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AFM Magazine


Complete Coach

Nutritional Supplements & Sports Drinks
by: Rod Smith
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Whether you coach at the high school, college or professional level, you've probably taught your players the importance of goal setting.

To help your players reach their goals, you instruct them almost daily on proper weightlifting techniques, correct tackling form and to explode off the ball. But how about proper nutrition and hydration?

Football, especially at the championship level, is an explosive game. It demands rigorous training and extols excessive abuse on the body. You don't necessarily have to be a sports nutritionist to understand the benefits of a healthy diet or proper hydration. But oftentimes, hectic routines and busy schedules don't allow players to achieve their dietary goals. And even players who maintain first-rate diets can enhance their regimens with safe, legal nutritional supplements and quality sports drinks.

WHAT PRICE BETTER PERFORMANCE?

Because your players are likely already taking some form of supplement, it's important that you as a coach have at least basic knowledge and experience when it comes to nutritional supplements.

To understand the significance of knowing what your players areingesting, you need look no further into the past than last November. That's when Chicago Bears quarterback Jim Miller was hit with a season-ending suspension for violating the league's drug policy. In Miller's case, he ran out of his normal over-the-counter supplement. While waiting until he could get more at a discounted price, Miller turned to another supplement. What he didn't do was read the label on the second supplement closely enough. It contained nandrolone, a substance banned by the NFL's drug policy as an anabolic and androgenic steroid. An ensuing failed drug test cost him the rest of the season.

At the high school level, supplement decisions are just as significant. While the National Federation of High Schools doesn't ban or even test players for synthetic muscle enhancers such as steroids, the NCAA does. High school athletes who ingest illegal or banned supplements during the summer could possibly jeopardize their eligibility come fall.

But without continuing education opportunities, where can coaches turn to prevent situations such as those depicted above? According to Steven Plisk, the director of sports conditioning at Yale University, the need for further education is paramount.

"Most coaching organizations (and employers) have no continuing education requirement," says Plisk, "and so it becomes each individual's responsibility to educate him or herself. We owe it to athletes to know what we are doing."

As part of a self-initiated education, Plisk urges coaches to remember the following guidelines: (1) Disregard the myths and rumors. Learn what natural supplements such as creatine are and what they do. (2) Supplements (including creatine) are not replacements for sound nutrition or training. (3) The central issue is not necessarily safety or effectiveness but quality assurance. For example, in the case of creatine, all brands boast 100-percent purity but many may contain impurities that can cause indigestion, nausea or reduced effectiveness.

"Nutritional supplements are exactly that - supplements, not food replacements," Plisk says. "There is no 'magic bullet.' Nor is thereany justification for shot-gunning all sorts of pills and powders downone's throat.

"Nutrients are interactive, and balance and timing tend to be more important than quantity beyond a certain threshold."

When Plisk refers to timing he is speaking of the "windows of opportunity" that allow for the most efficient absorption of any supplement. The most important of these occur in the morning and during and immediately after exercise. A useful guideline is to eat at four-hour intervals and include carb-protein snacks or drinks before, during and after training and competition in order to provide necessary fuels for work and recovery. It may sound simple, but the role of supplementation becomes clear when you consider the impracticality of scheduling and eating five or six meals per day or trying to ingest solid food during practice or competition.

SUPPLEMENT FOR SUCCESS

One natural nutritional supplement many players use is creatine monohydrate.** A combination of three amino acids, creatine is a nutrient found naturally in the body as well as in a variety of meats. While our body produces up to two grams of creatine per day, active athletes, especially those in explosive, short energy-burst sports like football, require additional stores if they are to perform optimally.

By increasing his store of creatine, a player essentially increasing the ability to perform longer at a peak level. Creatine stores combine with ADP (adenosine diphosphate) molecules to create ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the body's initial source of energy for muscle contraction. Creatine stores can also act as a buffer against lactic acid, the toxin that makes your legs feel like they are burning. The bottom line: The more creatine stored in the muscles, the larger amount of ATP that can be regenerated and the longer an athlete can perform at his potential.

One company that not only manufactures natural nutritional supplements but has also established itself as the pharmaceutical guru of the supplement industry is Fortress Systems Incorporated (FSI).

Fortress has been an innovator in the industry since day one. In 1995, when FSI started making supplement products, it was the first company to use lot numbers. These numbers allow the trace of all raw goods that go into a particular product and make it easier to alleviate any problems or consumer questions.

"The first thing a coach or an athlete needs to know when they are using our products is that they never run a risk of violating any NCAA or professional drug policy," says Mike Carnazzo, who started the company with his brother Joe, a clinical research pharmacist. "We make no products that will be banned substances or that would injure or hurt an athlete."

FSI's original product was Creatine Edge, an effervescent form of the popular supplement. Creatine Edge differs from normal creatine powders and pills in that it is delivered to the body more efficiently, is packaged to eliminate waste, and does not cause indigestion or stomach discomfort. The product's effervescence not only allows it to be more readily absorbed into the blood stream, it also reduces the likelihood of muscle and abdominal cramps. And unlike conventional creatines, Creatine Edge can be absorbed both actively and passively. This heightens the supplement's effects.

According to Carnazzo, with Creatine Edge, players won't experience the large water-weight gains generally associated with other creatine products. Fortress has taken the guesswork out of supplementation. By mixing just one packet of Creatine Edge - a five-gram creatine serving - with 12 to 16 ounces of water, players eliminate the excretion of excessive creatine often associated with loading.

"Our research shows that by taking a daily dose as we tell you to, you will have the same results as loading within 10 days," Carnazzo says.

While other products on the market claim to do what Creatine Edge does, according to Carnazzo, these products don't have the proven research behind them or the capability to do what his product does.

"Companies look at a box and say, 'We can do that'. They take creatine monohydrate, some sodium bicarbonates and citric acid, it bubbles and the creatine floats around in there, and they tell you that's effervescent creatine. Wrong. There's not the unique chemical reaction that only occurs in our product."

SPORTS DRINKS FOR PROPER HYDRATION

Whether they are taking nutritional supplements or not, your players must properly hydrate themselves daily if they are to perform their best.

Normal daily water consumption is 96 ounces, or eight 12-ounce glasses. Athletes who find themselves exercising under extreme weather conditions - two- or three-a-days, for example - must not only replenish lost water weight but also drink additional water to ensure proper hydration.

One way coaches can ensure that their players enter practicesproperly hydrated is to simply record each player's weight prior to and following workouts. A player who tips the scale at 200 pounds before the first day of practice and then weighs in at 195 should ideally return to 200 before taking the field for the next workout.

According to Bob Murray, director of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, ingesting sports drinks is a good way for players to return to normal hydration and also improve athletic performance. The GSSI laboratories have been researching, studying and developing sports drinks for more than 30 years. So when you choose a Gatorade sports drink, rest assured it will do what it claims to do.

According to Murray, GSSI research has shown that athletes will drink more of a sports drink like Gatorade than they will plain water or other beverages. Properly formulated sports drinks are chemically designed to encourage drinking, which creates the first defense against dehydration through increased liquid consumption. And unlike sports drinks, water has no electrolytes or nutrients to improve absorption, nor does it have the carbohydrates to give athletes the performance advantage of sports drinks. Moreover, water more quickly leaves the body through urination.

"If we just rely upon water, it falls short compared to a sports drink," Murray says. "For example, water will turn off the thirst mechanism too soon so that your thirst is quenched but you haven't consumed nearly enough to replace the sweat that you've lost."

With the proper combination of carbohydrates, electrolytes and sodium, sports drinks not only encourage consumption but also speed up the body's ability to absorb and take advantage of them. And quality sports drinks don't stay in the stomach long enough to cause nausea, gastric discomfort or a sloshy, bloated feeling.

Murray also notes that research on athletes involved in high-intensity, intermittent exercise, such as football, shows that players who use sports drinks improve in physical performance.

"That not only includes their ability to play longer and harder, but it also has to do with how they feel, how they think - their cognitiveresponses," Murray says. "It also improved their basic motor skills."

While the benefits of sports drinks are obvious, the choice of a quality product is also important.

A newer company that is attempting to change the face of the sports-drink market with its research and innovations is LiFizz Sports. It may not have the commercial history of a Gatorade, but LiFizz has invested thousands of hours in research and development to create a sports recovery drink that combines more nutrients than conventional sports drinks and delivers them to the body in a way that not only enhances recovery but also tastes good.

According to chief operating officer, Bill Gillota, the LiFizz recovery drink is fortified with all the essential electrolytes and balanced to produce maximum levels of hydration and cellular equilibrium. It contains three of most effective antioxidants plus vitamins A, C, E and six B-vitamin complexes. With more than 30 ingredients in each serving, Gillota refers to the LiFizz product as the first complete halftime and post-workout recovery regimen on the market.

One 20-ounce serving of the LiFizz recovery drink contains 415 calories and 100 grams of complex carbohydrates, giving players the energy necessary to complete their exercise. LiFizz comes in a powder mix that dissolves completely in water and can be taken before, during and following a workout. "It will also never upset your players' stomachs," Gillota says.

"No one has really looked at and done the analysis to come up with the designing and scientific balancing of a formula so that it accomplishes the goal of the athlete: to perform better," says Gillota. "Ultimately, that is all the athlete wants to do. He wants to have the edge and perform better than the competition."

Contact Info:
FSI Incorporated, (888) 331-6601, www.fsinutrition.com

LiFizz Sports, (800) 561-0068, www.lifizzsports.com

Gatorade, (800) 634-5086, www.gatorade.com, www.gssiweb.com

**For a more in-depth analysis of creatine monohydrate, including what it is, proper dosage, history and potential side effects, refer to "The Truth About Creatine," a two-part series that appears in American Football Quarterly, Vol. 4, Quarters 3 and 4. You can purchase these and any other back issues of AFM/AFQ magazine by visiting www.americanfootballmonthly.com or calling (800) 537-4271.






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