To Ice or Not to Ice? That is the Question

Most of us are familiar with the acronym RICE when it comes to athletic injuries: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. This was an idea engrained in my mind as a method to best treat the acute stages of inflammation in an injury for as long as I can remember. One of the most common phrases heard in athletic training rooms around the country is “Throw some ice on it”. But what if this practice that has become such a standard in acute management of injuries isn’t actually beneficial?

Most individuals who have suffered a musculoskeletal injury have used cryotherapy in one form or another to manage the injury. If the reason you’re icing is for pain or soreness, ice has been repeatedly shown to be effective, no matter what form: ice bag, ice bath, cold whirpool, etc. Many of us have heard that we should put ice on injured areas to reduce inflammation. There is a large debate on whether or not this is actually effective. Some studies have shown that there’s actually not a change in blood flow to muscle after cryotherapy treatment even though there was a decrease in temperature¹, which would promote the idea that inflammation can’t be changed if there’s not a change in blood flow. This leads to another thought: even if cryotherapy was effective in reducing blood flow, would you want to reduce the inflammation that brings healing agents to body parts that need to begin the healing process? On the flip side, another recent study² in rats has shown that although icing reduced the inflammatory response, it did not inhibit the muscle regeneration that occurred afterwards.

For now, in my clinical practice, I will continue to use ice for this reason: 99% of individuals come to me because something hurts, and ice is very effective in pain management. I will, however, be more aware of my reasons for icing and look for alternative methods to treat symptoms that cryotherapy has long been believed to be effective treating.

-Chip

1.       Selkow NM Day C Liu Z Hart JM Hertel J Saliba SA. Microvascular perfusion and intramuscular temperature of the calf during cooling. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2012;44(5):850-856.

2.       Vieria RG, Pinheiro CM,  Messa SP, Delfino GB, Marqueti Rde C, Salvini Tde F, Durigan JL. Cryotherapy Reduces Inflammatory Response Without Altering Muscle Regeneration Process and Extracellular Matrix Remodeling of Rat Muscle. Sci Rep. 2016 Jan 4;6:18525.

Nutrient Timing (Part 1)

              

            Of all the topics within sports nutrition, one topic seems to be far more popular than the rest. That is the topic of nutrient timing. Every athlete wants to know exactly how much to eat and exactly when to eat it. While, in my opinion, using the training plates presented in my previous article are the easiest and possibly best way for most athletes to determine their meals for the day, there is some more fine tuning that can be done if you’re ready to do a little math. So get your calculators out and let’s get going.

            With this article we are going to focus on estimating your overall daily needs of protein and carbohydrate. We will focus on these two because carbohydrates are our fuel source while protein is what repairs and builds our muscles. Our next article will focus on using your recovery window as the guiding principle to determine what times during your day you should be getting these nutrients.

            First, let’s talk about how many grams of carbohydrate and protein a typical high level athlete may need each day during training season. What is recommended by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dietitians of Canada, and the American College of Sports Medicine is that an athlete consume 6-10 g/kg/day of carbohydrates and 1.2-1.7 g/kg/day of protein. Don’t let the numbers and metric units scare you off!!! Look below for a walk through of the calculations for a 175 lb athlete.

1.       175 lbs / 2.2 kg/lb = 79.5 kg

2.       79.5 kg x 6 g/kg/day of carbohydrate = 477 g of carbohydrates

3.       79.5 kg x 10 g/kg/day of carbohydrate = 795 g of carbohydrates

4.       79.5 kg x 1.2 g/day of protein = 95.4 g of protein

5.       79.5 kg x 1.7 g/day of protein = 135.15 g of protein

There you are! 5 simple calculations and you have your numbers! For our theoretical 175 lb athlete we got a carbohydrate range of 477-795 grams of carbohydrate per day and a protein range of 95-135 grams of protein per day. One more series of calculations!

1.       477 g of carbohydrate x 4 calories/g = 1908 calories

2.       795 g of carbohydrate x 4 calories/g = 3180 calories

3.       95 g of protein x 4 calories/g = 380 calories

4.       135 g of protein x 4 calories/g = 540 calories

So, our final count is 1908-3180 calories from carbohydrates and 380-540 calories from protein each day. What a range! How in the world do you know how much is right for you? The answer comes down to what level of training you are currently in. Let’s take our hypothetical athlete and say he is a swimmer doing 2-a-day practices with a weight lifting session in addition. They would be at the high end of our range. Now, let’s say our athlete is a distance runner having a normal practice during his season. He would be on the low end of this range.

Using these numbers as guides for planning your meals can help ensure that you as an athlete are properly refueling your body with important building blocks for energy replenishment, muscle repair, and muscle growth. Be warned however, if you cannot be honest with yourself about your level of training than you may end up eat way to much or too little food. Also, check out the reference table below for some pre-complete calculations!

Weight	Weight in kg	Carbohydrate Range in grams	Protein range in grams
160 lbs	72.7 kg	436-727 g	87-124 g
170 lbs	77.3 kg	464-772 g	93-131 g
180 lbs	81.8 kg	491-818 g	98-139 g
190 lbs	86.4 kg	518-864 g	104-147 g
200 lbs	90.9 kg	545-909 g	109-154 g

Michael Coseo MS, RD, LD

The Evolution of the Warm-up

If you have been around running for the past 10 years, you have seen a major shift in how to warm-up for a workout or race. When I first began running in the 1970’s, the typical warm-up was of a 2-3 minute jog then a series of static stretches consisting of hamstring, quad, and perhaps some calf stretches. The belief was that these stretches would prevent injury and prepare the body for peak performance. These stretches (we were told) should be held for 30 seconds and we were to increase the intensity of the stretch as the time elapsed. This seemed to make sense and was never really questioned until studies were done in the early 2000’s as to what these stretches actually did for performance. We now know from exercise physiologists that these stretches actually created worse results (various studies show a 3-5% performance decrease with pre-workout static stretching). Not only did the stretching not help performance, they did little to prevent injury.

Thirty years later the recommended warm-up consists of a series of dynamic/active warm-up exercises. Rather than using this space to explain individual dynamic drills (there are many), I’ll instead speak in more general terms. (Google “dynamic stretches for distance runners” for specific drills and videos that address a full body active warm-up.)

Today the warm-up routine for our athletes is very active. (We no longer even use the term “stretching” when speaking of pre-workout or pre-race activity.) In fact, when I implement these warm-up drills at the start of the spring track season, many unconditioned athletes find the warm-up to be nearly taxing as the actual workout. Dynamic warm-up has many benefits beyond just warming up. These drills if done correctly will help reinforce good running posture and mechanics, strengthen muscles, and serve as a great general prep for any race or workout. They have also been shown to decrease the likelihood of muscle pulls and tears.

So fight the urge to static stretch before your next race or workout. Instead get that heart rate up and get dynamic. Running is about motion, dynamic warm-ups will get you moving.

-Coach Rechtin

The Warm-up: Why is it always so hard?

Do you ever start a run feeling sluggish and out of breath? A slow pace is difficult and you're uncomfortable even though you think you should feel great because you just started your run?

This happens to me almost every time I go out. I always knew that after I warmed up I would feel better, but I never really knew why I felt so crappy at first. This post actually explains WHY that happens and what is going on inside your body during this warm-up phase of your workout. So the next time you want to turn around and forget the run all together you can remember you’re not having a bad day, your body just needs a little more time to catch up!

The Warm-up Process: Physiologically

When you first start physical activity, your body is utilizing the phosphogen system and anaerobic glycolysis to generate energy rather than the aerobic system. These systems are used because they generate energy more quickly and they do not require the presence of oxygen to create energy. This is good because when you first begin exercising, your body is in oxygen deficit, which is why many people (myself included) find the beginning of their warm-ups to be very uncomfortable.

During this beginning phase of exercise, your body’s sympathetic (“fight or flight”) stimulation increases having widespread effects on your heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolism. Even though many people think this “fight or flight” response only happens when you’re scared, it is actually what causes your body to adjust to the increased demands of exercise. So now your body begins delivering more blood to your active muscles and less to other parts of your body, while simultaneously increasing overall blood flow by increasing your heart rate and stroke volume (the amount of blood pushed out of your heart to your body). These bodily responses mean more blood; and more blood means more oxygen, and more oxygen means more energy!

Once your cardiorespiratory system has fully responded to the fact that you’re now exercising, a level of oxygen consumption high enough to meet the demands of your working muscles is achieved, and you reach a comfortable steady-state of exercise that can be sustained for 30 minutes or more.

So now you know! Don’t stop when you feel like crap at first, give your body 5-10 minutes to catch up with your ambitions and keep on running.

Cedric X.Bryant - Daniel J.Green - American Council on Exercise – 2010

 Fox E, Bowers R, Foss M. The physiological basis for exercise and sport. 5th edition, chapter 3 https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/pdf/chap3.pdf 

Flat Tires and Bad Postures

So I woke up this morning to go to the gym to work out and wouldn’t you know it…I had a flat tire. So I shrugged my shoulders and got in the car and drove to the gym, the tire flopping and the car pulling left the whole way.  I felt like I was going to roll the tire right off the rim as I rounded the corners.  When I got there I decided I’d warm up by shooting some hoops, you know.  But wouldn’t you know it…the basketball was flat! As I dribbled down the court – pflump, splat, ppttthh – I found myself stooping lower and lower to reach the ball…

 

Flaccid, floppy structures demolish performance, leak energy, risk injury, and demand undesirable compensations.  On the other hand, structures with good integrity, alignment, and firmness are responsive and efficient foundations for performance.  This all begins with postural alignment and strength.

 

On a basic level, posture is pretty simple: straight lines transfer forces more effectively.  For example, you can stand on an empty aluminum soda can as long as the can is in perfect alignment – no bends or dents.  If you indent the side of the can you break the alignment, the can will crush. The key to this is keeping a tall, neutral alignment of your hips and spine.  Hip alignment should be midway between twerking and bad-dog-tail-between-your-legs.  Draw in your waistline in a slimming fashion and feel yourself stand up taller.  The best way I’ve found to set this automatically is to stand up (yes, really, get out of your chair) and reach your hands overhead as high as you can. Now drop your arms and relax your shoulders, keeping the strength in your torso intact.  Nice posture!  Now you’re ready to run, jump, or throw!

 

As we continue our exploration of strong posture lines, in sprinting the goal is to land on a nearly extended leg.  Landing in a bent position will crush you.  Especially in the hurdles.  The same is true when you setup good or bad takeoffs in the jumps.

 

The throws follow the same principles too!  You want to make sure your lines of force are being directed through – not away – from the implement to maximize your performances.

 

How do we develop enhanced postures?  Three ways come to mind: 1) Attention!  Yes, pay attention to standing, sitting, and moving maintaining long postures. 2) Train it.  Just like we can pump up a tire or ball, pumping iron can strengthen our postural muscles.  Especially exercises like squat, overhead press, step-up, and other posturally demanding exercises. 3) Get comfortable in the air.  Too often we are in a rush to get back to the ground in running, hurdling, and the lead up movements to throwing.  The air time is your opportunity to put yourself in position to receive the loads association with ground reaction forces!  In many cases this can be caused by stability issues.

 

So pump up your tires, puff out your chest, stand tall, and be amazing!

-Eric Dudley