IceDragon

I was curious as to what other people thought about this...

Last week, I had my usual carbs prior to kickboxercise and about halfway through, I just completely ran out of steam and literally had to force my way through the rest of it. I almost vomited, that's how hard I was pushing it.

This week, I experimented. I know calcium is used for muscle contraction, so alongside my carbs, I decided to have half a pint of milk an hour before I worked out, and there was a hel of a difference.

I had plenty of energy all the way through. I pushed myself but it wasn't anything as bad as last week's session, so I'm just wondering whether that made the difference? I even had the energy for a 20 minute swim afterwards, where last week I barely had enough energy to stagger home.

Thoughts?

Malley

Hum....I dont think the milk really had anything to do with it. I would think the other meals heading up to it would be more important. Your blood sugar may have been a bit down and your body may have been a bit sluggish....were you eating often?

IceDragon

Every three hours as usual. Thing is, hydration was the same as last week, meals were the same, I'd had the same amount of sleep, etc.

The ONLY difference was that 1/2 pint of milk, which is what prompted the Q in the first place.

digitor

The milk won't have contributed to glycogen stores in the muscles, but probably to glucose in the blood. It sounds as if the milk provided you with more energy just like you said.

I'm not sure how quickly calcium in milk is going to be transformed into calcium ions in the muscles for contraction. That might only be an issue if you were well down on calcium beforehand??

Some days the body behaves differently even if all things are the same, that's what it seems like anyway. So maybe your energy production that day was off slightly?

I'm really just guessing now

sdb

also what you ate the day before could have had an effect. did you eat more carbs?

IceDragon

Nope, same as usual.

I'm not worried about it, just really curious. I mean, if there was a three or four week gap between me being shattered and me having energy left over, it's easily explained, but not from one week to the next - especially as I'd also trained legs that day too.

I might try it before every workout, see if I get a difference in performance. Anyone think it might be worth doing?

Oh, and digitor, I don't know whether it may help, but the women in my family on both sides suffer from osteoporosis and early menopause, so whether that might affect my calcium stores I don't know (I'm 29, usually they start menopause around 34, so whether that has anything to do with it..?)

Thanks for the replies, peeps, very much appreciated.

digitor

Yeah keep on doing it to test it. It might not happen again, but it might do the same!

On a site note, with early onset menopause and the osteoporosis, do plenty of weight bearing exercise (which you do ) and take calcium supplements (unless you get loads of milk like I do!) You never know though, the whole thing might not happen to you, it may just have skipped your genes.

IceDragon

I doubt it's skipped - most of the family on my mum's side are either on HRT or refused it, and most of my dad's family have osteoporosis.

Odds are stacked against me, but I'll do everything I can to stop them winning. I'm on the right track, anyway.