Month: September 2011

Strength and Conditioning Reads

Last week my good friend David Lasnier wrote two great articles that are pertinent to both strength and conditioning coaches and any consumers of strength and conditioning information (athletes, parents, coaches, etc.). Take a few minutes to read through these.

This first piece is a must-read for coaches. I understand the tendency to want to be a “specialist”, but the movement toward people being a “crossfit” or “kettlebell” guy is downright stupid. There is no magical system that will meet everyone’s needs. The best coaches understand the development process and know when to apply certain tools to facilitate an adaptive stress (and recovery from these stressors). David’s article highlights the pros and cons of a couple really popular training methods and delivers a great underlying message.

Click here >> Having Different Tools In Your Toolbox

The second touches on another hot topic that affects us all in understanding the truth behind who lives under the internet veil. Internet marketing experts have made it easier than ever to establish yourself as a topic expert without ever having experience developing real-world results in that area. Frankly, it’s scary how deceptive people are online. It’s even scarier that they have large audiences of people that are drinking their koolaid.

This guy knows what I’m talking about

David presents a very level-headed view point on the research vs. real-world evidence debate, a much needed change from the excessively vocal extremists out there. (check out the cameo appearance from a half-nude santa clause)

Check it out here >> Who Do You Train? Putting Things in Perspective

I wrote a slightly more hockey-specific article on a similar topic that you can check out here if you’re interested:

Click here >> Internet Hockey Training Experts

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Development Reads

I hope you enjoyed your weekend. I’ve been glad to get out of the east coast rain for a few days and enjoy the seemingly perpetual perfect weather that the west coast offers. It’s been a great few days working with Mike Potenza at the Sharks camp. I haven’t had a ton of time to write over the last week so I thought I’d bring back two older articles that were really well-received when I first wrote them. Timely reads as hockey seasons are finally getting underway again.

Check out the two hockey development articles below and please pass them along to other players, parents, and coaches that you think would benefit from the information!

Click here >> Play the Underdog

And then here >> The Truth About Sidney Crosby

In a couple days I’ll have a couple other articles for you that my good friend David Lasnier recently wrote. Really great stuff on controversial topics!

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Nutrition: Supplements

Today I want to wrap up this series on hockey nutrition by taking a birds eye view into supplements. If you missed the first two segments, you can check them out here:

Hockey Nutrition: In-Season Eating

Hockey Nutrition: What to eat?

Players generally look to supplements to fulfill one of two roles:

  1. Improve health by either adding to an already well-rounded diet (rare) or by helping to fill in the gaps between what they should be eating and what they are eating
  2. Improve performance and/or recovery

In both regards, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the necessity of supplements. I don’t think there’s a correct answer to that question in most cases, so I won’t participate in a futile argument. I will say, however, that whether it is POSSIBLE to get all the necessary nutrients from real food isn’t nearly as important as whether it’s PROBABLE that players will actually do what it takes to make that a reality. Moreover, supplements add an element of timeliness and convenience that real food can’t always offer.

With those things in mind, here are a few supplements that I have our players look into:

Whey Protein
Use: Use a serving as part of a snack when real food protein source is unavailable, and immediately before and/or after a training session.
Recommended Brands: Biotest Grow (TMuscle.com) or Optimum Nutrition (BodyBuilding.com)

Fish Oil
Use: Take 2g of combined EPA and DHA everyday to promote expedited recovery, low body fat levels, and overall health
Recommended Brands: Carlson Labs Elite Omega Fish Oil (Vitacost.com)

Carlson Labs has a bunch of different fish oil supplements. Because I’m cheap, I analyzed the amount of combined EPA and DHA per $1.00 and the “Elite Omega-3 Gems” turned out to be the most valuable.

Greens
Use: Take one serving everyday to help bridge the gap between optimal and realistic nutrition
Recommended Brands: Greens+ Berry (Vitacost.com)

Creatine Monohydrate
Use: Take 5g per day to help preserve muscle mass throughout the year. If possible, divide dose into two servings and take one 30 minutes before and one immediately after training or practice
Recommended Brands: Biotest (TMuscle.com)

Creatine consistently demonstrates improved strength and muscle mass compared to control groups. The concerns about excessive water weight and “losing it all when you stop” are completely unsupported.

Beta-Alanine

Use: Take 4-6g/day to improve performance in prolonged high intensity activities
Recommended Brands: Biotest (TMuscle.com)

Vitamin D3
Use: Take ~2000 IUs per day to help ward off the negative effects on bone strength and hormone production associated with insufficient sunlight exposure. If you can, get your school doc to check your levels of this so you can cater your exact dose more closely to your individual needs. This can have a HUGE impact on that mid-season/winter energy lull that most players go through.
Recommended Brands: Anything from the grocery store will work

Those are the core supplements that apply to hockey players. Of these, all but beta-alanine can pretty much be recommended to athletes in all sports, and even non-athletes. Similar to eating in general, supplements provide a means of improving overall health, which isn’t just a desirable goal for athletes.

Anytime I write something on supplements I invariably get a slew of emails from parents asking if these apply to their teenagers. The truth is that there is little to no research examining the safety of these things in teenagers. It’s unlikely there ever will be, as doing research on minors involves a more laborious research process and is generally a pain in the ass to do. That said, there isn’t really a reason to think that teenagers would respond drastically different than adults to the above products. As I mentioned in the recommendation above, I think teens may not have developed as significant of a Vitamin D deficiency as adults (yet), so it’d be a good idea to get levels tested by a doctor before blindly taking 2,000 IUs per day. Beta-alanine could be taken in lower doses (3-4 g/day depending on the size of the teen); creatine could do (2-3g/day).

Making the call on whether or not teens should take supplements is more a psychological concern than a physiological one. Many parents feel that allowing their kids to take supplements sends the wrong message, and that the kids should learn to eat properly first. I don’t disagree. Supplements should not be used to crutch a miserable diet. That said, supplements can support a mediocre diet, and kids need to be EDUCATED on why and how to eat well.  Young athletes tend to get excited by supplements, making them more likely to be compliant with their training program and to pursue other information/behaviors that help them improve. This certainly isn’t the case with EVERY kid, but for many supplements is a “gateway” into more optimal choices. As long as they’re aware that supplements are just a piece of the puzzle, not the whole picture.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Nutrition: What to eat?

In a couple hours, I’m catching a flight to San Jose to go help Mike Potenza out with the Sharks camp. I had a great experience and learned a lot working with Potenza at the Sharks prospect camp last Summer, so I’m really looking forward to heading back out this year. I don’t have the best track record with flights over the last year:

  1. Last year I arrived at the San Jose airport at 4am for my 6am flight back, fell asleep, and woke up at 615am. No one thought to poke me, the first person in the terminal, to let me know the flight at the gate I had been at for 2 hours was leaving.
  2. The trip before that (the week before to be exact), I was stuck in the Philadelphia airport for about 8 hours before they cancelled the flight at 1am (I lived in Baltimore at the time, so this was pretty inconvenient, especially for a 4 day trip to Denver for 4th of July!).
  3. A couple weeks back, my flight from Philly was delayed a couple hours because of rain so I missed my connection in Atlanta and was a day late getting out to the US Women’s Camp in Minnesota.
  4. And most recently, my flight to Portland, ME to attend a Postural Restoration Course with Eric Cressey was cancelled because of rain so I missed the seminar altogether.

Needless to say, I’m hoping for a smoother trip this go around! On Monday, I laid out an example eating schedule for college hockey players. If you missed it, you can check it out here: Hockey Nutrition: In-Season Eating

About a year ago, after realizing that the athletes coming through our doors were completely clueless about what they should be eating (especially before and after they trained), I put together a “Training Nutrition Guidelines” sheet for all of our athletes. You can grab a copy of it at the link below:

Get your copy here >> Training Nutrition Guidelines

At the bottom of that sheet, there is a list of quality food choices broken down into macronutrient categories: Lean Protein, Vegetable, Complex Carbohydrate. This gives the kids a “plug and eat” menu for their pre- and post-training meals AND a better idea of what foods they should be eating anyway. A list of healthy fats isn’t included on this sheet because of the pre- and post-training nature of the meals. Coming back to Monday’s eating schedule, meal composition can be broken down as:

  1. Breakfast: 1-2 Hours Pre-Training Meal from sheet with option to swap fruit for vegetable
  2. Lunch: 1-2 Hours Pre-Training Meal from sheet
  3. Pre-Practice/Training Meal: 30-Minute Pre-Training Meal from sheet
  4. Post-Practice/Training Meal: Immediately Post-Training Meal from sheet
  5. Dinner: 1-Hour Post-Training Meal from Sheet
  6. Snack: Lean Protein, Vegetable, and Quality Fat meal

The above works for a player that was interested in maintaining their current body composition and/or increase body weight. Players with the goal of increasing mass would just need to eat more at each meal, especially earlier in the day and immediately after their practice/training.

For a player that was interested in losing body fat, I’d make a few small adjustments:

  1. Breakfast: 1-2 Hours Pre-Training Meal from sheet with option to swap fruit for vegetable
  2. Lunch: Lean Protein, Vegetable, and Quality Fat meal
  3. Pre-Practice/Training Meal: 30-Minute Pre-Training Meal from sheet
  4. Post-Practice/Training Meal: Immediately Post-Training Meal from sheet
  5. Dinner: Lean Protein, Vegetable, and Quality Fat meal
  6. Snack: Lean Protein, Vegetable, and Quality Fat meal

The only difference is that we’ve replaced carbohydrates with quality fats in two of the meals. The goal is not to ELIMINATE carbs, which they need to provide energy and facilitate recovery, only to funnel those carbs more into breakfast and during pre- and post-workout times. Using Generation UCAN will have a favorable impact on body fat, as it’s been shown to have a more time-release energy effect and avoids the blunted fat burning consequence of blood sugar and insulin spikes.

Take Home
Hopefully you can appreciate the relative simplicity in this approach. The two college players that I had the meeting with were given these guidelines at the beginning of the Summer, one more geared toward gaining weight (building muscle), the other geared toward losing fat. At the end of the Summer, the first player had put on nearly 20lbs (and was completely shredded, EASILY below 8% body fat), the second had lost 15lbs and went from 12% to <7% body fat (we measured). Not a bad transformation for a single off-season. Because it’s easier to maintain any level of body composition than it is to achieve it, these players will have a little more room to err in their habits during the beginning of the year as they re-establish a daily routine conducive to their needs without completely falling off the wagon (or is it on the wagon?).

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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Hockey Nutrition: In-Season Eating

Early last week I sat down with two college players to have a talk about their in-season eating habits. Based on the responses to the “Please describe your dietary habits, providing a representative example of what you would eat on any given weekday and weekend day (please include snacks, toppings, supplements, etc.)” question in the packet we make all our new athletes fill out, the daily nutrition habits of highly motivated, aspiring athletes can be described as abysmal, at best. When you consider the incredible impact nutrition has on performance, recovery, body composition, and overall health and well-being, this is a scary realization.

Although these players have opposing body composition needs, the recommendations on when and how they should eat don’t differ that much. In today’s post, I just want to walk through how I laid out their eating schedule. In a couple days I’ll get more into what each meal should be comprised of, and follow that up with a post on supplement recommendations.

Nutrition Basics
Highly specified eating for hockey isn’t drastically different from what the general population should be eating anyway. I’ll get more into this in the next post, but basically it boils down to understanding nutrient timing and following the “Don’t Eat Like an Asshole Diet”. The DELAA Diet was something I coined about 6 years ago in talking to Jeff Cousin, who at the time was the Hockey Director at the University of Delaware rink, where I played and helped run clinics. Jeff asked about my nutrition recommendations for him, so we started with the basics (the DELAA Diet). The common ground in just about every reasonable diet is that they all move people toward eating ACTUAL food, not candy, snacks, and other processed garbage. Mike Roussell’s “baggies instead of barcodes” idea fits here. While I think there are some pretty basic nutrition concepts that still haven’t been internalized by the general population (e.g. understanding that having fat in your diet won’t make you fat, fruit and fruit juice are not the same thing, and that 70% of your diet should NOT come from carbohydrates), I think there ARE some universally understood ideas that still aren’t practiced. If I asked 10,000 random people the following questions, what do you think the responses would be?

  1. Should you eat more or less vegetables than you’re currently eating?
  2. Is it better to drink water or soda?
  3. Should you eat meats that are grilled or deep fried?

My bet is that over 90% would answer more, water, grilled. I’d follow that bet up with the realization that the majority of them don’t follow what they know. The DELAA Diet is simply eating what we all know we should be. The first step in any purposeful nutrition plan is start making better choices, in terms of both food quality and timing.

Good.

Bad.

Planning Ahead
Many people fail to eat well consistently because they don’t make healthy eating a LIFESTYLE. They view it as a short-term change, and it usually ends up being just that. The hockey season is long and arduous. A failure to consistently incorporate positive eating HABITS can have a profound impact on a player’s performance throughout the season. A great place to start is in laying out your schedule and understanding when you can/should eat. In the case of our college players, their schedule basically looks like:

Monday-Thursday

Class: 8am-12pm
Training/Practice: 3-6pm

Friday

Study Hall: 9-10am
Game: 7-10pm

Saturday

Game: 7-10pm

Designing an eating schedule around this is pretty straight forward, but laying it out helps ensure that the player will stick to it, and make eating at structured times part of their daily routine.

Monday-Thursday

Breakfast: 7:30am
Class: 8am-12pm
Lunch: 12:15pm
Pre-Practice/Training Meal: 2:15pm
Training/Practice: 3-6pm
Post-Practice/Training Meal: 6:15pm
Dinner: 7pm
Snack: 9pm

Friday

Breakfast: 8am
Study Hall: 9-10am
Lunch: 11am
Pre-Game Meal: 3pm
Pre-Game Snack: 4:45pm
Game: 7-9:30pm
Post-Game Snack/Meal: 9:30pm
Post-Game Meal: 10pm (If only a snack above)

Saturday

Breakfast: 9am
Lunch: 12pm
Pre-Game Meal: 3pm
Pre-Game Snack: 4:45pm
Game: 7-9:30pm
Post-Game Snack/Meal: 9:30pm
Post-Game Meal: 10pm (If only a snack above)

Sunday

Breakfast: 9-10am
Lunch: 12:30pm
Snack: 3pm
Dinner: 6pm
Snack: 9pm

The strengths in this structure are that it provides the players quality nutrients every few hours throughout the day AND that they’re eating around the same times everyday. Obviously the players are going to wake up a little later on the weekends. They need the extra rest. That said, a lot of players err in sleeping until 1pm, doing nothing for a couple hours, then grabbing a pre-game meal around 2 (Saturday) or some pizza for the 4pm football games (Sunday). These are usually the same players that lose a lot of weight throughout the season, get fatter, and feel run down. If you look at the schedule above, this means that they’d skip about 4-5 eating opportunities EVERY weekend. Waking up, grabbing a quick omelette, hanging out for an hour, then taking an hour nap is a much better option.

Take Home
Laying out a schedule will help players incorporate structured eating into their daily routine. Nutrition choices are habitual, for better or worse. Eating at appropriate intervals and during key times throughout the day (e.g. pre- and post-practice/training) will help players perform and feel better throughout the season.

Check back in a couple days for examples of quality food choices and pre- and post-practice/training recommendations.

To your success,

Kevin Neeld

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