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Lead Stories: Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Baking soda may help athletes to exercise longer

Posted April 10th, 2007 at 8:00 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: Health & Fitness, Exercise

Sodium bicarbonate, commonly known as baking soda, is used as a medication to neutralize stomach acid in ulcer patients and as a home remedy for stomach distress.

Now researchers in Greece have shown that it may neutralize the acid in muscles during intense exercise and helps athletes to exercise longer (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise).

If you run or cycle as hard as you can, you start to breathe hard, and suddenly your leg muscles start to burn because your muscles have become acidic. It’s the burning in your muscles that forces you to slow down.
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Train your muscles to use lactic acid as fuel

Posted January 6th, 2007 at 11:00 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: Running & Training, Training Tips, Health & Fitness, Exercise

You exercise so intensely that your muscles burn and you gasp for breath. Then you slow down for a minute or two, catch your breath, and then go very fast again. This training technique has been used in all endurance sports since the 1920’s. Now George Brooks of the University of California at Berkeley has shown why interval training makes you a better athlete.

Inside each muscle cell are mitochondria, the little furnaces that burn fuel for energy. A major fuel for your muscles during exercise is the sugar, glucose. In a series of chemical reactions, glucose is broken down step by step, with each step releasing energy. When enough oxygen is available, the glucose releases all of its energy until only carbon dioxide and water remain; these are blown off through your lungs.
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Principles of Training

Posted October 28th, 2006 at 7:00 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: Running & Training, Injury & Rehab, Training Tips, Health & Fitness

You will not become a better athlete by doing the same training regimen each day.

Athletes train by taking hard workouts on one day, feeling sore on the next, and not taking another hard workout until the muscles stop feeling sore.

It’s called the hard-easy principle.

If you want to become stronger or faster or increase your endurance, you have to exercise hard or long enough to make your muscles burn. Then your muscles will be sore for one or more days.

However, if you try to exercise hard when your muscles are damaged, you will tear them and the muscles will weaken.

If you wait for the soreness to disappear, your muscles will be stronger than they were before your workout. As you continue to take stressful workouts only after the soreness disappears, you will become progressively stronger and faster and have greater endurance. Read the rest of this entry »

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