Welcome to Dan Riley s second installment of Texans Fitness Corner. The response continues to be overwhelming. Dan responded to five of the questions this time around and we will continue to post selected answers to your questions throughout the year. NOTE: Before engaging in any new physical activity, always consult your physician. I used to go to my local gym at least three times a week. Now, I have a small child, and am working a lot of overtime so I don't really have time to get to the gym like I want to. I have an exercise bike and an ab machine at home, but is this enough to get an effective workout? -- Scott Scott, your definition of an effective workout and my definition may vary. It is effective if it is meeting your fitness goals. Your obligation to your family and job are your priorities, as they should be. These responsibilities may not allow time to perform additional exercise. Until you have more time for exercise, continue with your current regimen. In a prior column I discussed the need for balance to develop general overall fitness. At present you are addressing your aerobic needs with your bike and some localized abdominal work with your ab machine. If time allowed I would encourage some general stretching exercises after riding your bike, and basic strength training exercises to develop the major muscles of the upper and lower body. A balanced muscular fitness program is most effectively implemented when there is some strength training equipment available. A well-equipped facility provides better variety. Without equipment you are forced to use your bodyweight as resistance, or, perform manual resistance exercise with a partner providing the resistance manually. You could also use empty plastic milk containers as dumbbells. You can add water to the jugs to increase resistance. Some people aren t strong enough to handle their body weight when performing exercises similar to pushups, pull-ups, chin-ups, parallel dips, L-seat dips, and onelegged squats. Chin-ups and dips are two of the most demanding and productive upper body exercises. A free-standing (weight assisted) chin/dip machine is needed to perform these movements. A competent spotter is a necessity when performing manual resistance exercises. If you have the financial resources I d recommend you visit one of the local businesses that sells strength training equipment. Evaluate the home unit options they have available. You may find an affordable unit that provides more balance to your muscular fitness program. An adjustable set of dumbbells and a 0 to 90 degree multi-purpose bench may be an affordable alternative. In an ideal world I d recommend you join a well-equipped fitness center staffed with qualified instructors.
If time and/or money prohibit this at this time in your life, monitor your caloric intake, eliminate any excess body fat, and continue your current exercise routine. As you grow older, stretching and strengthening exercises will become more important to your fitness needs. Good luck. Go Texans! During weight training, is there any reason to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth? I know you exhale as you raise the weight and inhale on the release, but other than that, does it make a difference if you breathe through your nose or mouth? -- M.E. In my younger years I stressed the importance of strictly adhering to a specific breathing pattern. Our rule was inhale when the weight was lowered or pulled toward the body, and exhale ( blow the weight away ) as the weight moves away from the body. The only advice I give now is, do not hold your breath. Continue breathing in a controlled manner to meet the increased oxygen needs of the muscles being exercised. Dizziness or headaches does occur with some athletes if they hold their breath while exerting a near maximum effort, especially with an exercise like the leg press. The term Valsalva maneuver is a term used to describe what takes place in the abdominal cavity when you hold your breath and exert a near maximum effort. In his book Physiology of Fitness, Dr. Brian Sharkey says, Avoid holding your breath during a lift, because this can cause a marked increase in blood pressure and the work of the heart. It also restricts the return of blood to the heart and the flow of the blood in the coronary arteries, which serve the heart muscle. Holding your breath means that just when your heart needs more oxygen, it gets less a dangerous situation, especially for older, untrained individuals. Sharkey also states that breath holding can lead to hernias. As the intensity of an exercise increases so will the need for more oxygen. The breathing pattern will progressively increase as the difficulty of the exercise increases. There will be a need to inhale and exhale more than once during each repetition. The bottom line? Don t hold your breath. Continue breathing in a smooth and controlled manner to meet the oxygen demands of the exercise you are performing. Reference: Sharkey, Brian, Physiology of Fitness, Human Kinetics Books, Champaign, Illinois, 1990. Best of luck. Go Texans!
When you encounter a player who has a good frame but a very high metabolism and has trouble putting on and maintaining weight, what do you do to help along, both nutritionally and in work outs? -- Blair Blair, you may want to check one of our previous columns. I provided some information on gaining weight that may be of some value to you. Gaining lean muscular weight is one of the most frustrating problems for many young male athletes. Ask a group of high school male athletes, How many of you want to gain weight? The majority of the group will raise their hands. Some athletes (and parents) will go to the extreme to generate weight gain. I once had a mom call and ask my opinion about a practice her 16-year-old son was following to gain weight for football. He was eating a roll of uncooked cookie dough daily to add extra calories. I almost fell out of my chair. The caloric value of cookie dough is definitely very high. Unfortunately, the number of calories coming from fat is outrageous. I m not against having a few cookies every now and then, but this was ridiculous. I m not a doctor, but eating that much sugar can t be good for you. The risk of adding unnecessary fat is also a major health concern. Some young athletes (and parents) become obsessed with gaining weight at all costs. Our concern with giving nutrition guidance to our players and young athletes is not just the short-term implications. We must also be concerned with the impact it has on their life many years after retirement. An efficient metabolism is a benefit as an adult. Maintaining a healthy bodyweight is easier than a person with a slower metabolism. An efficient metabolism is a disadvantage for the young athlete trying to gain weight. Always seek the advice of a Registered Dietitian when adjusting your caloric intake. They can provide healthy tips on boosting caloric intake. We have guidelines we give to our players trying to gain lean weight. The active athlete requires a significant number of calories. The key is to make sure you re eating enough calories to generate maximum gains in strength, and recover completely from all exercise. To reach their full potential physically they must develop a disciplined approach to eating and sleeping. We use a short checklist to ask them, How disciplined are you? Do You Eat breakfast seven days a week? Consume at least ¼ of your daily caloric requirements at breakfast? Eat a minimum of three meals a day at approximately the same time?
Consume adequate snacks to supplement the number of calories needed to generate muscular gain? Eat at least three to five pieces of fruit a day? Eat at least one vegetable a day? Consume 60% of your calories from carbohydrates, 25% from fat, and 15% from protein? Eat from all food groups? Consume 20 to 30 grams of fiber a day? Consume your necessary daily caloric intake before the day is over on game day? Consume 300 calories of complex carbohydrates immediately after a game to begin the reparation process? Drink at least eight (8 ounce) glasses of water/day, in addition to the water lost through perspiration? Go to bed at approximately the same time each night? Wake up at approximately the same time each day? Avoid the habit of sleeping in? Take a multi-vitamin pill daily? Does this require some discipline on the part of our athletes trying to gain more muscle? Absolutely! Many hard gainers want the best results but aren t willing to make the sacrifices necessary to reach the physical potential they possess. We often find players simply don t take in enough calories. This is usually due to sleeping in on the weekends, not monitoring how many calories they take in each day, skipping breakfast, or, not taking in enough calories at breakfast. Fruit juices are an easy way to add several hundred calories to your daily caloric intake. An 8-ounce glass of cranberry juice contains (147 calories), grape juice (128 calories), apple juice (116 calories), and orange juice (112 calories). Adding several glasses of fruit juice may be the boost you need to meet your caloric needs. The following is a food menu generated by a computerized nutrition program We used in the past (Nutritionist IV). We used it only as a guideline for our players to get a feel for how much food must be consumed to take in 4000 calories. We are not recommending that you, or anyone else use this as a guideline. Some athletes may need more than 4000 calories and some athletes may require less. Always use a Registered Dietitian to generate food menus.
Breakfast Serving Calories French toast w/but./syrup 4 pieces 638 English Muffin w/ jelly 2 374 Banana 2 208 2% Milk 16 oz. 240 Lunch Bean Burrito 1 345 Taco 2 372 Long grain white rice 1 cup 267 Orange 2 142 Cola 1 140 Dinner Baked chicken breast no skin 2 282 Mashed potatoes w/gravy 1 cup 217 Corn/whole kernel 1 cup 302 Whole wheat role 2 191 Lemonade 24 oz. 326 Snacks Fresh fruit salad 2 cups 262 Plain bagel 2 374 Cheese pizza 2 slices 352 Fig Newton cookies 5 265 Fresh strawberries 1.5 cups 90 TOTAL: 4044 CALORIES
Another mistake hard gainers make is exercising too often and too much. My advice is to cut back on the amount of exercise you perform. Find out how little running and lifting you to generate the best gains. This will insure complete recovery. Some athletes think the more exercise they perform the better the results. I hope this information will be of some help to you. Best of luck with your training program. Reference: Riley, Dan, & Arapoff, Jason, Washington Redskins Strength & Conditioning Guide, Spring, 2000. Has Yoga ever been considered as a component in the athlete's fitness program? -- Margie Margie, I have never incorporated Yoga into the program of the football players I have worked with. It doesn t mean that it wouldn t be beneficial. The amount of time and energy our players have available is limited. Eventually we reach a point where we begin cutting back on the volume of work our players perform to help promote recovery. We ve reached the point if we add something, we must also eliminate something. I am currently not familiar enough with Yoga to make a professional decision. I will invest some time and energy to evaluate the value of implementing Yoga into a football players fitness profile. Thank you for your interest in our program. Will you be writing any books in the near future? -- Jason I have authored four books and Human Kinetics, in Champaign, Illinois, published each. The first was published in 1976, and the fourth and last was published in 1981. Each of these books is currently out of print. I will not write another book. I will write a training manual for our players.