The End Is Nigh

On my last drive home from work, I received the signal that every beach player dreads.  Leaves falling off of trees.  This momentous occasion for most people marks the time for pumpkin flavored everything, the affinity toward hoodies, but for beach players it basically means that summer and the beach season itself is now over.  (Here is Chicago the weather is still insanely nice for some reason, but regardless of that, many players have packed it in looking forward toward indoor season.)

But with the end of one thing comes the beginning of another.  I previously talked about physical preparations you can make in the off season that can pay huge dividends toward next year, but I want to add a few things to that list that you will inevitably procrastinate on.

Vitamin D

This is big one for multiple reasons.  Vitamin D is the number 1 vitamin deficiency in the US.  It is critical in maintaining many bodily functions as well as warding off any potentially serious complications.  Our evolutionary background has allowed us to produce Vitamin D by absorbing the sun's UVB rays (no, there is not any Vitamin D IN sunlight.  Vitamin D gets produced by your skin).  Credit this deficiency to work days that take place during day light hours, and poor diet.

Lucky for you, you know that through sun exposure (i.e. beach volleyball) you can easily obtain 90% of the Vitamin D you need.  The science on how much any individual needs and can absorb is still a bit fuzzy and your weight, genes, and even location on Earth factors into what you need.  A very general rule of thumb says that for every 25 lbs of weight you should be getting 1000 IU of Vitamin D.  So a 150 lb me should be aiming to get 6,000 IU daily (150/25 = 6, 6 x 1000 = 6,000).

Insufficient Vitamin D intake has been linked to seasonal affective disorder aka "winter depression", where a lackadaisical numbness of unmotivated nonchalance underwhelms you.  Winter can be cyclical time for good or bad.  Not getting enough Vitamin D making you less motivated in turn will make you work out less, eat less healthy, and continually compound on itself.  If you start building good habits now, you will be able to get the work out you need, boost your metabolism and endorphin and in turn your mental state.  Keep in mind though that Vitamin D is not a magic pill to cure this disorder.  Sunlight is also a big factor which directly affects your pineal gland or "third eye", whose hormone secretion is directly affected by sunlight exposure.

One thing to be cautious about is that the Vitamin D consumption goes hand in hand with Magnesium consumption.  Vitamin D needs Magnesium to be converted into its active form, so if you are Magnesium deficient (like most people are in the US), taking just Vitamin D will exacerbate this problem, and many people have reported adverse effects when taking Vitamin D.  But don't run out to your nearest drug store and pick up the first bottle of Magnesium you can find.

Magnesium supplementation, can be a bit tricky.  The cheap version, magnesium oxide, is essentially useless to you.  What you need is chelated magnesium so it can be readily absorbed by your body.  In the next blog post I'll talk more about chelates, how they work with magnesium supplements, and how you can work this in with your beach season.