Transcription:
The Importance of Stretching and Nutrition for Youth Athletes

Deborah Howell:    Welcome to BayCare HealthChat. I'm Deborah Howell, and I invite you to listen as we discuss nutrition and stretching exercises for youth athletes. Today, we're going to find out how important stretching and nutrition can be. I'm joined today by Dr. Tracey DeLucia, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital, part of the BayCare system. Dr. DeLucia, it's a true pleasure to have you with us today.

Tracey DeLucia: Thank you very much. I'm happy to talk about this topic. It's definitely dear to my heart, and I'm hoping that we can help a few children out there.

Deborah Howell: Awesome. So what causes the large portion of injuries that take youth athletes out of the game?

Tracey DeLucia: The majority of injuries I see in the office aren't actually from children getting hurt. In the area where I practice, it's most often from overuse. So I have a few ideas and tips that can help kids from having these overuse injuries. Oftentimes kids are playing sports all year round or back to back games. This always amazes me because if you had a professional NBA player playing back to back basketball games all weekend, the entire medical sports community would be freaking out. However, every weekend here in Tampa, there are children playing seven basketball games in a row or seven volleyball games or seven softball games or seven soccer games. And so a lot of times, it's just the pure number of games that they're playing. That is the problem.

Deborah Howell: It just makes sense, right?

Tracey DeLucia: Absolutely.

Deborah Howell: Now, as an athlete, is it enough to just show up to sports practice or do I need to spend additional time on my own with private coaches and training?

Tracey DeLucia: So one of the ways to avoid the overuse syndrome would be to play multiple sports throughout the year. The problem that one of the parents have is that then their child is taking a season off and they're afraid they're going to be behind. So I think there is some benefit in switching sports throughout the year. In fact, there's several well done studies that have shown kids who are sports samplers, in other words, they play more than one sport a year as opposed to sports specialists between the ages of nine and 18, actually have less injuries, have more fun and stay in the sport longer.

So in those off seasons, when they're playing a different sport, they can do private coaching lessons. For instance, if they prefer to play baseball, when they're off season playing soccer or football, they could take private lessons with a batting coach or a pitching coach. And that way they wouldn't lose their skill, but they would still be able to emphasize their sports-specific training without overuse and injury playing all year round.

Deborah Howell: Yeah. And I suppose they use slightly different muscles for each sport too, which is great.

Tracey DeLucia: And that's another way to prevent injury. So if you're overdeveloping the same muscles, the entire time playing one sport, you run the risk of an overuse injury or a growth plate injury in some of these children. But if you're using different muscles, you absolutely have the ability to prevent some of those repetitive use injuries.

Deborah Howell: Win-win. Now, as a parent or coach, what are the three things I can do to keep my athlete healthy and in the game?

Tracey DeLucia: So the three things that are most important when you want injury prevention and actually excelling in sports fall into the categories of stretching and taking care of the body every day, eating very well and getting enough sleep. And so for instance, stretching, a lot of times, coaches are more focused on skill sets and doing drills than strengthening and conditioning. So at home, if your child can simply do some one or two-minute stretches each day, it would be significantly helpful in preventing injury to their growth plates or pulling a muscle.

The muscles that are tight in all athletes in youth are the hamstring muscles. So a simple sit and reach stretch on the floor could take care of that. And then the chest muscles, because a lot of times kids sit in a collapsed position in school all day or playing video games and they get hunched over. So some chest opening stretches would be wonderful.

And then nutrition is so important. Oftentimes these kids involved in significant amounts of sports will stop at the fast food place on the way to practice and that's their main meal of the day. You know, if they can really meal prep, meal plan, get protein at each meal, make sure that they're getting the recommended whole grains, three to five fruits and vegetables. Make sure that they're eating every three or four hours. It's really going to make a difference.

And finally, for sleep, kids between the ages of nine and eleven need eight to ten hours of sleep. In fact, kids between 14 and 17 need almost nine to ten hours of sleep too. And it's not necessarily quantity, it's quality. They should turn off the devices before they get in bed. They should have a noise canceling device in their room, blackout curtains, things like that. So stretching, eating well and sleeping are not only going to make them better athletes, but they're also going to be injury prevention.

Deborah Howell: As you were talking. I made sure I straightened up. I was hunched over. Okay, I'm hearing this. Now, how much and what does my athlete need to eat to stay healthy while growing and playing sports? Let's get a little more specific about that.

Tracey DeLucia: Absolutely. So a young growing child needs anywhere from half a gram to a gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. So your average 14-year-old boy that weighs 140 pounds should really be getting 140 grams of protein a day if he's wanting to build and participate in sports. And that's tricky to do since most children eat cereal for breakfast, which really doesn't have a high protein content. So adding things like nut butters, peanut butters, protein bars, and shakes, these are all terrific and safe for children.

And then water is important too. Especially since COVID, I've had a lot of kids tell me that water fountains are closed, they're not allowed to carry around water bottles. So they're getting dehydrated throughout the day. But you should calculate one ounce of water for every pound of body weight. So again, your average 14-year-old, 140-pound child should be having 140 ounces of water a day. That's a lot and hard to do. If you really think about it, your average water bottle is about 20 ounces, that's seven bottles of water a day. Hard to do if you're not starting until you show up to practice.

And then finally, vitamin D and calcium are really important. A lot of kids have gotten away from eating these because there's a lot of bad publicity out there on drinking milk. And the only way to get vitamin D is sunshine, milk, fish, and eggs. So oftentimes these kids that are wearing sunscreen or inside all day and don't really drink milk, actually need to be taking vitamin D as a vitamin every day. And a thousand units of vitamin D every day is healthy. I recommend it and it's not going to overdose them.

Deborah Howell: Very interesting. What does my youth athlete need to eat in order to excel in performance?

Tracey DeLucia: So a lot of parents ask me questions about nutrition enhancements or creatine powders or things like that. And there has not been any study that has shown that a youth athlete, those between the ages of nine and 18, really benefits from doing these additional supplements and things like that.

I do think vitamins are very important, like I talked about the vitamin D and a multivitamin. And then I don't think that they should be doing the sports drinks. Really sports drinks are for exercise that's greater than an hour, it's actually really intense, or the temperature is greater than 80 degrees outside. Otherwise, good old fashioned water. So the bottom line is, as long as they stick to the basic food recommendations, they don't need to be enhancing with any supplements as a child.

So electrolytes are important. If you, again, are exercising more than an hour at a time or you're doing intense activity or in extreme weather conditions, but by eating the nutrition and getting the salts and minerals and things like that, you can use just water while they're exercising. One thing that they can do is weigh themselves before and after the exercise and they should have another 24 ounces of water for every pound of body weight they lose during that exercise period.

Deborah Howell: That's pretty intense. Now, playing devil's advocate about the water, I've read some studies that say, you know, just regular water washes the vitamins from the body, and you really need to have some sort of alkaline component to your water, is that correct or not?

Tracey DeLucia: So the alkaline water is definitely a new trend that's coming and your body has the ability to maintain a proper pH level in your blood and in your system through your kidneys and through your transport system of your blood vessels. So by putting regular water into your mouth, your absorption system is going to absorb the amount of water that you need so that you don't get too diluted and you don't dilute out those ingredients.

And so by adding more alkaline or adding more electrolytes, if your body needs those, they would absorb more. But again, eating a balanced diet with fruits and vegetables is going to do the same exact thing. And I would absolutely recommend that doing the acidity or alkalinity of your body through fruits, vegetables, and good food is going to be of more benefit than drinking an alkaline or an electrolyte water.

Deborah Howell: Okay. And you can maybe even just squeeze some lemon into your water as an added bonus right?

Tracey DeLucia: Absolutely. Again, a natural fruit.

Deborah Howell: Okay. Well, Dr. DeLucia, is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up?

Tracey DeLucia: I think, just remember that your kid is out there to have fun and get healthy. And a lot of times we get lost in the, "I want them to be a scholarship athlete. I want them to be a pro athlete," but really what's going to determine that is their genetic makeup. And if those are really your goals, then perhaps, really we should be investing in their education or taking them to extra test taking classes because going to sports year round is not going to ensure that they're a better athlete to get these scholarships and these pro contracts. Really don't forget that because that's not what it's all about.

Deborah Howell: Right. And let's hope all these vaccinations are going to get our kids back out in the field, in the court in no time at all.

Tracey DeLucia: Absolutely. I think we're getting there closely.

Deborah Howell: Thank you so much, Dr. DeLucia. It's been so enlightening. Thanks for being on our podcast today.

Tracey DeLucia: My pleasure. Thank you for your time.

Deborah Howell: Learn more about BayCare's Children's Health Services at baycarekids.org. And that wraps up this episode of BayCare HealthChat. Always remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other BayCare podcasts, so we can share the wealth of information from our experts together. This is Deborah Howell. Have yourself a terrific day.