Use of dietary supplements among football players between 19 to 26 ages

Background. Supplementation in sport is nowadays a very popular element of sports dietetics and footballers eagerly take dietary supplements. The aim of the study was assess­ment of the knowledge and consciousness of supplementation, and the analysis of daily meal times when the footballers take dietary supplements, as well as the analysis of supplementation effect on the footballers’ bodies. Material methods. The sample comprised the entire football team KS Ożarowianka (N=20). The age of half of the sample (N=10) participating in the study ranged from 19 to 21 years. Results. The results indicate high levels of consciousness among footballers’ and the supplements and the time of supplement intake affects the footballers’ condition, yet the time of electrolyte supplementation has no effect on it. Conclusions. While each respondent is aware of the supplementation effect and knows popular dietary supplements such as creatine, vitamin D, caffeine or electrolytes, not all of them know how to use them properly. It seems that supplementation lets us continue effort for a long time. Supplementation used in a proper time during exercise performance also prevents the development of chronic fatigue in competitors.