Blood biomarkers: The secret weapon for optimizing your fitness routine
As a fitness enthusiast, you know that it's important to stay in tune with your body and listen to what it needs. You may be familiar with monitoring your heart rate during workouts or tracking how many reps you do in a given session. But have you ever considered using blood work to take your fitness routine to the next level? With the right tests and an understanding of what those numbers mean, you can use your lab results as a compass for reaching peak performance. Let’s explore!
What Tests Should I Have?
The specific tests that are best for optimizing your fitness will depend on what type of activity you're doing and what goals you have.
- For nutrition status & endurance, test:
Iron Profile: Crucial to make red blood cells & transport oxygen throughout the body.
Vitamin D: Essential for bone health, muscle strength, & reducing inflammation. Deficiency can lower testosterone levels.
- For Muscle Status, test:
Sex Hormones: Testosterone is needed for protein synthesis, RBC production, glycogen replenishment, & reducing protein breakdown.
Cortisol: aka the stress hormone - can increase due to overtraining leading to health issues.
- For Muscle Damage, test:
Creatine Kinase: CK rises with muscle damage/injury & peaks after 24 hours of damaging exercise.
Creatinine & BUN: High levels indicate muscle/protein breakdown. It can also be a sign of dehydration.
- Injury Risk & Inflammation, test:
C-Reactive Protein: CK rises with muscle damage/injury & peaks after 24 hours of damaging exercise.
Complete Blood Count: Provides information about shifts in immune cell populations that may occur during inflammation.
How Do I Get Tested?
The good news is that getting tested is easier than ever before! Valeo Health highly curated packages help you skip all the guesswork, for example, to optimize your fitness just go for the “Fitness Profile” blood test. The package includes all the relevant biomarkers that help you assess your performance, muscle status, and injury risk.
Moreover, instead of having to visit a nearby lab or doctor's office, Valeo allows you to collect samples from the comfort of your own home. Samples are sent to certified labs and results can be ready within just days of ordering them online. Valeo health experts then interpret your results and provide you with the right guidance. This allows you to quickly get informed and begin taking actionable steps towards optimizing your fitness.
In short, blood work provides an invaluable way of taking control over one’s own fitness journey through data-driven decisions and actions. So don't shy away from getting tested - it could be just the thing needed to pump up your fitness routine!