‘A nutritional strategy should always be devised to support your training plan and objectives, as this will help to improve your performance, resistance to injury, and recovery from physical trauma or surgery ’
Athletes and sports professionals have very specific nutritional requirements, which vary significantly over time, and in accordance with current and planned training loads.
Satisfying these nutritional demands depends upon consistently manipulating the diet to match variations in nutrient and energy demands, yet this is something that many sportsmen and women fail to manage effectively without the guidance of a Nutritional Therapist.
With professional nutritional guidance, an athlete can achieve optimum nutrient status, and this can help to maximise performance gains at each stage of their training programme.
If nutrition goals are not set as part of an overall training programme, the energy and nutritional costs of exercise will cause the individual to become deficient in vital nutrients, the manifestations of which can include fatigue, muscle aches, joint pain, and poor stamina and strength.
There is compelling evidence that nutrition is a crucial part of any training or fitness programme, yet still there is a widespread tendency among sportsmen and women to eat a diet that is insufficient to satisfy their body’s higher-than-average nutritional demands.
Often, this is the case even when the individual believes themselves to be eating a perfectly healthy diet, the reason being that a great many misconceptions exist as to what constitutes an ideal training and competitive diet.
Unfortunately, basing dietary changes on anything other than a sound knowledge of your own unique nutritional requirements will very rarely lead to any significant improvement in performance or health.
There is no doubt that nutrient depletion is a problem for certain groups of athletes, and very few individuals within these groups are aware of the effect that this has on exercise performance, nor do they tend to consider the nutritional aspect of recovery when they are injured or unwell. Often, the link between diet and low energy levels, fatigue, muscle aches, and join pains is not made, and therefore such problems may go unchecked for months, or even years, thereby significantly affecting the athlete’s ability to do justice to their talent and training.
Unsurprisingly, these problems are more often than not accepted as being ‘par for the course’ when carrying out intense training programmes. The truth is, however, that such problems can be traced back to nutritional imbalances, and so avoided with a professionally devised nutrition strategy.
Nutritional Package for Athletes and Sports Professionals Try our Test?
Assessment and consultation To Book your appointment please contact us
The high training loads and energy expenditure of athletes can increase their nutritional requirements significantly, and therefore it is our role to look at each individual athlete’s regular diet, and assess how well it is satisfying their individual energy and nutrient demands. We will then provide the athlete with a precise nutrition strategy, which they are encouraged to follow as accurately as possible for a period of 5-6 weeks.
5 week review To Book your appointment please contact us
An athlete’s nutritional requirements vary significantly from day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month, and therefore regular dietary manipulation is necessary to ensure that caloric needs and nutritional demands are being satisfied. It is based on this knowledge that We offer regular reviews, as this allows us to reassess the adequacy of an individuals diet, and adapt their nutrition strategy accordingly to match variations in their nutritional requirements.
Maximise muscle mass / achieve and maintain low body fat
A nutritional programme will help the athlete to achieve an ideal body composition for their sport. In other words, it will help to maximise muscle mass by boosting protein synthesis and inhibiting protein breakdown, while also minimising the amount of superfluous body mass, ie fat. To Book your appointment please contact us
Increased metabolic efficiency To Book your appointment please contact us
An optimum nutrition programme can increase an athlete’s metabolic efficiency, thereby reducing the oxygen consumption and heart rate required to perform.
Reduce risk of injury To Book your appointment please contact us
Research shows that dietary intake and total body stores of some nutrients, namely iron, may have some effect on an athlete’s risk of injury. By optimising nutrient levels, a nutrition strategy can reduce risk of injury, and so avoid lost training time.
Promote recovery To Book your appointment please contact us
Injuries are common in sports, and nutrition can aid recovery by supplying appropriate levels of restorative nutrients, which help to increase the rate at which muscles and connective tissue are repaired, and reduce the pain associated with the injury.
Optimise energy production/prevent fatigue To Book your appointment please contact us
Fatigue often develops during intensive training sessions, primarily due to the energy costs of exercise, which often leave an athlete with the unpleasant feeling of ‘running on empty’. A nutritional programme can optimise glycogen stores and prevent hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar), which is vital for consistently high energy levels. Not only this, a nutrition strategy increases nutrient levels, which in turn increases oxygen delivery to tissues, helping to prevent fatigue. An optimum programme will also raise energy levels by ridding rid the body of, and reducing exposure to, toxins which interfere with energy-producing reactions.
Enhance training capacity To Book your appointment please contact us
An optimum nutrition programme will help to enhance training capacity, primarily by ensuring adequate energy supply, which enables the athlete to carry out repeated training sessions to improve fitness and performance. Not only this, such a programme will help to ensure optimum amounts and balances of all essential nutrients, which is important as shortfalls of nutrients can seriously impair athletic performance.
Improve competitive performance To Book your appointment please contact us
It is important that an athlete has a nutrition strategy leading into, during, and after the competition phase, as this will help to ensure that they fulfil their potential, and do justice to their talent and training.
|
