CrossFit Ramstein

I realize I may have been a bit of a blogg tease by posting a little info on Sports Nutrition, mentioning future posts, and then … not updating for two weeks. Sorry! The problem is, the information I need is very hard to find. As mentioned before, the research on sports nutrition looks almost exclusively at glycogen repletion rates and duration till fatigue in bicyclists or runners exerting for upwards of 60, 90, or more minutes of exercise. Hopefully my last post helped to bring to light just a few of the reasons why the recommendations based on this are of little use to us. You’d think that the majority of the scientific community is amiable towards endurance exercise. That IS the standard for fitness right? Maybe we should drop this whole broad time and modal stuff and get some new running shoes …

Additionally, there is some info looking at protein intakes of various athletes. The problem with most of those studies is that they primarily measure nitrogen balance and other markers of protein intake vs. protein byproduct outputs … which leads to recommendations on ADEQUATE intake to maintain protein balance in your body. This data cannot effectively be translated to an athlete who is interested in OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE, or an athlete interested in gaining strength or mass. More investigation is needed.

The positive side is some interesting research investigating whether increasing fat intake on moderate or lower carbohydrate diets will increase performance. The mechanism hypothesized is that the body adapts to burn a greater proportion of fat during exercise and thus spares glycogen. Unfortunately, that body of research is relatively small, results are mixed, looks at cyclists or runners, and generally of shorter study protocol–4-5 days to just a couple weeks–which would beg the question of how long would it take to optimally adapt in this manner?

The biggest focus of my curiosity right now is the foundational knowledge of human energy systems. Most sports nutrition books will talk about the ATP/CP, anaerobic glycolytic/lactic acid, and the aerobic glycolytic (carbohydrate) and lypolytic (fat) pathways–remember our broad time and modal domains?

I plan to post more on this soon. Heres a nutshell:
The body uses energy in the form of ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) to fuel exercise–ATP stores are limited and last only a few seconds at maximal intensity. Maximal intensity work can be extended rapidly for a few more seconds through the use of CP (Creatine Phosphate) which can quickly replenish ATP–CP reserve is also very limited. If exertion is maintained beyond a few seconds at very high intensity, the body will use primarily (generally all systems are working at some capacity at most times) the anaerobic glycolytic or lactic acid pathway (which breaks down carbohydrates to relatively quickly, yet inefficiently, replenish ATP), anaerobic work can generally be maintained for a few to several minutes–lactic acid builds up and we hit our anaerobic threshold, and need to reduce intensity momentarily to clear out lactic acid. If longer duration work is desired, then the body must work at a comparatively lower intensity, so that it can utilize enough oxygen to run the aerobic pathways which can burn either carbohydrate or fat–this is also the pathway that we use at rest, and as you sit there reading this post. It’s very efficient and yields more energy per unit of substrate and can be sustained much longer–thus it is preferred.
ONE of the conclusions we get from this is that the higher the intensity of your work, the greater the proportion of carbohydrate that is being utilized and the less fat.

Information like this makes it pretty easy to see where much of the dogma that higher carb diets are more important for performance.

I mentioned I was curious, here are the questions I’m looking to answer:
1) Where did the energy pathway information come from, and what were the protocols used that derived these models and conclusion? Are they reliable, and are they reliable to different types of activity?
If the “foundational knowledge” is flawed, then so will be the conclusions we draw from it.

2) What is the role of fat adaptation? When and how much can we adapt, and to what degree at what intensities can we utilize fat during exercise?

3) If this IS correct, how much glycogen do we need as weightlifters and crossfitters to sustain what we love to do?
I can see how an endurance athlete would need a greater amount of carbohydrate stored in the body as glycogen to support their extended activity. However, how much does an athlete need to do a Fran in less than 5 minutes? I’d imagine the PROPORTION of carbohydrate used during that 5 minutes is markedly higher. But the absolute amount used, relatively small compared to a longer workout. A modest daily intake of carbohydrate (along with some of the bodies mechanisms that convert fat or protein to make new carbohydrates and glycogen) could certainly be enough to fuel short workouts. After all, the rest of the day we burn a much greater proportion of fat while we are resting, and “working” on our computers.

I’ve reached out to a few performance and nutrition authorities to see what insights they have and if they can help direct some of my efforts. I’ve also affirmed that most of the mainstream Sports Nutrition books and guides, and even clinical research may not be significantly useful to us until more work is done on anaerobic metabolism and topics such as fat adaptation. I’ve gone a little further upstream and picked up a few resources on thermodynamics, bioenergetics, and metabolism, hoping that I’ll come across something that gives me an “Aha!”. Cross your fingers! Also, if anyone who reads this has any leads … please share.

FINALLY here is my entirely unrelated question for you.

Do you CrossFit to get better at life or do you live to get better at CrossFit? (please post response to comments)

This came up in my head earlier today as I finished up boxing practice and wasn’t feeling too swell and started contemplating whether or not I’d be able to do the lumberjack hero WOD today. I was thinking that I probably should skip it and felt a little guilty. Made me think, “what is my priority?” Is it my sport? Is it CrossFit? Is it something else? Given I plan to fight in a bout next weekend I reasoned that it’d be the smarter choice to just go to the WOD, support others, not actually do the workout, and then go home and relax.
And then I got there …. and maybe I’m not so “smart”. 3, 2, 1, Go!

P.S. If I don’t post anything for a few weeks, it’s because I’m either covering my hands and forearms completely in a bucket of chalk , or I’m ears deep in this energy system project and don’t want to post anything more until I have something directly applicable. If you have any questions on other topics or need a nutrition fix, shoot me an email or leave a comment.