Every endurance athlete has an optimal racing weight. Most athletes at most times are above that weight. Sometimes it is necessary to actively pursue weight loss through means above and beyond normal training and “eating right” to lose excess weight above one’s optimal racing weight. In other words, one must diet. But it’s important to [...]

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Past research has yielded some evidence that supplementation with the antioxidant compound quercetin may enhance endurance exercise performance, possibly by stimulating mitochondrial biogenesis. Mitchondria are organelles within muscle cells that serve as the sites of aerobic metabolism. Researchers from Appalachian State University tried to validate these findings in a new study involving non-athletes. Twenty-six untrained [...]

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Body weight and body composition have a critical relationship to endurance sports performance. Every endurance athlete knows this, and that’s why a recent study found that 74 percent of endurance athletes were concerned about their body weight. This number matches that of the general population, which is largely sedentary and overweight. But while there are [...]

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Several studies have shown that carbohydrate-protein sports drinks such as Accelerade enhance endurance exercise performance compared to conventional, carbohydrate-only sports drinks such as Gatorade. But the mechanism underlying the superior effectiveness of carb-protein sports drinks has not yet been identified. Recently, researchers from McMaster University tested the possibility that the addition of protein to a [...]

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Bovine colostrum - or neotanal cow’s milk - is one of the most nutrient-rich animal foods. It is packed with good stuff such as insulin-like growth factors, cytokines, and immunoglobulins. Because these nutrients are potentially beneficial to athletes, promoting muscle growth, antioxidant activity, and immune function, bovine colostrum has become popular among athletes in recent [...]

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In a new study, researchers from the University of Sao Paolo, Brazil, investigated the effects of supplementation with the amino acids glutamine and alanine and the dipeptide L-alanyl-L-glutamine (DIP) on markers of muscle damage and inflammation in rats subjected to prolonged exercise. They found reduced markers of muscle damage and inflammation after prolonged exercise in [...]

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It is well known that U.S. adolescents have become increasingly fat over the past 20 years. But there is some debate as to whether this trend has been caused primarily by increased eating or decreased activity levels. Adolescents certainly spend a lot more time passively absorbing technological media–talking on cell phones, surfing the internet, listening [...]

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A couple of years ago, some scientist, I forget who it was, wrote a review in which he argued that small measures such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator do not suffice to prevent weight gain or promote weight loss, even in the aggregate. Only significant dietary changes and large amounts of exercise [...]

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