For many years I have believed that heating muscles in a whirlpool or sauna after exercise interferes with muscle contractions and hampers muscular endurance.
However, a study from the University of Otago in New Zealand shows that taking a sauna after workouts for three weeks helped athletes to exercise longer to exhaustion (Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Sports Medicine Australia, August 2007).
Trained runners sat in a humid sauna for 30 minutes at 89.9 degrees centigrade immediately after exercising, 12 times in three weeks. They then ran as hard as they could on a treadmill for about 15 minutes, to exhaustion.
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Tapering refers to the period just before a major race or game, when an athlete reduces workload to be in peak shape on the day of the competition. Ordinary exercisers can apply this training principle when they plan to enter a local race or charity event.
Top athletes must spend a tremendous amount of time training to be able to compete successfully. Their huge volume of work leaves them near exhaustion and before major competitions, they have to find the best way to reduce fatigue while retaining fitness. Many studies have been done to help athletes and coaches decide on the best strategy.
Researchers at the University of Montreal compiled the results of 27 scientifically acceptable studies. They concluded that the best duration of tapering is two weeks, the optimum training volume reduction is by 40 to 60 percent, and the intensity of workouts should be maintained (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, August 2007).
Training load during taper: Almost all of the studies agree that athletes should reduce the amount of work they do. While each athlete must decide on his optimal reduction, many bicycle racers drop from up to 400 miles a week down to fewer than 200, and many runners drop from above 100 miles to fewer than 40.
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How fast you can move and how long you can exercise intensely depends on the amount of sugar (glycogen) stored in your muscles. The same rule applies in all sports: when muscles run out of their stored sugar supply, they require more oxygen and you have to slow down.
Fluid is less important than muscle sugar because dehydration will not cause you to slow down until your blood volume is reduced. As you lose fluid from sweating, interstitial fluid stored around cells is released into the blood to maintain blood volume. When you compete is sports at a very high intensity, your muscles run out for stored sugar long before your blood volume is reduced, and you slow down from lack of muscle sugar before you slow down from reduced blood volume (Sports Medicine, April- May 2007).
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A study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that drinking fluids earlier can improve performance more than taking them later (International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, December 2006).
Seven highly-trained male triathletes, aged 18 to 35 years, were tested during two simulated Olympic-distance triathlons. They took a full glass of water at 8, 16, 24, and 32 kilometers, and this was compared to taking the same drink 2, 4, 6 and 8 kilometers later in the event (at 10, 20, 30, and 40 kilometers).
As you would expect, opening swim times for 1500 meters were similar between trials; as were the second event (40-km cycling) times, but the third event (10-km run) times were faster when the athletes took food and drink earlier. Dehydration does not harm an athlete’s performance until he lacks a large amount of water and his blood volume is depleted significantly. That explains why the athletes’ performance was not harmed until the third event of the three-event competition.
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Fatigue during hot-weather exercise is caused by lack of water, salt, sugar or calories. Of the four, exercisers are most ignorant of their sodium needs. A study from The University of Otago in New Zealand shows that taking a salty drink prior to competition can help an athlete to exercise longer and harder. (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, January, 2007; and Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, January 2007).
Athletes who took the salty drink had larger blood volumes and greater endurance. Salt makes you thirsty earlier so you drink more, and salt in your body holds water so you have more water available to meet your needs.
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Doubles … the dreaded “two-a-day”. Those phrases invoke not-so-fuzzy memories of high school cross country practice. Get up at 6AM, pound some stair laps, and then duke it out again on the roads at 3PM.
Since most people on my prep team didn’t run at all during the summer, these double sessions (combined with racing three times per week) would “crash” most of us in shape by the conference and sectional meets.
Upon entering college and starting a new phase of my running career, doubles were completely eliminated from my training. Instead, our program focused on medium-length single runs (10-12 miles). My weekly mileage never topped over 80, which was not a hard volume to accomodate with singles, and I decided at that point that two-a-days were only for high school kids and obsessive-compulsive freakazoid runners.
This sentiment has changed, partially because I have become an obsessive-compulsive freakazoid runner. In other words, I become a marathoner in my post-collegiate running. Once my mileage reaches over 80 miles/week, I typically start incorporating doubles between 1-3 days/week. Here’s why:
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A study from the Netherlands shows that sugar in sports drinks slows absorption and increases stomach cramping in running races shorter than 12 miles.
Fluids pass through your stomach and are absorbed almost immediately in your intestines. Exercise slows fluid passage from the stomach but does not affect intestinal absorption. Sugar added to drinks can delay stomach emptying to increase risk for cramps.
Another study from the University of Utah, reported in the same journal, shows that taking a salty drink just before exercise increases endurance. Dehydration is the most common cause of fatigue during exercise in fit men and women. This study used salted drinks or placebo (unsalted) drinks with two groups of cyclists, and demonstrated a significant improvement in an endurance time trial as well as better maintenance of blood volume in the group that had the salted drinks.
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For the last 40 years, sports medicine experts have told athletes in endurance events that they should take fluids frequently during events lasting more than one hour.
However, three years ago, a 28-year-old woman collapsed and died after finishing the Boston Marathon. Her blood salt levels were extremely low and she died from a condition called hyponatremia. A few weeks ago, a policeman training for bicycle duty died of the same condition.
On July 26, 2005, sports medicine experts issued a warning to all athletes from the First International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference (Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, July/August 2005).
I have never seen this syndrome in well-conditioned athletes. It has been reported almost exclusively in very thin, less-fit, slower and novice athletes, and is far more common in women. This condition is caused by drinking too much fluid and is not caused by excessive loss of salt in sweat or by exercising. Read the rest of this entry »
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