Franco Columbo’s presentation notes. It was neat seeing him present. Those that aren’t familiar this is a former Mr. Olympia competitor along with trained with Arnold Schwarzenegger for years. He has been a chiropractor for years and had some interesting pieces of advice.
Dietary decisions for MMA athletes – supplementation of 10 grams of creatine each day for fighters as a means of helping cognition and as a prophylactic for concussions. Interesting facts on how meat is lower in creatine now than it was in the past so a number of people can be deficient in it.
Meal replacement shake recipe – this is an abridged version of a breakfast shake I learned about. 2 cups oatmeal, 2 scoups of protein power, one banana, one cup of frozen berries, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, two egg whites.
Notes from a few other presentations:
Vertical Diet – prioritize good protein in 4-6 meals per day with about 40 grams per meal (sirloin steak was preferred). Like white rice for how easily they are digested. Vegetables were spinach, peppers, carrots, and sweet potatoes for their fiber source along with micronutrient profile. Be honest with your calorie intake and be sure to follow it along with modify it based on your goals. Be mindful of your physical activity and track everything that you can. Drinking high amounts of water is stupid and athletes should think about using salt as a means to enhance performance.
Jordan Moon – body comp is a moving target since hydration levels along with carb intake and supplements like creatine can massively change body comp in a short period of time. No method is perfect, but using more than one testing method is your best bet. Gaining extra muscle weight doesn’t increase calorie demand as much as you would think. Most of our resting energy expenditure is from our brain, kidneys, liver, and heart. When you lose lots of weight you can repress your metabolic rate which makes weight regain much easier. Along with when you have this regain you tend to increase your number of fat cells which in turn makes it harder to get smaller in the future.
Athletic movement – if in pain refer out to get fixed. If uncomfortable try some training methods for a few weeks and if it doesn’t work send them out. If in no pain then time to start training. Be sure to work on the feet both strength and mobility since most people suck with them and underutilize their feet due to wearing shoes.
Be mindful of the fuel source your athlete is using and be sure that they are getting in enough carbs.
So my notes for the Arnold are a bit short since something “came up”. After presenting in the morning my GA and I met up with my old GA to check out the floor and walk around. My GA did the Spartan race course and his time was fast enough that he nearly won 500 dollars for it by the end of the convention. He also tried out the ninja warrior course and did decent at it. We then went out for lunch and went to the high school where my old GA works as the head strength coach and got in a workout. After that it was back to the Arnold where we checked out some talks, gave a presentation at the Midway stage and then my GA and one of the lab interns who came up decided they would try out the course on the ninja warrior challenge again. My GA almost got to the end of the hanging section but fell off at the end when trying to traverse the glass table he was holding on to. Then the intern went for it…
The intern did well and got to the overhead segment where you have to go from one implement to another. He got stuck trying to go from a star to a ring. He tried to swing and get to the ring but fell off. The second he hit the ground he was yelling and when I could see what happened it was obvious that his elbow was dislocated. We immediately got over to him along with the folks running that event along with medical staff. I gave my keys and gear to the other guys and we all walk him off the floor to the med area off the main convention floor. The three of us walked through the convention center floor essentially in a flying V pattern to make sure that no one bounced off of his arm.
Once back there they get him on a gurney and get his arm supported. In his other arm they start an IV and give him some hardcore pain meds. It helped with his pain, but he was still super uncomfortable. Shortly afterwards we are carted to the back loading area for the convention center and to the side of me is the chalk bowl along with the fake stones the strongmen carried the Husafelt stone around for their competition. I snap a few pics and before we get loaded in to the ambulance out walk all of the heavy weight strongmen since they had just finished their final event for the day. I wanted to delay our leaving a bit, but obviously we had more important things like his health to keep in mind. I did manage to snap a pic from the back of the ambulance as Brian Shaw lumbered past us.
From there they drove us to the hospital. The EMTs were nice guys, in fact one of them was a graduate of our program at EKU. They quickly got us to the hospital and got us in a room. I let my GA and the intern know where we were and from there talked with the intern’s dad about what happened and helped them with the forms since he was a bit loopy from the drugs. After enough time the doc came in and assessed what we already knew and that is his elbow was dislocated. From there they gave him some strong meds to mostly knock him out and we all stayed with him until they had to put it back in and were in there as soon as they let us back in. Hands down that is the most fun I have ever had in an emergency room. We were making jokes and having way too much fun in there the entire time. I was literally crying while laughing for most of it. The intern was tough through all of it and the nurses were trying not to laugh along with us while we were joking around. We finally got out of the hospital at about 9pm and then went by Ludus Magnus to say hi to Matt Wenning and Teddy Cox before then heading to finally get some dinner. Needless to say we made sure his food and “drink” (he is over 21) was provided for that evening.
After that we went our separate directions for some sleep and in the morning we all trained at Westside Barbell. The intern was in a sling and we asked Louie what he should do. Lou said belt squats to away the guy went along with doing glute ham raises and other work while he was a one armed man. We even got a picture of all of us with Louie. After that they went back to the Arnold and my old GA and I went to Ludus Magnus to hang out there a bit and check out their equipment and then back on home to Kentucky. That was a great time, but boy I was happy to be back home and hang out with the wife. Thanks for reading and have a great day.