Nine foods to avoid before a game or practice

Athletes work hard to prepare for games. Practice, condition, rest. But all that can be for naught if they are not putting the right foods into their bodies.
If an athlete is truly serious about his sport, then he needs to avoid foods that will hinder his performance.

Avoid these foods when competing:

1. Energy drinks. They contain caffeine and other stimulants that put stress on the heart, in addition to the stress an athlete puts on his heart during competition. In fact, it is a good idea to avoid caffeine altogether when in season.

2. Fried and fatty foods. The body takes a long time to digest the fats, which could leave an athlete feeling drowsy and feeling stomach-heavy. Avoid fatty meats and foods like creamy sauces, dressings and mayonnaise. They also take a long time to digest.
Nutritionist Kelly Aronica (kellyaronicanutritionist.com) adds that athletes should stay away from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.
“These primarily man-made oils have been shown to raise risk of heart disease,” Aronica says. “They’re found in many commercially baked goods, fried foods and some margarines. Look for it in the ingredient list.”

To Read about the other 7 foods - Click Here!

strength and flexibility movements

The following workout will help improve your quality of life through strength and flexibility movements.

Click Here to view the workout!

Derek Boogaard’s Dad does the legwork, finds appalling amount of pills prescribed to his son

 

Posted by Justin Bourne under News, Opinion on Jun 04, 2012

I’ve written about the abuse of prescription pills in pro hockey in the past, specifically about how their distribution needs to be better monitored. Right now if players want them, they can get them, and with the pain of the game and the rigors of travel, plenty of guys do. Never have I been more sure that something has to be done then after reading what Derek Boogaard’s father discovered about what had been prescribed to his son over the years.

Before I list the numbers, a simple point: it’s not solely the doctor’s responsibility to monitor the amount of pills players are swallowing - players have to be accountable for themselves as well. Though some guys are (as Boogaard seemed to be), not everyone is a victim of the system.

There’s just no way it should be possible for one person to acquire this many drugs from this many sources:

From the New York Times excellent feature on Boogaard, and his Dad’s work:

Derek Boogaard received more than 100 prescriptions for thousands of pills from more than a dozen team doctors for the Minnesota Wild and the Rangers.

Continuing:

* In a six-month stretch from October 2008 to April 2009, while playing 51 games, Boogaard received at least 25 prescriptions for the painkillers hydrocodone or oxycodone, a total of 622 pills, from 10 doctors — eight team doctors of the Wild, an oral surgeon in Minneapolis and a doctor for another N.H.L. team.
* In the fall of 2010, an official for the Rangers, Boogaard’s new team, was notified of Boogaard’s recurring abuse of narcotic pain pills. Nonetheless, a Rangers team dentist soon wrote the first of five prescriptions for hydrocodone for Boogaard after he sustained an injury.
* Another Rangers doctor, although aware that Boogaard also had been addicted to sleeping pills in the past, wrote nearly 10 prescriptions for Ambien during Boogaard’s lone season with the team.

What blows me away more than anything about those numbers is the ”10 doctors in six months” part. I’ve played on teams with a team doctor. I’ve seen 2-3 in certain training rooms. I know there are some specialists you deal with over the course of a career. But 10 and these people don’t communicate at all about what’s being prescribed to their patient, a guy who’s supposed to be a pro athlete, a finely tuned machine? It’s an absolute sin. (None of that addresses the blatant disregard for a guy with a problem, but I’m not looking at Boogaard’s situation as a stand-alone event here.)

Shady doctors aren’t everywhere in pro hockey, but they exist. I’ve heard of guys texting their team doctor, who would in turn call in a prescription and have pills ready to go for them at CVS in an hour. “What do you need, sleeping pills, pain pills, muscle relaxers….would you like fries with that?” As in all lines of work, some folks are just ethically questionable, and they always will be – being smart enough to become a doctor has little bearing on that. That fact is precisely why there needs to be some sort of official system in place so those people don’t go messing everything up for the rest of us.
For one, necessary prescribed pills could be doled out to players out on a daily basis at the rink. The doctors write the scripts, fill them, bring them to your dressing room, and say “Here’s your three for the day.” For another, if you’re going to have 1000 doctors, each player should have medical files on hand that doctors need to update every time they prescribe anything so they could see “Hey look, Dr. Percy prescribed him 30 pills yesterday, he doesn’t need any more.”

I realize these ideas aren’t flawless (as I said, guys may get them regardless, but let’s at least make it more difficult), but they’re ideas. We need to get moving in the right direction.

Boogaard’s story is terrible and sad, but if it could be the catalyst for some positive change that exposes less players to ridiculous amounts of pills that they don’t need, then at least it could have been for something. Though that may be small consolation for the Boogaard family, maybe it could save another family from feeling the same pain.

If we do nothing, the problem isn’t going to go away on it’s own, it’s only going to get worse. R.I.P., Boogeyman.

Food Labels Decoded

More Info at Coach.ca!

Understanding nutrition information on packaged food labels can help athletes choose the best foods to meet their nutritional needs. Knowing how to make sense of the “Nutrition Facts” in particular, helps you compare products easily and select the optimal diet for your unique training regiments and sport of choice.

Knowing how to read the nutrition information on food labels will enable you to:

• Compare products more easily, and identify high quality, high energy foods that will fuel your workouts and keep you healthy
• Find the nutritional value of foods
• Better manage your sport diet
• Increase or decrease your intake of a particular nutrient of interest

Follow these 6 easy steps to read the Nutrition Facts label

1. Start with the Serving Size. At the top of the label, you will see the serving size. Serving sizes differ even on similar types of foods. More important, the Serving Size on the label may not equal the serving size you normally eat. If you eat twice the serving listed on the label, you will need to double all the numbers in the nutritional facts section. Keep this in mind when you are looking at the label, as it may not be a healthy alternative if you are going to eat more than the suggested serving.
    
2.  Percent Daily Value. Use the % daily value to see if a food has a little (less than 5%) or a lot (more than 15%) of a nutrient in the serving size. The “% Daily Values” for fat, carbohydrates and protein are based on a 2,000-calorie reference diet. However, this may be less than athletes require on a daily basis, so athletes should consider their individual nutritional needs for calories and nutrients when choosing foods.
    
3. Review the Calories. This section on the label tells you the total number of calories in each serving of the food. For example, one serving of Campbell’s® Chunky® Vegetable Beef soup provides 140 calories. Carbohydrates, protein, and fat are three nutrients that provide our bodies with energy.
    
4. Add up the “Total Fat”. Fat is an important nutrient for health and plays an essential role in the body, but it is important to remember that it is also very calorically dense. There are many different kinds of fats found in foods. The Total Fat value found on the Nutrition Facts includes monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (from plant sources, such as canola oil) as well as saturated and trans fats (from animal or vegetable sources). The type and amount of fat you eat are important. Some types of fat like saturated and trans fats, may increase your risk of developing heart disease and should be limited. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats should count for most of the total fat in your diet.
    
5. Look at the Sodium Content. Sodium is a mineral naturally found in many foods and can also be added by using table salt. Canadian adults need about 1500 mg of sodium per day and should not consume more than 2300 mg/day (or about 1 tsp). However, most Canadians are getting more than is recommended. Some athletes who typically lose large amounts of sweat and are at risk of hyponatremia should be aware of their individual needs. These athletes may need to consume sodium-rich foods before, during, and after their sustained activities.
    
6. Check out the Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates include fibre, starch and sugar. Except for fibre, they provide energy to fuel your muscles and your brain during activity. Fibre, a non-digestible carbohydrate, is found in many foods and is important for daily and long-term health. Your diet should include carbohydrates as the foundation for each meal and when possible choose whole grains more often.
    
7. Look at the Vitamins and Minerals. This section of the label helps you choose nutrient dense foods. The Nutrition Facts table is required to include information on calories and 13 ‘core’ nutrients including Vitamins A and C and minerals calcium and iron. There may be other vitamins and minerals nutrients in foods that may not be highlighted on the Nutritional Facts table.

Note: There are also Nutrition Claims that appear on some food labels, for example, ‘low sodium’, ‘low fat’, ‘source of fibre’, etc. For more information about these claims check out http://bit.ly/IaHRD2

Finally, don’t forget to look at the ingredient list on the label. 

The list of ingredients is mandatory. All of the ingredients for a food are listed in descending order by weight. The list of ingredients is also a source of information for people who want to avoid certain ingredients like allergens or verify the presence of an ingredient in a food.

Testing Core Stability

Recently I received an email asking me if there was a difinitive test for core stability.  The very real truth is that I think there is no single test, but a combination of tests should reveal a lot about what we want to know.

Personally, I’ve been heavily influenced by Stuart McGill and Shirley Sahrmann.   I’ve also taken some great ideas from bright guys like Mike Robertson,  Bill Hartman, and Gray Cook to formulate some of my core testing tools.

To start let’s just address the fundamentals.  Strength is the ability to produce force and stability is the ability to control it.  So doing crunches on a stability ball with a hundred pound dumbbell on your chest might make you strong (although I think it makes you look ridiculous), it isn’t going to improve your core stability.  To be stable you must be able to RESIST the applied force without movement.

Going hand in hand with this notion is the idea that is currently being promoted by many educated coaches and trainers that repeated spinal flexion is a bad idea because it increases the risk of spinal disc injury.  In other words, crunches suck!

Finally, lets remember that the core doesn’t just include the rectus abdominus or the anterior core muscles.  It essentially forms a belt around us and includes more muscles than I’d like to count at this very moment.  Knowing this, it is essential to investigate the muscles all around the core to determine stability.  More importantly, we are not going to test the strength of these muscles, but the ability of them to support the core under load.  In the case of the lower back, endurance is actually far more important than strength for injury prevention.

Here is a quick little protocol that I like to use as a starting point:

1. Front Plank
While doing this movement I like to place a dowel on the person’s back and have them maintain 3 points of contact.  The dowel should remain in contact with the glutes, upper back, and head.  If one of those points is lost then the timer stops.  (Note: I swiped this tip from Mike Robertson)
You should be able to hold this position for 2 minutes.


2. Side Plank – Should be able to hold for 90 seconds
This is as easy as it sounds.  The body should be held straight in a full side plank position for 90 seconds per side.  Note any assymetry between the sides as this is a strong predictor on injury risk.  Work on bringing the weaker side up to match the stronger side before trying to increase the overall time.
You should be able to hold this position for 90 seconds.


3. Back Extension Hold
Set up at though you’re going to do a back extension and hold yourself in the extended position.  As with the front plank, use the dowel along the spine to ensure proper alignment by maintaing 3 points of contact.
You should be able to hold this position for 2 minutes.


4. Double Leg Lower
To perform this test you want to lie on your back and raise both legs straight up into the air.  From here, I’d suggest placing your hands on your external obliques or crossed over your chest.  They cannot be on the floor.  Now slowly begin to lower your legs while concentrating on keeping your lower back flat on the floor.  (Note: a hard floor is more effective than a mat for determining success on this test)
If your feet hit the floor before your lower back raises you have passed.  If not, you suck and you should check yourself into the wimp hall of fame.  Just kidding, but your ability to control your core is probably lacking in this respect.


5.  Rotational Stability
I also like to assess rotational stability by using a test from the functional movement screen.  If you’re going to fail only one of these tests, this will probably be it.  You can check it out HERE.

Again, these only serve at starting points and there are obviously other factors affecting stability of the core, but these tests should be enough to get you rolling.

In the coming weeks I’ll be releasing an audio interview series that will detail how some of the world’s leading experts test and train the core for performance and just plain looking sexy.  Keep your eyes peeled for that.

In the meantime, drop me a note in the comments to let me know how you make out on the tests above.

Game Day Nutrition with Gary Roberts

With playoffs underway and many OT games having been played already, recovery for players becomes all the more crucial to prolonged success.
I’m often asked:

• “What should I be eating the day of a game to have the most energy possible?“
• “What should I be eating post activity to make sure I’m recovered for the next time I play?“.

First of all let me start off by saying that if you’re thinking or asking these kind of questions you’re already on track.  Awareness, knowledge, and preparation are all you need to start making a huge difference in not only sport but life.  The benefits of nutrition are widely known but from my experience: I maximized my gains from training, had more energy, healed faster and thought more clearly because of what I put into my body.

The above being said, I wanted to use my first blog post as an opportunity to share examples of my ideal game day meals and snacks in hopes that it inspires readers to think about what they eat and how it affects their performance!

Enjoy!

Read the rest of the article Here!

The Top 11 Vitamin C Foods

 

inShare1

 

Article is from Healthy Habits!

Back in the 1970′s, Dr.Linus Pauling popularized a theory that high doses of Vitamin C would significantly decrease the incidence of the common cold. This theory spurred a widespread belief that consuming more vitamin C will reduce the risk of catching a cold and reduce its severity.
While that theory has taken a beating in the past few years, no one can deny that Vitamin C is a nutritional superstar.

• Vitamin C is required for the synthesis of collagen – an important structural component of blood vessels, tendons, ligaments, and bone.
• Vitamin C also plays an important role in the synthesis of the neurotransmitter - norepinephrine. Neurotransmitters are critical to brain function and are known to affect mood.
• In addition, vitamin C is required for the synthesis of carnitine, a small molecule that is essential for the transport of fat into cellular organelles called mitochondria, where the fat is converted to energy.
•  Research also suggests that vitamin C is involved in the metabolism of cholesterol to bile acids, which may have implications for blood cholesterol levels and the incidence of gallstones.
• Vitamin C is also a highly effective antioxidant. Even in small amounts vitamin C can protect indispensable molecules in the body, such as proteins, lipids (fats), carbohydrates, and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), from damage by free radicals and reactive oxygen species that can be generated during normal metabolism as well as through exposure to toxins and pollutants (e.g., cigarette smoke).
• Vitamin C may also be able to regenerate other antioxidants such as vitamin E. One recent study of cigarette smokers found that vitamin C regenerated vitamin E from its oxidized form.

So…what’s the best way for you to get this super vitamin into your diet?
Most of us get it from a glass of OJ with our breakfast.

And while that glass of liquid sunshine is a great way to get the “C” into your body, it’s also a great way to get a whole bunch of sugar without all the fibery goodness that goes along with most sources of Vitamin C.

And for that reason, I am giving you 2 different lists of Vitamin C sources
The JUICE list….

• Orange juice – 1 cup – 124 mg Vitamin C
• Pineapple and grapefruit juice drink – 1 cup – 115 mg Vitamin C
• Cranberry juice cocktail - 1 cup – 107 mg Vitamin C
• Grapefruit juice - 1 cup -  94 mg vitamin C
• Grape drink - 1 cup –  79 mg Vitamin C
• Vegetable juice cocktail - 1 cup –   67 mg Vitamin C
• Pineapple juice - 1 cup –   25 mg Vitamin C

And the FOOD list…

1. Peaches – 1 cup - sliced – 236 mg Vitamin C
2. Peppers, sweet, red – 1 cup – raw – 190 mg Vitamin C
3. Fruit, mixed, (peach and cherry-sweet and -sour and raspberry and grape and boysenberry) - 1 cup – 188 mg Vitamin C
4. Papayas, 1 fruit (300 g) – 185 mg Vitamin C
5. Strawberries, sliced – 1 cup – 106 mg Vitamin C
6. Broccoli, cooked, boiled, drained – 1 cup – 101 mg Vitamin C
7. Brussels sprouts, cooked, boiled, drained – 1 cup – 97 mg Vitamin C
8. Kohlrabi, cooked, boiled, drained – 1 cup – 89 mg Vitamin C
9. Peas, edible-podded, boiled, drained – 1 cup – 77 mg Vitamin C
10. Kiwifruit - 1 medium fruit (76 g) –  71 mg Vitamin C
11. Oranges – 1 fruit (131 g) – 70 mg Vitamin C

And in my humble opinion, I think the FOOD list is way, way, way better than the JUICE list.

Sugar warning for 'healthy' soft drinks

 

 

People underestimated the amount of sugar in many so-called 'healthy' soft drinks

Continue reading the main story

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• Soft drinks 'blood pressure risk'
• Gout surge blamed on sweet drinks

People underestimate the amount of sugar in drinks which are perceived to be "healthy", research suggests.

The Glasgow University study asked more than 2,000 people in the UK to estimate how much sugar was in a range of drinks.

While many overestimated the amount in fizzy beverages, they underestimated levels in smoothies and fruit juices.

The research also found soft drinks could be accounting for a large chunk of their recommended calorie intake.

The British Soft Drinks Association says the sugar in soft drinks is not hidden because beverages carry clear labelling of nutritional content, including calorie and sugar content.
 

Risk factor

  The reasearchers asked participants to assess their weekly drinking habits.
Their answers suggested 450 calories a day were being consumed - a quarter of the daily limit for women and a fifth for men.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

What you drink can be as damaging to the body as what you eat”

Professor Naveed Sattar Glasgow University

• BBC Health: Managing your weight

But it was the lack of awareness about the sugar content of drinks that caused concern.

The participants were asked to guess the number of teaspoons of sugar in a range of popular drinks.
They underestimated it for pure apple juice and orange juice, a caffeinated energy drink and a smoothie by between two and four teaspoons.

And for a pomegranate-based drink, they underestimated the sugar content by nearly 18 teaspoons.
Unsurprisingly, many participants were not taking the calorie content of their soft drinks into account when thinking about their diet.

The team warned that the over-consumption of soft drinks was contributing to obesity and was a major risk factor for conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.
Lead researcher Prof Naveed Sattar said: "What you drink can be as damaging to the body as what you eat.

"There is no question that consuming too many sugar-sweetened drinks can greatly contribute to obesity.

"Some varieties of drinks such as pure fruit juices and smoothies, which are perceived as 'healthy' options, are also very high in sugar.

"For many people struggling with their weight, reducing their intake of such drinks and replacing with water or diet drinks would be a sensible first target to help them lessen their calorie intake."

Instant Exercise Motivation

Article from Healthy Habits!

The decision to munch on a cookie while watching tv at night instead of sipping on a protein shake after going for a jog is driven by your unconscious habits.

And those habits are controlled by the Basal Ganglia region of your brain.

For more info on your basal ganglia and all the how, why and what can I do about it….check out The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. It gets a little wordy at times, but it covers a lot of the science as well as offering a plan for modifying the habits you want to modify.

Busyness = Happiness

More Articles at Healthy Habits!

Let’s face facts: You’re lazy

• You watch tv instead of tackling that pile of dirty laundry.
• You surf the net instead of getting some exercise.
• You play video games instead of creating recipes for my new Paleo Cookbook

And you’re not alone. Even me…Mr. Health Habits can be a lazy couch potato (usually during NFL Sunday afternoons).
But, what if I told you that waaaayyyyyy down deep in your primal DNA, you actually hate being lazy and instead you crave activity.
What if I told you that for each & every one of us….busyness = happyness.
Would you believe me?
Would you believe these scientists when they hypothesize that:

1. People dread idleness and desire busyness, but
2. Without a reason to get busy, we revert to laziness.

The Science

The researchers grabbed 98 college students and told them to fill out a bunch of surveys about their school and that they could do nothing else during the experiment.

.

BORING.

• After leaving their belongings (e.g., cell phones, books) with the experimenter, participants were given the first survey.
• Upon finishing the survey, they were told that the second survey would not be ready for another 15 min and that they were to drop their completed first survey at a designated location during the waiting period.
• There were two such locations, one nearby (right outside the room) and the other far away (a 12- to 15-min round-trip walk).
• Participants could either deliver the survey to the nearby location and wait out the remaining time (the idle option) or deliver the survey to the faraway location, return, and then wait out the remaining time (the busy option).
• In both cases, they would receive a piece of candy when they dropped off the survey, as a token of appreciation.
• Some participants were told that the candy was the same in both locations while others were told that there were 2 different types of candy and that they would be chosen at random.

At the end of the 15-min waiting period, all participants were given a second questionnaire that asked, “How good did you feel in the last 15 minutes?”

Responses were made on a scale from 1 (not good at all) to 5 (very good)

.

The Results

1. In the “same candy” group, most participants were lazy and chose the closer location
2. However, in the “random candy” group, more participants chose the faraway or “busy” location

The potential of a “better” candy was enough of an incentive to convince the participants to reject the “lazy” option and to choose the “busy” option.

And when they were asked how they felt during the past 15 minutes:

.

• The participants who chose the faraway or “busy” option were universally happier than the lazy participants.

Conclusions

1. We’re happier when we are busy
2. We’re less happy when we are lazy
3. And yet, without a “reason”, we choose laziness over busyness.

As if being happy wasn’t enough of a reason.

By playing one sport, athletes face higher injury risk

Sam Spiegelman/Capital News Service

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A growing number of young athletes are focusing on playing a single sport, putting themselves at greater risk of serious injuries, physicians said.

“When athletes that play one sport and one sport alone, there’s probably more hours of competition in that one sport than there were competing if they had two or three other sports,” Maryland Terrapins team physician and assistant orthopaedics professor Dr. James Dreese said. “It’s the hours of competition that puts them most at risk for having those problems.”

Some parents believe that specialization can help their children become stars, earning a college scholarship or even a pro career. Over the past decade, sports performance scientist Dr. Chris Stankovich said he has noticed more and more children beginning to specialize in one sport.
“Culturally speaking, more and more kids are seeing that a friend of theirs or a schoolmate is doing one sport year-round, so it kind of normalizes it,” Stankovich said.

More than 44 million children in the United States participate in youth sports, according a 2008 survey by the National Council of Youth Sports. But only about 6 percent of high school athletes go on to play football, baseball or soccer in college, according to the NCAA. About 3 percent play college basketball.

Specialization at a young age, however, can set young athletes up for serious injuries.
For example, the throwing arm of a young baseball player who specializes in pitching too early can undergo major structural changes.

“There are some pretty significant adaptive changes that take place in the throwing shoulder with regards to the way it rotates and the way in which it’s orientated that is most related to the hours of which the athlete is throwing. The younger they are, the more that adaptive change tends to be,” Dreese said.

Reggie Zayas, the commissioner of the Marlboro Boys & Girls Club and a travel league in Upper Marlboro, Md., said that about 40 percent of his kids specialize in baseball, usually by ages 9 or 10.
“(Kids on travel-select leagues are) falling behind the curve if they play multiple sports,” Zayas said. “If you try to play (football, basketball and baseball) … you’re falling behind the curve because there are so many kids just concentrating on one sport.”

Harry Hudson, the president of Henlopen Pop Warner and coach of the Cape Vikings pee-wee team in Lewes, Del., tells his players the same thing.

Hudson and his fellow coaches encourage kids under 12 to stay active and to participate in as many different sports as possible. But when they become teenagers, he advises them to consider specializing.

Read Rest of the Article Here!

Hockey Player Maintenance

VANCOUVER — Kevin Bieksa was holding court in the Vancouver Canucks' dressing room Tuesday and giving the media nothing.

His maintenance day has turned into a maintenance week, so reporters brilliantly deduced the veteran Canucks defenceman had an injury of some sort. He was asked what the problem was after participating in Tuesday's morning skate.

“What was the problem? There is no problem,” he said, trying to keep his face straight. “I'm continuing to maintain. It's just maintenance. I am just maintaining my status and my body. You guys know what maintenance days are. It's a long season and we're heading into playoffs and these are maintenance days.

“Today is obviously a maintenance day. I'm going to take it one maintenance day at a time.”
One maintenance day at a time. A new cliche coined. Good on you, Mr. Maintenance Man.

Bieksa also noted that since he has been taking these maintenance days — he is to miss his fourth straight game Tuesday when the Canucks meet the Anaheim Ducks — he hasn't had to fulfill any media obligations. So he announced that his wit was game ready, even if his body was not.
“I feel refreshed,” he continued. “I've had five or six days off from talking to you guys so mentally I'm sharp again.”

He hopes to be physically sharp when he returns to the lineup. Since only two games remain in the regular season, Thursday in Calgary and Saturday back home vs. Edmonton, there isn't much opportunity left.

“This is the fourth game I'm missing,” Bieksa said. “It's not a lot, but it seems like a month. Getting out there Monday after not skating for four, five, six days, it seems like I was starting over again.”
Although there is some belief Bieksa's problem is in the lower part of his body, perhaps even below his shin, the team was not letting any nuggets out of the bag.

“Team secret,” said associate coach Rick Bowness. “It's nothing more than a maintenance day. We'll see how Kevin feels tomorrow after another maintenance day. We'd like to get him back in the lineup before the end of the season and that will depend on how he's feeling.”

Bieksa, 30, did concede that if this were playoffs, he would be in the lineup.

Asked if he felt at all “guilty” taking these maintenance days when 37-year-old Sami Salo was playing every night, he replied: “Sami got a couple of days off, too. I don't feel guilty. We're both in our 30s. We're both getting up there.”

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Canucks+Kevin+Bieksa+maintains+maintenance+mantra/6405666/story.html#ixzz1rfLdLJED

Q&A: What's the Best Way to Care for a Blister?

Article From Core Performance

Q: Sometimes I get blisters on my feet. What can I do to treat them so I don’t have to stop running?

A: Blisters crop up when there’s friction between your skin and your shoe. They’re especially common among runners, but all types of athletes are susceptible. Here’s how to treat your blisters and return to training.


If the blister is in a spot where it will likely tear (like the bottom of your foot)…

Pop it. Wash your hands, use a sterilized needle to drain the blister by poking a hole to one side, and compress the blister to push out the fluid. If the liquid isn’t clear or you see red streaks (a sign of infection), see your doctor. Do not tear off the loose, dead skin, which can lead to infection. Finally, clean the area with antibacterial soap, cushion with a donut pad, which you can make by cutting the center out of a small piece of molefoam, and cover with a bandage. At this point, it’s usually OK to run. If the blister becomes irritated again, wait a couple days for it to harden and become less sensitive.

If you don’t think the blister will tear on its own…

Don’t pop it. Breaking the skin will increase the chance of infection. Instead of popping the blister, protect the area with either a blister cushion or a donut pad. This will reduce additional friction so you won’t agitate the area further.

If you don’t see a blister…

Reduce your risk of getting one. To avoid blisters, keep your feet dry with moisture-wicking socks. Sweat can turn skin soft and white, like when you’ve been in the tub too long. Add in heat and friction from movement, and you’ve got the perfect environment for a blister. Also, choose a shoe that fits properly. If it rubs in the store, it’s going to rub on the road.

Concussions - What Does Prevention Really Mean?

In the World of Sports Medicine Prevention s is defined as  “prevention” all interventions that occur before the initial onset of disorder.

When addressing The Concussion Epidemic ,WE must use the later term. In a ever chancing fast paced sports arena one could never expect to stop something from happening. Simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time can spell disaster



As Professionals in the field of Preventative Sports Medicine, I know we all have read, or participated in protocols to Prevent Anterior Cruciate Ligament(ACL) Tears. There are literally 100s of protocols to protect the knee joint and particularly the ACL from tearing.

As Professionals we all know despite our best efforts our athletes will tear their ACLs. But that does not mean we ignore the ACL and just let things happen without at least putting forth our best efforts to prepare the athlete for competition, with the hope that our efforts as professionals have given the athlete a fair chance at not tearing the ACL.


AS professionals, why do we treat concussions completely different?   We all know that concussions cannot be prevented, just as ACL tears cannot be prevented.  WE prepare athletes for the contact and forces related to ACL tears.  Wouldn’t it then be logical to assume that if prevention protocols that
strengthen muscles around a joint that reduces tears of a repairable ligament;
are at least equal, if not the same sense of urgency for the prevention of cervical
spine injury and traumatic brain pathologies ••• to a joint that may not be                        
repairable???

Instead, the prevention of cervical spine injury and traumatic brain injury
has focused on better recognition, better education, better legislation, better
execution and better innovation.

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How to Use a Foam Roll

A foam roll, or foam roller, is a useful training tool to use as part of your recovery or regeneration plan. Sizes vary, but this cylindrical piece of tightly packed foam is roughly 5 inches in diameter and typically between one and three feet long.

How It Works

Foam rolling uses deep compression to help roll out muscle adhesions, or knots, that develop over time. Think of your muscle as a shoelace. It has a certain length to it. If it gets in a knot and you pull both ends of the shoestring, the knot gets tighter. You need to work the knot out with your fingers to restore the original length of the shoelace. The same goes for muscles. Sometimes stretching is not what you need. By working out those knots in the muscle, which often arise from inactivity or repetitive activity, you’ll be able to restore the muscle to its original length, thus making it more pliable and functional.

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10 Bad Eating Habits Parents Often Teach their Kids

Kids most often learn by example and I think we as parents tend to forget that fact as they get older. Once our kids are a little more self-reliant we usually go back to our habits as they were pre-children. As life picks up, moms go back to work when the kids start school, and everything gets busier, and it gets harder and harder to set a good example for our kids. Do you do any of the following bad habits in front of your kids?

1. Salting your food before you taste it: This used to be a secret test that interviewers would use to size up a candidate for a job. Their reasoning? Salting your food before you taste it at a restaurant means that you have preconceived notions about how it will taste and this could trend over into other aspects of your personality. With children, using too much salt is a bad habit to get into because it’s not good for blood pressure and it makes your body retain water. Instead, try to use other spices to season your food, adding flavor without unnecessary sodium.
2. Eating really fast: In our frenetic lives of running our children from activity to activity we often don’t have time to sit down as a family and enjoy our food. Eating too fast can lead to over eating because your body doesn’t realize that it’s full until after you’re done eating, and this can lead to weight gain. This is especially bad for our children because we are not teaching them to enjoy their food and listen to their body’s hunger cues. When they feel full they should stop eating.
3. Skipping breakfast: We’ve all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day so why do so many adults still skip it? Scientific studies have shown that people who eat breakfast weigh less than those that skip breakfast so why do so many women still skip breakfast to save calories? Kids especially need breakfast to fuel their bodies and brains for a long day at school. Unlike adults, they can’t – and shouldn’t – get up and go to the vending machine when they are hungry.
4. Midnight snacking: This late night habit of grabbing a snack is terrible for your system. Odds are that you are going to go to bed very soon after eating and those calories are not going to get burned off, which will also lead to weight gain. Kids who are active burn up calories a lot faster than adults and might need a healthy snack before they go to bed, but it should be at least a half an hour before bedtime and definitely not at midnight.
5. Eating while driving: Again, in our hectic lives we’re constantly running from one activity to another, whether with the same child or a different child or our own personal activities. We grab a bite through the drive-thru and inhale it while going down the road, and we are inadvertently teaching our kids the same as they eat their nuggets and watch us in the back seat. What we should be showing them is to drive undistracted and that it’s important to focus on our food and enjoy what we are eating. Mindless eating is what also another cause of people being overweight.
6. Skipping vegetables: We always think of children as not liking vegetables, but there are plenty of adults who don’t like vegetables either and it’s very hard to get your kids to eat vegetables if you don’t. Kids learn by example, and when you skip veggies they will skip them too.

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Caffeine’s effects and recommendations

In the month of March, people across Canada purchased coffee in droves in hopes of winning the 1 in 6 prizes posted from Tim Horton’s “Roll up the Rim” contest. (Most of the prizes being a free coffee!) This concept of buying coffee to win coffee inspired me for this month’s hot topic –caffeine.

Like most individuals, I wake up in the morning and without even thinking I have added the water to the coffee machine and I am carefully measuring out the number of scoops to make the perfect pot of coffee. After the first sip, I am sighing with relief knowing I will make it through the day. I began to question what it is about coffee that “pumps” me up for the day. After a little digging I discovered, not surprisingly, caffeine is a mild stimulant, it helps delay drowsiness and speeds up reaction time. But why? Well, it blocks an important neurotransmitter, adenosine, in the brain responsible for slowing down nerve impulses.

Imagine the Yellowhead highway free of traffic lights, construction and road blocks and you have the effects of caffeine on your brain.

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Is Brown Rice Really Better?

From the website: Men's Health! 
 

Brown or white rice? Diabetes risk jumps 11 percent for each serving of white rice eaten per day, according to a new meta-analysis of Asian and US/Australian populations published in BMJ.
But white rice doesn’t necessarily cause diabetes, says Clyde Wilson, Ph.D., a nutrition professor in the Stanford University and University of California, San Francisco schools of medicine. “The reality is that eating too much of any carbohydrate, including brown rice, can lead to diabetes,” he says.


White rice is implicated because of its high glycemic index (GI). High GI diets tend to spike blood sugar levels quickly and are associated with diabetes. However, “the glycemic index of brown rice is only about 10 to 20 percent less than white, so it digests relatively quickly, too.” (Not to mention, there are several problems with the GI measure to begin with.) It’s more about the amount you’re eating, less about the type.

Rice can be a healthy part of your diet. They key is to slow the rate your body digests carbs, so they don’t cause a dangerous rise of glucose in your bloodstream.
First, choose white or brown based on—and here’s a brilliant idea—what you like best. Whether eating white or brown, add raw veggies, like a side salad. “Foods act as a team within a meal and vegetables will slow down digestion and cancel out any negative effects of the rice,” says Wilson.

The 10 Dirtiest Foods You're Eating

On October 6, 2003, Jeff Cook took his family out to dinner at the Chi-Chi's Restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall, north of Pittsburgh. When his chicken-and-steak fajitas arrived at the table, they were accompanied by the obvious—sauted peppers, onions, sour cream—and the invisible—a helping of hepatitis A. Cook, 38, healthy and energetic on that autumn evening, died of acute liver failure a month later.

Hepatitis A may have been the disease that ended up sickening 575 Chi-Chi's patrons and employees—and killing three—but a batch of green onions was the carrier. Dirty food. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that every day, 200,000 Americans contract food poisoning. But Philip Tierno, Ph.D., a microbiologist at New York University medical center and author of The Secret Life of Germs, pegs the true eat-'em-and-weep rate at around 800,000 a day. "Everyone in this country will have at least one incident of sickness this year attributable to a foodborne virus, bacteria, or toxin," Tierno says. Except that most of us won't know what hit us; we'll chalk up the usually mild symptoms—nausea, diarrhea, cramping—to "that stomach flu that's going around."

Scientists currently know of only one 100 percent foolproof way to prevent foodborne illness: Stop eating. Or, almost as effective, obsess over every morsel you bring to your mouth and whether it might be staring back at you. But assuming you'd rather not die of slow starvation or, worse, live like Nick Nolte, we present you with a third, saner solution: Identify and sanitize the 10 dirtiest foods.

After considering incidence of foodborne outbreaks, relative danger of the dirt, and how often the carrier is found on our forks, we came up with a list of the edibles most likely to send your day spiraling down the crapper. We then assembled simple strategies for decontaminating the prime suspects—from the supermarket to the supper table—without worrying yourself sick. And what if, as with Jeff Cook, someone else does the cooking? We'll also tell you how to spot a dirty restaurant. Add it all up and what we're giving you is a recipe—for clean living.

Read more: http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/foodborne_illness/index.php?cm_mmc=Twitter-_-MensHealth-_-Content-Nutrition-_-DirtyFood#ixzz1qF7VnfPM

Off-Season Training for High School Players

More articles at Grow The Game

If you’re like most hockey players, you’re likely looking for the most beneficial—and injury free—off-season training program. This interview with an elite performance training coach, Oyvind Gulbrandsen of Viking Power Fitness, shares some guidelines for hockey players. Gulbrandsen spent years training pro hockey players in the off season and says, “Whether a hockey player is in a youth organization or a player with a pro team, they are all seeking the same results and that is to improve strength and performance.”

To accomplish those goals, Gulbrandsen has the youth player focus on lower and upper body strength, core stability and improved cardio. Gulbrandsen explains, “While the lower body strength is mandatory for hockey, you have to focus on a strong core and not forget about upper body workouts as well. And, if you balance your off season workouts with interval training, the result is you become a more explosive player.” Gulbrandsen says, “Youth hockey in this country is exploding. It’s a great sport for the players and families, but the key to staying injury free, is to stay fit off season.” And especially for youth, Gulbrandsen has these requirements for the players:

• Eat for performance (his mantra)
• Maintain a balanced diet of 55 percent carbohydrates, 25 percent protein and 20 percent fat
• Warm up for five minutes before starting any exercise
• Stay hydrated all day by drinking water or low sugar electrolyte drinks
• Track performance using a heart rate monitor and know the heart rate zones
• Cool down after each workout for five minutes

He suggests an hour in the gym for weight training two to three times a week and interval cardio workouts two times a week. He also is adamant that the youth player does no have to incorporate heavy weights into the training. “Bench press heavy weights is not the No. 1 exercise for hockey, in fact using heavy weights isn’t recommended for youth training. In Viking Power Fitness, I train hockey players using dynamic body weight exercises,” he explains.

Dynamic body weight exercises use your own body weight for performance of key exercises. Gulbrandsen says youth hockey players will benefit tremendously by performing key exercises off-season such as:

• Two to three strength workouts a week
• Walking lunges
• Squats to failure without weights or using low free weights
• Lateral lunges with a resistance band around ankles to improve hip strength and stability. Keep the band taut the whole time
• Push-ups
• Pull-ups
• Planks for core strength
• Box jumps
• Medicine ball slams to the floor, which is raising a medicine ball to about eye level and slamming it to the floor in front of you, or on each side of your feet

Because the shifts in hockey are short and furiously fast, Gulbrandsen says interval cardio training is a must. “To reach shift performance, it is a good idea to train using a heart rate monitor and knowing your maximum heart rate. When a player trains, I like them to keep their interval bursts between 75 and 85 percent of their maximum heart rate.”

Interval Training consists of a variety cardio bursts followed by a timed reduction is effort. “If the player is training in a gym, I recommend interval training on the Stair mill, treadmill or spinning bike. Outside, the effort can be accomplished running on a track, running hills or cycling.” The off-season training he recommends for the best results is:

• Do two interval workouts a week
• Five-minute warmup reaching your target heart rate zone
• 30 minutes alternating between two minutes on and one minute slowing down at 75 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate during the two minutes on
• Five-minute cool down

Gulbrandsen summarizes, “I leave the skating drills to the coaches—my goal is to help hockey players achieve or retain their explosive ability, flexibility, full body and core strength and improve their cardio endurance for shift performance.”

Editor’s Note: Thank you to Kathy Smith for this story. Oyvind Gulbrandsen grew up in Norway, where he played hockey and semi-professional soccer. He was a member of the Norwegian Military and it was during his two-year stint that he developed a passion for coaching strength and conditioning. When he left Norway in 1995, he started his fitness career in California, but it was in Denver a few years later that he catapulted to success. He is currently the Owner and Elite Performance Coach at Viking Power Fitness.