Rugby pre game nutrition

A rugby game is comprised of dozens of moderate to high-intensity intervals, intersected with walking and brief periods of rest. To fuel this process, your body will metabolize muscle glycogen to produce Adenosine tri-phosphate ATP mentioned above. Think of ATP as the energy that makes your muscles contract.

Rapid production of ATP is critical for athletic performance. In a carbohydrate-adjusted rugby player, your primary source of ATP is glucose. This storage limit means that your carbohydrate fuel tank maxes out at about kcal. What does all that sciencey stuff mean? To have enough fuel to last the warm up 30mins and the game 90 mins with half-time , your body needs more energy than you can put into it before you start playing.

So when we talk about rugby-day nutrition, we mean more than just pre-game nutrition. To fuel your body adequately for an minute rugby game, you will need to give it fuel after your warm-up and at half time as well. Overlook this point at your peril. But first, here are the four core nutrition principles that we recommend for carbohydrate-adjusted rugby players.

With all the advice out there from your teammates and the Internet including this article , it can be easy to take those recommendations and run with them.

But eating foods that are unfamiliar to you just because someone recommends them is that last thing you should do. Your gut is very sensitive. Always eat foods that are familiar to you the day before and the day of a rugby match. Stick to something you have as part of your regular diet. Rugby players sweat a lot. When they sweat, they lose critical sodium. This loss of sodium is essential to understand as it has a series of consequences for the body during physical exertion.

As sodium levels decline, there is an adverse effect on potassium balance. The solution? A pinch of sea salt in your pre-rugby water bottle. You can also incorporate berries, nuts, and seeds into your rugby-day meals which all contain appreciable amounts of potassium. Wrong again. Most muscle cramping is due to magnesium depletion in cells. To avoid muscle cramping, eat raw dark green vegetables. You can also consider taking a slow-release magnesium supplement. Studies have shown caffeine to provide performance benefits in rowers , cyclists, and endurance athletes.

Players who start a game with low carbohydrate intakes can be almost depleted by half time. Moving forward, if the candidate for fatigue is gradual reductions in muscle glycogen, what should we be eating hour period before kick off? This has been an area of interest for myself and a group of my research colleagues at Liverpool John Moores University recently, who for the first time ever in competitive rugby, conducted a muscle biopsy on players before and after a competitive game.

The data from this particular study are still unpublished but initial numbers show that all players arrived at the start of the game with similar amounts of muscle glycogen. This may be due to the fact that in the days leading up to a game, players will tend to taper training, seeing a reduction in physical activity to allow players to be rested for the game.

I believe that if players are consuming a normal diet consisting of high and low GI carbohydrates, good quality sources of protein, varied fruit and vegetable intakes and maintaining good hydration levels leading into a game, then arriving at game day fuelled adequately should be easily achieved. Additionally, consuming enough carbohydrates on the day of a game is easily achievable if consuming the right foods and fluids.

Known for its raw physicality and high-impact tackles, rugby places huge demands on its athletes. It goes without saying, training is paramount to building your performance, but its your nutrition that facilitates, supports and develops your training. As with training, nutrition should be specifically based on the position you play, but more than that, your nutritional strategy should be individualised to you, your current physique, your performance status and your goal.

Your nutrition regime should be easy to create and follow. Although with so much advice available, it can be hard to pick the right information.

Lots of conflicting advice, varying dietary trends and supplements. Let Maximuscle Nutritionist, Gareth Nicholas guide you through some of the fundamentals:. Unlike endurance and distance based sports, rugby requires a high degree of explosive power. Carbohydrates are good for providing energy: some carbohydrates can be broken down rapidly, thus causing the sugars they contain to be absorbed quickly.

Be careful, if your glycogen stores are already full this may promote unwanted fat gain. Unrefined carbohydrates food in its natural state: brown rice, vegetables, fruits, wholemeal and wholegrain foods take longer to be digested due to the fibre they contain and therefore, slowing down the rate sugars are released into the blood.

If you eat refined carbohydrates e. Protein is the building blocks of the human body and is a key macronutrient for muscle repair, development and growth. A word that many misunderstand, fats are actually very good for the body and an essential part of nutrition. For more on diet and macronutrients of professional players click here. Yes there are lots of things to consider, but start off by making a few changes and build from there.

Nutrition, like training, needs to be worked at. The more effort you put in, the greater the results. The kitchen is the new gym. To get you started and build the right plan for you, check out our meal planner for muscle building. Send me offers and news. I understand Maximuscle will use my personal data to improve services and send me marketing communications , I also agree to the Privacy Policy.

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