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| Eat Well -
Perform Better |
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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.
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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