Track Mom.. “Everything Youth Track and Field”

Normally on Tuesdays I highlight youth track with pictures from the weekend but since there wasn’t a track meet this past weekend I am covering performance tips that will if utilized help your youth athletes performance . Guaranteed. What ever level he is at it will enhance it that much more.

Unfortunately,our lives are so busy our youth athletes nutritional needs and requirements for good performance can slip through the cracks . What is needed is an action plan for your youth athlete to have the best possible nutrition.This is work and effort.No one said it is easy ,but the dividends are tremendous.Try to integrate a few strategies when you have mastered those move on to another to help your child me the best he can be. 

Here I offer some basic  well researched  information and tips to get you and your athlete moving in the right direction.

Over the past ten years, research reinforced by the experience of athletes of all ages  and coaches has demonstrated that tired athletes are injured more frequently because their reaction times s is slowed. In almost every team sport the incidence of injuries increases in latter stages of competition when athletes are tired.  

To maximize energy and minimize the risk of injury during exercise and to recover quickly and adapt fully after exercise, parents of youth athletes must be proactive in feeding their muscles during and after exercise. Exercise lasting fewer than forty-five minutes generally water is fine. This is true for low-intensity exercise. However, nutrient requirements during exercise are not only a function of exercise duration but also of intensity.

Although the youth athlete  body has sufficient  energy to exercise at low to moderate intensities for up to 3 hours, at high intensities, the energy reservoir may only last thirty minutes. Even if high intensity exercises, last only forty -five minutes, the body requires more than just water.

Athletes have only about at maximum forty-five minutes (some say as short as fifteen minutes after a hard workout or practice to optimally replenish the stores of muscle glycogen (the stored form of carbohydrate) and halt the cellular damage that occurs as a natural consequence of exercise.  Consumption of the right nutrients within that fifteen to forty-five minute window after exercise can dramatically improve how muscles recover and, most important, how the yout athlete  performs the next time there is a work out.

According to The book  “The Performance Zone” By John Ivy Ph.D  & Robert Portman Ph.D, an athlete needs more than carbohydrate and water if you are going to use nutrition to its fullest. For example, the addition of protein and specific vitamins to carbohydrate and water will not only enable you to improve endurance by sparing muscle glycogen stores, but will also enable you to reduce muscle damage and improve muscular endurance in your next exercise session.

For Lauren, I have a rule I modified from the book The Performance Zone”. TrackMom Rule 45W15-30. It stands for starting nutrient and hydration intervention 45 minutes before exercise and continuing through the workout and consuming her recovery nutrition within 15-30 minutes after your workout. Complying with the 45W15-30 rule means not only changing your youth athletes exercise nutrition behavior, but also redefining when the workout begins and when your workout ends.  

Exercise   Nutrient Objectives  

*45 Minutes Before

Fully hydrate

Raise blood glucose levels

*During Exercise

Replace fluid and electrolytes

Preserve muscle glycogen

Maintain blood glucose levels

Minimize Cortisol increase;

Set the stage for a faster recovery

*Within 15-30 Minutes After Exercise

Replenish muscle glycogen stores

Reduce muscle damage and support the immune system

Start the replenishment of fluid and electrolytes

Initiate tissue repair and set the stage for muscle growth   

Now you say, “How do I do this?”, What products, protein source,carbohydrate source?

All will be addressed tomorrow……..

TrackMom 

Information adapted from the book, “The Performance Zone” By John Ivy Ph.D  & Robert Portman Ph.D