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There are four main mind-body approaches in Western medicine: meditation and relaxation, guided imagery, clinical biofeedback and hypnosis. In addition, there are a number of other therapies recommended throughout the ailment section of this...
Mind-body therapies not only improve overall health but also have a positive and measurable effect on specific conditions and diseases. Two key principles underpin the various therapies. First, the mind can affect the body...
The musculoskeletal system is the body’s largest user of energy. It is through the this system that we walk, talk, run, jump, feed ourselves, paint pictures, perform delicate surgery, make music, war and love,...
Working muscles use more stored glucose in the form of glycogen than inactive muscles. Glycogen stores can become rapidly depleted and the metabolic advantages of exercise quickly lost if the system is overloaded with...
Just like making the commitment to eating right, adopting a regular exercise program can change your life. A combination of balanced eating and exercise contributes to a leaner, healthier body. If you are one...
For top athletes, getting enough sleep has long been considered the sort of bland good advice that is obvious but easy to ignore—like eating lots of vegetables. A pair of recent pilot studies by Charles Samuels, the medical director of the Centre for Sleep and Human Performance in Calgary, confirms that poor sleep quality is prevalent even in Olympic-level athletes (in this case from the national bobsleigh and skeleton teams). But the problem is even worse for ordinary people: “It’s average athletes who are the most likely to curtail their sleep to train,” Samuels says. “They’re getting up at 4 a.m. to run for an hour so they can get to work by 7 a.m.”
After decades of studies, it’s now well established that caffeine helps sprint performance and improves endurance in activities lasting up to two hours. There’s also increasingly solid evidence that it helps resistance exercise like weightlifting.
If you prepare for a game or race in the same way that you prepare for your usual workouts, you won’t be well-rested enough to maximize your performance.
On the other hand, you shouldn’t try new foods, sleep habits, or training techniques right before a competition. By fine-tuning these elements and developing a familiar routine, you can give yourself an edge over your competitors when it counts and elevate your game (not practice).
If you’re looking for that extra edge that will allow you to lift one more rep or maintain your pace near the end of a tough workout, consider the latest research from psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University in Britain. After hitting his thumb with a hammer, Stephens let loose with a string of expletives—a common enough occurrence, but one that left him wondering why humans have this nearly universal habit of “cathartic swearing.”
For decades, exercise physiology has struggled to pin down the limits of physical performance by studying the heart, lungs, and muscles of athletes. New experiments show that the brain plays a fundamental and often surprising role. And it also works the other way around: exercise shapes your brain, stimulates growth, and enhances memory and cognition—and some types of exercise are better than others.