ATP energy is also required on occasion, such as for the contraction of muscle cells during exercise and athletic performance, and each of these activities, conscious or not, requires adenosine triphosphate to enable muscular contraction.  As will be discussed, ATP is the source of all of that energy and so the more that can be produced during athletic performance, then the better you will perform.

ATP, and thus energy from ATP, can be produced in a number of ways within your body, such as how it uses its emergency energy store of creatine phosphate to add a phosphate group to adenosine diphosphate to generate the triphosphate. However, that is only useful for a few seconds, and the two major ATP energy creating routes involve cellular respiration of glucose to pyruvate followed either by the aerobic or anaerobic breakdown of that to adenosine triphosphate.

Here is each of these explained in slightly more detail:

Aerobic Respiration

Aerobic respiration proceeds from cellular respiration by using oxygen and an ignition source to burn the fuel:  glycolysis initially converts glucose to pyruvate as the fuel, and then aerobic exercise provides oxygen, with cellular charge as the ignition source. Very similar to a regular fire:  fuel, oxygen and ignition source.  GSH Ignite promotes this ignition of oxygen and pyruvate to generate ATP energy under aerobic conditions.

The aerobic exercise you use to promote this includes jogging,  floor exercises, step-ups and circuit training:  anything that makes you breathe hard. You take in oxygen and use it to ignite the oxidation reaction of pyruvate to ATP, CO2 and water, using up ADP (adenosine diphosphate) in the process. The greater the cellular charge, then the more efficient is the cellular respiration, in the same way that the newer a lighter flint, the faster and for longer it will ignite the gas.

Aerobic respiration is the source of ATP energy for your everyday living and for non-explosive athletic events. It is the phosphate bonds in the unstable ATP molecule that generate energy when they are broken back down to ADP.  If you remove one of the three phosphate groups, then the molecule is much more stable, and in doing that you also liberate 7.3 Kcal/mol of energy¹.

GSH Ignite provides the ignition source that makes best use of the cellular electrical charge that enables your cellular respiration system to operate at maximum efficiency.  Protein Extreme Energy also helps by maximizing that cellular charge on each cell in your body.

Anaerobic Respiration

Anaerobic respiration is respiration without oxygen, and enables adenosine triphosphate to be generated without oxygen being present.  It is not as efficient a means of generating adenosine triphosphate as aerobic respiration, but it can enable rapid short-term ATP energy production for immediate explosive power.

In the absence of oxygen, the pyruvate mentioned above undergoes a form of fermentation that creates lactic acid and adenosine triphosphate. This is sufficient to offer you maximum athletic performance for a period of 2 -3 minutes, after which the lactic acid builds up and you can no longer function without anaerobic respiration. Sprinters use anaerobic conditions, and Usain Bolt can break a work 100m record with just one deep breath. That provides all the ATP needed before lactic acid kicks in.

The more you train, the more you are able to expend energy under low oxygen conditions, and that is why those that train more can run farther at higher speeds than those that train less:  their cellular respiration is more efficient at producing ATP energy from the available oxygen before anaerobic respiration has to make up the balance. Likewise, their muscles can work longer under anaerobic conditions before lactic acid seizes up their muscles, and more oxygen is needed.

GSH Ignite supports cellular respiration, and also destroys the free radicals that are by-products of respiration. Free radical damage results from small oxygenated molecules  that can destroy the membranes of the cells that generate adenosine triphosphate, and GSH Ignite offers the free radical killer glutathione and the enzyme superoxide dismutase that help maintain efficient cellular respiration  through preventing these free radicals from destroying the cells that provide your ATP energy source.

Normal ATP Requirement

Around 160Kg of adenosine triphosphate can be created and used in the human body each day²; although at any one time you will have no more than around 250 grams available for use. In other words, your body can turn over its own weight of this amazing ATP molecule every day and athletes turn over even more ATP.

In summary, cellular respiration is responsible for the production of ATP in the mitochondria of your body cells, and the more effective your cellular respiration in oxidizing glucose ultimately to adenosine triphosphate, then the more ATP energy will be available to you to enable maximum athletic performance.  It is therefore essential that your biochemistry is tuned to producing as much ATP as possible, and that is dependent on many factors, of which cellular respiration is the most important.

By maximizing your cellular charge and reducing the damaging effects of the free radicals that are a natural by-product of the process, you will maximize the production of adenosine triphosphate.

Protein Extreme Energy increases the cellular electrical charge that enables effective oxidation of glucose, and also enables more effective hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate to energy plus ADP, whereas GSH Ignite negates the effects of free radicals and enables maximum efficiency in the conversion of ATP to energy.

1.  Campbell, Neil. Biology, Third Edition. Benjamin Cummings, 1993: 97-101.

2. Törnroth-Horsefield S, Neutze R (December 2008). Opening and closing the metabolite gate. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
105 (50): 19565–6.

Other reading:

Karp, Gerald (2008). Cell and Molecular Biology (5th edition). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.pp. 194.

ISBN 10-0-470-04217-6.

Copyright 2010 Elite Sports and Fitness

When you eat carbohydrates with a low glycemic index your body stores the carbohydrates as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and as glucose in the blood. Once stored, your body has a glycogen reserve of roughly 1,800 to 2,000 calories. This is enough to sustain you through 90 to 120 minutes of exercise. Failing to build this critical reserve of stored carbohydrates pre-workout can have significant effects on your performance.

Building Stores of Glycogen

To maximize your workout, it’s important to replenish your glycogen levels (stored carbohydrates) at least two or three hours before starting a moderate or intense work-out routine. Proper timing is required for a simple reason. Your body needs time to digest and store the food as energy.

Hours before exercising, begin storing up glycogen and glucose by eating a meal rich in polysaccharides. Otherwise known as complex carbohydrates, polysaccharides are starchy sugars contained in foods such as breads, pasta, rice and potatoes. Eating a combination of these foods pre-workout will give your body and brain adequate reserves to perform well for up to two hours. After the first 90 to 120 minutes of your workout, you’ll need to replenish your stores by consuming additional carbohydrates while exercising. Eating properly before, during and after your workout can have a dramatic effect on your athletic performance.

Before the workout, avoid simple sugars including mono saccharides and disaccharides. These are best for a quick boost of energy but don’t have the staying power of the complex carbohydrates. Simple sugars, including most fruits, are best following a work-out rather than before. Eating properly before a long workout can also help to stabilize the nausea that can occur with marathons, for example, and prevent low blood sugar which can cause fatigue and light-headedness.

Eating the Right Carbohydrates Pre-Workout

Properly fueling your body with carbohydrates before a workout gives you up to two hours of stored energy in the form of glycogen. If you’re engaging in an activity less than moderate exercise for a minimum of ninety minutes at a time, high glycemic index carbohydrates aren’t especially relevant. Your goal should be to consume enough complex carbohydrates ahead of time to give your body the proper fuel necessary.

Finding the right complex carbohydrates to eat before a workout is as simple as opening the pantry door, but determining how much to eat and when is a bit more complicated.

A moderately active person should be consuming 3 grams of carbohydrates for every pound of body weight per day. This is true if you’re training for 1 hour per day. If you’re exercising for 2 hours daily, you need 4 grams of carbohydrates per day. However, you don’t want to consume your full daily amount of carbohydrates before exercising.

Instead, plan to eat between .45 and 1 gram of carbohydrates per pound of body weight at least 2 hours before training. Ideally, you should be eating these carbohydrates 3 to 5 hours to give your body time to digest the meal and store the energy properly. The carbohydrates consumed pre-workout are part of your daily total.

For example, a 150 pound athlete should consume 68-150 grams of complex carbohydrates at least two hours before exercising. This translates to 2-4 cups of brown rice or beans.

Benefits of Pre-Workout Carbohydrates

Outside of your daily workout regime, fueling your body with the proper amounts of complex carbohydrates has additional long-term benefits. The brain is fueled almost entirely with glucose derived from the carbohydrates in your diet. Keeping a reserve of glucose and glycogen fuels the brain as well as the body.

Foods with a low glycemic index (GI) may also help lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Eating vegetables, whole grains and rice provides the necessary energy for your body, but also lowers your risk of diseases such as diabetes, controls your appetite more effectively and helps you avoid adding body fat.

Copyright 2010 Life Health Secrets

WHAT TYPE OF CARBOHYDRATES ARE BEST?

Okay, but what type of carbs should the athlete be eating? The reason carbs have a bad reputation is because there are lots of low-quality sources out there, in the form of junk foods and other convenience foods that don’t offer any real nutrition – people fill up on them and pack on the pounds, but are still starving for nutrients. Over consumption of simple sugars (mono and disaccharides), like those found in candy and soda, has also been linked to the onset of type 2 diabetes and obesity. These types of carbs have a high glycemic index, which means they cause your blood sugar to rise rapidly and then eventually crash. The exception to the rule is the simple sugar found in fruits. Because fruits contain fiber, vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and other goodies, they generally prevent the sugars from being absorbed so rapidly in your system, so you don’t get that crash.

Aside from fruits, the other type of carbs you want in your diet are complex carbohydrates. Most complex carbs, or polysaccharides, have a lower glycemic index and so take longer to be broken down in the body, offering sustained energy over a longer time period without causing you to crash. They also provide your body with vital nutrients that tend to be more absorbable than the kind you get from vitamin supplements.

While it’s true there are a few exceptions – for example, white rice and potatoes both have an extremely high glycemic index – in general it’s better not to stress the details too much; glycemic index is only a small part of the story. For example, fructose (as in high fructose corn syrup) and ice cream both have a low glycemic index, and neither is exactly renowned for its health benefits. As long as it’s a healthy meal, our internal body chemistry usually balances things out. White rice eaten with beans, for example will have a lower glycemic index than white rice alone. Fats also lower glycemic index. The main point is to consume whole foods prepared in a healthy manner.

In general, complex carbohydrates should be part of your meals at least 3-5 hours before training or an event. Because they release their energy more slowly and evenly in the body, this ensures that you’ll have the energy you need to perform, and that you won’t be in the process of digesting at game-time. Great sources of complex carbs include brown rice, spelt or kamut bread, lentils, beans, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, brown rice pasta, quinoa, and more.

When Does The Glycemic Index Matter?

If you are training less than 90 to 120 minutes at a moderate level of intensity, high glycemic indexed carbs are noted not to help your body’s energy needs.

If you’re an endurance athlete, then glycemic index matters. High Glycemic carbs are recommended to athletes during prolonged exercise that require quick access to the glucose. Endurance athletes typically need to replenish their carbohydrate levels once they’ve moved beyond the 90 to 120 minute mark. If you’re an endurance athlete, you should be reloading your carbs every 15 to 30 minutes from the time of starting your activity as your core glycogen stores will deplete within 90 to 120 minutes depending on the level of intensity.

What’s the optimal carbohydrate to use? While athletes typically use sports drinks and gels, these sorts of products can have adverse affects on your body in the long term, and have been shown to damage athletes’ teeth. However, they’re currently the best products we’ve got, and are reasonably effective.

SUMMARY: POINTS TO REMEMBER

• Eat 60% carbohydrates at every meal, along with 20% protein and 20% healthy fat.

• Eat complex carbs at least 3-5 hours before training or competition.

• If you are training past 90-120 minutes, then you will need to reload using a source of high glycemic carbohydrates every 15-30 minutes once you have begun your activity.   It is suggested that you will need to replenish ½ gram of carbs every ½ hour.

• It takes 20 hours to replenish your body’s glycogen from carbohydrates after daily training.

• Calculate your daily carbohydrate needs (see above for chart and formula).

• Carbohydrates come from grains, legumes, fruits and starchy vegetables.

• Great sources include brown rice, spelt or kamut bread, lentils, beans, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, brown rice pasta, quinoa, and pretty much any fruit.

Copyright 2010 Life Health Secrets

Carbs are stored as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and in the blood as glucose. Glycogen stores provide about 1,800 to 2,000 calories worth of energy, or enough fuel for approximately 90 to 120 minutes of continuous vigorous activity. If you don’t replenish your supply of carbs pre and post workout, then your body can’t replenish its own supply of glycogen. This means that the fuel you need isn’t there when your body needs it, and performance suffers. Also, your brain is fueled by glucose, which comes from breaking down carbohydrates. Considering your entire body depends on your brain for coordination, you want to keep it running well.

Are you getting enough carbs?

Making sure you have enough carbs isn’t just about eating a bowl of pasta the night before the big game. As an athlete, your daily diet should consist of 60% carbohydrates (the other 40% is divided equally between protein and fat, but we’ll get to that later) in order to ensure that you consistently have enough glycogen stored for training. If your glycogen stores are depleted, then you’ll have less energy, and your training won’t be as productive, so don’t skimp on the carbs. How much you need depends on your body weight, level of activity, and whether you’re male or female.

Here’s a quick formula for approximately how much you should be getting daily:

Your body weight in kilograms x carbs in grams per kg of bodyweight (see chart below)

= your daily carbohydrate needs

Daily carbs in grams per kg of bodyweight            Training Level

3g                                                                                      no training

4-5g                                                                                  3-5 hrs/wk of moderate exercise

5-7g                                                                                  6-10hr/wk training

7-9g                                                                                  10-15hrs/wk training

more than 10g                                                               15+hrs week

The first number corresponds to females, the second to males, though you can adjust it to what feels right for you.

So, for example, a male weighing 177lb or 80.29kg (to convert to kg, multiply by 0.4536) who trains 6-10 hours a week will require

80.29 x 7  = 562.03 grams of carbohydrates per day, maximum

A female weighing 135lbs, or 61.234 kg, who trains 3-5 hours a week will require

61.234 x 4 = 244.94 grams of carbohydrates per day, minimum

To give you a rough idea of what this translates into, 1 cup of pasta translates into 40g of carbohydrates, 1 cup of brown rice 45g, 1 cup of pinto beans, 44g.

To continue to Part II:  Part II Carbohydrates: The Body’s Core Fuel For Energy

Copyright 2010 EliteSportsandFitness.com

Tara DiLuca Hurdles Competition

Elite Sports and Fitness is pleased to welcome Tara DiLuca aboard as the newest contributor to the blog. She’ll be blogging under the name ‘fit law girl.’ Tara is a high-energy, high-achieving person – to put it mildly. While working as a litigation lawyer, she’s won 1^st place in the women’s 55 meter hurdles at the Colgate Women’s Games, Madison Square Gardens, every year since 2007 and just recently placed 1^st in the 100 meter hurdle event at the 2009 USATF East Regional Track & Field Outdoor Championships, amongst other achievements.

She has also competed in NPC (National Physique Committee) and INBF (International Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation) as a Figure Competitor. We’re all looking forward to reading her tips on training, competing and balancing a demanding professional life with a high-intensity workout schedule.

Here is list of Tara’s events from 2009

Indoor 2009

• 2009 Colgate Women’s Games, Madison Square Garden-1st place 55 meter hurdles

• 2009 USATF Indoor Connecticut Indoor Track & Field Championships- 1st place 60 meter hurdles

• 2009 USATF New England Indoor Track & Field Championship-3rd place 60 meter hurdles

• 2009 Valentine Invitational, Boston, MA-7th place 55 meter hurdles

Outdoor 2009

• 2009 MAC Association Track & Field Indoor Championships-1st place 60 meter hurdles

• 2009 New Balance USATF Club Nationals, held at Icahn Stadium in New York City-4th place 100 meter hurdles.

• 2009 USATF East Regional Track & Field Outdoor Championships in-1st place 100 meter hurdles

• 2009 USATF Metropolitan Association and Empire State Liberty Track & Field Outdoor Qualifier-2nd place 100 meter Hurdles

Strong adrenals also promote a healthy inflammatory response. Addressing chronic inflammation is crucial in the fight against aging, as it has been associated with age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and stroke, amongst others.

As we age, our bodies descend into an increasingly catabolic state, which essentially means that tissues and muscle are breaking down instead of building up and growing, your body can no longer heal itself. By promoting an anabolic state,  your adrenals helps muscle regeneration and growth.

Adrenals = vital to regulate stress and metabolism.

The adrenals are a pair of endocrine glands that sit on top of your kidneys. They are responsible for regulating stress and controlling the body`s energy output in conjunction with the thyroid. They produce over 50 hormones and neurotransmitters, including adrenaline, cortisol and DHEA. They govern the sodium-potassium balance in the body, necessary to cellular energy production. They also initiate the fight-or-flight response when confronted by imminent danger or stress.

When humans lived in a more primal fashion, the fight-or-flight response was useful because it provided short, intense bursts of energy. Today, however, our modern lifestyle means that we are bombarded with multiple stresses daily. Chronic stress may overburden your adrenals, and over long periods of time it can cause serious mental and physical damage.

Another way in which the adrenals are weakened is through the use of stimulants such as caffeine. While substances such as coffee and energy drinks provide a quick pick-me-up in the moment, repeated use overloads the adrenals and can lead to health issues such as anxiety, fatigue, lower back pain and sleeping disorders.

The adrenals can also be weakened by sugar and other refined carbohydrates found in many processed foods, infection, extreme exercise, lack of sleep, virtually any chronic disease, and the use of prescription medications.

Do you feel constantly tired and run down? Do you need caffeine and sugar to get you through the day? Are you under frequent mental or physical stress? Do you have trouble coping with stress? Do you have a decreased sex drive? Are you frequently depressed or angry? Do you engage in frequent extreme exercise? Do you often have an upset stomach? Do you overeat and/or have experienced significant weight gain? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you may be overburdening your adrenals and producing an excess amount of cortisol.

The short answer: because it may be dangerous. Traditional DHEA supplementation has been the subject of much controversy. First, there is a possibility that it may cause your body`s natural production of DHEA to decline. Second, the body converts it into excess estrogen or testosterone, which can upset your natural hormonal balance and speed the development of certain cancers.

Copyright 2009 LifeHealthSecrets

Deal-with-Chronic-Stress

Your adrenal glands sit on top of your kidneys and regulate stress and energy output. Intense exercise can overwhelm the adrenals and eventually burn them out, leading to chronic fatigue, bags under the eyes and reduced performance.

Nourishing the adrenals alone is not enough, however – stimulating the adrenals without opening the surrounding pathways of the nervous system (or, from the viewpoint of Chinese Medicine, the meridians) is like increasing the output of an electricity generator in a home with faulty wiring. Sooner or later, the whole thing will short circuit, and you may end up burning out your generator (adrenals). This is how an aggressive adrenal stimulant such as caffeine or sugar can eventually drain your entire system. Adrenal Re-Boot not only ups the power of your generator – it upgrades your wiring, so that energy can move freely throughout your body.

Adrenal Re-Boot provides the nourishment your adrenals need to function properly while also strengthening the connecting pathways so that you can access the energy you need, when you need it, providing an extra boost to the legs. By promoting healthy cortisol and DHEA levels, Adrenal Re-Boot also helps put your body in an anabolic state, necessary for muscle growth and repair.

Copywrite 2009 LifeHealthSecrets

Its only been a week, but I’ve experimented with taking more servings at different times during the day, limiting myself to 2 servings on “rest” days and using 3 servings on “heavy” workout days, with the 3rd serving being taken in the evening.

Yesterday, I did a training run of 18.5 miles/3hrs, lots of hills/very hot and humid. Had one serving prior to my run, one serving mid afternoon and then a 3rd before going to bed. This is the longest run I have done in 25 years. Today I feel great. I had one serving prior to my run, one serving mid afternoon and then a 3rd before going to bed. Yes, I’m a little sore today, but nothing compared to my fears.

Understanding the oxidative system will provide us with the first method for increasing cellular energy. For cellular respiration to occur, oxygen must be drawn into the cells, where it’s used to produce energy (if you want to get specific, the mitochondria in our cells use it as a hydrogen acceptor during ATP production to produce water). How is oxygen drawn into the cell? One means is through the sodium potassium pump, which is what creates a cell’s ‘electrical charge’. The electrons around the outer membrane and inner nucleus of the cell, going in opposite directions, draw in the oxygen by means of diffusion.  So, a cell’s electrical charge controls the amount of oxygen that can be drawn in, and is in part responsible for how much energy your cells can produce.

This provides us with the first method of increasing cellular energy: increase a cell’s electrical charge. Note that electrical charge is also responsible for the removal of metabolic waste from the cell. If a cell’s charge is low, then metabolic waste accumulates and hinders cellular respiration. If things slow down enough, edema or water retention occurs – the cell’s osmotic pressure become so weak that it loses the ability to expel waste and old body fluids. When a cell’s charge is strengthened, metabolic wastes can be properly disposed of and cellular respiration increased.

The second method for increasing cellular energy can be understood through the reductive system. While oxygen is vital to cellular respiration, it also ‘oxidizes’ the cells, producing harmful free radicals that can damage cell function, respiration and DNA.  Reductive enzymes – with glutathione being the main SOD reductive enzyme – are what protect the cell from these free radicals. When a cell doesn’t have enough glutathione, it attempts to decrease ATP production so as to minimize the free radical damage. Therefore, increasing glutathione provides us with the second method to increase cellular energy. By increasing glutathione, you balance oxidation with reduction, and allow ATP to increase creating ATP energy, thereby increasing your body’s cellular energy.

A thorough understanding of these two approaches to increasing cellular energy leads to understanding how two of Life Health Secrets’ supplements work. Protein Extreme Energy functions to increase cellular electron loads and therefore cellular charge – it adopts the first method for increasing cellular energy. GSH-Ignite adopts the second method – by encouraging healthy glutathione levels it allows ATP production to increase. As such, Protein Extreme Energy and GSH-Ignite take complementary routes to achieving the same goal – enhanced cellular respiration, leading to enhanced whole body energy for life.

Copyright 2009 LifeHealthSecrets