USD Football 1993

TUl'lling The Tables "It was more of a cultu ral thing than a scientific thing." Hey, dude: That 24-ounce T-bone is heavy on protein, heavy on fat. Eat one of those, and you'll miss out on the carbohydrates that the body stores as glycogen, the substance most easily converted to muscle energy. "Research on perfo rmance indi- cates the more carbohydrates t he better, since that's what the muscles use for fuel," Coleman said. "If you're eating a lot of fat, you're not eating a lot of carbohydrates, because you get full." Protein promotes muscle growth, but a high-protein diet in America generally means a high-fat diet. By emphasizing lean meats like chicken and turkey, Coleman says players can consume ample amounts of protein while controlling dietary fat. The typical American gets 46 per- cent of his or her calories from car- bohydrates, 37 percent from fat, 17 percen t fr om protein. Coleman

working with individual and local prefer- ences. You' ll even see that burger and fri es on occa-

advocates increasing carbohydrates to 60 percent and cutting fat below 25 percent. Will Mikey like it? While the players can learn what they should eat and why they should eat it, all that educa- tion won't matter if they pick at their team meal and run off to grab a fast- food burger and fries later. "We want to give them something they'll want to eat, or we're wasting a lot of money," said John Arce, former strength and condi tioning coach at UCLA. "We try to ensure the athletes have a lot of choices.

When they try per- formance-based nutrition and see they do better, they're all for it.

-Ellen Coleman sion, but with the hamburger patty lean and the fries baked. In a state where barbecue is king, Rogers wi ll throw a Texas barbecue now and then, using lean meat, breads, fru it and vegetables to modify the tra- ditional meal of steak or ribs, baked beans and iced tea.

"Peop le here t hink t hat's a square meal," Roge rs said, "but all you've got is protein and fat." Any carbohy- drates in that tra diti o n a l feast?

We want to limit the bad choices." So, in the game day meal as well as th e tra ining table meals dur- ing th e week, Arce and his col- 1 eagues across the country offer a bi g buffet,

Watering Things Down A s Robb Rogers watched USC quarterback Reggie Perry develop cramps in his first collegiate start in 1991, Rogers suspected dehydration. So Rogers, then th e Trojans' strength and conditi oning coach, asked Perry's girlfriend how much water Perry tend- ed to drink. "He doesn't drink any water," she said. '·He hates water." Perry may not like water, but by now he tolerates it. On the Priday nights before games, Rogers made sure of that. "I'd sit there and make him drink," Rogers said. "But he never cramped up again." As researchers learned athletes could boost performances by boosting the carbohydrate levels in their diet, they also dispelled the myth that drinking water during activity could cause cramps. "Actually, it's just the opposite," said Ellen Coleman, a dietician affiliated with the S.P.O.R.T. Clinic in Riverside, CA, and a consu ltant to several college and professional teams. "If you don't drink, you're more likely to get muscular cramps, because you're dehydrated. It takes a small amount of weight loss from sweating-j ust two percent-to hurt performance. Some of these big guys lose five percent of their body weight in one training session." By losing water, Coleman said, a player can lose precision.

Ananker might not execute a timing pattern as crisply as necessary. A running back might hit his hole a second too late. A quarterback, like Perry, might not evade that sack late in the game. Of course, a player can suffer those effects just as easily by not eating well enough as game day approaches and exhausting energy stores. But, while you don't have to remember to eat during the game, you do have to think about drinking. Coleman recommends one-half to one cup of water every 15-20 minutes. "If it's hot," Rogers said, "we start pushing water Priday night." Said Coleman: "The human thirst mechanism is terrible. We're not like dogs. When we get into trouble, there's noth- ing telling us to drink. "You can't wait an hour and then try to catch up. By then, you're too far gone." Coleman endorses sports drinks as a substitute for water. She does not recommend drinking juices and sodas during activity, because the body cannot absorb those concentrat- ed nuids as rapidly. Whatever the drink, though, Coleman can summarize her dietary recommendations in one sentence. "Pluids and carbohydrates are the two most important things athletes can do to have good performance," she said.