Articles

If you have zero appetite after intense training sessions, games or competitions…read on. For athletes who have high training demands and urgent recovery needs, this poses a serious problem as their ability to get back to ‘baseline’ becomes impaired.i.e. you’re not going to recover optimally if you’re unable to eat. This issue is called ‘Exercise

On previous #D2EW instalments, we’ve clearly identified the benefit of carbohydrate (CHO) intake on endurance-based exercise, whether that be pre or during the event itself. What’s less clear is the magnitude of effect of CHO intake pre and during weight training on performance, and its possible role in developing muscle mass and strength. For those looking to

It’s evident that athletes, especially combat sport athletes like to dial things in and push themselves harder when approaching competitions or fight night. If the process is harder, if more sacrifices are made, and if the struggle is greater, their success will taste even sweeter. Well, Rocky I, II, III, and IV was no different…

This week, we explore strategies to combat heightened heat stress during hot and humid conditions. To best answer this question, Gibson et al (2020) has outlined the tools available within an athletes ‘heat alleviation toolbox’. The common cooling strategies are delivered via: 1) External cooling (cooling from the outside in, predominantly through reducing skin temperature).

As we’re aware, consuming carbohydrates are fundamental for maximising medium-high intensity performances. Whilst daily carbohydrate intakes are the highest priority, we also need to consider carbohydrate intake during exercise, especially for long(er) duration events. There’s been a plethora of research establishing how many grams of carbohydrates you need per hour of exercise to maintain physical

It’s been well established that both chronic and acute sleep deprivation can negatively impact numerous areas of physiological and psychological performance and health. That being said, how can sleep quality and quantity impact an athlete’s ability to build and repair muscle tissue from training? Lamon et al (2020 examined how one night of zero sleep

Today we explore how quickly athletes can drop body fat without compromising performance. From experience, athletes will diet too aggressively by cutting too many calories, which ultimately impacts performance, health and well-being. Therefore, we need to find the correct balance… A study by Garthe et al (2011) identified some key findings which has very much

This week, we explore effective nutrition strategies to improve sleep quality and quantity in athletes. A reduction in sleep is associated with fatigue-related injury, compromised immune function, muscle remodelling and disruption of cellular maintenance. A recent review by Gratwicke at al (2021) provides an insight to the latest nutrition considerations. The main areas explored were:

It’s evident that fruit and vegetable intake is incredibly important to support the health, well-being and performance of an athlete. However, many athletes fail to meet the current recommendations, of which are most likely higher than general population due to the added physical and mental stressors experienced on a daily basis. Daily recommendations vary from

This week, we highlight the impact of eating better to enhance both physical and mental performance…and your likeliness in achieving success. Athletes place a large emphasis on nutrient timing, optimising macronutrient ratios and supplements, but often forget the true value of eating better. Unfortunately, this isn’t a topic that sells headlines – ‘yeah Chris, we

Have you ever heard the saying: ‘you aren’t hungry, you’re just thirsty’?⁣ This is often recommended as a weight loss strategy, therefore today, we explore whether this statement is true or not.⁣ In other words, does your hydration status affect hunger and your desire to eat? And if so, does drinking more water reduce appetite

This week, we explore the entire ‘recovery toolbox’ available to reduce muscle soreness in endurance-based athletes. During intense training, ultrastructural muscle injuries occur, resulting in a loss of muscle function and force generating capabilities. In return, muscle performance drops, and work capacity in following sessions decline. Muscle fibre damage is one of the key factors

This week, we explore safe and effective strategies in ‘making weight’ for combat sport athletes. An athlete’s weight cut can be broken down into two phases: chronic and acute. During a chronic phase, the main emphasis is to reduce body fat slowly at a rate of 0.5-1% body mass loss per week. The acute phase

This week, we explore the fuelling demands to sustain power output and maximise performance in Crossfit athletes. Due to the nature of this sport, a large stress is placed on carbohydrate (CHO) availability to support work capacity in both isolated and successive WOD’s. Therefore, the Fuelling = Recovery = Fuelling paradigm is highly relevant here.

This week, we explore whether endurance athletes should supplement with creatine to improve performance and increase their chances of winning! Many endurance athletes avoid the use of creatine due to the fear of gaining weight, which may have performance implications during ‘weight sensitive’ parts of a race – i.e. when they are going against gravity