“Fall seven times stand up eight” Part 2

FALL SEVEN TIMES, STAND UP EIGHT

In part I of this series we spoke of my recent injury and a short sight goal I have to accomplish. Since that point I gained a significant more amount of range of motion and been able to walk semi normally once again. I left off with telling you guys about an upcoming contest I have to get ready for plus everything that’s going to be required of me to get to that point. In this installment I’ll speak about each individual factor that will get me to my goal…

Diet

 

The consistent consumption of a high quality diet, augmented with an intelligent supplement/ fueling program – Many tend to focus more on the first two components of this “formula ” than on the third, particularly supplementation. However, you need to remember that as an athlete you are demanding a lot out of your body. My nutrient requirements, just to maintain health, are much greater than the average person. That’s why a combination of diet and supplementation is vital, especially now as you begin your season.
            Let me ask you a question: Do you believe that your diet provides the optimum amount of all nutrients, and thus you take no supplements? If you answered “Yes, ” then this article is worth reading because it’s a combination of diet and supplementation – not one or the other, but both together, that will yield best results.
  
            The “balanced diet will provide all you need ” concept is a myth; you cannot obtain all of the nutrients your body requires from your diet. Here are a couple reasons why this view is outdated.  There has never been a single clinical study that documents what comprises a balanced diet, or one that has demonstrated one’s ability to meet basic nutrient requirements through foods alone.  There is an ever-growing body of research, done by nutritional science’s most brilliant minds, showing that food alone does not supply all the micronutrients we need to prevent deficiency, let alone achieve optimal health.
           

Very few of us have routine access to fresh, locally grown foods. Much of our diet comes from foods grown far away, picked when unripe and then sent packing. Nutritional content is questionable.  So where does regular food consumption fall short? Never in salt! Often in protein for hard-training athletes. Seldom in fat. Almost always in micronutrients, and that’s the focus of this article.

Regular diets simply can’t cover the range of vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, antioxidants and other micronutrients necessary to maintain optimal health and peak athletic performance. If you want to achieve your best performances, and enjoy optimal health (not minimal, optimal!), then daily supplementation is a necessity.

 

 

 

That’s why I start my day with Greens Complete( Aids in providing the body with enzymes, nutrients, probiotics and phytonutrients that a vegetable-rich diet offers) plus some Fish Oil caps ( with every other meal).For overall joint support, heart health and added calories which I need to keep my weight up.

  No supplement program can take priority over a healthy diet, we all agree on that. I cannot emphasize enough that your primary nutritional goal is to consistently consume a healthy diet.
            What does this entail? It means eating whole grains and locally grown organic foods as much as possible, while avoiding packaged, processed and junk foods at all times. It means a low-sodium diet, a variety of foods, avoiding foods containing artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors and preservatives.  Even the best diet is not enough!

 That’s where supplementation comes into play. Taking a good solid multivitamin should be a staple. Most people have the idea that since they started working out they immediately need supplements but the truth is the 1^st has to be up to part before the 2nd.This topic could go on forever but that will be for a later article.

For overall joint support and heart health

Recovery and sleep

 

 

Rest days are critical to sports performance for a variety of reasons. Some are physiological and some are psychological. Rest is physically necessary so that the muscles can repair, rebuild and strengthen. For recreational athletes, building in rest days can help maintain a better balance between home, work and fitness goals. In the worst-case scenario, too few rest and recovery days can lead to overtraining syndrome – a difficult condition to recover from. So I’ll have scheduled days where I do nothing, on purpose. Very hard for me to do but I have to remember the bigger picture. VICTORY!!!

 

 

What Happens During Recovery?

Building recovery time into any training program is important because this is the time that the body adapts to the stress of exercise and the real training effect takes place. My event days will be hard and heavy, trying my best to have some type of progression leading up the show. The sport of strongman is hard to make minimal weight jumps with the implements. Meaning ok either pickup and run with this 250 lb keg or this 300lb’r…that’s an easy 50lb jump. So taking small incremental jumps in kind of out of the window.

  Recovery also allows the body to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissues. Exercise or any other physical work causes changes in the body such as muscle tissue breakdown and the depletion of energy stores (muscle glycogen) as well as fluid loss.

Recovery time allows these stores to be replenished and allows tissue repair to occur. Without sufficient time to repair and replenish, the body will continue to breakdown from intensive exercise. Overtraining often occurs from a lack of recovery time.

Short and Long-Term Recovery

Keep in mind that there are two categories of recovery. There is immediate (short-term) recovery from a particularly intense training session or event, and there is the long-term recovery that needs to be build into a year-round training schedule. Both are important for optimal sports performance. But for my specific reasons we’ll only talk about short- term and we’ll leave the other for another article.

Short-term recovery, sometimes called active recovery occurs in the hours immediately after intense exercise. Active recovery refers to engaging in low-intensity exercise after workouts during both the cool-down phase immediately after a hard effort or workout as well as during the days following the workout. Both types of active recovery are linked to performance benefits. So I personally love doing some form of metabolic work. My personal favorite tabata’s ( 20/ 10 time intervals). Choosing mostly bodyweight exercises.  Making sure not to over exert myself and just breaking a sweat.

Another major focus of recovery immediately following exercise has to do with replenishing energy stores and fluids lost during exercise and optimizing protein synthesis (the process of increasing the protein content of muscle cells, preventing muscle breakdown and increasing muscle size) by eating the right meals after exercise. I always immediately have some sort of simple sugar after my training sessions. Have it fruits or a mix of waxy maize ( cheap corn starch) shake. Followed up by a solid meal about a 1 hour later.

Strength and conditioning

 

 

Pressing logs, lifting stones and running around with odd objects isn’t your normal training means.  Since this is what the contest entails I’ll have a day specifically for that with 3 other days based on overall strength and conditioning. Including lower body and upper multi joint movements which give the best bang per buck, such as deadlights, squats, presses and olympic lifts.

Just a short time ago, most coaches thought that strength training would cause athletes to become muscle-bound and would be counterproductive to good technique. Now it has been proven that athletic performance depends either directly or indirectly on qualities of muscular strength. We must remember that strength builds the foundation for ALL other athletic qualities. For example, if you do not possess great relative body strength (strength in relation to your body weight), you will never be able to run fast. -off, you can’t be fast! How does this relate to strongman? Well without having a proper strength and conditioning program how do you think I’ll be able to compete in 5 gruelling events? My body has to be able to successfully be able to do all the events and be able to go all day long.

An added bonus of strength training is injury prevention. Athletes who strength train tend to have fewer injuries. This is because strength training strengthens the muscle attachments and increases density of bones at the sites of muscle origins and insertions. And if an injury does occur to an athlete who has been strength training properly, it will probably not be as serious and will tend to heal faster. So next time someone tells you weight training is just for bodybuilders, think again. A proper strength-training program just may be the final piece of your training “puzzle” to success!

 So wish me luck and follow along  and see how I end up doing leading up to the show…