Whether your goal at the gym is to improve muscle tone, increase cardio ability, get in shape or just to pursue a healthy lifestyle, you will need to improve both strength and stamina. To achieve a conditioning goal like this and keep building on your accomplishments, it’s advisable to plan out a clean eating diet that continuously fuels muscle rebuilding with amino acids from protein, while also replenishing your body’s stores of the carbohydrate energy known as glycogen.

Here are a few principles to keep in mind to support your training:

• Do short, intense workouts

• Make certain you are getting adequate sleep

• Never miss a meal

• Keep a food diary to monitor how much protein, carbs and fat you’re consuming from whole foods daily

Continue reading THE NUTRITIONAL DEMANDS OF IMPROVING FITNESS IN THE GYM →

If your gym keeps the weight room really warm, the temperature could affect your performance. That’s what a study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology suggests. Researchers compared how many leg extensions healthy male subjects could perform at room temperate to what they could manage after being immersed in 107 degree water right before exercise. The difference was a 36% quicker time to exhaustion.

True Strength Moment: While you probably aren’t using a hot tub before lifting, this research shows how heat can decrease your tolerance for exercise. Getting a run in or working on skills drills under a hot sun, or in an overheated gym, might get in the way of your reaching a new personal best. Remember to keep pace with hydration too, even if you’re trudging through winter snow.

If you’re watching what you eat, you already know that all fats are not the same. There’s the ‘good’ poly- and monounsaturated versus the ‘bad’ saturated and trans fats. The same is true of carbohydrates, where you have slow-burning carbs from whole grains versus the rapidly digesting simple sugars that can create energy spikes and crashes. A study published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience suggests varying your protein intake can be beneficial to mood and brain chemistry.

Brain neurotransmitters influence how we think and feel, and lacking certain amino acids can alter how these transmitters operate. Because the amino acid profiles of dairy proteins are different from meat and soy, you should try and get your daily protein intake from a variety of sources. For example, researchers found that the milk protein lactalbumin was very effective for stimulating serotonin synthesis while casein, another milk protein, had very little effect.

True Strength Moment: The essential amino acids might be crucial for muscle rebuilding, but the conditionally and nonessential amino acids have key roles in other important body functions. Including fish, meat, dairy and eggs in your diet will help cover your bases and maybe even contribute to a positive frame of mind for conquering physical goals.