Husker nutritionist

[Husker_Power]

Husker nutritionist helps Nebraska players hit their strides

LJS

 

No one is about to confuse Ndamukong Suh with Emeril, but who’s to say a cooking class couldn’t help the Husker football program?

 

This summer, a voluntary cooking class is exactly what most of the players on the team participated in, a welcome experience amid the heat, heavy lifting and wind sprints. The class was just one of the changes new Husker sports nutritionist Josh Hingst has brought to the program.

 

It is Hingst’s first year in that role, but he’s already quite popular with players.

 

“You need to do a story on that guy,” Husker linebacker Blake Lawrence said in between gulps of a post-practice protein shake. “He’s doing some great things around here.”

 

Let’s start with the cooking class. Players showed up in groups of 10 or 11 to the team’s training table.

 

“We put together a rough grocery list on three main proteins, three or four main carbohydrates, and built recipes around this list of about 12 foods,” Hingst said. “The whole idea with the class was how they could maybe cook some things in bulk and store them, whip them out, and maybe in five to 10 minutes have 20 or 25 things they could mix up, from grilled chicken breast to a pasta.”

 

The goal wasn’t to challenge Rachel Ray. It was to emphasize to players the importance of nutrition.

 

Along those lines, Hingst has made nutrition cards specific to each player. Based on the player’s lean body mass, Hingst has helped map out a plan of what each player’s calorie intake should be for the day.

 

An offensive lineman, for example, could walk into the training table, look down at his card and see that he’s supposed to take two servings from the fruit bar, four servings at the carbohydrate bar, and so on.

 

No one case is the same, but to generalize, the players break down into three categories:

 

n Those who need to gain weight.

 

n Those who need to be careful to not gain too much weight.

 

n Those who generally don’t have any weight issues.

 

Players weigh in before and after each practice.

 

“If we figure out that on an active day, a player needs 4,000 calories to maintain his body weight, we’re going to start by going to maybe 4,500 or 4,800 calories to see if that’s enough to get him to gain the weight he needs,” Hingst said. “If after a week we’re not making progress, we might go up 1,000 calories above what they’re expending each and every day.”

 

Hingst wants players consistently fueling their bodies, eating five or six times a day.

 

As important as anything is making sure players get the right proteins and fluids before and after practices.

 

Before a practice, players take a protein bar and a protein-carbohydrate gel or drink called Accelerade that provides antioxidants, Vitamin C and Vitamin E.

 

After practices, players stop by tables Hingst and student helpers have set up with things like Gatorade recovery shakes and other options.

 

There are three different tables. The one you visit depends on your weight situation.

 

An offensive lineman can occasionally lose as many as 7 to 8 pounds during a practice. Most players are usually going to lose 1 or 2 percent of their body weight.

 

So Hingst has each player taking in at least 48 ounces of fluid right after a practice to put some weight back on.

 

A player who is underweight is supposed to drink a regular Gatorade after practice, two Gatorade recovery shakes, pretzels and an Ensure shake.

 

“We have a set amount of calories we want each guy to consume,” Hingst said. “Of those calories, we want a good protein-to-carbohydrate ratio. For underweight guys, that’s 4-to-1. For other guys, that’s 3-to-1. We want guys getting sodium, electrolytes.”

 

The general rule of thumb is that for every pound lost during practice, it needs to be replaced with 20 ounces of fluid. Once a player slams down two shakes, he’s gotten 2 pounds back.

 

It is a situation that not every football program is so lucky to have. It was recently chronicled that New Mexico State could no longer provide post-practice snacks for their football team because of budget cuts.

 

“Really, Nebraska was one of the first schools to ever to have a sports nutritionist,” said Hingst, a native of Hooper who went to NU from 1997-2001. “I like to think that our program, in terms of sports nutrition, is definitely on the leading edge in terms of what everybody is doing.”

 

Hingst earned his master’s degree at Florida State, where he got a job for the next six years working in strength and conditioning and sports nutrition capacities. He followed that with a year as the team nutritionist for the Atlanta Falcons before coming back to Lincoln.

 

“This is home for me,” he said.

 

It’s a good place to call home for a sports nutritionist. Nebraska is just one of 15 to 20 schools that have such a position, though that number is likely to balloon soon.

 

Hingst knows a lack of nutritional guidance can negate a lot of hard work.

 

“With all the work these guys put in the weight room … if you’re not doing the right things to really supplement that, you’re not going to get the results that you need.”

[knapplc]

This kind of nutrition information should be taught to every kid in school.

[The Maudfather]

This kind of nutrition information should be taught to every kid in school.

[Igetbored216]

This kind of nutrition information should be taught to every kid in school.

 

Agreed.

 

Very interesting read and I think schools without a nutritionist are at a disadvantage. The players can work out all they want, but all the hard work can be quickly negated if their bodies are not getting the right nutrition.