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3 Reasons Your Gymnast’s Nutrition is SABOTAGING

Hands up if you’ve heard “sports drinks are to

I say this with so much love…

As a parent, it’s your job to keep your child or adolescent gymnast safe.

So much of what you’re taught about nutrition as a parent isn’t helpful, and it’s not your fault ☺️

And there is no “parenting manual” for how to deal with all the various challenges you’ll face parenting a high level gymnast.

Your gymnast’s prefrontal cortex is not fully developed and they will often struggle with “fast-forwarding the tape” and realizing the consequences of their actions.

Going to gymnastics for 4-5+ hours a day is a privilege🤸🏻‍♀️

And, it’s your job to keep them safe 💗

Would you let them drive at 16 without wearing their seatbelt? Surely not.

And likewise, adequate fueling + hydration is THE best thing you can do to protect them in this sport.

🚩Sometimes they don’t want to eat or drink enough because they’re just stubborn (or need to hear it from someone else or be able to connect the WHY with their goals, benefits, etc).

🚩But sometimes there are underlying issues like disordered eating and body dysmorphia at play.

🚩Or, sometimes, there’s such anxiety that is making it difficult to eat/drink before gym (which often points to cultural issues if they’re that afraid of what is going to happen at practice that day). Therapy can help, but getting to the root of the issue of what’s going on at gym is key.

✨Try to pose things as short-term experiments.

“Let’s see what happens if you do XYZ for breakfast each day for just a week”

“Let’s see how you feel if you finish X water bottles before gym—can you focus better, does conditioning hurt less, do you have more energy, less headaches, etc”

Helping them to get some small wins with baby steps towards what you want them to do is key to sustainable behavior change.

Need support?

🎙️Start with The Balanced Gymnast® Podcast—link in bio.

I often get new client referrals in my practice fo $I often get new client referrals in my practice for gymnasts who are suffering from fatigue, soreness, and suboptimal performance (when they’ve previously been able to do much more/better). It’s not uncommon that they will have already seen several specialists for their symptoms…doctors, physical therapists, etc. And yet, it’s rare that any specialist will mention ADEQUATE fueling. Everyone wants to focus in on specific foods when we first need to look at the bigger picture to get to the root cause. The real kicker is that most ALL of these gymnasts are suffering from low energy availability- LEA- (which often includes inadequate carbohydrate as well). Fixing the LEA is key to ruling out any other medical issue at play. A LOT of GI symptoms come from underfueling. The stomach/intestines ar muscles, and when they don’t adequate, consistent nutrition…you can experience constipation, bloating, gas, and stomach problems. A lot of ongoing fatigue and poor endurance comes from LEA, which can also lead to iron insufficiency/deficiency and vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency. A lot of ongoing soreness, overuse injuries, aches/pains are also worsened by LEA…if you think about it, the underfueled body cannot repair/recover as it needs to between training sessions, competition, and season. It just doesn’t have the building blocks if you’re not fueling well enough. A lot of stress reaction/stress fracture, and bone related injuries are due to…you guessed it…LEA. This is a huge issue in the gymnastics world and we need medical providers on all front screening and referring out for these conditions. How much better could our gymnasts be if they were well fueled? How many gymnasts have seen their dreams crushed because of years of underfueling (what I often call “unintentional underfueling”). How many doctors visits, surgeries, PT sessions, etc could be limited (and save $$$) by proactively making sure nutrition is dialed in? 🧭 A TON. If you are the parent of a level 9-10/elite gymnast and want to learn more on how to help your gymnast have a sustainable season and gymnastics career… I have 2, 1:1 spots open for June. DM “VIP” to chat more.$

Here’s how it starts:  -Young gymnast notices

4 months from now… Summer will have come and go

⚠️I will die on this hill…⚠️ We all mea

💬👇🏼 comment FREETRAINING below & I’ll D

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