Sunday, November 7, 2010

Plan Your Morning Routine

Plan Your Morning

Before you go to sleep always organize and plan the next day (this should only take you few minutes). It creates a proper game plan for the next day and helps you be more efficient.

The Morning Workout

Usually 5 to 10 minutes of workout are necessary. This workout helps to get our blood pump and furthermore it allows the flow of oxygen to the brain. With the increase in age, older people often wake up with aces & pains and often it becomes difficult for them to work out.

Eat Regular Breakfast

Have your breakfast regularly. A healthy breakfast together with an adequate amount of proteins is necessary for the body. Follow these instructions and you will get the necessary amount of energy required through out the day.

Adequate Water

Adequate intake of water is necessary for our body as it replenishes the body which helps us to keep doing our activities all through the day.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

9 Reasons Why You Should Use Optimum Sports Nutrition


Sports nutrition plays a central role in any exercise regimen. Even if you're born with natural physical prowess, this won't sustain you in your workouts. A diet with enough nutrition will not only help you during exercise but will stimulate the feeling well-being, inspiring you to continue with your regimen.

1. During workout, your body undergoes a tremendous activity unmatched by any man-made machine. It is during this exercise that your manifest the genius of its design. But it comes with a great price. Your body uses all of the strength it can use, depleting in the process the energy reserves in your body. This is the reason why you need optimum sports nutrition.

2. The harder you exercise, the faster the reserve energy depletion is. It follows that during this heavy physical activity, you will be exhausted tremendously. Worst, you wouldn't have enough reserve energy to sustain you during the exercise. If you are using optimum sports nutrition, your body will sustain itself, and will help to stabilize the sugar level in your body to help it recover faster after the exercise.

3. Hours after a workout, it is natural to feel a lingering fatigue, particularly if you are not taking optimum sports nutrition. This not only slows your muscles' recovery but also will affect you psychologically. When this happens, your entire body is affected, whose care is the very reason why you're into sports in the first place.

4. Optimum sports nutrition was designed and formulated specifically to suit your need before and during the workout. Optimum sports nutrition, aside from giving you sustenance during the workout, will also give you "extra" nutrients left for you to work with as the body heals itself.

But why engage in heavy workout and optimum sports nutrition in the first place? Because your body will "learn" from this activities, boosting your immune system in the process. Optimum sports nutrition also means optimal capacity for your body to heal itself faster, bringing your body into next level higher each time.

5. Optimum sports nutrition contains complex and simple carbohydrates blended into maximum amount to give an exhaustible nutrients source. This perfect blend carbs will help your body utilize energy without depleting your reserve energy necessary for recovery. Many commercial sports nutrition uses calories for their formula using simple carbohydrates that easily results in unstable flow of blood sugar in your body.

If the sugar content in your blood is at the optimal level, oxygen consumption assured, helping your body to sustain during intense exercise. Oxygen consumption also helps in preserving the tissues, which need doubled amount of oxygen during your regimen

Optimum sports nutrition after exercise

6. Optimal recovery is just as important as optimum energy during exercise. Your fast and efficient recovery will help your body to heal faster and prepare itself fort he next schedule. This is where optimum sports nutrition comes in after your exercise.

7. After the heavy regimen, your body will automatically use all available energy it can utilize. A nutritional supplement high in quality protein is important to give your body the raw materials for muscle growth and repair.

8. Remember the early Greek athletes? They usually consume large quantities of meat after every contest in sports. They already knew by then, that something in the meat helps the body to recover after the unbelievably hard exercise. This importance of the protein is not lost to our modern day bodybuilders. It is not lost to them that protein goes a long way in maintaining health during and after intense exercise.

This is also the right time to do away with what some sports "experts" today proposes that high protein content in your sports nutrition will harm you. If protein did not harm the early Greeks, so are you.

9. Last is the quality. Optimum sports nutrition gives you the highest in quality standards, against commercially available nutrition sports. This is your last safeguard against consuming substandard sports nutrition products, which will put your training in jeopardy. This will also help you to realize that quality is more important than taste. Don't look for ice-cream tasting sports nutrients because taste is a matter of practice, just like your exercise regimen.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Journals related to Sports Nutrition


As sports nutrition is becoming more and more an interesting and in-demand field in scientific study, venues to expose and encourage developments have been established. There are several journals related to sports nutrition. The following are some examples:

International Journal of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism

IJSNEM offers information on sports nutrition and exercise metabolism by publishing original scientific investigations, scholarly reviews and articles which focus on the application of the principles of biochemistry, physiology, and nutrition to sport and exercise.

Although sport nutrition today is a distinct academic and applied field of work, it receives input from—and makes contributions to—fields like nutrition, physiology, biochemistry, psychology, clinical medicine, and the sport and exercise sciences.

These perspectives are welcomed and encouraged in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (IJSNEM). The journal now serves as a forum for the publication of scholarly and applied work regarding the nutritional, biochemical, and molecular aspects of exercise science.

Original researches with human subjects are given top priority in IJSNEM but relevant researches with experimental animals are also submitted. Case studies showing systematic, rather than casual observation conducted with appropriate instrumentation will be accepted. Articles with clinical application are also included. Aside from these, editorials, digests of related articles from other fields, research notes, and reviews of books, videos, and other media releases are offered in the journal.

International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance

IJSPP is an international peer-reviewed journal focused on sports physiology and performance. It aims to advance the knowledge of sport and exercise physiologists, sports-performance researchers, and other sports scientists by examining and publishing practical and research aspects of sports physiology and sports performance.

Articles in sport physiology and related disciplines that have connections with enhancing sport performance, preventing decrements in performance, or enhancing recovery of athletes are featured in IJSPP. The journal publishes original research reports, invited reviews, commentaries, technical reports, case studies. There is also an editorial section.

Usual topics in IJSPP include team sports, individual sports, performance aspects of environmental physiology, applied sports nutrition, strength and conditioning, biomedical science, and applications of sport technology. Readership include sport scientists, sport physicians, coaches, academic researchers, students, and related professionals.

Controlled experimental and observational researches as long as they are comprehensive or systematic and appropriate standards of scientific methodology and analysis are met are welcome.

Motor Control (MC)

Motor Control is an international journal has been created for information exchange on the control of human movement through a lifespan. The journal provides reports to keep readers abreast of current developments in the field of motor control as well as motor disorders.

MC publishes various types of research papers: clinical experimental, modeling and theoretical studies. Varied disciplines complement each other in this publication: biomechanics, kinesiology, neurophysiology, neuroscience, psychology, physical medicine, and rehabilitation. Aside from research papers, review articles, quick communications, commentaries, target articles, and book reviews are also featured.

Contribution to the understanding of movement control should be clearly demonstrated in an article for it to be published.

Quest

Each issue of Quest examines critical issues facing physical educators in secondary schools and research developments in the sport sciences and other sub-disciplines of human movement. Theoretical explorations to applied studies in this journal synthesize research to help advance the field of physical activity.

Quest does not publish original research reports on professional development of physical education but welcomes articles that are based on, complement, or review empirical research related to it. Quest considers both theoretical and practical articles. Readers includes academicians, teachers, and administrators

The Journal of Applied biomechanics

(JAB) is a quarterly journal dedicated to the study of human biomechanics in sport, exercise, and rehabilitation. The reader will find research articles, clinical studies, and other pertinent information highlighting current advances in biomechanics in each issue.

The effect and control of forces that act on and are produced by the human body are highlighted in JAB. Studies related to modeling and human movement simulation and to the effects of internal and external forces like nutrition on body structures during skill development and rehabilitation are also appropriate.

Original research reports, invited review papers, and "target" articles on selected current issues in the field are published. Jab also contains book reviews, technical notes, an editorial section, and other special features.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Recovery Body Protection and Sports Nutrition


Food gives us energy and fuels physical activity. Not eating enough can cause a drop in energy and endurance levels and, in the world of sports, can lead to painful losses. This is why athletes learn quickly to pack that extra energy bar just in case.

But food is not only good as energy sources to our muscles. They also hold substances that promote our health, boost our immunity to sicknesses, promote tissue repair, protect cells from damage, protect against age-related cognitive decline and increase resistance to cancers, and other illnesses, all of which are important to maintaining good performance and longevity in sports. These protective substances are commonly known as phytochemicals.

Phytochemicals, although not providing any energy, essential vitamins, or minerals, still are an important component of any athlete's sport nutrition. Phytochemicals means "chemicals from plants." Vegetables and fruits therefore are excellent sources.

Color means protection

Colorful vegetables and fruits have high levels of phytochemicals. In most cases, colorful skins of fruits and vegetables have the most concentrated source of protective nutrients.

A U.S. National Cancer Institute program (www.5aday.com) uses color categories, highlighting the protective compounds predominant in each color of fruit or vegetable.

RED

Red fruits maintains heart health, memory function, lowers risk to some cancers, and ensures urinary tract health. Lycopene and anthocyanins are available in red fruits and vegetables. Lycopede reduces the risk of several types of cancer, heart and lung disease. Anthocyanins helps protect against heart disease by preventing blood clots. Both may slow the cell aging process.

ORANGE / YELLOW

Beta-carotene is abundant in orange and yellow substances. It is an antioxidant that helps reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, maintain eyesight, help boost the immune system, and promote repair of damaged DNA. With Vitamin C, Bioflavonoids which are also contained in orange and yellow fruits and vegetables, help reduce the risk of cancer, strengthen bones and teeth, heal wounds, keep skin healthy and lower the risk of heart attacks.

BLUE / P URPLE

Anthocyanins and Phenols make up blue and purple fruits and vegetables. Research says they may help reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's and may have anti-aging effects.

GREEN

Green fruits and vegetables are among the best sources of lutein. Lutein helps reduce the risk of cataracts and mascular degeneration, which can cause loss of vision. Green vegetables are also rich in sulforaphane, isocyanate and indoles which hamper the action of carcinogens.

WHITE

Allicin, which are found in garlic, leeks, and onions, helps control blood pressure and cholesterol. It looks like it also increases the body's ability to fight infection. Cauliflower contains sulforaphane, and mushrooms contain selenium. Both are also cancer-fighting.

Because they protect your body from injuries, diseases and untimely aging, colorful vegetables and fruits must be first in mind when buying food to maintain good sports nutrition.

Essentials for fast recovery

Proper recovery is also a main concern in sports nutrition. Sufficient rest and sleep allows the body's systems to recuperate from training stress and makes you stronger and faster. Training gains can be maximized, recovery process speeded up and performance enhanced by correct food and liquid consumption after workout.

Fluid replacement

Timing is everything. After cooling down at the end of each workout, rehydration should be top priority. Drink enough to replace the fluids you sweated out. It is right after exercise that muscles are most receptive to replenishing glycogen stores.

These times, blood flow is on the increase and muscle membranes are more permeable to glucose and the effects of insulin which promotes glycogen synthesis. During this "glycogen window" (which lasts up to an hour) muscles replenish glycogen up to three times faster than at other times.

Second carbo-loading

High-carb foods and beverages are best for fast recovery. Including protein with these foods (4:1 ratio of carbs to protein) enhances muscle repair and glycogen replacement.

The amount of food you need depends on the extent of the depletion of glycogen stores. How much food you need depends on the extent that your activity depleted your glycogen stores.

For a minimum of 2 hours of exercise, sports nutrition experts recommend around 1-1.5 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight within 15 minutes after cessation of exercise and every two hours until your next complete meal. That’s around 50-120 grams or 200-480 calories of carbohydrates for most athletes.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Books On Sports Nutrition


Due to the increasing interest in sports nutrition and a growing number of athletes and health buffs becoming more conscious of the nutrition they take in to power their performance, a lot of books have already been released to disseminate more information and further heighten people’s awareness. This is, in fact, very beneficial as awareness is most of the time the springboard of concrete actions.

One of these books on sports nutrition is that of Nancy Clark entitled, Sports Nutrition Guidebook. This book is a collection of solutions suggested by different sports nutritionists.

Nancy Clark, a renowned sports nutritionist herself, shows how one can identify well what to eat to get more energy, cope well with stress, control weight, improve overall health, and improve the quality of workouts in the midst of a stressful lifestyle.

She also gives suggestions on how to lose excess body fat in the body while maintaining the energy for further exercise. She also provides several tips on maximizing the benefits of what one person eats. This book is rich with practical tips on sports nutrition that are easy to follow and apply in day to day living.

Moreover, Susan Kleiner’s book on sports nutrition entitled, High-Performance Nutrition: The Total Eating Plan to Maximum Your Workout, presents what one needs to eat in line with a workout plan to achieve optimum results.

She advocates the importance of a good partnership between diet and exercise in performing excellently in sports. She shows how one can bring out the best in any type of workout or exercise, be it aerobics, strength training, endurance training, cross training, and other recreational sports.

Another sports nutrition book is Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes written by Monique Ryan. The author’s two-decade experience in counselling athletes about their nutritional needs and intake brought about this book.

She explains both the general principles which are applicable to endurance athletes of any sport and specific guidelines which are for those engaged in more specific sports like swimming, triathlons, cycling, mountain biking, distance running, and many others.

She likewise covers the basics of nutrition as well as how to train and make that training persist. Overall, this sports nutrition book is a detailed, updated, but practical guide to nutrition.

Still adding up to the list of sports nutrition books is the one entitled Eating for Endurance.

The author is a registered dietician who specializes in sports nutrition as well as an elite endurance athlete. Strategies on improving one’s diet, maintaining a healthy and ideal weight, successfully handling extreme environments, using sports nutrition supplements, and many other helpful information on sports nutrition are included in the book.

This is indeed a very credible book as the author speaks from first-hand experience.

One must indeed take the initiative to equip himself with the necessary knowledge and information if he really wants to do well in this aspect. Besides, putting an effort on sports nutrition will benefit no one else but himself.

These books are there not to give false promises or misleading information. Instead, their purpose is to show that achieving goals and targets had already happened in the past and is therefore totally feasible in the present if only one will commit to it.

There are still many other sports nutrition books out in the market that aim to help in information dissemination and proper education of people. Sports nutrition is indeed something that is not supposed to be taken for granted.

Mere exercise is not enough as it has to be coupled with the right and balanced diet as well as the right attitude towards one’s health in general.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

All About Endurance Sports Nutrition


Endurance sports nutrition gives you a nutrition advice that is just jampacked with very useful details, together with sets of customized eating plans specifically regarding sports, to ensure that the food that you choose will keep you going on before, during and after various competitions.

A remarkable and very well-known author, Suzanne Girard Eberle, MS, RD, tells those who are concerned of her background as a registered dietician who has her specialty on sports nutrition. She also admits that she knows much and much about endurance sports nutrition because she, herself, is an elite endurance athlete. So she can tell you how endurance sports nutrtion works, or what is not supposed to be done regarding endurance sports nutrition, in actual training and situations that involve racing.

The resource that is said to be the most comprehensive of its kind, is the prescriptive book that the said endurance athlete, slash dietician, wrote. It includes tried and true advice and suggestions from different endurance athletes who are at the top of their sports.

But if you would really like to know from the best persons to talk to when it comes to endurance sports nutrition, there are various websites that you could log on to to be able to contact, or if not contact, at least ask a few questions to world-class athletes.

You can avail Karen Smyers’s, a triathlete, assistance about endurance sports nutrition. She is a triathlete, so she knows things about endurance thrice more than what others do.

Another is the marathon runner Keith Brantly. Running is not as easy as it sounds, but running is, in fact, the easy part. It is the enduring the pain that grows in your legs that is not.

You can also try to have your questions answered by the world-known marathon swimmer Tobie Smith. Endurance sports nutrition in swimming is very very difficult because there are two kinds of pressures that you face, pressure under the water and atmospheric pressure.

And last, but certainly not the least, is the cyclist Kerry Ryan. It is almost the same as running, with the movement of the legs and the endurance of the pain that grow in your legs.

However, you have to be a master of balance to be able to pull cycling off. All of these world-class athletes will happily and obligingly share their knowledge, and with absolute right because of their many years of training and competing against the world’s best.

There are many kinds of sports where endurance sports nutrition can help you maximize your performance. Endurance sports nutrition can help you a great deal in running. As mentioned above, running is the easy part, it is enduring the pain that is constantly present in your lower extremeties that you need to endure.

In triathlons, you have to take note of enduring three stages of sports. So endurance sports nutrition is definetely handy if you want to be able to move on to the next stage and not faint in one of the first stages.

The endurance in swimming is not like any other. Why? It is because, like told before, there are two kinds of pressure that you need to think about. There is, first, the pressure that you experience under the water, plus the atmospheric water. So whether you put your face under water or you turn your head out of the water to breathe in some air, the cramps and the pain caused by the pressure should be endured.

In rowing, it is all about upper body strength. Yes, it also involves coordination with your teammates and most of all mind and arm coordination, but if you are weak with your upper body, then rowing is not the thing for you. Your hands will probably suffer bruises from your firm grips on the oars, but you arms are the ones that should have high endurance. Endurance sports nutrition can definitely help you survive the boat ride.

Cycling, like mentioned, is not that much different from running. Your legs also experience the most pain, and you have to endure the pain that is constant on your lower extremities. But this time, there is also the balance to think of. And for those who have a hard time balancing, enduring cycling is very hard. So this is where endurance sports nutrition comes in.

Endurance sports nutrition can definitely make you a better athlete, if you cannot endure whatever it is that you are doing, how can you perform well? So if you are thinking that sports is all about performance, you are wrong for without endurance, you can never perform a certain sport well.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

A Guide To American Sports Nutrition


The Americans usually dominate sporting events. They appear bigger, stronger and have longer resistance. They say that the secret is through their hard work and training. But their real secret is their diet that gives them that strong physique.

Their diet and nutritional intake is different compared to us. So what is in this american style of sports nutrition? I will elaborate some of their diet and nutritional technique for you to have more strength and energy as you play your game.

Do you want to enhance your performance and increase lean muscle? Try the creatine that is commonly found in American sports nutrition.

This will give you more energy to work out longer and harder that will help you get maximum results. Creatine can also help you recover quickly. This supplement will work for any athlete who does weight lifting and any other quick burst of activity like sprinting. You may be able to do more before you hit fatigue point.

Your body converts this unique powder into adenosine triphosphate, which is the energy of our cells, and stores it into the mitichondria of each muscle cell giving it reserved energy. Every muscle contraction is fueled by atp, so we can do more because of the stored atp. This can enhance your performance and lean muscle gain.

This product is 100% pure pharmaceutical grade creatinh monohydrate. You should at least take 1000 grams per dosage. Creatine does not contain any additive and filters. This chemical is found naturally in many foods so it is practically safe. And it will also not affect hormonal levels.

Whether your goal is for maximum athletic performance, increased lean muscle or prolonged endurance, creatine is the answer for you. It also has cardio protective qualities. Creatine from American sports nutrition is the best way to supplement a healthy diet and active lifestyle.

Another one would be the American sports nutrition whey protein. It is a high quality, lactose free and predigested protein. This nutritional supplement is a great natural source of high potency essential amino acids.

If you want an increase in muscle strength, do it with American whey. The ion-exchanged whey protein in this supplement is the most preferred and bio-available for your body. This means your body can utilize the supplementation of American whey better than other types of protein.

American whey protein is also low on calories, tastes great, and mixes easily with rice, milk and water. It also comes in a variety of delicious flavors.

There are many more diets out there like the American sports nutrition that offers protein as the main component of their nutritional diet. Examples of these are the American whey creamy vanilla extreme, American whey double dutch chocolate, and the American whey wild berry.

They just differ in the dosage as you take them but practically the same results. Some of them require a lot of quantities for the supplement to work. And it also has to be taken in regularly if possible you should follow the diet everyday.

You may have noticed in the American sports nutrition’s that the main nutrient they are focused on are proteins.

So what is in proteins that make it so vital in the nutrition of Americans? Proteins are the main body builder nutrient. Protein focuses on the production of muscle cells. Protein also participates in muscle contraction or the movement of muscles.

If you want to have bigger, leaner and stronger muscles, there should be a massive intake of proteins before and after your training. That is why protein is so important not only to athletes but also to normal people as well. Protein also contributes to the height of a person.

If you want to be as tall as the Americans, you have to have a lot of protein in your diet or at least use the supplements that American sports nutrition offer.

We must remember that it is not about the nutrition we get but it is about how we get it and when we get it. There are optimal times where the nutrients we get will enhance our performance and boost our nutritional level. American sports nutrition targets these optimal times in order for our body to get the most out of it and help us be healthy and build up our muscles.