Protein Supplementation: How Much, What Kind and When
By Karl Frank

Just how much protein should you ingest on a daily basis? This question has been debated in the medical and athletic community for years. The medical community recommends that for good health your protein intake should be 1 gram per kilo (2.2 lbs) of body weight. The athletic community says that the needs of hard-training athletes are significantly greater, and an athlete should therefore ingest 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. The only exact answer lies within the individual.

To know for sure, the individual should monitor exactly how much protein is taken in and then compare that amount to how much leaves the body via waste. Body waste can be examined for nitrogen content to determine how much protein the body didn’t use. However, the average person/athlete is obviously not going to engage in this activity, so we are left trying to come as close to optimal as we can. Perhaps the best general approach is to try to get 20 –30% of your total daily caloric intake in the form of low-fat, high-grade protein.

Supplementing the diet with protein is a very popular and convenient way to meet your body’s protein requirements. Protein bars and powders now dominate the supplement market and the choices are endless. Which ones are best? When should we take them? Should you use a powder or a bar? All are good questions. Any time you can use a supplement in the form of a powder or liquid you should, as the body more rapidly and fully utilizes these forms. Nevertheless, don’t disregard bars since they are surely the fastest and most convenient means of adding protein to your diet.

Determining the best proteins and the best times to take them have also gotten a great deal of attention lately, and rightfully so. Muscle physiology and biochemical states are very different pre-workout, during a workout, and post-workout: thus, the body’s protein (and carbohydrate) needs are also different. Strength and endurance training stress the body to a large degree. In fact, resistance training actually causes microscopic structural damage to muscles as well as energy substrate depletion (stored carbohydrate/glycogen, stored amino acids, and stored phosphagens like ATP and phosphocreatine), negative protein status, elevated cortisol levels, and compromised immune function. 

While the training induces a “catabolic” state, well-designed protein and carbohydrate supplementation can effectively deal with each of these changes. As such I have been experimenting with a protein-carbohydrate supplement formula during a workout and again immediately post-workout, followed by a whole food meal one hour afterwards. The protein and carbohydrate are in powdered form and dissolved in water. Use a flavored protein powder and the cocktail is quite palatable. The major protein component of a good during/post-exercise supplement should be a high quality whey protein. Whey protein makes up about 20% of the protein found in milk (80% of milk protein is casein) and is quickly digested, non-allergenic, and retains its health promoting properties.

You should also use a carbohydrate supplement in conjunction with the whey protein. According to recent research, the carbohydrates in a good during/post-exercise supplement should come from a blend of glucose and maltodextrin (glucose polymer). Glucose and maltodextrin are simple sugars and, while simple sugars are not recommended any other time of the day, they are critical during the immediate post-exercise period for replenishing fluid and muscle glycogen. *This form of supplementation is not recommended if you are diabetic!

My athletes have been experiencing great gains in strength and lean tissue with this Protein-Carbohydrate formulation. If you would like more information on this form of supplementation, you can contact me at karl@speedology.com

 Training in Planes
By Karl Frank

No, not airplanes! I am referring to planes of body movement. The body moves through space in 3 primary planes of movement. The FRONTAL PLANE in which the body moves up and down; the SAGITTAL PLANE in which the body moves forward and backward; and the TRANSVERSE PLANE in which the body rotates. For example when we run we are moving through the “sagittal” plane. When we jump we are moving through the “frontal” plane. When we swing a baseball bat we are moving through the “transverse” plane. Body movement can also be “multi-planar” in that we can move through more than one plane at the same time. An example would be a broad jump where one stands with toes on a line and feet about hip-width apart then jumps forward as far as possible.

In this case the body is moving forward (sagittal plane) AND upward (frontal plane). Some body movement can even occur in all three planes of movement at the same time. Picture an ice skater who is skating forward or backward then leaps into the air and spins! Of course this is very difficult to perform and takes great coordination and endless practice. To perform such a difficult movement do you think that the skater should only train in a single plane of movement? How affective is training when performed in a plane of movement that is outside of the primary plane/planes that the athlete must perform in?

For training to be maximally effective we must be conscience of how the body is required to perform in the competitive event. Weight training is a good example of training that is commonly performed through planes of movement that are not the primary planes of movement that the athlete must actually perform in. Weight training is surely beneficial to athletes of all sports but in many cases it is misused. Power-lifting movements, e.g. the clean, snatch, squat, etc., are movements that are performed in the frontal plane. If the athlete’s game is played primarily in the sagittal plane how much emphasis should be placed on frontal plane training regimens? I am not implying that no training should be done outside of the primary plane of movement but if most of the athlete’s training time is spent there is the training maximally effective?

The above referenced power-lifting movements are excellent for enhancing explosive power but if the athlete needs to be explosive through planes other than the frontal plane than we need to be training to meet those needs. In weight-training programs throughout the country great emphasis is placed on the bench-press. It is used as a measuring stick to assess an athlete’s strength, especially football players. If we examine the bench-press we see that the athlete is lying still on a bench and must push the bar through the frontal plane. Yet football players are required to play in a standing position with their feet moving and fight resistance (their opponent) in the sagittal plane. In what sport is an athlete required to press heavy resistance while lying still on their back? As for football players, if they are on their backs I can assure you they are not going to make many plays! Again, I am not implying that there is no need to perform the bench-press, but should we place as much training emphasis on it as is commonly done.