Sleep, recovery and fuel for success

Institute news

More than 70 people, including many endurance athletes, attended a Team to Beat event at the Baker Institute in late November that looked at nutrition and training, the latest in race recovery, and the importance of sleep to help improve your training and race day performance.

A big thank you to our stellar panel of experts:

• Professor Louise Burke OAM
  Hawaiian Ironman athlete, marathon runner and nutrition expert
• Dr Shona Halson
  Former Olympian and performance recovery expert
• Ms Annabel Luxford
  Australian triathlete and ITU World Champion
• Dr Damien Angus
  Multiple age-group champion at Hawaii Ironman, triathlete and PhD exercise physiologist
• Associate Professor Andre La Gerche
  Tri-athlete and Sports Cardiologist

The Baker Institute’s Sports Cardiology laboratory aims to advance understanding of the interaction between exercise and heart function. The lab conducts a range of studies, including those that examine the athlete’s heart, to shed new light on heart health amongst elite athletes and the general population.

Among the studies conducted by Associate Professor Andre La Gerche and his team is the pivotal international prospective longitudinal Pro@Heart study. This study will detail the evolution of exercise-induced cardiac remodelling (athlete's heart) amongst elite junior endurance athletes. The study will be conducted over 25 years, enabling the long-term health benefits of endurance sports training to be assessed.

In addition to working in a clinical and research capacity, Andre is also the Director of the recently formed National Centre for Sports Cardiology, a strategic partnership between clinical researchers who specialise in sports cardiology.

The Team to Beat event comes as endurance athletes gear up for The Baker Institute IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong in February. The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and IRONMAN® Oceania have formed a unique partnership aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles.