Categories
Performance

SO YOU REALLY THINK YOU HAVE YOUR SPORTS NUTRITION RIGHT?

I was wondering what to write about in my blog this week and when I came into the office my business partner told me a nice little story which triggered some memories and a nice little topic to touch on and clear the misconceptions.

In short he had gone to a birthday party with his kids and while there and speaking to some of the other parents it landed up in a conversation about nutrition. Being the managing director of 32Gi he was told that the products were not suitable for endurance athletes following a ketogenic diet. The strange conversation he had with them about ketosis made me realize that many of the keto converted did not really have much intimate knowledge about their own eating regime either.

He told me the story as he knew full well that I personally was fully ketogenic for a very long period of time before it even became well known in South Africa. Not just following a keto diet but I ran blood tests pretty much weekly and sometimes daily to ensure my ketone levels were correct and that I remained completely adapted. My reasons for going keto was an attempt to battle an illness that seemed to rear its ugly head quite regularly and I was attempting to subdue it. Being an endurance athlete I had to balance my ketogenic diet with my training and ensure that everything was on track to keep me healthy. I will get to the workings of it later, but in the mean time I want to share a story of my own with you.

Many years ago I was standing at an Ironman expo when an athlete approached me asking me for a product that did not cause any excessive rise in blood sugar as she was keto adapted and would never consider any gels for her race. While I was talking to her, her coach who is a well known top finisher in Kona came to me and said “what are you going to tell her Mark?” I smiled and I said “I am actually not going to tell her anything until I know more about her situation”. I then asked her how long she had been on a ketogenic diet for and the answer was just over three months. I then asked her if she was sure that she was in a state of ketosis. Her answer was most definitely. I asked her how she knew this and her answer was because she could feel it.

I then asked her if she would mind if I tested her to make sure she was in ketosis. She looked at me and said “how will you do that?” My reply was a simple “I am going to take some blood from you and test it”. They both looked at me as if I was mad. I of course needed to know for sure so I pulled my ketone meter out of my bag, ran a finger prick test and the ketone reading came up at 0.1 mmol/liter. I turned to her coach and said “please give her some gels as we do not have gels in our range yet and I think she is gonna need them”. He was extremely surprised I had pushed a potential customer away to a competing brand in order to make sure she got the correct fuelling on the day.

One thing about me is I am completely honest in my approach to endurance sport and especially nutrition. A level of 0.1 mmol/liter is so low there is absolutely no chance she was close to ketosis or the ability of primarily using any fat for fuel even if she wanted to. If I work with an athlete who is in a state of ketosis a level under 1.5 mmol/liter would make me unhappy I would want them to be even higher. That is to me the base level for proper ketosis. I have run hundreds of blood tests over the years and unfortunately disappointed one person after the next in that they were nowhere near a proper fat burn zone. It is not entirely their fault, its just that they had absolutely no idea how to eat properly while on a ketogenic diet. That particular athlete insisted on low to no carb fuelling and eventually hit a massive wall on the bike course ending her race.

I sometimes hear people telling me its a high protein diet? Nonsense. All diets require protein and intake needs to be measured properly. Even overeating protein can cause a rise in blood sugar and offset a state of ketosis quite easily. A ketogenic diet is all about the balancing act of limited carbohydrate intake and sufficient fat intake.

I have seen so many errors when it comes to eating for ketosis. Excessive protein, too much dairy, hidden and elevated carbohydrate intake or excessive fat intake. If you embark on this journey then you need to understand exactly what you need to take in and as I have written in a previous blog Bloods don’t Lie.

So in short let me get back to keto and carbohydrates because this was the major topic of the debate that my partner faced over the weekend. There is a big difference between fat efficient and being ketogenic. When I speak of fat efficiency for an athlete it means that he or she can oxidize a higher percentage of fat during exercise at higher intensities as opposed to a carbohydrate dependent athlete. This does not mean that you need to cut out carbohydrates to be fat efficient. It is also a fact that at a high intensity there is no chance that if I put a carbohydrate feeding athlete next to a ketogenic fat fuelling athlete that the fat fuelling athlete will achieve the same power numbers as the carbohydrate feeder. You see there are two primary fuel tanks feeding the human body during exercise. One being glycogen (carbohydrate stores) and the other being fat. I call glycogen our rocket fuel, because when you want to put the hammer down and go you will need that fuel tank to fuel your efforts. The fat tank is more our diesel or long distance fuel, because it is what sees us over long periods of time and is primarily used at lower intensity efforts. During exercise over a range of intensities a combination of both are utilized one will just be more dominant than the other depending on the effort. This happens because in order to burn fat you require oxygen (aerobic) and under heavy intense sessions oxygen uptake is limited (anaerobic) and glycogen becomes the quickest immediate fuel for creating ATP to fire those muscles. I have done a nice little video explaining the fuel tanks you can check it out here talking about zone fuelling.

The problem with glycogen is that it is limited fuel and can only last around 90 minutes to 2 hours in well trained athletes. In a fat efficient athlete maybe even a little longer. The reason for this is a fat efficient athlete has the ability to oxidize a higher percentage of fat at a higher intensity than a carbohydrate dependent individual thereby sparing more glycogen over time. Once the glycogen stores are depleted fat becomes the primary source of fuel and this is what we usually call hitting the wall or bonking. In the case of a fat efficient athlete this transition is pretty seamless and speaking from experience its like shifting gears. I cannot go at the pace I was originally going at but I can gear down and pace control without that painful feeling of my limbs not wanting to work. On the other hand carbohydrates consumed during exercise do spare glycogen and can extend the rocket tank that little bit more of up to around 30%.

This is where the debate really starts. If I ingest carbohydrates during exercise am I preventing myself from burning fat? I will answer that in a moment but let us take a back step here.

How do you actually become a fat efficient athlete?
It is quite simple you train minimalistically and do some fasted training sessions to force the body to use it’s own internal fuel tanks without relying on any external fuel sources. You need to make sure you are not in a blood glucose elevated state when taking these sessions on. It does not have to be every single session but you start off small and build up and eventually over time you can adapt to a higher rate of fat burn.
How does this work? Quite simple when there is no blood sugar elevation the body will rely purely on its own internal tanks fat and glycogen and utilize both as a source of fuel to their optimum. Over time the body will adapt to a higher rate of fat fuelling by increasing ketone production for energy with lowered blood glucose This can be mitigated by the introduction of carbohydrates as the body will use the available blood glucose for energy and lower the rate of fat oxidation.

When it comes to sports performance I personally advocate carbohydrate periodization as it is better to reap the benefits of both worlds in order to achieve peak performance. In other words become an athlete that is both fat efficient and also has the ability to oxidize a decent amount of carbohydrates during exercise. This all comes down to training the gut and teaching the body to adapt to both situations.

So why did I move away from a completely ketogenic lifestyle?  Simple my immune system was just not coping with the volume of endurance training and the extremely low carbohydrate intake. My power numbers had also dropped but I could honestly see that over distance and controlled pace my ability as a fat adapted athlete was solid. However on hard intense endurance sessions the lack of power and inability to recover as fast as I wanted to just were not there. So I worked very hard at combining a low carbohydrate lifestyle with carbohydrate periodization depending on the duration and intensity of training. I measured my carbohydrate intake during and after exercise and the idea was to consume carbohydrates in a way that would keep me a fat burning machine but allow for fast recovery and better energy levels during sessions.

My regime brought back some decent power numbers, improved recovery rates and a much stronger immune system. In actual fact it became months and then years of not succumbing to major colds flu and illness.

Carbohydrate periodization is not a new concept and is widely used by many and something I highly advocate.

Below is a a slide from a presentation I did at a high performance sports centre in which I show the benefits of high carbohydrate intake, low carbohydrate intake and carbohydrate periodization

It is clear that periodizing carbohydrates will give you the best of both worlds allowing for high fat oxidation as well as high carbohydrate oxidation. I can tell you from experience that if you are on a low carb only regime your to carbohydrate oxidation ability is limited and the risks of gastrointestinal distress is a lot higher. As for a high carbohydrate regime yes your ability to oxidize a decent percentage of fat during exercise is limited. Periodization provides the benefit of both and its been demonstrated many times over in the world of endurance sport.

So now I am going to show you ketogenic folk something interesting which will further enlighten you. I mentioned earlier that carbohydrate consumption during exercise can limit the rate of fat oxidation.
Below are blood ketone measurements taken with my ketone meter post exercise while consuming carbohydrates during exercise. The first ketone measurement (far left) below taken was post exercise after a recovery meal consisting of 40 grams of carbohydrates (rolled oats) and 24 grams of protein yes my ketone levels dropped but not out of a fat burn zone and within an hour after the meal they were back up to over 1. The other three measurements were taken pre-recovery meal. These exercise sessions were anywhere between 2 to 4 hours in duration.

  

The interesting part is that I ingested carbohydrates in the form of 32Gi Endure on two of the days taking in around 30-40 grams of carbohydrates per an hour while in the last two I used the 32Gi Chews taking in 3/4 of a bar in 60 minutes (+- 25 grams per an hour) along with the Endure sports drink.

The above clearly demonstrates that consuming the carbohydrates during exercise had little impact at all to my ability to oxidize a high rate of fat. Over and above that I had the additional benefit of carbohydrate intake to help with fuelling. There were some days where I increased the carbohydrate intake per an hour up to 50 grams but the results did not change much. I do agree that consuming a very high amount of carbohydrates and also much quicker releasing carbohydrates will have a higher impact on fat oxidation. However the carbohydrates used in the 32Gi Endure range do not raise blood sugar significantly so as not to cause a major impact to fat oxidation ability.

In a 2008 study at the Freiburg University Clinic & Sports Medicine Institute in Germany, a comparative test was conducted between two groups of experienced cyclists utilising two different carbohydrates. The cyclists cycled for 90 minutes at sub maximal steady state, followed by a time trial. One group was given a sports drink containing isomaltulose one of the main carbohydrates in 32Gi Endure, and the other was given a liquid meal containing maltodextrin. During the time trial, the athletes that were given isomaltulose performed better, showing a very clear tendency to finish one minute (3%) faster than the maltodextrin group. In sports performance, it is a difference of this magnitude that can decide a race winner. Furthermore, the isomaltulose group also had more sustained energy, with a pedal power increase in the last five minutes of the test, a significantly higher fat oxidation rate and better maintenance of blood glucose levels until the end of the exercise. The higher fat oxidation rate with carbohydrate intake is a focus area of scientific research that has been conducted around isomaltulose the main carbohydrate 32Gi Endure, and this is one of the main reasons that it’s such an advantageous carbohydrate for an endurance event. It has a duel pronged feeding mechanism. It provides the much needed carbohydrates while allowing a high rate of fat oxidation. Click here for more on the 32Gi Endure Range

You need to remember that not all carbohydrates are created equal and the type and volume of a carbohydrate consumed will determine the over all impact. The above study indicates that.

So back to the weekend debate. It is a fact that an endurance athlete that is fat efficient as well as able to oxidize carbohydrates at a good rate will in a perfect world have the upper hand on any athlete that falls either side of the scale.

Debate over

all the best

M

PS: 32Gi Hydrate contains no carbs at all and is my go to on days where I do fasted training sessions.

Mark Wolff is a certified exercise & sports nutritionist, endurance nutrition and physiology expert with over 20 years experience. An endurance multi-sport athlete with a running, triathlon, mountain biking and weight lifting background, he works extensively with professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports disciplines as well as those just wanting to change their lifestyles. He firmly believes that a person can only reach their full potential when their health and nutrition is given the proper focus. Mark’s focus on nutrition and physiology is not just on training and racing, but he places major emphasis on recovery, immune system health, emotional stability, stress management and performance. Mark is co-founder of 32Gi, a sports nutrition company, focused mainly on health and endurance nutrition. He is also co-founder of Rapid Recover focussed on pneumatic compression equipment to improve circulation for recovery and health.

 

 

 

Categories
Training

CRUSHED INTO HUMILITY – A LESSON LEARNED

I am just going to start this blog but saying that sometimes in life no matter how knowledgeable you are there are sometimes no lessons valuable or hard enough than those lessons learned by personal experience.

This last weekend was a lesson that gave me not just the knowledge to be able to help others but it completely schooled me in a lesson I will never ever forget.

So  here goes my story……………

The past few weeks I have been managing to put in some really decent mileage into my training with some nice volume sessions on the bike. Two weeks ago I had a stellar 165km ride (data posted below) but this past weekend over a similar distance and conditions I landed up in an absolute sufferfest of a session. Over the past twenty years no matter how hard I have raced or trained I had never felt like this in my entire life. I was thinking back to some of the most excruciating races I had done and in actual fact nothing came vaguely close to what I experienced on last weekends ride.

Lets take a step back and I will explain everything in detail to set the tone.
Five of us headed out on what was structured to be a five and a half hour session. The guys I am riding with are all doing Ironman in a few months and the volume weeks are in full swing. It was breezy but not overly so and the temperatures at our 6am departure were mild but expected to climb fairly high later in the day. I was feeling really good when I woke up. Had a perfect pre-training meal and off to meet the guys for the start. My first four hours on the bike were solid I was sitting at around a 34-35km/h average speed. We do not ride in bunches we go solo its the proper way to train for a triathlon. Just over four hours into my ride my right adductor suddenly tightened and then eased up. It was a strange feeling it had never happened to me before. I realised it was hot and I decided top up my water bottle at a shop on route. While doing so the other guys had passed me and I was just going to play catch-up and try to ride back to them. I climbed on my bike and started a gradual incline to head back towards the home stretch. In the distance I could see one of the cyclists but I was not feeling great at all. It was a kind of ill feeling and I just hung in there and spun the pedals. As I crested the climb I noticed they were stopped on the side of the road as one of the cyclists had punctured and they were helping with the repair. I stopped and waited but at that stage a wave of nausea and fatigue came over me. I was thinking this is absolutely not normal. Johnny one of my one training partners asked if I was OK and I was like “No, I feel terrible but we nearly home and I will just spin it out”.

We carried on and unfortunately where we live and train absolutely nothing is flat and there is always a wind and on this day the direction was not overly kind. We reached an area which started to descend and gave me some respite but as we started the ascent on the other side both my adductor’s suddenly locked. I was in absolute pain. The last time I ever cramped was in 2003 (I remember that race clearly and knew what caused it) but absolutely nothing since.

I stood out of saddle trying every stretch possible and nothing. I had half a bottle of 32Gi hydrate left and downed it quickly. I realised at that point that only some mineral loading might help and within minutes of consuming the bottle the cramping eased but my concern was for how long? I carried on riding and when I hit the next climb the cramps hit me again but this time even worse. The situation was really not good, nausea, fatigue and now the cramps. I did not want to stop yet and I knew there was a petrol station down the road so I spun it out and when I got there I decided to down a high sodium drink again trying to settle the legs a little. It seemed to work and I carried on. It was plain sailing now with the wind behind for seven kilometres before we hit the last nasty seven kilometre climb back to the Virgin Active gym where my car was parked.

As we hit the climb back towards home my legs started again and I was feeling worse by the minute. I was hanging on by a thread and eventually with 2km’s to go I just stopped on the side of the road.

Johnny said “and now?” I said “I have had enough friend I am in a world of pain and I am going to Uber back”
He looked at me and said its just 2km’s back. I was  thinking those 2km’s are going to be the death of me, but I will spin it out. I got back to the gym, my average speed had dropped down significantly in the last half an hour which was a true reflection of the agony I was going through. I got off my bike and collapsed into the boot of my car and lay there for a while. I could not move and anyone that tried to come and talk to me at that moment in time I hated and wanted nothing to do with the world.

I eventually managed to get into the gym and ordered two ice cold bottles of water from the Kauai. I threw some 32Gi hydrate into each and started to down them. I made my way to the change room to shower and I sat down there for around 15 minutes before I could even move to the shower. Eventually I managed to shower but was still feeling really ill and when I came back to change it took another 15-20 minutes to get dressed as my legs were locking so badly. I could not even get my socks and shoes on.
I was thinking that this was quite a turn of events as the week before over a similar ride distance and effort I was bouncing out the gym my legs were so fresh the next day that I hammered them in a strength session. On this day however I felt like I needed to be carried out.

What went wrong?
I just could not understand. I knew I was severely dehydrated but why? I have trained in some of the hottest climates in the world and I am so acclimatized to exercising in the heat and never ever had an issue. Something went wrong and I needed to find out what. I went to the scale to weigh myself. The scale revealed the truth as to how dehydrated I was. I had consumed over 5 litres of fluid and my body weight was still 2.7kg down and my current weight is 63kg’s. Now you can do the maths that was a huge deficit. I had succumbed to severe dehydration. This weigh in was after consuming some post session fluid. That means that I probably hit around 6-7% during the session maybe worse. But why?

I then looked at my session data. My speed had dropped from an average of 34.5km/h to 31.3km/h in the last forty minutes. I definitely crashed and burned. My average speed last week on my 165km ride was similar to this week and my average heart rate was around 129BPM for the entire session. When I looked at my heart rate data for this session I was shocked. My average for the entire 5.5hrs was 156BPM. Now for some it might not sound high but for me its very high as it sits at over 85% of my MHR. This was not normal and something had happened.

Below are some graphs of previous weeks ride similar route and effort (the week before the wind was incredibly tough head wind so speeds were slightly down, but overall effort was consistent) the left column is the previous ride while the right column is my personal sufferfest.

I traced my steps backwards and then suddenly it dawned on me. The night before I was lying in bed and I started to feel a post nasal drip which was burning and aggravating so I decided to take a decongestant to prevent the onset of illness. I have used this decongestant before and to be honest its been useful when needed. Generally though when used in the past it has been around 24hrs out from shorter sessions however this time it was around 9hrs out from a long session.

When I woke up I was feeling great and my sinuses were nice and clear no aggravation. The problem is that most decongestants especially this one are vasoconstrictors. This means that the blood vessels are narrowed due to contraction of muscle walls of the vessels especially large arteries and small arterioles.  This is how they work by constricting the vessels in the nasal passages. I usually stay away from medication completely but I have a type of re-occurring illness from a virus I contracted in 1999 and it triggers in the sinus tracts so this was my way of preventing it. The problem is the half life of this vasoconstrictor seemed to hit my training session and when the vessels are narrowed it also means that the body’s natural cooling mechanism wont function properly.

In order for cooling to happen during exercise our body’s are designed to promote heat dissipation by sweat evaporation through increased skin blood vessels. This is a process called vasodilation and this occurs when exposed to heat. But in my case I had taken something which constricted the vessels causing my body to heat up extensively without realising it. This of course severely elevated my heart rate and started a large chain of events. No matter how much fluid I took in there is a limit as to how much the human body can absorb (for more on hydration check out my blog Simply Hydrate). I had triggered a domino effect which spiralled out of control as my lengthy session continued.

A few hours after this experience I finally managed to stabilize myself by consuming 32Gi Hydrate (click here for more on 32Gi Hydrate) and I felt a lot better. However unbeknown to me this was not going to be the end of my woes.

Fast forward to the early hours of Wednesday morning when I woke up due to some dull aching lower back pain. Predominantly on the left side of the body. I lay there thinking very carefully about it as I am quite in tune with my body and this was not a typical lower back ache. I eventually pinpointed it and suddenly realized what was happening. It was kidney pain. My diagnosis immediately turned to worry. It was roughly three days since my bad experience and that was either bad coincidence or the onset of what could be rhabdomyolisis. Usually rhabdo is triggered by muscle damage or breakdown, which could have been triggered in my case of being severely overheated and dehydrated on my Saturday ride. The problem is this does put stress on the kidneys and in some cases renal failure can occur and that is life threatening and not something you want to be thinking about in the early hours of the morning.

I got out of bed ran to the fridge and began consuming water with bicarb to start a process of helping the kidneys function and trying to take the stress off them. I did not know what the story was and had to wait until morning to visit the physician to have bloods run urgently.  I got the first appointment that morning and immediately had the blood tests done. All I could do now was wait and keep with my bicarb hydration regime.

Eventually the bloods came back and everything I suspected fell into place. I had very elevated creatine kinase levels, chloride levels were low and bicarb higher (due to my bicarb drinking)  and creatinine levels were quite a bit down with kidney function normal. (bloods below)

 

I wish I actually had a blood sample from immediately post session as that would have shown a lot. The blood works clearly showed that I had undergone some very strenuous session on the weekend. The fact that I hadn’t really trained since then and the fact my creatine kinase levels were so elevated 4 days after was a definite sign of severe stress. However I was very happy to see that the kidney function was absolutely fine as that was my major concern.

An interesting discussion with the sports physician left us asking a number of questions. If vasoconstriction was in full force where was the dehydration taking place? Where was the fluid leaving the body. Was it a much higher sweat rate later on in the session when I was fully over heated, and the effects of the medication had worn off? I did have a pit stop on route but the day was a blur if you ask me how much fluid left me during a pit stop I could never say. I did consider hyponatremia as possible high fluid consumption due to the body heating factor to keep cool but once I analysed my intake during the session I realised that it was not really an option, but could the stress on the body have hampered fluid absorption? The key indicator was how I felt and my weight post exercise showed definite severe fluid loss.

To conclude this blog of my painful lesson learned I want to say a number of things.

Firstly the human body is a complicated yet incredible landscape of brilliant engineering which will always look to find balance to keep us healthy and alive.
It has the ability to operate under a wide range of conditions by taking care of itself in different ways. If you think that ingesting something so small will not upset the balance and rock the boat you are clearly mistaken. Our bodies are quick to react to anything that is placed in it and the consequences of our actions can be of either benefit or detriment. In this case it was the latter.

Secondly I need to state that I am completely against NSAID’s (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory’s) during exercise due to the severe life threatening conditions that something like that can trigger when the body is under stress. It is like loading a revolver and playing Russian roulette. You can get away with it a lot but then one day the bullet can exit the chamber and by then it is too late. In my case being knowledgeable and having first hand experience working with athletes over many years of whom some I have known to have suffered renal failure and even kidney loss, it was quite an eye opener.

I have always taken the utmost care to make sure that the timing of any medicinal intake and stress over the body do not coincide. However being one that avoids medication at all costs and maybe being more sensitive to it, landed me up in some deep water on this one day. The interesting thing is that in a shorter session even up to 4 hours nothing major happened it was only the last hour where the havoc began. This demonstrates quite clearly the pitfalls of hydration and sports nutrition over longer periods of time. It also demonstrates to the endurance community that no supplement or medicinal drug should ever be taken lightly. I have always stated the fact that an athletes body is finely tuned and tiny things can truly upset the balance as was shown in my case.

I wrote this blog on my personal yet valuable experience, as a message to others out there. Make sure you understand that whatever you place in your body in one way or another will have an outcome. Understand exactly what the potential risks are for anything you consume and avoid anything that you know could potentially have a dangerous outcome.

all the best

M

 

Mark Wolff is a certified exercise & sports nutritionist, endurance nutrition and physiology expert with over 20 years experience. An endurance multi-sport athlete with a running, triathlon, mountain biking and weight lifting background, he works extensively with professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports disciplines as well as those just wanting to change their lifestyles. He firmly believes that a person can only reach their full potential when their health and nutrition is given the proper focus. Mark’s focus on nutrition and physiology is not just on training and racing, but he places major emphasis on recovery, immune system health, emotional stability, stress management and performance. Mark is co-founder of 32Gi, a sports nutrition company, focused mainly on health and endurance nutrition. He is also co-founder of Rapid Recover focussed on pneumatic compression equipment to improve circulation for recovery and health.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Training

DON’T BLAME THE WEATHER, BLAME YOURSELF

Excuses, most of us hear them all the time. This past week I heard a barrage of them for why a race or a training session was not finished. The common denominator it was too hot was what I was hearing constantly.  There is very often a lot of blame on weather conditions when it comes to personal failures in endurance sport and to be completely blunt you should not blame the weather you need to blame yourself.

It is called lack of preparation and failure to understand what the body requires when the temperatures are soaring. When you decide to participate in any event you need to have in mind that you have no control over the weather conditions. The only control you have is over your body and how to help it cope under all conditions. The problem with most athletes is they train and train, but mostly they neglect the most important elements of proper sports nutrition being hydration and fuelling under various conditions. So early mornings of training under usually mild to pleasant temperatures suddenly leave them grasping at straws when placed into an event under severely hot conditions because they have absolutely no idea how to cope with it. Fuelling and hydration strategies are so crucial to any type of training or racing session to empower performance and lower the health risks associated with conditions such as hyponatremia, severe dehydration or heat exhaustion.

In the 2014 Comrades Marathon, I was on route in a follow vehicle feeding the elite athletes we worked with. In that year with about 30km to go there was a small break of around eight great ultra runners. Eventually Bongmusa Mthembu ran off the front and for the next 25km’s he became our focus. The weather conditions at the time were very hot and humid and after running 65km’s you can only imagine what the body is going through. His pace through those last 25km’s was stellar it was incredible to watch him running so strong. The interesting part was that we fed him around 30 water sachets over that last part of the course of which he probably only drank 2 of them and the balance he threw over his head and core area. Bongmusa new exactly what he was doing, he was trying to cool his core temperature from the outside to try to keep his heart rate down to allow him to perform at his best. We know with heat comes elevated heart rate and perceived effort. The way he managed it was totally professional and showed his experience. Bongmusa went on to win comfortably and it was a pure demonstration of the understanding of his personal requirements of nutrition and hydration to be able to perform at his best.

In 2016 I was invited to participate in a tough multi-stage trail race in Israel. The trail run was a 204km course over around 18 to 19 hours. Our race was destined to start at 1:30PM in the month of September when the temperatures were still very much reaching peak summer highs. I had six weeks of preparation ahead of me and due to the very nature of the course and race structure I put a plan of action into place. This consisted of later morning training sessions to acclimatize to the heat as well as doing the occasional triple training sessions a day being morning, noon and night. I needed to ensure that my body would be able to cope over the various temperatures the race had to offer as well as experiment with my hydration and fuelling strategies to ensure I could perform at my best.

The point I am trying to get to with the examples above is that when you prepare you prepare properly and that includes the hydration and fuelling strategies along with the training otherwise you will set yourself up for failure. So often I see cycling groups being broken down to non-pitchers purely because it was too windy, too cold, too hot. If you don’t experience these conditions how can you expect to race in them. You have no control over the weather you only have control over your conditioning, experiences and fuelling.

So in short my advice to you all is train as you will race. If it is a course with loads of climbing then embrace the mountainous training routes. Understand how the body will perform in wind, heat and cold. Make sure you understand your hydration and nutrition requirements because it will differ under various conditions. Always separate out your nutrition and hydration requirements and make sure the formula you put together works for both.

More fluid loss in the heat means understanding your hydration requirements perfectly and water alone will not be sufficient due to minimal absorption rates and the introduction of minerals, isotonic or hypotonic mixes might be required. Check out my previous blog Simply Hydrate for more in-depth information on hydration. On the fuelling side of things understand your energy requirements and make sure you nail it. I did a previous blog touching on training and race fuelling called Fortuitous Fuelling just click on the link for a deep dive.

The next time you are planning a training or racing session make sure you cover all your bases. Work the racing terrain in training and understanding exactly what will work for your body from a hydration and energy perspective under any varying weather conditions. As the great Benjamin Franklin once said “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail”

all the best

M

Mark Wolff is a certified exercise & sports nutritionist, endurance nutrition and physiology expert with over 20 years experience. An endurance multi-sport athlete with a running, triathlon, mountain biking and weight lifting background, he works extensively with professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports disciplines as well as those just wanting to change their lifestyles. He firmly believes that a person can only reach their full potential when their health and nutrition is given the proper focus. Mark’s focus on nutrition and physiology is not just on training and racing, but he places major emphasis on recovery, immune system health, emotional stability, stress management and performance. Mark is co-founder of 32Gi, a sports nutrition company, focused mainly on health and endurance nutrition. He is also co-founder of Rapid Recover focussed on pneumatic compression equipment to improve circulation for recovery and health.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Health

ENDURANCE FOR HEALTH OR DETRIMENT?

There is absolutely no doubt that endurance sport globally is on the rise. Races sell out within hours or days and what we are finding is the more gruelling the event the more the demand.
On one hand I absolutely love it but on the other I sit back and hate it because I know there is a road that so many are going to travel down which is going to cause way more harm than good. Endurance sport has its benefits, but for many it has it’s perils.

When deciding to do an endurance event whether a marathon, ultra-marathon, Ironman or a cycling event the one common thing is that your body has to go through it. A couple of weeks ago I witnessed a runner boasting on facebook that she had participated in a marathon on the Saturday, another on the Sunday and by Monday she was in the gym doing a weight combination HIIT session. Of course she had videos to prove it. I just looked at this and the first words that came to my mind was “What an idiot”.  I’m not being prejudice in anyway but when I read through the replies and responses I noticed her telling others that its fine, it works for her and this is what she does. I was left there thinking this is really not good. My reasoning was is that she thinks this is absolutely fine which it was not and in a way this could possibly encourage others to follow suite.

Of course you are looking at a typical slightly overweight athlete. I would place the body fat percentage at between 26-30% (been doing this long enough to accurately gauge) low muscle tone and poor posture. What did this tell me about the person? Simple poor nutrition, no proper structured training and absolutely no idea of physiological health. It was clear she has zero knowledge of what happens to the human body under stress, especially back to back races causing impact on the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. I did see mention of training with a heart rate monitor and watching her heart rate carefully. However I am willing to place a large amount of money on the table that if I asked her what her exact heart rate zones were for proper aerobic function she would not have a clue.

I use this purely as an example to try to put this blog into a little more context. In this case endurance sport is damaging. This runner if she continues to carry on will eventually experience injury or potentially ill health which could be so severe it leaves her shortening her journey on earth as opposed to lengthening it.

Day after day I come across a variety of athletes who have once been podium finishers and couch potatoes to marathon runners and triathletes who have succumbed to severe injury or illness. Of course most think it will never happen, because endurance athletes are invincible and road cyclists and triathletes are the perfect specimen of a human being. Let us take this a little further and I will be as so bold to say and its clear as day that many top age grouper athletes are doping nicely while portraying their hard work to those that look up to them. You can take me to toll on this but to many its obvious and you only have yourself to answer to I personally could not care. What I do care about is the fact that endurance sport should not been taken lightly.

It adds an incredible stress on the human engine. It by no means makes you healthier or stronger if it is mistreated or abused. The opposite it slowly breaks you down from your podium positions until you can no longer participate in it, even to the extent it can leave you with a severe health issue.

Take a formula one vehicle place it on a track and push that accelerator down nice and hard and take it to its limits. That’s exactly what we do to the human body when we put it into an endurance event. The difference is the engineers of that race car will make sure the best grade fuel, oil, lubricant and components are used to ensure a positive outcome. On the other hand the endurance athlete, the human race vehicle does the complete opposite. They over rev their engines, use poor grade fuels and lubricants and don’t even service their own engines as needed. They just keep placing more and more stress on it until eventually it breaks down and begins moving towards the scrap pile.

Now you might feel I am being overly harsh or exaggerating but that is not the case. I have been doing endurance sport for over 25 years and I have seen heavy overweight athletes running a Comrades Marathon (90km Ultra), cream of the crop athletes whether age grouper or elite being brought to their knees in the form of severe injury or illness, and in some cases I have witnessed fatalities at finish lines or during training sessions.

Now don’t misunderstand me, I absolutely encourage a healthy active life. I am passionate about endurance sport, its not just my career but I have a love for the lifestyle. But you need to be realistic and ask yourself how do you know when you are stretching that elastic band way to far to the extent it will ultimately snap.

I am sorry to say but if you are placing your body under unnatural stress and that is what endurance sport is, an unnatural stress. Then you must ensure your body is looked after properly. You need to ensure you are truly healthy and that you are able to withstand the stresses you are going to be placing on it. You need to get into that engine and check absolutely everything. You need to feed it the best fuels, ensure that proper recovery exists and that inflammation is reduced after stressing it.  You need to focus on sleep and sometimes you need to learn how to rest and allow training adaptions to take place.

Are you willing to sacrifice a healthy future for a medal hanger, Strava kudos and social media likes?

Your body is the most important place you have to live. Treat it with respect, endure with honour, fuel it with intent, build it with passion and make the healthy choices to promote longevity. Being an endurance addict is not just about participation in events. Its about a lifestyle, a healthy one. Make sure that you make it count.

 

all the best

M

 

Mark Wolff is a certified exercise & sports nutritionist, endurance nutrition and physiology expert with over 20 years experience. An endurance multi-sport athlete with a running, triathlon, mountain biking and weight lifting background, he works extensively with professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports disciplines as well as those just wanting to change their lifestyles. He firmly believes that a person can only reach their full potential when their health and nutrition is given the proper focus. Mark’s focus on nutrition and physiology is not just on training and racing, but he places major emphasis on recovery, immune system health, emotional stability, stress management and performance. Mark is co-founder of 32Gi, a sports nutrition company, focused mainly on health and endurance nutrition. He is also co-founder of Rapid Recover focussed on pneumatic compression equipment to improve circulation for recovery and health.

 

Categories
Health Performance Training

“RACE FOR VICTORY”

Throwback to 2013 the Yarkon 25km trail race.
Nerves through the roof not so much due to the race but more for the last year of a severe illness. You see in 2000 I contracted a water-borne virus from my daughter which left me bed ridden for quite a while. The medical specialists that ran a major battery of tests on me over the weeks that followed failed to pinpoint the cause of the problem. All I knew was I was suffering badly and was concerned about my future I had absolutely no hope. I had to make a harsh decision and take complete control which would not just change my life but also my career. Each year I would be hit with another attack by this invader in my body trying to subdue me and take complete control. The roller coaster ride and massive doses of antibiotics and tetracyclines along with many other treatment protocols was just an absolute journey of hell and I realized I was going to be in a life long war with this internal enemy. Becoming a physiology expert and sports nutritionist was not an accident it was a path I chose to win the war and to help others win theirs. After years of fighting I eventually triumphed and landed up with a relatively calm period. However in 2012 the invader had spent years strengthening its forces silently and when it was ready, it unleashed the most lethal attack on me that left me for the better part of 6-7 months virtually bed ridden and barely surviving from day to day. I nearly gave in, but then decided to pull out all the ammunition I had and give this bastard another war it would never forget.

Fast forward to September 2013, I hadn’t raced in a long time, I had been training again and felt stronger. I was invited to attend this race by a friend and I told him I would join, but run at a comfortable pace. I was nervous because all that was on my mind was the war I had just been in and the fact that after all I had been through, was this race going to be the trigger to knock me back down, would I even finish it. I withdrew from it a thousand times in my head. On the day I didn’t know how I felt. It had been so long since I actually felt normal.

A short warm up run and then off to the start line with all the other hundreds of runners. My heart and mind were in a mode of not knowing what to expect and I had to keep reminding myself this was just a training run. Take it easy, pace yourself and get through it.

It was a very hot time of the year and the race began very early in the dark of the morning to avoid the heat as much as possible. Waiting there suddenly the gun went off.

I have absolutely no idea what went through my mind but I switched to a completely different mode. I just saw a group of three guys running off and I ran after them. Everything I felt fear and anxiety for, just switched off and I chased them down. They were around a hundred meters ahead and we were now full on the trail with not much space either side. Suddenly my watch vibrates, 4:04 pace it shows and I am thinking what the hell are you doing Mark? You said you would run a comfortable pace and this is kilometre one. I just ignored it and ran after the group and at the 2nd kilometre I was just behind them. My watch buzzed again and this time a 3:56 split. I was feeling surprisingly stable and my competitive nature just completely overpowered my body and I ran up to the group.

There were two runners in the front and myself and another guy behind all running in unison over the dry sandy river bed beneath. In the corner of my eye I noticed the runner behind with me was wearing a cycling vest with open pockets to carry his race fuel. It was then I realised this guy was not a “true runner” and I had this feeling he was going to struggle soon. Maybe that was the arrogant part of me but I am very strategic when it comes to training and racing and this was my gut feeling. My Garmin vibrates for the the third split and now we are at 3:51 pace. I was settling in slowly. The terrain was not easy, lots of loose sand but I had chosen a very light weight race shoe instead of a full blown heavy trail shoe to help with the foot lift in the aim of skipping over the really soft sandy areas on the track.

The sun began to rise and as we started to approach kilometre five I heard sudden breathing changes in the athlete next to me. I knew this meant he was done for it was just a matter of when. Over the next kilometre I could sense the struggle in him as he was dropping off and trying to run back. He was burning big matches and he eventually fell off the back permanently. It was game over for him.

The problem I was faced with now was that there were three of us. Yes, 1,2,3 all podium positions and when you are in a situation like that you never want to let it go. The race was an out and back to make up the 25km. I began to strategize and decided to try to hang on as long as possible with these youngsters, especially to the turn around point, as then I could see the gap behind us as we headed back towards the onslaught of the pursuing  runners.

At the 10km mark we still hit 3:50 splits and I was thinking this is super fast for a trail. Although fairly flat and not overly technical the legs had to work hard over the different planes due to the differentiating and uneven surfaces. We started nearing the turn around point and I was still feeling good except when we hit the feeding table at the 11km mark the volunteers had not set up yet. They didn’t realise we would get to them so quickly  and that made me very angry as I had just missed a crucial feed and hydration point. So I would have to try hit them again on the way back and hope I could hang on. Then it came, the turn around point, the three of us soldiering on and I started the gap timing. I wanted to see who was hunting us and how far behind they were. Eventually it came the first hunter was around 4 minutes behind us with around +-11km to go. I did a quick calculation in my head based on time and distance and realised that even if he was a Kenyan marathon runner he was not going to catch us.

All I had to do now was hang on and not crash and burn. As our trio kept on we eventually realised that the race was now between us and new tactics were going to start playing out soon. At kilometre 21 the race heated up and one of the guys went off the front, number two then followed and as much as I tried to stick with them I was left on my own. They had dropped me and the fight for 1,2 was now not in my hands. With around 2km’s to go I was now feeling the pain, I had not hit a single feed table on route and I could feel my glycogen stores were dwindling to the point of no return. All I could do was dig deep and suffer it out. The thing about being in the hurt zone is that 1 or 2 kilometres don’t sound like much but in actual fact every second is excruciatingly painful once you are there. A kilometre feels like forever. It is a fact that he who can suffer the hardest and longest will win.

Nearing the trail exit I could feel the finish line getting nearer and soon I could see it. All I could think of is getting there so I can start breathing again and allowing the legs to stop working. As I approached the 50 metres to go I had an overwhelming feeling come over me and I completely broke down. Tears followed my final footsteps to the finish line. It wasn’t because I was on the podium, but more due to my victory of the war I had been fighting for so many years. I again had shown the invader I was triumphant over it. I never dreamed this moment would be possible. Lying bedridden down and out leaves you with a sense of hopelessness. However this exact moment in time was the tipping point it was my victory. They always say when you get knocked down just get back up and show them. But sometimes people get knocked down so many times it is a lot easier said than done. On this day I realized that it can be done.

This race was probably the most special I have ever done. It was a moment of survival of victory and one of absolute gratitude for the blessing of being able to have come back to health. Over the years I was invited to return to participate in this race a number of times. I don’t think I ever will. This race always has a special place in my heart it was the pinnacle experience that will need to stay etched inside forever.

In the end I finished 3rd overall, running the 25km trail in 1h42 and finishing just 90 seconds behind the winner.

“Value your health without it there is no hope”

all the best

M

Mark Wolff is a certified exercise & sports nutritionist, endurance nutrition and physiology expert with over 20 years experience. An endurance multi-sport athlete with a running, triathlon, mountain biking and weight lifting background, he works extensively with professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports disciplines as well as those just wanting to change their lifestyles. He firmly believes that a person can only reach their full potential when their health and nutrition is given the proper focus. Mark’s focus on nutrition and physiology is not just on training and racing, but he places major emphasis on recovery, immune system health, emotional stability, stress management and performance. Mark is co-founder of 32Gi, a sports nutrition company, focused mainly on health and endurance nutrition. He is also co-founder of Rapid Recover focussed on pneumatic compression equipment to improve circulation for recovery and health.

 

Categories
Health Nutrition Training

BLOODS DON’T LIE

When it comes to endurance sports performance and health we have all been exposed to the endless attempts to find the biggest gains in improving oneself. Most athletes that approach me are looking for an improvement in performance however my biggest concern is first health. I have always said that when we place our bodies under stress its important to make sure that the body can withstand the stress. If there is an underlying condition which the athlete is not aware of the consequences can be damaging if not life threatening.

As an endurance athlete and of course a human being nothing is more paramount than my health. When it comes to the human body the more you know about your own body the far better empowered you are to make the correct decisions when it comes down to it. I am sure most of you have heard about the term biological passport. This is used to monitor elite athletes in which profiles of biological markers of doping and results of doping tests are collated over a period of time. I have my own biological passport. I have 12 years of blood markers ranging from a wide variety of testing over time. However my passport is a biological health passport not a doping passport. I use this as a baseline for a range of different markers to ensure my body is in optimal condition to be placed under stress and to be able to perform at its peak when it comes down to it. As a sports nutritionist and physiology expert there is nothing more satisfying than getting blood results finding the anomalies and then using either treatment, nutrition or supplementation to correct them and get them back into line or even fortify them. However it goes much further than this. A general doctor will look at a range of bloods which are considered to be in the “healthy” range and give you the nod. I don’t do that I look at the bloods from an athlete perspective knowing that the individual is placing the body under a huge amount of stress whether it be an ultra distance marathon or triathlon. “Healthy” ranges are just not always good enough and in endurance sport tiny deficiencies or changes can equate to feeling flat or being able to really put down the hammer down and sustain it. Bloods don’t lie they will tell a story and guide a person in the right direction. Last year an elite athlete that approached me for assistance gave me the title “the legal doper”. I wasn’t sure how to take that as the word doping has many negative connotations associated with it. But on further thought I decided that to be able to legally enhance the human body is definitely the route to go as that has a big focus on health not just performance.

So my question to you all is do you have a snap shot of your health?  By that I mean a full set of bloods and the peace of mind that you are in good working order. Secondly once the doctor tells you that you are in good working order has he or she taken into account your active lifestyle. You are not a couch potato but a Ferrari engine and there is a big difference in requirements especially when it comes down to fuelling. Haematology is a fascinating pathway where hundreds of thousands of different chemical reactions and responses happen each day to what the body is going through. I would want to make sure that what is happening inside is life extending, performance enhancing and not destructive.

I have pulled up some bloods below just to deep dive a little and explain how some dietary and supplemental changes have made a huge difference in not just mine but other athletes lives.

Below shows an endocrinology profile of an athlete where I specifically requested  folate serum, red cell as well as vitamin D. 6 months prior to this test the results were not good. Vitamin D levels were sitting at 32, which by all means is healthy according to the medical spectrum and the folate levels were a lot lower. Vitamin D is actually the one vitamin that is scientifically and medically proven to strengthen the immune system. Its also the precursor to calcium absorption which means if you are an athlete you definitely do not want it to be on the low end at all. A very strong 5000iu D3 supplement pulled it up to 54 from 32 in 6 months and then the dose was dropped down to a D3 every 3 days at which stage the levels climbed further to 60. That is nearly double where it was before.

Noticeable differences in the athlete were not even such as a cold or illness in a two year period whereas prior to this at least 2-3 antibiotic courses a year. In addition there was a drop in shin splint pain until eventually it dissipated completely and never returned. Susceptibility to stress fractures had been reduced however I do need to mention in conjunction with the D3 a good calcium was also prescribed.

Below shows the increase from 54 – 60 at which stage we toned down the Vitamin D supplementation.
Its interesting to note this is an athlete who spends a lot of time outdoors and so the thought of sunshine providing Vit D although somewhat true is not always about exposure but about creation.

Below shows an athletes iron profile. It is in the normal range but again this is a serious athlete putting in many hours of training in a week. The feelings of fatigue that he experienced can sometimes be due to what we call athletes anaemia.  I felt the levels were too low although within the normal range so supplementation was brought into the picture.

Below shows the Iron supplementation over a 3 month period pushing the levels up nicely. I need to mention this athlete is a ovo-vegetarian although levels came up nicely the supplementation continued with a drop down to one tablet every 3 days to keep them topped up. The athlete noticed increased energy, better recovery and performance benefits.

No elite athlete wants to see the below especially when aiming for a top position in a race. Low red cell, low haematocrit is not a desirable result especially knowing that you are limiting your haemoglobin production and this is so crucial for muscle and organ function. The last thing you want is limiting it especially if you are an athlete. You can also see that the iron is low and understanding haematology you should know that red blood cell, haemoglobin and iron are all interlinked.  The below shows low transferrin levels which can relate to iron binding capacity. The athlete did not have sufficient blood in the diet. Taking a look at the individuals lifestyle we discover an over trained athlete under nourished meaning absolutely poor nutrition to support the exercise volume and intensity. Multiple menstrual cycles in a month led to more blood loss than normal and major changes needed to be made to the diet to correct this.  Again Vitamin D levels could come up nicely especially since this was an athlete that suffered from numerous bone related injuries which could be a direct result of nutrient deficiency.

Below is another female athlete with dedicated 6-7 days of training combining 70-100km run weeks with strength training. Waking up daily feeling faint, dizzy and often bouts of nausea until the day she fainted and hit her head on the treadmill. The below shows clearly an iron deficiency as the cause. The inability to feel energetic, wake up fresh and be able to train with a smile on your face is not the way one would want t be feeling each day. Dragging yourself through life from day to day is terrible. It took so many weeks to convince her to get bloods done and with all the delays it set a domino affect into play leaving her to do them out of desperation. Prevention is always better than cure.

The below was sent to me after a blood test by a concerned athlete. After questioning the timing of the blood test the cause was clear that the athlete gave the blood in a completely dehydrated state. It was after a hard long run in the heat, followed by a oats breakfast and cup of coffee. This is an athlete that usually trains fasted and on that particular day he noted he felt very thirsty and battled through the heat. Then went for bloods. Pick your blood test days carefully you don’t want to skew the results.

 

I can bring up hundreds of blood results over the years where each will tell a different story. Sometimes the biggest percentage gains in sports performance need to actually start with the health aspect and only once that is solid then one can move to the next level which is proper tweaking of nutrition and natural supplementation to gain a little more. There are no quick fixes and most people I come into contact with tell me about all the wonderful and weird supplements they take to give them the edge. They have absolutely no idea what they are talking about because what they could be taking might be doing exactly the opposite and hurting their health. Know your status first then we can talk.

In conclusion, as an active person start your biological health passport, get tested fairly regularly and get an idea of your health status over time. Anomalies might come and go but at least if you have a history of what is going on inside your body you will be in a much better position to manage the risks as well as improve your health and performance goals.

 

Take care

all the best

M

Mark Wolff is a certified exercise & sports nutritionist, endurance nutrition and physiology expert with over 20 years experience. An endurance multi-sport athlete with a running, triathlon, mountain biking and weight lifting background, he works extensively with professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports disciplines as well as those just wanting to change their lifestyles. He firmly believes that a person can only reach their full potential when their health and nutrition is given the proper focus. Mark’s focus on nutrition and physiology is not just on training and racing, but he places major emphasis on recovery, immune system health, emotional stability, stress management and performance. Mark is co-founder of 32Gi, a sports nutrition company, focused mainly on health and endurance nutrition. He is also co-founder of Rapid Recover focussed on pneumatic compression equipment to improve circulation for recovery and health.

 

 

 

Categories
Health Nutrition Performance

ENDURANCE VS ALCOHOL

Over the years I have had the good fortune of engaging with endurance athletes constantly. The talks I give around endurance health and sports nutrition always come up with a common question surrounding alcohol consumption. I am not going to sugar coat my answer, I say it as it is and in this blog I will spell out the good, bad and ugly around the issues associated with alcohol consumption and endurance sport.

Firstly we know from medical research that frequent consumption of alcohol can increase the risk of mortality and this should not come as a surprise to anyone. Men can tolerate a higher intake than women so relatively speaking women have a higher mortality rate for equal consumption volume than men. This does not mean the male population should go out and start racking up a large amount either because a small unit amount is the cut off before the mortality risk begins to rise and it seems men are far worse for wear as far as the stats go. Globally a large percentage of deaths are directly associated with alcohol consumption and one of the latest research reports on the global burden of disease study in the medical journal The Lancet states the following

“Our results show that the safest level of drinking is none. This level is in conflict with most health guidelines, which espouse health benefits associated with consuming up to two drinks per day. Alcohol use contributes to health loss from many causes and exacts its toll across the lifespan, particularly among men. Policies that focus on reducing population-level consumption will be most effective in reducing the health loss from alcohol use”. The full publication can be read here.

However alcohol or no alcohol my focus in this blog is around the impact of alcohol in endurance sport.

So let’s begin with the fact that it is the pleasure of most athletes to enjoy a beer or plenty more after the finish line of a race. When I raced overseas in Germany which is a big beer drinking nation I also had the pleasure of being offered a beer at the finish line however it was an alcohol free beer, which of course would not have had any negative impact on my recovery. However the alcohol certainly will.

Let us have a look at my major topics of recovery and see how in each case what the impact is.

Hydration 
Athletes finish training sessions or races in a dehydrated state. First step of recovery is to rehydrate properly.
Alcohol however is a diuretic. Basically this means what you take in will not aid hydration but hamper it and cause more fluid loss. Failing to hydrate properly post event will leave you feeling terrible the day after and the delayed onset of muscle soreness will be in an exaggerated state.

Glycogen Replenishment
One of the human body’s most important fuel tanks is the glycogen tank. A major source of energy supply and certainly a main contributor to fuelling the energy system during exercise and especially racing. Glycogen of course is primarily stored in the form of water, so failing to hydrate properly post session will definitely mitigate the proper replenishment of glycogen stores. In actual fact alcohol will definitely inhibit the re-synthesis of liver glycogen  and research has shown that it can take nearly twice as long to replenish the glycogen stores in an athlete that has consumed alcohol in comparison to an athlete that has not. This means if you are in the middle of peak training or back to back racing you can rest assured this will impact you significantly. Over and above this I often get told beer and wine is an excellent source of carbohydrates. You joking right? It is absolutely not a good carbohydrate source required to replenish glycogen.

Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS)
An important part of recovery post exercise is of course muscle tissue repair. This requires proper nutrition meaning the building blocks of muscle being in the form or branch chain amino acids to be able to properly do their job. Some research has demonstrated that consuming alcohol post-exercise can suppress anabolic responses in muscles which means failure to repair properly and of course this prevents progress in the form of gains from exercise sessions. So yes this means your beer in one hand and steak in the other won’t cut it, your process is flawed.

Rest
The best way to recover post exercise of course is rest. I often stress one of the window periods of recovery is the sleep window and protein consumption prior to sleep can be of major benefit in enabling proper restoration and repair to the body. That is of course assuming you do sleep. However alcohol consumption interferes with proper sleep and completely removes the benefit of proper rest to recover between sessions.

Inflammation Reduction
Post exercise niggles often occur especially in field sport and areas of the body are often in an inflamed state which means that sometimes a reduction in inflammation is required. The sporting teams I work with use many types of methods to try to reduce inflammation post exercise one being an ice bath. However the problem is alcohol is a vasodilator which means it allows a rush of blood to the areas completely contradicting the treatment to reduce inflammation. This explains quite clearly that if you are injured and consuming alcohol it will slow down that healing process.

The Mental Game
Its a fact that endurance performance is very much mind driven. The ability to perform at a high level comes with complete focus and determination. Alcohol of course removes the ability to focus properly as well impairs co-ordination which can lead to the risk of irregular plane movement increasing the risk of injury.

Now that you understand the benefits of alcohol consumption in endurance sport its quite easy to decide how to use it to your advantage. Oh wait a minute I did not give you any benefits ;-).

Ok, lets be clear alcohol is not the best for sports performance and yes I am sure you will tell me many stories of athletes who performed under the influence of alcohol and it is their go to fuel and recovery meal. On the other hand I can assure you the stats are not in their favour from a health perspective and their later years will most likely see issues arising. I will admit though that alcohol does have a very large part to play in social circles and get togethers where people will relax, smile, laugh and interact. Of course happiness and stress relief is an important part of life and can offer longevity.

My advice as an athlete is to limit your intake significantly. Once in a while enjoy a glass of wine or a beer. Keep it as far away from long or quality sessions as possible and absolutely keep it out of race week. Most importantly ensure for every unit of alcohol you consume you take in a much larger amount of fluid to counteract the dehydrating effects.

Moderation is key and health always comes first.

Below is a nice infographic by Dr. Yann Le Meur (Sports Scientist)
Showing the impact Alcohol has on Sports Performance & Recovery in male athletes

all the best

M

Mark Wolff is a certified exercise & sports nutritionist, endurance nutrition and physiology expert with over 20 years experience. An endurance multi-sport athlete with a running, triathlon, mountain biking and weight lifting background, he works extensively with professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports disciplines as well as those just wanting to change their lifestyles. He firmly believes that a person can only reach their full potential when their health and nutrition is given the proper focus. Mark’s focus on nutrition and physiology is not just on training and racing, but he places major emphasis on recovery, immune system health, emotional stability, stress management and performance. Mark is co-founder of 32Gi, a sports nutrition company, focused mainly on health and endurance nutrition. He is also co-founder of Rapid Recover focussed on pneumatic compression equipment to improve circulation for recovery and health.

 

 

Categories
Health

THE FORK IN THE ROAD

For many, life is about routine and control. No one likes surprises and there is nothing worse than a curve ball being thrown at you when you least expect it. But life happens and every day we are faced with challenges which sometimes side track us from our normal routine and goals.
My question to you is what is your goal? Don’t get me wrong, but I am not talking about being rich, or an event such as a marathon. I am talking about something way bigger.

I travel a fair amount and meet people from all over the world. Most are lost when it comes to this goal, but many that I have met do see the bigger picture. There is a nice little expression which says may you live to one hundred and twenty. When I tell this to people the usual response is “no chance”. “I don’t want to live that long”.

However, then I came across someone who gave me a different version of this and he said to me may you live to one hundred like a twenty-year-old.  That is, it! Absolutely spot on. The main goal we should all be aiming for in life is without a doubt health. Health is the true measure of quality of life.

Personally, I have seen first hand how the baby boomer generation lived their lives around a focus on enjoyment. Food, travel, smoke, alcohol and plenty more emotionally addictive habits. They lived it up nicely and I can look back and say yes many enjoyed plenty of the few years that life had to offer. But while all this was going on two massive industries were growing rapidly the one being fast moving consumer goods specifically unhealthy fast and convenient foods laden with everything to make you lick your lips. The second the health industry mainly pharmaceutical and medical technology expanding just as fast with big advances in medical treatments and new market drugs.

While all this was going on the baby boomer hit their middle ages thinking life is short just enjoy and look forward to those early retirement years but then something big happened.  A trend of major health issues hit them so hard it was like a domino effect reaching far and wide to all corners of the globe. No matter who you were and what status you held there was absolutely no escaping the ill choices you made when you were younger. Lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, emphysema, coronary disease and many more started to take its toll and not just on the baby boomers but to many of their children who were just as exposed to these ill-chosen lifestyles.

I am a baby boomer child. I have witnessed so much illness from the generations before me. I witness their daily suffering and have over heard some of them begging for an end to it and an early death. I said to one such person it will never happen. The health care providers and pharmaceutical companies are going to keep you alive as long as they possibly can. They will make sure you live long no matter how bad your suffering. Doctor visits, hospital admissions, blood transfusions, endless medication and operations will become the norm. Why? Because this is where they make most of their money. Your suffering are the billions of dollars that enter their pockets. They will not let you go quickly or easy.

I personally am in two minds here. On one hand I am very angry with you as a generation. You took life for granted, you argued and debated you knew better. Every single bad health choice you made you justified with the biggest load of nonsense that even as a child I understood. You not only made the ridiculously health damaging choices for yourselves, but you were so selfish you exposed us all to your unhealthy lifestyles and infected many us in the process making your own children fall victim to illness and only because of your own selfish emotional desires.

 

However, on the other hand I do need to thank you. You opened my eyes and gave me the opportunity to decide a long time ago never to follow in your footsteps. I chose a different path. I have put health first and I will educate my children and the masses to take on the same road.

You all have a fork in the road of life which I hope you hit earlier rather than later but here is the shocking truth.

The fork to the left is the one following in the steps of the baby boomer generation and falling victim to health issues and illness early on in life. Allowing you to become another money-making figure for the pharmaceutical and health insurance companies and believe me they will extend your life and suffering for as long as possible to keep their revenues high. If you think you can get away with it then I wish you good luck. I promise you that neglecting it will allow you to live many miserable years of suffering on this planet.

Or, you can take the road to the right, choose health and a quality life. Nutrition, exercise, sleep and stress can all be managed if you make the conscious decision to prioritize and place it first above all else. You think it is hard, but if only you knew what was awaiting around the bend for you if you don’t. I have seen it first hand, don’t fall victim to the mistakes of the previous generation. After all, without health there is no hope, without hope there is nothing.

One hundred like a twenty-year-old, now that’s a goal!

 

All the best

M

Mark Wolff is a certified sports nutritionist and an endurance nutrition and physiology expert with over 20 years experience. An endurance multi-sport athlete with a triathlon, mountain biking and weight lifting background, he works extensively with professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports disciplines as well as those just wanting to change their lifestyles. He firmly believes that a person can only reach their full potential when their health and nutrition is down packed. Mark’s focus on nutrition and physiology is not just on training and racing, but he places major emphasis on recovery, immune system health, emotional stability, stress management and performance. Mark is co-founder of 32Gi, a sports nutrition company, focused mainly on health and endurance nutrition.

 

 

 

Categories
Health Training

BURN THAT FAT

While about on my daily routine whether in the gym or outdoors training, at the office working or shopping I have very sharp eyes. Sometimes I feel guilty about the thoughts that roll around in my head, but after all I am there to put a stop to it where I can and assist those that are in need.

Why guilty?

Because as a sports nutritionist I monitor habits. I watch what people buy in grocery stores, I see what they eat in restaurants, how they fuel themselves during and after training sessions and I judge. It’s not their fault they live by emotion, habit and daily stresses. They think they are making the right choices but they just don’t have the knowledge to ensure those choices are healthy and correct. This is where I try to turn the tables a little on the unhealthy fast moving consumer goods industry and attempt to pass on a little knowledge so that they can make better and healthier decisions going forwards.

In today’s blog I wanted to place the focus on nutrient intake and timing around exercise. Let’s face it we all want to burn that fat. There is an expression that sweat is fat crying and I am not sure if that is the reason saunas and steam baths are so loaded these days but it could not be further from the truth. Granted exercise (not sweat) is a key piece of the puzzle to burning off body fat and losing weight but nutrition is the bigger piece of the puzzle.

So let us begin with some physiology and discuss a little endocrinology specifically blood glucose balance. The pancreas an organ which sits just behind the stomach is responsible for producing the hormone known as insulin. Insulin is there to regulate blood sugar in the body and so each time blood sugar rises more insulin is produced to unlock our cells and store it to be later utilized as source energy. But what if there is a major excess of blood sugar? Assuming your carbohydrate stores are completely topped up then its stored as fat cells or adipocytes (cells stored within adipose tissue = fat under the skin). This is now basically your fat fuel cells.

So in summary you have two major sources of fuel your carbohydrate (glycogen) stores and your fat stores.

The question is how do we burn the fat?

We make sure our insulin levels are not elevated and sitting there processing excessive blood glucose and storing more fat so that we are able to burn our own fat as a source of energy.

Image Credit: Dr Peter Attia

How is this done?
Do not consume any meal before or during exercise which will cause a rise in blood sugar an inhibit fat burn.

If you are training early in the morning and the session is under 90min opt for a fasted training session you have plenty of natural energy to fuel a session like that and place the focus on hydration. By hydration I do not mean a sugar laden drink, I am talking about water or a hydration solution which has no calories in it. I personally use 32Gi Hydrate for most of my sessions to ensure I keep in the fat burning state.

If your session is a long session around 3hrs or so then by all means take with a carbohydrate drink one that does not elevate blood sugar excessively and try to go the first hour or two without the carbohydrates to ensure you stay in a nice fat burn state and only start the carbohydrate fuelling slightly later on in the session.

If you want to benefit from an exercise point of view it is know that low intensity sessions burn a higher percentage of fat however higher intensity sessions also burn off large amount over time as well as elevating your metabolic rate for longer post session. I would suggest incorporating a combination of medium to high intensity sessions as a regular part of your burn that fat regime.

If you want to understand more about how the fuel tanks (carbohydrates and fat ) are utilized during exercise then click on my video Get in the Zone to gain some insight.

The final step to the key of burning fat is what about after your exercise session. This is now probably the most crucial factor to keeping the fat burn going. Remember if you want to burn the fat then keep the blood sugar and insulin levels controlled and lower. Your recovery meal needs to be relative to your training. If you did a nice 60-90min session and and then go and down a peanut butter bomb smoothie most likely you will have put an immediate stop to burning the fat just by elevating your blood sugar too much. I see a plenty of athletes munching a bowl of oats after exercise and they might not realise it but it could be the absolute worst recovery meal they are consuming based on their exercise session time and intensity. Keep those post exercise meals properly structured, smaller and spread them out to ensure proper insulin management to keep that fat burn going while your metabolic rate is still elevated.

Make sure you earned your carbohydrates because that’s all they are earned carbohydrates and if you treat them as such you can’t go wrong.

all the best

M

Categories
Nutrition Recovery Training

RECOVERY – WHAT’S THE SECRET?

This past week I have been involved in a fair amount of discussions around the endurance lifestyle of athletes and I  always hear the same tune touching on training volume, quality versus quantity, power and heart rate and so it goes on. Then all of a sudden one of the athletes I was running with switched the topic angle slightly. He said he is always seeing my Instagram posts of what I do from a training and eating perspective and then the most important question of them all came through and that was “How do your recover ?”

Now we are talking. The most crucial aspect of anyone participating in endurance sport is without a doubt recovery. Just yesterday I noticed a post on social media which stated that running more than 40km a week will shorten your life and its been medically shown that ultra distance training damages our long term health. I actually agree with that 100%. However the research conducted over the years is in my mind biased. My reasoning for this is the research looked at how endurance sport impacts the physiology of the body negatively over time. They did not take into account the many other factors of nutrition, sleep, periodization, aerobic versus anaerobic percentages and other tricks to help the body get stronger over time and not weaker.
Let’s face it of all the athletes you know how many train excessively, work hard at their careers, sacrifice sleep, eat badly and only focus from one session to the next and no further? I would say most people. This is the typical group of athletes that formed part of that research.

It’s a fact that endurance sport breaks the body down, no doubt at all. The question is can you build it up and make it stronger, or just keep on training until you completely succumb to illness, injury or both. There is such an engrained culture of over reaching in endurance sport its quite frightening. We need to change this, we need to show longevity through endurance sport by properly looking after the body and not just throwing it into one race after the next without much care for anything but a personal best or a finish line even if you are not ready for it.

So my question to you is do you do an endurance sport?
If the answer is yes, then my next question is
What focus do you give to recovery? or are you going to be just another statistic of I did an Ironman or Comrades but now I have right ventricular dilation or broken knees and cannot train any more? So you have a medal hanger but do you have proper health?

You need to be completely honest with yourself. Personally its most of my focus, I think about every single aspect of an endurance lifestyle from nutrition to sleep, proper periodization and for those that know me well daily heart rate readings, variability and sleep monitoring as well as regular blood works so that I can keep on top of everything happening inside my body from a health and performance perspective. Yes I know I am a freak but my health is most important and if I can keep completely in tune with what is going on with the body then the risks are reduced. We know that training breaks us down but proper rest and recovery is what makes us stronger. Notice I mentioned rest and recovery separately because rest is not recovery. Recovery has a fair amount of work to include in it and that is what I want to focus on in this blog. You might think you are getting away with it now and that you will not be another statistic like the many others that have been. However inside we know that is not true, endurance sport places the body under immense stress so repairing it properly and fortifying it should be at the top of your priority list.

When it comes to recovery there are 4 main elements I focus on:

  1. Smart Training
  2. Nutrition
  3. Sleep
  4. Enablers

Smart Training
I am not going to go into this in too much detail but I will state that there is no guess work when it comes to a proper structured training program to get you to a specific goal. Over training and over racing has become so engrained in the endurance communities of today. It’s crazy to think but most amateur athletes who work full time jobs and have families tend to train and race more than professional athletes. Be smart about your training, watch the percentage of quality to volume and ensure the body has sufficient time between sessions to recover properly without overloading it to the extent that it will lead to fatigue or injury. Most coaches will agree that when an athlete is over-reaching they are generally quiet about it or just ignore it, eventually leading to injury or illness. Why? Because the mind of an athlete is so stubborn. If you are training on your own and do not have the expertise to structure a proper program based on your goals then the best advice I can give is to find a coach that is suited to your needs. If you do have a coach then the most crucial thing you can do is give honest and frequent feedback to ensure that he or she is able to guide you properly.

Nutrition
Nutrition is my number one for any endurance athlete. I will use the usual analogy I usually do of comparing an athlete to a vehicle. When you decide to participate in any endurance event you are basically turning your body into a high performance vehicle. Whether you like it or not you are placing your body under stress. Imagine owning a Lamborghini and sticking in diesel fuel and bad grade oil. I bet you there is no way if you owned a car of that nature you would shove in mediocre fuel. The same as a jet engine it only runs properly on a specific grade of jet fuel.
This is where most athletes fall short. They fuel themselves with lower grade fuels most of the time. Causing havoc and blockages with their own engines and now they are wanting to place those engines under even more stress. It’s a great recipe for disaster.
With endurance training you need to have in mind what stress you are going to be placing on the system and for how long. Meaning time and intensity (usually a measure of heart rate over time) . Then you need to decide how you are going to fuel yourself for the session, during the session and after the session. Each and every aspect of your nutrition calendar needs to be laid out in respect of the training. Its not just about selecting your favourite bib shorts or running vests while packing your bag the night before. Its about properly preparing each meal around each workout and through the day to ensure proper recovery from session to session. This means a lot of focus needs to be placed on what is being eaten between session as that will determine break down or build up over time. Not meeting the body’s requirements will only lead to a short fall. If you are not sure what, how or when to eat then its quite simple you need to get guidance from an expert that does.

Sleep

Sleep is without a doubt crucial. Its the time when the body needs to recover. Very often athletes underestimate the importance of sleep and the critical role it plays in sports performance. Most athletes sacrifice sleep due to early morning training and late nights.

Sleep is the time where the body repairs and restores. Its a well know fact that “sleep deprivation leads to depression, high blood pressure, weight gain, heart disease, and probably mortality,” says Dr. Steven Feinsilver, the director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Additionally, a 2012 study detailed how sleep deprivation increases a person’s risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Earlier studies have shown that reaction time nearly triples when a person pulls an all-nighter. Normally about a quarter of a second, it increases to 800 to 900 milliseconds. It’s about the same as the difference between being sober and being legally drunk. For elite athletes, emergency room doctors, and cab drivers, among others, losing that half of a second is costly never mind minutes over many hours due to the inability to focus due to poor cognitive function and physical fatigue.

Sleep is crucial for immunity and by placing the body under stress with physical exercise and lack of sleep is stretching the elastic bands at both ends, it will give way eventually.

If night sleep is still limited then try adding some power naps during the day. It’s been shown that taking in a large amount of caffeine before  power nap is best as consuming caffeine will eventually pass into the small intestine and get absorbed into the blood stream. It then begins a chemical reaction in the brain which blocks the receptors which are filled with Adenosine (energy transferring molecules) which actually cause drowsiness. Adenosine will make you feel very sleepy and by consuming caffeine the opposite happens when it binds to the receptors. This will trigger an effect of alertness and focus. Many people that have a power nap feel lethargic afterwards but the 20 minute coffee nap as we call it will allow you to rest for a nominal time with a feeling of energy after.

Enablers
There are ways through natural supplements to aid recovery and immunity. I use the term enablers as they can play a positive role in assisting with fortification of the body. There are no quick fixes here but some of these can be used as add ons to an already health nutrition regime.

I will only touch on a few enablers but they are important enough to receive a mention:

Magnesium
One of the key minerals utilized in thousands of chemical processes in the body, one of which is the production of ATP. It also acts as a sleep enabler by calming the nervous system. Best used would be just before sleep at night to try to aid a better nights sleep to assist with recovery and to help build those magnesium stores.
Not all magnesium’s are created equal and one must bare in mind that its easily destroyed by stomach acid. In this case I would say an absolute no to effervescent’s and look for a powerful elemental magnesium which is buffered to break down much lower down in the bowels where there is a lower acid environment.

Vitamin D3
Without a doubt one of the most lacked vitamins due to lack of good sun exposure daily. Most athletes train in gyms or in early morning hours where they do not get the benefit of what the sun has to offer. The blood tests I have seen over the last few years of plenty of athletes have shown very low end D3 and being an athlete you certainly want to be on the higher end so its worth consuming a strong dose of D3 in the mornings. This will significantly improve your immunity. Along side D3 we look to

Calcium
D3 is the precursor to calcium absorption they work hand in hand. Take the two together especially if you are prone to injuries such as stress fractures or anything else of a bone nature. Running is a high impact sport and I would advise anyone to take calcium during high volume training especially women.

Omega-3
Omega-3 fatty acids are very key in that they provide anti -inflammatory as well as immune modulatory properties. They have been shown to reduce DOMS (Muscle Soreness), improve oxygen and nutrient delivery as well as of course reducing inflammation in the body.

Probiotics
Gut bacteria is very crucial to proper nutrient absorption as well as immunity strength. Its one of the most neglected areas in athletes. I would recommend eating raw fermented foods to try to stabilise and strengthen the gut bacteria but if you are not able to your next best bet would be to get a decent refrigerated probiotic.

Protein / BCAA’s (Branch Chain Amino Acids)
Protein is the key enabler to muscle protein synthesis and in order for this to really work well it would be needed to take in a protein that has a leucine (amino acid) amount of around 2.5-3grams to trigger it. If the protein you do consume in the form of a shake or meal does not contain this you can add BCAA’s to the meal or shake in order to gain the required amount. BCAA’s consist of 3 amino acids Leucine, Isoleucine and Valine. The only scientifically proven ratio to date is the 2:1:1 ratio, there are many other higher ratios but research has not shown any proven benefit over the 2:1:1. BCAA’s should be taken with a complete protein.

Vitamin B12
A critical vitamin one of the primary ones used for processing carbohydrates which in most athletes is a major fuel tank. However B12 is also responsible for brain and mood function, energy, the central nervous system as well as a co-processor with folate (Vit B9) to produce more red blood cells and keeping haemoglobin and iron levels topped up. Vitamins B12 and B9 also work together with Vitamin B6 to control homocysteine level. High homocysteine levels are associated with heart disease. Its best to check your B levels are correct through proper bloods and consult with a medical professional to determine a course of action should they be low.

There are quite a few more enablers which I have not mentioned, however the above are quite crucial in providing some support. I would recommend before taking in any vitamin to check exactly what the levels are in the blood and from there make a decision with the guidance of a professional what to take and when.

In conclusion this blog was mainly written out of frustration and the care I have for my fellow human beings. Exercise is good in moderation, but endurance sport is absolutely not moderation. I know because I am by personality an extremist ;-).  There are two paths you can take along your personal endurance journey and destination to the finish line. You can destroy yourself over time, or you can get stronger and participate in endurance sports until a very ripe old age. There is no emotion needed when injured or ill, a race is just a race and it will be there every single year. The human body can handle so much and if you respect it, get in tune with it and listen to it, you will grow in leaps and bounds from a health and a performance perspective.

All the best

M