Nutrition Tips to Boost Performance

By Stephen Smith BSc

There are countless numbers of people who spend several hours each week training for their chosen sport or physical endeavour. The discipline of training is performed in order to improve the physical capacities required for their sport. For a footballer it may mean improving their skills and fitness; a rower might focus on improving technique and power; and a long-distance runner may train to increase their endurance capabilities. No matter what activity they're involved in, most athletes focus on the training component and give little regard to the area of nutrition. A common belief is that as long as they eat something and eat enough they'll be OK.

Unfortunately this is simply not the case. Sure, if you want to be an average athlete then there's no need to be concerned about nutrition or if you're a gifted athlete then you can achieve success using sheer talent alone. However, if you invest time and effort into your training, doesn't it make sense that you learn about how to provide your body with optimum nutrition in order to maximise your potential and perform at your absolute peak? The correct nutritional strategies can give you a slight edge over your competition and can improve your previous best performance. In this article we will only cover a few of the fundamental strategies that can improve your performance.

Nutrition can improve performance in three ways:

• Provide the fuel needed by the body for activity
• Help all the organs and systems function at optimum levels
• Modify or improve the functioning of the body in order boost performance

There are fundamental nutritional principles that can be used universally by all sports. However, there are also specific principles that are used for certain sports. For the purpose of the article we will focus on activities that have a duration of an hour or more with varying degrees of intensity. Examples are: long distance running, team sports or triathlons.

Provide the fuel needed by the body for activity

The first area to consider is the fuel needed by the body. The body can use all three macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein and fat) as fuel. However, the two main types are carbohydrate and fat. Virtually everyone has more than enough fat of their body to fuel activity for many hours (if not days!) so this macronutrient is less important to be provided in the diet in the lead-up to an event. However, a little later we will examine how we can get more fat from the fat stores so we can use it as a fuel as well as why we should add some good fats to our diet.

The carbohydrate stores in the body are very limited. We can store around 100 grams of glycogen (storage carbohydrate) in the liver and about 400 grams in the muscles. These stores of carbohydrate though, can be increased quite significantly through a process known as 'carbohydrate loading'. This process involves reducing carbohydrate intake for four days a week before the event. This means reducing your intake of cereals, bread, pasta, rice, fruit, potatoes and other starchy vegetables from the previous Sunday up to and including the Wednesday before the Sunday morning event. This reduces the liver glycogen stores. During these four days exercise should also be performed. This depletes muscle glycogen. The body registers this carbohydrate depletion as stress and whenever the body encounters stress it will endeavour to overcome it. In this case, when carbohydrates are re-introduced in the final three days before the event, the body will store greater than normal levels of glycogen in the liver and the muscles. This results in around 150 grams of glycogen being stores in the liver and around 500 grams of glycogen being stores in the muscles. This can be used for fuel during the event.

The last two meals before the event are critical and they should contain predominantly carbohydrates. Therefore if the event is being held on a Sunday morning, then dinner on Saturday night and breakfast on Sunday morning should contain mainly carbohydrates. Dinner should be eaten at least 3 hours before bed and breakfast should be eaten around 2-3 hours before the event.

These strategies will ensure maximum carbohydrate stores in the body during the event.

Help all the organs and systems function at optimum levels

The body has a requirement for at least 40 nutrients each day: 20+ minerals, 13 vitamins, 8 essential amino acids and 2 essential fatty acids. In order to function at optimum levels all of these nutrients must be supplied daily. Unfortunately though, a typical 'Western' diet lacks many of these nutrients, especially minerals, vitamins and Omega-3 fatty acids (one of the two essential fatty acids) even if you make an effort to eat a balanced diet. Therefore it becomes essential to supplement the diet with the missing nutrients. This means using a multivitamin and mineral supplement each day as well as using a fish oil or flax seed oil supplement.

Athletes require greater amounts of nutrients compared to their non-exercising counterparts and therefore supplementation becomes even more important for them. This is simply because exercise causes your body to use the nutrients up faster.

Modify or improve the functioning of the body in order boost performance

There are several nutritional strategies athletes can use pre-exercise in order to boost their performance. These strategies are perfectly harmless and can make a dramatic difference to the results they achieve. With a basic understanding of human physiology, these strategies become very clear.

There are three energy systems that the body uses during exercise depending on the length of time you're exercising for and the degree of intensity; ATP-PC, Lactic Acid and Oxygen (Aerobic) system. They progress from high intensity or short time frame (ATP-PC) through to low intensity or long time frame (Oxygen system). There is some crossover between the three systems.

Using our example of exercise for an hour or more, we then realise that the main energy system being used is the Oxygen system. This system can use fat or carbohydrate as its fuel source. Since we have a limited storage of carbohydrates it is in our interest to maximise the body's utilisation of fat for fuel during the event. How do we do that? We can easily increase our body's utilisation of fat for fuel by using products that force the fat cells to release stored fat into the blood stream. Thermogenics (fat burners) are a good example. This will help to preserve our body's carbohydrate stores so we can delay fatigue.

If you take 2-3 capsules of a good thermogenic like XLR8 or Scorch 60-90 minutes before exercise, by the time the event begins you will have a maximum amount of free fatty acids floating around in your blood stream ready to be used for fuel. Plus, thermogenics are well-known for stimulating the central nervous system so they can give you a real energy boost or a 'kick' prior to the event.

If you are serious and want to perform at the highest possible level then the next step is to take a fast-acting protein source (whey protein isolate mixed in water) 30 minutes before the event begins. ISOWhey Breezer is a good example. Often people have carbohydrates 30 minutes before exercise but this is not the best option. Firstly, your muscles and liver should already be full of glycogen from the carbohydrate loading in the last few days and your last two large carbohydrate meals (dinner on Saturday night and breakfast on Sunday morning). Consuming carbs this close to the event stimulates insulin (storage hormone) release from the pancreas which causes a drop in the blood sugar and lethargy immediately prior to the event.

Protein, on the other hand, stimulates glucagon release from the pancreas which mobilises glucose from the liver glycogen stores and increases the blood sugar level slightly. This results in more fuel being available for the working muscle during the event.

You may also want to consider using a vasodilating compound at the same time as the protein. This is an L-arginine salt contained in products like White Blood. They have the effect of dilating or widening the blood vessels, which makes the transport of oxygen and nutrients to the working muscles much easier. It is also absolutely essential that you drink an adequate amount of water prior to the event to keep all your body cells well hydrated.

In the week leading up to the event you may want to consider using products like, creatine and beta-alanine. Creatine can boost performance through a number of mechanisms and beta-alanine helps to buffer lactic acid, which means you can perform at a higher level of intensity for a longer period of time. There are a few products on the market currently that contain both of these compounds along with several other ingredients that aid performance.

In addition to the nutritional strategies pre-exercise, you may also want to consider using an herbal sports gel prior to the event. These products contain ingredients that may prevent muscle cramps, increase blood flow to the working muscles and may also accelerate recovery post-exercise.

After the event, it is important to replenish the nutrients that were used up. This means having a sports drink to replenish the carbohydrate stores and the electrolytes (salts) as well as a fast-acting protein sources probably 20 minutes after that. Within 2 hours have a substantial whole-food meal containing plenty of carbohydrates and a moderate amount of protein.

In order to perform at your peak there are many areas that need to taken into consideration such as, training, nutrition, supplementation, recovery and psychology. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that you examine each of these areas and consider all the strategies related to these areas that can make a difference to your performance. Good luck!