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Cramping, Electrolytes, & Hydration…

December 10, 2016 by TORQ USA

*This Article was contributed by TORQ USA whose products are based around science and natural ingredients for optimal performance. You can find their products in our I Love Bicycling Shop.

Cramping and hydration are two subjects that many people consider to be inevitably linked (like Fish & Chips or Gin&Tonic), but this isn’t necessarily the case. Dehydration can cause cramping for sure, but you might want to look at a few other things first…so lets…

WHAT LEADS TO CRAMPING?

The most commonly overlooked cause of cramping is actually ‘over-exertion’. You could be doing absolutely everything right from a hydration perspective, but it’s just that you’ve asked your body to do more than it’s used to doing. It makes sense really doesn’t it? If you’re calling upon your body to do stuff it’s just not used to doing, it’s going to say ”Look mate, you’ve asked a lot of me in the past, but this is new territory. You must be joking, thus I’m going to punish you with pain…” (queue titanic contraction of hamstrings and calves).

The solution is simply to introduce some harder, more focused riding into your week. The more riding you do, the higher your cramp threshold will become, so in short, you need to build up your fitness. Bizarrely, if you fuel and hydrate yourself properly (which will be discussed later on in this article), this will allow you to maintain a higher power output on the bike for longer, which in turn will put your muscles under more strain, which can then lead to cramping! I do think it’s very important not to get ‘cramp hang ups’ though, because cramping due to over exertion has to be a good thing. It’s a clear indicator that you’re overloading your muscles and causing adaptation. When I get to the point in my ride/race that I’m getting little twinges of cramp, I know that I’m breaking into new territory and pushing the boundaries. Once I’ve rested up afterwards, I’ll be stronger for it, so the rewards will be sweet. The diagram below shows how short term over-exertion will bring rewards in fitness providing you give your body sufficient time to recover.

Remember that over-exertion comes in two forms, duration-based and intensity-based. If you can ride for hours, but cramp up on climbs or in races, you need some more intensity in your training, so think about doing some intervals or shorter harder rides. On the flip side, if you’re good at the fast stuff, but cramp on longer rides, you need more endurance, so try to get out and ride for longer (i.e. base riding).

A BIT MORE ON DEHYDRATION…

With this said, dehydration can’t be ignored as a cause of cramping. Quite simply, if fluid and electrolyte intake doesn’t equal fluid and electrolyte loss, you will start to dehydrate, so you need to address high perspiration rates by putting more fluid and electrolytes back in to your body. Normal table salt is made up of Sodium and Chloride (2 of the electrolytes), but you will also need Magnesium, Potassium and Calcium – 5 ‘core’ electrolytes all together. Electrolytes are necessary elements for muscular contraction, so it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if you start to lose these valuable salts, your hardware’s going to start coughing and spluttering. And no, there is no one magic bullet electrolyte, thus we cannot overstate this, you need to sufficiently maintain adequate levels of all core electrolytes as well as some other nutrients. A bit further into this post we get into electrolytes in more detail.

The diagram below demonstrates the potentially catastrophic effects of dehydration. For every 1% of bodyweight you lose through dehydration, you get a corresponding 5% drop in performance. This is a huge performance loss and by way of putting some figures to it, a slightly dehydrated individual who usually kicks out 300 watts at threshold (time trial effort) will drop off to around 285 watts. Suffice to say that races are won or lost by much smaller differences in power than this. If dehydration reaches 4-5% of bodyweight, performance drops a whopping 20-30% and a fluid loss of 9-12% can be fatal.

The physiological effects of dehydration are interesting. The fluid losses cause blood volume to drop and as your blood plasma loses water, it becomes thicker. This decreases blood pressure, which then reduces blood flow to the muscles and skin. As less blood reaches the skin, thermoregulatory efficiency (the control of body temperature) is reduced and heat is retained within the body. The worse the dehydration gets, the more pronounced this cycle becomes.

PREVENTION…EVERY RIDE/RUN IS DIFFERENT

In order to prevent dehydration, you’ll need to consume fluid, as well as fuel sufficiently. For the purpose of this post, we will focus on the hydration part. So, how much fluid you take on board will depend entirely on the environmental conditions that you’re exercising in. If you’re exercising indoors or in dry or hot conditions, you’re going to lose more fluid than in cooler or more humid conditions. The paradox is that you actually feel like you’re losing more fluid in humid conditions when actually you’re not. Sweat drips off you, but because evaporation rates are lower, you won’t actually perspire as much and your thermoregulation systems will be much less efficient at driving heat away from your body. So as not to confuse the matter though, let’s make this assumption: You will perspire more and have greater fluid losses in hot than cold environmental conditions: You will perspire more at higher than lower exercise intensities and finally: You will perspire more in dry than humid environmental conditions.

When perspiration rates are high, you should aim to consume as much fluid as possible. Pure unadulterated water will not hydrate you as quickly as an energy drink mixed at a 6% concentration though because of the osmolality (potential to diffuse) in the gut. Sports drinks that are marketed as ‘Isotonic’ are designed for this use, but providing your energy drink is mixed at 6% (60 grams of carbohydrate per liter or 16oz H2O) it will be in balance with your body fluids and will hydrate you rapidly. Hint hint…check out TORQ Energy…it’s really good at knocking two birds out with one stone…

As an aside, it’s a little known fact that we are actually self-hydrating organisms. Through our metabolism (oxidative phosphorylation), we actually produce water as a bi-product and according to Wilmore & Costill, authors of ‘Physiology of Sport & Exercise,’ during rest we actually produce 150 to 250ml per day. In addition to this, a 155lb cyclist will also produce about 150ml of water per hour during intense exercise. During very cool weather, this would help to explain why one has to get off the bike to have a pee every now and then. It’s a combination of this canny self-hydrating mechanism and perhaps drinking a little too much for the environmental conditions.

ELECTROLYTES, WHATEVER THEY ARE, GIMME GIMME GIMME…

Last and by no means least, lets get a little deeper into electrolytes. These are dissolved salts that are capable of conducting electricity, so are vital for muscle and neural (nerve) function. They also play a major roll in maintaining fluid balance within the body. There are 5 electrolytes: Sodium, Chloride, Potassium, Magnesium and Calcium. The last one is less important than the other four and by far the most important are the first two. Having electrolytes in your energy drink has the following benefits:

They help to replace electrolytes lost through sweating (in case you hadn’t noticed, sweat is salty). Sodium and Chloride help to maintain the volume of the blood and also help to transport nutrients into cells so that they can be used for energy production, tissue growth and repair. Potassium is present in much higher concentrations in the muscle cells than in the blood, so losses through sweating are much lower than with Sodium or Chloride. Potassium deficiency would typically be symbolised by muscle cramping. Low magnesium levels are linked to muscle fatigue and cramping too, but again losses through perspiration are less substantial than with Sodium and Chloride.

Electrolytes help prevent hyponatraemia. This is a rare condition that affects ultra endurance athletes and is also referred to as ‘water intoxication’. If you consume water-only or an energy drink without electrolytes over a long period of time, the combination of sodium chloride loss through sweating and the dilution of the remaining salts in the blood steam with the fluid you’re taking in can cause headaches, cramping, loss of strength and nausea. If left unchecked, this could become quite a serious condition.

To summarize, Ed Burkes’s book ‘Serious Cycling’ makes the following recommendations with regard to the amounts of electrolytes that should be present per liter in an energy drink, so check yours (check out details on TORQ Energy hydration & fueling mix here):

Sodium: 400-1,100mg/l [TORQ Energy: 550mg/l]
Chloride: 500-1,500mg/l [TORQ Energy: 940mg/l]
Magnesium: 10-100mg/l [TORQ Energy: 12mg/l]
Potassium: 120-225mg/l [TORQ Energy: 130mg/l]

Note that TORQ Gels also contain all 5 core electrolytes. Following our TORQ fueling system, you can hydrate and fuel with 2x 500ml bottles of TORQ Energy mix (2 TORQ Units), and 1 TORQ Gel per hour to achieve optimal 90g carbohydrate per hour, as well as be fully topped up on fluids and electrolytes for even the worst conditions.

So, in summary, when perspiration rates are high, do not consume bars or gels, just drink an electrolyte-containing energy drink mixed at 6% carbohydrate – and drink as much as you can (up to a little more than a liter per hour). This is the quickest way to hydrate and you’ll be fueling yourself adequately by virtue of the fact that you’re consuming significant quantities of this 6% solution. When perspiration rates are low, drink less or you’ll be taking numerous ‘comfort breaks’ and satisfy your energy needs through more concentrated ‘dryer’ forms of energy like gels and bars.

So, enjoy the heat and stick it to summer. You’ve got this. #Unbonkable

TORQ’s assortment of products to help you achieve optimal performance, not bonk, and stay hydrated for your ride can be purchased by clicking the image below.

5 Electrolyte Products To Keep You Rolling Strong

September 15, 2016 by Corey Davis

What is the importance of electrolytes during exercise, better yet what is an electrolyte? An electrolyte is composed of sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, bicarbonate, and hydrogen phosphate. All of these minerals are vital for basic human functioning. During exercise electrolytes are lost due to sweating and need to be replaced quickly in order for the muscles to continue firing at its highest state. Dehydration is the effect of to many of these electrolytes being lost; severe symptoms of this include dizziness, weakness, and vertigo.

Replacing electrolytes can be relatively easy because they are found in many things such as fruits, vegetable, specific electrolyte products, and many more everyday foods. Too many electrolytes can also be a bad thing, such as too much calcium causing hypercalcemia. All electrolytes are not created equally either. Some are much more important than others. For instance excessive sodium that is lost during exercise will decrease performance dramatically and can cause cramps if severe enough. There are many electrolyte products on the market though to help you avoid this!

Sometimes after a bike ride or run, drinking a massive sports drink is not in your best interest to replenish electrolytes after working out. Most of the big name sports drinks out there are full of carbohydrates in the form of sugar and simply want you to drink more of their product. Complex carbohydrates are good for endurance athletes, but not simple sugars that are found in most sports drinks. Steve Born at Hammer Nutrition said “Complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides) are the best choice for endurance athletes, as they allow your digestive system to rapidly and efficiently process a greater volume of calories, providing steady energy”.

5 Electrolyte Products We at ILB Have Used Regularly Over the Years

Below are a five electrolyte products to help you recover quicker and ride stronger that we at I Love Bicycling have used many of times! They’re listed here because we think they’re some of the best in the industry. Find what you like, both taste wise as well as performance wise, and stick with it.

Boulder Salt

“Boulder Salt is a balanced blend of sodium, magnesium, potassium and calcium, developed as a nutritionally superior alternative to sea salt and traditional table salt.” Boulder Salt is $29.99 for a pack of 60 individual single-serving packets. This is one of the less well known electrolyte products but has received excellent reviews from users. It’s formulated based upon what pure spring water should taste like with the proper amount of minerals. This ratio is also what your body needs for good pH levels as well as electrolyte levels. It’s also a good substitute for table salt on your food and gives a nice, different touch to dishes.

Torq Nutrition

Torq Nutrion offers electrolyte products, one being a hypertonic solution that is claimed the “fastest possible way to hydrate”. It is “formulated with 2:1 Glucose: Fructose derivatives” and contains no artificial sweeteners, colors or preservatives. It contains 5 key electrolytes and has multiple complex carbohydrates for not only good electrolyte levels but also energy levels as the 2:1 glucose: fructose ratio gives you quick energy as well as longer lasting energy. The taste is also exceptional being tasty yet not too overpowering. This solution sells for $25 for a pack of 20 or larger, more economical sizes are also available.

nuun

Nuun has several hydration electrolyte products to help replace lost electrolytes. Some of them include the active, energy, plus, and all day products. All of there products are used to fight cramps and improve recovery. Nuun has a very wide range of flavors and prices range but typically around $7.00 for 10 tablets. They are also very handy in that they come in little tubes of 10 which can be added individually to bottles. They also are just electrolytes so don’t have any carbs which are great to have before going to bed with a big ride the next day.

Skratch Labs

Skratch labs offers an exercise hydration mix that include simple sugars, but also electrolytes and real fruit flavoring. The mix is non-GMO, gluten free, dairy free, vegan, and kosher. Skratch prides itself on going beyond the expected point to create, simple good products for athletes. Skratch hydration mix sells for $19.50 for 20 16oz servings.

Clif Bar

Clif Hydration Mix is made with 90% organic ingredients and contains sodium and carbohydrates. The Cliff hydration mix claims to be “less sweet and lighter tasting compared to other sports drinks”. This hydration mix is $19.99 for a 15.5 oz pouch. This electrolyte product is one of the most well known products on the market and continues to help cyclists hydrate properly!

Alcohol And Training And Its Effects On Recovery

July 30, 2016 by Josh Friedman

After a hard day on the bike, you feel like you can reward yourself with a beer (or three). You are a little dehydrated from the ride and a little hungry, although you feel great. What effect does alcohol and training have on your body? What does it do to your recovery? And how will it affect your ride the next day?

Alcohol and Training Basics

The cognitive effects of alcohol are well known to everyone: impairment of coordination, decision making and sensory perception. Beyond the cognitive effects, there are other effects that alter metabolism, muscle function, thermoregulation, cardiovascular function, and neurological function.

Metabolism

Alcoholic beverages have calories that your body uses for energy, but they also alter your metabolic processes. It impairs glycogen synthesis, blocking your muscles from their energy source. Insulin production increases, further inhibiting glycogen synthesis and storage.

Muscle Function

With less accessible glycogen, muscles have less available energy. Additionally, alcohol and cramping have a correlation although the exact mechanism is unclear, although dehydration associated with alcohol may play a role.

Thermoregulation

Alcohol is a diuretic, forcing the body to urinate out excess fluid. It is also a vasodilator, leading to increased fluid loss through evaporation. A night of drinking is usually a sweaty night. Less fluid leads to increased cardiovascular effort and decreased evaporative cooling. This leads to an elevated core temperature.

Cardiovascular Function

The dehydration leads to lower blood volume, higher viscosity, and more effort for the heart. This leads to less efficient delivery of oxygen to the muscular system and decreased performance ensues.

Neurological Function

Alcohol is a depressant, leading to slower cognitive ability. It impairs absorption of B vitamins, which are critical to neurological function, along with zinc, which is critical to immune support. It also impairs sleep quality, a critical time for the body to repair itself.

Performance Effects of Alcohol

Small amounts of alcohol have limited affect on aerobic performance. Over the threshold results in a more dramatic decrease in aerobic performance. In an endurance sport like cycling, any small loss of aerobic performance leads to big losses out on the road.

Larger performance losses occur through inhibiting the regular thermoregulatory processes. A higher core temperature leads to greater loss of fluids through sweating. Less available blood volume because of sweating causes higher cardiac stress and effort. This results in decreased efficiency due to less oxygen getting to the muscles and higher energy requirements to keep the blood flowing.

Lower available glycogen means less energy for the muscles. This leads to less time to exhaustion and when you do ingest more carbohydrates, the synthesis to usable adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the fuel for your muscles is inhibited.

Recovery Effects of Alcohol

The biggest recovery effects of alcohol and training are through disturbed sleep. Limiting sleep limits the time that your body can repair itself and perform important brain functions. When you sleep, your body produces human growth hormone (HGH), a powerful chemical that promotes cell growth and regeneration. Without HGH, your body would begin to fall apart because no repair processes would occur.

All of the effects of alcohol on performance also come into play for recovery. Your body is not working optimally, leading to diminished performance in all of the body systems – dehydration, compromised delivery of glycogen, an overtaxed cardiovascular system all lead to poor recovery.

This leads into training the next day. A hangover still exhibits symptoms of your body working sub-optimally. Your body is still recovering from the effects of you essentially poisoning it. One night of five drinks can lead to three days of recovery for your body from the drinking.

You Are Human

Humans drink alcohol; it can be social, it can be for the taste. Consider the effects of alcohol and training and what effects it will have on you and your riding goals. Remember that unless you are on the razor’s edge of cycling performance, an alcoholic drink will not make or break your season. Go enjoy yourself, but not too much. Your riding requires it. You enjoy that too.

How To Make Your Own Homemade Energy Gel

July 27, 2016 by Josh Friedman

If you regularly read this site, you already know how great it is to make things on your own and hack otherwise pricey on-the-bike food and drink. Here you will learn how to make your own homemade energy gel. Outwardly, off-the-shelf gels in fancy foil packets seem like engineering marvels that can pick you up out of a bonk and back to pedaling efficiently. The reality is that they are easy to make bursts of easily accessible carbohydrates, both for your body to use and for you to find the ingredients.

The Ingredients

For simplicity’s sake, you could shove a honey bear in your pocket and be done. Honey is a great source of quick energy but one, it is very viscous, making it a bit hard to choke down when you are already having a rough time on the bike and two; a little work on your part will provide your homemade energy gel with a bit more nutritional value.

Along with honey, you will need brown rice syrup, which is thinner than honey and it will still provide carbohydrates, and blackstrap molasses, which is quite thick but has a lot of potassium to provide electrolytes. Along with the three sources of carbohydrates, you will need another source of electrolytes. You could put pure salt in, although it will not help the texture. Opting for something like Elete electrolyte drops will give you the electrolytes and reduce the viscosity of the gel. If the mixture is too thick, it will be difficult to choke down.

Take one tablespoon of each sweet ingredient (honey, rice syrup, and molasses) with an eighth of a teaspoon of salt or six drops of electrolyte concentrate. Blend together either by hand or in a blender. This homemade energy gel should be about equal to two gel packets. That was pretty easy, right? Now you can experiment with flavors and textures.

Get a Flask

You have to get that homemade energy gel in your pocket for your ride and then into your mouth without making a mess. Use a refillable gel flask. It will cut down on garbage, can hold more than one shot of gel, will not leave gel in your pocket from finished packets, and is overall less prone to making a mess at any stage.

A Note on Gels

If you have ever read the instructions on a gel packet, you have seen that it says to drink anywhere between sixteen and twenty four ounces of water with each gel. That is a full bottle of water. Over the course of a long ride, you would need six or seven, or more, full bottles to wash down each gel. It is not the most efficient way to get energy into your body. Gel should be the last resort energy, when you are on your way to bonking or need a final kick to get you to the end.

The reason gel needs so much water is that your body needs fluid to digest it. With solid food, your body uses mechanical digestion to break it down. With a gel, there are no solid elements but it is too thick to go directly to your bloodstream. Your body pushes fluid into your digestive system from your bloodstream to dilute the gel and then deliver it back to your bloodstream. This is why gels require large of amounts of water with them.

Homemade Wins Again

Homemade energy gels are great for the same reasons all the other homemade foods on this website are great; the satisfaction of making your own food, tailoring your nutritional needs and tastes, hacking the system, and being able to whip up what you need when you need it. Continue to impress your friends with your own homemade energy gel.

How To Make Your Own Homemade Energy Bars

July 20, 2016 by Josh Friedman

Doing anything yourself is more rewarding than using the factory made, corporate version of whatever you need. Homemade energy bars give you that good feeling of doing it yourself and the chance to accommodate your tastes and nutritional needs. You will also impress your riding friends when you pull them out mid-ride. At first they will balk at the idea until you give them a taste.

Getting the Right Nutrients

During the course of any endurance activity, you will need carbohydrates to sustain your energy levels. Your homemade energy bars will need to have a base full of carbohydrates to give you the quick, accessible energy that your body requires; this will be the majority of the energy in your bars. Along with the carbohydrates, your bars should have some fat and protein to provide longer term energy and provide the full spectrum of available calories.

Using the Right Ingredients

A tremendous benefit of homemade energy bars is that you know exactly what your ingredients are. There is no bar wrapper with undecipherable or unknown ingredients. There is no mystery of how the bar will taste when you pull it off of the shelf. You can also ensure that you there are no potential allergens and that everything is easily digestible for you; no off the shelf bar is personally tailored to your needs.

You can also make offbeat flavors and use unique ingredients. Once you have the basic recipe down, feel free to experiment and get creative with your ingredients.

The Basic Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups dates
1 cup cashews

You will need a cup and a quarter of dates (the softer the better – Medjool are the best. Pitting them at home usually gets you a better date too) and a cup of raw cashews (if you are allergic to nuts, sunflower or pumpkin seeds are a good replacement). Put the dates in a food processor and process until they turn into a ball rolling around on the blade. Put the ball and any scraps in the processor in a bowl. Now process the cashews until they are fully ground but before they turn into a fine flour. Put the cashews in the bowl with the dates. If you don’t have a food processor you can do it the manual way with a cutting board and chopping knife. You won’t get the dates and cashews cut up quite as small but they will still work just fine.

Knead the dates and cashews together in the bowl. At first it may seem like they will not hold together. Keep going until the mixture is no longer sticky and you can form it into a loaf. Place the loaf in the refrigerator for a few hours to solidify. Remove from the refrigerator and cut into bars. Another convenience of homemade energy bars is that you can cut them to whatever serving size you would like.

This recipe is easy to double or triple, depending on the capacity of your food processor or your patients to do multiple batches in your food processor.

Additional Recipes

Once you have mastered the basic recipe, it is time to make different flavors and also to experiment on your own. The key to experimenting is to substitute sticky ingredients with sticky ingredients and dry ingredients with dry ingredients. A crowd favorite are mint chocolate bars. Substitute an eighth of a cup of cashews for an eighth of a cup of cocoa powder and add an eighth of a teaspoon of mint extract oil to the cashews. The rest of the recipe remains the same.

Moving on to a complex recipe (which is only complex compared to the basic recipe; these are all pretty simple), you can make a carrot cake flavor. Shred an eighth of a cup of carrots and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Add a quarter of a cup of raisins and seven-eighths of a cup of dates and process. If the mixture does not seem sticky enough, add a few more dates. Now substitute half a cup of walnuts or pecans for half of the cashews and process with a half of a teaspoon of cinnamon. This may take extra kneading to work out the moisture and form a nice loaf.

Homemade Energy Bars for the Win

Homemade Energy Bars leave you feeling great in a lot of ways – the satisfaction of making something yourself, the energy they provide, the delicious taste, envy of your friends and the healthy choice you made. That is worth sacrificing a little of your time for, right?

An I Love Bicycling Extra – How To Wrap Your Homemade Energy Bars

Step 1: Place the bar in the center of a piece of aluminum foil.

Step 2: Fold in one of the long sides to the center of the bar. You can optionally fold back about 1 cm to create a better seam.

Step 3: Fold over the opposing side to the center overlapping by one to two centimeters. Also, fold back the center to create a better seam.

Step 4 & 5: Fold one end and then the other underneath the bar on the opposing side of the seam.

Step 6: Open by only undoing one end of the bar and separating the seam. Then enjoy.

6 Extra Important Vitamins For Athletes

July 15, 2016 by Josh Friedman

Vitamins are essential organic compounds that humans need to consume or produce to continue necessary life functions. They are micro-nutrients meaning that only very small amounts are necessary, although, sometimes even those small amounts are difficult to come by through diet only.

There are six vitamin groups, two of which humans can produce on their own, and four which they must ingest. Because of higher metabolic rates, getting enough vitamins for athletes is critical; there is potential to use up the reserves quicker than the average person. The processes that vitamins perform are extra important for athletes because they not only sustain normal body function, but if those body functions are performing at their peak, they will allow the to recover and perform better.

Vitamin A

The story most closely told about vitamin A is that it helps you see at night. This is true; one sign of a vitamin A deficiency is night blindness. The retina needs vitamin A to see color and in low light conditions. Along with ocular health, vitamin A is an antioxidant, promotes skin health, provides immune support and aids cellular health and multiplication.

Vitamin A is stored in the liver and is fat soluble. Eating the liver of other animals has some of the highest concentrations of vitamin A. It is also available in adequate concentrations in a lot of vegetables, most notably carrots. Because it is fat soluble, it takes a while to flush excess vitamin A from the body making overdosing a possibility if you eat too much liver or take too many supplements.

B Vitamin Group

B vitamins are generally found in large quantities in animal products. Vegans and vegetarians generally need to supplement B vitamins to have adequate supplies. There are a eight different vitamins in the water soluble B group:

B1 – Thiamine
B2 – Riboflavin
B3 – Niacin
B5 – Pantothetic Acid
B6 – Pyridoxine
B7 – Biotin
B9 – Folic Acid
B12 – Cyanocobalimin

B vitamins are critical for cell metabolism. They make energy production possible at the cellular level. In turn your body can function as a whole. Each B vitamin produces different coenzymes and has a different chemical structure which is why the group separates into eight different sub-vitamins.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is commonly known for its immune support functions. It also aids in energy production and is an antioxidant. Most animals synthesize vitamin C on their own; humans are one of the few animals that needs to ingest it however. It is available in many fruits and vegetables which is why its deficiency, scurvy, was so common on long sea voyages. Without access to fresh fruits and vegetables sailors became deficient. It is water soluble making it more difficult to overdose on. That’s why you will see products like Emergen-C with daily servings of over 1000%.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is one of two vitamins humans can synthesize; it requires exposure to the sun. This is a complicated balance. Too much ultraviolet exposure is linked to skin cancer, but not enough vitamin D is linked to osteoperosis in adults and rickets in children. Lots of foods are fortified with vitamin D because of limited sun exposure. It is fat soluable, although overdosing would require a lot of supplementation. You would likely have a nasty sunburn well before you would overdose from sun exposure.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is the last antioxidant and also plays a role in neurological function, muscle growth, and gene expression. It is fat soluable and found commonly in many oils, nuts, and seeds. Too much vitamin E can lead to suppression of vitamin K and clotting problems. Not enough vitamin E can lead to neurological breakdown, reduced immune function and cellular destruction.

Vitamin K

Vitamin K is the other vitamin that humans can synthesize on their own. It is necessary for blood clotting and calcium absorption. Deficiency in vitamin K usually comes with other disorders that impair the body’s ability to produce it. In adults, supplementation is not necessary unless there is another disorder.

Vitamins for Athletes

Vitamins in the right amounts help athletes perform at their best. Finding the right balance is necessary so you don’t under or over dose on these compounds that make life and athletic performance possible.

The Best Nutrient To Help You Recover Faster

June 20, 2016 by Mandy King

Nothing feels better than a really intense bout of exercise and nothing feels worse than really sore muscles the next day. While some muscle soreness is simply due to intense exercise or a long cycle, a lot of it can be remedied with the wonder nutrient, magnesium.

It’s estimated that between 75-80% of the American population is deficient in magnesium.^{^[1]} Some common signs of magnesium deficiency include:

Leg cramps
Jumping legs
Constipation
Low energy
Sleeping problems
Headaches
Heart arrhythmias

Why are we so deficient?

For starters, the ratio of calcium to magnesium is important. You can think of calcium as the nutrient that ‘contracts’, and magnesium as the nutrient that ‘relaxes’. You want to have these two in a balance of at least 2:1 calcium to magnesium, but more recently, health experts would argue even 1:1. Given the high levels of osteoporosis, many people supplement with calcium without magnesium, therefore throwing out the balance.

Furthermore, the soil that we’re growing our food in is nowhere near as rich in magnesium as it used to be. Combine that with the fact that many diets are lacking magnesium in general and various drinks & medications can also deplete magnesium, and it’s no wonder we have a problem:

Magnesium Depleting Drinks & Medications:

Pop / soda
Caffeinated beverages
Alcohol
Prescription drugs

What can you do?

First things first, make sure you’re getting enough magnesium from your food. Here are some of the best food sources of magnesium:

Leafy greens
Raw cacao powder (the less processed form of cocoa powder)
Pumpkin seeds
Almonds
Sesame seeds
Quinoa
Cashews

Here are three magnesium rich recipes:

3 New Salad Recipes - 3 — Swiss Chard Salad (click for link)

Roasted Vegetable Quinoa Salad (click for link)

Raw Brownies - Individual — Raw Brownies (click for link)

Post cycling, throwing some leafy greens like spinach and a tablespoon of almond butter in a shake is a great idea!

Best supplement sources of magnesium:

I often recommend to my clients that they also supplement with magnesium. There are two primary kinds of magnesium: citrate and glycinate. Citrate has a mild laxative effect, which can be good if you also struggle with constipation; while glycinate does not. If you have no issues digestively, the glycinate form would be best.

Dosage varies between 135mg – 1200mg daily, and should be taken post workout and/or before bed.

Interested in eating better? Grab a free one week meal plan, full of magnesium rich recipes. Click here to get your free one week meal plan.

Sources:

^{^[1]} http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/31/health/magnesium-deficiency-health/index.html

Mandy King is a Holistic Nutritionist, and the founder of HEAL (Healthy Eating And Living). She works with health conscious people who want to stop feeling tired, fix their digestion and lose the weight, once and for all. She is a regular on CTV Morning Live, contributes to The Globe & Mail, CBC and The Huffington Post, and leads corporate workshops for major companies including Google, Facebook & PwC.

What Is Carbo Loading? Good or Bad And How To Do It

June 17, 2016 by Josh Friedman

Carbo loading is a dietary strategy to ensure that you have maximum glycogen in your body for an an endurance event, which in this case is cycling. Glycogen is the fuel that powers your muscles. There is an upper limit to how much glycogen a body can store. Carbo loading is an attempt to reach that limit prior to a top priority day on the bike.

What Carbo Loading is Not

Carbo loading is not eating as many carbohydrates at a meal the night before a key event despite what many people believe. That gigantic plate of pasta the night before your big ride is not carbo loading; it is only a really big dinner.

When the system was devised in the 1960’s it was a systematic reduction of carbohydrate intake in the days leading up to an event along with a boost in training load followed by three to four days of a lighter training load with high carbohydrate intake (ten to twelve grams of carbohydrate per kilogram). The idea is that the body will make additional storage for glycogen when it becomes available. The more modern take on carbo loading is that the depletion phase is not necessary. Easier training and higher carbohydrate intake are all that is required. Additionally, it is advisable to eat as many simple carbohydrates as possible for your body to break down and store. This is contrary to the advice of an every day diet.

More Energy

The promise of more energy, fatigue resistance, and more power from carbo loading requires work. You must be fully committed to eating the right balance of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. If you do not achieve close to seventy percent of your calories from carbohydrates, your body will react as if you are eating normally. It is a very difficult task.

Males vs. Females

Males and females do not respond to carbohydrates the same, especially for women during the high hormone phase. All of the early studies of carbo loading were on men, ignoring the fact that women have slightly different body chemistry. This study shows that there was no benefit to carbo loading in the high hormone phase. It is something for women to be aware of leading up to big events.

A Long Day on the Bike

Carbo loading does not replace proper on the bike nutrition, especially for longer days of riding. When a cyclist is riding for six hours at a hard pace they will burn approximately six hundred calories per hour. Average glycogen stores are up to 1800 calories for a seventy kilogram person. That leaves approximately two thousand calories to make up. Some of that will come from burning fat but a lot needs to come from eating during a ride. Do not make the mistake that carbo loading will keep you from needing to eat on a ride.

Problems with Carbo Loading

Weight Gain – It is possible to gain weight from carbo loading, even if done properly because of the higher caloric intake and water retention.
Stomach Ache – If the carbo loading diet is wildly different from your regular diet, it may cause gastric distress.
Carb Shortfall – It is difficult to get enough carbohydrates which makes the changed diet not worthwhile.

Sample Foods

Carbo loading requires a lot of simple carbohydrates. That means cereals, white flour, and rice while being light on the fat and protein which are there to keep everything palatable. A good guide is to think about what a picky kid would want to eat – peanut butter and jelly on white bread (easy on the peanut butter), pasta with a little butter melted on it or white rice with some vegetables with herbs. Nothing complex is necessary, although large quantities are. A sample menu is below to give you an idea of what a day can look like.

Sample carbohydrate-loading meal plan
Item (amount)	Carbohydrates (grams)	Total calories
Breakfast
Milk, fat-free (12 ounces)	18	125
1 plain bagel	52	260
Peanut butter, smooth (2 tablespoons)	7	191
Honey (2 tablespoons)	35	128
Banana (1)	27	105
Morning snack
Crunchy raisin and almond cereal (1 cup)	74	360
Grape juice (12 ounces)	55	225
Lunch
Milk, chocolate, reduced fat (12 ounces)	45	285
4 slices white bread (1 ounce per slice)	49	266
Chicken breast, roasted without skin (4 ounces or 1/2 breast)	0	187
Romaine lettuce, shredded (1/4 cup)	1	2
Red tomato slices (1/2)	2	11
Mayonnaise, light (2 tablespoons)	3	71
Tortilla chips, low-fat, baked (1 ounce)	23	118
Baby carrots (12)	10	42
Afternoon snack
Low-fat fruit yogurt (8 ounces)	47	249
Low-fat fruit granola (1/2 cup)	33	157
Blueberries (1 cup)	21	83
Cranberry juice, unsweetened (12 ounces)	42	157
Dinner
Wild Atlantic salmon, baked (3 ounces)	0	155
Dinner roll, whole wheat (2)	29	151
Milk, fat-free (12 ounces)	18	125
Salad, combine: -Romaine lettuce, shredded (2 cups)	3	16
-Bell or sweet green pepper (1/4 cup)	2	7
-Green apple, chopped (1 medium)	25	95
-Dried cranberries (1/3 cup)	33	130
-English walnuts, chopped (1/4 cup)	4	191
-Asiago cheese, shredded (1 ounce)	1	134
-Reduced-fat Ranch salad dressing (2 tablespoons)	6	55
Evening snack
Strawberry slices (1 cup)	11	46
Sherbet, any flavor (1 1/2 cups)	88	417
Total	764	4,544

Source: Nutritionist Pro, 2015

It Helps…If You Get it Right

Carbo loading can help get you through a big day on the bike with higher energy. It is imperative that you get your carbo loading system right to get any benefit. The science shows it works. Try experimenting with it well before your target day to see if you are able to get a high enough concentration of carbohydrates. Only then will you be carbo loading correctly.

Oxygen Pills – Legal Doping? How To Sniff Out A Fake

June 8, 2016 by Josh Friedman

To be clear immediately, oxygen pills are pseudo-science. It is evident from first glance that ingesting oxygen does not deliver oxygen to your blood stream. That is what lungs do. This will be an exercise in understanding a useless supplement and will give you tools to sniff out other equally useless supplements.

Oxygen Delivery

The body delivers oxygen through the blood stream. The oxygen gets into the blood stream through the lungs where it transfers from the alveoli to the red blood cells. The red blood cells deliver oxygen everywhere in the body where it is required; which is every living cell.

There is no mechanism in the digestive system to deliver oxygen to the blood stream. There are a lot of operations that the digestive tract performs (digestion, nutrient absorption, excretion) but none of them have to do with delivering oxygen to cells.

To Change Oxygen Capacity-Drugs Required

In a healthy body, oxygen saturation is close to one hundred percent. That means there is very little additional carrying capacity for oxygen by the red blood cells. Even if you were able to add additional oxygen to the respiratory system (which you cannot) without changing any other variables (blood volume, hematocrit, stroke volume, heart rate) it would have a tiny impact on overall performance.

Drugs like EPO, and this drug has the nickname oxygen in a pill, changes blood chemistry to increase hematocrit or the count of red blood cells. It is highly effective and highly illegal. These drugs are for people who are very sick, either with severe anemia on its own or anemia caused by a very serious disease like cancer. Oxygen pills do nothing like this. They claim to deliver oxygen to the body via mysterious means.

It is incredibly risky for a healthy person to take these drugs such as EPO because it can lead to stroke and heart attack. This is because the blood becomes clogged with too many red blood cells, blocking flow to crucial organs. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s when blood boosting drugs became incredibly popular and their use was still not perfected, many, many young and promising cyclists died from these exact complications.

The Ingredients of Oxygen Pills

The ingredients of oxygen pills are varied and disconnected. Here are four examples of the main ingredients of four different oxygen pills:

Hydrogen peroxide
Calcium, sodium, and potassium
Magnesium peroxide, vitamin C, Cancer Bush and African Potato
Saltwater

What do these oxygen pills have in common? Not much besides their claim to deliver oxygen to your cells. None of these are completely bad for you, although ingesting hydrogen peroxide is not recommended. The claims that these blends in oxygen pills will deliver oxygen to cells has a very loose basis in science. There is oxygen in some of the chemicals and some can release oxygen in chemical reactions, but not inside the body while releasing the oxygen for cellular use.

The Easy Way to Get Stronger

Oxygen pills are not the easy way to get stronger. They will not help you, even a little bit. But oxygen pills will make your wallet lighter with little return. The easiest way to get stronger (GUARANTEED!) is to train hard, eat well, and get very good at recovery. Stay away from the snake oil claims of miracle supplements and stick to the tried and true path of good training.

How To Make Your Own Homemade Protein Shake

June 4, 2016 by Josh Friedman

Your hard ride is over. It’s time to take get right into your recovery routine. That routine can include a homemade protein shake. Just like homemade sports drinks, a homemade protein shake can provide exactly what you want out of the shake, save you some money, and give you the reward of hacking what seems to be unhackable.

Why a Homemade Protein Shake

A homemade protein shake is a great way to deliver necessary nutrients to your body quickly so you can recover from all the hard work you put in on the bike. Your body needs protein to rebuild muscles and carbohydrates to refuel muscles.

The main difference between a homemade sports drink and a homemade protein shake besides the protein is that the shake does not provide hydration. It is in liquid form so your body can absorb it as quickly as possible. After a hard ride you will also need to drink water to rehydrate.

The Ideal Ratio

You should aim for a ratio of four grams of carbohydrate to one gram of protein in your homemade protein shake. It is a much higher ratio of carbohydrates to protein than general protein shakes because of the aerobic and energy intensive nature of cycling. Most general protein shakes are focused on building lean muscle; a cycling recovery shake should be focused on refueling the muscles along with rebuilding them.

Recipes

You will not need to double or triple these recipes; one dose of your homemade protein shake will get you on the road to recovery.

The Basic

Blend one banana, one cup of milk and one cup of vanilla yogurt. This one is easy because the ingredients are often around the kitchen and you cannot miss with the flavor.

The Vegan

Blend a cup and a half of almond, cashew or soy milk with three tablespoons peanut or almond butter. Add in two tablespoons maple syrup for an additional carbohydrate kick.

The Berry Good

Blend a cup and a half of milk with half a cup of your choice of berries (fresh or frozen), a teaspoon of chia seeds and a teaspoon of spirulina. The spirulina is an acquired taste, but it is very nutritious and the berries should mask it.

The Exotic

Blend a cup and a half of almond milk with mango, a pinch of cinnamon, a pinch of turmeric, a teaspoon of maple syrup, a splash of lemon juice and a half cup of vanilla yogurt.

The Heavyweight

Blend a cup and a half of milk with four tablespoons hemp powder, half a teaspoon of spirulina, three tablespoons of chocolate syrup and a teaspoon of chia seeds.

Go Experiment…Again!

Feel free to tweak these recipes to your tastes and dietary needs. It is easy to substitute a milk alternative for cow’s milk, along with substituting various protein powders. It is simple to have a homemade protein shake after training; all it takes is a little planning ahead.

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