Relationship between Performance Coaching and Diet

There is no gainsaying that an athlete’s performance in fitness coaching cannot be separated from nutrition. More so, there is a growing interest in how nutrition experts can also impact sporting performance through a professional approach. Even for those who are not professional athletes, reading this article already confirms a stern interest in performance coaching and nutrition.

Requirements of Performance Training and Diets

Typically, basic professional training should provide the following benefits

1. Performance training should supply the required energy and nutrients that a performer needs for optimum performance, training, and exercise
2. It should help athletes and performers to achieve the desired body weight, whether through gain or loss, significantly if it influences performance coaching
3. After a workout session, performance training should supply the needed nutrients and a recovery plan to restore the lost energy.
4. Excellent performance coaching should provide sufficient improvement to athletes and performers’ health both in the short and long terms.
5. Each performance coaching session should make room for fluids as part of the diet composition for maximum hydration when in the training session and after the session
6. Diets during performance coaching session must provide for essential food varieties, including vegetables, fruits, cereals, whole grain bread, low- fat dairy products, and lean meat
7. The only diets to be encouraged during performance coaching enhance forming a healthy eating habit, not just a temporary diet. In other words, performance coaching should promote healthy nutrition habits and behaviors, not just a brief adaptation, only to return to the old food later.

What should an athlete take for the best performance coaching session?

When preparing for a performance training session, a typical performer or athlete’s diet should comprise of the following nutritional proportions:

• Carbohydrates or whole grains take up to 55% of the total diet. However, if your physical exercise or workout takes up to 60 to 90 minutes per session, you may have to increase your carbohydrates and whole grain percentage to 65 to 70%.
• Proteins should take between 12 and 15% of the total diet
• The fat contents of the food should be up to 30% of the total diet

Performers should also note that the amount of carbohydrates and protein ratio is mostly dependent on your body weight to avoid obesity. Furthermore, professional dieticians recommend fats from safe sources such as olive oils, nuts, seeds, avocado, and other similar fat-containing elements. On the other hand, athletes should stay away from high content food items such as biscuits, cakes, cheese, fried foods, margarine, chips, cookies, and general pastries.

Significance and benefits of Carbohydrates in Performance Training Diets

Just as we all learned in Elementary School, carbohydrates are energy-giving foods. The process of digesting carbohydrates converts the problematic sugar-containing foods to simpler sugars, usually glucose. However, note that the body does not store sugar as glucose but converts it to glycogen molecules and stores them in the muscle and liver tissues.

Also, the body depends on this glucose primarily for energy supply, and that is why these two storages are essential in discussing diets and performance coaching. Therefore, when athletes consume foods that contain a high percentage of carbohydrates, the exercise glucose that is not put to immediate use is converted to glycogen and stored in these destinations.

More so, the stored energy in the muscle is essential for physical work and daily movements. However, the bulk of energy consumption in the body goes to the brain as the controller of body activities. Also, note that the more carbohydrate an athlete takes in glucose, the more energy is available for use.

However, as important as carbohydrate is to diet, a restriction to carbohydrate can also achieve another performance training exercise. For example, if anyone plans to lose weight safely and effectively, it may include a reduction in carbohydrate intake. By so doing, the body gets the signal to convert the stored glycogen in the muscle and liver back to use glucose, first to the brain and another part of the body. However, this process requires some counsel from experts to avoid the risk of illness and infections.

Performance training for sports and the Glycaemic index

The Glycaemic Index, GI, refers to the number of carbohydrates present in food and drinks and how they can quickly influence the body’s blood sugar level. As the athlete or performer’s age advances, there is an increasing need to focus on the right diets to optimize carbohydrates’ benefits to the body and its management. Therefore, athletes are responsible for the kinds of nutrition and the responsible amount that is safe.

Further research also establishes that the foods that contain low GI ratings are crucial for exercises to sustain the energy level. On the other hand, moderate to high GI foods may be useful during the actual exercise or performance training. Another time to try this category of foods is the early stage of the recovery process. In all, the performance trainer should recommend these diets according to the personal needs of the performer.

Professional coaching experts have the right proportions of recommended diets and food proportions that the performer needs to consume based on predetermined factors. Some of the essential elements that determine the number of carbohydrates include the intensity of the exercise, each exercise session’s duration, and the exercises’ frequency.

For instance, the exercise’s intensity may include light, moderate, endurance, and extreme endurance sessions. The duration may also vary by 30 minutes per day category, 60 minutes per day, 1 to 3 hours per day, and the class above 4 hours per day.

Conclusion

On the final note, the performance coaching regime is closely related to diet and nutrition. However, both the performer and athlete and the trainer should corporate to achieve the desired energy level needed for optimum performance to the best of the athletes’ chances at success. Besides, based on nutrition experts’ recommendations, athletes can use food supplements that contain vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other vital products.

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