Let's look into a few reasons why athletes (and fitness enthusiasts) should get routine blood tests:
After several years of waiting for the perfect partnership with a blood testing company, I partnered with Athlete Blood Test as my go-to blood testing company for my nutrition consultations. ABT provides individually-tailored, athlete-focused blood biomarker testing to help athletes dial in nutrition, recovery, training and performance. Even more exciting for the female athletes, the Athlete Blood Test She (ABT.she) blood analysis panel empowers women to better understand their physiology by analyzing female-specific sex hormones (ex. estrogen, progesterone, luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone). ABT.she takes into account where you are in your menstrual cycle when analyzing biomarker levels.
If you are interested in using Athlete Blood Test for your blood testing needs, send me an email (Marni@trimarnicoach.com) for a discount code on the test panel of your choice.
- Health - Blood tests are not just for optimizing performance. First and foremost, a blood test can check for certain diseases, conditions and deficiencies. Because every biomarker has a range or specific number that represents "normal," you can learn if you have a shortage or excess of a specific factor in the blood. A blood test is a portrait of your current health. A nutrient deficiency may be easily corrected with a supplement whereas other metabolic biomarkers are influenced by genetics and lifestyle factors.
- Performance - Because your ability to perform to your best ability is influenced by training, nutrition and recovery, blood testing is a window inside your athletic body. You can receive vital information on nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, hydration status, muscle health and injury risk and uncover long-term or recent patterns/reactions from your lifestyle choices, nutrition habits and training methods.
- Understand your body - Periodic testing gives insight into your unique biomarker levels and how your nutrition, recovery, training and lifestyle impact those levels. Ultimately, this impacts how you feel, think and perform. By focusing on your "inside" you get to know what is specific to you as an athlete - and as a human. However, every athlete is different....especially athletes. It's important to have a trained professional (specializing in athlete biomarkers) review your labs before making any changes with fueling, training and recovery.
- Periodic testing - Blood testing is one of the few "testing" measures where you can't cheat the test. By getting routine blood testing, you can learn more about your physiology, health, nutrition and performance and make necessary changes. To truly benefit from blood testing, it's recommended to invest into at least 6 tests spread over 2-3 years. The first routine test is to screen. The second and third test (at least 3-5 months later) can give feedback on any new training/nutrition interventions. The next two tests can help establish any trends and the last test shares a story over several seasons. It's recommended to test before you start advancing your training (ex. end of your off-season) as well as another test in peak training. If possible, a test in the start of your off-season (at the end of your season) can also be valuable. All of these markers will give insight into how your body is managing the training load, as well as any positive or negative impacts on recovery and nutrition.
- A look inside your body...
Nutrient metabolism and overall health labs: CBS, CMP - glucose, A1C, cholesterol, BUN, albumin, triglycerides, vitamin D, B vitamins, magnesium, iron, zinc, folate, Omega-3 index, etc.
Hydration status: plasma osmolality, plasma sodium, BUN, eGFR, serum creatinine, urine specific gravity, etc.
Muscle health: BUN, myoglobin, CK, Cytokines, IGF-1
Endocrine health: Testosterone, DHEA, IGF-1, SHBG, Cortisol, LH, Thyroid
Endurance/stamina: Serum Ferritin, TIBC, Total Iron, Transferrin, Transferring saturation, Hemoglobin, Hematocrit
Female health: Cholesterol, estradiol, testosterone (free and total), TSH, progesterone, DHEA-sulfate, FSH, LH.
- Decoding results - Just because your biomarker is out-of-range or normal, this doesn't tell the entire story. Your numbers are influenced by a variety of factors and what's normal for you may not be normal for your next door neighbor. Depending on your biomarker results, a professional can instruct on how to best supplement for a deficiency or adjust the diet/training for better recovery.
After several years of waiting for the perfect partnership with a blood testing company, I partnered with Athlete Blood Test as my go-to blood testing company for my nutrition consultations. ABT provides individually-tailored, athlete-focused blood biomarker testing to help athletes dial in nutrition, recovery, training and performance. Even more exciting for the female athletes, the Athlete Blood Test She (ABT.she) blood analysis panel empowers women to better understand their physiology by analyzing female-specific sex hormones (ex. estrogen, progesterone, luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone). ABT.she takes into account where you are in your menstrual cycle when analyzing biomarker levels.
If you are interested in using Athlete Blood Test for your blood testing needs, send me an email (Marni@trimarnicoach.com) for a discount code on the test panel of your choice.