These foods are champions when it comes to helping athletes sustain quality training:

1. Avocado – tasty alternative to butter or margarine as a sandwich spread or a snack on its own. Avocado contains 17 vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, C, E and all B vitamins except B12. In potassium, it’s second among plant foods only to Bananas!

2. Nuts – Great source of protein, fibre and healthy fats. Pecans & Walnuts are high in Omega-3 fats. Brazil nuts are high in selenium which may help protect against cancer, depression and Alzheimer’s.

3. Bananas – High in potassium and carbohydrates – the preferred fuel for muscles, blood and brain before and after exercise.

4. Salmon – High in protein and Omega-3 fats. Herring, Sardines and Mackerel also offer quality fish oils. Omega 3s may also have anti-inflammatory effects.

5. Chicken (skin off) – Excellent source of protein for growth and repair and development of the muscles. Red meat and eggs are also a great source of protein for those building muscles.

6. Creamed Rice – Excellent and tasty source of carbohydrates for quality training and a top desert.

7. Skim milk powder – Cheap source of whey protein – mix with milk and banana or other flavourings.

8. Garlic – Might just help you reduce the chance of catching a cold.

9. Ginger – Its antioxidants support immunity and ginger is also great for digestion and has an anti-inflammatory affect, to assist recovery.

Building muscle and staying in shape go hand in hand when it comes to fitness. There are common misconceptions like: just purely lifting weights will enhance your muscles in a faster way - that can really hamper your success rate.

Throughout my earlier years in fitness training, I thought the more I worked out, the larger I would get and the faster I would grow. I would constantly do chest and arms, very confused as to why I wouldn’t see the gains of many other lifters in the gym.

I finally broke down and decided to teach myself by actually asking several other people around me. As time went on I learned from them how to build muscle properly and was shocked at the simplicity and variety of methodologies you need to apply to get the best results for muscle building. I have highlighted a few areas below that, I believe, made all the difference in my workout:

• When you lift you are breaking down muscle fibers and your body responds to this by eventually healing, adapting and increasing your muscle.
• The most important point between any 2 workouts, of the same muscle group, is the key to optimal growth. Remember, it is your recovery time, when your muscles are being repaired, that gives them the ability to get stronger and larger.
• Working your muscles too much can actually set your progress back if you do not rest. Over-training is the number one reason many fitness enthusiasts do not see results.
• It’s very easy to keep overworking the same muscles you want to be the strongest by continuously focusing on it, but listening to your body is the better policy. If it is sore in any way, it has not recovered yet and therefore you should not be working it out.

Remember, if you don’t exercise your muscle can’t grow, and it’s how much rest and recovery you applied to that body part after it has been worked that will give you the dramatic results that have been eluding you.

[Ed. - For a further perspective, including the idea of the 'minimum effective dose' of strength training, check out Tim Ferriss' new book The 4-Hour Body ]

A research review just published in the highly regarded journal Sports Medicine discusses the optimal way to put energy back into the body after moderate to high intensity endurance exercise.

In summarizing the results of a large number of studies the authors concluded that "carbohydrate should be ingested as early as possible in the post-exercise period and at frequent (i.e. 15- to 30-minute) intervals throughout recovery to maximize the rate of muscle glycogen resynthesis."

Aim to eat more sugary foods in that initial recovery period: "Solid and liquid carbohydrate supplements or whole foods can achieve this aim with equal effect but should be of high glycaemic index and ingested… at a rate of at least 1 g/kg/h in order to rapidly and sufficiently increase both blood glucose and insulin concentrations throughout recovery."

The reviewers also said that adding ≥0.3 g per kg of body weight per hour of protein to a carbohydrate supplement results in a synergistic increase in insulin secretion. This can have the neat effect of accelerating muscle glycogen resynthesis.

Specifically, if for some reason you can’t get enough carbohydrate to replenish your stores, then adding protein may at least partially compensate for the limited availability of ingested carbohydrate.

Source: Sports Medicine, Volume 40, Number 11, 1 November 2010 , pp. 941-959(19)

Like most people you probably do not pay a lot of care or attention to your warm up before exercising. A bit of walk to the front gate before your run or a few arm circles and swings then into the weights session or game of golf/squash or tennis!

One of the areas I put a lot of work into in designing programs for Olympic athletes is in the warm up. Often, I’ll put as much thinking into the first part of the exercise session as the main block of the training session. Every warm up is targeted and individual to both the athletes and the session.

A major part of an effective warm up is dynamic stretching. The aim is to lengthen and warm the muscles, but not with the typical static stretch (where you hold a position for 5 or more seconds). Dynamic stretching is a better way of getting ready for exercise than static stretching because it gets the muscles primed for the movements to come.

You should complete some movement at every major joint before training - shoulders, hips, knees and ankles.

Why do we out so much emphasis on this part of the warm up? Research conducted by the University of Wyoming and published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in June 2008 strongly supports its use. The researchers wanted to examine the effect of the warm-up over a 4 week training program of 24 high level college athletes.

(Take note of the short time frame - only 4 weeks to see if it worked. I wonder if that was long enough to have a significant impact…?)

They divided the group into two. The groups used either static or dynamic stretching before daily practice sessions and measures were made before and after the 4 week period.

After 4 weeks, the static group had no improvements and some decreases in key performance factors. Remember, this is the traditional stretching method you may be doing currently.

The dynamic group showed some significant improvements in performance:

• Strength: increases of: leg strength by 11%; throws by 4%; push ups by 3%; sit ups by 11%
• Endurance - 2.4% faster on a 600m run
• Agility - jump height increased by 4%
• Anaerobic capacity – time for 300m shuttle test reduced by 2%

These are impressive results in a short time frame - achieved just by focusing on a more comprehensive warm up!

So if you could incorporate dynamic warm ups into your current training before sessions, it could produce long term improvements in Power, Strength, Muscular Endurance, Anaerobic capacity and Agility. Improve any of these factors you will be stronger, fitter and able to continue to increase the intensity of your training to get closer to your training goals - whether they be health, fitness or sporting goals.

This video features a good bundle of dynamic warm-up exercises for field-type sports

It’s a tough break if you have to take a break from the sport you love, more so if you’re sidelined by injury and are not in prime condition to get back into the game. People who love sports know that they’re addictive – it’s not just the adrenaline rush of winning a game, the entire experience lifts both your body and mind.

So when you have to give it up for some reason or the other, albeit temporarily, you’re raring for the chance to get back to the playing arena. But you have to remember – it’s not just enough to be high on enthusiasm, you have to be high on cautiousness as well. So if you’re thinking of getting back to playing a sport, here’s how to go about it the safe and most effective way:

• Get permission from your healthcare provider : If you’ve stopped playing because of an injury or any other medical condition, check with your doctor if you’re cleared to play again. You must be capable of strenuous activity again if you plan to return to a sport at any level, so ensure that you’re physically up to it.
• Take it slow : You may be raring to go, but if you want to prevent injuring yourself again, you must take it slow. Remember this - if you’re put out of action again, it’s harder to come back, both physically and mentally. So think long term and find ways to get back into the game slowly rather than bulldozing your way through.
• Work on conditioning your body first : Your overall fitness level is very important when it comes to playing a sport, and because you’ve been out of action for a while, your stamina and strength are not what they used to be. So before you step onto the court or field, start working on your fitness and endurance with a combination of cardio and strength training exercises. Your muscles must be strong enough to prevent spills that could cause further injuries.
• Do sports-specific training : When you’ve been away from a sport for a while, your skills need to be dusted and polished. So get to work on the footwork and other workout drills that are specific to the sport you play. When you get your basics right, you find that the rest of your game naturally follows, and before you know it, you find that you’ve naturally eased back into the game.
• Don’t get too competitive : And finally, you must resist the competitive urge because it could end up pushing you to do more than you’re ready for. When you know your game is not as good as it used to be, you have to give yourself time to get there slowly and steadily, especially if you’re recovering from an injury. So no matter how good your partners’ or opponents’ game is, don’t try to do too much at once when you’re bitten by the competitive bug. If you don’t proceed with caution, you could end up with a more serious injury.

By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Sandra McAubre, she writes on the topic of Sports Management Degrees . She welcomes your comments at her email: sandra1.mcaubre(at)gmail.com.

Some interesting research encouraging drinking during your workout has been published recently in the Perceptual and Motor Skills Journal.

Conducted by Biological Psychologist Kirsten D’Anci at the prestigious Human Nutrition Research Centre at Tufts University, the study found that athletes who consumed zero fluid during an exercise session reported higher levels of both anger and depression on a mood scale after the session.

After a training session they found that very slight dehydration of only 1-2 % of body weight (a 0.75 litre loss of fluid in a 75 kg adult) was enough to cause what the researches called a “a global negative mood” . The symptoms included signs of confusion, fatigue and decreased vigour (energy). These factors were 33% higher than the group that exercised and drank fluid through the session.

The cause? The researchers proposed that the dehydrated group actually experienced a very slight shrinkage of the brain cells. (Picture a plump green grape versus a dried sultana). This shrinkage causes a chemical imbalance to occur and this can increase irritability and potentially trigger headaches.

The solution: aim to consume 250 mls (a glass) of water or sports drink every 30 minutes of exercise and feel happier!

Most of my research for this article involved me spending a lot of the summer falling off a windsurfer. My goal was to teach myself a new skill - how to windsurf. It is quite rare as adults we take on the challenge of a mastering a new skill from scratch. When was the last time you learnt a skill from scratch? Sometimes we tend to avoid it due to the fear of looking silly or the time it would take to learn.

The study of learning new skills in sports has given rise to the field of Skill Acquisition. It is now an increasingly important part of sports science in elite sports.

To acquire any new skill the individual goes through three stages:

1. Cognitive Stage
Here the learner faces a problem and the main priority for them is to understand the task then organize a solution. This is the most important cognitive or mental stage. The learner thinks extensively about the behaviour/ movements needed to master the task. Errors occur frequently.

2. Associative Stage
As the learner practices the movements more they are able to think about it less. The emphasis here is on practice – the emphasis here is on the physical. The errors reduce in number and are smaller. The learner starts to gain confidence and more at ease with the task.

3. Autonomous Stage
Here the skill is almost in inherent or with vey little thought or mental effort. Learners would describe the skill as almost automatic and instinctive. Their movements would be described as smooth and efficient. Most important they can divert their attention to other cues while performing the skill or task.

The improvement in any skill is always rapid at first then the gains get smaller due to the law of diminishing returns – further and further practice results in reducing gains.

What is the best way to learn a new skill? Studies have shown that the optimal way to learn a new skill is to practice it daily but only for 1 hour per day. The spaced practice of motor skills produces better performance and faster learning than say two sessions of 4 hours per week. This is due to:

• Allowing the brain to process the information gained each day (this happens while sleeping)
• Reduces the effect of fatigue
• Maintains motivation
• Keeps attention high over the practice session

Not all of us can devote an hour each day to sail so I dedicated 1 hour 4 days per week to windsurf. (Easy with daylight saving after work) I can happily say the gains with this type of spaced frequent practice have been noticeable!

I can now windsurf!