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All sports are competitive by nature; as readily noticed in team sports, or in a nonchalant one-on-one game of basketball or golf. However, even a solo activity is a competition that pits you against your personal best.
Athletes are regularly and competitively probing for methods to gain an advantage over opponents. The need for an “edge” exists in all sports, at all levels of play. Successful athletes rely on practice and hard work, while some also find a competitive edge by enlisting trainers or using the latest high-tech equipment.
There are many healthy ways to increase your strength or improve your performance like eating a well-balanced diet; getting ample sleep and rest; and setting realistic goals.
Another way to enhance athletic performance is by the use of certain rare plants and herbs called adaptogens.
The ancient Himalayan healers were the first to identify adaptogenic plants and the practice of using them spread quickly throughout Asia. The most common adaptogenic plant is the goji berry (Lycium barbarum). The round, red berries about the same size of raisins are very tender and must be shaken from the vine rather than picked in order to avoid spoiling. The goji berry tastes somewhat like a cross between a cranberry and a cherry. The goji are preserved by slowly drying them in the shade. It has been eaten locally in the region for centuries and is celebrated in festivals. The goji is nicknamed the “happy berry” because of the sense of well being it is said to induce.
Adaptogens discovered in goji berries work by helping the body to adapt to changes and stress. Benefits include: improved disease resistance, better sleep, quicker injury recovery, increased energy, and enhanced mental clarity and perception. No side effects or dangers are associated with the use of adaptogens.
Goji – The Super Adaptogen
No adaptogen in Asia is more revered than goji. The goji berry is held in such high regard that it as been called supertonic (a substance that harmonizes the structures and functions of the entire body.)
The nutritional support provided by these adaptogen supplements helped athletes accomplished better performance, stamina, endurance, strength, recovery, immune resistance, muscle development and adaptation to changes in climate, time zones and altitude.
The Top 12 Athletic Benefits of Adaptogens
1. Improved Ability to Perform Physical Tasks
Adaptogens significantly progressed all parameters of exercise capacity, including maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max), tolerance and fatigue threshold.
2. Increase Energy, Endurance and Vitality
In one research of 1,500 athletes, adaptogens increased stamina and endurance, improved reflexes and coordination, and expanded the amount of training that athletes could tolerate without harm. In another experiment on 140 athletes, 74 percent of the test subjects attained their best results in a three thousand meter run.
Goji Supercharges Energy
Goji amplifies tolerance, stamina and endurance. It helps to eliminate fatigue, especially when you are recovering from injury or illness.
3. Help Fight the Damaging Effects of Stress
The physical and emotional strains of athletic competition can set off high levels of stress, causing the adrenal glands to overproduce cortisol, a catabolic (protein-destroying) stress hormone. Adaptogens moderate the production of this muscle-wasting hormone.
Goji Fights Stress
As Asia’s premiere adaptogen, goji helps the body to adapt and to cope with stress. It provides the energy reserves to help you handle just about any difficulty. Goji reduces most signs of the alarm stage of the stress response, and delay or promote avoidance of the exhaustion stage.
4. Promote Cardiovascular Health
Adaptogens help to strengthen your heart and circulation, allowing you to perform with less demand on your cardiovascular resources.
Goji Strengthens Cardiovascular Function
Goji contains cyperone, a sesquiterpene that benefits the heart and blood pressure. Its anthocyanins help to maintain the strength and integrity of coronary arteries.
5. Assist In Recovery From Intense Workouts
Adaptogens develops the body’s replenishment of the two important muscle fuels — glycogen and creatine phosphate (CP) — both of which are depleted during exercise. Letting you evade burnout associated with glycogen depletion and allows you to fit more high-quality workouts into a defined period.
Goji Speeds Workout Recovery
Goji’s uniques master molecule polysaccharides help prevent sore muscles by increasing activity of the lactic acid removing enzyme lactate dehydrogenase. It also increases clearance of blood urea nitrogen, a toxin produced during exercise.
6. Enhance Mental Alertness
For the athlete, physical and mental readiness are equally vital. Adaptogens have shown to increase mental capacity by progressing reflex response, reaction time, attention span, hearing, eyesight, and motor coordination. They also improve brain circulation.
Goji Increases “Youth Hormone”
Goji exhilarate the release by the pituitary gland of hGH, the youth hormone. Benefits of hGH are extensive and include production of lean muscle, reduction of body fat, better sleep, improved memory, accelerated healing, restored libido and a youthful appearance.
7. Improve Sleep
Most of your body’s maintenance, development and repair functions take place while you are asleep. This includes the secretion of human growth hormone (hGH). By reducing levels of stress hormones, adaptogens help you to get all the restorative benefits of a good night’s rest.
8. Slow the Aging Process
Adaptogens provide a potent and diverse antioxidant effect. They also activate other antioxidant systems in the body.
Goji Combats Aging
In Asia, goji is known as the “longevity fruit”. Goji berries’ bio active polysaccharides and powerful antioxidants defend against premature aging, fighting free radical change throughout the body.
9. Promote More Efficient Oxygen Use
Your muscle and brain cells require oxygen in order to produce energy. Adaptogens improve circulation and increase the capacity of cells to uptake and utilize oxygen.
10. Protect the Liver
As your body’s most important organ for detoxification and tissue repair, the liver can be stressed during processing of the metabolic wastes produced by vigorous exercise. Adaptogens help to ease the strain by reducing formation of metabolic free radicals.
11. Enhance Endocrine Function
Adaptogens strengthen activity of the glands most responsible for energy, muscle growth and repair (adrenal, thymus, thyroid, pituitary and hypothalamus).
12. Stimulate Muscle Regeneration
Stimulate muscle regeneration through steroid-free anabolic action. Adaptogen studies have shown an increase in bio-indicators of new muscle protein synthesis (nitrogen balance, mRNA), thus providing a reasonable explanation for reports by adaptogen users of improved recovery and greater strength gains.
Goji Protects Against Muscle Damage
Goji also helps protect and preserve your hard-won gains in the gym by helping to restore and repair damaged DNA, protecting each of your body’s trillions of muscle cells.