Sports Nutrition Handbook

welcome

Whether you’re looking to get in better shape, lose weight or improve your athletic performance, you’ll see far better and much more rapid results if you spend time considering what you put inside your body as well as putting the hours in at the gym, on your bike, at the pool or on the Tarmac. Working out the best foods and nutrients you need for fuel, recovery and athletic health can be a time consuming business though, which is where we come in. We’ve consulted renowned experts from the field of sports nutrition to equip you with all the information you need to get leaner, train harder and go faster by simply changing what you put inside your body. 136 FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD 13 delicious meal ideas for fuelling and recovery.…

fuel

NUTRITION PER 100G 89 KCAL 0g FAT 27g CARBS 1g PROTEIN SPORTS SUPERFOOD #1 BANANAS A great source of carbohydrates all wrapped up in its own handy package… The banana is a great choice to have before exercise and on a bike ride being a carbohydrate-dense fruit, high in micro nutrients and a wholesome food that’s cheap and easy to get hold of. What makes it a particularly great choice is your ability to combine it with other sources of carbohydrate like a gel to provide you both glucose (gel) and fructose (banana) sources of carbohydrate, making it easier on the stomach. How much? Getting a combination of carbohydrate when doing long rides or medium to long but more intense rides is important, so we’re able to maintain our blood glucose levels and keep performing how we need to. There is…

should you ditch the pre-training coffee?

Strategic use of caffeine in sport has long been associated with boosting fat burning, improving focus, lowering perception of fatigue and generating greater power. So all good. Well maybe not according to some recent research out of Brazil, which showed that caffeine can prevent the positive changes in muscle associated with high-intensity training. Rodents were split into groups that ranged from no activity and sipping water to intense running on 8mg caffeine per kilogramme bodyweight. Professor Nelson Viera and his team observed that caffeine blunted the activity of two key enzymes involved in muscular contraction. They also analysed the rats’ cardiac muscle, which revealed caffeine prevented positive growth. Both of these are clearly detrimental to performance, though the researchers highlight that chronic caffeine use elicits a worse effect than acute use, i.e.…

spice up your recovery

Improving recovery time will give you the long-term adaptions you need to progress. In the short term it will allow you to hit those next sessions hard or, if you’re on multi-day ride, prepare you for that next day. THE BENEFITS The main nutrients needed for recovery are protein and carbohydrate, but sometimes you need an extra boost. Turmeric, with its main active ingredient curcumin, has been shown to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress [an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the body’s ability to counteract their negative effects] through curcumin’s anti-oxidant properties. Studies have shown that taking turmeric/curcumin supplements – 200mg twice a day for two days pre-event and then one day after – saw an increase in the speed of muscle recovery. Include black pepper (more specifically piperine) to improve…

boost your immune system

WHY WORRY 1 Physical exercise is very beneficial in controlling weight, reducing cardiovascular disease, strengthening bones and muscles as well as improving your mental health and mood. However, what many people don’t realise is that too much exercise can have a negative impact on your immunity. The body produces two hormones during exercise – adrenaline and cortisol – which suppress white blood cells resulting in a temporarily weakened immune system for the 3-72 hours following an intense workout. This puts athletes, including cyclists, at a higher risk of upper respiratory tract infections. HOW CAN WE AVOID THIS? 2 The key is to find the right level of exercise that challenges your body to maintain and increase fitness without overstressing it and increasing your chances of contracting an infection. More pronounced weakened immune resistance occurs…

carbs

NUTRITION PER 100G 335 KCAL 3g FAT 62g CARBS 12g PROTEIN One school of thought is that brown or complex carbohydrates are good and white or simple carbs are bad. But ultimately, it’s all about context, both have their place in the diet. What is more important is the timing in which we have them and the foods we have them with. The benefits The Glycaemic Index (GI) is measured on a scale of 1-100, where 100 is glucose (fastest releasing), with complex carbs typically scoring lower. A rating of 1-50 is low, 51-70 medium and 71-100 is high. Low to moderate GI carbohydrate is ideal to have most of the time, in particular that two to four-hour period before training for the steady rise in blood sugar. It also tends to be higher in fibre and micronutrients.…