This is a glass of apple juice!

Many of us are familiar with the infamous “Friends” episode where we learned about how a little tinkle may help relieve the effects of a jellyfish sting.  Well, I think it’s safe to say that for most of us, the idea of one’s own pee is probably a bit repulsive.  After all, “number one” is something that is usually reserved for the bathroom and we associate it with a  certain colour, temperature, and of course SMELL!  However, are we thumbing our noses at something that has healing properties?

Urine therapy (or auto-urine therapy, urotherapy) has ancient origins.  There are traditional uses for one’s own urine both as a topical remedy as well as a remedy taken internally – yes, that means DRINKING it.  There are many examples throughout history of urine being used to improve one’s health in Anceint Rome and China as well as for Ayurvedic practices in India.  Some have gone so far as to espouse urine therapy as being beneficial in the treatment of certain cancers, although there is no scientific evidence to back up these claims.

Of course, high-performance athletes are always willing to try all legal means to stimulate the body’s natural ability to heal itself.  When American downhill ski racer Lindsey Vonn suffered a bad shin bruise prior to her races at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, she resorted to some unconventional remedies for her recovery.  and wound up winning two medals.  More recently, Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida has talked several times about his daily practice of drinking his own urine and how it has greatly improved his physical health.  Unfortunately, for Machida, he was unsuccessful in defending his UFC light heavyweight championship against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 113 this past Saturday in Montreal.  However, he does have a number of injuries as a result of getting knocked out during the fight so maybe he’ll drink his way back to good health!

Many pro athletes don't eat meat

A recent ad featuring Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields caught my attention.  Not only did the talented mixed martial artist recently successfully defend his championship, but he did so without any meat in his diet – Shields has been a vegetarian his entire life.

Eating meat was very important to me growing up in Alberta as a kid who liked to compete in sports such as hockey, baseball, and wrestling.  In my mind, I just assumed that I needed the protein in meat to build muscle and help me perform well athletically.  Even years later, despite learning about how different amino acids from foods help make up protein I still somehow couldn’t fathom how it could be possible to be vegetarian and be a good athlete.

The truth is, however, that a meat-free diet can definitely provide the elite athlete with everything that they need to not only build lean muscle but all of the macronutrients and micronutrients for optimal performance.  Some notable superstar vegetarian athletes include:

• Carl Lewis – Olympic sprinter
• Edwin Moses – Olympic hurdler
• Martina Navratilova – Tennis
• John Salley – Basketball
• Joe Namath – Football
• Hank Aaron – Baseball
• Georges Laraque – Hockey

Know people who can keep your injuries to a minimum

Injuries are a part of sport.  The training and the competition inevitable results in damage to the body.  In fact, you ask any athlete and they will tell you that they are never 100 percent healthy.

As you pursue higher and higher levels of athletic competition, the various gaps between you and your opponents in terms of talent and dedication become narrower.  So, eventually, the difference between elite athletes comes down to who is more able to prevent and recover from injury.

A strong mind is critical to being able to perform athletically.  At the same time, however, I often find that athletes push their bodies too hard when injured.  Athletes should definitely surround themselves with a trusted team of medical practitioners and get to know about therapies such as prolotherapy that can give them an edge over their opponents and prolong their careers.

Cutting weight the wrong way can be deadly

On the eve of the Olympics, I find myself feeling so inspired by the dedication of all the athletes who will be competing. All the training and dieting takes a tremendous amount of discipline and the mind is at least as equally as important as the body if you want to go for the gold.

One of my favourite Olympic sports has always been wrestling.  It is a sport that requires a great combination of physical strength, endurance, and technique.  It wasn’t until I actually competed in freestyle wrestling, however,  that I learned about another big part of the sport – “making weight”.

To compete, athletes must not weigh more than the agreed upon weight by a certain time (usually on the day of or the day before competition) or else be disqualified.  It’s not uncommon, however, for wrestlers, boxers, mixed martial arts fighters, and any other athletes who compete in sports that are divided into weight classes to find themselves 5 or 10 pounds too heavy with only hours before the weigh-in.  Time to cut weight.

Starvation, rubber shirts, layered clothing, stationary bikes, and saunas are some of the tools commonly used to start sweating out water and shedding startling amounts of weight in a short period of time.  However, you are also losing a dangerous amount of electrolytes.  At best, you stress your heart and liver, your brain is foggy, you end up dehydrated, and enter your bout against your opponent in a weakened state.  At worst, like too many young collegiate wrestlers, you wind up dead from complications of severe dehydration such as kidney failure and cardiac arrest.

Instead of using your strong athlete’s will to push your body to dangerous extremes, exercise that discipline to maximize your potential.  If you know that you will be competing, plan a healthy and gradual weight cut that includes proper nutrition.  Not only will your athletic performance benefit, but you will guarantee yourself a much longer career.