Last week I wrote about the growing trend of children that
are turning to steroids to improve to enhance their performance or
appearance. Clearly this is not
the direction we want our children to turn.
However, what we must acknowledge is that kids and often
times with encouragement or prodding from others, still want to get bigger and
stronger. We need to have this
conversation and more importantly we must arm ourselves with the proper
strategies to help them do this without resorting to the use of supplements let
alone more treacherous substances like steroids.
So where do we begin.
When I was in high school I was advised to eat a lot of steak, potatoes
and pasta. All that did was make
me feel like a slug because I felt like sleeping all day. Yes, this probably is a very good
strategy to add weight but rest assured it won’t be the type of lean muscle you
have in mind.
So let’s throw out the old school notion of stuffing
yourself with lots of protein and carbohydrates.
When I was in college I was constantly told that because I
trained so hard and put so much time and effort into skill practice and
physical development that I was missing a huge opportunity by not using
supplements. Their theory was the
food wasn’t enough and I was wasting my time and energy by not boosting my
training with powders and pills.
So I started doing some research and unfortunately my sources were a
little one-sided and I never gained an appreciation for the entire
picture. Just like specializing in
one-sport my sports nutrition knowledge was very narrow and left huge holes in
my plan over the long term.
Suffice to say that after spending thousands of dollars on
protein powders and other supplements over the course of my post high-school
athletic career my performance never improved. In fact, it dropped of significantly because I lost sight of
what was important. That is a
story for another day but the take home point is that it turned out that the
supplements were a significant waste of my time and energy and a very powerful
drain on my limited bank account.
Second key point to go along with the flawed notion that you
have to stuff yourself with carbs and protein, supplements are a waste of time.
I found out the hard way but that is to the benefit of the generation of children
that I know work with.
Supplements are like the high hanging fruit. Why waste your time and energy
bypassing all of the low-hanging fruit to reach for something than can be
better attained from the ground level?
So what is the low-lying fruit as it pertains to youth
strength and muscle development?
There are three areas that if addressed effectively can be the solution
to greatly improving a young persons strength and muscle size in addition to
providing an all important boost to their overall lifestyle (mood, emotional
stability, academic and athletic performance).
Eat better food
Most kids are overfed and undernourished. It is my strong belief that children
get plenty of calories but the foods they do consume are usually of poor
quality and thus lack essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals, and enzymes
that are vital for muscle building and restoration.
Most children sustain themselves on processed foods that are
loaded with carbohydrates and contain low-quality fats and protein. Clearly this is not the type of
material they need to build strong bodies.
Body building foods are whole foods like eggs, grass-fed
meat and poultry (the whole bird, dark meat included!), nuts, whole dairy from
pastured cows, and plenty of vegetables and fruit. Think of these foods as the materials for the actual
physical structure of a building (the body) and it’s wiring (nervous system)
and food like whole grains and starches are the energy or manpower required to
build the structure. Children need
both but most do not get enough high-quality fats and protein.
Get more sleep
Today’s youth sport culture often revolves around schedules
that are just as demanding as those experienced by professional athletes. Especially when you consider that the
pros have the luxury of charter flights, first class hotel accommodations, in
addition to therapists and dietitians to manage their recovery and nutrition
needs. It should also be noted
that most professional sports leagues have at minimum a 3-month off-season.
It’s very common during the school year for athletes to
arrive home after a game at 11PM or later and it may take them a while to come
down from the emotional high of an intense game and may not fall asleep until
well after midnight. Then they are up at 6AM or earlier to sneak in a little
bit of homework. Needless to
say this is not a recipe for building muscle, nor is it conducive to success in
the classroom either. In fact it’s
a perfect storm that if practiced routinely will slam the brakes on optimal growth
and development.
Cheri Mah of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and
Research Laboratory has been following the sleep patterns and athletic
performance of Stanford athletes for years. Her research continues to show that
getting more sleep leads to better sports performance for all types of
athletes. [1]
Lack of sleep, or “sleep debt,” appears to have a negative
effect on sports performance, as well as cognitive function, mood, and reaction
time. Making regular sleep as much of a priority for athletes as practicing
their sport and eating right can avoid much of this.
Researchers speculate that deep sleep helps improve athletic
performance because this is the time when growth hormone is released. Growth
hormone stimulates muscle growth and repair, bone building and fat burning, and
helps athletes recover. Studies show that sleep deprivation slows the release
of growth hormone. Sleep is also necessary for learning a new skill, so this
phase of sleep may be critical for some athletes.
Sleep experts recommend seven to nine hours of daily sleep
for adults, and nine to ten hours for adolescents and teens. [1]
Train smart
Right behind the flawed idea that you need protein powder to
build muscle is the notion that you have to lift heavy weights to get bigger
and stronger. While that is
certainly part of a very large equation it’s fruit that is still a little too
high for most kids to worry about.
Going to the gym and trying to squat and bench press as much weight as
you can will more than likely lead to injury, poor performance and wasted
energy before it boosts your muscle mass.
Training is definitely an important aspect of adding
strength and muscle but first you have to have a plan. Timing is important. The optimal time to add size through
the use of resistance training would be in your sports off-season. If you don’t have an off-season this is
very likely a major reason you have trouble adding muscle. If you are constantly tearing your body
down, this is essentially what happens when you train and play sport, you never
allow for optimal recovery and repair.
As an example a physical therapist for the Canadian women’s
gymnastics team once told me that every summer the girls would take two weeks
off to spend with their families.
When they came back many off them had literally grown several inches
because they unloaded their bodies over their break which allowed for natural
growth to occur.
There is a very good reason gymnasts are small in stature
and it has a lot to do with an ultra demanding training schedule that
interferes with the natural physical maturation process, a process that is best
taken advantage of during adolescence.
And down time is essential.
This doesn’t mean they should lie around and play video games all day
long for weeks on end but it does mean taking a few weeks off every 2-3 months
to allow the body to repair and build.
Another important training consideration is taking part in
an activity that directly counteracts your effort to gain muscle. If you are a teen basketball player
looking to add size to your slight frame running cross country in the fall to
get yourself in shape for the winter may seem like a good idea but endurance
training and building muscle do not go hand in hand. Take a look at any elite level endurance athlete and they
are all very thin with low muscle tone.
Meanwhile short-distance sprinters are well muscled. If you are looking to add muscle your
preferred mode of endurance training should be short burst activities such as
sprint intervals or body weight circuits.
Finally, body weight training such as push-ups, pull-ups,
squats and lunges should be mastered before adding any external resistance and
are more than adequate activities for adding strength and muscle to adolescent
frames. Bodyweight training
(low-lying fruit) allows children to develop foundational strength and once
that foundation is solidly in place then added resistance can be included.
In summary, children need to address the basics before they
ever think about using supplements or start lifting weights. Most kids don’t sleep enough, eat poor
quality food and don’t allow time for their bodies to develop because of
year-round sport demands. No amount
of supplements (even if they were effective and most aren’t) or weight training
could make up for this gaping hole created by poor lifestyle habits.
I briefly touched upon the importance of the low-hanging
fruit of adequate rest, better nutrition and smarter training but I have
included links to past articles that cover the nutrition and sleep topics with
more depth. Those links can be
found at the bottom of this page.
Sample Scenario
I will wrap up this topic with a sample scenario. A few weeks ago I started coaching a
young man (age of 16) with a very slight frame. This boy has very good athleticism and is very mobile. Also upon evaluation he has a few
postural red flags that caught my attention, likely due to the fact that he is
a one-sport athlete. Because of
these postural issues he is not a good candidate for resisted squatting, it
would do more harm than good. We
will work on exercises with the intent of correcting these issues to keep him
in the game for the long-term.
That said we would do more than just corrective exercise. Strength, power, and speed training
will be included but it will be implemented in way that builds him up while not
feeding into his dysfunction.
From a nutrition perspective I always like to start off with
things that can be implemented very easily. I like to introduce one concept/habit at a time. With compliance these small steps add up
and over time can have a big impact.
Habit #1 for this young man is getting more body building
nutrients into his eating.
He told me he essentially eats three times a day.
Usually he has a smoothie for breakfast. All he should do is add a tablespoon or
two of natural almond/peanut butter to his smoothie.
For lunch take a snack pack filled with mixed nuts to eat
with his school food. Good choices
are almonds, pecans and walnuts.
Preferably unsalted.
For dinner add a glass of whole milk. Ideally choose organic milk from
grass-fed cows. To make it easy
for you the best source of milk I have found is from Thomas Organic Creamery
(from nearby Henderson, MI). You
will find this milk at Whole Foods or Plum Market.
Once he "owns" these habits we can implement Habit
#2.
In this example I learned the boy did not have a nut or
dairy allergy and actually enjoys those foods making adherence to my
recommendations more likely.
Happy Holidays!
Additional Resources
Eat Better Food
Get More Sleep
Reference:
No comments:
Post a Comment