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Eat Well - Perform Better
Copyright © Jukka Ropponen 2000
One
of the areas where I see a lot of room for improvement is
proper eating habits. It is very vital for all hockey players
and especially for young growing players.
Bad
eating habits could actually destroy good training efforts
or seriously discount the effects of the workouts.
Improper
nutritional habits and lack of knowledge could cause an athlete
to run out of energy after 30 minutes.
In this article I am trying to give you a quick overview of
the nutritional basics so that you can adjust your own habits
accordingly. I am also addressing areas like game preparation
from the nutritional angle to enable you to prepare to your
games as well as possible.
Generic
guidelines
Before
any athletic event you should consider consuming food that
is easy for your system to absorb and this should be done
3-5 hours before the event.
Carbohydrates are the most important source of energy for
athletes.
Follow a good and well balanced diet.
Pay careful attention to your fluid intake and avoid dehydration.
Average
energy need per day
Normal
living 60-70%
Metabolism 10%
Muscular work 20-30%
Daily
energy sources
Fat
30%
Protein 10-15%
Carbohydrates 55-60%
Basic
"rules of thumb" for athletes
You
must follow these simple rules if you want to get the best
effort out of your body at practices or games:
1) You need to consume a good amount of carbohydrates that
slowly increase the level of blood sugar 2-3 hours before
the physical activity starts.
2)
Immediately after the workout or a hard game you must consume
something that gets the blood sugar level quickly up.
Examples
of Slow Carbohydrates
·
Oranges
· Peaches
· Grapefruits
· Green peas
· Ice cream
· Carrots
· Milk
· Fruit yogurt
Examples
of Fast carbohydrates
·
Bananas
· Juice
· Cooked potato
· White bread
· Chocolate
· Honey
· Biscuits
· White rice
About
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates
are your main energy source in almost all physical activities
and in activities that require good concentration.
Carbohydrates will be stored in your muscles and liver as
glycogen. In long lasting or shorter intense physical activities
your body uses the glycogen energy resources . Athletes get
roughly 200-250g of glycogen from their normal daily diet
and that fills the resources only partially. Next time you
put your body through a physical exercise you get tired faster
because your glycogen resources are only partially filled.
If an athlete has roughly double the amount of glycogen as
normal that will fill the resources faster and he/she can
produce another top physical performance in 22 hours.
EAT
A LOT OF PASTA, RICE, FRUITS, BREAD AND VEGETABLES!
This
kind of food will help you also to control your appetite better
because carbohydrates are a big factor on controlling the
feel for hunger.
Your body's capability to store carbohydrates is at its peak
right after a hard physical activity.
If you have sugars within an hour before the game or practice,
your blood sugar level will rise too sharp and cause an insulin
attack, which will bring the sugar level in your blood to
an even lower level than where it was when you were taking
that sugar. This could result in a total energy loss or even
fainting. (i.e. No candy bars before the game!)
It is also important to have good snacks especially if you
are going to have your meal after the practice. Don't go to
a hard workout without energy and remember to reload your
resources right after the workout as well. It is a very common
mistake to go to an early practice and not eat anything before
it and then wait to have a meal 1-2 hours after the practice.
One tough issue is early games or practices at training camps
etc. It really does not make any sense to eat any solid food
closer than 3-4 hours before activity as your body absorbs
the energy so much slower in the morning. So if you have an
early game you have to get up 4 hours before to eat. If that
is too early you must first of all have done a good carbohydrate
load the previous day and then when you get up, drink a lot
of fluids and use a liquid form of energy that gets absorbed
faster. Power Gel for example is a good liquid energy resource
that can be consumed with water.
Fluids,
fluids and fluids!
Your
bodyweight contains about 60% of fluids weight wise and therefore
it is absolutely vital to understand the importance of fluid
balance and its affect to your performance. Even a slight
percentage of dehydration will decrease athletic performance
dramatically.
The most common reason for not consuming enough fluids is
the misunderstanding of the body mechanisms and how they work.
Especially young and inexperienced athletes will start consuming
fluids during the game or practice when they feel thirst.
In most cases this is already too late.
You must start consuming fluids before the actual event. Just
take a look at a pro hockey teams locker room before the game.
What you will see is all the players drinking some water and
possibly a sports drink like Gatorade. Usually it is a combination
of both. They start this when they are getting dressed to
go out for their warm-ups (I mean their jogging, soccer, stretching
etc before the on-ice warm-up) and then continue to consume
the fluids while putting their hockey gear on and conducting
their on-ice warm-ups.
As a rule of thumb you should start consuming the fluids about
30 minutes before the game or practice to get maximum benefits.
This is no different to young athletes. Start consuming the
fluids early and before your games and/or practices, not only
when you feel thirsty. This works in general when the athletic
event last 45 minutes or longer. It's not necessary to consume
the fluids before the event if it is shorter than 45 minutes.
Avoid
fat
As
an athlete you should avoid consuming extra fats because they
get absorbed slowly and also cause your body to transport
oxygen slower. This is a result of the red blood cells sticking
together after consuming fats and therefore making it tougher
for them to carry oxygen though the capillary veins.
Fast food restaurants in general serve foods that are very
high in fat. Avoid pizza and burgers.
An athletes diet must be well balanced and there are good
food sources that will provide you with the right type of
fats. These are foods like fish etc.
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