Parent Education Vol. 2 - Staying Healthy

Welcome to December! Winter Championship meets are upon us and holidays are just around the corner. Add increased schoolwork to the mix and we are all under a fair amount of stress. Staying healthy during this time can be challenging, but is a major difference maker in performance both in and out of the water.

There are lots that we can do to stay healthy and don't wait until you are (or your swimmer is) sick to take action. We must be proactive and like they say "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

Nutrition plays a huge role in staying healthy and feeling good. Instead of going through what swimmers should be eating daily, let's consider some basic items that help boost your immune system. 

Vitamins - everyone should be taking a multivitamin daily. Living in the NW and with limited sunlight this time of year, we also need to be taking Vitamin D. Most vitamins are fat soluble, so taking your vitamins with fish oil (or flax seed oil, etc) will help your body absorb and process the vitamins more effectively. 

Antibiotics - should only be taken as a last resort and always finish out the dose. It's better in the long run to avoid antibiotics and try to support your body fighting off the illness on its own. By taking antibiotics, your immune system doesn't grow stronger and taking them too frequently (and especially not completing the entire does) allows the body to build up resiliency. Then when you are seriously sick and absolutely need the antibiotics, they aren't as effective.

Echinacea - this natural plant has been around for a long time and is believed to boost our immune systems. You don't have to wait until you are sick to take it, I personally do through the winter and whenever it seems germs are getting high. When you feel yourself first getting sick, increase to 2 or 3 times per day. You can take it as droplets, capsules or tea. Personally, I think the droplets are most effective although it does not taste good!

Gypsy Cold Care Tea - available at most all grocery stores and can be mixed with Echinacea tea to pack an even more powerful punch. The same brand also makes a Throat Coat tea for when you have a sore throat and you can also mix with Sleepy Time Tea to help calm the system and fall asleep easier. These readily available teas are cheap and a safe, milder alternative to drugs, whether they be prescription or over-the-counter.

Emergen-C / Airborne - taking extremely high doses of vitamins only when you are sick isn't the most effective. Your body can only absorb so much and will pass most of the vitamins through your system. You should be regularly maintaining your vitamin levels and not waiting until you are sick to take action. Using either of these in addition to everyday vitamins is ok, but personally I feel it's a little overkill and your effort and money is better placed elsewhere.

Rest - probably the most important piece to recovery whether it's from training, sickness, injury or stress. Especially getting closer to Championships, it is important to maintain a consistent sleep pattern. If you struggle getting to sleep at night, try natural alternatives (melatonin, sleepy time tea, warm milk, etc) before taking a drug based sleeping aid and only use these in dire emergency. The body quickly becomes reliant on these sleep aids and you can actually make things worse in the long run. If struggling with sleep is an ongoing problem, we should probably look deeper at a root cause (i.e. stress, anxiety, poor nutrition, over training, etc). 

Homework - every year it seems academics get more demanding. While we expect excellence in training, this expectation carries over to schoolwork and eventually to careers. We don't just want high level swimmers, we want high level students, employees and all-around members of society. As coaches, we understand swimmers are going to miss practice on occasion due to academics. We have built, what we feel, is an appropriate amount of flexibility within our attendance requirements. Please keep in mind that these swimmers are conditioned to regularly do hard physical training. If they miss workouts to study and do homework, break up the boredom by allowing them to take short breaks to go for a run or do some quick dryland at home. While it may initially seem like this is taking time away from studying, it is more likely to increase their focus and quality of their studies, while reinforcing proper time management skills (and satisfying our team expectations). Our attendance policy requires swimmers to communicate absences with their coach and complete a mutually agreed upon alternative workout that day. 

I hope you find this information useful. There is a ton of information and many different beliefs on these topics - just as there are many different approaches to swim training in general. We hope that by sharing this information we can all move closer to a tighter-knit community, stay healthier and achieve greater success in the pool and beyond! 

Good luck to everyone competing over the next couple weeks. 


Coach Nick