Alactic anaerobic capacity

Introduction

My interest in supplements was born over 47 years ago when, at the age of 17, I started practicing Physical Culture and buying Sportman magazine, which dealt with physical efficiency, pre-athletics and dietetics, which I subsequently edited myself for a few years. The magazine, in addition to containing advertisements for sports equipment, also advertised supplements for sports use, such as protein powders, weight gainers (i.e. mixtures of proteins and carbohydrates), cod liver oil, wheat germ oil, brewer’s yeast etc., all supplements whose goal is to improve the muscle mass and the athletic performance. The idea of obtaining results by assisting training with the use of powders and pills (obviously completely natural) was certainly stimulating, but I was aware that the basis had to be the nutrition and therefore I began the path of my studies in Medicine and Surgery, of which Science of Nutrition is a branch.

From studying Medicine I learned the notions of biochemistry, which helped me to understand how certain nutritional molecules can influence the biochemical processes that regulate our organism; however, I learned much less about nutrition aimed at athletic performance and, I would say, almost nothing about the use of supplements. In order to deepen my research on the subject I had to devote myself to reading texts and magazines mainly from the USA and started experimenting on myself the effects of various supplements. I participated in various scientific studies carried out at the Institute of Medical Clinic of the University of Parma under the guidance of Professor Mario Passeri, on the use of various supplements such as arginine and creatine, and finally presented a thesis for the School of Specialization in the Science of Nutrition entitled “The effects of dietary branched chain amino acids supplementation on the hormonal values of track and field athletes”. My interest in amino acids led me, already in the eighties, to establish relationships with the Aminoacid Profile company, in Los Angeles, which performed the serum aminogram test, making it possible to replicate it in collaboration with an Italian company (Italiana Ingredienti), which specialized in the evaluation of nutritional composition. At the same time, I established relationships with the Doctor’s Data laboratories in Phoenix for the performance of the mineralogram on the hair to further customize an integrative approach that took into account mineral imbalances, in order to able to set up a personalized nutritional approach taking by into account the constitutional biotypes that were identified on the basis of the ratios between the various minerals, thus indicating their oxidative capacities (hypo, hyper, mixed).

My studies on the amino acid profile of whey led me to the design of an amino acid pool that considered the need for essential amino acids, the aminogram of