Caffeine is naturally occurring chemical compound that functions in the body mainly as a mild nervous system stimulant. It has been shown to enhance performance in sprints, in all-out efforts lasting 4-5 minutes, and in longer performance tests.
It appears caffeine enhances performance in shorter events through four interrelated neuromuscular effects: it 1) lowers the...
Posted on Sep 8, 2011 in
Recovery Nutrition |
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As many of us know, milk is a nutrient-rich beverage containing protein, natural sugars, calcium, and vitamin D. Recently, milk has caught the media bug as a top sports drink for athletes. Milk is being sought after as one of the top beverages used in recovery, hydration, and building muscle.
Believe it or not, 1% low-fat chocolate milk is one of the best recovery foods out...
Posted on Aug 31, 2011 in
Recovery Nutrition |
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When you think of inflammation, you probably think of the pain and swelling you experience after you suffer an acute injury, such as an ankle sprain, or an overuse injury, such as tendonitis. But exercise scientists have recently discovered that inflammation has a much more pervasive impact on athletes than was previously thought. It is now known that every hard workout...
Posted on Aug 23, 2011 in
Meal Planning |
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There are a lot of different diets out there. There are low-fat diets, low-carb diets, paleo-diets, vegetarian diets and many more. Proponents of each diet believe that theirs is the best diet for everyone. Thus, while there is a lot of disagreement concerning the specific nature of the optimal human diet, there is almost universal agreement that there is an optimal human diet...
Last year my father-in-law and his wife visited my wife and me at our home in California. My wife cooked up lots of good food for all of us. But her dad has high blood pressure and is scrupulous in his avoidance of salt. So he asked her to cook without it, and advised us to avoid excess salt in our own diet.
I was tempted to disabuse the man of the widely held but false notion...
Creatine has a stronger beneficial impact on athletic performance than any other safe and legal dietary supplement. The only problem is that, while it does wonderful things for strength, sprint, and power athletes, it has no proven beneficial effect on endurance performance. Nevertheless, it may still be worth taking.
The most common supplement form of creatine is creatine...
Carbohydrate-protein sports drinks and recovery supplements continue to be intensively researched by exercise scientists. Past research has shown that these products increase time to exhaustion, rehydrate athletes more effectively than carbohydrate-only sports drinks, reduce exercise-induced muscle damage, accelerate post-exercise muscle protein and glycogen synthesis and...
Posted on Aug 16, 2011 in
Meal Planning |
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Studies indicate that people who eat out more often tend to eat more fat, more total calories, and less fiber than those who eat out less often. One study that tracked the dining out habits of more than 3,000 men and women for 15 years found those who ate at fast food restaurants more than twice a week gained 10 pounds more and experienced a twofold greater increase in insulin...
Carbohydrate loading is a strategy to maximize glycogen storage in the muscles and liver prior to endurance competition for the sake of maximizing energy availability. The original carbo-loading protocol called for three days of very low carbohydrate intake combined with heavy exercise in order to deplete glycogen stores and trigger a “sponging” effect. During the final...
