You heard about the ZEO back on Podcast #86 and now Lance Armstrong's Radio Shack Pro Cycling Team is using the ZEO to measure and hopefully improve the quality and amount of sleep each rider is getting.
It doesn't matter how much you exercise, how well you eat, or how strictly you control your caloric intake — your body is constantly stressed or your sleep is inadequate, you will constantly fail in pursuing your health, wellness, or performance goals. But if these barriers are removed, you will vastly improve your ability to gain maximum benefits from a good nutrition plan.
As you explain the importance of stress and sleep to your class, here is what to tell them:
The body has several neurotransmitters that are actively involved in control of appetite and mental motivation. Dopamine, one neurotransmitter, is your body's pleasure molecule, acting to significantly affect desire for activity, eating satisfaction and food cravings. Inadequate dopamine increases the chances that you will have a decreased drive to exercise and be less effective at regulating your nutritional intake.
It starts with a good breakfast!
For your class to truly reap the full benefits of any workout, they must fuel and re-fuel properly — and a full understanding of pre and post-workout nutrition is one of the best gifts you can give your indoor cycling students!
It is important to understand that if the body’s carbohydrate stores are depleted, then fewer overall calories are burnt during the workout, more stress hormones are released during and after the workout, and the overall fitness response is hampered. Furthermore, if carbohydrate and protein levels are not replaced within 20-60 minutes following the workout (shorter periods of time applicable to individuals with higher metabolisms), then recovery is diminished, and a crucial window of time for the muscles to uptake sugar and proteins into muscle is missed.
Despite this fact, many students feel that in order to lose weight or burn fat, they must starve themselves both before and after their indoor cycling session. These individuals must be reminded that they are slowing their progress and wasting much of their workout benefit.
The best place to begin teaching your class about pre and post-workout nutrition is to give them several simple rules to follow: