Nutrition bar enhancing football student-athlete experience

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- When the Nittany Lions walk off the practice field, there is now a sparkling new stop to make before departing the Lasch Football Building.Late in the season, the football student-athletes began christening a state-of-the-art nutrition bar facility adjacent to the 13,000-square-foot weight room.Designed to provide excellent sources of carbohydrates and proteins for pre-workout energy and post-workout recovery, the fueling station was a central part of the Lasch Renovation, which is a multi-phased project, that will allow Penn State football to provide the resources it needs to recruit an support the nation's most talented and driven student-athletes."The Lasch Football Nutrition Bar is an idea we've had since Coach (James) Franklin got here two years ago," said Assistant Athletic Director for Performance Enhancement Dwight Galt. "It's something we felt like was absolutely necessary to maximize the nutrition of our football student-athletes. To do it correctly, we put a great deal of thought into the design of it. Number one, we wanted to set it up in a way to give the players what they need to enhance their performance as much as possible. And number two, we wanted make it a quick, easy, time-saving initiative."Penn State Athletics partnered with Mortenson Construction, Crawford Architects and Advent to create an optimum design and location to set up the nutrition bar in a place with close proximity to the locker room, weight room, training room and practice fields for optimum convenience and use."We wanted it to be in an area that was going to see a high volume of traffic," said Assistant Director of Performance Enhancement Chuck Losey, who worked closely with design team on the location and set-up of the nutrition bar. "We have our side entrance to the building right next to where the nutrition bar is located. The guys come in and out of that entrance several times during the day, so they are exposed to the nutrition bar location regularly."The fueling station features six Vitamix blenders for high volume smoothie making, refrigerators, coolers, shelves and display areas for more than 20 different products for pre- and post-workout nutrition. The bar's functionality is streamlined to enable the student-athletes the opportunity to grab food on the go.The nutrition bar is aligned with a Penn State Athletics initiative announced in October 2014 that created Enhanced Fueling Stations accessible to all 31 teams on campus. The announcement came on the heels of the NCAA granting member institutions the opportunity to play a greater role in the nutritional health needs of student-athletes.The nutrition bar features a wide-range of foods and snacks that are high sources of carbohydrates and proteins. The food list ranges from fresh fruits to a variety of nuts to breads and bagels, along with Gatorade products and milks."The primary goal of the selection was to provide excellent sources of carbohydrates for pre-exercise energy and post-exercise recovery," said Director of Sports Nutrition Dr. Kris Clark. "We also have high quality protein foods, and that is a recovery focus. The carbohydrates are for energy leading up to a workout in the weight room or on the field, and also, carbohydrates are a big recovery nutrient, along with proteins."Convenience was paramount to the design of the nutrition bar, ensuring that the access was easy and functional to use for the student-athletes."With the time crunch student-athletes face, the foods we have selected on the fueling station and now the nutrition bar are exactly those types of foods that can be eaten, easily digestible and provide rapid energy and excellent sources of recovery," said Clark.In addition to the practical services of the nutrition bar, the location serves as an educational area. There are posters and information positioned around the bar to enhance the overall understanding the student-athletes have of proper nutrition and its impact on increasing performance, energy and injury prevention."We are using the space to provide nutritional education, as well," Clark said. "It's not just a place where you have to come in, eat and leave. We will be on site to create dialogue about how they can improve their diets. We will have materials in the nutrition bar to stimulate conversation. It will be a center to communicate good nutrition principles."Members of the nutrition and performance enhancement staffs are on site during hours of operation to assist with smoothie making and are available to answer nutrition-related questions on how to select the best foods for energy and recovery before and after workouts.The response to the nutrition bar has been outstanding during its first month of operation."When we stocked the nutrition bar for the first time, it was beyond everyone's expectations," Galt said. "The design and construction groups did a phenomenal job putting things together and giving us what we need for that area. The athletes love it. It's been an overwhelmingly positive response."