The harder you train, the harder you need to focus on recovery. This is a crucial aspect of peak performance for beginners and professionals alike. Athletic recovery has come a long way since the days of science simply telling athletes to take it easy or sleep to recover. This is now known as passive recovery, but active recovery is actually a far more effective method. New protocols are now being used to get athletes back to their peak fitness levels in record times.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that a plant-based diet is the way to go for athletes. Just take a look at vegan sporting icons Venus Williams, Lewis Hamilton and Derrick Morgan – or Patrik Baboumian, the world’s strongest man! All of these stars swear by plant based meals and clean carbohydrates, and some have even attributed their success to switching to vegan eating.
For the yoga practitioner who sees the discipline as more than just a physical exercise, the saying ‘you are what you eat’ can be worrisome. Many people who are new to yoga and the philosophy that underpins it simply do not know how to make food choices that better reflect yogic principles.
One of the problems with talking or writing about sports nutrition is that some people switch off the moment they hear or read the word ‘diet’ because of its association with fad eating plans. They usually are shocked to learn that food that supports an athletic lifestyle even includes delicious desserts.
The paleo diet is also very commonly known as the cavemen diet, and the idea behind it is based on what our early ancestors would have consumed while living in the world, specifically during the Palaeolithic period, which was between 10000 and 2.5 million years ago. Taking up the diet means that the athlete will need to focus on eating foods such as vegetables, eggs, seeds, nuts, and wild game meat, while trying their best to void salt, alcohol, beans, grains, and any processed foods.