The Best Nutrition for Sport Beginners
The study of sports nutrition is a very complex area even for experts in the field. However, the whole science of sport nutrition can be presented much more simply if the basic concepts are defined. Sports nutrition can be broken down into four basic components:
- Nutrition before activities
- During activities
- Meal after activities
- Diet for recovery
1. Nutrition before activities
It is recommended to start physical activity some 2-2.5 hours after a meal, when it is cooked. Then you will have the most energy, especially if you go for strong workouts. If you still go for a run immediately after a meal, you will feel heaviness in your stomach, and after a while you may feel nauseous. You can drink water up to half an hour before training. If you break this as well, you will feel a rumbling in your stomach which will make it very difficult for you to run.
2. During activities
Water
Required amount of water during running needs average 0.4-0.5 liters per hour. It would be good to drink 0.2 liters every 25-30 minutes. This way you will avoid dehydration, especially if it is a length training.
Food
You can accumulate so much glycogen in your body that you usually won’t even need food while running, unless you are doing length training or participating in a (semi) marathon. If you run for more than an hour and a half, then every half hour you can take 1 energy gel or equivalent in the form of an energy bar with a glass of water (0.2 L).
3. Meal after activities
After training, the lost glycogen from the muscles needs to be compensated as soon as possible. 30-40 minutes after running, the body can most easily compensate for the depleted glycogen, because then the resorption of nutrients from food is the fastest. Make sure you have a meal right after running.
Proteins = Regeneration
After training, it is desirable to eat high-quality proteins. Every physical activity damages muscle fibers to a certain extent. The greater the physical exertion, the greater the damage. Therefore, adequate to the effort, it is necessary to give the muscles quality proteins that will enable the damaged cells to regenerate.
4. Diet for recovery
Due to physical activity, every runner sooner or later feels tired as a result of the accumulation of metabolic products and free radicals in the body. Free radicals damage cells and tissues. You can accelerate recovery by fighting antioxidants that slow down the production of free radicals. When this production is stopped or slowed down, the runner needs less time to recover between workouts. In this case:
- Accelerates the expulsion of lactate from the muscles
- Reduces muscle fiber damage
- Enhances glycogen re-synthesis in muscle
Conclusion
With this text, we wanted to draw your attention once again to some of the most important information regarding nutrition when running or any other aerobic activity.