Finding the Nutrition to Support Your Exercise

Increasing the amount and intensity of exercise requires the nutritional support.

I lead an active physical life and support it with a mostly vegetarian diet. I get my important foods groups of salads, vegetable soups, grains, beans, and nuts. Getting the most important foods included would require most people to leave out the bad stuff they eat.

I live at the beach and surf most days. Surfing does not work the muscles like a gym work out where one runs the treadmill and lifts weights. It is more of a full body test against the resistance of the powerful ocean. One has to paddle which is upper body strength and stand up on a board which gives a little lower body and certainly core exercise.

But the most test comes from the pounding and tossing of big waves as you duck dive, fight rips and currents, and fight the resistance of currents when entering the ocean. I surf most nights with a marine in great shape learning to surf. Seeing how tired he gets is testimony to the difference in the physical demands.

At the beginning the paddling is exhausting in combination with getting pounded by the waves. It is amazing how much energy duck diving and getting tossed takes out of the body. I would need a days rest after surfing a few days in a row. My fit twenty year old daughter said her arms were going to fall off after five minutes of paddling.

When I started, I was also stretching, running stairs, and running on the beach. I have added more stretching, core exercises, upper body push ups, and skateboarding. I have also started surfing each day.

My ambition has been to add training and two sessions of surfing a day. Even with the right diet and a protein shake I was only consuming about 60 grams of protein a day for my 175 pound or 78 kilo body. I was lacking the after exercise energy I needed to live a normal life.

Success came from adding a more complete protein supplement with Branch Amino Acids and Glutamine. I all of a sudden had the energy needed to have a good surf session and have since added a second session a day. My energy inbetween is excellent.

Now I want to add a more rigorous exercise regimen as outlined in the Total Surfing Fitness program.  To get stronger at a sport you need to engage in the sport and then add the sport specific exercises that increase over all strength, stamina, flexibility, and mobility.  In other words, you need to exercise longer.  To exercise longer, you need the nutritional and recovery support of the right food and supplements.

Olympic skiing and surfing coaches work to create great athletes first and then specific skills second. One Olympic surfing coach includes an hour and a half of surfing each day followed by up to two hours of training a day.

Whether you are a walker, runner, biker, gym rat, skateboarder, or surfer, you have to have the energy and recovery to motivate yourself to get better. If you are too exhausted at the end of your routine, you will need to have more rest days. If you feel great at the end of your routine, you have achieved good nutritional balance.