ProLine Sports, Nutrition Blog

Staying Hydrated is Crucial to Your Health

Hydration is essential for everyone, but it is especially important for athletes. Hydration affects your muscle growth, recovery and weight loss, so dehydration can have a significant impact on an athlete's performance. 

One of the most important sports nutrition supplements your body craves is water. Your body requires water to flush out toxins, help you feel full, absorb nutrients and to perform many different metabolic processes, several of which have an effect on muscle repair and recovery. Summer is coming, so it is especially important to be aware of not only hydration, but the other essentials an athlete needs to maintain his or her overall general health.

Warning Signs of Dehydration

Whatever type of sport you participate in, staying hydrated is critical for your health. Without the appropriate amount of water, vitamins and supplements, you can become dehydrated. Dehydration can be extremely dangerous, even life-threatening if not caught and treated immediately. Some of the warning signs of dehydration include:

• Heat cramps, which is a common condition in extremely hot weather or when doing heavy physical activity. Symptoms of heat cramps may include fatigue, excessive sweating, thirst and cramps (usually in the arms, legs or stomach). Heat cramps can usually be treated quickly by drinking water or sports nutrition drinks and resting in a cool spot.
• Heat exhaustion, which occurs if you do not react to the symptoms of heat cramps. Symptoms of heat exhaustion include dizziness, headache, nausea and muscle cramps. It can usually be treated with cool beverages, taking a cool shower and getting into an air-conditioned area.
• Heat stroke occurs when your body temperature is 104 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Your skin will feel dry and hot to the touch. However, if your heatstroke has been brought on by strenuous exercise, your skin will feel moist. You will also feel sick to your stomach, your breathing may become rapid and shallow, skin will turn red and you will experience a throbbing headache. In severe situations, you may hallucinate, have seizures and/or have difficulty speaking.

Add Minerals

Water is good, but it is also important to drink sports nutrition drinks that contain electrolytes, such as sodium and potassium. These minerals are absorbed quicker by your intestines than pure water, so it puts the water into the blood quicker. Be careful not to overdue the salts, though, because too much in the drink will cause your intestines to dilute intestinal contents before they can be absorbed. On days that are extremely hot and humid, consider rotating beverages — drink one sports nutrition beverage for every three glass of pure water.

Consume Protein

It is important to keep in mind that following any kind of exercise there will be cellular damage, which causes an increase in the breakdown of protein. The majority of disruption in the cellular process begins to be repaired as soon as the stressor is removed, so as soon as the activity stops, repair begins. Consuming endurance supplements and other sources of protein during exercise will help to speed up the recovery.

Don't Forget Your Vitamins

Next to water, vitamins are one of the most important things your body needs. Oxygen radicals, a byproduct of metabolism, causes some tissue damage during exercise. However, like the cellular process, the damage begins to repair itself when exercising stops. To increase the recovery rate, it is essential that you have sufficient amounts of vitamins C and E, which help minimize free radical buildup.

It is important to keep in mind that the longer you are training, the more water you should consume for your cells to keep up with demand. When competing in extreme temperatures or high altitudes, you will need extra hydration as well as an increase in protein and vitamins.

Please contact ProLine Sports Nutrition if you need more information about proper hydration or to visit us for quality vitamins and protein supplements from our vitamin and supplements store. Right now, when you spend $50 or more in Gatorade® products you will get a free Gatorade® sideline towel. 

The Importance of Recovery in Your Fitness Routine

There is a misnomer in the health and fitness world that the secret to increasing strength and/or endurance is formulating an eccentric, state-of-the-art exercise routine. The reality is, the type of exercise a person does has virtually nothing to do with aerobic and anaerobic development.

Of much greater value is how a person exercises and how he or she recovers. Increases in aerobic or anaerobic maximums occur in direct proportion to how much damage — damage being much different than injury — to their muscles and how a person proactively encourages their body to recover. 

Effects of Exercise on Muscles

In all cases, exercise damages muscles. The only variant is the degree to which the damage occurs. The damage occurs as microscopic tears in the muscle fibers and the lining of the muscle fibers. The thicker the lining of the fibers of a muscle, the harder a person must work to generate the micro-tears in the fibers. If damage does not occur, the body is not prompted to rebuild, which means the development and strengthening of the muscles do not occur. 

Regardless of how en vogue an exercise routine or contraption, if it does not stress the muscles to the point of damage, no growth will occur. The old adage still applies — "no pain, no gain."

Muscle Fiber Rebuild

In order for muscle fibers to rebuild, the body needs two things: the right nutrition and recovery. The word "recovery" is a concept that the vast majority of people, even those in the heath and fitness industry, do not understand. But understanding recovery is far more important than choosing the right exercise plan. 

Plateaus in strength gains, the inability to move the endurance wall, chronic fatigue after exercise and loss of aerobic and anaerobic output performance are all symptoms of poor recovery techniques and methodology. 

But, recovery is not a complex concept. There are only two premises an athlete or exercise fanatic must understand: nutrition and metabolic state. 

Recovery Concepts 

Nutrition

The body requires amino acids, fats, minerals and vitamins to rebuild muscles. In addition to tearing muscle fibers, exercise also depletes the body of these building-block essentials. It is critical to provide the body with these essentials within 1/2 an hour of finishing a workout because while the body has states in which it recovers most productively (e.g. when it is not under stress) the body is always rebuilding.

Metabolic State

The most perplexing concept of the premises of recovery, corporal state is quite simple on the surface. The body only has two metabolic states: anabolic and catabolic. The anabolic state is that in which the body is working and therefore breaking down. The catabolic state is the recovery state in which it is metabolizing food and sending it through the circulatory system to repair muscles and tissue.

While there are only two metabolic states, there are degrees or phases of each. The most productive catabolic phase occurs while a person is sleeping, during REM sleep specifically. In other words, the recovery rate is at its maximum when a person has a combination of proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins in their body and they are in the REM sleep stage. 

To find out more about how nutrition and rest prompt recovery, visit ProLine Sports Nutrition! Our expert staff can guide you on your workouts and your recovery routine, as well as help you find the best vitamins and supplements to fuel your body. We're currently offering a promotion where customers can receive a free Gatorade® sideline towel when they purchase $50 or more worth of Gatorade® products.