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Shifa Fatima, MSc.
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Dr. Apoorva T, MHM.
MEDICAL ADVISOR
High-Intensity Performance Zone
As you can see, maintaining GPZ is very important for maximising training sessions. For maintaining GPZ, you will have to start energising or fueling sufficiently a day or two before the exercise event. By fueling, we mean consuming a high-energy diet of carbohydrates, proteins, and other necessary nutrients. You need to do this 24 to 48 hours leading up to the exercise session and during the session itself.
Table of Contents
What is Metabolic Health and how is it related to Performance Zone?
Previously, experts had defined metabolic health simply as a lack of disease. However, this understanding has changed, and now experts agree that the term is wider in scope. Metabolic health involves an assemblage of various body systems which operate in a harmonious unification.
Metabolic health is a comprehensive term that involves a combination of these health factors:
- Cellular
- Cardiovascular
- Cardiorespiratory
- General well-being
Experts define metabolic health by optimal levels of certain markers, which are as follows:
- Blood sugar
- Triglycerides
- Cholesterol
- Blood pressure
- Waist circumference
So, possessing sound metabolic health would ensure a faster, quicker, and more efficient burning of carbohydrates. This, in turn, would enhance your high-intensity Glucose Performance Zone (GPZ).
How is Fuel Used by the Body to Enhance Performance Zone?
We need to burn these to get energy:
- Carbohydrates
- Fat-based fuels
More carbohydrates-based sources are burned during high-intensity exercises. On the other hand, the body would depend on fat stores during a period of a prolonged slow burn that is devoid of high-intensity exercises.
To achieve specific performance gains in training, one must focus on exercises of high intensity. The most important source of external energy for the body is carbohydrates. The energy they generate is about twice more than what fats can achieve. So, if you want to enhance your GPZ significantly, rely on carbohydrates. This would let you go longer and faster during exercises.
How to Determine High-Intensity Performance Zone
To determine a high-intensity Performance Zone, you will need a Performance Zone device or app. This highly-advanced technology will monitor and keep track of your glucose levels during workouts. Using it, you can determine performance zone in the following steps:
1. Performance of high-intensity exercises
First of all, perform 5-7 of such exercises. Make sure that the duration of these exercises is more or less similar. Also, the intensity level of each exercise should be similar as well.
Now, go ahead to make events for each exercise. Describe each workout in detail, such as the amount of effort, comfort level, stress level, movement, etc.
2. Choose the Best Comfortable Exercise Event
Choose the exercise event which is the best as a standard. The best event is the one in which the individual performance is the most effective. Now, other exercise events can be compared with this standard event to analyse every event's performance and glucose levels.
3. Make Important Investigations
While analysing the data, the following important investigations need to be made:
- What was the glucose level in every event?
- What were the strong points in the exercise events?
- What were the weak points in the exercise events?
- What were the points when the performance began to decline?
4. Determine the High-Intensity Performance Zone
Using the data and investigations above, determine the glucose range that helps sustain and achieve the desired performance level, which will be your optimal fuel range.
5. Repeat the above steps.
Make sure the above-mentioned steps are repeated once every few weeks or months. This is because an individual’s Performance Zone is subject to change depending on fitness level. A fitness level isn’t constant for long, and it may change with regular effort. So, an individual must regularly do its resetting for the most accurate results.
How to Stay in High-Intensity Performance Zone ?
During workouts, your most important aim should be to stay in your determined unique Performance Zone. This way, you will feel unstoppable and full of energy during your exercise session. You can stay in your optimal fuel range in the following ways:
- Adjust the settings of your unique Performance Zone on the device or app after determining it. Make sure to monitor it after every few weeks or months.
- Determine the best fuel sources for you. Here, you should closely monitor how your chosen fuel option affects your glucose levels. After this, you should decide on your fuel sources according to your optimal fuel range.
- Ensure a suitable exercise session intensity level. This is important to get your chosen glucose level into the GPZ. A low-intensity workout like aerobics doesn’t require much body fueling with glucose. This is because GPZ is primarily meant for high-intensity workouts.
- Make a fueling plan according to your real-time glucose levels. You can do this with modern-day sophisticated devices or apps that measure minute-by-minute glucose levels. By closely monitoring it, you can immediately increase or decrease your glucose intake according to the situation.
Benefits of High-Intensity Performance Zone
An individual must spend as much time as possible in the High-Intensity Performance Zone. This is an excellent way to ensure that the muscles receive the appropriate amount of glucose for maximum performance. Also, the glucose uptake in the muscles will enhance due to the in-exercise session's high glucose level.
The Performance Zone is also useful when the duration of the exercise increases. During his time, the glycogen stores in the body would start depleting. However, thanks to the Performance Zone, interstitial glucose will contribute to energy expenditure by the muscles in a very efficient manner.
Bottomline
High-intensity Glucose Performance Zone (GPZ) is a term that is synonymous with a human being’s optimal fuel range. It is a crucial concept in metabolic health that maximises training sessions. Metabolic health involves various body systems which operate harmoniously. It depends on waist circumference, cholesterol, blood sugar, triglycerides, and blood pressure. Energy is provided to the body by fuels and carbohydrates. The fuels here are fat-based. People can determine their own unique High-Intensity Glucose Performance Zone (GPZ) and reap its benefits.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3587394/
Disclaimer
This website's content is provided only for educational reasons and is not meant to be a replacement for professional medical advice. Due to individual differences, the reader should contact their physician to decide whether the material is applicable to their case.