The End Is Nigh

On my last drive home from work, I received the signal that every beach player dreads.  Leaves falling off of trees.  This momentous occasion for most people marks the time for pumpkin flavored everything, the affinity toward hoodies, but for beach players it basically means that summer and the beach season itself is now over.  (Here is Chicago the weather is still insanely nice for some reason, but regardless of that, many players have packed it in looking forward toward indoor season.)

But with the end of one thing comes the beginning of another.  I previously talked about physical preparations you can make in the off season that can pay huge dividends toward next year, but I want to add a few things to that list that you will inevitably procrastinate on.

Vitamin D

This is big one for multiple reasons.  Vitamin D is the number 1 vitamin deficiency in the US.  It is critical in maintaining many bodily functions as well as warding off any potentially serious complications.  Our evolutionary background has allowed us to produce Vitamin D by absorbing the sun's UVB rays (no, there is not any Vitamin D IN sunlight.  Vitamin D gets produced by your skin).  Credit this deficiency to work days that take place during day light hours, and poor diet.

Lucky for you, you know that through sun exposure (i.e. beach volleyball) you can easily obtain 90% of the Vitamin D you need.  The science on how much any individual needs and can absorb is still a bit fuzzy and your weight, genes, and even location on Earth factors into what you need.  A very general rule of thumb says that for every 25 lbs of weight you should be getting 1000 IU of Vitamin D.  So a 150 lb me should be aiming to get 6,000 IU daily (150/25 = 6, 6 x 1000 = 6,000).

Insufficient Vitamin D intake has been linked to seasonal affective disorder aka "winter depression", where a lackadaisical numbness of unmotivated nonchalance underwhelms you.  Winter can be cyclical time for good or bad.  Not getting enough Vitamin D making you less motivated in turn will make you work out less, eat less healthy, and continually compound on itself.  If you start building good habits now, you will be able to get the work out you need, boost your metabolism and endorphin and in turn your mental state.  Keep in mind though that Vitamin D is not a magic pill to cure this disorder.  Sunlight is also a big factor which directly affects your pineal gland or "third eye", whose hormone secretion is directly affected by sunlight exposure.

One thing to be cautious about is that the Vitamin D consumption goes hand in hand with Magnesium consumption.  Vitamin D needs Magnesium to be converted into its active form, so if you are Magnesium deficient (like most people are in the US), taking just Vitamin D will exacerbate this problem, and many people have reported adverse effects when taking Vitamin D.  But don't run out to your nearest drug store and pick up the first bottle of Magnesium you can find.

Magnesium supplementation, can be a bit tricky.  The cheap version, magnesium oxide, is essentially useless to you.  What you need is chelated magnesium so it can be readily absorbed by your body.  In the next blog post I'll talk more about chelates, how they work with magnesium supplements, and how you can work this in with your beach season.

Buzzfeed: 14 best things to eat after a workout

Benjamin Franklin once said that "by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail", so not having much of a plan or strategy regarding your diet leaves you without a safety net, and puts you at risk of wasting all the hard work you put into your workouts, practices, and games.

Luckily, Buzzfeed came along with a simple and concise list of mostly common foods that are easy to prepare and purchase, even on a budget, to keep you on track for success.

Click here for the full article

Prime, Perform, Recovery

By now you've probably seen those Gatorade commercials promoting their relatively new G-Series line of products.  Gatorade wanted to expand and find their products in the hands of athletes every step of the way from the pre-game warm up, to the post-game cool down.  And as tempting as "energy gummies" and protein sports drinks were, I've decided to take a different route.  Here is my customized "G-Series", tailored to do everything that Gatorade's line promises to do without excessive sugar levels, or unnecessary additives, preservatives, or food dyes.

Prime:

There are two ways to look at this really.  There is the day before physical activity, and the immediate moments before physical activity.  Surely you know of long distance runners carbo-loading the day before a big race.  Well the same concept applies for beach volleyball, except I usually try to do equal parts complex carbs and veggies.  But this is the less interesting and less relevant version of the 'prime' aspect.

About 3 hours before I anticipate playing, I take two supplements: one 1000 mg fish oil concentrate, and 8-12 mg of astaxanthin (depending on how long I anticipate playing and how hot/strong the UV intensity is that day).  The only reason why I take the fish oil is so that it can compliment the astaxanthin, which it is fat soluble.  Astaxanthin is an uber-potent antioxidant, doubles as an anti-inflammatory, and cherries on top are that it acts as a natural sunscreen that protects you from the inside out (so no need to lace your skin with harmful chemicals), AND it has be shown to improve physical endurance through its antioxidative properties and by increasing your lipid metabolism.  Basically it tells your body to burn the fat you already have stored in your body before burning through the glucose in your muscles.

Finally, I get as much water an electrolytes into my system.  Potassium is rather easy to come by in the form of a banana or orange juice, but I usually take one 400 mg Magnesium pill just before I play.

Perform:

As athletes all we've ever known growing up is Gatorade or Powerade.  We had no reason to think that they weren't good for us because there was no other option to make us doubt, but the time has come that more and more options are making their way into the mainstream, and although I do like to see some healthier options made available like coconut water, I still prefer my own homemade sports drink.

It is always a plus to know all the ingredients that go into what you ingest and where they came from, and so my go-to has been the following.

Per 32 oz.
2-3 green tea bags
1 lemon cut into eighths, or 1 lime and 1/2 lemon cut into eighths
1.5-2 tbls of raw organic honey
a pinch of salt (about 1/8 tsp)

Only brew roughly 26 oz of green tea since you will need room to add the fruits to your container.

When it comes simple sugars, there are 3 main ones that you can and should consume:  fructose, sucrose, and glucose (you could also throw dextrose in the mix too, but it just gets converted into glucose when it enters your body), and all 3 are found in fruits and vegetables, so if you forget to make your own sports drink, be sure to check the ingredients list of whatever you buy and be wary of any sweeteners that aren't the 4 mentioned above.  The only artifical sweetener I approve of is Stevia.

Recovery:

Here comes the fun part.  Even though Gatorade Recovery may bolster 16 g of protien it also contains 40 g of sugar.  Yea, no thanks.  I've never been big on protein shakes, or any of the behemoth size containers of various protein powders.  I'm not saying they don't work, it's just not my cup of tea.

But every week you can find one large of food in my fridge:  quinoa.  As a vegetarian I don't have the luxury of getting a steak burrito at Chipotle and calling it a day.  Although all vegetables have protein in them, most of them are incomplete, but not quinoa.  Toss in some black beans, red peppers, tomatoes, onions and hot sauce and I got everything I need after a long day at the beach.  It is very filling to stave off any crazed runs for junk food, and has plenty of protein (8g per cup).  Add in the black beans and you can take in at least 12 g of protein alone in one serving.

When it comes to recovery, I'm a big advocate of loading up on nutrients to allow your body's natural healing processes to operate at its optimal levels, so  when my body is really hurting there is two things that I gotta have.  Spirulina and chlorella.  I usually take 1.5 tsp in a fruit smoothie, and just take the chlorella in pill form.  They are both complete proteins, and super dense nutritionally, but that isn't why I continue to take them.  These two algae based foods increase your body's nitric oxygen, which in turn help prevent soreness by giving your muscles plenty of oxygen to recover after going through several hours of anaerobic exercise.  There is probably more I could say about them, but I have never been sore the next day after having both, which is key in helping me continue my training an conditioning.