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15: Nutrition and Exercise

  • Page ID
    1774
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    Nutrition can improve athletic performance. What you eat and when you eat can make or break your workout or competition. if you eat the right types of foods at the right time, your body will have the nutrients it needs during physically demanding activities like running, bicycling, or lifting weights. This chapter will introduce you to the concepts of sports nutrition.

    • 15.1: Chapter Introduction
      The activities we do every day can be divided into three types: 1) inactive or sedentary (sitting), 2) non-exercise activity such as walking, and 3) exercise like running. Being physically active confers many health benefits.  How much time do you spend every day in each of these activity types?
    • 15.2: Introduction to Nutrition and Physical Fitness
      Physical fitness is a general state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations and daily activities. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical exercise, physical activity, and sufficient rest. Before the industrial revolution, fitness was defined as the capacity to carry out the day’s activities without undue fatigue.
    • 15.3: Aerobic Exercise
      Aerobic exercise (also known as cardio) is physical exercise of low to high intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process. Aerobic literally means "relating to, involving, or requiring free oxygen", and refers to the use of oxygen to adequately meet energy demands during exercise. Generally, light-to-moderate intensity activities that are sufficiently supported by aerobic metabolism can be performed for extended periods of time.
    • 15.4: Anaerobic Exercise
      Anaerobic exercise is a physical exercise intense enough to cause lactate to form. It is used by athletes in non-endurance sports to promote strength, speed and power and by body builders to build muscle mass.
    • 15.5: Nutrients that are critical to athletes
      Nutrition is an important part of many sports training regimens, being most popular in strength sports (such as weight lifting and bodybuilding) and endurance sports (e.g. cycling, running, swimming, rowing). Sports Nutrition focuses its studies on the type, as well as the quantity of fluid and food taken by an athlete. In addition, it deals with the consumption of nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, supplements and organic substances that include carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
    • 15.6: Fitness Supplements and Steroids
      Bodybuilding supplements are dietary supplements specifically marketed to those involved in bodybuilding, weightlifting and athletics. Among the most widely used are vitamins, protein, branched-chain amino acids (BCAA), glutamine, essential fatty acids, meal replacement products, creatine, weight loss products and testosterone boosters. Supplements are sold either as single ingredient preparations or in the form of "stacks".
    • 15.7: Fitness and Health
      Physical fitness is an important part of the pursuit of optimal health. Regular exercise yields multiple benefits in terms of preventing disease and promoting health. The four essential elements of physical fitness are cardiorespiratory endurance, muscle strength, muscle endurance, and flexibility.
    • 15.8: Supplemental- Creating your own fitness plan
      If you’d like to get stronger or faster, lose weight, or just improve the quality of your life, consider creating a personal fitness plan to meet your goals. There are many kinds of possible plans and most incorporate a mix of aerobic, resistance, and flexibility exercises. Assess your level of fitness and craft a plan suited to you


    15: Nutrition and Exercise is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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