Eating and Swimming and Eating

 

My mom always says, "What you eat today, walks and talks tomorrow". Now mom is not much of a swimmer but she could have said…”what you eat today, swims tomorrow”. There is no doubt that what you eat, how much you eat and when you eat it can have a real impact on your swimming. With all that it is written and discussed about nutrition, diet and eating, this article will help you make sense of it all.

1. Vitamins and Minerals

There are thousands of pills and potions on the market. Of the thousands of pills and potions very, very few have been demonstrated to actually deliver what they promise and even fewer have been shown by independent research to have a positive impact on sports performance.

Vitamin C, Zinc and Echinacea have been shown to help maintain normal immune system function during times of physical and emotional stress and for this reason some elite athletes may take courses of these supplements to minimise the risk of sickness during hard training and competition.

2. Sports Drinks

There are also hundreds of sports drinks on the market. Some of them are excellent at replenishing energy stores immediately post training and racing. Some of them are nothing more than cleverly marketed soft drinks – high in sugar and not high performance nutrition at all.

Develop the habit of looking behind the marketing and take time to read the label on the bottle. Look for words like “sugars” and “total sugars” and words ending in the letters “ose”. If the sports drink contains more than ten percent sugar maybe look for an alternative. Water is still a great choice for rehydration!

3. Recovery Nutrition - timing is everything!

There has been a lot of research done on how eating the right foods can help your body recover after working hard.

The most current thinking is to eat some protein and carbohydrate in combination immediately post exercise – i.e. after training or racing.

Immediately post training or racing try foods or supplements which contain High GI (Glycemic Index) Carbohydrates (approximately 15-50 grams) and Protein (approximately10-20 grams). One possible combination is to have some sports drink, a piece of fruit and a small (bite size) piece of a protein bar. The important thing is to ingest your carbohydrate / protein combination immediately post training or racing – timing is everything.

As with any new nutrition strategy, seek professional advice and most importantly if you plan to try a new fueling idea, do it in training several weeks before your target competition so you know exactly how your body reacts to the food / supplements / sport drinks you are trying.

4. Pre-race

Pre race nutrition should follow the L.E.S.S. principle.

• Light meals – Fruit, yogurt, light cereal, toast.
• Energizing – Healthy, light, fresh food which make you feel energized
• Small portions – Little servings, snack size portions.
• Simple foods – Avoid fried foods, greasy foods and processed foods. Keep it simple, fresh and light.

Top swimmers like to feel light and fast on race day. Try to avoid heavy foods and large plates full of carbohydrates – remember…….L.E.S.S.

Big breakfasts, piles of pancakes and buckets of bacon might taste great but they will not help you swim fast.

5. Post-race

The emphasis of post race nutrition is RECOVERY.

Develop a post race refueling routine which follows the REPAIR / PREPARE principle, ie REPAIR from the hard work just done and PREPARE for the hard work to be done next.

For example:

• Race
• Grab a drink bottle with sports drink in it
• Sip the sports drink while talking over your race with your coach
• Grab a protein bar and eat 25% of it (about one average bite)
• Sip some sports drink or some water
• Swim down
• Sip some sports drink

6. Rehydration

Your body not only swims in water………it basically IS water! Water is one of the most important but often the most overlooked ingredient of a sensible, healthy diet.

Try this simple experiment.

Weigh yourself before training and again after training. How much weight did you lose? Almost all of this weight loss is water.

Water is essential for many of the body processes which allow you to swim fast – energy production, respiration, blood flow, sweating….

And if you lose as little as 2% body weight (fluid) during training, some of these important processes will be impaired meaning you will struggle to maintain speed, power, great skills and excellent technique towards the end of the workout.

Drink regularly before, during and after training and racing: it makes a difference.

7. High protein / miracle diets that are guaranteed to make you a better swimmer

No such thing! There are no short cuts.

8. Caffeine

Caffeine has received a lot of attention lately – particularly after the anti doping agencies removed Caffeine from the banned / restricted substances list.

Since then some high profile athletes have admitted to taking caffeine to enhance their performance and this raises several issues:

If you enjoy a cup of coffee now and again, keep enjoying it but don’t rely on it to improve turns, starts, fitness and technique – only training can do that!

9. Eat what you use - important principle

One of the most important principles in sports nutrition is TO EAT WHAT YOU USE.

When you train at high intensity levels your body uses glycogen (the stored form of glucose) as its preferred fuel source. A diet high in quality carbohydrates will help replenish the depleted energy stores.

However, eating lots of carbohydrates when you don’t really need them generally leads to your body converting the excess into fat which is then stored around your body…and fat aint fast!

When you are not training at high intensity, i.e. a recovery or rest day, there is no need to load up on high energy carbos (or “garbos”) as your body has no need for it.

As a general guide, set your daily quality carbohydrate intake at between 65% and 75% of your total diet. On days when you are training at high intensity levels, the mix is more towards 75% and on recovery days / low intensity days it is closer to 65%.

Adjust the type and quantity of food you eat based on your training loads.

10. Enjoy what you eat

Don’t get too hung up on “eating like an athlete” and denying yourself food that you love to eat and enjoy. Meal times are not just about “replenishing energy stores”, they are also about sharing good times with family and friends and eating your favourite foods.

Follow the basics of good nutrition – eat quality carbohydrates, eat lean, quality protein, try to minimise your fat intake, decrease your intake of salt and sugar, increase your fibre intake and drink plenty of fresh water but……………a few slices of pizza on Friday night with your team mates will not hurt you! A burger and fries when you go to the movies with friends is all part of the experience!

Aim to eat healthy nutritious food most of the time but enjoy being human sometimes – have some special foods that you enjoy eating and enjoy sharing with special people.

• If you feel the need to take substances like caffeine to enhance your performance, maybe you are not training hard (or smart) enough. Developing a “short cut” mentality to performance is a dead end street.
• Caffeine has some potentially positive effects on the performance of endurance athletes when used correctly and managed professionally. Its role in swimming – where 90 % of events are 200 metres or less has not been proven and it has several side effects like increasing heart rate, increasing urine output (which can contribute to dehydration) and other negatives.