June 7 - Nutrition Notes
HEB Health Check Dates 7:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon. Know Your Numbers!Full blood work tests - screening. Great prices. Quick results. 10 hour fast recommended.June 14 - West / BlancoJune 15 - Huebner / NW MilitaryJune 16 - San Pedro / BrookhollowJune 19 - San Pedro / 1604June 22 - 1604 / BlancoJune 26 - Wurzbach / I-10June 27 - I-10 / De ZavalaThe following is taken from a website that I found to be very infomative. You can click on the link below to read additional articles on nutrition. Please read for general nutrition info, not necessarily to be sold on the Accelerade products.www.poweringmuscles.comSwim workouts require a very different muscle fueling approach than other endurance sports.Research has shown that carbohydrate consumption during exercise enhances performance in endurance sports including running, cycling, and soccer. Most athletes get their training and competition carbs from sports drinks, which also provide fluid for hydration. Swimming is unlike other sports, however, because workouts take place in cool water, which limits dehydration. Consequently, even though swimmers use as much energy as runners and other endurance athletes, they do not require as much fluid intake. So sports drinks—which are more than 90% water—might not be the best source of carbohydrate for swimmers during workouts.Sports gels stand out as potentially a better alternative for swimmers. For example, a single, 1.4-ounce packet of Accel Gel sports gel provides as much carbohydrate as 11.5 ounces of Accelerade sports drink. A swimmer can wash down a sports gel with as little or as much water as he or she pleases and thereby get the optimal amount of both carbs and fluid, which might not be possible with a sports drink.Sounds good in theory, but what’s the reality?A new study from St. Cloud State University tested the effects of Accel Gel plus water against water alone on the performance of competitive swimmers in a hard workout. Twelve swimmers completed a workout consisting of a 15-minute warm-up, followed by a timed 200-yard freestyle, 3 sets of 8 x 100-yard freestyle (24 sprints total), and then a timed 200-yard swim. They received either Accel Gel or flavored water (4 oz) after the first 200-yard swim and again after each set of 100-yard sprints (for a total of 80 g of carbohydrate and 20 g of protein). They received 4 oz. of water with each gel—enough to facilitate absorption of the gel and prevent dehydration, but not so much as to result in a full bladder. Each swimmer did the workout twice (on separate days): once with gels and once without.The results were quite interesting. The swimmers’ times slowed down significantly more over the course of the workout when they received only water than when they received the gels. On average, their time for the final 100-yard sprint was a full two seconds faster in the gel-fueled workout than in the other workout. Clearly, these athletes got more out of the workout when they had Accel Gel. Imagine how much faster their fitness would improve if they used it every day!The researchers also took blood samples and measured the concentration of creatine kinase (CK), a marker of muscle damage, before training and 24 hours after training, to determine how much muscle damage occurred during the workout. Accel Gel happens to be the only sports gel that contains protein (5 grams per packet). Previous research involving Accelerade sports drink, which contains carbs and protein in the same 4:1 ratio as Accel Gel, showed that Accelerade reduced muscle damage during an exhaustive workout by 83% compared to Gatorade, which contains no protein. In the swim study, researchers found that swimmers experienced 25% less muscle damage during the Accel Gel workout.This is important information because previous research has also shown that athletes perform much better in their next workout when they experience less muscle damage during an initial workout. So this new study suggests that swimmers can use Accel Gel to perform better in today’s workout (thanks to delayed fatigue) and in tomorrow’s workout (thanks to less muscle damage)—without the overhydration that can come from trying to get energy from sports drinks. If done every day, this will surely lead to better race performances when it really counts.Catch ya’ in the water,SusanWeekly Inspiration: The first step towards change is acceptance. Once you accept yourself, you open the door to change. That’s all you have to do. Change is not something you do. It’s something you allow.Weekly Family Tip: Note to child: Putting the forks and knives away does not count as “emptying the dishwasher.”