Fuel for the Fire

Growing up, it was the only diet he knew.

Throughout high school, being a vegetarian wasn't anything which affected Henry Blackburn on the field, as the Fairview product was one of the top players in the state on both sides of the ball. Still, he was curious if it would have an impact as he made the next step to being a Division I football player.

"I've been a vegetarian my whole life. My family, for health reasons mostly, I grew up like that. It's how I grew up, so that's how I've been since a kid," Blackburn said. "That was one thing when I was in high school, thinking when I was going to play college football, I thought it might be an issue. It honestly has been fine. I've found ways to eat a healthy diet and add weight and do everything I need to do. It hasn't really been an issue that much."

You can't argue his assessment. His true freshman season came during the pandemic, starting the final two of the four-game set. As a true sophomore, he started five more and appeared in seven, his season altered by injury.

A year ago, he started all 10 games he played, finishing fifth on the team with 53 tackles and notching his first career interception. What he found was it was hard to gain and keep weight on. It was harder to add bulk to his 6-foot frame.

He figured there was a way to make it happen, he just needed a bit of guidance and the skills to execute.

Jordon Simmons, the head strength and speed coach, knew the first step was getting Blackburn and new director of sports nutrition Matt Garrells in a room.

"Matt gave me some good advice with everything. Ever since he came, I haven't needed a huge boost from him as I figure things out," Blackburn said. "He checks in with me to make sure I'm on the right track with everything, so it's been looking good.

"He talked about what type of proteins I should be eating as a substitute, so that helped me out, giving me an idea of what I should put in my protein shakes, like nuts, yogurt, so that gives me a lot of nutrients I wasn't getting before."

Garrells understood perfectly. The pandemic made life a bit tougher on athletes around the globe to fuel correctly, regardless of diet.

The challenges Blackburn faced his first few years on campus were the limited options he had at the dining halls, plus, he didn't have a kitchen. Not that he knew how to cook properly anyway. Again, another common area Simmons sees with incoming athletes and convincing them what they put into their bodies heavily correlates to how they build their bodies.

"At times it's difficult, especially when they first get here. Guys are used to eating whatever they want to, or mom and dad provided it for them," Simmons said. "They don't understand their diet is one of the biggest reasons why they will or will not make significant gains. Rest and hydration play roles, but if they're not giving their bodies the tools to repair itself and build muscle, they're not going to see those gains. For the vast majority of guys, that's never been something that's been harped on."

The introduction to Garrells was a good step. Through discussions with Blackburn, he could identify problematic areas. Blackburn admits he was eating out too much, and it wasn't always giving his body what it needed. Without a kitchen, his options were limited.

But Garrells could help point out what he was lacking and where he could make up the difference. What made it easier was this was a lifestyle for Blackburn, not a foray into something new. Blackburn's father is a vegan, his mom a vegetarian. It's all he's known.

"There's just certain things in meat and animal protein you're not going to get from other non-animal products. Iron is a big one," Garrells said. "You can get iron from plant sources, but it's just more bio-available from eating it from animal sources. It doesn't mean it can't happen, you just have to supplement more, and for him, these are the supplements and vitamins and minerals we need to make sure we're getting. Without animal protein, it's getting your essential amino acids which you can do with complimentary proteins like rice and beans."

Everything a body needs to put on weight and muscle and keep it on. Blackburn was seeing some gains, just not in the measurements he desired.

Until the past year, especially the most recent winter training.

"This past eight weeks of grit, I added so much strength. This was the best offseason I've had of lifting since I've been here," Blackburn said. "Everything went up by a significant amount. I was really focused those eight weeks on tuning into my diet. One of the things I changed up was really the cooking part. Before I was eating out a lot, more than I should have been. I was buying a lot of food. I changed that up and went strictly to a cooking diet and I was making sure every meal I had was a good, nutritious meal with protein. Once I started cooking for myself, it really changed things. I was able to see a huge change in my strength and my body."

He replaced Chipotle, Tokyo Joe's and CAVA with homemade tacos, rice and vegetable meals, as wells as vegetarian chili. He's found the veggie burgers which are best or him and even protein pastas with meat substitutions. It allowed him to better control his intake to give his body what it really needed.

Blackburn does look different, too. The five primary lifts all players are measured on, he witnessed a 330-pound gain combined.

Sometimes the message takes a while to sink in, and the information has to come from the right source.

"He's always had that attack-the-day mentality in everything he does. I was hoping," Simmons said. "Once we really started getting into the lifts and his effort and intensity and attention to detail was all there, it was pretty quick where I could tell he was going to make some pretty extreme strides."

Now that Blackburn can cook – "I'm getting better. I'm getting there," – his outlook has changed. In practice, he's been in green, not the red jersey signifying limited contact due to injury, a change he attributes to the alterations he's made in terms of fueling his body.

His energy level has always been high. Now, what he's propelling forward with it is so much stronger and, he hopes, carries more punch.

"I feel good. I don't have any injuries, anything like that," he said. "I feel pretty healthy right now; I feel it's definitely been befitting for me. I'm ready to put the pads on."

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