Archive for February, 2009

Athletes Outdoors was fueling 14 of the 51 Angler/Athletes who qualified for the Bassmaster Classic on the Red River this week. The results through the first two days of competition have again shown the value of the attention to detail that the Athletes Outdoors project is known for. After the field was cut from 51 to the final 25 who will compete for a $500,000.00 first place check, and what most say is at least that in endorsement opportunity, 10 0f the top 25 were A.O. Athletes. Statistically that means that what began as 25% of the full field became 40% of the top 25. It gets better. 6 of the top 10 going in to Sundays final round were being fueled by Athletes Outdoors, 60% of the top ten, 7 of the top 12. This is how you start a year!

The Angler/Athletes have all been positive in their initial comments about the new structure of the “competition day box” that has come from our off season efforts. The products, and loads of much appreciated support, have come from dotFit and Kay’s Naturals.

Thanks to all and STAY TUNED,

Ken Hoover
Founder, Athletes Outdoors

Danno Wise

Bass fishing has changed considerably over the years. So have bass fishermen. A lot has been written about the mental and technical challenges faced by today’s bass fishermen. However, perhaps the most overlooked aspect of modern angling is the physical stamina it requires – particularly for those in the competitive arena. And, though today’s pros know they need not look like Adonis, they certainly understand the importance of being physically fit.

“I think it’s incredibly important,” BASS Elite pro Tim Horton said when asked of the role fitness plays in tournament angling. “If you’re not in shape, your performance will definitely suffer. It affects everything. When your body gets tired, your mind gets tired. If you want to remain sharp all day long, day after day, you’ve got to be in shape.

“The challenge for us (touring pros) is keeping up with exercising when we’re on the road. It’s a lot easier to keep up with when we’re at home during the off-season. So, it’s important to get in really good shape in the off-season, and then do what you can to keep up with it when you’re on the road.

Reigning Bassmaster Classic champion Alton Jones agrees wholeheartedly.

“Being in shape fits hand in hand with successful tournament fishing,” Jones said. “If you’re not in shape, about halfway through the day you fatigue and lose focus. Being in good physical condition allows you to stay mentally focused.

“In my opinion, competitive fishermen are athletes. Sure, we’re not athletes like those in the NFL or NBA where you need intense, peak physical performance over 2 or 3 hours. But, we are in situations where we have to maintain a level of physical and mental concentration for 8 to 12 hours. It’s more about endurance. But, it requires a level of physical fitness nonetheless.”

Since there is no definitive workout regime geared specifically towards bass fishing, the pros say it’s important to find something that will get you and shape and is comfortable enough for you to stick with.

“I use P90X, which is an exercise program anyone can order online,” Horton said. “This is the program I use in the off-season. Like I said, it can be a little hard to keep up with on the road. But, during the year, I still try to do whatever I can to stay in shape.”

“I like to do several different things – just to keep it interesting,” Jones said. “But, everything I do is set around developing endurance. I like to walk or jog or ride my bike for cardio. Again, it doesn’t need to be fast, just consistent to help build up endurance.”

Although overall fitness is the most critical, there are things anglers can implement in their exercise program in order to address angling-specific needs.

“To me the back is very important,” Jones explained. “Not only for standing eight, 10, 12 hours a day, but also on the hookset and landing fish. Everything I do, I try to keep that in mind and do things that will help strengthen my core.

“I also have a couple of things I do to specifically help my casting endurance. Acually, I have a cut down rod that I place resistance bands on. I can then hook the bands to a chair or the door or something to hold it in place. Then, I go through all my casting motions. I’m not going full speed when I do this, but I’m using the exact same motion I would during my cast. And, I work on every type of cast I’d make during a day of fishing.”

And, though Vienna sausages are a time-honored food for fishermen, the pros say something a bit more substantial is necessary to perform at a high level.

“You’ve got to eat the right things if you want to keep your energy levels and concentration up throughout the day,” Horton said.

“For me, the nutrition was the hardest part, but also the most important,” Jones added. “In fact, I started working with a nutritionalist, Ken Hoover, who’s really helped me learn to eat right. Sometimes it’s hard when you’re in the middle of fishing, but you have got to make sure and fuel your body while you’re fishing. I’ll take grapes, peanuts, Zone power bars – things that are healthy and easy to eat while I’m on the boat.”

Like anything else, it is also necessary to get out and replicate the tournament fishing experience as often as possible.

“It’s important to eat right and exercise, but you also need to mix in some of those long fishing days during the off-season,” Jones said. “You’ve got to be accustomed to fishing a full day. But, then again, I can think of worse ways to spend a day off.”

By Steve Wright
ESPNOutdoors.com

After breaking a 14-year drought of victories on the BASS tour, the first person Kevin Wirth thanked upon winning the Elite Series Tennessee Triumph at Old Hickory Lake was Ken Hoover.

Hoover is the guy who, for the past two years, has been hard to miss at Bassmaster Elite Series daily launches, as he throws white plastic bagged “lunch pails” to anglers participating in his Athletes Outdoors program.

While often acknowledged, Hoover has never received praise from the weigh-in stage as he did from Wirth after his $100,000 first-place showing at Old Hickory Lake.

“I’ve got to say a special thanks to Ken,” said Wirth, who celebrated his 46th birthday on July 20th. “I told him earlier this week that I’m getting up there in age, and I don’t eat or drink all day long (during competition).

“That really takes its toll. By the end of the week, I’m so drained I can hardly hold my head up.

“He put that bag (of food) in there and I told my (co-angler) partner every day, ‘You make sure you make me eat.’ Even my (ESPN) cameraman, Wes (Miller), today, he was pulling (the food) out and making me eat.

“I felt so great all day this week. (Hoover) really proved his point.”

Hoover’s work with Elite Series anglers was detailed here last year. But the 58-year-old Pleasanton, Texas, resident continues to impress the pros and discover helpful performance-related information as his now two-year-old relationship with the Elite Series progresses.

The Tennessee Triumph may have been Hoover’s biggest success, in terms of proving that his program works. Of the 106 Elite Series pros who started the four-day tournament on Old Hickory Lake in late June, 18 were participating in the Athletes Outdoors program. Fifteen of them made the two-day top 50 cut, and two others finished 51st and 52nd, respectively. Five placed in the top seven during Sunday’s finale, including the winner, Wirth.

While he is a former jockey and maintains the slim frame required by that sport, Wirth isn’t exactly the picture of health. Nicknamed “Old Smoky” by some of his fellow pros, Wirth seldom leaves for a day on the lake without a carton of cigarettes in his boat.

But those nicotine-fueled energy bumps weren’t enough to keep the Crestwood, Ky., resident going all day long.

And based on the numbers Hoover has compiled over the last two years, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. When he first began putting heart rate monitors on a few Elites Series pros at the start of the 2007 season, even Hoover, who has worked with Olympic-level athletes and NBA teams, was startled by how many calories they were burning during a typical day of competition.

The average number compiled after that first year was 3,600 calories per day. Hoover, with a career of experience in such matters, guessed it would be about 1,000 calories a day fewer than that before he started working with the BASS pros. (To put 3,600 calories in perspective, it’s equivalent to a 23-mile run at a pace of 12-minute miles; in other words, a BASS pro is burning almost a marathon’s (26.2 miles) worth of calories each day on the water.)

“I call this thing a fuel gauge,” said Hoover, in reference to the Polar heart rate monitors he straps to the wrist of each angler enrolled in the program. “Sometimes I refer to it as an effort meter.”

Peter Thliveros, the 48-year-old pro angler from Jacksonville, Fla., was one of the first enrollees in Hoover’s program. Hoover documented Thliveros burned 18,300 calories while winning the Bassmaster Memorial last July in Syracuse, N.Y. — the highest number Hoover has recorded in his work with the BASS pros.

And it has been primarily through Thliveros that Hoover has begun to notice the influence “mental engagement” has on the number of calories an angler will burn during a day.

When Thliveros came off the water after a day of competition in the Pride of Georgia event at Clarks Hill Lake in May, Hoover noticed Thliveros’ calories-burned total was significantly lower than the average Thliveros had established over the past year-and-a-half.

“The only thing I can figure — and this is just a guess — is that you’re not into it mentally,” Hoover told him. “You’re just kind of going through the motions.”

When Thliveros finished his second day of competition, he told Hoover, “That’s it. You were right.”

Since then, Thliveros has paid closer attention to what causes his heart rate to go up or down, other than simple physical exertion.

“We’re finding out it’s a lot more mental than everybody thinks it is,” Thliveros said. “The first day of a tournament, I generally have a pretty high number. If I have a good day, the next day I fish a little more relaxed (and his total heartbeat count is lower).

“I’m catching the same number of fish, but mentally, I’m not as keyed up.

“My numbers will usually go up on the third and fourth days.”

It’s on days three and four when Elite Series pros reach the semifinals and finals of these $100,000-first place tournaments. And although you would expect a higher rate of excitement as the competition kicks into a higher gear, that’s something not figured into the original plan of Hoover’s program, but has provided Hoover with some interesting statistical information.

Thliveros, by the way, broke Aaron Martens’ previous “record” among BASS pros for calories burned during a day when he topped 6,000 at Old Hickory. Martens burned 5,980 throwing a spinnerbait all day on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville in 2007.

But, getting back to the basics of Hoover’s “fuel gauge” application, the main thing it has clearly put into black-and-white for the anglers is that they need to take the time to eat and drink if they’re going to stay at their best all day.

Typically, tournament pros have been reluctant to cut into any of their fishing time, no matter how sharp the hunger pangs.

“I’ve learned a lot about what I’ve always been feeling,” Thliveros said. “I understand what it is now: I try to really key on the nutrition end of it; I try to eat a little bit throughout the course of the day.

“I feel a lot better. I have more energy. I sleep better.

“This has really opened my eyes to the fact that this is a physical sport. It’s a lot more physical than I ever thought it was.

“I just took it for granted that I was tired at the end of the day because I got up early, fished hard all day and was up late the night before. I didn’t realize that just taking time for some proper nutrition was going to change the way I felt at the end of the week.

“And, most important, it makes you perform better.

“I want to make sure I’ve got a full tank, so I can get to the end of the race. If you’re out of gas by noon and you’ve still got three hours to fish, it’s not helping you put any money in your pocket.”

It wasn’t just the Tennessee Triumph that showed Hoover is helping put money in the pockets of the pros enrolled in his Athletes Outdoors program. Winner Alton Jones was one of 10 pros in the program at this year’s Bassmaster Classic — and one of three who finished in the top nine. There were 16 pros in the Athletes Outdoors program at the Florida’s Citrus Slam in March; 14 finished in the top 50 and five were in the top 10.

Those are the highlights, but the pros catching a lunch sack from Hoover every morning have posted similar results throughout the 2008 season.

Hoover hopes to attract a sponsor, much like the PGA tournament has, that will provide a trailer of workout equipment and nutritional supplies for every Bassmaster Elite Series event sometime in the future.

But for now, Hoover has certainly proven the worth of his words. At no point has that been more apparent than the Sunday weigh-in stage at Old Hickory Lake, when winner Kevin Wirth said, “I felt so great all day this week. He really proved his point.”

After which, a quick glance at Hoover found a man who was all smiles.

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By Sam Eifling
ESPNOutdoors.com

Anyone who has attended more than a couple of Bassmaster Elite Series events in 2007 is likely to have seen Ken Hoover, and just as likely not even to have noticed him.

BASS Communications

Gerald Swindle got on Ken Hoover’s program after losing 14 pounds during the 2006 season.

A trim, bespectacled man of 57, with salt-and-pepper hair tucked beneath a cap, Hoover is the gentleman holding plastic sacks laden with lunches, waiting calmly at the launch dock, waiting to feed the pros.

He’s there, handing out meals to Aaron Martens, John Crews, Shaw Grigsby, Peter Thliveros, Jason Quinn and Gerald Swindle, among others, because he’s convinced that few people — anglers included — recognize the physical demands of professional bass fishing.

He arrived at that conclusion after outfitting anglers with heart monitors this season to observe their calorie consumption. And even to him, the data have been “scratch-your-head numbers.”

For instance, Thliveros burned 4,800 calories on Day Two of the Empire Chase. Martens burned through more than 5,800 during a day on Lake Guntersville, “throwing a spinnerbait all day,” Hoover said.

They’re the sort of figures that give lie to the old notion of pro fishing as a sport full of guys “patiently waiting for the camera to turn away from them so they can chug another Pabst from the Styrofoam cooler hidden under their tackle box,” as a San Francisco Examiner columnist recently dismissed it.

Rather, the calories burned at the heart rate anglers maintain during the day is closer to jogging five miles in an hour, then lifting weights for an hour — then repeating that process four more times.

“He knows what an average professional angler takes to keep going,” angler Shaw Grigsby said of Hoover. “That was the start. It’s not just a sedentary activity.”

Hoover, who has made a career of consulting for health clubs and various fitness-minded celebrities and athletes, hopes to convince BASS of the need to treat its competitors more like athletes. His dream, he says by phone from Fort Worth, Texas, is to garner sponsorships that would allow him to develop a “fitness trailer” like those that follow the PGA tour.

If golfers need an athletic support system, Hoover figures, bass fisherman do as well. While part of his mission has been to show how much abuse anglers inflict on their bodies, he has also been convincing anglers to repair that damage, by snacking.

“They will take the time to eat,” Hoover said, “if you can put it in a form that they can deal with, which means brief and doable and tasty.”

For the Elite Series pros to replace the calories they burn, Hoover has been pushing sandwiches (usually beef, chicken or peanut butter and jelly), apples, pineapple, rice cakes, protein bars and shakes. Sounds simple enough, but it has at times been a hard sell to anglers accustomed to fishing and driving their boats every available second during a tournament.

Hoover recalled the first time he approached Thliveros with a bag of food. “He just held it up and he said, ‘You want me to eat that?’” Hoover confirmed that that was the plan. “And he said, ‘Today?’”

James Overstreet

Ken Hoover hopes to catch BASS up with the PGA’s nutrition program and “fitness trailor.”

Like many of the pros, Thliveros arranged his days around wasting no motion, and that included eating. His normal routine was to grab a quick breakfast, eat a light snack on the water, weigh in his fish at the end of the afternoon, then wolf a humongous dinner right before bed. “That,” Thliveros said, “is just terrible for you.”

The pro found that he was losing strength during the course of tournaments. Essentially he was making himself “fatter and weaker,” Hoover said. Crews found that he lost 15 pounds during the 2006 season, and Swindle, 14 pounds. On those guys — both of whom are dedicated gym rats — that represents a loss almost wholly of muscle and sinew.

“No grown man wants to give up pounds of lean tissue,” Hoover said. “We work too hard to get an ounce of muscle to give it back for lack of attention.”

Hoover didn’t attend the Bassmaster Memorial in Syracuse, N.Y., in July, but by then, Thliveros was feeding himself better in the boat, and his monitor demonstrated why that was a good thing. During the four days he fished, Thliveros burned 18,300 calories, Hoover said — the highest number that he’s seen in monitoring anglers this season. Granted, that exertion was across about 10 hours each day, but Thliveros’ average daily caloric consumption was still akin to what a runner burns during a marathon.

On the last day, Thliveros said, he didn’t ingest anything more than some sports drink. But he credited an improved diet of protein shakes, fruit and granola bars with helping his stamina and concentration through the tournament — which he won, incidentally, earning a $250,000 check for his troubles.

“If you’re hungry, and your body’s telling you it’s hungry, until you’re able to overcome that feeling, then it’s distracting you from what you should be doing,” Thliveros said.

At the Sooner Run on Grand Lake, Grigsby accepted a lunch from Hoover, and said it kept him as alert as his normal regimen of energy drinks and multivitamins.

“It was fabulous,” Grigsby said. “I couldn’t believe it. I never had a letdown all day. It proved to me right off the bat that absolutely your diet can elevate you and keep you at the level you need to be to compete.”

BASS Communications

In one day, Peter “T” might burn as many calories as a marathoner.

Amateurs who hunt and fish will find that their caloric demands are far lower than those of men competing for their livelihoods. Still, you should remember to mind the belly. “Everything I’ve ever put in the bags for those guys was bought the night before at Wal-Mart,” Hoover said. “I’m not doing exotic things.”

With that in mind, here are some points to remember:

•  “The best thing for people to take with them,” Hoover said, “is what they’re going to eat, as silly as that sounds.” In other words, it’s a waste to take food you’ll have to force upon yourself. Pack something you enjoy.

•  That said, it should be healthy: lean proteins, fruits, carbohydrates. “History is, ‘Let’s put some Vienna sausages and some white bread in the boat and let’s go,’” Hoover said. “That’s participating in kicking your own ass.”

•  A minimum daily recommendation of water is three liters. Hoover recommends that you add to that twice the volume of any caffeinated beverage you drink, to compensate for caffeine’s diuretic properties. That comes out to another half-gallon of water if you imbibe two cokes. “Caffeine’s pretty much a devil in that area,” he said. Alcohol consumption requires the same offset, just not to the same extent.

Click here to JOIN BASS!

(Editor’s note: This is part 2 of a 2-part story about a new trend on tour – training and nutrition. Part 1 provided an overview with pro John Crews. Part 2, below, is a Q&A with program creator and professional trainer Ken Hoover.)BassFan: Ken, can you explain for BassFans why you started to monitor the heart-rates of pro anglers?

Hoover: The reason I began the process last year of gathering data was to verify what John (Crews) and several of the other athletes out there know – that there’s an athletic element to what’s being done in the boats.

And you didn’t come out of nowhere, in terms of your interest in fishing. You’re a lifelong angler, right?

I was taken fishing before I could walk on Clarks Hill. I was my grandfather’s excuse to go fishing. So I’m a lifelong angler. I used to live in East Texas and fished Toledo Bend, Palestine, Sam Rayburn, and I ended up inshore guiding at South Padre Island in the late-’70s.

But I recognize that although I may be competitive with the guy in the other end of the boat, I’m a recreational angler. The pros do this at a level most of us will never understand.

How many people were part of the study last year?

We set out last year to monitor a bunch of the athletes. We had 15 people wearing heart-rate telemetry, and John was one of the earliest.

I work with NBA athletes, Olympic competitors, I’ve trained loads of world-champion bodybuilders, models, actresses. Regardless of what sport it was, I had to do some development work to find out what I could do to provide value to these athletes.

So we started with the monitors (on bass pros) last year. Basically, we wired the guys up to get as big (a sample) as we could. We had to get a big number to get statistical significance. We had 200 days monitored.

And what did you find?

Last year, the guys averaged just a shade over 3,600 calories a day in a boat. If you translated that into a jog, that’s a 23-mile jog at 12-minute miles. So you get a good idea now of why the buzz has come from this.

What’s the root of such a high calorie burn? It can’t be just standing and casting, although that’s beyond grueling at a pro’s pace.

It’s two parts. One is athletic. The other, mental engagement, is much harder to quantify. What you see in the mental engagement is intensity, anger, and the other things involved. These guys fish under a microscope with a gun to their heads. In reality, that’s how it plays out.

But I don’t want to mislead anyone. Joe Public will never go through the same thing fishing in the boat. But we learned a lot about pro fishing.

And that led to an analysis of nutrition, right? A look at whether the pros were eating enough of the right things?

Last year that was the effort – to get heart-rate data and determine the fuel to appropriately cover that. First of all we had to quantify the need for fuel that the activity created. Once having done that, we then tried to cover that activity with fuel, which would be food and water.

That having been done, we began to apply that food, or fuel, in the boat. And we tried not to take the food for a boat ride, but to eat it in the boat. As that process played out, the guys had a lot more energy.

“This year, we have our ducks in a row to make a big splash. This will be a hot topic.”

Peter Thliveros had one of the best quotes. He said you may be able to block out that you’re hungry, but you’ll not be capable of focusing (on fishing) in the same way.So the goal from the beginning has been to be able to provide these athletes with the same type of metabolic and nutrition coach that the same elite athletes in other sports have.

What’s been some of your experience with “elite” athletes in other sports?

I was involved with the company that did the San Antonio Spurs assessment. They did exactly what we did (with the bass pros). One of the strength and conditioning coaches sat in the stands and recorded heart-rates with an antenna during practice. He did that for 2 weeks. Then he did the same thing during pre-season games. So they had data built up for practice days and game days.

What was different in that case was the coaches and chef travel with the team and could put snacks on the table that the athletes had to show up and eat.

In the case of what we’re doing this year, the spouses will be administering the food, and logging and balancing (the pros’) activity with their fuel.

I have 20 (Elite Series) families subscribed to this year’s programming. So last year was just a blip on the screen. This year, we’ll be taking a physical-support trailer the pros can use to receive therapy on-site.

What’s your main goal for the program?

I’m interested in helping people prepare for that activity that they love. In my case, that activity happens to be hunting and fishing. I work with the Elite Series pros, and Realtree.

This year, we have our ducks in a row to make a big splash. This will be a hot topic.

And you’ll have a ProFlex stretch-therapy device along at each event, right?

Do you know anybody else who goes into an athletic endeavor that doesn’t stretch out? Have you ever seen anybody stretch in a bass boat? The idea is to help these guys understand that they’ve been saying it, but they have to be in shape to be an athlete. Otherwise it’s just a bunch of talk.

What I’m talking about is being more prepared, and more focused, to have better results and more energy left for their families at the end of the day. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.

I’ve put stretch-therapy devices behind the PGA Tour, and worked with athletes in every sport. I’m just really excited about being able to put (forward) valuable info and useful terms for the athletes on this tour over the next season.

Photo: ESPN Outdoors (permission to Ken Hoover) Hoover tosses a bag of “fuel” to Elite Series pro Gerald Swindle.

And a lot of people should be thanked for getting it this far. All the pros, all the families, and ESPN Outdoors, who gave me credentials and great access to the anglers.The support trailer you’re bringing on tour this year – can you detail that a little more?

It’s really an education vehicle as well as a support vehicle we’re taking out this year. We’re looking for sponsors to help share this story, for the simple reason we’d like to get to follow these athletes and help them understand there’s a physical element to preparation.

We’ll be setting up equipment (at events) either in the support area, or campground, or hotel – wherever the women want to be.

And what type of equipment will be onboard?

The same that I use to train NBA athletes, and (what’s) at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. It’s as good as it gets. There are only about 150 out of 15,000 clubs in the U.S. that have such equipment installed. In 30 minutes you’ll get strength and cardio work done.

And I’m bringing equipment so all the women can train each day if they choose. And the kids will have a stationary bike that lets them play video games. If they stop pedaling, it goes dark. There’ll be four game pads, and an activity sport where kids can move from one spot to another. There’s reaction time and movement involved, and it’ll keep four kids active while the women get workouts.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Photo: John Crews Elite Series pro John Crews found he burned an astounding 4,300 calories in 1 day last year fishing Smith Mt. Lake.

(Editor’s note: This is part 1 of a 2-part story about a new trend on tour – training and nutrition. Part 1 provides an overview with pro John Crews. Part 2 will be a Q&A with program creator and trainer Ken Hoover.)

Question: How grueling is a day of competition for a bass pro?

“Pretty tiring” would likely be the answer most BassFans give. That’s why it’s so surprising – shocking even – that recent research suggests that pros burn as much as 3,600 calories during a day of competition.

That’s equivalent to a 23-mile jog at 12-minute miles. In other words, a few miles short of a marathon – a distance only a few of the best-conditioned athletes can run.

What’s even more surprising is that the man conducting the research – Ken Hoover of Athletes Outdoors, a lifelong fisherman and former guide who’s helped train everyone from pro athletes to olympians to world-champion bodybuilders – found that only part of that calorie-burning is due to athletics. The rest, he said, is a factor of mental engagement. The pros are so intense during competition that their heart-rate is accelerated, which leads to additional caloric burn.

It’s widely known that too many pros eat little, if anything, during a day of competition. That alarmed Hoover, and the pros he worked with. Because once a body runs out of food (or “fuel” as Hoover calls it), it begins to eat into itself to create energy, which results in the loss of muscle mass.

The pros are left with a body unable to repair itself by the next morning of competition, and the result is a downward spiral of lost energy and mish-moshed mental focus – disaster for athletes in the middle of do-or-die competition.

This is the story of that research – how it began, who was involved, and what was learned – plus the future: Hoover’s new enterprise to help support Bassmaster Elite Series pros and their families on tour.

It could very well be the start of a new era in the sport – one in which pros don’t just talk about themselves as athletes, but monitor and care for themselves just like pro athletes in other sports. Hoover’s support trailer will be a regular fixture at Bassmaster Elite Series stops this year, and if the recent buzz is any indication, many more pros might adopt his training program as early as this season.

Crews in Control

Virginia’s John Crews is one of the fittest anglers on tour. At 5’9″ and about 165 pounds, his max bench press is 315, and his max squat’s about 350.

He’s very attuned to his body mass, and became concerned a few years ago when he began to lose weight during the season. For someone with his body type, that meant he was losing muscle.

At the end of the 2006 season, he was 15 pounds lighter than when the season began. But with Hoover’s guidance, things improved and after the most recent season, he’d only lost 5 pounds.

“Last year, Ken tracked about 10 or 15 guys,” Crews said. “We wore heart monitors during the tournament day so we could track how many calories we were burning. That’s very important so you’re able to stay focused, and you body’s continuously able to replenish itself out on the water. You don’t want to go into starvation mode and do bad things to your body.”

Along with Crews, the study included pros like Jason Quinn, Gerald Swindle, Peter Thliveros, Shaw Grigsby, Randy Howell, Alton Jones, Mark Tucker, Kelly Jordon and Todd Faircloth, and will expand to at least 20 families this season, including possibly everyone on Team Toyota.

“Our average heart-rate, as you might imagine, is very elevated throughout the fishing day,” Crews said. “The pressure and competition makes you burn more calories than if you were just going out and taking it easy.”

And what was most surprising to both Crews and Hoover was how many calories Crews burned through last year at Smith Mt., where he finished 8th.

Photo: Ken Hoover Crews consults with fitness and nutrition trainer Ken Hoover about the day’s heart-monitor results.

Crews described the discovery like this: “I’m not a huge guy – my average body weight’s about 165 pounds and I’m 5’9″. One day at Smith Mt. I burned 4,300 calories in a 9-hour stretch. That’s a ton. My average for a regular tournament day is about 2,500 to 2,600 calories. So when the pressure’s on, you really can burn a lot of calories. And if you’re not replacing them, you’ll be completely drained after 1 day.”

Countermeasures

Hoover’s work with the pros involves several layers. The first, and perhaps most important, is food intake. Pros, he said, need to eat enough of the right kinds of food to replace what they burn through. So he provides them with a bag of “fuel” for the boat each day.

He also coaches them for strength and conditioning. But during an event, the pros typically don’t work out – it would just be too much. In that case, he coaches them on stretching exercises. In part 2 of this story, he’ll discuss the support trailer he’ll bring on tour.

One angler who especially benefited from Hoover’s nutrition guidance was Peter Thliveros. “Peter T. had a great result,” Hoover said. “He probably started in the worst place – he’ll tell you he had terrible habits.”

Those habits, Hoover added, involved a big breakfast, barely anything to eat on the water, then a big dinner. Now, Thliveros eats his fuel during the day.

Alton Jones is another example of the positive effects of good nutrition, according to Hoover. “Alton’s wife Jimmye Sue told me, the first day Alton took a bag of fuel, he got home with a pop in his step. He was able to be a father to his boy and girl. That’s big stuff to me.”

About his fuel, Crews said: “We like to have a variety of things. We don’t like to eat anything that’s overly processed. One of my standards is good old PB&J, plus fruit, granola bars, protein bars – those are kind of the staples of my diet. I sometimes drink those little Ensure drinks. They’re designed for older people who don’t have the appetite, but need the calories.”

And along with the nutrition and pre-tournament stretching, Crews said he and Hoover are also working up a regimen of fishing-specific exercises, in part to help stem the increase in fishing-related injuries among pros. The regimen includes fishing movements with weights and resistance to help prevent most overuse injuries like tennis elbow and carpal tunnel.

What Crews Thinks

Crews, now 29 years old, has been a workout and nutrition nut since college. But over the past 2 years, and especially since his heart-rate experiment and training with Hoover, he truly feels it’s all made a difference in his on-the-water performance, which is the ultimate check-sum for any pro athlete.

He described his results as having three components. Here they are, followed by his comments.

1. Physical – “When you work out, you’re essentially breaking down your muscle, then it rebuilds itself stronger that it was before. When we fish an exhausting tournament, our bodies break down. You hear guys talking about how their backs are sore, or their feet are tired. For anybody who works out on a regular basis, they (instead) feel like it’s their body recovering. And the quicker your body can recover, the quicker you get rejuvenated for the next day. You’re not going to be tired from the day before. My body recuperates every night. That’s probably the most important side of it.”

2. Mental – “Fishing, in my opinion, is about 90% mental – maybe even higher. If you’re confident, you’re going to do better. And if you’re working out, and eating right, your body feels good – you feel strong. It gives you more confidence in everything you do – not just in fishing, but in your entire life.”

3. Lifestyle – “The third aspect of it is, if you’re fully involved with your workout program and you’re in that type of lifestyle, I wouldn’t say you watch what you eat – you know what you eat, especially you know how many calories you need. So you’re not overeating. You’re eating the right amount at the right times.

“I think (working out) has improved my fishing through my confidence and through the fact that I don’t feel like I get tired after two or three events,” Crews added. “And this whole nutrition enlightenment is fascinating. I think that it definitely helps for the rigors of the tournament trail.”

Notable

> When not on tour, Crews described his home workout routine like this: “It’s pretty much exclusively weight training. But every couple of workouts, I do a very high-paced workout where I’m only resting 30 to 60 seconds in-between sets. I get completely drenched by the end of the workout.”

> To check out Hoover’s site, visit AthletesOutdoors.com.

> A video that features Hoover was published late last year on ToyotaFishing.com (titled Basslethics).

– End of part 1 (of 2) –

BassFan: Ken, can you explain for BassFans why you started to monitor the heart-rates of pro anglers?

Hoover: The reason I began the process last year of gathering data was to verify what John (Crews) and several of the other athletes out there know – that there’s an athletic element to what’s being done in the boats.

And you didn’t come out of nowhere, in terms of your interest in fishing. You’re a lifelong angler, right?

I was taken fishing before I could walk on Clarks Hill. I was my grandfather’s excuse to go fishing. So I’m a lifelong angler. I used to live in East Texas and fished Toledo Bend, Palestine, Sam Rayburn, and I ended up inshore guiding at South Padre Island in the late-’70s.

But I recognize that although I may be competitive with the guy in the other end of the boat, I’m a recreational angler. The pros do this at a level most of us will never understand.

How many people were part of the study last year?

We set out last year to monitor a bunch of the athletes. We had 15 people wearing heart-rate telemetry, and John was one of the earliest.

I work with NBA athletes, Olympic competitors, I’ve trained loads of world-champion bodybuilders, models, actresses. Regardless of what sport it was, I had to do some development work to find out what I could do to provide value to these athletes.

So we started with the monitors (on bass pros) last year. Basically, we wired the guys up to get as big (a sample) as we could. We had to get a big number to get statistical significance. We had 200 days monitored.

And what did you find?

Last year, the guys averaged just a shade over 3,600 calories a day in a boat. If you translated that into a jog, that’s a 23-mile jog at 12-minute miles. So you get a good idea now of why the buzz has come from this.

What’s the root of such a high calorie burn? It can’t be just standing and casting, although that’s beyond grueling at a pro’s pace.

It’s two parts. One is athletic. The other, mental engagement, is much harder to quantify. What you see in the mental engagement is intensity, anger, and the other things involved. These guys fish under a microscope with a gun to their heads. In reality, that’s how it plays out.

But I don’t want to mislead anyone. Joe Public will never go through the same thing fishing in the boat. But we learned a lot about pro fishing.

And that led to an analysis of nutrition, right? A look at whether the pros were eating enough of the right things?

Last year that was the effort – to get heart-rate data and determine the fuel to appropriately cover that. First of all we had to quantify the need for fuel that the activity created. Once having done that, we then tried to cover that activity with fuel, which would be food and water.

That having been done, we began to apply that food, or fuel, in the boat. And we tried not to take the food for a boat ride, but to eat it in the boat. As that process played out, the guys had a lot more energy.

“This year, we have our ducks in a row to make a big splash. This will be a hot topic.”

Peter Thliveros had one of the best quotes. He said you may be able to block out that you’re hungry, but you’ll not be capable of focusing (on fishing) in the same way.

So the goal from the beginning has been to be able to provide these athletes with the same type of metabolic and nutrition coach that the same elite athletes in other sports have.

What’s been some of your experience with “elite” athletes in other sports?

I was involved with the company that did the San Antonio Spurs assessment. They did exactly what we did (with the bass pros). One of the strength and conditioning coaches sat in the stands and recorded heart-rates with an antenna during practice. He did that for 2 weeks. Then he did the same thing during pre-season games. So they had data built up for practice days and game days.

What was different in that case was the coaches and chef travel with the team and could put snacks on the table that the athletes had to show up and eat.

In the case of what we’re doing this year, the spouses will be administering the food, and logging and balancing (the pros’) activity with their fuel.

I have 20 (Elite Series) families subscribed to this year’s programming. So last year was just a blip on the screen. This year, we’ll be taking a physical-support trailer the pros can use to receive therapy on-site.

What’s your main goal for the program?

I’m interested in helping people prepare for that activity that they love. In my case, that activity happens to be hunting and fishing. I work with the Elite Series pros, and Realtree.

This year, we have our ducks in a row to make a big splash. This will be a hot topic.

And you’ll have a ProFlex stretch-therapy device along at each event, right?

Do you know anybody else who goes into an athletic endeavor that doesn’t stretch out? Have you ever seen anybody stretch in a bass boat? The idea is to help these guys understand that they’ve been saying it, but they have to be in shape to be an athlete. Otherwise it’s just a bunch of talk.

What I’m talking about is being more prepared, and more focused, to have better results and more energy left for their families at the end of the day. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.

I’ve put stretch-therapy devices behind the PGA Tour, and worked with athletes in every sport. I’m just really excited about being able to put (forward) valuable info and useful terms for the athletes on this tour over the next season.

Photo: ESPN Outdoors (permission to Ken Hoover) Hoover tosses a bag of “fuel” to Elite Series pro Gerald Swindle.

And a lot of people should be thanked for getting it this far. All the pros, all the families, and ESPN Outdoors, who gave me credentials and great access to the anglers.

The support trailer you’re bringing on tour this year – can you detail that a little more?

It’s really an education vehicle as well as a support vehicle we’re taking out this year. We’re looking for sponsors to help share this story, for the simple reason we’d like to get to follow these athletes and help them understand there’s a physical element to preparation.

We’ll be setting up equipment (at events) either in the support area, or campground, or hotel – wherever the women want to be.

And what type of equipment will be onboard?

The same that I use to train NBA athletes, and (what’s) at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. It’s as good as it gets. There are only about 150 out of 15,000 clubs in the U.S. that have such equipment installed. In 30 minutes you’ll get strength and cardio work done.

And I’m bringing equipment so all the women can train each day if they choose. And the kids will have a stationary bike that lets them play video games. If they stop pedaling, it goes dark. There’ll be four game pads, and an activity sport where kids can move from one spot to another. There’s reaction time and movement involved, and it’ll keep four kids active while the women get workouts.

bassfan.com

By Craig Nyhus

Many avid hunters and fishermen wouldn’t be caught frequenting a health club or gym.

But, their activities in the field or on the water are closer to an athletic event than they realize. That’s what prompted Ken Hoover to start i-getit.net — a Web site established to provide information to sportsmen and women — and raise awareness of their health, and especially their heart health.

Hoover has been a trainer, health club founder, and a consultant to health clubs. He helped set up the fitness trailers used by the PGA tour. But first and foremost he is a sportsman.

In April at the Bassmaster Memorial in Fort Worth, he noticed the high fitness level of many of the contestants. He approached Ray Scott with the idea of an “activity trailer” with fitness equipment and information for the pro fishermen and their families, most who travel for several months a year.

Scott called it “the best idea anyone has brought me in 10 or 12 years.”

“It’s all about being prepared to engage in your favorite outdoor activity,” Hoover said. “Studies had shown that the average 40-year old man who goes on his annual deer hunt — if he is successful and field dresses and carries out a deer — has a tenfold higher risk of mortality.”

After learning these results, Hoover was determined to “simplify the science” of health and exercise to the sportsman. “People are dying,” he said, “and with some simple steps, information, and preparation, people can safely enjoy the outdoors.”

Much of the information comes from the use of heart rate monitors that track a person’s maximum and average heart rate, as well as calories expended in the field.

Results of research projects of hunters and fishermen have been staggering. Michael Waddell and David Blanton, hosts of television shows for Realtree, as well as their production crews, volunteered to be monitored.

On a September elk hunt in Arizona involving hiking hills at altitudes of 7,000 feet, Waddell burned 2,500 calories in just four hours. His producer, Marc Womack, who was manning the camera, burned 3,000. “That equates to running 12-minute miles for four hours — a 20-mile run,” Hoover said.

Shortly before Waddell took his successful shot, his heart rate had reached 179 beats per minute. Womack’s was 219. “It was neat to see how the body reacts,” said Womack. “We had been standing still for 10 minutes, but seeing the elk made my heart beat faster than when I’m at a full sprint.”

Caloric intake is also a focus of the research. “These guys burned more than 400 calories per hour,” Hoover said. “A piece of beef jerky and some crackers just won’t get it done. They need fuel.”

The next project involves professional bass fishermen. Pros Aaron Martens and Gerald Swindle have already volunteered. Martens burned 3,300 calories in a short day “just graffing.”

Does the preparation for outdoor activity involve long, grueling workouts? No, said Hoover. “We’re trying to get people who love the outdoors and wouldn’t go to a gym to prepare with increased activity, doing it more often, and understanding the calories they burn and the need to replace them in the field.

What’s the best workout? “The workout you’ll continue to do,” Hoover said.

So does being better prepared physically help with buck fever? “Absolutely,” Hoover said. “In many cases, hunting and fishing equates physically to an athletic event, but many people don’t treat it that way. We hope to change that.”

I-getit.net will launch its “Be Ready” Information Road Show with national and world fitness champions “The Fitness Twins” (thefitnesstwins.com) at the Bassmaster Classic in February in Birmingham, Ala.

As for the research information and results, there’s no catch. “It’s an information resource only,” Hoover said. “This is my passion. It’s all free.”