While you may put your heart and soul into playing football, you are doing your potential a huge disservice if you don’t put as much thought into your nutrition.
Here are five reasons why nutrition should be something you care about as a footballer:
It is said that it takes 10,000 hours to achieve greatness in a discipline, whether that’s piano, golf or – in our case – football.
Elite professional footballers have undoubtedly put in their 10,000+ hours, although the vast majority of that takes place when the cameras are off; on the training ground, in the gym and in the classroom.
Whatever your level, training is crucial for footballers wanting to reach their potential and take their game further. Whether you are a player, a coach or a parent, in this article we dissect the world of football training and give you everything you need to know to make the most of it.
Pro footballers are known for some strange pre-match habits – whether that’s being the last player to walk onto the pitch, cutting holes in the back of their socks, or kissing their goalkeeper’s bald head.
Yet, one thing that every professional footballer does before, during and after football is hydrate properly. This is one habit that every Sunday league player should copy.
Good hydration is crucial. The average footballer is likely to lose 1.1 litres of water through sweat during a game; often more. Without replenishing yourself with enough fluid, you risk varying degrees of dehydration – when your body does not have enough water to do its job.
Food provides us with macronutrients, fibre, micronutrients and water. The macronutrients carbohydrate, protein and fat get most of the attention, so let’s take a deeper look at micronutrients.
Micronutrients are small nutrients, including vitamins and minerals that do not provide energy, but do contribute significantly to our health and performance, and support many physiological processes, and play important roles in growth and development, and supporting metabolic and enzymatic reactions at rest and during exercise.
Carbohydrates are essential for footballers looking for optimum fuelling and recovery around training and matches. Go on, try telling Cristiano Ronaldo – an avid high-carb eater – that he should cut back on his potato-loaded Bacalhau a Bras…
No, for footballers, it is time to embrace carbs.
In this article, we explore why we need carbohydrates, how best to get them, and when best to use them to ensure top performance on and off the pitch.
Football relies heavily on carbohydrate to fuel the intense actions such as sprinting, jumping, changing direction and shooting that often dictate the outcome of games. The issue is, stores of carbohydrate in the body are very small and are used up rapidly.
Gels provide a concentrated source of easy to absorb carbohydrate that provides the fuel to allow your muscle and brain to repeat those intense actions and compete until the final whistle.