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How Does Your Brain Process Feelings of Fatigue? (Bicycling)

THE FINDINGS MAY ADVANCE PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE IN THE FUTURE, RESEARCHERS SUGGEST.


Whether you’re inside on the trainer or outside for a road ride, that dreaded bonk moment—the one where you just can’t seem to power through—feels the same.


As it turns out, a part of that fatigue may be all in your head. And knowing exactly where it occurs in the brain could drive performance-boosting therapies in the future, according to a recent study in Nature Communications.


Researchers recruited 20 study participants and asked them to grasp and squeeze a sensor repeatedly, varying their level of effort from minimal to maximum force. Using data from MRI scans and computer modeling, they found that feelings of fatigue seem to arise from the motor cortex—the area of the brain responsible for controlling movement—according to study co-author Vikram Chib, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine...


How I fuel: Tom Pidcock (RedBull)

Find out how fish and chips, pancakes and Oreo rice bars fit into the diet of cycling super-talent Tom Pidcock, as he talks us through fuelling his training, racing and recovery.


Tom Pidcock is, among many other accolades, an Under-23 World Champion in cyclocross and cross-country mountain bike as well as a winner of the ‘Baby Giro’ on the road. In short: he’s an all-round phenomenon.


But other than his intense training routine, what does it require to fuel such exploits? Here’s a whirlwind tour of Tom's nutrition...


What Is Carbohydrate Manipulation, and How Can It Help (or Hurt) Your Training? (Bicycling)

Fueling your body is often compared to putting gas in a car. The only problem is, your body is not a car—you don’t just have a full tank or an empty tank—so that overused trope falls flat when it comes to human performance.

The human body is more sophisticated than that. It burns two kinds of essential macronutrients for fuel: fat and carbohydrates. (You can burn protein, a.k.a. your muscle tissue, for fuel through a process called gluconeogenesis, but it’s far better to fuel appropriately so you don’t force your body to essentially eat itself.) And you can actually train your body to be better at burning one fuel source or the other. How far and fast you go depends on the fuels you put in and how effectively and efficiently you can access and process those fuels.




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