Swimming Nutrition & Performance Talk

Swimming Nutrition & Performance Talk Presented by Personal Trainer, Chris Rowley

What is Sports Nutrition all about? Erm…Which one will make me swim faster??

Getting the balance right • Positive Performance X Negative Performance

What is Swimming? • Whole body sport that involves all the large muscle groups • A sport that uses all three energy systems during both a race and training • A sport that uses all three muscle fibres during both a race and training • A sport where training is normally hours in length and sessions cover distances in their thousands. • It is overall a muscular endurance sport!

So why is nutrition different for swimmers than it is for the general person??

Your child is Unique and Special person! They are high performance Athletes! They bodies are highly tuned like sports cars. For a sports car to work efficiently they need the right types of fuels, just like our bodies.

Fuels For success

20% Training + 80% Nutrition = Peak Performance

What fuels do swimmers need? • Carbohydrate (FAST & SLOW) – TO GO! • - Swimming Fuel (stored in muscles and liver) • FastCarbohydrates – Super Quick energy but likely to crash. • Slow Carbohydrates – Slower released energy but lasts a long time without a crash. • Protein – TO GROW! - building blocks (growth & repair of body tissues) • Fat – TO WORK! - Brain and muscles work (cellular function)

How much do we need? 60% as: 50% Slow Carbs 10% Fast Carbs

Energy – the petrol to our system • To be able to swim fast, swimmers need lots and lots of energy. Energy come from the food we eat. Calories (Kcals) are the bodies currency to work. Carbohydrates, Protein and Fats are all made of Calories. A 2 hour EASY swimming session burns off around 1,428 calories! A Basic guideline to the energy your children needs to stay fuelled up for swimming is: (Their Body Weight x 25 kcals) x 2 = Energy Requirement per day. I would suggest for younger squad x 1.5.

Example: Chris Rowley – I weigh 85kg (my body weight of 85kg x 25 kcals = 2,125) x 2 = 4,250 Kcals per day. That's 4,250 kcal just to maintain my weight at 85kg. National government average: 2500kcal per day – Adult Male 2000kcal per day – Adult Female These are only guidelines and can vary due to the squad your child is in and the amount of training they do.

6:3:1 Diet – Broken Down Following the 6:3:1 Swimmers Diet for me that’s 4,250 kcals broken down into: • Carbohydrates (60%) – 2550 Kcals • Protein (30%) – 1,275 Kcals • Fats (10%) – 425 Kcals

Now what’s that in amount of food? • Carbohydrate has the value of 4 Kcals per gram in the body – so I will need 2550 Kcals divide by 4 = 637.5gs • Protein has the value of 4 Kcals per gram – 1,275 Kcals divided by 4 = 318.5gs • Fats have the highest value in the body at 9 kcals per gram – I will need 425 Kcals divided by 9 = 47.2gs

Where would you get these foods from? Carbohydrates - FAST (best used before and after a race or training, or in the morning): Fruits, sugar, chocolate, jams, sweets i.e. Jelly babies, sports drinks, Carbohydrates – SLOW (used all day as main energy source): Oats, Weetabix, muesli, brown rice, noodles, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pasta, wholemeal bread, pear, milk, apple, high fibre cereals

Protein (should be included in every meal and particularly after training): Chicken, red meats like beef, steaks, eggs, fish, nuts, Fats (good fats): Olive oils, nuts, seeds, avocados, vegetables, oily fish like sardines or salmon.

Timings of Meals Everything we do in swimming is based around time and so should your meal plans. Aim to eat little and often. Around 4-6 Small meals is better than 3 Big meals

Pre-training/Event Feeding Why is it so important? • Helps to top up the bodies energy stores both in the liver and muscles • Helps to maintain blood sugar levels (glucose) • Blood sugar is the only energy for the brain. • The brain controls everything!! • This is the most important meal of the day! (Chris’s top tip – always eat a larger meal 2-4 hour s before a training session and then eat a quick snack with the simple carbs 45 to 30 minutes before. At morning training I know its hard but try to encourage your child to eat a piece of toast with jam on it or a pop tart. Anything to fuel that engine!)

Appropriate Pre-training/ Events Foods Breakfast Pre-training Snacks Cereals – oats, Weatabix, porridges Fruit Toast with scrambled eggs Jam sandwich Yoghurts popcorn Fruit jelly sweets– not too many Fruit juices Nutritgrain or fruesli bars Milkshakes Pre-training meal (2-4 hours before) Pasta with chicken & low fat sauce Jacket potato with tuna or baked beans Sandwiches Rice with a meat Cereals & toast

During Training – GET IT RIGHT!! Fluids - Water • Contained within all cells in the body • Vital for all cellular function Transport system - makes up 50% - 60% of blood - takes oxygen and energy to muscles - takes waste away from the body Cooling system • Stops you from getting too hot

Dehydration Scientist have found that athlete including swimmers in training sweat an average of 1 – 1.5 litres of water per hour. In a two hour training session that is almost 3 litres of water. 1 litre of weighs 1kg So for me who weighs 85kg. in a 2 hour if I didn't drink anything, I would lose 3kg through sweat. That is around 3.5% of my body weight lost and I'm more than half way to heat exhaustion. IF THEY ARE THIRSTY THEY ARE ALREADY DEHYRDATED!

Appropriate fluids to drink Before Training (Getting Ready) • Aim to drink about 500mls of water in the 2 hours leading up to a training session. This will allow for adequate hydration. During training (Little and often) • Water • Cordial and water mix • Fruit juice and water mix (Chris’s top tips – if you are going to drink sports drinks drink them 40 minutes into the session so that the second half is just as good as the first) Post-training/event (replace the fluids lost) • All of the above • Sports drink – PowerAde, Luczocade etc. • Milk or Protein shake

Post-training/event feeding Why is it so important? • Optimises adaptations from training • Second most important meal of the day. Protein • Prevents muscles damage • Start to rebuild the muscles Carbohydrates • Restores muscles energy stores – optimal training capacity Both • Enhanced recovery • Enhanced immunity • Improved body composition http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PUAK-jupYY

Appropriate Recovery Foods Feeding 1. The golden 30minutes immediately after event (poolside) • Milkshake • Protein shake • Yogurt drinks • Sandwich/wraps with lean meat, egg or fish (Chris top tip – any type of fruit or juice that has vitamin c in will help get rid of things called free radicals in the body and help you recover faster) Feeding 2. 1.5 – 2 hours after event • Lean beef, rice and sauce • Fish, potatoes and vegetables • Sandwiches • Baked potatoes, salad, and cottage cheese • Chicken, pasta and sauce

Everyday Kit Bag Carbs • Dried Fruit • Jaffa Cakes • Bag of Nuts • Malt Loaf • Pop Tarts • Go Ahead Bars • Rice Krispie Squares • Nutritgrain Bars • Fruit • Suitable Kit Bag Drinks • WATER! • Lucozade Sports • Boot’s Isotonic • Gatorade • PowerAde • High 5 • Maxim • Tesco/Asda Sport

Supplements – if you can’t get it anywhere else • Supplements are a great nutrition tool that’s help athletes get all the fuel and energy you need to training and race at their best. Best Recovery Drink – Optimum Nutrition – Recovery 2:1:1 High Quality Multi-vitamin: Centrum - one a day Extra Calories Maximuscle – Progain

RACE DAY – OPEN MEET RULES • Performance at a open meet start 5 day earlier in your diet. • 5 Days before competition you should increase you Slow Carbohydrates . Simply have a little bit more pasta, rice etc in each meal. • The day of the meet switch pasta for Salads ,Wraps and Nuts with proteins. • This is when you also need you FAST Carbohydrates – before and after races.

Example Open Meet Diet 6am – Wake Up 6.15am – Breakfast – Beans on toast & Fruit Juice OR Porridge with some fruit 6.30am – Travel to Pool – Nutritgrain Bar, Some Nuts, sipping water 7.30am – Stretching/Get ready for Warm Up 8.00am – Warm –Up – Water or Powerade/Lucozade (little amount) 8.30am – After warm up – more fluids and a Snack – couple of Jaffa cakes/ Nutritgrain bar 8.50am – Handful of Jelly Babies/Sip some Energy drink or water 9.00am – RACE ONE– 200m Free 9.05am – Swim Down – Small Chicken Wrap/Snack/Nuts/ Recovery drink 9.30am – After swim – bigger meal – Big salad with chicken or tuna/small amount of Slow Carbohydrates – Small bowl of brown rice. 11.05am - Handful of Jelly Babies/Sip some Energy drink or water 11.20am – RACE TWO – 50m Breast stroke 11.22am - Swim Down – Small Chicken Wrap/Snack/Nuts/ Recovery drink 12.30pm – END OF SESSION - Big salad with chicken or tuna/small amount of Slow Carbohydrates – Small bowl of brown rice.

Tips for success • Be organised!! • Ensure to top up carbohydrate stores every 2 -3 hours • Aim to get 5-7 small meals throughout the day. Little and Often! • Portion sizes should be a palm hand size. Each meal should contain a palm of Carbs, palm of protein. • Eat at least 5 different types of fruit and vegetables a day. If not use supplements. • Do not go for long periods of time without eating • Aim to eat SLOW Carbs throughout the day and FAST Carbs around training times (before and after) • Never swim on an empty stomach • Golden Half hour after training. EAT EAT EAT! • Be flexible. Change your eating habits to fit the duration and intensity of the training session. • Drinks plenty of water to prevent dehydration occurring. • Always have Carbohydrates/food in their kit bag.

Thank you for listening to my presentation. Are there any questions

swimming4me@hotmail.co.uk

Swimming Nutrition & Performance Talk