Monthly Podcast

David Virgo
CLICK HERE
To Find Out How To Subscribe To The
'On the Couch
with the Coach'
Podcast Program



Your Nutrition for Cricket
Demands Attention

How much fitness nutrition, supplements and diet paraphernalia litters your world?

Is it any wonder you get confused with the mountains of information you have to digest?

However knowing that the supplement industry is a muti million dollar industry will help you understand why they aggressively push all of this information onto us. The worst part is that the majority of these products are as useful as a pinch of salt.

I stand corrected the salt if it is unrefined sea salt is more valuable by far. It is cheaper to.

Before I go on let me say that I am not a qualified dietician or nutritionist. Meaning it is out of my scope of practice to prescribe nutritional information to parts of the population that require specific dietary and nutritional needs.

However I can and do give general advice and guidelines regularly in my role as a professional cricket fitness coach. I keep my advice simple and precise.

I regularly update my knowledge on this subject because the markers are always changing and new quality research information is constantly becoming available.

There are enough myths out there now without me confusing the issue more with complicated, unsubstantiated theories and advice.

If you do nothing else with your dietary lifestyle aimed at enhancing your fitness and even general wellbeing keep your food choices as natural as possible. You don't need to be consuming large quantities of processed foods in a bid to fuel up your body.

Products like power or energy bars are a highly processed food. They have substantial ingredient lists and sugar in some form or another is a major ingredient. Your digestive system will have to work overtime digesting them using a lot of energy in this process. This energy could be put to far better use.

The processing of food robs it of nutrients, trace elements,live enzymes and antoxidants. It also strips it of useful dietary fibre.

By consuming too many processed (nutrient deprived) foods your body craves more food to assist in its hunt for nutrients. As you continuously eat more in your attempt to find nutrients your digestive system is being constantly taxed and your calorie intake will continue to increase.

A usual outcome is you increase body fat stores and lose energy. See how this will negatively affect your fitness and your cricket. You will then need fat loss help.

A few examples of unprocessed natural foods you can try to include in your diet are as follows. Fruits and vegetables of all varieties, seeds (sesame, linseed, poppy, pumpkin), nuts (raw), avocado, lean meats, oily fish (tuna,salmon,sardines,mackeral), beans (all varieties), quinoa (grain - add to your cereal) and rolled oats or rolled spelt flakes (slightly processed however have included here because it is the least processed cereal option).

If you do eat some processed foods keep it to a minimum and please use wholemeal options.

The next factor in fitness nutrition and even general life nutrition is preparation.

Have the right foods on hand so you don't opt for bad food options.

Plan and prepare meals so you can take meals with you. This will save you eating fast fatty food options.

Stock your fridge full of fresh vegetables and fruits.

Choose good lean meat options to eat or freeze and either fresh fish options or tinned tuna or salmon as options for quick snacks with salads.

All the will power in the world won't help you when those chocolates or snack foods keep popping up in front of you. So get rid of them (in the bin) and don't replace them.

HYDRATION

Now lets address the hydration factor and how it impacts on your fitness nutrition. Again you must be on guard here. The aggressive marketing employed by cash strapped supplement companies does impact on us when thinking of sports drinks. The powerade ads are a classic example.

You do need to constantly hydrate on training days and match days because of your fluid loss via sweat.

As cricket is played with high intensity actions intermittently over extended periods you need to replace lost electrolytes (body salts - this is where the salt becomes valuable).

By hydrating adequately your body isn't relying on muscle glycogen stores(fuel stored in your muscles) lessening premature fatigue. It can use the carbohydrates provided by your supplementation as an energy source.

The latest research is showing that if you hydrate adequately with a source that also contains protein as well as carbohydrates you will be fast tracking the recovery process. Almost immediately your muscles are starting to recover. Because they start repairing and adapting to the stress it encounters by utilising the available protein and carbohydrates provided from your sports drink to help rebuild themselves.

This is why your sports drink must contain protein, carbohydrates and electrolytes to be truly effective.

Other negative factors on hydration for fitness nutrition are alcohol, caffeine and heavily sugared drinks. This is such a wide topic that it will be given an article of its own.

For now I would suggest you keep your intake of these substances to a bare minimum if any at all before and during games and training. They are of no benfit to your nutrition and performance goals.

Hopefully this information is helpful and has been easily understood.

For now keep it simple and include more natural food options.

Include fresh salad and vegetable options together with lean protein sources to form a balanced diet.

Drink 2-3 litres of water daily and think about whether your training and match day hydration is adequate and meets your fitness nutrition goals.

Contact us for any questions or comments relating to Fitness Nutrition

For Support Click Here