Tag: nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 6, 2014

Hi! I’m a high school rower and am in my team’s LW V4. We’re going to SE Regionals this weekend and have a shot to place for nationals, so I’m really excited! The whole season I have been naturally under 130, ranging from 127-130ish. At the beginning of this week my weight was up a little (I know it fluctuates day to day), but we don’t have practice after Wednesday and I was just wondering if you had any advice for how I should keep my weight in control for this weekend. I’ve heard different things like do cardio (obviously) and eat fibrous foods until the day before when you should eat energy dense food that doesn’t weigh you down. I love your blog and love to relate to other rowers during my spring season! Thanks!

The best thing you can do between now and this weekend is make sure you’re drinking water and watching what you eat. By that I mean just make sure you’re eating sensibly (five small meals a day) and not eating foods that are super calorie-dense, high in salt, etc. Salads, greek yogurt, fruit, chicken breast, steamed veggies, etc. are all solid options. If you’re not practicing on Thursday or Friday I’d recommend going for a medium to long-ish easy run (enough to get your heart rate up but not so much that you’re going to feel the effects in the following days) just so you can get a workout or two in before you weigh-in. If you’ve naturally been under though, you’ll most likely be fine. Remember, you can be 130lbs on the dot and still make weight. Just be smart about what you’re eating.

College Training & Nutrition Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Nutrition for Rowers

By readyallrow February 24, 2014

I recently got an email from Kelsey, a senior coxswain and team president with the UNH men’s team, with a link to her senior thesis project on proper nutrition and training for rowers. There’s a ton of great information in here so it would be very well worth your time to sit down and watch it when you’ve got time (it’s about an hour long).

Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow February 12, 2014

I’m looking to gain weight, however at the same time I want to lose fat. There are two other girls my height and I am the lightest of three of us. Girl A is 6 lbs heavier, Girl B has 14 lbs on me. I’m already at the heavier end of healthy for my height, but on any given day girl A can beat me, and once girl B gets her endurance up, she’ll be kicking both our asses. I know weight isn’t everything in erg times but it surely does help. Do you have any advice?

So if I understand you correctly, what you’re aiming for is not so much about gaining weight as it is about building muscle. It’s not the amount of weight that you’re carrying that helps you on the erg, rather it’s the amount of muscle mass you have that allows you to generate increased amounts of power. Not knowing anything about you and the other two girls, my guess is that’s probably where they’ve got you beat right now or at the very least, it’s playing a part.

When you’re trying to burn fat at the same time, what most people tend to do is focus on burning fat first and building muscle second before transitioning to the opposite once they’ve got their body fat where they want it. To do that you’ll need to do a couple basic things.

Determine the number of calories you need

The simplest way to do this is to just use one of the calorie calculator things online. My suggestion though would be to do it three or four times with separate calculators and then take the average since they don’t always use the same formulas, meaning you could see differences of 150-200 calories between them. Make sure the ones you use have a thing that lets you choose your activity level since that plays a pretty big part in how much fuel you need to consume. If burning fat is your priority then you’ll need to eat at a deficit in order to eliminate the excess calories, meaning 300-500ish calories less than what it says you need. This can easily be done though by swapping out certain foods for healthier options and exercising (which shouldn’t be hard considering you’re probably training right now).

Eat smarter

Plain and simple, you lose weight by decreasing the amount of calories going in and increasing what’s going out. The general population would say that all you need to do then is eat less food (2/3 of the general population is also obese so … there’s that) but what would be more beneficial, especially for an athlete, is to just be smarter about the foods you’re eating so that even though you’re ingesting fewer calories, you’re maximizing the nutritional benefits that you’re getting. “Eating less” is a dumb concept because you could easily say “Oh, I’m only going to eat half the box of Thin Mints for lunch today instead of the whole box.” and then change nothing else about your diet. Yea, you’re eating less but if you changed nothing else it’s probably not going to make that much of a difference. You have to consciously think about the foods you eat, think about what you could eliminate and replace with healthier options, and then actually commit to doing it. The hardest part is committing but if you go about it the right away, it shouldn’t be a hard transition to make. For example, make simple switches like swapping out white bread for whole grain, regular yogurt for Chobani, bagels for English muffins, etc. The most important thing is to make sure you’re still getting all the nutrients you need (especially protein!) so that your health and/or training isn’t adversely effected.

Exercise

Obviously, right? Cardio-based workouts (like erging, biking, running, etc. (aka steady state)) will aid in burning fat while strength-based workouts (weight lifting/training) will aid in developing muscle. Since the initial focus is on burning fat, there should be a higher cardio:strength ratio when it comes to your workouts at the beginning but you’ll eventually want to transition that after a couple of weeks so that you’re doing more strength workouts and working towards increasing your muscle mass.

Eventually you’ll hit a plateau both with your diet (it’s not really a diet, per se, but you know what I mean) and workouts, which is completely normal, and you’ll have to readjust everything to match that.

Rowing Training & Nutrition

Training: Carbohydrate loading and rowing

By readyallrow June 18, 2013

In college I majored in sport science and human performance, which meant the bulk of my course load centered on exercise science, sports nutrition, kinesiology, exercise physiology, etc. and nearly all the research I did involved athletes. One of the topics we spent a lot of time covering in my sports nutrition class was the various diets that athletes maintain while in-season, during the off-season, and in the immediate days leading up to competition. Today’s post is going to talk about one of those strategies – carbohydrate loading – and it’s effect on your performance during a race. (Spoiler: there’s not much benefit.)

The role of carbohydrates in the body and during exercise

During high intensity exercise, carbohydrates are the main energy source. CHOs also function as the only fuel for red blood cells, your brain, and nerves. If you deplete your CHO stores, for example during strenuous exercise, your blood glucose will be maintained by breaking down lipids and eventually some protein – lipids are fine but you never want to be breaking down proteins because that means that all other sources of energy have been maxed out so your body now has to rely on its skeletal muscle tissue (which is made up of protein) as a last-ditch energy source. This reverts back to everything I talked about in February regarding eating disorders.

During exercise, CHOs are the preferential fuel because they rapidly supply ATP via oxidative processes that allow them to be delivered twice as fast as fat and protein. During anaerobic activity (such as the start and sprint), they are the sole suppliers of ATP. Having a low CHO intake for three consecutive days has been shown to lead to a decrease in anaerobic exercise capacity, which means that if you’re not getting enough carbs in your diet during the week your body will be physically unable to go as hard at the beginning and end of a race, which is why it’s important to make sure you’re eating well-balanced meals all the time (regardless of what weight-class you’re competing in).

CHO-loading as an ergogenic aid

Ergogenic aids are defined as “any method or practice that serves to enhance energy utilization, including energy production, control, and efficiency.” There are several different types of ergogenic aids, some legal (CHO loading), some illegal (blood doping), some mechanical (in the context of rowing, rigging would be an example of this), and some psychological (hypnosis), amongst others.

Related: Intro to rigging

We spent a lot of time talking about the history of ergogenic aids because most people assume that they were developed or thought of recently – in fact, they’ve been in use since the original Olympic games. The ancient Greeks actually believed the “you are what you eat” mantra and to become better competitors, they’d eat the raw meat of lions and tigers because lions and tigers were/are powerful, swift, aggressive, fast, and deadly when on top of their game, which is what we as athletes all strive to be when we compete.

The mechanisms of CHO-loading involve super-compensating the stores of glycogen in the muscles and liver. The pros of doing this include:

Increased time to exhaustion (TTE) in activities lasting longer than 90 minutes and performed at a moderate to high level of intensity (marathons being the main example)

Increased TTE in intermittent high intensity sports (tennis, for example)

Improved endurance by about 20%

Improved performance by about 2-3%

The only major con is that there may be a disturbance in the body’s overall energy balance, meaning that the diet may lack other necessary macronutrients (the other two macronutrients being protein and fat). It’s also been shown that there is little or no effect on high intensity bouts of exercise lasting less than five minutes in length.

Below is a slide I did for a presentation on supplements for a class on issues and controversies in nutrition. We’d just gone over this stuff on ergogenic aids a couple days before this project was assigned so I was able to use all the info from my physiology class for my nutrition class. The yellow, orange, and red table at the top gives you a brief overview of what your CHO intake should look like in the week leading up to a race, which in this case was on a Sunday.

If your diet is made up of about 70% carbohydrates, as you progress through the week (Monday through Thursday) you would gradually decrease the amount of CHOs in your diet. Monday would be 60%, Tuesday 50%, Wednesday 40%, and Thursday 20%. During this time you are still training, although you tend to scale back a little as the week progresses (also known as tapering). On Friday and Saturday you ramp back up the amount of CHOs in your diet (where the term “supercompensate” comes from), from 20% to 75 and 80%.

CHO loading and rowing

Something you might have noticed from that slide and in what I mentioned earlier is that it says “endurance sports” and only talks about the increased TTE in events lasting longer than 90 minutes. So, this would lead one to believe that CHO loading before a sprint race wouldn’t do much to enhance your performance, which for the most part would be correct. CHO loading is better suited for something like a head race where you’re going at 100% for 20-30 minutes, although even then any performance benefits would be small.

Pre-competition meals

To ensure your energy supplies are topped off before an event, your best bet is to eat a pre-competition meal about three hours ahead of time, although it’s important to remember that this meal alone cannot and will not make up for having a poor chronic diet. Ideally you’d be eating something with 150-300g of carbs (3-5g/kg of body weight) while being sure to avoid anything containing high fat or protein contents. The advantages of a meal like this are that they replenish your glycogen stores, it requires less energy to break down, nutrients are absorbed faster, digestion is quick, and it serves as the main source of energy for short term anaerobic/high intensity aerobic exercise, which is basically exactly what a sprint race is.

On the flip side, if you eat something immediately before you go out and race, you end up with a spike in your blood glucose levels which results in a hyper-insulinemic response. Because of the surge in insulin being released, your blood glucose then plummets which in turn leads to your performance being not so great. This is why you should avoid eating anything within thirty minutes of your race.

So, what should you actually eat?

There are so many options. Seriously. Pasta is not the only food with carbohydrates – bagels, peanut butter, honey, raisins, whole-wheat bread, apples, brown rice, yogurt, sweet potatoes, etc. are all examples of good staples in a rower’s diet.

If you’re going to commit to CHO loading, you should spend the time to work out exactly how many grams of carbs you should be eating/how much you need and then determine the number of carbs/calories in the foods you’re ingesting. If you’re in college and are taking a nutrition class or know someone who is, ask to borrow whatever book they’re using. Most basic nutrition classes require textbooks that tend to have long, long, long lists of foods in the back from every food group that list amount of macronutrients they contain. If you can’t do that, you can search whatever food you’re trying to look up and the awesomeness of Google will tell you right on the search page the number of carbs that food contains. If you don’t trust Google, I suggest using the USDA’s website. All you have to do is open up the “carbohydrates” report – you can open it with the foods listed either alphabetically or by nutrient content, which has the foods with the highest amount of carbs listed first.

Vegetarians, vegans, and CHO loading

There’s a lot of controversy on athletes who are vegetarians or vegans since the majority of them don’t eat any animal by-products, which cuts out a lot of the foods that their carnivorous counterparts rely on to maintain adequate energy stores. When attempting to CHO load, the options are pretty much the same for the most part, the only difference being they would need to look into gluten-free options and replace the meat and dairy with more vegetables, lentils, beans, tofu, chickpeas, etc. If there are any vegetarian/vegan rowers out there who wouldn’t mind sharing the foods they eat when prepping for a race, that’d be great.

Moral of the story…

Carbo-loading for sprint races is pretty much pointless. It’s a little more understandable for head races but in essence this is a tactic best reserved for straight endurance athletes, which rowers are not. You’re better off eating a diet rich in protein (see the slide below this) than trying to ingest large amounts of carbs that you most likely won’t fully burn off.

That isn’t to say that you shouldn’t be eating a solid amount of carbs too, because obviously you should be, but when comparing the benefits of CHO loading (remember, that’s super-compensating the amount of carbs you’re taking in) vs. ingesting protein, the more applicable benefits to rowing come from diets with adequate amounts of protein in them.

Image via // @row_360

Coxing Rowing Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: Your experiences

By readyallrow March 1, 2013

Previously: Introduction || Eating disorders defined + explained || Signs + symptoms || Coxswains || Lightweights

When I decided to do the posts highlighting NEDA this week I knew that this post had to be one of the ones I did. Throughout the week I’ve collected a couple of messages and emails from rowers and coxswains who have experienced, are recovered, or are currently dealing with an eating disorder. One of the biggest things that I hope you guys get out of this post is to realize that you’re not alone if you’re experiencing these issues. You aren’t the only one. Other people have faced and overcome them and if they can, so can you.

These emails have made me sad, happy, angry, encouraged, frustrated, uncomfortable, and a whole range of other emotions. It’s saddening to read about this but at the same time I feel a sense of pride for everyone who says they’re recovered, are in recovery, or want to recover.

Thanks to everyone that reached out and was willing to share their experiences.

“I think it’s amazing that you’re doing this so here’s my story. In the summer before 6th grade (I’m in 9th grade now) I stopped eating. I went from my healthy 130lbs to under 90lbs at my worst. I wore baggy clothes and no one even noticed. When I told my best friend finally she just said, “oh yeah sometimes I won’t eat for like 6 hours if I’ve just had a big meal.” She didn’t get it and didn’t help. Then in 8th grade I discovered rowing. The sport pushed me to regain my health and now I’m recovered completely. Rowing saved me from everything and I couldn’t be more appreciative. But I know my story is a lot better than a lot of people’s and I owe it all to the sport that gave me it all. Thanks again so much for doing this.”

“As a 5’7” rower who isn’t lightweight I felt a lot of pressure to drop weight from my coaches and teammates. “You either need to start eating less or throwing up more.” That’s what my COACH told me to do. Needless to say I have never been more disgusted in my entire life. The saddest part is that at the time, I listened. My coach finally got the message when I passed out just before weighing in. Luckily I’m now being coached under some more level headed people and am happily (and healthily) 10lbs over.”

“I used to row and I was always the smallest on my team (who didn’t race lightweight). My coach used to always tell me to eat heaps to try to gain weight to keep up with the other girls because most of them were 40lbs heavier than me. Now I’ve stopped but I keep over eating and I know I am and it disgusts me and I want to make myself throw up to get rid of the food but that disgusts me too because I should be stronger than that but I’m not. Sorry for telling you all this, I just needed to say it out loud to somebody.”

“I’ve been reading all your posts on eating disorders awareness and I want to tell you about my dick of a coach. Last season we only had one coxswain for 18 rowers so he made this girl who was 60kg (about 130lb I think) cox cause she was the lightest novice and for the first five months he was fine with it. Then about 3 weeks before the biggest regatta of the season for the novices he told her that she was too heavy as another girl (who liked to stir a lot) had been saying that it was the coxswain’s fault that they had been losing because she was overweight (it wasn’t, the girls were just lazy and didn’t have a good attitude). The coach then told the coxswain that she had to lose 10kg (about 20lb) in 3 weeks so she was pretty much starving herself and running in track pants and jerseys every day in an effort to lose weight which didn’t work because she was of a very athletic build due to being a swimmer before and would have struggled to lose weight.

There is also another girl who had to cox for similar reasons the season before that and got similar treatment from the coach but he stopped her from coxing about 2 months before the big regattas because she was “too heavy”. She transferred to rowing where she struggled due to being 6 months behind the other novices in terms of experience. About 3 months into the next season her parents pulled her out of rowing due to the fact that she had developed anorexia and they didn’t think that rowing would be healthy for her. Luckily she is alright now.”

“I rowed for three years before coxing and when I started I was about 116lbs, no muscle, and still growing. By the end of the spring season of my freshman year of high school I was 126lbs and an inch taller. I grew a few more inches, gained some weight, and by my senior year was about 140lbs. When an injury worsened and made me unable to row, I asked to cox. To make weight for my freshman year of college I started eating a meal a day, sometimes a meal every other day. I averaged out eating 400 calories a day. I lost a lot of weight but I think the stress on my body actually prevented me from losing some of the weight I could’ve lost.

It’s sad – part of me only regrets that diet because I could’ve lost more weight if I hadn’t stressed out, not because I acknowledge that it was unhealthy for me. It’s twisted. Even today, I struggle to put enough food on my plate at school and it’s a major lose lose situation: I hate myself if I put enough food on my plate because I think I’m going to gain weight and I hate myself if I don’t put enough because I’m falling back into old habits. Long story short: eating disorders suck. People who encourage unhealthy weight loss habits don’t know what rabbit hole they’re pushing someone into. And once you develop one, I’m pretty sure it will always be with you in one capacity or another.”

“I am a lightweight rower, and, at 5’6”, quite happily have a maintenance weight of around 125lbs. I also am recovering from bulimia. My disordered eating started a few years before rowing, and it was very on and off. It started as throwing up my meals, and varied from that, to starving, to over-exercising, and everything in between. When I got into rowing, and learned about weight categories, I saw no reason to try and recover when simply throwing up was a ‘convenient’ (and soon my main) way of maintaining my weight. Despite believing this, my weight has since ranged from 87lbs to 139lbs!

I started to recover when I was weighed (90.4 lbs) after fainting during training. I was dehydrated, starving, and probably smelled of ketones. My coach took me into his office and had a long talk, because a BMI of <15 is not on, no matter who you are. He knew a bit about EDs, and he saw how mine was destroying my rowing, not to mention my health and body. He offered to help, and I accepted. I won’t pretend it was easy, but I‘m so glad I did!

He started to carefully (but not obsessively) monitor my food, making sure I kept at least a protein shake or some small meal, and moved on from there. He’s not qualified, so he also made me get help from professionals, although personally I hated them. It was important I went, but the real help came from my coach and my team. I know the coach/ therapist situation is NOT the norm, but it works for us!

I‘m happy to say that today I am (mostly) recovered. Yes, the thoughts are there, and probably always will be. Do I slip up sometimes still? Yes. But my coach and I always keep an eye on my weight. If it changes madly, we discuss options. Thanks to my collapsing/ catastrophe and being very open with the crew (who were amazingly supportive, and I love then for that), a male openweight also came forward with disordered eating, and now he’s doing really well with recovery. We are proudly an ED-free crew, and we all know each other well enough that we could come and chat if there was ever a problem, and not just ED related.

EDs have no business ruining anyone’s life, so if you’re ever in doubt, talk to someone. It doesn’t have to be a therapist. Catch your club barman, coxswain, partner, librarian, anyone you can trust. You won’t regret it. I promise.”

“I‘m a rower struggling with an ED right now and I thought I‘d share my story. It seems kind of silly to me, to already have this sort of issue, since I‘ve only completed one season. But the problem with rowing is that it consumes your life. You can’t get away from it so when trouble arises, you’re stuck with it.

For me the concept of being a “lightweight” really threw me off. When I joined the team I kept seeing all these varsity girls at my highly competitive club do weigh ins, we had this tradition of really fast lightweights going to D1 schools and all of a sudden I got this idea in my head that that is the only way I‘m going to get into a school. Currently, I am 124 lbs and 5’9″. The average 5’9″ girl on my team is at least 140.

I‘ve always been very tall and very skinny. When I joined my team, I gained 5 pounds, and that was fairly new for me, considering I‘ve never really put on weight quickly.That added weight and the new stimuli, the new idea of lightweight and weight classes and weight efficiency, it all scared me, I suppose. I look in the mirror and I hate what I see. I want my muscles more defined, I want my hard work to show, but I still want to be the twiggy little girl I was. But I want to be strong.

The wonderful part of rowing is that even with all the pressure of weight restrictions and good times for heavies or moving up a boat, even with all of that, you still see the beauty of the human body. I joined rowing because I loved how our US Women’s 8+ moved, how they were able to make it look so graceful but at the same time, holy crap, their muscles. The sport has made me love what my body can do, with the weight or without it. And so I want to keep fighting, I want to eat healthy, get good times, feel GOOD about myself, just because I‘m a goddamn rower and I put in so much effort that I deserve as much from myself.

This is really long winded, but my point is that it’s scary, the idea that if you play with the heavies, you need to get times like them, but if you ‘re a lightweight, you need to keep it down. It’s hard to find a good weight and a good time and everything, it torments me all the time, it’s terrifying, it hurts, half the time I hate my body, half the time I hate myself for hating my body.”

“It’s been almost a year since I first started my battle with my eating disorder. It’s tough to be an athlete and have one. I used to run on the treadmill to prepare for soccer season. When I got down to 107 lbs my mom stopped me. She wouldn’t let me leave the house because it was likely I would be going to the gym and on an empty stomach.

My eating disorder has brought me to my knees, especially today. Today was the start of soccer tryouts. Because I purge constantly my lungs tend to act up. In the middle of a drill it happened today. I lack just about every vitamin and mineral that I need. My back does a weird twitch from it. It’s hard to control my movements with spasms running about. Not only has my eating disorder affected my breathing, but it’s also affected my muscles. It’s true when people say you lose muscle from starving. I was never strong to begin with, but it was hard for me to run today; harder than it should have been. My bones have also lost some density and find it difficult to support myself and kick a ball far.

Playing a game on an empty stomach because you just can’t bring yourself to eat is dangerous. Feeling light-headed and faint isn’t something I wanted. This isn’t how I imagined my life to be, which is why I am where I am. I’m not sure if I want recovery. All I know is that I can’t keep this up forever. Thankfully, I’ve gotten a healthy amount of calories today. Maybe this year I’ll recover. I hope so.”

“I saw your post on EDs and lightweights, and I have a little bit of input. I had developed an ED prior to becoming a rower. I swam for several years, and putting a muscular girl into a swim suit does a number on your self esteem. So when I switched to rowing, and I learned about lightweights, I thought about trying to starve myself that much more just to get to 130. That would have killed me. I‘m 5″8, and I should be about 160 lbs, but I‘m 150 because I still have a habit of restricting. So I thought about trying to hit the light weight mark, but after my first practice with restrictions, I nearly passed out. I knew I couldn’t do it. And staying healthy was more important to me than being a lightweight.

In a weird way, rowing actually helped my ED. I couldn’t restrict my intake like I had done while I was swimming. Rowing took more out of me than I had anticipated, and I ended up dropping weight without even trying. So I learned that I was allowed to eat, even if I wasn’t one of the lightest girls on the team.”

“I was in pain for a long time. As is the case in anyone with an eating disorder, or anyone with a mental disorder in general. I was quite underweight – never to the point that I needed to go to the hospital, but I was definitely hurting my body. I didn’t get my period anymore, and I regularly had trouble with my blood glucose levels. I couldn’t run, I couldn’t concentrate, and I couldn’t remember much. How I managed to get a 3.6 GPA by the time I graduated, bearing in my I had been struggling with this for 2/3 of my college years, is still a miracle to me. But I did it, and after an extremely stressful last semester where my ED was the worst of all time, I started feeling peaceful. I don’t know where it came from, but I had ended another chapter of my life, I had achieved my academic goals and had another adventure in front of me. The adventure being moving to another country to go to graduate school. I associated my college town with my disorder, and I associated my hometown with stress and family problems, so I wanted to get away. But I didn’t want to taint my experience abroad with this stupid disorder, I was done with it, I didn’t want it in my life any longer.

There wasn’t a moment where it all clicked. Sometimes you hear that from people, ED survivors, that they went out and did something and suddenly it clicked. Or they went to therapy and had an epiphany. It didn’t work like that for me. I didn’t go to therapy. I didn’t go to the doctor. I wasn’t even diagnosed. As far as I know, no one knew except for the people I told. But I wanted to get better. I started eating more regularly and I felt better. My body image was still very distorted and it was a struggle not to look in the mirror and not to stand on the scale, but at a certain point it became normal not to. It sounds so much easier when I write it down like this, but I promise to anyone who is reading this: it was the fucking hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It is harder than a 2k. It is harder than a 5k, 6k, 10k, power hour, ergathon, anything. But you distract yourself. You find things that make you feel good. Whether that’s a song, or a bath, or knitting, or drawing – anything. YOU KEEP GOING, until it becomes normal.

I was looking at my graduate university’s website and after being sedentary for quite a long time (aside from the occasional yoga and run a bit earlier in my disorder), I wanted to do some exercise. I didn’t know what, until I found information about rowing. I was scared at first, because rowers tend to look quite buff, but I read up on it and I got excited. I watched youtube videos and I got excited. I wanted that connection with people, after being alone in my disorder for so long. At first I thought I would cox, because I was still quite small, but on the open day at the beginning of the academic year I decided I was gonna row. I realised I was only this small because I hadn’t been taking care of myself, and if I would eat normally and work out normally like any other person, I would be too big for coxing, as I am quite tall. I was still scared of the weight gain, but I hadn’t been weighing myself for a long time, and I finally started wanting something more than I wanted to be thin. I wanted to be fast and strong more than I wanted to be thin. I started training with the novices, and although I was obviously out of shape, I caught on quickly and made first novice boat in November. That’s when I decided I was more interested in what my body could do than what it looked like.

It was a struggle, especially during winter training where you pack on the pounds (of muscle, but still) but I got through it. I realised that in order to be a fast rower, you need the calories. You need the food. And if that sometimes means that you have to force yourself to eat, and force yourself to overeat to the point of being uncomfortable every so often, then so be it. I remember vividly the first time I realised that my thighs were touching once more – it’s a silly little thing but for someone with an ED it’s important. It shows your ‘status’. Losing your ‘status’ means failing and failure isn’t fun for anyone. The only way I got over that was by ignoring it. Ignoring it, doing other things, ignoring it some more until it no longer matters. Until you know longer care. Make it angry. Show it who’s boss. I gained the weight and leaped over the lightweight limit over Christmas break, and leaned back down to my normal, pre-ED weight a month and a half later, just within the lightweight zone. But I’m beating PB after PB. I’m winning medals. I’m stronger, and faster, and more determined to move the boat to the finish line as fast as I can, than I ever was to be skinny.”

Rowing Training & Nutrition

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week: Lightweights

By readyallrow February 28, 2013

Previously: Introduction || Eating disorders defined + explained || Signs + symptoms || Coxswains

Today’s post is going to be about lightweight rowing. That’s not to say that eating disorders don’t happen to heavyweights because they can and do but the potential of disordered eating amongst lightweights, particularly lightweight women, is much higher. Even knowing this though, it’s still not something that is often talked about or discussed. If you’re a heavy/open weight rower and you’re suffering from an eating disorder or think you might be engaging in some of the behaviors (voluntarily or involuntarily), this post is in no way meant to minimize those issues because they are just as serious.

What is lightweight rowing?

Lightweight rowing is a specific category of rowing that sets a maximum weight limit for each individual member of a crew. It was created as an offshoot of open weight and heavyweight rowing in order to give “average sized” athletes a chance at being competitive against similarly built rowers. Heavyweight rowers are typically taller and have more build on them so they often had a physical advantage over the smaller competition. FISA’s politically correct rationale for creating an international lightweight racing program is “to encourage more universality in the sport especially among nations with less statuesque people”. In layman’s terms, it levels the playing field.

In high school and college, the weight limits are 160lbs for men and 130lbs for women, with no changes to the minimums for the coxswain of a lightweight crew. In international competition, things are slightly different. Instead of looking at the weight of each individual member of a crew, officials look at those plus the average weight of the entire crew. Individual weights for men should be no more than 159.8lbs and 154.3 for the crew. Women should average no more than 125.6lbs for the crew and 130lbs for each individual.

Averaging is becoming a more and more hotly contested topic and most recently came up at FISA’s annual Congress meeting a week or two ago. Here is what was said about it with regards to potential rule changes in the press release:

“Lightweight Averaging – The Congress rejected the proposal of the Council to eliminate lightweight averaging in order to establish a system in which each athlete is responsible for his own weight, and not have to undergo sudden weight loss due to a teammate just before the race. Many delegates expressed the opinion that the current system of averaging allows a wider spectrum of participation in this category which might be lost if there is only one weight limit. The vote was 62 in favour of the change and 72 against.”

In collegiate rowing, the entire lightweight program across the country is small when looking at the number of schools competing vs. those who compete in the open weight or heavyweight categories. Part of this is due to funding, part of it is the school, athletic department, and/or coaches don’t think it would give their program a competitive advantage, and part of it is due to the stigma surrounding the propensity for disordered eating and the subsequent issues that arise with that when combining competitive athletes (particularly women) with weight restrictions.

Weight management

It’s often said that due to the limits on weight, lightweight rowers have a higher chance of developing eating disorders. Although that might seem obvious, when looking at the research a lot of studies found no measurable correlation between the two. What some studies did find, however, is that lightweight rowers were more highly associated with increased caloric restraints, diuretic misuse, and disordered eating patterns. Even though there was no measurable correlation, lightweights that participated in the research were on the fast track to possibly developing eating disorders in the future since they’re already doing many of the things that are clearly spelled out as warning signs and/or symptoms of them.

Other studies showed that while women were more prone to eating disorders and indulging in drastic weight control methods, men suffered from more frequent and greater overall weight fluctuations (i.e. yo-yo dieting), which is dangerous in its own right.

It’s important that whatever training and dieting regime you conclude works best for you is monitored by your coaches and/or training staff. Ideally the plan you come up with would be a collaborative effort. Athletes who are closely monitored tend to be more successful in managing their weight because of the resources and support available to them. It’s when that support system isn’t there that things tend to go poorly. In 2000, a rower from Germany who was trying to make a lightweight boat died because they weren’t being closely monitored. If someone offers you help, guidance, assistance, etc. during your lightweight career, don’t be stubborn and brush it off. You might not need them now but down the road you probably will for any variety of reasons.

One study that’s cited a lot when talking about weight loss and lightweight rowing is this one. Some of you guys have asked me about this too – can a smaller heavyweight rower lose weight and be competitive as a lightweight? This study found that it is possible but what is worth noting is that the “heavier” heavyweight athletes lost more muscle than fat mass over the course of the 16 weeks this study was conducted. Winter training through mid-spring season is about the same period of time so think about that if you are considering making the transition. Preparation must start well before the time you plan to fully compete as a lightweight. The rowers who suffered the greatest loss in muscle mass weren’t able to be competitive as lightweights because of the drastic reduction in power output, energy, etc.

Regardless of whether or not you’re a heavyweight trying to become a lightweight or if you’re already a lightweight, your weight loss needs to be a season long priority, not something you try and achieve four hours before weigh in. I say priority because that’s what it is, plain and simple. The recommended amount of weight loss per week for anyone, athlete or not, is 1-2lbs. Is it a lot, no. Does progress take time, yea. This is the one time in rowing where slow and steady wins the race. Plus, the benefits of losing weight slowly and responsibly ensure that you aren’t compromising your muscle mass at the same time.

If you’re weighing yourself, don’t do it every day because any changes you see will likely be normal fluctuations that occur throughout the day or as a result of water weight. Weigh yourself once to start (in the morning when you first wake up) and then again a few days later (again, in the morning when you wake up). Just because the scale only shows a one or two pound difference doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong and you should resort to other techniques to speed up the process. Weighing yourself too much (every day, multiple times a day, etc.) does nothing except fuck with your head. You should be weighing yourself on a consistent basis – that’s just part of being a responsible lightweight – but be smart about it.

The effects of dehydration

One of the things I briefly talked about yesterday with coxswains is dehydrating oneself as a way to get closer to the minimum or in the case of lightweights, to make weight. Other than what I hope are painfully obvious reasons as to why you shouldn’t do this, here’s some more evidence as to why it’s harmful. Let’s assume this is for a 132lb woman trying to make weight for her boat.

2% reduction (roughly 2.5lbs in this case) in water volume leads to a decreased ability for the body to cool itself, but for the most part, her ability to perform will remain unchanged. She may experience some fatigue or dizziness and will probably appear very flushed.

3% reduction (roughly 4lbs) results in a decrease in muscle endurance, which will lead to a faster onset of fatigue. Her heart rate will be elevated because the blood is thicker, so it has to work harder to pump it through the body. Confusion, fatigue, dizziness, etc. will start to become apparent as oxygen is more slowly transported to the brain. She may also be experiencing muscle cramps, thanks in part to the increased amount of lactate that is accumulating in her body due to the increased amount of energy she’s expending (which is due to the body’s decreasing ability to pump blood and slower delivery of oxygen to the tissues).

4% reduction (roughly 5lbs) or more leads to a severe decrease in endurance, loss of the body’s ability to cool itself (which means she won’t be sweating at all), very low blood pressure, a rapid heart rate (due to the increased thickness of the blood and the increased amount of energy the heart has to expend to pump it), dizziness, and/or fainting.

All of that is stuff you should keep in mind the next time you think about putting on several layers of thick clothing (with a trash bag on top) before running around a regatta site a few hours before weigh-ins to make weight.

If you want to read more, check out this article from Rowing News in 2003. If that link doesn’t take you directly to the start of the article, it starts on page 30 and is titled “Drained and Confused”. It’s pretty informative and talks about a lot of issues regarding lightweight rowing.

Image via // @rowingpost_teguran

Rowing Training & Nutrition

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week: Signs + Symptoms

By readyallrow February 26, 2013

Previously: Introduction || Eating disorders defined + explained

Similarly to yesterday’s post where I briefly described the different types of eating disorders, this post is going to list some of their warning signs and symptoms, as well as how your rowing is affected by them.

Due to the higher prevalence of and more readily available information for certain eating disorders than others, I’m only going to go over anorexia and bulimia. This is in no way meant to make light of the other disorders I discussed yesterday or take away from the seriousness of their complications though. These two disorders have much more severe physical consequences that directly effect rowers (and athletes in general) so that’s what I’m going to spend time going over.

Anorexia Nervosa

“A serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss.”

Warning signs

Dramatic weight loss, refusal to eat certain foods or abstaining completely from an entire food group (no fats, no carbs, etc.), frequently suffering from or displaying signs of anxiety, engaging in negative self-talk (we all do this, but in this case it’s taken to the extreme), having carefully calculated food rituals (obsessively chewing, pushing food around the plate, etc.), maintaining rigid exercise regimes regardless of weather, injury, health status, etc. (part of the reason why this disorder can be easily hidden amongst rowers is because most of us already do this), making excuses to avoid eating, increasing your intake of caffeine (since caffeine makes you have to pee, which leads to water loss), etc.

Symptoms

The body eventually goes into starvation mode due to malnutrition, hair and nails become brittle (multiple your standard dry hair and split ends by tenfold), your skin dries out (sometimes you can actually see scaly patches), you frequently get chills (due to the body’s inability to regulate temperature and from the lack of fat mass), energy levels plummet, vital organs are damaged (the kidneys can’t handle all the proteins being broken down or the lack of water, heart rate slows, blood pressure falls, the brain begins wasting away, etc.), electrolyte imbalances are exaggerated, the lack of and/or loss of calcium leads to weakening of the skeleton, you’re in a perpetual state of confusion because your brain isn’t receiving enough energy to maintain function, muscles are broken down for energy when there is no fatty tissue left, etc.

How this effects rowing

Anorexia (and other EDs) affect your rowing in all the obvious ways. Carbohydrates and fats are the main fuels we use during practice and races. If our glycogen and fatty tissue stores are depleted, the next thing the body is going to go to for fuel is protein, which is what our muscles are comprised of. If your muscles are being broken down, your kidneys go into overdrive trying to filter the proteins from your system, which can eventually lead to kidney failure due to the stress put on them. Not having any muscle mass is a huge detriment to rowers because, obviously, that’s where we draw our power from.

As the muscles begin wasting away, so to does our ability to maintain the amount of power we can produce. As we try to continue maintaining a high power output, we have to exert more and more energy to do so, which is hard to do when our energy levels are at rock bottom levels due to the lack of nutrients from not eating. Low energy levels + high power output = fatiguing fast. If your body isn’t getting any nutrients, your brain isn’t either which can lead to increased incidences of you experiencing serious bouts of confusion, dizziness, and fainting. I’ve seen people pass out on the water in the middle of a row (including some in my own boat) and it’s terrifying.

Another consequence of reduced brain function and low fat mass is the body’s inability to regulate it’s own temperature. Temperature regulation is very important to rowers since it’s very easy for us to become overheated quickly. With disorders like anorexia, the inability to regulate and maintain temperature tends to cause those suffering from it to experience intense cold chills all the time, which sucks to begin with because who enjoys being cold all the time, but it’s also dangerous when you’re out rowing in the fall, late winter, or spring when the temperatures are low.

Bulimia Nervosa

“A serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of binging and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating.”

Warning signs

Unexplained stomach pain(s), blood tests indicating electrolyte imbalances, withdrawing from friends, family, and activities (most often as a way to continue hiding their behavior), decay and discoloration of the teeth, swelling in the face (due to damaged glands in the cheeks), rigid exercise regime (similar to anorexia), evidence of purging (frequently leaving meals to go to the bathroom, signs and smells of vomit, finding laxatives and/or diuretics, or the less often discussed but still obvious sounds of purging – vomiting obviously, but the longer-than-necessary sounds of running water can also be an indication that something is going on), and evidence of binge eating (large quantities of food suddenly go missing in short periods of time, finding empty food wrappers hidden away), etc.

Symptoms

There are overlaps between anorexia and bulimia, but additional symptoms of bulimia include irregular heart rates, heart failure (leading to death due to dehydration and the lack of potassium and sodium), electrolyte imbalances, inflammation and/or rupture of the esophagus, development of gastric ulcers, tooth decay, acid reflux, etc.

How this effects rowing

The biggest detriments to rowing for someone suffering from bulimia come from the electrolyte imbalances and heart problems. Everything else is just an added layer of discomfort on top of what can already be an uncomfortable sport. Electrolytes “affect the amount of water in your body, the acidity of your blood (pH), your muscle function, and other important processes. You lose electrolytes when you sweat” and “must replace them by drinking fluids”. Electrolyte imbalances, as I talked about with anorexia, leads to heart and brain function problems. When we’re rowing at high pressure/rates our heart rates enter the red zone a lot. Having a condition where the heart rate is no longer regulated and you’re experiencing palpitations, arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation, etc. (which can and most likely will result from those imbalances) can lead to many things, including stroke and/or death.

Acid reflux, bowel irregularities, etc. are serious issues on their own but when you’re out on the water, they are a huge inconvenience and will make you miserable. How well do you row when you don’t feel well? Now think about being on the water, doing hard steady state, and suddenly having a stroke. Seriously. Imagine what that would be like for second.

A lot of the medical issues associated with bulimia are ones that are detected through medical tests (or a dental check up) but even though we routinely go through physicals, clearance procedures, etc. the root issue of the eating disorder itself can still go undetected unless you are specifically questioned on your eating habits.

If you go through your medical exams and it’s determined that you have or on your way towards developing one or more of these problems, hopefully that will serve as a wake up call that you need to make some changes but also that you should reach out to someone for help, particularly if you feel like you’re losing or have lost control over your habits.

Image via // @tristanshipsides

Training & Nutrition

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week: Eating disorders defined + explained

By readyallrow February 25, 2013

Previously: Introduction

The first, most basic thing I want to discuss is what eating disorders are and then highlight the different types that exist. The majority of this information is coming from the National Eating Disorders website, with information from other resources thrown in.

“Eating disorders — such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder – include extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding weight and food issues.” They are known for their “serious emotional and physical problems that can have life-threatening consequences for females and males.”

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia is defined as “a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss” and is characterized by a fear of gaining weight, a resistance to or refusal to maintain an appropriate weight for one’s age and height, and debilitating thoughts of feeling “fat” or overweight (when in fact they are most often the direct opposite). In women, losing your period (amenorrhea) can be a sign and/or symptom of anorexia. At the very least, it’s a sign you’re not eating enough, regardless of whether or not an eating disorder is a factor.

While the specific causes of anorexia aren’t known, it is thought that one can be predisposed to it if you suffer from anxiety, poor self-image, etc.

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia is defined as “a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a cycle of binging and compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting designed to undo or compensate for the effects of binge eating”. Those who suffer from it tend to ingest larger than normal quantities of food before feeling a sense of loss-of-control, which results in their use of laxatives, water pills, self-induced vomiting, etc. to purge what they ate.

“Larger than normal” quantities of food doesn’t mean eating an extra 1000 calories at dinner – for some people, it could mean eating an extra 10,000 calories in one sitting. Most often, people will hoard their food and then secretly indulge in it later when no one else is around to witness their behavior. That secretive behavior can be one of the main giveaways for someone suffering from bulimia. Their weight tends to be fairly normal since they’re not usually losing any weight, which is why it’s easier to hide bulimia. The only person who might be able to easily spot someone suffering from it is your dentist, since cavities, gingivitis, and worn enamel on the teeth (thanks to the stomach acid) are all trademark signs of bulimia.

One compensatory behavior of bulimia that we often forget about is obsessive and/or compulsive exercise. As athletes, our workout regimens are pretty regimented to begin with so hiding this behavior can be pretty easy. Sometimes this is classified as it’s own disorder known as “exercise bulimia“.

Binge Eating

Binge eating, while not as commonly recognized as anorexia or bulimia (despite being more common than both), is an eating disorder that is “characterized by recurrent binge eating without the regular use of compensatory measures to counter the binge eating.” Similarly to bulimia, it involves consuming large quantities of food in short periods of time. They differ in that binge eating isn’t accompanied by the purging behaviors that bulimia is associated with.

Like other eating disorders the causes aren’t known but it’s thought to be linked with dieting, since after a period of dieting some people “reward” themselves by eating large quantities of food but then end up taking it too far by experiencing a loss of control in how much they consume, which leads to them eating to the point where they are uncomfortably full. This leads to strong feelings of guilt and depression which can come full circle and start the process of binging all over again. Stress, boredom, etc. are all emotions that can lead to binging.

Unlike anorexia and bulimia, at this time binge eating doesn’t fall under the DSM-IV‘s definition of mental illnesses but it has been studied and treated for well over 50 years.

Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (ED-NOS)

Anorexia and bulimia are both known and classified as the two “main” eating disorders but there is another classification known as ED-NOS for those who are “struggling with eating disordered thoughts, feelings or behaviors, but does not have all the symptoms of anorexia or bulimia”. If you fall under the criteria for suffering from anorexia but you still get your period or your weight is still relatively normal, you would be classified under ED-NOS.

Men and women may also fall under the ED-NOS classification if they indulge in behaviors of multiple eating disorders (“crossing over” is how it’s defined). Of all the EDs though ED-NOS has a higher death rate than all of them so it’s just as serious, if not more, than anorexia and bulimia.

Orthorexia

While not technically considered an eating disorder per se, orthorexia displays compulsions similar to those seen in anorexia and bulimia. The focus is not on losing weight or being thin but instead on eating healthy. It was considered an eating disorder in the 90s but due to society’s sudden fascination with organic food it’s become too “mainstream” to be considered one anymore.

Diabulimia

This is a really interesting one and not something I had heard of until I started doing research for this post. It affects those who suffer from Type 1 diabetes and “is the reduction of insulin intake to lose weight.” Although those with diabetes can suffer from other eating disorders as well, diabulimia is specifically related to diabetes because instead of cutting calories through starvation (as in anorexia) or purging (as in bulimia), they’ll “eliminate” calories by restricting their insulin intake. If you know even the basics of diabetes you know how imperative it is for diabetics to follow a strict insulin regime so in addition to the negative health effects the would suffer from the eating disorder, they are also seriously comprising their health by ignoring the dangers of not taking their insulin.

Because there are two diseases that make up diabulimia, it is considered a “dual-diagnosis” disorder. The mortality rate of diabetes jumps to 35% when combined with an eating disorder but despite this it’s probably the least discussed disorder of all the ones listed so far. All of the usual diabetic symptoms would be experienced, in addition to a severe drop in energy, higher than normal levels of glucose, organ damage, etc.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m going to finish this series with a post that highlights the experiences of rowers and coxswains who read the blog. Everything will be kept anonymous so if you’re interested in participating, send me an email.

Image via // @bassebus

Rowing Training & Nutrition

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

By readyallrow February 24, 2013

This is one of the few posts I plan on writing that is a little off the topic of rowing and coxing but I think it’s an important one that needs to be discussed, mainly because I don’t think anyone else will or has discussed it. February 24th through March 2nd is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week and I want to take the opportunity to utilize the (small) platform I have here to shed some light on the issues rowers and coxswains face with regards to disordered eating, pressures to maintain or lose weight, etc. Eating disorders are a taboo topic regardless of what “world” you’re in (rowing or not) and people tend to shy away from the topic because it’s an uncomfortable one to talk about. With regards to rowing, most coaches don’t have the breadth of knowledge to recognize and understand the signs and symptoms of an ED, let alone what to do about it if they’re confronted with one of their athletes dealing with one.

I can’t and won’t claim to know everything there is to know about eating disorders, but it is something I studied pretty intensely in college as part of my major and something I’ve witnessed first hand several times. Even though I’m 15 pounds below the women’s minimum for coxswains, I’ve still been pressured by coaches to keep my weight down so I’ll admit to doing some not-to-healthy things on occasion for the sake of keeping my boat fast. Believe me when I say it’s never worth it.

It’s important to remember that eating disorders aren’t just physical, they’re psychological as well. The stigma surrounding mental health disorders is tends to perpetuate the disorders even more. Please don’t let other people’s opinions, actions, offhand comments, etc. discourage you from asking for and/or getting help. I think it’s important in situations like these for people to recognize that they aren’t the only ones dealing with these issues, so if you are a rower or coxswain who has dealt with an eating disorder (either in the past or currently) and wouldn’t mind sharing your experience, please send me an email. The point of this is to let other rowers and coxswains know that they aren’t the only ones going through this and to encourage them to seek help, whether it be from their peers or a professional.

Check back for a new post each afternoon this week. You can find all the posts (and other related questions and posts) under the “eating disorders” tag.

Image via // @rowingcelebration

High School Novice Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow December 27, 2012

I’m a novice rower in my third season. I’m one of the strongest novice rowers, but also the heaviest (female) novice. This hasn’t seemed to be a problem before, I’m very healthy and strong, but when we did weight-adjusted pieces I began to realize it was a bit of a problem. I’m 5 7 and about 178 pounds, and about 20 pounds heavier than the other girls. I’m not self conscious about my weight, although according to my BMI I am slightly over weight, and now I’m realizing I could perform better if I was slightly lighter. I’ve tried dieting before, but I’ve always felt weak and worried about my strength while working out three hours every day. Do you have any tips about losing weight healthily as rower?

First, as an athlete, don’t take your BMI too seriously. BMI can’t tell how much muscle mass you have and since muscle tends to weigh more than fat, it more often than not classifies athletes (of all kinds) as overweight or obese when they’re obviously not.

To lose weight in a healthy manner, it’s requires a fairly simple, boring combination of diet and exercise. To lose fat mass, cardio is the way to go – biking, runnng, swimming, erging, etc. 3-4x a week. To maintain your strength, do core and weight training 2x a week. The biggest change will come from your diet. Successful weight loss tends to be about 70% diet and 30% exercise. As a rower, you’ve got the exercise part covered, so your diet is where you’ll want to focus your attention. Take inventory of what you eat and then spend some time finding healthy substitutes and slowly phasing out the unhealthy stuff. Don’t try and go cold turkey on Ben & Jerry’s or whatever because that’ll just make you want it more.

The reason you were probably feeling weak before when you were dieting is because you weren’t doing it the right way. To some extent, yes, dieting is about adjusting your caloric intake, but it’s more about just making healthier overall choices. You’re young and active, so your metabolism is probably still fairly high, so you’re burning energy a lot faster than the normal person, which means you need to be eating foods that provide an adequate amount of energy for a long period of time. Don’t try and limit how much you eat..if anything, you want to increase the number of meals you eat (instead of 3 large meals, eat 5 small meals) and substitute healthier options for the not-so-healthy stuff.

Also, don’t focus too much on what the scale says. Check it periodically (like, every couple of days or once a week) but look for more noticeable changes, like your jeans fitting a little looser or changes in your measurements – tangible stuff like that is a better indication of weight loss than the scale.