Author Avocado Ninja / Category Sports / Published: 5th July 2018

The first of our performance enhancing super substances are called Alkaline Salts. They are a combination of healthy salts that your body needs to function properly, and are missing in most diets. They have 13 EU Approved Health Benefits and hundreds of scientific articles demonstrating how they work together to support every function in your body.  

When it comes to sports and performance, they really stand out though. With incredible enhancements to strength, stamina, performance and power. Read below to find out more.

Delays Fatigue

We’ve all heard about lactic acid, but as new science shows, it’s not the cause of muscle fatigue as originally thought. 

The actual cause of muscle fatigue is exercise-induced decrease in pH, which is also known as metabolic acidosis.

(Lactic acid build up is more about recovery times and we will show you how to cut this below!)

According to Food and Nutrition Sciences, a build-up of acid inside the muscle cell is a factor responsible for muscular fatigue. Thus, the total muscular capacity is limited by the progressive increase in acidity within the muscles caused by an accumulation of lactate and acid.

This inhibits energy transfer and the ability of muscles to contract. The body’s defense against this is bicarbonate buffers, which help neutralize the acid produced by intense exercise.

Alkaline salts reduce the acidity of the blood. This draws more of the acid within the muscle cells out into the bloodstream, and thus reduces the level of acidity within the muscle cells.  

By taking alkaline salts, you are providing your body with an abundance of bicarbonate buffers! This in turn delays the onset of fatigue.

Improves Co-Ordination

A study conducted by the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition tested alkaline salt supplementation on tennis athletes.

Prolonged tennis matches result in fatigue, which invariably impairs skilled performance.  Looking at all ground strokes, the consistency scores showed a trend of decreased co-ordination in the placebo trial, while it increased in the alkaline salt trial. This study shows that alkaline salts supplementation prevents the decline in co-ordination.

Improves Power

A study conducted by the British Journal of Sports Medicine sought to assess the effect of sodium bicarbonate ingestion upon repeated bouts of intense, short-duration exercise.  Subjects completed trials of cycle sprints. One group took alkaline salts and the other a placebo.

The ones who took alkaline salts produced higher over all power outputs and higher peak outputs in all ten of the ten-second sprints.  The results also revealed that the difference in the average power outputs attained during the bicarbonate and placebo trials increased as the number of sprint repetitions increased.

Improves Performance Times

A study published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine has shown that by increasing the pH of the blood (with alkaline salts) elite swimmers were able to significantly improve their performance times. Dr Folland, who led the study found that over 200m freestyle, the athletes who alkalised their blood with the salts took 1.5 seconds off their time.

In this study, athletes who added alkaline salts to their usual hydration routines during the competition took 26 minutes less to complete a medium-distance triathlon course than those who only used sports drinks.

This is just a sample of the research out there. Alkaline Salts have proven to reduce the onset of fatigue, increase power, co-ordination, reduce acid build up and improve overall performance.

You can get alkaline salts in a powdered form you add to your drinking water. Find out more here.

Drink this water before and during your training to get all of these benefits!

While alkaline salts work brilliantly before and during exercise, hydrogen works during and after. It is the perfect complement.

Overall, molecular hydrogen has far-reaching benefits not restricted to athletic performance. There are now over 1000 scientific articles suggest that H2 has therapeutic potential in over 170 different human disease models, and essentially every organ of the human body. You can read about these articles here and here. Here we will focus on the specific benefits to athletic performance.

Recovery

Lactic Acid

Lactic acid forms naturally in the muscles from this vigorous exercise but the body can't always clear lactic acid or lactate quickly enough, which causes the acid levels in your body to build up.

Molecular Hydrogen has been shown to "significantly reduce lactate response during the recovery period". Another study found that lactic acid was significantly lower when drinking hydrogen rich water. In this study "oral intake of HW prevented an elevation of blood lactate during heavy exercise".

This study found that "hydrogen rich water significantly helped post-exercise blood pH and reduced lactic acid as compared to a placebo... being an appropriate and safe hydration strategy that helps athletes become less susceptible to exercise induced acidosis."

By neutralising lactic acid quickly, it not only gets our body back into balance faster and reduces pain, but also cuts recovery time, meaning we can train harder and improve more rapidly.

Inflammation

After studying elite athletes, this study found that that hydrogen prevented oxidative injury during exericse. By acting as a powerful anti-oxidant it neutralises inflammation during exercise. This again increases performance and cuts down on recovery times. There are countless studies showing how molecular hydrogen is one of the most powerful selective anti-oxidants.

Energy

Mitochondria take the electrons, carried by hydrogen, to produce ATP, the energy currency of our cells. Our body needs ATP for growth, repair, and regeneration.

Albert Szent-Györgyi, a Nobel Prize winning physiologist, explained that hydrogen, rather than oxygen, is the fuel of life. It is common knowledge that oxygen is necessary for humans to live. However, hydrogen is the fuel that powers our cells by donating electrons to the electron transport chain and combining with oxygen to form water. Oxygen is simply the receiver of the used electrons during combustion in the mitochondria.

By supplying more hydrogen to the body, we are directly fuelling our cells with energy!

There are three ways to get hydrogen into your life. You can either create hydrogen rich water using the Ultrastream straight from your tap, infuse your water with I Love H2 tablets, or generate hydrogen inside the body using AquaRx.

Drink hydrogen infused water, or take AquaRx during and after exercise to get these incredible benefits. Together with alkaline salts, it will totally transform your enery, co-ordination, performance, endurance and recovery times!

More Information

Molecular Hydrogen Institute:  Over 1000 studies proving the medical benefits of Molecular Hydrogen.

Molecular Hydrogen Studies: More studies on the effectiveness of hydrogen.

Author Avocado Ninja / Category Habits/ Published: 5th July 2018

We are not just dehydrated when we wake up. We lose electrolytes and minerals during sleep too. Minerals are essential in supporting our bodily processes, from muscles, the brain and internal organs. Without the correct minerals our body's functions start to deteriorate.

The answer to all this, to get an instant energy boost, a mood lifter and get your day going right away is so simple....

WE NEED TO REHYDRATE! But to REALLY SUPERCHARGE this, we need to REMINERALISE. To get this morning boost - a calmness, more energy, focus and aliveness. Just do the following:

1. Get really clean filtered water (preferrably alkaline)... our amazing new Ninja Jug does a fantastic job of this.
If you don't have one, try to get some basic filtration in as a minimum.

2. Then add in a teaspoon of alkaline salts (not to be confused with table salts, which are toxic).
This will quickly replenish all of your salts and rehydrate your body.

You will notice an instant effect. Whereas caffeine jolts your body awake and makes you feel wired (followed by a crash), this new start to the day will give you an instant, clean form of energy that lasts for hours!

Start your day this way and you will notice the knock on effect in your mood, your performance and energy levels! You will be amazed at the huge impact doing this one simple thing each morning will have on your life!

You can find out more about the Ninja Jug here and alkaline salts here.

and how to get anything in life...

Author Team Ninja / Category News / Published: 5th June 2018

Entering the Spartan race came as part of solving a problem that was holding many people back.

After the release of the Ninja Path (our simple system to transform your health) we had fantastic feedback which confirmed that when simple consistent habits are applied, it really works! People lost weight, gained energy, mental alertness and felt incredible!

However, some people got the Ninja Path, but didn't start. Which made us think. Why could this be? Then it became obvious. There has to be an inner drive to start, and to keep going. You have to want it enough.

So how do you get to the point where you want to make a change enough to actually do it?

We have found that getting to the point of following through and making a change is a combination of the following.

1. Have Big Enough Reasons Why

This is a very personal thing and consists of listing down and really associating what the effects of your negative habits are costing you, in the past, present and in the future. Then focus on the positive effects of making changes, now and into the future. There is a great exercise called "The Dickens Process" that you can use to do this. When you really feel the emotions and picture the costs/benefits it has a profound impact.

2. Get Inspiration

It is easy these days to find inspirational people that have already achieved what you want, or have done extraordinary things. You can find inspiration by searching on YouTube and use this to kick start your journey! At Ninja HQ, we all loved the book "Living With A Seal" which is both inspirational and hilarious. It features David Goggins (check out an interview here), who has shown that the human mind and body is capabale of almost anything. It certainly puts our own challenges in perspective and people like this can really get you started on your own path!

3. Set a Challenge

This brings us back to why we decided to enter our team into the Spartan race.  By setting challengs, it galvanises our resolve to stay on the path. It becomes part of our lives and identity in a way that locks in the changes we are making. By having something to aim for and then by completing this, it reinforces everything. It all becomes a positive experience and makes our lives better.

So go through these three steps and use it to kick start all the changes in your own life. Don't wait! Take some time for yourself and set yourself on a new path.

By having a big enough reason WHY you want something, anything is possible. In fact really this is ALL your need to get anything in life! You just have to want it enough.

The fact that we are training for a race is kind of incidental. Really we are training for life. Getting fitter, healthier, more energy and feeling happier is the goal! Sure, the race does require some specific skills, but overall we focused on i ntroducing consistent daily habits to make sure we keep moving in the right direction. These included:

• A nutrient dense diet full of alkaline foods to provide the fuel.
• Plenty of pure, alkaline, hydrogen rich water to cleanse and boost.
• Specific supplements that have a direct impact on athletic performance and cuts recovery time (check out this article which explains more
• Running daily for fitness, alertness and reduction of stress.
• Simple bodyweight exercises (push ups, pull ups, sit ups) for strength and the release of beneficial hormones.
• Simple daily mindfulness exercise to improve mood and focus.

The most important thing is to get a set of daily habits and apply it consistently. These are actually all of the areas that are covered in the Ninja Path. It shows you exactly what to do, how to do it and organises it all for you.  You can find out more here.

The personal impact of making these changes have been pretty profound.... in one week one of our Ninja Team went from running 2k to a half marathon using these steps! And another, who suffers from severe asthma, went from struggling to run 1k a day to running a full 5k without stopping.

We hope this article has given you some useful inspiration and information. We will let you know how the race goes and will have lots of fun pictures of the Team! If you would like more information about how to make changes in your own life and make them stick, check out the Ninja Path. It gives you everything you need to create new habits and live a life full of health, energy and happiness!