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Lead Stories: Saturday, September 6, 2008

Preserve muscle sugar for speed and endurance

Posted August 2nd, 2007 at 1:00 PM by Martha Jones

Section: Nutrition, Healthy Eating, Hydration, Race Prep & Recov, Health & Fitness, Exercise

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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