Our body is made up of complex & different systems. When it comes to workout, we are interested in the cardiovascular system-heart, arteries & veins, musculoskeletal system which allows us to move & pulmonary system- lungs which allows us to absorb oxygen that our cardiovascular system exports.
Besides, we should give equal importance to the endocrine system which takes into account how our different hormones will impact our exercise performance & immune system. This understanding helps in preventing athletes from getting ill during the workout. Until recently, the brain has also become important in determining when to stop exercising due to fatigue & how you respond due to stress. All these systems are made up of cells, systems within these systems contain DNA & regulate all life processes. Our human body has around 100 trillion cells while there are estimates that around 10 trillion cells make up our human body. This essentially means that for every cell that makes up our human body, there are 10 cells that are not part of our body. These cells ( not making up our body) are bacteria,virus & various other microorganisms & they can be found all over. A large majority of these cells are found in the stomach. Here these cells form bacteria which we call microbiota. These bacteria perform various functions improving our immune system & breaking down food to give energy.
This microbiota & its genetic make up-microbiome impacts our sports performance in different ways. The more diverse our microbiota is, the healthier we are. Athletes are said to have diverse microbiota while on the other hand obese people has less diversity( as compared to folks with lean built). According to recent research, microbiota has an impact on our brain as well. Bacteria in our stomach controlling hormones can make us feel more relaxed or more stressed as the case may be. This is specifically relevant when we workout since our emotions have a direct impact on our exercise performance.
We should focus on keeping our gut or microbiota healthier. The best way to achieve this is to have a whole food rich diet, a lot of vegetables & fruits, healthy fats, fibre & whole grains. Foods rich in bacteria such as fermented foods are beneficial for stomach bacteria. It is always recommended to avoid processed & refined foods since these can reduce the diversity of bacteria. It is really important to have a healthy, less processed & whole food rich diet to keep our gut health & have diverse microbiota. This diversity can improve our health & exercise performance.
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