USA TODAY High School Sports and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association have partnered on a monthly column to address injuries, prevention and related issues to help schools, coaches and student-athletes. Here is the latest column from Scott Sailor, the president of NATA.
With school sports back in full swing, athletes are often concerned about how to improve their performance. In sports such as football or basketball, athletes may look for more size and power. In sports such as wrestling, gymnastics, cheerleading and cross country, however, they may consider ways to lose weight or size to improve performance or meet a body image expectation. Athletes also may feel added pressure from coaches, parents, teammates or even themselves to lose weight to improve performance or achieve a certain look.
Regardless of the reason for modifying your body size or look, it’s important to work with athletic trainers – health care professionals who are often the source of important nutrition information for athletes – to determine what’s right for your performance and more importantly your health. For example, with the start of wrestling season around the corner, many athletic trainers will work with each of their high school wrestlers to determine a weight control plan by checking weight, body fat analysis and in many states, hydration status.
Unsafe methods of changing and managing your weight may result in negative performance and short- or long-term health issues.
Here are safe steps to achieve your optimum weight, while improving your overall health:
- When trying to add or take off pounds, slow is always best. A 1-2 pound change per week (not exceeding 1.5 percent of your starting body weight per week) will assure that you are making the right changes in weight – losing body fat and not muscle with weight loss, or gaining muscle and not too much fat for weight gain.
- Extreme diets or exercise programs won’t give you long-term performance benefits or help you achieve your goals; to the contrary, they may actually harm you and have a negative impact.
- Work with your athletic trainer, physician or sport dietician to safely determine your body weight or size goals, and begin a program that is designed to help you achieve your goals.
- It’s important to eat “real” food. Just as a car needs gas to go fast, your body will perform best when it is fed with real, healthy food and not junk food or supplements.
- Proper nutrition is critical to meet all the challenges of sports; especially important are the types of foods you consume. An easy way to accomplish this is to think of a dinner plate in sections: one section each for proteins (meats, eggs and peanut butter), carbohydrates (breads, cereals and spaghetti) and fruit/veggies. Add a glass of milk, cup of yogurt or ice cream or some cheese to balance out your meal.
- Eating less food to lose weight might actually slow your metabolism and make it harder for you to lose weight or fat.
- Eating more food or taking in more protein without properly exercising will decrease the chances of gaining the right kind of weight.
- Consider eating a small snack before an activity to maximize energy levels and performance. This extra energy intake is especially important if it has been an hour or two since you last ate.
- Help your body recover after exercise by eating a mix of proteins and carbs such as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cheese and crackers or turkey sandwich within an hour or so after exercise.
Following these simple recommendations will help you safely achieve and maintain the desired weight that’s right for you, while reducing risk to your performance and health. Taking the right approach will help you feel and look better and perform at your best.
Visit AtYourOwnRisk.org for additional sports safety tips for parents and athletes.