Athletic Performance Toolbox

Post Workout recovery-It’s More Than Just Protein

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This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

By: Becky Lindberg, RD, MAEd, LDN, CSSD
Coordinator of Performance Nutrition
University of Louisville

Athletes are more aware than ever of the importance of sports nutrition, and many know that they should be including post-workout nutrition as part of their routine. If they aren’t properly fueling and recovering with the nutrients their body needs, they may not see the success they are expecting.

As a sports dietitian, I find far too often that athletes think that post-workout nutrition is all about protein and don’t realize the important role that carbohydrates, liquids, and electrolytes also play in this timeframe! Sometimes referred to as the “Three Rs of Recovery” (Refuel, Repair, Rehydrate), it is important that athletes include each of these components after finishing their workout.

Refuel with Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates provide our bodies with fuel to operate in the form of glucose and glycogen. During exercise, our glycogen (stored in the muscle) is used for energy. Therefore, it needs to be replaced afterward, so that the body is ready for the next training session. Replenishing these glycogen stores is especially critical for those who are exercising twice in a day or those without a consecutive day or two off to allow the body to rest and recover.

In general, recommendations on how much carbohydrate to consume post-workout vary from one to two grams per kilogram of bodyweight (g/kg). However, this is what the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics/American College of Sports Medicine says on the matter: “Because the rate of glycogen resynthesis is only five percent per hour, early intake of carbohydrate in the recovery period (one to 1.2 g/kg per hour during the first four to six hours) is useful in maximizing the effective refueling time.”

The amount of glycogen used does depend on what type of activity is done. For example, endurance training uses much more than resistance training, so a cross-country runner would use more glycogen stores while running compared to lifting weights.

To replenish glycogen, there are two primary forms of carbohydrate: simple and complex. The athlete’s body responds differently to each of them. Complex carbs, like vegetables, do not cause the same insulin spike as simple carbohydrates, like sugar, and can be broken down and utilized by the body over longer periods of time. Simple carbs can provide a quick energy boost, while complex carbs help with building future energy stores.

Repair with Protein

Exercise will inevitably trigger some form of muscle breakdown. However, the type of exercise and the duration will have an effect on the amount of protein damage in the muscle. Resistance training can create more damage than endurance training.

To repair this damage, athletes should aim to consume 20 to 30 grams of protein post workout, although larger-sized athletes and those with longer and more aggressive sessions may require slightly more. In addition, resistance training recovery can be on the higher end of this recommendation.

Rehydrate with Fluid

Replacing water and electrolytes lost through sweat in exercise is an important step that many athletes forget. Performance athletes can lose one to three liters of sweat per hour of exercise, which can translate to upwards of eight pounds lost. In that sweat is typically between 1.5 to 3.5 grams of total electrolytes—over 90 percent of which are sodium and chloride, or salt.

That is why it is critical to replenish not just water after exercise but also electrolytes, mostly sodium.  Muscles with higher water content can decrease the risk of tearing and injury.

After activity, encourage athletes to choose water or an electrolyte beverage to continue hydration. For chronic crampers and heavy/salty sweaters with greater electrolyte needs, there are higher-concentration electrolyte solutions available like The Right Stuff®, developed by NASA, which can be added to water or a favorite sports drink.

Beyond the Three Rs of Recovery, athletes must factor in what to eat and when following exercise. A general recommendation for most athletes is to consume a 3:1 ratio of carbs to protein. An athlete could start with 60 grams of carbohydrates and 20 grams of protein. A recovery option such as eight ounces of chocolate milk (25 g carbs + 8 g protein), Greek yogurt (14 g carbs + 12 g protein), and a banana (25g carbs + 0 g protein) would meet this 3:1 ratio. An endurance athlete may need a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein.

Regardless of what your athlete chooses to meet their carbohydrate and protein needs, they should consume it within 30 to 45 minutes after completing exercise so the body is able to immediately start repairing the muscle tissue and restoring glycogen levels. During this timeframe, the body is able to use the nutrients at a faster rate than hours following exercise.

Keep in mind, this recovery snack can also be a meal if consumed within 45 minutes following activity. , For instance, many athletes work out in the morning and have breakfast after exercise. We encourage that they still meet the 3:1 ratio of carbs and protein and continue to hydrate throughout the day.

Post-workout recovery is not a magic bullet to instantly improve athletic performance, but it will help promote muscle protein synthesis, keep energy levels high, and improve fluid balance – which should lead to a high-performing athlete!

 

7 Reasons You Should Commit to Being a Better Manager of Your Time

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How can you manage time better so you can perform at the highest level in your career, for your team, and for your family.?

This post was provided by Busy.Coach

By Mandy Green

I know that I am probably preaching to the choir by sending this information to a group of coaches who have committed already to reading a newsletter about productivity for coaches.

I really appreciate that you read my newsletter, I do.  Having said that, just know that I mean this question with no disrespect, “How good are you at actually applying the information you get from me every Sunday?”

I ask this because as I continue to train coaches on how to manage their time better so they can perform at the highest level for their career, their team, and for their family, I’m finding more and more how many coaches actually hate this topic . . . at first.

These are pretty common responses I get all the time when I tell coaches or business professionals that I can help them get higher quality work done in less time with less effort:

“There is no way I can manage my day any better than I already am because I have so many things to do.”

“I am being interrupted all of the time or I have all of these obligations.”

“It is hard to believe that I could actually have harmony in my life, so why even bother trying to do better with my scheduling each day?”

This is my typical response when I hear these things-

“If you don’t have a high level of focus or discipline to work on the right things, you are wasting time and things are taking longer to finish so as a program, you are probably working a lot more hours than you need to, which is taking away your free time to spend at home with family and friends.”

As we head into 2018 tomorrow, I wanted to give you 7 good reasons you should focus on learning to manage your time more of a priority this year:

You can accomplish more with less effort

Better time management can help you do more of what you have to do – faster. This doesn’t mean cutting corners or a decrease in quality. You just do what you have to do quicker (office paperwork) so you can do what you want to do sooner (coaching your sport or going home to spend more time with your family).

You feel calmer and more in control

When you don’t have control of your time, it’s easy to end up feeling rushed and overwhelmed with all there is to do. And when that happens, coaches tend to work harder and longer which leads to burnout and fatigue.  Once you learn how to manage your time, you no longer subject yourself to that level of stress. Besides it being better for your health, you have a clearer picture of the demands on your time.

Free time is necessary

Everyone needs time to relax and unwind. Unfortunately, though, many of us don’t get enough of it. Between office responsibilities, recruiting, family responsibilities, errands, and upkeep on the house and the yard, most of us are hard-pressed to find even 10 minutes to sit and do nothing.

Having good time management skills helps you find that time. When you’re more structured, focused, and disciplined to get the right things done, you’re going to get more done in less time. You accumulate extra time throughout your day that you can use later to relax, unwind, and prepare for a good night’s sleep.

You have more energy

Your ability to manage time has a direct effect on your energy levels.  Strange but true — the act of finishing tasks often brings a level of satisfaction and energy that makes you feel good. The importance of time management here? It will help you do more of those endorphin releasing activities.

Become more successful in your career

Time management is the key to success. It allows you to take control of your life and career rather than following the flow of others. As you accomplish more each day, make more sound decisions, and feel more in control, people notice. Your team will notice that you are more organized and have more energy to lead and run your practices.  Your administration will notice that you are happier, more organized, and will see it in your team’s results.

You enjoy your life more

After all, that’s what it’s about, isn’t it? What’s the importance of time management in your life? The more value you put on your time, the greater your ability to learn how to do what matters so you can enjoy life more.

Managing how you use your time is a means to an end, but it brings enjoyment and satisfaction in its own right as well.

Accomplish your vision and goals

Time management is ultimately about working a vision backwards into strategic and scheduled chunks of time and tasks.  If you are not being strategic about what you want to accomplish in your life or with your program, then I feel you are just kind of doing random tasks each day and you find yourself doing busy work instead of work what is going to move your life, career, or program forward.

Time management is not just about improving your efficiency at work. The efficient utilization of time gives you as a coach the opportunity to maximize your potential to do what it is you want to do with your time. The efficient utilization of your time improves efficiency, productivity, and personal satisfaction. Learning to manage your time, will greatly improve your coaching life quality by whatever definition you choose.  Commit to making time management a high priority for 2018. Good luck and as always, let me know if there is anything I can do to help!

Olympic Lifts: Teaching the First Pull

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Do you utilize Olympic movements in your strength and conditioning program. There is no doubt these exercises are beneficial, but are the worth the risk. In this post learn how to teach an efficient first pull.

This article was provided by Coaches  Network

By Doug Bull

Many high school programs are using the Olympic movements in their daily programming. The debate on whether it is the best way to train high school athletes–is the risk worth the reward–will probably go on for the rest of time. I won’t go into the debate here because I believe that utilizing these movements is beneficial. However, if you do not have the knowledge base to teach proper positions and progressions or spot technique flaws (or if you don’t have the time, space, or equipment), there are other options.

If you chose to utilize the Olympic lifts as part of the training program, at some point you will witness a poor set up and an inefficient first pull. This will happen regardless of their training level. As a coach, it’s important to remember when teaching these lifts that, just like with so many movements in sport, the devil is in the details.

The most common mistakes I have witnessed in my athletes in their set up is that they are either too far off the bar at the start or too far back on the bar. In both instances they have improper weight distribution in the feet at the beginning of the first pull, which will cause the athlete to move the bar around the body, and not the body around the bar.

If the feet are set too far back from the bar they will be unable to shift the weight to the heel as they initiate the pull. See the photo below:

The same holds true if they are too far back on the bar, which means they are behind the bar and on their heels so they have nowhere to shift their weight to. See photo below:

Both of these set up mistakes will force the bar to move around their body (knee), instead of moving vertically next to the body.

I start all athletes that are new to our program with a simple pull from the floor to the knee. They will perform this exercise using a slow concentric contraction taking four seconds to raise the bar from the technique box to the knee. This places emphasis on teaching the athlete to feel the movement. I do not want them jerking the bar off the floor. Here is a quick look at how the movement should be performed:

Doug Bull, MS, CSCS, is starting his 11th year as Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for the Deer Park (Texas) School District. He has more than 20 years of strength and conditioning experience ranging from junior high school to NCAA Division I athletics, including coaching stops at Northern State, Fort Hays State, Illinois State, and The United States Naval Academy. He is nationally recognized for the work he has done to promote training secondary athletes and has served as a consultant in the creation of over a dozen full time strength positions nationwide. His web site is: www.dpstrength.com.

Speed and Agility Training

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This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

Adam Linens, MS, CSCS, ATC, PES, CES, is an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Oregon, working specifically with the men’s basketball team. He has also worked with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers and the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream. Below he answers questions on training speed and agility.

What’s your overall philosophy regarding speed and agility?

Linens: In my experience, all athletes want to do is go fast. But speed and agility training is not about how fast a player can accelerate, it’s about how fast they can stop and then reaccelerate multiple times. When NBA players get to the final years of their careers, they have no problems starting—they have problems stopping, landing, and changing direction. Those skills require the most eccentric strength, so I try to instill them early in my players’ careers.

That being said, much of what I teach is based on linear speed development. Although basketball athletes don’t need a ton of linear speed training—since they play a change-of-direction sport—good technique for linear speed will transfer to change-of-direction work and other movements.

How do you improve speed and agility?

Linens: I like to use ladders and hurdles to instill proper balance, body positioning, linear speed, and lateral quickness. We start with specific ladder drills to teach forward-to-backward change of direction, hip rotations, and pivoting. Then, I’ll get into more advanced drills with hurdles and cones. After that, we progress to reactionary training, where I use numbered cones, colored cones, or pointing in different directions to get athletes to react. During these sessions, I also like to use lateral resistors around their ankles to strengthen their hips.

What role does technique have in speed and agility training?

Linens: Technique trumps everything. Some coaches overload athletes with repetitions or resistance when their movements aren’t correct to begin with. This only ingrains bad habits.

Instead, I’ll teach a drill and make sure athletes have good technique before moving forward. After they’ve gotten proficient in the drill, we’ll add some resistance. However, I don’t add so much resistance that it makes the movement look sloppy. My general rule is: The more sport-specific a drill, the lighter the resistance.

How do you make speed and agility training sport specific?

Linens: I take the sport, break it down into different movements, and then teach corresponding pieces of it through a drill. I’m not teaching basketball skills, but our speed and agility training can focus on footwork related to an open step or crossover step that will help players drive to the basket or shuffle on defense.

What role does strength training play in your speed and agility work?

Linens: Strength training enhances speed and agility, and speed and agility enhance strength training. If you think of different concentric and explosive speed movements, they all require triple extension. We focus on triple extension in a lot of the exercises that we do, such as squat variations, dumbbell variations, kettlebell swings, arm dumbbell snatches, and clean variations.

To enhance change of direction, we emphasize single-leg exercises in the weightroom. I try to get athletes comfortable with balancing, exploding, controlling, and decelerating on one leg. Some of our exercises include variations of step-ups and lunges, single-leg Romanian dead lifts, and rear-foot elevator squats, as well as dumbbell split jerks.

Speed Training

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This article was provided by Training-Conditioning

The 60-yard sprint is a great way to measure speed and assess running mechanics. Longer than most typical sprints, it challenges athletes in different ways and will help you identify where their running needs to improve.

The following tips from Nick Brattain in a blog for the International Youth Conditioning Association, outline how to get the most out of this exercise.

Front Side Mechanics

Many athletes lack proper front side mechanics when they get into an upright running position. Front side mechanics refers to the movements that occur in front of the body during running, which includes the knee driving up and down, as well as the arm swinging in front of the body. More time is spent in the upright position during the 60-yard sprint compared with other shorter sprints. Therefore, coaches need to take time during training to help athletes perfect these important mechanics.

“As the athlete transitions from the acceleration phase into the upright position there is a lot of room for error,” writes Brattain, a former All-American track athlete and current owner of Brattain Sports Performance. “The body, from shoulder to hip, should move as one unit from the forward, acceleration posture into more of an upright position. There should be very little to no flexion or extension within the spine through this transition.”

Poor transition into the upright position can result in improper balance and tilt in the hips. This can limit the knee’s ability to drive and reposition, which will in turn limit the amount of force an athlete can exert with each stride. Athletes should also avoid rotating their hips from side to side as they plant each foot. This will put excessive force and stress on the hips and lower spine.

Supportive Strength

Athletes will need to build the necessary strength in order to maximize their linear sprinting ability. Some athletes are more agility based and will have a tougher time sprinting in a straight line for 60 yards. Consider the sport and position of each athlete, and identify the muscles they will need to strengthen in order to improve their running mechanics. If they have muscular weaknesses, their sprinting will suffer.

“These muscular weaknesses manifest themselves in improper movement patterns such as lack of extension at the hip, knee, or ankle, internal or external rotation at the hip following toe off, or rotation in the hips as the approach foot contacts the ground,” writes Brittain. “Each of these issues can be addressed and resolved with proper strength and technical training.”

Speed Endurance

Especially with a longer run like the 60-yard sprint, many athletes lack the endurance to finish the sprint strong or do multiple reps. Sprint endurance refers to an athlete’s ability to reach maximum velocity and maintain it for a set period of time before decelerating. Ideally, athletes will be able to maintain maximum velocity until the end of the sprint and then continue to do this for multiple reps. But it usually takes some work to get there.

Improving speed endurance doesn’t require running long distances. On the contrary, athletes should focus on running distances less than 30 meters at maximum speed. To train for the 60-yard sprint, have athletes run 20-40 yards through 4-10 reps. Also consider having them do reps while holding a PVC pipe over head to promote proper posture and front side mechanics. With the right training, your athletes will be able to run faster and maintain max speed for longer