Friday, March 9, 2012

Christian's First Junior Olympics/Florida Age Group Championships (FLAGs)

Exciting news! At the very last minute/swim, Christian qualified for JOs in the 50 Breast!



What is JOs? Junior Olympics! Now it is called FLAGs but us old timers still prefer JOs.

This is a very high honor and what the age group swimmers train for. It is especially important for Christian because he turns 11 in May and the qualifying times get even harder. He is the first from his team to go and we are all so proud of him!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Insight #3

This is not what I had originally planned for my next insight but it's been awhile since I posted.

As a young swimmer, Bree was at the top of her sport. She dropped time consistently and placed high if not first in each race. By age 10, she had earned multiple Junior Olympic cuts.


Then came the plateau. Occasionally, she dropped time. 9 times out of 10 she added … & A LOT.

She tried everything. She trained harder. She trained less. She changed her diet. She tried different sports drinks. Nothing helped.

In Sept. 2011 at age 13, Bree started training with Oxygen4Energy. She used it after dryland and again after swim practice.

Then came the drops. Drops on races she hadn’t dropped on in 2-3 years. Not just fractions of a second that are normal at Bree’s age and level. She dropped whole seconds. This continued. One meet she dropped on every race. This is something she had not accomplished in 5 years of racing. She now beats girls that had once left her behind.

Why is that? When you workout, your breathing increases in order to try to get the extra oxygen that is needed by your muscles. When not enough oxygen is available, your muscles increase lactic acid production to fuel your muscles.  The acid levels rise when produced faster than your body can remove it. This causes the burning feeling felt while working out.

How do we as athletes stop that burning feeling? Increase our oxygen intake. Lactic acid production and muscle fatigue will be slowed, allowing for longer and harder workouts.  After working out, oxygen is needed to metabolize the lactic acid. The faster you get oxygen to your muscles, the faster your muscles can recover.

Athletes have use hyperbaric chambers for years to speed recovery. Michael Phelps, 16-time Olympic medalist, is currently using one in his preparations for the 2012 Olympics. There are downfalls to the chamber. Like Phelps said, it’s hard to watch TV. The chamber is also expensive and hard to transport.

And apparently, it is not the best idea to treat a horse in one. Just last week, a hyperbaric chamber used to treat horses exploded in Marion County, Florida when the horse licked the side of the chamber.

Oxygen4Energy is inexpensive and easy to transport. It is $10/can, lightweight, and fits in your purse, pocket, or saddlebag. Each can contains about 50-55 shots of 95% oxygen.

Oxygen4Energy allows easy and inexpensive access to the oxygen needed to slow the production of lactic acid, which will slow muscle fatigue. This will allow you to work out harder and longer. After working out, Oxygen4Energy will help speed up the metabolism of lactic acid, which speeds up the recovery time for your muscles.


Are you ready to Get on it or get left behind?

www.oxygen4energy.com/swimwith1