Quick Reference for Nutrition and Recovery

As a parent or coach, you understand that we are at a vital time of year for our athletes’ development.   With 2 a day camps, try-outs, and the stress of the upcoming school year, a teenager’s life is quite a lot to manage. The objectives and goals for heavy loads of fitness training are meant to bring about change by challenging the athletey.  Nutrition and silent training play a huge role in a successful season because overuse injuries and fatigue can be avoided if an athlete is properly nourished.

Please reference an article from earlier this year if you are unfamiliar with silent training.

Nutrition and sleep should be viewed as healing aids during the athletic season because the immune system is working extra hard to repair and build muscles.  There are several different ways to help the muscles and the immune system recover.

Different ways to nourish the body to aid muscle recovery:

Protein intake for post workout is important.  Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and our body does not produce some of them.  This gives them the label; essential amino acids.  An athlete needs to consume protein post exercise to simply give the muscles nutrition.

There is little advantage in consuming more protein, but there is a HUGE advantage in consuming protein with a good balance of amino acids.

A teen aged female athlete should aim to eat 1-1.5grams per kilogram of her body weight in one single day.

125lb female athlete needs 57-85 grams of protein per day.  That’s a lot!!  This would be 3-6 ounces of protein per meal.  If supplementing is something that might be manageable for you, please email me.

Examples of food sources with the best ratios of amino acids:

Milk - 1 cup has between 8 and 10 grams of protein, 80% casein protein, 20% whey protein, Casein protein is unique to milk and is high quality because of its amino acid ratio.

In this order: red meat, white meat, and eggs: are the best quality proteins as far as amino acids are concerned.

In the 2009 James Madison University study, 13 male college soccer players trained over the course of several weeks and were given either chocolate milk or a carbohydrate recovery drink after the most intense sessions. The researchers conducted specific tests to evaluate muscle recovery and found that those who drank chocolate milk had lower levels of muscular damage than those who drank the carbohydrate drink.  This study suggests that chocolate milk is an effective post-workout recovery food.

Increase magnesium and zinc intake:

Inappropriate magnesium levels are prevalent in athletes.  Respected functional medicine researcher Dr. Mark Houston has found RDA doses to be far too low; instead, the best approach is a daily dosage of 1,200 mg for adult women and 2,000 mg for adult men.  This research was done on power athletes in their 20’s.  This would make the requirements for teen-aged female athletes a bit lower 500-700mg per day. I have had success myself and the teen age female athletes that I have worked closely with when supplementing with magnesium.

Magnesium is the fourth-most abundant mineral in the body, with approximately 66 percent of it found in bone and 33 percent in skeletal and cardiac muscle. It is absorbed in the small intestine and excreted through the kidneys. Magnesium is involved in 300 essential biochemical reactions in the body, ranging from energy (ATP) production to protein synthesis, so it is obviously important for optimal athletic performance and a high quality of life.

Good food sources of magnesium

90 mg: Halibut, cooked, 3 ounces
80 mg: Almonds, dry roasted, 1 ounce
75 mg: Cashews, dry roasted, 1 ounce
75 mg: Spinach, frozen, cooked, ½ cup
50 mg: Potato, baked w/skin, 1 medium
45 mg: Yogurt, plain, skim milk, 8 fluid ounces
40 mg: Rice, brown, long-grain, cooked, ½ cup
30 mg: Banana, raw, 1 medium
25 mg: Raisins, seedless, ½ cup packed
24 mg: Whole milk, 1 cup

Zinc is a mineral that helps cell growth and should be taken with magnesium.  Dr. Houston recommends 25mg-50mg per day.  Good food sources are oysters, wheat germ, sesame seeds, low roast beef, roasted pumpkin seeds, peanuts, and chocolate.

Electrolyte and fluid replenishment

Dehydration, including acute levels, will affect the athlete physiologically, mechanically, and mentally.  The symptoms of dehydration are not as obvious or dramatic as we may believe.

Drinking electrolyte guidelines (for more exact amounts for each athlete according to their body weight and position, see me)

1.  Drink electrolyte balanced liquid during, after, and before exercise.

2.  During activity: every 20 minutes played, drink 5- 7 ounces of liquid.

Antioxidants for strengthening the immune system

As mentioned before, the immune system is working overtime so that our athletes become stronger and better.  To help it along the way we should consider providing extra antioxidants in the diet.

The most widely researched concern is reducing the effects of free radicals (organic unstable molecules in the body) from oxidative stress (prolonged exercise).  Most of the free radicals in your body are made during metabolic processes. More are added from the food you eat and environmental pollution.

Free radical-induced oxidative stress is an inevitable consequence of prolonged exercise and results in tissue damage, excessive fatigue, delayed recovery and overtraining. On a microscopic level, oxidation generally entails molecules or atoms losing electrons. (Gaining electrons is called reduction.) The molecules or atoms that take these electrons are oxidizing agents. Free radicals are substances that can exist with missing electrons, making them readily able to donate or accept electrons and damage structures in cells. As such, they are highly reactive, binding with and destroying important cellular compounds.

Important antioxidants and vitamins for exercise recovery

Vitamin E, Vitamin C, carotene, selenium, curcumin, resveratrol, and quercetin

Simple, eat green leafy vegetables and you shall be covered.  I recommend using this nutrition tool to determine the best way to cook vegetables as their nutrition qualities change as heat is applied to them.

http://nutritiondata.self.com/

References

Bernardot D. Advanced Sports Nutrition, Human Kinetics

Ebel H. Gunther T. Magnesium metabolism: a review J. Clin. Chem. Biochem. 1980: 18:257-270.

Gilson SF, Saunder MJ; Effects of Chocolate Milk consumption on markers of muscle recovery during intensified soccer training., Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise; 2009

He K, Liu K, Daviglus ML, et al. Magnesium intake and incidence of metabolic syndrome among young adults. Circulation. 2006 Apr 4;113(13):1675-82.

Judelson, C. M. (2007). Hydration and Muscular Performance, Does Fluid Balance Affect Strength, Power and High-Intensity Endurance? Sports Medicine , 907-921.