Endurance Sports: Stronger for Longer
Endurance sports like biking and running provide milestones and goals while promoting long-term exercise regimens. Additionally, with cities holding endurance races each year, enthusiasts have ample opportunities to test themselves. That these events often promote charities doesn’t hurt either.
The pitfall to these activities is that a person can be at risk for serious injury if he or she does not begin training correctly. This is due to the repetitive nature of endurance sports. Additionally, if unprepared, athletes could also experience a “crash.” This happens when the body gives out because it hasn’t built up the capacity to support the length and intensity of the sport. Experts recommend anyone interested in taking up an endurance sport consider how they’ll go about achieving their goals so that they can reap the maximum benefits without hurting themselves.
Stick With the Program
Dr. Robert G. Silverman1, a chiropractor and nutritionist, makes several suggestions for those seeking to undertake endurance sports. He outlines three elements that help a person get race-ready without injury.
The first recommendation he makes is to follow a program. There are optimal orders to the mileage build-up for endurance sports. When people try to come up with their own regimen, they may push too hard too quickly and burn themselves out. A good program helps athletes progress naturally, in a way that’s comfortable for their systems.
Dr. Silverman also emphasizes the importance of warm-ups and recoveries. Without a proper warm-up, an athlete will likely strain his or her muscles and joints. Warm-ups heat tissues in preparation for activity and reduce the buildup of lactic acid during workouts. Recoveries provide a similar service at the end of an activity. Endurance sports put stress on the body, so athletes need time to relax strained systems.
Diet for Exercise
Dr. Silverman’s final advice centers around diet. He recommends a ketogenic diet for endurance athletes. The keto diet is one that promotes proteins and fats for energy over carbohydrates.
For years, “carb-loading” has been the rule for endurance activities such as marathons and distance swimming. Because the body burns carbs quickly, carbs give athletes quick bursts of energy. However, the trend towards high-carb meals before an event may be shifting. Dr. Silverman writes that burning ketones improves performance over time more effectively than carbs, giving ketogenic racers an edge.
When people burn carbs for fuel, their bodies transform the food into glucose. Though this provides quick energy, the leftovers get stored as fat. Additionally, high levels of glucose can unhealthily spike a person’s insulin levels and other health risks.
Ketones burn more slowly, but more efficiently. According to Dr. Silverman, the brain runs much better on ketones, which allows for clearer, more extended periods of concentration. Not only that, but being in a state of ketosis improves oxidation, aerobic and anaerobic exercise capacity, and fat-mobilization. All these assist in endurance on the field and recovery time after.
NUTRITIONAL DISCLAIMER
The content on this website should not be taken as medical advice and you should ALWAYS consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. We provide nutritional data for our recipes as a courtesy to our readers. We use Total Keto Diet app software to calculate the nutrition and we remove fiber and sugar alcohols, like erythritol, from the total carbohydrate count to get to the net carb count, as they do not affect your blood glucose levels. You should independently calculate nutritional information on your own and not rely on our data. The website or content herein is not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose or treat any disease. This website shall not be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or recommendations on the Website or actions you take as a result. Any action you take is strictly at your own risk.
Dr. Rosmy Barrios, MD is an aesthetic medicine specialist whose work focuses on patients who are treated for obesity, metabolic syndrome, and other weight-related issues through nutritional analysis, keto diet programs, and supporting medications.
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