Sigma Nutrition Radio

Episode 147: Sports dietitian Jeff Rothschild discusses how he implements the latest glycogen/carbohydrate availability research into pracitce with his endurance athletes, issues surround supplements on race day and how the menstrual cycle can affect programming and training performance. Jeff Rothschild is a Registered Dietitian (RD) with a Master's degree in Nutritional Science. He works with a variety of clients including elite ATP and NCAA tennis players, endurance athletes, boxers, swimmers, and a number of touring musicians at TriFit in Santa Monica, CA. Jeff is also a writer for the Examine.com monthly research digest, and teaches college sports nutrition at CSU Los Angeles. Jeff follows a methodical and steadfast approach to nutrition, prioritizing the questions of 'who are you and what are your goals' during the decision-making and counseling process to achieve quality results. This includes an evidence-based approach to nutrition, practicing concepts developed over time instead of using untested or unproven ideas. This allows everyone from elite athletes to sedentary individuals to get the most out of sessions, optimize nutrition plans to fit their own needs, and create the greatest and longest-lasting positive changes. Jeff's main areas of interest are sports nutrition, meal timing, intermittent fasting, and circadian rhythms. He has co-authored multiple scientific research papers that have been published in peer-reviewed nutrition and1797350_10151994670761359_1463077510_n food science journals, served as a reviewer in the peer-review process for journals, and has presented his research at national nutrition conferences. He is also an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), and has spent five years as the assistant tennis coach at CSU Los Angeles. Jeff helped the Golden Eagles earn national Top-25 rankings each of those years, and was a two-time winner of Assistant Coach of the Year for the West Region by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. Beyond nutrition and coaching, Jeff has competed as a cyclist and continues to play competitive tennis. In this episode we discuss: How to translate the latest "train low" and "recover low" strategies into practice with athletes Supplementation for endurance athletes How to schedule your supplements/nutrition on race day How the menstrual cycle affects training and nutrition considerations

Episode 146: Answering a listener question: "I have a sugar addiction. Every time I quit, I get sucked right back in a few months later and gain 10 lbs. What can you say to help me, besides "stop eating sugar?"

Episode 145: Sleep & performance researcher Ian Dunican of the Australian Institute of Sport, discusses some of his work examining the effects of sleep, circadian disruption, training timing and travel schedules on the performance and recovery of elite level athletes. Ian Dunican is currently undertaking PhD research at University of Western Australia (UWA) and Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) investigating, among other things, the impact of evening use of electronic devices on sleep and next day athletic performance, the effects of jet lag and transmeridian travel on athletic performance, and the prevalence of sleeping disorders amongst professional Rugby players. In this episode we discuss: What does the evidence base tell us about poor sleep and the impact for athletes? Athlete sleep patterns Work examining the effects of travel schedules on sleep and performance Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool Training timing & schedules effect on performance and sleep Amateur athletes sleep and circadian rhythm distruption due to shift work Is pre-training caffeine contraindicated for PM sessions? The effect of using electronic devices by elite athletes before sleep Future directions for research in this area

Episode 144: Answering a listener question: "In a few episodes you've mentioned inflammation and how to deal with it. But how do you know if you have a problem with inflammation to begin with?"

Episode 143: Muscle physiology researcher Dr. Keith Baar from the University of California at Davis is on the show to discuss his teams work looking at nutrional and training strategies that can increase tendon stiffness, hence playing a role in injury prevention and the recovery process from tendon/ligament ruptures and bone/cartilage damage. Dr. Keith Baar is the head of the Functional Molecular Biology Laboratory (FMBL) in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and behavior. His research is focused on understanding how training and feeding result in improved muscle, tendon and ligament function. In his capacity as a researcher, he has made fundamental discoveries on how muscle grows bigger, stronger, and more fatigue resistant. Over the last 15 years, Keith has applied these discoveries working as a scientific advisor to a number of athletic teams/organizations including: Chelsea Football Club, USA Track and Field, Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, British Cycling, The English Institute of Sport, Leicester Tigers Rugby, and the Oklahoma City Thunder. In this capacity he works to maximize the effects of training for both endurance and strength and minimize injury. His most recent work focuses on connective tissues like tendons and ligaments. The podcast will discuss the most recent work designed to determine how to best train and what types of foods compliment training to decrease tendon and ligament injury and accelerate return to play.

Episode 142: Sigma Nutrition coach Gar Benn discusses how to effectively troubleshoot your dietary approach, evaluating how to improve a diet and effively programming nutrition and training to get optimal results. Gar is a strength coach and nutritionist. He is the owner of City Gym, a strength training facility and powerlifting club based in Limerick, Ireland. Gar is also a coach for Sigma Nutrition, where he has been doing some amazing work with our online coaching clients.

BOOK: 'Making Weight' - The Ultimate Science Based Guide to Cutting Weight for Combat Sports Helping competitive athletes make weight in an effective and scientific manner is my principle area of practice with my own coaching clients. Currently, my personal roster of clients is about 90% made up of such athletes, so pro MMA fighters, boxers and then also powerlifters and weightlifters. And for today's episode I wanted to get into some of considerations for performance nutrition and weight cutting with fighters specifically. Both in terms of nutrition to support training and to allow them to make weight and refuel appropriately. So what I'm going to get into is really in relation to competitive fighters, training 5-6 days per week, generally with double sessions on most of those, and who have 24 hours or more between the weigh-in and their fight. So please bear in mind that context for anything I may say. There's lots of routes we could go down, but for today I just wanted to highlight 6 mistakes that I find to be very common in how many fighters, and even their coaches, apply and think about their nutrition.

Episode 140: Layne Norton, PhD is on the show to discuss his current journey back from injury, the psychology of elite athletes and the debate how much of a role body composition plays directly on strength and powerlifting performance. Academically he completed his PhD in nutritional sciences under Professor Donald Layman at the University of Illnois, who you regular listeners will remember being on the podcast back in episode 123. As a competitor Layne was a pro bodybuilder who has more recently achieved large success in powerlifting, winning USAPL nationals in 2015 before going onto win a Silver medal at 2015 Worlds in the 93kg class, breaking a squat world record at the time. Layne puts out content and provides coaching via his site BioLayne.

Episode 139: Answering a listener question: "How do you use 'days-off' or 'Diet-Breaks' with clients?"

Episode 138: Sports dietitian and PhD candidate Dana Lis discusses some new research examining the potential for acute low-FODMAP diets to help alleviate GI symptoms in athletes Dana is a well-known sport dietitian with broad experience at the Professional, Olympic, National and International levels. Her passion for high performance sport nutrition has provided her the honor of working with several world-class athletes, achieving top performance; including helping Canada's athletes win Olympic medals at London 2012 and Sochi 2014. As a registered dietitian and graduate of the renowned IOC diploma in sport nutrition, she is currently completing PhD research investigating the effects of gluten-free and acute low FODMAPs diets on gastrointestinal health and inflammation in endurance athletes.