BQuick Speed Camp to be held on June 27th

BQuick Athletic Development is proud to announce a 1 day Speed Camp

Where: The camp will be held at the Madisonville Rec Field on Pine St. (2 blocks south of Badeaux's in Madisonville, on the right hand side)

When: June 27, 2009, From 9am-12pm.

Ages: 6 and up

Description: This camp will focus on the basics of speed and performance enhancement, movement training and proper form and technique as it relates to sprinting and changing direction.
The camp will begin with dynamic flexibility (flexibility in motion) and speed drills, which are the foundation of the remaining training techniques that will also be taught at the camp. These training techniques include, plyometrics, neuromuscular training to assist in kinesthetic awareness and proprioception (knowing where their growing bodies are in space), speed drills and fitness games to improve efficiency of movement in any and all directions. We will finish with static flexibility, core work, and will also speak to the kids about proper nutrition and fueling their bodies properly.

Things to Bring: water/sports drink, snack, cleats/tennis shoes, change of clothes, and a positive attitude!

Cost: $25 by June 13, $35 after June 13, walk up registration welcome.

Registration Form for BQuick Speed Camp

Fruits and Veggies for Cancer Prevention and Childhood Cancer Prevention

As I have always stated, fruits and vegetables should be staples in your daily diet regime.  They are great to include in meals, or compound them with other food sources for a meal (ex: fruit mixed in with yogurt and granola for breakfast, banana in your whole grain cereal, a banana with almond, peanut, sunflower or cashew butter, raisins and wheat germ, or an apple prepared the same way, etc.).  Fruits and veggies are always great snacks as well and are easy to pick up and go with when leaving your house in the morning, or if you're like me, flying out of the door!  Bottom line:  eating fruits and vegetables will allow you to get tons of antioxidants into your body to help ward off cancer, and as the research has shown in some cases, will also allow some childhood cancer cells to be alleviated and destroyed.  The text in quotation comes from a former athlete I've trained named John Fasciane.  John is a great man, and is in his Junior year at LSU right now in Kinesiology and Nutrition.  He is going to be a great coach, mentor, and nutritionist!  John also sent over the information on white, green and black tea, and its effectiveness in buffering the mercury from fish out of your body when eating fish and drinking tea together.  Hopefully you will see John's name more and more on our blogs, and one day, on staff with us!

 

"Researchers have found a new reason for why people who eat the most fruits and veggies are less likely to get cancer.  They found that a fragment released by pectin, in all fruits and vegetables, binds to a specific protein that plays a significant role in all the stages of cancer progression.  The pectin suppresses the protein's ability to progress the cancer.

 

Strawberries, blueberries, and grapes contain some compounds that not only prevent cancer but also compounds that have been observed killing cells of childhood cancer!  The phytochemicals in the fruits caused the mitochondria of the cancer cells to stop producing energy, and without energy the cancer cells died. One of the pytochemicals mentioned was reservatrol so wine might help too if this is the case for all cancers."

 

Since kids cannot obviously drink wine, there are some reservatrol supplements out there now that you can buy over the counter.  In addition to purchasing a reservatrol supplement, make sure to incorporate at least 1-3 servings of both fruits and veggies every day!

TRICK OR TREAT

This Halloween, we are not giving out the traditional candy for trick or treaters or our athletes and clients (not that we ever did). However, this year, we are making a special treat for athletes, clients and trick or treaters that will actually give them some great fuel for their minds and bodies at such a pivotal time in their growth and development.

What we are giving them will include per one cup: 8g good fats (mono- and poly- unsaturated fats), 3g saturated fat (which will come from the milk chocolate in the m&m's), 2mg cholesterol (from milk chocolate), 28g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, 17g sugar (mainly from milk chocolate and the fruit), 4g protein.

Obviously, as you can see, if you pick out the m&m's, it will be a lot healthier! This power-packed treat has all of the essentials of growth, development, and fuel for the mind and body! Nuts are one of the best and healthiest snacks that you can put in your body. They encompass good fats, carbs, protein and fiber. Dry fruit will give us fiber, good sugars, and vitamins and minerals that are essential to our life. Cheerios give us great carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins and minerals. This well rounded snack also has 4g of protein to help rebuild and repair our tissues that we break down through activity! All of this is making me hungry! I wish everyone was serving treats like this door to door, I would actually go trick or treating! TRICK OR TREAT, I'm opting for the TREAT!

Great Breakfast Tips

Breakfast is definitely the most important meal of the day, along with your snacks throughout the day and other meals. The reason breakfast is so important is this: when we wake up in the morning (depending on how much sleep we had, and the last time we ate before going to bed) our glycogen stores deplete after 8 hours (this may happen a little later or sooner for others, depending on your individual metabolism). This means that all of the carbohydrates that we have stored in our liver and our musculature is depleted. Our brain needs sugar (carbohydrates) to function and keep the rest of our autonomic (parasympathetic) nervous system functioning properly and efficiently. Once our glycogen stores are depleted, our body will first go to muscle tissue to break down for sugar for the brain. We work very hard to build this tissue and maintain it, so why would you want your body to eat it away? This is why it is essential to eat as close to opening you eyes in the morning as possible. This will ensure that your brain and body have fuel to function. Make sure that you eat well-balanced, and this will ensure that your brain and body are functioning optimally!
Secondly, what do you think will happen within your body if you omit breakfast from your life and if you are one of those people who do not eat until mid-morning or lunch? As soon as you do eat, your body will store a lot of it as fat. Why? Because you tricked your body into not knowing when the next time it is that you are going to feed it because you have gone so long without eating, therefore, your body must store some of this fuel as fat, to be used as a reserve of energy if you do not eat for another long, extended period of time. EAT BREAKFAST! If you do not eat breakfast now, however start to, you may even end up seeing yourself lose a few pounds! Remember, eat often throughout the day, the volume of how much you eat depends on your goals: getting leaner, losing weight, or gaining weight.

The following article is something I've found, and has a few good tips in it for you:

Make Time for Breakfast
Start the day with a healthy meal

(HealthDay News) -- Your mother probably urged you to eat a healthy breakfast, noting it was the day's most important meal.

She was right, says the Nemours Foundation, which offers these suggestions on how to refuel your kids to begin their day:

* Keep your kitchen full of healthy, quick and easy breakfast choices.
* If morning time is at a premium, try to prepare for breakfast the night before. Set out dishes, prepare and cut up food, etc.
* Wake your family 10 minutes earlier than usual to allow time for breakfast.
* Encourage your child to help decide what to have for breakfast. The child can even help prepare it.
* Have on-the-go breakfast options ready for mornings when you're running late, including fresh fruit, yogurt, trail mix, and individual boxes of cereal.
* Pack a nutritious snack for your child if he or she isn't hungry first thing in the morning.


-- Diana Kohnle

Why Training is Great for Our Immune System!

When we train, our bodies rip our tissues (musculature, tendons, ligaments, etc.) apart (in a good way) because of the specific demand that we place upon them through training (resistance/weight training, cardiovascular training, speed agility conditioning work, flexibility and core training). When these tissues are broken down, it is the job of our immune systems to go back in there and rebuild and repair those tissues to adapt to the specific demands that we place upon them: ie., to be stronger, faster, more flexible, jump higher, etc.

We strengthen and refine our immune systems just as we strengthen and refine the rest of our bodies and minds! However, we need to listen to our bodies. Sometimes when you may feel like you are getting sick (which hopefully never happens, but if it does....), do not train or do not train hard. If you do, you are asking a lot of your immune system and it will not be able to completely fight off what it may be trying to if you are placing excess demand upon it because of training hard at the same time. Be smart, listen to your body, and continue to train when you are 100% healthy for a stronger, more durable immune system!

REST

Rest is one of the most overlooked, most important parts of a training program. Our bodies adapt to the demands placed upon them when we rest. There are a couple forms of rest: complete rest and active rest and recovery. Complete rest is when we just do that, REST. Lying around, hardly moving, and allowing our bodies to adapt to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual demands placed upon them. Last week was exam week for most students, and as you know this can take a toll on you mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually if you are praying very hard for the ability to study longer and asking to be guided through the process of studying and taking the tests! This mental, emotional, and spiritual stress and tension can lead to physical exhaustion when it's all said and done. Complete rest days are to be taken advantage of with: Epsom salt baths, whirlpool therapy, contrast (hot/cold) therapies, dry saunas, steam rooms, ice/heat, floating around in a pool, massage, laughter, light stretching and deep breathing with an emphatic emphasis on deep breathing.

Active rest and recovery is when we do light, gentle yoga, light blood flow workouts to flush out the metabolic waste from our tissues, light swimming, eating the right foods for recovery (pineapple has an enzyme called bromelain, which is a natural anti-inflammatory) and any activity or sport that we deem fun and enjoyable.
Please do not ignore this very important component of your training program as it is one of the most important. Schedule your rest days accordingly, just like you plan your weekly workouts! Please let me know if you have any specific questions or concerns and have a great day! SMILE! It's contagious

Meal Recommendations for Younger Athletes

My sister-in-law Mindy asked me what her son Wyatt (age 4) should eat before an early morning soccer game.

Parents should keep in mind that many kids practice in the evening, but end up playing morning games on weekends, and their bodies and metabolisms may not be used to trying to digest food and move around at the same time. A lot of times, this leaves younger athletes "dizzy", or "feeling weak and lightheaded". Try to remember at all times, it is very important to keep everything in balance. That being said, we always need a great mixture of proteins, fats and carbohydrates to properly fuel our bodies and the appropriate energy systems that correspond with certain musculature of the body that is used at different times throughout both practice and games, depending on intensity levels. Here are some examples of pre and during competition meals for morning games (but is not limited to):

1.) Banana topped with almond butter (or peanut, cashew, sunflower butter) and wheat germ.

2.) Celery topped with nut butter and raisins (call it ants on a log and they'll love it)!

3.) Boiled Egg, 2 or 3, with 1 or 2 pieces of wheat toast with honey.

4.) Oatmeal or grits (not too much), smoothie.

5.) Granola (dry) or with soymilk because it does not have lactose and has a broad range of vitamins, minerals, proteins, fats, carbs, and electrolytes.

6.) During a game, athletes can eat a piece or half of a piece of fruit during the half or while taking a break on the bench.

7.) Hammer HEED is a great product to use to prevent cramping and get extra electrolytes, let me know if you need this. NEVER LET YOUR CHILD DRINK GATORADE or POWERAID. THE SIMPLE SUGARS WILL ACTUALLY BE A DETRIMENT AND WILL DEHYDRATE THEM MORE.

Stay away from milk due to the sugars in it. Milk tends to sit in the gut a little longer and is released over time rather than being used immediately by the body for fuel. It is one of the most common substances that you see for the second time out of an athlete on the field (meaning they puked)! However, chocolate milk is a great post game recovery shake!

Please feel free to send me any questions you may have regarding these meal recommendations. Good luck, fuel them right and they'll get the most out of their performance!