Football

Train low: means to perform your training under low glycogen levels.

Compete High: Means competing under high glycogen levels.

TRAIN LOW COMPETE HIGH is a fuelling practice that some serious players use-sometimes unknowingly when they do double workouts and fail to refuel well after the first workout. The glycogen content present in the body plays a huge part in how long we can sustain performance over a long event. In theory training low stimulates the body to signal different pathways that support energy metabolism.

Training in a glycogen-depleted state can promote the body to be more efficient at utilizing fat and potentially spare glycogen during endurance exercise. Basically, it’s to develop a more efficient engine for endurance exercise. Yes; training low does have advantages, but not all the time.

“A good general rule of thumb for those wanting to play around with the train low concept is to train low during low intensity workouts and train high during high intensity workouts”.

Keep in mind that training in this low state too often may interfere with our ability to train hard. Whatever your sport is, remember to eat responsibly, with carbohydrate as the foundation of each meal and protein as the accompaniment. Consuming carbohydrate also allows for the replenishment of muscle glycogen after exercise. In a land mark study by exercise physiologist Dr. J. Bergstrom and his colleagues (Bergstrom et al. 1967), researchers compared the rate at which muscle glycogen was replaced in subjects who exercised to exhaustion and then ate either a high – protein, high – fat diet or a high- carbohydrate diet. The subjects on the high protein, high fat diet (similar to an Atkins –type diet with abundant steak, eggs, hamburgers, tuna salad, peanut butter, and cheese) remained glycogen depleted for five days. The subjects on the high – carbohydrate diet totally replenished their muscle glycogen in two days .This result shows that protein and fat are not stored as muscle glycogen and that carbohydrate is important for replacing depleted glycogen stores.

1. Players should consume about 450 ml of fluid approximately 1 to 1.5 hours before physical activity. After this fluid consumption, players should institute a sipping protocol (about half a cup every 10 to 15 minutes) with the sports beverage they will consume during their game. This will help ensure that exercise begins with blood sugar and blood volume at a good level.

2. After the last meal and before the beginning of exercise, foods that have a long gastric emptying time (i.e., foods high in fat, protein and fiber) should be avoided, as should unaccustomed foods and beverages.

3. Thirst is an important emergency sensation indicating the body cannot tolerate a great deal more fluid loss; but players should not rely on thirst as the primary indicator of when to drink. When the thirst sensation first occurs, players has already typically lost 1.5 to 2.0 liters of fluid.

4. Before thirst sets in, players should drink a carbohydrate-and sodium-containing solution at fixed and well-practiced intervals. Care should be taken to not over consume fluids during physical activity, particularly fluid devoid of sodium, as these may increase the risk of developing hyponatremia.During exercise; players should consume a beverage that provides about a 6% carbohydrate solution and a sodium concentration of between 100 and 200 milligrams per cup.

5. After physical activity, players should consume sufficient fluids to regain a good state of hydration, as indicated by clear urine .This should be done as soon as possible after the exercise is over. As a guide, the difference in body weight before and after exercise is an indication of the amount of fluid that was not replaced during exercise. 500 g of body weight is equivalent to 450 ml of fluid. A good training program will attempt to add sufficient fluid to the training regimen so as to avoid a significant weight (i.e., body water) loss.

EAT RIGHT TO BECOME A SUCCESSFUL FOOTBALLER LIKE MESSI OR RONALDO

Football is a game that requires a high level of strength, speed and proficiency; all of which depends upon what, when and how much a football player eats and drink.
The efforts applied during training, and competition is also needed to be applied for proper fueling because many times players overlook nutrition which results in poor performance. Hence, appropriate diet is very important for football players.

Football is a stop-and-go play which involves utmost muscular efforts to move or stop the ball, and also the players have to carry the extra burden of wearing equipment like pads and helmet; all this necessitate the consumption of a diet that meets the energy requirement.
The primary fuel for football players is carbohydrates as football requires short bursts of energy, eating adequate amount carbohydrates is critical.

Therefore the ideal diet for football players should include 55 to 60 % of caloric intake from carbohydrates with relatively low fat intake (25%) and 15% of calorie intake from protein. This diet along with exercise will help to increase muscle mass.

Increasing the intake of fat will also increase the muscle mass due to the increase fat storage but will not contribute to strength. Moreover, with improper carbohydrate intake players will have inadequate glycogen store for recovery for the next training session.
Thus, emphasis should be given to food containing carbohydrate with lower fat example: boiled potatoes over fries, fresh fruit yogurt over ice cream.

Therefore to have an edge over your competitors you should supply your body with optimal fuel. To get the full potential out of yourself, the diet should be the first thing to start with in the morning irrespective of whether you are hungry or not.
As often as possible choose whole, unprocessed and low-fat foods as fat take longer to digest and makes the player feel cumbersome and lethargic. There choose foods such as multigrain vegetable sandwiches, oats with low-fat milk.

You should also take care of your meals immediately after the training session as players are the hungriest during that time. Ideally, for optimal recovery, choose snacks that contain 6-gram protein and 35-gram carbohydrate, to be consumed within 30 minutes after training for maximum benefit.
Example includes: chocolate milk, toast with peanut butter. Last but not the least to perform and recover successfully replenish your fluids at regular interval with a good electrolyte replacement drink and keep a water bottle during the day to keep yourself well hydrated.