by Jennifer Schwartz, Alexandria Soccer Injury Prevention & Fitness
Many players neglect the benefits that food can add to their performance. Rather, the majority of players are focused on improving their skills, on what their teammates are doing, or playing multiple sports. The ultimate performance mindset is one that focuses on the small things that a player performs daily. This type of practice places a sense of responsibility on his or her performance. When applied to nutrition, this encourages a healthy experimentation with food.
I’m not a nutrition expert but I’m well aware of how much quality nutrition can add to our growing players experience. From my research I believe that the most useful tip for instilling quality nutrition is to make it an enjoyable process with experimenting and setting goals.
Protein
The goal is to make sure you’re eating enough protein. Protein helps regenerate every tissue in the body.
A good recommendation is 1g/lb of body weight of quality protein from red or white meat, fish, eggs, tofu, or high quality protein supplements (over a single day).
Players healthy experiment- 1. monitor soreness and energy the day after matches. This would be the control. 2. Make a protein shake for post training and/or matches. Also monitor soreness and energy during the trial. Perform each phase for a week or two.
The hypothesis should be that there will be less soreness in the player’s body when protein supplementation is consistent. The conclusion might be that protein should be essential and adequate at every meal.
My supplement favorites are:
Vega sport performance (vegan)
Great Lakes (beef and my personal favorite )
Terra (various types of protein)
