Once you are fit, perhaps the challenge of more vigorous physical pursuits will beckon. Working out regularly with weights will strengthen muscles and give them definition. (And as a bonus... building lean muscle mass helps you burn excess fat deposits.) Soon, you may want to participate in a “tennis ladder” at the local recreation center. Perhaps you’ll join a hiking club. Or maybe... just maybe... you’ll decide to run a marathon! Once your body is “strong, fit and agile,” almost anything is possible!
You’re never too old to start!
When it comes to getting as fit as you can, age isn’t a factor. Even if you are so stiff and out of shape that you can’t even touch your knees, let alone your toes, you can gradually increase your flexibility and become fluid and graceful once again. What??? You can’t see your feet, even when you’re leaning forward because your stomach gets in the way? Following the Shaklee Cinch Plan while you embark upon a simple walking program will shrink that stomach faster than almost anything else. If you are only able to walk half a block on your first try, just attempt to walk a little farther each day. Do only what you can without total exhaustion... but do it!
Nutrition is critical to fitness
To give you the energy for regular exercise, the materials to build strong, healthy cells, and the endurance to stay with your program, you need to feed your body correctly. Your basic diet should be low in fat and cholesterol, but rich in raw fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds, plenty of calcium-rich foods, and lots of water. Once you begin a more rigorous exercise program, however, there are other specific factors to take into consideration. What foods should you eat for maximum endurance? Is “carbo-loading” important before a big event? What is strategic hydration? How can you build muscle mass without dangerous steroids? How much protein is enough? What vitamins and minerals does your body need for maximum athletic performance?
Carbohydrates: The athlete’s “make-or-break” nutrient
It can’t be stated more simply: If you care about your athletic performance, you’ll eat more carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the most important fuel for your working muscles.Your muscles are fueled by three nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, and protein. The harder you exercise, the more your body relies on carbohydrates for fuel. Why? Carbohydrates need far less oxygen to provide fuel than fat. That’s why when you’re resting and have plenty of oxygen, fat does a fine job of supplying energy. But when you exercise and your oxygen supply becomes limited, you rely more and more on carbohydrates for energy.
Although fat stores are virtually unlimited, fat needs carbohydrates to burn. Carbohydrates “prime” the metabolic machinery that turns fat into muscle fuel. When you run low on carbohydrates, the conversion of fat to muscle is slower. This makes your carbohydrate supply all the more important. Protein is also a source of muscle fuel, but your body knows that protein has another important job... it makes muscles. Perhaps for this reason, the body uses it much less often for energy than it does fat or carbohydrates. Typically only 5% of calories burned during exercise come from protein.
Fluids: Strategic hydration greatly increases endurance
Research has uncovered an amazing endurance aid that only a small number of athletes use competitively. It’s called strategic hydration. When manipulated correctly, it can literally control the amount of blood your heart has to pump, your heart rate, and your body temperature. And for an athlete, that can mean more energy and more stamina.
What happens when you exercise?
If you exercise long enough, hard enough, or in weather hot enough, your body builds up heat that needs to be released. This heat is released in three ways:
1) by breathing out;
2) by the skin’s exposure to cool air; and
3) by sweating.
When you sweat your body “borrows” the extra fluid you need to cool down from the blood, causing dehydration. While this allows your body to cool, it also means you have less blood flowing to the heart. Thus, the heart pumps harder and faster to get oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to your muscles. For the athlete, that means less energy for the finish line sprint.The key to preventing dehydration is strategic hydration. Water was once considered the ideal hydrator, but no more. Today, clinical tests show that sports drinks containing water, carbohydrates and electrolytes, hydrate as well as water and provide other critical benefits. They balance your thirst level with your actual fluid needs, are absorbed as fast as water, provide carbohydrates for muscle fuel, and offer taste appeal. Consuming a well-balanced sports rehydration drink such as Shaklee Performance before, during and after vigorous exercise will help you gain maximum benefit from any workout.
Protein:
It’s so important Proteins are some of the most useful compounds you have in your body. Not only do they make up the muscles that are responsible for some 15% of your weight, they also direct a multitude of biochemical reactions within you.Proteins in the body are made from different combinations of 20 amino acids. Your body constantly breaks down dietary protein, turns it into amino acids, and recombines these amino acids to synthesize new proteins... protein in your blood, protein in your hair and fingernails, and of course, protein in your muscle tissue.
Essential vs. nonessential
If the 20 amino acids your body uses to make protein, there are 11 that your body can make (called nonessential), and 9 (called essential) that you have to get from your diet because your body cannot make them. To build or rebuild muscle, the 9 essential ones... those you get only from what you eat... must be present in your body all at the same time. If any one is missing, then the building of muscle is hindered.
Protein as a fuel source
It’s probably because protein has so many other important jobs that it’s rarely used by your body as a fuel source. Carbohydrates and fat contribute far more to the body’s fuel supply than protein. Protein is only tapped as a fuel source as you get closer and closer to running out of carbohydrate muscle fuel. In that circumstance, your body will use more and more protein to compensate for your depleted carbohydrate stores. But before your body can use protein as an energy or fuel source, it must first be broken down into a carbohydrate, specifically glucose.Unlike extra fat, which just sits in various fat storage compartments throughout your body, and carbohydrate, which remains quietly stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles until needed, protein is stored as muscle, and muscle is functional. Your muscles are your tools for moving, lifting, sprinting, and jumping. If you’re burning or breaking down the protein in muscle to be used as a significant source of fuel, you simply won’t be as strong because you’ve lost that portion of your muscle.
For better workouts, faster recovery
Research conducted at a leading university’s sports laboratories showed that consuming Shaklee Physique raised the body’s all-important insulin levels higher than when either protein or carbohydrate was taken alone. Even more important is the fact that the combination of protein and carbohydrate in Physique produced an insulin increase that’s greater than the sum of the increases from equal amounts of protein and carbohydrates consumed separately.
Physique: Maximizing insulin production
These results are important to anyone seeking to build lean muscle mass, because insulin is one of the body’s most powerful anabolic, or body-building, hormones. Insulin enhances the uptake of amino acids and glucose by muscle cells for muscle repair, synthesis of new muscle mass, and glycogen restoration following exercise.
But there’s more. Physique’s unique blend of carbohydrates and protein also speeds up and enhances muscle glycogen resynthesis... it refuels faster and better than carbohydrates or proteins alone. Research also suggests that using high-protein or pure protein formulas (similar to those found in many “muscle” drinks) after exercise has little or no effect on muscle energy restoration.
Vitamins and Minerals:
What athletes need...Vitamins and minerals have a tremendous range of functions within the body. Some vitamins and minerals are like spark plugs... they release the energy from carbohydrates, fat, and protein to fuel muscles. They “spark” the metabolic reactions that enable you to take each breath and have oxygen delivered instantly to your exercising muscles. They transform your food into muscle fuel for your workout. They congregate in your bones to help absorb the tremendous pounding that comes with each stride you take (not to mention jarring tackles or rattling rebounds). And they assist in the building of ligaments and tendons that give you flexibility and movement during exercise.So how do they do all that? Complex chemicals called enzymes regulate almost everything your body does (digestion, muscle movement, growth, blood clotting, etc.) Enzymes usually come in two parts: 1) a protein molecule, and 2) normally either a vitamin or mineral. In other words, certain vitamins and minerals hook up with protein molecules to direct the activities of the body.As important as micronutrients are, they are not a source of energy. Carbohydrates, fat and protein are converted into energy. Vitamins and minerals are the energy releasers... and so much more.Yes, vitamins and minerals have an incredible job to do... especially in the body of an athlete.
But does that mean that athletes need more of everything?
Or are there some nutrients the athlete should pay special attention to?
What course of action should the informed athlete take?
While many athletes today try to practice good nutritional habits, many more eat a diet similar to that of most Americans... and most Americans aren’t even getting the minimum U.S. Daily Allowance for some very important nutrients.In the largest survey of the eating habits of Americans ever conducted, researchers found that the typical American diet came up short in calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamin B6, vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin C. All of these nutrients are critical to the athlete.
Furthermore, nutritionists recommend that each of us get 6 to 8 servings of vitamin and mineral rich fruits and vegetables each day. Yet only half of us eat even a single serving of fruit or garden vegetables on a daily basis.
Two critical nutrients for the athlete are:
1) iron... to help transport oxygen from the lungs to body tissues and muscles; and
2) calcium... to keep the weight bearing bones strong and flexible.
But since all vitamins and minerals, in the proper balance, are important for good health and a strong body, supplementing with a complete product system like Vitalizer is one of the first steps you should take when engaging in any exercise program.
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For more information please goto:
http://www.shaklee.net/fixithealth
Have a Healthy Day
Tim & Tammy
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