WHY ATHLETES CAN'T HAVE REAL JOBS
compiled by R. Dan Park
Another item whose origins are lost in the clutter of
attribution-less citations on many web sites...

Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson on being a role
model: "I wan' all dem kids to do what I do, to look up to
me. I wan' all the kids to copulate me."

New Orleans Saint RB George Rogers when asked about the
upcoming season: "I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards,
whichever comes first."

And, upon hearing Joe Jacobi of the 'Skins say "I'd run
over my own mother to win the Super Bowl," Matt Millen of the
Raiders said "To win, I'd run over Joe's Mom, too."

Torrin Polk, University of Houston receiver, on his coach,
John Jenkins: "He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings."

Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann,
1996: "Nobody in football should be called a genius. A
genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."

Senior basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh:
"I'm going to graduate on time, no matter how long it
takes."

Bill Peterson, a Florida State football coach: "You guys
line up alphabetically by height." And, "You guys pair up
in groups of three, then line up in a circle."

Boxing promoter Dan Duva on Mike Tyson hooking up again
with promoter Don King: "Why would anyone expect him to
come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton."

Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer, on the Spartan training
regime of heavyweight Andrew Golota: "He's a guy who gets up
at six o'clock in the morning regardless of what time it is."

Chuck Nevitt, North Carolina State basketball player,
explaining to Coach Jim Valvano why he appeared nervous at
practice: "My sister's expecting a baby, and I don't know if I'm
going to be an uncle or an aunt."

Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president, on a former player: "I
told him, 'Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or
apathy?' He said, "'Coach, I don't know and I don't care.'"

Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M, recounting
what he told a player who received four F's and one D:
"Son, looks to me like you're spending too much time on
one subject."

Amarillo High School and Oiler coach Bum Phillips when
asked by Bob Costas why he takes his wife on all the road
trips, Phillips responded: "Because she is too d____ ugly
to kiss good-bye".

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THE NATURAL HIGH DIET
If you want to lose weight, start by feeding your brain.

Achieving high energy, mental alertness and an optimistic outlook is the best way to gain control over your eating. A diet that makes you feel naturally high also raises your fat-burning metabolism. Did we mention that it also contributes to high self-esteem as you begin to feel and eat better? This is the advice from nutrition experts Hyla Cass, M.D., and Patrick Holford, coauthors of a new book, Natural Highs: Supplements, Nutrition and Mind/Body Techniques To Help You Feel Good All the Time (Penguin Putnam).

In it, the authors present the perfect brain-food diet based on extensive research in the areas of nutrition, psychology, and neuroscience. Statistics show that most of us are exhausted, stressed and depressed. To combat this we turn to a variety of boosters to get us through the day (and night). We gobble a muffin with coffee in the morning to get a rush, sip a soda or have a cookie to overcome the afternoon slump and wind down at night with a cocktail. This often adds up to excess calories, weight gain and feelings of hopelessness. What we are unknowingly doing, say Cass and Holford, is attempting to regulate our moods and energy with substances that work only in the short term -- but lead to caffeine lag, blood sugar drops, tiredness and an unhealthy cycle of bad foods.

Here is a highly effective weight-loss diet the experts recommend:
Eat a serving of high-quality protein three times a day. Higher quality protein is better absorbed and more efficiently utilized, so you will need to eat less of it. Adequate protein promotes good moods. However, too much protein encourages fat storage, so use moderation. Good examples of high-quality protein foods are seafood, poultry, lean red meat, soy, lowfat yogurt, rice with beans, and rice with lentils.

Eat cold-water fish three times a week. This is one of the best sources of omega-3, an essential fatty acid crucial to optimal brain function. Omega-3s are found in salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines and cod.

Eat two eggs a week, or sprinkle lecithin granules on your cereal, salads or vegetables. These are the best sources of phospholipids, which help you metabolize fat and enhance your mood and mental performance.

Eat one serving of low Glycemic Index (low-GI) complex carbohydrates at every meal. Complex carbohydrates are long chains of sugar molecules strung together that are digested slowly and help prevent fluctuations in blood sugar levels that can cause depression as well as cravings for sugar and alcohol. Complex carbohydrates also help raise serotonin levels, which calm you down and lift your mood. Good examples of low-GI foods are whole grains, bran, beans, apples, cherries, dried apricots, plums and pears.

Eat one or two servings of antioxidant fruits and vegetables with every meal. These replenish the body and brain with oxygen, giving you energy and combating illness. Antioxidant-rich foods include prunes, berries, kale, spinach, broccoli, and alfalfa sprouts.

Have a heaping tablespoon of ground seeds a day. These provide you with the essential fat to keep your body and brain churning out maximum energy. In a blender or coffee grinder, grind half flaxseeds and half sesame, sunflower, hemp and pumpkin seeds. Keep in a sealed glass jar in refrigerator, and add to your salads, sprinkle over vegetables or cereal, or have in a shake.

From eDiets
http://www.ediets.com/news/

 

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Being fit doesn't cancel out risks of excess fat

As long as you're fit, does it matter if you're carrying around excess fat? It's the subject of ongoing debate among health experts. Now a new study says that weight matters, even if you put in time at the gym.

Regular exercise does not cancel out all the health risks of being overweight, according to study results in the TK issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. It's the normal-weight people who are in shape who can expect to live the longest.

"It is important not to be overweight, but it also important to be fit," said study author Dr. June Stevens, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. "Just being slender is not enough. Just being fit is not enough. In order to enjoy the best life expectancy, you need to be both."
The new findings are based on data from 2,506 women and 2,860 men in eight U.S. cities who participated in a study that began in 1972, when their average age was about 45. At baseline, subjects had their fitness levels assessed by treadmill tests and their body mass index -- a standardized measure that takes into account height and weight - calculated.

Subjects were grouped into the following categories: fit, not fit, fat and not fat. They were followed until 1998.
In both women and men, the unfit-fat group faced the greatest risk of death. But while exercise helped boost longevity in the overweight group, it did not erase all the negative effects of the excess weight. Likewise, people who were thin but unfit also faced a shortened life span, results showed.
Compared with the fit-not fat women, the increased risk of death was 32% among the fit- fat women, 30% among the unfit-not fat women and 57% in the unfit-fat women.

Similarly, compared with the fit-not fat men, the increased risk of death was 25% among the fit-fat men, 44% in the unfit-not fat men and 49% in the unfit-fat group.
The investigators took into account age, cigarette use and other factors that may have influenced the results.
The findings underscore the importance of both maintaining a healthy weight and getting regular exercise, Stevens said. But for people who exercise regularly yet still can't seem to shed those extra pounds, don't give up. "Keep exercising," she said. "And if you can't lose weight, work hard not to gain [more] weight."
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology 2002;156:832-841. © Reuters Limited

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No Harm In Nibbling? Those Calories Add Up!
By Maia Appleby

I often hear people say that, although they watch
what they eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, they just
can't seem to lose any weight. Following this statement,
many of them add that they nibble on the things they
miss eating, figuring that just one bite won't make any
difference. When you look at the big picture, one bite
probably won't, if we're really talking about one bite.

Chronic nibblers, on the other hand, eat a lot more than
they realize, and are often in denial about it. They
consume excess calories several times each day without
even knowing it, assuming that tiny amounts of this and
that don't count. They do count, though. If you're
nodding your head with a guilty grin on your face,
you've taken the first step toward recovery.

Here are a few examples of what you're consuming when
you sample some of the most tempting items you
encounter throughout the day, and the number of
calories they typically contain. Keep in mind that most
of these are high in fat and sparse in nutrients:

One fried chicken wing: 200
One teaspoon of cookie dough: 170
One fried spring roll: 104
Mayo on your sandwich: 100
One square of cheese: 100
One tablespoon of either peanuts or peanut butter: 90
One cocktail meatball: 85
One pig in a blanket: 85
One spoonful of icing: 80
One lollipop: 50
One crab puff: 42
Five M&M's: 40
One potato chip with onion dip: 40
One potato chip plain: 32

How can this be remedied? Simply by recognizing it. Be
mindful of every bite you eat, no matter how insignificant
it seems. If it helps, keep a written log for a few days.
You'll be surprised at how these little tidbits add up.

Visit Maia's site, Inch-Aweigh at http://inch-aweigh.com
for more articles, tips, tools and a free diet center.

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Quote of the Day

Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
- Jack Handy, Saturday Night Live

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Stress May Increase Heart Disease Risk
**************

The results of a study of more than 73,000 Japanese adults aged 40 to 79 are not surprising: high levels of daily stress are associated with an increased risk of developing heart disease. This association was especially strong for women, as those women in the study who reported high levels of mental stress were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease or a stroke as those women reporting low levels of stress. Although the associations were somewhat weaker for men, the researchers did determine that high-stress males were more likely to die of a heart attack than their less-stressed peers. These findings, which were published in the September 3, 2002 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, demonstrate that reducing stress may not only make you feel better, but may make you healthier as well.

- M. Ellman (emazing.com)

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How Food Becomes Body Fat
by Maia Appleby

Everyone knows that overeating leads to excess weight. This concept comes in many flavors these days, though. Some people think that carbohydrates are the culprit. Others think it's sugar. Some people think that eating lots of protein couldn't possibly make them gain weight. Hmmm...
The only way to determine the answer to this enigma is to go inside the human body and take a look at how fat gets there in the first place. Let's follow a bite of pepperoni pizza and see what happens to its sugar, fat and protein. Open wide!

The food enters your mouth:

· Saliva contains enzymes that break any starch in the food down to sugar.
· This, along with any fat and water in the food, travel to the stomach, which churns them up.
· Pepsin (an enzyme that digests protein) and hydrochloric acid further break down the food, turning it into a substance called chyme.
· The mixture enters the duodenum, (the place where the gall bladder secretes its bile).
· This bile dissolves the fat in water, thinning it out and making it easier to absorb
· Enzymes from the pancreas enter the duodenum and further break down the sugar, fat and protein.

Now everything is dissolved and is in fluid form, so it is absorbed through the lining of the small bowel. Fat, sugar and protein wave good-bye to each other and go their separate ways.

What happens to the sugar:

· It also goes directly into the blood stream, and several different organs take the sugar they need as it passes by.
· Some is stored in the liver as glycogen.
· Whatever is left is converted to fat and stored in fat cells with the excess fat above.

What happens to the fat:

· First, it goes into the blood stream and travels to the liver
· The liver burns some of the fat, converts some to other substances (one is cholesterol) and sends the rest to fat cells, where they wait until they are needed.

What happens to the protein:

· It is broken down into building blocks known as peptides.
· Then, it is further broken down and it becomes amino acids.
· The amino acids are absorbed through the small intestine's lining and enter the blood stream.
· From here, some of the amino acids build the body's protein stores.
· Excess amino acids are converted to fats and sugars and follow the paths described above.

This is such a simple concept, but many people still believe that consuming lots and lots of protein will put muscle on their bones. Don't be fooled by this notion! Even excess protein turns to fat.
Here is a picturesque illustration of the real cause of weight gain. Eating too much food! Dietary fat is obviously the substance most often stored as fat in the end, but no matter what you eat, your body takes whatever it can't use and sends it to fat cells. If you don't burn it off, it hangs around in your fat cells. It's that simple. If you want to lose weight, don't eat too much of anything -- and do exercise regularly.

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IRON AND WOMEN

Women may have a greater need for iron than do men, partly because extremely heavy menstrual flows can cause iron loss and occasionally lead to iron-deficiency anemia. When you diet and cut back on red meat, the loss in protein can affect you if your iron count is already low. Aging can also be a cause of protein loss, because elderly people tend to eat less meat and gravitate towards softer foods, which contain less protein. Remember, you need some protein to retain a good immune system and to maintain muscle fitness.

Fortunately, there are some good protein choices besides meat. For example, you can choose soybeans, lentils, nuts, whole-grain cereals and breads, cheeses, milks, and yogurts. (Don't forget to watch the fats in the dairy products.)

**************************************************************

Linoleic Acid May Reduce Stroke Risk

Regular consumption of foods containing linoleic acid may reduce your chance of having a stroke, according to a study published in the August 2002 issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Linoleic acid is an essential fatty acid that is found in many food products, including fish and dairy products. It is also found in many vegetable oils, such as evening primrose, sunflower, and safflower oils. For their study, researchers followed nearly 7,500 Japanese adults for a period of 6 to 14 years. They discovered that a 5% increase in consumption of linoleic acid was associated with a 28% reduction in the chance of having a stroke. While the researchers stated that further research is needed, their findings imply that linoleic acid may be an important component of a healthy diet.

- M. Ellman

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HYPONATREMIA, OVERHYDRATION,HYPERTHERMIA AND
POSTURAL HYPERTENSION

Subject: New Hydration Recommendations

THE PHYSICIAN AND SPORTSMEDICINE - VOL 31 - NO. 7 - JULY 2003

http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/2003/0703/news0703.htm

Risk of Hyponatremia Plays a Big Role

Concerns about overhydration and hyponatremia among endurance athletes were once discussed only in sports medicine circles. In May,
USA Track & Field, the national governing body for track and field and race walking, issued new hydration recommendations1 that urge
runners to hydrate based on individual needs, rather than drinking as much as they can tolerate. Since then, the message has trickled down
to mainstream medicine and even the lay press.

Hyponatremia is a hot topic among marathon medical experts and military physicians, because the condition is one of several causes
of exertion-related collapse. Though experts agree that successful identification and treatment of hyponatremia depends on
distinguishing the condition from heat illness and other diagnoses, disagreements flare about what level of hydration is optimal for the
health and performance of athletes.

Two recent reports2,3 in the medical literature seem to confirm a trend that marathon medical experts have observed: Hyponatremia has
become more common as greater numbers of less competitive athletes participate in endurance events. A postrace blood study2 done on 481
participants who ran the 2002 Boston Marathon found that 13% experienced hyponatremia. Risk factors included female gender, slower
finishing times, and excess fluid consumption. An observational, retrospective, case-controlled study3 of medical care at the 2000
Houston Marathon found that 21 runners (0.31% of entrants) presented to the medical area with hyponatremia. Risk factors among
participants included slower race times and excess fluid consumption.

What Led to New Recommendations?
Douglas J. Casa, PhD, ATC, assistant professor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut,
wrote USA Track & Field's hydration advisory. He says the organization's intent was to acknowledge hyponatremia concerns that
were expressed in a hydration advisory issued by the International Marathon Medical Directors Association (IMMDA) in 20024 and to
educate athletes about determining their own individualized fluid needs. "Athletes should understand the risks of both hyponatremia and
dehydration," Casa says. "This document gets people involved in finding a middle ground between the two."

The IMMDA advisory challenges the conventional wisdom, contained in, for example, the 1996 American College of Sports Medicine hydration
recommendations,5 that endurance athletes should drink as much as they can tolerate during exercise. Instead, the IMMDA advisory states
that blanket hydration recommendations for athletes are incorrect and unsafe, and that they should drink as needed, but not to exceed 800
mL per hour.

Casa says that some level of dehydration is inevitable in some endurance activities and that USA Track & Field advises participants
to at least replace what they are losing during activity. The USA Track & Field advisory teaches athletes how to calculate their
individual sweat rates and how to monitor their hydration status with a urine color chart. "The biggest point we want to get across is that
athletes have different sweat rates based on environment, exercise intensity, equipment, and body weight," he says.

Practical Considerations
Casa says he worries that the public may misconstrue the hydration recommendations. He points to a recent New York Times headline6 that
says "New Advice to Runners: Don't Drink the Water." He's particularly concerned about athletes in other sports getting the
wrong information about hydration. "Runners have a longer time to overhydrate. But in soccer or football, dehydration is more common,
because activity is more intense and is often performed in the summer," he says.

William O. Roberts, MD, associate professor in the Department of Family Practice and Community Health at the University of Minnesota
in St Paul, says hyponatremia is mostly a problem among slower participants in long-distance or duration events and is not usually
an issue in sports such as football, as long as players ingest adequate sodium. When patients ask about the new hydration
advisories, Roberts, medical director of the Twin Cities Marathon, emphasizes that they should learn how to calculate and replace their
sweat losses.

Roberts predicts that marathon groups will educate runners about the new hydration recommendations and that race volunteers will less
aggressively push fluids on runners. Hydration stations will likely be fewer. "The Houston Marathon dropped from 30 to 15, and I'm
pressing to go back to 12 for the Twin Cities Marathon," he says. Timothy Noakes, MB ChB, MD, professor of exercise and sport science
at the University of Cape Town and the Sports Science Institute of South Africa in Newlands, South Africa, who wrote the IMMDA
recommendations and was the first to describe exercise-related hyponatremia along with the role of fluid overload, say he advises
his patients to heed their thirst and to employ the same individualized hydration strategies in competition as they do in
training. "I think that's where some of the problems have arisen," he notes.

Future Directions, Debate
Though IMMDA and USA Track & Field's hydration recommendations have generally been well received, Roberts says that some in the sports
medicine field believe allowing thirst to guide hydration automatically puts athletes behind with fluid replacement--not
dangerously, but enough to affect peak performance. "This should make for some heated and healthy debate," Roberts says.

Noakes says confusion still remains about the real dangers of dehydration. He contends that there is no evidence showing that
dehydration levels during competition (2% to 8%) impair health or performance. "There is an urgent need to do properly controlled
trials of the effects of weight loss (dehydration) during exercise on performance during weight-bearing activities like long-distance
running," Noakes says. "Similarly, there is a need to determine what levels of dehydration carry health risks."

More research is also needed to determine the effects of convective cooling on heat balance during exercise, Noakes says, alluding to his
belief that earlier lab studies that suggested the need to drink as much as possible did not match environmental conditions that athletes
encounter during competition.

------------
http://www.usatf.org/news/showRelease.asp?article=/news/releases/2003-04-19-2.xml

..For athletes in general and especially for those completing a marathon in more than four hours, USATF recommends consuming 100
percent of fluids lost due to sweat while racing. This marks a significant change from the understanding most runners have that they
should be drinking as much as possible and following the guideline to "stay ahead of your thirst," which has been held as the standard
recommendation for many years.

Simply put, runners should be sensitive to the onset of thirst as the signal to drink, rather than staying ahead of thirst. Being guided by
their thirst, runners prevent dehydration while also lowering the risk of hyponatremia (low sodium), a potentially dangerous condition
increasingly seen as runners have erroneously been instructed to over-hydrate......

Replacing fluids and sodium
A potentially fatal condition, hyponatremia most often occurs in exercise lasting four hours or longer and results primarily from
consuming excessive fluids and is exacerbated by not replacing sodium losses. Severe cases of may involve grand mal seizures, increased
intracranial pressure, pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs), respiratory arrest and even death......

Many scientists now view hyponatremia as just as much of a threat to runners as heat illness and dehydration, and major papers distributed
by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and USATF have described these potential problems and how to avoid them.
(These papers are available on www.usatf.org.)

Other medical issues
As runners have learned the importance of hydration during long distance events, dehydration has become a less prevalent condition.
Medical crews at marathon finish lines now are dealing more with hyperthermia (heat illness), postural hypotension (pooling of blood
in the legs), hyponatremia, and the normal injuries that are common among marathon runners such as blisters and muscle injuries.
Hyperthermia can occur regardless of hydration levels or the distance of a race. In fact, shorter races can pose more of a threat due to
the faster pace per mile, which causes greater heat production. An adequately hydrated runner who is running too fast or pushing herself
too hard, especially in hot and humid conditions, can fall victim to hyperthermia. It is therefore important that athletes adjust their
pace to take into consideration race conditions, slowing their pace as heat and humidity rises, regardless of how much they may be
drinking.

"Postural hypotension" is experienced when a runner suddenly stops, most commonly at the finish line. With blood pooling in the legs,
there is inadequate blood supply to the rest of the body and the runner feels faint and can fall down. This had been thought of as
demonstrating dehydration, so the response from medical teams was to rehydrate these runners. Now, medical personnel can identify this
problem correctly and treat it specifically. Treatment requires raising the runner's feet above the head for 3-4 minutes for full
recovery. Runners can avoid postural hypotension by keeping the legs moving, even with light walking or moderate knee flexing when they
otherwise would stand still at or immediately after the finish or at other locations along the race course.

Jamie Carruthers
Wakefield, UK

 

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Achilles Tendonitis &
Achilles Tendon Injury

Prevention & Treatment Strategies for Achilles Injury
Part 1

Every week I get asked for information on Achilles tendon injury. So instead of constantly referring people to other sites, I thought it was time to write an article on Achilles tendon injury myself.
Achilles injuries are commonly associated with sports that require a lot of running, jumping and change of direction. Excessive twisting or turning of the ankle and foot can result in a rupture or strain. The sports that are most susceptible to Achilles injury include running, walking, cycling, football, basketball and tennis.

What is an Achilles tendon Injury?
Firstly, let's take a look at where the Achilles tendon is located and what it does.
As you can see from the diagram to the right, the Achilles tendon is located at the rear (posterior) of the bottom half of the lower leg. In the diagram it is represented by the thick band of connective fibre that runs from bottom of the Gastrocnemius muscle to the heel bone.
The Achilles tendon is used to plantar flex the foot, or point the foot downward. This allows a person the run, jump and stand on one's toes.
The Achilles tendon is the strongest tendon of the body, and able to withstand a 1000 pound force without tearing. Despite this, the Achilles ruptures more frequently than any other tendon because of the tremendous pressures placed on it during competitive sports.
There are two main types of injuries that affect the Achilles tendon; Achillis Tendonitis and Achilles Tendon Rupture.
Achilles Tendonitis is simply an inflammation of the tendon, and in most cases is caused by excessive training over an extended period of time.
Achilles Tendon Rupture, on the other hand, is a tear (or complete snapping) of the tendon, and usually occurs as the result of a sudden or unexpected force. In the case of a complete rupture, the only treatment available is to place the lower leg in a plaster cast for 6 to 8 weeks, or surgery. As both of these treatments are beyond the scope of this newsletter, we'll be focusing the rest of this article on Achilles Tendonitis.

Causes and Risk Factors
There are a number of causes and risk factors associated with Achilles Tendonitis. One of the most common causes is simply a lack of conditioning. If the tendon, and muscles that connect to the tendon, have not been trained or conditioned, this can lead to a weakness that may result in an Achilles injury.
Overtraining is also associated with Achilles Tendonitis. Doing too much, too soon places excessive strain on the Achilles tendon and doesn't allow the tendon enough time to recovery properly. Over time small tears and general degeneration result in a weakening of the tendon, which leads to inflammation and pain.
Other causes of Achilles injury include a lack of warming up and stretching. Wearing inadequate footwear, running or training on uneven ground, and simply standing on, or in something you're not meant to. Biomechanical problems such as high arched feet or flat feet can also lead to Achilles injuries.
So what are some of the things you can do to help prevent Achilles Tendonitis?
1. Warm Up properly
A thorough warm up is essential to get the body ready for any activity. A well structured warm up will prepare your heart, lungs, muscles, joints and your mind for strenuous activity. If you'd like to know more about the warm up, visit http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/archives/warm-up.htm.
2. Plyometric Training
Plyometric drills include jumping, skipping, bounding, and hoping type activities. These explosive types of exercises help to condition and prepare the muscles, tendons and ligaments in the lower leg and ankle joint.
3. Balancing Exercises
Any activity that challenges your ability to balance, and keep your balance, will help what's called proprioception: - your body's ability to know where it's limbs are at any given time.
4. Stretch and Strengthen
I'll cover these in a lot more detail a little later on when I discuss rehabilitation and conditioning exercises.
5. Footwear
Be aware of the importance of good footwear. A good pair of shoes will help to keep your ankles stable, provide adequate cushioning, and support your foot and lower leg during the running or walking motion.
In part 2, I'll be outlining a comprehensive initial and ongoing treatment program to make recovery from Achilles Tendonitis as quick as possible.

I hope you've enjoyed this month's issue of The Stretching & Sports Injury Newsletter. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding this newsletter or any other aspect of our web site, please feel free to contact us.
© 2004, Walkerbout Health. All rights reserved.
This article may be re-published in complete form,
as long as the following paragraph and URL are included.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Article by Brad Walker. Brad is a leading stretching and
sports injury consultant with over 15 years experience
in the health and fitness industry. For more articles
on the prevention & treatment of sports injury,
subscribe to The Stretching & Sports Injury Newsletter
by visiting http://www.thestretchinghandbook.com/.
------------------------------------------------------------------

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BOOST ENDURANCE, SPEED, AND POWER

By Liz Applegate, Ph.D.

New research reveals the real secret to boosting your endurance, speed, and power I recently spent 4 days at the American College of Sports Medicine's annual meeting in Indianapolis. This is the meeting where the world's top exercise physiologists, nutritionists, and sports medicine physicians and psychologists present the latest research on anything and everything related to exercise.

This is as cutting-edge as it gets, folks. These preeminent scientists often bring their latest nutrition research straight from the laboratories where they work. And I was there to sift through their hundreds of studies, looking for the ones that directly applied to running. Here are the five most important research findings of the year, and how to use them to improve your stamina, immunity, recovery, speed, and power.

Stamina
If you've been reading my column for a while, you probably know that a high-carbohydrate diet keeps your muscle-glycogen stores well stocked, giving you more energy to burn during your long runs. But new research suggests that increasing the amount of fat in your diet may boost your endurance even more.

Exercise physiologists Ted Zderic and Ed Coyle, Ph.D., from the University of Texas in Austin, fed endurance cyclists diets composed of three different proportions of fat and carbohydrate:
" A very-high-carbohydrate, very-low-fat diet (88 percent and 2 percent of calories)
" A high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet (68 percent and 21 percent of calories)
" A moderate-carbohydrate, moderate-fat diet (57 percent and 32 percent of calories)

In all of the diets, about 10 percent of the calories came from protein.

The cyclists spent 5 days on each diet and worked out 2 hours each day. At the end of each week, the researchers extracted a tiny sample of leg muscle to measure the cyclists' levels of stored glycogen and fat. While the very-high-carbohydrate, very-low-fat diet packed glycogen stores to their maximum, it left reserves of muscle fat nearly empty. On the other hand, the high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet filled both glycogen and muscle-fat stores to optimal levels.

How important is muscle fat to your endurance running? Very. Called intra-muscular triglyceride, this muscle fat is a vital source of fuel during a marathon or some other type of endurance exercise, supplying more than 60 percent of the total fat used to power your running. Think of it as an extra tank of fuel. Without it, you drain your glycogen stores faster, and tire earlier. Previous studies have shown that over-trained marathon runners often have depleted intra-muscular triglyceride levels, and researchers suspect that low stores of muscle fat can lead to poor endurance.

What this means to you: In your zeal to prevent heart disease, don't slash fat below 20 percent of your total daily calories. Instead, focus on the heart-healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in nuts, avocados, olive oil, and fatty fish. Check my menu (on page 28) to find out how to consume enough of the right fats in your diet.

Immunity
If you've ever caught a bad cold after running a marathon, you're not alone. Twenty-five percent of distance runners say they get sick after an endurance event such as the marathon. That's because endurance running can suppress your immunity for as long as 3 days, leaving your body vulnerable to invading bacteria and viruses. According to research from exercise physiologist David Nieman, Dr.P.H., quaffing a sports drink during your marathon may prevent this immunity drop.

Nieman offered 50 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon runners either a placebo beverage or Gatorade to drink at a rate of 1 liter per hour during the race. This amounts to 60 grams of carbohydrate (or 240 calories) per hour, which is right on target with American College of Sports Medicine guidelines. Nieman took blood samples from runners before, immediately after, and 1 1/2 hours after the marathon. The runners who drank the sports drink had higher levels of certain specialized immune cells in their blood.

What this means to you: Consume a sports drink or eat a carbohydrate-rich food such as an energy bar, dried fruit, or an energy gel during any event lasting longer than 90 minutes. Aim for 100 to 125 calories every 30 minutes. After the race, minimize your exposure to people with colds or the flu, and wash your hands before touching your face or eating.

Recovery
Guzzling a carbohydrate-rich sports drink right after a tough workout or race is a great way to replenish fluids, but it may not be the best way to replenish the fuel in your muscles. That is, unless you consume some protein along with the drink.

In a study done by exercise physiologists Donovan Fogt and John Ivy, Ph.D., both from the University of Texas in Austin, endurance cyclists rode a grueling 2 hours on stationary bikes, depleting their muscle-glycogen stores. Immediately following exercise and again 2 hours later, the riders drank 12 ounces of a carbohydrate-protein beverage (53 grams of carbohydrate and 14 grams of protein) or a carbohydrate sports drink (20 grams of carbohydrate, no protein). When the researchers extracted muscle samples from the cyclists 2 hours after the exercise session, they found that the carbohydrate-protein beverage resulted in a 128 percent greater restocking of glycogen compared with the carbohydrate-only sports drink.

Why does protein help? Circulating levels of the hormone insulin, responsible for ushering carbohydrates into the muscles, were also higher when athletes consumed the carbohydrate-protein drink rather than the carbohydrate-only sports drink. The combined dose of carbohydrate and protein helps boost insulin levels, which in turn acts indirectly to stimulate glycogen rebuilding. Also, insulin aids the recovery and repair of proteins that may have been damaged during exercise.

What this means to you: Combining carbohydrate with protein may help you recover faster after tough workouts. After long or intense workouts, eat within an hour, combining carbohydrate and protein in a 3-grams-to-1 ratio. For example, try a tuna sandwich on whole-grain bread along with a peach. A protein-rich energy bar and a cup of regular sports drink also works. Then eat another carbohydrate-and-protein combination 2 hours later.

Speed
Previous studies have shown that consuming 2 cups of coffee about 1 hour before a run can boost your endurance-possibly by encouraging your body to burn more fat and less glycogen for fuel. Naturally, researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia wondered whether caffeine might also boost shorter efforts, such as a sprint rowing session.

They gave competitive rowers a placebo or one of two doses of caffeine-one equivalent to 4 cups of coffee, the other to 6-1 hour before a timed 2000-meter rowing effort.

The higher dose of caffeine improved sprint time by about 1.5 seconds, with most of that improvement occurring during the first 500 meters of the race. Caffeine might work by stimulating the adrenal glands, which revs up the body's fight-or-flight response.

What this means to you: If you enjoy coffee or another caffeine-containing beverage and you want a faster start, give caffeine a try before a race or workout. But be aware that 4 to 6 cups of coffee may cause nervousness, increased fluid losses through urine, diarrhea, and an irregular heartbeat. If you simply want to run longer, not faster, stick with 2 cups. This amount has been shown to boost endurance.

Power
A simple sugar called ribose is one of the newest and soon-to-be hottest sports supplements on the market. Inside your cells, ribose is a component of a high-energy molecule called ATP. From muscle contractions to protein synthesis, you need ATP for most of the chemical reactions that take place in your body.

Researchers from Eastern Michigan University suspected that ingesting a ribose supplement might boost ribose levels inside your cells, which, in turn, might increase the pool of ATP. End result: more speed and power.

To test their theory, the researchers gave cyclists a placebo or four 8-gram doses of ribose over 36 hours. The cyclists then performed six 10-second sprints on stationary bikes while the researchers measured peak power output.

Ribose supplementation boosted peak power in four of the six sprint efforts. The researchers agree that more studies need to be done, but say that ribose shows promise as a sprint performance aid.

What this means to you: There's simply not enough research out there for me to recommend spending your money on ribose supplements. That said, these products are already on the market, and I know plenty of you will try them. Since ribose is a simple sugar, it doesn't pose adverse health effects beyond possible weight gain from the extra calories. So feel free to experiment.

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Burn Fat Faster

By Mark Remy

Losing flab isn't about magic potions and diet books. It's about intense effort. Here are 11 ways to get it done ... and fast Listen carefully, because we're only going to say this once: If you want to burn more fat, you have to burn more calories. And to burn more calories, you have to work at it.

Period.

In this age of miracle pills, protein diets and flavor-of-the-month fitness fads, such advice may seem overly simple, perhaps suspiciously so. But that's what it boils down to.

Some people cling to the notion that nothing burns fat like a nice, long walk. There's a grain of truth in that--but only a grain. As exercise intensifies, your body does burn less fat and more carbohydrate. That's because when oxygen is scarce, carbs burn more readily than fat.

But don't be led astray: Raw calorie burn is what it takes to shed extra pounds, and your body couldn't care less where those calories come from.

Consider this example:
A 170-pound man walking for 30 minutes at 3.5 mph might burn 155 calories--in a 60/40 blend of carbohydrates and fat. The same man running for 30 minutes--at a fairly sedate 6 mph--will burn closer to 375 calories, in a 75/25 ratio. Walking burns a higher ratio of fat calories, sure, but running burns more than twice as many total calories. And that's the kind of math that will loosen your waistband.

To that end, here are 11 exercise options guaranteed to burn calories like gangbusters. Some are outdoor workouts, some are indoor, but they all have three things in common:

They're fast. Each one takes about 40 minutes--including a 5-minute warmup and cooldown.

They're intense. We're not going to lie to you; some of these routines are tough. (Fortunately, as a runner, so are you.)

They're varied. Hey, we'd hate for you to get bored.

So what are you waiting for? Take your pick.

How we crunched the numbers
Calculating total calories and fat calories burned is slippery work. Variables such as your fitness level, weight, age and--of course--intensity conspire to skew the results. Still, we thought it would be helpful to give you ballpark figures. So we enlisted the aid of Ralph La Forge, M.Sc., an exercise physiologist and managing director of the Duke Lipid Clinic and Disease Management Preceptorship Program at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

Our calculations are based on:

Average workout intensity of 70 percent max V02.

A healthy person who is slightly above average in aerobic fitness.

Runners come in all sizes, so rather than take a one-size-fits-all approach, we've included three sets of figures for calories burned in each exercise: The first applies to a 130-pound person; the second, 170 pounds; and the third, 210 pounds.

Note: Calorie burn for non-weight-bearing activities, such as cycling and weight training, remains about the same, regardless of your weight.

ELLIPTICAL TRAINER: The Roll Reversal

Total calories burned: 286/358/429

Fat calories burned: 107/134/160

Equipment needed: 1 elliptical trainer, a canny sense of balance

Workout time: 40 minutes

Workout: After a 5-minute warmup, go hard for 2 minutes, recover for 1 minute, then go backward for 2 minutes. "This will call different muscles into action," says Wayne Westcott, Ph.D., fitness research director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Mass. Repeat six times, then end with a 5-minute cooldown.

Tip: Grip the handrails lightly, if at all. The less you rely on your arms, the more calories you'll burn.

ROWER: The Stroke of Genius
Total calories burned: 268/336/403

Fat calories burned: 98/123/147

Equipment needed: 1 rowing machine

Workout time: 40 minutes

Workout: Warm up with 5 minutes of easy rowing. Then change the cadence--going 2 minutes slow, then 2 minutes fast--for 30 minutes. End with a 5-minute cooldown.

Tip: Find a teacher. The rowing machine is deceptively tricky, so have an instructor show you how to do it right. Otherwise, you may cheat yourself out of calories burned.

STAIRCLIMBER: The Random Assortment
Total calories burned: 304/380/456

Fat calories burned: 116/145/174

Equipment needed: 1 stairclimber, 1 small towel

Workout time: 40 minutes

Workout: Simple. Choose the "random" setting, drape the towel over the display, and go nuts for 40 minutes. "The quick changes require your muscles to respond more abruptly," says Westcott. "And the novelty will keep you from growing bored." Note: If your stairclimber doesn't have "built-in" warmups and cooldowns, include 5 minutes of each in your workout.

Tip: Stand up straight! Poor posture will lower your calorie burn.

STATIONARY BIKE: The Vicious Cycle
Total calories burned: 380

Fat calories burned: 145

Equipment needed: 1 stationary bike

Workout time: 40 minutes

Workout: After spinning easily for 5 minutes, go hard for 3 minutes, then easy for 3 minutes. Keep your cadence steady throughout; the only variable should be the resistance. Do five sets. Finish with 5 more easy minutes.

Tip: Adjust your seat so that your leg is just slightly bent at the bottom of each stroke. You'll be able to use more resistance this way.

TREADMILL: The Great Pyramid
Total calories burned: 392/490/588

Fat calories burned: 144/180/216

Equipment needed: 1 treadmill

Workout time: 40 minutes

Workout: Warm up for 5 minutes at zero incline, then do 10 minutes at 5 percent, 10 minutes at 10 percent, 10 minutes at 5 percent, and the final 5 minutes at zero incline.

Tip: Stride out. "A lot of people on treadmills shorten their strides,"says Westcott. "But you'll burn more calories if you open up to a nice, full stride."

TREADMILL: The "Tune"-Up
Total calories burned: 286/358/429

Fat calories burned: 107/134/160

Equipment needed: 1 treadmill, 1 stereo tuned to a rock station

Workout time: 40 minutes

Workout: Music can be a great motivator. After a 5-minute warmup, pick up the pace for the duration of the next song you hear. Recover during the following song, or commercials, and kick it in again when the next song begins. Continue for 30 minutes, and wrap up with a 5-minute cooldown.

Tip: Watch out for "60-minute music marathons."

INLINE SKATING: Gliding Lite
Total calories burned: 268/336/403

Fat calories burned: 98/123/147

Equipment needed: 1 pair of inline skates, 1 stretch of smooth road or bike path

Workout time: About 40 minutes

Workout: After a 5-minute warmup, just skate. Inline skating provides a great low-impact workout, says Ed Burke, Ph.D., author of Optimal Muscle Recovery. If you choose a hilly course, the workout will practically take care of itself. "Really push it on the uphills and recover on the downhills," advises Burke. Cool down for 5 minutes.

Tip: To maximize power, glide as far as you can with the stroke of each skate.

MOUNTAIN BIKING: The Wheel Deal
Total calories burned: 380 to 403

Fat calories burned: 156

Equipment needed: 1 mountain bike, 1 off-road course

Workout time: 40 minutes

Workout: Head for the hills. In general, mountain biking burns more calories than road biking (sorry, but "mountain biking" around the block doesn't count). "On a hilly course, it's a total body workout," says Burke. "You're varying your cadence a lot and using your upper body to pull on the handlebars."

Tip: Spinning the pedals smoothly and quickly--rather than grinding along in a high gear--will spare your knees.

RUNNING (ROAD OR TRAIL): The Vertical Challenge
Total calories burned: 295/369/442

Fat calories burned: 112/140/168

Equipment needed: 200 meters or more of uphill asphalt

Workout time: About 40 minutes

Workout: After a 10-minute warmup, sprint about 200 meters uphill, then recover on the way down. Repeat six to eight times, then cool down.

Tip: Try to keep a consistent pace through each of your repeats.

The Buddy System
Total calories burned: 286/358/429

Fat calories burned: 98/123/147

Equipment needed: 1 stretch of road, 1 buddy

Workout time: 40 minutes

Workout: You're strapped into a Hurt Machine . . . and your sadistic buddy is at the controls. Here's how it works: You and your training partner warm up with a 5-minute jog, then take turns calling the shots for 30 minute's worth of intervals. You won't know when the next one's coming, or how long it will last, until your partner tells you. After a brief recovery, it's your turn. End with a 5-minute cooldown.

Tip: Pick a partner who's about as fit as you are--and as competitive.

SNOWSHOEING: The Arctic Blast
Total calories burned: 268/336/403

Fat calories burned: 98/123/147

Equipment needed: 1 pair of snowshoes, open field (snow optional; see below)

Workout time: About 40 minutes

Workout: Wearing your snowshoes, jog on level ground for 5 minutes to warm up; then do four half-mile repeats interspersed with 2 to 3 minutes of recovery. Cool down with 5 more minutes of jogging. (Variation: Do 10 to 12 repeats up a short hill.) "If you don't mind attracting stares, you don't even need snow for these," says Runner's World senior editor Eileen Portz-Shovlin, who has trained in warm weather for snowshoe races. "Because you're lifting your legs so high, snowshoeing feels like running uphill--even on level ground," Portz-Shovlin says.

Tip: Pick running snowshoes rather than trekking snowshoes. Running models are lighter and smaller for an easier stride.

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Soul Food

Some foods have the power to calm your body and mind. Here are the best ones to try
When times get tough and tensions run high, some people bite their fingernails. The rest of us bite into Sara Lee's chocolate-chip cheesecake. But rest assured: Eating in response to stressful situations is normal, even for health-conscious runners. Research shows that there are biological reasons why we reach for certain comfort foods to help lift our spirits and ease feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression.

Still, comfort eating can get out of hand and lead to unhealthy habits (such as mindlessly eating a pint of Ben & Jerry's at the end of every tough day). So here's the latest on how food and mood are connected, plus some strategies to help you maintain your sanity and your waistline.

THE FOOD-MOOD CONNECTION
Growing up, I always got a sugary treat from my mom when I was upset. I used to think this was just a mom-made distraction. Now research suggests that this type of eating may actually calm the brain and body. Studies with both animals and people show that eating certain foods can alter hormone levels in the body and chemical levels in the brain. All of this can affect mood. Here are some well-known food-mood pairs, and the research behind them.

Calming carbohydrates. Many people instinctively turn to carbohydrate-rich foods for a mood fix. Some research has shown that eating these foods can boost insulin levels in the body, which, in turn, allows an amino acid called tryptophan to enter the brain. Once in the brain, tryptophan is converted into a brain chemical called serotonin, which has a calming effect.

But it's important to note that other studies don't wholly support this research. Alternative research suggests that individuals respond differently to carbohydrate-rich foods, and that only those with a tendency toward depression may be calmed by carbohydrates.

Soothing sugar. Sugar, a specific type of carbohydrate, has been found to do a lot more than satisfy a sweet tooth. Studies with animals suggest that consuming sugar can alter levels of cortisol, a stress-related hormone. In one study, laboratory rats were forced to swim in cold water (a very stressful situation, even for a rat) while consuming sugar water or plain water. The rats that drank sugar water had lower levels of cortisol in their systems than the rats that drank plain water.

Invigorating chocolate. Anything that tastes as good as chocolate is bound to make you feel good, right? Sure, chocolate's pleasure-inducing effect may be due in part to its taste, but there's more to it than that. Chocolate contains small amounts of caffeine and another similarly acting stimulant called theobromine. Both give the brain a wake-up call and can improve mood. Another compound in chocolate, called phenylethylamine (PEA), has been shown to boost mood in depressed individuals.

Familiar favorites. Macaroni and cheese, apple pie, meat loaf, biscuits and gravy, and even Aunt June's green bean casserole with those little crunchy things on top are just a few other comfort foods that many people seek out during times of stress. Why? Because it's natural to gravitate toward the familiar during times of uncertainty. Since the flavors and aromas of food often elicit vivid memories, slurping up a bowl of your mom's chicken soup can certainly bring you feelings of safety and calm. For me, a steaming plate of mashed potatoes always takes me back to the simpler times of my childhood.

OF COMFORT AND CALORIES
We've all been there: One Twinkie to soothe the nerves at the end of a bad day turns into an entire box, plus a few Devil Dogs and Ho Hos thrown in for good measure. The aftermath leaves us feeling too sluggish to exercise, and, worse yet, may set off even more overeating. So, the next time you feel yourself heading down this road, back away from the Ring Dings and try one of these simple strategies.

Call a friend. Often just talking about your bad day or stressful situation can help you calm down before you turn to food.

Grab a pen. Jot down your thoughts (as in, what you really wanted to say to your boss but couldn't), or write out other feelings that may help you settle your nerves. Keeping a journal can help during particularly stressful times. This way, you get your feelings out rather than stuffing them down with food.

Run away. Going for a run or doing something else physical is often the best medicine for stress. Studies show that a single bout of exercise can boost mood. Exercise also takes you away from the "scene" of the stress, and allows you to gain perspective on the situation.

Find a distraction. Sure it's a temporary fix, but focusing on another task that requires your strict attention at least keeps you out of the cookie jar momentarily. Run an errand, repot that overgrown houseplant, or clean the fish tank. Do it quick. Chances are, this may be all you need to get beyond that desire to munch.

That said, there's no reason to completely avoid comfort foods (even the high-fat ones). By employing the following five comfort-eating strategies, you can soothe your soul without piling on the pounds.

1. Go single. Rather than buy a carton of ice cream, opt for a single-serve cup or bar and savor it slowly. This way you control the calories. And if you worry about not feeling satisfied, tell yourself you'll go back and buy more if need be. But most likely, the feeling will pass.

2. Sip or dip Mr. Hershey. When chocolate is your comfort food of choice, choose a big mug of hot chocolate made with fat-free milk. Or for a really satisfying and nutritious way to lift your mood, dip fresh fruit such as strawberries or pineapple chunks into sweetened cocoa powder.

3. Make a slight adjustment. Clearly, a rice cake is not going to cut it if your brain really craves chocolate cake. But you can substitute a slice of pumpkin pie for a piece of cheesecake, or a fruit smoothie for a milk shake. Such alternatives provide comfort along with a good dose of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

4. Give Mom's a twist. Take your favorite comfort food that Mom used to serve and give it a makeover. My mashed potatoes (see Liz's Feel-Good Mashed Potatoes above) are creamy and delicious but low in fat, because I've eliminated the sour cream and butter that my mother always swore by (sorry, Mom). To cut back on the fat in recipes, use ingredients such as low-fat cheese in macaroni and cheese. Inject extra nutrition into old favorites such as meat loaf by adding chopped vegetables. And for sweets, simply cut back on the amount of sugar in recipes. You'll be surprised how good they'll taste.

5. Swap the salt. Some folks are soothed by salty chips and crackers, which can be hard to stop eating once you get started. Opt for salted air-popped popcorn for big calorie savings. Or mix ready-to-eat breakfast cereal with soy nuts and pumpkin seeds. Drizzle the stuff with soy sauce, then bake it in the oven. You'll end up with a salty snack loaded with protein, vitamins, and minerals.

Liz Applegate
Runners World Publication

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Fartlek Training

By David Holt

Several months ago, this column explained the many uses of Fartlek training, I'll now show you how to do your fartlek running to motivate yourself to run quality workouts.

But First a Reminder on Why Fartlek Running is so Useful:

Fartlek (Swedish for speedplay) running gets more of your muscle fibers into the running. You'll condition your entire muscle to prepare for racing.

Post Long Distance Run Recovery - After the longest run of the week, fartlek brings pep back to your legs...gently.

Quality Aerobic Conditioning - Fartlek's speedy sections bring in your reluctant fast twitch muscle fibers. Long fartlek sessions at modest pace, combined with long runs will improve the endurance of these fast twitch fibers.

Improved Range of Motion to supplement your stretching - All runners should put their muscles through a full range of motion at least twice a week to maintain good running form, while getting full use from the fast twitch muscle fibers.

Leg Strength and Anti-aging - Use fartlek to gain or maintain leg strength at all ages. Speedplay stimulates endorphin production inside your body for healing and health.

Speedplay is fun running at its best.

Fartlek Running, or Speedplay Helps You to Maintain or Develop Good Running Form:

Keep your leg speed (cadence) with 30-90 second efforts at 5K intensity. Play around with your knee lift and stride length.

Be gentle with your first few fartlek runs. Start with just one mile at speed, and add a quarter of a mile every other week to reach 7 miles by the end of the year. Just kidding. Increase the duration until you reach 10 percent of your mileage at 5K to 15K pace in one session. Then gradually decrease your recovery time between striders but keep the session fun.

Fartlek Pace:

Run anything from 15K to 5K race pace. Run between 90 and 95 percent of your maximum heart rate. Simply enjoy the fast running while working on your running form. Push off from the toes and enjoy the speed.

Run some longer efforts too, at the nice relaxed tempo of 15K pace (35 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace) for 3-7 minutes. Feel the power in your legs from your new mileage base. However, don't run all-out.

Fartlek is a controlled OR uncontrolled system to accomplish quality aerobic running and speedwork. It can be a run fast when you feel like it session, or you can have a set plan of say 20 efforts of 200 to 300 meters; another day it could be 6 efforts of roughly half a mile. Or let the trail dictate your session, as you run intensely over sections with the safest footing, or least traffic, or most mud, or enjoyable slope; then run at easy pace to recover.

Fartlek Training Improves Your Flexibility and Running Efficiency...If you Practice these points:

1. Let your ankles roll as you glide along.
2. Feet should be moving backwards when they land on the ground, ready to propel you forward.
3. Land with a slightly bent knee, as if onto eggshells. A soft footfall with flexed knee reduces the pounding.
4. Land on the outer edge of the heel or mid-foot, then roll inwards to a neutral position as you move toward push-off.
5. Push yourself forward powerfully with the calf muscles: By extending the trail leg to its full length, and pushing off from the end of your toes.
6. Run upright; run tall. Bring the hips forward.
7. Make your feet hug the buttocks as they swing through on each stride. Whip those feet through.
8. Keep your hands loose and relaxed. A clenched fist transfers its tension to the shoulders.

How can a 15 miles per week runner incorporate fartlek running?
Warm up with 10 minutes of easy running and then speed up a bit for any distance and at almost any intensity. After a fast section of running you ease to a jog or walk until you feel like going moderately hard again. However, whether you do your fartlek on asphalt, grass, dirt or mud and sand there are two key intensities to aim for:

Intensity One:
Close to your VO2 maximum, your current two mile race pace or 98 percent of your maximum heart rate by the end of each fartlek effort. Most of the benefits come at 5K pace though, or 95 percent of max heart rate, so run a 5K race to find this intensity for you and then 5 to 7 days later you can do fartlek efforts at 5K intensity. Over a series of sessions you can gradually bring your speed up to two-mile race pace, which is 15 seconds faster per mile than 5K pace. It is also harsher on your body, so take short strides to avoid overstriding. I suggest efforts of 30 to 90 seconds at these paces.

Intensity Two:
Anaerobic Threshold training improves the point at which you begin to produce lactic acid in your muscles. You'll eventually be able to run faster before producing lactic acid, and be able to run faster 5Ks. Run your fartlek effort at 30 to 40 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace. You'll be at 80 to 85 percent of your max heart rate in threshold training. The usual recommendation is to do 4 to 10 minute efforts at this intensity.

Look to do about 10 percent of your weekly mileage as fartlek. i.e. total a mere 1.5 miles at speed for the early sessions. Provided you don't sprint in these sessions, you can increase to 2 miles over about 10 weeks. The rests between fast efforts do not count toward your 2 miles. You'll need to cool down with another mile of easy running.

My 10K & 5K Running, Training & Racing book has a nice 20 miles per week training program and should see you through most sprint triathlons. You'll probably need 30 per week to handle a decent 10K though.

Here's a 5 week rotation at 15 miles per week to help you.

Week one:
Sat: Fartlek with short efforts at 5K to 2 mile race pace.
Sun: Long steady run of 6 to 7 miles.
Wed: The remainder of your weekly mileage.
Note that you have to restrain your pace on Saturday so that you can handle the long Sunday run. Run on Monday if your Sunday bike ride is really long, or bike after the Sunday run.

Week Two:
Sat: Long fartlek efforts at 35 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace.
Sun and Wed as last week.

Week Three:
Sat: 800 meter repeats or half miles at the track at 5K pace.
Sun and Wed are unchanged.

Week Four:
Sat: Mile repeats at 35 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace.
Sun and Wed unchanged.

Week Five:
Sat: Fartlek with the first half at 35 seconds slower than 5K pace. Do the second half at 5K intensity.
Sun: 4 miles easy.
Wed: 2 miles easy.

Sat: Race a 5K or short triathlon.

Your swimming and biking also need to be decreased leading into races. The next time through the 5 weeks you could add a mile to all runs to reach 18 per week the second time and 21 per week the third time through. Your speed sessions could go up to three miles after 15 weeks.

If you want to make the program harder, do 10 x 100 to 200 meter striders at 5K pace during all but the last of your Wednesday runs while thinking about an economical running form. There is no point in sprinting.

Check out www.runningbook.com or the book for more info. Or send $14.95 per book to David Holt at 3335 Richland Drive #4 Santa Barbara, CA 93105. (includes shipping and tax) Please state which books you are buying.

© All content is copyrighted TransitionTimes.com Inc. 2003

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Nutrition Simplified
Learn the Fundamentals

By Jason Gootman, MS, CSCS & Will Kirousis, BS, CSCS; USAT Certified Triathlon Coaches, Tri-Hard Sports Conditioning Systems

As coaches of endurance athletes worldwide, we are flooded with questions on nutrition. The funny thing is, behind all the 5 syllable biochemical names of nutrients, the keys to good nutrition are really very simple. Our goal in this article is to help you learn these fundamentals.

Each time you watch the evening news or read your local newspaper, you are informed of some new nutrition "discovery". In reality, what we need to know about nutrition, to optimize our health, we already know. The "new discoveries" are mostly interesting bits of science, but knowledge of these bits is not needed to optimize your health. In reality, the keys to good nutrition lie in our evolutionary history.

All too often, triathletes fall into the trap of following the latest trends in nutrition attempting to gain a boost in performance. The truth is that the principles of solid nutrition have not change in thousands of years. It is these principles that should guide you and not the conflicting 30-second soundbites you hear on the evening news.

Ok, to get right to it, lets look at what foods to eat, why to eat these foods, answers to common questions, and practical suggestions for how to gradually implement changes to your daily nutrition routine that will improve your health and performance.

What Foods to Eat
A few very straightforward guidelines will help you determine what are the best foods to eat:

· Any foods that would naturally occur in nature and that can be eaten by humans with minimal processing are good food for you to eat. These foods that naturally occur fall into one of two categories: plants and animals. Think of it this way: If you were not a modern day human with a car and a grocery store that provided hundreds of processed food choices, what would you eat? You would eat plants and you would eat animals. More specifically, you would eat foods like fruits, berries, vegetables, tubers, nuts, seeds and animals like fish, red meat (beef, venison, buffalo, etc.), birds, and eggs. Nature does not make mistakes. If you eat what is found in nature, you can rest assured of two things. First, you will be consuming everything that you need and second, you will not be consuming anything that you do not need.

· The less it goes through before it goes through you, the better the food choice. This means that just choosing naturally occurring foods is not enough. It means that you should also eat foods in as close to their whole state as possible. When a whole, natural food undergoes processing of any kind, its chemical structure is changed, thereby altering its nutritional value. Consider an apple. You could go to an apple tree, pick an apple and eat it. In this case, you consume the apple in its most whole state thus ensuring that you receive all the nutritional benefits of the apple. Then consider apple pie purchased at your local grocery store. This is what happened to the apples. First, their skin was removed. Then, they were chopped up and mixed together with many other ingredients for the pie including sugars and hydrogentated oils. Lastly, the mixture of apples and other ingredients were exposed to 350 degrees of heat for an hour. This processing alters the normal chemical structures of the apples in the pie thus dramatically reducing the nutritive power of the apples in their whole state.

Why Eat These Foods
As stated, whole, unprocessed, edible food contains all the nutrients your body needs and does not contain any substances that could harm your body. But let's take a closer look at the properties of whole, unprocessed food:

· Micronutrients: Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals. These vitamins and minerals are essential co-enzymes in the metabolic processes that occur within the body. Whole, unprocessed foods are the most nutrient-dense foods. That means that for each unit of energy you consume, you get the greatest amount of nutrients in the form of vitamins and minerals. Processed foods and refined grain products, on the other hand, are nutrient-sparse. They provide ample energy, but low amounts of vitamins and minerals. Consider the following example. Since the advent of agriculture, humans have used refined grains as an increasingly large component of their diet, replacing fruits and vegetables in the process. In 1997, an analysis of 4500 research studies was performed (1) to examine the effects of certain foods as preventative cancer agents for 18 types of cancer. Vegetables were found to have a convincing preventative effect on 5 cancers, a probable preventative effect for 4 cancers, and a possible preventative effect for 7 cancers. For fruits, the analysis revealed 4 convincing, 4 probable, and 4 possible. Yet for grains, there were zero convincing or probable effects found, one possible effect, and for cancer of the esophagus, grains were found to possibly increase the risk (1). So although grains do contain micronutrients, fruits and vegetables appear to contain greater quantities of the specific nutrients that we are designed to eat and therefore exert a much greater effect on preventing disease and maximizing health. You give yourself the best chance of attaining adequate amounts of all required micronutrients by eating a variety of fruits and vegetables.

· Fiber: People who eat fiber rich diets have lower blood cholesterol levels, a reduced risk of several cancers especially cancer of the colon (2), and they better regulate blood sugar levels (3). Whole, unprocessed plant foods like apples, pears, carrots, peas, almonds, and leafy greens are the best sources of fiber. Truly whole grains like wheat berries, quinoa, barley, millet, and other unrefined grains can also provide fiber. It is believed, however, that fiber from pre-agricultural foods is a better source of fiber because of their decreased association with phytic acid. Phytic acid, found primarily in grains, interferes with mineral (i.e. iron, zinc) absorption in the body (4).

· Essential fatty acids: Fat is not just OK to eat. Fat is not just good for you. Fat is essential! That is why dieticians term the acids derived from fats essential fatty acids. The richest source of essential fatty acids are naturally occurring plant foods like cashews, sunflower seeds, avocados, and olives as well as animal foods like coldwater fish and free range animals. Not only does eating whole, unprocessed foods provide ample quantities of essential fatty acids, but it also promotes the critical balance of two essential fats in the body, the Omega-3 fatty acids and the Omega-6 fatty acids. The Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio should be in the range of 1:1 to 1:4 for optimal health. The standard American diet of processed foods and refined grains often balloons this ratio to as high as 1:25 in many individuals. This is because our diets are typically too high in Omega-6 fatty acids which come primarily from vegetable oils and too low in Omega-3 fatty acids which come from fish, meat (5), and many nuts and seeds. A skewed Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio leads to the development of a myriad of health problems including cardiovascular disease (6,7,8,9). To promote the healthy balance of fatty acids in the body, make sure to eat modest amounts of naturally raised meat and fish as well as plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds (10).

· Quality protein: Protein is a major component in the structure of each cell in your body. Nature supplies the most complete protein in the shape of all forms of animal flesh. If the animals and fish are well-raised (no growth hormone, no antibiotics, ample room to roam, natural diet, and low stress) or better yet, caught in the wild, their meat is high in quality protein, low in saturated fat, and also provides essential fatty acids in the optimal balance. Including all forms of meat and fish in your diet ensures that you consume quality protein.

· Low glycemic index foods and meals: The glycemic index is a measure of a carbohydrate food's ability to raise blood sugar levels. High glycemic carbohydrates raise blood sugar rapidly and tend to leave people hungry again just a short time later. High glycemic carbohydrates include refined foods like fruit juice, sweets, and refined flour products like bagels and pasta. Regular consumption of high glycemic carbohydrates tends to produce blood sugar fluctuations, energy fluctuations, and mood swings. Carbohydrates that are lower in glycemic index release their energy more slowly and produce a greater feeling of satiety. These are whole foods like vegetables and fruits. To promote the utilization of fat as fuel (a critical concept to triathletes and all endurance athletes), your daily diet must favor low glycemic carbohydrates and meals. The great thing is that nature takes the guesswork out of the glycemic index. There are very few high glycemic foods in nature, and when eaten in combination and in a large variety, natural foods provide a very low glycemic diet.

Common Questions
At this point, there may very well be several questions on your mind. Here are some common ones that we hear and their answers:

· Shouldn't grains make up the majority of my diet? We have been taught this for many years. As a result, you can still walk into any endurance athlete's kitchen and you will still find far to many relying on refined grains such as pasta, bagels, and cereal grains to support their training. But common sense and a little science should help show you that there is a better way. Anthropological research shows us that humans have only been eating grains of any kind since the advent of agriculture, which was about 10,000 years ago. This may sound like a long period of time, but considered in the total course of mankind, these years can be represented by 8 minutes of a 24-hour day. This means that man has simply not had enough time to genetically adapt and evolve to a grain-based diet. There is no single nutrient that can only be found in grains. All of the nutrients found in grains can be found in more robust quantities in fruits, vegetables, tubers, roots, nuts, seeds, meats and fish. Plus they can be eaten without processing thus preserving their inherent vital nutrients. Truly whole grains (bulgur, quinoa, barley, etc.) that have not been refined can be a good part of your diet, but do not have to be the majority of your diet. Refined grain products (breads, crackers, muffins, pastries) have no place in the diet of a health conscious/performance minded athlete.

· Won't I have less energy if I am eating more fat and less carbohydrates? For some reason, we have been led to believe that carbohydrates are the only source of energy in the body. This is simply not true. Fat is actually a must better energy source for fueling endurance activity if your body is capable of using it. Through proper aerobic training, we are actually teaching our bodies to utilize fat as fuel. A diet that contains healthy fats has been shown to aid in this process (11). If fat is absent and carbohydrate is the only prevalent source of fuel, your body tends to utilize this easy to access substrate in place of fat. This substrate utilization shift can lead to decreased fuel economy. Conversely, providing ample fat in your diet, together with an effective training program will promote the use of fat as a fuel substrate. Creating an efficient fat metabolism is one cornerstone for any successful endurance performance. People sometimes feel that carbohydrates have to be a superior energy source to fats since the net ATP (most simple form of energy) yield from a gram of carbohydrate is higher than that of a gram of fat. However, this outlook fails to look at the big picture, which clearly shows us that carbohydrates do not last for very long.

· What about sports bars, drinks, and gels? They seem to defy the logic of eating whole foods? This is very true. "Sports foods" are not whole foods. In fact they are often extremely refined. That being said, they are the ideal food choice when used correctly. What is correctly? That is when they are used for the purpose in which they are intended. These foods, broadly stated, are intended for use during and immediately after very vigorous (long and/or intense) exercise. Their composition is designed to take advantage of the unique hormonal states that our bodies encounter during and after vigorous exercise. A full discussion of the use of "sports foods" is beyond the scope of this article. The key is to not fall into the trap of using these foods as replacements for real foods in your daily diet.

Practical Suggestions
Here are some practical tips for successfully implementing improvements to your daily nutrition routine:

· Make slow, gradual changes. When working to make improvements in your daily diet, it is best to make gradual changes and not try to do it all at once. Say, for example, that you have decided to add more fruits to your diet and you have set a goal of eating five fruits a day. You currently eat one or two. Rather than simply trying to eat five every day from here on out, start by seeing if you can consistently eat three fruits a day. Then gradually work towards your goal of five a day.

· Think positive, not negative. Think about putting all kinds of great food into your body, and do not think about avoiding all kinds of bad food. Instead of thinking, "I can't eat this and that," try to think, "I get to eat this and that." For example, if you are trying to eat less sugary sweets, instead of harping on missing that chocolate cake, think about the great banana/strawberry/mango smoothie you are going to make.

So when it comes time to eat, just think whole, real unrefined food and you cannot go wrong!

Will Kirousis BS, CSCS and Jason Gootman MS, CSCS coach endurance athletes of all levels, write for conditioning related magazines/journals and, provide educational services for private and professional groups about optimizing endurance performance. Together they own and operate Tri-Hard Sports Conditioning Systems (Tri-Hard for short) and are certified as coaches by USA Triathlon and The National Strength and Conditioning Association. Will and Jason can be reached with questions or comments through their website, www.tri-hard.com or via email at will@tri-hard.com or jason@tri-hard.com respectively.

References
1. Worldwide Cancer Research Fund & American Institue for Cancer Research, 1997.
2. Colgan M. Your Personal Vitamin Profile. New York: Morrow, 1982.
3. Spiller, GA, Kay RP, editors. Medical Aspects of Dietary Fiber. New York: Plenium, 1980.
4. Eaton SB, Eaton SB III, Komner MJ. An evolutionary perspective enhances understanding of human nutritional requirements. Journal of Nutrition. 1996;126:1732-40.
5. Ollis TE, Meyer BJ, Howe PR. Australian food sources and intakes of omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Annals of Nutrient Metabolism. 1999;43(6):346-55.
6. Adams PB, Lawson S, Sanigorski A, Sinclair AJ. Arachadonic acid to eicosapentaenoic acid ratio in blood correlates positively with clinical symptoms of depression. Lipids. 31:S157-61, 1996.
7. Hibbeln JR, Salem N. Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids and depression: when cholesterol does not satisfy. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 62:1-9, 1995.
8. Eaton SB, Eaton SB, Konmer MJ. Paleolithic nutrition revisited: A twelve year retrospective on its nature and implications. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1997;51:207-16.
9. Simopoulos AP. Essential fatty acids in health and chronic disease. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1999;70(3 Supplement):560S-569S.
10. Broadhurst CL. Balanced intakes of natural triglycerides for optimum nutrition: an evolutionary and phytochemical perspective. Medical Hypotheses. 1997;49(3):247-61.
11. Pendergast DR, Horvath PJ, Leddy JJ, Venkatraman JT. The role of dietary fat on performance, metabolism, and health. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 1996;24(6 Supplement):S53-8.

© All content is copyrighted TransitionTimes.com Inc. 2003

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Electrolyte Replenishment

By: Hammer Nutrition's Steve Born

In addition to replenishment of calories and fluids, properly fueling the body during exercise requires consistent and adequate electrolyte replenishment as well. However, unlike energy absorption and depletion rates, which remain relatively constant from athlete to athlete, electrolyte expenditure varies tremendously between individuals. Your individual and specific electrolyte requirements will not only differ from another athlete's but will also change constantly, depending on your fitness level, acclimatization level, and training duration and intensity. In fact, your electrolyte requirements may change during the course of the same workout or race, if only due to changes in the weather.
WHAT ARE ELECTROLYTES AND WHY DO I NEED THEM?
Electrolytes are chemical substances that form electrically charged particles (ions) in body fluids. Electrolytes are used to create the electrical energy necessary for many body functions, including nerve impulse transmission and muscle contractions. In simple terms, many normal bodily functions are dependent on these substances. Even if you've been fortunate enough to have never suffered the painful, debilitating effects of cramping, you still need to provide your body with a consistent and adequate supply of electrolytes. Why? Because cramping is simply your body's way of signaling that it's "on empty" in regards to electrolytes. Just as surely as you don't wait until you're dehydrated or bonking before you replenish fluids or calories, you never want to wait until you're cramping before replenishing electrolytes.
Again, normal bodily functions, the optimal performance of these important bodily functions, are dependent on an adequate supply of electrolytes. Your body's performance in workouts and races will be severely compromised if adequate levels of electrolytes are not present, especially in the heat or when exercise goes beyond two hours. Therefore, as important as the fuel you consume and the water you drink during exercise is a consistent replenishment of electrolytes.
CAN'T I JUST USE SALT TABLETS?
Salt tablets are an unacceptable choice for electrolyte replenishment for two reasons:
1.) They provide only two of the electrolytic minerals your body requires - sodium and chloride
2.) They may supply too much sodium to the body, overwhelming the body's complex mechanisms involved in supporting and maintaining proper sodium levels in the blood.
Each of these issues are important, and we'll discuss both of them. Right now, let's focus primarily on the second one.
Far too many athletes have suffered needlessly with swollen hands and feet from water retention due to ingestion of salt tablets or electrolyte products too high in sodium during prolonged exercise in the heat. The consumption of too much sodium is counterproductive because it interferes with or neutralizes the complex body mechanics involved in re-circulating and monitoring proper blood sodium levels. Sweat generates large sodium loss, which is monitored closely through hormonal receptors throughout the body. In other words, the body has very effective mechanisms to regulate and re-circulate sodium from body stores. However, rapid replacement of sodium neutralizes the body's hormonal defenses, allowing water replenishment to dilute sodium content. High sodium electrolyte supplementation contravenes natural physiological serum electrolyte control. Once the body detects an increase in sodium from exogenous sources (i.e., food, salt tablets, or products too high in sodium), the hormone aldosterone signals the kidneys to stop filtering and re-circulating sodium and instead excrete it. Once this happens, the actions of another hormone, vasopressin, becomes more predominant and causes the body to retain fluids. If you've ever finished a workout or race with swollen hands, wrists, feet, or ankles, or have excess puffiness under your eyes and around your cheeks, chances are your sodium/salt intake was too high.
The truth is that the human body needs only minute amounts of sodium to function normally. We require a mere 250 mg of sodium each day, athletes maybe 500 mg, which is easily supplied by natural, unprocessed foods. However, the average American consumes approximately 6000 to 7000 mg per day. The average athlete stores at least 8,000 mg of dietary sodium in tissues and has these stores available during exercise. In other words, you already have a vast reservoir of sodium available in your body from your diet, ready to serve you during exercise. In addition, your body has a highly complex and efficient way of monitoring and re-circulating sodium back into the blood, which it does to maintain homeostasis. Yes, you do need to replenish sodium during exercise but it has to be in amounts that cooperate with, and not override these complex body mechanisms.
The way to fulfill sodium requirements is not by indiscriminate consumption of salty foods or salt tablets, but rather with a lower-sodium approach that emphasizes a balance of essential minerals that cooperatively enhance the body's natural hormone and enzyme mechanics. A product that provides a more moderate supply of sodium goes undetected by the sensitive mechanisms that monitor and regulate sodium levels, and replenishes sodium requirements more precisely by permitting sodium to be re-circulated rather than excreted by hormone messenger activity.
DON'T I NEED TO REPLACE WHAT I SWEAT OUT?
It's easy to formulate a product that matches one of the many perspiration analysis studies, and then explain to athletes that they simply need to replace what they lose. Some products do just that. Unfortunately, there's a problem with this because individual sweat-loss differences vary greatly and the human body does not and cannot efficiently replace what it spends during exercise activity at any intensity above a walking pace. Electrolytes lost are not replaced by electrolytes consumed.
The body replaces only 35-45% of what it loses during exercise and this is true for fluids, calories, and electrolytes. If you try to replace all the fluids at once, you may end up with dilutional hyponatremia (overly diluted blood sodium levels) or water-intoxication. If you attempt to replace all the fuels that are spent, the stomach will back up in total rebellion, and refueling will grind to a halt. And, if you try to replace all the electrolytes you lose in equal amounts, a number of hormonal triggers may create all sorts of problems such as gastric stress, edema, or muscle spasms and cramping.
Endurance nutrition guru Bill Misner, Ph.D. says, "Give it [your body] 35-45%, even though it cries aloud for 110%." In regards to the amount of fluids you drink, calories you eat, and salt/electrolytes you replenish, this is an important key to remember.
SO WHAT IS THE ANSWER? HOW SHOULD I REPLENISH ELECTROLYTES?
The solution for proper electrolyte replenishment during endurance exercise is a gradual, consistent approach that provides all the required electrolytic minerals in amounts that do not override normal body mechanics. Remember, electrolyte intake needs to be below systemic detection, yet provide support to systemic depression. This simply means that you have to take in enough to support body functions while also preventing heat related issues such as cramping. It also means that electrolyte intake can't be too high as to overwhelm the body and what it can handle. Put another way, regarding electrolyte intake, it has to be accomplished in a way that falls under the "radar detection system" of the body while still providing optimal support.
ENDUROLYTES and ENDUROLYTES POWDER are full-spectrum electrolyte products, designed to fulfill the body's electrolytic mineral requirements, countering the effects of hyperthermia, optimizing specific bodily functions, and enhancing endurance performance, especially beyond the 2-hour mark. ENDUROLYTES and ENDUROLYTES POWDER are not formulated to reflect the amounts of electrolyte loss in sweat because each human being has a unique biological predisposition in terms of minerals lost via perspiration. Additionally, the differences in an athlete's size and fitness, as well as the rate of pace and during exercise, and of course the humidity and heat can mean up to a 100% difference when one athlete's sweat rate is compared to another's. A "one size fits all" formula based merely on sweat rates does not and will not work in adequately supporting your specific electrolyte requirements.
In the purest sense, the ENDUROLYTES formula is not so much an electrolyte replenishment product, but is better described as an "electrolyte stress support formula." It helps the body perform better under the demands of exercise, especially in heat, by providing a full complement of minerals in the proper balance, and without overriding normal body mechanics. ENDUROLYTES and ENDUROLYTES POWDER work with your body, not against it.
CHELATED MINERALS AND WHY ENDUROLYTES CONTAIN THEM
Chelation is the pharmaceutical process of bonding a mineral to an amino acid. This bonding makes it easier to digest and assimilate each mineral for proper utilization in the body. Chelated minerals are the form most often recommended because they provide greater absorption than their non-chelated counterparts. For example, magnesium is 87% absorbed when chelated, but only 16 % when taken in an inorganic, non-chelated form. One nutrition scientist wrote, "Estimates of normal mineral absorption average 10%; however absorption of chelated minerals may be as high as 60%"
THE ENDUROLYTES FORMULA
A MORE RATIONAL AND PRECISE APPROACH TO ELECTROLYTE REPLENISHMENT
CALCIUM is the most abundant mineral in the human body (about 2.85 pounds in the average person). A constant blood calcium level is required for a normal rhythmic heartbeat, healthy nerve transmission, and strong muscle contractions. During exercise, calcium-dependent enzymes produce energy from fatty and amino acid conversion. Because fatty acids are such an important fuel during endurance exercise (providing 60-65% of your energy needs when exercise goes beyond two hours in length), having adequate calcium available to efficiently convert them into energy is crucial. When blood calcium runs low, the body extracts it from the bones, but this may take more time than competition allows. A deficiency in blood calcium levels during endurance events may produce high blood pressure, muscle cramps and weakness. 150-300 mg/hr is an adequate dose of calcium to maintain the aforementioned proper body functions.
MAGNESIUM should accompany calcium at a ratio of 1:2. When calcium flows into working muscle cells, the muscle contracts; when calcium leaves and magnesium replaces it, the muscle relaxes. Many enzymatic reactions necessary for fuel conversion to muscular energy occur in the presence of adequate magnesium. Deficiency of magnesium contributes to muscle cramps, tremors, sleep disturbances, and in some cases, convulsive disorders. Simply put, if the body doesn't have a sufficient supply of magnesium, energy production is compromised. Though 100 mg or more is lost in sweat and used up by the muscles hourly, 75-150 mg/hr adequately replenishes magnesium without the laxative effect larger doses can produce.
POTASSIUM is the chief cation (positively charged ion) within all muscle cells, necessary for maintaining the optimal concentration and balance of sodium. Potassium deficiency symptoms are nausea, vomiting, muscle weakness, muscle spasms, cramping, and rapid heart rate. 75-150 mg/hr is an adequate replenishment amount. Even though 100-200 mg are lost in sweat alone (not counting internal muscle and cell use), if we try to replace it all at once, optimal sodium balance is altered. In addition, too much potassium is hard on the stomach and can cause severe stomach distress.
SODIUM is the chief cation (positively charged ion) outside the cell. The average American carries 8000 mg of excess sodium in extracellular tissues. During endurance events, a minimum of 3-4 hours are necessary to deplete this mineral, which may result in symptoms of abnormal heartbeat, muscle twitching, and hypoventilation. However, if sodium is replaced at the same rate as depletion, it overrides the hormonal regulating mechanisms that cause the body to conserve electrolytes. If you want to throw a wrench into your body's very intricate way of maintaining electrolyte balance, if you want to see your hands, feet, wrists, ankles and other body parts retain water and swell up, then indiscriminately dump copious amounts of sodium into your system. We highly recommend a gentler, saner approach, using 120-240 mg/hr of sodium (in the form of sodium chloride).
CHLORIDE is the relative anion (negatively charged ion) that must accompany sodium in the extracellular tissues. This mineral is absolutely necessary in maintaining the osmotic tension in both blood and extracellular fluids. It's a somewhat complicated process but to put it in the simplest terms, think of osmotic tension as being the proper balance and consistency of body fluids and electrolytes. We believe 180-360 mg/hr of chloride (as sodium chloride) adequately replenishes chloride without overriding the function of the hormone aldosterone in regulating and conserving proper electrolyte levels.
Note: "Salt: and sometimes the generalized use of the word "sodium" means sodium chloride, which is 60% sodium and 40% chloride. The numbers above for both minerals, sodium and chloride, when combined together equals 300-600 mg sodium chloride, which is our recommendation for "salt" intake.
MANGANESE is included in ENDUROLYTES as it is necessary in trace amounts for optimal muscle cell enzyme reactions for conversion of fatty acids and protein into energy. Again, fatty acids and protein are an important, even crucial part of the endurance athlete's fuel supply, so while manganese is not technically an electrolyte, its importance cannot be overstated. Research also shows that manganese deficiency plays a key role in blood sugar fluctuation, free radical build up from intense exercise, and nerve function disorders, especially in older athletes. Taking 5-10 mg./hr will help resolve all these issues, hence its inclusion in ENDUROLYTES.
PYRODOXINE HCL (vitamin B-6) is a coenzyme that performs in 60 enzymatic reactions involving metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and protein. We include this water-soluble B vitamin in ENDUROLYTES because of its active role in maintaining sodium-potassium balance.
L-TYROSINE, included in varying amounts in both ENDUROLYTES and ENDUROLYTES POWDER, is an amino acid that has been added because blood plasma deficiency during extreme endurance events will lower thyroid and adrenal production, which hinders the proper rate of metabolism. Symptoms of l-tyrosine depletion first appear as depression, later anger, then despondency that degenerates into total despair. If any of these has ever happened to you during a long training bout or race, it may be due to low thyroid and adrenal production; it can be easily avoided by the intake of supplemental l-tyrosine at 50-100 mg/hr.
GLYCINE is an amino acid added to ENDUROLYTES POWDER to help neutralize the naturally salty/bitter taste of the minerals.
Everyone knows that consistent replenishment of fluids and calories are absolutely essential to maintaining energy levels during workouts and races. Hopefully this article has shown you that providing constant replenishment of electrolytes is an equally important component of proper fueling. While getting your fluid and caloric needs dialed in and nailed down is fairly easy to accomplish, properly fulfilling your electrolyte needs can be a bit more challenging because it's an ever-changing process, based on several variables. Using ENDUROLYTES and ENDUROLYTES POWDER will make that challenge so much easier to resolve because they contain the right minerals in the right balance, and, because they are independent of your caloric and hydration source, provide you with a tremendous amount flexibility with the dose. No matter what size athlete you are, no matter what sport you're engaged in, no matter how far or fast you go, and no matter what the weather is, you can fulfill your electrolytes needs accurately and precisely with ENDUROLYTES or ENDUROLYTES POWDER.
Steve Born is the senior technical advisor for E-CAPS with over a decade of involvement in the health food industry. He is a three-time RAAM finisher, the 1994 Furnace Creek 508 Champion and 1999 runner-up, the only cyclist ever to complete a Double Furnace Creek 508, and the holder of two ultra- marathon cycling records.
© 2003, Endurance Marketing Group. This information is copyright protected. Please feel free to distribute this information as long as the copyright notice, phone number, and/or URL are included. Content must remain unchanged and original authorship acknowledged.

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Type-2 Diabetes

Fitness Q&A
Q: I was just diagnosed with type-2 diabetes and was hoping you had general guidelines for me to follow to make sure I implement a safe exercise program? I'm really excited to get started with your program, but I want to make sure I go about it the right way. I will be visiting my doctor again on Friday, but if you could reply and let me know your thoughts, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks so much!
http://www.global-fitness.com/fitnessconsultants/kling.html%0d%0d

http://www.global-fitness.com/fitnessconsultants/kling.html%0d%0dA: Exercise, along with diet and medication, can help those with diabetes manage their disease. Because it promotes the entry of glucose into the cells, exercise can lower your glucose levels. However, too much exercise, like too much insulin or insufficient food, may bring on an episode of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar.

If you do experience a hypoglycemic episode, you may feel faint or excessively fatigued, lose consciousness, or have a seizure. Other symptoms include headaches, light-headedness, sweating, shakiness, butterflies in the stomach, irritability, and slurred speech. I mention this, just so you're aware.

Before beginning an exercise program, you should definitely consult with your physician about monitoring and adjusting insulin dosages and injection sites. Once you have