Does Kre-Alkalyn® have benefits in the training of gymnastic

[Guest Valentin]

Hi Everyone

It has been a while but i have finally got my stuff together to put together another article for the gym press.

"Does Kre-Alkalyn® have benefits in the training of gymnastics strength skills"

Click Here --> Abstract

This article would of particular interest to anyone working on strength skills like a planche and iron cross.

Enjoy

[Blairbob]

I'm sure it would but it's been my observance, even with optional gymnasts, that their nutrition is quite often lacking calories, protein, and fat with many poor choices for carbohydrates and the kids aren't drinking enough water. Too many parents will state blah-blah-blah about the USRDA and don't realize that is a minimum for survival and not an optimum for an athlete.

[Joshua Naterman]

Thank you, blairbob! That's such an important point The RDIs are just to prevent disease. As an example for what the difference can be, take vitamin A. The RDI is something like 6000 i.u. The amount needed for optimum health is around 20,000 i.u. The amount needed for maximum athletic performance is 20,000-60,000 i.u., depending on the size of (and calories consumed by) the athlete. So you need anywhere from 3.5 to 10 times the vitamin A that the government tells you to get for maximum performance. Anyone who thinks vitamins are unnecessary for athletes to achieve maximum performance is more than a little bit unaware of how the metabolic processes work, and how much of these vitamins you get in even a balanced diet that provides the calories you need.

[Blairbob]

Yeah, I've been meaning to write up a suggestion letter to my team parents about nutrition.

While I may suggest certain things, I may just be a Nazi and outright ban some snacks as a test. No more dang cheese goldfish, or graham crackers, etc. I'll let them slide with the honey roasted peanuts. No more flavored sweetened water.

One of the coaches I know was very successful with getting kids to love their veggies and fruits based on what the colors of their snacks were. I've heard it's something they do in Japan. However, I'm the warrior chief fascist dictator in my coaching world and so I may just lean toward a ban on them from the getgo. Forget trying to advise the parents or cajole the kids. Currently, I don't let them eat anything from the snack machine from the most part. Z-bars are ok, but no chips or those fruit treats, etc. I will admit to peanut M&M's when I'm out of food for myself.

If I had kids doing the sport, I wouldn't think twice about whey protein. Hell, if I could afford it, they'd all be downing whey after practice. Fruit and veggies or eggs for snack.

One of my boys asked if he could have some milk so I may be willing to part with some of my stash in the fridge but that means I can't drink out of the jug anymore. Actually, he didn't care about that point though. I might physically beat them if they waste it though since they sometimes throw out stuff and it irks me.

Ideally, I would allow the kids to drink milk, cheese, fruit, some veggies and nuts. Basically nothing out of a box or package. May be willing to slide on sweetened yogurt and apple sauce.

I am also considering banning fruit juice. I seriously wonder if some of the boy's sugar intake before practice is limiting their focus besides irritating me with how hyper they are.

Of course, boys might just be hyper period. And I think half of them are probably not eating as much as they should because they are finicky eaters.

[Guest Valentin]

Blair your point is indeed very true. However that is why these supplements are called Dietary supplements, because they aren't meant to replace sound nutrition. Unfortunately its much cheaper to buy and take a dietary supplement than to maintain a good sounds well balanced diet. Especially one suitable for an athlete.

Indeed most children have a shocker diet, and their parents don't and can't help, because really they don't know any better. How many parents get exposed to information regarding nutritional requirement for athletes? Not many. The majority won't really. In HP programs you can address the issue, but its quite hard for National Levels gymnasts.

Ontop of this, regarding the article, people should be cautious to apply dietary supplements recommendations and research to adolescents and even pre-adolescents (things are heading that way), as the majority of research on supplements is conducted on adults (healthy adults at that).

This is indeed an area that needs addressing, but we are all aware of that. Does anyone have any such programs (nutritional) in their gym? to help educate parents and gymnasts?

[Blairbob]

Levski, if you want I can see about putting you in contact with the coach I worked under at the gym before last and perhaps he could tell you about it better than I. He is also on my facebook. Are you on facebook?

Were you the person in that study or video?

I'm sure the study goes more into it, especially what the gymnast was doing before supplement use. If he was doing the same training it would show Kre-alkyn positively versus a new training program focusing on the Cross and Planche.

[Guest Valentin]

Hi Blair, yes i am on facebook. I am always keen to get in touch with another coach and learn and get ideas. How do you invite someone who is overseas? haha.

There can't be to many Valentin Uzunov's in New Zealand if that helps.

Yeah the person in the videos is me.

The study does cover that a little bit, for most part the program used was actually following recovery from an injury, and a long period of rest. 2 months prior to the start of the study i had started working the crosses and the planches with the primary exercises.

[Guest cccp21]

Thank you, blairbob! That's such an important point The RDIs are just to prevent disease. As an example for what the difference can be, take vitamin A. The RDI is something like 6000 i.u. The amount needed for optimum health is around 20,000 i.u. The amount needed for maximum athletic performance is 20,000-60,000 i.u., depending on the size of (and calories consumed by) the athlete. So you need anywhere from 3.5 to 10 times the vitamin A that the government tells you to get for maximum performance. Anyone who thinks vitamins are unnecessary for athletes to achieve maximum performance is more than a little bit unaware of how the metabolic processes work, and how much of these vitamins you get in even a balanced diet that provides the calories you need.

********** I know that brands can be different as far as vitamins and minerals. Do you have a suggestion?

Brandon Green

[Guest Valentin]

There is only one way to be sure of what is actually in the product you take. www.consumerlabs.com (when it comes to supplements). Its an independent testing lab which tests supplements for their content. For Kre-Alkalyn® there is only one manufacturer (All American Pharmaceuticals), so everyone gets their Kre-Alkalyn® from them, however what they mix it up with, in quantities is up to the brand.

[Blairbob]

I found 6 Valentin Uzonov's on FB but none say location. Find me on FB. Would your last email address I have ( don't post it here ) be the one to search for. I'll have to dig it out.

I guess I will have to stop being a cheap bastard and dole out the 2 bucks. It better be worth a gallon of milk. :wink:

[Joshua Naterman]

Thank you, blairbob! That's such an important point The RDIs are just to prevent disease. As an example for what the difference can be, take vitamin A. The RDI is something like 6000 i.u. The amount needed for optimum health is around 20,000 i.u. The amount needed for maximum athletic performance is 20,000-60,000 i.u., depending on the size of (and calories consumed by) the athlete. So you need anywhere from 3.5 to 10 times the vitamin A that the government tells you to get for maximum performance. Anyone who thinks vitamins are unnecessary for athletes to achieve maximum performance is more than a little bit unaware of how the metabolic processes work, and how much of these vitamins you get in even a balanced diet that provides the calories you need.

********** I know that brands can be different as far as vitamins and minerals. Do you have a suggestion?

Brandon Green

There are different forms of the vitamins, and they have different toxicity levels and different absorption characteristics. For example, chromium polynicotinate is much more readily absorbed than the chromium picolinate, which in turn is much better than the cheap version of chromium. I can't remember what that is. Anyhow, as far as vitamin A goes, you want carotenoids. There is no known toxicity level, whereas with Retinol(Vitamin A Palminate) you don't want to take more than I think 8000 i.u. a day. Most good vitamins have a lot of carotenoids. The Centrum Performance is a really good OTC vitamin, and in my personal opinion the Animal Pak is the best overall blend of affordability, quality, and completeness. There's really nothing better for the money. It's not really that much, either. 20 bucks for 22 days of optimum levels of vitamins. It DOES make a difference. Everyone's got their personal favorites, but that is mine.

[Guest Valentin]

Hi

A friend who is a in Med school told me that there have been no studies done on Vitamin absorptions, when taken in pill form. It sounded strange, but yeah given that vitamins and minerals come under the Supplements Act thing, i would not be surprised if taking vitamins in pill form is not as effective as one imagines. Everyone who has taken vitamins before will know that once you start your Urine goes BRIGHT yellow, and that is due to B2 (Riboflavin). What i am getting as is that usually the amount of vitamins in the pills is way! to much to absorb in one dose, thus i would be quite skeptical about vitamin and mineral supplementation with RDI values greater than 15-20% per/pill.

[Joshua Naterman]

That's a good point, ideally you'd want to spread them pretty evenly between all your meals. Unfortunately that's not very practical the way things are done these days. Your best bet for something like that is to get the vitamin powders and take those at lower doses at each meal so that you get what you need on a more regular basis. I wonder how that would feel, i bet pretty good Whether there have been studies or not, I don't know, but there is laboratory data for how much of the various forms of vitamins get absorbed and how they interact with other pharmacological agents. That's basic Pharm stuff, if we didn't have that we couldn't warn about potential interactions. That's how they figure the toxicity levels, by absorption. Of course that doesn't take into account factors like grapefruit, which enhibits certain stomach enzymes and allows sometimes over twice the normal amount of medications to be absorbed. Sometimes that can be harmful or fatal, and the medications with low toxicity levels have warnings for that stuff on them.