Hammer Time! An afternoon with Brian Frank of Hammer Nutrition

I had the great opportunity to meet, visit, and learn from Brian Frank of Hammer Nutrition yesterday.  He was the guest speaker at a clinic put on for the kids of Revel-Rad Racing NW.

I was completely impressed by his focus on teaching the kids about the importance of whole, natural foods. In fact, that was the majority of his message with them. He helped me see life through their eyes again, and to think about what kinds of influences are at the root of children’s nutrition. It brought a moment of clarity to my mind as I realized how nutrition habits for a lifetime develop. With the influence of family, peers, TV, packaging, availability at school, etc., it’s hardly within a child’s control what they put in their mouths. At the same time, it is their responsibility… and challenge… in the midst of all of that.

Brian also spent time discussing the proper use of gels and other fuels during training and racing. Among the many wonderful gems that I took away from this segment of his talk, was this: The goal of fueling is not to figure out how much fuel you can take in, but, in fact, how little you can take in, and still get over the finish-line having met your goals. This is a great perspective to hear, because I know first hand, and from others, the problems of over-fueling can have just as much impact as under-fueling. Central to his discussion was the reminder that the body can only absorb fuel at a certain rate, no matter how much you put in.

It was a great opportunity, and a wonderful reminder that our bodies are always better suited to diets of whole, natural foods that don’t come in packages or wrappers. As a racer and endurance athlete, though, specific demands of our sports often require strategies and products to optimize our performance and keep us healthy athletes.

Frank and his team at Hammer Nutrition have a huge bank of information gathered about their products/usage, but also a huge amount of other topics that are useful to endurance athletes on the Knowledge Base of the Hammer Nutrition website.