Practiced for many centuries around the world, yoga has several benefits to the human body, one of which is that it helps reduce your blood pressure. Performing yoga asanas (poses) requires focus on your body’s movements rather than on your otherwise busy life. By switching your thoughts to a present (or “mindful”) state, you are better able to achieve calmness and relaxation, which has been shown to help lower your heart rate and blood pressure. For more extensive discussions on yoga and its benefits, read this Yoga for Health article from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and this article on the HPRC website.

Vitamin E has been in the news lately, mostly regarding its use in preventing prostate cancer. Recent findings suggest it actually may increase prostate cancer risk instead. For additional information, read HPRC’s Answer about vitamin E and prostate cancer risk.

If you exercise in the cold, consider these tips from the American Council of Exercise (ACE; Exercising in the Cold) to stay safe. Check how cold it is before you go out, and do not exercise if the conditions are too extreme. Be sure to dress warmly (keep your head, hands, and feet warm) and dress in layers that can trap insulating dry air near your skin. In addition, avoid blowing air into your gloves and mittens because it will add moisture, which will cause your hands to be colder. For more detailed information, you can read the original American College of Sports Medicine position stand: prevention of cold injuries during exercise.

In order to optimize your health and physical fitness, you should consume a balanced diet as recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to the USDA, you should limit consumption of sodas and trans-fat foods; replace solid fats with oils such as olive, canola, and safflower oils; reduce intake of added sugars and sodium; replace refined grains with whole grains; limit your alcohol intake; increase your intake of vegetables, fruits, and fat-free or low-fat milk; and replace some of the meat or poultry in your diet with seafood. More details and guidelines can be found on HPRC’s Nutrition domain, especially the recent articles on the new USDA MyPlate program and online availability of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

How many times have you seen a player miss an easy, game-winning free throw or field goal despite intense concentration?  A study in Current Directions in Psychological Science describes how over-thinking can lead to poor performance under pressure. It’s called choking. The study identified four specific performance areas that can be affected when pressure causes a person’s focus of attention to change: movement variability, multi-joint coordination, movement economy, and motor-control strategy.

Movement variability involves changes in consistency of step-by-step movements. For example, the placement of a kicker’s foot changes from kick to kick when attempting a field goal.

Multi-joint coordination affects how in sync your joints are when you perform a task. For example, when you shoot a basketball, your shoulder, elbow, wrist, and fingers should work together effectively to make the shot. If you’re too tense, your joints don’t work together as well, and the shot to go awry.

Movement economy happens when you use fewer movements to perform a task. For example, under pressure a swimmer may use more arm strokes than usual, effectively shortening his or her glide.

Motor-control strategy helps you decide which strategy is best while performing a task. For example, pressure could make you decide to position your feet close together rather than in a wider, more effective stance while lifting heavy weights.

In high-pressure situations, the mechanics of performing the task often become altered due to increased anxiety. To avoid anxiety getting the better of you in high-pressure situations, calm down your stress response—try one to three deep breaths. Visualize the steps needed to be successful. Another strategy you can use to prepare is to practice under pressure, such as competing with a buddy to identify which performance area is altered, allowing you to correct the affected area.

The Paleo Diet, also known as the Paleolithic or Caveman Diet, is based on the notion that by consuming what humans ate during the Paleolithic Era—wild animals, plants, eggs, tree nuts, vegetables, roots, fruits, and berries—we will be healthier, have lower disease risk, and live longer. Hunters/gatherers during that time had to rely on what was available and had no agriculture. But what are the implications of this type of diet for the athlete, let alone the average individual?

Foods that were grown and introduced after the Agricultural Revolution (roughly 10,000 years ago) are not allowed in the Paleo Diet. That means dairy and dairy products, grains, and legumes (beans, peas, and lentils) are excluded. Proponents of the Paleo Diet believe that we are “genetically programmed” to follow the diet of the hunters/gatherers. A specific book has been written for athletes who want to follow this diet, which accommodate athletes by allowing some carbohydrates: The authors present five stages of eating for the athlete to follow, based on the glycemic index (GI; how quickly food raises blood glucose levels). The stages are: (1) eating before exercise, (2) during exercise, (3) and 30 minutes after exercise, and (4) during post-exercise extended recovery and (5) long-term recovery. Low- to moderate-GI carbohydrates are recommended at least two hours prior to exercise. Sports drinks or high-GI carbohydrates are recommended for exercise lasting longer than 60 minutes. Immediately after exercise a recovery drink with carbohydrate and protein in a 4:1 to 5:1 ratio is recommended. Stage IV recovery foods (extended recovery) should be a 4:1 to 5:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio, with carbohydrates such as raisins, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams. Stage V recommends focusing on eating from the main Paleo Diet, with carbohydrates coming from fruits and vegetables. So one could argue that the Paleo Diet for Athletes is like most diets for athletes in that it requires carbohydrates. However, the Paleo Diet for Athletes is higher in protein and fat and lower in carbohydrates than what is recommended for athletes by most health professionals.

What we do know from scientific research is that carbohydrates provide the energy needed for endurance and resistance training, competitive athletic events, mental agility, and healthy living. Complex carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables, whole-grain pasta, rice and grains, beans, and other legumes contribute to an overall healthy eating plan. By limiting consumption of some of these to only a brief time after exercise, the athlete runs the risk of not having enough fuel for the body, so the body will use protein for energy. Low-fat dairy products also contribute to a healthy lifestyle, providing much-needed calcium and vitamin D as well as probiotics. The Paleo Diet eliminates dairy entirely, even for athletes.

We also know from the scientific literature that during the post-exercise period, within roughly 30-45 minutes of exercise, eating a carbohydrate/protein snack, generally with a 3:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio, is essential to stimulate re-synthesis of muscle proteins and replenish glycogen (the storage form of carbohydrate). It doesn’t stop there: It is important to maintain glycogen levels in the muscle and liver to sustain all activities, especially over the course of several days. Eating high-carbohydrate snacks between training sessions is important to replenish glycogen stores. Carbohydrate intake recommendations for athletes are 6 to 10 g/kg body weight per day, or roughly 55% of daily calories from carbohydrates.

What’s the bottom line? Grains and dairy products are staples of modern-day society and provide essential nutrients to an overall healthy diet. By eliminating one or more food groups, you run the risk of missing important nutrients. And can we really eat as humans did during the Paleolithic era? Their life expectancy was about one quarter to one half of what ours is, and we benefit from research showing that eating a variety of foods over the course of time provides us with energy and the important vitamins and minerals needed to sustain us in daily activities and exercise.

Continuing to work out is important because you do not want to lose the strength and endurance you have built up. Reversibility occurs when training stops or decreases. To ensure that you don’t lose your progress, you must “use it,” or else you will “lose it."

Being accepted is a fundamental part of human happiness and survival. When we experience rejection, there are physical and psychological responses that can threaten our overall well-being. Experts suggest that the pain from loneliness and rejection can be thought of as if it were physical pain.

An article from the American Psychological Association describes a two-step process that can help you cope with rejection. It involves first realizing that everyone experiences rejection; it’s impossible to always be accepted, and everyone must deal with these feelings at one point or another.

Second, seek the comfort of groups and friends in which you’re accepted. Your close friends and family may be able to relate to your feelings and provide you with support. The pain of rejection shouldn’t be ignored, but learning to cope in healthy ways to something that’s quite normal is important to help you move beyond that pain.

There have been several recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food recalls dealing with possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella, as well as undeclared allergens. For more information, read the FDA recalls.

Time and again we see athletes raise their arms overhead and look upwards after making a score that wins the game. In interviews, many attest to the power of prayer in helping them achieve success on (and sometimes off) the field. And according to research, they are not too far off. Prayer is often used to help cope with the stress and anxiety of high-performance situations. Whether it’s praying for strength or protection, it may help ease the stress when the pressure to perform is high. So don’t rule out this Mind Tactic.