Jes Reynolds…Your Fitness Coach

In my previous post I talked about the importance of a nutrition plan that correlates with your fitness goals.  While fitness goals vary greatly depending on the individual and their personal experience I find that often nutrition strategies are generally the same from person to person no matter what the goal.

If you have a performance oriented goal, you should also develop a logical nutrition strategy that supports you in achieving it.  You can do this by developing a good understanding of what your goal requires ie: endurance, speed, or strength, and then creating a structured plan.  Planning ahead will cause you to feel more prepared and therefore will cause you to be more confident and facilitate higher levels of both fitness and athleticism.

Tips for Performance Nutrition Planning
1.  Goals should be clearly defined
2.  Nutrition strategy should correlate with goals
(i.e., acknowledge the difference between weight loss, endurance running, and sports nutrition plans)
3.  Performance nutrition can but does not always need to include supplements

Performance Nutrition Basics
There are always certain fundamentals of a performance oriented nutrition plan that are the same.  These basics can be adjusted based on the specific individual and their chosen activity.
Some important elements that come into play when considering performance nutrition are things like:

• Caloric Intake:  Having the proper caloric intake for your sport is crucial to optimum performance.  Some sports require a light, lean body while others require mass and size.
• Balance of Macronutrients:  In order to be most effective in fueling your body, meals should have the proper balance between carbohydrate, protein, and fat.  Another example of this includes the concept of carbohydrate loading or depleting.
• Nutrient timing:  Timing of meals throughout the day and in accordance with your daily training regimen will affect your ability to perform on a consistent basis.

Based on my knowledge and experience, I feel additional areas of importance include natural supplementation, sports drinks such as Gatorade and PowerAde & manufactured supplements such as those sold at GNC.    In my next article I will cover the basics on each of these topics and go over how each of these can be applied to a performance nutrition plan.