Some Gazette archival on strength and conditioning

Trying to shed a little light on this with some stories we've written in the past.

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Headline: Toll heavy keeping up with the Joneses

Intro: Supplements, intense summer workouts the norm at big schools (Nov. 20, 1999)

IOWA CITY - By now, you know the story of Bruce Nelson, the Iowa football player who went from 225-pound walk-on tight end to 285-pound starting center.

You might not know he has a secret ingredient that helps him maintain that 285.

He keeps it around his refrigerator. He ingests it late at night.

He has to send away for it, sometimes through e-mail, sometimes after home games.

His mom's cheesy potatoes do the trick.

"She brings me food when we have home games," Nelson said. "The cheesy potatoes, spaghetti, I have it pretty darn good."

Of course, cheesy potatoes won't cut it for all college football players.

In the wake of the death of Northwestern's Rashidi Wheeler, the use of performance-enhancing supplements and the intense "voluntary" summer workouts college coaches use to prepare their players for the rigors of major-college football have come to the fore.

Don't look for either to go away anytime soon. But also consider the degrees.

Division I college football demands a certain type of athlete. And, to acknowledge the obvious, that athlete isn't eating his mom's cheesy potatoes and lifting weights in his garage during the summer.

At the University of Iowa, that athlete is sweating through offseason conditioning workouts and year-round weightlifting programs. That athlete passes a conditioning test before he begins full-contact drills. That athlete tows the school's line when it comes to supplements.

"If you want to keep up with the Joneses, you know you've got to stay (in Iowa City) and you've got to work out (during the summer)," senior defensive end Aaron Kampman said. "If you've got any sort of competitive fire in you, you want to stay. Because you know the guy in the other town is working just as hard as you are, if not harder."

Iowa is allowed to distribute dietary supplements to its athletes.

But that list isn't very long and the supplements aren't really supplements, according to Chris Doyle, Iowa's strength and conditioning coach.

The NCAA has banned the distribution of "what they deem as a muscle-building supplement," Doyle said.

"Basically, it comes down to micronutrients, HMB, creatine (not banned by the NCAA), glutamine," he said. "They (NCAA) even limit the amount of protein. We cannot distribute a product that's more than 30 percent protein."

As late as '99, Iowa could distribute creatine. This limits schools to whole-food products. Iowa relies on the Gatorade product "Torq," a high-carbohydrate sports drink, and "Go," which Doyle described as a "almost like an instant breakfast."

"(What the NCAA allows) is very limiting. It cuts you down to whole food products that are a maximum 30 percent protein," Doyle said.

The UI has a health advisory board that oversees the distribution of supplements to athletes and other athletes' health issues.

Doyle said the board, which comprises doctors, has to approve supplements UI strength coaches decide to use.

"I actually like that. It allows us in good conscience to use products," Doyle said.

Increasingly, athletes are using products like Ripped Fuel, Ultimate Orange and Xenadrine, which are classified as supplements but contain the stimulant ephedrine, also known as ma huang.

Blood test results after Wheeler's death found ephedrine, a banned stimulant, in his system. The Cook County medical examiner concluded the substance didn't contribute to the player's Aug. 3 death on a school practice field.

But the red flags went up everywhere in college football.

"Unfortunately, it's very popular right now," Doyle said. "It's an over-the-counter product that is dangerous. The NCAA bans the use of ephedrine, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) has banned ephedrine. All of the major organizations ban ephedrine. It's a nervous system stimulant that's very dangerous.

"The only experience I have with it is to very, very strongly encourage our athletes to steer clear of it. It's an illegal, banned substance. If you get caught with it in your system, you will lose eligibility."

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said the university stresses education and specifically focus on incoming freshmen.

"I think the biggest concern is what's going on in the high schools because there isn't the drug testing going on," Ferentz said. "A lot of guys want to try to get that edge."

Iowa prohibits the use of any products other than those distributed by the university. If an Iowa football player wants to try something else, it needs approval from Doyle.

"Before we take it, he wants to go over it with you and tell you what this can do to you. That helps," sophomore defensive back Benny Sapp said. "He keeps the bad things away."

Doyle is one gatekeeper. Drug testing is another.

"I would venture to say that nobody drug tests more than the University of Iowa," Ferentz said. "It was that way when I got here and we stepped it up just because you're talking about something that's very, very dangerous."

Wheeler's death also thrust voluntary summer workouts into the media glare. Wheeler collapsed during conditioning drills on a Northwestern field hockey field.

Under NCAA rules, summer workouts are voluntary. The recent Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics report called voluntary workouts the "loophole most used" in violation of NCAA rules restricting time athletes spend on their sport.

"You don't have to be there, but in the same sense, if you're a competitive person you want to be there," Nelson said. "But it's up to you."

Ferentz and Doyle see the clouds forming. They believe the NCAA will debate voluntary workouts. The debate could go two ways - the NCAA could try to eliminate voluntary workouts, or it could make sure that they're properly and professionally supervised.

"Think about a youngster going in the weightroom and squatting without supervision," Ferentz said. "To do that without coaching would be like asking a player to go out and tackle without instruction. You're just running the risk of doing damage to these players."

Coaches and players agree on the need for summer workouts. And not just workouts, but strenuous, high-impact workouts. Workouts conducted under the eye and direction of qualified strength and conditioning coaches.

"To work out at the tempo that you have to work out to be prepared to play in the Big Ten or a major conference, it's intense," Ferentz said. "To come into camp and not be ready, to me, is putting a player at risk.

"We wouldn't put a player out there. We have fitness tests. If we don't feel a player isn't ready to go, we won't put them out there on the practice field. There's too much going on."

Doyle thinks the NCAA could act on voluntary workouts in the next six to 10 months.

"It's going to be a tense topic here as the NCAA evaluates what's going on in strength and conditioning and it wouldn't surprise me if there was a change one way or the other," Doyle said.

Strength and conditioning now factors into recruiting, Doyle said.

Players want to know what kind of program a school has and what the school can offer them, along the lines of facilities and know-how.

And voluntary summer workouts are part of that mix.

Again, Iowa stresses a safe environment. Iowa players don't do anything without a trainer. If one

player wants to go on a morning run, a trainer will monitor him, Ferentz said.

"The athletes want to be coached and the athletes want to train in the summer," Doyle said. "They have goals. They have goals to play here at Iowa or beyond the University of Iowa.

They want to train."

Officially, bronchial asthma killed Rashidi Wheeler. But that drive to reach those goals wasn't far behind.

Carrying 60 pounds he didn't have when he arrived in Iowa City four years ago - pounds that wear on his feet during a walk in the mall, pounds that steal his wind, tire his legs faster - Bruce Nelson knows all about that drive.

"I haven't thought about it (Wheeler's death) out on the field," Nelson said. "It hasn't affected me in any way or shape. You can't predict something like that.

It's a fluke thing.

"You have to work out hard. And I still work out hard."

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From 1999

Cautious use of creatine the watchword for Hawks

IOWA CITY - Creatine is an option for University of Iowa football players. An option about half are taking up.

UI athletes can receive the muscle-building supplement through the school's health advisory board. They must first sign a consent form that makes them aware of research that has been done about creatine.

"I think it's proven to be beneficial. Studies have shown that it works," said Chris Doyle, strength and conditioning coach for the football team. "It's not a magic elixir, but it does work. It's not something you rely on, but it can give you a minimal edge."

Doyle said about half of the football team uses creatine.

Many studies support creatine's role in activities involving short, intense bursts of energy, but not necessarily any gains in strength or lean body mass.

Creatine dehydrates muscle cells, so water intake is important.

While no specific side effects are noted with short-term use, long-term safety is still being evaluated.

Evaluated by everyone.

Offensive tackle Bruce Nelson uses creatine and says it works.

"It does work. That is a fact," he said.

Nelson has gone from a 225-pound walk-on tight end to a 270-pound offensive tackle in two seasons in the Iowa football program. While he says creatine works, he also says it's something that makes him think twice.

"You think about the chance you might be taking," said the red-shirt freshman from Emmetsburg. "I'm not a big risk taker, and it does bother me a little. But there is some history behind it now, and that makes it easier.

"The No.1 thing you have to do is drink a lot of fluids. I'm very careful with that."

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Intro: Iowa football officials warn supplements an `impure industry

Byline: Tyler Lechtenberg

Source: The Gazette

IOWA CITY - Walk down an aisle of dietary supplements and you'll see loads of creatine, gobs of glutamine, and piles of protein shakes all over the place.

With no regulating body overseeing the supplement industry, though, there might be plenty there you don't see.

"Supplements are definitely an impure industry," said Dr. Paul W. Baumert, the University of Iowa football team's primary care physician.

Unlike over-the-counter or prescription drugs, supplements are labeled "foods" by the Food and Drug Administration, which means they don't need approval before hitting the shelves at the supplements store. The FDA can only regulate a supplement's sale after it's proven to be harmful, Baumert said.

So, when an athlete tests positive but says he's never knowingly taken illegal steroids or other banned substances, he can't be entirely disregarded.

"There is no governing body that regulates what goes in the supplements," Iowa football strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle said. "So what's in the supplements, nobody knows."

Doyle and Baumert laid out the sometimes-chilly facts about the supplement industry and made the case for a dietary means to increased athletic performance last night in a seminar at University Hospitals.

Doyle cited a study that said one in five supplements were tainted, meaning the inside of the bottle contained something different than the label said it did.

"We don't believe in pills or powders," Doyle said. "We believe the one way to get your athletes bigger, faster and stronger is food."

Doyle has a comprehensive - but logically simple - dietary plan he advises his players to utilize. It includes:

--Eat breakfast, drink a gallon of water and eat five fruits and vegetables every day.

--Eat four to six small meals a day and include a lean protein source at each one.

--Sleep eight hours a night.

Doyle repeatedly emphasized the best way to consume nutrients is by regular diet, not supplemental means.

That doesn't mean no Iowa athlete uses dietary supplements. Sometimes, if athletes simply can't eat enough of the necessary nutrients, they could use supplements, Baumert said. Doyle said the football team primarily sticks with shakes, bars, or fluids that supplement macronutrients like proteins, carbohydrates and fats - not micronutrients like vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

"We avoid the kitchen sink supplements," Doyle said.

The most commonly used supplement, according to Baumert, is creatine, which claims to promote growth of muscle mass, reduce recovery time from exercise and increase energy production. But Baumert and Doyle said creatine's effects vary widely on individuals and health risks including liver and kidney damage have been noted.

Creatine is not banned by the NCAA, but it is impermissible for an institution to provide it to players. A player can buy it, and Doyle said he neither discourages nor encourages its use.

"I just give them the facts," he said.

That include anecdotal evidence Doyle has seen and heard from players who have suffered from cramps concurrent with creatine use. Doyle said the supplement industry is one driven by money - and the lure of making consumers repeat customers.

That's everyone, not just athletes, Doyle said. Check out the before-and-after photos, the catchy slogans, the muscle-bound life-size posters outside a mall storefront.

"They're coming after you," Doyle said. "And they have great marketing."