Category Archives: Exercise and Athletes

Fish Oil Adds Muscle Strength in Older Women

New research shows that fish oil supplementation combined with strength training improves muscle function in older women

The benefits of strength training are widely known, but now it looks like a strength training regimen supplemented with fish oil may be even better. Findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggest that people who consume a daily supplement containing 2 grams of fish oil in combination with strength training experience improved muscle function.

The study, reported to be the first of its kind, shows the combined benefits of fish oil and strength training on muscle function in a group of older women. These women were randomized into one of three groups with each group receiving strength training: strength training alone, strength training plus fish oil supplementation, and a group that started taking the fish oil 60 days prior to beginning the strength training regimen.

After 90 days of strength training three days a week, all women had improved muscle strength, but for those women who supplemented with fish oil these effects were even more pronounced. Continue reading →

How Does Whey Protein Signal Muscle Growth?

Scientists have found the signaling pathway of muscle growth induced by combination of whey protein and weight training

Sports physiologists know that maximizing muscle building requires adequate amounts of high-quality dietary protein—rich in branched-chain amino acids such as leucine—and a resistance training regimen such as weight lifting. Less known are the precise cellular and molecular signals that explain how these factors promote muscle growth.

A new study from New Zealand and Australian scientists reports that leucine-rich whey protein combined with resistance exercise stimulates muscle growth in young and older men by way of increasing the activation of molecular modification (mTOR signaling) of muscle proteins. Interestingly, while the combination of exercise and whey protein increased activation of some muscle proteins to a similar degree in young and old before training, the diet/exercise combination was distinctly blunted in the older subjects.

According to the authors of the study, just published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, while exercise and whey protein combined to effectively activate muscle proteins in young men, deficiencies in this signaling pathway were evident in muscles from older individuals.  Continue reading →

Protein Requirements for Athletes

Athletes require greater amounts of first-class protein to gain a competitive edge.

by Michael Colgan, Ph.D. (abstracted from Dr Colgan’s forthcoming book, The Anti-Inflammatory Athlete)

Suck the water out of a lean athlete and you are left with mostly protein. More than half the dry weight of your body is protein, over 100,000 different proteins, each precisely constructed from gene expression. The structure of your brain cells, your organs, and your muscles is pure protein. Even the hemoglobin that carries the oxygen in your blood is protein. The creation of a thought, the blink of an eye, the contraction of a muscle, every move you make, is controlled by thousands of different enzymes – and all enzymes are proteins, every one (1).

Body proteins are temporary. Each is being constantly rebuilt. Some enzymes last only minutes. Your skin is replaced every few weeks. Your blood cells are replaced every three months. Most of your muscle cells are replaced every six months. Yet, unlike carbohydrates and fats, your body has no store for protein (2). Body structure is rebuilt day-by-day, mainly from the proteins you eat, and from recycled amino acids from broken down body structures. To grow an optimum body you need to eat the right proteins every day.

If you eat garbage proteins you will grow a garbage body, no matter how hard you train. If you eat garbage proteins you will grow a pro-inflammatory body, no matter how good the rest of your diet. Any day you eat garbage proteins they build into the structure of your body and you have to operate with them for up to the next six months. With garbage proteins, you cannot construct the champion whose blueprints are residing in your genes.

This is not a book on protein. Nevertheless, because protein is your structure, I will briefly cover requirements for athletes, before I show you how the right protein also helps immensely towards your goal of an anti-inflammatory body. It’s a quick, rugged ride through the science, but, bear with me, it’s well worth the effort. Continue reading →

Exercise and Physical Ability are Associated with Longer Telomeres

Staying physically active leads to increased telomere length, according to study

It’s about that time to get up and do your workout. Despite your everyday stress, you just know you should do it. Think of the benefits to your cardiovascular system, the endorphin-stimulated “rush” you feel during and after the workout, and finally, the slimming effect on your waistline. Now, you can add an anti-aging effect on telomeres.

As anyone taking Isagenix Product B knows, telomere support is a key component towards slowing down the age clock. Telomeres, those complex DNA structures at the tips of our chromosomes, shorten with age normally; however, this shortening and aging is accelerated by many lifestyle factors: obesity, toxins, oxidative stress, psychological stress, and poor nutrition. This is why Isagenix has developed a variety of products, our Pillars of Health (Cleanse for Life, IsaLean Shake, Ionix Supreme, Ageless Essentials Daily Pak with Product B), to target each of these age-accelerating factors.

To that list of age-defying pillars, don’t forget to add physical activity. In a new paper published in the journal Mechanisms of Aging and Development, researchers from Denmark have provided evidence that an increase in physical ability was positively associated with longer telomeres. In fact, they even calculated how many years increased physical ability could contribute to longer lifespans. Continue reading →

Runners on CoQ10 Suffer Less Muscle Damage and Recover Faster

Study finds coQ10 minimizes oxidative stress and muscle damage during strenuous exercise

Despite the physical and mental benefits associated with ultra-endurance exercises, such as marathons or triathlons, these exercises do promote inflammation and oxidative stress in the body. There are, however, ways to protect yourself. Supplements of coenzyme Q10 (coQ10) may offset the oxidative stress related to strenuous exercise and reduce later muscle damage, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Granada of Spain wrote, “The present findings provide evidence that oral supplementation of coQ10 during high-intensity exercise is efficient reducing the degree of oxidative stress… [and] muscle damage during physical performance.”

The researchers, who published their results in the European Journal of Nutrition, supplemented 20 highly trained male athletes with either a placebo or coQ10 prior to a 50-kilometer run across one of the most difficult terrains in Europe. Continue reading →