E10 | Amy Culp: Performance Nutrition

Donnie 0:01
Welcome to the team behind the team podcast. I’m your host, Donnie Maib. This is the monthly show focused on building conversations around the team based model approach to ethic performance, strength, conditioning, sports, medicine, sports science, mental health and wellness and sports nutrition. Super excited about this episode, been working with schedules to to track our guests down. She’s a busy, busy woman, but we finally got the stars to align. And I just want to say, Amy Culp. It is a honor and pleasure to have you on the show. Say hello to everybody. Likewise,

Amy Culp 0:40
I feel the same. Thank you so much for having me. Hey, everybody, looking forward to chat and then a little talk about how we work together. Then looking forward to this.

Donnie 0:51
Yeah, so just a little about Amy and Emily will jump into this episode. But Amy began as an assistant And athletics director here as a sports dietitian at the University of Texas in 2012. She previously served as a consultant sports dietitian for the university for five years. A little bit about me too She just armed with a wealth of knowledge and definitely I can speak to this a very passionate leader in nutrition in helping people live healthier lifestyle, she She not only teaches nutrition about how to eat and how to be better in your body and your performance, but she lives it I can attest to that. She earned her Bachelor of Science with distinction in food and nutrition from San Diego State and completed completed clinical training at Virginia, VA San Diego healthcare system. While at SDSU, she was chosen as the outstanding California dietetic Student of the Year for the state of California last

Amy Culp 1:53
year. That was a long time ago. We’ll keep that

Donnie 1:56
keep that under wraps 2015 She was honored to be recognized by our colleagues in the collegiate professional sports dieticians Association. That sounds like a strength coach Association.

Amy Culp 2:09
A lot of words there. Yeah. Yes, yeah.

Donnie 2:11
Yeah with her service award so that’s that’s pretty impressive. A little bit more about her. She’s a registered licensed dietitian is board certified in sports dietetics. She’s an active member of the National local chapters of Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics collegiate and professional sports dietitians Association. Sports called cardiovascular and wellness that practice group

Unknown Speaker 2:34
Yeah, lots.

Donnie 2:37
Okay, can’t remember all that. So

Amy Culp 2:40
cpst a scam? Let’s say that say that? Yeah.

Donnie 2:43
Perfect. Yeah. I think most importantly, her and her husband Yancey have two beautiful children. Her daughter Lily and her son scout in from what I can tell from you and your husband. They both are loaded with energy would that be accurate love

Amy Culp 2:59
It loaded with energy. Yes.

Donnie 3:02
But anyway, Amy, welcome to the show. kick us off today. Talk to us a little bit, give the little listeners some context, introduce yourself. Where did you come from? Talk about maybe how’d you get into sports nutrition? What led you into the private? How’d you come into Texas? Give us the whole kind of timeline on that. Okay.

Amy Culp 3:24
I love to tell the story. Because,

you know, I think as a student, I felt this way to students are often asking how did you get your job? You know, how did you because it is definitely my dream job. And it’s my passion. And you know, I was just at a workout class this morning. And they were saying, Oh, this is the highlight of my day. And I think I’m so lucky that that’s not true for me that I get to go into a job that I absolutely love still after, you know, eight years here full time. But I like to tell the story because it’s it’s unique and it’s not really there’s not one perfect path for becoming Becoming a sports dietitian. And maybe that’s the case for me because I started and I had a passion for it when I was in college. I’m a Texan. But I went to San Diego for a while because the ocean is in my heart. So I wanted to live by the beach. Yeah, my daughter’s middle name is ocean. I love it. I we lived at the beach, and I would have stayed there forever. But I’m a Texan at heart. I had to get back home. And so while I was in college at San Diego State, well let me back a little bit. I did go to Texas Tech for two years. We will always admit that here at UT I know I didn’t graduate from there. But I did go to tech for two years and I thought I wanted to be a physical therapist. And then I learned I had to take gross anatomy and cut up a cadaver and go Nope, not doing that. And so I was talking to my mom about it and she said you know you’ve always been into nutrition and health and and she’s a homeroom teacher. She was for 40 years. And she said, I think you should look into dietetics I think dietitian would be a great, you know, it’s still very science heavy, but also combines, you know, food with the science and I think it’d be great. And so, went to San Diego moved to San Diego, and took my first nutrition class and definitely it was the right fit for me and, and just thrived in there at San Diego State and loved every minute of it. But I always knew that I wanted to do sports nutrition, and I’m not really sure why because when I was there, and I would tell people that I wanted to do sports nutrition. You know, the advice that I would get would be well, that’s great, but there’s not a lot of jobs in sports nutrition. So you need to make sure that you have a backup plan and what else are you going to do besides that and so I’m really that was true at the time, there were a few great sports dieticians that were, you know, my idols and I would think that’s what I want to do. I want to be a writer, a consultant work with different teams.

And so, I just started along that passion and I studied it but Again, like I said, there weren’t a lot of jobs. And so right out of clinical, I took a job as a clinical dietitian. So I tell the story because I say there were a lot of jobs that I took that I said I would never do. Right? I will never be a clinical dietitian. And then I did because you had to pay the bills. And I ended up learning a lot. And I ended up being so thankful that I took that job. And then we moved to Texas, and I wanted to start a private practice. But that’s something that takes resources and so I needed to take other jobs as I was building that up. And so then I ended up working in public health as a dietitian for the WIC program. And again, a job that I said I would never really be that passionate about doing. But it was a great opportunity for me I got a lot of management experience, and just grow to grew a lot as a dietitian in those roles. And so I worked in different capacities in public health and then took a job here at UT as a dietitian for the students. So I’m working in the Student Services Building and I did that job for a couple of years. And starting a private practice on the side. And so after a while, my private practice grew so much that I was able to leave my day job at UT and just did my private practice full time. And then during that time, I would just tell anyone that would listen, that I love doing sports nutrition. And so a lot of the concepts that I was seeing in my private practice were eating disorders, weight management, and sports nutrition. So sports nutrition, a wide gamut, right? Anything from high school sports nutrition to at the time triathlons are very, very popular in Austin, I would go and talk to running groups in town. So really any way that I could get experienced and I was telling my colleagues in town to anything related to sports, nutrition, let me know. And so my good friend was consulting here at at the time, and she said, Hey, UT is looking to bring on another consultant. Would you like to come and be interviewed for that? And so I met with them and came on as a consultant. So I was coming in one day a week at you While I still had my private practice, that I thought I am living the dream, this is the perfect job for me, right? I built this private practice, I’m able to go in and see the athletes this is you know what I dreamed about when I was in college. And so I did that for five years and really just worked on building relationships with the different teams and really just came in saw the athletes one on one would do team talks and things like that. But the demand started to grow. And I started working with some teams like football where they would want me around a little bit more, Hey, will you come out to practice? Will you come out and cover and cover the lift and make sure the guys know what to get for recovery? And so it was growing outside of a consultant model. And so, the other consultant at the time Sally, and I, you know, presented a plan to Alan our boss and said, you know, we really think it’s moving in the direction of a full time dietitian and Donny at the time, I did not think that I wanted that job again. I thought I had my dream job right. I have my private practice. I love I’m doing. And so we presented this plan to Alan and it took a couple of years before it was truly, that they could present to the ladies that they wanted to have a full time dietitian. And in that time, I just always say, if you’ve ever read the book, Who Moved My Cheese or something Moved My Cheese or something like that, like somebody Moved My Cheese, and I just had developed a passion for wanting to develop a program at UT. So I had a vision for I want to build a world class sports nutrition department at UT. And I remember telling Alan, hey, you know, I want to be considered for this position. He said, Are you sure you’d want to give up your private practice? And I said, I’m not going to give out a private practice. I’ll still keep that on the side. Right. But I was naive to think I could do but yeah, like I would love to be considered and so that’s how I got there. That’s that’s sort of the very long story. But I love to tell like I said, because there’s, I took, like I said, a bunch of different jobs. And those all of those jobs helped me to grow as a dietitian and as a leader, and I’m so thankful for the relationships that I developed in those jobs. And at the same, I always tell people that are coming up at sports, nutrition, do a great job, wherever you are. That’s how you get your best out big time, right? do a great job, wherever you are, you can still tell, you know, I was telling people where I was working in public health, or wherever I was. I love sports nutrition. I want to be a sports dietitian. Those jobs weren’t available at the time. And so thankfully, if you do a good job where you are and you tell people what your passion is, I think the stars will align for you eventually. I was when I was hired, there was only one other full time sports dietitian and the big 12. And now everyone has departments, right? It’s not just one dietician and

I grew up from just me and 550 athletes in 2012. And now we have a staff of six dietitians. And so it’s been just my life’s work to have opportunity to to do this at Texas.

Donnie 10:57
Yeah, I mean, I love what you said right there. You know, you made some really Key points about, you know, just career whether it’s you know, obviously we’re talking about an industry and profession that’s grown like really fast. But there’s a there’s a point or quote, I’ve heard somebody say, when it comes to, you know, your career and your job, it’s like, find something you love doing so much, you would do it for free, but then get so good at it, people pay you to do it. And that’s kind of what I hear you saying is you just love doing I mean, I, you were, you were hustling and doing things that, you know, that kind of helped you get to experience so that when the time came, you were prepared to take take full advantage of that opportunity. So

Amy Culp 11:44
now that it’s gonna work out, right, you don’t think I’m just taking this job and I have to pay the bills, but I really wish this was a different job. And I always tell people just do a great job where you are because you’re supposed to be there and learn from it and grow from it. What can you take from that position that can help you in your next job, and every Every opportunity will be that, you know, while you’re still growing and developing,

Donnie 12:04
yes, good point. I mean, again, like you said, You can’t wait for that position to appear. Let’s call it that the position myth. Well, I’ll become a leader, once the position is there. And it’s not how it works. You need to think like that and be a leader, like he was saying that when the position does come, you’ll be prepared. So it’s a good point.

Amy Culp 12:25
I’ve never been truly prepared for any job, right? You just, again, you do the hard work, you hustle, and then opportunity will come at you. And then you take it and grow, continue to grow.

Donnie 12:37
Kind of touching on something you mentioned there. What has it been like for you to see this this department grow? Is there been some growing pains? What’s been some of the good things with that? Maybe some of the challenges, things that you’ve had to deal with? What have you feel?

Amy Culp 12:55
Yeah, I think a lot of times there’s a misconception that we’re At the University of Texas, we have resources. So it’s been easy to grow a department. And that’s certainly not the case. I think part of the reason why is because when I started, even my boss didn’t really know what I was going to do. He just knew, yes, this makes more sense from a business perspective for us to have a full time dietitian rather than paying two consultants to do this. So helping people to understand the role of a sports dietitian. Now he’s my definitely my biggest cheerleader and understands and gets it but it wasn’t that way, always. And so I think that’s one of the things that’s really important for us to do is, you know, tell our story and tell and show the show how we help to serve the student athletes and the coaches. I always tell my colleagues as they’re asking you, how do you how do you build and grow over time and I say, you know, athletics directors think and risk management and money and taking care of the athletes and taking care of the athletes and the coaches, right and so how can you then project whatever job you’re in, in that category, right? So if you’re saying I’m helping to decrease the risk of illness and injury, you have gonna have to show how you’re doing that. Or I’m helping to decrease the risks of eating disorders or disordered eating. And our athletes, this is how I’m doing, I’m helping to decrease the risk of head injury. Here’s how we do it. Also, at Texas, a very fortunate that we believe in the model here is that all student athletes receive the same level of care. And so if we are, you know, that my program built over time because of increase in demand for services, so you start with the teams that are interested in want it and you do a great again, start where your feet are planted, right, you do a great job in those areas where you are, and again, showing the value and all the different ways that a sports dietitian can help you’re doing that with those teams that are requesting that and needing it and wanting it. Then the demand grows over time and I was able to go back to the administration say, you know, we’re providing this level of care, this comprehensive level of care for these teams, it’s being requested by these additional teams that were at this point only able to provide ancillary services to because of the number of sports dieticians that we have. If you want the comprehensive level of care that they’re asking for, we do have the same level of care for all athletes. And we’re going to have to have another staff member. And so it’s showing that over time, that increased demand for services. Showing again, what you do as a sports dietitian, so the clinical dietetics piece of it the food service piece of it, the what I call practical sports nutrition, which is down in the weight room, at the practice meeting, you know, in the training table, meeting the athlete where they are, you’re practically applying what you’re teaching them about sports nutrition. So all of those different pieces you’re you’re teaching and you’re showing this is what a sports dietitian, what a sports dietitian does and then as you know at the end of the day, all goes back to build relationships?

Unknown Speaker 16:00
Yes, for sure, yeah, building relationships

Amy Culp 16:02
with your teams, building relationships with their coaches, with the athletes, with all the support staff that you work with, so that you’re working really well together. And you feel like I can’t do it without that person. I can’t do that this without that person helping me. I’m helping them and we’re taking great care of the student athlete. So not to answer your question fully, but how we grew over time really is okay, we’re going to answer that demand for services. And we’re going to do it in a way that’s world class. And hopefully then that response will increase for those other teams and thankfully, that has been the case for us. And with the model of all student athletes were receiving the same level of care. The model that I developed is I think I just made it up because it’s nowhere I couldn’t really find, you know, any anything to benchmark off of, but it was one dietitian for every hundred athletes felt like a manageable

manageable caseload. Yeah.

Donnie 17:03
You were talking Amy I was thinking about even back when I played in our sports dietitian was I’m being serious here, but it’s kind of it’s comical here and you say that Taco Bell, windy, burger key,

Amy Culp 17:21
get some fuel.

Donnie 17:22
Let’s get calories so that we could survive but what an incredible error we can have our way in with the performance with this team approach and, and the job you guys have come in and done. And you know, it’s been it’s been good for me as a strength coach over the years to work closely with you and your staff. And up close and personal not only see the physical transformation, but confidence, the lifestyle habits that hopefully carry on later down the road. I mean nutrition is kind of that piece today. I mean, if you look at the big, one of the big three hydration really right nutrition In sleep, I mean, it’s pretty funny. The research coming out today, if you just do the fundamentals really well, the other stuff will take care of itself. If you don’t do those, well, then this will lag behind. So, I mean, you’re yours is definitely one of the big tenants of performance in the job. You guys are doing incredible. How would you define from a dietitian, sports nutritionist, your perspective, your words and definition? This team behind the team podcast is really emphasizing that Performance Team, those five streams or buckets, sports nutrition, Applied Science, sports science, behavior, health, strength conditioning, and athletic met, sports medicine, athletic training. How would you define that in your own terms that that team model approach? How would you define that?

Amy Culp 18:51
Yeah, I think that when I think about it, I think just how fortunate I am to work at a place that really values that and that, in most situations that I’ve worked in, in my, in my eight years here, it’s been everyone tries to, I guess you say stay in your lane but also collaborate. And even with the crazy schedules that we have, try to figure out how can we collaborate so that we’re being number one more efficient. Number two, we need to have the same message right? Whenever you don’t have the same message because we’re all kind of working with for this kind of we all have the exact same goal. We’re trying to win, we want to take a care of the health, health and welfare of the athletes, right? So that’s why we’re hired to do is to help in those two areas. And so we have to be on the same page. So if you have an athlete’s that needs to gain some weight for their position, and you are just working in your little silos and not talking together about how you’re each assisting and supporting The athlete in doing that and the message that’s being sent. Number one, it just creates a lot of divisiveness in the team, but also just creates confusion for the athlete. And so I think it’s just integral to make sure that you again, take that time, it takes time to have performance team meetings, right to make sure that we all get together. We’re talking through that I learned so much. I learned so much about Oh, I didn’t know that athlete that was having a hard time with sleep. And that was related to a stressful situation that happened. I don’t need to know all the details of that. But that really helps me then

Donnie 20:31
that impacts eating exactly right. Everything Yeah.

Amy Culp 20:34
So if

you know, I worked in private practice and you feel a lot more alone because it’s you and the person that’s coming in to see you and here. We meet weekly about the athletes that we’re working with and it really helps to just feel like that you have this firm foundation underneath that athlete. So I’m very grateful for that. It really is just like I set that foundation for the athlete.

Donnie 21:02
It’s good. I think, you know, listen to you say that there’s definitely a lot of what I’m hearing a lot of advantages and positives. Not that we would ever struggle at Texas, but what would be, you know, one thing I love asking all our guests would have been what are some challenges to this team? performance approach model? What are some, you know, I think it’s easy when you’re kind of the only person in charge. But then when you start bringing more great minds and experts into the picture, what are some challenges that you’ve seen in? Yeah, how to deal with some of that,

Amy Culp 21:39
as my wise husband says, you can either do it all yourself or you can work with a team and have challenges right. And that’s true across the board. That’s true, either. Just me and the team has sports nutrition that we work in or the team that we work in, in a multidisciplinary setting. I think for nutrition probably for us, you know, everybody eats right? There’s not one person that doesn’t eat. So everyone has an opinion about it. And they

Donnie 22:06
do. Everybody thinks they know nutritionally.

Amy Culp 22:09
So there’s a lot of and there’s a lot of misinformation out. There’s a lot of gurus, there’s a lot of, you know, people that are having their platform and things, something about nutrition. But so I think that’s one of the hardest things for a dietitian is that there’s a lot of experts. The other thing, I think that’s hard sometimes for people that are just going in somewhere is that not only does everybody eat nutrition was happening before you got there. So you’re probably taking away a role from somebody. And anytime that happens, I don’t care how overworked that person is. There’s going to be a little discomfort in a role being taken away from me. So you have to be very strategic and I’m not I don’t want to take anything away other than I wish to make your job easier. So that’s what I always try to do when we work together as a team is I want to make your job easier. How can I help insert You whether it’s

Unknown Speaker 23:01
as a team player,

Amy Culp 23:02
as a coach, or the street culture athletic trainer.

So I’d say probably fighting the misinformation. You’re, you’re never going to be in a situation just like for me, you know, sometimes people will come in my office and they’ll ask me, well, don’t you think I should be doing more conditioning? And I’m not an expert in that. But they’re still going to ask me those questions. And so those questions will come up for coaches and strength coaches and things like that. So what’s important is just making sure that we that we create an environment so that that coach can come to me and say, Hey, I said this, or I just wanna make sure we’re on the same page about this. This is the recommendation that I gave, or they asked me about this. And again, that comes from developing trusting relationships and with the people that you’re working with.

Donnie 23:48
Yeah, I mean, there’s definitely like, like you said, there’s there’s definitely pros, there’s cons, as you mentioned, I think, you know, I think when you I mean, I totally agree with what you said when you Put the athlete as the center focal point of what why we’re here. I think that helps us all get all aligned. I’ve heard it said somewhere. And I can’t remember where but there’s a difference in being aligned and always agreeing. And I think, you know, I think we can be aligned, but we may not agree on certain things. But that means we’re still working with each other and, you know, finding areas of compromise or whatever to make that relationship work and having curiosity

Amy Culp 24:30
about it. You know, I know you talked to Cody earlier today, and she’s been so great to work with. I work directly with men’s basketball and she has been awesome to work with and how I’ve noticed how she presents things to me is, here’s what I’ve heard. I’m not I’m not trying to challenge or, you know, offend you or anything like that. But here’s what I’ve heard. Is that true? And so that’s a breath of fresh air to me, I would love I love it when people come to me and say, here’s what I’ve heard about that. Or here’s what I’ve said before is that true? So we can have that dialogue back and forth. And yeah, we might still have a philosophical disagreement about it. But we’re also going to respect each other in that discussion.

Donnie 25:10
Yeah, that’s good. You know, the other way I’ve heard it said to you made me think of just now working, what is it working together? Agree agreeably is cooperating. We all just agree there’s really no pushback. There’s nobody that’s asking questions is, you know, just kind of status quo, right? And that’s okay. It’s not going to be the best scenario. But working together aggressively is collaboration, which we’ll continue to hear you to say, you know, and you got to be you got to be collaborative, you know, today collaborative. If you want to be really good at what you’re doing.

Amy Culp 25:48
Yeah, because it’s you can’t ever get comfortable. We’re in a field of science that’s ever changing and growing and new science coming out and people are going to read it. be interested about it. And so pushing that envelope in, we’re higher, we are hired to help our athletes win. And to be healthy now and in the long term, right? And so as I drive into work and I see the tower, I remind myself of that, you know, you can have a title for your job. That’s one thing, but you’re what you’re hired to do you better know that Why? Because that’s going to be what drives you every day, right? And what drives us is to be world class at UT. we’re expected to be that are expected to be world class to be first to be first in our class in terms of staying collaborative, staying, you know, pushing the envelope and what is not only great science, but also creative and innovative. But it’s important to me to try to be creative and innovative, but evidence based because then lots and lots comes out about nutrition. We don’t need to be sort of chasing the new thing all the time. What is evidence based, that’s going to help the athlete and then the teams help them move forward in the direction we’ve been hired to do.

Donnie 26:58
It’s good

talking a little bit about now. So somebody listening to the show, what are some of your big kind of would you say? suggestions, guidelines and recommendations for fueling for performance? And what I mean by that contextually, big workout, big practice, go a little higher, man, big game, big match. They need to be energetic recovered, what are just some guidelines and things kind of to help people as they’re listening? How would you kind of counsel them on that?

Amy Culp 27:40
I think probably the first thing that we try to help the athletes understand, especially for this age group, is that food is fuel and we use that word a lot. That it’s fuel because I think we want obviously we want our athletes to enjoy their food, but we live in an environment that you know Every meal every snack, should it just be like the best thing you’ve ever had should be a party every time, you know is what I say. And so we have to have some good intention behind that doesn’t mean that the beauty about nutrition job to do perfectly when you try to do it perfectly, that actually causes some problems to write. And that certainly we write meal plans, and we write things that are more black and white, but there’s a lot of gray in that. And so, again, I think the first tenet that we try to teach our athletes for this population is that your food is fuel and that having some intention and some awareness about the choices that you’re making. And so how that then guides the conversation is, let’s be intentional about how you plan your day, and when you’re getting your fuel in. So if you’re an athlete that has an early morning practice, what are you going to do even the day before to make sure that you’re well fuel for that early morning practice? right and so What do you how are you going to be hydrated to show up for a 5:30am swim practice? How are you going to be fueled to show up for a 5:30am swim practice or a 6am football workout? So being very intentional about the schedule to and what you’re eating and when you’re eating it, compared to again, what are those nutritional strategies? So if it’s a pre workout or post workout we teach them what are those macronutrients that you’re needing? And how can those help to fuel you and to recover you so ever teaching the purpose behind why we’re doing what we’re doing? Why do we have things like chocolate milk? Why do we have things like foods that are higher in more simple carbohydrates that are absorbed very readily? Why do we have things like sports drinks? Why do we have things like cherry juice and so teaching them the intention behind all of that and so, getting back to your original question, thinking about food is fuel you need to have some enjoyment We work that in, we talked about the 8020 concept, so 80 to 80% of the time you’re planning for that intention, and we help them break down their day and how to fuel around that. 20% you got to work that fun, right? Because if you do, if you don’t, then again, it can cause some problems as well. We don’t call it cheating, right? It’s not cheating, right? Yeah, yeah, you don’t wanna be extreme with it. And it’s, we don’t call it cheating, which is just intentional fueling as well. And that you’re working in foods that are very satisfying and fun to eat and are enjoyable. You have taste buds for a reason, right? You want to taste and enjoy your food. And then I think it goes down to what why my job is fun, is that it’s very individualized. Right? So it depends on the athletes likes and dislikes. It depends on what their goals are. It depends on what their sport is, depends on their position in their sport depends on the season that they’re in, right so a lot of times people will say that was chill out for you guys. In the spring because football is doesn’t have games and You know what’s just different the the sports nutrition for football, for example is different in the offseason I often say it’s it’s the dieticians in season, right, because that’s the time you’re trying to make gains or change it,

Donnie 31:11
or they’ve ever trained. And we’re

Amy Culp 31:13
doing a lot of education around

about food because they don’t during the season, our job is to keep them on the field and to keep them healthy and to keep them hydrated. We don’t have as much time to do the life skills education. So with each of those teams, we figure out, you know, when we’re going to focus on that education when we’re going to focus on the different types of knowledge that they need to have. The other thing we focus a lot on is so like I said, food is fuel work in some fun at 20 nutrient timing, so again, I alluded to it a second ago that we will look at a schedule for somebody and help them figure out what you need to be eating when. So for example, we’ll use swimming again, you know, they have a morning practice in an afternoon practice. And then they might have a lift in there too, right? So they have crazy packed day. And they burn a ton of calories. And they spend four hours a day with their face in the water, right versus a team, let’s say like soccer, where they’re practicing, obviously, on their field, and you can get calories in them a little bit easier during their practice

Donnie 32:21
during this session,

Amy Culp 32:22
right? And so, we look at not only what so we’ll calculate what their needs are for the day, and then we break it out for nutrient timing, because what you need before and after. So I usually start with that. What do you need for pre workout? What do you need for post workout for those two swim sessions? What are you going to do between your left before you go swim for this afternoon session? What are you going to do at lunch because let’s say you get out of class at one o’clock and you have to be in the weight room by 230. And then you’re going to swim at three. You can’t have a big lunch, you know, big salad with a lot of protein on it because that’s going to feel terrible in your stomach whenever you then have to go swim because that’s all The fiber and the protein that’s digested much more slowly. So being very intentional with your nutrient timing and knowing how those foods can help you for that performance. And then based on how your day goes,

Donnie 33:12
You made me think about when I was a young coach, Bella Carolla was the famous USA Gymnastics coach. And this guy, I mean, obviously very successful. Getting young ladies to the Olympics and winning gold, right? He would have those girls during the training sessions, drink milk sippel milk. So because they would lose muscle mass, because they would their their training sessions, like you said, were so long, that once you deplete your body a few it’s gonna get energy from somewhere, right. And so it was just he was what he was ahead of his time

Amy Culp 33:45
ahead of his time. Yeah, it’s not the exact nutrition I would tell them during a practice at this point, but he was on the right track of helping to maintain that muscle mastering that long, that long practice.

Donnie 33:58
It’s good, good information. What about a little bit of tech let’s talk technology a little bit. And again working with you and your staff, you guys are doing some pretty cool stuff. I know just the ability to have a dexa scan whenever needed is right I know that the dexa just anybody had to work with dexa you have I have some time coaches don’t like those results right? But But sometimes you know what, it’s actually good because you can make some course corrections knowledge is power. Yeah. So whether it’s Dexter or some other things, you guys are looking at innovation wise technology or something maybe you see talk a little bit about technology and kind of how you utilize some of that.

Amy Culp 34:43
You in saying deck so you You made me think about you know, my first year when I started here we went with volleyball to the national championship, right? We won. And I remember thinking this job would be great. This is so much fun. We were so easy, right? But anyway, I remember looking at their dexus. When we came back, we were I think, reviewing dexus for the spring and noticing they peaked in lean mass. Right before the Final Four. Kudos to you. I’m sure you know, your that was very intentional in how you did it. But that helped me realize we need to be very strategic about when we’re taking these indexes and helping these helping the string coaches with this information about when do their athletes need to be peaking for different training cycles, right. So obviously, yeah, dex is one of them. We not only use, obviously, the changes in lean mass, and fat mass over time and for those training cycles, and that helps us to inform the athletes about their nutrition and about about their habits and about their sleep and everything that’s going on based on what their goals are. But we also use that technology to look at their bone health to see if they’re at potential risk for injury. For bone stress, injuries. You can also be cool. And you can potentially have too much lean mass and not enough bone mass, we can look at that too. And we’ve provided that information sometimes to strength coaches. And so it helps them to adjust to try to prevent injury in that way as well. So that’s the we also use that technology, we use the lean mass then to calculate what the athletes needs are. So that’s much more accurate than using total body weight. And so we’ll use that lean mass to calculate calories,

Unknown Speaker 36:29
right? Yeah, exactly more,

Amy Culp 36:31
I would say you want to, you want to base that on the metabolically active tissue. So you’re, you’re calculating their needs based on that lien. That’s only math that they have. And, and so that’s one of the technologies that we use. Another one that we use is sweat patch testing. So different it depends on the training cycle for the athletes, but we’ll actually put a patch on them and measure what they’re losing in their sweat so we can individualize what we provide to them. So it’s not only so we also measure to then what, what they’re sweating out. So you have to measure what they’re drinking while they’re exercising, what their output is. And that helps you to give them then a prescription for how much they need to be drinking, but also what goes into that, from a carbohydrate perspective, it’s all the way to the electrolytes that they need. And so it’s great for athletes, because you all have different sweat rates, you have different things that you sweat out. So it’s not just a blanket approach anymore for that. And so we’ve had some really, we’ve had some really great results in that because obviously, you’re helping to decrease risk for overheating, but you’re also just helping people to understand more about their own body, you know, and it helps to create a lot of great conversation about well, why am I a salty sweater or why don’t I sweat as much and so that’s great conversation and we will we’ll typically will test a team at least once a year if not a few times a year. The other thing we test is their specific gravity. So that’s looking at how hydrated they are to and that helps us how hydrated are they throughout different times of the day. So then we can give recommendations are, okay, this is, this is how you showed up, you know, just when practice at this hydration level, here’s a recommended amount that you would need to drink to make sure you’re better hydrated before that practice. And then we really tap into, you know, what are the strength coaches using and the coaches using for any kind of load and exertion and that kind of thing, and then try to individualize recovery for that. And so we look at, you know, what is your output during a practice or a game and that helps to more individualized what our recommendations are for during and after a practice. The other thing that we do is, we do lab testing for athletes, and so we’re able to individualize their nutritional profile of what they’re needing from iron and vitamin D. And that sort Everything. That’s

Donnie 39:01
pretty cool. What about you may think you’re doing all the testing and all that I’m trying to think getting athletes to buy into different kind of, you know, you talked about individualizing here’s a here’s kind of my thought is there’s a ton it seems like today, and I haven’t studied in all of it, but whether it’s keto, this or some kind of hot, you know, I feel like your industry similar to ours, we get these like buzzwords and topics. And there’s a lot of myths information. I remember when I was when I first it was Colorado, where there was some what was it wasn’t keto, but it was. I can’t remember is it just all proteins and fat variation,

Amy Culp 39:44
but something

Donnie 39:45
like that? Yeah. But to an extreme Yeah. And athletes were like trying that and pass it out. And

Amy Culp 39:52
I’m funny, but yeah, really, honestly, many years past it, though.

Donnie 39:55
Yeah. But I mean, any kind of calorie restriction is gonna obviously it’s going to work right, but there’s A lot of big risk, right? So how how do you work with, with as a coach or an athlete has got some things that maybe they’ve read? And how do you get them to kind of, hey, let’s, let’s come across and here’s really the best way and the better way to feel your body to be healthier to be. So for this home,

Transcribed by https://otter.ai