Thursday 24 September 2015

Are you an athlete? Here’s what you need to know about taking care of your body

Are you an elite athlete, weekend warrior, avid cyclist or fitness fanatic? If so, you need to find a naturopathic sports medicine clinic to help you reach your peak performance level. A sports medicine clinic should be equipped to help you with two important aspects of training: nutrition and manual therapy.

Sport Nutrition:
Misguided nutritional choices can negatively affect muscle building and repair, endurance and power abilities, energy levels, gastrointestinal health, joint health, inflammation, injury recovery and immune health.
Here are some key things to consider when thinking about ideal sport nutrition.

Protein
Meeting daily protein requirements is essential for muscle repair and muscle building. Intense training without getting the right amino acids via diet or supplementation can result in prolonged recovery time, post-exercise muscle pain and instability. Additionally, protein is required for immune health, which means inadequate amounts could contribute to frequent colds and infections.

Daily protein intake for a training athlete is at least 1.2 g/kg body weight. This can be difficult to meet, so a good quality protein powder and branch chain amino acid supplement can help. When looking for a protein powder, look for a whey isolate with at least 20g of protein per serving.

Fat    
Healthy fats are important in the prevention and recovery of injury. Specifically, not consuming enough unsaturated fat in the form of omega-3 fatty acids can increase systemic inflammation, which may prolong healing time. In female athletes specifically, consuming healthy fats are important for the production of sex hormones, which influence menstruation, fertility and osteoporosis risk.

Healthy fats are unsaturated fats (omega-3 and 6 fatty acids). Great dietary sources include olive oil, fatty fish, eggs, lean meats, avocados, nuts and seeds. It’s also a good idea to supplement daily with a good quality fish oil. High dose fish oil can be especially helpful during acute inflammation (sprains/strains).

Whole Food Diet   
An athlete’s diet should be based around whole-foods, which means avoiding processed foods and refined sugars. A poor diet can increase inflammation in the body and aggravate the gastrointestinal system. A whole food diet is also high in antioxidants.
As much as possible, cook your food from fresh ingredients. Avoid anything packaged, processed or refined.

Supplements to Enhance Performance    
In addition to dietary recommendations, added supplements can be helpful during training.
Ask your sports medicine clinic about:
CoQ10 (antioxidant, important in cellular energy metabolism) B vitamins (important cofactor in many cellular reactions)Rhodiola(adaptogen to manage cortisol levels)

Sport Manual Therapy:
The solution to training-related pain and injury is rehabilitation using safe, effective and sustainable modalities. A naturopathic sports medicine clinic will help you prevent and quickly come back from injury.
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Here are some effective manual therapies used to treat pain and injury…
Muscle Pain     
•    Hydrotherapy
•    Castor oil massage
•    Cupping
•    Active Release Therapy
•    Acupuncture
•    Trigger Point Release
Joint Pain
•    Electroacupuncture
•    Range of Motion Exercises
•    Anti-inflammatory supplementation (Curcumin, Fish Oil, Boswellia, etc.)
Injury Rehabilitation
•    Hydrotherapy
•    Acupuncture
•    Kin Taping
•    Rehabilitation exercises
•    Electroacupuncture
•    Massage
•    Manual work to break down scar tissue

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