The Independent Rowing News

Highlights from the 2009 American College of Sports Medicine’s annual meeting.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) is the world’s largest sports medicine and exercise science organization. At the ACSM’s annual meeting in Seattle in May, more than 5,000 exercise scientists, sports dietitians, physicians, and health professionals gathered to share their research. Here are a few of the highlights:

• Many athletes believe they have to take protein supplements to build muscle. Yet, a study of college football players indicated no performance or muscle-building advantages from taking recovery protein in the form of a commercial supplement instead of standard food.

• Fruits and berries, including tart cherries, have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Runners who drank two 10.5-ounce bottles of tart cherry juice for one week before the 192-mile Hood to Coast Relay reported less post-race muscle pain than the placebo group.

• Black currants may also help reduce oxidative stress. Cyclists who consumed a dose of black currant extract (the equivalent of about 1.2 cups of currants) before a hard ride experienced less oxidative stress.

• Research suggests that food tends to be more health-protective than supplements. Taking high doses of vitamins C, E, A, and selenium for six weeks offered no benefits to trained cyclists in terms of antioxidant effects and suppressing oxidative damage.

• Almonds are a positive addition to a sports diet. For four weeks, elite cyclists ate about 60 almonds a day before meals. They increased their antioxidant capacity by 43 percent after a time trial as compared to the group who ate an equal number of calories from cookies. They also improved their time trial distance by five percent compared to the other group.

• Just rinsing your mouth with a sports drink may help you run faster. After an overnight fast (13 to 15 hours without food) and before and during a one-hour time trial, 10 trained runners rinsed their mouths for five seconds with a sports drink or a placebo and then spit it out. With the rinse, they were able to run 365 meters longer in the time trial.

• Athletes who exercise in the heat might wonder if they can “hyper-hydrate.” The answer is yes; more fluid is retained when a sports drink contains a substantial amount of sodium. Consuming a sports drink with double and triple the standard amount of sodium contributed to retaining 25 and 35 percent more water than the standard sports drink.

• About 25 percent of athletic trainers use pickle juice to treat muscle cramps. Some report one to two ounces of pickle juice can relieve cramping within 35 seconds. The mechanism is illusive; because of the rapid relief, people assume the pickle juice empties from the stomach quickly. Yet, the research suggests the fluid empties slowly.

• Chocolate milk is a good recovery beverage. Cyclists did an exhaustive bike ride, recovered with equal amounts of carbohydrates in chocolate milk or a commercial recovery drink, and then performed a time trial the following day. The commercial drink offered no additional benefits.

• Glutamine reportedly enhances recovery by reducing post-exercise inflammatory responses. A study that compared a beverage containing carbohydrates and essential amino acids with or without glutamine taken during and after exercise offered no additional recovery benefits.

• During endurance exercise, consuming carbohydrates in the form of an energy bar, a gel, or sports drink are all equally effective. They all get used for energy at a similar rate.

• Exercise improves learning. Movement and physical activity in students in the third grade has been linked with higher scores on tests involving problem solving. Among college students, those who spend more than three hours per day studying or have a grade point average of at least 3.5 are more likely to be physically active than students who study less and get lower grades.

• While American college students tend to exercise for weight control, fitness, and physical attractiveness, Chinese college students tend to exercise for health and enjoyment.

• Many youth swimmers spend hours training for relatively short competitive events. A six-week study with nine to 12 year olds suggests high intensity/low volume training offers the same benefits as lower intensity/high volume training.

• How may calories are burned when lifting weights? In a half-hour session with two sets of 10 reps and eight different exercises, female subjects burned around 100 calories with their male counterparts burning 210 calories. However, after accounting for the calories they would have burned by just sitting quietly (their resting metabolic rate), the female and male groups wound up burning 70 and 160 calories respectively.

By Nancy Clark