Welcome

Welcome to Self Soul Space! This blog is designed to bring you healthy lifestyle tips. A true healthy lifestyle, embodies a healthy mind, body, spirit, and environment. Thanks for stopping by to check out my way of living.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Improve Your Stamina

Are you always wondering why you get worn out easily, or you're always out of energy... Maybe it's time to improve your stamina.  Stamina, is basically the ability to keep yourself going, a key component for athletic performance.  Improving stamina can be done through a variety of means, it will also improve your overall wellness and will help you achieve more in your daily life.  

Here are some tips for improving your stamina:
  • Modify diet- adding healthier foods to your diet will improve your overall stamina.  As weight gain starts to sneak up on you, your physical performance will suffer.  Adding more fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains will help you maintain a healthy weight.  Avoid refined sugars, fatty-fast food, junk food, and food that is high in sodium.
  • Improve flexibility- physical activities can be difficult when muscles are tight.  Tight muscles  require additional energy to get moving, which can lead to faster onset of fatigue.  So, improving your flexibility will improve your overall stamina... Be sure to stretch before & after exercise, try adding yoga to your daily life, to keep muscles limber all the time.
  • Stay hydrated- keeping your body hydrated is essential for it to function well, under any circumstance.  The old '8 glasses of water a day' rule, is still a good baseline for hydration.  Try to limit caffeinated drinks, like coffee, tea, and soda, which dehydrated you and can add unneeded sugar to your diet.
  • Get Active- for everyone who wants to improve their stamina in everyday life, getting active in any capacity will help.  Walking, swimming, playing golf, playing tennis, playing basketball, biking, or doing exercises at the gym are great ideas (there's an exercise for everyone) to get the heart & lungs pumping, which will improve your stamina.  *for athletes (beginners to elite)- incorporating interval training, sprints, and/or hill repeats to improve your stamina quickly and greatly.
  • Stabilize blood sugar- your brain is responsible for everything that goes on in your body, it sends signals constantly.  The brain runs on glucose, but has no way to store it.  When your blood sugar fluctuates too much, it does crazy things to the inside of your body and can affect your stamina.  When blood sugar levels are too high, the excess is stored as fat, which leads to weight gain and can decrease your stamina.  When your blood sugar drops, your brain has no fuel,  which causes fatigue and can affect your stamina.  Eat smaller meals, more frequent to help maintain a stable blood sugar throughout your day.

I hope these tips help to improve your stamina and your ability to get through daily life.  Whether you're an elite athlete or a professional couch potato... Remember a good stamina is an important part of healthy living and wellness.

No comments:

Post a Comment