Wellness Blog: Unlimited Snacks Help Fuel Auburn Athletes
Watson Field House stays busy all day. Workouts are constantly happening, but a snack bar keeps Auburn athletes visiting frequently.
From 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. athletes pick up free snacks before, during and after practice.
"The best part is the free smoothies. I get two almost everyday," freshman track thrower Erik Ebel said.
Sparked by comments by University of Connecticut basketball player Shabazz Napier at the 2014 Final Four regarding limitations on food provided to student-athletes, the NCAA changed rules about how universities could feed athletes. The legislation change now allows student-athletes to receive unlimited meals and snacks. The Watson Nutrition Station began shortly after.
Tiger Wellness Blog: Mental Health
"As a department, we are tasked with the general mental well-being of all of our student athletes. That runs the spectrum. You forget sometimes that these are just people-college students. So we tend to see the same issues as we would see with regular college students.
They have stress from transitioning and being in a new place, being away from home and having things happen at home. Things like this can lead to some depression and other concerns. We're also seeing more anxiety, especially. We've seen that in the general college student population-college athletes aren't immune to that.
'New Zealand Cuisine a Hit' - Swimmers Natasha Lloyd and Caroline Baddock Serve as Guest Chefs
Trading in goggles for aprons, swimmers Natasha Lloyd and Caroline Baddock gave Auburn taste buds a glimpse of the sunny New Zealand coastline.
Guest chefs at the Wellness Kitchen, the student-athletes served local dishes from their native country, New Zealand, to fellow Auburn students and faculty.
The menu selected by Lloyd and Baddock featured lamb and roasted vegetables with parsnips and "kumara," the New Zealand term for sweet potatoes.
"It is a very common dish at home," Lloyd says. "It's a family sort of dinner."
'I don't live by its rules' - Kendall Simmons' Wellness blog, living with diabetes
Former Auburn All-SEC offensive lineman Kendall Simmons, a No. 1 draft choice in 2002, played eight seasons in the NFL and won two Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kendall and his wife, Celesta, live in Auburn with their four children.
In 2003, before his second NFL season, Simmons was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He is a patient ambassador for Novo Nordisk, a diabetes care company.
"I was working out twice a day in Auburn, getting ready for two-a-days with the Steelers. I lost 20 pounds in one day. The next day, I got it back up, and I lost 13 pounds that day. In two and a half weeks, by the time I left Auburn and they admitted me into the hospital, I'd lost 45 pounds. The biggest part that scared me more than anything, when I left Auburn and drove to Pittsburgh, I didn't realize what I was doing during the process.
TIGER WELLNESS: SUGAR BOWL NUTRITION
By Lauren Silvio, Auburn Athletics' director of sports nutrition
Typically, with our menus, we try to have a lean protein and then a higher fat protein option, so there are two different meats or proteins, and then two starches, or carbohydrate sources, and then fruits and vegetables with all of the meals. And then usually at dinner, we have a dessert. Knowing what the guys like, that's kind of a learned thing. You see at the Wellness Kitchen during camp and throughout the season, you're listening to them when they eat, you gather the vegetables they like and don't like, the starch or carb sources that they like or don't like.
The first night, we did a dinner at the hotel that had that Louisiana flair, while still sticking to our different kinds of proteins, different kinds of carbohydrates, the vegetables and fruit. Some of the other dinners, they're eating out for three nights in a row, some of those are going to be more Cajun-geared.
TIGER WELLNESS: RUNNING
By Mark Carroll, Auburn cross-country coach
"There's an old saying that 'a little a lot is better than a lot a little.' In other words, you want to start easy and build up, rather than doing too much, too soon.
I would also recommend for a beginner, making sure that medically everything is okay. Seeing a doctor and making sure that you have a clean bill of health before getting into any program. Assuming everything is okay health-wise, just building very slowly from two days a week to three days a week to four days a week. Maybe every second day until your body gets used to it. You're putting a stress on your body that it wouldn't be used to normally, and you've got to give your body time to recover.
TIGER WELLNESS: THE EAGLE FUND
I was injured while deployed several years ago as part of Enduring Freedom. Had it not been for the benevolence of members of the Auburn family such as the team doctors, Dr. Jim Andrews, Dr. John & Sonja Richardson, former Auburn linebacker Alex Lincoln and his wife, LeAnn, I would not have received the care necessary to return to the fight. Their work with the Eagle Fund raised the funding for my rehabilitation, and Dr. Andrews volunteered his office's services at a greatly discounted rate.
The Eagle Fund, a partnership between the Andrews Research & Education Foundation and EXOS, supports active duty wounded or injured members of the Special Operations community.
TIGER WELLNESS: GUEST CHEFS
For three hours, about the same duration as their track & field workouts, sprinter Jonielle Smith and hurdler Sashel Brown grilled, rolled and fried like contestants on one of those cooking shows.
The student-athletes, guest chefs at the Wellness Kitchen, prepared dishes from their native Jamaica to serve to their fellow Auburn students.
Jonielle and Sashel picked the menu: brown stew chicken, rice and peas (kidney beans), fried plantains, callaloo (greens), and fried festivals, or Johnny Cakes.
TIGER WELLNESS: WHY DO I HAVE A MID-AFTERNOON SLUMP?
It happens to all of us. You've had a productive morning, break for lunch and then boom, it hits you. The dreaded mid-afternoon slump. Concentration becomes more difficult and keeping your eyes open becomes a task in itself. Whether you're a student-athlete or not, a busy schedule can lead to daytime drowsiness that no one has time for.
Research done by The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School found that human beings feel tired at two times during each 24-hour period-2:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. -- when our core body temperatures drop, telling the brain to release melatonin, the hormone that makes us feel sleepy.
SHOULD YOUNG CHILDREN BE HITTING THE GYM?
By PK Karkoska, Strength and Conditioning
We hear a lot about keeping kids active as a way to stave off childhood obesity and the increase in childhood disorders like diabetes. As a parent, you may feel the need to encourage your children to take up sports and working out in order to stay active.
I often get asked, at what age can my child start working out in the gym? Parents want their children to be active, which is good. But I always make sure I warn against a new growing trend.
Before getting the younger generation started in the gym I start by asking one question. What is the ultimate goal for your child? Why do you want your child in a formal strength and conditioning program?
THE PROS AND CONS OF SPORTS SUPPLEMENTS
By Scott Sehnert, Auburn University Athletics Dietitian
The supplement aisle at the supermarket offers shelves upon shelves of different bottles claiming to "burn fat", "build lean muscle", with the promise to do it faster and better than any other brand.
I've often been asked how I feel about sports supplements. Supplements can be a great addition to a well-balanced nutrition plan and even add an element of convenience.
What I find most the time is that users won't do the proper investigation into whether the supplement is right for them. Here is a quick educational, cliff-notes version to understanding sports supplements.