Nutrition

The diagnosis of a stress fracture can be the most disheartening bit of news for any athlete. It means an immediate disruption in training and potentially the end to a competitive season. Not much can be done to speed up the healing other than wait it out and be compliant to rest and therapy. It’s been general knowledge that stress fractures happen primarily in female athletes. Sports that have a strong emphasis on ideal body weight can drive ...

With the 2015 race season drawing to a close its time to be honest about the type and amount of calories you are consuming.   Athletes often gain weight when the competition phase is over. Heading into cooler shorter days makes it easy to bring on the comfort foods and body fat. This is not all bad because trying to maintain a race weight all year is not good for your immune system and we need to enjoy eating. However, during ...

Many athletes consume alcohol without any thought that it can have a negative impact on recovery and performance. It’s not uncommon after long hot training sessions to go share a cold beer with friends. However, the downside to this is that it can impact any gains the athlete may have made from the training.

How Alcohol Challenges the Athlete’s Body:

• Acts as powerful diuretic and interfering with rehydration.
• Suppresses fat as a fuel source during exercise.
• Interferes with post-exercise recovery by slowing down glycogen ...

Since 2007, many studies have been looking at the role of inorganic nitrate to enhance health and exercise performance.  Beets have become newsworthy because they were found to be a source of dietary nitrate. Following ingestion, the body reduces nitrate to nitric oxide, which is responsible for dilating of blood vessels, resulting in increased blood circulation and oxygen delivery to cells.  The positive exercise effects of nitric oxide are derived from its ability to increase muscle blood flow and regulate several muscle functions, ...

We all know how good it feels to have a good night’s sleep. Solid deep sleep not only sets us up for peak physical performance, but also improved mental performance. Having a positive attitude definitely affects our physical performance, but in order to perform maximally the body needs to be fully recovered.  Without enough deep sleep many physiological and hormonal shifts can occur. Sleep deprivation causes a decrease in growth hormones, testosterone, elevation of cortisol, and insulin resistance can develop.  Lack ...

Weight Management-  Is it Chronic Inflammation or Behavior?

Changing body composition is a complex issue. Your individual genetic makeup, immune system, and chronic inflammation are powerful components that have a role in weight control. More and more research is looking at the association of chronic inflammation with the struggle to maintain a healthy weight. Even more serious is the association of inflammation to other conditions, such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and depression.  In addition, chronic and with athletes, chronic inflammation can have ...

There isn’t a lack of protein advertising these days. Look around the grocery store and hundreds of labels are promoting protein. Despite the easy availability of eating protein, amongst my clients, I often see a misunderstanding of how much protein is required. Consider that after the age of 30 a person can lose 5% of their total muscle mass for every decade. Then, at the age of 50 the loss of lean muscle mass speeds up. The Recommended Dietary Allowance ...

I want to talk about your GUT. I love to talk about guts. We all have guts and I don’t mean outrageous behavior kind of ‘guts’ but rather the kind of stuff you can’t see. I’m talking about your digestive tract.

There are exciting discoveries being made on the importance of the health of our digestive tracts and prevention of disease.  Within our guts we have very individual “microbiomes.”  Our personal microbiomes are made up of good bugs and bad bugs. ...

Our society is inundated with choice and consumption, often making it difficult to choose the healthy path, particularly at this time of year with Holiday parties and gatherings aplenty.  This idea started me thinking about why it is sometimes so difficult to make a “good” choice.  As I got more and more involved in triathlon, I started paying more and more attention to these “little things” that help improve athletic performance.  We all know we need to train consistently, ...