Sport nutrition recommendations can be confusing as most tips conflict with healthy-eating advice. For example, many athletes workout with a goal of losing weight. Asking an individual to eat before a morning run may conflict with the belief that a fasted workout will burn more body fat. Additionally, nearly all sport nutrition products – like gels, energy chews and sport drink powders – are rich with added sugar. And as we all know, our society already has a problem with over-consuming sugar-sweetened beverages.
However, the nutrition consumed before, during and after specific training sessions is designed to fuel your training sessions, whereas your daily diet supports your workouts and your overall health needs. Whether you are a dedicated fitness enthusiast or athlete, the foundation to improved performance starts with a nutritionally adequate diet and is closely followed by the strategic timing and consumption of specific nutrients to support each training session.
Every sport nutrition product can fit into a category, with its own specific application during exercise. For example, sport bars are suitable for low-intensity exercise, such as hiking and casual bike riding. The added fat and protein can be satiating as these nutrients are slow to digest. However, at higher intensities on the bike or during a high-impact sport like running, it’s extremely difficult to digest fat, fiber and protein due to reduced blood flow to the gut. Additionally, during running there is an alteration of normal breathing patterns and the physical jostling of organs.
Most endurance athletes will best tolerate sport drinks, gels or energy chews because of their portability, taste and texture and formulation. Gels and chews are easy-to-carry but because both are heavily concentrated sources of carbohydrates, they lack appropriate amounts of fluid and sodium. In contrast, a well-formulated sport drink (ex. Skratch, NBS, Clif hydration, etc.) contains carbohydrates, electrolytes and fluids (all in one gulp) to give you the perfect osmolality to optimize gastric emptying.
In other words, the precise concentration of the drink helps the emptying of contents from the gut, into the small intestines before being taken up by the working muscles. The only caveat is that a sport drink is much more difficult to carry compared to a gel or pack of energy chews. When using a sport drink, you can either use a bottle on the bike, in the treadmill cup holder (or on the pool deck) or you can “wear” your fuel around your waist or as a backpack while running -as carrying a bottle can throw off your form. Thankfully, hydration belts and packs have improved over the years and most are ergonomically designed to be comfortable and bounce-free. Carrying your own sport drink is protection against early fatigue, GI issues and dehydration. I highly recommend the Naked Running Band.
Because most triathletes and runners struggle with how to best fuel/hydrate during a run, plan to consume the following within every 30 minutes of running (ideally, small amounts every 8, 10 or 15 minutes) during workouts lasting more than one-hour (or intense sessions more than 45 miutes):
- ~8-16 fluid ounces (1 ounce = 1 gulp)
- ~12-20g carbs
- ~120-400 mg sodium
- Avoid the artificial sweeteners, food dyes and boosters. Keep the ingredient list simple with only sugar, electrolytes and natural flavors. Most sport drinks will be formulated with the above recommendations to make fueling and hydrating simple and effective. Visit your local running/tri/bike store to try different types of sport drinks like Tailwind, Clif, NBS, Osmo and Skratch.
from Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition https://ift.tt/3a48Zsq
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