Ok, so there isn’t very much literature out there on nutrition for weightlifters, unless you attempt to decipher the Russian translated texts which are several decades old (Roman, Medvedyev, etc). So I bought Dr. Squat’s ebook some time back, not as a final authority, but just to get his thoughts. I found his recommendations to be quite a bit different than the current trends in sports nutrition. Namely, I am speaking of his argument that weightlifting relies more on ATP/CP and Glycogen, and thus we should eat accordingly. He also advocates against very much fat intake due to the certainty that it will add bodyfat, and increase urination, depleting the body of minerals. In short, here are his recommendations:
Offseason: 25% p, 60% c, 15% f
Pre-Comp: 35% p, 55% c, 10% f
I emailed him to ask if he stood by these recommendations despite their running counter to modern trends. He said yes. What do you think on this, and nutrition for the Olympic Weightlifter in general?
Hatfield sticks to recommending low-glycemic carbs at all times, particularly in the pre-workout time period. As far as manipulating insulin response, he never recommends going outside the ratio recommendations, or consuming simple sugars post-workout.
Ok, so there isn’t very much literature out there on nutrition for weightlifters
What the hell do you mean? Nutritional “science” has almost always been garbage. Just look at the bullshit the FDA and the mainstream nutritional “experts” tell you.
Nutrition for the weightlifter has always been the subject of myraid articles in magazines, from as far back as the early twentieth century.
Basically, if you start with Sear’s Zone recommendations you’ll have a hard time going wrong, and if you are already lean enough, Sear’s Athlete’s Zone recommendations are certainly appropriate. John Berardi’s articles provide more and more information.
Fred Hatfield, while certainly holding a huge squat, sure didn’t follow his own advice. His son (Fred II) once mentioned that his father would chug cooking oil to keep his weight up, and Dan Duchaine reported that when he worked for Weider, that Hatfield would gorge himself on candy all day to help keep his weight up. Also, some powerlifters I know who actually lifted at meets with Hatfield said that he would look like a “freshly jacked-off dick” after his attempts and was in horrible shape, despite being very strong.
I wouldn’t consider Hatfield’s advice at all in lieu of the excellent nutritional advice available from Sears, Eades, DePasquale, or Berardi.
Calm down Shaf . I don’t think the remark on lack of nutrition information as it pertains to the sport of Olympic Weightlifting is unwarranted. I agree with you that going zone style is probably superior to anything else. As far as Berardi is concerned, I just don’t see much distinguishment between his diet recommendations for athletes and bodybuilders in his literature. Maybe I’m missing something, or maybe there isn’t so much difference. But it is at least a cause for concern for me, as my number one goal is performance and not a six pack and big guns. Furthermore, to say that the OLer’s diet should be the same as a football players or other “speed-strength” athletes is far too vague, as the needs for each are much different. I think Berardi is definately a very intelligent sports nutritionist. However, it is undeniable that literature for Olympic Weightlifting nutrition is very rare. Anyone else have other thoughts or direct references on the subject? Thanks.
Heh. I just have to work in that “freshly jacked off dick” story whenever I can, because it makes me howl with laughter.
Think about olympic lifting, the energy requirements for training and recuperation, and whether or not the lifter desires to increase or decrease his bodyweight for competition.
Olympic Lifting is almost entirely anaerobic in nature, both in training and in competition, so you are going to want to optimize the lifter’s use of glycogen for energy, right? This means to replentish gycogen levels as much as you can after training and maintain them during competition.
Protein requirements are probably at least 1 g/lb LBM, perhaps more, depending on the athlete.
I would also have that lifters should go into competition in a calorie surplus state, not a calorie deficit for maximum performance.
You’d probably be interested in Bill Starr’s “Defying Gravity” which is pretty unique in it’s coverage of almost any aspect of peaking for a lifting competition, and in it’s coverage of the psychology behind choosing attempts and warm-ups. If I remember correctly, he also describes the diet he feels is best for lifters in it, but my copy was loaned out over a year ago and hasn’t come back, and I could be remembering passages from “The Strongest Shall Survive”
In my experience, mostly with PL competitions, lifters dehydrate and starve themselves during meets, mostly due to nerves.
I agree to a point - and I have had this concern too - but there is a difference in some of his literature - not the T-mag stuff though - it’s mostly for BBing.
If you serach through his site some of his other articles more related to endurnace work reccomend higher carb levels.
I think this is one area that with regard to football, soccer and sprinting that higher carb levels should be included - so increase the oats!
. I don’t think the remark on lack of nutrition information as it pertains to the sport of Olympic Weightlifting is unwarranted. I agree with you that going zone style is probably superior to anything else. As far as Berardi is concerned, I just don’t see much distinguishment between his diet recommendations for athletes and bodybuilders in his literature. Maybe I’m missing something, or maybe there isn’t so much difference. But it is at least a cause for concern for me, as my number one goal is performance and not a six pack and big guns. Furthermore, to say that the OLer’s diet should be the same as a football players or other “speed-strength” athletes is far too vague, as the needs for each are much different. I think Berardi is definately a very intelligent sports nutritionist. However, it is undeniable that literature for Olympic Weightlifting nutrition is very rare. Anyone else have other thoughts or direct references on the subject? Thanks.