👋 Hey. Welcome to issue #112 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (4 min read):
🐟 The key to omega-3s for brain health
Omega-3s are a type of polyunsaturated fat.
It’s in fish, seafood, and nuts and seeds like walnuts, flax and chia seeds.
And critical for brain and heart health.
In fact, a 2022 study showed that people with the highest levels of omega-3 in their blood had a 49% lower risk of getting dementia.
But here’s the key:
We only get the protective brain benefits of omega-3 when we get enough vitamin B.
Research suggests that high levels of vitamin B and omega-3—together—can protect against brain deterioration.
But when B vitamins were low, omega-3 supplements had no effect.
I wrote a poem about it to help you remember:
If you wanna keep the brain savvy,
it seems vitamin b,
is the key,
to unlocking omega-3.
It’s generally recommended we get about 1000mg of omega-3 per day (DHA + EPA fish oil supplements make this easy).
And we get vitamin B from foods like meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and leafy greens.
But to cover my vit B bases, I’ll now be adding a multivitamin to the mixer.
If you’re interested, deeper dive here.
🏃 Precision fuel & hydration plan
Fueling properly is critical for sports performance.
Particularly endurance events.
This calculator will help you nail your next run, swim, bike or combo event.
Enter your event, distance, projected time, a few other personal bits of info and it'll spit out an estimate for optimal carb, sodium and water intake across the race.
Thanks IB for the rec.
🥵 Performing in the heat
Aussie sports scientists were figuring out how to drop body temperature in the heat to improve running performance.
They compared drinking cold water to drinking an ice slushy.
Cold water dropped core body temperature 0.25 degrees.
Slushy dropped it by 0.66 degrees (ice melting to water in your stomach provides an extra cooling boost).
So what?
Well, this 0.41 degree difference increased endurance running time in the heat by 19%.
Yes, the slushy.
No longer a post-match treat. But a half-time performance tool.
Bonus if you also hack into those magic portals to cooling the body from newsletter #14.
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
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The Everyday Athlete Newsletter is not a licensed health service and is not a substitute for professional health advice, treatment or assessment. The information given in this email is general in nature, written for a specific audience. If you’re struggling, please see a healthcare professional.
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