Looking After Our Bodies

HSSC

Definitions

For the purposes of this season I am going to define Nutrition as what we eat, drink and the amount of rest/sleep we get.

Traditionally Nutrition does not include rest/sleep however it is probably more important than what we eat or drink.

Does Fueling make a difference

Bodies are machines

Making a comparison with the human body and a car

We put in different qualities of gas into the tank (food), service (rest), and qualities of oil (liquids)

Thoughts

Swimming puts so much more stress on to the bodies of swimmers than the average person.

This generally allows swimmers to eat whatever they want without ever putting on weight

Being in great shape allows the body to do amazing things without rest

Then why do we care whether we sleep or what we eat?

Questioning

When we are exercising what are we doing?

Getting Faster?

Stronger?

Bigger?

Smarter?

What are we doing

Exercise is actually detrimental to our bodies

During swimming we are breaking down tissue, burning energy, fatiguing our bodies and mind. Breaking down barriers, pushing how far we are willing to go.

When do we improve

Rest/Sleep- Most important time is to get a long rest each night (8-10 hrs)

Eating- Most important is to get food directly after exercise

Drinking- Being hydrated before workout.

Rest/Sleep

In my opinion this is the most important thing you can do away from the pool .

Rest= time when you relax (sit on the couch, hang out with friends), or nap.

Sleep= a naturally recurring state of relatively suspended sensory and motor activity, characterized by total or partial unconsciousness and the inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles.

Rest/Sleep

Every time you do not get enough sleep at night you will not be training at your best and risk getting sick.

You dedicate yourselves to swimming, and try as hard as you can in the pool but if you do not prepare, you will not be as productive in the pool than if you had slept.

When swimmers get sick (not the sniffles) they must stay away pool to allow the body to battle the virus ect. This means we are not training when we should be.

Rest/Sleep

When we have two session in one day resting between the sessions is really important.

All of you guys will have school during the week. This makes resting a difficult task. However there are some things we can do during the day. Stay on top of your homework and studies so you aren’t panicking to finish them just before the bell. Rest during recess (unless you aren’t tired then go have fun playing). Pay attention to your teacher so you don’t have to struggle to figure stuff out by yourself. If possible have a quick rest (ideally a nap) before school even if its in the car on the way to school or just 5 minute sit on a bench to take some deep breathes and enjoy the day.

Rest/SleepThere are times in our life when we cannot possibly get enough sleep

at night. Sometimes it is just not avoidable. As swimmers this happens for a variety of reasons your best friend has a sleepover for their birthday, you are nervous about a project at school, and you cannot fall asleep, you have an project/exam that fell by the wayside and now you have to finish it by tomorrow or have a fight with your parents/boyfriend/girlfriend etc. These things happen, not every morning session but they do happen so feel free to sleep in if they do sleep is more important than swimming every once in awhile.

What you, as a swimmer should avoid is the things that we can eliminate like forgetting to set alarms, am/pm mix ups, staying up all night playing Starcraft2, talking/texting to friends to all hours of the night. These things are not acceptable (although they do happen), so lets try to minimize them (once a season ).

Rest/Sleep

If you missed or are going to miss a practice just email me at mike.kirkness@gmail.com, I might not always reply to these emails but be assured that I am receiving them.

Hydrating

Water, all the time, breakfast, lunch, supper, snack, school, dry land, and in the water. If you find yourself without a water bottle at any point during the day find one. A common thought is you don’t sweat during swimming, boy is that wrong, you really do. For an example I was drinking 7-8 liters of water during my swimming career.

HydrationOther sources of water.Fruit juices, not fruit beverages but 100% fruit juice. These are great just not all

the time, enjoy these during as a snack or with meals. These should not be used instead of water during practices.

Sports drinks, like Gatorade, PowerAde, or vitamin water. These are also great, I am not a fan of PowerAde as I find it much too sugary to be of much use. The original Gatorade is best drank watered down 1 part Gatorade to 2 parts water. G2 is amazing I highly recommend drinking this it is expensive so give your parents a break don’t drink it all the time. The 2 cheapest ways to do this is to leave a package of Gatorade mix in your swim bag and just mix it more watery than sweet. Pour a juice box into a liter water bottle and add some salt (to taste, start with a few pinches) then fill up the bottle with water ie home made Gatorade.

Milk, this is great right after practices (all varieties chocolate, strawberry, banana), try to avoid drinking this directly before workouts as you will get a cramp. Dairy products are harder to digest. Skim milk is the healthiest for non-active people, however as swimmers we need the fat 2% milk is just fine. But whatever percentage you enjoy drink it.

Hydration

Things to avoid:1) Caffeinated drinks: red bull, coffee, energy

drinks, Starbucks anything really, Black teas2) Pop3) Fruit Beverages ( sometimes contain as little as

5% juice, read the labels to find out) Even V8 splash is high in added sugar

These all taste good, the best way to enjoy these things are in moderation, once a week or less, especially not on a race day.

Hydration

Why we drink sports drink instead of water. My parents always told me water was the best for me. Well we need plain old water but when we are sweating as much as we do as swimmers we need to replace electrolytes (salts).

To be honest I just discovered why drink Sports Drinks this past year. See the next page for an explanation.

Explanation of Sports DrinksThis picture shows that glucose (sugar) and Na+ (salt) come into blood stream together from the Intestine. When this happens water is brought into the blood stream to maintain osmotic levels. Thus this is why we drink water with sugar and salt.

Eating

With the media telling us everyday about dieting, 100 calorie packs, or less is more, as swimmers we have to be careful to be sure that we eat. And eat a lot.

That being said we do have to watch what we eat. Some things are bad for us and our swimming no matter how many calories we burn.

In general if it comes out of the ground, off a tree, from an animal, or from the sea; unprocessed. It is going to be good enough for us.

Once is choose the type of foods that we will be eating we have to decide how it is cooked. For instance bananas are good for us but deep fried banana splits probably not so good for us. Another rule of thumb is if you cook it at home (without a deep fryer) it is probably good for us.

Canadian Food Guide

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php

Canadian Food Guide

Remember as swimmers this is just a guide, we need more food than what it says and often a lot more meat than what it says. Listen to your body and eat when you are hungry and eat what you are craving. Limit the high sugar and fat foods, but a few treats a week is just fine and dandy.

EatingWhen to eat? This is a great question especially when it comes eating

around practice sessions. In the morning the question often becomes to eat or am I to sleepy to eat?

The answer is always eat. The best breakfasts have a couple of components to them

1) You aren’t going to throw it up ie easily digestible2) Have some protein in the mix to keep us full through out practice, I

find its is easiest to eat peanut butter, nuts, seeds, that seedy bread, yogurt, or cereal with milk on it. (watch for breakfast cereals that are high in sugar, stick to ones without a cartoon character on the box)

3) Easy, you want something that takes no time to make or eat so that you can sleep as long as possible, a energy bar, breakfast drink (boost), or protein bar. Are great In that respect. Granola bars are often just sugar and a few oats, we need to do better than that for breakfast.

My personal favorite breakfast is a banana covered in peanut butter, with a bottle of water.

Eating

Another really important time to eat is during and after workouts.

Our afternoon workouts will be quiet long for our senior performance swimmers. This means that we will be exercising longer than our body’s stores of glucose will be able to sustain us. For the Senior performance the coaches feel that a snack during practice will do the swimmers good.

For everyone else a small snack for directly after workouts.These snacks should be fairly healthy with granola bars,

nuts, dried fruit bars, boost, or fruit ect. Nutritionist are saying chocolate milk is one of the best recovery drinks however this is hard to keep cold during practice. Chocolate milk is are great recovery.

Eating at Meets

Some people believe eat as healthy as possible at competitions. However if you don’t eat healthy in your everyday life don’t change now, eat what your body I use too. If you eat McDonald's everyday your body gets used to a certain level of sugar and grease intake and you don’t want to disrupt that when we are racing.

However that being said if you do eat healthy which I am asking all of HSSC including Parents, eat healthy at the meet.

Eating at Meets

Some things are harder to digest than others. Meat and dairy are two of these things. The more fatty the meat and dairy the harder they are to digest. You do need to eat these things during meets, however make sure you have an hour before you race. Save you big meal of the day for supper after the meet has finished.

Contact

Mike.kirkness@gmail.com

If you have any questions email.

Thanks

Mike Kirkness