Key points …
- Refuel as optimally as possible
- Rehydrate little and often
- Re warm-up , condensed pre match routine ~1-3 minutes
After 45minutes of (hopefully) intense football, your body will need replenishing to give it the ability to compete for a further 45 minutes of sprinting, jumping, turning and every other action its forced to perform. Of course, taking on big servings of food in a 15-minute window will probably do more harm than good once you are up and running again. Therefore, gels like Fuel90® packed with almost 30 grams of carbohydrates to replenish glycogen levels and essential electrolytes optimising a range of bodily functions (not just to stop you cramping!) are crucial in the refuelling phase of half time. Combined with a simple (and crucially small) piece of fruit (for example like a banana) and you have gone someway to fuelling your body for 90 minutes. *It is important to remember you will burn up to 1000 calories and sweat 1.1 litres of fluid during a 90minute performance, this is a severe drain on your body’s resources.
At half time throughout all levels you are now likely to see players ‘re warming up’ to ready themselves for the second half, something that becomes particularly important during the deepest depths of English winter’s! Re-mobilising the parts of your body most susceptible to injury at the beginning of each half can be crucial to staying injury free. Striking a ball too hard from kick off could pull your groin, a high speed sprint could tear your hamstring – all worst case scenarios of course but with a potential temperature decrease of up to 2 degrees (sounds minimal but relatively large in actuality) it leaves you particularly vulnerable. Performing a condensed version (~2 minutes) of your pre game warm up mobilising and stabilising the key areas of your lower body involved with performance can help to maximise your performance from the whistle, and crucially reduce the chance of picking up injuries as a result of losing temperature and subsequent length in your muscles. Key-takeaway, refuel when possible and re warm where possible, every little helps!
