Training Challenge - podcast part 1, nutrition discussion

maybe skip the before shot, fishman.

Benson, do you want advice?
If so PM me. We'll work it out.

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Slayer of Trolls amongst other things.
Made for the Love of a Good Woman, and not a bad little player too ;-)
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Weight training and nutrition has been a hot topic in the underwater hockey forums. This is a special podcast episode covering the topic.

In the first installment we discuss Atapene and Alex's goals for training. And then talk about their individual nutritional needs in depth.The podcast is very long, about an hour.
We hope you'll enjoy it.

Listen to the interview now

Part 2 will follow shortly with a comprehensive discussion on weight training and strength gain.

*Disclaimer: the advice offered in the podcast is specifically designed for these individuals and is primarily for entertainment purposes only. Do not undertake any form of training or dietary adjustment without first consulting a qualified expert or a medical practitioner. No responsibility is offered or accepted for the misuse of this imformation.

__________________
Slayer of Trolls amongst other things.
Made for the Love of a Good Woman, and not a bad little player too ;-)
Chumba Concept Salon
Professional Hair Stylist

Ok, the podcast is up.
Look here

__________________
Slayer of Trolls amongst other things.
Made for the Love of a Good Woman, and not a bad little player too ;-)
Chumba Concept Salon
Professional Hair Stylist

Just remember the before shot must have poor lighting, be indoors and you must stand face on to the camera with poor posture (the sad demoralised look is good here).

The after shot must be taken in bright sunny location outdoors, you should pose (chest out, stomach in, back straight, face to the camera, twist the hips slightly to one side to make your waist look smaller) and smile like a you have just won a gold medal at a worlds competition.

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Those who say it's only a game don't understand the situation.

Carl. Do you know what the professional rugby players are doing? Apparently the average weight for loose forwards and midfielders has increased by about 6kg since the last world cup (four years). Given they are huge already and a lot of the time it's the same people they must being doing something that works in terms of increasing lean muscle mass (other than being polynesian...).

As a note on nutrition and so called nutritionists.

Much of the solid research about food in general and health has been in terms of the possible effects on chronic diseases (cardiovascular disease-CVD and the cancers mostly). Food is extensively studied because it feels like something we can control. But it's also quite hard to measure accurately. One Swedish professor told me that the obesity epidemic per year is such a small imbalance of energy intake that it could be explained by a person have three cups of a tea a day for a year with a teaspoon of sugar in each. Even that is a very hard thing to get accurate reports about.

Almost all of this research has been observational studies (which are not as good as experiments). Some of these observational studies have shown things like food with high levels of antioxidants are better for you because they reduce the risk of CVD. But when you experimentally give antioxidants to humans in a large and long term experiment antioxidants may actually increase the risk of death (Bjelakovic and others, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) 2007). It's immensely complex and some foods can be shown to be good for some conditions and bad for others.

Now lets bare in mind that all of this biomedical research has many hundreds of thousands of people in it. It costs millions to do properly and you have to have highly trained scientists and clinicians to design and run the experiments or studies properly and then analyse and interpret them correctly.

This is where the rubber hits the road. What do you tell people to do and who do you get to do the telling? Because lets not forget that if food can make you healthy the wrong advice could also make you sick.

Dieticians are highly trained health care professionals who deal with diet issues in people with disease. They are a basically trustworthy profession but they tend to deal with sick people and not athletes- their might be some around who specialise in sports people though.

Nutritionists run the gamut from world leading researchers and clinicians who really know what they are on about to people who have read a few pages on the internet and hung out a shingle. Sometimes they might even have a dodgy diploma from a private training establishment to back them up.

So beware! There are some really really bad ones. Some of these really really bad ones write books. Writing books is not a sign that you're well respected and know what you're on about. It can be a sign that you're making stuff up and can't get published through the usual channels.

You'll note that I haven't yet mentioned anything about general principles in diet and performance in highly tuned athletes? Why? Because I don't know anything. I imagine that the problems are this. 1. There's no money to do it properly. 2. Sports science is often not very scientifically attuned- they have issues getting the right study design in my short and limited experience. 3. If you're doing research in elite athletes the problem by definition is that there isn't a lot of them (small sample size). 4. As they are elite there's proboably not a massive improvement that you can cause by tinkering with their diet (ceiling effect or improvement to an asymptote AKA the learning curve). So it's really hard to show that performance is improved by particlar dietary interventions. It may also be that diets that are recommended in certain circumstances actually make your performance worse.

If you want a book I might recommend the CSIRO diet book. It's written with the best available scientific information in mind and with minimum distortion but is still correctly criticized on some levels. But again it's designed for weight loss and disease pervention- not for optimum performance. And as Carl has already mentioned performance is a very hard thing to measure- especially in underwater hockey.

PS. I've flatted with Liam. His diet is best described as eccentric.

CARL SAID"*as noted in the podcast and by me in the past - if you have an illness, injury or haelth concern. Don't ask a trainer (me)- seek medical attetion (or ask Nat). They are way different things and mustn't be confused."

Don't ask me either. Go and see your general practioner (or family physician as they are generally called in the 'states)

Could be BALCO has reached the Southern Hemi... It worked for our Home Run King.

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Oh yeah, and now they're broke.

I fully agree that most info out there has been put out by those that may not know what they're talking about. More than likely spewing it for the money from sales of stuff. Where you might find a good source is within the Olympic training programs or with Tour de France riders that aren't using enhancement cocktails. But even with them they may have blood samples taken and analyzed for each individual they are working with so they can dial in their diets.

As much as science will try to answer what works, it can't, it can only provide clues. All bodies are a bit different and with that you can't have a one size fits all diet of any sort. Different metabolisms, genetics, and other processes within the body will take the same diet and have differing results from two very similiar bodies trying to do the same thing. As an example, when I was in College I ate 5,000 calories a day and still lost weight. The diet was terribly unbalanced with ice cream and cookies and snicker bars and drinking. All the stuff they say makes you fat. But with all that I was never over 6% body fat.

Sometimes you have to go back to the old wive's tales for the truth. you know, an apple a day type attitude. So keep it simple and do what works for you. As a non-scientist (check custom title below) I think the way to gain weight is to eat more and work out smarter.

As for the shots before and after Benson, they might produce less calories than pints but abstaining from alcohol completely will do wonders.

Duck
Not a real scientist and I don't play one on TV

__________________
Just in case you weren't sure, it's official -- CMAS sucks.
Oh yeah, and now they're broke.