Functionally, CHOs provide us with energy for movement and maintenance of blood glucose levels. This is done through a molecule called glycogen, often referred to as the storage form of CHO.

There are two main locations where we store CHOs in the body: the liver and the muscles. These stores vary in the amount of glycogen they can hold, so these reservoirs are limited and can affect our performance and recovery if not maintained. Think of muscle glycogen as the fuel tank for active muscles.

In the liver, glycogen stores are utilized to maintain high CHO oxidation rates and blood glucose levels, especially in the latter stages of exercise. Figure 1, below, illustrates CHO and fat oxidation at different intensities of exercise.

As intensity increases, we rely more and more on CHO to fuel our exercise, and less on fat. In future articles we will dig deeper into the details of CHO timing—when and how much to consume.

Pre-exercise CHOs help us to prepare for the work ahead. With a full glycogen fuel tank, we will perform at our best; thus, it is helpful to go into workouts with some CHO on board.

Does that mean we should eat bowls of cereal before every ride, or indulge in a huge pasta party before our weekend group ride? What we need to understand is that a certain amount of CHO is necessary and beneficial, but there should be a sliding scale for our intake based on our individual needs.

During long or intensive exercise, CHOs provide the fuel necessary for performance. For short sessions e. Sure, but if we are searching for peak performance or working at a higher intensity, CHOs consistently show performance improvement.

There is a sweet spot where CHO ingestion acts in such a way to balance our glycogen losses without tapping too heavily into muscle and liver stores. Depending on how long or hard our session was, we may have tapped into a lot of our stored muscle glycogen. With intensive sessions, we need to tune up the amount of CHO coming in.

Ultimately, think about your post-exercise meal or snack as your first step not only in recovering from the previous session, but also preparing for the next session.

Proteins differ from CHOs in their chemical structure. While they contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, they also contain an important additional element: nitrogen. The nitrogen-containing group called the amino group and the acid group help clue us into the name of the building blocks of proteins: amino acids.

The make-up of the protein, and ultimately which protein is formed, depends on the arrangement of the hydrogen, amino group, acid group, and side chain which is unique to each amino acid. There are both non-essential and essential amino acids—those that cannot be synthesized at a rate commensurate with its demand, and thus must be supplied by our diet.

Thus, the quality of our diet is critical to ensure we get the essential amino acids our bodies need. Despite the fact that proteins are not utilized as a critical fuel source during exercise e.

As you can see from the graph above, CHO and fat make up our primary fuel sources. One exception is during extreme exercise, when fueling is inadequate or the demands of the exercise are severe e. In those cases, protein can become an energy source by providing a carbon backbone to generate CHO.

Remember that both CHO and protein have carbon in their structure. Thanks to a process known as gluconeogenesis, our bodies can convert carbon backbones from certain proteins into glucose.

You can see how the term used to describe this metabolic process clarifies the mechanism within the body. Luckily, we have a nearly unlimited reservoir of fat to rely on.

Even some of the most elite athletes with very low body fat percentage still have a massive supply of fat to power exercise. And as we saw above, fat contributes significantly to exercise at low to moderate intensities, and this is highly trainable.

This trainability is also a pretty hot topic in the endurance community as athletes are looking for ways to maximize fat oxidation for performance benefits. Improving fat oxidation has benefits for endurance athletes as it allows sparing of muscle glycogen and highlights one of the key adaptations for endurance, which is improved mitochondrial density.

ATP—adenosine triphosphate—is the energy currency in the body. This substance consists of one compound called adenosine and another comprising three high-energy phosphate groups. As the body requires energy, these phosphate bonds are broken and ATP tri-phosphate , becomes ADP di-phosphate, two , and finally AMP mono-phosphate, one as energy stores deplete.

Essentially ATP is our stored energy like our savings in the bank , and as we need to power exercise, we make withdrawals by breaking those bonds. The final nutrient of concern is water. While water does not provide any energy, it is a critical piece of the puzzle.

Achieving fluid balance for athletes is a key factor that can leave us feeling prepared for our session or event—or experiencing a potentially large decline in performance. When we exercise, we generate heat, and this heat has to leave the body somehow.

The blood plays a primary role in this process, so maintaining fluid balance can drastically improve or affect our performance. Some of the key areas where fluid balance can impact us as athletes include:.

Offloading heat is done by the generation of sweat. With a greater heat load on the body through a reduced ability to sweat and, thus, offload heat , we could see large performance declines.

As heat stress builds and plasma blood volume, decreases, we see reductions in what is called cardiac output the amount of blood pumped from the heart per minute. Simultaneously, our heart rate increases in order to sustain exercise. Heart rate, of course, is how frequently our heart beats per minute bpm ; as heart rate increases, so too does cardiac output.

Therefore, generally speaking, maintaining blood volume during exercise will help to offset some of those negative effects. Another key component to this puzzle is sodium balance. The body normally does a very good job of maintaining this in a tight range.

However, during exercise we can drastically affect these levels under certain conditions. In hyponatremia, sodium levels in the plasma drop to dangerously low levels. Preparation is the key to match day, and this starts the day before your match.

Often referred to as Match Day -1, the primary aim is to maximise both muscle and liver glycogen to ensure adequate carbohydrate availability to effectively prepare and recover for the match.

Carbohydrates are the primary fuel source for muscles during high-intensity activities; it is therefore a key macronutrient when preparing players for match play.

It is well documented that exercise performance is greatly influenced by nutrition. The key factor in coping with the heavy demands of exercise faced by elite athletes seems to be carbohydrate intake. Players who begin a match with low glycogen stores will typically cover less distance and complete less high-speed runs, particularly in the second half, which can have huge ramifications on individual and potentially team performance and may contribute to the outcome of the match.

This emphasises the importance of prioritising a balanced diet that will improve an athletes physical performance on gameday.

Carbohydrates are essential for optimal match day performance as it is the primary fuel for muscle during high intensity activities. It is the key macronutrient for proper preparation for match day.

Below is an example of what a typical athletes game day nutrition should look like with Kick Off according to Richard Allison. From the carbohydrate loading to having a balanced healthy diet in the weeks and days building up to gameday. With proper hydration, your body will be able to perform at its best.

Hydration for athletes is essential to maintain normal blood circulation because this aids the delivery of nutrients and oxygen to every working muscle in the body. As water is involved in the majority of chemical reactions involved in athletic performance it is therefore important that athletes are hydrated before, during and after physical activity to achieve their maximal physical performance.

Hydration enhances your motor neurons. Your muscles move only when they receive commands from your brain. These commands move through neural pathways, which depend on adequate hydration to function at their best.

When exercising, you need your motor neurons at their top potential — otherwise your speed and strength can decrease. Your body needs fluids to transport energy nutrients. Hydration helps regulate your body temperature.

Your body is put under stress when its core temperature rises above normal. This stress interferes with the energy systems your body uses, which has negative effects on performance and recovery.

Good sleep is essential to an athlete for maintaining high performance, body composition and general good health. Restricted sleep leads to hunger, impaired athletic performance, reduced psychomotor ability and a decline in health.

Forget your elaborate rehab machines, ice baths and compression garments. Regular, good quality sleep is the best recovery tool for athletes there is.