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Athletic performance was assessed after each regularly scheduled swim practice. After obtaining extra sleep, athletes swam a 15-meter meter sprint 0.51 seconds faster, reacted 0.15 seconds quicker off the blocks, improved turn time by 0.10 seconds and increased kick strokes by 5.0 kicks.

The study also monitored daytime sleepiness and weekly changes in mood

 Daytime sleepiness decreased significantly with extra sleep, while mood improvements related to getting extra sleep included higher ratings of vigor and lower ratings of fatigue.

Typically, many athletes accumulate a large sleep debt by not obtaining their individual sleep requirement each night, which can have detrimental effects on cognitive function, mood, and reaction time

These negative effects can be minimized or eliminated by prioritizing sleep in general and, more specifically, obtaining extra sleep to reduce one’s sleep debt.”

Mah and colleagues reported similar results in a previous study of six players on the Stanford men’s basketball team

also has worked with the football, tennis, golf, cross country, and track and field teams at Stanford.

It is interesting to note that many of the athletes in the various sports I have worked with, including the swimmers in this study

Make sleep a part of your regular training regimen.

Extend nightly sleep for several weeks to reduce your sleep debt before competition.

Maintain a low sleep debt by obtaining a sufficient amount of nightly sleep (seven to eight hours for adults, nine or more hours for teens and young adults).

Keep a regular sleep-wake schedule, going to bed and waking up at the same times every day.

Take brief naps to obtain additional sleep during the day, especially if drowsy.

Second, use any extra time you have in school to work on your homework

Many schools have study halls that are specifically designed to allow students to study or get homework done

It's tempting to hang out with friends during study periods or unstructured time, but the more work you can get done in school, the less you'll have to do that night.

Third, pace yourself

If you don't finish your homework during school, think about how much you have left and what else is going on that day, and then budget your time

Most high-school students have between 1 and 3 hours of homework a night.

adults need 8 1/4 hours.

How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect the Teen-ager?

Sleep deprivation can impair memory an

inhibit creativity making it difficult for sleep deprived students to learn.

endanger their immune system and make them more suceptible to serious illnesses

Stay away from caffeine

Avoid heavy studying or computer games before bed, they can be arousing. Avoid arguing with your adolescent just before bedtime. Avoid trying to sleep with a computer or TV flickering in the room. Avoid bright light in the evening, but open blinds or turn on lights as soo

Avoid trying to sleep with a computer or TV flickering in the room.

Avoid heavy studying or computer games before bed, they can be arousing.

Note: Sleep experts consider adolescents to be between the ages of 11 and 22.

Studies show that the changes taking place in their bodies requires more sleep and they may be physically challenged to getting up early in the morning.

According to estimates in the study, the annual cost of broad-based prevention strategies tackling obesity and other health threats, such as alcohol consumption, smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol, would be less than $2 per person per year in India

Upto 4,42,000 life years could be gained through a combination of prevention programmes in India every year. The cost-effectiveness ratio of a prevention strategy would be $268 per life year gained in good health in India

Obesity is the root for several non-communicable diseases (NCDs)

Another study in the Lancet on Thursday predicts that by 2030, nearly 70% of all global deaths will be from non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, and respiratory and heart disease. Of these 70% of deaths, 80% will be in the less wealthy nations like India.

Nuts will help you get the abs you want by keeping you fuller longer. A study at Purdue University showed those who ate nuts felt fuller for longer periods than those who ate rice cakes, Quick & Simple reports. Don't overindulge with nuts, though, because they are high in calories and fat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also instructs you to avoid salted nuts, because they exceed the agency's recommendations for daily sodium intake.

Adolescents should obtain 13 percent to 14 percent of their entire calorie intake from protein. If an adolescent weightlifter's diet contains 3,000 calories, 14 percent of the total calories would be 428 cal.

diet containing protein-rich foods such as eggs, lean meats, beans, nuts and low fat cheese and milk easily fulfills the young weightlifter's requirements.

The National Kidney Association cites studies showing accelerated kidney damage in diabetics on high protein diets.

However, Body Building For You suggests that athletes regularly exceed protein requirements with no adverse effects, and that no study ever scientifically proved that high protein diets are dangerous to healthy individuals.

n 1998, "Journal of Nutrition" reported excessive protein metabolism encouraging calcium loss through excretion, yet in 2003 the same journal suggested that calcium is not always lost, possibly because phosphorous helps to enable calcium re-uptake by the kidneys -- at least in people with no prior health problems.

hus, protein supplements may not harm the young weightlifter, even if those supplements contribute to protein intake beyond recommended levels.

Still, two concerns remain: one is financial loss at the expense of weight gain. Expensive protein supplements are unnecessary if the young weightlifter includes protein-rich foods in every meal.

Another danger is hidden ingredients. Some of the most respected Olympian weightlifters have tested positive for banned drugs or steroids hidden in nutritional supplements that they believed to be protein or energy supplements.

Some cause physical and sexual characteristics to alter, and some hasten cancer. In short, young weightlifters aspiring to world-class competition must exercise the utmost responsibility regarding nutrition. It is never too early to start such discipline.

Sleep (deficit) built up over just five nights can significantly stress the heart

Many students believe that it's a "rite of passage" to stay up all night during college and that "it's kind of fun," Thacher says.

A study this summer in the journal SLEEP examined the heart conditions of 39 adults, ages 22 to 45, whose heart rates were tested twice — the morning after a 10-hour sleep and then again after five consecutive four-hour sleeps — using a portable monitor.

if you use all-nighters, your GPA is slightly lower on average,

"You can't do your best work when you're sleep-deprived

"It's not common knowledge, because if people understood how much of a difference (getting more sleep) could make athletically," they'd incorporate it more into their lives and not focus solely on nutrition and exercise.

It is shocking that one in five 14 and 15 year olds has high blood pressure

They are at risk of developing long-term health effects such as premature heart disease and type 2 diabetes.”

High blood pressure is the leading cause of stroke and a major risk factor for heart disease.

The teens’ elevated cholesterol rates had the greatest increase, accelerating from nine to 16 per cent in six years. “An increase of this magnitude in this age group is astonishing,” says Dr. Abramson. “These risk factor levels will continue to increase and track into adulthood unless we do something now. These children are in grave danger.”

With changing technologies, we to need to exercise our bodies more than our brains

Over 50 per cent of Canadian children between the ages of five and 17 aren’t active enough to support optimal health and development – and over a quarter of our children and youth are overweight or obese.” 

They don’t do any better on the nutrition front: only half get the daily recommended amount of fruit and vegetables.

More and more people are starting to recognize physical activity as one of the most promising means to prevent cognitive impairment and dementia.

The study was published Wednesday appears in the July issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The women reported on their participation in regular physical activity as teens, at ages 30 and 50, and in late life. Their cognition was evaluated using a standardized test, and those who performed well below the average were classified as cognitively impaired

People who were active at teen age had a greater reduction in their risk of cognitive impairment compared to any of the other ages,

Physical activity can be fun and engaging, and we have to convince people of that in order to prevent some of these diseases of old age

Exercise benefits every part of the body, including the mind.

help a person to feel more peaceful and happy

exercise is one of the most important parts of keeping your body at a healthy weight

Exercise helps people lose weight and lower the risk of some diseases.

These diseases, which used to be found mostly in adults, are becoming more common in teens.

Exercise can help a person age well.

Studies have found that weight-bearing exercise, like jumping, running or brisk walking, can help girls (and guys!) keep their bones strong.

three components to a well-balanced exercise routine are: aerobic exercise, strength training, and flexibility training.

So don't be too quick to dismiss that apparently lazy teenager, doddering senior or dissolute employee -- there may be sleep-health issues lurking in the background.

Students, workaholics, hassled parents and diehard partiers listen up -- a single all-nighter or a week of four or five hours sleep per night impairs your mental and physical performance as if you had a blood alcohol level of about 0.1, over the legal limit of 0.08 for driving in British Columbia.

ncomplete proteins come from "plant products", beans, rice, etc. They must be combined in order to supply the body with the 9 essential amino acids it needs. Ladies and gentlemen, now that you see how important consuming protein is let's look at how much should be consume and what types.

The world health organization and many national health agencies have independently conducted studies, which (even though they differ slightly) all conclude our daily protein requirement should be between 10% to 15% of our daily caloric intake. If you eat 2000 calories a day that equates to 50 to 75 grams of protein.

Protein needs of individuals vary in nature. To estimate your personal protein needs you will need to take your current weight in pounds, divide it in half and then subtract 10. The result is a rough estimate of how much protein you should consume.

If you do not already do so, read food lables, then buy your food uncooked and cook it healthfully. If you do not take anything else from this article that last sentence is paramount.

your schedule is hectic and you are just too busy and do not have time to eat high protein foods then bars and powders can be substituted. A lot of bars on the market are loaded with other "not so good" man made additives, trans fats, aspartame, saturated fat content (over 3.5g), etc.

A:  First, let me emphasize that our bodies already produce creatine naturally.  Did you ever watch the transformers when you were a kid?  Well if not, there were groups of robots called " combiners. "  They would join together and form an even larger and more massive robot, crushing everything in their paths!  Our liver does the same thing with the three amino acids, Arginine, Glycine and Methionine.  It combines them to form creatine, much like the constructicons combined to form devastator!  Ok so that was a lame example, but it explains the process quite nicely.  

Q: What exactly does creatine do?

1. Creatine works mainly to increase our Creatine Phosphate System

2. Increases The Pump!

3. Increases The Reparation Process of Bodybuilding.

Q: How exactly does Creatine Apply to An Athlete?

A:  Simple, it does so by enhancing your creatine phosphate energy system.  This does a number of things: 1.  Increases explosion - Most athletes notice more explosiveness after utilizing this supplement 2.  Allows yourself to push yourself harder and longer. 

Q: What are the side effects of Creatine, and in General how safe is it? A:  As stated above, creatine is not, and I repeat not a hormone.  Therefore it does not have the side effects associated with any Prohormone or illegal steroid. There have been hundreds of studies done on creatine that all show that it is a safe supplement. To further prove its safety two an a half million kilograms of creatine were consumed in the United States alone in 1999!  That statistic alone speaks volumes about the safety and efficiency of this supplement!  Not only that, but creatine has been the number one supplement on the market for almost a decade and no one has reported any adverse side effects from it. ( aside from the ones I listed above. )

: I don't workout, but do you think that creatine will build muscles and help me to lose fat?

No!  If you don't workout I cannot imagine what supplement would help you.  Creatine provides your muscles with more short term energy - but that is wasted if you do not exercise them. If you take creatine you should push yourself even harder in the gym. The idea is with more energy you should be able to workout harder. A harder workout leads to increased muscle mass.

Q: Since Creatine makes you gain weight should I not take it on a cut?

Yes, creatine causes your body to hold water, but that is a good thing!  The fact that your muscles are super hydrated even on a cut is fantastic.  I see absolutely no correlation between taking creatine and our body storing fat.  If anything, creatine will assist us in maintaining more lean mass while dieting.  In my mind there is no point to discontinuing the use of creatine while trying to burn fat.

Can I take Creatine and Protein at the same time?

Firstly, protein is a food product.  If you couldn't take creatine and protein at the same time, then you would have to be a strict vegetarian and still you would end out consuming around 40 grams a day just from normal foods.  To top this off, creatine is not much use without a significant protein intake.  What is the point of pushing your muscles further than they are used to, if you are not going to provide the amino acids necessary for their repair?  

Which supplement is Better Creatine or Protein?

:  ( I probably get asked this question at least once a day through email.)  Amino acids are the building blocks of our muscles.  If you do not get enough than there is no point to working out.  Creatine is an outstanding supplement, but if you have to choose from getting at least 1 gram a day of protein or getting your creatine then opt for the protein.  However I do want to stress that creatine is an excellent supplement.  In fact for assistance in muscular gains I would rate it second only to whey.

Do you feel that creatine is cheating?  I want to earn my muscles the hard way and don't want to cheat to get them.

( I can't stand these types of questions!!! )  Yes, you would be cheating.  You would be cheating yourself out of great gains by not supplementing with it!

s there anything I can take to make creatine a more effective supplement?

The first thing I would like to emphasize is that creatine will not work if you are not properly hydrated!  It relies heavily on this, so you must drink tons of water, if you want optimal results from it.  Super hydrating your body will also improve your weight room pumps tremendously!

What is the best method, dose wise, of taking creatine?

For creatine to produce optimal results, muscle stores must be topped off or saturated with it.  To accomplish this you need to load the creatine for 5 days at 20-25 grams, spread out throughout the day into 4-5 servings.  This is the quickest and in my opinion the " best " way to saturate your muscles with creatine.  Following this phase, all you need is to take 5-10 grams a day to maintain your saturation levels.  After this, any creatine you take will be excreted as creatinine.

Do I need to Cycle Creatine?

My recommendation is to load for 5 days, followed by a 5-10 gram maintenance dosage for 4-6 weeks.  Following this, there are two particular strategies: 1.  You can take one to two weeks off and then start the cycle over.  Many athletes attest to receiving a better results this way.  2.  However, several athletes will never come off of it.  They will load it for 5 days, maintain for a few weeks and then reload again.  This is increasingly becoming the more popular method of usage.

Based on the findings of this study, exercise early in the morning leads to better sleep.

Exercising in the morning energizes you for the day—not to mention that gratifying feeling of virtue you have knowing you’ve done something disciplined and good for you

Studies have shown that exercise significantly increases mental acuity—a benefit that lasts four to ten hours after your workout ends. Exercising in the a.m. means you get to harness that brainpower, instead of wasting it while you’re snoozing.

Assuming you make exercise a true priority, it shouldn’t be a major problem to get up 30 to 60 minutes earlier—especially since regular exercise generally means a higher quality of sleep, which in turn means you’ll probably require less sleep.

When you exercise at about the same time every morning—especially if you wake up regularly at about the same time—you’re regulating your body's endocrine system and circadian rhythms. Your body learns that you do the same thing just about every day, and it begins to prepare for waking and exercise several hours before you actually open your eyes. That’s beneficial because:  Your body’s not “confused” by wildly changing wake-up times, which means waking up is much less painful. (You may even find that you don’t need an alarm clock most days.) Hormones prepare your body for exercise by regulating blood pressure, heart rate, blood flow to muscles, etc. Your metabolism, along with all the hormones involved in activity and exercise, begin to elevate while you're sleeping. As a result, you’ll feel more alert, energized, and ready to exercise when you do wake up.  Many people find that morning exercise has a tendency to regulate their appetite for the rest of the day. Not only do they eat less (since activity causes the release of endorphins, which in turn diminishes appetite), they also choose healthier portions of healthier foods.  People who consistently exercise find, sometimes to their great surprise, that the appointed time every morning evolves into something they look forward to. Besides the satisfaction of taking care of themselves, they find it’s a great time to plan their day, pray, or just think more clearly—things most of us often don’t get to do otherwise.  Exercising first thing in the morning is the most foolproof way to ensure that other things don’t overtake your fitness commitment, particularly if you have a hectic family life. (It’s so easy to wimp out in the evening, when we’re tired or faced with such tasks as rustling up dinner and helping with homework.)  More than 90% of those who exercise consistently have a morning fitness routine. If you want to exercise on a regular basis, the odds are in your favor if you squeeze your workout into the a.m.  Non-morning people can always trick themselves in the a.m. Having trouble psyching yourself up for a sunrise jog? Do what I did—tell yourself that you’ll still be so fast asleep that you won’t even remember—much less mind!  

s the first of it's kind to prove that exercise during work hours has mental, as well as physical benefits.

Critically, workers performed significantly better on exercise days and across all three areas we measured, known as mental-interpersonal, output and time demands.'

Secondly, it is persistent, so an exercise addict exercises too much and for too long without giving the body a chance to recover

exercise addicts exercise for hours every day, regardless of fatigue or illness

Exercise addiction is probably the most contradictory of all the addictions

Exercise is even promoted as part of a complete program of recovery from other addictions

exercise addiction is a controversial idea. Many experts balk at the idea that excessive exercise can constitute an addiction, believing that there has to be a psychoactive substance that produces symptoms -- such as withdrawal -- for an activity to be a true addiction

exercise releases endorphins (opioids produced within the body), and excessive exercise causes tolerance to the hormones and neurotransmitters released, these physiological processes are often not considered comparable to other substance addictions.

Exercise addiction is not currently included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), the gold standard for psychological diagnoses, although several authors have suggested diagnostic criteria

Sufferers of exercise bulimia use excessive exercise to purge or compensate for eating binges or simply regular eating, often working out multiple times per day or for three or four hours at a time

Deep down, this disorder has more to do with control than it does the desire to fit into a smaller size of jeans

The scary thing about an addiction to exercise is that it creeps up gradually, usually among everyday people who start exercising, feel good afterward, revel in the calories they're burning, have a desire to get healthier or lose weight, and therefore start believing that more is better

Oftentimes, people who develop an exercise compulsion don't feel like there's anything wrong with what they do

Compulsive exercisers build their lives around working out and are genuinely distressed if they can't exercise as much as they feel they need to (or should be)

Exercise bulimia is similar, but involves eating binges. People who suffer from exercise bulimia often binge on food and then exercise obsessively to make up for it. Exercise becomes a way to control calories, justify eating, and punish oneself for eating too much or eating the "wrong" things.

In general, exercising for up to 60-90 minutes, most days of the week is reasonable and healthy for most people as long as recovery and downtime is built in.

Exercise is usually a good thing, but rest and recovery are very important, too

Excessive exercise can weaken the body and cause a host of problems, including: Fatigue Suppressed immune system Lack of menstruation (amenorrhea) in women due to a lack of body fat Reproductive problems Heart problems (such as muscle wasting and rhythm problems) Dehydration Arthritis Osteoporosis Stress fractures and sprains Kidney failure

Getting a Diagnosis

Compulsive exercise and exercise bulimia can affect both men and women of all ages, races, body types and weights.

A doctor may ask if the person is exercising and get the right answer (yes), never knowing the extent to which the patient is actually jeopardizing his or her health by taking exercise to the extreme

A physician may first suspect a problem if a woman stops menstruating due to a drop in body fat, which affects estrogen levels, but the condition may be virtually undetectable in men whose body fat levels can be much lower without creating any health problems.

Treatment Options

Studies have found that sufferers often come from families where food was used as a way of controlling behavior and battles surrounding food were common

Traditional treatments for exercise bulimia include support groups, cognitive behavior therapy, psychotherapy, and/or medication, such as anti-depressants.

On the other hand some teens will find it too difficult to have a job and go to school and they will cut corners, skip their homework and eventually their academic achievements will drop.

You also need to consider if this will influence the extracurricular activities of your teenage

If your teen can’t handle both it doesn’t mean that your teen should only focus on school and skip having a job, just encourage him to look around and find a more appropriate job position.

Juggling two great responsibilities is hard work for adults, let alone teens.