in protein synthesis comes the ability to build lean muscle as your body can utilise more of the protein take in. This therefore leads to increased muscle size and strength. This is vital in a sport like rugby where size and strength are some of the core attributes needed to play at a high level. Part of my training regime is diet; I eat 6 – 8 high protein meals a day. An increase in protein synthesis means I’m able to get the most out each of my meals. A sport like rugby can have very high training demands and this can take it toll on the immune system, therefore leaving you more open to illness. ZMA has been shown to strengthen our immune systems and a deficiency in Zinc can not only make you more prone to illness but can lengthen the time of colds, flu’s and lower appetite. The last thing you need as a Rugby player or any kind of sports person is being unable to train for your sport. Out of the gym, ZMA has its benefits there too. ZMA has greatly helped with my recovery from training and match days. I, as well as many others, have found ZMA to be a very effective sleep aid. At the end of a hard day of work or training, sometimes it can be difficult to get a full, deep, restful nights sleep. If you have a Magnesium deficiency it can greatly impact on sleeping patterns and the quality of your sleep. Supplementing Magnesium through ZMA has been shown to overcome this problem. A good quality night sleep is vital to my training and performance as muscle growth, repairing of muscle tissue and healing processes are at best during deep sleep. In conclusion I wanted to share my experience with ZMA as I believe it could be a highly valuable supplement to many sports people.