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Dietary supplement. Many people, likely including you, take them with the aim of preserving their health. However, many regard these little pills as “medicines” and expect such effects. Well, that is a mistake.

White muscle fibers are capable of rapid, powerful contractions, but they have poor endurance and negligible aerobic metabolism. They operate fundamentally in an anaerobic manner because they contain very few mitochondria, and their contractions produce a lot of lactate. Red muscle fibers, rich in mitochondria and therefore operating more aerobically, use lactate as an energy source if they have sufficient oxygen. If lactate concentration in neurons rises above a certain level, they cannot function properly and neurological disturbances occur, for example impaired movement coordination.

Recently I was invited as a speaker to the national meeting of the BSI running ambassadors. The topic we discussed was SUPERCOMPENSATION — which is what the title above refers to. In other words, it is not enough just to train… Positive changes caused by (running) training require something more. But is it enough to just rest and refuel?

Elbow pain is usually a harmless symptom, but because you use your elbow for many different movements and activities, it can be very uncomfortable. The elbow is a complex joint; it allows bending and straightening of the forearm and rotation of the hand and forearm. Most movements are a combination of these, which is why it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly which movement triggers the pain.

The main symptom of endometriosis is pelvic (lower abdominal) pain, for which several methods can be chosen to reduce it. Below I present some of these options.

The importance of breathing has already been covered in several articles on this site. This article on using the training mask is primarily aimed at athletes, since they are the ones who most often use this device to improve breathing and strengthen the respiratory muscles. Jarmila Kratochvílová, the great Czechoslovak 400 and 800 m runner of the last century—who still holds the world record in the 800 m—sometimes trained in a military gas mask to boost her performance [...]

The proper role of breathing is important in most sports — a requirement and guarantee of outstanding performance. In our country many coaches and athletes are still at the beginning of breathing training. Yet by focusing on breathing during training, and by consciously applying the technical devices and tricks developed for this purpose, endurance can be increased and recovery accelerated. The training mask The favorable effects can be achieved through the regular use of appropriate aids (the best known is the training mask) and/or by regularly performing breathing exercises developed for this purpose for a sufficient period of time.

Many commenters on my Facebook posts about musculoskeletal conditions describe how much steroids help ease their complaints and enthusiastically recommend various products to one another. The pushy activity of some has "disturbed" me, which is why I devote a separate article to the issue. It would be good to understand that steroids are not your true friend! Although they can quickly free you from unpleasant pain in certain conditions, with more prolonged use they insidiously turn against you and can cause more and more serious illnesses than the one you originally intended to treat. It is therefore worth regarding steroids with suspicion and doing everything possible to ensure that as little as possible enters your body and as rarely as possible. It is especially to be avoided that you take a pill or injection from a neighbor without knowing what you are doing to yourself.

Respiratory muscle training is a technique aimed both at exercising the muscles involved in breathing and at improving the performance of the respiratory system, ultimately boosting endurance and recovery capacity. Typically, breathing exercises are recommended for people with respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD, bronchitis and emphysema. Athletes have also discovered its benefits and use it in everyday training — studies have confirmed the advantages of respiratory muscle training in athletes.

In various news reports you may have seen athletes sitting in suit-like outfits, but the reports often omit what this “garment” is for. It’s not for space travel! The method is pneumatic compression and its purpose is to speed up and improve muscle recovery.

Most athletes are familiar with the RICE method for post-injury recovery, which stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Cold compression, also known as an ice massage machine, refines the RICE approach and helps not only athletes but also people recovering after surgery. Cold compression therapy Cold compression therapy — which combines the […]

Leg cramps in athletes (even when frequent) are not a disease but a symptom. They indicate that something isn’t right during your training or matches. Let’s go through what can increase the tendency of your leg muscles to cramp.