For their daily training, athletes expend and require enormous amounts of energy. How do they do it?
Get to know Gary Wayne Hall Jnr, a previous two-time world record holder who won ten Olympic medals in 1996, 2000 and 2004.
Daily energy requirement for athletes
To maintain, lose or gain weight, athletes must consume sufficient energy or calories on a daily basis. Energy balance demands that solid food, liquids and supplements must equal energy expenditures [1].
Athletes cannot meet their performance and physical goals without adequate energy intake. Also, there can be a loss of lean tissue, which can result in lowered performance due to a decrease in endurance or power, or a decline in muscle mass.
However, taking in too many calories can prevent an athlete from achieving their body composition and performance goals. Our bodies store extra calories as fat yet lean muscle, and a low fat percentage is essential to an athlete’s performance in most sports. It’s safe to say that carrying around extra fat pounds will hinder an athlete’s performance.
Hall Jnr won two individual silver medals and two gold medals in the team relay at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta, followed by two further golds, a silver and a bronze at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and a gold and bronze at the 2004 Games in Athens. Moreover, he contributed to the setting of world records in both the 400m freestyle and 400m medley relays. Currently, this Olympic Hall of Fame inductee is working on healthcare initiatives.
Being more mindful of your health
Asked if he keeps fit to swim or swims to keep healthy, Hall Jnr says he loves being in the water and is in a pool almost daily. “It’s not the training that I did as an Olympic-caliber athlete. I’m maintaining health.” Moreover, he also plays tennis, describing it as more of a cardio workout than the light swimming he does. “Think old woman side stroke,” he laughs.
Athlete or not, life nowadays can get so busy, and it’s easy to overlook your wellbeing. Awareness of aspects like diet and how it can aid longevity can have long-term health support.
Supplement with MitoQ
Introducing MitoQ, founded in the 1990s at the University of Otago in New Zealand when mitochondrial specialist Professor Mike Murphy and biochemist Dr Robin Smith examined mitochondria and tried to deduce why antioxidant supplements, like CoQ10, were less productive than expected at supporting health. They discovered that regular antioxidants could not enter the mitochondria effectively, even after successfully penetrating the bloodstream.
The product was designed as the world’s first mitochondria-targeted antioxidant to empower individuals’ health and purpose. MitoQ is uniquely developed to address cell stress, letting you unlock more energy and providing faster recovery after exercise and healthier aging – authorising you to embrace life on your terms.
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What is the science behind this?
MitoQ has been tried in over 700 independent, reviewed papers including peer-reviewed in vitro, preclinical and clinical studies covering many health areas have recently been published to help benefit energy, exercise recovery, oxidative stress and more.
Mitochondria are metabolically active organelles that construct ROS or reactive oxygen species. It is believed that ROS-mediated damage to DNA stacks up over time and causes aging-associated phenotypes.
One way to increase longevity and delay biological aging is to decrease ROS-induced damage or improve DNA repair [2]. A systematic study to gauge the output of MitoQ on oxidative outcomes linked to the aging process provided a statistically considerable decline in nitrotyrosine concentration, a product of tyrosine nitration mediated by ROS . It signifies that MitoQ may be advantageous in relieving oxidative stress connected to aging [3].
MitoQ has been studied in 15 clinical trials. One of them indicated that MitoQ increases power outputs with high-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercise [4].
A supplement fit for you and recommended by athletes
Hall Jnr was introduced to MitoQ around four and a half years ago. He took CoQ10 as a world-ranked athlete and was aware of the significance of cell health. For him, an upgrade to something proven in this direction was welcome (MitoQ is based on CoQ10, but is made smaller and has a positive charge that enables it to be sucked through the hard-to-penetrate mitochindrial wall, where regular CoQ10 can’t effectively get).
“I’ve taken a lot of supplements through many years. With most, you don’t notice benefits. It’s a prophylactic against aging, just trying to proactively hold the line. But with MitoQ I noticed a difference within two weeks of taking it, a noticeable difference in all things human performance.”
Hall Jnr affirms that “MitoQ takes it to the next level.” After taking the supplement, he noticed fewer swings from high to low blood sugar levels. “The more consistent you can be in keeping your levels within a very specific range, the less likely they are to swing high or low”.
Hall Jnr adds that “MitoQ served as a kick starter to re-engaging a more active lifestyle, mitigating stress and getting me back to feeling my best. A chain reaction ensued. More energy means more physical activity. More physical activity means less stress. Less stress means a longer, happier, healthier life to enjoy with my kids. I’m sharper at work and generally feel better about myself.”
Overall health management
According to Hall Jnr: “Behavioral change is the most difficult change to make. Lifestyle modification is extremely difficult – it’s why New Year’s resolutions don’t work.
“We all have good intentions, it’s hard to stick with it. If there’s a nutritional supplement like MitoQ that can help you kick start that behavioural change and start incorporating more exercise, take advantage of it,” he continues.
On how he fights aging, he says: “Eating right, getting enough sleep and exercising is how I combat the aging process. Of course, MitoQ is part of my strategy toward better health. It provides the energy and vigour to tackle each day, no matter what it throws at me.”
Being surrounded by data people, working in medical research and managing overall health – “we’re talking left-brain sceptics,” says Hall Jnr. With respect to those dedicated to the field, he says he has learned to ask questions and seek out data. He explains that it’s the first thing he asked for upon introduction to MitoQ. “This usually scares away the snake oil types.”
What makes MitoQ different is that there were studies, trials, papers published, collaborations with respected medical institutions and doctors. “I passed the stuff off to brilliant colleagues who can decipher and break it down into understandable soundbites, under 45 seconds. Everything checked out. So I started taking the stuff. It has been a daily morning ritual ever since.”
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How can MitoQ help with longevity?
As Hall Jnr explains, you can scroll through social media and see some old classmates who “time has not been well to, while others look great.”
Does diet and exercise have something to do with it? Yes. Through scientific research, we have access to tools and resources proven to enhance cellular health, equivalent to defying aging. “In decidedly not scientific terms, MitoQ is like a super-grade fuel additive for a sports car.”
Hall Jnr has Type 1 diabetes. He emphasises the fact that stress raises blood sugar levels, so by managing stress, you manage blood sugar better. According to him, that disclaimer is his theory.
“There’s enough stress in the world,” he adds. “You want to talk about things that will make you age faster? Let’s start with that sly culprit, stress. I’d do anything I can to reduce stress in the world today.”
[1] https://training-conditioning.com/article/calculating-energy-needs/
[2] https://agmr.hapres.com/htmls/AGMR_1313_Detail.html
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30116495/
[4] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213231722001136?via%3Dihub
