Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Feed Your Injury

Having been in the field nearly 12 years, patients are often wondering what exercises or activities they should be doing at home or avoiding to help accelerate their recovery, but no one really asks,

"Is there anything I can eat or take (that is legal, of course) to help this injury get better?"

There is SO much one can do. 

Setting up the substrate-
our bodies exist in a relatively alkaline state (higher pH or more on the basic side of the acid-base scale).  Musculoskeletal injury causes localized inflammation in a particular region.  Inflammation is GOOD and NECESSARY for healing.  We just want to CONTROL the inflammation so that scar tissue is laid down in the injured area in a more organized fashion instead of one that is haphazard.  We also want to get better quicker, don't we??

So, in order to improve healing, do all that you can to minimize foods that might tip the scale towards inflammation. 

What does this mean?  Are you saying that foods can cause or increase inflammation?
Yes, of course, and you probably already know the macronutrient types that do. Read on-

Foods to eliminate or drastically reduce from your daily consumption (at least while you're healing from an injury or post-op surgery:
-Refined carbohydrates (breads, pastas, white rice, refined sugars) 
-Processed foods
-legumes (yes, a gray area that needs more evidence)
-For many reasons, cutting out these poor sources of carbohydrates will not only benefit your recovery, your waistline and body composition will improve
-Dairy (cheese and milk. Eggs are ok).
-Red meat (this is kind of a gray area as there are clear benefits to eating grass-fed red meat including creatine, BCAAs, etc).

Foods to add in or dramatically increase in your daily consumption (at least while you're healing from an injury or post-op surgery (this is by no means a comprehensive list, but will start you off in the right direction):
-Water, water, water- muscle is ~75-80% water.  Does drinking enough water/fluids make sense? During an injury, consider drinking alkaline water with a pH that is 8.0 (Eternal and Iceland spring are brands that I've consumed). 
-whey protein isolate (somewhat controversial since it's processed, but it's known for rapid and nearly complete absorption into muscle tissue.  For vegans, pea/brown rice protein are good alternatives)
-Omega 3 sources:
nuts (unsalted)- particularly almonds, walnuts
chia seed
salmon
avocados
veggies: purple, red, yellow, green
-substitute quinoa for grains (quinoa is a seed).

Obviously, your body has mechanisms in place to keep itself in homeostasis, but we can take an active role in helping our bodies minimize the energy needed to maintain this, ESPECIALLY when an injury is present.

Another temptation active folks face when side-lined during an injury is to reduce caloric intake.  My question back to you- If your body needs X number of calories to function at a certain level per day, do you think that reducing your caloric intake will assist or lengthen your injury progression?  I think the answer is obvious.  Remember, in the grand scheme of things, stabilizing your food intake won't put massive pounds on you (unless you eat poorly to begin with). It can only help, especially if you're feeding your injury the right things as we mentioned above.

Having said that, if you have any questions or concerns (there are almost always exceptions to every rule), send us an email!

Monday, November 12, 2012

The Maven approach to a successful multisport season- Part 1

What's our training philosophy here at Maven?

You all know from Mavenaction (mavenaction.com) that we believe health has to come first.

So, what is health?

Well, generally, we believe that there are 4 major components- physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Any strain or pull in one of these areas diminishes the effectiveness and overall state in the other areas.

For this blog's purpose, we'll be emphaszing the physical-

Fitness is, first and foremost, a major constituent to the foundation of general physical health and wellness, which allows one to take on any sport or athletic activity to a maximized level of performance. When we talk about fitness, we must also understand that "clean" nutrition gives fitness the necessary fuel to attain that level of performance. Sleep, rest, and recovery are also well infused components of being more healthy.

Put it this way, how can you even think of having your best race in your respective competitive sport (not exclusive to multisport) when you haven't sufficiently trained ALL of your body's energy systems, incorporated functional strength training as well as flexibility acquisition/maintenance and balance work (let alone managed a solid nutrition plan, recovery, and rest training) ?

Are you fit just because you can do an Ironman? Many people think so, but this is definitely not the case. You've seen them before- the skinny fat athletes, the overweight athletes who are very good at enduring, but have high, double-digit bodyfat.

From my own experiences competing in multisport endurance activities for the past 13 years, I can say for sure that aerobic conditioning (cardio) are merely one facet of fitness, but by no means do they complete the palette. I am faster (and fitter) at 37 than I was at 27. I have been PR'ing every race I've done this season since I really began to take fitness more seriously as part of my tri-training with Mavenaction and crossfit endurance, while my triathlon training volume has decreased....and continues to decrease. I have to admit, while the science supports this way of training, mentally/emotionally, it hasn't been easy...and, to be honest, tri-training is usually more fun than cross-training (don't we all tend to gravitate towards what we love to do?? I am not immune!). While I've been in the fitness industry for over 15 years, the last two years have been the most eye-opening even for me as far as my personal results and professional endeavors.

If you've ever done a Mavenaction workout, you'd know what I mean. There are triathletes, runners, and other endurance specialists who could do laps around me till kingdom come, but if I were to have them do...say...10 minutes of burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, squats, they'd be screaming for mercy (which used to be me, by the way)....if I had them attempt a few sets of pull ups and push-ups, they'd be a goner.

I think you get the drift.

In essence, to be the best triathlete you want to be next season, you MUST be fitter. How do you become fitter? Add cross-training (functional resistance training) as PART of your triathlon training, not as something separate; as a soon-to-be certified USAT level 1 coach, this is how I intend on program designing and mapping out your best tri performance next season.

What do I mean by adding in cross-training? Instead of 7 days a week of all cardio or multisport activities during the season, 3-4 days would be dedicated to your sport, and the other 2 days would involve functional, resistance training or a combo of activities; for example, drop and do 20 burpees or 20 push-ups every 100m of running around a track at your 5k pace for 2 laps x 4 sets...try it, I dare you, then come back and visit my blog for more). Of course, remember that you need to make rest a part of your training as well, and for longevity in the sport, 1-2 days/wk is necessary.

We'll get more into the specifics as we move along in this multi-part series.