COVID-19
STAYING ACTIVE
In light of the recent developments and restrictions set by the Australian Government, Easts has decided to suspend trainings and programs until at least 13 April 2020. This does not mean that you can't look after yourself during this time.
Sports Science - Nutrition
Published: 27 April 2020
Hello again parents, coaches and athletes and thanks for taking the time to again read these updates. The topic for today is surrounding nutrition and let me start off by saying that I am not a practicing dietician and any specific dietary choices should be consulted with a practicing dietician. In saying that, my degree in exercise and nutrition science has provided me with the education to pass on general diet advice and today we may be beneficial for not just our athletes, but our entire Tiger’s community.
A very simple concept that must be understood before anything is that to maintain a desired weight, energy intake must match energy output. A lower energy intake may lead to a reduction in body mass and likewise a higher energy intake than output may result in a gain in body mass. The Australian government website, Eat for Health, has a very simple calculator (www.eatforhealth.gov.au/webform/daily-energy-requirements-calculator) to estimate energy output and I would definitely recommend looking into this. The Eat for Health website also defines the Australian Dietary Guidelines along with plenty of detail surrounding the five food groups (www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines/australian-dietary-guidelines-1-5) and how much of each we should consume per day (www.eatforhealth.gov.au/food-essentials/five-foodgroups).
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Building upon this, the Sports Dieticians of Australia’s website provides factsheets, based on knowledge from qualified sports dieticians, pertaining directly to people who engage in physical activity and special populations such as children and adolescents. They also provide some great recipes that are worth checking out and experimenting with especially in this time of COVID-19 restrictions. I hope everyone can find the time to explore this website as well (www.sportsdietitians.com.au).
As always, if you have any questions regarding the content of this article please do not hesitate to contact me at angussullivan.sc@gmail.com or if you have specific dietary questions I recommend speaking to a practising dietician for a more in depth answer.
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P.S. Please note that in the energy requirements calculator, physical activity is a factor and in these times of COVID-19 restrictions, your energy expenditure may be less than normal which will effect your energy requirements.
P.P.S. Please check out this webpage (https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/eating-well/howunderstand-food-labels) and take note on how to read and what to look for on food labels and be especially cautious of the %RDI column which, for many of us, is completely useless.
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Stay safe and stay active.
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Angus Sullivan
Director of Athlete Development
Easts Workout Routine - April
Published: 13 April 2020
The following two workouts have been designed for minimal equipment use but is able to help keep your bodies prepared for when volleyball does return. The mobility component of this program can be done every day, and we recommend it be done at least 4 times each week. The warmup (standard court warmup) and cooldown is the same for both workout 1 and 2. Both workouts should be completed twice per week, totaling 4 sessions per week. As always, if you have any questions, please contact me via email. Good luck!
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Stay safe and stay active.
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Angus Sullivan
Director of Athlete Development
Sports Science Report
Effect of Inactivity on Athlete Performance - (Restrictions during COVID-19)
Published: 30 March 2020
Hello again coaches, parents and athletes, and thank you for taking the time once again to read this. I wish to start today by ensuring you I am not writing to scare you or cause any more unnecessary panic, however; I think it is pertinent to educate you all on the effects of physical inactivity on our bodies and our performance.
We work very hard as athletes to ensure our body is ready to perform and has the necessary components of fitness that we have discussed in previous reports. The result of all our training is a chronic adaptation to exercise which is desirable as it allows us to perform better if we train the right principles effectively. With our cessation of structured training, and the closing of indoor and outdoor gyms, many of us will be exercising far less or at least far less intensively. Unfortunately, all the hard work we put into training can be easily undone during these periods of inactivity. To further compound this misfortune, physical inactivity leads to much quicker physical adaptations than physical activity. In basic terms, if you don’t use it, you lose it (and QUICKLY).
I have attached a research article on this phenomenon for your perusal if you are interested, however; I will summarise here: The researchers subjected a group of sub-elite young male soccer players to a 2-week cessation of training where they were allowed to maintain activities of daily living but were not able to train or compete in any circumstance. They then compared test results from pre and post-intervention testing. The summary of the results was that the players who did not complete physical activity for a mere 2 weeks scored statically significantly poorer in measures of cardiorespiratory fitness in both performance measures and biological measures.
I wish to reiterate; this is not designed to scare you, rather encourage you to exercise under the prescribed conditions as set by the Australian Government during this time. Please stay tuned for further updates as some practical workouts for volleyball players will be coming out soon!!!
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As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. To read our previous sports science reports, click on the button below.
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Stay safe and stay active.
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Angus Sullivan
Director of Athlete Development
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Cited studies:
Christensen, P. M., Krustrup, P., Gunnarsson, T. P., Kiilerich, K., Nybo, L., & Bangsbo, J. (2011). VË™O2 Kinetics and Performance in Soccer Players after Intense Training and Inactivity. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 43(9), 1716–1724. doi:10.1249/mss.0b013e318211c01a
Athlete Health and Wellbeing
Published: 23 March 2020
Following our postponing of training due to the containment of COVID-19, there is still plenty of things we can do while we are not formally training.
Athletes are encouraged to maintain any possible touches with a volleyball whether it be with family, friends or simply against a wall. There is plenty of opportunities to work on your body by improving your physical fitness for volleyball or by engaging in some prehab/rehab to reduce the risk of injury when we start training and competing again.
I recommend this article detailing why staying active and exercising is more important now than ever. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
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Stay safe and stay active.
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Angus Sullivan
Director of Athlete Development
Immunity and Nutrition
Advice from the Queensland Academy of Sport
