Energy Requirements of a Strength/Power Athlete Part 3

Fats are not a bad thing! In fact for strength/power athletes can allow about 30% of their total Kcal intake as fats. This would limit saturated fats to 10% of total Kcal ingested per day. Strength/power athletes need fats for many of the same reasons normal population does, they must maintain a positive energy balance, they need to maintain triglyceride stores and support hormone production. Fat as is essential in digestion an absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, K, D and E.

High fat diets have been found to support higher circulating testosterone concentrations than low fat diets. This is important for muscle building both mass and strength. It also helps to combat the suppression of testosterone in athletes who overtrain.

Breaking downs fats in our diet focuses on mono- and polyunsaturated fats. About 10-15% of our total Kcal per day should be monounsaturated fats. Polyunsaturated fats should be 10-15% of total Kcal per day as well. These fats help to increase HDL cholesterol in the blood, lower total cholesterol and triglycerides. Omega-3 fatty acids (a polyunsaturated fat) also helps prevent inflammatory related diseases and cardiovascular disease. Omega-3 has also been linked to prevention of some cancers and bone loss during inactivity.

Good monounsaturated fats are nuts, avocados and olive, canola and peanut oils. Polyunsaturated choices include nuts, seeds, corn and safflower oils as well as soy. The best source of Omega-3 is cold-water fish such as salmon, tuna, and sardines. Omega-3 can also be found in walnuts and flaxseed.

Lastly, an athlete should avoid trans fat as much as possible. Trans fats are found in processed foods, cookies, crackers, chips, fried fast food and margarine just to name a few. The key is to read the list of ingredients for anything hydrogenated. If a food has a hydrogenated ingredient avoid it!

Energy Requirements of a Strength/Power Athlete: Part 2

Like other nutrients we need to consider what type of carbohydrates (carbs) a strength/power athlete needs to consume. For example high vs. low glycemic index foods. The glycemic index (GI) ranks carbs based on the blood-glucose response after ingestion. Some nutritionists suggest that an athlete manipulate both high and low GI to enhance carbohydrate availability.

In most cases low GI carbs are the best choice prior to exercise or training. Foods such as vegetables, whole grains or fruit normally fit into this category. Carbs with a moderate to high GI are best post-workout as in recovery meal.

Strength/power athletes should ingest approximately 55-60% of carbohydrate in their total Kcal intake per day. The majority of these should be moderate to low GI rated carbs. The exception being post-training ingestion of carbs.

Energy Requirements of Strength/Power Athletes: Part 1

Daily energy requirements are divided into three areas; Basal metabolic rate (BMR), activity and thermal effect of food. Of the three BMR uses the most, approximately 60-70% of the total calories used each day. BMR accounts for calories (Kcal) used for the function of the organs, tissues such as the heart, lungs, skin or brain as well as muscle mass. BMR is determined by age, gender, body size and composition. The daily activity accounts for walking, work related activity as well as training or exercise. The Thermal Effect of food is the energy the body uses to digest and absorb food.

There is no better place to start talking about nutrition and strength/power athletes than protein. Numerous studies indicate numerous findings regarding protein timing, quality, source, amino acid uptake, you name it there’s a study. The best information is still a strength/power athlete needs about 1.5-2 grams of protein per kilogram (2.2 pounds=1 Kilo) of weight per day. That works out to about 12-15% of the total Kcal intake per day.

The last word on protein is to include some form both pre- and post-workout for lean muscle mass gain.

Are You Training Too Many Different Target Areas?

Just what are you trying to achieve with your training? Power, strength, endurance, there are many target areas athletes train to improve their performance.  The problem with many is the try to do too much in one micro- or mesocycle.  A microcycle lasts about one week of a four to six week mesocycle. 

There is no reason to try to target more than two or three areas per cycle. Think about some of the areas people work to train, power, maximum strength, endurance strength, speed, aerobic capacity and sport skill just to name a few. However, when you ask some people what they are trying to accomplish their answer is often all over the place, unsure or frustrated and in need of some help.

The problem with training too much at one time is performance gains decrease if several targets are trained simultaneously. Elite athletes have found the most success when they train two areas per cycle. They will train different targets over a number of micro- or mesocycles. Elite athletes train approximately 70-80% of the targeted area during a specific cycle. Some athletes struggle to plan out a year.  They may scrape a plan due to impatience, the latest fad or giving in to doing too much too soon.  Professional trainers or coaches clearly understand how to work the areas of performance that need time during different cycles of the year (macrocycle).  They understand periodization, how to deal with endurance versus power athletes and know the value of recovery. Consider most athletes train for a single competition season each year that gives a quality trainer a great deal of time to prepare an athlete to compete at their peak.

Lastly, an athlete may believe that he or she needs to play their sport year round to reach to improve performance.  Consider elite athletes do not play year round. But they do train year round (including some rest/active rest time). If the only thing you train is sport skill the chance of you getting stronger or faster is lessened. The key is to become the best athlete as well as the best player. That means training like an athlete.

Strength Science: Are You Using the Pyramid System?

Over the last fifty or so years the average number of set performed by elite weight lifters has been 32-45. Some it is as high as 50-52 sets. The change has occurred in the time or duration of each workout. In 1955-56 the total workout time was 2-2.5 hours, by 1963-64 workout took 3-3.5 hours. Since 1970 elite athletes divided the time into two sessions (some taking as long as six hours total workout time).

The biggest change has been in the study of chronic adaptations (or long term) and recovery time. Today an athlete will take as long as four to five minutes between sets on heavy days (some as long as 15 minutes). Why so long on heavy or intense days, recovery is the most important factor. The rest allows the body to recover ATP as well as reduce fatigue prior to the next set. This leaves the athlete "fresher" and able to produce greater adaptions.

Strength training studies show that the greatest adoptions occur when an athlete is not tired. Now we’re not talking about endurance strength we are talking about maximum strength. If you think about it why do sport coaches have a light practice the day before a game? Rest, recovery, bottom line is if the athlete is fatigued he or she will not perform to their maximum.

So here is a question. If fatigue is such a factor in performance why do coaches still us a pyramid-training model? That is a training philosophy that was used years ago. The philosophy used sets in ascending order (increasing weight) followed by a descending order of sets (lowering weight). Remember fatigue, well the ascending order led to premature fatigue while the descending portion was not effective since it was performed in a fatigued state. The fatigue led athletes to reduce the load they lifted leading to decreased performance as well as poor lifting technique. Elite lifters have not used this method since 1964.

Bottom line is strength training the best performance is when the athlete is fresh. Think less is more.