Importance of Sports Nutrition
It's not only about how your body moves, but how your body fuels. With all the information on health foods, sports supplements and the strict diet or body composition requirements needed for specific sports, it can lead individuals down a path that can become a detriment to their performance - from the professional athletes to the weekend warrior.
Endurance athletes need more fats and carbohydrates due to the mitochondrial needs for prolonged activity and fat oxidation. Power athletes, on the other hand, need more protein due to proteins being the building blocks for muscle. While, everyone needs water, with prolonged training sessions, it is also important to restore electrolytes.
Multiple factors play into knowing what is best consumed for both your general and athletic goals. Nutritional needs are based on age, physical activity level and type of activity itself. It is also important to consider the individual advantages and/or deficiencies each individual has and adjust your food intake accordingly - for instance, we could have one athlete who is deficient in iron or another who's body naturally produces a high amount of testosterone, which will play into their performance.
All this, plus factoring in your own metabolism and how quickly your body breaks down macro-nutrients, it can be a lot for one person to navigate. That's why it is important to have a professional navigate it with you; one who understands the biochemistry, physiology and clinical research out there and knows your goals and how to get your there.
What is Kinesiology?
Kinesiology is the study of human movement.
Studying kinesiology means not only looking at how the body moves, but what drives the human to move as well. This marriage combines both the science and art of movement. The science being the anatomy, physiology and biomechanics of human movement. The art includes discussion on psychology, mental health and the social barriers to physical activity. The goal of treatment is resolving any reservations about why an individual lacks physical activity and how to encourage more movement into daily living. Kinesiology graduates have a minimum of 4 years of post-secondary education learning proper fitness principles and the adaptations required for a variety of populations. Their focus is working on promoting fitness to individuals with underlying health concerns or disabilities that may also prevent easy access to physical activity.
What is Movement Medicine?
Movement medicine can be categorized in two ways. First, movement medicine can be defined as the medicine used to help promote mobility and get an individual back to functioning. Secondly, movement medicine can also include using movement as medicine. There is a large body of research describing the benefits of habitual exercise for a number of health conditions, including (but not limited to) weight loss, depression, diabetes, concussion, cognitive decline and injury rehabilitation. Exercise can range from being going for a walk, to doing a 45min group class to Olympic weight lifting to participating in a triathlon. It doesn't matter what you choose, as long as you get your heart pumping and enjoy yourself; because let's face it - no one wants to make a habit out of something they don't enjoy.
Keep Moving and Be Well,
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