Categoriescoaching Conditioning rant

Why CrossFit Doesn’t Make an Elite Athlete

Note From TG: I apologize in advance for the “click-bait” nature of this article.1 I have to assume that, based off the title, many of you have travelled a long distance across the internet to read what follows.

Welcome.

I hope you stick around. This is a guest post from strength coach, Travis Hansen. Do I agree with every word? No. Do I feel he brings up many valid points? Absolutely.

And on that note, happy reading. 

Without a shadow of a doubt, the question that I get asked more than any other as a coach, goes something like this: “Is your training style like CrossFit?”

Rather than get upset or start verbally bashing CrossFit like many do, I just simply inform the person that our training system is different in that it’s “athletic based” and CrossFit simply is not. But wait, Crossfitters are tremendous athletes right?

Unfortunately, they aren’t and by the end of this article you will know exactly why.

20110925 - crossfit fitness woman push ups pushup exercise and man weight lifting

Copyright: tonobalaguer / 123RF Stock Photo

Now if you have an extreme bias and preconceived notion regarding the CrossFit training philosophy, please try to stay objective and hear me out. I promise to stay completely objective even though it may come off harsh, and I will provide you with the facts for why we can’t and shouldn’t refer to Crossfitters as great athletes.

Athletic = CrossFit?

Lets begin with the actual definition of being athletic. What does it mean, who has it, and who doesn’t? Automatically, it is safe to say that we would associate this term with people like Calvin Johnson, Lebron James, Mike Trout, Yasiel Puig, Michael Jordan, Russell Westbrook, Serena Williams, and many more.

And we definitely should since these individuals undoubtedly epitomize athleticism. The definition of being athletic is the capacity to perform a specific skill set or series of skills at a high level to help improve sport performance. Below is a list of the predominant athletic based skills.  

Athleticism:                              

Power

Strength

Speed

Agility and Quickness

Conditioning

Now if a person can perform each of these at an ultra-high level they are going to be insane on the field, court, or wherever more times than not. Why? Because he or she will be able to express any specific sport skill, and research has shown that sport skill attainment is enhanced with increased athletic ability.

Next, I would like to also include some areas of training that serve as secondary and will help regulate performance in the athletic skill set. I will just call these secondary factors.

Secondary Factors:

Nutrition

Prehab-Rehab

Program Design

Muscle Building

Fat Loss

So taking into account just shear athletic skill, how should we rank CrossFit? I scored the system a 1 out of 5 or 20%. In other words it fails miserably for an actual athlete looking to perform better in a specific sport setting.

14158006 - young woman stretching her back after a heavy kettlebell workout in a gym

Copyright: ammentorp / 123RF Stock Photo

Words and opinion are very cheap, so I will show from a scientific and evidence based standpoint why they receive such a low score. Afterwards, I will elaborate on how crossfit fares with the support areas known as secondary factors, and finish by addressing any other areas of athletic development in which you didn’t see listed and how they fall into the puzzle.

Are You Still Reading?

The first skill on the list that we need to tackle is power. What is power? Power by definition is Force x Velocity. I like Strength x Speed which essentially means the same thing and is a bit easier to understand for most.

So it’s the ability to express as much force as possible as fast as humanly possible. Common displays or formal assessments for power that we use as athletic development or strength and conditioning coaches that you commonly witness in the sport realm is the Vertical Jump, Broad Jump, Running Vertical Jump, Throwing Velocity, Hang Clean/Snatch, etc.

Now how many people in CrossFit do you see perform a standing 40” Vertical Jump? How many do you see perform a 45-50” Running Vertical Jump? How about a 10’+ Broad Jump? Or a PROPERLY performed Hang Clean executed with a load that is 1-1.5 times that person’s bodyweight?

Before I continue, please don’t go out and scour the web desperately in an attempt to locate one individual who attained some of these values and had to have been practicing CrossFit at the time.

There are exceptions to every rule.

What’s important to note is that the system as a whole doesn’t come close to implementing the methods necessary to elicit these types of performances on a regular basis like so many athletic training systems across the country do. Keep in mind that these figures have become commonplace in team sport settings and scale MUCH MUCH higher in the elite population of athletes.

The next skill on the list is Strength. The ability of a muscle or muscle group to produce maximum voluntary force without time being a factor. A population that demonstrates this better than any other on the planet should immediately come to mind, and this is Powerlifters!

[Also, any athlete looking to become more athletic should adopt and perform a modified version of a powerlifting system such as Westside Barbell to maximize their athleticism.]

Lets stay on the topic at hand though. How does CrossFit as a whole score in the strength training department? Unfortunately, not very well at all. Without providing personal observations of this, I would way rather provide you with some valid “Strength Standard Charts” to reference as sound evidence HERE:

Now taking into account this solid reference which has factored in a legion of lifters across various federations at different body-weights, how would CrossFit score?

Not very good.

How many of these individuals do you know that can Bench Press 1.5-2x their bodyweight, or Squat and Deadlift 2.5-3x their bodyweight following a CrossFit training system? Not very many if you are being honest.

Ok this next one should not take too long. Speed! How many people in CrossFit do you know who can record an electronic 2.5-2.6 second 20 yard dash, or a 4-2-4.4 second 40 yard dash, or a sub 6.7 second 60 yard dash? Few and far between.

Agility and Quickness are next on the athleticism list. Also known as “Change of Direction Training” in many sectors, Agility and Quickness is the ability to accelerate and begin rapid motion in one direction, decelerate in that same direction, plant properly and then re-accelerate or “cut” in a new direction fast!

Exercises such as the 5-10-5, Cone Drill, 1-2 Stick Series, etc. are great variations that serve as Agility and Quickness Training Tests.

Note From TG: it kinda-sorta looks like this…..;o)

Moreover, guys like Barry Sanders and Darren Sproles are brilliant examples of this athletic skill at work. If you really watch it’s not very hard to identify that just the shear nature of CrossFit fails to deliver here.

Team sports such as football, basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, lacrosse, etc. are so athletic and require that a male or female constantly move and react in all 3 planes of motion as fast as possible through the entire muscle contraction spectrum (concentric, eccentric, and isometric). CrossFit on the other hand lives on a tightrope as events are practiced in an exclusive linear fashion, omitting an essential athletic quality.

As I’ve visited different “boxes” just mainly out of curiosity, or heard Crossfitters brag to me about how athletic they were, I’ve never actually seen drills practiced that encourage the development of this athletic function. Have you? Therefore it’s only fair to discount this system as an option for enhancing Agility and Quickness.

Conditioning is obviously going to be the one area of performance where I would have to credit CrossFit absolutely.

Several Crossfitters possess tremendous work capacities and development of the 3 metabolic energy systems (Alactic, Lactic, and Aerobic) much like boxers and MMA fighters. This can be seen at any of the CrossFit Games on ESPN. In regards to strictly conditioning, the feats exhibited by these competitors is quite impressive.

What Next?

So as of right now I believe I’ve proven to you why CrossFit fails in terms of effectively enhancing athleticism. Next I think it’s important to briefly analyze all secondary measures which could impact the primary skills to show what else may or may not be missing for athletes looking to get more athletic and better in a particular sport, who regularly practice CrossFit.

The first element that I would like to discuss is Nutrition. Obviously, “The Paleo Diet” is the foundation for all of the CrossFit population. I must admit that I think there were quite a few positives I took away from both books. The intent of the content is very health-based, the food selection is very nutrient dense, and Dr. Loren Cordain disclosed some interesting scientific points surrounding the topic for sure.

In his book “The Paleo Diet for Athletes,” Dr. Cordain does a great job of adjusting the modern Paleo diet recommendations and states the need that athletes following the Paleo Diet could derive half of their total caloric intake for the day from healthy carbohydrate sources:

“For example, an athlete training once a day for 90 minutes may burn 600 calories from carbohydrates during exercise and needs to take in at least that much during stages 1, 2, 3, and 4 of recovery. This athlete may be eating around 3,000 total calories daily. If he gets 50 percent of his daily calories from carbohydrate, he would take in an additional 900 calories in carbs that day in stage 4, above and beyond the carbohydrate consumed in the earlier stages of the day.”1

And if you would like to know exactly why athletes need more carbohydrates than check out this series of articles I recently wrote:

5 Scientific Reasons to Eat Carbs

5 More Scientific Reasons Athletes Should Eat Carbs

Even More Reasons Why Athletes Should Eat Carbs

Prehab and Rehab Techniques are critical for competitive athletes who want to excel indefinitely, and it should be categorized as its own type of training if it officially is not already.

Techniques such as immersion baths, contrast, EMS, massage, tempo work, mobility/bodyweight circuits, meditation-relaxation, cat naps, static stretching, corrective exercises, and much more have been scientifically proven to hasten recovery from all the high intensity work and provide several benefits (Blood flow, nutrient and hormonal delivery, etc. etc.) to ultimately assist in athletic enhancement.

A majority of this should be implemented into a competitive athlete’s program from the get go, however, I’ve never really seen much discussion or emphasis of this type of training from Crossfitters, so I can only assume it’s not very important to this culture even though it’s undoubtedly essential to athletic performance.

Without a properly structured training program it would be very difficult to ensure that athlete’s are staying healthy and improving in all facets of performance over the long-term. Periodization is key and serves as the foundation for everything in the program.

However, I’ve never officially heard of any type of scientifically valid program design model being implemented for athletes who follow CrossFit. Do you guys elect a Linear, Alternating, Undulating, Concurrent, or Conjugate based System?

What I do know is that the works of famous programming researchers such as Tudor Bompa, Charlie Francis, and several others have shown us that having a pre-planned annual training model is a must for an athlete looking to reach his full potential. 2

A simple “WOD” which is arbitrarily designed to satisfy that particular day’s workout in the name of a male or female, will not suffice and the results will show.

Note From TG: here’s where I’ll chime in. The idea that all CrossFit boxes don’t adopt some semblance of programming structure is a bit harsh (not that I think that’s what Travis is implying). I’ve trained at and observed numerous CrossFit gyms and have been very impressed with numerous staff’s and their attention to detail on this topic. 

To say that Ben Bergeron – who coached both winners (male and female) at this year’s CrossFit Games – doesn’t implement a “plan” or pay special attention to detail with regards to how to best set up/periodize his athletes for success is unrealistic.

Just wanted to give some props when props is due.

The last two remaining secondary factors are fat loss and muscle building qualities. 

I must give kudos to CrossFit for creating a lot of fat loss testimony all over the world. I’m sure that thousands of people have lost weight/fat utilizing the CrossFit system. 3

However, what really bugs me is that you rarely if ever hear credit being distributed by CrossFit authorities on where specific training strategies were adopted. Did they just magically guess and innovate methods proven to work better than anything on the training market?

Hell no.

Furthermore, I see many specialized fat loss techniques being regularly implemented by CrossFit such as: HIIT, Metabolic Resistance Training, Timed Sets, Complexes, etc. but where the hell did that come from?

Not Crossfit unfortunately.

Ten years ago a guy by the name of Alwyn Cosgrove was busting out fat loss manuals left and right and disclosing drills and methods I nor anyone had ever seen before. The training concepts were brilliant and revolutionary at the time, but still hadn’t hit the mainstream yet.  He was also sending out newsletters at the time which validated these now popular methods through sound research and tremendous data he was collecting at his training facility in South California with his wife Rachel, who was also a proven expert. I still have them. But how many of you actually know Alwyn and Rachel Cosgrove? I guarantee not as many as there should be.

Muscle Building is the final remaining topic that needs to be discussed. It’s no secret now that the CrossFit system involves primarily a moderate intensity/high training volume approach for general fitness, conditioning, and fat loss purposes.

With that being said this form of training environment will lend well to acquiring quality muscle mass pretty fast and it’s also why so many of the guys that practice CrossFit are pretty jacked. If you want to know more in depth info on this topic then definitely checkout the research and works of guys like Jason Ferruggia, Brad Schoenfeld, Bret Contreras, and Lyle McDonald.

Specific muscle mass or cross sectional area is also going to be a very strong indicator of athletic success in many cases, so this is one area where CrossFit has a decent foundation laid out if they can implement all of the training concerns mentioned previously.

Inter and Intramuscular Coordination, balance and stability training, and core training are I’m sure other areas that coaches or anyone reading this would think needs to be a primary concern. Fortunately, the methods employed for the primary skill set I provided you will do a tremendous job of enhancing these qualities indirectly. Here is a piece I wrote for the ISSA awhile back which illustrates my point as it pertains to balance-stabilization training:

Does Balance Training Improve Speed?

Well That’s it Everyone.

I hope you enjoyed this piece and learned the distinction between CrossFit and real athletic training.

They are presently very dissimilar, although they get tied in together many times based on my experience for whatever reason. Too re-iterate I’m really not trying to demean or be destructive towards the CrossFit philosophy at all. Peer review should be overly critical and brutally honest. I’ve written many articles and a couple of books and I can tell you firsthand that this is the case from the experts that analyzed my work, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If CrossFit is really serious about crossing over into the athletic training realm, then they need to start taking science more seriously, credit the founders, and utilize methods that are actually intended for athletes that truly work.

Lastly, I really think we currently underrate just how great so many high level team sport athletes really are. Genes aside, contemporary team sport athletes are amazing. On a final note, understand that athletic development is a big puzzle, and there is a lot that has to come together for any one athlete to be successful.

SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES:

#1-Cordain, Loren. The Paleo Diet for Athletes. Rodale. Emmaus, PA. 2005.

#2-http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/sports-training/overview-of-periodization-methods-for-resistance-training/

#3-http://www.bjgaddour.com/what-do-you-think-about-crossfit

About the Author

Travis Hansen has been involved in the field of Human Performance Enhancement for nearly a decade. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fitness and Wellness, and holds 3 different training certifications from the ISSA, NASM, and NCSF. He was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Reno Bighorns of the NBADL for their 2010 season, and he is currently the Director of The Reno Speed School inside the South Reno Athletic Club. He has worked with hundreds of athletes from almost all sports, ranging from the youth to professional ranks. He is the author of the hot selling “Speed Encyclopedia,” and he is also the leading authority on speed development for the International Sports Sciences Association.

 

CategoriesNutrition

Even More Reasons Why Athletes Should Eat Carbs

Outside of being downright delicious, carbohydrates do serve an important role in day-to-day nutrition, and especially so with competitive athletes.

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of strength coach, Travis Hansen. If you happened to miss the first two installments of this article series, please check them out HERE and HERE.

Right now, I’m going to jump right into things and discuss five more final reasons why any team sport or explosive based athlete requires carbohydrates in order to optimize their performance and physique

#1-CENTRAL FATIGUE MANAGEMENT

This theory continues to be explored, and isn’t fully understood yet. When we train long and hard, levels of free Tryptophan (5-HT) begin to circulate in higher quantities throughout our bloodstream. Eventually Tryptophan crosses the blood-brain barrier where it’s converted into Serotonin.

Serotonin has been shown to elicit key symptoms of fatigue when there is still available peripheral energy sources available to our working muscles. Dr. Mark Davis published a very interesting article in a Sports Nutrition Journal back in the late 90’s which covered nearly every element of “The Central Fatigue Theory.” (1)

If you are a geek like me and want to know all of the ins and outs of this particular subject matter, then I would definitely give it a good look. I’m going to bypass some of the specifics and just give you what’s really important here.

The F-TRP/BCAA ratio becomes very significant. In order to gain access into the brain, Tryptophan needs a specific transporter that BCAA’s (Branched Chain Amino Acids) compete with. Thus, by increasing BCAA’s in the blood, one could simply assume that this would limit Tryptophan levels and subsequent fatigue. Unfortunately, BCAA’s don’t show much promise in this arena directly, and there are a number of factors that Davis discusses which help explain the dilemma that is beyond the scope of this article.

On the upside, carbohydrate feedings show a consistently strong impact on CNS fatigue suppression.

According to Davis, one way in which they do this is by limiting the release of FFA or free fatty acids into the bloodstream. When we train at high intensities, liver glycogen support for the muscles in our body can be reduced fairly quickly. As training continues, we begin to rely upon more fat for fuel.

Fats influence F-TRP and its binding with a protein called Albumin. In other words, if FFA’s are elevated due to a lack of carbs then they will naturally knock of Tryptophan from Albumin which will then allow the now unbound Trytophan to make its way to the brain and subsequently induce fatigue.

I should also note that the exact mechanism for why carbohydrates prevent fatigue is very controversial still, and one theory is that glucose is the preferential source of fuel for neural cells and they absolutely crave this particular energy source when it’s readily available.

#2-CORTISOL LEVELS

When it comes to maximizing your physique and overall athletic performance there is zero doubt that Cortisol is your body’s potential kryptonite!

Several pathways throughout the human body are to be disrupted when Cortisol is high and chronically elevated by consuming less carbohydrates combined with rigorous training protocols.

Thyroid conversion will be altered as well as nervous system activity. Direct protein synthesis is reduced, and last but not least, Insulin and Testosterone levels will take a substantial hit. And if you already read the previous two articles (see links in intro) then you can already appreciate just how much of a negative impact this can create.

#3-DE NOVO LIPOGENESIS

I’ve been excited to discuss this issue because I still get asked the question whether or not we really store carbs as fat very easily.

The answer is definitely no.

De Novo Lipogenesis is the production of fat from carbohydrates specifically. Again this all goes back to The First Law of Thermodynamics, or calories in vs. calories out. You can’t store more energy if you are taking in less energy.

Period.

I know I might be beyond beating a dead horse here, but some people still can’t accept this scientific law and blame everything else for weight gain or lack of success in losing fat/weight, especially carbs.

Come on.

According to the highly credible and world renown physiologist Lyle McDonald, De Novo Lipogenesis is quite difficult to come by to say the least. Under normal dietary conditions, where people aren’t severely obese, upwards of 700-900 grams of carbs per day for several days had to be ingested in order for De Novo to occur. (2) This is an absolutely INSANE amount of carbohydrates mind you.

And some of the reasons why it’s difficult to store carbs as fat is because of the glucose-ffa cycle. This cellular function just means that when we eat carbs we burn carbs, and vice versa. Moreover, there is roughly 500 grams or so of potential glycogen that can be stored in the muscle and liver which amounts to approximately 2000 calories.

Also, standard high intensity weight and athletic training causes these stores to naturally adapt and increase their storage potential even further making fat storage from carbohydrates even harder to come by. So as you can see from the evidence above, if you are a female or male athlete who wants to get leaner and improve your body composition, then by all means eat your carbs!

#4-SLEEP FUNCTION

According to the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, carbohydrates consumed prior to sleep can decrease the onset of actual sleep. (3)

A common sleep deficiency in research is initiation, so the carbs could be very helpful in this department if you are an athlete who needs to quickly recover and perform at a high level regularly.

Moreover, although the primary type of clients in which I work with aren’t bodybuilders or figure competitors, I have been fortunate enough to train quite a few over the years and consult several of them and prescribe and monitor their nutrition. A very consistent observation has been definitive improved sleep quality with adequate carbohydrate consumption with other influential factors held constant.

This observation is highly subjective, but if several of these athletes are benefiting from more carbs, then that is more than good enough for me as a coach who wants them to be at their best.

#5-LEPTIN PRODUCTION

I’m going to very quickly introduce or simply review this hormone and give you a very basic short course on the hormone.

Leptin is a peptide hormone that is primarily synthesized and released from our fat cells in the body. Leptin has specific receptors in the brain which help to regulate energy production, appetite, and weight management to name a few.

Basically, if calories, bodyfat levels, or carbs are too low then Leptin production is decreased and energy expenditure decreases, performance decreases, hunger goes through the roof, and we pack on lbs. Keep Leptin at normal levels by eating sufficient carbs and calories at a healthy weight/bodyfat level and the metabolism remains in harmony. Here are a few starter articles to get you properly acquainted with Leptin if you aren’t already:

Control Leptin and Control Your Leanness

Bodyweight Regulation: Leptin Part I

SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES:

#1-Davis, M. Carbohydrates, branched-chain amino acids, and endurance: The Central Fatigue Hypothesis. International Journal of Sports Nutrition, 5: 29-38, 1995.

#2-http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/how-we-get-fat.html/

#3-http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/85/2/426.full

About the Author

Travis Hansen has been involved in the field of Human Performance Enhancement for nearly a decade. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fitness and Wellness, and holds 3 different training certifications from the ISSA, NASM, and NCSF. He was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Reno Bighorns of the NBADL for their 2010 season, and he is currently the Director of The Reno Speed School inside the South Reno Athletic Club. He has worked with hundreds of athletes from almost all sports, ranging from the youth to professional ranks. He is the author of the hot selling “Speed Encyclopedia,” and he is also the leading authority on speed development for the International Sports Sciences Association.

CategoriesNutrition

5 More Scientific Reasons Athletes Should Eat Carbs

I’m in Europe traveling, speaking, and eating lots of cheese.

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of strength coach Travis Hansen. I don’t write nearly enough nutritional content for the site – if I do it’s always gluten free2 – so when Travis reached out to offer a sequel to a popular article he wrote for T-Nation I was happy to oblige.

Enjoy!

If you haven’t already be sure to visit part #1 of why athletes should eat carbs HERE, where I cover several often overlooked reasons why athletes need carbohydrates to look and perform to their peak potential.

Photo Credit: Bosque Village

Right now, I want to take some time and cover several more key reasons to further put this myth to rest once and for all!

1) Ghrelin Suppression

Ghrelin is a very intricate hormone of our endocrine system that is released primarily from our stomach cells.

Awww, ghrelin is so cute!

Once released into our bloodstream this hormone travels up to the brain where it binds to its specific receptor site.

There is extensive research on this hormone, but most notably is its role on increasing appetite.

Interestingly enough, once we ingest enough carbs ghrelin levels tend to scale down. This becomes significant since ghrelin also plays a negative role in metabolic rate and fat storage. (1)

2) Non-Essential Amino Acid Synthesis

When our body utilizes carbohydrates as energy some of the chemical by-products become necessary for production of the manufacturing of non-essential amino acids.

This becomes important since this particular sub-category of amino acids is involved in many metabolic pathways in the human body.

I analyzed several studies which indicated that non-essential amino acids did not provide any additional benefit to muscle growth outside of essential amino acid intake, however if you sit down and examine the role of each one you will come to find out that they play vital roles in various reactions in the body which will ultimately affect athletic performance and you would be foolish to limit their production by going low carb.

3) Testosterone Levels

I discussed the effects of Insulin briefly in the previous article and from that you could see just how valuable the hormone is for muscle growth and performance.

What’s more is the influence insulin production can have on our testosterone levels.

When we ingest and digest carbohydrates Insulin will prevent a hormone by the name of Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG) from attaching itself to Free Testosterone circulating through our bloodstream.

Moreover, I was able to locate an awesome study which examined the effects low carbohydrate diets had on Testosterone levels. (2)

In this particular study, researchers studied two groups of male athletes.

One group consumed moderate to high amounts of carbohydrates (60% of caloric intake), while the other group consumed low quantities of carbs (30% of caloric intake). After three consecutive days of high intensity training, blood samples were taken from each group, measuring each groups Testosterone to Cortisol Ratio.

The control group only showed a 3% decrease in T while the low carb group showed a pitiful 43% drop in T!

Keep in mind, the exercise protocol did not involve heavy weight training, so it would be interesting to see the effects of pre and post-percentage drops in each group with very high amounts of muscular damage induced from resistance training protocols.

4) Motor Control and Coordination

I absolutely love science as much as the next person, but I don’t think there is really any true need to provide any study on this one.

Bottom Line: our nervous system’s preferential source of fuel comes directly from carbohydrates in the form of glucose and if we deprive ourselves of carbs as athletes then it has to be manufactured from external and internal sources of body protein (aka muscle mass) with small amounts stemming from fat (glycerol).

Also consider the potential lag time in glucose production from non-carbohydrate sources that occurs since it’s not readily available in muscle stores as glycogen for glycolysis.

Most team sports rely on anaerobic glycolysis fueled by glucose and glycogen stores, and if there is a delay in providing these energy sources then exertion has to stall to some extent.

Aside from everything else I’ve shared with you up until this point, all you have to do is work with any strength or power athlete for a considerable amount of time while they are practicing a low carb diet strategy and you will inevitably recognize common deficiencies in movement (speed, quickness, strength, motivation, etc.) derived from fatigue, dehydration, and subsequent motor control deficits.

5) The X-Factor: Glycogen

In the first article, you saw the influence systemic hydration levels have on performance outcomes, and the high amounts of H2O that is to be stored in our glycogen stores. Any small decrease in hydration (2-3%) has been shown to lead to poorer performance and you absolutely risk this by depleting glycogen stores in your muscles and liver by consuming less carbs.

Furthermore, one of the common physiological adaptations that occurs in our muscles in response to strength and athletic training is an increased capacity for glycogen and thus water to meet the increased demands of the training stimulus so that we can perform better.

Moreover, there is good evidence that glycogen stores play a direct role in recovery and protein synthesis following intense training. (3), (4).

Increased cellular signaling is one potential way that glycogen can affect recovery and regeneration.

Lastly, if you are an athlete who is trying to get fancy and shed weight fast let me inform you of some things before you do so.

When glycogen stores become depleted within a day of strict low carb dieting there is an automatic up-regulation of specific enzymes which store more glycogen to help combat this approach.

With this there is an increase in glycogen stores above original baseline. This means that you are going to temporarily gain MORE weight in the form of increased water and stored carbs then if you had just stayed consistent in the first place.

What I am referring to here is the classic “carb loading” approach advocated and mastered by endurance athletes everywhere for decades now. And it absolutely works for this population, but definitely not in the context of efficient weight loss for athletes who still need to perform at a high level regularly.

If nothing else, why would the body adapt this way? Obviously we need the glycogen, especially if you are an explosive athlete.

Lastly, there is a decent amount of research that I found showing that sufficient glycogen or glucose replenishment may offset Central fatigue of the nervous system, and I will be sure to discuss this topic more in the final installment of this series…

Scientific References

#1-#6-http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/bodyweight-regulation-wrap-up-other-hormones.html/

#2-Lane AR, Duke JW, Hackney AC. Influence of dietary carbohydrate intake on the free testosterone: cortisol ratio responses to short-term intensive exercise training. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010 Apr;108(6):1125-31.

#3-John, L. Regulation of muscle glycogen repletion, muscle protein synthesis and repair following exercise. J Sports Sci Med 3: 131-138, 2004.

#4-Howarth, KR. Effect of glycogen availability on human skeletal muscle protein turnover during exercise and recovery. J Appl Physiol 109: 431-438, 2010.

Author’s Bio

Travis Hansen has been involved in the field of Human Performance Enhancement for nearly a decade. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fitness and Wellness, and holds 3 different training certifications from the ISSA, NASM, and NCSF. He was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Reno Bighorns of the NBADL for their 2010 season, and he is currently the Director of The Reno Speed School inside the South Reno Athletic Club. He has worked with hundreds of athletes from almost all sports, ranging from the youth to professional ranks. He is the author of the hot selling “Speed Encyclopedia,” and he is also the leading authority on speed development for the International Sports Sciences Association.