Reaching the top of our potential is the most important thing in any real sportsman’s life. Health habits are simply what we do to our health. These habits comprise of many behaviors, that influence our lives in different ways.

According to the “we are what we eat” rule health habits should lead to a balanced diet and supplementing our body with all the necessary ingredients. Our bodies experience discomfort not only from being hungry, but also from overeating – especially animal fats, refined carbs and too many calories.

Proper nutritional habits are the way we plan our diet. Nutrition is a basic condition for life, fitness and health. Rational nutrition is supposed to provide our bodies with energy and nutritional values. Without a proper diet, one cannot utilize one’s full potential for growth, both mental and physical, nor keep healthy throughout one’s life. Proper nutrition is all about supplying your body with all important nutrients in every meal of the day. Each meal should contain ample quantities of proteins (amino acids), sugars, fats, vitamins and mineral salts, fiber and water. Food supply should be enough to keep us going all day. A body needs about 60 nutrients:

• 10 exogenous aminoacids: fenyloalanine, isoleucine, methionine, lysine, leucine, threonine, thryptofane, valine, arginine, histidine – all of the above constituting full-value proteins.

• 1-4 unsaturated fatty acids (NNKT)

• 1-2 sugars – glucose, fructose, galactose

• 21 mineral components: calcium, phosphorus, iron, iodine, magnesium, potassium, chlorine, sulfur and microelements: zinc, copper, mangane, cobalt, molibden, panthotene acid, choline, inositol, routine

• Fiber

One’s capacity is based mainly on glycogen reserves in muscles. Short-term strain, like jumps, throws, cleans or jerks utilize phosphagens as main energetic substrates. In strains longer than 6-10 reps, an additional system is involved – non-oxygen glicolise, which takes from muscle glycogen.

Muscle is able to store about 400-600 g of glycogen, and some is also stored in the liver. Despite carbs being a basic source of energy, their supply inside the body is limited. During a high-rep workout, glycogen is transformed into glucose, which is then burned inside the mitochondria and transformed into energy. One gram of carbs translates into 4 kilocalories. Carb-based energy is available 4 times faster than fat-based. Sugars are the best source of energy, because they leave much less byproducts than proteins and fats.

And how is the situation in strength sports? Read on in the second part of this article.

Maciej Sośnicki