There is no doubt that today athletes put in tons of hard work into their sport. It's why they are faster and stronger than ever before. Major advancements in health, fitness, and pharmaceutical research have revolutionized sports in general. However, more and more athletes have to hit the treatment table. And worse, after retiring, athletes usually have to deal with an increased likelihood of physical issues in addition to living shorter lives than the average person. All of the advancements coming from health and fitness research cannot seem to counteract these nasty long-term effects of the high-intensity training.
However, there is a way for athletes toboost their performance while still sustaining good long-term health. It is through the use of adaptogenic substances. Here are 8 ways they can improve athletic performance:
1. Adaptogens do not cause a crash, unlike caffeine, so you last longer.
Most common pre-training energy drinks or supplements have stimulants, such as caffeine, which overload your nervous system. Caffeine and energy drinks do indeed give you energy however, it comes at the expense of overworking all of the organs in your body due to a unneceesary increase in adrenaline.
However, what goes up must come down. Since your organs are worked too hard, once the caffeine stimulation wears off your body needs to work at a much lower state than normal for a while before returning to normal. Hence, the crash.
Adaptogens actually increase your body's ability to adapt to those stresses by lowering the amounts of stress hormones produced during exercise. Adaptogens also work to increase your energy via several methods but, they do not overload your system like caffeine. Therefore, you have just as much physical capacity but, without the burn-off that allows you to last longer.
2. Adaptogens improve your recovery time after stress and therefore your body for its next go-around.
There are 2 reasons adaptogens improve your recovery time. First is because adaptogens do not overwork your body as mentioned in the first tip. However, the second reason is because adaptogens actually increase the rate of lactic acid breakdown. When muscles get tired, the reason is because lactic acid gets built up. The more lactic acid that gets built up, the more tired your muscles will become. Adaptogens speed up the process of breaking these down that way once you are done that heavy feeling you have in your legs is eradicated quickly.
3. Adaptogens can induce HGH production naturally to help build muscle and live longer.
Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is an essential hormone that allows the individual to sustain a larger physical overload without breaking down and becoming injured. This is why major pro athletes used to take it in the past. The ability to sustain that workload will build muscle and reduce body fat. Adaptogens increase HGH production by activating your pituitary gland to produce HGH.
4. Adaptogens increase oxygen uptake.
Studies have actually shown adaptogens to increase oxygen uptake during athletic performance. Simply put, the more oxygen you inhale, the more you oxygen you can consume. Your energy is boosted and your endurance improves as well.
5. Adaptogens reduce the levels of stress hormones in your body during and after workouts or performance.
Stress hormones such as cortisol are produced during exercise as an extra avenue to build energy. The problem is that in athletes, the base levels of this hormone tend to stay high off the field. What is the effect? These high levels could lead to increased worries, unnecessary stress, and unnecessary risk taking. These stresses could have a bad carryover effect onto the field. Adaptogens decrease the amount of these stress hormones during performance in addition to reducing basal levels off the field. A lower basal reduction will lead to less stress off the field and in effect allowing you to be more mentally prepared for competition.
6. Adaptogens cleanse your organs leading to reduced injury risk.
Athletes at all levels are getting injured at higher rates. The root cause of which is probably over-training which over-time weakens the functioning of the organs. This has the effect of bringing a reduced amount of nutrients to the rest of the body and therefore increases the risk of injury, or re-injury. To offset this most athletes will take a "magic bullet" quick-fixing supplement however, most supplements come with debilitating long-term side effects by weakening your organs EVEN MORE. However, some of physical demands are so great, that even eating right cannot prevent all of the injuries from occurring.
Adaptogens clean out your vital organs and in effect clean your blood and bring healthy nutrients to your body therefore, providing a mechanism that PREVENTS injuries to occur in the first place, allowing the athlete to continue to train hard.
7. Adaptogens increase your mental performance.
We all know there is a mental component to all sports and being able to think on the go and be mentally alert is just as, if not more important, than the actual physical performance itself. As the legendary coach John Wooden said: "No building is better than its structural foundation, and no man (woman) is better than his (her) mental foundation." Studies have shown adaptogens to actually increase cognitive functioning, reflexes, motor skills, and your attention span. All are necessary to perform at your best.
Boost your performance and health!
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