Last weekend, we were extremely lucky to have Brian Frank visit Herriott Sports Performance, in Seattle, for a presentation on sports nutrition for the endurance athlete. If you don’t know Brian, he is the founder and owner of Hammer Nutrition. He’s been in the game a long time and it was apparent during the question and answer session that there is likely no question this man has not answered before. And by the intelligence of his answers, it’s no wonder why his company is one of the leaders in the industry. It was impressive. In one of the most debated areas of athletic performance, he gave most insightful and logical answers.
Myself, I have used Hammer Nutrition products for over 10 years. I was first turned onto their products when training in Bend, Oregon with Jamal Hahn of NutraFig, back in the mid 90’s. He preached the Hammer love and I gave it a try. I’ve been a fan for a long time and have a lot of respect for the business they conduct. They hold themselves to a high standard and aren’t swayed by marketing or gimmicks. I’ve had good success with their products during my own training and competition and with our athletes at HSP. Here are a few general tips from Brian’s visit.
10 Nutrition tips from Brian Frank of Hammer Nutrition:
1. Drink plenty of water during the day. Half your body weight in ounces is a conservative estimate. This amount is in addition to any coffee, juice, or soda drank during the day and in addition to anything drank during exercise.
2. Eat 3 hours prior to the start of your event. Avoid fiber-rich food in the meal. If the event start is early in the morning, sleep is more important. Wake at a reasonable hour and then eat.
3. Vitamins: Take a good multivitamin everyday; capsules rather then tablets.
4. Know your body type! Are you an endomorph, mesomorph, ectomorph? This makes a difference in your metabolism and nutrition demands.
5. During exercise, break nutrition into 3 categories: hydration, electrolytes, and calories.
● Only take in what you can absorb and digest, not what you are burning!
● Hydration: 28oz maximum per hour, on average.
● Electrolytes: 600mg of sodium per hour, on average.
● Calories: 280 calories per hour, on average.
● Numbers are unique to each person depending on their size, sex, body type, and the race environment.
6. If exercising more than 2 hours, the body begins to burn protein; 10-12% of calories come from protein. If planning to exercise more than 2 hours, introduce protein from the beginning: 10-20% of calories from protein, with a 7:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio.
7. Recovery nutrition is most important for day-to-day training! In the initial 15 minutes post-exercise, consume 10-15g of protein, & 30-45g of carbohydrate. Then 60min post-exercise do it again, for a total of 60-90 g of carbohydrate and 20-30g of protein.
8. Prior to your race start, you should have empty an empty stomach, empty intestines, and FULL glycogen stores.
9. Whey protein: Good for post-workout recovery but not during or before an event because it produces too much ammonia.
10. Whole foods are always better then supplements if possible. Eat a healthy diet!
