Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Running has countless benefits for the body and usually is considered one of the top physical activities for the most overall health and fitness benefits. But like most exercises, running also has its downsides. Generally, these downsides include a variety of injuries, especially to the …
Photo by Meghan Holmes on Unsplash Injuries are usually a pretty common occurrence for athletes, but you don’t have to be doing backflips on a daily basis to hurt yourself badly. Sprains, muscle pulls, tendonitis, fractures, broken bones, and many other notorious sports injuries can …
We motivate ourselves with goals to work out regularly and stay fit. But sometimes, that overzealous enthusiasm can cost you in the long run. Working out (even though it is healthy) can lead to problems if it’s done excessively. Muscles need time to repair themselves in between workouts with proper nutrition to fuel your body. So how much is too much for you, and what are the signs that you might be overdoing it?
Chest Discomfort
Any irregular chest pain experienced during exercise should be taken seriously. Not all chest pain is the same – it might feel like burning, stabbing, tightness or achiness. If you’re experiencing chest or heart pain when you work out, you should speak with your doctor as soon as possible.
Dizziness/Vomiting
Vomiting after or during exercise is never a good sign. If this happens, it’s usually a result of over-working your system far beyond the point it can handle. Getting nauseous or light-headed from your workout can indicate that you’re dehydrated or experiencing possible heat exhaustion.
Joint Pain
If soreness is getting in the way of normal daily functioning, like walking to the bus or simply getting out of bed, this is usually a key sign that you need to get some rest. It’s normal for joints to feel sore shortly after an extensive workout, but anything beyond that should be looked at more closely.
Top scientific research institutions are focusing a great deal of their time and resources on developing the science of sports and exercise supplementation. Science has established that particular nutrients can improve muscle size and power, and support performance by improving endurance and mental focus.
Decrease in Performance
Performance in your workout should improve, or at least stay at a consistent level. If you notice your performance dropping or if you feel especially exhausted by your usual workout, you might be over training.
These are just a few guidelines to help keep you on the right fitness track. Now, this is not to say you can’t push yourself for those extra few minutes on the treadmill or go for 20 extra pushups. It’s great to challenge your body, but you also have to listen to what your body is trying to tell you. Also – don’t forget to balance out cardio workouts with proper strength training and other types of workouts, especially stretching (i.e, yoga).
Eating right, getting to the gym, and sticking to a regular diet and exercise plan is a pretty major challenge for most of us. Even if all the efforts are in place for you right now, you could probably use a little extra boost. With …
Photo by Spencer Dahl on Unsplash We’ve all heard the words “Stamina” and “Endurance” in the fitness world. These are important terms that you definitely need to know about whether you’re trying to lose weight, train for a marathon, or just take on a new …
Now that the Winter Olympics have come to an end, many are left wondering how extreme sports athletes manage to perform those unbelievable tricks that leave the rest of us in awe. But a more intriguing question to ask is not how they do it – but why? Physics can explain the mechanics of every flip, spin and jump, but the human mind is much more difficult to explain. What exactly is it that gives some of us a personality that’s always ready to leap off of an icy cliff?
Some of us are born daredevils. Parents and scientists have believed for a long time now that a “sensation seeking” personality, as it’s called in psychological terms, has a specific genetic component. A 2006 study that examined risky behavior in pairs of twins found that this thrill-seeking personality type was far too common in the pairs of twins than could be explained by only environmental factors. In most cases, if one twin tended to seek out risky experiences, the other was quite likely to do so as well, despite outside influences.
Research has shown that these thrill-seekers definitely have a genetic component that leads to the urge to do crazy things, like attempting a near-impossible flip during the Olympic finals. However, the exact genes (or more specifically, the tiny portions of DNA within the genes) that lead someone to perform triple back flips off a mountain have yet to be pinpointed.
For many years, researchers assumed that a person’s tendency to gravitate towards risky behavior had to do with the levels of, or response to, the neurotransmitter known as dopamine. Dopamine naturally occurs in the brain and has to do with feelings of gratification, satisfaction and pleasure. Scientists assumed that people who are drawn to extreme sports must process dopamine differently than the rest of us. However, studies that compared dopamine-related genes to sensation-seeking personality types were inconsistent in their results. But they did find that people who have certain variations within the genes – particularly a gene known as “DRD4” – gravitated towards risky behavior much more than others.
Most of this research didn’t focus on the kind of risk-taking that wins Olympic gold, though. Instead, it mostly looked at negative risky behavior (or “deviant risk-taking”) like gambling and drug addiction. Dr. Cynthia Thomson, a teaching fellow at Quest University Canada, noticed the way these studies were being conducted and realized that the research seemed to focus on the wrong types of behavior. Dr. Thomson believed it may be more revealing to study thrill-seekers competing in sports like skiing and snowboarding, where athletic styles range from steady, cautious movements to gravity-defying spins off mountains.
Dr. Thomson created an in-depth questionnaire specifically for skiers and snowboarders – questions included how often, how fast, and how recklessly the winter athletes performed. Along with the slope-specific questionnaire, Dr. Thomson had participants fill out a standard personality questionnaire and provide a cheek swab for DNA. A high score on the combined tests would indicate a significant tendency to seek out risky behavior, and the DNA samples would reinforce the participants’ answers.
In her research of the genetic aspect, Dr. Thomson focused on the variations of the participants’ DRD4 genes. By zeroing in on a very small section of this gene, she found that skiers and snowboarders who had a specific pattern of DNA coding were far more likely to have a higher score on the risk-taking tests. When the study was repeated on a larger group of volunteers, Dr. Thomson found the same results – a close association between the variation of the DRD4 gene and the willingness to engage in risky behavior on the slopes.
Overall, Dr. Thomson’s study suggests that some people – those with that specific DRD4 gene variation – have a genetic, instinctive need to take part in risky activities. These people have an “optimal level of arousal” that is naturally higher than others, Dr. Thomson explained, even if their parents are shy and reserved. It’s quite possible for each parent to have different parts of that sensation-seeking gene in their DNA, which may combine and result in a child who is a total daredevil.
There is no single aspect that causes us to do the things we do, but Dr. Thomson believes that if thrill-seeking personality types must have a healthy outlet for their daredevil tactics. If not, they may turn to damaging behavior like gambling or drugs as a way to release those daredevil-type urges. So if you have a child who likes to jump off couches and do flips from the monkey bars, you might want to consider encouraging them in a sport like skiing, gymnastics or snowboarding as a healthy way to put that daredevil gene to good use!
Source: The New York Times