Performance nutrition for sport can be a complicated matter. Especially if you have no idea what to eat and when. I know it gets confusing. There are a lot of differing opinions out there about what you should eat, when you should eat it, and how much you should eat. Nutrition can make or break you and your performance during games/matches/events, practices, and strength and conditioning sessions. Even if you are not an elite level athlete, it's important to get your nutrition down because it also effects how you perform in life, how well you sleep, how well you perform daily non-sporting tasks, and how well you perform during competition.

Performance nutrition is just one part of my becoming a complete athlete. There are 11 other steps. But if your nutrition isn't right, you are basically jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. For an athlete I emphasize nutrition above all else. Other coaches and trainers might think differently, or simply don't want you to know the truth, or they don't really know how important it is. I have a ratio for performance athletes to be there absolute best. 40% nutrition, 30% rest and recuperation, and 30% training and practice. Yes, even rest and recuperation is just as important as the training for your sport, because if you are overtrained you make no gains; and you actually will probably lose what you already have gained. So remember this ratio. Remember that everything has to be as one to be at your absolute best. If one is completely off, performance suffers greatly. This is why professional athletes have a coach for everything. They have there sport coach(es), strength and conditioning coach, nutritional coach, and lifestyle coach. They can't afford to blow their chances to be the best they can be-- it would cost them hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars! So ask yourself this question-- Are you risking your chances by making poor food/drink decisions?

So what is good nutrition for an athlete? That depends on who you ask. So it is important to get your information from a reliable source. Your coach may be able to teach you the ins and outs of your sport, but may not be the best when it comes to performance nutrition. The following will give you all the advantage you need over your competition.

1. Water
2. Breakfast
3. Meal Frequency
4. Pre-Game
5. In-Game
6. Post-Game
7. Carbohydrates
8. Protein
9. Fat
10. Body Composition
11. Supplements

Water

This is truly the most important nutrient for everybody, not just athletes. But it is even more important if you are an athlete. Without water you will die within a few days. You can't say this about food or anything else. The body is made up of approximately 50-70% water; 65-75% of your muscle weight and about 50% of your body's fat weight is made up of it. You should be drinking at least 1 cup (8 oz) of water for every 15 pounds of bodyweight you are carrying-- MINIMUM! Why is water so important to athletic success? At just 1% loss of your normal body water weight you will experience anywhere from a 5-10% decrease in performance; at 2% it can get up to a 30% decrease. If you are thirsty during activity, it's already too late, you are dehydrated! So what happens during an event if you do not hydrate yourself? Body temperature will rise quickly and your ability to regulate temperature will be greatly reduced, sweat rates and blood volume will drop, muscle cells will lose electrolytes and fluid, cardiovascular function will drop, fatigue will set in much quicker, and overall performance will decrease. 'Nuff said-- Drink your water!

Breakfast

The most important meal of the day-- Everyday. Why? Because when you wake up you haven't eaten anything for at least 7 hours, most likely 9-12 hours. First off your body is dehydrated, so you need to get some water in you. Second your metabolism is at it's slowest point of the day, your blood sugar and your glycogen stores are low, and you are in a catabolic (muscle & tissue wasting) state. You need to refuel. You to get some quality carbohydrates in you to fuel the rest of the day. You need to get some quality protein in you to get you back to a anabolic (muscle & tissue building) state. And you need to get some good fats in you to get some calories and return your body to homeostasis. This should be your largest meal of the day.

Meal Frequency

This is a topic that has been getting a lot of interest lately. It's been around for a while. There simply is no better way to eat for sport and life than this. It basically is you eat small meals every 2-4 hours throughout the day, rather than just 3 large meals that is considered the typical meals-- breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You would be eating a minimum of 5 times throughout the day. These will be either complete meals or snacks. A complete meal or snack will have in it 1.) quality protein, 2.) quality complex carbohydrate, or fruit, or vegetable, 3.) good fat. What this does to your body is it is keeping your metabolism high throughout the day, giving you more energy, and constantly burning more fat throughout the day. It is keeping you in a anabolic state, so your body is eating away at muscle and tissue you've already built up. It lets you maintain, or change your body composition drastically.

Pre-Game Nutrition

You want to be able to perform during the game, practice, or training session. Perform from the very beginning to the very end, hopefully without blowing a gasket anywhere in between. What you eat before hand can help you have a great performance, or can help you have a lousy performance. So with that in mind you want to be fully hydrated, you don't want to cramp up, you don't want to have gas (either does anyone else), and you want to have energy throughout the game. So the main focus of this meal will be on complex carbohydrates and water. You also want to get a small amount of protein from a lean source, and very, very little fat and sugar.

In-Game Nutrition

During activity hydration is what you should be most concerned about. Because dehydration of even the smallest amount can lead to significant reductions in performance, and can lead to heat-related illness. During activity you also sweat; the more physically fit you are the more you sweat. Sweat causes you to lose water and electrolytes. With this in mind sports drinks are great to drink during high intensity activities, especially if you sweat profusely. Another problem during games is your primary fuel source is carbohydrate, your body stores carbs as glycogen to be used during activity. These stores can be depleted quickly with activity. Again, sports drinks, can help with this because of the added sugar in them. Gatorade is best, it is the perfect combination of sugars, sodium and potassium. Other quick dissolving carbohydrates work well too. But if you don't have the ability to have sports drinks with you, water will suffice. Lots of water.

Post Game

The second most important meal of the day. During games, practices, training sessions your body gets depleted. You lose water, you lose glycogen, your body is feeling beat-- mentally, physically, and emotionally (but winning tends to lessen those effects). You are currently in a state of catabolism (muscle and tissue wasting). You need to turn this off and get into an anabolic (muscle and tissue building) state. And you need to do this quickly. The window of opportunity lasts only about 45 minutes to get this meal into your body, otherwise it's pretty much wasted. This meal needs to be made up of quick digesting foods. Simple carbs, fast digesting protein, and no fat. Supplements can play a huge role here because a lot of them are already formatting with the perfect carb-to-protein ratio to prime your body for full recovery, and get ready for the next day.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates, or more commonly referred to as carbs, are what fuels your body through the games, practices, and activity that you do on a regular basis. I've already mentioned carbs in several of the other sections, so you should know they are vital to athletic success, anyone that tells you different is wrong! I'm sure you've heard about different low carb, no carb kind of diets out there. Don't listen to it. You are an athlete. Athletes need carbohydrates. But the problem most athletes have is which ones are good to eat, when do I eat them. For simplicity sake I'll break carbs down into 3 categories. Complex carbohydrate, simple sugars, and fiber. All 3 play a vital role in athletic performance, body composition, and general health. But just like a new sport skill, you have to be taught what's right, and it has to be repeated until it becomes second nature.

Protein

Amino acids are the building blocks of muscle. Without protein you cannot build muscle, you cannot rebuild damaged muscles after activity, you will lose body protein (skeletal muscle). So even though carbs fuel your training and performance, you still need to eat protein, and fat. Everything works together, as one-- this is when you get optimal performance; if something in the chain of nutrition gets broke, performance suffers. The current recommendation for adults, 18 to 65, is to get .83 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. So a 200 pound man would need to consume 75 grams of protein a day. However, this simply is not enough for an athlete. As an athlete you are constantly breaking down muscle tissue when you practice, play games, and engage in strength and conditioning activities. This muscle needs to be rebuilt. My recommendation for male and female athletes is to get .54 - .77 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight from a high quality protein source. Protein matches up with meal frequency more than any other macro nutrient. You want to make sure you are getting protein with every meal or snack to ensure that you stay in a muscle and tissue building state (anabolism).

Fat

Fat has a certain stigma attached to it. An unhealthy stigma. I want you to forget about that. Fat is good, and is very necessary for you, as an athlete, and in life, in general. You do have to be more careful with fat, because it carries a much higher calorie count per gram of 9, compared to carbs and protein with 4. What fat does is it serves as your body's #1 energy reserve, protects your vital organs, provides insulation, and is a transport medium. Like carbs, there are good fats, and bad fats. The fats you want to avoid are saturated fats and trans fats. Saturated fats are found primarily in animal and dairy products. Trans fats are usually added to a product to extend shelf life, anything listed with ingredients like "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" will have trans fats; avoid these at all costs! Now the good fats. Unsaturated fats-- known as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, can be found in oils, nuts, and seeds can be very healthy. But the #1 fat that everyone, not just athletes should be consuming is what's known as the essential fatty acids, Omega-3 and Omega-6. These can be found in fish and fish oil. The health benefits of these to all around health and athletic performance are outstanding, too many to name, and the list continues to grow.

Body Composition

You as an athlete are different from 'normal' people. So you shouldn't be using 'normal' people guidelines. Height and weight tables and Body Mass Index (BMI), are no good, and give you no idea of where you should be. A good example of this would be middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears, Brian Urlacher. At 6'4" and 258 pounds, he is considered obese by BMI standards, and 53 pounds overweight by height/weight standards. For him to be considered 'normal' he would have to weigh 204 pounds, but if he did, his football career would cease to exist. You probably know that muscle weighs more than fat. And muscle, moreover strength, determines how much force you are able to produce. If you have layers of fat tissue covering those muscles, it will slow the rate of which you can produce force down, hence making you less efficient. So the goal is to have a good ratio of fat-free mass compared to fat mass. 'Good' meaning sport and position specific. The best way to do this is through your diet. You must learn how to eat if you are going to be successful in sports.

Supplements

A supplement does just what the name states; it is supposed to supplement the body and diet. Even if you are a professional athlete, eating a whole food meal every 2-4 hours can be difficult. And getting all the vitamins and minerals and other nutrients your body needs to help perform athletic and daily functions can be even more so. Especially if you are a student-athlete, following a classroom schedule, practices, competitions, strength and conditioning sessions, study sessions, and personal time. You should be focusing on trying to get most of meals and snacks and nutrients from whole foods, but when that isn't possible or feasible, a supplement can be a life saver. Obviously the word supplement can cover a lot. The more popular ones and effective ones would be a multi-vitamin/mineral, fish oils, protein powders, meal replacement packets, creatine, amino acid tablets, protein and energy bars, fat/weight loss tablets, and post-workout powders. Not all supplements are created equally. The protein powder you buy at Wal-Mart is not going to be the same as the protein powder you can get at my store. With supplements you have to make sure what you are getting is a quality product, otherwise you will be just wasting your money, especially with the supplements I just mentioned.

The Next Step

Education. You need to be educated on proper performance nutrition rules and techniques. It's just like anything else in your life. To get better at your sport you need to practice the movements involved. To get smarter in the classroom you need to study the material and do the homework. First you learn how, then you do it until it becomes second nature. It's the same way with nutrition. Learn what to eat, when to eat it, and then do it! That's what the YSFS Maximizing Athletics Performance Nutrition Course is designed to do.

What is the Maximizing Athletics Performance Nutrition Course? It is a 12-week course. That will be taught either in groups, one on one, or in an online setting. Each week will cover and go in to great detail about a certain aspect, or multiple aspects, of performance nutrition. The week that follows in between sessions will be your chance to implement what you have learned into your daily and sporting life. At the end of the 12-weeks you will have the knowledge and skills to practice lifelong performance nutrition to continue your athletic success, and live a long healthy life. This course will begin around the end of August. So if you sign up below now you can reserve a spot and receive our early bird special. Don't miss the chance to take your performance to the next level!

Enter your information below for the Maximizing Athletics Performance Nutrition Course. Spots will be limited. We will keep you updated when classes start and you will be eligible for a deep discount.