Are you an athlete? Do you want to become one? In any case, athletes from the amateur to the professional level all have to deal with muscle fatigue at some point. You may find this surprising, but the ones who tend to suffer muscle fatigue the most are those who are less active. You might think that the regular strain that a professional athlete puts on his/her muscles would put them at risk. However, just the opposite is true.
You see, when you are working out, you are slowly wearing down the muscles and burning all of the energy that is provided to the muscles as well. You simply can’t replace the energy at the rate you consume it. So, muscle fatigue becomes a problem. Sports medicine professionals are all well knowledgeable in exactly how to help professional athletes reduce the problems they experience from muscle fatigue.
What can you do about it? In order to really combat the problems of muscle fatigue, you have to train the body to supply energy faster. Muscles receive energy in two different forms. The first is from oxygen, which creates aerobic metabolism; this is simply the process of creating adenosine triphosphate from oxygen. Once you deplete the oxygen from the system, the body shifts into anaerobic metabolism. This creates energy from resources stored within the muscles themselves.
The problem with muscle fatigue is that anaerobic metabolism does not store huge amounts of energy and aerobic metabolism is a slower method to deliver energy to the muscles. This creates a problem for many people and results in them suddenly experiencing muscle fatigue. Professional athletes and those who are highly active are trained to help their bodies deliver energy from oxygen, aerobic metabolism.
You can train your body to efficiently and effectively deliver larger amounts of oxygen to the body and quickly replenish the amount of available energy for the muscles to use. In doing so, you reduce the risk of muscle fatigue and allows a workout to continue for much longer. It can take several weeks or even months to train the body to effectively speed the flow of oxygen enough to keep from experiencing muscle fatigue based solely from a supply of aerobic metabolism.
What else can you do? Well, as you train, you can also improve the efficiency of motion (resulting a less usage) and the flow of energy in the muscles. Training will teach you ways to reduce the use of muscles as much as possible to conserve energy. As an athlete you must control energy management to increase your performance and your endurance. Working closely with your trainer, coach and sports medicine doctor you can gather the best ways to encourage your body to conserve energy, while still increasing the flow of aerobic metabolism to your muscles.
Providing the maximum amount of energy to your muscles possible is the best thing you can do in order to ensure that you stay as healthy as possible, and minimize the risk of injury.
It is very important that you always discuss any concerns that you have with your doctor, trainer, or coach. They can assist you in assuring that you take the proper precautions to ensure your body is carefully trained. You can assist yourself by clearing your mind of things that can get in the way — things that might make you lose focus — things like stress. A quick way to learn how to deal with stress can be found here.
For a tools to help you with the “mental game” of athletics, click here.
You know how important it is to get proper nutrients in your diet. But there’s a huge temptation these days to use low carbohydrate diets as a way to help control weight. Needless to say, this is an alarming trend according to both nutritionists and sports doctors. The reason for the alarm is that low-carb diets can cause harsh long-term complications that make weight loss even harder.
You have to have carbohydrates in your diet in order to maintain the stamina to work out. Carbohydrates are an essential source of energy and without them your body can achieve exhaustion more quickly than you think and that can induce severe body strain. This class of injury has been occurring much more often in recent years. A proper diet for an athlete involves consuming quite a few carbohydrates.
To be sure, the amount of carbohydrates that are required to be consumed by athletes is much higher than the amount required for people who are couch potatoes. And most certainly, the harder and longer the athlete works, the higher the necessary carb intake. To determine the exact amount of carbohydrate consumption that you should personally aim for it is important to talk to your sports medicine doctor.
Increased consumption of carbohydrates is encouraged during competition and most particularly if the athlete is cross-training or competing in more than one sport at a time. This is to ensure that the body has enough energy to handle the rigors that you are placing upon it during especially strenuous activities. And predictably, there are other times when your doctor may recommend cutting back on carbohydrate intake. Your medical and/or nutritional specialist should be consulted if there is a question of getting the proper nutrients.
Fad diets appear in the markets almost weekly, and although the temptation may be strong to follow one of the new “sure fire” diets, it is especially important to consult your doctor and listen to what he or she has to say about your particular nutritional requirements. An athlete is recommended to store as much as 15 grams per kilogram (2.2 pound) of body weight in the form of carbohydrates. For an average 180-pound athlete this translates into as much as 1227 grams of carbohydrates.
So how do carbs relate to calories? Use the following conversion. One gram of carbs is about four calories of energy. So, for our example of the 180-pound athlete, the 1227 grams of carbohydrates they should consume would be about 4909 calories. While this may be an enormous number for most people, there are some athletes for whom this is a minimum. Ultimately, it is up to you working with your doctor to determine the best level for your individual needs.
Remember, cutting back on carbs can be quite damaging to the body. If you are not consuming enough of them, the body will starts breaking up proteins for energy. This fine example of biochemical adaptability can be dangerous in the long run because protein is designed to help fuel your muscles and provide the muscle mass for the body, rather than simply providing energy for the body. The end result for many who are not consuming enough carbohydrates is an overall weakened condition and less energy to actively engage in the sport of their choice.
Remember to give important consideration to who is giving you the advice on your dietary needs. Coaches are not always “in the know” on the most up to date nutrition information. So be careful about taking a coach’s word about how much you should be consuming each day in calories and carbohydrates. To achieve the best results possible consult with your coach, your doctor, and nutritionist to work out the best possible diet that has both your fitness goals, athletic goals and your health goals in mind.
Maintaining your personal health as the top priority is vital to ensuring you are healthy enough to compete. Remember, as you change your level of activity – particularly as you cross over into competitive athletics — imperative to adjust your carbohydrate consumption. If you do it with a doctor’s supervision you can ensure that you are in a position to maintain your overall health. Your physical safety is a bigger obligation that requires more consideration than simply reducing your carbohydrate intake.
To promote fitness and healthy eating, you have to make sure that stress isn’t an issue for you. Go here to eliminate stress starting today.
On thing I’ve always been curious about is the class of behavior I call the “tomorrow syndrome.” I see it all the time in my practice as a hypnotherapist. People want to lose weight or quit smoking or make some other major change in their lives but they have to wait for the right day. Usually it’s Monday.
How many times have you heard people say, “The diet starts tomorrow”?
I’m reminded of a story I heard about a pub in England that has a sign up over the bar that says, “Free Beer Tomorrow!” Do you know that not once have they ever given away a free beer?
When you’re really committed to change, why wait? When you have finally seen the future of what it’s going to be like when you’re thin, beautiful and fit, why on earth would you want to defer the start? When your health and fitness have risen to the point that you’re committed to take action, why would you put that day off?
Hmm. Perhaps I just hit upon something.
I suggest that most people who have the idea that they’ll “lose some weight” are operating out of their “shoulds”. “I should lose some weight.” “I should drop some of this fat before my high school reunion.” I further posit that they probably won’t do it, even though they “should.”
How much different would it be for you to create an image of your ideal self: thin, beautiful and fit? Step into that image and see what you’ll see then; hear what you’ll hear then; and feel what you’ll feel then. When you’ve activated your senses on your own behalf, there will be a sense of anticipation so strong that you won’t want to wait to get started. Why wait until Monday, when you can start losing weight today?
One of the best tools for enhancing that vision of your future self is hypnosis. When you are in trance, you can create all the sensations of your future with such clarity that you won’t want to wait until Monday — or New Year’s Day — or whatever.
In every case of delay, there’s the underlying issue of stress. You know, “should I?” or “shouldn’t I?” Don’t let stress be a factor for you. Go here to eliminate stress from the picture.
When you begin to explore consciously the alternatives that will let you live your life as you want it, you are at a point of new beginnings. So where do you start? Most people haven’t got a clue.
In my humble opinion, you lead with your strengths. You go with your gut, your instincts, your PASSION. The trouble is, many people are content to “settle” for things in their lives. They “settle” for a ho-hum relationship; they settle for a ho-hum, soul-crushing job; they “settle” for a couch potato life. They think that passion is something that “everyone else” has.
What are the things you care about enough to change for? How do you know? How can you find out?
First of all, give yourself some space and some private time. Start with 5 minutes. Anybody can find 5 minutes. You can even start in the bathroom (if you catch my drift). Take 5 minutes of uninterrupted time, and let yourself feel your way into an ideal future. I’m not talking about fantasy. You’re not Superman with x-ray vision and the ability to fly. You’re not Ironman. You’re not Wonder Woman. You are a real person with aspirations.
In your mind, go out into that ideal future – as if there were NO obstacles; as if money were not an issue, as if geography weren’t an issue. Where would you be (physically) in that ideal future? What surrounds you? What to you see? What do you hear? What do you feel? Who are you with? What do you do in that future ideal life?
Remember this is your ideal life. There is no room here for “I can’t” or “I couldn’t possibly”. This is your ideal life. Not your husband’s. Not your wife’s. Not your parents’. There is no one else here who can put limits on this picture of yours but YOU! So GO FOR IT. What does it look like? What does it sound like? What does it feel like?
Have you let yourself really let go? Do it. Do it often. Do it so often that it feels real.
The next step is to be in that ideal life and turn around and look at all the events between now and your future ideal life and see what must have happened in order for you to get from here to there.
Remember that it’s not going to happen all at once. It’s going to happen in a series of steps — just like learning to walk or learning to talk or learning to spell.
In a future post, I’ll discuss making the steps real.
Overcome the stress in your life effortlessly and easily. Find out how by going here.
I was in the Saturn dealership last week getting my car serviced. I got to chatting with the Service Manager, a great fellow named Dan. He asked what I was doing these days and I told him about my hypnosis practice and some of the problems that clients come to me with. He asked, “Does hypnosis really work?” (People always ask that.) I said, “Yes, it works, but the results depend not so much on the hypnotist as on the client.” I went on to say that the client’s interior view of him/herself has the greatest correlation with actual results. Good thoughts equal good results, bad thoughts mean not so good results. Then he said, “Like what we learned in our last team meeting here at the dealership: ‘Stinking thinking means your business is shrinking!” EXACTLY!
What does your inner world look like? Is it gloomy? Sad? Stressed? Anxious? Depressed? Or worse? Or is it cheery? Light? Happy? Optimistic? Or even brighter than that?
Admittedly, the outside world can be a scary place. Every time we turn around there seems to be bad news, worse news, and even more horrible news. The television, radio, magazines and newspapers shove negative stories down our throats. They thrive on conflict, incivility, and scandal.
That’s why I don’t watch television or listen to the radio or read the newspaper (well, except for the comics. I love Pearls Before Swine and Get Fuzzy.) I don’t like people whom I don’t know cramming my head full of their negative talk. My attitude has no place for negativity.
A couple of years ago I found myself face to face with some of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to deal with personally and financially. And I stumbled upon a cool little secret: if I waited for everything to be exactly right in my personal and financial life before I could be happy, then there was a good chance that I’d never be happy. However, if I was able to be happy in the moment and bring that inner happiness to bear on my current circumstances, I’d have more resources available to clear up my personal and financial situations. I created a new positive mindset for myself and I haven’t looked back.
To do this, I unplugged the television and started reading like mad. I went even further and started listening to self-hypnosis programs to rework some of that “stinkin’ thinkin’” in my unconscious mind. The change in attitude that came about gave me the confidence to take action to clear up my personal and financial troubles.
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