CARB LOADING Georgie Pandel Performance Nutritionist @ WSSC Carb loading is a performance strategy often used by endurance athletes or individuals competing in competitions that have a lasting duration greater than 90min. It is particularly useful to marathon, cycling, and triathlon or endurance swimmers as opposed to team sport athletes due to the training and game schedule demands of these sports, which often don’t allow full rest. However, athletes involved in team sports such as football are encouraged to consume high carb meals 24hrs before and after games to assist with heavy demands on muscle glycogen. Carb loading involves making changes to the athletes’ nutrition and training regime specific to their competition demands and sport to maximize muscle glycogen stores. This aims to prevent the onset of early fatigue and prevent endurance athletes from ‘hitting the wall’ (sudden liver/muscle glycogen depletion which causes many negative conditions) A carbohydrate intake of 7-10g/kg of body mass per day is adequate for competitions lasting between 60-90mins duration with regular muscle glycogen stores sitting around ~ 100-120mmmol/kg wet weight. However as soon as this time frame is exceeded, athletes require more fuel to perform and prevent fatigue. Carb loading involves the athlete tapering back training to a couple (1-4) days of rest or light training accompanied with a high CHO diet, consuming 10-12g/kg of body weight 24-48 hours before the event to. This performance strategy provides athletes with more energy for longer by enabling muscle glycogen stores to be increased to around ~ 150-250mmmol/kg wet weight before competition. Carb loading can improve performance by extending the duration of exercise by ~20% and workloads by 2-3. This strategy could make the ultimate difference to reaching maximal performance and goals. Carb loading is one of the most misunderstood sciences within sporting nutrition and there are many mistakes athletes and coaches make when attempting. Some of these include exercise tapering, gastrointestinal discomforts due to athlete’s not utilising simple carbs, heavy or bloat on day of event or consuming a diet too high in fat with not enough carbs. Specific carbohydrate loading plans should be individualized to the athlete and practiced before a comp to enable reaching optimal performance goals with a sports nutrition expert. Book in a consult with G please email info@woodfordssc or PM #NutrtionTips #Changingthegame #WSSC
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 04:51:31 +0000
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