• Your Performance
• Energy Utilisation
• A Balanced Diet
• Carbohydrates & GI
• Protein
• Fats
• Hydration
• Pre-training & pre-game strategies
• Plan to drink
• Half time Strategy
• Recovery snacks
• Sample Daily meals
• Sample Meal Plan

Nutrition

Your Performance

You perform according to how and when you Eat

Without a sound nutritional plan even the most excellent training programme will never allow you to realise your potential. The type and quantity of food and drink that you consume and the timing of their intake should be seen as key requirements in your physical training programme. It is well established that consuming a diet rich in carbohydrates is essential for the athlete and the team game player in order to ensure that fuel stores are topped up before training and playing (2,7).

Athletes competing in long distance events such as the marathon ensure that they have carbohydrate stores within their muscles (glycogen stores) well stocked before the event. To do this they have diets that are high in carbohydrates and low in fat so as to optimize the amount of carbohydrates that they can pack into their working muscles. Also, recent scientific studies in the area of sport nutrition confirm what has been appreciated for some time - the importance of consuming carbohydrate beverages during exercise (9,35,39,48). Indeed a recent study from Energise Sport confirms these findings - GAA players who consumed a carbohydrate beverage during exercise performed a greater work load compared to players who consume water only during exercise (21).

In addition getting appropriate combinations of protein and carbohydrate following exercise is critical in ensuring speedy muscle fuel recovery and muscle tissue repair and growth (4,28). Without the right mix of carbohydrates and protein ingested at the appropriate time it is clear that recovery and growth will be blunted (51,53) especially if you are training and playing regularly.

Your performance is therefore directly related to the type and quantity of energy that you consume and also your recovery and repair is directly related to the type, quantity and timing of your nutrition intake.

If you have already studied this area all the better. However, please discuss any issues addressed here with your Team Doctor before embarking on any changes to your food and drink intake. Our discussion is limited to issues related to the consumption of foods and fluids including snacks and sports drinks to optimize your PREPARATION for and RECOVERY from high-intensity exercise and sport.

To summarise, having a well planned training programme is sub-optimal if it is not accompanied by a well planned nutrition programme.

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