Improve your tennis game

The cure for your mediocre tennis game? Plop plop fizz fizz (remember that slogan, or am I just ancient?).

Drinking some Alka-Seltzer before your tennis match could reduce your decline in accuracy due to fatigue. The bicarbonate of soda bevvie neutralizes the accumulation of acidic hydrogen ions in the blood and muscles (which is thought to impair muscle efficiency and neural transmissions, leading to tiredness), according to some new research published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

Now, I don’t play tennis, but have been tempted to pick up the game for the sole purpose of getting to wear a Stella McCartney for Adidas tennis dress. But I’m not that shallow. Really. (although I seem to be saying that a lot lately…). Honestly, I really have always wanted to take tennis lessons, and I would need the proper attire…

Photo: Adidas

Leave a Comment October 28, 2010

“No time to work out” your excuse? Think again.

Adidas Candy Collection watches, $65 each (Photo: Grant Comett/Real Simple)

You don’t need to spend lots of time working out if you’re doing high-intensity interval training, as studies have shown. Thing is, it’s that “high intensity” part that’s never appealed to me that much.

But research from McMaster University published in the current issue of The Journal of Physiology has found that interval training doesn’t have to be going all-out in order for it to be effective. The intensity should still demanding — out of the comfort zone for most average peeps.

To put it into perspective, the research authors say we have to work out at about 95 percent maximal heart rate, which is, for example, only about half of the intensity of sprinting at an all-out pace. 

The compromise? You have to increase the workout time. But I’ll go with more minutes at a more moderate intensity any day.

1 Comment March 19, 2010