I want to be the best-built man in the world, I said frankly.
—Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arnold: The Education of a
Bodybuilder
There are two different types of athletic performance:
1) stamina, and
2) peak output.
Stamina depends on the ability of your muscles to put out energy for a prolonged period of time.
Peak output, on the other hand, is your muscles’ ability to put out a maximum amount of energy over a short time. It is now possible to take old rats—the age equivalent of about 80 years for a human—and rejuvenate some of their athletic performance and coordination back to roughly their young adult level.
We have applied these techniques to a few humans—and to a significant extent they work. There is still a lot to learn about the processes underlying muscular activities. But, using current knowledge, we have greatly increased our stamina and the size of our muscles with only a few minutes of-exercise a week AND the right nutrients.
The biochemistry underlying athletic performance is, like that of aging, becoming increasingly understood. With current knowledge, it is possible to greatly improve athletic output while decreasing the effort required to achieve that output. For example, you can improve stamina (total muscular output) using the proper nutrients. These techniques apply to young as well as older individuals. It is also a good idea to seek advice from a doctor in the field of sports medicine. Some useful methods are described below.
- The citric acid cycle (also called the Krebs cycle) is the chemical pathway of aerobic (oxygen is required) energy production in animals. Oxygen, the electron donor (the fuel), various enzymes, and various food acids are required.
- The energy generated by the oxidation of food to carbon dioxide and water in the citric acid cycle is stored in high-energy phosphate bonds of the ATP molecule (adenosine triphosphate). Energy in the form of ATP is also produced without oxygen via glycolysis.
Glycolysis is the primary energy pathway used in short interval high-output athletic events, such as sprints. However, it is not an efficient means of ATP production—only a net gain of 2 molecules of ATP is obtained from each molecule of glucose metabolized to pyruvic acid, compared to 38 molecules of ATP per molecule of glucose converted to carbon dioxide and water via the citric acid cycle. Moreover, anaerobic (without oxygen) glycolysis produces toxic lactic acid, which causes that burning sensation in fatigued muscles and the mental confusion which accompanies maximum-output athletics.
Stamina can be increased by increasing the availability of molecules and enzymes used in the citric acid energy cycle:
The vitamin pantothenic acid (an essential part of the enzyme acetyl-CoA), malic acid, citric acid, fumaric acid, succinic acid, etc. Nicotinamide or nicotinic acid is also required. In an experiment with calcium pantothenate (a stable form of vitamin B-5, pantothenic acid, a required factor in the citric acid cycle), three groups of rats were provided with a diet that was
deficient, adequate, or high in calcium pantothenate. The animals were then put in a tank of water at 18 degrees C (64 degrees F) and allowed to swim to exhaustion. Swimming times for the three groups markedly increased with the amount of calcium pantothenate in their diets as follows:
deficient 16 + or – 3 minutes
adequate 29 + or -4 minutes
high 62 + or – 12 minutes
Experiments on human volunteers subjected to cold water stress agree with these results. Addition of calcium pantothenate also doubled total work output (but not peak output) of isolated perfused frog muscle preparations in separate experiments.
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