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The Role of Oxygen in
Sports
Performance for Athletes
The 2 main factors that affect
athletic sports performance are nutrition and oxygen.
Nutrition is something you have total control over. What you eat and
when can have a dramatic effect on how your body performs on any
given day. So, as an athlete, you can give you body higher quality
nutrition to gain an advantage over your competition.
When it comes to oxygen, however,
there really hasn't been a legal ,easy way for the everyday
person to gain an advantage... until now.
Sure, you could:
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train at high altitude and hope that all
your competitions are at low altitude...
-
you can buy an expensive
altitude training
tent to sleep in. this would get your body used to less
oxygen in the air so that when you come out of the tent, your body
gets flooded with more oxygen than it is used to and can perform
better.
-
try
blood doping... which increase your red blood cell count so
that your muscles can get more oxygen. (this is illegal in most
organized sports)
-
you could get your doctor to prescribe
oxygen for you... but then you would have to lug that huge oxygen
tank around with you every where you go...
-
you could even purchase in-home oxygen
concentrators... but these cannot be used conveniently on site.
So what is the best
alternative?...
In this day and age, recreational canned
oxygen like
Instant Oxygen™
is
your best option!
But why is Oxygen so important
to athletic performance?
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Just like an automobile engine, your body needs
oxygen to mix with fuel to produce energy.
The bottom line is that oxygen is responsible for 90% of your body's
energy.
With Oxygen enriched air, the body
metabolizes food faster and more efficiently, generating more
energy, and fuel for a healthier body.
-
According to most experts, athletic
performance is directly related to the amount of oxygen supplied to
the muscles. The supply of oxygen is dictated by how often the heart
beats, the volume of blood transported by every beat and the amount
of oxygen in that blood. There really is no argument... the more
oxygen you get to the muscles (and the brain), the better they
perform.
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During vigorous exercise the body
needs a lot more energy. It gets this by breathing in deeper and
faster and rushing the oxygen to the muscles in dilated blood
vessels. Soon a point is reached when the body cannot breathe any
faster or harder, and aerobic respiration alone cannot meet the
enhanced energy demands. At this point, your body begins to
produce lactic acid, which accumulates in the muscles and causes
muscle fatigue and cramps. To avoid damage to cells, lactic acid
has to be broken down to carbon dioxide and water immediately
after the exercise has finished. This is an oxidation reaction,
and requires oxygen. This extra oxygen needed to neutralize the
harmful effects of anaerobic respiration is called an oxygen
debt. In order to get the extra oxygen to 'pay back' the debt,
the body continues to breathe deeply for some time after vigorous
activity has ceased. When all the lactic acid in the muscles is
broken down the oxygen debt has been repaid and normal aerobic
respiration resumes. This is why oxygen is also so crucial in
recovery times. Have you ever seen
a football player make a long run, then sit down on the sidelines
and breathe in oxygen for a couple minutes?
Well... they're doing that to reduce lactic acid build up and speed
up their recovery time to they can get back in the game right away
and still perform at a high level.
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Another main factor we have not
touched on yet, but is also very crucial to performance in any
sport is Brain Function. It is a fact that low oxygen
levels in the blood cause reduced brain function. This is very
evident with high altitude sports like
mountain climbing. If mental alertness and response time is
important to your sport, using oxygen might give you more of an
advantage that you had hoped for!
Other
important links on oxygen and sports performance:
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