One of the common approaches to weight gain or weight loss is the caloric formula, which is the belief that simply subtracting calories burned from calories eaten gives you your net gain or loss. This formula, while an important tool, is woefully oversimplified, and when used alone it can really lead to poor results, whatever your goals might be.
"Calories Eaten - Calories Burned = Gain or Loss" Before really digging into whether the formula is accurate, I feel it’s important to first point out that it is misleading. Many people believe that calories=weight, which they don’t. Calories are a measurement of energy, i.e. a particular nutrient contains a certain amount of energy per gram. And, different nutrients have different energy capacities. When folks wrongfully interpret calories as a measurement of weight, they tend to avoid all calories indiscriminately, rather than understand that calories are not created equally. 500 calories of broccoli have a different impact on your body than 500 calories worth of French fries. In the same vein, certain types of calories affect certain people differently. If I eat 500 calories of rice, and someone else eats the same 500 calories of rice, our bodies respond differently to those calories. In short, calories are not equal, and are not a measurement of weight. Now let’s take a look at the “calories eaten” side of this equation. As mentioned above, calories are not created equally, and neither are people’s responses to similar calories. Beyond what’s noted above, eating fewer calories doesn’t always lead to weight loss. The body is going to look for an equilibrium, meaning it is going to adjust to what it’s given. For many, decreasing caloric intake might lead to one, or both, of two options: 1 - The body begins storing more food as fat in a desperate attempt to hold onto as much energy as possible. Since it’s getting fewer calories, it’s going to try to store energy. 2 - The body begins to feel sluggish as it tries to restrict energy output. Since the body is getting less energy, it’s going to try to expend less energy. For those looking to lose weight, this problem now compounds on itself, since less energy to use means less effective workouts or activities, and less tolerance of activity before release excess cortisol (more on that below). Simply looking at calories eaten as a complete portion of the caloric equation is a severely shortsighted and ineffective approach. Calories are not the same, don’t affect people the same, and the body doesn’t respond to a decrease in calories as a stimulus to simply drop weight. On the flip side, calories burned is also an incomplete picture. If I tell you that I burned 1,000 calories during my workout, you actually know very little about the ultimate outcome of that workout. Take, for instance, a marathon runner vs a powerlifter. They both might burn 1,000 calories during a training session, but the effect of that workout is very different. In one case, the burn was nearly entirely aerobic, depleting the muscle completely. In the other case, the work was completely anaerobic, meaning explosive strength/power based, tearing the muscle and setting it up to grow. The end result of that 1,000 calories worth of work is very different in each case. One might deplete both fat and muscle, while the other builds muscle and burns fat. From another standpoint, the idea that more calories burned equals weight loss can lead many towards overtraining. If someone thinks the equation simply needs more calories burned, they can easily put themselves in a position where they over-train and release cortisol (a stress hormone), which causes increased blood pressure, fatigue, disrupted sleep, moodiness, and weight gain. Ultimately, the caloric formula is a tool that can be used to illustrate some overarching principles, but it really is not a comprehensive picture. It is not enough to count calories if your goals are to gain muscle or lose weight. I could go on for a few more pages on this, but in an attempt to be succinct, I’ll just say that calories are not equal, on the eaten or burned side of the equation. Planning for nutrition and training regimens have to take into account the quality of the diet and the effect of the workout, beyond their total caloric value. Alex Drayson
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Strength training is important for a multitude of reasons. Of course the main focus is to get stronger. But how else does strength training help an athlete? A trained athlete will be stronger than one who is untrained, they will be more resistant to injury than an untrained athlete, and they typically have better body control/hand-eye coordination than an untrained athlete.
Strength training will result in larger muscles, stronger contractions, and faster rates of recovery. These three adaptations are results of physiological improvements due to an external stress - these adaptations occur because the muscles are performing a resistance exercise. However, actual increases in strength are driven by advancements in the neuromuscular system. The Human nervous system is split into two parts, the central nervous system, and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal cord, while the peripheral nervous system exists outside of the brain and spinal cord.. This is how the signal for muscular contraction travels from the brain to the corresponding muscle. General strength training will result in strength gains when an athlete begins training. These strength gains typically will last for about 6-8 weeks, before the neuromuscular system begins to play a major role. Athletes that have not done a strength training program before will see some increases in strength, or ‘beginner gains’ for about 2 months, and then they notice they hit a plateau in their strength levels. It is at this point where it is important to take into consideration the nervous system. In order to do this, a strength and conditioning professional will properly program an athlete’s training block. It is at this point where lifting percentages and rate of perceived exertion begin to play an important role in the training program. This part of the strength training program typically consists of heavier weights and lower repetitions. The neuromuscular benefit of this is that your brain and nervous system have to send an ‘all or nothing’ signal to the muscle being worked, so it will recruit the appropriate amount of force to complete the exercise. Programming this over time and completing scheduled workouts will then, in turn, improve the efficiency of which these signals travel throughout the nervous system. The more efficient it becomes, the stronger the signal will be at the neuromuscular junction. When trained appropriately, the athlete will be getting slightly larger due to the first 6-8 weeks of training, and then they will drive their neural connections in the added muscle mass. This cycle can be repeated and is a general principle for the training of athletes. Coach Tim Treschitta As athletes begin to move on from youth sports, into high school, college, and beyond, they quickly learn that the best players usually exercise outside of only the practice field. Many athletes want to be able to run faster, jump higher, or throw harder. These are just three examples of the many components to being an athlete. While it is important to lift weights in order to reach these goals, results will only be maximized when an athlete follows a carefully thought out and individualized training program that is followed on a consistent basis.
The word ‘workout’ is a very broad term. A workout is commonly thought of as exercise. Exercise is a period of time in which an individual's heart rate is elevated due to physical exertion. There are many ways to ‘workout’. For example, some people may choose to run or bike for miles, some may go for a hike on a nice day, while others may prefer to lift weights in the gym. Again, these are just a few examples of what a workout can be. I chose these examples because it is very easy to understand that they are very different examples of working out. Running, biking, and hiking for extended periods of time are great ways to exercise. However, these types of workouts recruit energy from your aerobic energy system. Generally speaking, aerobic energy systems are used for exercise bouts exceeding 5 minutes in duration, and are usually at light to moderate intensity. In turn, sports are predominantly anaerobic. This means that they require repeated bouts of high intensity movements, oftentimes with a short rest interval between exercise bouts. The human body has three main energy systems. As Strength & Conditioning professionals, it is our job to understand how our bodies utilize fuel in sports, and in turn, write a corresponding training program that is tailor fit to that one individual athlete - based on their individual needs. The program will be designed to help the individual move more efficiently, develop higher strength levels, and increase their power output. These three things will help the athlete run faster, jump higher, and throw harder. If an athlete does not take all of this into consideration, they will experience diminishing returns over time, and they will not optimize their athletic potential. It is important to train with a purpose; so the athlete will get the most out of each training session and reach their full athletic potential. These are some of the many reasons why it is so important for athletes to participate in a Strength & Conditioning program. Coach Tim Treschitta This is obviously focused towards our older athletes and some that are just leaving the game. It may come as no surprise, but when you get up in age your nutrition strategies have to be much more focused and attention to detail is paramount. When you are young you have more wiggle room for nutritional blunders. As long as you are getting the right stuff in, the extra stuff doesn’t matter as much. When you are a little bit older that is no longer the case. Below are some things I have begun to appreciate even more now that I am in my mid-thirties.
The less active you are and the older you get, the more focus has to be placed on what you eat. No matter how hard most of us try, we cannot maintain the time commitment that we once had to physical activity as when we were younger. Along with getting a bit older our metabolism starts to slow compared to our younger years. Now this is no time to start having an emotional breakdown, it is just time to make slight adjustments in your nutrition game. So here we go! 1. Watch your sodium intake. When you were a teenager that pizza didn’t give you dry mouth during the night like it does today. Why do you feel the need to put a gallon of water on your night stand after having a sushi feast? The combination of sodium and carbohydrate tends to pull water out of the cells at a much higher rate now as it did when I was younger. I’m not sure about the physiology, but I’m sure it is happening. Keep an eye on your sodium and carbohydrate combo intake and make sure to drink plenty of water. Let’s just say a gallon a day for a nice round number. 2. Reduce or eliminate refined grains. I’m talking bagels, cookies, pasta, pastries, rolls and anything else you can think of. I’ll stick my 2 cents on carbohydrates here. As you get older and become less active (You are not as active as you were when you were a teenager) you have to adjust the amount of carbohydrate you consume. On days when you are more active, have more carbohydrates and on days that you are less active, have less. And these carbohydrates should come in the form of high value nutrients such as sweet potatoes, steel cut oats, black beans, bananas and brown rice. 3. Avoid added sugar. This is probably the number one killer in the U.S. today and is consumed at alarming levels compared to past decades. Cane sugar is a carbohydrate and as mentioned before it decreases hydration level. It is recommended that the average American consume less than 20g of added sugar daily. There goes your morning coffee! Do yourself a favor and try to wean yourself off this stuff. 4. Fried food will no longer agree with you. Fried food has never been good for you, but it is amazing the things we can get away with when we are young. Your body no longer accepts junk food as a viable means of nutrients. This includes foods that have been fried and brought back to room temperature such as potato and tortilla chips. Anything that lists oil on its packaging has likely been in the fryer. 5. Limit your alcohol consumption. Since alcohol consumption is illegal until you are 21 yrs of age this would only be the appropriate time to discuss it. Alcohol turns off ant-diuretic hormonal which leads to dehydration. It also promotes increases in the hormone estrogen, in essence decreasing the ratio of testosterone to estrogen. This is a bad combination for any athlete that requires explosive speed and strength to perform at their best. Limit alcohol consumption to 2-3 drinks a week in your off-season, if at all. That’s my top five. Comment below and let me know if I missed any of your favorites So what can you do on a forced day off to stop from losing your progress? For most, they probably going to enjoy the snow day, which is fine - a day off every once in a while is good. Others are probably going to go crazy inside their houses all day. Either way, here are a few things you can do to keep yourself on the right track and still have a nice day off.
1 - Get some sleep. Rest is a vital component of recovery and progress. Hopefully most of you got to sleep in, and after a full day at home, you might be ready to go to sleep a little earlier than usual. Getting that extra rest will help your body recover from training and give you plenty of energy for the coming days! 2 - Eat healthy. Since you have plenty of time to cook for yourself now, go ahead and spend the time and effort to make a good meal. Get some vegetables, fruits, meats, etc, over the course of day. It's also an opportunity to make meals for future days and make sure you can eat healthy for the rest of the week. Nutrition is another vital component of your development as an athlete. 3 - Do your "developmentals." While getting rest is important, you can still take 15-20 minutes to do what we call your developmental exercises. On our workout sheets, these are the exercises between your foam roller work and your dynamic warm up, designed to improve movement quality and improve any restrictions we found on your biomechanical integrity analysis. These are things you can do at home, and really should do every day (even when you're not at SPU). But, being as it's a snow day, it's a particularly good day to get them done. Stay safe, and enjoy the day off! Coach Drayson Performance training is a means to an end for most every athlete that walks through our door. That statement is sometimes difficult for sport performance coaches to always remember. Yes, athletes come to our facilities to get bigger, faster and stronger, but for the sole purpose of performing better at their sport.
When we write sport performance training programs we must keep in mind that the goal is for each athlete to be the best they can be at their sport, which in the majority of cases is not powerlifting or weightlifting. As coaches we sometimes fall in love with exercises and do not appreciate what we are really using a certain exercise for. We should always be able to explain why we are programming a certain exercise at a certain time during the season and how that applies to the athlete being better at their sport. Whether training helps them make the high school team or gives them a shot at a college scholarship, as a coach you have to ask yourself what is going to help this particular athlete the most at their development and in their sport season. When an athlete’s main objective is to get fast we still know that strength is a huge component to that end, but actual speed work needs to be focused on. How fast are you going to get if you never sprint? The answer should not blow you away. You will not get very fast if the whole session is only focused on strength development year round. The athlete’s yearly template will dictate how much speed work is included in the program. For example, speed development will not be a huge focus for a baseball player a few weeks after the season ends, but it will be for a soccer player that is a few weeks out from starting their season. There always has to be a focus on what the athlete needs, not what the coach enjoys coaching. Every coach has biases, but the best coaches can put that bias aside for the betterment of their athletes. Not only will this show on the field of play it will keep athletes coming back for more training. That is a win, win for everyone. Where should we start with Carbohydrates? Once proclaimed to be the needed energy source of athletes and the fuel that is required for a successful start to your day, carbohydrates have now gotten somewhat of a bad rep as of recent years. From concerns that it is not the best energy source for endurance athletes to it is going to make athletes that are involved in the more power and strength sports such as football and baseball overweight, it has become the nutrient under the spotlight.
Without getting into too much depth today I wanted to answer some commonly asked questions. Are carbohydrates bad for us? Do they make us gain body fat? How do they affect our athletic performance? These are a few of the questions that as coaches we hear from our athletes on a regular basis. And if you have been unsure as of how to answer them make sure to read below. Not all carbohydrates are created equal. Yes, as far as calories in and calories out, you will maintain the same bodyweight if those numbers are kept equal. Notice how I brought attention to the word bodyweight? I did not say your lean body mass and fat mass will stay equal, I said bodyweight! This is something that drives me nuts when talking to others in the nutrition community that harp on the calories in and out equation. You might keep the same bodyweight by following the math, but I guarantee you will not keep the same lean body mass and body fat percentage if this is your only approach. If you think having a sweet potato compared to table sugar where they equal one another from a caloric and carbohydrate standpoint are the same, then we can’t be friends. The source of carbohydrate must been considered when discussing if it is a nutrient that is going to be beneficial to our health and performance or have a negative impact. Most of us would know that candy and soda are going to be a poor source of carbohydrates, but some might not know what a good source would be. Good carbohydrate sources would include starchy vegetables such as sweet potatoes, tropical fruits such as bananas and a few grains such as oats or rice. The choice in carbohydrate that is good for you will depend on a few things. Mainly the energy you exert throughout your day, but there are also other things to consider. Are complex carbohydrates, which will be absorbed slower by the blood stream, a better choice than a simple carbohydrate that would be used if you are looking for a quick energy source? Faster absorbing carbohydrates would be white rice compared to a slower absorbing source such as sweet potatoes. How much fiber does your diet need? The more complex a carbohydrate is will usually lead to there being a higher amount of fiber. Also there will be a greater amount of water, vitamins and minerals found in complex sources for the most part. No nutrient, including carbohydrates are bad for us. It comes down to making good choices. No nutrient should be demonized and if someone makes that calm I would strongly disagree. No nutrient makes us fat either, this again will include carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are easier to blame for overweight issues we see because the body is very poor at storing carbohydrates compared to protein and fat, but they by themselves do not make us fat. When the right source of carbohydrates, in the right quantities, are consumed, the body uses that energy and those nutrients to accomplish the more physically demanding tasks such as would be found while playing sports. So let your athletes know that carbohydrates are a good source of nutrients, just make sure they are getting them from the right source. Lots of people, young athletes in particular, put in a lot of work but don't necessarily get the results they want. The issue is that while sweat is required to get the gains you want, if you invest that sweat in the wrong exercises or programs you won't get the desired results. If a 100 meter sprinter wants to get faster, and spends his days running marathons, he is indeed working hard but his sprint times will probably get worse. This is the same premise for most team sport athletes - sweat doesn't always equal improvement.
I saw a video a friend of mine posted on facebook yesterday - it featured a few high school football players on a field doing a variety of different exercises in what he termed their "phase I" of the off-season. They were mixing in sets of flipping tires, jumping hurdles, running around cones, doing jumping jacks, sprinting, and a few other exercises, a crossfit style workout. I had two immediate thoughts - 1) it's great that these kids are willing to get to work and pursue their goals, and 2) it's a shame that their sweat could have been better invested. Let's take a look at what they're getting out of that workout. They are most likely getting in better shape, improving heart health, and improving their conditioning. Also, they're bonding as a team and building trust between teammates, which can serve them well during the season. On the other hand, they probably aren't making big strength gains, or as good of strength gains as they could being on a more well structured program with basic tenants of progressive overload and strengthing specific movement patterns. If we revisit the exercises shown in the video, we should note that nothing is wrong with any of the exercises. The question is, are they the right exercises for their particular goals? Are these exercises going to increase the players' maximal output and low rep max outs? Because for football players, that is largely what matters - how much force can you create in short bursts. Their workout doesn't match their goals, however, that workout might match someone else's goals. Each sport has different needs, and workouts can be catered to match. Generally, a good strength training foundation and progressive overload on the right exercises is the right path. Working hard is a pre-requisite for getting reaching lofty goals, but it isn't the only pre-requisite. Working hard needs to be combined with working smart and directing your energy in the right direction. Don't just look for ways to make yourself sweat, look for ways to improve performance. Don't waste your sweat on the wrong exercises, and if you find a strength coach who's only looking for you to sweat and be tired, then keep looking. You need a strength coach who knows how to invest that energy to get the best returns. Alex Drayson This has become one of my main strength exercises for the athletes I train over the last few years. Some might say that a unilateral exercise is inferior to its bilateral counterpart, but I would disagree. I actually prefer programming the unilateral movement. Don’t get me wrong, they are both great exercises, but I tend to favor the rear foot elevated split squat (RFESS). If you prefer the bilateral movement that is ok, but think about what is the best movement for the athlete that you are training. Most athletes are in a unilateral position when they play sports so why not get them into that position in the training facility. I have a few reasons why I prefer the RFESS. Some of them have to do with performance and some have to do with injury reduction. Side Note: If you injure an athlete while they are training they can’t play. This would be counterproductive. Here I am performing the Front Squat and RFESS, while Alex discusses point number 2 below. So here are a few reasons why you will see athletes at SportPerformanceU performing the RFESS as their main strength exercise.
1. Sport Specificity- I do think the term gets overused and abused in most cases, but for a higher caliber athlete where the term should actually apply, I’m all about it. If you are in a unilateral position during the high majority of the sport you play, mimicking that movement in the training facility is a great idea. Athletes that are sprinting while playing their sport would benefit greatly from using this exercise as their main strength movement. 2. Bilateral Deficit- Yes the elevated foot is helping, I get it, but not to the extent that you can ignore the significant difference when comparing the two. For example the highest RFESS I have seen done in my facility is 265lbs for 3 reps. This athlete's bilateral squat is nowhere close to doubling that number. End of story. 3. Neutral Spine- The number one role of a performance coach is not to increase an athlete’s speed, power or strength; it is to keep them injury free and ready to go on game day. One way to do this is programming exercises that will improvement athletic quality while minimizing risk of injury. The bilateral squat is a difficult exercise for many athletes to do properly. There are many reasons for this, but for the purpose of this point I will focus on the spine. Maintaining a neutral lumbar spine is difficult for most athletes once their thighs pass parallel to the floor. I’m not going to go into the intricacies of this point, but it is clearly an issue. By performing the RFESS this becomes a mute point, the lumbar spine can no longer go into flexion. Risk vs. reward must always be considered when programming exercises for your athletes. When it comes to maintaining a neutral spine, the RFESS wins. Agree or disagree that the RFESS should be your athletes main strength exercise, you have to agree that it is an exercise that most all athletes should be doing. If you prefer it to be an accessory lift, that’s fine, just make sure that your athletes are doing it. Most high school athletes want to play college sports. The road from playing on your local high school field to competing at the collegiate level is a potentially bumpy one. When kids ask me why some other kid got a scholarship offer, or why some great player doesn't have an offer, all I can is remind them that college recruiting isn't a perfect system. College coaches have subjective opinions and small windows through which they see each player, and all they can do is try their best to make the right decisions. The end thought is that don't tie your self worth or final judgement on your ability to college recruitment. Some great ones fall through the cracks, and some not-so-great ones get lucky. That said, here are a few points to keep in mind:
1 - Keep your grades up - if you let your grades slip, all you do is reduce the amount of schools that can recruit you. Let's you have a 3.5 GPA; most schools can recruit you, for this example we'll say 100. But, when your GPA slips to 3.0, perhaps only 50 of those schools can recruit you. When you get down to 2.5, now maybe 10 of those schools can recruit you, and you have to hope they want you and have money for you. Good grades are you best friend when it comes to college recruiting, and obviously the benefit of good work habits goes well beyond college sports. 2 - Focus on what you can control - when you play the game and practice, all you can do is work your hardest and play your best. You can't control outside opinions, press, criticism, etc, and when you begin to focus on those things, the weight of the task gets very heavy. You might want very badly to wear a college uniform soon, but remember that right now, you play for the uniform your high school gives you. Play within the context of the team, and help them win championships. That will reflect well on you in the mind of college coaches and do the most to help you have the best high school experience possible. 3 - Aim high, but don't exclude viable options - so many guys want to play division 1, which is great, go ahead and aim for the stars. Don't forget that there are tons of lower division schools with great educations where you might be able to play earlier, play more, play the position you want, etc. Don't get overly tied up in the division you want to play in unless you think you're going pro (and even then, there are pro athletes who didn't play division 1). 4 - Not all schools do "full scholarships" and you need other ways to get financial assistance - and even the schools who do have full scholarships tend to split them up. Say a team has 25 guys on it, but only 10 scholarships. They are unlikely to be able to offer full scholarships to many players, if any at all. In most cases, schools offer "packages," which include need based money (your family can't afford the school), merit based money (you got scholarship money for having good grades), and sport money (from the program's scholarship fund). This is part of the reason having good grades help. If a school costs $40,000, but they can get you $35,000 because of good grades, then they only have $5,000 left to cover, which they can either expect you to pay or try to cover with sport money. 5 - Don't buy into marketing schemes - if you want to be seen and recruited by a college coach, you need to be at their camps. Most "combines" do very little for recruiting. Same for recruiting websites. Most programs hold on-campus skill camps, sometimes advertised, sometimes not. This is how most coaches truly evaluate the recruits. If there are 300 kids at an advertised camp, chances are the coach has his eye set on 30 of those kids to evaluate. To get into that group of 30, have your high school coach call the college coach to let him you're going to be there and might be a good fit for his program. If you're not in the 30, you'd better be pretty damn good if you want to get noticed. Non-advertised camps (normally by invite only) are good bets to get seen by the coaches. Camps are really just fronts for recruiting forums where coaches can meet you, talk to you, and see you play in person. 6 - Don't be dumb - twitter, facebook, instagram, etc, are all fun and current. The number of athletes who hurt their college opportunities on these platforms is astounding. Don't post that inappropriate video, don't comment with crazy profanity at your buddy, don't post some picture of a party you went to. Obviously, we'd be better off just not doing anything wrong at all, so that's the goal, but if you do something wrong or act without class, don't advertise it on social media. Getting to play college sport is a great privilege, and many have worked very hard to earn that privilege. Unfortunately, the process through which colleges select their athletes is far from perfect. It's up to you to everything you can to give yourself the best change possible. Coach Drayson |
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