ESPN Article about Lewan - Diet and Training

Of The Wizard of Oz fame?

Or Totoro of the lawn mower fame?

...Linkee.

Nice article. Shows Lewan's seriousness to use his final season to become better in all aspects.

As an exercise science nut I love this stuff.  I know it's incredibly difficult to be consistent eating right as a college student with beer, wings, and pizza all around you, but there is so much to be gained from paying strict attention to your nutrition as an athlete.  It takes a lot of dedication but this is a big aspect many athletes either ignore or use inconsistently.  Lewan is going to dominate this year.

Good stuff and actually much better info than I have seen in articles about athlete training. Nutrtition makes a HUGE difference in body composition and, if anything, I am surprised that everyone isn't on a strict diet plan. When we talk on here about losing or gaining weight, the muscle and speed comes from working out but the weight gain or loss is all about the diet.

Wow. I love that Lewan took the initiative to do this. Hopefully it catches on across the team. Can't wait to see Lewan pancake guys this fall!

That is impressive. Maybe I need to start pouring olive oil on everything I eat!

Cool article.  You get the sense we are very, very comfortable with our tackles and the physicality of the guards.  If Kalis and Braden can get their reads right and we geteven decent play from our center, we could have our best O-line in a decade... and put us a year or two ahead of schedule in this regard. 

is just going to punish people this fall. I can't wait to see OSU's "amazing" DL prospects, who are supposedly so good their inexperience is but a minor speedbump en route to a crystal football, come to the Big House and get a reality check. 

If only we had a line of Lewans.

I'm impressed Michigan would hire a dietician/nutritionist from a championship NFL organization. I submit that this is part of the, "Michigan Difference" that recruits want to be a part of. The above article is another great selling piece for the program.

Even in the Big Ten not every school has a qualified nutritionist/dietician, if they all do, they haven't for long. I played well within the last ten years and our dietician/nutritionist at my school was over-weight and her counseling included such advice as "when you guys play away games and end up at a McDonald's get the shakes so you can load up on protein" and once she told me, "drink 64 ounces of Welch's Grape juice a day because they use Concord grapes which have good properties for your heart." I now know how absolutely silly these (and other) recommendations were and this was the depth of the kind of training she ever provided. The only other place inside the school that I got any nutrition advice was our strength coach who just said, "rotate your protein and fats and your protein and carbs every meal" but he never expanded in any articulate way what he meant by that. Even with training table, being on your own with no plan can still result in a lot of bad weight being put on.

Lewan being exposed to specific grocery lists that aren't all processed junk and learning about the timing of when to ingest certain amounts of fat/protein/carbs has clearly made a difference to his body composition. I would guess, if things haven't changed much since I played, it is a minority of players across the country who can get that kind of coaching within their own program. Many elite players probably do get that kind of advice. They likely have to go outside the program to get that advice and then their strength coaches and position coaches and anyone eating with them at training table are likely oblivious to it.

I liked the line about Lewan going to BW3 ordering a salad and 5 chicken breasts and correcting the servers when they tell him he can't order that.  I am guessing that is not the typical order...

As long as Lewan can stay away from the penalties he could be in for a very special season.  (He's gotten better over the years, but he still can improve.)

feels food is very important to his choice in programs...I hope he's reading this article, too.  Not just food, but nutrition. 

I was nervous they were going to say something about bagels and cream cheese and the NCAA would come crashing in to find such egregious violations like stretching too much.

I love Taylor's drive to improve.  It would have been easy to just do what everyone else on the team is doing and have normal progress from junior to senior year; he is basically on another level, treating himself as a pro athlete.

I hope he has a monster season and gets drafted #1.

So this is where I veered in life

I wonder if any of the other Olinemen got in on this act in any capacity. Or Dlinemen for that matter.