This past month I have noticed a large drop in attendance both in my private training clients as well as my classes due to illness. Its ironic that even when we lead a healthy, active life, we sometimes still fall ill. We are striving to be the healthiest self we can be, and then all of our active life events stop. Regardless the reasons or trigger for our illness, we can put up our best defenses through appropriate exercise, nutrition and supplementation.
We train to recover and recover to train. This is the best route to maintaining abundant energy resources for a strong defense. Exercising within your own physical limits allows your body to use its energy stores for defenses while still maintaining the ability to recover from a hard workout. Overtraining can lead to physical burnout, exhaustion and lowered immunity. A thorough training program will allow for adequate progression while leaving enough resources for recovery.
Maintaining a healthy, nutrient-rich diet helps the body to work efficiently and recover faster from stressors like exercise and work stress. Utilizing nutrition and exercise together will improve body composition and removing excess fat/weight will also allow the body to heal faster from stressors. Stress reduction, both physical and mental, helps to maintain a higher immunity from illness.
Once taboo, the term supplementation used to be synonymous with unstudied and unsafe methods of curing severe ailments such as cancer. Recently, the studies and research on the efficacy of supplementation has shown how certain nutrients support the body’s various systems and aids in healing. Real nutritional supplementation helps to fill in the gaps that may be left from an inadequate and unhealthy nutrition program. Certain supplements have been shown to support the body’s defenses to infection. A diet deficient in these nutrients will have a higher risk for falling to illness over time.
Hydration allows all of these systems to work more efficiently together as well. We tell our clients to keep hydrated during and after workouts. This should really be enforced throughout the day as the body uses water to move nutrients through the blood. Water also helps with temperature regulation, digestion, brain function and so much more. When we are dehydrated, our defenses are lower making us more susceptible to infection.
At Carolina Gold Fitness, we emphasize nutrition and exercise to not only help improve health and wellness, but also as a means to ward off undue sickness. Not sure how all of this works together to keep you healthy? Contact us at 828.209.8776 and we can set you up for long term health.
