Building Knee Strength Helps Prevent Injury

Not only does building knee strength help prevent injury, but it can also help your performance. Joel Harper, author of MIND YOUR BODY: 4 Weeks to a Leaner, Healthier Life, is a supporter of knee exercises, especially those performed with knees floating in the air to work them from every angle.

"If you feel any tightness or discomfort in your knees, it most likely comes from muscle imbalance," Harper says. "Make sure you get rid of the tension by stretching and massaging before putting stress on your knees."

Harper has developed a knee exercise routine to strengthen the joints in a safe way. To get the best results, aim to perform each movement at a high intensity for two minutes.

1. Knee Bounces

Purpose: Strengthens your knees with an emphasis on the quads.

Get Ready: Begin on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips. 

Go: With soft elbows, lift your knees one inch off the ground and bounce your knees one inch, up and down, for one minute in the air. Then, sway your knees from side to side, one inch, for one minute. To make this move more challenging, hop your feet up and off the mat one inch each time your knees come up.

2. Shin Bend

Purpose: Stretches your ankles, feet, shins and quads.

Get Ready: Sit on your heels with your knees together and the top of your feet on the floor. Bring your thumbs—pointed toward each other—to your arches for balance.

Go: Pull in your stomach, hunch your shoulders forward, and gently lift your knees off the ground so you're balancing on the tops of your feet. Hold for ten seconds and slowly come down. Place your knees six inches apart and repeat for 10 seconds.

Next, bring your knees back together with your toes apart, and lift them for 10 seconds. Repeat the stretch position that felt the tightest. Only do this stretch if it feels comfortable on your knees.

With time and practice, you'll become more open, and you may not feel this stretch at all. If you feel it, that's your cue to do it each time you finish running.

3. Ankle Sways

Purpose: Strengthens and tones every angle of the front of the thighs and lower abs.

Get Ready: Stand with feet together. Place your left hand on your stomach and your right hand on your lower back. Balancing on your left leg, lift your right knee up as high as you can, aiming to ultimately get your right knee in line with your hips.

Go: While balancing and keeping your right knee stationary, sway your ankle from left to right as far as you can in each direction 25 times. Repeat on the opposite side.

Perform a total of two sets. To increase the intensity, on the second set, perform 50 on each side.

4. Hammock

Purpose: Stretches the hips to open them up and reduce tension on your knees.

Get Ready: Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the mat two feet away from your tailbone. Rest your hands behind you with your palms down and fingertips pointing to the back of the room. Place the heels of your hands about a foot back from your butt.

Go: Keeping the soles of your feet flat on the mat, cross your right leg over your left, resting your right ankle just above your left knee. Sit up straight and focus on pressing your lower back toward your right calf.

If you want to go deeper, press your right knee away from your torso. Hold for 15 seconds and switch sides. Repeat two times on each side.

Keep your arms slightly bent throughout the stretch. If one of your hips is tighter than the other, come back and do the tighter side again. Over time, both sides should be balanced.

How Use of Probiotics Benefits Cyclists

How Use of Probiotics Benefits Cyclists

Stay healthier, be in a better mood, and ride well when it’s hot

By Molly Huford

Probiotics can be incredibly beneficial for cyclists, says Dr. Ralf Jäger, who has been studying them as an inexpensive way to improve health. Probiotics, or live microorganisms that can be found in fermented foods or in pill form, help create a system of happy bacteria throughout your gut.
Yogurt or fermented foods, like sauerkraut or kimchi, are good natural sources for your probiotic fix. An easier and increasingly popular option, though, is to take probiotic pills. While pills used to be found only in super-specific health food stores, almost every major grocery store has at least a few options today. Your best bet is to opt for a probiotic sold in the refrigerated section; Whole Foods, for example, has a whole section of refrigerated space dedicated to probiotics. The refrigerated version—which tends to be slightly pricier—might be a better choice because probiotics are living organisms, and refrigerating them helps ensure potency. Some of the billions of strains of live bacteria and yeasts in an unrefrigerated pill might die during the hot transit to the grocery store, or just from sitting in a less-than-ideal temperature. Find a live strain, though, and in you're in for a boatload of health benefits. 

Reduce Inflammation
Athletes are lucky in that they tend to have better gut bacteria diversity, Jäger says, citing a 2014 study that compared 40 pro athletes' bacteria with those found in an average population. Athletes also have higher levels of the specific probiotic Akkermansia, which past studies have linked with decreased risk of obesity and systemic inflammation.

Decrease Sick Days
Thanks to frequent travel and constant stress, athletes are surprisingly susceptible to getting sick regularly, comparable to at-risk groups like infants or elderly people living in group homes. Jäger mentions the 2010 Winter Olympics, where surveys showed 7.2 percent of athletes reported being sick at some point during the Games.

Certain probiotics have been shown to reduce the number, duration, and severity of upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) and gastrointestinal (GI) distress in athletes, which suggests that taking a probiotic regularly might help athletes stay healthier year-round and not fall victim to stomach bugs and sore throats when travelling for competition.

Keeping Barriers Up
Barriers in your gut keep liquids in their proper places, and some research suggests probiotics may help keep those barriers strong. Exercise-induced intestinal barrier dysfunction happens when the blood normally circulating in the gut is transferred to the muscles during exercise, and that leads to “leaky gut”, which Jäger says increases the permeability of the intestinal wall. Consequences include potential inflammation, intestinal complaints, sleep disorders, reduced recovery and performance, allergies, autoimmune disorders, and susceptibility to infectious diseases. A 2012 study showed that adding probiotics to a diet reduced the permeability of the gut, even during exercise.

Perform Better in Hot Conditions
A 2014 study showed that supplementation with probiotics for endurance runners in hot conditions resulted in significant improvements in running time-to-exhaustion. Those taking probiotics lasted nearly four and a half minutes longer. But Jäger is quick to note that while probiotics can make you tougher in the heat, it’s not guaranteed that they will do the same under normal climate conditions.

Improve Mood
Probiotics can do more than ease digestion and bolster immunity. They can influence your mind. Jäger explains that bacteria talk to the brain through the vagus nerve, which connects your digestive tract to your brain. A 2015 study provided the first evidence that probiotics can indeed improve mood in healthy volunteers.

Bright Future
Scientists have only scratched the surface of the potential benefits of probiotic supplementation in athletes. Until now, the focus has been on classical applications like better immunity and GI health, but probiotics can do more, like improve nutrient absorption, improve neurotransmitter synthesis, and normalize hormonal responses.

Jäger recently completed a study linking probiotics to improved protein utilization and subsequent reduction in muscle damage, faster recovery, and improved performance in athletes. Stay tuned for more findings in the near future

Did youthful fun in the sun put you at risk for an eye condition now?

Excessive sun exposure can cause damage that shows up many years later.

You may not have known it then, but spending a lot of time in the sun without sunglasses when you were younger may have put you at risk for developing eye problems now that you’re older. “The damage would have been done in your 20s and 30s,” says a Dr. Louis Pasquale, an ophthalmologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. “It’s especially true if you spent time near the water, the beach, or snow. The sunlight bounces off of those surfaces and right into the eyes.”

The risks

Dr. Pasquale says we don’t know exactly how the sun’s ultraviolet rays cause eye damage. He also says it’s debated whether sunlight directly causes common eye conditions, such as cataracts (cloudy areas in the lens of the eye), glaucoma (marked by damage to the optic nerve, usually because of pressure in the eye): and age-related macular degeneration, or AMD (which gradually destroys the macula, the part of the eye that provides sharp central vision). But there’s good evidence that sun exposure can cause an eye condition that often leads to other problems. This condition is called exfoliation syndrome.

Exfoliation syndrome

Exfoliation syndrome leaves tiny dandruff-like flakes inside the body, mostly in the eye, where a buildup clogs the eye’s natural drains. That can lead to other problems. Worldwide, it is the most common identifiable cause of two kinds of glaucoma: secondary open-angle glaucoma and secondary closed-angle glaucoma. Exfoliation syndrome is also linked to cataracts and possibly to AMD.

   Who gets exfoliation syndrome? “People who spent 10 hours a week in the sun seem to have a twofold risk of exfoliation syndrome compared with people who spent two or three hours a week in the sun,” says Dr. Pasquale. Other risk factors include European descent, family history, a lack of dietary folate, and five or more cups of coffee per day.

   There are no symptoms of exfoliation syndrome until you start to lose your sight from other eye problems. And while there’s no cure, there are treatments for the other conditions that may result.

Early detection

The best way to stop exfoliation syndrome, glaucoma, AMD, and cataracts from robbing you of your vision is to discover these conditions before they progress. You can do that with a comprehensive eye exam. That involves dilating the eyes to open the pupils so the doctor can examine the back of the eye at the retina. The doctor will also check eye pressure, look at the structure and muscle function of the eye, and correct vision problems if necessary.

   The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends comprehensive eye exams every two to four years for people ages 40 to 55, every one to three years for people ages 55 to 65, and every one to two years for people ages 65 and older. People with risk factors for eye problems-for example, those with diabetes-may need more frequent eye exams.♥

Harvard Health Letter

Preparing For A Hot Race!

Can Heat Acclimation Help Race Performance?

• By Bethany Rutledge - Triathlete Magazine

When looking at cycling performance in the heat, previous studies done in controlled labs (versus outdoors) have shown that power is “markedly impaired” in a hot (above 86 degrees F) environment. One recent study in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise studied the effect of heat acclimatization on cycling time-trial performance and pacing. Researchers found that much of performance loss in the heat may be actually mitigated through acclimating.

Although many of us may have never thought of air density playing a major part in a hot race, this study cited that an increase of 20 degrees (Celsius) in ambient temperature will reduce air density by approximately 7 percent, allowing for an approximate 6 percent increase in speed for a given power output.

For the test, the participants rode three time trials: one with no acclimation, one with five days and one after two weeks. To acclimate, each spent four hours outside (not exercising) per day and otherwise stayed indoors in an air-conditioned environment. In addition, two TTs were performed in cool conditions, one pre-study and one post-study, and were then averaged for comparison data.

Researchers found that some of the test cyclists’ power was restored after a one-week acclimation period and much of it after a two-week period of acclimation. Furthermore they found that due to a reduction in air density, their speed was not significantly different between the cool TT and the acclimated TT.

The bottom line: If you’re headed to a hot race and wondered whether acclimation will really help you perform better, the answer is that it will! One week of acclimation will help and two weeks will help even more. While it may not be realistic to arrive at every warm-weather race destination a week or two in advance, for certain “A” races like Kona, leaving time for acclimation could be worth it. Also, if you’re discouraged at the thought of your splits, keep in mind the silver lining of a small increase in speed due to reduction in air density. An appreciation of this free speed, if nothing else, can help you approach the race with a more positive frame of mind.

Prepping for a hot race

If arriving at a race a week or more ahead of time isn’t in the cards, set yourself up for success in other ways.

– Do your key race-prep workouts in hot conditions that mimic your anticipated race temps.

– Practice taking in more sodium and fluids during long training days.

– Use a scale before/after training to track sweat loss.

Training to win an MX championship: Nutrition

The fifth and final instalment of the series focuses on what to fill your body with.

Author Aaron Hansel

Everyone knows that proper nutrition is an important component of general health, but for top athletes like Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey and Marvin Musquin, it’s crucial. Not only do they demand more from their bodies, they also undergo a high level of physical stress, making getting the right nutrients essential. Aldon Baker explains how he helps Dungey, Musquin and the rest of his elite athletes keep their diets on the right track.

Eat This

“Eating right is more about a set of guidelines than it is a specific list of foods, and the glycemic index [a system that ranks foods on a scale from 1 to 100 based on their effect on blood-sugar levels] is a good nutritional tool. You want to know what foods are high and low in the glycemic index, and that will tell you basically how much nutritional value and calories a food has,” Baker says. “Anything that’s low in nutrients and high in calories is probably the basis of what the guys need to avoid. Foods with good nutritional value, such as good vegetables, fruits and proteins that have the lowest amount of saturated fat with regards to the highest amount of clean and natural protein are ideal.”

Not That

“Guidelines are also key when avoiding bad foods. You want to stay away from things like saturated fat, which does not help your body in any way. In fact, it makes recovery harder and stacks additional work on your body, and that’s not good. You want to stay away from sodium and sugar too. Another thing is portion sizes, which are just out of control in America. It’s also important to pay attention to how your body responds to certain things – foods that you can eat a lot of and never really get full for a while, that’s your body telling you that the nutritional value is pretty bad.”

“There are some specific things I like my athletes to say away from, such as red meat. For what the body is getting from red meat, and what it’s having to deal with, it doesn’t add up. If I need a guy to gain weight, I’ll tell him to eat it once in a while, as long as he knows what’s in it and where it came from – it should be grass fed and organic. Breads aren’t that great, it’s important to limit bread intake, and I’m not a fan of dairy either. Today’s dairy is not the dairy that grandpa and granny used to have. It’s being mass produced unfortunately, and there’s too many issues and junk that accompanies that. Fortunately there are better alternatives, such as almond milk and soy products, that weren’t available back in the day.”