Category Archives for "Health"

Sleep – the foundation of health and performance with Dr. Charles Samuels | EP#216

Dr. Charles Samuels is the Medical Director of the Centre for Sleep & Human Performance in Calgary, Alberta. One of his key interest areas is exploring the relationship of sleep on recovery and performance in elite Canadian athletes, up to the Olympic level. In this episode, Dr. Samuels filters through some of the noise surrounding sleep, gives practical advice for getting adequate sleep, and discusses why sleep tracking wearables do more harm than good.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• The Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire
• Differences between athletes and the general population in sleep patterns and sleep requirements
• Why wearables and sleep trackers do more harm than good for our sleep
• The case for catching up on sleep or banking sleep, and shooting for a weekly sleep goal
• Caffeine, napping, and chronotypes

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Breathing and The Oxygen Advantage with Patrick McKeown | EP#127

Can a different way of breathing make you a better triathlete? International best-selling author Patrick McKeown, creator of the revolutionary Oxygen Advantage technique tells us about how breathing can improve your performance in both triathlon and general health.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Nose breathing and taking smaller breaths
• Benefits for triathletes: improved VO2max, running eonomy, oxygen delivery, delayed lactic acid onset, CO2-tolerance, injury prevention, and legal EPO
• Health benefits: improved sleep, concentration, and reduced stress and anxiety
• Assess your breathing with the simple BOLT-test
• How to implement the Oxygen Advantage techniques in your everyday life and in triathlon training

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Body composition and how to get to your triathlon race weight | EP#113

A research-based review of body composition and racing weight for triathletes.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Different methods to assess body composition and body fat percentage, and their limitations.
• How to get to your goal race weight and body composition using three simple principles: appropriate rate of weight loss, appropriate protein intake, and staying away from fads.
• Myths and risks to avoid when it comes to getting lean and losing weight
• What is the typical body composition (body fat percentage, weight, Fat Free Mass Index) of elite level triathletes?
• Periodisation of body composition and racing weight, and the importance of not staying at race weight year round.

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Triathlon training and nutrition considerations for female athletes with Stacy Sims, PhD | EP#105

Stacy Sims, PhD, discusses female-specific considerations for training, nutrition, hydration and recovery. Women are not small men, so whether it’s training or nutrition, you should be aware of these important differences compared to the male college students that are typically research subjects in endurance sports.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Training, nutrition, hydration and recovery differences between men and women
• How to change your training and nutrition with your menstrual cycle
• How too much fructose may be giving you gastrointestinal problems
• Training during and after pregnancy
• Training and nutrition changes for menopausal women

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Nutrition before, during and after workouts | EP#100

A research-based review of nutrition before, during and after endurance exercise and competition.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Hydration and carbohydrate before exercise
• Hydration and carbohydrate during exercise
• Hydration, carbohydrate, and protein after exercise
• Example meals, snacks, and supplements

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Endurance Sports Nutrition with Monique Ryan | EP#99

Monique Ryan is a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN), author of the book “Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes”, and has been a member of the Performance Enhancement Team for both USA Triathlon and USA Cycling. She has a wealth of experience from working with both age-groupers and elites at the very top.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Common mistakes endurance athletes make with their nutrition (other than the things we already know about not eating enough veggies and too much processed food…)
• Is there a place for “labeled” or “named” diets in endurance sports nutrition
• Hydration – do we drink too much, too little, or just right?
• Supplements and deficiencies in endurance athletes
• Special considerations for females, masters athletes, vegetarians and vegans

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Triathlon Nutrition: Calories, Carbs, Fats, and Proteins – Part 2 | EP#95

A research-based review of nutrition, including overall energy intake, energy balance, and macronutrients (fat, protein and carbs) for endurance athletes. Part two of two.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Protein for endurance athletes
• Fat for endurance athletes
• (Even more about) why you need to be a carb AND fat burner!
• How to calculate your macronutrient needs based on your overall energy intake

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Triathlon Nutrition: Calories, Carbs, Fats, and Proteins – part 1 | EP#94

A research-based review of nutrition, including overall energy intake, energy balance, and macronutrients (fat, protein and carbs) for endurance athletes. Part one of two.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Energy balance
• Energy availability (you may be cutting yourself short even if intake equals energy expenditure)
• How the body uses different ratios of carbs and fats to fuel endurance performances
• Why you need to be a carb AND fat burner!
• Carbohydrate for endurance athletes

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Overeating and The Hungry Brain with Stephan Guyenet | EP#73

Stephan Guyenet, Ph.D., explains how our appetites and food choices are led astray by ancient, instinctive brain circuits that play by the rules of a survival game that no longer exists. And these circuits don’t care about how you look in a tri suit next summer.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• The Food Reward system
• The brains valuation of food and Optimal Foraging Theory
• Delay Discounting and the Stanford Marshmallow experiment
• How the lipostat works against your attempts to reduce body fat
• Satiety, and the factors that can increase (and decrease) our satiety per calorie

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Low-carb high-fat (LCHF) for endurance sports with professor Tim Noakes | EP#44

In part 2 of our interview with professor Tim Noakes we discuss low-carb high-fat diets and the role it can play both for general health and endurance performance.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• The relation between high-carbohydrate diets and diabetes
• How Tim ran the same times aged 61 as 41 when switching to a low-carb diet
• Tim’s take on ketogenic diets

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