TrueSport: January 2021 - Clean Sport

How to keep kids active in a winter without organized sports

With many schools opting out of organized sports in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents are looking at a long winter with kids at home immediately after school, or possibly home 24/7 if your district has gone remote. This can make it difficult to keep athletes excited about practicing their sport or staying active in general. But it’s not impossible!

Think laterally about movement right now: Aim to keep your young athlete as active as possible, rather than focusing on sport-specific intensive practice regimens. Remember, the CDC recommends that kids between 6 and 17 get at least one hour each day of moderate to vigorous activity, and that they’re doing some type of bone-strengthening and muscle building activities (like running and push-ups, respectively) three days a week. How can you make that happen?

Here are a few ideas to keep kids active, even in the winter months and without organized sports.

Set ‘outside hours’

With very little daylight during non-school hours, it’s easy to go for days at a time without getting outside. To avoid this, look at the sunrise and sunset times and set an 'outside hour' (or 30 minutes) as often as possible. Some weeks that might mean before-school outside time, and other weeks, it might be easier to light up the backyard or go to a well-lit park for some movement. On less structured weekend days, make sure that your young athletes are getting out in the sun and fresh air whenever possible.

Find or create a community

Maybe your child’s team is already doing some virtual training together that makes this option simple, but your athlete can also take creating a virtual community into their own hands by reaching out to active friends or teammates. They may not be able to hold practices together, but they can all follow a similar practice schedule and do some workouts together via Zoom or Facetime. Depending on where you live, they may even be able to gather in small groups for outdoor training time.

Make getting outside easy

When it comes to getting kids more active outdoors, it’s critical to lower as many barriers to entry as possible. For example, make sure your kids have properly fitting clothes and shoes for the weather, as well as easy access to rain and snow gear that they also know how to maintain. If you need specific gear like hockey pads or sticks, ask the coach if you can borrow it while in-person practices are on hold.

Make it a competition

According to a 2016 study, people are most likely to stick to fitness goals if they have a competitive element. Without school or club sports, your athlete may feel like there isn’t a point to staying fit, but there are plenty of challenges that they can still take part in. Older athletes can set up friendly competitions -- like a push-up challenge -- with each other, using a Google Spreadsheet to keep score. There are also hundreds of options for virtual challenges to keep the competitive spirit alive even though normal sporting events are severely curtailed. Rather than playing soccer twice a week, your young athlete might be able to try something new, like a month-long running challenge.

Have fun with it

If you live in a snowy area, take advantage of the many snow-dependent activities that are both fun and healthy. Things like snowball fights, sledding, and shoveling the driveway are great ways to be active without the monotony of a standard workout. And of course, there are fun indoor options: Your child may not want to do a typical weight training circuit, but what about learning the latest viral dance?

Set some goals and expectations

To keep your child from burrowing in and making a permanent butt-shaped dent in the couch as the weather worsens and social gatherings become more restricted, sit down and write out some goals and expectations together. Discuss how often and for how long your athlete should be exercising or practicing each week, as well as some different options and alternatives. Basketball practice in the driveway can continue until it’s too cold to shoot hoops outside, so pick an alternative ahead of time, like a yoga YouTube video for basketball players.

Post your made-up schedule where you normally would put a standard practice schedule or season goals and commit to these sessions the same way you treated normal practices. If commitment is an issue, you might need to set further boundaries, such no TV time or video games until after a workout.

Takeaway

Use these tips to help keep your young athletes active as it becomes harder for them to engage in organized sports due to COVID-19 and to get outside due to winter.

Three risky supplements parents should make sure athletes avoid

To achieve excellence in their sport, many young athletes dedicate hours of work each week, put intense strain on their bodies, and hold themselves to extremely high expectations. Parents who witness this effort may understandably want to do everything they can to support their athlete’s goals and hard work, whether that be with the best equipment, physical therapy, or a sports psychologist.

Unfortunately, dietary supplements may also be something that both athletes and parents turn to in the hope of performance gains and recovery support. This is problematic because dietary supplements are regulated post-market, which means the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t evaluate or approve products that are marketed as supplements before they hit the market, making them extremely risky for all consumers. There have been countless examples of “supplements” contaminated with steroids or prescription drugs, as well as manufacturers that intentionally and illegally include harmful or illicit ingredients without listing them on the label.

Even worse, many of the riskiest supplements are marketed toward athletes and those looking to support athletic performance. The FDA reports that supplements for muscle building, energy, and weight loss are most frequently spiked with powerful and dangerous ingredients, including steroids and pharmaceuticals. As such, it’s critical that parents help their young athletes avoid supplements in these categories. Keep reading to learn more.

Muscle-building supplements

To produce results, supplements marketed for muscle building may contain steroids and substances that act like steroids, such as stanozolol. These powerful substances can lead to serious health effects, including liver injury, heart attack, kidney damage and stroke.

Between July 2009 and December 2016, the FDA identified 35 reports of serious liver injury while assessing hundreds of reports detailing adverse events from supplements. The FDA reports that some of those liver injuries were life threatening. Anabolic steroids have also been associated with psychological effects like increased aggression, irritability and depression.

Some of the most common contaminants in muscle building supplements are called Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs). These substances, such as ostarine and LGD-4033, have anabolic properties like steroids and are often included illegally in supplements despite being classified for investigational purposes only. Other muscle building products contain substances like dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), which disrupts normal hormonal systems in the body.

When it comes to recognizing risky muscle building products, parents should be aware of marketing that claims the product is a ‘legal alternative to anabolic steroids’ and products that promise performance enhancement.

Energy and pre-workout supplements

Pre-workout supplements and products promising energy boosts are popular and easily available, whether it’s online or on the counter at the gym, as athletes of all ages look to both increase and optimize their training sessions. These supplements typically contain stimulants, such as caffeine, yohimbine, and bitter orange extract, which may be used in dangerously high doses to produce perceptible effects.

Stimulants have been associated with both physiological and psychological side effects, including tremors, increased heart rate and risk of stroke, heart attack, and cardiac arrhythmia, as well as insomnia and anxiety.

The use of energy and pre-workout supplements is especially problematic because, in addition to the unknown and risky levels of stimulants in the supplements, users often consume other products -- like energy drinks -- that also contain caffeine. Combined with exercise, high levels of stimulants in the body can lead to significant strain on the heart and the more severe side effects noted above.

Weight loss supplements

Young athletes in certain sports, such as gymnastics and running, may be especially susceptible to the marketing around weight loss supplements, which often promises quick and dramatic results. According to the FDA, the manufacturers of weight loss products sometimes look to produce results by mixing and adding in powerful pharmaceuticals, like the active ingredients from blood pressure, seizure, and antidepressant medications. In another example, the FDA reports that it has identified numerous weight-loss products that illegally contained the prescription drug ingredient sibutramine, which was used in a medication that was later removed from the market because it caused heart problems and strokes.

With these risky ingredients and combinations of ingredients, the FDA has processed many reports of harmful side effects from weight loss products, including heart palpitations, increased blood pressure, stroke, seizure and death.

Takeaway

While it may be easy to assume that young athletes need supplements to recover and perform at their best, all supplements come with some amount of risk because their ingredients aren’t confirmed by the FDA. The riskiest supplements are those marketed for muscle building, energy, and weight loss, so parents should be particularly diligent to make sure their athletes aren’t using these products. At the end of the day, a food-first approach to fueling and recovery is all most athletes need to perform at their best.

How parents of youth athletes can navigate anti-doping rules and medications

As the parent of a youth athlete who is a member of a National Governing Body (NGB) of Sport, you may have heard about anti-doping, or the processes that help keep sport clean, fair and healthy at every level of competition. Did you also know that every member of an NGB is subject to anti-doping testing?

Not all sports organizations are NGBs, but if your son or daughter is a member of, or competes in events hosted by, a sport that has signed the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code, then he or she is subject to anti-doping rules and might be drug tested by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) or another organization.

For many parents of youth athletes subject to anti-doping rules, a common question is whether their athlete can continue using prescribed medications due to the WADA Prohibited List. Concerned parents might even have their kids stop taking prescribed medications in case the use could lead to a positive test and sanction.

While it’s important to take anti-doping rules seriously, keep in mind that there are systems in place to ensure that athletes of all ages can use medications that simply return them to a normal level of health. Here are the steps parents should take to make sure their young athlete can both use necessary medications and adhere to anti-doping rules.

1. Search GlobalDRO.com

First, parents should search the medication on GlobalDRO.com, which identifies if a medication or ingredient purchased in the United States or another participating country is prohibited. You can search both the brand and the active ingredients.

If the results say the medication is not prohibited, then it can be used in sport without any restrictions. If the results say conditional, then you should read the text in the “additional information” box to determine whether your youth athlete’s use of the medication falls within the allowable guidelines.

2. Research Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) requirements for prohibited medications

If Global DRO says a medication is prohibited (either in-competition only, or in and out-of-competition), then a TUE may be necessary. A TUE grants athletes permission to use a prohibited medication in sport if they have provided the required documentation and met a number of criteria. TUE applications are reviewed by medical professionals who are members of an independent TUE Committee, which must be comprised of medical experts with various areas of medical specialty.

It’s important to realize that just a prescription from a physician is not enough to justify the use of a prohibited medication. More information about the TUE requirements for various conditions, such as ADD/ADHD and asthma, is available here.

3. Complete a TUE Pre-Check Form

Before applying for a TUE with USADA, remember that not all youth athletes will need a TUE for all prohibited medications. The need for a TUE will depend on the USADA TUE Policy in force at the time and on the competition level (e.g., international, national, recreational, age-group) of the youth athlete. Because it can be difficult to correctly determine competition level, USADA recommends parents (or the athlete) fill out and submit the TUE Pre-Check Form.

Once the TUE Pre-Check Form is submitted, USADA will provide written confirmation in 3-5 business days as to whether a full TUE application is required. In the meantime, USADA does not recommend that your young athlete stop taking his or her medication unless directed to do so by a doctor. USADA will assist you throughout the process if a TUE is required.

For more information on the TUE application process, visit the USADA TUE section, or contact [email protected] or call (719) 785-2000, option 2.

Takeaway

If youth athletes are subject to anti-doping rules and using medications to return them to a normal level of health, without additional performance benefits, then they may be granted permission to continue using that medication while competing. By following these steps, your athlete can use necessary medications and comply with anti-doping rules.

How to eat for immune support during COVID-19

Nervous about your young athlete’s immune system as cold and flu season continues and COVID-19 is still a part of everyday life? You’re not alone. But luckily, there are some easy ways to boost your child’s immune health without turning to supplements or pills: Food can be a powerful tool in your efforts to keep your child healthy this year.

Here, TrueSport Expert Kristen Ziesmer, a registered dietitian and board-certified specialist in sports dietetics, shares her best tips for boosting immunity in the kitchen.

Educate your athlete

Ziesmer believes that when kids are educated about nutrition, it’s easier to encourage healthy eating. “I like to explain to kids how digestion works: when you eat something, it travels through your body and it gets absorbed into your whole system, so if you're eating a bunch of junk food, that's what is absorbed into your system and you won’t perform your best.” She recommends watching an explanatory video or two about the digestive system with your kids to help get them on board with improving their diets.

Improve the microbiome

Research has shown that immunity is linked to good gut health, which means a healthy gut microbiome. That’s right, not all bacteria are bad -- and having a healthy balance in the gut can go a long way towards keeping your child healthy.

“There's no one magic food, but you can start improving immunity by having a healthy gut microbiome,” Ziesmer says. “The bacteria in your gut affects so many different things in your body, and about 70 percent of your immune system is found in your digestive tract. We want to populate our gut with good bacteria, which comes from fermented foods. Eating those foods will raise the level of healthy bacteria in your stomach, which will boost your immune system.”

Ziesmer recommends gut-bacteria-boosting foods that are rich in probiotics, including sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha and kefir.

Eat the rainbow -- especially greens

“Eating a generally healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables will provide vitamin C, vitamin E, and different antioxidants,” Ziesmer says. So, make sure that most meals are colorful, with a wide variety of vegetables, whole grains and clean protein sources. Green vegetables in particular have been shown to potentially boost immunity, and of course, are part of any healthy diet.

Sneak in greens whenever possible, whether it’s a handful of spinach in a smoothie, broccoli in a stir fry, or a little extra arugula on your athlete’s sandwich.

Add more fiber

Certain fibers -- including those found in apples, oats and nuts -- have been shown to strengthen the immune system while decreasing inflammation. Meaning that yes, an apple a day may keep the doctor away! “Naturally occurring fiber found in fruit and vegetables also helps populate your gut with healthy bacteria,” Ziesmer adds. “Probiotics are the healthy bacteria, but prebiotics are the fibers from foods that the healthy bacteria eat. Apples, bananas, asparagus, oats and Jerusalem artichokes are great prebiotic sources.”

Watch out for fast food

Fatty foods, primarily those that are deep-fried and high in sodium as well as fat, have been linked to worse immune health, so it’s critical to keep the overall food quality of your athlete’s diet high. The occasional trip to a fast food spot won’t destroy your child’s immunity, but it’s important to make a high-quality diet a priority.

"If your athlete is eating a lot of junk food, that's obviously going to make the bacteria in the stomach more toxic rather than increasing the good bacteria,” says Ziesmer. “When eating out, you're going to be consuming a lot more saturated fat, salt, preservatives, and additives, all of which can raise the level of inflammation within the body and counteract the effects of having the healthy bacteria in your stomach.”

Even picky eaters need to eat right

It’s tough to push a plate of vegetables on a picky eater, but it’s critical for their health. Ziesmer recommends starting off by just putting certain vegetable on their plate at dinner. “Some kids have to be exposed to new foods 20 times before they will even try them,” she says.

You can also increase buy-in by having kids help pick new recipes, grocery shop, and food prep. And when all else fails, Ziesmer says to disguise foods, adding spinach to smoothies or wrapping asparagus in prosciutto. Or, she recommends the classic banana, which is packed with fiber and other vital nutrients. “Most kids like bananas,” she says. “Put one in the freezer and it’s just like ice cream!”

Takeaway

Food can be one of the many tools you use to help keep your young athletes healthy, and it doesn’t have to be hard with these basic tips on eating for immune health.