Sports Nutrition

By Daniel Depo

The subject of sports nutrition has become unquestionably important nowadays now that the whole concept of sports has become evolved and has been receiving immense media attention. Athletes and spectators alike are now comprehending the weight of the status that professional sportsmen now carries.

This realization has pushed lots of initiatives to produce the latest and most effective in sports nutrition and training, not excluding those for extreme sports. During the old days, athletes have relied steadily on the carefree formula of fastfood fare and energy drinks.

Now that competition is growing more and more intense each day, athletes are now acquiring the expertise of sports science experts to make sure that they can maximize their physical and mental potentials to its outmost limits.

To have a better understanding of the efficacy and significance of extreme sports nutrition, one can look at the training regimen in motorcycle sports, one of the most popular extreme sports around.

A motorcycle rider takes in a lot of punishment in his body. Because of this, a rider must consider his overall physical fitness as much as his technical skills in competitions. He needs to establish hydration and stamina in his physique in order to keep up with the rigors of the motorcycle events.

It is not really easy to survive, let alone win, in a 20-30 minute contest under the most brutal of conditions such as extreme heat. It IS one of the most difficult factors that should be overcome in any kind of sport.

If one would monitor the vital signs the athletes during these contests, one could easily see that their heart-rates are performing at the most maximum level.

Sports nutrition is a major concern for motorcycling, since this sport involves competing in adverse surroundings under very extreme temperatures. Thermoregulation and hydration naturally are vital concerns.

Riders are faced with almost no time to hydrate themselves because an typical motocycle event lasts about only 20-45 minutes. It is very important then that motorcycle riders monitor their consumption of fluids closely days before the competition, paying close attention to those days when practices are held up to the qualifying rounds during the weekend before the main event.

Days before the competition itself, riders must take fluid, especially water, consistently in order to achieve and maintain a steady hydration level prior to the main event.

Aside from water, sports drinks must come in handy and must be ready in stock all thoroughout the race weekend. Sports drinks with electrolytes like sodium and with carbohydrates are particularly recommended. Carnohydrates will aid greatly in putting off the occurence of a rider's fatigue.

The amount of sodium present in the drinks is a very important element for the regimen. Sports drinks will high amounts of sodium can give back the sodium that will be lost with the rider's sweat during the competition. Also, the sodium will enhance the thirst of the body in order to make the cyclist drink more water during the course of the competition.

Motorcycle riders involved in heavy competition to strive to consume 20-40 ounces of liquid every hour during his time at the racetrack and must continue drinking about 20 ounces per hour after the track session. To effectively monitor hydration levels of a rider, he can weigh himself on the scales every morning and do so again after every session.

Two percent of the total body weight, and not more than that, should be eliminated, and it muse be replaced with 150 percent of the water reduced on that day in order to achieve maximum performance for tommorow's session.

The human body is composed of up to sixty percent with water. A slight decrease in fluids can already have an effect on an athlete's performance, specifically on the force capability of the muscles.

When the stamina and hydration levels is very well taken-care off, one can pruduce a powerful motocross champion who can manipulate and maneuver his bike at very high levels at the most stressful of situations.

So its extremely important that people, especially athletes, should not overlook the importance of drinking water and other fluids. This is very vital when it comes to competitions. It can be the factor that can make or break a rider's road to victory.

Believe it or not, sports nutrition and exercise have been part of man's life and his culture since the earliest time. Of course, sports during this time was known as athletics. Earliest forms of athletics, however, were part of man's basic need for survival, either to gather food or protect his family from physical harm.

To a simple cave man who knows nothing about martial arts, a sturdy bone from his last dinner may serve as a weapon against wild animals. This bone remnant, coupled with some sharpened stone chips from his cave, is used for hunting. Eventually, his regular hunting activities had developed into some form of physical acts, without so much need to hunt.

Athletics was thus born. Athletics eventually developed into a contest of strength, speed, and other skills. Sports would later developed out of this, with the simple contest developing into a more complicated form of physical activity, and with it the need for sustenance, completing the equation of sports nutrition and exercise.

But even during the earliest time, athletics or sports was never a monopoly of the male sex. In the Heraen Games for instance, women raced in honor of the goddess Hera. The Egyptians had their acrobatic gymnastics for their temple related activities. And, of course, the sports dance had evolved from religious related dance performed in every major temple in antiquity.

To the early Greeks however, belongs the honor of elevating the sports into an art form.  The Olympic Games is the strongest argument for this. Also, the Greeks, apparently knows that sports nutrition and exercise are two important factors in any physical exercise. Even during this time, the Greeks had special set of  foods for their athletes.

In the Mediterranean world, Greeks particularly, goats is the most common source of meat, and occasionally, beef from sacrificed cattle. Just like in the modern day, milk was also considered as a must for a good meal, especially for the athletes. Sports nutrition and exercise among the early Greeks meant also the inclusion of other source of protein, fish for instance, which the seas of Mediterranean is known for in the ancient times. Poultry was also part of the early Greeks' diet.

Vegetables and carbohydrates were also considered as important element of sports nutrition and exercise among the ancient people. Even among the soldiers of the Roman Empire, a balance diet is important to maintain their strength, both in the battlefield and during exercise.

Alexander the Great was known to have discovered the nutritional value of onions that from Egypt, he brought some specimens and had these planted and later cultivated in other parts of his empire. The Romans, just like the Greeks, used cabbage not only as food, but also as antidote for their drunken soldiers. Beets, turnips, artichokes, and radishes also form the long list of edible vegetables cultivated and used during this period.

Just like today's coaches, trainers during the ancient times occupied an exalted place among their people, and also among the athletes themselves. They not only provide exercise regimen for their athletes but also directly involve in the preparation of foods for their charges. Sports nutrition and exercise apparently, is a concept not lost to the early coaches and athletes.

From the foods that consisted the regular diet of the ancient athletes, such as cheese, figs, and meal cakes, the attempt of the ancient trainers to developed special meal for their athletes were apparent.

Though meat was not consumed in large quantities by the athletes during originally, it was observed later that athletes who are given regular dosage of meat for protein source, had more long lasting strength. It was in the fifth century BC, when meat became a craze among the ancient athletes.

During this time, Slymphalos, an Olympic champion in the in the long-distance race, introduced the meat diet to help athletes in their exercises. It was the earliest attempt of a professional athlete to come up with a systematized sports nutrition and exercise. Milo of Croton, won five Olympic awards from 536 to 520 B.C., was reputed to have consumed 9 kilogram of meat during his training period.