seanmc

If it's really bothering you, it's pretty acute. That being the case, ice massage. It'll help a lot.

The other thread on dieting in general brought this up - so I thought it would be good to dig into the topic with a fresh thread for future reference, et. It's not secret that research has shown over the years that there can be a 50% variance in weight-loss within the same caloric load just based on carbohydrate levels. The other post was digging into types of carbs...and that is important. But I think the bigger issue for most people is not the carb source, but rather the carb quantity. We can all get fat eating perfect carb sources. Conversely, we can all lose weight eating crappy carbs. It's purely a numbers a game. And when it comes to finding a rock-solid, sustainable nutrition plan that is going to help us stay able-bodied and strong - and make us better shooters out there...it's all about finding out how much food we each need to move forward and get closer to that goal (weight loss, weight gain, maintaining weight, et). So let's dig in here. Anybody familiar with the different body types (endomorphic, mesomorphic and ectomorphic) and how those genetics largely dicatate metabolic potential? I think it would also be good to talk about carb sensitivity, glycogen uptake during exercise and the body's energy-source preferences. It's all directly related to what we are talking about in that other thread. Here is an excerpt from an article I recently wrote. It'll get us started in the right direction. Feel free to take the conversation in any good direction though. Hoping this is a good one. "Indeed, every calorie you have ever burned is a carbohydrate. That comes as a surprise to most people. “What about the protein I eat or the fat I consume?” When you consume fats and proteins, your body uses them structurally to repair itself and for a host of other purposes as well. However if you have to metabolize those things for energy (and you can), you convert those fats and proteins into carbohydrate and use that for energy. Because of this energy-source preference, the human body has 3 primary storage systems for carbohydrate. The first is your blood stream. The average adult human can hold about 30 grams of carbohydrates in their bloodstream. Not much. Think of a banana or a piece of bread. This is where your body turns first when looking for energy because this is the easiest (and fastest) energy to access. If the blood stream is at its storage capacity, the body stores the next 80 or so grams of carbohydrates (aka, glycogen) in the liver. A pretty small amount of energy. Think about half a bowl of pasta. If that system is full, the body tries to then store the extra carbohydrate in the muscle (aka, muscle glycogen). Your muscles serve two primary purposes. The first purpose is the most obvious one and that is to move your skeleton. The second purpose is lesser known. It acts as an energy storage system. The average male human can store roughly 500g of carbohydrate in their muscle tissue. The average female stores less than that, as the amount you can store here is directly correlated to how much muscle mass you have. Regardless though, we are talking about a bigger storage system compared to the previous two. However this too has a finite capacity. And when that system is full, the only other storage option your body has is to convert that extra carbohydrate to body fat. And store it. Concisely said, that is how we gain weight. We max out our carbohydrate storage systems with too much food and our body turns most of what we eat beyond that into body fat and tucks it into our fat cells. Forgive the protracted explanation. But it’s critical to understand this energy continuum. Because the same system that was just described is used to deliver energy when you need it most. So what happens to the competitive shooter during an event? Well, a competitive shooter is active and is using calories, just like any other athlete. Picture a typical day at a match. Its hot outside so you likely have water with you. You start to shoot and all is well. You are sweating and drinking water as needed. The competition is rolling now and you start feeling the effects of your physical activity and energy expenditure. Your reaction time is slowing. You feel fatigued, though not bad. “I should not feel tired right now” you think to yourself. So you press on. Your transition times are slowing. Maybe you make a sloppy reload. Or the front sight is getting harder to focus on. It’s getting harder to plan your stages. Simply said you are making technical mistakes you should not be making. Your reaction time is slowing. What is happening? “It must be the heat because the other guys out here are hurting too” you reason. But in that moment, it’s not the heat. And the other guys are hurting because they are experiencing the same issue you are. The technical term for the issue is exercise-induced hypoglycemia. Translation: You have very low blood sugar. Again, your blood stream can hold about 30g of carbohydrates. And you spent those in a hurry during competition. In a matter of minutes actually. So your body starts to pump glycogen (again, that is stored carbohydrate) out of your liver and muscles to “find” the energy it needs. Additionally, it starts to convert stored body fat into glycogen as well. Only this is an inefficient process in the body. It is a process that keeps you alive, just as it is meant to. However this is not a process that allows for 100 percent performance. And when your blood sugar is low, you start to experience very distinct and acute signs of hypoglycemia. Fogginess in your thoughts, decreased visual acuity, decreased energy (lethargy), decreased neurological efficiency and even shaky hands. Do any of those things sound helpful in competitive shooting? No they do not. In fact those are the very things we practice and train for! So while your practice may be making you better, your body can betray you the day of the competition. Having participated in competitive shooting events many times, I see the impact this has on shooters every single time I go out there. The more you become conditioned and able to recognize it, the more obvious it will be to you when you see it in yourself and in others alike." These are the issues that I think we really need to talk about - that energy continuum and how it impacts our shooting performance. Let's dig in! Sean

I have to give you guys a lot of credit - this discussion is a LOT more techincal than most of the boards I have been on over the years. Good stuff here. I think we are getting a little off topic though. My understanding is that basically everybody who posts here has two goals: 1) Find a sustainable nutrition plan that is going to promote good health for a long time. 2) Ensure that the nutrition plan makes us all better athletes and better shooters. So that said, I'm going to start another thread where we can dig into the topic a lot more. Again, great stuff here guys. Sean

I would recommend avoiding caffiene before a match. It's a CNS stimulant as others have said here. And the impact it has on your shooting will be very real - and negative. That said, the desire to be at the top of your game when you go practice or compete is very real. And the best way to do that is to make sure your nutrition is optimized. Specifically, by making sure that your blood sugar is not dropping when you need that energy. So the biggest piece of advice I can give on this one is to just go easyon the caffiene and instead, focus on what you are eating...and when you are eating it. Sean McCauley, CSCS, CISSN

Badchad is right. Anti-inflammatory meds don't help. They are just good for an analgesic effect - meaning it may help the pain but not the underlying condition causing the pain. My day job is not a physical therapist, but rather a web-based nutritional and exercise consultant. I work with athletes all day long. I've seen and experienced issues with tendonitis on both the medial and lateral areas of the elbow/forearm. A lot. in fact, it's one of the most common issues for athletes, shooters included. There are a few things we need to do here. First, there is a cause. So we need to remove that motion(s) from the training. This may mean modifying your actual workout or your shooting or both. Secondly, we need to make sure that whavever we replace it with is acceptable and not causing more pain. A lot of times an athlete will get an issue like this, replace the painful motion with something else and find that the new motion is not helping the cause at all. Third, we need to treat the injury. The best thing I have found over the years is to use an ice massage a couple of times a day to help break that inflammatory cycle. Cryo-Cups are worth their weight in gold for this. Google that....best 5 bucks you'll ever spend if you train a lot. Finally, we need to slowly re-introduce the motions that you cut out initially because chances are, they are good and normal motions in the gym or on the range. This is where a lot of folks get in trouble....we tend to get too aggressive too fast during rehab. And as you can guess, that will set you back pretty fast if you are not careful. Patience is a tough thing. But a bad case of tendonitis can take upwards of 8 months to heal sometimes. It just depends on how aggressive you are with treatment and how you manage your injury in terms of exercise, shooting, et. Sean McCauley, CSCS, CISSN

To be honest, I should preface this by saying that I have been a professional web-based nutritional consultant for the last 5 years - working with highly advanced athletes and ordinary folks day-to-day on the web...it's all I do. So take what I say with that in mind. There are worse fad diets out there than Paleo. There are two issues there however. First, it's not a permanent fix. Sooner or later you are going to eat something that is not part of that diet. So it's a band-aid fix at best. The fundamentals of watching protein intake and being picky about your carb intake are rock-solid however. The second issue there that is likely a more immediate threat to us as athletic shooters is what it does to your carb-sensitivity, blood sugar levels and insulin resonse. We're all very different genetically. And so we all have different needs - that's nothing you don't know. But if you want to make sure you eat well and perfrom well, it's just like shooting...you have to put in the time and effort. Write down the foods you eat. Track the protein, carbs and fat. Gather the data. And watch how that data correlates to your weight over time. And then start making subtle changes based on that. Doing anything extreme, be it Paleo or anything else...it rarely ends well. Statistically, 95% of the people who start a diet like that "fail" and end up gaining weight back after 2 years. And the only reason that rate is so high is because again, it's a fairly extreme way to live and the human animal doesn't like losing control over what they eat. Additionally, if you are going to diet and be successful in the long run, it's all about education. So again, I would recommend you start tracking the food intake/body weight and let the numbers dicatate what you do. Sean McCauley, CSCS, CISSN

I second the TuffStuff suggestion. They are one of the few companies out there who actually classify their residential equipment line as "Light-commercial"...which means its built very well. I built out a gym for a business about 5 years ago. And TuffStuff was the first place I looked for a great squat rack. It'll have everythying you want and it'll last forever. Exercise equipment is kind of like firearms: You pay for what you get and you'll rarely regret getting something overbuilt. Sean

Hello everyone! My name is Sean and I am new here, but not new to shooting. I train all the time, shoot IDPA and pretty much love every kind of shooting sport there is. I've never done 3-gun competiton personally, but have worked with a lot of people who have. One of them recommended that I check out the board here to stay in the loop and get a lot of info because I am going to try to start doing some 3-gunning. Looking forward to a lot of great conversations! Thanks! Sean