Friday, September 10, 2010
Arnold's Spirit of Success
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We've talked before about motivation, and how it's possible to see motivation as a skill to be practiced rather than a rather vague emotion. We've also talked about the requirement for lots of reps towards expertise. And likewise, we've talked about the 9S model of the athlete, where Spirit is one of those key skills of an athlete - that quality of mind that helps keep going - with gusto - on things that are moving us towards what we want to achieve, and that the best athletes have this skill (among the others) in spades.
In this recent Arnold clip on youtube, Schwarzenegger talks about his model of success across his three careers of bodybuilding, acting and politics: figuring out that you want to be a champ and "doing whatever it takes" to get there. While that sentiment may feel a little dubious, the thing that Arnie reiterates is that the Mind is more important than the Body in achieving these goals. And that the same template that worked for success in body building - finding out what it takes to be great and doing it - was applied to both his acting and his political careers. That's a lot of spirit.
One of the other notes i find compelling here? The notion of joy in doing what he's doing "in the gym for five hours a day" - one hour of which was dedicated to posing, another to flexibility, by the way. Lots of reps in all aspects of performance. It's cool to see that the best of the best work hard AND have fun doing it.
Thanks to Mike T Nelson of extreme human performance for pointing out this vid.
Happy Friday - and now, back to proposal writing, jazzed by Arnie. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
In this recent Arnold clip on youtube, Schwarzenegger talks about his model of success across his three careers of bodybuilding, acting and politics: figuring out that you want to be a champ and "doing whatever it takes" to get there. While that sentiment may feel a little dubious, the thing that Arnie reiterates is that the Mind is more important than the Body in achieving these goals. And that the same template that worked for success in body building - finding out what it takes to be great and doing it - was applied to both his acting and his political careers. That's a lot of spirit.
One of the other notes i find compelling here? The notion of joy in doing what he's doing "in the gym for five hours a day" - one hour of which was dedicated to posing, another to flexibility, by the way. Lots of reps in all aspects of performance. It's cool to see that the best of the best work hard AND have fun doing it.
Thanks to Mike T Nelson of extreme human performance for pointing out this vid.
Happy Friday - and now, back to proposal writing, jazzed by Arnie. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
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Thursday, September 2, 2010
Protein the Magnificent: not just about muscles.
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Ask someone - particularly someone into working out - what protein is for - eating it; having it - and most of the time we'll hear "muscle building." And yes sure, skeletal muscle is the largest single source of protein in the body (50% of the lean mass of our bods is skeletal muscle) but that is just TOTALLY INCOMPLETE.
The Bigger Picture. Indeed, you may be as surprised as i was on first learning a more accurate answer to "what is protein for" is really "everything." - Just consider this list of what requires protein or just IS protein.
The Primacy of Protein
Like fat and carbs, protein has carbon and hydrogen. Unlike fats and carbs, protein has Nitrogen (part of their amino group). And here we get to the interesting bits. Just a reminder, nitrogen is fundamental to life (overview of nitrogen's role). This without nitrogen no life, and protein being in everything kinda hints at the reason perhaps for protein being called PROTEIN. As per this definition:
The smallest protein is an Amino Acid. When little groups get together to make bigger groups we get Peptides, which form up as peptide chains
these in turn are bended and folded and twisted into various shapes that make it usable for whatever role these proteins have before they begin their new life as food.
What Happens to Protein in Digestion and Beyond?
What happens when we eat protein? First, most of the time we eat food that has protein in it, right as opposed to just "protein"? So, chew chew chew, masticate, get food into bits with saliva; then food into stomach.
Stomach As food hits the stomach, hydrocholoric acid gets dumped on it, which does interesting things to all food, but to protein it has the special process of denaturing the folded bendy structures of the proteins. While these structures are important for proteins to do what they do when in living cells, for use as food, these structures need to be, well, unpacked.
So, for the purposes of getting at the amino acids, denaturing starts hiving off the other bits of the protein structures that can be used for other things. (By the way, cooking and salting can also denature parts of proteins' stuctures in food).
So acid in the stomach is one part of the stomach process. But in the amazing life of proteins as doers of everything, other proteins-as-enzymes (pepsinogen into pepsin) get happening in the stomach to break the chains of amino acids that have been unpacked from the folds and bends. The remaining "polypeptides" and single amino acids head to the small intestine.
Small Intestine I dunno about you, but the way i've imagined the small intestine is just food getting pushed through a pipe. The stomach's a tank and the intestine's a pipe. Well, no. It turns out the small intestine is more like a conveyor belt where mechanisms operate at each stage on food that keeps processing and changing (metabolizing) the stuff that's in it.
If we're taking stuff apart, we're using enzymes (more proteins), and the small intestine is, in part, doing more disassembling. The pancreas kicks proenzymes into the small intestine, these get going with other enzymes that together act as the un-superglue of peptides. Now we get smallers peptides and free amino acids heading for absorption.
Absorption and Over Crowding at the Border
Ok, i admit it, this next bit seems extremely cool to me and may even have practical implications for those of us who like to experiment with supplements. The small intestine has linings and stuff has to move through the linings to get to the blood stream. Before the proteins get into the next phase of processing (into the blood stream and most thence to the liver), they need to be transported. We won't go into it, but there are four types of transport processes, and each require energy - ATP (the stuff also used for things like muscle contraction) to do the job. So right there is an example of why just staying alive burns calories: moving amino acids out of the gut takes energy.
And by now, you guessed it, those transporters are also proteins. So here's the situation: there's proteins in the gut waiting to get moved to the blood supply. Peptides, branch chain amino acids, individual free form amino acids. They need transporters to take them there. There's a limited number of transporters at any one time and of any one type. We literally can get into a state of cuing up and overcrowding. Which peptides/amino acids go first? It ain't free form amino acids. Nope. It's the branch chain amino acids - these bigger groups take different transporters which seem to head out first. Which is better than being caught in traffic. So next time someone talks about using bcaa's to get to their muscles fast after a hard workout, you know they're not kidding: bcaas it seem can get on the bus out of the gut quite effectively. The ones that get out, that is.
The Liver A lot of the absorbed amino acids (like glutamine) get used right there for energy and intestinal cell growth. If an amino acid makes it past being used for energy or local (non skeletal muscle ) cell building (and only about a fifth of proteins ingested do), it heads into the blood stream into the amino acid pool.
Amino Acid Pool: Resources on Call for Just in Time Service.
The amino acid pool has about 100g of proteins ready and wating to be called into service at any time. That's not a lot but it's not a little. It's just getting turned over frequently as proteins are constantly being used and rebuilt.
Proteins are so important, and so versatile. Many can be constructed on the fly from available protein resources in the bloodstream, or the "amino acid pool." Part of the process of metabolism (changing stuff) is to take the proteins we ingest and convert them as needed by the demands of our bodies into the proteins we need. They can be converted into non-protein compounds (to be used in lieu of carbs in glyconeogenisis) and catabolized for ATP/energy conversion. Indeed, here's a shocker (to me): about 5% of the energy from longer duration activities comes from BCAAs.
This processing is where essential and non-essential proteins come into play. The essentials are the ones we need to ingest because we can't synthesize them.
It's a Wading Poo: No Deep End
That said, our bloodstream it seems is already pretty full with other stuff besides proteins cuing up for use. So we don't store a lot. Therefore, we need to ingest protein regularly. This need doesn't mean go nuts on protein. More doesn't always mean better, right? But it does mean that our bodies need a pretty consistent flow of them. And if it doesn't get those proteins from our diet? Our bodies will start taking proteins from other sources. Like muscle. And repurpose them. We're wired for survival not performance or prettiness.
Amino Acids: eat your veggies
This is just an aside to remind us that we can get the amino acids we need from plant based diets. And likewise if we rely on veggies, we will also be getting more than just protein. One of the advantages of a more plant based (i didn't say vegetarian) diet is that well, you get a lot of protein from eating a range of veggies, we also get lots of other nutrients not found just in meats/dairy, and they are less energy and calorically dense. So we can eat rather a lot, volume wise. If we get a good mix of veggies and legumes, we don't need to worry too much either about whether or not we're getting whole proteins and all the essential amino acids we need.
Protein turnover, though, means that likely the worst thing to compromise in one's diet IS protein
a) because we're mainly organisms made up of protein and water.
b) because we don't store a lot of protein for re-use in the amino acid pools and
c) because the proteins in all parts of us are constantly being replenished
Muscle is still Protein, right?
Muscle is just one of the tissues in our body that requires and turns over protein regularly. If all tissue cells have protein as a part of them, then presumably sufficient protein needs to be available for all the metabolic signalling (hormones and enzymes) and new tissue building (more amino acids), and sufficient energy stores need to be available to support the building process (ATP).
Protein synthesis is, as best i understand, cells' DNA signalling to say there's a need to create more protein of some kind for a particular requirement - whether that's a requirement to generate more hormones or muscle tissue or antibodies. Muscle use - when pushed to adapt to new stresses causes existing protein to breakdown in normal turn over and to be rebuilt, and rebuild more tissue as needed. The tissue is largely protein based. But so are the cells in our body.
Protein turnover (catabolism and anabolism) is happening all the time in all parts of the body, not just muscle, as cells die, get flushed and replaced. In muscle building we usually focus on protein synthesis - the generation of new protein - and crave anabolism and fear catabolism. We want MORE not less. But protein turnover, it seems from all the above, is important, and part of staying healthy, and effects more or less everything in our bodies.
How much protein to eat?
I'm not going to get into how much protein do we need. The 1g to 1lb of body weight is a pretty grounded heuristic for two reasons:
The point of this piece is less about hypertrophy - of which we know so little - and more to share or to raise awareness that muscle building for our body is just one job that protein has to support in the organisms that are us. For me, kinda puts muscle building in perspective and no wonder we know so little about it, since it's a part of such an integrated protein dance.
News note: I understand b2d buddy Mike T Nelson is doing a chapter of a book on Protein with Lonnie Lowery (of a neat theory on the Pump, discussed here) - so will look forward to that.
In the meantime, i sing the body electric may well be replaced with i sing the protein electric, from the smallest signal to cell to the building of that cell, protein is involved. How 'bout that?
Texts
Related Posts
The Bigger Picture. Indeed, you may be as surprised as i was on first learning a more accurate answer to "what is protein for" is really "everything." - Just consider this list of what requires protein or just IS protein.
- collagen, hair, skin, bone middles - all big huge protein components
- every cell in the body EVERY cell requires protein to be replenished or replaced
- muscles for sure, but organs too: protein protein protein.
- the instructions for our dna, which inhabit cells, are proteins. The genetic code in the the ribosome (beside-ish the cell nucleus) for which all the recent research about "gene expression" comes, is protein.
- hormones like insulin - the messengers of what to do in terms of chemical processes to stop and start - are proteins
- enzymes that are essential to metabolism and respond to hormone messages, yes, protein. Indeed there are 6 types of enzymatic reactions for moving, rearranging, breaking for reforming, joining, oxidizing. All proteins. Some are also faster others slower for limiting the rate of change. Amazing proteins.
- antibodies for defending our cells against infection- more proteins.
- energy - yes, sometimes we need/use proteins to produce the ATP we need (usually refered to as "energy" ) to be able to move our muscles.
The Primacy of Protein
Like fat and carbs, protein has carbon and hydrogen. Unlike fats and carbs, protein has Nitrogen (part of their amino group). And here we get to the interesting bits. Just a reminder, nitrogen is fundamental to life (overview of nitrogen's role). This without nitrogen no life, and protein being in everything kinda hints at the reason perhaps for protein being called PROTEIN. As per this definition:1844, from Fr. protéine, coined 1838 by Du. chemist Gerhard Johan Mulder (1802-1880), perhaps on suggestion of Berzelius, from Gk. proteios "the first quality," from protos "first." Originally a theoretical substance thought to be essential to life, the modern use is from Ger. Protein, borrowed in Eng. 1907.Proteins are constructed things:
The smallest protein is an Amino Acid. When little groups get together to make bigger groups we get Peptides, which form up as peptide chains
these in turn are bended and folded and twisted into various shapes that make it usable for whatever role these proteins have before they begin their new life as food.
What Happens to Protein in Digestion and Beyond?
What happens when we eat protein? First, most of the time we eat food that has protein in it, right as opposed to just "protein"? So, chew chew chew, masticate, get food into bits with saliva; then food into stomach.
Stomach As food hits the stomach, hydrocholoric acid gets dumped on it, which does interesting things to all food, but to protein it has the special process of denaturing the folded bendy structures of the proteins. While these structures are important for proteins to do what they do when in living cells, for use as food, these structures need to be, well, unpacked.
So, for the purposes of getting at the amino acids, denaturing starts hiving off the other bits of the protein structures that can be used for other things. (By the way, cooking and salting can also denature parts of proteins' stuctures in food).
So acid in the stomach is one part of the stomach process. But in the amazing life of proteins as doers of everything, other proteins-as-enzymes (pepsinogen into pepsin) get happening in the stomach to break the chains of amino acids that have been unpacked from the folds and bends. The remaining "polypeptides" and single amino acids head to the small intestine.
If we're taking stuff apart, we're using enzymes (more proteins), and the small intestine is, in part, doing more disassembling. The pancreas kicks proenzymes into the small intestine, these get going with other enzymes that together act as the un-superglue of peptides. Now we get smallers peptides and free amino acids heading for absorption.
Absorption and Over Crowding at the Border
Ok, i admit it, this next bit seems extremely cool to me and may even have practical implications for those of us who like to experiment with supplements. The small intestine has linings and stuff has to move through the linings to get to the blood stream. Before the proteins get into the next phase of processing (into the blood stream and most thence to the liver), they need to be transported. We won't go into it, but there are four types of transport processes, and each require energy - ATP (the stuff also used for things like muscle contraction) to do the job. So right there is an example of why just staying alive burns calories: moving amino acids out of the gut takes energy.
And by now, you guessed it, those transporters are also proteins. So here's the situation: there's proteins in the gut waiting to get moved to the blood supply. Peptides, branch chain amino acids, individual free form amino acids. They need transporters to take them there. There's a limited number of transporters at any one time and of any one type. We literally can get into a state of cuing up and overcrowding. Which peptides/amino acids go first? It ain't free form amino acids. Nope. It's the branch chain amino acids - these bigger groups take different transporters which seem to head out first. Which is better than being caught in traffic. So next time someone talks about using bcaa's to get to their muscles fast after a hard workout, you know they're not kidding: bcaas it seem can get on the bus out of the gut quite effectively. The ones that get out, that is.
The Liver A lot of the absorbed amino acids (like glutamine) get used right there for energy and intestinal cell growth. If an amino acid makes it past being used for energy or local (non skeletal muscle ) cell building (and only about a fifth of proteins ingested do), it heads into the blood stream into the amino acid pool.
Amino Acid Pool: Resources on Call for Just in Time Service.
The amino acid pool has about 100g of proteins ready and wating to be called into service at any time. That's not a lot but it's not a little. It's just getting turned over frequently as proteins are constantly being used and rebuilt.
Proteins are so important, and so versatile. Many can be constructed on the fly from available protein resources in the bloodstream, or the "amino acid pool." Part of the process of metabolism (changing stuff) is to take the proteins we ingest and convert them as needed by the demands of our bodies into the proteins we need. They can be converted into non-protein compounds (to be used in lieu of carbs in glyconeogenisis) and catabolized for ATP/energy conversion. Indeed, here's a shocker (to me): about 5% of the energy from longer duration activities comes from BCAAs.
This processing is where essential and non-essential proteins come into play. The essentials are the ones we need to ingest because we can't synthesize them.
It's a Wading Poo: No Deep End
That said, our bloodstream it seems is already pretty full with other stuff besides proteins cuing up for use. So we don't store a lot. Therefore, we need to ingest protein regularly. This need doesn't mean go nuts on protein. More doesn't always mean better, right? But it does mean that our bodies need a pretty consistent flow of them. And if it doesn't get those proteins from our diet? Our bodies will start taking proteins from other sources. Like muscle. And repurpose them. We're wired for survival not performance or prettiness.
Amino Acids: eat your veggies
This is just an aside to remind us that we can get the amino acids we need from plant based diets. And likewise if we rely on veggies, we will also be getting more than just protein. One of the advantages of a more plant based (i didn't say vegetarian) diet is that well, you get a lot of protein from eating a range of veggies, we also get lots of other nutrients not found just in meats/dairy, and they are less energy and calorically dense. So we can eat rather a lot, volume wise. If we get a good mix of veggies and legumes, we don't need to worry too much either about whether or not we're getting whole proteins and all the essential amino acids we need.
Protein turnover, though, means that likely the worst thing to compromise in one's diet IS protein
a) because we're mainly organisms made up of protein and water.
b) because we don't store a lot of protein for re-use in the amino acid pools and
c) because the proteins in all parts of us are constantly being replenished
Muscle is still Protein, right?
Muscle is just one of the tissues in our body that requires and turns over protein regularly. If all tissue cells have protein as a part of them, then presumably sufficient protein needs to be available for all the metabolic signalling (hormones and enzymes) and new tissue building (more amino acids), and sufficient energy stores need to be available to support the building process (ATP).
Protein synthesis is, as best i understand, cells' DNA signalling to say there's a need to create more protein of some kind for a particular requirement - whether that's a requirement to generate more hormones or muscle tissue or antibodies. Muscle use - when pushed to adapt to new stresses causes existing protein to breakdown in normal turn over and to be rebuilt, and rebuild more tissue as needed. The tissue is largely protein based. But so are the cells in our body.
Protein turnover (catabolism and anabolism) is happening all the time in all parts of the body, not just muscle, as cells die, get flushed and replaced. In muscle building we usually focus on protein synthesis - the generation of new protein - and crave anabolism and fear catabolism. We want MORE not less. But protein turnover, it seems from all the above, is important, and part of staying healthy, and effects more or less everything in our bodies.
How much protein to eat?
I'm not going to get into how much protein do we need. The 1g to 1lb of body weight is a pretty grounded heuristic for two reasons:
- it's very difficult to go toxic on protein (discussed here), so potentially overeating protein in the mix of other nutrients is likely ok if one's going to err on a given macronutrient.
- but, lets remember that overeating ANY food pushing into caloric surplus means what's not needed goes to fat.
The point of this piece is less about hypertrophy - of which we know so little - and more to share or to raise awareness that muscle building for our body is just one job that protein has to support in the organisms that are us. For me, kinda puts muscle building in perspective and no wonder we know so little about it, since it's a part of such an integrated protein dance.
News note: I understand b2d buddy Mike T Nelson is doing a chapter of a book on Protein with Lonnie Lowery (of a neat theory on the Pump, discussed here) - so will look forward to that.
In the meantime, i sing the body electric may well be replaced with i sing the protein electric, from the smallest signal to cell to the building of that cell, protein is involved. How 'bout that?
Texts
Beyond the links in this post, the Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nurtition (certification manual) by Berardi and Andrews along with Exercise Physiologyand Advanced Nutrition
helped inform this presentation. Any errors in presentation are mine.
Related Posts
- respect the fat
- carbohydrates: the new fat
- optimal protein blends
- supplements: is what's on the label what's in the tin
- post workout recovery window: real or myth? - minute with mike
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
How To Coach Nutrition for Health, Fitness and Body Comp Goals: do the Precision Nutrition Level 1 cert
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When is a PhD useless? Ok that's extreme, but if you listen to John Berardi talk about his nutrition coaching and his PhD, he says it's when it didn't help him do what he wanted to do: coach folks how to improve their nutrition and achieve their fitness, health and body comp goals:
Whether you're intrested in upping your nutrition know how for training others, or just want to know what a great coach would be able to offer, this course overview may be of interest.
Success: I've just completed the PN level 1 cert, and it's very good (and i'm v.happy, too. You know, yay i passed? happy dance time). One might ask, how would i know a good nutrition course if it fell on me since i don't hold either an RD or a PhD in Nutrition or Exercise Physiology myself? Well, here's the thing: i have a lot of reps designing and evaluating grad and undergrad courses in a number of subjects, and reviewing text books for publishers. Quality will out. The same stuff that makes a good course in one area, i've seen, pretty much makes a good course elsewhere too.
Also, in recognised training certs like the NSCA CSCS (which i do hold), there is a Big Component on bioenergetics, how the body uses nutrients for exercise, as featured in the text Essentials of Strenght and Conditioning
. That courses' materials are pretty comprehensive. Similarly there are excellent general course texts in Exercise physiology like the awesome 7th edition of McArdle and team's Exercise Physiology. In both cases, the text material covers a lot more than nutrition. Meaning that, compared to PN's cert which is solely focused on nutrition coaching (with an eye on the need for exercise too), is better.
I still highly recommend doing the CSCS or related to get the foundational knowledge for those of us who mayn't be coming through a formal sports degree program, but for getting deeper into how to fuel someone's fuel to meet their health, fitness and body comp goals, more is needed. And the right more. Hence PN L1
In the PN cert, the course is delivered in two parts: nutrition fundamentals and nutrition coaching - all focused around health, fitness and body comp goals for the person involved. I take it that's a pretty unique emPHAsis.
Nutrition and Energy, part 1
The first half of the PN certification focuses on the usual stuff one might expect to be covered in a course about nutrition, like how carbs and fats and proteins are processed in the body, but for me, it's done in a more accessible while still not oversimplified way. It also has components that the trainer certs so far have not. For instance, it's chapter on Water Balance goes well beyond what i've found in any of the cert texts and several grad course texts. The explanation on hyponatremia (too much water) is fantanstic - and by the way, too much water in a practical sense means relative to sodium balance. Amazing and rather critical point. Likewise the case study on how to use water effectively over a ten day period to make weight for a competition. Nice practical wisdom.
Something else nicely done is digestion itself. Rather than just getting info on macro & micro nutrients, we get the big picture: what happens to a lump of food from the moment it enters the body till it leaves the body. Makes sense but you'll be hard pressed to find that in most units on nutrition or even text books on bioenergetics. Did you know that a hunk of food once it's moved from the stomach into the gut has a name? It's called the chyme. Before that, once masticated to be swallowed, it's a bolus.
Combined Play
That may seem like nice info but not essential. Fine. The thing that really gets me going about this course are the questions posed in the study guide to see if one has grokked what's going on in the material. They are so basic that one wonders why this stuff isn't a core highschool curriculum. We may not come with a manual, and there's lots of stuff we don't know, but there are some things over which there is a larger consensus. How do you do with these questions:
Above and beyond the nutrients, the vitamins, the phytochemicals, the authors are dead keen on people talking about, thinking about FOOD rather than macro/micro nutrients. "Because people eat food" and because food is more than macro/micro nutrients. Its got psycho- / sociologico- components, and these things are important for coaching real people who eat real food. Ah but we like to play with supplements, too, do we not? Well that's actually in the coaching section: how to understand when and where these might come into play.
Successfully Coaching Change, part 2
While this kind of clarity around digestive and absorptive processes especially relative to energy needs is fascinating and important, and i feel the better for having it, where the course sets itself apart is in how it maps out a process of coaching towards "outcomes based" goals. That is, goals that are meaningful, doable and especially, trace-able.
There is as much attention to this part of coaching as professional practice as there is to the nutrition theory. Here's a practical take away. Folks who have used PN know that measures it takes are not only the scale and girth, but also 7 site skinfolds. Actually getting readings at each of those skinfold sites can offer up information about what may be going on in the body if say, fat is being lost from all but one of those sites. How bout that, eh? I'd spend a lot of time going through the literature looking at the accuracy of one measuring technique over another and why and when 7point sf's are good; had not once come across the value of any of those sites for specific information. Wicked.
Oh and here are a few questions from the Coaching part of the program:
The coaching part of the program has mutliple key components presented in progressive sensible fashion, each situated within when someone would do what : from gathering info, to interpreting it, to using it to formulate a plan, to assessing when it's actually the program not client adherence that may need tweaking; how to tweak a plan. And more: how to anticipate and work with client issues around getting one with their new nutrition practice.
Course Approach: Athlete at the Center
I've said recently how i really like the model of coaching that puts the athlete at the center and then considers the athlete's needs (i use the term athlete in the z-health way where if you're moving you're an athlete). I've presented the 9S model (overview here) that includes categorizes those needs in terms of sustenance, suppleness, strength, spirit, speed, skill, stamina, structure and style. The job of a great coach is to be able to figure out what the athlete needs when, and how to offer those skills to that athlete in a way that the athlete can hear and use.
The Precision Nutrition Level 1 cert gives a coach an awful lot of those tools for the sustentance part of that coaching. It helps the coach
Course Materials:
Beyond the approach and deliverables of the cert content, this course just kinda sings of quality, thought and beta testing. From a pedagogy perspective, this course presents really well constructed, well considered material, from the content to the study aids (and there are copious study aids for various learning modes). Likewise the material has been used for a module in a masters program, so it's had high level students test it out. And students are not shy of sharing what they think of materials. Its apparently thrived in that environment.
If you're interested in checking out the program, PN has made a TON of material available to provide a clear sense of the course. If you sign up to the waiting list to do the course you'll see that what's on the label is what's in the tin. To connect you with some of those weigh points:
Text Book Overview. The table of contents for the PN Cert textbook is online here. That will give you a very clear idea of the material covered and assessed by the program in both bioenergetics and coaching parts. Because the material here is not a single module in a larger program as it is in various trainer certs there is space to go into the material in a meaningful and applied way and in significant but practical detail. It's just a great book.
Previewing the Coaching Methodology: If you'd like to get a flavour of the coaching methodology, there's a free, five day, 12 mins a day, mini course for trainers that PN has set up - and they provide the forms used for client assessment, too. I'm kinda stunned at how much material is given away in this wee freebie. If this mini-course speaks to you, then the cert will be right up your street. 6 forms of those used in the course for assessments are provided - that gives one an idea of the kinds of tools one will be able to offer a client to develop a meaningful assessment and build an effective outcomes-based program.
Likewise, if you'd like a sense of the bibliography that informs this approach towards client support, here's an overview of the coaching books Berardi recommends.
Questions to ask a prospective coach on Nutrition
Even if you're not personally interested in taking a PN cert, looking at the above will help get a handle on what a great coach will be able to do to work WITH and FOR you and your goals.
So if you're looking for a nutrition coach - someone to help you get going or tweak what you're doing, an easy thing you can do is just look at who's already listed with PN and go from there.
If you'er interested in someone who isn't listed, there are some questions you may want to ask:
Summary: Qualified
Last year i did a five day super intense course on nutrition and getting into some very intense topics in what's going on with inflammation, foods, diets and looking at the homeostatic and hedonistic attributes that contribute to why, effectively, change is tough. That course too spend a good deal of time on coaching practice with emphasis on motivational interviewing and approaches very much in sync with Berardi's above. We practiced these techniques a lot. I keep thinking what great synergies there are between these two programs.
Looking Ahead from "theory" to praxis. Now PNL1 is what PN calls the "theory" side of their certification process. At a chapter a week, it's about a 16 week course. Some folks doing 2-3 chapters a week, it's faster. There's an invitation-only Level 2 which is a practicum and it's 6months long. It hasn't started up. But based on how much further ahead i feel with just this "theory" on nutrition coaching, i am prepared to be gob smacked by what the Level 2 practicum will require and provide.
I've worked with folks before on nutrition planning. I've felt good about my work with folks and their progress. Right now, with this cert, i have to say i feel WAY better. I have better tools, resources, knowledge to enhance the skills i have and offer way better support.
Excellent course, highly recommended. If you're looking for a great cert to add effective practical nutrition coaching to your practice, this is an awesome course. Even the exam is great - with an 80% pass rate. Really engaging. How often does one say that about an exam.
Likewise, of course, if you're looking for good nutrition coaching, the PN certified directory is a great place to start. G'head, call me.
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Precision Nutrition: personal nutrition benchmarking. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Enter the Precision Nutrition Level 1 certification, designed by Berardi, the co-founder and chief science officer of Precision Nutrition, and Ryan Andrews, RD and director for education at PN (and interviewed recently here at b2d). Its design fills a considerable gap in the nutrition coaching space for health, fitness and body comp success. Why? because it covers not only nutrition fundamentals, but then devotes the same amount of energy to how to apply and coach that esoterica in a way that is meaningful for people who eat food.Ultimately, I went to study in the Exercise and Nutrition Lab at the University of Western Ontario, and wrapped up my grad work in Exercise Physiology and Nutrient Biochemistry. But really, I never learned what I set out to learn — exercise and sport nutrition coaching.
John Berardi, PhD, CSCS
Whether you're intrested in upping your nutrition know how for training others, or just want to know what a great coach would be able to offer, this course overview may be of interest.
Success: I've just completed the PN level 1 cert, and it's very good (and i'm v.happy, too. You know, yay i passed? happy dance time). One might ask, how would i know a good nutrition course if it fell on me since i don't hold either an RD or a PhD in Nutrition or Exercise Physiology myself? Well, here's the thing: i have a lot of reps designing and evaluating grad and undergrad courses in a number of subjects, and reviewing text books for publishers. Quality will out. The same stuff that makes a good course in one area, i've seen, pretty much makes a good course elsewhere too.
Also, in recognised training certs like the NSCA CSCS (which i do hold), there is a Big Component on bioenergetics, how the body uses nutrients for exercise, as featured in the text Essentials of Strenght and Conditioning. That courses' materials are pretty comprehensive. Similarly there are excellent general course texts in Exercise physiology like the awesome 7th edition of McArdle and team's Exercise Physiology. In both cases, the text material covers a lot more than nutrition. Meaning that, compared to PN's cert which is solely focused on nutrition coaching (with an eye on the need for exercise too), is better.I still highly recommend doing the CSCS or related to get the foundational knowledge for those of us who mayn't be coming through a formal sports degree program, but for getting deeper into how to fuel someone's fuel to meet their health, fitness and body comp goals, more is needed. And the right more. Hence PN L1In the PN cert, the course is delivered in two parts: nutrition fundamentals and nutrition coaching - all focused around health, fitness and body comp goals for the person involved. I take it that's a pretty unique emPHAsis.
Nutrition and Energy, part 1
The first half of the PN certification focuses on the usual stuff one might expect to be covered in a course about nutrition, like how carbs and fats and proteins are processed in the body, but for me, it's done in a more accessible while still not oversimplified way. It also has components that the trainer certs so far have not. For instance, it's chapter on Water Balance goes well beyond what i've found in any of the cert texts and several grad course texts. The explanation on hyponatremia (too much water) is fantanstic - and by the way, too much water in a practical sense means relative to sodium balance. Amazing and rather critical point. Likewise the case study on how to use water effectively over a ten day period to make weight for a competition. Nice practical wisdom.
Something else nicely done is digestion itself. Rather than just getting info on macro & micro nutrients, we get the big picture: what happens to a lump of food from the moment it enters the body till it leaves the body. Makes sense but you'll be hard pressed to find that in most units on nutrition or even text books on bioenergetics. Did you know that a hunk of food once it's moved from the stomach into the gut has a name? It's called the chyme. Before that, once masticated to be swallowed, it's a bolus.
Combined Play
That may seem like nice info but not essential. Fine. The thing that really gets me going about this course are the questions posed in the study guide to see if one has grokked what's going on in the material. They are so basic that one wonders why this stuff isn't a core highschool curriculum. We may not come with a manual, and there's lots of stuff we don't know, but there are some things over which there is a larger consensus. How do you do with these questions:
- What are the two most important nutrient/energy stores in the human body? How are the responsible for survival?
- What does cholesterol actually do? Why is it important.
- What are ketones? why are they formed?
- What happens to carbs from mouth to cell?
- What's the relation of the fat we eat to our cells' membranes?
- In what ways can you estimate water needs for clients?
Above and beyond the nutrients, the vitamins, the phytochemicals, the authors are dead keen on people talking about, thinking about FOOD rather than macro/micro nutrients. "Because people eat food" and because food is more than macro/micro nutrients. Its got psycho- / sociologico- components, and these things are important for coaching real people who eat real food. Ah but we like to play with supplements, too, do we not? Well that's actually in the coaching section: how to understand when and where these might come into play.
Successfully Coaching Change, part 2
While this kind of clarity around digestive and absorptive processes especially relative to energy needs is fascinating and important, and i feel the better for having it, where the course sets itself apart is in how it maps out a process of coaching towards "outcomes based" goals. That is, goals that are meaningful, doable and especially, trace-able.
There is as much attention to this part of coaching as professional practice as there is to the nutrition theory. Here's a practical take away. Folks who have used PN know that measures it takes are not only the scale and girth, but also 7 site skinfolds. Actually getting readings at each of those skinfold sites can offer up information about what may be going on in the body if say, fat is being lost from all but one of those sites. How bout that, eh? I'd spend a lot of time going through the literature looking at the accuracy of one measuring technique over another and why and when 7point sf's are good; had not once come across the value of any of those sites for specific information. Wicked.
Oh and here are a few questions from the Coaching part of the program:
- Why is it important to know a client's previous exercise habits?
- What are five staple supplements for regular or occasional use?
- What are five strategies you can use when choosing supplements to improve the risk/reward profile?
- What are the most common food allergies in adults?
- When displaying professsional committment to your clients, what key factors should you keep in mind?
- When might counting calories be important to your client's success.
- What can you suggest to clients who lack social support?
- What's your client's limiting factor for making change?
The coaching part of the program has mutliple key components presented in progressive sensible fashion, each situated within when someone would do what : from gathering info, to interpreting it, to using it to formulate a plan, to assessing when it's actually the program not client adherence that may need tweaking; how to tweak a plan. And more: how to anticipate and work with client issues around getting one with their new nutrition practice.
Course Approach: Athlete at the Center
I've said recently how i really like the model of coaching that puts the athlete at the center and then considers the athlete's needs (i use the term athlete in the z-health way where if you're moving you're an athlete). I've presented the 9S model (overview here) that includes categorizes those needs in terms of sustenance, suppleness, strength, spirit, speed, skill, stamina, structure and style. The job of a great coach is to be able to figure out what the athlete needs when, and how to offer those skills to that athlete in a way that the athlete can hear and use.
The Precision Nutrition Level 1 cert gives a coach an awful lot of those tools for the sustentance part of that coaching. It helps the coach
- assess where an athlete is at with respect to nutrition and nutrition change right now
- it provides sufficient knowledge on nutrition and communication to be able to understand how to tune a program for that athlete
- if offers strategies to help guide the athlete through the change process.
- it affords a network of colleagues to connect about challenges in practice.
Course Materials:
Beyond the approach and deliverables of the cert content, this course just kinda sings of quality, thought and beta testing. From a pedagogy perspective, this course presents really well constructed, well considered material, from the content to the study aids (and there are copious study aids for various learning modes). Likewise the material has been used for a module in a masters program, so it's had high level students test it out. And students are not shy of sharing what they think of materials. Its apparently thrived in that environment.
If you're interested in checking out the program, PN has made a TON of material available to provide a clear sense of the course. If you sign up to the waiting list to do the course you'll see that what's on the label is what's in the tin. To connect you with some of those weigh points:
Previewing the Coaching Methodology: If you'd like to get a flavour of the coaching methodology, there's a free, five day, 12 mins a day, mini course for trainers that PN has set up - and they provide the forms used for client assessment, too. I'm kinda stunned at how much material is given away in this wee freebie. If this mini-course speaks to you, then the cert will be right up your street. 6 forms of those used in the course for assessments are provided - that gives one an idea of the kinds of tools one will be able to offer a client to develop a meaningful assessment and build an effective outcomes-based program.
Likewise, if you'd like a sense of the bibliography that informs this approach towards client support, here's an overview of the coaching books Berardi recommends.
Questions to ask a prospective coach on Nutrition
Even if you're not personally interested in taking a PN cert, looking at the above will help get a handle on what a great coach will be able to do to work WITH and FOR you and your goals.
So if you're looking for a nutrition coach - someone to help you get going or tweak what you're doing, an easy thing you can do is just look at who's already listed with PN and go from there.
If you'er interested in someone who isn't listed, there are some questions you may want to ask:
- how do you assess where i'm at and what my needs are?
- How do you refine goals?
- What is your style of coaching?
- How do you measure progress?
- how frequently do we meet?
- What materials will you provide me?
- How long will "it" take to get where i want to go with you?
- How will you assess that?
- What kind of tuning do you do on an approach, when?
Summary: Qualified
Last year i did a five day super intense course on nutrition and getting into some very intense topics in what's going on with inflammation, foods, diets and looking at the homeostatic and hedonistic attributes that contribute to why, effectively, change is tough. That course too spend a good deal of time on coaching practice with emphasis on motivational interviewing and approaches very much in sync with Berardi's above. We practiced these techniques a lot. I keep thinking what great synergies there are between these two programs.
Looking Ahead from "theory" to praxis. Now PNL1 is what PN calls the "theory" side of their certification process. At a chapter a week, it's about a 16 week course. Some folks doing 2-3 chapters a week, it's faster. There's an invitation-only Level 2 which is a practicum and it's 6months long. It hasn't started up. But based on how much further ahead i feel with just this "theory" on nutrition coaching, i am prepared to be gob smacked by what the Level 2 practicum will require and provide.
I've worked with folks before on nutrition planning. I've felt good about my work with folks and their progress. Right now, with this cert, i have to say i feel WAY better. I have better tools, resources, knowledge to enhance the skills i have and offer way better support.
Excellent course, highly recommended. If you're looking for a great cert to add effective practical nutrition coaching to your practice, this is an awesome course. Even the exam is great - with an 80% pass rate. Really engaging. How often does one say that about an exam.
Likewise, of course, if you're looking for good nutrition coaching, the PN certified directory is a great place to start. G'head, call me.
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Precision Nutrition: personal nutrition benchmarking. Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
b2d slight hiatus - and how to stay connected
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Greetings to b2d readers, grokkers and visitors. Thanks as always for making b2d part of your infosphere. An honor to be part of your virtual space. Really, it's cool to find that you're visiting either for the first time, or have decided to make b2d a place you subscribe in your reader, your email or your Follow list. Awesome. Thank you. WHich is why i wanted to let you know about the b2d status for the next wee while. There's an op to keep in touch below, too.
Work In Progress: Deadlines a Plenty
Updates have been a bit slow this week, and likely shall be into september. Here's why, alas: lots of deadlines right now with papers and proposals for some really exciting work in blending technology with helping folks do well and be well. We're looking at exploring ways techno can help with nutrition practice for folks in what have been termed "food deserts."
We're also proposing some work with elders to support different kinds of interaction with computers that will enhance mobility, connectivity and quality of life. We're also writing up some work we've been doing over the summer about how awareness of things from one's past may help with building social connections with others.
Personally, related to our nutrtition/techno work, i'm also working on the Precision Nutrition Level 1 cert and hope to do the exam for that by the end of the month - in order to get back to studying anatomy as part of the z-health Master Trainer program which also helps our research into wellbeing. Gosh.
Alas, i say again, as all these deadlines are coming at once.
PREVIEW SO for the rest of the month and into sept. a bit posts may become more weekly in nature - lots on the blocks in terms of finds:
Here's two quickies:
1. CLUBS: if you've been thinking about clubs, get that dvd - it features club swinging maestro ed thomas. It's a joy. Likewise if in the UK, you can get the exact clubs from Joel Proskewitz at The Strength Company. I've been noticing benefit for my less happy shoulder already. That's only about 1000 swings in, too. And for reasonse we'll get to anon talking about talent, because it's a skills-based practice, it's not just good for ailments, but for brain function, too.
2. SIZING BIKILAS And for the vff bikilas - for those wondering about sizing (as i have been) - cut to the chase: stick with your KSO size. That's after months of testing the kso size and the size smaller. Even though it *seems* the toes are longer than the kso's - i've found that for runs, and recently playing a lot of frisbee, the regular kso size is best; the size down feels really nice and close to the arch, but they're the only size i've noticed my little toe - and not in a great way. Will talk about testing more anon.
Invitation: Keep In Touch
Thanks for sticking with b2d! In the meanwhile of this hiatus,
if you'd like to keep in with b2d daily discourse, please join us over at facebook.com/begin2dig. THere's usually something in wellbeing happening there every day. Would love to have you visit and share your health and well being finds in the virtual b2d lounge.
All the best,
mc Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Work In Progress: Deadlines a Plenty
Updates have been a bit slow this week, and likely shall be into september. Here's why, alas: lots of deadlines right now with papers and proposals for some really exciting work in blending technology with helping folks do well and be well. We're looking at exploring ways techno can help with nutrition practice for folks in what have been termed "food deserts."
Personally, related to our nutrtition/techno work, i'm also working on the Precision Nutrition Level 1 cert and hope to do the exam for that by the end of the month - in order to get back to studying anatomy as part of the z-health Master Trainer program which also helps our research into wellbeing. Gosh.
Alas, i say again, as all these deadlines are coming at once.
PREVIEW SO for the rest of the month and into sept. a bit posts may become more weekly in nature - lots on the blocks in terms of finds:
- protein is in everything;
- reviews of books on talent vs practice practice practice;
- return to the sizing of vff bikilas, reviews of Club Swinging Essentials (like it)
- and of a few books like Cook's Movement (if you want to know what the FMS/SFMA is about this is it), some thinking on perfromance and injury.
Here's two quickies:
1. CLUBS: if you've been thinking about clubs, get that dvd - it features club swinging maestro ed thomas. It's a joy. Likewise if in the UK, you can get the exact clubs from Joel Proskewitz at The Strength Company. I've been noticing benefit for my less happy shoulder already. That's only about 1000 swings in, too. And for reasonse we'll get to anon talking about talent, because it's a skills-based practice, it's not just good for ailments, but for brain function, too.
Invitation: Keep In Touch
Thanks for sticking with b2d! In the meanwhile of this hiatus,
begin2dig (b2d) on Facebook
if you'd like to keep in with b2d daily discourse, please join us over at facebook.com/begin2dig. THere's usually something in wellbeing happening there every day. Would love to have you visit and share your health and well being finds in the virtual b2d lounge.
All the best,
mc Tweet Follow @begin2dig
Friday, August 20, 2010
Cocoa drink reduces DOMS. Really? Well, Maybe...
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What if cocoa in a drink of protein and carbs could mitigate DOMS - delayed onset muscle soreness? This is what researchers in a newly published Aug 2010 study have explored. And thank goodness, since most of us have struggled with DOMS at one time or another - new routine and next day or next few days our muscles pay for it. We walk like cowboys coming off a long jaunt in the saddle. Could Cocoa with your recovery beverage of choice be the winner? Let's remember, there are very few approaches that have been shown to help reduce the signs of DOMS - those are detailed in this 2parter here - and as Mike T Nelson comments how we measure DOMS is pretty important when making claims about what is actually reduced in the DOMS experience. Just to recap
Now in a way, there have been a couple kinda similar studies: one that looked at chocolate milk vs something like cytomax (all carbs) and something like endurox (4:1 carb to protein) for recovery, not DOMS. In that study chocolate milk was shown to be as good as a carb beverage and better in a *certain test condition* than protein + carbs well all of us cheer that low-fat chocolate milk option. Except for the tons of folks for whom milk is not a happy thing, from lactose intolerance to immune responses with dairy. Intriguingly various dairy interests supported the research.
Just The Cocoa Facts, Sir. The question has been bound to come up well, what if we ditch the dairy and just look at the chocolate bit, or in this case, the cocoa bit? Especially if this time the research is supported not by a dairy but a chocolate company. Hershies in this case. The researchers who did the reesarch also decided not to look at the big picture of recovery but to focus on DOMS reduction. Why? Because, they argue, we seem to see free-radical release go up conincident with the muscle damage of exercise, so perhaps, putting an anti-oxidant like cocoa into the system may help mitigate those effects and possibly reduce the DOMS experience. Interesting. And there's no small challenge they say in trying to measure anti-oxidant effect:
Starting from Scratch. So thar ya go: the researchers will put together their own drink and compare it with water for effect on DOMS. They are going to use TWO of the four markers for DOMS described above: the biomarkers like CK and LEFS - Lower Extremity Functional Sacle. In LEFS, participants report on a scale of 0-4 the perceived difficulty of carrying out a physical task (actual survey here, pdf). So one biological test and one subjective scoring test. It is SUCH a drag that DOMS tests are not standardized! And asking someone to reflect *about* how they'd find getting out of a car if they haven't gotten out of a car, for instance, is yup pretty durn subjective. Interesting, but subjective when there are measures like ROM and force production also available, and even perceived soreness from pressure.
Findings about Cocoa in Particular? That aside, what did the authors find? Not too much. The drink had no effect on the biomarkers of damage. So they didn't mitigate its biological effects. The authors think however that their use of LEFS rather than the usual in DOMS studies VAS is a step up because LEFS asks about daily activities rather than just how a poke feels. And as to their results with LEFS checked at 24 and 48 hour intervals?
Here's personally where i'd actually like to see the raw data just to confirm that the direction of change for the non-drink group WAS that their scores went down (got worse) rather than up. We have to trust the authors' reporting. And i hate that.
The authors also spend considerable time speculating over why their form of cocoa rather than dutched may be a better use of cocoa to what's in chocolate milk
Concludium
This is why science is so cool: after an entire paper of data, experimental set up, discussion, yada yada yada, this is what we get
Related Work. Interestingly, a previous study by Green and company that states rather categorically in its title that Carb or Carb/Pro drinks have no effect on DOMS is set aside by the present researchers. They suggest that really, Green's study didn't actually elicit anything with which to have a response to mitigate:
So all the more reason for the the authors to have studied a similar drink without the cocoa, rather than water, or along with water, they would have a stronger basis to assert that it's their anti-oxidant/flavonoid cocoa that's the Special Sauce for toning down DOMS. So why mightn't the authors have done something so obvious? I'd speculate something like the following.
The Gritty Realities of Reseasrch on a Shoe string - or Little Hershies Kiss
When one is designing a study, Saul Greenberg once suggested an heuristic to me about research i live by: think about the optimal outcomes of the study proposed. What will the best results be? Is that optimal outcome significant? If the authors of this paper had run that exercise what would they have said: the BEST we will be able to say if our results have an effect is that we will (a) see a difference in biomarkers and (b) see a difference in perceived soreness. And givent that, what will be be able to say about cocoa? Nothing. The best we will be able to say is that cocoa was in the mix and maybe it contributed to decreased DOMS, so best case: it's worth doing the next study to isolate this out.
Why not do the full study the first time? It would take either longer or would take more participants. There are costs to that. So, given that the authors didn't see any A but they did get some B which is sufficient to say "maybe" cocoa plays a role, i hope Hershies is sufficiently keyed up by this "maybe" to fund the next study that would compare the two formulations. Which will be the longer or bigger trial anyway. That could have been done from the start. But maybe Hershies said "what can you do with X dollars? if we like what you do maybe we'll give you X*y" - and so there we are. Maybe. I speculate wildly.
Well what can i tell ya? What can i possibly say?
All we do know from the data is that taking the drink before exercise rather than after exercise had no real effect on DOMS; taking the drink afterwards, the authors suggest based on their 24-48 hours DOMS increasing, shows it does.
So maybe maybe something in the composition and timing of the beverage that helped. What bit is a rather open question. One might say ah yes but there are other studies comparing say c.milk with carb/protein and the c.milk did better so it must be the C for Chocolate? Maybe. Maybe maybe and more maybe.
Might be a fun personal experiment: next time a new routine is in the offing, blend in those whole cacao beens and go nuts! you may even feel better for the next 24-48 hours. It's chocolate! how could it hurt?
Citations
Related
What if cocoa in a drink of protein and carbs could mitigate DOMS - delayed onset muscle soreness? This is what researchers in a newly published Aug 2010 study have explored. And thank goodness, since most of us have struggled with DOMS at one time or another - new routine and next day or next few days our muscles pay for it. We walk like cowboys coming off a long jaunt in the saddle. Could Cocoa with your recovery beverage of choice be the winner? Let's remember, there are very few approaches that have been shown to help reduce the signs of DOMS - those are detailed in this 2parter here - and as Mike T Nelson comments how we measure DOMS is pretty important when making claims about what is actually reduced in the DOMS experience. Just to recapLet's review what's measured in assessing DOMS in the literature.
Study Designing: So if one were to see if cocoa were effective how would we do it? Normally in an experimental condition, there's the thing being tested - in this case cocoa - and then there's a control - like water to see what happens without any intervention - and sometimes - in fact often - there's an alternative protocol, so you can see not just if the thing you're interested in has an effect but if it's the same or better than some usual standard - like a carb or protein+carb drink.Caveat Emptor
- what's in the blood: usually there are markers in the blood like creatine kinase and LDH - these are markers of muscle damage - we may have the same CK levels and have very different responses to soreness
- then there's the subjective measures of soreness themselves using rating scales.
- then there's the more objective bits: Range of motion and force production.
B2D buddie Mike T. Nelson of extremehumanperformance.com asks the question: is the experience of soreness directly correlated to a drop in performance? Mike in conversation makes the point that pain perception being a brain thing is going to be pretty individual. So how DOMS success is measured is something to bare in mind when looking at the studies following that claim to be effective against DOMS - are we talking DOMS pain reduction (always nice) or performance in a DOMS state?
Now in a way, there have been a couple kinda similar studies: one that looked at chocolate milk vs something like cytomax (all carbs) and something like endurox (4:1 carb to protein) for recovery, not DOMS. In that study chocolate milk was shown to be as good as a carb beverage and better in a *certain test condition* than protein + carbs well all of us cheer that low-fat chocolate milk option. Except for the tons of folks for whom milk is not a happy thing, from lactose intolerance to immune responses with dairy. Intriguingly various dairy interests supported the research. Just The Cocoa Facts, Sir. The question has been bound to come up well, what if we ditch the dairy and just look at the chocolate bit, or in this case, the cocoa bit? Especially if this time the research is supported not by a dairy but a chocolate company. Hershies in this case. The researchers who did the reesarch also decided not to look at the big picture of recovery but to focus on DOMS reduction. Why? Because, they argue, we seem to see free-radical release go up conincident with the muscle damage of exercise, so perhaps, putting an anti-oxidant like cocoa into the system may help mitigate those effects and possibly reduce the DOMS experience. Interesting. And there's no small challenge they say in trying to measure anti-oxidant effect:
Although various experiments have been conducted to investigate the effect of antioxidant dietary supplementation on biomarkers of skeletal muscle damage and oxidative stress, the results are often equivocal and difficult to compare because of considerable variations in sampled populations and exercise protocols (18). Moreover, the practical application of antioxidant supplementation research studies has been considerably limited because of an overwhelming failure for measuring and reporting functional indices of exercise-induced muscle damage such as soreness (18). Therefore, the purpose of this pragmatic experiment was twofold: first to investigate the overall effectiveness of a welldefined custom manufactured cocoa-based protein and carbohydrate prototype drink on skeletal muscle cell damage and inflammatory biomarkers and perceived soreness associated with exhaustive exercise and secondly to assess if drink consumption before exercise offered additive effects. We hypothesized that the cocoa-based protein and carbohydrate prototype drink would decrease skeletal muscle cell and inflammatory biomarkers and perceived soreness compared to water, a standard fluid often consumed during exercise bouts.We also hypothesized that consuming the test drink before exercise would elicit further reductions in oxidative stress markers and perceived soreness.
Starting from Scratch. So thar ya go: the researchers will put together their own drink and compare it with water for effect on DOMS. They are going to use TWO of the four markers for DOMS described above: the biomarkers like CK and LEFS - Lower Extremity Functional Sacle. In LEFS, participants report on a scale of 0-4 the perceived difficulty of carrying out a physical task (actual survey here, pdf). So one biological test and one subjective scoring test. It is SUCH a drag that DOMS tests are not standardized! And asking someone to reflect *about* how they'd find getting out of a car if they haven't gotten out of a car, for instance, is yup pretty durn subjective. Interesting, but subjective when there are measures like ROM and force production also available, and even perceived soreness from pressure.
Findings about Cocoa in Particular? That aside, what did the authors find? Not too much. The drink had no effect on the biomarkers of damage. So they didn't mitigate its biological effects. The authors think however that their use of LEFS rather than the usual in DOMS studies VAS is a step up because LEFS asks about daily activities rather than just how a poke feels. And as to their results with LEFS checked at 24 and 48 hour intervals?
For those trials where the test drink was ingested after exercise we noted significantly less of a reported change from 24 to 48 hours by the participants. This indicated a decrease in perceived DOMS and therefore less difficulty in performing various physical tasks 48 hours postexercise.Why does less change between 24-48 hours mean decreased DOMS?
DOMS gradually increases 24 hours postexercise and typically peaks 48 hours postexercise before beginning to decline (16).Now i'm a bit annoyed that for this to be the BIG RESULT, we only get a couple summative values for the questionnaire rather than the raw data for lets face it, only 13 participants. Here it is
Consuming the test drink after exercise resulted in a mean change of 2.6 plus or minus 6 compared to 13.7 plus or minus 10 for the control.In LEFS, the total score is out of 100, with a 90% confidence interval. What this suggests is that the scores changed by about 6 times as much in the non-drink case, which the authors suggest means that DOMS didn't get much worse in the drink case.
Here's personally where i'd actually like to see the raw data just to confirm that the direction of change for the non-drink group WAS that their scores went down (got worse) rather than up. We have to trust the authors' reporting. And i hate that.
The authors also spend considerable time speculating over why their form of cocoa rather than dutched may be a better use of cocoa to what's in chocolate milk
Concludium
This is why science is so cool: after an entire paper of data, experimental set up, discussion, yada yada yada, this is what we get
Based on the findings of our experiment we conclude that a recovery drink composed of a carbohydrate-to-protein ratio of 3.5:1 with the addition of flavonol-rich cocoa may (emaphasis mine -mc) decrease perceived muscle soreness after exercise.There is nothing in the results to show that any one of the elements in this drink - the protein, the carbs or the chocolate - has any particular effect on mitigating DOMS. Indeed, one previous study that said cocoa is fine for ldl, but not for reducing inflamation, which would kinda suggest that cocoa mayn't help with DOMS. The authors say that while there results show a similar lack of change in biomarkers, maybe it's the combination of protein/carb/cocoa that's having the effect. That is the subjective response.
Related Work. Interestingly, a previous study by Green and company that states rather categorically in its title that Carb or Carb/Pro drinks have no effect on DOMS is set aside by the present researchers. They suggest that really, Green's study didn't actually elicit anything with which to have a response to mitigate:
Therefore, it may be possible that the protocol of Green et al. did not impose adequate skeletal muscle cell damage to induce substantial perceived postexercise muscle soreness in participants.This helps the authors to say it's not cocoa alone; not clear that it's really not protein/carbs alone.
So all the more reason for the the authors to have studied a similar drink without the cocoa, rather than water, or along with water, they would have a stronger basis to assert that it's their anti-oxidant/flavonoid cocoa that's the Special Sauce for toning down DOMS. So why mightn't the authors have done something so obvious? I'd speculate something like the following.
The Gritty Realities of Reseasrch on a Shoe string - or Little Hershies Kiss
When one is designing a study, Saul Greenberg once suggested an heuristic to me about research i live by: think about the optimal outcomes of the study proposed. What will the best results be? Is that optimal outcome significant? If the authors of this paper had run that exercise what would they have said: the BEST we will be able to say if our results have an effect is that we will (a) see a difference in biomarkers and (b) see a difference in perceived soreness. And givent that, what will be be able to say about cocoa? Nothing. The best we will be able to say is that cocoa was in the mix and maybe it contributed to decreased DOMS, so best case: it's worth doing the next study to isolate this out.
Why not do the full study the first time? It would take either longer or would take more participants. There are costs to that. So, given that the authors didn't see any A but they did get some B which is sufficient to say "maybe" cocoa plays a role, i hope Hershies is sufficiently keyed up by this "maybe" to fund the next study that would compare the two formulations. Which will be the longer or bigger trial anyway. That could have been done from the start. But maybe Hershies said "what can you do with X dollars? if we like what you do maybe we'll give you X*y" - and so there we are. Maybe. I speculate wildly.
Well what can i tell ya? What can i possibly say?
All we do know from the data is that taking the drink before exercise rather than after exercise had no real effect on DOMS; taking the drink afterwards, the authors suggest based on their 24-48 hours DOMS increasing, shows it does.
So maybe maybe something in the composition and timing of the beverage that helped. What bit is a rather open question. One might say ah yes but there are other studies comparing say c.milk with carb/protein and the c.milk did better so it must be the C for Chocolate? Maybe. Maybe maybe and more maybe.
Might be a fun personal experiment: next time a new routine is in the offing, blend in those whole cacao beens and go nuts! you may even feel better for the next 24-48 hours. It's chocolate! how could it hurt?
Citations
McBrier NM, Vairo GL, Bagshaw D, Lekan JM, Bordi PL, and Kris-Etherton PM (2010). Cocoa-based protein and carbohydrate drink decreases perceived soreness after exhaustive aerobic exercise: a pragmatic preliminary analysis. Journal of strength and conditioning research / National Strength & Conditioning Association, 24 (8), 2203-10 PMID: 20634742
Karp JR, Johnston JD, Tecklenburg S, Mickleborough TD, Fly AD, & Stager JM (2006). Chocolate milk as a post-exercise recovery aid. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 16 (1), 78-91 PMID: 16676705
Mathur S, Devaraj S, Grundy SM, & Jialal I (2002). Cocoa products decrease low density lipoprotein oxidative susceptibility but do not affect biomarkers of inflammation in humans. The Journal of nutrition, 132 (12), 3663-7 PMID: 12468604
Wiswedel, I., Hirsch, D., Kropf, S., Gruening, M., Pfister, E., Schewe, T., & Sies, H. (2004). Flavanol-rich cocoa drink lowers plasma F2-isoprostane concentrations in humans Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 37 (3), 411-421 DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2004.05.013
Green MS, Corona BT, Doyle JA, & Ingalls CP (2008). Carbohydrate-protein drinks do not enhance recovery from exercise-induced muscle injury. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 18 (1), 1-18 PMID: 18272930
Related
- Nutrient timing May make a difference for recovery
- Carbs or Protein before bed?
- Kinds of protein for that recovery window?
- Supplement Curmudgeon - does that stuff do anything for you?
- Creatine and Beta Alanine for Aerobic Endurance?
- How about CoQ10 for endurance?
- would you like a heart rate monitor with that?
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