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The Goals Of Training Nutrition
Nutrition For Sport
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Archive Nutrition For Sport ArticlesSearch by tag : Recovery After Exercise, Practising Nutritional Strategies During Training, Optimizing Training And Recovery, Supplements In Sport, Calcium, Iron |
| The Goals Of Training Nutrition |
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The purpose of training is to prepare the athlete to perform at their best during key competitions, and inmost ituations the time and demands of this preparation far outweigh those of competition. Therefore, it is the everyday or training diet of the athlete which has the greatest impact on sports performance. The athlete shares the population nutritional goals of meeting nutrient requirements for immediate health, as well as adopting dietary strategies to reduce the risk of developing Western disease patterns in later life. Additionally, they should be able to participate in the enjoyment and social interaction that is provided by food.
However, the athlete must also meet special goals of sports nutrition during the training phase including:
- to achieve a body size and composition that is ideal for performance in the athlete’s sport - to meet additional demands for energy and nutrients that arise from the training program - to undertake dietary strategies that optimize performance during training sessions and enhance recovery after the session - to practice any competition nutrition strategies in advance so that these can be fine-tuned for success. The importance and the details of these goals will vary from sport to sport. The size, shape and composition of the body are important determinants of performance in many sports. In some sports, weight divisions or limits are set to encourage fair competition between opponents of equal size and strength. These sports include weight lifting, boxing, judo, light weight rowing and horse racing. In other sports, a low weight and/or low body weight level is a factor in successful performance. This may be to increase the athlete’s ‘power to weight’ ratio, or to reduce ‘dead weight’ that must be transported over long distances (e.g. in distance running, road cycling or triathlons) or moved against gravity (e.g. jumping events, hill cycling). In some sports, the aesthetic appeal of a lean body provides favourable characteristics for judging (e.g. in body building, gymnastics, figure skating), although this is usually combined with the biomechanical advantages of being small and light (e.g. in gymnastics). |
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