TOP TIPS FROM A FORMER COLLEGIATE SWIMMER

BY CHRIS ROSENBLOOM//PHD, RDN, CSSD

Last month I gave my annual nutrition lecture to the physical therapy students at Mercer University in Atlanta. A student, Jacob Reynolds, approached me and asked about my nutrition articles for USA Swimming because he was a former competitive swimmer and was interested in nutrition and athletic performance. Jake swam from the age of 5 through high school with the Montgomery, Alabama YMCA Barracudas. From there he then went on to compete on the NCAA Division I swim team at the University of Alabama. He competed in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke. Jake graduated in May 2013 from UA where he was captain of the men's swimming and diving team and a 3-time letterman.

So many swimmers (and their parents) ask about nutrition so I interviewed Jacob to get some insights from a competitive swimmer to share with you.

What do you think are the biggest challenges to healthful eating by young swimmers?
I think the biggest challenge I faced as a young swimmer was finding opportunities to eat throughout the day. During my high school years of swimming, much like most high school swimmers, I started practice at 5:00 a.m. and swam for two hours before heading to school. From school it was back to practice from 3:45-6:00 PM, and finally arriving back home around 7:00 PM with a 9:00 PM bedtime. This hurried schedule did not allow many opportunities for high-quality meals. I compensated by eating fast foods, high-fat foods, breakfast bars and Pop Tarts for many of my meals. I rarely sat down for breakfast or lunch and didn’t eat a lot of fruits or vegetables. I was more concerned about getting calories. Eating nutritiously seldom crossed my mind. I was, however, fortunate to have a home cooked, balanced meal for dinner on most nights.

Like a lot of teen athletes, I had a hard time keeping weight on as I was expending 4,000-7,000 calories a day. I was eating between 6,000-8,000 calories a day just to maintain my weight. To most people being able to eat so much sounds like a dream come true, but it's actually harder than one might imagine, especially with the time constraints many swimmers face. That is why it was easier to eat fast foods or highly processed foods.

What can parents do to support a young swimmer's nutritional needs?
It is very important that parents understand the role of nutrition to athletic performance and monitor the types of foods their children are consuming, especially age group swimmers. I remember as a kid we thought we would swim faster if we ate powdered Jell-O. To this day I don’t have any idea why we thought that, but we did. Today’s kids have many more options for quick energy. For example, I coached a kid this summer who drank two different caffeinated energy drinks during a meet with poor results. He threw up almost immediately after drinking the second energy drink.

If parents and swimmers are interested in pursuing higher levels of swimming, establishing good nutrition habits early in their swimming career will help them transition to the upper levels of sport. Planning to take healthy foods to practice and school can go a long way to helping swimmers achieve good nutrition. Looking back, I know that I put myself at a disadvantage in training, recovery and performance through my poor nutritional decisions. I urge parents to be cognizant of the foods their kids are eating and supply them with nutrient-rich and wholesome foods. Encourage healthy eating habits and educate yourself on nutrition and human physiology. The nutrition articles on USA Swimming contain a wealth of tips for healthy, quick meals and snacks that swimmers will enjoy.

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were swimming in high school and college?
It is a myth that swimmers can eat whatever they want and get away with it. Competitive swimming puts tremendous stress on the body and depletion of energy stores need to be replenished with high-quality fuel. As a physical therapy student, the more I learn about the human body and physiology, the more horrified I am with the decisions I made while training and competing. It was not usual for me to go to a doughnut shop and eat a dozen doughnuts in the store and take another dozen home to eat a few hours later. I didn’t realize that if you put cheap fuel in your tank you won’t be able to achieve peak performance. The car analogy should resonate with young swimmers. You train your body to be a high-performance machine, so don’t fill it up with regular gas. Fill it instead with premium fuel. Today, I eat a wide variety of wholesome, natural foods: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, and I eat organic foods whenever I can.

What is your favorite food no? And what was it in high school? College?
In high school my favorite food was pizza. I could eat upwards of 20 slices in one sitting. In college, I ate whatever the dining halls were serving. Sometimes it was a salad, most often it was chicken parmesan with pasta or steak. While the university athletic department provided athletes with nutritious options, I often ended up negating the good choices by eating 6 cookies and 2 bowls of ice cream. Also, I am sad to admit that nearly every single night my freshman year I ate an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Now, however, my favorite foods are organic spinach, blueberries, kale, bananas, walnuts, broccoli, and Greek yogurt. I have also become a big fan of quinoa. I guess it is never too late to start eating healthy.

Chris Rosenbloom, PhD, RDN, CSSD is a nutrition professor emerita at Georgia State University. She is the editor-in-chief of Sports Nutrition: A Practice Manual for Professionals, 5th ed (2012) and provides nutrition consultation to athletes of all ages. She welcomes from swimmers, parents, and coaches at chrisrosenbloom@gmail.com.

Reposted from usaswimming.org

How to Be Healthy While Traveling

By Megan Fischer-Colbrie from www.bridgeathletic.com

I recently returned from two weeks of travel, and despite spending those weeks relaxed on vacation, I found my body didn’t feel quite as healthy as I am accustomed to. Whether you’re traveling for business, pleasure, or competition, keeping your diet consistent can be challenging. I’d like to give you a few tips on how to keep your body healthy while enjoying your travel.

When we move away from our daily routines and toward the unpredictable pace of travel, we are faced with different cultural norms, including places to eat, modes of transportation, things we feel we “must try while we are here”, and even different circadian rhythms (ex. the dinner hour in Europe is closer to 9pm and people tend to go to sleep later than in America). With all of this in mind, I present:

1. Tip #1: Stay Hydrated on your flight and during your trip. I always fill a large bottle of water up at the airport for my flight because if I don’t I know a stewardess will offer me exactly 2 tiny cups of water for a 6 hour flight. Not enough. On your travel day and after you reach your destination, be extra focused on drinking water. During your flight, the cabin pressure reaches about 6,900 ft when the aircraft is cruising at 39,000 ft. This means for however long you’re flying, your body is at an altitude equivalent to Colorado, losing water as vapor through each breath you exhale.
2. Tip #2: Fruit Snacks… not the packaged kind. Eating at restaurants for days on end can mean you aren’t getting as many fruits and vegetables as usual in your diet. Go to a local grocery store and purchase fruit that you can keep in the hotel and eat for a healthy snack. It’s an easy way to fuel up, and when you head out for the day you can throw a couple apples in your bag for later on.
3. Tip #3: Walk, Don’t Drive. Unless you are saving your legs for a competition, walk as much as possible. Stretch out and restore blood flow to your legs by walking around the cabin. This will break up sitting in the compact airline seat for extended periods of time. When you reach your destination, you’ll end up discovering more about a place than by car, and you will save money that you would have spent on taxis and subway tickets. While in New York City, I stayed fit by walking (despite having dessert every night).
4. Tip #4: Bring Earplugs. Chances are you usually sleep in a room by yourself, and on trips a roommate or family member who snores can make or break your mood the following morning. A pack of earplugs will run you $6 and allow you to sleep more soundly. Getting consistent rest on a trip can keep your immune system strong and help you avoid getting sick as you come into contact with new people and places.
5. Tip #5: Mind your Meals. Don’t forget to eat breakfast. This is surprisingly easy to do on vacation, but fill up with a yogurt and banana from the store or oatmeal and hard-boiled eggs if you’re grabbing a hotel breakfast. Avoid the temptation of getting a pastry for breakfast, as you’ll feel hungry again in a shorter amount of time and you may not be used to eating pastries at home for a meal. Restaurant meals serve larger portions that can be very high in salt. At dinner, order a salad before your entrée to help you get fiber and vegetables. If the meal is big, you can split an entrée with someone for a regular sized meal while saving money. When choosing restaurants, go to a local place and avoid big chain establishments. Their familiarity may be comforting but they tend to be less healthy; instead take advantage of being in a new environment by trying new foods! Prior to a competition, skip dessert. During a vacation, that decision is entirely up to you!

Next time you travel, keep in mind how accustomed your body is to certain needs: proper hydration, consumption of fruit and vegetables, and adequate sleep. Striking that balance between maintaining healthy habits and trying new things will not only allow you to fully enjoy wherever you travel, but also help you feel healthy coming home.

Useful Items to Carry-On

• An Empty Water Bottle
• A Sweatshirt and Socks – It can get cold on planes.
• Hand Sanitizer
• Cereal or Protein Bars
• Breakfast Cereal
• Competition Necessities – Suit, goggles, shoes, whatever you will absolutely need for your athletic event
• Nut Butter of your choice, jam, honey
• Isotonic Drink Powder
• Protein Powder

Top Tips For Building Muscle And Improving Body Composition

11/26/2013

BY CHRIS ROSENBLOOM, PHD, RDN, CSSD

Many young swimmers ask me what to eat to build muscle and lose fat. When I get that question, I ask the swimmer to take a step back and try to spell out his or her goals, because the truth is, it is hard to build muscle (a process that requires additional calories and protein) and lose fat at the same time (a process that requires reducing calorie intake and increasing calorie-burning exercise).

Another reason I ask about goals is that it is never a good idea to work on improving body composition in-season. It is hard to alter your diet or try to cut calories when hard training and competitive meets are happening at regular intervals.

And, lastly, many swimmers, especially female swimmers, have unrealistic goals for their bodies. Women naturally have more body fat than men, and poor body image plagues many young (and older) women.

Recently I talked to a young athlete who showed me the cover of her favorite fitness magazine and she said wanted “that body.” I reminded her that magazine models are not only taller and thinner than most women, but they also have their photos airbrushed and photoshopped to make them look even more “perfect.”

With those reminders, it is possible to improve body composition (notice I did not say lose fat or lose weight) through a combination of strength training, aerobic exercise, food choices and food patterns.

1. Eat regular meals throughout the day to fuel your body. Swimmers need regular meals to provide energy for sport and fuel for recovery. Aim for 3 meals and 3 small snacks each day. Check the nutrition archives of USA Swimming for articles on how best to achieve this.

2. Include protein at every meal and snack. Protein provides the building blocks for protein muscle synthesis. No need to overload on protein (protein powders and shakes are not necessary to get high quality protein), but include a protein-rich food at each eating occasion. Milk, yogurt, cheese, milk-or yogurt smoothies, eggs, turkey, chicken, lean beef and pork, nuts, seeds and beans and peas are all good sources of protein. An egg sandwich for breakfast, a carton of yogurt for a snack, a turkey and cheese sandwich for lunch, a handful of nuts in the afternoon, spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, and a bowl of cereal and milk in the evening all provide high quality protein for swimmers.

3. Feed your muscles after a strength workout. A small protein-carbohydrate snack after weight training can provide needed amino acids to build muscle and strengthen muscle fibers. Low-fat chocolate milk has been extensively studied as a recovery beverage, and while not as glamorous as expensive commercial protein shakes, it does the job very well. A combination of protein and carbohydrate eaten shortly after strength training is recommended to speed the nutrients to muscles.

4. Be realistic. Not everyone will have a six-pack of abs. (There’s no evidence that a “six pack” improves swimming performance!) What is important is your health, how well you perform in training and competition, and how you feel about yourself.

Chris Rosenbloom is the sports nutrition consultant for Georgia State University Athletics and is the editor of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Sports Nutrition Manual, 5th edition, 2012. She welcomes questions from swimmers, parents and coaches. Email her at chrisrosenbloom@gmail.com.

Reposted from usaswimming.org

Profile of a Swimmer’s Snacking Style

11/19/2013

By Jill Castle, MS, RDN

As a mom and a dietitian, I get a lot of questions about snacking, especially for the athlete. “What’s a healthy snack?” and “How do I handle my child’s snacking habits?” are common ones. Truth be told, how the swimmer snacks and what he chooses is as much about personality, environment and opportunity as it is about nutrition. Some of the more common snacking scenarios parents face with their swimmers are:

The Starving-After-Practice Snacker

This swimmer enters the car or home, starving and about to die if he doesn’t get some food fast. I encourage parents to rewind the day, and look at the child’s actual intake at lunch, and even breakfast. It may have been mediocre. There may even be evidence: leftovers in the lunchbox, or a half eaten bowl of cereal in the morning. When swimmers eat inadequately at the beginning and middle of the day, they may be very hungry when they return home after a day of school and swim practice.

Remedy: Encourage your swimmer to “front-load”—eat a hearty breakfast and lunch including a variety of food groups and a good protein source.

Example: cereal + milk + fruit + toast + nut butter; egg + cheese + ham + English muffin + 4 oz. 100% fruit juice.

The Never-Full Snacker

Within an hour after a meal, this swimmer is hungry! Several reasons may contribute to this scenario, such as not eating enough food at mealtime, eating the wrong foods (nutrient-poor foods aren’t nutritious or satisfying enough to carry a swimmer 3-4 hours until the next meal), or a ‘habit of asking’ rather than true hunger. Whichever the reason, take a critical look at meal schedules, the food strategy, and the food balance of meals and snacks.

Remedy: Get back on a regular schedule (3 meals + 1-3 snacks depending on swimmer’s age and activity level). Boost the balance of food and nutrients, erring on the side of whole, healthy and nutritious. Don’t let the nutrient-poor foods crowd out the good stuff.

Example: Child and Teen Swimmers: 3 meals + 2-3 snacks using real food from grain, meat/non-meat protein foods, fruit, veggie, milk/non-milk and healthy fat groups.

The Take-It-or-Leave-It Snacker

Some swimmers aren’t big on snacking, or may prefer to graze, nibbling through the day and saving their appetite for meals. This tends to be an eating personality or style within the swimmer.

Remedy: Make sure to offer nutritious snacks, and if not eaten, boost the main meals with extra options and let your swimmer self-regulate his appetite. Most swimmers will eat to match their calorie requirements if given the opportunity and plenty of wholesome food.

The ‘I Love My Junk’ Snacker

Some swimmers succumb to readily available snacks in their pool and school environment, which may be processed foods instead of fresh foods, sweets rather than naturally sweetened items, and fried chips or fries over baked foods. These snack foods can easily take over the swimmer’s diet, contributing a significant amount of empty calories. Contrary to popular belief, you can re-program this!

Remedy: First, adopt a guideline that outlines how many ‘junk food items’ the swimmer can have each day with a maximum of 1 or 2 per day. This way, favorite foods are not completely eliminated, which backfires anyway, but limited to a reasonable amount. Second, point out which foods have a limit (e.g., desserts). Third, let your swimmer have a say in which ‘junk foods’ he will choose for the day. Congratulations! You’ve just negotiated a happy middle ground-- one that allows some ‘junk,’ but sets a limit.

Examples of Fun Foods: soda, cookies, candy, pie, cake, donuts, chips, and French fries. Limit two per day which might be a donut after morning practice and dessert after dinner.

The Healthy Snacker

This is the swimmer and eater we are all trying to develop! One who chooses to eat wholesome, real foods at snack time, most of the time. A swimmer who doesn’t go overboard with too much food or too many empty calories, and who listens to his body, eats mindfully and appreciates his own hunger and fullness.

Target: Stay on course with timing of snacks, a variety of foods, and a healthy balance of nutritious food. If you get side-tracked, check the solutions above, and get back on track.

What kind of snacking style do you have?

Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a childhood nutrition expert and co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School. She is the creator of Just The Right Byte, a childhood nutrition blog. She lives with her husband and four children in New Canaan, CT. Questions? Contact her at Jill@JillCastle.com .

Posted from usaswimming.org

Dehydration

October 23, 2013 Blog Posts Megan Fischer-Colbrie

Hey guys! I am back for my second post of the Building Blocks series. In this segment, we will be discussing hydration. I hope you guys enjoy the article, as it is an immensely important topic in the field of athletic performance!

Staying hydrated is an age-old phrase, but many of us choose to ignore the whole “drink 8 ounces of water 8 times a day” thing. Are we chronically dehydrated? The answer is a resounding yes, and it comes about in a variety of ways. It’s time to start thinking about why you may forget to stay hydrated, and what hydration specifically means for your body so you can be motivated to do it more than just for the sake of health in general. Since I find sweeping health tips to be the first to drop from my repertoire because I don’t feel direct results, let’s make drinking water directly beneficial to you.
 

Yes, I said water: it’s time to get away from flavored this and infused that…water is your key liquid to hydration. So before we move on to electrolytes and sports drinks let’s start simple.

Most athletes know to drink water, but besides staying hydrated during practice, post-workout hydration is an important part of recovery. Water flushes out toxins and helps flush out excess acid from muscles in the body post-exertion. It also aids in cellular repair, so those micro tears created in muscle during exercise will heal faster, and leave you with less soreness the next day. If you’re into statistics, an athlete dehydrated with 2.5% loss of body weight in the form of water can experience up to 45% loss in capacity to perform high-intensity exercise. For a 150 lb athlete, this means a loss of 60 ounces of water! It may sound difficult to lose this much, but under normal conditions an athlete produces about 27-48 ounces of sweat per hour of average exercise, and that’s not including hot, dry conditions or high intensity exercise that many elite athletes undergo. So, chances are, if you work out longer than an hour, you are highly likely to be dehydrated to the point of reduced performance in the second half of your workout or competition…unless you actively hydrate!

Hydrating means sustained work capacity; in other words, you’ll be able to work harder if you drink more water.

 

 

We tend to think our hydration depends on our activity level, and to some extent, this is true. However, our less active days still demand some attention. In a study published in the Journal of Nutrition, researchers found that simply sitting at a desk can lead to dehydration and negative consequences even without visible sweating or exercise. His study indicates that once dehydration sets in, it affects your cognition, concentration, and ability to control your mood. Results found that mild dehydration (defined as a 1.5% loss in water) led to fatigue, difficulty in memory tasks, anxiety and tension. So what does this mean for you? It means that when you’re thirsty, your body is already 1-2% dehydrated, so you better go grab a tall glass of water. It means that on average, the daily recommended 6 to 8 glasses of water or 1.2 to 2 liters per day really can save you time and energy while preventing muscle soreness when you consider the awesome benefits to your brain and body that come with hydration.
Water lubricates your joints and eyes, helps maintain chemical balance in the brain, and flushes out toxins to keep you feeling fresh and your skin looking beautiful. With all this in mind, it can still be difficult to add in another health habit to your daily routine. If hydration seems out of sight, out of mind, make it visible! I always carry a water bottle with me wherever I go. Have it with you at work to refill, in the classroom during lecture, and at home or in your car. When you feel fatigue setting in, try grabbing your water instead of a coffee or tea. You’ll find yourself drinking more water subconsciously, and not reaching those dehydrated energy lows. Hydration is a fast and simple way to help you perform at your best—both in practice and out—so take advantage of its benefits whenever you can.

References:
1. http://www.cp12.org/blog/index.php/2013/06/06/chronicdehydration-are-we-thirstier-than-we-thing/
2. Sawka, Young, Cardarette, et al. 1985
3. http://beta.active.com/nutrition/articles/cracking-the-code-on-sweat-rates
4. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/02/20/mild-dehydration-causes-a-_n_1288964.html

About Megan Fischer-Colbrie

Megan recently graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology, and a particular focus in human physiology. Megan is currently preparing for medical school, and recently finished 4 years as a Division I athlete at Stanford. While in college, Megan learned about the human capacity for performance in great detail, in both the classroom and competitions. Megan has conducted research for both Type I Diabetes and pediatric cardiac conditions, and has heard incredible lectures from some of the leading professors in their respective fields at Stanford. It is Megan's wish to impart sound, research-based information to you, the reader, so that you can maximize your performance now. View all posts by Megan Fischer-Colbrie →

Reposted from bridgeathletic.com

Recovery, Part I

October 22, 2013 Blog Posts Megan Fischer-Colbrie

Hello All! My name is Megan Fischer-Colbrie, and, together with Shelley Harper, I will be writing a series of posts called “The Building Blocks”. The Building Blocks will focus on maximizing athletic performance through a number of “off the playing field” categories. Today’s post will be on the recovery process.

We athletes tend to respect our bodies in the days or hours prior to a practice or competition, but what happens after? In spite of being a veteran swimmer and collegiate athlete, I at times neglected my own nutritional needs following an intense workout. Athletes spend so much time training that they owe it to themselves to help their bodies recover as quickly as possible. Not only will you feel better the rest of your day (big surprise!) but also the physiological changes in your body will carry over to your next workout, enabling you to perform better even as the week of training carries on. In this post and my next, I will elaborate on some of the effective recovery strategies for the elite athlete. Today we’ll explore mostly timing and protein for both endurance-based athletes (here’s to you, distance swimmers) and strength-based athletes (sprinters and post-weight room sessions). An important aspect of proper nutritional recovery is timing.

You must ingest your food or beverage within 30 minutes of the end of your practice.

A brief look into exercise physiology can explain this strict guideline. Immediately following exercise, the cells in the muscles you worked during exercise have depleted their glycogen stores (they use sugar to function, synthesize protein, and store as backup fuel to access during the next bout of exertion). Think of the muscle cell as having a gate to that opens post workout for sugar intake. The longer you wait to replenish post-workout, the closer the gate comes to closing, eventually slamming shut after 30 minutes. At this time, food or drink intended to supply sugar to muscle cells gets used nonspecifically in the body, primarily leading to storage in fat cells. Protein degradation can also occur as a result of missing this refueling time window, meaning that your muscles may begin to break down rather than build up post-exertion. Protein ingestion also follows a sensitive time frame. Once protein has been consumed, maximal protein synthesis in the body lasts 3 hours following exertion, with a peak around 45-90 minutes. After that, synthesis drops back down to baseline levels, indicating there is a small window of protein synthesis in the muscle before a refractory period. Whatever manner of nutritional recovery you prefer, ingest it immediately after training, before you shower or get ready to leave the pool/gym/field.

 

My theme for recovery nutrition is BALANCE. When it comes to supplements, vitamins, and juggling protein, carbohydrate, and fat, no single group is the answer to building muscle or improving performance.

If you eat a healthy diet, many of your vitamins will already be provided in your food. While we need lean protein to build and preserve lean muscle, at the end of the day, the body runs on glucose and burns carbohydrates the cleanest (fewest bad side effects). As you shift to an optimal diet for your sport, remember that going to extremes is not the answer.

So, how much protein is right for you? It’s true that athletes require a significantly greater amount of protein in their diet as they tend to maintain a higher muscle mass, but your protein needs may be different from your teammates. Adequate protein intake can easily be achieved through one’s daily diet, but if you tend to eat little meat, eggs, or dairy, supplementation can help you reach your protein target zone. It is important to note that protein supplements are not inherently better than protein from whole foods, but serve as an easy alternative source. For a 150 lb athlete attempting to preserve lean muscle mass, about 100g of protein per day is sufficient (using 1.5g protein/kg body weight as a reference point). This is higher than the 0.8g/kg recommended dietary allowance because athletes need more protein to maximize muscular development. A quick look at food labels will tell you that one 8 ounce glass of chocolate milk gets you 11g of protein, while an average chicken breast confers 33g of protein. Your body weight and protein already in your diet will tell you how much supplement to add, if any.

If you want to try supplements, a study of trained male athletes showed that a whey/casein blend of protein (40g whey, 8g casein) ingested post-workout promoted the greatest increase in fat free mass following 10 weeks of resistance training, as compared to a whey/amino acid supplement or simply carbohydrate supplement.

This agrees with a recent study that used a measure of biological value (BV, higher the better) to assess how efficiently exogenous protein gets used for protein synthesis in the body. Casein has a BV of 77, whey has a BV of 104, and bovine milk has a BV of 91 (milk is 80% casein, 20% whey). Dairy milk or pure whey are extremely efficient in triggering protein synthesis in the body. Whey studies also showed increases in strength, whereas casein did not. Studies looking into milk-based protein sources showed that fat-free milk was superior to soy milk (BV 74) in promoting lean body mass and muscle mass development post workout. While resistance training requires protein, endurance athletes also need protein to maintain muscle. Swimmers and water polo players undergo a hybrid of endurance and strength training. While sprinters looking to build more muscle may focus on slightly higher protein intake, distance swimmers still need the protein intake commensurate with their body weight (1.5g/kg body weight).

Ratios: Following a cardio-heavy workout, I use a 3:1 ratio of grams of carbohydrate to grams of protein for immediate fuel. Carbohydrates and protein consumed together enable quick replenishment of glycogen stores and initiation of protein synthesis.

Protein cannot cause synthesis as readily without the presence of insulin, which carbohydrates trigger the release of. Whether you’re leaving the weight room or hopping out of the pool, a blend of fast-acting sugar like maltodextrin or glucose with a source of protein (whey) will maximize your training session recovery, lean body mass, muscle hypertrophy, and strength. You’ll give yourself the opportunity to perform better at your next practice by helping your body build upon the work you just completed. To get started on better recovery habits, pick the recovery drink or bar that’s right for you. Luna bars tend to carry a 3:1 ratio and are easy to pack in my bag. When I finish a workout, sometimes I opt for tall glass of fat-free milk. It provides that blend of sugar and protein your muscles crave. Be careful to read the labels on bars or drinks that preach “recovery” all over the package. Many times, they contain way too much protein, such as a 1:2 ratio or a bar that claims to have 40% of your daily intake. They also can be unnecessarily high in saturated fat or simply have too many ingredients. When in doubt, go simple. If milk is a good source of recovery, but you can’t drink it, choose an alternative that has few ingredients and the ratio you’re looking for.

My hopes are that you take away a few salient reminders from this post:

• Eat or drink within 30 minutes, period.
• Calculate your protein need based on your body weight and see if you need more or less.
• Use a carbohydrate/protein blend in your recovery snack.
• Try drinking fat-free milk, using a maltodextrin/whey protein blend, or purchasing bars that have an appropriate carb-to-protein ratio.
• Most of all, remind yourself that your diet needs balance…make subtle changes and see the improvement in your performance firsthand!

References:

1. Effect of glucose supplement timing on protein metabolism after resistance training B. D. Roy 1, M. A. Tarnopolsky 1,2, J. D. Macdougall 1, J. Fowles 1, and K. E. Yarasheski 3 Journal of Applied PhysiologyJune 1, 1997 vol. 82 no. 61882-1888
2. Norton L, Layman D, Bunpo P, Anthony T, Brana D, Garlick P. The Leucine content of complete meal directs peak activation but not duration of skeletal muscle protein synthesis and mammalian target of rapamycin signaling in rats. J Nutr.2009;139(6):1103–1109. doi: 10.3945/jn.108.103853.
3. The effects of protein and amino acid supplementation on performance and training adaptations during ten weeks of resistance training. Kerksick CM, J Strength Cond Res. 2006 Aug;20(3):643-53.
4. Hoffman J, Ratamess N, Tranchina C, Rashti S, Faigenbaum A. Effect of protein-supplement timing on strength, power, and body-composition changes in resistance-trained men. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2009;19(2):172–185.
5. Verdijk L, Jonkers R, Gleeson B. Protein supplementation before and after exercise does not further augment skeletal muscle hypertrophy after resistance training in elderly men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009;89(2):608–616. doi:
6. Hartman J, Tang J, Wilkinson S, Tarnopolsky M, Lawrence R, Fullerton A, Phillips S. Consumption of fat-free fluid milk after resistance exercise promotes greater lean mass accretion than does consumption of soy or carbohydrate in young, novice, male weightlifters. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;86(2):373–381.
7. Wilkinson S, Tarnopolsky M, MacDonald M, MacDonald J, Armstrong D, Phillips S. Consumption of fluid skim milk promotes greater muscle protein accretion after resistance exercise than does consumption of an isonitrogenous and isoenergetic soy-protein beverage. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;85(4):1031–1040.
8. Protein timing and its effects on muscular hypertrophy and strength in individuals engaged in weight-training Matthew Stark, Judith Lukaszuk, Aimee Prawitz, Amanda SalacinskiJ Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2012; 9: 54. Published online 2012 December 14. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-9-54

About Megan Fischer-Colbrie

Megan recently graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology, and a particular focus in human physiology. Megan is currently preparing for medical school, and recently finished 4 years as a Division I athlete at Stanford. While in college, Megan learned about the human capacity for performance in great detail, in both the classroom and competitions. Megan has conducted research for both Type I Diabetes and pediatric cardiac conditions, and has heard incredible lectures from some of the leading professors in their respective fields at Stanford. It is Megan's wish to impart sound, research-based information to you, the reader, so that you can maximize your performance now. View all posts by Megan Fischer-Colbrie →

Reposted from http://bridgeathletic.com/recovery-part-i/

Plagued by Muscle Cramps?

10/15/2013

By Jill Castle, MS, RDN

Josh was a devoted swimmer and never missed a practice, morning or night. But he was having problems with muscle cramps. His calf muscle would tighten up during laps, and it was painful. Sometimes it was his feet or a hamstring, or a side stitch in his abdomen.

Like Josh, up to 95% of the general population are affected by exercise-associated muscle cramps (EAMC). When muscles are in the shortened, contracted state, cramps are more likely to occur. Muscle cramping in humans occur more frequently after exercise or competition.

Traditionally, most people think muscle cramps are caused by sweating too much, causing dehydration and loss of important electrolytes like sodium and potassium. Defining “sweating too much” in the swimmer can be tricky, as many swimmers don’t feel sweat in the water. The common advice to prevent cramps has been to load up on potassium-rich foods such as banana or potato, or guzzle large amounts of sports drinks.

But research has been slim in proving dehydration and electrolyte abnormalities are the root cause of muscle cramps. This is partly due to the difficulties in re-enacting similar exercise conditions causing muscle cramping in the lab setting, and because they tend to be spontaneous and unpredictable. Researcher Kevin C. Miller has found that cramps in mildly dehydrated athletes who were minimally fatigued “were not likely caused by dehydration.”

Neuromuscular fatigue (muscle exhaustion), which stems from overuse and inadequate rest, is another theory for muscle cramps. Muscle exhaustion is on a continuum, so each athlete has his own point at which muscle exhaustion occurs. Researchers believe the muscle exhaustion theory is the reason some athletes cramp up and others don’t. When a muscle is extremely tired, mechanisms within the muscle start to misfire. Small nerves that should keep the muscle from over-contracting malfunction, causing the muscle to bunch up rather than relax.

What are the best solutions for preventing muscle cramps?

Adequate Fluids
Make sure you get enough fluids throughout the day; before practice, during and after it’s over. For more about hydration, read this: Fluid for Thought

Foods rich in potassium and sodium
If you don’t eat a diet full of fruits, vegetables and dairy products (or non-dairy substitutes), you may need to revamp your diet. Foods with high potassium content are banana, potato, tomato, white beans, sweet potato, chocolate milk and OJ.
Nearly all foods have sodium, but good sources are anything salty like pretzels or crackers (but watch the chips!). Just beware that immediate relief is unlikely to occur—it takes time to digest food!

Pickle juice
Kevin C. Miller has studied the effects of pickle juice on athletes. He suspects the vinegar in pickle juice, not sodium, activates the nerve receptors in muscle tissue and disrupts the reflex commotion in the muscles. More research is needed to prove this an effective course of action, but those who have had success with it, swear by it.

Training adjustments
Out-of-shape swimmers who dive into intense exercise may struggle with muscle cramps. Build up your mileage slowly, adding strength training focused on muscles that have cramped in the past.

Stretching
Stretching is the most common advice and most effective for relieving muscle cramping, but this might not be effective for heat-related cramping. Develop a stretching routine as part of your workout to minimize cramps.

Sources:
Miller KC et al. Exercise-associated muscle cramps. Causes, treatment and prevention. Sports Health. 2010; 2(4): 279-283.
http://www.momsteam.com/muscle-cramps/exercise-associated-muscle-cramps-debunking-five-myths

Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a childhood nutrition expert and co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School. She is the creator of Just The Right Byte, a childhood nutrition blog. She lives with her husband and four children in New Canaan, CT. Questions? Contact her at Jill@JillCastle.com . 

Posted from USASwimming.org

How To Stay Hydrated During Practice

8/13/2013

BY JILL CASTLE, MS, RDN

Dear Splash,
My coach had a lecture for us about drinking things like soda and Gatorade during practice. He asked us to send a letter to the editor asking this question, "What should we drink during a swimming practice and how often?"

Drinking fluids during practice is very important, yet many swimmers save drinking for after practice. And, there can be barriers. My own daughter has complained stating, There isn’t enough time, Mom. Nobody else does it, why should I? The breaks are our time for talking and it’s awkward.

All the experts and all the science points to the importance of drinking fluids during practice, especially if muscles are to perform their best and the body can endure the demands of a long practice.

When figuring out what to drink, it’s all about the duration of practice.

For one-hour sessions or less, swimmers can drink and stay hydrated with plain water. But, when swimming sessions last more than an hour, swimmers need to replace the primary sweat nutrients, sodium and chloride, as well as consume some carbohydrate to improve endurance and keep muscles fueled. This can be accomplished with a beverage containing electrolytes and carbohydrate, such as a sports drink.

Most sports drinks provide a blend of sugars, maximizing the carbohydrate uptake to muscles, and come in concentrations of 4 to 9% solution (or 14 to 19 grams per 8 ounce serving size). There has been research in young athletes showing that sports drinks containing 8% carbohydrate may cause gastrointestinal upset, so lower concentrations may be better tolerated.

Fitness waters and enhanced water don’t provide enough carbohydrate for a long workout, and soda and other sugary beverages such as juice drinks, sweet tea, or lemonade are to be avoided as they may cause stomach distress.

How often should swimmers consume fluids during practice?

We can look to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) who set three guidelines for fluid consumption during exercise for youth. They say:

1. Appropriate fluid replacement should be available and consumed at intervals before, during, and after exercise. 
2. Nine to 12-year-old children should replenish with ~3 to 8 ounces of fluid every 20 minutes, and adolescents may consume 32 to 48 ounces of fluid every hour. 
3. For longer-duration activities (more than an hour), electrolyte-supplemented fluids, such as sports drinks, should be used to optimize hydration.

While science tells us that swimmers should hydrate every 20 minutes, how does one make that happen in the pool? My advice is to bring drinks (with your name labeled on it) to the edge of the pool, at the end of the lane where you are swimming and being coached. At each pause in sets, or at a break, take two to three swigs of fluid (an average gulp of fluid is about one ounce).
Get practical:

• For a young swimmer age 9-12 years, bring at least 12 ounces of water to the poolside for the first hour of practice, and another 12 ounces of sports drink if practice goes for two hours. 
• For teens, enter practice hydrated and with good nutrition on board. Bring along a liter of water to consume the first hour of practice. After that, switch to a sports drink (bring a liter) to make sure you maintain hydration, keep your energy level up and enhance your endurance. 
• Some swimmers don’t like the taste of sports drinks. Use other techniques to enhance hydration, such as watered down 100% fruit juice, water and a salty food such as pretzels, or a sports gel and lots of water.

Are you staying hydrated during practice?

Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a childhood nutrition expert and co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School. She is the creator of Just The Right Byte, a childhood nutrition blog. She lives with her husband and four children in New Canaan, CT. Questions? Contact her at Jill@JillCastle.com.

Posted from USASwimming.org

SHOULD SWIMMERS EAT BEFORE EARLY MORNING PRACTICE?

9/10/2013

BY JILL CASTLE, MS, RDN

When early morning swim practices begin, young swimmers can get behind on eating.

Take Henry, for example.

He was afraid to eat before morning practice, fearful of cramps or getting sick. So he didn’t eat anything, and ate a protein bar after practice on his way to school. By the time he returned home, he was exhausted, beyond hungry and playing catch-up, eating nearly everything in sight.

Many young swimmers make the mistake of skipping out on the early morning pre-workout meal. But what they don’t realize is that these first foods set the day’s eating cycle in motion. There are three main reasons to eat before early morning practice:

• Prevents symptoms of low blood sugar, such as light-headedness, blurry vision and fatigue. 
• Settles the stomach, absorbing the gastric juices associated with an empty stomach, and reduces hunger. 
• Offers up fuel for the muscles and brain.

Another benefit is it helps with appetite management throughout the day. Front-loading (eating early in the day) helps all individuals, whether athletic or not, manage their hunger and avoid “back loading” (eating large amounts late in the day). When swimmers complain of hunger and overeat at night, check on what is happening early in their day with nutrition. If meals are skipped or too light in calories, this may be the problem—and it’s easy to fix!

What to eat depends on individual tolerance, as some swimmers do well with a liquid breakfast, while others can handle solid food. The goal, however, is to get something nutritious in the stomach.

When choosing what to eat, swimmers should target foods that are high in carbohydrate (read carbohydrate article here), moderate in protein, and low in fat. Avoid nutrient-poor foods like candy, donuts, soda and other sugary breakfast items. Keep the portion small to prevent getting too full which can cause cramping, and eat thirty to sixty minutes prior to jumping in the pool.

For those who aren’t sure about what to eat, experiment with both liquid and solid foods. If eating an early morning pre-exercise snack isn’t working, swimmers can always try to eat well the day before and plan a nutritious pre-bedtime snack, which will carry over to the morning, contributing some energy availability for the workout.

Remember, the most important food rule to follow is this: choose foods that work for you! Solid foods or liquids work well. It simply depends on food preferences and tolerance. Below are some ideas to consider:

Solid foods

• Banana, with or without a small swipe of peanut butter
• Small package of trail mix
• 4-6 ounces of fruited yogurt, or plain with added fruit
• Granola bar
• Fig Newtons
• Toasted waffle
• ¾ cup of cereal, with or without 1/3 to ½ cup of low fat milk
• Whole wheat toast with jam
• Friend bars (recipe below)

Liquids

• Plain low fat or skim milk, or soymilk
• Homemade fruit smoothie (1 cup frozen fruit, ½ cup yogurt, 4-6 ounces 100% juice)
• Ovaltine or Carnation Instant Breakfast mixed with skim milk
• Homemade dairy-based smoothie (1 cup low fat milk (or non-dairy substitute), 1 small banana, 3 strawberries, dollop of yogurt, and ice)

Friend Bars (similar to KIND bars)
With permission from: Power Hungry: The Ultimate Energy Bar Cookbook by Camilla Saulsbury
Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups chopped assorted raw or toasted nuts and/or seeds (e.g., cashews, sunflower seeds, green pumpkin seeds, peanuts, pecans) 
• 1/3 cup crisp brown rice cereal 
• ½ cup chopped dried fruit (e.g., raisins, apricots, dates, berries) 
• 1/3 cup organic light corn syrup or brown rice syrup (can also substitute DIY Glucose Syrup—recipe in the book) 
• 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt (optional)

Directions:

1. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Preheat oven to 325 F.
3. Stir together the nuts or seeds, cereal, and dried fruit in a large bowl.
4. Add the syrup and salt (if using) to the nut mixture and stir until evenly coated.
5. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan. Place a large piece of parchment paper, wax paper, or plastic wrap (coated with nonstick cooking spray) atop the bar mixture and use it to spread, flatten, and very firmly compact the mixture evenly in the pan. Discard the paper or plastic.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 17 to 20 minutes or until slightly browned at the edges, but still somewhat soft in the center.
7. Using the liner, lift the mixture from the pan and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into 10 bars. Cool completely.

Nutrients per bar: Calories 150, Fat 8.6 g, Carbs 17.6 g, Protein 3.8 g

Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a childhood nutrition expert and co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School. She is the creator of Just The Right Byte, a childhood nutrition blog. She lives with her husband and four children in New Canaan, CT. Questions? Contact her at Jill@JillCastle.com.

Reposted from USASwimming.org

TOP TIPS FOR IMPROVING NUTRITION TO REDUCE YOUR TIMES

8/20/2013

BY CHRIS ROSENBLOOM//PHD, RD, CSSD

Want to shave 1.82 seconds off your 100-meter free? How about 7.93 seconds off your 200 IM? David (not his real name), a 16-year old swimmer did just that by improving his food choices to support his training and conditioning. He dramatically slashed his times after committing to improving his food choices in the months leading up to a national-level meet. His reward? His best times…ever. How did he do it? He completed a detailed 3-day food and activity record and then had it analyzed by a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist who individualized a plan to build on his already good habits. Like many of you, David already practiced sound dietary habits: he ate before swim practice, he timed his intake to support recovery, he ate high-quality protein, and he got sufficient calcium and vitamin D through foods.

What he needed to tweak in his diet was:

• Increasing total calorie intake. He was averaging 70-85% of the needed calories to support growth, physical development and training
• Increasing carbohydrate intake. He was getting 44% of his calories or 6.2 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight and he needed 6-8 grams per kilogram to support training, so he increased carb intake to the higher end of the range
• Decreasing total fat intake. His fat intake was 35% of total calories and while the recommendation is to keep fat intake in the range of 25-35%, an athlete who needs more carbohydrate will need to decrease fat intake to accommodate the need for muscle fueling carbs.
• Choosing more nutrient-rich foods to increase the intake of 2 nutrients that were low in his diet: vitamin E and iron.

David used these 4 simple strategies to boost his nutrition:

• Increased fruit and veggie intake to boost carbohydrate intake
  • Added a fruit cup to morning after-practice swim snack
  • Added an apple, pear, orange, etc. to lunch
  • Added an additional vegetable to dinner like a baked sweet potato, green beans, cauliflower, or any other veggie he liked.
  • Snacked on summer fruits: watermelon, cantaloupe, berries
  • Topped his favorite dessert, pound cake, with berries
• Chose more iron-rich foods
  • Substituted corn dogs with a roast beef sandwich or a small cheeseburger
  • Ate dark-meat chicken (leg, thigh) in addition to chicken breast
  • Included a vitamin C source with breakfast, like orange juice, strawberries, or other citrus fruit, like “cuties”
  • Tried grilled flank steak for dinner. It’s a lean cut of beef with plenty of iron
• Decreased high-fat foods
  • Tried lower fat ice cream instead of full-fat ice cream
  • Substituted low-fat hot dogs for full-fat hot dogs
  • Reduced milk fat from 2% milk to 1% or fat-free milk
• Increased calories with healthy, tasty foods
  • Snacked on nuts and trail mix (good source of vitamin E)
  • Ate pineapple (contributed with love from his aunt’s own pineapple tree)
  • Increased sports drink from 8-oz to 12-16 ounces
  • Snacked on cottage cheese and fruit with whole grain crackers
  • Drizzled vanilla Greek yogurt with honey and added chopped walnuts

It wasn’t always easy, as David said sometimes he just wasn’t hungry, and it was hard to reach the higher calorie level. But, improving nutrition paid off and now he is on a quest to improve his standing at his state meet. Last year he finished 25th in the 100 and 200 free and the top 24 finishers move on... This year I think he will one of the swimmers moving on.

Chris Rosenbloom is the sports nutrition consultant for Georgia State University Athletics and is the editor of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Sports Nutrition Manual, 5th edition, 2012. She welcomes questions from swimmers, parents and coaches. Email her at chrisrosenbloom@gmail.com.

Article was taken from USASwimming.org

Water vs. Coke

Water or Coke? We all know that water is important but I’ve never seen it written like this before.

WATER

1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one’s metabolism as much as 30%.
4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.
5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

And now for the properties of COKE

1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the highway after a car accident.
2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days.
3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl and let the “real thing” sit for one hour, then flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a rumpled-up piece of aluminum foil dipped in Coca-Cola.
5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion.
6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
7. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

IMPORTANT INFO

1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days. Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.
2. To carry Coca-Cola syrup (the concentrate) the commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.
3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would you like a glass of water or coke?

STAY-IN-THE-BAG SNACKS FOR SWIMMERS

6/11/2013

BY JILL CASTLE MS, RDN

Even the most organized, well-planned swimmer can put nutrition on the backburner, jeopardizing access to essential fuel sources when he needs it most. Thankfully, some food items can stay in the swim bag, providing relief in situations where optimal food sources may be scant or not ideal.

The following snacks require no refrigeration, are temperature tolerant and provide a great fuel source. Remember to clean out snacks in the swim bag periodically and when the swim bag sits out in extremely hot temperatures. Always do a visual check and review the package label for expiration information and storage considerations before consuming.

Nuts and Nut Butters: Nuts provide a calorie kick and a boost of healthy fat and fiber in just a small handful, or about 1 ounce (150-200 calories, depending on the type of nut). Store individual packets of nuts or a small canister in the swim bag.

Prepackaged squeeze packets or small cups of nut butters also offer a quick source of energy and pair nicely with crackers or pretzels. They can be squeezed directly into the mouth too! Flavors include peanut, almond, chocolate hazelnut, honey peanut, and more.

*Be conscious of potential swimmers with nut allergies.

Dried Fruit and Fruit Puree: Better than a “fruit snack,” dried fruit is a concentrated source of carbohydrate usually without added sugar. Try sealed bags or individual boxes of raisins, dried cherries, apricot, or mango. Squeezable fruit puree packs are another option, and offer interesting combinations of fruit such as strawberry and banana, or kiwi, strawberry and beet.
Dry Cereal: Go for small boxes or make your own baggie of dry cereal. If you’re interested in low sugar types, opt for original Cheerios, Kix, Post Spoon-Size Shredded Wheat, or Kashi 7 Whole Grain Puffs. Better yet, mix and package dry cereal with dried fruit and nuts for a homemade trail mix.

Beef Jerky: Low fat, lean meat cured into a chewy, salty, protein pick-me-up—stow a re-sealable package in the swim bag. Looking for a jerky with no additives or preservatives? Try Trader Joe’s, Costco or Whole Foods brands.

Pretzels: Variety and portability are the appeal here—you can find all shapes and sizes, with salt or without, and even whole grain, flavored or not. Choose small packages so they stay fresh, or bag your own.

Fig Newtons: These cookies have been around forever (more than 100 years!) and are loaded with carbohydrate and the natural fiber from figs, providing the athlete with a sweet boost to the taste buds. Fig Newtons come in small packages of two or four cookies, and also come in strawberry and raspberry flavors if fig isn’t your thing.

Sandwich Crackers: Go for the whole grain types with peanut butter or cheese. Individual packages of six sandwiches starring the whole grain cracker are the healthiest bet.

Seeds: Sunflower, pumpkin, chia and sesame are just a handful of seed types that offer vitamin E, fiber, protein and zinc. They are nutritious and delicious on their own or mixed into trail mix, homemade granola bars or atop cereal and salad. Opt for seeds that are already hulled and come in a re-sealable bag.

Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a registered dietitian/nutritionist and childhood nutrition expert. She is the co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School and creator of Just The Right Byte, a childhood nutrition blog. She lives with her husband and four children in New Canaan, CT. Questions? Contact Jill at Jill@JillCastle.com.

6 Nutrition Rules for Endurance Athletes

Back to the basics advice from the top sports nutritionists on the block.

By Jennifer Ward Barber

In a sport where food is fuel, we sometimes forget that eating well is more than just bars and salt pills. But let's do a quick calculation: If you get eight hours of sleep a night, you're awake for 112 hours a week. A 20-hour/week training regimen leaves you with 92 non-training hours. That's a good chunk of your waking life not spent eating gels and drinking sports drinks.

As an endurance machine, what you put in your mouth during those 92 hours can make the difference between functioning at your best and getting rusty—or at worst, breaking down. So we consulted six of triathlon's top nutritionists for their key tenets of everyday nutrition.

1. Eat a quality daily diet

We all love our bars and gels for long rides, but what are we eating when we’re not swimming, biking and running? Matt Fitzgerald, author of "Racing Weight," says that general health is the foundation of endurance fitness, and a high-quality diet is essential for general health. "Most triathletes struggle to get leaner despite an appetite inflated by heavy training," Fitzgerald says. "A high-quality diet helps with that by satisfying the appetite in a calorically efficient way."

How does your diet measure up? Try keeping score with a system like the USDA's MyPlate Supertracker, or Fitzgerald’s Diet Quality Score in the aforementioned book.

Pay attention if:

• You’re prone to illness and injury
• You’re having trouble achieving body composition goals

You’ve nailed it when:

• Your plate is overflowing with fruits, vegetables, lean protein and complex carbohydrates
• You avoid junk foods (including large amounts of processed energy bars and gels) and fatty foods
• You limit your intake of alcohol to one or two drinks a day and keep caffeine to a minimum

2. Eat enough, starting with breakfast

Think you’re tired because you’re training so much? Think again, and then fix yourself a sandwich. Many endurance athletes, despite fueling their workouts properly while they’re out on the road, finish the day with a caloric deficit. The fear of gaining weight can result in an epidemic of under-fed triathletes.

"Triathletes think performance starts with training, but it starts with fuel," says sports nutritionist and author Nancy Clark.

Clark’s "Sports Nutrition Guidebook" can help you estimate your daily energy needs, which depend on height, weight loss goals and even physical habits. In the meantime, make sure you get started with a quality breakfast (Clark advises 800 to 1,000 calories, split up between pre-workout, during and after). Your first meal of the day should make up a third to a half of your daily calories, she says, to avoid getting tired in the evening and eating too much or too poorly.

Pay attention if:

• Your workouts aren’t enjoyable and don’t feel like quality sessions
• You think about food all the time
• Your hunger spikes in the evening

You’ve nailed it when:

• Your performance consistently improves
• You recover quickly
• You crave sweets infrequently (people who say they’re addicted to sugar are really just hungry, Clark says)

3. Practice meal timing 

Ever attempted a long run after an all-you-can-eat brunch? Then you know that even high-quality foods, if eaten at the wrong time, can do your training more harm than good.

"An athlete should have some sort of nutrition approximately one to three hours before a training session," says Bob Seebohar, sports dietitian, exercise physiologist, and coach at fuel4mance.com. For short and/or high-intensity sessions under two hours, Seebohar says athletes can benefit from teaching the body to rely on fat stores for energy, which requires consuming fewer carbohydrates. For such sessions, he recommends liquid-based nutrition such as a sports drinks. For sessions more than three hours, Seebohar recommends consuming 200 to 300 grams of carbohydrate one to four hours beforehand.

What you eat after a workout—when the muscles are primed to accept nutrients—matters just as much. The 30 to 60 minutes immediately following long and high-intensity workouts are especially important. Seebohar recomends consuming 1 to 1.2 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight and 10 to 25 grams of protein after a workout. Fat, which inhibits carbohydrate absorption, should wait until a few hours later.

Pay attention if:

• You’re prone to GI distress in workouts (can be due to consuming too many carbohydrates)
• You’re low on energy or feel heavy and sluggish before and during workouts

You’ve nailed it when:

• You feel satiated, energetic and light in all your workouts, no matter what time of day

4. Monitor macronutrients

Fueling your body well goes beyond eating your fruits and veggies. Macronutrients—carbohydrates, fats and proteins—have several important functions in the body, and it’s crucial to give your body the right amount of each.

According to Jamie A. Cooper, author of "The Complete Nutrition Guide for Triathletes," the exact percentages of each will vary depending on what type of triathlete you are; an IRONMAN triathlete will need slightly more carbohydrate (the body’s primary energy source) than a short-course triathlete logging fewer training hours. But as a rule of thumb, he says athletes should aim for getting 45-65 percent of daily calories from carbohydrate, 15-20 percent from protein and 20-35 percent from fat.

Pay attention if:

• You feel low on energy before, during and after your workouts
• You frequently feel fatigued

You’ve nailed it when:

• You recover quickly, even after high-intensity sessions
• You can't remember the last time you got sick, or injured

5. Hit the hydration sweet spot

Proper digestion, nutrient absorption, healthy skin, optimal brain power—you name it. They all rely on hydration. Which, when you're not on the course, is about achieving the right balance of fluids and electrolytes (minerals not only essential to our sports performance but our overall health).

"As prevalent as the eight glasses a day idea is, there really is no basis to this number," says Pip Taylor, nutritionist and professional triathlete. "How much you need to drink varies greatly between individuals based on size, sweat rate, activity levels, weather and altitude." Taylor advises paying close attention to your thirst and alternating plain water with low-sugar electrolyte drinks to top up your salts and minerals.

Pay attention if:

• You feel fatigued, nauseated, have dry lips and throat, headaches and reduced ability to concentrate at work or complete your workouts
• You urinate frequently through the day (and when you do, it's water-colored), or you hardly urinate (and it's dark in color)

You’ve nailed it when:

• You’re aware of your daily hydration needs based on what kind of work you do and where you live, and you keep up with them. 
• Your urine is consistently straw-colored

6. Maintain a healthy relationship with food

Triathletes are obsessive types. We log our workout hours and race results with passion, and we monitor our bodies like a science experiment. When it comes to food, this relationship can get tricky. Despite our bodies crying out for nutrients, we’re often more prone to denying ourselves and feeling guilty than perhaps we should be.

"Eating should always be healthful but it should also be pleasurable," says Marni Sumbal, clinical dietitian and age-group triathlete. When she counsels her athletes, she looks for bad habits like eating behind a computer screen, skipping meals and negative emotions surrounding food, and steers them toward a more forgiving attitude.

Pay attention if:

• You tend to eat mindlessly
• You have a long list of "do not eat" restricted foods (you may be denying yourself too much)

You’ve nailed it when:

• You eat slowly and at a table without distractions
• You consume real, whole foods
• You avoid pre-packaged convenience foods and prepare meals in your own home more frequently than you eat out

Reprinted from www.ironman.com

BLOOD IN THE WATER

6/3/2013

BY DAN MCCARTHY//HIGH PERFORMANCE CONSULTANT

In this forum I have had the opportunity to write about the USA Swimming National Team blood chemistry program. In September 2012, The Danger of an Iron Deficiency was posted, and more recently (January 2013) an overview of the entire blood chemistry program was published. This past April, the impact of the blood chemistry program was presented to the coaches in attendance at the National Team Coaches Seminar in Colorado Springs.

In the months preceding the Olympic Trials an unprecedented number of National Team athletes completed blood tests, which gave us more data to analyze than we had in the past. The sample size is small, and the population is not very diverse (from a training standpoint), but we were able to see some similarities that were common enough to raise an eyebrow. Of the athletes who participated in the blood chemistry program:

• 1 in 4 of our female athletes was considered iron deficient, or had low enough Ferritin values to cause concern
• Nearly all of our athletes had lower Vitamin D values during the winter months, and athletes in the northern areas of the United States were far more likely to have less than optimal Vitamin D values all year long. Both findings were consistent with the Vitamin D research that has been published the last few years.

Because the blood chemistry panels are primarily used by the medical industry to detect abnormalities, our program, while not designed as a health & wellness protocol has helped our National Team athletes become aware of significant irregularities and seek appropriate medical guidance. Our panels have detected:

• adrenal fatigue/burnout
• serious streptococcus infections
• thyroid disorders
• red blood cell abnormalities

The National team blood chemistry program began as a service for our National Team athletes, but the results and trends are valuable to all of our athletes. I encourage all of our female athletes to have their Ferritin tested at least once a year, and all of our athletes have their Vitamin D tested annually as well.

Article Reposted from USA Swimming

TOP TIPS FOR FEEDING TEEN SWIMMERS

5/14/2013

BY CHRIS ROSENBLOOM, PHD,RD, CSSD

USASwimming.org nutrition contributor, Jill Castle, recently published “Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School” (Jossey-Bass publisher, 2013), and I asked her to offer her top tips for feeding teen swimmers. Many of our readers are looking for sound nutrition advice with practical tips for families of active swimmers and this book is the go-to source.

With parents and teen athletes on different schedules, how can the family eat meals together so that mom and dad aren’t short order cooks?
“Start by checking everyone’s schedule for the week, and I’ll bet you can find at least two or three meals the whole family can enjoy together,” says Castle.

It might be breakfast or a weekend dinner, but look for opportunities to eat together. Plan the menu and announce the plan to your family. Tell them they are expected to be present, and if plans change, Castle suggests a pre-plated meal for the absent person that can be reheated in the microwave or oven.

How can parents limit fast food consumption?
Castle suggests several strategies to curb unhealthy fast food choices. First, help your teen learn about healthier fast food items so he can make good choices most of the time. Visit the restaurant’s website or download an app to encourage choosing grilled items, yogurt parfaits, wraps or egg sandwiches. Second, have healthy, quick items within easy reach in your fridge. Yogurt, smoothies, low-fat milk, veggies and dip, and mixed fruit cups should be grab-and-go items for teens,” Castle says. In addition, keep trail mix, nuts, and dried fruit available for quick after practice snacks.

What can a parent do to get a teenage girl to get adequate calcium if she won’t drink milk?
If your teen doesn’t drink milk, look for other good sources of calcium that she will include in her diet. Castle suggests calcium-fortified orange juice, yogurt smoothies, cheese, pudding or ice cream. Other calcium-rich foods include almonds, soy nuts, tofu and cooked greens. Also consider why your teen won’t drink milk. Is it lactose intolerance or another issue? Soy milk, rice milk and almond milk are all fortified with calcium, and your teen might like these alternatives better than dairy milk.

With heavy practice schedules and schoolwork, how can parents help swimmers get enough calories?
“Structure a meal and snack plan,” Castle says. The plan should include 3 meals and 3 snacks each day. Experiment with free phone apps that help athletes track food intake, and set the phone to beep for reminders to eat throughout the day. Castle recommends powerhouse foods that contain both carbohydrate and protein for pre- and post-workout snacks to refuel tired muscles. “Peanut butter on whole grain bread, a banana and a cheese stick” contain high quality nutrients for fueling.

For more information on Castle’s book, see http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-111830859X,descCd-buy.html

Chris Rosenbloom is the sports dietitian for Georgia State University Athletics and is the editor of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Sports Nutrition Manual, 5th edition, 2012. She welcomes questions from swimmers, parents and coaches. Email her at chrisrosenbloom@gmail.com. 

Reposted from usaswimming.org

Top Tips For Choosing Smoothies

4/16/2013

BY CHRIS ROSENBLOOM//PHD, RD, CSSD

Smoothies are a great choice for swimmers because they provide nutrient-rich carbohydrates to fuel muscles before a workout and can rapidly replace lost muscle glycogen after a workout. However, with so many choices of smoothies found in specialty stores (Smoothie King, Freshens, Jamba Juice, etc.) to bottled smoothies in the grocery store, how do you choose? Here are some tips to help you choose the smoothie that will meet your energy needs and won’t sabotage your workouts.

1. Study the ingredient list to check for real fruit or vegetables and/or fruit or vegetable juice as the main ingredients. Don’t be fooled by pictures of whole fruit or vegetables in the advertising or on the package. The only way to know if a smoothie has real food is to look at the ingredient list. Some smoothies list “pear juice concentrate or apple juice concentrate” as the first ingredient, although they claim to be made from real fruit.

2. Smoothies can be healthy, but many are sugar traps. Fruit naturally contains sugar but many smoothies add sugar in the form of fruit puree blends or include sherbet or frozen yogurt which contributes to added sugar. And, just because the sugar is listed as “organic” doesn’t mean it is healthier. Sugar is sugar. Remember that “energy” is another word for calories. All food gives you energy because it is broken down to provide fuel. If smoothies were called “calorie drinks” no one would buy them, but when the word “energy” is on the label everyone wants it. Energy can also be a marketing code word for caffeine or other stimulants, like guarana or yerba mate, so be careful when choosing a smoothie that claims to boost your energy. Don’t add the “boosters” or “enhancers” when ordering a smoothie to avoid caffeine or even possibly a banned substance.

3. Check the serving size. Many smoothies come in 2 or 3 sizes and a 40-ounce peanut butter power smoothie can have 1400 calories. That might be OK for a really tall, elite swimmer who spends his life in the pool, but it is too much for a pre-teen female swimmer. Many smoothies sold in the grocery store fool you on portion size, too. For example, many smoothies come in a 16-ounce bottle but the serving size is 2 servings per bottle. So that 300 calorie smoothie really has 600 calories if you drink the whole bottle (and most of us drink the whole bottle).

4. Learn to make smoothies with simple ingredients. The best smoothie I ever had was at little smoothie stand in Florida. The only ingredients were banana, strawberries and orange sections blended with ice. Cool, refreshing, bursting with vitamins and minerals, and not too sweet. So, dig out the blender in mom or dad’s kitchen and experiment with your favorite flavors.

Smoothies can be a powerhouse snack for a swimmer by providing carbohydrate, vitamins, minerals and water, but they can also be calorie bombs that can sabotage your workouts, so choose wisely!

Chris Rosenbloom is the sports dietitian for Georgia State University Athletics and is the editor of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Sports Nutrition Manual, 5^th edition, 2012. She welcomes questions from swimmers, parents and coaches. Email her at chrisrosenbloom@gmail.com.

Taken from www.usaswimming.org

Carbohydrate Loading for Young Swimmers

4/11/2013

BY JILL CASTLE, MS, RDN

It’s not uncommon to see teams of young swimmers filing into the local Italian restaurant to load up on pasta the night before a big meet. Or hear of parents planning to cook up a big meal with pasta, rice or potatoes at home. The common conception is that loading up on a high carbohydrate meal will prepare the muscles with a ready source of glycogen (stored carbohydrate in the muscle) the following day, usually a race day. As a result, the swimmer will avoid early muscle fatigue, low energy, and the big bonus: swim fast.

So the thinking goes.

The problem with the idea of carbohydrate loading in young athletes is that it is an approach based on what we know about the adult metabolism of carbohydrate. The reality is there is little scientific evidence supporting the benefit of this practice in children.

Kids are not like adults when it comes to breaking down, utilizing, and storing carbohydrate. Young swimmers (and all child athletes) use fat more readily as an energy source, which is not the case for adults. Young swimmers have a limited ability to store large amounts of carbohydrate in their muscles. And females have less overall muscle mass compared to males, and therefore, less capacity for glycogen storage.

Also, swimming on race day generally occurs in short, fast bursts. This limits the need for accessing glycogen and breaking it down, a need associated with prolonged exercise. And the truth is, we don’t have a lot of evidence that high carbohydrate intake during prolonged training is beneficial in young athletes, either.

While this may go against what you have long believed about carbohydrate loading and general carbohydrate consumption for swimmers, rest assured, researchers still advise a daily high carbohydrate diet for young athletes.

They just don’t support the idea that there is a benefit to carbohydrate loading for swimmers who are still growing. We do know that as children age, their ability to metabolize (process) carbohydrate becomes more adult-like.

The healthiest and best approach to getting the carbohydrate needed for optimal swimming performance is to follow a training diet that is loaded with fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low fat dairy products. Just as important is getting the timing of eating regulated. Eat every 3 to 4 hours, so there is a steady supply of carbohydrate and nutrients to the muscles and brain. Nailing these two nutrition strategies will keep the young swimmer ready for competition without a need to “load” with carbohydrate-rich foods the night before a meet, or go above and beyond your normal healthy meal.

Jill Castle, MS, RDN is a registered dietitian/nutritionist and child nutrition expert. She is the co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters from High Chair to High School, and creator of Just The Right Byte, a child and family nutrition blog. She lives with her husband and four children (two swimmers!) in New Canaan, CT. Find more about her at www.JillCastle.com . Questions? Contact Jill atJill@JillCastle.com.

Post taken from usaswimming.org