Health Supplements – The Firepower for Marathon Training & Beyond – Part 7
Ginger
Ginger is the readymade recovery booster sitting in your spice cupboard. Being a flavour-rich ingredient, with the extra taste it adds to recipes, ginger can also do you a world of good. Ginger as an ayurvedic medicine has found a place for centuries in Indian and Chinese treatments for illnesses. Being capable of knocking out a wide range of sicknesses that include bloating, headaches and PMS pains, ginger is also a popular anti-inflammatory and immunity booster.
How Ginger Helps Marathoners?
Runners and marathoners who are looking to ward off their training related niggles and sniffles would do well to look into their pantry space for this wonder root. Be it those aching feet right after a long run, or the nausea that puts you off a marathon, the sore muscles that make recovery a hard task or the knee joints that challenge your regular training sessions, ginger becomes the one stop solution. Listed below are some benefits that ginger offers marathoners…
- Keeps GI at bay: Gastrointestinal Distress (GI) is common among marathoners. Ginger in any form – raw, pickled, candied or crystallised can be taken the minute you find yourself a little queasy. This can be mixed along with the hydration used during long runs and marathons.
- Antioxidant Capabilities: The oxidative levels of marathoners during a hard workout session soar higher. Intake of ginger before, during or after the workout can reduce these levels significantly.
- Soothes Sore Muscles: Ginger eases post workout muscle soreness. During intense workouts consuming 2 gms ginger in its raw form for a week will reduce soreness to a great extent.
- Boosts Immunity: Ginger is a natural immunity booster that contains sesquiterpenes – chemicals that offers the ability to combat illness especially viral infections.
- Reduces Joint Pains: Consuming ginger or ginger supplements before a heavy workout session helps in becoming a natural pain relief for joint pains.
- Anti-Inflammatory: It is a natural anti-inflammatory. Ginger contains gingerols, which is a powerful anti-inflammatory that hinders the formation of inflammatory inducing cytokines.
- Appetite Booster: Some marathoners are prone to experience appetite loss soon after a race or a long run. Eating healthy is a necessity for repair and recovery that has a direct impact on the body’s ability to be ready for the next workout. Ginger will help you regain lost appetite which will aid in the recovery process.
Supple Supplements
As we can see, the benefits offered by supplements are immense. Each supplement adds its share and contributes to the overall well-being of the marathoner who consumes it. While some supplements replace lost minerals, some act in balancing hydration, some in muscle recovery, tissue repair, some provide the impetus for muscle growth while some facilitate transportation of oxygen to cells.
Supplementation of these crucial, minerals & foods helps marathoners to a large extent. However, it is pertinent that you plan your nutrient and mineral intake based on your individual body conditions. As mentioned in my earlier chapters, in endurance matters, there is never a ‘one size fits all’ theory. Choose what is best for your body condition and stress levels, if you are a little unclear, check with your physician or marathon coach, for the right guidance.
Continued…
Jayanth Murali is based at Chennai, India. One fine day, he decided to substitute smoking with running. Now an avid runner, he has never looked back since then. He has done a bunch of marathons and half marathons over the years. When he is not working, he is usually running or helping people discover the endorphins of endurance.
