I recently had the opportunity to work with my friend and client, Tommy Hackenbruck, as he prepared for the 2010 CrossFit Games. I have been familiar with the CrossFit Community for about three years as I have enjoyed following the Cross Fit Journal and main site. However, it was not until March of 2010 when I began training at UTE CrossFit, that I really became fascinated with the sport, culture and lifestyle of CrossFit.
If you follow CrossFit, then you are well aware of the emphasis that these athletes and the Community as a whole place on nutrition. Just as there is not one specific way to train for the CrossFit Games, there is certainly not one specific diet that works either. However, as I sat in the locker room and observed a group of the most elite, focused, and strong willed athletes in the world, my mind raced with questions.
These athletes have sacrificed so much over the last six to nine months of their lives to be in this position. There is no season, no next weekend, and not even next month. They train primarily for one event a year and must live with their success or disappointment for an entire year before given a second chance to do better or prove that they were worthy of their current finish. Certain workouts favor certain types of athletes and after the 2010 Cross Fit Games, we have never been more aware of the fact that CrossFit is not fair and anything can happen.
With all of the accepted Cross Fit variables in mind, why would you allow your diet to be added to the list? You only have approximately 48 hours to show the world how hard you have worked for the past year. By the time these athletes stepped into the Home Depot Center all of their training was over. Mental toughness, determination, heart, desire, and athletic ability were not going to change in the next 48 hours, but poor diet could drastically hinder performance. Many experts would agree that there was only a small group of men and women who had a likely chance to place in the top three. Assuming all athletes were able to avoid injury and took the proper measures to get adequate sleep, there is no variable left that is more important than nutrition!Nutrition is the ultimate legal drug that can make or break your performance, drastically improve recovery, and give you the added mental clarity and focus needed to get through nine grueling events in 48 hours. I thought that the most elite athletes in the CrossFit Community knew all of this and would take every possible measure to eliminate the most important remaining variable of nutrition.
Common Mistakes Athletes Make
Did I mention that my mind was racing? I saw some of the same athletes that we hold up on a pedestal as “CrossFit Celebrities” making huge mistakes! I do not care who you are or how much God given talent that you have, there is far too much research to prove that nutrition does make a difference. I also think it is fair to make the assumption that all competitive CrossFit athletes know this. So why would you possibly make so many sacrifices to get to the CrossFit Games and then not take every possible precaution to have optimal nutrition during the competition?
I don’t know the answer to this, and I do not know what every single athlete consumed throughout the weekend. There were a number of athletes who seemed to have their nutrition completely locked in. However, the four largest mistakes that I commonly observed were:
1. I was surprised that every athlete did not have a large cooler with multiple meal options and snacks based around pre and post workout needs. Most athletes had a bag of snacks and recovery type drinks. There were also some snacks provided for the athletes. The paleo snacks were a good choice, but there was a soy and almond milk drink that was garbage and way too many people were drinking. I was also shocked to see a number of athletes eating “Poison Bars” full of chemicals, sugar, and even well hidden saturated and trans fats.
2. I noticed an overuse of supplementation and a significant lack of real whole foods. Too many athletes were living on recovery drinks and not eating enough real meals. The majority of these drinks have too much sugar and nowhere near enough fat in them. There is definitely a time and place for these supplements throughout the weekend, but they will not have the lasting nutritional value of real whole foods. Protein and recovery drinks are great tools for fast absorbing nutrients, but they can never replace real food.
3. There were way too many high glycemic fruits and other starches being consumed in between workouts without enough fat and protein. I understand the theory of glycogen loading for recovery. However, I disagree with eating high amounts of sugar when you are competing multiple times in a day. Consuming these foods is going to create spikes and crashes in your blood sugar that you will be fighting for the rest of the day. The exact workout times are unknown and often change from the time announced. This makes it impossible to control blood sugar and avoid potential crashes right before or during a workout. In general, and especially in this format, sugar is absolutely not your best source of fuel. Also, irregular blood glucose levels will cause you to crash, trigger unwanted hormonal responses, hinder your performance, and without a doubt cause mental and emotional fatigue above and beyond the extreme stress of the event itself.
4. I did not see enough fat being consumed. In general, I strongly believe that the optimal source of energy is from fat. Fat is far more efficient than sugar and will help regulate blood glucose levels throughout multiple long days of competition. Throughout the grueling series of workouts your glycogen levels will be depleted and your body will shift toward needing your fat stores for energy. I coach all of the athletes that I work with to train their body to burn fat as their primary source of energy. This transition is done far before competition, and will also help reduce inflammation, improve recovery, increase mental and emotional stability, and most importantly improve energy and athletic performance.
Some of my observations and critiques may seem simplistic and general. However, I promise you that I have never met one athlete who has not made improvement in athletic performance after implementing these simple practices into their nutritional preparation.
Zone vs. Paleo
There are so many great references on nutrition where we can get information, and all of them were comprised by extremely intelligent professionals. Unfortunately, there is still endless debate about Zone vs. Paleo and which is better. I truly believe that you must take information from all available sources and apply different methods to your own body and make conclusions from real world experience and individual results. The Zone Blocks are a great tool to measure macronutrients, but I feel there are multiple flaws when you really examine the overall philosophy of someone entering “the zone”. We all have slightly different metabolic needs, and there has been great research to prove metabolic individuality among all humans. Therefore there can not be one general formula for individuals to actually enter “the zone”. I have found that many athletes actually see better results with lower carbohydrate intake and drastically higher fat consumption. While you can modify the zone blocks to fit an athlete’s needs, I feel that this deviates so far from the original zone prescription of 40-30-30 that it should not be called the Zone Diet at all. I also feel there must be far more scrutiny placed on the quality and types of foods one consumes to fill the prescribed macronutrient intake. For example, all carbohydrates are not the same and trigger different hormonal responses even if they have the same amount of calories or Zone Blocks.
In my opinion, the Paleo Diet is the best diet that I have ever seen. I completely agree with the prescribed foods that are acceptable by Paleo standards for optimal health, athletic performance, and long term well being. I really only have two minor modifications that I make when implementing the Paleo Diet. The first modification is that I believe there needs to be some form of measurement of your macronutrients. I do not feel weighing and measuring your food is functional or sustainable for most people, but you do need to have an approximate protein, carbohydrate, and fat measurement that you aim for at different meals. The second modification that I would make is to allow athletes to still eat some non-paleo foods as their body transitions to a strict Paleo Diet. Some examples of these foods are oatmeal, natural peanut butter, and a small amount of cottage cheese or other dairy.I work to keep functionality a high priority, and I seek applications that can easily be implemented for success. You absolutely must listen to your body and become self-aware of how you feel and any food cravings that you have. You cannot succeed on any diet if you are having food cravings. One of the first things I do with all of the athletes that I work with is address cravings and work to eliminate them. You can completely eliminate food cravings and addictions if you have the appropriate macronutrient ratio that is optimal for your body. There are countless great diets and diet books available to us. However, there is not one specific diet or one macronutrient ratio that will work for every person. You must learn how to listen to your body and make the appropriate changes needed to achieve optimal energy, focus, emotional stability, and athletic performance.
In Part 2 of this article I will share with you my exact prescribed meals for an athlete at the CrossFit Games and show you the exact meals that I prepared for Tommy Hackenbruck.
All photos courtesy of CrossFit Inc's copyrighted photos.
