CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Queens University of Charlotte's sports performance department has continued to be innovative in offering additional services to the University's student-athlete population that puts the athlete's health and wellbeing first while also setting the Royals apart from the competition.
 
After introducing its sports nutrition division with the help of Christin Dow, a Registered, Licensed Dietitian and adjunct professor in the kinesiology department at Queens, a season ago, the department along with Dow and Dr. Amy Knab, an associate professor in the exercise and sport science program at Queens, have spearheaded the creation of training modules aimed at educating the Royals coaching staff on topics that pose risk in collegiate athletics.
 
To date, topics covered in the modules have been energy systems of the body and macronutrients and their relation to fueling for performance.
 
"Within the energy systems module, we explained and described the three primary energy systems of the body, the differences between anaerobic power/capacity and aerobic power/capacity and the importance of work-to-rest ratios within a training session," Queens director of sports performance Mark Lepkowski stated. "We also discussed the intention or goal of a conditioning session and how that may fall into a practice. Lastly, our sport coaches provided the group examples of both conditioning drills and skill based drills they've utilized in either a practice or conditioning session."
 
The macronutrients and performance module presented information on the topics of carbohydrates, fats and proteins and their roles in proper fueling for both performance and recovery. Christin did an incredible job explaining the macronutrient information as well as discussing how to calculate the necessary intake ranges for each macronutrient and working through case studies." 
 
Additionally, the Royals will be trialing the new Wattson Blue fitness and recovery app. The Wattson Blue app places an emphasis on how non-training stressors, such as academic and emotional factors have an impact on athletes and their ability to recover from training.
 
"The app takes the student-athletes heart rate and heart rate variance through the camera/flashlight on their smart phone," Lepkowski continued. "From there, it then provides a series of questions that relate to sleep duration and quality, readiness to train, mental performance, emotional balance, feeling in control, basic nutrition, caffeine and alcohol intake, and overall recovery. They are also able to track their physical activity through their smart watch (or input it manually), upload it to the app and provide an RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) for each session.  As the student-athletes build a baseline, Wattson Blue is then able to provide historical graphs/charts and a total readiness score from 0-100."
 
Additional training modules are scheduled throughout the fall semester for the Royals coaching staff.
 
More information on the Wattson Blue app can be here.