Performance in Running (Essay Sample)

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Running
Hydration plays a major role in enhancing the performance of an athlete. Getting the right amounts of water in the body helps to regulate the body temperature, transport nutrients and removes wastes from the cells, and also lubricates the athlete’s joints. This helps an athlete to achieve strength due to cellular metabolism which is brought about by the body being well hydrated. The best recommendations for athletes who want to maintain healthy hydration levels is to take sports drinks. These sports drinks contain nutrients, potassium and calories that provide an athlete with energy and electrolytes that enhances the performance of a runner for a long duration of time. Modifying climate conditions will allow the body to adapt to any stress that it has been subjected to. Training in different altitudes areas enable athlete’s body to increase the manufacture of hemoglobin cells to allow for maximum oxygen consumption which the body will use to provide energy for the muscles. Exposure to various temperatures enables the body to adapt a mechanism that can prevent dehydration which may increase the performance of athletes.
Training under modified climate conditions is important especially when an athlete wants to build his or her cardiorespiratory and muscular endurance. Training in different climatic conditions is responsible for high resistance and development of muscle power which enables runners to run for long durations without fatigue. The body composition of a person may affect his or her abilities to run. Body composition is the amount of fat in the body relative to the amount of bones, lean mass and body organs. An individual with high body fat is less likely to perform than a person with low fat in his or her body. Body fat increases the body mass and also suppress the joints. Body fat impacts negatively on the performance of an athlete because he or she cannot run for long durations due to fatigue and exhaustion. I would recommend change of body composition for any athlete if he or she has to achieve great results. The types of body that are successful in this sport are those with less fat content and high muscular mass. An athlete should perform exercises that enable him or her lose body fat while increasing the muscle mass in order to perform effectively.
Diet modifications can result in better performance for athletes. Nutrition helps to enhance the performance of an athlete. Athletes should eat good diets which should be accompanied with lots of fluids if he or she has to perform. The food should contain enough carbohydrates, protein, calories, fluids, vitamins, iron and other mineral elements. This provides the body with all the requirements needed to be metabolized to produce energy for utilization by the muscle cells. An individual should improve his or her performance by eating a healthy diet. This will depend on the type of sporting activity, training and the duration of the exercise. A person should avoid training on an empty stomach. This is because people are different and should know if they can eat before exercising or after and the amount of food they should take. The best eating plan for any athlete is eating a healthy food diet. This should be comprised of foods with carbohydrates such as whole grain rice, pasta, bread which are low in fat content, have fiber, provide energy and vitamins as well as minerals. They should also take sports drinks like soft drinks, jellies, or even candy after every 15 to 20 minutes of an exercise. This is because they provide calories to the body.
Protein is another requirement for the body growth and repair of body tissues. The consumption of protein should be in low quantities because their main work is to support the growth of muscle. Protein can be found in milk, eggs, white meat, liver etc. Eating excess proteins may result in loss of calcium and put strain to the kidney which has to deal with breaking the excess nitrogen. Though fats are a great source of energy, they are not recommended for runners. This is because they increase the body weight therefore reducing the performance level of runners due to exhaustion. The other important element in a diet is to ingest water and fluids. Water and fluids are required for hydrating the body and regulating the body temperature. An athlete should drink at least 2 cups of water before going to train. After one hour, an individual should switch to sports drinks after every 15 to 20 minutes of work outs.
There are some ergogenic aids that sportsmen use to improve their performance. Ergogenic aids are methods, substances or devices that are used to increase the performance of any participant in a sporting activity during intense work out schedules. They include;
* Protein supplements
* B-Vitamins
* Glutamine
Protein supplements provide athletes with the necessary proteins for growth and repair of their muscle tissues. This enhances their performance because the muscles which are injured are repaired and get healed in a span of a short time. This enables a sports participant to get back on track and continue with his or her training. B-Vitamins such as thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, B-12, and folate are essential in body functions. They also help to improve performa...