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It seems like every time you turn around, there’s a new, revolutionary fitness or nutrition trend just waiting to whip you into shape pronto (remember ThighMaster and the Grapefruit Diet?). But which fads are for real and which are just hype? Because it’s tedious to sift through piles of information to find the fitness gems that truly will boost your outdoor sports performance, we’ve done the work for you. We went straight to the top and asked coaches, nutritionists and trainers to set us straight on the facts—and myths—you need to know.
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Give Me Some Sugar
When sweet isn’t safe.
Artificial sweeteners like Equal, Splenda and Sweet ’N Low may contain fewer calories than sugar, but are they safe to eat? The American Dietetic Association says yes, if you stick to the recommended amounts. Several years ago, news emerged that saccharin could cause cancer, but the majority of that research was conducted on lab rats and may not apply to humans. And, even though anecdotal evidence exists linking aspartame (NutraSweet) and headaches, the Food and Drug Administration claims there’s no connection. The only people who should limit their intake of artificial sweeteners are those with certain enzyme disorders. That said, too much of anything is rarely good for you, and sugar substitutes are chemicals, after all. For more information, go to www.eatright.org or www.fda.gov .
Nature’s Cure for Depression
Forget prozac. Step outside.
It’s no secret that getting a breath of fresh air can put a smile on your face. But now there’s some science to back up the physiological reasons. Researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor recently found that spending 30 minutes in sunny weather can improve your mood and even your memory. The ideal weather to bring about this euphoria? It depends on where you live. For most of the 600 study participants, sun and a temperature of 72 degrees did the trick. For people from places with colder climates like Michigan, 65 degrees was warm enough to offer a mood boost, while Texans didn’t reap significant gains until temps climbed to 86 degrees.
Beyond the Crunch
Is core training here to stay?
According to recent figures by IDEA Health and Fitness Association, 72 percent of clubs across the country now offer core-based classes. “Core training is here to stay, and science will continue to prove what a critical role it is to train the core,” says 2005 ACE Personal Trainer of the Year Todd Durkin. We asked experts to weigh in on this trend, and how you can put it to use.
>>Core Foundation: “Core training is more than the abs and low back,” says Mark Verstegen, author of Core Performance: The Revolutionary Workout Program to Transform Your Body and Your Life (Rodale Books, 2004), and founder of Athletes’ Performance in Tempe, Arizona, and Los Angeles, California. “Rather, it’s the complete integration of shoulder, torso/core and hip stability, which anatomically are woven together. When functioning properly, they provide the foundation for every human movement and will decrease your potential for injury, and significantly improve your speed, power, strength, endurance, balance and flexibility.”
>>Use a Tool: Take a peek into any gym, and you’ll see a growing array of tools like stability balls, Bosu balls and core boards. They all have one thing in common—they throw your body off balance. Your body constantly has to adjust as you’re doing standing or seated moves on them, which activates your core muscles and translates into more power for your sport of choice, says celebrity trainer Patrick Goudeau.
>>Take It Easy: Core training should be part of an overall program, and you should ease into it like any other routine. For example, if you’re new to core training, first try some light ab work after a brisk walk or jog. As your overall fitness improves, add more difficult core moves. “Core training is essential for sports performance as well as basic functional strength and injury prevention,” says Tom Holland, exercise physiologist and creator of Tom Holland’s Total Body Workout videos. “The problem, though, lies in its misapplication for the regular person: implementing core training too early, with too much time spent on it, or with moves that are beyond the abilities of the client, with the wrong goals in mind.”
The Truth About Caffeine
Why it’s ok to drink up.
Long thought to be a harmful—if legal—drug, caffeine may not be all bad. Harvard medical researchers recently found that in small doses, caffeine has several benefits. Among them, it improves cognitive performance and muscle coordination, increases focus and exaggerates the effects of the adrenaline-high during exercise. If you drink your caffeine in the form of tea, you’ll also reap antioxidant benefits, which can stave off disease. So how much caffeine is safe to consume? Most doctors and researchers recommend no more than 200 mg per day, or about 2 cups of coffee.
The Best 30-Minute Workout
you can do more with less time.
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Despite the best intentions, sometimes it’s impossible to squeeze an hour out of your day to exercise. No sweat: The best bang for your buck is an outdoor cardio and toning circuit, says personal trainer Tom Holland. Holland (who is an accomplished triathlete and marathon runner) uses this super-quick routine:
Warm Up: 5-minute jog
Stair work: Jog to a place with stairs and do 5 minutes of stair repeats. Run up fast, then walk down slowly to recover.
Bench work: Find a bench and alternate between step-ups and tricep dips. Do 1 minute of step-ups followed by 1 minute of dips. Repeat once.
Cardio Intervals: Burn some more calories by running hard for 1 minute, then recover with a slow jog for 1 minute. Repeat three times.
Strength Training: Find another grassy spot and alternate between 30 seconds of crunches and 30 seconds of push-ups; do three sets total.
Walking lunges: Perform three sets of 20 walking lunges (10 steps forward, then 10 steps back) with 5 seconds rest between each set. (For proper form, see page 51.)
Tree Sit: Finish off those legs by performing a wall sit against a tree. Hold for 1 minute.
Cool Down: 5-minute jog
Chris Carmichael’s Three Food Tips
Eat like a pro with these top morsels of advice.
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For an active person, the key to a high-
performance diet is variety. You need carbs, protein and fat, plus essential nutrients to keep your engine stoked and your body tip-top. So drop the potato chips and clue in to these essential food tips:
1) Mix it up. The No. 1 route to fueling your body for a workout is to get yourself out of your food rut—stat. “The inclusion of one specific item will not magically boost your performance,” says Carmichael. “The best way to ensure your body receives the best fuel for training and recovery is to eat a wide variety of foods. If cereal is a favorite breakfast option, change the type of cereal from day to day, or mix two or more together. If a turkey sandwich is a favorite lunchtime meal, change the type of bread and type of lean meat, cheese and vegetables from day to day.” Variety ensures you’re getting essential nutrients and keeps your healthy diet from becoming boring.
2)No food should be considered completely off-limits. “If you have a hankering for deep-fried onion rings, eat a few. Just realize that onion rings and other pollutant-carrier foods should be consumed sparingly.”
3) Keep an open mind. “Expand your horizons when considering foods that you’ll include in your nutrition program. If you’ve never tried starfruit or mangoes, you’re not sure you’d like barley or the concept of eating cottage cheese makes you wince, I urge you to take some chances. Each week when you go to the grocery store, try to purchase one new, unusual-looking fruit or vegetable. You might just bump into a new favorite.” And that favorite may fill a nutrient void in your diet.
MYTHBUSTERS
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Nothing gets under the skin of fitness and nutrition experts more than the latest mistruths. Here they talk about the fitness, nutrition and sports misconceptions that bug them most:
The Myth: Carbs make you fat.
The Truth: “With the Atkins diet craze, people think that carbs will make you fat, but it’s not carbs that make you fat. It’s excess calories,” insists Clark. A 13-member panel of doctors and scientists agree. The panel recently wrapped up a year of research on the topic and published their findings for the US Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments. The gist? Reducing calorie intake and increasing exercise is the best way to lose weight.
The Myth: Exercise and lifting heavy weights makes you bulky.
The Truth: “There’s an erroneous and widespread belief that exercises such as biking make you bulky. Fat is what makes you bulky, while exercise gives you the best body you are genetically capable of achieving,” says Tom Holland, a personal trainer, triathlete and creator of Tom Holland’s Total Body Workout videos. Celebrity trainer and Kitchen Sink Conditioning video star Patrick Goudeau agrees: “What people fail to realize is that muscle burns calories,” so building muscle will make you leaner.
The Myth: You shouldn’t eat before exercising because you’ll burn fewer calories.
The Truth: In reality, eating prior to exercising stokes your metabolism and improves the quality of your exercise. “You really need to fuel up because you’ll have energy to have a [more intense] workout and burn more calories throughout the rest of the day,” says Nancy Clark, M.S., R.D., author of the Sports Nutrition Guidebook (Human Kinetics, 2003) and the Food Guide for Marathoners (Sports Nutrition Publishers, 2002).
The Myth: A calorie is a calorie, no matter the source.
The Truth: “It’s misleading to say that a calorie is a calorie. …That’s only the case after food is broken down to its simplest units, at the moment it is ready to be thrown into the metabolic fire. ...In the process of getting from the grocery store to your cells, however, not all foods are created equal. Wholesome, unprocessed or minimally processed foods bring vitamins, phytochemicals, minerals and trace elements into your diet—which are nutrients that you need and benefit from but that you’d miss out on by eating only bleached white rice, refined sugar and imitation cheese spread.”— Chris Carmichael, author of Food for Fitness: Eat Right to Train Right (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2004) and cycling coach to Lance Armstrong.
The Myth: Exercise alone will get you into shape.
The Truth: “People believe that if they exercise two to three times per week, they should see great results and change their body composition. This is a
fallacy. …Exercise alone doesn’t work. Nutrition is probably 70 to 80 percent of the equation, and sound nutrition, resistance training and cardio must all be combined to ensure great results,” says Todd Durkin, American Council on Exercise 2005 Personal Trainer of the Year and owner of Fitness Quest 10 Health and Human Performance Center in San Diego.
Last Updated: Dec 8th, 2005 - 07:30:48
© Copyright 1999-2005 by Hooked on the Outdoors
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