Matt Hart offers some tips to help you ward off the dreaded Flu...

If you don't have a cold or flu at the moment, I bet you know someone who has. Over the next few weeks we're going to be looking at how to build a bionic immune system - one that won't let you down when the going gets tough?

Step 1. Prevention is better than cure
If you spend a bit of time maintaining your bike, it's much less likely to let you down in a crisis than one that's just thrown into the shed to rot after a muddy ride. Your body is the same in many ways. If you abuse it by eating incorrectly, working it too hard and starving it of sleep, it is very likely let you down either through injury or illness, especially when the bugs are looming. As the benefits of training are derived from hard physical work, it makes sense that serious athletes put themselves at an increased risk of infection during the bleak winter months. Even for the more casual Mountain Biker, there are times when they expect their body to cope and deal with multiple stresses, like lack of sleep, annoying boss, lazy staff, rubbish food etc.

The stress of work and the rigours of training are often unavoidable if you have an intrinsic drive to better yourself, so you need to put back into your body what the stress and hard training takes out. This basically means that you've got to eat healthily and get plenty of sleep - and these are two variables in your life that you have complete personal control over (mothers and fathers with small babies omitted). A healthy balanced diet will naturally build a strong and healthy immune system, but if you're particularly active, live in the smog or have a generally tough life there are a few supplements you might want to try:

• Vitamin C (500mg) taken once daily. Although the recommended daily intake (RDI) for Vitamin C is only 60mg, many researchers now recommend a minimum intake of 200mg due to the high depletion levels experienced in a body that is exposed to psychological stress, exercise, passive smoking, pollution and alcohol consumption. Poor cooking and food processing methods leach naturally occurring Vitamin C from our foods and so many people fall way short of adequate intake. As all Vitamin C supplements are basically ascorbic acid and are chewable, buy the cheapest you can get (normally £2-4 per 60). For more information on Vitamin C, give the following article a read.
• Zinc (5-10mg) taken once daily or 15mg every other day. The UK RDI for Zinc is 9.5mg, although the Americans suggest 15mg. In this case, more isn't necessarily better, as over consumption of Zinc on a long term basis can cause Copper deficiency. Unless you eat a lot of sea foods, especially oysters and muscles, it is very unlikely that you will over-consume Zinc, so a supplement of 15mg every other day will put you head and shoulders above the rest of the population without leaching out your copper. Traditionally, green leafy vegetables and cereals contained traces of Zinc, but modern farming methods have seen to it that this rarely happens anymore. The up and coming organic market may provide what proves to be a pivotal point in history however.
• Cod Liver Oil (500mg) taken once daily. This supplement contains 110% of your RDI for Vitamin A (800ug) and 50% of the USA recommended daily allowance (RDA) for Vitamin D (2.5ug). The Brits haven't published any figures for Vitamin D intake as yet. Whilst Vitamin A has been proven to help support the immune system, Vitamin D hasn't, but it is good for your bone health, so there's a bonus for you! As Vitamins A and D are fat -soluble, an active cyclist who is meticulously careful not to over-consume on fatty foods could easily be deficient in these vitamins. The good news is that is that the calories in a standard serving of Cod Liver Oil are insignificant, but you still get your vitamin dose. More good news is that Vitamin C helps to retain Vitamin A within the body and interestingly, Zinc deficiency impairs the absorption and utilisation of Vitamin A, so all of these supplements help to support each other. You can take Cod Liver Oil in capsule form or off a spoon. I recommend the capsules, because neat Cod Liver Oil tastes like s#*t. Well that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
• Odourless Garlic Pearls (100mg). You can't overdose on garlic, but fresh garlic or products that have not had the odour releasing properties removed can make you very unpopular with your pals. Odourless garlic does have fewer properties than those present in its natural form, but these pungent properties are only useful if you are actually suffering from a cold (see Step 3 in a few weeks' time). Garlic, as well as providing circulatory benefits, significantly enhances immune function and research studies with AIDS sufferers have shown staggering results in garlic's favour. There are many brands out there, but "KWAI" produce a pill of this dosage.

You can take all of these supplements together without a problem, but if you swallow them first thing in the morning, don't wash them down with a cup of tea or coffee. Caffeine will stop you from deriving the full benefit of these supplements by affecting their absorption rates.

Finally, a last word on prevention If you do a lot of riding, do remember to periodize your training. This means that you should force yourself to have softer, easier training weeks every now and then. This gives your body a chance to repair and re-build itself. Constant heavy training is a recipe for disaster.

Matt Hart runs TORQ Fitness Training and Consultancy who have developed their range of performance nutrition products through a need to offer the highest standard of support to the athletes they work with. Matt’s philosophy is clear. His mission is for TORQ to produce the most highly effective performance nutrition on the market using natural and organic ingredients of a premium quality. He also believes that as TORQ has its roots firmly entrenched in Fitness Consultancy and cycling, this provides the company with its unique edge and integrity. For further information, visit www.torqfitness.co.uk