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Rules to refuel
- Updated: October 27, 2016
Any athlete could probably tell you in detail about their nutritional preparation for training and races. What and when to eat and drink before a race is engrained in their competitive psyche and often planned with unerring precision. But what happens when it’s over?
Sports nutritionists bemoan the fact that the post-training diet is woefully neglected by many and that athletes could significantly enhance their recovery processes by eating and drinking appropriately when they finish a session.
“I always say practice the three Rs of recovery – rehydrate, refuel, and repair,” writes Stuart Philips, professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Canada. But how best should you plan your recovery strategy?
Rehydrate
Replacing fluid and electrolytes (or body salts) lost through sweat is essential, but how much do you need to drink? Earlier this year, a panel of eminent scientists assembled by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) published the latest position statement on sports nutrition in the scientific journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. In their guidelines, they stressed the need for athletes to consume 125-150% of their estimated fluid losses in the 4-6 hours after a session, the extra accounting for the continued loss of fluid from the body through sweating and urine losses.
On his website mysportscience.com, leading sports nutrition expert Asker Jeukendrup says that, in practical terms this means “you would need to drink 600ml per hour for every 2kg (4.4lbs) of fluid lost”.
Including a little sodium is also important as “it helps to retain ingested fluids, especially extracellular fluids, including plasma volume”, the scientists concluded. Salt also triggers the thirst mechanism, meaning you are more likely to take on board enough fluids as your body is restored.
Sports drinks, flavoured milk and athlete-specific rehydration solutions are good choices.
Refuel
Muscle glycogen is the main fuel used by the body during any high-intensity exercise and inadequately replacing glycogen stores will …
