It is well accepted that, within team sports, games can be won and lost by such fine margins. As a result, there has become an increasing desire to push the boundaries of physical performance and find small differences that can increase our chances of winning. Performance nutrition is one area that can significantly affect these fine margins, influencing our health, body

composition and ultimate performance. At Nutrition X, we hold these same beliefs, ensuring we provide the highest quality, research backed products in an attempt to help you push the barriers of performance.

“If you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase in performance when you put them all together”

- The Principle of Marginal Gains

An Introduction

Pre Match Fuelling: Carbohydrate is KingTeam sport performance is characterized by bursts of intense activity interspersed with low intensity recovery periods, with the majority of this energy provided from carbohydrate. Kicking off with sufficient carbohydrate stores will help maintain high intensity running performance, skill proficiency and help prevent against fatigue, all key attributes

to successful performance.

As can be seen from the table below, kicking off with low muscle glycogen can severely reduce our ability to perform repeated high intensity sprints as well as a number of explosive activities. In real world performance this may be the difference in making a tackle or beating your opponent to the

ball.

The focus of the pre-match meal should be to consume an easy to digest, high carbohydrate meal 3.5-4 hours before kick off, giving you around 3 hours to allow food to digest. It is important that this meal contains foods that are regularly consumed to avoid any unwanted side effects or stomach discomforts and has been practiced before training or non-competitive games. Consuming around 2g of carbohydrate for each kilogram of your body mass is a good starting point to top up muscle glycogen stores and keep us feeling satisfied (Therefore the 70kg athlete would require around 140g carbohydrate). Consuming easily digestible carbohydrate sources such as fruit and juices can help meet these targets. In addition, moderate amounts of easily digestible protein (chicken, turkey) can also be added to ensure a positive protein balance. It is, however, important to ensure your pre-match meal is low in fibre and fat as these nutrients can slow digestion and cause stomach

issues during match play.

Practical Recommendations

As a result, pre match strategies must be developed in order to maximize our muscle carbohydrate stores (glycogen). Ingestion of sufficient carbohydrate to fuel performance is likely to be the most important strategy as the opportunity to consume

carbohydrate during match play is limited.

As the most widely studied, research proven supplement, caffeine has been shown to improve both physical and cognitive performance across a range of sports. In addition, caffeine has been repeatedly shown to improve various aspects of performance, inherent to team sports such as rugby and soccer, such as repeated sprint ability (Figure 1) and passing accuracy. Furthermore, it is widely documented that caffeine can improve reaction time and reactive agility, (Figure 2) an important consideration during team sport events.Precisely,

caffeine has the ability to modulate the activity of our central nervous system (CNS) through an increase in important neurotransmitters, which is translated into increased motivation, motor drive and reduced perception of effort. Additionally, caffeine may also improve performance by increasing muscle excitability and reducing cellular potassium

concentrations that are related to fatigue.

Performance Enhancer: Caffeine

Figure 1

Given that caffeine levels peak around 45-60 min after ingestion, it is recommended to consume one Nutrition X Xplode shot in the warm up period

before your match. As a result of the highly individual effects of caffeine, it is important to experiment with the products during training in order to evaluate what works best for yourself and to eliminate any unwanted

distractions during game day.

Practical RecommendationsFigure 2

Top Up: Energel+Despite adequately fuelling pre-match the use of carbohydrate during match play and at half time offers a practical solution to top up these stores, minimizing the risk of premature fatigue. Carbohydrate intake during match play has been shown to increase our ability to perform high intensity actions throughout the second part of the match (Figure 3), an important factor when you consider the number of games won and lost in the last ten minutes. Furthermore, carbohydrate ingestion also plays an important role in maintaining our ability to execute sport specific skills a vital component of team sport performance, especially in the latter stages of the game where mistakes are more

common.

Alongside these pronounced metabolic effects, carbohydrate ingestion can also influence areas of the brain associated with reward and motivation. In turn, this can help reduce our perception of effort and fatigue whilst potentially improving decision

making during match play.

Figure 3

As a guide, ingesting around 60g of carbohydrate per hour during match play will help maintain high intensity running and skill execution, especially during the latter stages of the game. It is also advisable to consume this in small quantities at regular intervals (warm up, stoppages, half time) to avoid any stomach discomfort and subsequent negative effects on performance. These requirements can be achieved through drinks, Nutrition X gels and low fat/fibre food sources such as ripe bananas or sweets. For example, one carbohydrate drink and one gel would provide around 60g, and minimize any stomach discomfort from excessive fluid intake.

Finally, it is important to practice these fuelling strategies during non-competitive games in order to ‘train your stomach’, find your carbohydrate limits and experiment with foods/flavours in order

to minimize any potential negative effects.

Practical Recommendations

Recovery Maximizer: Maximum Recovery Matrix (MRM)Following team sport matches, muscle glycogen stores are nearly completely depleted. As muscle glycogen is a critically important energy store for team sport performance, restoration of carbohydrate stores should be the primary focus during the recovery period. Furthermore, restoring muscle glycogen to pre-match levels is of greater importance during periods of intense fixture schedules, where recovery time is limited, as complete restoration can take up to 72 hours (Figure 4). Alongside depletion of muscle glycogen, team sport athletes also incur muscle damage as a result of repeated eccentric muscle contraction, placing importance on the provision of high quality

protein during the recovery period.

Furthermore, it is the recovery period in which our muscles adapt from the stress of the training session, and is therefore important we provide our muscle with sufficient protein to facilitate this

Figure 4

adaptive process. In addition, combining protein with carbohydrate can aid muscle glycogen resynthesis when carbohydrate intake is suboptimal (useful in

conditions where eating is difficult).

To optimise the recovery process, carbohydrate and protein should be supplied within the initial 30 min following the final whistle. Although this can be achieved through a number of food choices, eating a meal directly after competition can often prove difficult. Furthermore, it may take up to around 2 hours before the opportunity to sit down

for a meal may arise.

Therefore, the use of carbohydrate-protein blends such as Nutrition X’s MRM, provides a convenient all-in-one recovery product to maximize both glycogen and muscle protein synthesis. Take one serving of Nutrition X’s MRM within the 30 min following competition mixed with either water/milk (although milk will provide additional carbohydrate, protein and electrolytes, further aiding recovery)

Practical Recommendations

Similarly to caffeine, creatine supplementation has been extensively researched, with a strong supportive body of evidence. From a team sport standpoint, creatine supplementation (similarly to caffeine) improves repeated sprint ability during both short and long duration exercise (Figure 5), due to increased resting muscle creatine stores and improved rates of resynthesis. In addition to improving repeated sprint performance, team sport

athletes will benefit from enhanced improvements in muscle mass, strength and power as a result of

creatine supplementation.

In addition, creatine ingestion post-exercise can also increase muscle glycogen resynthesis. This is especially important during periods of fixture congestion (two games per week) in which recovery time is limited and the primary focus is to replenish muscle glycogen before the next match (Figure 6). As can be seen below, muscle glycogen is replenished to a greater extent after six days, when creatine is ingested with the post exercise

recovery drink

Power Booster: Creatine

Figure 5

Power Booster: Creatine

The most practical way to increase total muscle creatine stores is to consume a daily dose of 5g for 30 days. Upon cessation of this supplementation period, muscle creatine stores will remain elevated for 5-8 week. In order to maximise the storage of creatine, it is recommended that creatine is consumed post-exercise, in conjuction with carbohydrate and/or protein due to prior muscle

contraction and elevated insulin levels.It is also noteworthy that creatine supplementation can indue a small increase in body mass (1-1.5kg), although it should be noted this is fat-free mass. Some players may therefore percieve themselves as feeling heavier and slower, and may not wish to

supplement with creatine. In light of this, players may wish to ‘cycle’ creatine during specific stages within season such as pre-season or during strength/hypertrophy periods of

their training programme.

Practical RecommendationsFigure 6

Although the time it takes to rehydrate is relatively short (around 6 hours) fluid replacement is still an important part of the recovery process and may promote conditions that would benefit muscle glycogen and protein synthesis rates. On average, team sport athletes will lose around 2 litres of sweat, alongside a number of important electrolytes, which will need to be replaced during the recovery period.

Practical RecommendationsAbove all, replacing the fluid lost during match play is essential. This can be made up of various fluids such as water/fruit juice/carbohydrate drinks or milk. As a rule of thumb, you should replace every kilogram lost (from pre-match weight) with 1.5 litres of water. Although a good starting point, it is important to maximize the absorption of this fluid through the use of electrolytes. If not, a large percentage of this fluid is simply passed out as

urine and not retained by the body.

Rehydrate: Hydra 10

Figure 7