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Research: The Science
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Fish Oil and Mental Health
Will Exercise Add Stress To My Immune System?
Taking Caffeine To Enhance Performance with Gabriel Martins
Gabriel Martins is a researcher at the University Camilo José Cela in Madrid where his research focuses on studying supplement contamination and the use of ergogenic aids in sports performance. He also works with cycling athletes and competing in both road cycling and mountain bike events.
On top of that, he hosts the fantastic podcast Fuel the Pedal – which is definitely worth checking out.
In This Episode We Discuss All Things Caffeine:
– Prevalence – how caffeine is one of the least used supplements.
– Dosage – what level you shouldn’t go above and how to control the dose you take.
– Efficacy – what sports does caffeine have the most evidence for being effective? Is there a difference between male and females?
– Individual response – can be ergolytic, not always ergogenic
– Timing – when do caffeine concentrations peak? Should you take it during exercise?
Download the Podcast and Subscribe Here:
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– Available with caffeine or caffeine-freeIf you are taking any prescribed medication or have any medical conditions ALWAYS consult your doctor or pharmacist BEFORE taking vitamins or supplements. Food supplements must not be used as a substitute for a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. If pregnant or lactating, ALWAYS consult your doctor before use. Or if you have any queries about any supplement ALWAYS consult a QUALIFIED medical professional.
Please click here to read our legal disclaimer on all products and advice.
Do You Need To Take Vitamin K2 With Vitamin D?
The Newest Endurance Supplement for Performance | Endurance Athletes
Could A Text Improve Your Workout?
A recent article in the Strength and Conditioning Journal (1) discussed the use of a simple method to help personal training clients hit their exercise goals – a text message. Could this easy method help people keep up with their gym plan though?
The author of the article (Justin Kompf) first highlights that people’s ability to adopt and maintain an exercise program is based on two primary things;
- Do they feel confident enough in their ability to be able to do the exercise?
- Can they plan, manage, and monitor their exercise?
A Message A Day?
Signing up to a personal trainer is one thing but for most people, it is impossible to pay for a PT for more than once or twice a week. How then, can PTs help clients exercise more often? Enter the text message. SMS messaging and Whatsapp have made contacting clients quick and easy. A 2013 systematic-review of 10 studies concluded that text messages showed early promise for promoting physical activity. But, isn’t this something most PTs will be doing already? Maybe. If you are, do more than just do it as a token gesture. Make sure to consider the following 3 factors;
Content
Do you know what sort of messages your clients want? Ask them. Then tailor your content. If the client lacks the confidence to carry out the exercise, motivational messages are the way to go. However, if they lack the organisation skills, these same motivational messages will be ineffective. In this instance, messages that serve as reminders, or provide a “plan B” in case something comes up in your client’s day, will be the better option.
Automaticity
Clients are likely to start ignore texts that feel automated. A 2015 study (2) showed that, if people found out that the messages they received were automated, they stopped reading them.
Frequency
Try and find the sweet spot in how often you are reaching out to them. This is completely personal and changes from person to person. For example, while 50% of participants in one study (2) felt that 3 messages a day were too many, the other half did not feel as negatively about receiving messages this often. In another study of older adults (3), 13 of the 18 participants thought that 5 messages per week are too many and the remaining 5 thought this was fine.
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If personal training clients want to exercise outside of their paid sessions, it is the trainers job to guide them, help prescribe sessions that are tailored to their needs, and then give them the confidence and organisation to see these plans through. Some of the factors laid out above should then be considered before hitting the send button on a text message. Equally, the success of these messages should be reviewed. Do they evoke the behaviour change they are setting out to help.
For more information about habits and behaviour change, make sure to check out our podcast episode with Karl Morris.
PRP Podcast: Learning & Maintaining Habits
– How And Why We Form Habits.
– Why It Is So Difficult To Break Old Habits.
– The Most Important Period When Your Trying New Behaviours
References
1 – Kompf, J. (2019). The Use of Text Messages for Exercise Behavior Change Techniques. Strength & Conditioning Journal, 41(6), 87-90.
2 – Wang JB, Cadmus-Bertram LA, Madanat H, and Ayala GX. Wearable sensor/device (fitbit one) and SMS-text messaging prompts to increase physical activity in overweight and obese adults: A randomized controlled trial. Telemed J E Health 21: 782–792, 2015.
3 – Mu¨ller MA, Khoo S, and Morris T. Text messaging for exercise promotion in older adults from an upper-middle-income country: Randomized Controlled Trial. J Med Internet Res 18: e5, 2016.
If you are taking any prescribed medication or have any medical conditions ALWAYS consult your doctor or pharmacist BEFORE taking vitamins or supplements. Food supplements must not be used as a substitute for a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. If pregnant or lactating, ALWAYS consult your doctor before use. Or if you have any queries about any supplement ALWAYS consult a QUALIFIED medical professional.
Please click here to read our legal disclaimer on all products and advice.
Could this pill packed with good bacteria really fight your flab?
Beating The Festive Hangover
Learning and Maintaining Habits | PGA Golf Tour | Karl Morris
Karl Morris has worked with over 100 PGA Tour, European Tour, LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour players including six major winners including Louis Oosthuizen, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke. He is the co-author of a number of books including; ’The Lost Art of Putting’ as well as previous books. ‘Attention –the secret to YOU playing great golf’ and ‘Golf –The Mind Factor’ with Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke. His passion is to provide golfers of all levels with simple and effective tools to get the very best from their game. His Mind Factor seminars have been presented all over the world to the PGA’s of Australia, Sweden, South Africa, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland and Belgium.
He also presents his own podcast series called ‘The Brain Booster‘
In This Episode Dr. Jamie Pugh Covers:
– How and why we form habits
– Why it is so difficult to break old habits
– The most important period when you’re trying to form new behaviours
– What tactics Karl uses with PGA golfers for when things start to go wrong
Download the Podcast and Subscribe:
If you are taking any prescribed medication or have any medical conditions ALWAYS consult your doctor or pharmacist BEFORE taking vitamins or supplements. Food supplements must not be used as a substitute for a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. If pregnant or lactating, ALWAYS consult your doctor before use. Or if you have any queries about any supplement ALWAYS consult a QUALIFIED medical professional.
Please click here to read our legal disclaimer on all products and advice.
Thriving Through The Festive Period
Don’t stop exercising
With Christmas concert, Christmas shopping and office parties, it’s easy to get out of the habit of regular training. If you know you won’t have time to train in the evening, get up and get it done in the morning. Struggle to wake up in time? Take training clothes with you to the office. Commit to exercising for a minimum of 15 minutes each day. But, ideally commit to sticking to a training schedule, even if it is altered from your regular plan to accommodate festive activities.
Don’t forget your pre-workout to get the most from your training, especially when energy levels start to wade as the month goes on.
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Get enough sleep
Not getting enough sleep can negatively affect our appetite and response to food (1), make us more likely to get a cough or cold (2) and generally leave us with lower energy levels. So while there are going to be some late nights, try to get into a good night time routine when you can, and aim for 7-9 hours sleep per night.
We’ve written all about the benefits magnesium can have on sleep quality, take a look at our Magnesium Relax, which contains minerals and antioxidants to help aid relaxation.
Magnesium Relax
– Contains minerals and antioxidants to help aid relaxation (1)
– Help reduce the feeling of tiredness and fatigue (2)
– 100% natural containing no relaxation drugs or pharmaceuticals
– Highly absorbable forms of magnesium
– Combination of magnesium, chromium picolinate & alpha lipoic acid
Look after your wellbeing and mental health
Christmas can be a difficult time for many reasons. It can be lonely for some.It can be a time where we compare what we have to others. It can be stressful dealing with all of the things that need organising. With all this and more, Christmas can have a negative impact on our wellbeing and mental health.
So it is important to take time for yourself. Share the burden with others. Equally, make sure that you are there for your loved ones in case they are starting to feel the strain. Simply asking, “are you ok?”, can make a huge difference.
Take a look at our Well-being pack with supplements hand-picked to help stress and anxiety as well as exclusive access to our well-being hub
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– EXCLUSIVE access to Well Being Hub containing infomation, tips and tricks for mental well-being
– Supplements included to help contribute to normal psychological function(3), brain function(5) and to contribute to the reduction of tiredness & fatigue(2)
Don’t neglect your fruit and veg
Christmas usually means boxes of biscuits and tubs of chocolates floating around the office. Before you know it, your entire diet has taken a downward turn and you’re making unhealthy decisions more often than not. While there are plenty of ways to keep on top of things, sticking to some of the basics can go along way. Aiming to maintain your 5 a day can help you make better decisions when it comes to snacking, cooking, or eating out. Try making sure to prepare tasty salads for lunch at work. Get a hearty stew in the slow cooker to keep you going for a couple of days. Load them up with vegetables to help keep you full and topped up on the vitamins and minerals you need.
Struggling to get your 5 a day? Try one one of our green vegetable powders
Greens Powders
– Contains 10 super green foods with added pre & probiotics
– Supports the immune system (1)
– Source of Vitamin B12 to maintain energy levels (2)
– Source of Iron which supports mental function (3)
Keep colds at bay
One of the last things we want is to have to get through the festive period with a runny nose, cough, or more severe cold symptoms. Although there has never been a definitive explanation as to why we might be more at risk during the colder months, there are some evidence-based recommendations as to how we can reduce either the number of colds we encounter or how long they last.
- Wash your hands. Use disinfectant wipes on telephone and computer keyboards to prevent the transfer of viruses.
- Avoid close contact with sick people. And stay home if you have a cough and fever. Cover coughs and sneezes with tissues or the crook of your arm.
- Get plenty of sleep. Sleep-deprived volunteers in one study mustered half the immune response to a flu shot compared with those getting normal sleep.
- Eating well, exercising regularly, and reducing stress may also bolster immunity.
- If you smoke, quit. Smokers are vulnerable to the flu and its complications.
Vitamin C has been shown to boost immune function and reduce the duration of colds. Have a look at our Vitamin C Plus powder
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Preempt and treat hangovers
Finally, it is the season to be jolly. So it would be not be a complete list without considering hangovers. We don’t know the exact reason why people have hangovers after drinking too much alcohol. A number of mechanisms have been suggested but there is still some debate. This is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to completely treat hangovers. The best we can do is limit our alcohol consumption and/or treat the symptoms of a hangover. Surprisingly enough, there have been a couple of research studies that have looked at different interventions to reduce hangover symptoms. One of the ones that had some benefit on hangover was daily consumption of dandelion extract (3) (one of the ingredients in our Liver and Kidney Cleanse Powder).
You also need to make sure you stay hydrated – both on the night out and the day after.
Liver & Kidney Cleanse
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References
1 – McNeil, J., Forest, G., Hintze, L. J., Brunet, J. F., Finlayson, G., Blundell, J. E., & Doucet, É. (2017). The effects of partial sleep restriction and altered sleep timing on appetite and food reward. Appetite, 109, 48-56.
2 – Wentz LM, Ward MD, Potter C, et al. Increased risk of upper respiratory infection in military recruits who report sleeping less than 6 h per night. Mil Med. 2018;183(11–12):e699–704.
3 – Jayawardena, R., Thejani, T., Ranasinghe, P., Fernando, D., & Verster, J. C. (2017). Interventions for treatment and/or prevention of alcohol hangover: Systematic review. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 32(5), e2600.
If you are taking any prescribed medication or have any medical conditions ALWAYS consult your doctor or pharmacist BEFORE taking vitamins or supplements. Food supplements must not be used as a substitute for a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. If pregnant or lactating, ALWAYS consult your doctor before use. Or if you have any queries about any supplement ALWAYS consult a QUALIFIED medical professional.
Please click here to read our legal disclaimer on all products and advice.