The Stamina Manifesto

FOOD

Get your oats: Paula Radcliffe relies on a morning bowl of porridge to see her through exhaustive training. In tests, the low glycaemic index of oats was found to provide the longestlasting endurance boost when eaten prior to a workout.

Professor Clyde Williams, head of Loughborough’s School of Sport and Exercise Science, said porridgeeating athletes performed better than those who took a high-tech energy sports drink.

Take your porridge plain as adding sugar or fruit will affect its GI rating and performance-boosting potential.

Eat strawberries: Statistics show that memory and recall problems are common in around a third of people over 60, so Hillary Clinton is at risk.

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California recently reported that eating strawberries may help. They contain fisetin, a natural flavonoid shown to invigorate signalling pathways that boost long-term memory.

Meat and two veg: nutritionists recommend that women absorb 14.8mg of iron found in red meat and leafy green vegetables a day to stay healthy (men need 8.7mg) but most of us consume 10mg or less.

As a result, iron deficiency is the most common nutrient deficiency in the UK, affecting a third of all women and it is known to lower stamina significantly. An American study showed a lack of iron to be the most common reason why women struggle in their workouts. When given a course of supplements, the stamina levels of some subjects improved by 200 per cent.

Lack of iron can also affect the brain. A study at King’s College, London, showed girls with low iron levels performed significantly worse in exams and tests of mental agility.

DRINK

Chocolate milk: drinking chocolateflavoured milk is better at boosting flagging energy levels than commercial sports drinks, according to nutritionists at Indiana University.

"Chocolate milk contains an optimal carbohydrate to protein ratio, which is critical for helping refuel tired muscles after strenuous exercise," says Dr Joel Stager who led the study. "It can enable people to exercise at a high intensity." Red grape or cranberry juice: a compound called resveratrol, found in the skins of these fruits, was shown to double the physical endurance capabilities of mice in a study by French researchers. The scientists think the effects could be replicated in humans.

The compound appears to activate cells that trigger an improved performance in muscle, and experts are now hoping to produce a tablet that will provide the optimal dose.

Add a spoonful of honey: sweetening drinks with honey was found to improve stamina in a group of cyclists. Dr Richard Kreider of the University of Memphis said honey acted "as a time-released muscle fuel", providing long-lasting energy and thus "improved endurance capacity".

EXERCISE

Try intervals: incorporating short bursts of speed into a workout known as interval training is a good way to boost endurance levels, say researchers at McMaster University in Ontario.

Cyclists who added 30-second sprints to their routine increased their stamina (measured as the time they could pedal to exhaustion) by almost 100 per cent, from 26 minutes at the beginning to 51 minutes two weeks later, while there was no change for a control group. Try one minute fast, one minute easy, or 30 seconds fast, 30 seconds easy when cycling, running swimming or walking for 20 minutes three times a week..

Lunchtime walk: Hillary Clinton told the New York Daily News: "I don’t exercise as much as I did before I got into the real heat of the presidential campaign but I do get out and walk." Japanese researchers found adults told to walk for at least 20 minutes at least twice a week and to increase their daily total of steps experienced significant gains in stamina and mental health after 32 weeks.

Walk during your lunch hour and the benefits could be even more pronounced. A study at Leeds Metropolitan University found that employees who took a lunchtime stroll were more productive and got along better with co-workers afterwards.

MIND

Power-nap: a 90-minute daytime nap helps speed up the process of longterm memory, says a new study. A group who slept during the afternoon showed a distinct improvement in their ability to perform tasks linked to memory by that evening Studies by Nasa have also shown that alertness increases by as much as 100 per cent after a brief nap, even in well-rested subjects.

"A lot of people do find they benefit from even short naps lasting 10-30 minutes," says Professor Derk-Jan Dijk, director of the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey. "If you feel you don’t get enough sleep at night, it can be especially useful." Do a sudoku puzzle: solving puzzles engages neural pathways that even the most powerful computers can’t replicate.

Jennifer Mozolic of the Wake Forest University medical centre in North Carolina explains that older adults usually combine information from their senses more readily than younger adults. This tendency called sensory integration can make it difficult to ignore distracting sights and sounds and concentrate on a specific task. But subjects given eight weekly one-hour puzzle sessions found their ability to concentrate improved significantly.

Have regular sex: a new book, Training Your Brain by Terry Horne, a business lecturer at the University of Central Lancaster, outlines the way sex can improve mental stamina.

Horne says that the brain undergoes seven different chemical reactions during sex. Four of these improve thinking power. An increase in levels of the "trust" hormone, oxytocin, for example, increases readiness to think of novel or risky solutions.

The post-coital rise in serotonin levels aids both creative thinking and logical decision-making..

WHAT TO AVOID

High GI: foods with a high glycaemic index such as a baked potato, white bread, watermelon and sweets create a sugar rush that causes a stamina-sapping energy reaction.

Alcohol: cognitive stamina (memory concentration, co-ordination and) is affected for some time after the acute effects of a hangover have disappeared.

Caffeine: black coffee creates a short energy peak but won’t boost stamina levels.

Skipping meals: keep mealtimes regular.

This enables your body to anticipate food, allowing its digestion and metabolism to be more efficient and energy to be sustained.

(c) 2008 Evening Standard; London (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.