High Street Headache

August 16, 2010

How To Keep Going In Sports – Facts About Energy Nutrition

Filed under: Health — Tags: , — Lauren Schultz @ 7:02 am

Managing the reserved energy in your body is important if you’re going to take part in marathons and other events that needs endurance. This could be difficult, considering the fact that none of us know how much energy is in our body.

Store Your Energy

Energy nutrition is important for our daily activities and we get it from the food that we eat everyday. Glucose, which we get by eating complex carbohydrates like pasta and bread, is used to give us the energy we need. Excess glucose is stored in the liver and muscles, and these glucose that are not needed are converted in glycogen. These glycogen are then stored as fat.

Using Your Energy

The body quickly uses our available energy when we exercise. To help us keep going and endure certain events, our body uses the stored glycogen reserves. However, the body’s capabilities to store glycogen is limited. The decrease of stored glycogen causes the body to turn to fat as its extra energy. This fat will take time before it can be converted into energy and unlike glycogen, it’s not as efficient. Burning energy at a faster rate and using fat for energy are the reasons why athletes slow down during the later stages of endurance events.

Determine How Far You Can Go

An athlete that weighs 150 lbs has the ability to store about 1800 calories as glycogen stored in his or her body. Depending on the intensity, this stored glycogen is good for 2 -3 hours of effort. There are some marathoners who can’t go beyond miles 18 – 20 because they’ve used up their reserved glycogen. Training is therefore important because it accustoms the muscles to store more glycogen. Training also helps the body get conditioned to burn fat for energy when available glycogen gets decreased.

Are Nutrition Supplements Helpful?

Power bars and gels are used by athletes to help improve their energy stores during events. They may or may not work, it all depends on the sport and event. Some runner, like me, find it difficult to digest power bars or gels during marathons. During your training, it’s advisable to give these products a try. Becoming more popular are products like FRS and Hornet Juice. Not only are they easier to digest, but they also provide athletes with more energy.

But there is no substitute for proper training. Energy nutrition supplements aren’t enough to help you do your best during an event, you really need to train hard for it. Experienced athletes that are trained for endurance have knowledge on how to pace themselves properly. Don’t go too fast at the start unless you want to use up all your available energy. Training and using proper nutritional supplement during the event will help you achieve your very best.

Uncover the facts about overcome panic attacks and cure for panic attacks at this site.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Mixx
  • Google Bookmarks
  • blogmarks
  • Blogosphere News
  • email
  • IndianPad
  • LinkedIn
  • Live
  • MisterWong
  • Netvouz
  • NewsVine
  • Print
  • Propeller
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Webnews.de
  • blogtercimlap
  • Faves
  • Xerpi
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Scoopeo

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress