Michelle Rupp: Welcome back. We’ve got JJ Mayo with us and JJ, I should, I should start by saying you are a professor
Dr. JJ Mayo: Yes, nutrition, dietitian at the University of Central Arkansas.
MR: Okay, so you’ve got a little street cred,
JM: I’ve got a little bit. I teach sports nutrition.
MR: Yeah. Okay. Well, one of the topics, particularly this time of year, you know, we’re going to have, uh, football practice, starting up band practice, starting up cheer and dance team. There’s a segment of the student population who may have spent the better part of the summer inside and now we’re going to ask them to go march on the field and carry a heavy instrument or go suit up in pads and tackle each other. How did those students acclimate to the elements so that they are their best selves and not, not passing out or something because they’ve been indoors and now all of a sudden we’re throwing them out into the heat and humidity.
JM: I think the interesting thing is all of these kids are individual, so it depends on their background. For instance, if they’ve spent the better part of the summer here inside playing video games and, and then they go out, they should probably start really small.
MR: You know, maybe it’s things like mowing the yard or just doing some little things to expose them to that, walking the dog just to accommodate a little bit at a time. There are other students who, maybe they played a summer sport, maybe they’re in baseball and now they’re shifting to football in two-a-days and that type of thing. It’s probably not as big a transition for those type of kids as opposed to folks that maybe if they’re inside playing the video games and all of a sudden they’re jumping out and they’re having to do band practice all day, you know, so those students who have been inside and we’re wanting to acclimate them to the outside, what do they need to be? Do they need to be wearing anything? I mean, obviously you don’t want to go outside at 12 noon when it’s 100 degrees dressed in black. That’s probably not a good idea.
JM: It’s not a good idea. No, no, no. I mean, I think if you’re doing the household things around, you can, you can easily just wear what you normally do, but it does make a big difference with the clothes. You know, you talk about band and band members, you know, you’ve got all the gear on. And some of the coaches and band directors, hopefully what they’re doing is they’re not having them do that right off the bat. Hopefully the football coaches, they’re not having to practice in pads every day or their transitioning into using pads. Because, you know, the helmets hold a lot of your heat. So, doing a little bit at a time. Hopefully that’s going to be good for them and along with that, you know, like the practices, hopefully they’ve got some time that the coaches will let them take breaks. Hopefully they’re not just throwing them into band practice or to our football practice.