Athlete's Best Friend Tea
Athlete’s Best Friend Herbal Tea - 8/16 oz.
Prevention is one of the most powerful herbal practices, one athletes can and should draw on. The key for athletes young and old is to focus on three core areas: staying energized, replenishing nutrients, and preventing oxidative stress.
This daily infusion can support your training and your life.
Ingredients - Nettle leaf, Oatstraw, Red Raspberry leaf, Tulsi leaf, Hibiscus, Rosehips, Cinnamon
Usage - To brew a single cup of tea, use 2 tablespoons (15 ml) of herb in a cup (250 ml) of water. Let the herbs steep in the water for 20 minutes if the water was hot or several hours if it was cold. To get all the minerals and nutrients possible from your brew, consider adding a little vinegar while it steeps. Strain and enjoy.
Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) or holy basil is one of Ayurveda’s favorite calming adaptogen herbs. Practitioners often call it “The Great Protector” for good reason. Tulsi helps calm the nervous system without dampening the immune or digestive systems. It can help your body reduce stress responses, like insulin sensitivity and cortisol production, while it directs energy into necessary work, like digestion.
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is another Ayurvedic mainstay for supporting a healthy body-mind-spirit. People often tout this herb as an aphrodisiac, but that’s just one of the many healthful, balancing effects ashwagandha can have. Ashwagandha has been shown to support a healthy libido and immune system and to help balance the adrenal-endocrine system. It is often used to boost energy by promoting a restful state of being all day long, allowing one to sleep well at night and awake fresh in the morning.2
Electrolytes: Staying Nourished is Key to Athletic Success
We’ve all heard plenty about the importance of electrolytes for general health during and after a workout. These minerals and trace elements help our bodies build muscle, pump blood, and keep our nervous systems running in top form. We sweat them out when we train, so replenishing them is vital to improving our performance both on and off the field.
Herbs for athletes like nettle, oatstraw, and raspberry leaf are the perfect partners for someone who wants to stay hydrated and replenish electrolytes naturally. You can make a daily infusion to drink before, during, and after training. They also make a terrific acetyl extraction, aka herbal vinegar, to add to salad dressings, soups and stews, or to your favorite smoothie or juice.
Nettle (Urtica dioica) is a mildly drying herb chock-full of nutrients that’s often included in anti-histamine or allergy tea blends. You don’t need to suffer from allergies to benefit from nettle’s nutrition.
Oatstraw (Avena sativa) has a particular affinity for the nervous system, but that’s not all it’s good for. Oatstraw contains lots of minerals and nutrients that help soothe and repair the nerves as well as build bones and muscles.
Red raspberry leaf (Rubus idaeus) is another plant filled with tons of nutrition. Herbalists often include it in fertility blends and teas for new moms, but athletes can make good use of this nutritive digestive herb, too. Raspberry leaf has an affinity for the lower abdomen, including the small and large intestinal tracts. This herb offers athletes both a nutritional boost and the digestive support needed to ensure their bodies make best use of all the nutrition available.
Oxidative Stress: The Silent Killer Stalking Athletes
Did you know athletes are at a significantly higher risk of developing inflammatory diseases due to oxidative stress? Studies show folks who lead an active lifestyle, including athletes of all levels, experience higher levels damage from oxidative stress than folks with more sedentary lifestyles.3
Oxidative stress produces free radicals, which bounce about your system causing damage as they go. The body’s natural response is to activate the immune system to find and remove them through the detoxification systems. Because athletes are more active, their bodies burn more oxygen and create more free radicals.
That overload can overwhelm the body’s natural response, making a healthy athletic practice a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, athletes are building healthier, stronger circulatory and skeletal-muscular systems. On the other hand, oxidative stress is quietly setting the stage for inflammatory diseases like arthritis, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.
How to Approach Oxidative Stress
For all athletes, eating a diet rich in antioxidants is key to preventing damage while cashing in on the many health benefits of staying active. Getting those antioxidants is easy when you eat a diet rich in fruits and vegetables of all colors, of course. Beyond the basics you’ve already read about, like plums, blueberries, cherries, garlic, and kale, we can draw on a few slightly overlooked herbs for athletes to boost antioxidants in our diets.
Rose hips (Rosa spp.) and hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis or H. sabdariffa)are another set of potent antioxidant herbs that can be easily swallowed. They’re high in vitamin C, which gives them their characteristic tart flavor. Both reduce inflammation and support a healthy circulatory system. Hibiscus can be mildly diuretic, while rose hips are less so. Rose hips can be mildly warming while hibiscus is more neutral. Athletes can alternate these two, using hibiscus more in warmer months and climates while reserving Rose for the cooler seasons and climates. Either make wonderful additions to your daily tea.
Cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia or C. ceylon) is a surprising antioxidant herb as well. Studies show cinnamon contains free radical-scavenging constituents, which means cinnamon helps your body track down excess free radicals and eliminate them.5 In Traditional Chinese Medicine, cinnamon is considered very hot, meaning it’s highly stimulating and can really get your energy moving.6Practitioners often pair it with tonifying herbs, like lychii and rose hips or hibiscus, to help build chi or vital energy within the body. Athletes can benefit from a little cinnamon taken daily to boost vitality and protect against oxidative stress.
This information was taken from https://learningherbs.com/remedies-recipes/herbs-for-athletes/