physical health

Stay Fit and Motivated

An Athlete in Everybody

At the peak of every elite athlete’s competitive career, their dietary and exercise habits are developed for a performance purpose — to play at peak condition on the field, court or course. Immediately after every athlete’s competitive career ends, their dietary and exercise needs cease being centered on athletic performance and must evolve to meet basic daily health and wellness needs.

Elite athletes spend years, if not decades, developing performance-based habits which range from ingesting up to 5,000 calories per day to regular “max outs” in weight rooms. During the performance-purpose years, those athletes also often have teams of experts — team coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, nutritionists, trainers, doctors — providing roadmaps to athletes which reinforce those habits. Immediately following the end of their competitive careers, elite level athletes’ dietary and physical health needs evolve from being performance-purposed to being lifelong health-and-wellness-purposed. However, too often, those athletes do not know how to change their habits to match these new needs, and they also lose the support staff that have guided them for so long.

Too often, the elite athlete finishes his or her competitive career and does not know what he or she does not know — first, that they need to evolve and, second, how to go about doing so. The Nutrition and Exercise Pillar for the Always An Athlete curriculum emphasizes for student-athletes the need to begin thinking about adapting their habits before they need to i.g. before leaving competitive sports, and should provide them with fundamentals so they can develop their own roadmap.

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athletes in their next athletic chapter

Dr Kate Ackerman

Former US National Team Lightweight Rower, Current USRowing Medical Commission and Team Doctor

Medical Director of The Wu Tsai Female Athlete Program

Division of Sports Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital National Leadership Council- Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance

Founder and Director of the Female Athlete Conference

Associate Professor of Medicine - Harvard Medical School Chair

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As a sports medicine physician and former national team rower, I am an advocate for the importance of physical activity and the benefits of being a lifelong athlete. In “Always An Athlete,” Jenné Blackburn creates an easy-to-follow, but effective roadmap to help former athletes translate their years of athletic hard work and mindset into their next chapter. So many of the skills we develop as athletes are valuable tools for future life happiness and success. She also details important strategies for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and constructing support systems and communities beyond the competition stage. This is a great read for athletes navigating life after they’ve reached their perceived competitive peak, reminding them that there is life after the climb.

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Andrea Hudy

Collegiate Basketball Sports Performance Coach, 9-Time National Championship Teams

National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Impact Award 2017

NSCA Coach of the Year 2012

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Transitioning out of a sport is a challenging time for competitive athletes. The scaffolds and resources that have been present to assist the competitive athlete during their athletic careers are no longer there. Many struggle with where to start. I believe that people can change their mindset or identity from competitive sport athlete to an athlete who has a healthy lifestyle. Always an Athlete is a great resource for a community of people who have done it. It shares intimate stories and insights from the Always an Athlete community that can help others in their journey into the next chapter of their lives.

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Always An Athlete can help with the transition by helping people understand that focusing on long-term health is important. In many instances, athletes leave their competitive careers having had injuries or suffer from the wear and tear that comes with the constant repetitive movements that were a part of their sport. Undoing what has been done for years and correcting old injuries can be accomplished by participating in more fitness-based cardiovascular exercises, resistance training, and focusing on sleep and nutrition.

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Athletes should focus on movement alternatives that are the opposite of the movements that they were constantly exposed to in their athletic careers. Doing so will support long-term joint health. As a coach, when athletes would come back to campus to visit, inevitably, we would end up going on bike rides to reconnect and relax. Sometimes these rides became a race (if they wanted) which would satisfy our craving for competition.

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“Above all, cycling is fun. It can be a great way to get outside, spend time with friends or even one’s regular teammates on another sports team”
Bill Walton, UCLA and NBA Basketball Legend

“Everybody always does a golf outing, but you can only get so many people involved in that because not everybody plays. And I wanted everybody to be able to participate. And what does everybody know how to do? Ride a bicycle! It’s fun and it’s good exercise. A lot of times when people are riding a bike, they don’t even realize that they’re exercising. So doing that was a no-brainer to me.”
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Bo Jackson,
NFL Pro Bowler, MLB Allstar

Beaten Up, But Not Giving Up

With a likely decrease in activity after sport participation, (both in time & intensity), decreasing caloric intake & carbohydrate intake is NECESSARY to avoid unwanted weight gain as well as other diseases that may accompany this change, i.e., High Blood Pressure, Heart Disease, Diabetes, etc. Additionally, certain nutritional changes may be necessary to PREVENT Heat Disease, Muscle Loss, Osteoporosis, Skeletal & other Diseases which may come with these changes.

Mentorship will provide: Fundamentals of healthy Non-Performance & Purposed-Nutrition & how to begin transitioning from Performance/Purposed based eating habits (e.g. may not want to immediately go from consuming 3,500 calories per day to only 1,800 calories per day). Content goal is to teach Student Athletes that they can remain “in control” of their diet, & create a balanced plan for themselves AFTER leaving campus.

"And without a team, without the structures they’ve molded their bodies to fit neatly inside, retired athletes are left to their own devices. Spat out by a billion-dollar industry, they battle everything from chronic injuries to body dysmorphia and from hormonal imbalances to weight fluctuations, often feeling isolated in the process."
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GLOBAL SPORTS MATTER,
FALL 2021

habits that last

EXERCISE

After the performance period, Athletes can no longer expect others to keep them accountable with regard to their physical fitness. There will no longer be Teammates waiting in the gym & there will no longer be Coaches tracking reps. Athletes must understand that physical health is important in their daily lives even though they may no longer be utilizing their bodies to earn Scholarships or a paycheck (as is the case in professional sports), & they MUST adapt their motivation to be “In The Gym” from one of performance to one of staying healthy for friends, family and their bottom line.

Focus On the fundamentals of healthy Non-Performance exercise & how to transition to the “NEW NORMAL” athletic environment. Research highlighting the IMPACT on Athletes who fail to develop healthy exercise habits after retiring from competitive sports.

EXERCISE

"Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you believe that you are."
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JAMES CLEAR,
AUTHOR OF ATOMIC HABITS