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It’s been a refreshing experience seeing the Napa community outside enjoying the sun and participating in physical activity. The 30-something-year-old parents throwing a ball to their offspring with their kids or a volunteer parent coach teaching a rambunctious youth how to swing metal bat to hit a ball on a tee. Walkers and joggers frequent the streets dressed in fashionable fitness attire and sporting earbuds as they track their steps to fulfill the requirements of the wearable technology wrapped around their wrists.

As I venture out to the pickleball courts, new participants meander onto the court, learning what this buzzing new activity is all about, and birds chirp and soar throughout the air. As Northern California basks in its sun-filled, moderate spring climate, people begin moving more.

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As warm weather influences our physical activity, we see an influx of motivated people who want to refine their fitness by reaching out for personal training and nutritional consulting expertise.

Nutrition plays a pivotal role in supporting our health and fitness goals. A few popular questions are: "How many calories should I consume?” “Are carbs bad?” or “Should I be paleo?”

While these questions hold validity in supporting our health and fitness goals, one particular question that captures my interest is, “What type of protein supplement should I take?”

My immediate response to this question is, “Why do you need a protein supplement?” This drives my curiosity about what type of physical activity this individual is participating in. The words “protein shake” bring me back to my internship at UC Berkley when I worked with collegiate athletes in the weight room. These athletes arrived at 6 a.m. to lift weights for an hour. They met later that day for speed and agility for another hour. In the evening, they would meet out on the court or field for sport-specific training. At the conclusion of each of these training sessions, the athletes headed to the fridges in the strength and conditioning center for a bottled protein shake.

It came to me intuitively that these young collegiate athletes needed a form of protein supplementation. Essentially, they were working out three times per day. Their daily caloric demands superseded those of a general population individual who visits the gym three times a week to perform their own workouts. Perhaps the exercises of a general population person can be slightly more customized if people were to attend a group fitness class led by a fitness professional or a scheduled personal training appointment instructed by a certified personal trainer. However, even if an exercise session from a general population gym member were boosted by the addition of a professionally designed exercise program from the best personal trainer in town, I would still be hard-pressed to believe the physical demands of these workouts would match the intensity of a Division One college athlete’s training and athletic activity schedule.

The truth is, we can get many of the vital nutrients responsible for exercise recovery and optimizing muscular growth through the foods we eat in our everyday diets. Focusing on a diet balanced in carbohydrates and protein from whole food sources can offer more than enough matter to recover our bodies from the workouts we participate in at the local gym or a group fitness class. Whole food sources are meals that we create on our own instead of powdered protein shakes or pre-packaged protein bars. In fact, the strength and conditioning staff at UC Berkeley didn’t expect the athletes to get their daily protein requirements from the protein shakes. Instead, the coaches made it apparent that it was critically important to eat a substantial source of protein during every meal throughout their days as a student-athlete.

If we wonder if we need to take a protein supplement, perhaps we should look at how much exercise we do. Are we lifting weights five times per week under five strength and conditioning coaches? On top of that, are we practicing a sport for two hours per day, five times a week? If you are, some form of protein supplementation should be applied only if you have already proven that your diet consists of sufficient protein.

Until then, the body will benefit optimally by ensuring to eat meals that have a balanced amount of protein during each sitting. Let’s not overdo it with worrying about protein shakes. Focus on what’s in front of us first. After covering protein requirements with actual food first and we need some more, perhaps we can venture into looking for something to supplement our diets.

Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.

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