What is the endurance performance?
Endurance in sport is the body’s resistance to fatigue during prolonged exertion and the ability of the organism to regenerate after sport. The endurance performance is accordingly the performance that is achieved over a period of time without a drop in performance due to fatigue. The decrease can occur both physically and cognitively. The performance achieved is documented, just like the period of time, and compared with figures from other athletes in order to classify and evaluate the performance. During the endurance performance the cardiovascular system is strongly challenged and supported.
How can endurance performance be improved?
The basic prerequisite for increasing endurance performance is a healthy, balanced, low-fat diet, because the body draws its energy from food. In addition, a sufficient supply of fluid to the body is the basis for increased endurance. In order to improve your endurance performance, it is important to formulate a clear final goal with intermediate goals in order to perceive your own endurance performance improvement.
The exercises for improvement should be individually tailored to the athlete and should include a large number of variations. Many different training methods are important because the body quickly gets used to a constant load. The classic interval training is particularly suitable for increasing endurance.
During a training session, the body alternates between high stress phases and recovery. It is also very important that you train regularly and stick to your plan exactly. In addition, you should start to increase your heart rate gradually and only extend the training sessions over time. The intensity and length of a training session should be increased in realistic, small steps. Initially, the training units are short sequences, but they are repeated several times a week.
Which deficiency can reduce the endurance performance?
A lack of magnesium can reduce the endurance performance because magnesium regulates the excitability of the cells and is responsible for the relaxation of the muscles, so that a deficiency can lead to calf cramps, for example. Furthermore, an iron deficiency can also reduce endurance performance, because the body needs iron for red blood cell formation and oxygen transport. Other deficiencies that may reduce performance are calcium deficiency, calcium is needed for bone formation, potassium deficiency, which causes muscle weakness, and some vitamin deficiencies. These include, for example, vitamin B12 deficiency or vitamin E deficiency.
Which nutrition is useful for improving endurance performance?
Athletes need a carbohydrate-rich diet such as potatoes or baked goods to improve their endurance performance. Carbohydrates serve as an energy source in the form of glucose. Depending on the composition of the glucose, it can take a while before the energy is available to the body.
When energy is consumed, the body falls back on carbohydrate stores. However, as these are only limited, it is important to take in carbohydrates through diet in order to maintain the same endurance performance over long distances. Wholemeal products such as wholemeal bread, wholemeal rice or wholemeal pasta are valuable carbohydrates for athletes, as they only gradually provide the body with energy.
In addition, it is important that athletes pay attention to a low-fat diet. A high-fat diet is stressful for the organism because it is difficult to digest and thus reduces performance during long-term exercise. Nevertheless, the body needs fats, which is why athletes should also eat some, but pay attention to their quality and prefer vegetable fats to animal ones.
In addition, a sufficient supply of protein is important not only in weight training, but also in endurance sports, because in extreme endurance sports the body also uses protein as a source of power. Recommended protein sources are the following foods, which are best eaten in combination with each other, lean meat, fish, eggs, low-fat dairy products, legumes, potatoes and cereals. You can find out what you should definitely pay attention to in your diet as part of endurance sports under Endurance sports and nutrition – What you should pay attention toIron is very important in the human body so that the body can produce red blood cells and these can ensure the supply of oxygen.
Female athletes in particular tend to suffer from an iron deficiency, which is partly due to the monthly menstrual period. Iron is very important for the red blood cells because it helps to bind oxygen, in the mitochondria it is also needed to gain energy and it is important for muscle work. In order to prevent a deficiency, an iron-rich diet with the following foods that contain a lot of iron is recommended:
- Wholemeal products
- Pulses ̈chte
- Spinach etc.