Fish Oil

Since I’m in no mood to sleep after a few too many beers at a staff happy hour, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to talk about fish oil. I know, it’s very exciting, but please try to contain your excitement.

Just this past weekend I was dying from a tough day outside, gasping for air like I never have before. At first, I thought it could be the effects of the changing weather or the long drought without any running (thanks plantar fasciitis) but then I remembered something I heard in a tele-seminar with a nutrition/triathlon coach.

The coach was explaining how fish oil was one of the important supplements to include in your diet, especially when it comes to endurance athletes. In addition to the general health benefits of decreased pain and inflammation, as well as a lowered risk of heart disease and cancer, fish oil is extremely helpful for those long training days out on the road.

The omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oil increases lung function during those intensive sets and helps get more oxygen into the system. EPA and DHA (not going to spell those because of my current state), the main components in fish oil, are essential to an endurance athlete’s training, especially those like me that occasionally struggle with deep breathing.

So get out those nice-smelling tablets and start incorporating them into your daily diet, regardless of your level of fitness. Unless your diet contains significant amounts of seeds and whole grains, it’s likely you’ll be falling short of your optimum omega-3 intake. Therefore, fish oil supplements are definitely worthwhile in most diets and will pay dividends for those fitness junkies that focus on oxygen intake and lung capacity.

Suggested amount, courtesy of nutrition/triathlon coach Bob Seebohar:

1-3 grams of EPA and DHA per day for general health purposes and small training days
At least 5 grams of EPA and DHA per day for those longer training days

*Notice: too much EPA and DHA causes impaired blood clotting response (aka, don’t crash)