Archive for the ‘Nutrition’ Category:
4 tips to keep you going at the track
Maintaining a steady diet is essential for motocross. Not only do you provide your body with the right nutrients for throwing down good motos, but you also help keep your energy levels up. There is no need to be on some ridiculous diet that disregards a whole food group. Having a spread of different foods when you are riding, keeps your energy up and prevents you from wearing out during your time at the track.
Here are 4 tips to help you ride at your best:
Good Breakfast – Eating something in the morning gives your body fuel for the day. If you are skipping out on breakfast, you are seriously hindering your chances at having a couple good motos. You are “breaking the fast” your body enters each night. Think of it this way, you wouldn’t line up on the gate with no gas in your tank would you? A few good foods for breakfast are low sugar cereals, fruits, juices and egg whites.
Staying Hydrated – Although it is still cold out, drinking plenty of water is still a must. Even if you are wearing a hoodie while riding, your body is exerting force and at work, resulting is heat and sweat. You might not feel as thirsty, but your body needs to replace those fluids. At lunch time, you can even mix a little bit of a sports drink in your water.
Snack Right – I love going for the concession stand at the track between motos, but most of the time, that stuff is fried or covered in powdered sugar. Having a few snack foods from home will keep your stomach full and prevent you from getting too hungry. When I say snack, it doesn’t have to be a complete meal; you can get some fruit, vegetables or a granola bar. For skinny guys, like me, keeping calories in while exercising is important because our metabolism is so high. We burn food off quickly and it needs to be replaced, before the body starts taking glycogen from our muscles for energy. This is when you start to feel tired and weak.
Meals at the Track – Lunch (and dinner if you stay long enough) should be light like the snacks. Meats like turkey and chicken are great and throw in some vegetables and you’ve got a nice sandwich. You don’t want to be bogged down when you are done with lunch, so eating a little bit will help keep you light on your feet. If you are still feeling hungry, grab a banana or something to hold you over during your moto.
There you have it, 4 tips to keep you going throughout the day at the track. Although track food maybe delicious, you are better off to eat some food brought from home. There will be less sugars, sodium and crap to bog you down during the day. This isn’t a crazy diet, just smarter choices that will pay off at the end of the day. And probably less trips to the nasty Porto-potties.
Top 5 Tips from 2009
When I started this blog about 6 months ago, I never anticipated where it would take me. It helped me realize what I want to major in college and what I plan to do after school. Moreover, it has helped me learn as well. I have written ways to help improve your training and help you ride safer, smarter and longer. However, there are some really important things to remember when training for motocross. Here is a list of the Top 5 MX training tips from 2009:
Eat and drink a lot
Eating numerous small meals throughout the day helps provide your body with the necessary energy to keep going. Instead of the traditional 3, big meals, you will keep your body from getting in the “sugar crash” mode. When you wait to eat those 3 meals, you wait too long and starve yourself. When you do finally get to eat, you gorge yourself with massive portions. Eating every few hours, your body will metabolize your food faster and more efficiently.
Drinking a lot does not mean drink more beer. I mean to drink plenty of water throughout the day. Get a water bottle and sip on it. Chugging water before a workout makes you feel bloated and you are not properly hydrated. If your piss isn’t clear…drink more water!
Don’t Body Build
The difference between bodybuilding and training for motocross is simple; muscle isolation. When training for MX, you want to use multi-joint exercises such as the clean and press, dead lift, pull ups and front squats. This moves the body in a manner that is close to the way you ride. Muscle isolation focuses movement over a single joint, like using curls to work the biceps.
Remember that the main muscle groups for MX are legs, core, back, and chest. Your arms are more of a hinge connecting your upper body to the handle bars. Sorry, but your arms are not as important as you think (no guns to show off!). Your legs can take a greater load over a longer period of time. That is why you squeeze with your legs to relieve your arms; so they don’t get arm pump.
Change it up
Confusing your body is a great way to make gains in your training quickly. If you do the same cardio routine for months on end, you will grow stagnant and won’t continue to improve your training. That is why training seasons work so well. In the off season, you do longer, less stressful cardio and in the spring (pre/race season) you start to hit the interval sessions again.
Incorporating a few variations of cardio will also keep you fresh and wanting to train. Varying your days as well makes a big difference. If you are used to doing cardio Mondays and Wednesdays, try to do it Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Get some R&R
Rest is not only a time for your muscles to rebuild, but it gives you a chance to relax. If you are going and going and going at a break-neck pace, you will get burnt out. However, most importantly, you could over train and lose all of your progress. For strength training, wait at least 48 hours to give your muscles a rest and for cardio, no more than three sessions per week.
As far as sleep, 8 hours minimum. Sleep is a time for your body to grow and get stronger overall. If you are doing cardio every day, you are not giving your legs, heart and lungs a chance to recover. Make some time to rest and it will pay off.
Have fun!
Why are you training? To ride longer or to get better results? Just remember that for most people, the sport of motocross is a hobby. Have fun with it and you will reap the benefits from the time in the gym. Use the training as an outlet for your stresses so you don’t take that to the races. That way, you can enjoy what all us do as well, riding with our friends!
Training Resolutions
2010 is upon us. Ready or not, it’s here. As fast as this year went by, I couldn’t be more stoked for it. It is a chance to start fresh and start to implement those goals or “resolutions” you’ve had for the past few months. However, the whole idea of New Year’s Resolutions got me thinking. I was talking to a personal trainer at the gym I work at and we discussed that if someone was committed to losing weight, why wait till the New Year to start implementing it?
This applies to training as well. If you have a certain aspect of your riding or fitness you want to work on, waiting until the 1st only gives you less time to prepare for the next season. Granted the New Year is only in 2 days, but if you want something bad enough, you shouldn’t need to wait for a holiday. This is the time of year where you can really gain some ground on your competition. While they are eating themselves into a coma with left over stuffing and chugging champagne, you can keep training and get a step ahead.
Granted, this doesn’t mean to train like the pre-season with intervals and sprints, but this is where you work on your weaknesses and change your program if it wasn’t working too well for you. This goes along with the other posts as last week; if you wait till the New Year to get your Off Season training started, you have already lost half of the time. So don’t wait till the ball drops and bottles are popped, get on that new program ASAP!
Maintaining Your Energy
The other day I was working out and felt weak. I had a hard time finishing my sets and felt drained throughout my workout. I had gotten plenty of sleep the night before and I really didn’t exert a lot of energy that day, so I should have been rested enough. After my workout, I came home and had a protein shake and made dinner. I instantly felt better after eating; I had more energy and was more focused. So what was the problem?
Low blood sugar. I had work that day and I didn’t eat anything during my shift. I went about 5 or 6 hours without anything in my system. My body resorted to taking glycogen (which gets converted into glucose) from my muscles to sustain energy. When this happens, you feel tired, weak and you are not as focused. Because a good amount of my glucose stores had been used to keep me going at work, my workout suffered since there was no glucose left to supply energy to my muscles.
Consuming small meals throughout the day helps maintain your sugar levels. A good interval between meals is usually around 2 – 3 hours. Now, keep in mind, this doesn’t mean having lunch every 3 hours. You could have a salad and then a sandwich a few hours later. Avoiding sugary foods also helps maintain a constant amount of sugar for your body and you will avoid those “crashes”.
As I stated in my post workout nutrition article, these sugars are essential after a workout as well. Technically, they are considered carbs because of the chemical makeup. This does not mean you can eat junk food and drink a Coke after training. The right sugars are found in sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade. Drinking a little bit of these within 15 minutes of training will help replenish the glucose in your body. A good idea I heard recently is to get the Gatorade powder and put a little bit of it in your post workout drink. That way, you get your protein and necessary carbs to keep you from “crashing”.
Alcohol and MX
The Holidays are here. That means lots of food and drinks. Yea, alcoholic drinks. This time of year is hard enough to get through with a healthy diet for racing, but alcohol just throws in an extra curve ball. With anything in training, moderation is pretty important. The more you try to avoid it, the more you will “splurge” drink when you finally get it.
Here are a few things to remember when the bottoms go up:
- In one of my previous articles about the importance of sleep, I showed the importance of sleep for athletes. At first, alcohol can put you to sleep, but the deep sleep needed is interrupted by the alcohol. Not only this, but alcohol can reduce your immune system’s power and if you are injured, it can actually take longer for you to heal up with alcohol in your body.
- Cancels out your workouts. Over a long period of time, it can diminish long term protein synthesis and deter muscle growth.
- Waking up hung over means you are dehydrated and this is often associated with headaches, nausea, and weakness. This dehydration can go back to recovery from your workouts. The dehydration impairs the body’s ability to heal itself. Not only is the body depleted of water, but nutrients are pushed out too.
- One New Zealand study actually found that reaction time was reduced even after 60 hours of heavy drinking.
Now, this is pretty negative. However, IF YOU ARE OF AGE AND ABOVE 21, then a few drinks during the Holidays is not going to kill your training. Like I said, moderation is important. As long as you aren’t getting drunk before a race, you should be okay. To offset the dehydration, drink plenty of water throughout the night. Be smart about it and you’ll make it through the Holiday season healthier than you think.
Thanksgiving Survival Guide
2 days from now is one of my favorite days of the whole year. I’m talking about thanksgiving. I was born on this day and I love to eat…what more could you ask for!?!? However, this is the time when many people try to get through the day with only one plate with a spoonful of stuffing, one slice of turkey and no gravy. Trying to do this is like going to a buffet with an anorexic person, it just can’t be done.
However, if you are eating good and putting in the hours in the gym, you are more than likely in better shape than the average American. Now, I am a believer in moderation. The idea of moderation is key for your diet, but on Thanksgiving, this idea can go out the window. You can load up on as much turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing and gravy as you like. Let yourself go even. You deserve it. But, like I said, moderation is crucial. You don’t want to keep eating like that for the rest of the weekend. You can easily spend two weeks trying to get back to where you were before Thanksgiving. One day is not going to be devastating, just don’t keep eating like that.
There are a few old fashion ways to keep your holiday diet under controlled:
Turkey sandwiches – An awesome way to keep that turkey from going bad. You can grab some lettuce, tomatoes and instead of mayo, use mustard. There is less fat and it will taste just as good.
Turkey and Brown Rice – The rice is a great complex carb and you can throw some broccoli or other vegetable.
Turkey Broth – Save the bones and make a broth. You can throw on some carrots, onions, celery, rice, and even cabbage. It is great for those cold days when you’re watching football.
Remember, one day of stuffing your face is not going to hurt. Just remember moderation and don’t keep eating like that. This is a time to get together with family and eat some good food. Make the most of it!
