Category: sports nutrition
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Do anti-cramp remedies work?
You’ve seen them, possibly tried them. While there’s a variety of supplements and strategies that athletes use to avoid the onset of exercise induced muscle cramping (EAMC), no strategy has been shown to be consistently effective.
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Post exercise fluid and sodium replacement
Training in a hot and humid environment can elicit high sweat rates; and, in some cases substantial sodium loss. Therefore, it’s important to pay special attention to the amount of fluid and electrolytes in the diet, particularly during and after exercise, and match rehydration to your sweat losses. After a workout or race, the goal…
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Is it possible to avoid cramping?
If you’ve ever experienced spontaneous muscle cramps during an event you know what a pain they can be. Despite trying seemingly every prevention strategy in the book, some athletes experience cramps more than others. There have been some possible risk factors for cramping that have emerged through research.
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Are sodium supplements necessary?
It’s that time of the year when you may start noticing a layer of salt residue caked on your clothes and skin. Between that, worries about cramping and/or hyponatremia, and the hype of electrolyte supplements (chews, tablets, liquids, etc.) available on the market, the confusion around sodium is real!
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Do females acclimate differently to the heat than males?
While heat acclimation (HA) protocols have traditionally lasted ~10 days, it has been suggested that short term (< 7 days) HA may provide physiological adaptations resulting in performance benefits for male athletes. However, this may not be the case for female athletes!
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Physiological changes to heat acclimation
Heat acclimation is an additional strategy competitive athletes may use while preparing for an endurance event taking place in hot/humid conditions. The process of heat acclimation involves adapting to thermal stress via increase in core temperature and sweating through repeated exposure to an artificial environment (heat chamber, hot tub, sauna).
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Sport specific fueling considerations for ultra-endurance events
While fueling recommendations do not differ between running and cycling, there are important differences between the sports that cannot be ignored.
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Nutrition Considerations for Ultra Endurance Sport, Pt 2: Hydration
Dehydration often contributes to both fatigue and GI symptoms during an ultra endurance event. Simply starting the event in a dehydrated state can set an athlete up for impaired performance, higher than expected perceived exertion (RPE), and a greater likelihood of GI distress. However, overhydration can also lead to GI symptoms and hyponatremia.
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Nutrition Considerations for Ultra Endurance Sport, Pt 1: Carbohydrate
Ultra-endurance events such as 100 mile runs and multi-day bike packing trips pose a variety of unique nutrition-related challenges. In this upcoming series of posts we will aim to uncover some of the evidence-based recommendations and recent research findings to help guide your approach to ultra nutrition.
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Counteracting anabolic resistance for the aging athlete
Some level of anabolic resistance generally occurs with aging, typically around the age of 40. Meaning, it might take more of a given nutrient or stimulus to yield the anabolic response (e.g. building muscle tissue) as it did when you were younger. So how much protein do Master’s athletes need to offset the anabolic resistance…
INSIDE SPORTS NUTRITION 