Author: Paul Hata

As people realize that there is a dearth of information in the world to study, the study of the world becomes more specialized in order for information to be manageably processed for particular purposes. The study of medicine, for example, brought forth a specialization in sports medicine. The study of sports and also of nutrition was further compartmentalized into sports nutrition.

Sports nutrition as a higher education course has been attracting interest among younger generations. As the world population turns to sports for physical health as well as entertainment, sports nutrition attracts a lot of attention and revenues and people specializing in increasing sports performance are very much in demand.

Sports Nutrition education focuses on understanding how the body functions during exercise and sport. Maximizing athletic potential and minimizing health risks associated with sporting activity are two of the main topics of study in Sports Nutrition Education.

Students of this course will consider the role of exercise in healthy lifestyles, and in the treatment of various diseases, with emphasis on interaction between nutrition (diet) and physical performance.

Sports Nutrition education also provides the scientific background, specific knowledge and skills to address concepts and controversies relating to sports nutrition, sports physiology and to explore the links between nutrition, physiology, performance and health outcomes through the life cycle.

Sports nutrition education integrates principles of nutrition and exercise physiology and application to exercising individuals. Common topics for discussion include energy expenditure, fuel substrate metabolism, specific nutrient needs, ergogenic aids, hydration, and weight issues for exercising individuals and athletes.

In personal sports and fitness training, for example, the optimum way to get the most out of their workouts and feel their best is by designing an energizing, performance-enhancing nutrition plan, tailored specific needs of their bodies.

Sport Nutrition education includes learning how to enhance client’s workouts and maximize their results with proper nutrition, safe and effective sports supplements, and beneficial vitamins and minerals.

This is a sample module from a university that offers Sports Nutrition in the collegiate level:

Level 1
Studies include an introduction to learning and assessment in higher education and the wider context of your subject.
- Basic Sports Science
- Science for Sport
- Human Physiology
- Data Analysis
- Introduction to Nutrition
- Professional Studies
- Functional Anatomy

Level 2
This level addresses issues related to hire-ability and professional practice.

- Exercise Physiology I
- Nutritional Physiology and Biochemistry I
- Human Nutrition
- Research Methods
- Nutritional Physiology and Biochemistry II
- Biomechanics, Sport Psychology, Physical  Performance Assessment

Level 3
Level 3 further develops your skills in independent problem identification and analysis.

- Exercise Physiology II
- Applied and Environmental Physiology
- Energy Metabolism
- Muscle Structure and Function
- Sensory and Motor Physiology
- Sports Nutrition

In practical terms, students of sports nutrition education learn:

- How nutrients are taken in and how foods are digested and metabolized to provide necessary energy to fuel muscular activity.
- Dietary patterns that maximize performance and prevent disease.
- Research advancements in ergogenic aids.
- Supplementation and the pros and cons of popular diet techniques.
- Sample eating plans showing how to fuel for specific workouts.
- How to distinguish among food, diet, and supplement options and understand which are best and why.
- How to overcome food and weight obsessions.
- How to lose undesired body fat while maintaining energy for exercise.
- Strategies to boost energy, reduce stress, control weight, improve health & enhance workouts.

Employment opportunities
While enrolled in a Sports Nutrition Education program, it is still possible to have relevant employment. Work placement can also be advantageous as it also provides you with the benefits of industry experience.

The degree is excellent preparation for anyone planning a career in the sports and fitness industries such as corporate health and fitness. The program is also good for those particularly considering a specialization in the nutritional aspects of performance enhancement.

The graduate of this course can penetrate family and community services, local or state government agencies, hospitals, rehabilitation clinics, institutes of sports, universities and colleges and also personal training. However, the graduate of Sport Nutrition is not qualified to be a dietitian.

Sports Nutrition education also provides a systematic, general, scientific training suitable for a wide assortment of careers. Many students also continue onto a PGCE or Masters course in a related area.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/basic-guide-to-sports-nutrition-education-547140.html

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Author: C. Small

Are you a couch potato?  Do you prefer sitting on the sidelines watching others have fun?  Well, it’s time to get up and get active.  The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Surgeon General have all issued statements that recommend placing an emphasis on adopting physical activity into one’s lifestyle.  Their purpose is to make us aware of the health benefits associated with increased physical activity, as well as to highlight the amount and intensity of activity necessary to achieve optimal results.

Now before you look at increasing your physical activities, you should consult your physician to ensure a safe and healthy experience.  Next, you must  understand the term. Physical activity cannot be defined in just one or two words; it is a broad term that encompasses all forms of muscle movements.  These movements can range from sports to lifestyle activities (such as house cleaning, gardening, etc).  Also, exercise can be defined as physical activity that is a planned, structured movement of the body designed to enhance physical fitness. Regimented or purposeful exercise consists of a program that includes twenty to sixty minutes of activity at least three to five days a week.

Let’s take a look at the word exercise.  Are there different categories of exercises?  Actually there are.  Exercise may be classified in one of two categories or energy systems, anaerobic and aerobic, depending on where the energy is derived from.  There is a distinct difference between the two, and specific training techniques are used to enhance both.  Anaerobic exercise does not require oxygen for energy.  This is due to the intensity and duration of anaerobic events, which typically are high intensity and last only a few seconds to a minute or two.  Also, in anaerobic exercises the body creates the energy without oxygen.  This basically is due to the fact that the body’s demand for energy is greater so that it will find natural body chemicals such as creatine phosphate to create it.  These activities include weight lifting, machines that offer resistance, dumbbells, and short sprints.

Aerobic exercise on the other hand, does require oxygen for energy.  When performing a set of aerobic exercises you are causing the body to utilize oxygen in order to create energy.  The oxygen is needed to breakdown glucose.  Glucose is the fuel needed to create energy.  This energy system is primarily used during events lasting longer than several minutes, such as cycling/biking, running, swimming, cross-country skiing, playing basketball, jumping rope, roller skating, walking briskly and dancing.  In addition to these fun activities, you can get a great aerobic workout through stationary exercise machines such as cycles, treadmills, stair-steppers and rowing machines.  These can be found at a local gym or health club, where you can not only increase your fitness-level but social contacts as well.  Most of these machines can also be used in the privacy of your home.

(Note:  The potential does exist however, where one can use both the aerobic and anaerobic systems, as in soccer, where a match requires ninety minutes of continual activity with short intense bursts of effort.)

Participation in physical activity can be beneficial for anyone and can be started during any stage of life.  One goal of Healthy People 2010 is to increase the number of people who participate in daily physical activity.*  So whether you decide to do a regimented exercise program, house or yard work, walk a pet, or walk around town to complete errands, get up off the couch and get active!

(*Healthy People 2010 is a categorized listing of national health objectives established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)

About the author:  C. Small is the Founder/President/CEO of CVS Unlimited, LLC and a health and fitness enthusiast with more than 31 years of military training.  The Company’s desire is to help people achieve healthy lifestyles by combining good nutrition with the right exercises, and using the right equipment for lasting results.

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Author: Healing Headquarters LLC

Today we hear the word diet much more than we hear the word nutrition. There are so many diets on the market that it’s easy to get lost in the fad and forget what nutrition truly is. There is the Atkins Diet, the Zone Diet, Weight Watchers and many others, from Slim Fast to the various one-food diets, such as the cabbage soup diet or the grapefruit diet. Society has become fixated on the ‘diet’, instead of quality nutrition. Unfortunately, this fixation isn’t working. America is the fattest nation in the world, with high rates of diabetes, heart disease and other life threatening illnesses. While diets are becoming more popular, nutrition is suffering.

What is a diet?

While many people think a diet is a set of rules you follow to try to lose weight, your diet is actually the food that you eat to supply your body with the nutrients it needs to function properly. While an average American diet consists of large quantities of processed sugar, white flour, meat and fast foods, a healthy diet is one that supplies the body with vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants and enzymes. These nutritional building blocks affect your energy levels, your quality of life, and have a direct affect on your mood, memory, eyesight, body functions and lifespan. Without a healthy diet that supplies the body with much needed nutrients, you are more susceptible to colds, infections, and illnesses. Your diet, in other words your nutrition, is what sustains your life.

Nutritional Labels

There is much confusion surrounding nutritional labels. Most people look strictly toward the top for calories, fat grams and serving size information. The truth is that nutritional labels offer a look at the nutrients in one’s food, such as vitamins A, C, D and E, as well as calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and folic acid. This information, although lower down on the nutritional label, is very important information if you are seeking to supply your body with nutrients, as opposed to empty calories.

The most important aspect of a nutritional label, although almost completely overlooked, is the actual ingredients within your food. While it may be easier to check to see how many calories and fat grams a certain food product has in each serving, when it comes to healthy nutrition the most important ingredient is what you are actually ingesting. It may have only 220 calories, but where are those calories coming from? Are you ingesting mostly corn syrup and sodium phosphate, or high amounts of preservatives, such as sorbic acid and sulfur dioxide? The ingredients in your food are the tell-tale clues to how much nutrition you are actually taking in. If your food is strictly cheese and flour, as opposed to nutrient providing vegetables and vitamins, it doesn’t really matter if the calories are low.

A Nutritional Diet

Nutrition comes from vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Food sources that are rich with nutrients are whole, living foods that are supplied from the earth. Dark leafy greens offer more calcium than milk, while beans and grains offer high amounts of iron. It is easy to turn your focus from diet to nutrition. And when you do, you might find yourself eating a diet that is rich in nutrients and optimal for losing weight.

Author: Varun Pratap At fifty, many of us take stock of our lives. We can look back on careers, friends, and family that we are proud of, but what do we want to do with our middle years? How can we make the most of our lives? Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of our later years, as well as the one that may have the greatest impact on our overall well-being, is our health and fitness. How, then, can we best ensure our health and fitness into our mid and later years? Exercise can help slow down the onset of the symptoms of aging. The health benefits of a good exercise program are numerous. Exercise helps maintain muscle strength and joint flexibility. In addition, the stress put on our bones through exercise help maintain their strength and integrity. Even our mood can be improved by staying healthy-–researchers have discovered a link between exercise and a decrease in depression and anxiety. This may be due to the increase in energy and the improved sleeping patterns among fit fifty year olds. Of course, nothing beats exercise for battling weight gain and getting our body into the kind of shape that can still turn heads as we walk down the street. Besides that, our blood pressure tends to drop, lowering the chance of heart disease. Even our immune system gets a boost from regular exercise. Believe it or not, physical activity has even been linked to improved mental function! Think of the advantages of living a longer and a more active life. From walking, running or cycling, to push-ups and sit-ups to actual weight lifting, at home or at the gym, each form of exercise has its own benefits to keeping you fit and strong. This will reduce the discomfort to the joints and muscles after the exercises are done. Similarly, after a workout, make sure and take the time to stretch and cool down. How you decide to stay fit and healthy is up to you. If the thought of bouncing around a gym or workout center in spandex makes you cringe, take heart. Chair aerobics are designed to give those with mobility problems a good cardio workout without putting strain on the joints and bones. A chair aerobics session may include kicks, punches and stretches, and often includes the use of workout bands and weights to increase strength and resistance training as the workouts get more intense. Better heart function, lower blood pressure, increased circulation and heightened alertness, say the experts. It’s the perfect solution if you can’t leave your desk or if you work at home and can’t get to the gym. It’s also an excellent solution for older Americans who may not be as mobile as they once were, but who can benefit from regular exercise. According to many recent studies, engaging in moderate exercise three to five times a week can help reduce the risk of heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes and arthritis. Among the exercise that the American Physical Therapy Association recommends for seniors are golf, gardening, walking, swimming and jogging. Water fitness classes are among the best aerobics exercises you can do, especially if you suffer from joint stiffness or arthritic pain. Because you’re in the water, there’s no impact shock, making water exercises the ideal form of low-impact aerobic exercise.

Author: Nitin Chhoda

For someone who just started exercising, the right guidance is critical. If you are a newcomer, the first thing you want to do is exercise in a safe and effective fashion. Many individuals avoid the gym due to the fear of making a mistake in public. For the weight room rookie, there is nothing more demoralizing than the disheartening smirks of veteran trainees. Mistakes start to happen, and these prevent you from getting optimal results. In fact, it increases the chances of injury!

If you are considering joining a gym / are a gym rookie, then you must avoid the most common mistakes. Try these tips – before you know it, you could be teaching a thing or two to uncompromising ‘experts’ in your local gym or fitness center.

Presenting the most common mistakes made by rookie trainees.

1. Incorrect technique.(dumbbell or barbell).
Always speak to a gym instructor / experienced weight trainee to guide you and demonstrate the correct manner to perform exercises. If you have difficulty in lifting a particular weight, then don’t. Just practice with a light weight for the first 1-2 weeks.

2. Exercising on an empty stomach.
When exercising to shape muscles, it is a bad idea to enter the gym in a fasting state. The body needs energy to lift weights and this energy comes from food, specifically the food you eat prior to the training session. Some light carbohydrates (rice, bread, fruits) is a good idea prior to the training session.

3. Insufficient gear.
Always carry a bag containing a spare set of clothes, a towel, bathroom accessories and a water bottle for an effective workout.

4. Lifting weights too quickly.
When in the gym, the best way to lift weights is in a slow and controlled fashion. Avoid fast, jerky movements since they can cause injuries.

5. Holding your breath.
The breathing pattern for lifting is to exhale on the positive phase (pushing or pulling the weight) and inhale on the negative (lowering the weight). Holding your breath can raise your blood pressure and, if you hold it long enough, cause fainting.

6. Being too proud to ask for assistance.
Work with a friend / ask for assistance when using heavy weights. In gym parlance, this individual is called a ’spotter’. Gym trainees are always more than willing, and it’s much better to ask quietly for a spot than to scream loudly for help once you’re in trouble.

7. Trying to ’spot reduce’ certain muscles, such as the abdominals.
The best gadgets and hundreds of crunches won’t transform your legendary flab into equally fabulous abs. For best results, incorporate aerobics exercises and sensible nutrition into your daily plan.

8. Overdoing it.

Resist the temptation to lift as much as you can or overdo the treadmill the first few times in the gym. Gradually work your way up.

9. Not drinking enough water.
Drink at least 20 ounces of water for every hour of working out, and sip water continuously, before you’re thirsty. By the time you’re conscious of thirst; the body is already partially dehydrated. This can adversely affect stamina and concentration.

10. Relying on the ‘best looking’ people for advice.
Just because someone is fit does not mean that they have used the best methods, but it does mean that have been exercising the longest. Consult a professional personal trainer for best results.

Author: Faye Brown

If you are an athlete you know that good athlete nutrition is essential. It’s not something you can just brush aside, saying, “Today I’ll be healthy, tomorrow I’m going to throw it all to the wind.” Good nutrition is as vital to your athletic performance as practicing, and when you learn the secret to good nutrition you’ll be able to enjoy improvements in your athletic performance that you never thought were possible!

The key steps to athlete nutrition:

1) If you’re thirsty, it’s already too late. Dehydration is the number one nutritional killer of most athletes’ performance, because they don’t drink enough water through the day. Not drinking enough water will leave you feeling sluggish and sleepy, and when you’re an athlete involved in a sport where every second counts you know that a few minutes of feeling sluggish and sleepy can completely ruin your performance.

Although most doctors recommend you drink six to eight glasses of water a day, that amount actually varies from person to person. The best thing you can do is cut other drinks out of your diet and drink water all day long. Remember, if your body is so dehydrated that you feel thirsty, it’s already too late.

2) Take your vitamins. Vitamin and mineral supplements are a key element in athlete nutrition, since the constant demands placed on their body burn those vitamins up faster than the average individual. Talk with your coach and your physician to see what supplements are right for you.

3) Enjoy your carbs! Although the Atkins diet has instilled a deathly fear of carbs into a huge percentage of the population, the bottom line is that your body gets its energy from its carbohydrates. As an athlete, you need that energy to keep going; as an individual, you need those carbs to replace what you burn throughout the day.

4) Keep your meat lean. There’s nothing wrong with a nice, juicy steak every once in a while, but good athlete nutrition hinges on keeping the body at a cutting edge. Lean meats are much more effective for that purpose. Remember, however, that your body craves protein as well. As an athlete your daily protein requirements may be higher than many other individuals who live more sedentary lives.

5) Avoid sweets. Sweets and sugary drinks will dehydrate you and slow you down. That’s the last thing you need! If you can, cut these sweets out of your diet completely. If you can’t, indulge in moderation. Remember, there’s a vast difference between a small slice of cake at your cousin’s wedding reception and an entire apple pie devoured in front of “I Love Lucy” re-runs!

Good athlete nutrition is a vital part of staying on top of your game. Sit down with your coach and your physician as soon as possible to work out a detailed diet plan just for you to have you at your peak athletic performance. You’ll be surprised at the difference a little change can make!