Nutrition For Your Young Athlete

Written by Murray Hughes


Nutrition for Your Young Athlete

Nutrition is extremely important for any young person, especially an athletic one, and even more so duringrepparttar developmental years of their life. Whether your child is involved in soccer or football, gymnastics or swimming or Little League, he or she needs a good nutritive balance in order to be successful in any endeavor. It cannot be stressed enough that anorexia and bulimia, chronic malnutrition, are absolutely devastating not only to an athlete’s career, but also to overall health and well-being. You should always watch for decreased eating in your child, no matter how robust and healthy they may seem.

Interestingly enough, very few scientific studies onrepparttar 143969 nutrition of child athletes have been published. You don’t really need to be a scientist (or an alchemist) to create a healthy menu for your active youth, though. All you need is a little bit of creativity, and, of course,repparttar 143970 facts about different kinds of foods. As is dictated by common sense, it’s necessary for kids who are active to consume more caloric energy than their couch potato counterparts. Sometimes, they must take in several hundred - or even a thousand - healthy calories more thanrepparttar 143971 average child, depending upon their age and uponrepparttar 143972 intensity ofrepparttar 143973 sport they’re participating in.

So what types of food should you give your gymnast? I'll help you out.

In General

Everyday nutrition calls for a healthy balance of protein, calcium, vitamins and minerals. The most important type of caloric intake for a child athlete is carbohydrates. Without carbohydrates,repparttar 143974 body cannot readily replenish its stores of energy inrepparttar 143975 muscles and inrepparttar 143976 liver.

Simple carbohydrates, like those found in most candies and chocolates, are usually not enough: they are used up too quickly and if eaten before competing can cause changes in blood pressure (of course, you can splurge every once in a while -- just not constantly).

Pasta, bread, and rice -- in other words, foods from grain -- are best overall for carbohydrate intake. Fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of carbs and of vitamins and minerals. Dairy products are especially important for building strong bones and teeth. Meat -- or meat substitute -- is needed for protein intake.

Did you know that if you know... if you put beans and rice together, they create a perfect protein?

Life After Gymnastics - Is There One?

Written by Murray Hughes


Gymnastics Olympics Champions From 1988-2004

Here arerepparttar men’s and women’s all-around champions fromrepparttar 143968 last five Olympic Games -- these are just brief biographies, but they surely give you an idea of your gymnast’s potential.

2004 Paul Hamm, Carly Patterson

Paul Hamm,repparttar 143969 2004 men’s all-around champion in gymnastics, was born on September 24, 1982, and has a twin brother byrepparttar 143970 name of Morgan. Paul wasrepparttar 143971 first American man to takerepparttar 143972 gold forrepparttar 143973 all-around competition in a fully attended Olympic Game. He is noteworthy for some controversy surrounding his title.

Carly Patterson was born on Februaryrepparttar 143974 fourth, 1988, in Baton Rouge,Louisiana, to a pair of loving parents - her mother, Natalie, and her father, Ricky. She isrepparttar 143975 first of a pair of girls (her younger sister is Jordan). In 2004, she becamerepparttar 143976 first all-around Olympic champion forrepparttar 143977 United States in more than two decades, and was alsorepparttar 143978 first to win forrepparttar 143979 US inrepparttar 143980 past two games. The last female all-around gymnastics champion forrepparttar 143981 United States won in 1984, whenrepparttar 143982 Soviet Union had boycottedrepparttar 143983 Olympics entirely.

2000 Andreea Raducan, Alexei Nemov

Andreea Madalina Raducan was born onrepparttar 143984 thirtieth of September, 1983, in Birlad, Romania. She was trained under Octavien Belu and Mariana Bitang ofrepparttar 143985 Cetate Deva Club in Romania and began gymnastics atrepparttar 143986 age of five. She has several gold and silver medals under her belt from national and international competitions. Though she is listed asrepparttar 143987 official Olympic all-around female champion,repparttar 143988 IOC stripped her of her medal when she tested positive for pseudophedrine (the active ingredient in many decongestants) after having taken a cold pill given to her byrepparttar 143989 Romanian Olympic Team doctor. Regardless of whether or not she hasrepparttar 143990 medal, she is a champion - and an incredible one at that.

Alexei Nemov is considered to be one ofrepparttar 143991 best male gymnasts inrepparttar 143992 world, as well as being a pin-up forrepparttar 143993 girls. He was born on May 28th, 1976, in Barashevo, Russia. His start on gymnastics started early. Atrepparttar 143994 age of five, his mother took him torepparttar 143995 local gym, thinking that gymnastics would be an acceptable alternative to a more violent sport. He has had his ups and downs in gymnastics -- namely, with many injuries to his arms and shoulders -- but leftrepparttar 143996 Atlanta and Sydney Olympics with six medals each. In 2000, he was crownedrepparttar 143997 men’s all-around gymnastics champion and bore his gold medal proudly.

1996 Li Xiaoshuang, Lilia Podkopayeva

Li Xiaoshuang, men’s all-around gymnastics champion inrepparttar 143998 1996 Olympics, was born on November 1, 1973, in Xintao, Hubei Province, China. His career has been marked with many successes. Atrepparttar 143999 age of seven, he took up gymnastics; two years later, he was part of his provincial team, and at twelve years of age, he was part ofrepparttar 144000 Chinese national gymnastics team. He has won many gold medals in his time, including two from separate Olympic games - 1992 and 1996 - and three fromrepparttar 144001 World Gymnastics Championships. In 1995, he was awardedrepparttar 144002 well-deserved title of International Master of Sports and continues, to this date, to impress.

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