When starting a speed and agility training program, many of today’s athletes overlook one of the most important aspects of achieving desired results, and that is diet and nutrition. Many young athletes eat way too much fast food and don’t pay attention to what they’re eating throughout the day.
When it comes to nutrition and diet, the best place to get the most out of a speed and agility workout is with a balanced diet. All meals throughout the day should include food from all four food groups. If this isn’t possible, make sure your diet includes parts from all four food groups throughout the day.
To increase your diet to cope with the high enough physiological demands of sports training, which require high rates of energy production, you will need to increase your carbohydrate intake. Whatever sport or training you are participating in, this type of energy production can only be achieved through the breakdown of carbohydrates. This means athletes should pay special attention to this aspect of their diet – especially when considering the infamous exercises of speed and agility programs, especially when athletes are not given any guidance on what to eat. Heavy training programs consisting mostly of speed and agility training only serve to increase the need for carbohydrate intake.
When discussing this topic, it is common to express the form of energy consumed as a percentage (ratio) of that consumed in the form of carbohydrate, fat and protein. While the typical diet for the general population is approximately 40% carbohydrate, 45% fat, and 15% protein, the recommended dietary ratio for a soccer player (who trains very vigorously and is well-rounded) would be approximately 65% carbohydrate, 20% fat. and 15% protein, according to the Peak Performance Newsletter.
Ingesting essential amino acids immediately after exercise increases protein synthesis, which means more muscle and (provided you’re training ‘right’) more power. A very important point in protein ingestion is timing – if you are consuming a protein shake or bar, have it as soon as possible after exercise.
Provided you are eating a well-balanced, energy-adequate diet, creatine supplementation has also been shown to improve repeated sprint ability as discussed earlier in the Vitamins and Supplements article.
Some of the information used in this article was gathered from the Peak Performance newsletter.
Source by Michael Seno
