The Effects of Alcohol on Athletes and Performance

Athletes, Ladies, Gentlemen and alcoholics…While you are sober, I would like to scare the crap out of you with; “The negative effects of Alcohol on your athletic dreams.”

Playcall: "Lose right, dizzy down,On three, ready break !!"

1.      “Alcohol will impair reaction time and mental acuity for up to several days after consumption.” (acuity: Sharpness or keenness of thought, vision, or hearing.)

2.      Can cause severe hydration which increases your risk of musculoskeletal injuries including: cramps, muscle pulls and strains.

3.      Alcohol disturbs or interrupts the sequence of paradoxical sleep. Sleep for an athlete is directly related to many aspects of wellness. 

Cheers !!

4.      It increases your fat storage.

5.      It decreases muscle recovery.

6.      It decreases energy.

7.      For guys: It can cause testicular shrinkage, breast enlargement, and decreased sperm development. For Girls: May increase risk of breast cancer.

**See References for further detail.

That’s scary but I ain’t done yet, even though that’s impossible because “ain’t” ain’t a word. Keep reading if you wanna know something real.

On practice squad in the NFL we received a payment of about 3k every week we were on the team.

A fellow practice squad member of the Eagles by the name of…(in “the rocks” epic voice) It doesn’t matter what his name is! All that mattered in this case: was that he had a shot to make it big and he was doing great! Making great catches, running great routes.

On the first day of practice, week 3, this dude was a whole different player. He was constantly gasping for air, dropping numerous passes, and running poor routes. He was struggling so much physically that trainers were often prompted to check on him.

Word coming through the boys was that he was partying hard that weekend. He payed off all of his “settling in” bills and had just enough to party.

He got cut the next day and didn’t even have enough money to ship his car back home so he took the free flight and abandoned his car in Philadelphia. And that’s the End of that.

Of course I couldn’t leave ya’ll with that ending because you alcoholics might have nightmares. So I did my research and found some guidelines for those of you knuckle heads who are going to drink anyway. Just remember ... Be Responsible.  

 

1.      Avoid excessive drinking.

2.      Agree to a limit before drinking.

3.      Avoid drinking games.

4.      Don’t drink alcohol on an empty stomach.

5.      Choose low alcoholic beverages.

6.      For every serving of alcohol, drink 8-12oz of water, juice, or non-alcoholic beverage.

7.      Continue to drink non-alcoholic beverages well after consuming alcohol. ~24-72oz of water if hydrated between each drink.

8.      Avoid social drinking at least 72 hours before a practice/event.

9.      After practice/event re-hydrate properly before consuming any alcohol. For every one pound lost consume 20-24oz of fluids with 300-400mg sodium (i.e. V8 Juice & water, 2oz pretzels with water, Gatorade).

10.  Before drinking any alcohol after a workout/event, consume at least 6-10g protein and 30-60g of carbohydrates (Yogurt & fruit, bagel with 2 T natural peanut butter)within the first 30 minutes followed by a well-balanced meal in the next 1 ½ hours.

11.  Avoid drinking alcohol at least 24-36 hours after experiencing extreme soreness/aches/pains, noticeable bruising or injury.

12.  Do not drink alcohol while taking anti-inflammatory drugs. This includes Tylenol and ibuprofen.

13.  Keep bi-monthly records of body fat to muscle mass rations.

14.  As part of the sports physical ask questions about alcohol abuse. Athletic Trainers, Strength Trainers, Coaches, Physicians and Athletic Administrators can all address this issue. (Please do not exclude high school athletes).

If you are or aren't trying to go Pro here is one fact I can tell you about alcohol:

 It will NOT help your performance!!

Olympic Women's Ice Hockey celebrating their Gold Medal.

References:

http://www.nmnathletics.com/attachments1/507.htm?DB_OEM_ID=5800

http://athletics.macalester.edu/custompages/Deno_Videos/nutrition/nutrition_affects_of_alcohol.pdf

Let the Questions Begin ....

Hey Readers,

I like to make myself available to help people, so I've decided to add a Q&A tab onto the Blog. I would like to provide at least one person a week with an answer to a question that can be answered with my knowledge, experience and opinion.

Leave a comment on the Q&A page or email me with your question at pro2joe.marcus@gmail.com and I will get answering ....

Are YOU Drinking Enough H20?

For all my people making healthy changes this year: Drink 1/2 ounce (of water) per pound of body weight if you're not active or 2/3 ounces per pound if you're athletic. Call it the "2012 Water Vow." Do it every day to increase your chances of weight loss, relieve your low back pain and mental irritation, and overall well being.

Example: Calculation for 200lbs

Non-athletes: 200/2=100 --> 100/8 =12.5 cups of water.

athletes: 200 x .666 = 133.2oz --> 133.2/8= 16.65 cups of water

  

  

H20 Duties within our Bodies:

• Regulates Body Temperature.
• Composes 75% of Brain.
• Helps carry Nutrients and Oxygen to cells.
• Moistens Oxygen for Breathing.
• Helps Convert Food into Energy.
• Protects and Cushions Vital Organs.
• Helps Body Absorb Nutrients.
• Makes up 75% of Muscles.
• Cushions Joints.
• Accounts for 22% of Bones.
• Removes Waste.
• Makes up 83% of Blood.

If you want to read more check out this site ---->   www.naturodoc.com

Crotchety Coach uncovers S-P-E-E-D

Johnny: Kind sir, what have you been up to? I have a project on speed that I need to complete and I've interviewed "Sparq" trainers because their program seems like one of the hottest ones on the market. And let me tell you, I think I've got some great content. Any thoughts ?

Crotchety Coach: First of all Johnny if all you are looking for are the hottest programs around, I have a real itchin' to scratch you right off of this forum! What do you really want kid, information on real speed training or false promises from Muscle and Fiction magazine? If it is speed then Johnny you are one lucky kid: This morning while I was on my throne for my morning glory, I was reading up on speed (going above and beyond in my research like I always do).

Here is an article that should be required reading for all the "wannabe" athletes, trainers, and self-proclaimed experts out there! Before I go any further Johnny, get your highlighting pen out, a note pad and a vice to keep your head locked in place while you thoroughly read about the essence of speed training! After you've thoroughly read and reread this information, come back and ask me a question worthy of a Crotchety Coach answer! Have a blessed day Johnny!! 

http://www.strengthpowerspeed.com/speed-strength-training-basics-tips-for-all-athletes-from-all-sports/

Catch What You See

After a long practice with the Philadelphia Eagles, there were many dropped passes that were addressed after practice that day. A respected coach from the Eagles said “Fellas! You have to catch with your eyes!” 

Many of the guys would shrug it off at the time knowing that they already knew how to catch and that it was simply a mistake at the time. However, the saying stuck with me because I didn’t quite understand why he would put it like that. It was so vague yet so absolute. I soon came to a simple conclusion, the ball simply needed to be caught no matter what. I also figured it had something to do with making “the play”, since every play counts.

Everyone wants to be the X-factor when it comes to winning a game or competition. Proud to say I have made a game breaking play in the NFL and am alive to share the story, better yet, share the secret ingredient to my success with catching. It all began with the presence of Donavan Mcnabb.

All throughout Jr. High and High School I was a big fan of Donavan Mcnabb. I vividly remember when the Philadelphia Eagle’s made it to the Superbowl and Donavan McNabb was the starting quarterback. My eyes were glued to the T.V. that Sunday, and my dad would say, like he would say every Super bowl Sunday, “Son…this is the best right here, the greatest players.” If you saw his face you would think he was talking about angels from the heavens. I would reply in disinterest, “I know dad.” But inside my head I was always in Awww. These guys were the best and more importantly Donavan Mcnabb was amongst them.

Fast forwarding to the present, I found myself in a position I had only dreamt of being in. I was in a 3 point stance on Philadelphia’s 3-yard line headed into the Endzone (meaning we were 3 yards from scoring). The play call was “Strong Right Goal Line Fk 35 Boot Right”, which indicates that the ball can very well be thrown to me in the flats. I hear McNabb yelling the cadence “Blue 80, Blue 80…” and the whole time I was thinking, man this is really about to happen. I’m playing side by side with one of the best NFL quarterbacks working together to win this game. I was starting to get nervous about catching the key pass. When he hiked the ball, I took my counter steps to the left then headed back to the right. When I turned I saw McNabb and his action to throw….just before he released the ball I told myself, “It’s just a ball, It’s just a ball.” While it was in the air, I thought to myself, ‘I’ve seen a ball many times in my life like that, twirling and whirling towards me.’ I caught it like I would to any and finished the play with a dive into the end zone ----It was a dream come true!

 I had scored my first NFL touchdown. I could not have done it, if I did not simplify the task upon its arrival. As an athlete, awareness grows with experience, sometimes to a fault.

When looking into a bowl of lucky charms as an adolescent, I kid you not (haha); the only objects that appealed to me in the bowl were the colorful marshmallows. Those colorful marshmallows to me were “thee lucky charms” and the rest were just charms.

Similar to catching the football, a lot of the commotions in a football (crowd, defenders, fear…etc.) are like normal charms and seem to be a distraction of what really mattered. There are many cases where we athletes tend to focus on more then what we ultimately want. Some of us get too excited to make the big play before a catch and focus on the upcoming move, rather than focusing on the necessary catch. Some of us freeze up out of fear- causing a late reaction to catch the ball, and some of us find ourselves in awww, due to extraordinary circumstances. More or less we do need to catch the ball.

Similar to how I saw what I wanted the most in my bowl of Lucky Charms.

We can do the same on the field! Make the ball your “lucky charm”. Then CATCH WHAT YOU SEE!

The Crotchety Coach speaks out on Training

Q: From Johnny

Hi Crotchety Coach! My name is Johnny and I have heard that you are the Super Guru of all training knowledge and I feel honored to ask and hopefully get my question answered by you kind Sir! I have been reading on the Internet about a secret program that could transform me from a 6 ft, 160 pound bean pole into a Brad Pitt look-alike with a bit more muscle. Have you heard about the Russian/Bulgarian Hybrid, Biosequential, Double-periodized, plyo-isometric protocol? And while I have you here, what are your thoughts on “Insanity”, P-90X and Cross-Fit?? Thank you in advance Coach, looking forward to your response!

A: CC

Whoa Johnny, whoa! If I were to charge by the question, you’d be indebted to me for life kid! But, since you heard correctly about the Crotchety Coach, I’ll humor you and the rest of the readers with the answer of all answers! My short answer is a resounding “NO”, I haven’t heard of this program! The first thing that comes to mind though is what a good colleague of mine said recently so I’ll quote him here, “It seems to me that we are now in the age of the over-educated, under-trained strength coach and trainer. This new breed owns and studies everything they can find on training to the point it has become too much for their brain to handle. They have totally fried their ability to think for themselves and use common sense in the development of strength programs. They have also developed the ability to take these concepts and package them into articles and seminars to make themselves appear as experts in the field, but the program still sucks!” You still with me Johnny? Hang in there kid, I’m just getting warmed up! Since when did the Russians and the Bulgarians ever get along so well that they would dare to put a program together and attach their names in the same sentence? These nations have competed against each other on the world platform for decades to prove outright who the strongest weightlifters on the planet are! I just pulled out my Colt 45 and shot a hole through this secret program Johnny, but I ain’t done yet kid! The rest of the jargon in this so-called secret program sounds like what a good friend of mine likes to call the “Fitness Guru Kit”. This is when some self-proclaimed fitness “gurus” and their “guru-speak”try to impress or confuse with the use of obscure terminology that probably has no valid meaning or relevance but sure goes a long way in hood-winking people into purchasing their secret programs for the low cost of $599 + free shipping! So Johnny, now that I’ve pulled out my Desert Eagle hand cannon, dismantled, disintegrated and utterly destroyed the very essence of this so-called secret program, let me get you on the right track kiddo! Forget about secret programs, forget about purchasing programs on the Internet and for God’s sake forget about Brad Pitt! And although finding a good coach these days is kind of like the secret program I just shredded (they all suck), there are sources out there that will go a long way to helping you achieve your goals kid! If you promise to pull your head out, I’ll let you contact me off line for more details. As for the other programs, good hell, the first one says it all, it’s “INSANE”! The second one sounds like the name of an experimental gun and should shoot itself! And finally the last one, sounds like a cult to me, stay away from cults Johnny!

Crotchety Coach signing off for now!

Oh and Johnny, when you are training for speed, make sure you get enough rest in between sprints. You can't train for speed when your running slow from being too tired. Give yourself at least one minute when you sprint past 10-yards. Chew on that for now kid!

Lessons from a Clean Locker Room

Once upon a time, I was sitting in a computer lab…A long seen friend of mine was there on the phone, and I was sitting next to him. Everything he said sounded like white noise except for these words… "Stop living off of my success." Then like a vortex to my mind’s eye I found myself analyzing this statement, I then came to realize that we all in many ways live off the success of others.

In 2009 I was signed to a 3 year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. (You need to know that when you sign an NFL contract whether it be for 1 year or 10 years, with the exception of your signing bonus, there is no future employment or amount of money that will be guaranteed to you by that organization.) So Just because I signed didn’t mean I was going to make the team.

On top of that stressor was the constant competition for transportation. You’d think we’d have personal limos, just add that along with all of the other myths about NFL players. Instead there were two shuttles that were transporting us. One was known as the "early bus" and the other was the "later bus." It was Ideal to be on the early bus. However, that meant that waking up early and waiting on the curb in order to get a spot.

One morning I was pretty much at my breaking point. My body was beat, my conscience was stressed (from constant competition…), I was missing my family and my spirits were down. I literally felt like quitting.

I was at rock bottom, but that’s when it all hit me. I was looking at the ground by my locker (my locker had wheels, which meant it could be rolled away at any given time). What I was seeing wasn’t matching how I was feeling: I felt like the world was crumbling, but the floor was perfectly clean for a locker room, It looked like it had been shampooed it was so clean. I then glance up at my locker and noticed how neatly everything was placed and organized, and that’s when my attitude changed. It was the work of the Janitor who made me realize how fortunate I was to be working in a facility where my workout clothes were treated like gold and the Locker Room was cleaner than my bedroom ever was while growing up.

I then also realized how lucky I was to have a teammate like Santiago; Santiago being the Janitor for the Eagles. Often times in the workplace, people become so consumed with either their problems or their success that it leads to a cancerous case of egotism. Every office has their door mat, and every office has their egotistical co-worker or boss. It is essential to find that balance of appreciation for everyone’s position in the workplace, to eliminate any energy leakage aka drama in a company. It is important to know where you stand, especially if it’s on the success of others.

For Example: You may be the best break dancing B-boy on the block, but your back spin wouldn't amount to what it is, if it weren't for the sweat shop employee that produced that flattened cardboard box you're spinning on, or the windbreaker your wearing. Ya feel me?

To Be Continued …..

About Me

Since I was 8 years of age, I had embraced a game that brought me friendship, happiness, an escape from tough circumstances, and most importantly life lessons. The game I speak of is football, and I have played it for 17 years.

I was fortunate enough to have reached the status of Pro. When making it to the NFL in 2009. Signing with the Eagles out of free agency and later that same season getting signed off Eagles practice squad by the New Orleans Saint: I was able to be a part of the first Super Bowl Championship team in the History of The New Orleans Saints Organization. The next season I re-injured myself during the first game of Pre-season and haven’t played since.

 Although there are many things in my life that I consider special and unique, I envisioned this blog as way reach those who share an appreciation for any major transitions in life because of the growth that springs forth as a result.

Tis why I named my Blog: Pro-to-Joe, “Joe” representing the term used in the context “Average Joe.” As I make my transition along with hundreds of other former NFL players, into the real world, this is my attempt to share an exceptional transition.