Many parents and students are starting to make preparations for heading back to school, but for elite athletes and those looking to make serious performance improvements, the preparations have never really stopped. Summer leagues, camps, and training have probably been a regular part of the routine over the summer, but what about lab testing?

Lab testing and athletics? You might wonder how those two go together. Any Lab Test Now can become your student-athletes’ partner in training. We offer a variety of tests that can help improve performance and recovery so your athlete can reap all of the benefits of their hard work.

When it comes to tracking your fitness and health progress, there are a lot of avenues you can take. If you’re not sure which way to go, just ask one of our knowledgeable health professionals. Let them know what you want to achieve and they will guide you to the proper tests. Any Lab Tests Now has a few suggestions that can help you get started down the right path toward your fitness goals.

Basic Nutritional Panel

Your diet is a great place to start your journey to better performance. The Basic Nutritional Panel provides you with information about vital and energizing vitamins and nutrients like ferritin levels. Ferritin is an intracellular protein that stores iron and releases it in a controlled fashion. If the levels are low, that could mean your iron levels are low. Remember, iron plays an important role in carrying oxygen to all parts of your body. To athletes, oxygen is fuel! Endurance would likely be affected.

Along with ferritin levels, the Basic Nutritional Panel offered by Any Lab Test Now will check vitamins B12, D, and C along with zinc and homocysteine levels. You’ll also receive a Complete Blood Count, which will give you a decent snapshot of your overall health, as well as a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP). The CMP alone makes this test worth it for the elite athlete. It includes testing for multiple electrolytes and metabolites, which can frequently be abnormal in athletes. It can let you know if you are taking in enough (or too much!) water. Low albumin levels can be a sign of inflammation in athletes. All in all, the Basic Nutritional Panel is a good place to start when considering lab testing for athletes.

Performance Hormones

Hormones play a critical role in athletic performance and are vital to the recovery process. If your hormone levels are out of whack, then your performance could suffer. Some key hormones to watch:

Food Sensitivity and Intolerance Testing

Let’s face it, if you’ve got a food allergy, chances are you already know about it. But intolerances are more subtle — and can have a huge impact on athletic performance. An undiagnosed food intolerance can cause inflammation, which can slow down your recovery time. It can impact your breathing and diet, causing you to gain weight. It can even keep you from fully absorbing nutrients if you experience digestive problems. Any Lab Test Now offers a variety of food intolerance tests to choose from.

That’s just a sampling of what Any Lab Test Now can offer athletes. Also consider, that in some cases, you may benefit more with repeat testing, particularly nutritional testing. Visit your local Any Lab Test Now location to get started on reaching your peak performance before the school year starts.