“SPORTS NUTRITION AND DIET.”

INTRODUCTION:- Physical education is a process of learning, the context being mainly physical. The purpose of this process is to develop specific knowledge, skills, and understanding.A number of factors contribute to success in sport, and diet is a key component. An athlete’s dietary requirements depend on several aspects, including the sport, the athlete’s goals, the environment, and practical issues. The importance of individualized dietary advice has been increasingly recognized, including day-to-day dietary advice and specific advice before, during, and after training and/or competition. Athletes use a range of dietary strategies to improve performance, with maximizing glycogen stores a key strategy for many. Carbohydrate intake during exercise maintains high levels of carbohydrate oxidation, prevents hypoglycemia, and has a positive effect on the central nervous system. Recent research has focused on athletes training with low carbohydrate availability to enhance metabolic adaptations, but whether this leads to an improvement in performance is unclear. The benefits of protein intake throughout the day following exercise are now well recognized. Athletes should aim to maintain adequate levels of hydration, and they should minimize fluid losses during exercise to no more than 2% of their body weight. Supplement use is widespread in athletes, with recent interest in the beneficial effects of nitrate, beta-alanine, and vitamin D on performance. However, an unregulated supplement industry and inadvertent contamination of supplements with banned substances increases the risk of a positive doping result. Although the availability of nutrition information for athletes varies, athletes will benefit from the advice of a registered dietician or nutritionist.

Keywords: nutrition, diet, sport, athlete, supplements, hydration

Nutrition is increasingly recognized as a key component of optimal sporting performance, with both the science and practice of sports nutrition developing rapidly. Sports nutrition is the study and practice of nutrition and diet with regards to improving anyone's athletic performance. ... Sports Nutrition focuses its studies on the type, as well as the quantity of fluids and food taken by an athlete.

 

EXPLAINATION:-Carbohydrates should absolutely be the cornerstone of a player diet. Fruit and vegetables are also a crucial element for a high performance athlete. In the world of athletics, no other macronutrient has received the same level of attention as protein. At the most basic level, nutrition is important for athletes because it provides a source of energy required to perform the activity. The food we eat impacts on our strength, training, performance and recovery. “Athlete” includes individuals competing in a range of sport types, such as strength and power (eg, weight-lifting), team (eg, football), and endurance (eg, marathon running). The use of dietary supplements can enhance performance, provided these are used appropriately.

CAFFEINE- Its a stimulant that is ubiquitously consumed in the diets of most adults, has well-established benefits for athletic performance. The mechanisms underpinning these benefits include adenosine receptor antagonism, increased endorphin release, enhanced neuromuscular function, improved vigilance and alertness, and a reduced perception of exertion during exercise. Endurance performance- Caffeine supplementation is known to improve endurance capacity during time to fatigue exercise tasks. Sodium Bicarbonate &Sodium Citrate- Ingestion of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) is proposed to enhance high-intensity exercise performance as an extracellular (blood) buffer by increasing pH in the extracellular environment, and increasing the gradient between the blood and the active muscle.

Phosphates- Numerous hypotheses have been proposed to support the potential benefits of phosphate supplementation on athletic performance. The proposed mechanisms underpinning these benefits include an enhanced rate of ATP and PCr resynthesis ,improved buffering capacity to support high rates of anaerobic glycolysis ,improvement of myocardial contractility leading to increased cardiac efficiency and an increased erythrocyte 2,3 diphosphoglycerate (2,3 DPG) concentration, leading to a reduced affinity of oxygen with hemoglobin and a greater unloading of oxygen to the peripheral tissues.

Carnitine- Carnitine is a compound predominantly found (95%) within the skeletal muscle, playing several important roles in substrate utilization Increased muscle carnitine stores via supplementation with L-carnitine are postulated to spare glycogen, via increased fat oxidation, at lower exercise intensities, and to promote more efficient carbohydrate oxidation and reduced lactate accumulation at higher intensities, delaying the onset of fatigue during endurance-based activity.

“Feed your body. It’s a machine. To be the best player, you need to train and eat like the best athlete in the world”.

 

NITRATE-NO plays an important role in the modulation of skeletal muscle function, with proposed mechanisms for improved exercise performance including a reduced ATP cost of muscle force production, an increased efficiency of mitochondrial respiration, increased blood flow to the muscle, and a decrease in blood flow to VO2 heterogeneities.

 

METHOD:

Carbohydrate recommendations for well-trained athletes during exercise

Exercise duration	Example	Recommended carbohydrate intake per hour
30–75 minutes	Sprint triathlon (750 m swim, 20 km cycle, 5 km run) Netball (4× 15-minute quarters)	Small amounts or mouth rinsea
1–2 hours	Soccer/football – 2× 45-minute halves	30 ga
2–3 hours	Marathon run (42.2 km run)	60 ga
>2.5 hours	Half ironman triathlon (1.9 km swim, 90 km cycle, 21.1 km run)	90 gb

 

Nutrition Tips For Athletes

* Do not skip meals

* Eat 4-5 meals a day

* Eat breakfast everyday

“Feed your body. It’s a machine. To be the best player, you need to train and eat like the best athlete in the world”.

 

* Eat most of your vegetables and fruit in raw form

* Try and eat all the colors in the crayon box (fruits & vegetables)

* Sufficient protein should be present in all meals (especially breakfast) to prevent extreme insulin fluctuations due to rapid digestion of carbohydrates

* Highly processed foods (such as sugars, oils, and flour) should be avoided in excess. They are not recognized by the body and make them difficult to process.

* Design your diet so that you receive a complete mix of all the nutrients everyday to promote recovery and restoration and to enhance your immune system function.

* Post workout nutrition can drastically reduce the time needed to recover.

* The body is much more efficient in restoring carbohydrates 15 minutes after a strenuous workout. Carbohydrates are the primary fuel during exercise – needs to be restored by the body.

* Post workout drink: 1 gram of protein for every 3 grams of carbohydrate. (.3gm of protein/lb. of lean body weight)

* Drink approximately 64 oz. (8 glasses) of water daily. Bring a water bottle with you everywhere (especially practice).

 

6 Amazing Exercises that Will Improve Athletic Speed

Exercise #1 Medicine Ball Side Throw Progression:

A. Standing side throw– The athlete will face sideways to the wall in an athletic stance with the ball at chest height and elbows out. (stand roughly 10-12 feet away depending on the bounce of the ball)

• Using the backside leg to drive the hips forward and taking a small step toward the wall with the lead leg…
• Explosively drive the ball, keeping the back elbow up so the shoulder doesn’t get injured, into the wall.
  • The focus of the exercise isn’t so much on throwing, it is on understanding being in the best stance to drive the off the back leg like a lateral shuffle.
  • If the athlete is too narrow in stance or standing too tall the power production will be limited.
  • This exercise needs to be done on both sides

B. Forward shuffle side throw– The athlete will back away from the wall roughly 6-8 feet further. The exercise will be performed the same as the standing side throw but the emphasis changes to lateral speed:

• The athlete will shuffle one to two times staying in a good stance and then driving off the back foot and transferring the speed into the throw.
• The athlete must use the back foot to push down and away to generate more speed on the throw.
  • If the athlete does not have a good athletic stance (foundation) they will not generate enough force to gain benefits.

1. . Backward shuffle side throw– Same exercise but now the athlete will shuffle away from the wall. Start the athlete only 6-8 feet from the wall.

“Feed your body. It’s a machine. To be the best player, you need to train and eat like the best athlete in the world”.

• The athlete will shuffle aggressively one to two times away from the wall and plant aggressively to throw the ball.
• This is the most important exercise of all to reinforce the athletic stance and the importance of plant leg angles. If the plant leg of the back leg is too narrow when attempting to stop the throw will be weak.
• The athlete wants to still get forward movement when throwing. I like to do 2-4 sets of 3-5 reps on each side. The exercise has to be intense. The wt of the ball, experience of the athlete, and skill level determines the sets and reps.

Generally speaking, there aren’t (and shouldn’t be) many differences between male and female athletes.

Every athlete needs to improve the foundational qualities of speed, strength and power. They need to be mobile, stable, and certainly in shape. And most importantly, they need to be healthy so they can produce results when it matters most!

But after five years of operation and 3500 female athletes later, we’ve picked up on a few key differences that can help you and your athletes reach their potential.

Female training tip #1: Strive for volume/density, not intensity

This can fall into two different buckets: female athletes and/or youth athletes

After spending most of my career working in college strength and conditioning, I made the switch over into the private sector and soon found myself working with primarily youth female athletes.

When I say primarily, I mean like 80% of our clientele.

What I quickly noticed was that our athletes simply didn’t handle the traditional model of progressive overload as well as my college athletes. Forget percentages, readiness questionnaires and velocity tracking. They couldn’t increase their training load week to week and maintain form, speed and most of all, confidence.

Was another 5-10 lbs worth it on our last set, gambling on them failing and shattering their confidence as they began weight training?

Many times I have seen an athlete crush a set at a particular weight only to not hit a single rep with five additional pounds added on the following set. Instead of pushing more weight each and every set, we have adapted our training cycles to work on increasing volume throughout the set cycle. This form of volume accumulation allows us to still overload the athlete but in a safer manner.

An example of a four-week squat cycle might look like this:

Week 1: 4×5

Week 2: 4×6

Week 3:3×8

Week 4:3×4, 1 open set between 8-10 reps

 

Of course, if the iron is hot, we will strike and increase load with volume, but we have found over the years that by finding a good training weight and asking the athletes to do 1-2 more reps than they did last week versus grabbing a heavier dumbbell goes a long way with long term physical and mental development.

By adding in just a few reps each week, sometimes as little as one to two reps each week, we will increase the overall training load by four to eight reps each month and up to thirty plus reps by the end of the season. This will passively increase their work capacity and help hone other skills such as focus and grit.

Lastly, we have found our female athletes to demonstrate a greater ability to recover between sets much quicker than our male athletes. Since the relative effort is the same, we can’t use the excuse of “Well, male athletes are lifting heavier so they need more time to rest.”

To be quite frank, our male athletes simply need to work harder.

To accommodate our females, most of them will have added sets and reps to accommodate their skill level, especially when we are teaching new movements. A few extra sets of cleans or split squats to drive home the fundamentals beats filler exercises like “abs” any day.

Female training tip #2: Train the posterior chain every day

Unfortunately, there are a few things that female athletes have to deal with that their male counterparts don’t have to worry so much about.

You know–just your typical quadriceps dominance, anterior pelvic tilt, more lax ligaments, and wider Q angles…

Oh, and up to 9x more likely of tearing an ACL.

No big deal right?

All of these characteristics put them at an increased risk for injury when they attempt to absorb force (i.e. landing from a jump, decelerate, or change direction).

Plus, with an overactive “anterior chain”, our posterior chain of the lower back, glutes and hamstrings remain inactive, thus preventing the body from using its’ preferred muscles to decelerate.

 

 

For any type of lower body “knee dominant” training we do, we want to make sure we have an equal amount of “hip dominant” training, keeping a 1:1 if not 1:2 ratio of anterior to posterior exercises. Many of our posterior chain movements follow a higher volume approach to combat all the years of inadequate strength and activation. So, if we were to squat for sets of five, we might be doing RDLs for sets of 8-10.

Female training tip #3: Don’t neglect single leg training

1. most sports, the much of the game is played on one leg. Besides rowing and Olympic weight lifting, many sports require athletes to push, plant, pivot, and perform on one leg at a time. Think about running, going up for a layup, stepping into a baseball swing, or shuffling to play defense.

“Feed your body. It’s a machine. To be the best player, you need to train and eat like the best athlete in the world”.

Throughout the years, we’ve noticed that improving our single leg strength transfers to a better double leg strength ratio—the opposite is not always true. Also by training the single leg, we can better address the abd/adductors, limiting the amount of valgus tracking while increasing the stability of the knee.

At RYPT, we use a variety of linear, lateral and rotational split squats and lunges in the warm-up to prepare for loaded movements later in the program. Like our double leg training, we attend to each variety of movement pattern, hip and knee dominant, as well as pushing and pulling exercises. The variety of exercise selection exposes athletes to moving in a variety of planes and through a number of different motions that also improve their awareness of their body in space. That understanding of how the body moves is helpful when the athlete is faced with a decision or a situation in a game or contest.

On day 1, we focus on progressing our athletes into single-legged RDL variations, focusing on their proprioception and force production. This comes towards the end of the workout after we have already performed our major double leg push for the day, which is usually some sort of squat variation.

On day 2, we focus on an auxiliary single leg push movements with variations of split squats, rear foot elevated split squats, lunges and step-ups.

On day 3, depending on the level of the athlete and season of the year, we will perform either another double or single leg push exercise as a primary strength movement. For most beginner athletes, we start off with the hex bar deadlift and transition into a loaded barbell split squat or lunge as they get close to their competitive season.

Don’t be responsible for another statistic

More than ever, female athletes are playing sports and striving to win a scholarship.

They’re sacrificing quality training time with sports performance coaches like us to play another season of AAU basketball, club soccer and showcase softball.

So we’ve got to do OUR part and educate and empower coaches and parents alike to not only help athletes reach their potential, but also prevent them from LIMITING their potential due to injury. While we cannot prevent all injuries, experience and education have shown us we can certainly have a major hand in preventing many of them due to inadequate strength and body control.If you’re looking for a complete system for training today’s female athlete, we hope you consider the work we’ve done, the programs we’ve developed and the athletes we have helped–3500 and counting. We’re hoping you can add to that number today.

 

Nutrition for Sports Performance

Performance Nutrition: Fuel Like a Champion!

Young athletes have very unique demands – school, sports, and training.

But even in the busy world of a young athlete, there is a way to improve each of those 3 things – by Fueling like a Champion.

 

Let’s instead delve a bit into some specific nutrition tips Young Athletes.

 

 

Carbohydrates

“Feed your body. It’s a machine. To be the best player, you need to train and eat like the best athlete in the world.

Carbohydrates should absolutely be the cornerstone of a player diet. The key, is to focus heavily on quality — “think fiber, not carbs!” There is a huge difference between white bread and whole grain, high fiber bread; a sugar coated cereal and oatmeal; French fries vs. sweet potatoes.

Focus on the quality of the carbohydrates.

For example, definitely eat breakfast, but try a whole grain based cereal with some fresh fruit for the nutrients and fiber. Something like oatmeal instead of Fruit Loops or Cheerios vs. Cocoa Pebbles.

Sandwiches should be made with whole grain bread, rather than their white counterpart. Snacks can be whole grain crackers with peanut butter, fruit or veggie sticks with peanut butter, etc. The list can go on.

The focus of carbohydrates should always be on foods that provide a few grams of fiber per serving (exception is milk and yogurt, which are very healthy and carbohydrate based, but provide little, if any fiber).

Fruit and vegetables are also a crucial element for a high performance athlete. Kids often shy away from them and parents don’t always push them. However, research has suggested it can take as many as one dozen times to determine if a child likes a particular food. The key for a parent is to introduce kids to as many of these nutrient dense, colorful foods as possible! Make it fun.

Here are a few ideas:

• Ants on a log (celery with natural peanut butter and raisins)
• Sailboats (apple slices with toothpicks holding a cheddar cheese “sail”— of course watch your child to ensure they don’t eat the toothpick).
• Homemade trail mix (mixed nuts, dried fruit, and some whole grain cereal)

Keep in mind that dried fruit counts towards the total fruit intake for the day, as does 100% juice (of course this shouldn’t be the mainstay, though, as whole fruit provides more fiber), along with fruit puree.

Protein Needs of Players

In the world of athletics, no other macronutrient has received the same level of attention as protein.

Of course protein plays a role and a very important one at that! One important message is to make sure you always focus on food first – not protein supplements.

High quality protein sources include:

• fish and other seafood
• low or non fat milk or yogurt
• chicken and turkey breast
• lean red meat
• mixed nuts
• eggs
• beans
• natural peanut butter

Chewing the Fat

Fat is another crucial nutrient for athletes. The key, like with the other macronutrients, is to focus on quality. In fact, there have been a handful of scientific studies to even show that one component of omega-3 fats, DHA, is crucial in terms of brain development. Fat also provides a lot of calories (over double that of protein or carbohydrates), which can be important for very active, young athletes who need more calories than most to develop healthy, strong bodies.

Here are a few fats to choose:

• Fish
• Whole eggs
• Olive oil
• Raw mixed nuts
• Natural peanut butter

 

There you have it. Nutrition basics.

Feed your body. It’s a machine. To be the best player, you need to train and eat like the best athlete in the world.

Nutritional needs of an athlete:

Foods like meats, legumes and dairy products are good sources of protein. Fat is important in the athlete's diet as it provides energy, fat-soluble vitamins andessential fatty acids. However, fat should be eaten in moderation. A low-fat diet is a good approach for everyone – athlete and non-athlete alike.

The best diet for an athlete:- Instead of protein supplements, eat high-quality protein, such as lean meats, fish, poultry, nuts, beans, eggs, or milk. Drink up. "Milk is one of the best foods for recovery after an event, because it provides a good balance of protein and carbohydrates," Dubost says.

Good nutrition is important for athletes Carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats provide the fuel needed to maintain energy. Carbohydrates are involved in regulating your blood sugar and glycogen level in your muscles, which is vital for preventing muscle fatigue.

“Feed your body. It’s a machine. To be the best player, you need to train and eat like the best athlete in the world”.

Nutrition so important if you do sports At the most basic level, nutrition is important for athletes because it provides a source of energy required to perform the activity. The food we eat impacts on our strength, training, performance and recovery.

 

What not to eat if you are an athlete?

However, you might be surprised at what foods athletes try not to eat — here's twenty foods they avoid:- Diet soda,Canned soup, Rice cakes, Sugary cereal,White bread,Microwave popcorn,Pasta, Trail mix.

CONCLUSION:- Athletes eat several times per day, with snacks contributing to energy requirements.79 Dietary intake differs across sports, with endurance athletes more likely to achieve energy and carbohydrate requirements compared to athletes in weight-conscious sports.79 A review found daily intakes of carbohydrate were 7.6 g/kg and 5.7 g/kg of BM for male and female endurance athletes, respectively.80

 

• REFERENCES

• 1. Burke LM, Meyer NL, Pearce J. National nutritional programs for the 2012 London Olympic Games: A systematic approach by three different countries. In: van Loon LJC, Meeusen R, editors. Limits of Human Endurance. Vol. 76. Vevey, Switzerland: Nestec Ltd; 2013. pp. 103–120. (Nestle Nutrition Institute Workshop Series).
• 2. Hansen EA, Emanuelsen A, Gertsen RM, Sørensen SSR. Improved marathon performance by in-race nutritional strategy intervention. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2014;24(6):645–655.
• 3. Hottenrott K, Hass E, Kraus M, Neumann G, Steiner M, Knechtle B. A scientific nutrition strategy improves time trial performance by ≈6% when compared with a self-chosen nutrition strategy in trained cyclists: a randomized cross-over study. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2012;37(4):637–645.

 

“Feed your body. It’s a machine. To be the best player, you need to train and eat like the best athlete in the world”.